Chapter 2

Door

When Gu Ning woke up again, she had no idea where she was.

Her memories seem to be cut off when she had run out of energy and was besieged by several zombies at once. In the end, she was bitten. In less than three minutes, her head felt like it was about to explode. Her whole body heated up and gradually she lost her control over it and fainted.

She was still clutching onto the watermelon knife in her hand. Gu Ning could not help but touch her nape where she was bitten by a zombie. It was fine… there was no sign of it being bitten.

The wound on her wrist had also vanished. If it weren’t for the dried blood on her wrist, she would’ve thought that the knife scratch was just her hallucination.

Gu Ning looked at the surrounding environment blankly.

She was in a “room” of about a hundred square meters with a vast expanse of white everywhere. After looking at it for a long time, getting into a trance-like illusion. At the end of this room, there is a pitch-black door that particularly stood out in this snow-white world.

She got up from the floor and walked towards the door.

After getting closer to the door, she found a Tai Chi-like thing embedded on the black door. On it was a long and thin golden pointer in the middle of the black and white colour.

What could be behind this door?

As soon as this thought crossed her mind, Gu Ning reached out to the doorknob and twisting it slightly.

With a click, the door opened —— after a dazzling golden light flashed, Gu Ning was stunned as if she had seen an extremely incredible scene.

Bustling with vehicles and people going about the noisy street, well-dressed individuals strolling while enjoying the holiday. Jinmen Avenue is the most prosperous street in Jinyong City. The streets are always clean and tidy, the shops all showcase high-end products, and sales attendants in the store wore high-end clothing, with delicate makeup on their beautiful faces and just the right professional smile.

In such a glamorous scene, a girl in ragged clothes on the side of the road was particularly eye-catching and stood out like a sore thumb. Passing pedestrians all cast their eyes on her, and anyone close enough could smell the disgusting rancid smell on her body.

Nobody noticed how and when she appeared there, almost as if she appeared from thin air.

Gu Ning’s clothes were ragged, her hair dishevelled with her face dirty. She looked back in confusion but the door behind her had already disappeared. She turned her head, stunned, and stared straight at the ongoing people.

Is this a dream? Gu Ning thought, ever since the apocalypse started, this was the first time she dreamt about the scene before the apocalypse happened.

Gu Ning stared blankly and greedily, almost reluctant to blink at this prosperous scene that she had not seen since the start of the apocalypse.

“Hey little girl, how are you.” A kind voice suddenly sounded.

Gu Ning’s eyes shifted and looked at the two policemen. One was older and the other one younger. She was taken aback for a moment before staring at the younger policeman.

The two policemen looked at each other, then the older policeman around the age of forty continued to ask kindly: “Little girl, why are you here alone? What is your name? Where do you live?”

Gu Ning’s eyes were still fixed on the younger policeman unblinkingly, and her staring was making the young policeman uncomfortable. Just when they were about to say something, Gu Ning spoke, her tone changed a little: “Fang Fa?!”

Both policemen were taken aback.

The older policeman shifted his head to look at the younger policeman in surprise: “Xiao Fang, you know her?”

Fang Fa was also taken aback, and stammered: “Err, do we know each other?” He had searched through in his mind of all the people he knew, but he could not remember when he knew such a person. Is it the girl who Aunt Wang introduced to him a few times before? No, it should not be. Although he could not remember how the girl looked like but he remembered that she had long black curly hair with a very petite figure.

Gu Ning was a little confused too and asked: “You don’t recognize me? I am Gu Ning.”

The older policeman carefully observed Gu Ning’s expression, he really could not find any fault or pretentiousness. He looked back at Fang Fa suspiciously, but Fang Fa was still at a loss so he had secretly made up a drama of chaos and abandonment in his mind. Looking at Gu Ning’s embarrassing appearance, he felt a little sympathetic for her and asked: “Girl, look, it’s not advisable to stand here, why not come with us and get into the car first?”

Although Gu Ning had no idea what was going on right now, she obediently followed them into the police car.

Fang Fa was about to get into the car but was stopped by the older policeman: “Look it’s already noon, this girl should be hungry too, so go and buy something to eat.”

Fang Fa had no choice and got out of the car again to buy food. Gu Ning’s gaze had been following Fang Fa’s back, and her expression shown doubt and disturbed.

The police babbled casually: “Little girl, tell the police uncle, how’d you knew Xiao Fang before?”

Gu Ning opened her mouth and was about to say something, suddenly the car door was slammed open, and Fang Fa said to the older policeman excitedly: “Lao Li! I remember who she is!”

When he said this, both of them in the car was taken aback.

Fang Fa turned to Gu Ning, with piercing eyes: “You just said your name is Gu Ning right? Did you just graduate from Linchuan University more than three months ago?” Without waiting for Gu Ning’s reply, he squeezed into the car and said to Lao Li: “Lao Li, didn’t we have a missing case more than two months ago? It was said that they couldn’t get in touch with her because she went on a trip. Both her parents even went on their knees! Isn’t she the missing girl?! Wait! I still have a photo of her here!” Fang Fa took out the phone from his pocket and quickly swiped the gallery folder. Finally, he specifically stopped at a photo and with a light tap, a missing person’s notice appeared on the screen of the phone. Fang Fa enlarged the notice with two fingers that zoomed in on the photo posted on the missing person notice and showed it to Lao Li: “Look, right?!”

Lao Li took over the phone and glanced at the photo, then looked at Gu Ning intently, and said: “Hey! They do slightly look alike!”

“What do you mean slightly alike! That’s her! Girl, you said you are Gu Ning right?” Fang Fa asked.

Gu Ning nodded hesitantly.

Back at the police station, Lao Li and Fang Fa asked Gu Ning a lot of questions, such as where she went during these three months, how did she disappear in the beginning, and how did she get to Jinmen Avenue today. Gu Ning just kept quiet and her eyes were filled with doubts and puzzled. Lao Li wanted to take her to wash her face but she refused to go and just sat dazed in a chair and looked around in panic.

“Forget it, I doubt we can get anything out from her.” Lao Li glanced at Gu Ning over there and then said to Fang Fa: “Has the family been notified?”

Fang Fa replied: “It has been notified, and they should be here soon as her house is not far from here.”

Almost immediately after he finished his sentences, a hurried figure of a middle-aged couple appeared at the door. Once they entered the room, their eyes quickly swept around the room and finally locked on Gu Ning who was sitting aside.

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“NingNing! Where have you been during these three months! Are you going to scare your parents to death!… You really scared your mother to death… Gu ZhiYuan, come take a look, it’s really our daughter!” Mother Gu rushed from the front door, hugged Gu Ning, and started crying. She did not even notice that Gu Ning’s whole body was dirty along with an unpleasant smell lingering.

Gu Ning stood still when she was hugged by Mother Gu, her mind was in a mess. She wanted to cry out but she could not shed a single tear.

Gu ZhiYuan kept quiet and just silently hugged both Mother Gu and Gu Ning, with tears streaming down on his face. In the past three months, they had lost contact with Gu Ning, and they were searching for her all over the place. In the end, they left all hopes. The pain they experienced during those times was really difficult for them, those who have not experienced it will have difficulty understanding it. Right now the tears contained too much sadness and joy.

After crying for a long while, Mother Gu was relieved then she started checking up on Gu Ning properly. Looking at Gu Ning’s miserable appearance, how much suffering had she gone through during the period when she disappeared. Being a mother, Mother Gu felt pain in her heart, but in the end, she just kept patting on Gu Ning’s entangled muddy hair and choked up: “Everything is fine now, NingNing, you are back, you are back and that’s all that matters. Mom and Dad will stay beside you.”

“Police comrade, thank you so much, seriously.” Gu ZhiYuan gratefully held onto Lao Li’s hand: “If it weren’t for both of you finding our daughter, we wouldn’t be expecting anything else in our next life. You are the lifesavers for our family of three!”

“Don’t say that, this is what we are supposed to do.” Lao Li’s eyes went red, he had a daughter about the same age as Gu Ning, so he could naturally understand the feelings of the old couple at this moment.

The focus of Fang Fa has always been on Gu Ning. No matter how Mother Gu cried or comforted her, hugging her, she has always been in this dazed expression. Could it be that there was a problem with her mentality during the disappearance? Fang Fa was a little worried and thought if this is the case, what kind of blow it would be for this old couple who just had been lost and recovered.

“Police comrade, so, we will be taking our daughter back if there is nothing else. If you have time, you must drop by at our house for a cup of tea!” Gu ZhiYuan finally got the phone number of Lao Li and Fang Fa after much pressing on them, and then thanking them again before bringing Gu Ning back home.

The moment they left, Fang Fa was unable to resist and asked: “Lao Li, do you think that Gu Ning has some problem here?” He then pointed to his head: “She didn’t react at all while her mom cried like that…”

“That is a normal reaction. Look at her appearance, she probably suffered a lot out there. At the sight of their loved one, it is easy to feel unreal.” Lao Li glanced at him: “Go to her house and visit her a few days later, and check if you can ask anything out from the little girl. It seems that she should really know you, so you should go and find out what’s going on.”

Fang Fa nodded thoughtfully: “I’m also surprised. I haven’t been on TV and I really don’t have any impression of her.”

“Old Gu, quickly go into the kitchen, see if there is any food to bring out for NingNing to eat.” As soon as Mother Gu got home, she hurriedly ordered Father Gu with her little hoarse voice after crying for too long.

“Oh! Yes yes yes, NingNing waits a while, Dad will go right now to cook for you.” Father Gu hurriedly entered the kitchen.

Mother Gu’s eyes were puffy and refused to shift her sight away from Gu Ning even for a moment so she placed her arms around Gu Ning as they sat on the sofa.

Gu Ning’s gaze slowly travelled around the house. That was correct, the furnishings of this house were the same as before the apocalypse happened. Her gaze returned to her mother’s face and she asked blankly: “Mom, am I dreaming?!”

Mother Gu’s tears that stopped not long ago, started streaming down again: “Silly girl, it’s not a dream, you really went home! Look here, this is our home, Mom and Dad are here, as a family we will live well together in the future, never be separated again, okay.” How much has she suffered out there to be asking if she is dreaming after returning home.

The doubting in Gu Ning’s eyes cleared up bit by bit…

After a while, Father Gu brought out a large bowl of poached egg noodles from the kitchen and said apologetically to Gu Ning: “NingNing, there is nothing else at home, just eat this first, Dad will go out later and buy your favourite food.”

Gu Ning silently took over the large bowl of noodles, the steaming heat rushed onto her face, her heart that had been dangling all this while had settled down. After taking the first bite, tears started rolling out. Gu Ning did not wipe it away but continue sending the piping hot noodles into her mouth as if she was not afraid of being burnt while crying and eating at the same time.

Both Father Gu and Mother Gu felt the tug in their heart that they choked and coaxed: “Eat slowly NingNing, don’t burn your mouth.”

Gu Ning did not listen, and still ate big mouthfuls of it. She even finished every last bit of the soup. After gobbling up all the food into her tummy, the long-lost feeling of fullness almost made Gu Ning wanted to cry again in happiness.

After eating, Mother Gu helped Gu Ning prepare a change of clothes and pyjamas. Gu Ning walked straight to the bathroom, undressed the dirty clothes that reeked with an unpleasant smell. Gu Ning closed her eyes and felt the spraying water with the right temperature on her body, scrubbing herself from top to bottom with the shower gel. Then washed her hair again and all the foam that washed out was blackish. With a flush of water, the black water and foam flowed down her body and into the drain.

Putting on the clean and comfortable pyjamas, Gu Ning half-drying her hair with a towel and walked out of the bathroom towards the mirror.

Then Gu Ning stared at herself in the mirror and was stunned.

Her original messy black hair turned into dazzling blonde hair. Unlike those dyed gold, it was more like foreigner natural shiny gold hair. Moreover, her originally yellowish skin is extremely fair instead, which was more towards pathological paleness that had lost too much blood rather than natural fairness. Also, her dull dark black eyes became shiny clear and when she was expressionless, she looked cold and indifferent.

Gu Ning felt a little panicked, twisting her head to look at the wound on her neck that was bitten by a zombie. The skin there was flat and there were no traces of wounds at all. There were no other wounds on any part of her body that were bitten by the zombies.

Are all of these the side effects of zombie bites?

What is going on here?

Chapter 2

Door

When Gu Ning woke up again, she had no idea where she was.

Her memories seem to be cut off when she had run out of energy and was besieged by several zombies at once. In the end, she was bitten. In less than three minutes, her head felt like it was about to explode. Her whole body heated up and gradually she lost her control over it and fainted.

She was still clutching onto the watermelon knife in her hand. Gu Ning could not help but touch her nape where she was bitten by a zombie. It was fine… there was no sign of it being bitten.

The wound on her wrist had also vanished. If it weren’t for the dried blood on her wrist, she would’ve thought that the knife scratch was just her hallucination.

Gu Ning looked at the surrounding environment blankly.

She was in a “room” of about a hundred square meters with a vast expanse of white everywhere. After looking at it for a long time, getting into a trance-like illusion. At the end of this room, there is a pitch-black door that particularly stood out in this snow-white world.

She got up from the floor and walked towards the door.

After getting closer to the door, she found a Tai Chi-like thing embedded on the black door. On it was a long and thin golden pointer in the middle of the black and white colour.

What could be behind this door?

As soon as this thought crossed her mind, Gu Ning reached out to the doorknob and twisting it slightly.

With a click, the door opened —— after a dazzling golden light flashed, Gu Ning was stunned as if she had seen an extremely incredible scene.

Bustling with vehicles and people going about the noisy street, well-dressed individuals strolling while enjoying the holiday. Jinmen Avenue is the most prosperous street in Jinyong City. The streets are always clean and tidy, the shops all showcase high-end products, and sales attendants in the store wore high-end clothing, with delicate makeup on their beautiful faces and just the right professional smile.

In such a glamorous scene, a girl in ragged clothes on the side of the road was particularly eye-catching and stood out like a sore thumb. Passing pedestrians all cast their eyes on her, and anyone close enough could smell the disgusting rancid smell on her body.

Nobody noticed how and when she appeared there, almost as if she appeared from thin air.

Gu Ning’s clothes were ragged, her hair dishevelled with her face dirty. She looked back in confusion but the door behind her had already disappeared. She turned her head, stunned, and stared straight at the ongoing people.

Is this a dream? Gu Ning thought, ever since the apocalypse started, this was the first time she dreamt about the scene before the apocalypse happened.

Gu Ning stared blankly and greedily, almost reluctant to blink at this prosperous scene that she had not seen since the start of the apocalypse.

“Hey little girl, how are you.” A kind voice suddenly sounded.

Gu Ning’s eyes shifted and looked at the two policemen. One was older and the other one younger. She was taken aback for a moment before staring at the younger policeman.

The two policemen looked at each other, then the older policeman around the age of forty continued to ask kindly: “Little girl, why are you here alone? What is your name? Where do you live?”

Gu Ning’s eyes were still fixed on the younger policeman unblinkingly, and her staring was making the young policeman uncomfortable. Just when they were about to say something, Gu Ning spoke, her tone changed a little: “Fang Fa?!”

Both policemen were taken aback.

The older policeman shifted his head to look at the younger policeman in surprise: “Xiao Fang, you know her?”

Fang Fa was also taken aback, and stammered: “Err, do we know each other?” He had searched through in his mind of all the people he knew, but he could not remember when he knew such a person. Is it the girl who Aunt Wang introduced to him a few times before? No, it should not be. Although he could not remember how the girl looked like but he remembered that she had long black curly hair with a very petite figure.

Gu Ning was a little confused too and asked: “You don’t recognize me? I am Gu Ning.”

The older policeman carefully observed Gu Ning’s expression, he really could not find any fault or pretentiousness. He looked back at Fang Fa suspiciously, but Fang Fa was still at a loss so he had secretly made up a drama of chaos and abandonment in his mind. Looking at Gu Ning’s embarrassing appearance, he felt a little sympathetic for her and asked: “Girl, look, it’s not advisable to stand here, why not come with us and get into the car first?”

Although Gu Ning had no idea what was going on right now, she obediently followed them into the police car.

Fang Fa was about to get into the car but was stopped by the older policeman: “Look it’s already noon, this girl should be hungry too, so go and buy something to eat.”

Fang Fa had no choice and got out of the car again to buy food. Gu Ning’s gaze had been following Fang Fa’s back, and her expression shown doubt and disturbed.

The police babbled casually: “Little girl, tell the police uncle, how’d you knew Xiao Fang before?”

Gu Ning opened her mouth and was about to say something, suddenly the car door was slammed open, and Fang Fa said to the older policeman excitedly: “Lao Li! I remember who she is!”

When he said this, both of them in the car was taken aback.

Fang Fa turned to Gu Ning, with piercing eyes: “You just said your name is Gu Ning right? Did you just graduate from Linchuan University more than three months ago?” Without waiting for Gu Ning’s reply, he squeezed into the car and said to Lao Li: “Lao Li, didn’t we have a missing case more than two months ago? It was said that they couldn’t get in touch with her because she went on a trip. Both her parents even went on their knees! Isn’t she the missing girl?! Wait! I still have a photo of her here!” Fang Fa took out the phone from his pocket and quickly swiped the gallery folder. Finally, he specifically stopped at a photo and with a light tap, a missing person’s notice appeared on the screen of the phone. Fang Fa enlarged the notice with two fingers that zoomed in on the photo posted on the missing person notice and showed it to Lao Li: “Look, right?!”

Lao Li took over the phone and glanced at the photo, then looked at Gu Ning intently, and said: “Hey! They do slightly look alike!”

“What do you mean slightly alike! That’s her! Girl, you said you are Gu Ning right?” Fang Fa asked.

Gu Ning nodded hesitantly.

Back at the police station, Lao Li and Fang Fa asked Gu Ning a lot of questions, such as where she went during these three months, how did she disappear in the beginning, and how did she get to Jinmen Avenue today. Gu Ning just kept quiet and her eyes were filled with doubts and puzzled. Lao Li wanted to take her to wash her face but she refused to go and just sat dazed in a chair and looked around in panic.

“Forget it, I doubt we can get anything out from her.” Lao Li glanced at Gu Ning over there and then said to Fang Fa: “Has the family been notified?”

Fang Fa replied: “It has been notified, and they should be here soon as her house is not far from here.”

Almost immediately after he finished his sentences, a hurried figure of a middle-aged couple appeared at the door. Once they entered the room, their eyes quickly swept around the room and finally locked on Gu Ning who was sitting aside.

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“NingNing! Where have you been during these three months! Are you going to scare your parents to death!… You really scared your mother to death… Gu ZhiYuan, come take a look, it’s really our daughter!” Mother Gu rushed from the front door, hugged Gu Ning, and started crying. She did not even notice that Gu Ning’s whole body was dirty along with an unpleasant smell lingering.

Gu Ning stood still when she was hugged by Mother Gu, her mind was in a mess. She wanted to cry out but she could not shed a single tear.

Gu ZhiYuan kept quiet and just silently hugged both Mother Gu and Gu Ning, with tears streaming down on his face. In the past three months, they had lost contact with Gu Ning, and they were searching for her all over the place. In the end, they left all hopes. The pain they experienced during those times was really difficult for them, those who have not experienced it will have difficulty understanding it. Right now the tears contained too much sadness and joy.

After crying for a long while, Mother Gu was relieved then she started checking up on Gu Ning properly. Looking at Gu Ning’s miserable appearance, how much suffering had she gone through during the period when she disappeared. Being a mother, Mother Gu felt pain in her heart, but in the end, she just kept patting on Gu Ning’s entangled muddy hair and choked up: “Everything is fine now, NingNing, you are back, you are back and that’s all that matters. Mom and Dad will stay beside you.”

“Police comrade, thank you so much, seriously.” Gu ZhiYuan gratefully held onto Lao Li’s hand: “If it weren’t for both of you finding our daughter, we wouldn’t be expecting anything else in our next life. You are the lifesavers for our family of three!”

“Don’t say that, this is what we are supposed to do.” Lao Li’s eyes went red, he had a daughter about the same age as Gu Ning, so he could naturally understand the feelings of the old couple at this moment.

The focus of Fang Fa has always been on Gu Ning. No matter how Mother Gu cried or comforted her, hugging her, she has always been in this dazed expression. Could it be that there was a problem with her mentality during the disappearance? Fang Fa was a little worried and thought if this is the case, what kind of blow it would be for this old couple who just had been lost and recovered.

“Police comrade, so, we will be taking our daughter back if there is nothing else. If you have time, you must drop by at our house for a cup of tea!” Gu ZhiYuan finally got the phone number of Lao Li and Fang Fa after much pressing on them, and then thanking them again before bringing Gu Ning back home.

The moment they left, Fang Fa was unable to resist and asked: “Lao Li, do you think that Gu Ning has some problem here?” He then pointed to his head: “She didn’t react at all while her mom cried like that…”

“That is a normal reaction. Look at her appearance, she probably suffered a lot out there. At the sight of their loved one, it is easy to feel unreal.” Lao Li glanced at him: “Go to her house and visit her a few days later, and check if you can ask anything out from the little girl. It seems that she should really know you, so you should go and find out what’s going on.”

Fang Fa nodded thoughtfully: “I’m also surprised. I haven’t been on TV and I really don’t have any impression of her.”

“Old Gu, quickly go into the kitchen, see if there is any food to bring out for NingNing to eat.” As soon as Mother Gu got home, she hurriedly ordered Father Gu with her little hoarse voice after crying for too long.

“Oh! Yes yes yes, NingNing waits a while, Dad will go right now to cook for you.” Father Gu hurriedly entered the kitchen.

Mother Gu’s eyes were puffy and refused to shift her sight away from Gu Ning even for a moment so she placed her arms around Gu Ning as they sat on the sofa.

Gu Ning’s gaze slowly travelled around the house. That was correct, the furnishings of this house were the same as before the apocalypse happened. Her gaze returned to her mother’s face and she asked blankly: “Mom, am I dreaming?!”

Mother Gu’s tears that stopped not long ago, started streaming down again: “Silly girl, it’s not a dream, you really went home! Look here, this is our home, Mom and Dad are here, as a family we will live well together in the future, never be separated again, okay.” How much has she suffered out there to be asking if she is dreaming after returning home.

The doubting in Gu Ning’s eyes cleared up bit by bit…

After a while, Father Gu brought out a large bowl of poached egg noodles from the kitchen and said apologetically to Gu Ning: “NingNing, there is nothing else at home, just eat this first, Dad will go out later and buy your favourite food.”

Gu Ning silently took over the large bowl of noodles, the steaming heat rushed onto her face, her heart that had been dangling all this while had settled down. After taking the first bite, tears started rolling out. Gu Ning did not wipe it away but continue sending the piping hot noodles into her mouth as if she was not afraid of being burnt while crying and eating at the same time.

Both Father Gu and Mother Gu felt the tug in their heart that they choked and coaxed: “Eat slowly NingNing, don’t burn your mouth.”

Gu Ning did not listen, and still ate big mouthfuls of it. She even finished every last bit of the soup. After gobbling up all the food into her tummy, the long-lost feeling of fullness almost made Gu Ning wanted to cry again in happiness.

After eating, Mother Gu helped Gu Ning prepare a change of clothes and pyjamas. Gu Ning walked straight to the bathroom, undressed the dirty clothes that reeked with an unpleasant smell. Gu Ning closed her eyes and felt the spraying water with the right temperature on her body, scrubbing herself from top to bottom with the shower gel. Then washed her hair again and all the foam that washed out was blackish. With a flush of water, the black water and foam flowed down her body and into the drain.

Putting on the clean and comfortable pyjamas, Gu Ning half-drying her hair with a towel and walked out of the bathroom towards the mirror.

Then Gu Ning stared at herself in the mirror and was stunned.

Her original messy black hair turned into dazzling blonde hair. Unlike those dyed gold, it was more like foreigner natural shiny gold hair. Moreover, her originally yellowish skin is extremely fair instead, which was more towards pathological paleness that had lost too much blood rather than natural fairness. Also, her dull dark black eyes became shiny clear and when she was expressionless, she looked cold and indifferent.

Gu Ning felt a little panicked, twisting her head to look at the wound on her neck that was bitten by a zombie. The skin there was flat and there were no traces of wounds at all. There were no other wounds on any part of her body that were bitten by the zombies.

Are all of these the side effects of zombie bites?

What is going on here?