Without thinking twice, Quan Xiaoyu first swung his sword and cut through the vine wrapped around Xie Mingxuan.
Only then did he look toward the other person.
The man was wearing strange, tattered clothes. He had originally been wearing a headscarf, with strips of cloth wrapped around his hair, but during the struggle, the strips had come loose, revealing half of his face.
At this moment, his entire body was tightly wrapped in vines.
With just one glance, Quan Xiaoyu froze!
He stood rooted to the spot, staring at the man without even blinking.
The instant the vine around Xie Mingxuan was cut, Xie Mingxuan immediately regained his freedom and eagerly pounced toward the man again.
The man was tightly bound by the vines and had no chance to dodge. Just as Xie Mingxuan’s sharp claws were about to tear his throat open, Quan Xiaoyu’s figure flashed.
He quickly knocked Xie Mingxuan away and threw himself directly onto the man.
At the same time, his right hand swept out, and a huge fireball shot straight toward the source of the vines—a short tree covered entirely in green.
The unknown little tree was actually capable of moving. It seemed to sense the enormous threat posed by the fireball.
With a whoosh, it immediately burrowed into the ground along with its vines and disappeared.
“Chu Tian!”
Quan Xiaoyu threw himself onto the man, practically wrapping his entire body around him.
In disbelief, he raised his still-trembling hand and gently cupped the man’s face.
“Xiaoyu…”
That low, hoarse voice had completely lost its former warmth. Only those deep, steady eyes still retained the charm of the past.
That single call caused the strength Quan Xiaoyu had built up over these days by hypnotizing himself every day to completely collapse!
“Chu Tian, Chu Tian, Chu Tian, Chu Tian, Chu Tian…”
Tears streamed continuously from his eyes like pearls falling from a broken string. Chu Tian’s face in his vision was already blurred by tears.
Quan Xiaoyu couldn’t say anything at all. He could only keep repeating this name that had nearly broken his heart countless times over the past few months.
After three months of desperately searching, he had almost fallen into despair deep in his subconscious.
But he refused to give up.
Every day, through something almost like self-hypnosis, he told himself and forced himself to believe that Chu Tian was somewhere out there, waiting for him to find him.
He absolutely could not give up.
Absolutely not!
And today, Chu Tian had truly appeared before him.
In the most unexpected way possible, he had appeared!
Quan Xiaoyu hugged him tightly, unwilling to let go.
He was afraid.
Afraid that this was nothing more than a beautiful dream.
Afraid that the moment he loosened his arms, Chu Tian would disappear.
“Awwoooo! Awwoooo!”
Xie Mingxuan’s angry howling interrupted Quan Xiaoyu’s thoughts.
Yet it also made everything seem even more real rather than like a dream.
Seeing that Quan Xiaoyu completely ignored him, Xie Mingxuan felt even more wronged!
He had almost caught his prey just now, only to be knocked away by Quan Xiaoyu.
He didn’t understand why the Quan Xiaoyu who had always treated him so well would hit him.
He was extremely aggrieved.
He wanted to attack the prey again. But just as he extended his claws, he saw Quan Xiaoyu holding the prey tightly.
He immediately withdrew his claws.
What if he accidentally hurt him?
Quan Xiaoyu was holding the prey so tightly because he wanted it, right?
Then Xie Mingxuan would give it to him!
So Xie Mingxuan howled several times, “Awwooo, awwooo, awwooo,” indicating that he was giving up the prey.
But Quan Xiaoyu still ignored him.
Xie Mingxuan remembered being knocked away just now and immediately felt even more miserable.
At this moment, Quan Xiaoyu’s entire mind was occupied by Chu Tian. How could he possibly have the attention to spare for Xie Mingxuan?
His trembling hand gently pushed aside the hair hanging over the other half of Chu Tian’s face.
It was fine when he hadn’t looked.
But the moment he did, he immediately sucked in a sharp breath.
The other half of Chu Tian’s obviously thinner face was covered in scales, hard as armor.
The only exposed eye was blood-red, creating a stark contrast with the other half of his intact face.
Quan Xiaoyu immediately felt dizzy.
He didn’t know what Chu Tian had gone through, but he knew that whatever had happened, it must have been terrible for Chu Tian to become like this.
What had Chu Tian endured during these three months?
Quan Xiaoyu didn’t dare think about it.
His heart hurt so badly that he could barely breathe.
But Chu Tian merely smiled as though it were nothing, almost exactly as he used to.
“Xiaoyu, I finally found you.”
The tears burst forth again.
Quan Xiaoyu’s hands clutched Chu Tian tightly, and he couldn’t say a single word.
Quan Xiaoyu’s emotions affected Xie Mingxuan, who began jumping restlessly around the two of them.
Chu Tian looked up and glanced at Xie Mingxuan before saying to Quan Xiaoyu,
“Xiaoyu, I’m hungry.”
He sighed softly.
He was afraid that if he didn’t distract Quan Xiaoyu, he would simply cry himself unconscious.
Quan Xiaoyu had always reacted very quickly whenever Chu Tian said something.
The moment the words left Chu Tian’s mouth, his vision blurred, and the two of them instantly appeared inside Quan Xiaoyu’s spatial dimension.
Looking at this vibrant land and breathing the warm, springlike air, Chu Tian couldn’t help but sigh emotionally.
The space… I’m back again!
I never thought I’d get the chance to come back.
The moment they entered the space, Quan Xiaoyu hurriedly tried to run toward the place where the supplies were stored.
Chu Tian quickly grabbed him.
“Xiaoyu, there’s still a high-level zombie outside. Is he your friend?”
His voice was still hoarse, but it was much smoother than before.
Only then did Quan Xiaoyu remember that Xie Mingxuan was still outside.
With a thought, Xie Mingxuan also appeared inside the space.
The moment he arrived, Xie Mingxuan let out an “Awwooo!”
Then he turned around and darted into the little wooden house.
This wasn’t his first time in the space.
He didn’t like this place.
It made him extremely uncomfortable!
But Quan Xiaoyu liked it.
Quan Xiaoyu rested here almost every night, and because Xie Mingxuan didn’t want Quan Xiaoyu leaving his sight, he had no choice but to demand to enter whenever Quan Xiaoyu did.
He hated practically everything here.
But the little wooden house was all right.
So every time he entered, Xie Mingxuan would let out an “Awooo” and dive straight into the house.
This time was no exception.
After three months, Xie Mingxuan seemed to have leveled up again.
The characteristics of a “human” were gradually becoming more obvious on his body.
His eyes were no longer simple black dots. They had become pupils—about half the size of normal human pupils, but now capable of contracting.
Although he had hidden inside the wooden house, he peeked through the gaps in the walls, secretly watching the two people outside.
Chu Tian glanced at him curiously, then stopped paying attention to him.
After pulling Xie Mingxuan into the space, Quan Xiaoyu hurriedly tried to leave again.
He was already completely flustered.
Fortunately, Chu Tian understood him.
He knew that at this moment, Quan Xiaoyu probably had only one thing in his head:
Hungry.
He was planning to go rummage through the food supplies.
So Chu Tian grabbed him and led him toward the stream.
“Food… Food…”
Quan Xiaoyu still hadn’t given up.
As Chu Tian pulled him along, he stretched his arm as far as it could go, pointing directly toward the supplies.
“Let’s take a bath first. I haven’t bathed in three months.”
Chu Tian said it calmly, but there was a hint of bitterness hidden in his voice.
Quan Xiaoyu froze.
Only then did he silently follow Chu Tian to the river.
Chu Tian had no trace of embarrassment as he immediately stripped off his clothes—
Well, that pile of rags probably didn’t even qualify as “clothes.”
It was simply a mess of tattered fabric thrown together.
Chu Tian jumped into the water completely naked, followed by a long, comfortable sigh.
Three months!
He hadn’t felt this relaxed or comfortable for three entire months.
At this moment, his entire body was filled with happiness.
When he didn’t hear Quan Xiaoyu getting into the water behind him, Chu Tian turned around and couldn’t help sighing again.
What he saw was Quan Xiaoyu once again unable to stop his tears.
The instant Chu Tian had thrown off his “clothes,” Quan Xiaoyu had seen everything clearly.
It wasn’t only half of Chu Tian’s face that had mutated.
Half of his body had mutated as well.
His entire right side had undergone the transformation.
That alone wasn’t what mattered.
What caused Quan Xiaoyu to break down in tears again were the countless scars covering Chu Tian’s body!
As the person closest to Chu Tian, Quan Xiaoyu remembered clearly that Chu Tian had never had a single scar on his body before.
What had he been through?
What exactly had he been through?
Why hadn’t I found him sooner?
Why?!
Quan Xiaoyu was filled with self-reproach.
Looking at his lover once again becoming overwhelmed by his emotions, Chu Tian could only swim back to the shore.
He climbed out of the water, dripping wet, personally tore off Quan Xiaoyu’s clothes, and then pulled him into the water with him.
Seeing Quan Xiaoyu’s unkempt beard, Chu Tian felt heartbroken too.
In Chu Tian’s eyes, Quan Xiaoyu had always looked like a young, innocent boy.
Even amid the chaos at the beginning of the apocalypse, Quan Xiaoyu had never looked this disheveled.
They had only been separated for three months, yet he had already reduced himself to this state.
Quan Xiaoyu’s emotions were unstable, and Chu Tian didn’t dare say too much to him now.
He simply pulled him into his arms.
He didn’t dare speak either.
His throat sounded terrible, and he was afraid of upsetting Quan Xiaoyu again.
The two of them simply embraced each other in the water.
One sobbed while the other patted his back in comfort.
They stayed like that until the restless Xie Mingxuan ran out.
He came to the riverbank and began howling loudly, staring at Chu Tian as though he were a hungry wolf looking at prey.
By then, Quan Xiaoyu’s emotions had calmed down considerably.
The surprise, nervousness, and heartache he had felt upon seeing Chu Tian for the first time had gradually subsided.
Only then did he remember—
Xie Mingxuan was hungry!
Author’s Note: Why did nobody guess that it was Chu Tian?!