Chapter 49: Confession—The Space Is Exposed

Sunlight bathed the earth, but the wind carried faint traces of blood and decay.

In front of a ramshackle hut, bodies lay sprawled on the ground, blood pooling for yards around them.

Bian Changxi’s face was ashen, almost golden, as she bent over, gasping for breath.

Everyone was dead.

After the young man fell, she hadn’t even decided whether to save him or not when the people bitten to death by the “young man’s father”—now a zombie—began to rise again. She had no choice but to cut them down one by one, all over again. Then, the “young man’s father” zombie burst out of its “cocoon” and attacked.

It was chaos. She fought from start to finish, and by the time there were no more threats, the young man was well and truly dead.

She stood there in a daze for a while. Once her breathing had calmed, she wiped the blood from her face, drew water from the farm’s stream to wash the blood off her axe and knife, and put them away.

Every household here had its own vegetable patch and chicken coop, but as she looked at the chickens and ducks frantically crowding into the corners, clucking and quacking in panic, she suddenly lost all interest.

It wasn’t because she’d killed again, nor because she’d witnessed so many deaths. It was… a sense of powerlessness.

Even after being reborn, even after getting a second chance, in this dangerous and ruthless world, there was still no escaping the endless fighting, the struggle for survival.

But she’d already been fighting for seven years.

At first, after her rebirth, she’d been excited, passionate, full of drive. There were a few people she wanted to save, a few grudges she wanted to settle. But beyond that, she had no grand ambitions. She had a basketful of entanglements, but most weren’t worth mentioning. Now, at this very moment, all she could see was the path beneath her feet—a road she’d already walked once, uneventful yet fraught with danger. Pale, dull, cold, and cruel… and she had to walk it alone, all over again.

Bian Changxi’s eyes were dark and silent. She let out a breath and patted her forehead. “What am I thinking? Isn’t living again a good thing? Stop acting like a spoiled child when you’ve gotten so lucky.”

There were plenty of vegetables in the gardens, but she no longer felt like picking any. Who knew if there were still fish or shrimp in the distant lotus pond? She didn’t have the energy to catch them. There was probably some grain in the sheds, but she didn’t want to scavenge. She just sent out a few slender vines, snaring a healthy rooster and two hens; as for the ducks, she couldn’t tell the males from the females, so she just caught all she could see. Once they laid eggs and hatched the first generation of ducklings, she’d sort out the rest.

The “young man’s father” zombie dropped a white core, while “Aunt Wu” the zombie dropped a pale green first-tier core, which made Bian Changxi quite happy. Probably because Aunt Wu had been killed so soon after fully turning, the green core was of poor quality, but it was enough to solve her immediate problem.

She piled all the bodies together, planning to burn them before she left. But first, she entered her farm space.

She hadn’t been inside since she’d thrown in over a hundred white cores for the farm to absorb two days ago. Now, stepping in, she felt the air was even fresher. The area hadn’t changed, but the whole space felt more comfortable.

Her gloomy mood lifted. She stripped off her bloodstained, filthy clothes and stepped into the stream. The icy water made her shiver. She fetched shampoo and body wash from the warehouse, cleaned herself up quickly, changed into clean clothes, and checked the time. Four minutes had passed in the farm, while over six minutes had passed outside.

That was an improvement over two days ago.

Seizing the moment, she brought in a bunch of branches from outside and fenced off two areas at the edge of the black soil, putting the chickens and ducks in separately. She’d always thought the pasture should be used for cattle and sheep, but who knew if she’d ever find any unmutated livestock again? For now, she left it unplanned.

She’d also picked up two tubs of fish and shrimp at the supermarket; they were still alive, though she couldn’t tell what species they were. She dumped them all into the stream to raise.

Before the apocalypse, she’d bought lots of seeds. Now, in high spirits, she picked out some baby bok choy, sweet corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, and edamame—representing leafy greens, berries, legumes, and more—and planted a bit of each in the soil to see how they’d do. The farm’s black soil was supposed to be all-purpose, but that was in her previous life, and after it had leveled up. She didn’t know yet if it would be picky about crops.

Next, she dug out some fruit—apples, oranges, crystal pears, kiwis, even bananas—and planted them along the stream, spacing them out.

When she was done, it felt like a weight had lifted. She washed her hands and face, rummaged through the warehouse for a bucket or some kind of container, but found nothing. So she went to the old folks’ house and borrowed two buckets, filled them with diesel from the tanker, and poured it over the dozen or so corpses.

She lit a dry branch and tossed it on. Flames roared up at once. She watched in silence for a while, then climbed over the earthen wall at the bridge, pulled out her motorcycle, and sped away.

As she neared the new district, she hesitated, then parked in a hidden spot, put away the bike, and took out two ducks in a burlap sack, carrying them home.

In front of the four-story building, the rolling shutter was half-lowered, and the inner door was tightly shut. Bian Changxi knocked. A woman’s voice called, “Who is it?”

It was Aunt Chen. Bian Changxi gave her name, and the door was quickly opened. Aunt Chen smiled and welcomed her in. “Miss Bian, you’re back! Captain Gu and the others were asking about you when they got back. Everyone’s been worried.”

Bian Changxi glanced around. Only Aunt Chen and Grandpa Chen were on the first floor, cleaning up the kitchen and fiddling with something.

“Where is everyone else?”

“Xiao Wu and Shadow are upstairs. The others went out with Captain Gu. They brought back some supplies at noon, and we’re hooking up the gas.”

The previous owner of this little restaurant had taken almost everything valuable when they left. Gu Xu and the others had managed to bring back gas tanks, stoves, knives, pots, bowls, rice, dried goods, drinking water, and so on—enough to fill the place. Bian Changxi put the burlap sack on the floor. “If you can get a fire going, here are two ducks. Please take care of them for dinner.”

Aunt Chen was delighted. “They’re still alive? That’s great! Captain Gu said the hardest things to get now are fresh meat and vegetables.” But then she frowned. “But cleaning ducks takes a lot of water…”

Water was as precious as gold. Cooking, cleaning, washing—everything needed water. Twelve people could go through a lot in a day, and right now, they only had a bucket and a half of drinking water.

Bian Changxi thought for a moment. “Let me do it.”

She took a bowl to the back door, used a kitchen knife to bleed the ducks, then skinned them whole, gutted them, and tossed the innards into a bag, tying it up tight. With just a little water, she rinsed the duck meat clean. The whole process took less than five minutes—quick and efficient.

Grandpa Chen chuckled. “Never seen ducks cleaned like that—skinned, not plucked.” And the skinning was so clean, not a scrap of meat wasted; the ducks were smooth and spotless. He clicked his tongue in amazement.

Bian Changxi smiled. In her previous life, she’d killed plenty of mutant beasts. Some were tasty and valuable, others had tough, slippery hides that could be made into protective gear. As a wood-type, she wasn’t suited for the front lines, but she’d done plenty of support work. Skinning was usually her job, and with enough practice, she’d gotten good at it.

She dug a hole in the flowerbed by the back door, buried the bag of innards and skins, and covered it with dirt—otherwise, the smell of blood might attract trouble.

Dusting off her hands, she returned, only to find Aunt Chen at the door, apparently talking to someone. Aunt Chen waved her over. “Miss Bian, this person is looking for someone. Can you take a look at the photo and see if you recognize them?”

******

Late update—my apologies.

Yesterday or the day before, I saw a reader comment about how there are so many reborn characters in this story. I didn’t get it at first, but today I went back and checked the earlier chapters and realized—they meant Boss Zhang! Just to clarify, there’s no way such a great benefit as rebirth would be given to a clear side character like him. So, Boss Zhang is not a reborn.

Also, I personally don’t like stories crowded with reborn or transmigrator characters. In this story, aside from the female lead, there are very, very few other reborn people. They’re busy right now and won’t show up for a while.

As for why Boss Zhang is targeting the female lead, that’ll be explained later."