Capítulo 49: 49
"My identity?"
Yu Zhiwan's response was more straightforward than Pei Yujang had anticipated. Her almond-shaped eyes, unable to focus on Pei Yujang's direction, seemed to stare straight ahead, her lips curling slightly upward.
"Are you planning to conduct a background check on me?"
Yu Zhiwan's place of birth and registered household were both in Yicheng, marking her as a native. She pulled out her ID card from her bag and handed it to Pei Yujang.
Pei Yujang wasn't asking for that kind of information, and she didn't find it funny when Yu Zhiwan handed her the ID. Instead, she wrestled internally, debating whether to reveal her own truth to Yu Zhiwan.
Pei Yujang could sense that Yu Zhiwan knew a lot, just as she herself was curious about Yu Zhiwan. If Yu Zhiwan wasn't on her side, Pei Yujang would be in a very vulnerable position, especially with the current power dynamics. If it were anyone else, Pei Yujang would already be plotting a way to leverage her advantage, even though talking to Yu Zhiwan had made her break out in a cold sweat.
Yu Zhiwan's home was perfectly temperature-controlled, neither too hot nor too cold. The wallpaper's rose patterns, in silver-white, made the room appear bright and spacious, reflecting someone who didn't like to deprive herself of comfort.
Just from the wealth apparent in her surroundings, Yu Zhiwan didn't seem like an ordinary employee. She could leave at any time if she wanted. What haunted Pei Yujang most was the system's initial warning about the "apocalypse," though it wasn't a fixed outcome but one triggered by a darkened path.
This suggested that Yu Zhiwan likely wasn't a completely ruthless villain.
The situation two hundred years ago had become exceedingly complex, leading to a prolonged apocalypse. The fact that Yu Zhiwan had taken the initiative to bring this up, and hadn't hindered Pei Yujang's actions earlier, was proof enough that she intended to cooperate.
Pei Yujang asked Yu Zhiwan where she kept her pen and paper, then fetched a clean sheet and a Braille pen from Yu Zhiwan's study. Braille pens are specialized tools, creating slight indentations on special paper to allow the blind to read.
It was Pei Yujang's first time using such a pen, and she ruined several sheets before carefully crafting a temporary ID.
It wasn't the original owner's ID; it was one that belonged solely to Pei Yujang from two hundred years in the future.
Name: Pei Yujang
Age: Adult
Gender: Female, Alpha
Residence: Yicheng
Political Affiliation: Soldier
The IDs two hundred years later were simple, even categorizing age only as "adult" or "minor." Only adults could enter certain places or officially join the military. Pei Yujang had been a child soldier before becoming a regular soldier.
Once the ink dried, Pei Yujang solemnly handed the paper to Yu Zhiwan. As Yu Zhiwan's fingers traced over it, they paused slightly upon reaching the "gender" section.
Pei Yujang noticed the pause and quickly explained:
"I used to be an Alpha, but after coming here, I turned into a Beta. I can smell pheromones but can't mark an Omega."
If she could still mark an Omega, she would have kept a respectful distance from Yu Zhiwan during their closer moments, a boundary Pei Yujang was always conscious of.
Yu Zhiwan's face showed a rare hint of confusion.
"Used to be? Yicheng?"
She had long suspected Pei Yujang wasn't the original person, but since Pei Yujang had earnestly written this ID, "Yicheng" clearly wasn't just a city with the same name.
Given Pei Yujang's claim of being a soldier, many of Yu Zhiwan's previous doubts started to make sense.
Regular Betas didn't usually have such physical prowess. Pei Yujang was exceptionally fit, with a strong sense of justice, and had a habit of getting involved in things. It was clear Pei Yujang wasn't an ordinary person.
Pei Yujang nodded solemnly, her voice steady as she revealed a truth difficult for anyone to accept.
"I'm from Yicheng, two hundred years in the future."
As those words left her mouth, Pei Yujang felt some of the burden in her heart lift.
Two hundred years later, the world was ravaged by war, bandits, and zombies. Her parents had died shortly after her birth, leaving her to be raised by others who found her. Her masters had trained her rigorously from a young age.
Such training was grueling for many, but in a world where survival was a daily struggle, and aid agencies barely had enough resources, no one could afford to pamper children like they did now.
Pei Yujang grew up in an obscure orphanage, sent to a training camp to develop her skills at a young age. Even if she had turned out to be an Omega, she would have learned basic self-defense.
"An Omega without self-defense skills in that environment would suffer terribly. Law and order depended on the area. Yicheng was relatively safe, with military presence, but beyond that, it was a different story."
Pei Yujang recalled the past, though painful, as she continued.
"When I had free time, I would patrol various areas with the guards. Away from the military, bandits were rampant, and anyone traveling alone was sure to be robbed. I once saw an Omega, probably in her teens, filthy and tied up in a makeshift shelter."
It wasn't even a proper shelter, just a piece of tattered oilcloth supported by two branches, a pitiful excuse for a home.
"She was almost naked, her body covered in bruises and cuts. My comrades and I planned to rescue her, but after subduing the captors, the Omega refused to leave."
"She thought staying with them at least meant she wouldn't starve to death. She had been rescued by soldiers before, but when they left the city, she was abandoned and suffered even worse treatment. Somehow, she survived, but now she lives day by day, without hope."
Pei Yujang couldn't force the Omega to leave, nor could she bring her captors to justice since the Omega defended them fiercely. Despite the chaos, as a soldier, Pei Yujang couldn't kill indiscriminately, so she left to continue patrolling elsewhere.
However, not long after, she heard the Omega scream for help. By the time she turned around and fired her gun, it was too late. Blood spurted from the Omega's neck, and the last thing Pei Yujang saw was the captors' wild, celebratory dance.
Such incidents were far from isolated. They happened constantly, both in places Pei Yujang witnessed and those she didn't.
Pei Yujang couldn't eliminate all the bandits. Sometimes they even stole from the military, and smaller, unofficial forces sometimes had their camps raided at night.
Besides the bandits, there were even more scattered criminals, unorganized but just as vicious. They took advantage of the apocalypse to do as they pleased, viewing the military as enemies.
Not to mention the zombies and zombie beasts, whose numbers were overwhelming and impossible to fully eradicate. While regular zombies were slow, even trained children could kill them one-on-one. But zombie beasts could reproduce, and some had even developed intelligence, able to summon their kind.
By Pei Yujang's time, people were well-experienced in fighting zombies, and the zombies themselves were highly evolved. The origins of the zombie plague could be traced back to a century ago, from the current timeline to several decades later.
At that time, experts theorized that the zombies were likely caused by a man-made virus. However, whether the zombie beasts or the zombies came first remained a mystery.
Pei Yujang spoke of her life, from birth to death, to the thirtieth birthday she never got to celebrate. She didn't know her exact age, as it had been estimated during a bone age test. Her birthday was the day she was admitted to the cadet training camp, a day she chose herself as a small comfort.
The events of two hundred years ago were hard for anyone to grasp, and Pei Yujang watched Yu Zhiwan's expression shift several times before finally settling into calmness.
She had kept this apocalyptic secret to herself, with no one to confide in, not even her caring mother, Pei Jinhuai. Pei Yujang couldn't be sure how Pei Jinhuai would react after hearing this, especially since she wasn't Pei Jinhuai's real daughter. And even if she could prove she came from two hundred years in the future, such knowledge was so surreal it could be dismissed as a dream. Posting it online might result in the story being flagged as a hoax, with worse consequences possible.
But telling Yu Zhiwan had lifted a great weight from Pei Yujang's shoulders, allowing her to feel less burdened and fatigued.
Even so, Pei Yujang remained cautious. While she had shared her story, she hadn't divulged any classified information. If someone wanted to investigate her claims, they'd find nothing, and at worst, they might dismiss her as a talented storyteller.
Pei Yujang felt a rare sense of lightness, pressing her forehead against the cool leather of the sofa to calm herself.
The water Yu Zhiwan poured had cooled slightly. Pei Yujang picked up the glass and drank it all in one go. She liked the temperature, and if it were a bit colder, it would have been even better. Unfortunately, given the season, it was unlikely Yu Zhiwan, someone who paid attention to her health, would have ice on hand.
Pei Yujang's eyes gleamed as she lightly patted the back of Yu Zhiwan's hand, a brief touch, like a dragonfly skimming the surface of the water, as if to remind her: It's your turn.
Yu Zhiwan didn't see the need to hold anything back. After hearing Pei Yujang's heartfelt story, she was slightly shocked but soon accepted everything as fact, ready to share her own tale.
"My parents were assigned to each other in a controlled pairing, not out of personal choice."
Yu Zhiwan's father and mother had a straightforward background—one was an Alpha, the other an Omega, making them a typical family unit. Her father was a tall, refined man who was always clean and well-groomed, lacking the unpleasant scent some men carried. Yu Zhiwan inherited her eyes from her mother, who was also considered a beauty. Both were highly educated, so it was natural that their child would also be exceptional.
Yu Zhiwan didn't know how long her parents had been in the underground lab, but she knew they were already colleagues when they met. In such a place, there was no mood for romance; they were assigned to each other by their organization and were given time off to conceive a child. The "romantic leave" lasted for a month, allowing them to work half the day and spend the other half together, with the organization boasting about their supposed "humanitarian" approach.
There was also a leave period for them to marry and conceive a child, with some time allotted for them to live together. Once the Omega was confirmed to be pregnant, the Alpha had to return to work.
Yu Zhiwan spent the first few years of her life outside that lab, though she wasn't sure why the organization allowed them to raise her outside initially. This was the happiest time of her life.
Every day was carefree, just like a normal child's life—until the day they were summoned back to the underground lab.
The lab was enormous, so much so that children born there often believed it to be the whole world, like "frogs in a well," completely unaware of the vastness beyond. Having seen the vibrant world outside, Yu Zhiwan lost interest in everything within the lab, except for her innate talents.
That was until the cruel experiments terrified her, prompting her mother to sacrifice everything to secure her escape, along with enough resources to live comfortably for the rest of her life.
Yet, life on the surface wasn't much better, fraught with surveillance and constant fear.
The present day, she realized, was just a prolonged rehearsal for the apocalypse that was to come.
Human nature doesn't change just because of external crises.
"The mark on my forehead isn't a birthmark; it's a scar. I got it when I first came out. The underground lab indeed conducted those horrific experiments, but at least there was some order there. When I first returned to the surface, I was attacked by some lowlife Alphas while coming back from an errand. They didn't say a word, just tried to mark me right away."
Yu Zhiwan wasn't the kind of Omega to surrender easily, even though she was blind and disabled at the time. She fought back fiercely.
She had some defense powder her parents had given her for protection. Thinking she was an easy target, the Alphas were enraged when she fought back so fiercely, and one of them slashed her with a knife.
The knife narrowly missed disfiguring her, slicing her forehead deeply instead.
The cut was so deep that it exposed bone. The thugs were shocked by the sight of her blood-covered face. They had only intended to mark her temporarily as a prank, but her fierce resistance scared them off.
Yu Zhiwan had faced similar incidents more than once. A pretty, blind Omega with disabilities was like a walking target. Whether it was nighttime or broad daylight, she was a potential victim.
Even her roommates bullied her.
Those incidents now seemed trivial to Yu Zhiwan, mere petty conflicts among Alphas and Omegas. She mostly kept to herself in school, but any minor disagreement was somehow her fault.
"They assumed I wouldn't notice them stealing my things, and they'd take photos of me to spread rumors about my promiscuity. Zhao Manlin defended me several times, and it wasn't until she finally lost her temper that they stopped. After that, I only hung out with Zhao Manlin."
"Whether it's walking at night or during the day, it's all the same to someone who's blind. The difference is that in daylight, people will openly ostracize you, while at night, they follow you with bad intentions. After college, the pressure to marry an Alpha and start a family grows, and the neighbors, who love to gossip about your life choices, will shut their doors the moment you need help."
"If it were you, could you still consider them your comrades?"
Yu Zhiwan asked the question bluntly.
If Pei Yujang were her old self, the one who upheld the notion of "putting the world first," she might have chastised Yu Zhiwan, saying there were many kind, innocent people worth saving. But after hearing Yu Zhiwan's story, Pei Yujang couldn't bring herself to offer any reprimands or words of forgiveness.
Pei Yujang replied, "I couldn't."
She feared Yu Zhiwan might not understand, so she grasped the Omega's hand and pressed it to her cheek, shaking her head slowly but firmly.
Yu Zhiwan was different from most Omegas. Her build wasn't particularly petite—likely due to good genetics—and if she could stand, she would have an impressive figure.
Her hands weren't small either, with long, slender fingers, perfect for playing the piano. Her skin was pale and even-toned, with no noticeable discoloration, and her nails were a pearly shell pink, likely from regular manicures. Holding her hand made Pei Yujang want to handle it with care, afraid of causing any harm.
These hands, so delicate and seemingly suited for a pianist, bore the calluses of someone who had once endured harsh conditions. Those marks were the remnants of her time in the lab.
Yu Zhiwan had been fortunate not to have her hands scarred by chemicals, and she had managed to escape that cruel, sunless world. Pei Yujang couldn't fully empathize with her pain, but as she listened to Yu Zhiwan's story, her heart ached as if sliced open by a glass shard.
"You're crying."
"I'm not."
Pei Yujang had already moved Yu Zhiwan's hand away when her eyes started to tear up, not wanting her to feel the warm tears streaming down her face. She had managed to cry silently, without sniffles or sobs, but when Yu Zhiwan made that remark, Pei Yujang hurried to deny it, only for Yu Zhiwan to calmly assert:
"You are crying. Blind people are very sensitive; I can feel it."
Pei Yujang had no idea how Yu Zhiwan knew she was crying without hearing a sound. Could she have smelled the tears? It seemed far-fetched, yet Pei Yujang couldn't help but sniffle in disbelief.
She had cried twice in one day, her eyes now red and swollen. She could only imagine how disheveled she must look. At least Yu Zhiwan couldn't see her in this state—otherwise, it would have been utterly humiliating.
Pei Yujang didn't want to show her vulnerable side to Yu Zhiwan, but making excuses now would be too obvious and clumsy, so she remained silent.
Sitting across from her, Yu Zhiwan took a deep breath:
"Don't cry. I have part of the formula for the zombie virus antidote."
"What—"
Pei Yujang froze for several seconds, then her features twisted in shock.
She forgot all about her tear-streaked face, as those were the most beautiful words she had ever heard. In her eyes, Yu Zhiwan, already striking, now appeared almost divine. Pei Yujang felt blood rush to her head, her earlier turmoil evaporating in a surge of excitement.
She instinctively grabbed Yu Zhiwan's wrist tightly, barely aware of how she might have hurt the Omega's delicate hand. Struggling to breathe, her heart pounding wildly, Pei Yujang managed to stammer out a few disjointed words:
"Where? The formula?"
She had gripped too hard, causing Yu Zhiwan to wince in pain. But instead of getting angry, Yu Zhiwan ruffled Pei Yujang's hair, half-amused, half-exasperated.
"What are you thinking? It's only a part of the initial formula. I haven't conducted any experiments, let alone tested it on actual zombies. The rest of the process would be theoretical, and it's not guaranteed to work. Besides, the underground lab involves many people. If you report them rashly, neither of us will be able to sit here and talk tomorrow."
Despite Yu Zhiwan's cautious words, Pei Yujang couldn't contain her excitement.
Yu Zhiwan said she hadn't conducted any of those inhumane experiments, and Pei Yujang believed her. After all the time they had spent together, she could tell that while Yu Zhiwan might sometimes be distant, she wasn't a cold-blooded villain.
From a logical standpoint, there was no reason for Yu Zhiwan to lie to her.
Like a migratory bird finding a companion in a foreign land, Pei Yujang felt a surge of warmth and joy as she hooked her pinky around Yu Zhiwan's and shook it vigorously:
"Yu Zhiwan, thank you."
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