"Xiaojiao, we'll live together from now on." Han Wu stroked her hair, his face carrying a gentle smile. "With your big brother here, no one will dare lay a hand on you."
Xiaojiao was so moved she wanted to cry. Zombies had no tears. She held onto Han Wu as tightly as she could and just kept shaking her head.
"Don't worry about anything. Whatever trouble comes, your big brother will handle it." Han Wu didn't doubt for a second that the Han family had the resources to protect his little sister. Yes, her existence would complicate things—he wasn't naive about that. But it wasn't a complication he resented. Xiaojiao had always been the family's most precious treasure. She belonged with them. Whatever happened, whatever she'd become, they would never give up on her.
"Xiaojiao, don't worry. We'll protect you, just like always." Their mother's voice was soft, though her heart was aching. Her daughter was alive. Her daughter still remembered them. That was enough.
Their father added, "Listen to your brother. You think our whole family combined can't keep one little girl safe?"
Xiaojiao shook her head again. She let go of Han Wu and reached for Axin's arm, pulling her over, asking her to translate. She needed to make her family understand—she wasn't going to live inside the base. She wanted to be with them more than anything, but she was a zombie. She and humans simply couldn't coexist in the same space, not really.
Her family might not mind. They would stand up for her. But everyone else would. Her presence in a human settlement would bring nothing but endless conflict and danger—for her family most of all. The base was the human world. One zombie had absolutely no business walking into it and disrupting everyone's lives.
Axin conveyed everything as Xiaojiao intended. The three of them fell into a heavy silence. They still wanted her inside with them—they didn't care about the trouble. But Xiaojiao had a point. The moment her identity became known to others, conflict would be inevitable.
"Xiaojiao says not to worry about her," Axin continued. "She's stronger than you think. Zombies won't hurt her and humans can't. And I'll protect her."
Han Wu caught something in that last sentence. He glanced at the way Xiaojiao was leaning comfortably against Axin's arm—easy, familiar, entirely at home—and his eyes narrowed slightly. "Miss Ning says she'll protect my little sister?"
"Yes."
"You're going to leave the human world behind and live out there with her?" He couldn't quite keep the disbelief out of his voice. Ning Xin's power was beyond question—that much had been obvious from the moment they met. But a person of that caliber choosing to live alongside a zombie? He couldn't make sense of it.
"Yes," Axin said simply. "I promised Xiaojiao I'd stay with her." Xiaojiao lifted her chin with quiet pride. She gestured toward the car, and Big Circle climbed out—a spectacularly round orange cat that immediately captured the entire Han family's attention. Axin continued, "And this cat, Big Circle, will be with her too."
Big Circle waddled over to Xiaojiao's side. She patted his head affectionately. Then she tugged Axin's sleeve, wanting her to pass one more message along.
"Xiaojiao says she'll be fine. She has me, she has the cat, and you don't need to worry."
Xiaojiao's parents looked at each other. They could feel that Xiaojiao genuinely didn't want to go into the base, and it was equally clear how comfortable she was with this girl called Ning Xin. Even the big orange cat seemed well cared for—impossibly, gloriously fat—which said something about the standard of living they'd somehow maintained. This Ning Xin was clearly someone extraordinarily capable. Their daughter living with her—there probably wasn't much to worry about on that front.
Still, worry found its way in. Xiaojiao was a zombie. She couldn't wander indefinitely with no fixed home. The base was already researching ways to counter the virus. If her existence were ever discovered, how would they protect her when they were all the way in there and she was out here?
The more they thought about it, the more they arrived at the same quiet conclusion: Xiaojiao inside the base might actually be more dangerous, not less. If someone learned she had retained human consciousness—there were people who would see her as a research subject, not a person. One moment of inattention, and she could be taken. They wouldn't always be able to watch.
Han Wu reached the same place. Their treasure couldn't go where humans lived. It was, paradoxically, the more dangerous of the two options.
"I'll take good care of her," Axin said. "You have my word. She'll be safer than anyone."
All three of them heard the certainty in those words and believed it. They still couldn't entirely understand what made this young woman willing to turn her back on the human world for Xiaojiao's sake—but the conviction in her voice was real.
Watching Xiaojiao's bright, happy face, there wasn't much left for any of them to say.
Han Wu thought for a moment, then asked, "You're right that she can't stay here. And I don't want her drifting around with no fixed place either. Miss Ning, what are you actually planning to do?"
"Find somewhere that suits Xiaojiao and settle down. Somewhere she can call home."
Han Wu stepped forward, studying Axin's face. "Such as?"
"Build a zombie castle." There was a faint gleam of amusement in Axin's eyes. "Her own world. One she rules. Zombies evolve—and Xiaojiao is exceptional. One day she'll be indistinguishable from a living person, and stronger than any human ability user."
The mention of Xiaojiao evolving brought visible relief to all three faces.
Xiaojiao, hearing the words zombie castle, immediately pictured it—and clapped her hands in enthusiastic agreement. Of course. She could command zombies. Why hadn't she thought of this before? She could pick out the good-looking ones, put them to work, build something properly magnificent, and never have to sleep in a different place every week. Visits with family would be so much easier too.
Han Wu frowned thoughtfully. "A zombie castle. That sounds fairly abstract."
"Less abstract once it exists."
"Is there anything you need from us?"
Han Wu couldn't explain it—he had only met this woman once, and yet he already believed she could actually do what she was describing. Strange. He glanced at Xiaojiao leaning naturally against Axin's side and something clicked. Maybe it was simply because Xiaojiao trusted her so completely that he found himself trusting her too.
"Nothing from you," Axin said. "I'll look after Xiaojiao."
The more Han Wu heard, the more something tugged at the back of his mind. He couldn't quite put his finger on what.
"Miss Ning, where would you build this castle?" Xiaojiao's mother asked, her concern warm and practical. "Would it be terribly far? I'd hate for visits to become difficult. And building a whole castle—that sounds complicated. Will it be safe?"
"It'll be safe. I won't go too far—I'll make sure it's no more than half a day's drive. And it won't be nearly as complicated as it sounds." Axin understood what the Han family needed to hear. "Once it's built, I'll bring Xiaojiao to see you."
"Alright."
Han Wu yielded—partly because he had no real counter-argument, and partly because Xiaojiao had grabbed his sleeve and was pulling insistently. He tapped her on the forehead. "If she ever fails to protect you, I'm coming to bring you back myself."
Xiaojiao thought that was absolutely not going to happen and also found the zombie castle idea growing more vivid and appealing in her mind by the second. Humans had their cities. Why couldn't zombies have a castle?
The Han family's reluctance was real, but in the end Axin took Xiaojiao away. The deeper they thought about the base's inner workings, the more the Han family agreed it was better this way. The base's primary research focus was developing a virus to eliminate zombies—to that end, they had taken captured zombies in as test subjects. If Xiaojiao were discovered there, those researchers would not simply look the other way. Better for her and Ning Xin to go.
Axin—are you really going to build a zombie castle? Xiaojiao held Axin's arm and gazed up at her with wide, wondering eyes.
"Of course."
Xiaojiao squirmed a little. Axin was so incredibly good to her. She looked down at her own pale fingers, feeling a pang of regret. She wondered how long it would be before she evolved enough to look like a normal person.
"Xiaojiao is already very powerful on her own. But the apocalypse has only been going for a few months—the first Zombie King hasn't even appeared yet. Even with the spring water helping, reaching something close to human appearance will take at least three years."
"That's already fast, relatively speaking."
Xiaojiao pouted. Three years was fast? All she wanted was to look like herself again and go on a proper date—was that really worth a three-year wait?
Fine. Build the castle first.
Once she had a real home, she'd drink spring water every day, bathe in spring water every day, and maybe—hopefully—the evolution would come a little faster.
She tugged Axin and communicated that they should start looking for a location immediately. Axin agreed, mindful of the promise to Xiaojiao's family that it wouldn't be too far.
They drove out of City B. Axin didn't look at the ruins of old neighborhoods—she headed toward the mountains. Building a castle wasn't something you decided on a whim and then abandoned. She'd been thinking about this for a while. Xiaojiao didn't want to disturb the human world, but she also couldn't drift forever without a place of her own. When the apocalypse eventually ended, finding a foothold would only become harder.
After several days of searching, they found a place that felt right: quiet and beautiful, sheltered on three sides, a river running along the front, untouched because no one had thought to settle there.
Xiaojiao loved it immediately. So did Big Circle.
Xiaojiao looked at the wild grass covering the ground, then turned to Axin with a dawning expression of practical concern. One person, one zombie, and one extraordinarily lazy and food-motivated fat cat. How exactly were they supposed to build a castle?
Axin—are we going to round up some zombies to do the construction?
She pictured zombies shuffling around a construction site at roughly the pace of a retired grandparent. She would be waiting decades. Xiaojiao looked somewhere between amused and despairing—the vision had been beautiful right up until the logistics.
"Building things requires people," Axin said.
People?
Big Circle and Xiaojiao looked at her with identical expressions of confusion.
"Most people haven't awakened abilities. At this point, the majority are still just trying to survive, running from place to place. They'll do almost anything to stay alive—a little honest labor in exchange for food and safety? They'll jump at it."
Xiaojiao understood at once. Fair enough. Work a little, get food in return—of course people would take that deal.
Then I'll pick some good-looking zombies to supervise them so they don't slack off.
Big Circle's amber eyes slid sideways. He licked one paw thoughtfully. The owner, if she became a merchant, would absolutely be a crooked one. Construction hasn't even started and she's already planning the zombie foreman system.
Decision made, Axin set off with Xiaojiao and Big Circle to find workers.
Everyone else was flowing toward the bases. They were going the opposite direction. The people they passed on the road found it strange but didn't ask. Other people's choices weren't their business. Whether those two lived or died had nothing to do with them.
"Hey, did you catch what that woman was asking people just now?"
"What was she asking?"
"Who knows how to build things, apparently."
"Probably just bored."
The people Axin approached were mostly ordinary office workers from the old world. None of them knew the first thing about construction.
She encountered many groups. Her questions varied: Do you know how to cook? Do you know basic medicine? Can you grow crops? Do you know how to lay foundations? Whenever someone answered yes to any of it, she followed up with: "I'm hiring you. Come with me. Food, shelter, and your life guaranteed."
The people she asked were skeptical. Then Axin produced food.
After that, no one hesitated. In the apocalypse, food was everything—it outweighed safety, comfort, and certainty combined. Survive today and worry about tomorrow when it came. If there was food, there was nothing to think about.
Within half a month, a considerable group of people was following along behind her. They didn't understand why she kept heading toward the most dangerous areas, but the zombies didn't attack them, and there was always enough to eat. If this woman wanted to take them on a walking tour of the apocalypse, fine. They weren't going hungry. They weren't getting bitten. Was wandering around really such a bad deal?
When Xiaojiao arrived with a column of zombies in tow, the entire group nearly bolted.
"Don't run. They're with us."
The crowd stood very still, pale-faced and trying to process this information. With us was a generous framing for what was clearly a horde of zombies. But the zombies weren't attacking. They were just... standing there. Looking docile, almost.
Axin surveyed the assembled workers and made a quick mental inventory of their skills. Among them were plenty of strong men with no abilities, some with families in tow—anyone with the capability to build, to farm, to contribute something useful, she'd taken. A few had grown up in rural areas and knew how to grow vegetables and grain. She took them too.
Xiaojiao's criteria were different and considerably more specific: good-looking zombies only. The damaged ones, the missing-limb ones—no. She had standards.
So the zombies she brought were uniformly presentable, if a little grimy.
"Alright," Axin said. "Time to go back and get to work."
While recruiting, she'd also passed through a number of abandoned supply stores and cleared them out entirely. Building materials, tools, seeds, fertilizer—anything that might be useful now lived in her space.
When she brought everyone back to the scenic spot near City B, she told them plainly: she needed a castle built. Those who couldn't construct things would farm instead—clear land, plant crops, keep the community fed.
Before anyone could ask the obvious question—build a castle out of what, exactly?—Axin made a small gesture, and materials and tools appeared in organized piles in front of them.
The farmers who'd been about to point out they had no seeds watched packet after packet of seeds materialize before their eyes, along with bags of fertilizer.
The group stared at Axin's space with undisguised awe. Then, quietly, a kind of happiness settled over them.
They'd also figured out that Xiaojiao was probably a zombie. These zombies weren't attacking them. They'd been asked to build a castle. There was food. There was shelter.
Was this really so bad?
They were extremely willing.
Construction began. The farmers started breaking ground.
Axin distributed tents to everyone, and the group marveled again—how did this woman have absolutely everything?
She handed out detailed architectural blueprints and divided up the land for cultivation. The zombies stood guard around the perimeter—unsettling at first, with those gray-white eyes tracking every movement, but gradually the workers realized they weren't going to be eaten. The zombies just watched to make sure no one slacked off.
The comparison to their old supervisors was uncomfortably accurate.
They laughed about it among themselves.
The days were busy. Watching their own progress accumulate gave them a sense of satisfaction that had been absent for months. Before the apocalypse, none of them had been wealthy—they'd all worked for a living. Now they had food, clothing, shelter, and honest work to do. There were even zombies keeping them safe. All things considered, this was not a bad arrangement.
Under the blazing sun, people worked steadily. Every now and then someone would glance over at the enormous orange cat sprawled in the grass—opening a can, eating for a while, and then falling asleep mid-can—and the same thought passed through every mind:
Before the apocalypse, we lived worse than a cat. After the apocalypse, we still live worse than a cat.
Axin and Xiaojiao made regular trips out to forage and collect supplies, coming back each time with the space packed full of useful things.
Every two weeks or so, Axin would take Xiaojiao to see the Han family. Each visit reassured them a little more. The apocalypse had grown more intense and complicated—the Han family was busy navigating its politics. All three of them had awakened abilities; Han Wu was the strongest, which gave him significant influence at the base. Since finding Xiaojiao again, they'd become even more driven toward accumulating power. In their hearts, they still wanted the family whole. They believed the only way to protect the people they loved—without having to make painful compromises—was to hold enough power that no one could force their hand.
Han Wu came once to see the site Axin had chosen. He looked at the scene unfolding before him—already more impressive than he'd imagined—and returned to the base feeling genuinely at peace.
Before he left, he asked: "Miss Ning, I'm curious. Why are you so good to my sister?"
Axin hadn't expected the question, but she answered without hesitation. "I just want to be."
No reason. Just because.
Han Wu was quiet for a moment. "Miss Ning—you're in love with her, aren't you?" After all these weeks of trying to put his finger on what felt strange, he'd finally worked it out. The way this woman looked at Xiaojiao—if that wasn't love, what was?
In love?
Axin smiled, soft and unhurried. "I suppose so."
Han Wu let out a breath. "I don't object." He looked away, his voice steady. "Most men couldn't do what you've done for her. No—honestly, most anyone couldn't. I can see that Xiaojiao feels the same way. She's happy with you."
He meant every word. Xiaojiao was a zombie. There was no one else in this world who would give up everything for her sake—build her a castle, stay by her side through all of it. How could he possibly object? His parents wouldn't either. Anyone who was good to Xiaojiao was good in their eyes.
"Once things settle down," Han Wu said, "why don't the two of you get married?" He cleared his throat. "Whatever form that takes—you should be together properly, out in the open." A person this good didn't come along twice. Best to make it official sooner rather than later, before she somehow slipped away. That was his thinking—and his parents'.
They'd discussed it together before sending him to raise it.
Axin blinked, caught off guard. She looked toward the distance where Xiaojiao was playing with Big Circle in the grass. "Alright," she said softly.
Marriage. The word sat warmly in her chest, met with no resistance whatsoever—only something that felt like anticipation.
Han Wu smiled. "I'll come visit Xiaojiao again soon. If you need anything, you know where to find me."
He walked away with a light step and a smile he didn't bother hiding.
Two years later.
Where there had once been wild grass and quiet mountain scenery, there now stood a magnificent castle.
Around it, a neighborhood of small independent houses had been built, each one neat and well-kept.
Inside the castle lived a zombie who was terribly vain, extraordinarily beautiful, and absolutely devoted to wearing floral dresses. The guards were zombies too—every one of them carefully selected for being pleasant to look at. The surrounding houses were home to the people Axin had recruited all those months ago.
When construction finished, Axin had told them plainly: they were free to leave, taking their fair share of food with them. Or they could stay—but staying meant becoming part of the zombie castle's community, separate from the outside world. Every single person chose to stay.
The outside had only gotten worse—more dangerous, not less, and none of them had abilities. Here, they were fed, housed, safe, and doing work that meant something. Two years living alongside zombies had turned out to be considerably less terrifying than expected. Aging peacefully in a zombie castle was, frankly, a luxury.
Word had also reached them of new horrors outside—mutated animals, mutated plants, and something called Lickers that no one wanted to meet up close. Out there, survival had become genuinely nightmarish. Anyone who left this place would need their head examined.
The Han family came to visit once the castle was finished. They took one look at everything Axin had built for their Xiaojiao and never mentioned the human base again. What base could compare to this?
The Han family had been looking forward to a wedding. Axin was willing. Xiaojiao was emphatically not.
She stamped her foot in outrage, struggling with her still-imperfect speech. "No—marry." They hadn't even properly dated yet. What business did they have getting married?
She couldn't speak properly. How was she supposed to get married like this?
Her body hadn't finished evolving. She was not getting married. Absolutely not.
"Xiaojiao, a girl like Ning Xin—you won't find another one anywhere in this world," her mother said gently.
Her father nodded along. "She's right. Xiao Ning really is wonderful—she does everything for you. Xiaojiao, if you don't marry her, that's a little... well, aren't you being a bit unfair to her?"
"Little sister, this time I'm on Ning Xin's side."
Xiaojiao's indignation peaked. Her own family had betrayed her. She didn't let go of Axin's arm though—and honestly, Axin was so wonderful that family defection was really not surprising at all.
"No—"
"Honestly, this child..." Her mother sighed, then turned and took Axin's hands in both of hers. "We'll keep working on her. Xiao Ning, please don't take it personally—she does care about you, deeply."
Xiaojiao wanted to scream. She didn't not want to get married. She just wasn't perfect yet. How could she get married like this?
She spun around, grabbed a sheet of paper, and wrote furiously, then thrust it at Han Wu. He and their parents crowded together to read:
I am not against marriage. But right now I can barely speak, my body hasn't finished evolving, and I haven't even properly dated Axin yet. I can't skip all of that and go straight to marriage.
I want everything to be perfect before I marry Axin. And I'll be the one to propose. That's final.
The moment all three of them finished reading, Xiaojiao snatched the paper back, crumpled it into a ball, and ate it.
Axin could absolutely not see that.
Xiaojiao stood there fiddling with her fingers and glancing at her family sideways with an expression of studied nonchalance.
Axin had always been the one taking care of her. She wanted to give Axin something beautiful to remember too.
Big Circle's commentary: The dramatic owner. Just propose already—why make it complicated? Humans are exhausting.