Chapitre 14: 13

Arthur blankly stared down at the divorce letter. He felt reluctant to sign the divorce agreement. His heart wavered.

If he received this letter prior to today's event, he would unhesitatingly agree to their separation. There's no need to think twice.

Yet, today, he felt a sudden attraction toward his spouse that he usually neglected. Arthur didn't know why, but he honestly felt overwhelming jealousy when he saw someone else try to act intimate with Xie.

Arthur wanted to beat that person for daring to touch him. All he ever wanted was for those eyes to focus on him only and not on another man.

"Master." His steward came knocking on his door. "Were you asleep?"

"No. Not yet. Why?" Arthur shoved the divorce agreement inside his drawer and locked it up.

"Your secretary is here. He said it was for an urgent matter regarding the company. He said that something terrible occurred in the construction site on the east providence and required your attention right away. He already called you several times, but you never picked up your phone."

Arthur immediately checked his phone. Ten missed calls from Klein since an hour ago. He had silenced his phone, so he never realized it.

"Tell him to wait in the car. I changed my clothing, and we will go there right away."

"I understand, master." The steward gave a perfunctory reply. He was silent for a few minutes before suddenly saying something. "Should I inform the madam about your sudden work?"

Arthur had changed his sleeping wear into a more casual outfit. By now, he was already in front of the door.

Once Arthur heard the steward's question, he went stiff immediately. Should he go to check him before he goes to the company? Was it strange to admit that he missed him despite just seeing the man a moment ago?

Has he finally gone crazy? He noticed his abnormality since Xie awoke from fainting during the Tea Ceremony event. There's something different about the man, but he couldn't put his hand around it. Xie, who usually irritated him with his presence, somehow exuded a lovely aura and emanated a sweet scent.

Seeing him made his heart waver. Thus, Arthur decided to double his effort in avoiding him. He thought that keeping a distance like he always does would do the trick. Unfortunately, he was wrong about it.

Perhaps, rather than solving his problem, he creates a more burdensome issue, which puts their supposedly harmonious fake marriage life at stake? That's why Xie proposed the divorce out of the blue?

"Master?" The steward asked again. "Do I need to inform the madam of your departure?"

Arthur unfeelingly opened the door and gave him a curt response.

"No need to inform him. By now, he should already be asleep. There's no need to wake him up. Let's go."

The steward politely nodded his head.

-----------

Xie opened his eyes and was shocked by the scene in front of his eyes.

Horror marred his face. Was he reincarnated back to his world?!

Zombies crawled in the area and moved staggeringly, with incessant groaning and growling coming out from their mouths. Stink odor of rotten corpses dispersed in the air, much worse than air pollution. The terrible smell thaw off all of his senses and almost made his nostril rot! Ugh!

He stood on the top of a rooftop of some unknown building, almost pasted himself to the wall. After blankly standing there for about five minutes, he forced himself to come back to reality.

Xie pinched his cheek as hard as he could. There's no pain, so was he dreaming right now? But, Xie could touch everything around him and felt the uneven shape of debris scattered around him. He could distinguish the smells dispersed in the air, although the most prominent one that stood above the others was the smell of rotten corpses. He can see as clear as the day. Usually, when you're dreaming, your surrounding appears bleak and as if shrouded with mist. Was he mistaken about the concept of dreaming?

It was a pity, but the only sense he couldn't verify was his sense of taste.

What should he taste? Try to gnaw the wandering rotten meat below? He prefers to die than do such an impossible task. Only to satisfy his random curiosity. Whoever the sane man out there wanted to eat a lump of rotten meat? Not him, anyway.

Xie exhaled a heavy sigh. The smell was too familiar. He recalled the day when the apocalypse suddenly descended on the peaceful earth. The memory was so vivid that he could never forget it unless he had amnesia.

He woke up only to find two stray zombies plastered themselves on his sliding windows. Whether it was lucky or unlucky, the night before, he felt the need to cover the entire sliding windows with newspapers so that the bright light from outside couldn't penetrate his room. It irritated him, and he couldn't sleep even for a wink because of that.

Not only that, but Xie also pasted sellotape around the edge of the door to prevent the cold wind from entering his room. His night was always chilly since his room was underground.

Every time he opened the sliding windows, which were only the size of a quarter of his door, attempted to ventilate his room, the breeze came in, but it brought alongside many unimaginable odors. And those stinky smells will permeate into his ceiling, his walls, and even his bed! He was uncomfortable spending his rest inside a room with dumpster odor. So, he decided to seal his entire room without rhyme, and ultimately, his absurd action had saved his life in the process.

Hooray to his unreliable instinct, which sometimes proved its worth in an odd time!

Xie also felt deeply grateful to whoever dumped their garbage near his house. Before their deaths, they had made a tremendous contribution in their lives, unintentionally helping him out, so Xie hoped they would have a better life in another world. Probably.

Xie massaged his temples.

Ugh, remembering those things put a bitter taste inside his mouth.

Now is not the right time to reminiscence about the distant past but rather how to snap him awake from this weird dream.

"....ell...nic...eeeeee....." the zombies below seemed to notice his presence.

One of them tried to climb the high wall by stepping on a pile of corpses(his fellow zombies) and attached himself to the wall, using every means necessary to reach his hiding place. "....somet...hing smell...nice...up there..."

Xie instinctively sniffed his clothes. He was wondering whether the zombie referred him or something else. It was because, up here, there was no one except him.

He frowned. He knew he would smelt terrible. Look at how dirty he got!

It was the shirt he wore a few days before his imminent death. But, he never expected that the smell was beyond horrible!

The smell of thick blood overwhelmed him, and there was also an unidentified odor, which was enough to make him vomit if he sniffed it again. So, which part of his body exuded an acceptable smell that attracted that zombie?

Its eyes gleamed with a predatory look, and unconcealed hunger lay underneath those empty, soulless eyes.

Now, something had triggered the other zombies to take a move, and they inadvertently came closer and closer, attached themselves to the walls, and scratched them with their unbelievably sharp nails, wanting to reach him.

Xie shuddered. He felt a sense of dread and fell into a state of panic, immediately distanced himself from the edge, and looked around.

Where should he run to escape from those things? If he delayed any longer, they undoubtedly would manage to climb up here, sooner or later. When they do, it is too late for him to run away.

"...smell niceeeeeeeeee..."

"Up there...I want to eat...something up...there..."

Their murmurs became more audible in Xie's hearing. Shit! They really mistook him as an appetizer! He didn't want to experience such an agonizing death ever again! The pain was unimaginable!

Xie desperately wishes for himself to wake up from this nightmare. He ran toward the closed door and slowly opened it. The inside of the building was shrouded in the darkness. The sunlight could no longer spread its light as the gloomy clouds densely packed up in the sky, shielding the earth from the warm ray of the sun.

He hesitated. Should he take a risk and venture further inside?

What if this building had long ago got infested by zombies? They were hiding in the dark, waiting for any idiotic victim to fall into their traps?

Outside was not an option either. Should Xie jump to another side? That was not plausible since he was an ordinary human without any prospect of having the ability to protect his dear life.

Xie glanced behind him, and this time, he entered without thinking twice. Whatever. He will put his trust in his damn luck.

Why? Why did he suddenly decide to enter despite knowing the trap laying ahead?

The zombies were capable of climbing on the walls, damn it! He saw their heads dangled dubiously in the air with their hair-rising smiles adorned their ugly faces.

He wanted to scream! It was horrifying, and his fragile heart couldn't take it.

Arghhh!!! Whatever! Xie dashed inside, locked the door, and anxiously descended the stairs.

It was fortunate that the lighting was still functioning after all this time. Sometimes, Xie groped around the wall to make his way, and sometimes, he boldly walked ahead without any hint of fear.

Until he heard a cry from somewhere, sounded very miserable in his hearing.