Chapter 41 part1
TL: Onion

The head rolled to Shen Shian’s feet, he didn’t need to look closely to know that it was a zombie head.

His left hand quickly dropped the backpack, and pulled out the long sword with a cold flash.

The man was so anxious that he rushed over to grab the zombie head. He could only look at Shen Shian and begged, “Don’t kill him, I beg you, please don’t kill him. He didn’t hurt anyone, I just wanted to take him with me to Beijing.”

Shen Shian paused his movements and looked carefully at the zombie head.The neck that was cut off was covered tightly with black cloth and he couldn’t see a single blood vein. On its mouth was a muzzle made out of bamboo strips to stop it from biting. Part of its face was covered but if he looked closely at his eyebrows, he could find some similarities with the young man.

This head was obviously a zombie’s head because as long as the brain has not been destroyed, it would still maintain its basic activity and longing for flesh and blood. Even if the mouth was covered, it was still rolling on the ground, trying to bite and eat.

And the most surprising thing was that there was no sign of decay and decomposition on this head. He could clearly tell that the age of this head was no more than fifteen years old. If it was not for the dark blue blood vessels clearly visible under the skin and the turbid bloodshot eyes, it looked like it was a normal head. The rancid and bloody smell of the zombie head were extremely light, and it was always in the backpack, so Shen Shian could not detect it, but Shen Xun was more sensitive than he is.

He thought that the child had been staring at the man’s backpack for mischief and playfulness, but he didn’t expect that the dog had long been aware of the danger, so he exposed the zombies hidden in the dark.

“Mr. Shen,” The man saw that Shen Shian stopped and hurried to continue, “I’m really not dangerous. I don’t want to hurt people with this head. You also saw that his mouth was covered, it couldn’t bite anyone. I beg you not to kill him.”

Shen Shian glanced at him, shouted at the child to come to him, and then took a step back. He returned the sword to its sheath, and said to the man, “You pick it up.”

The man seemed a little unbelievable, but then he immediately hugged the head gently and carefully, and he even wiped off the dust on the head. But the head did not have any reason or any consciousness. After being transformed into a zombie, only the crazy desire for flesh was what remained in the body, so even if this zombie head had anything to do with the man during his lifetime, this time it didn’t remember it at all, and was struggling violently in the arms of the man, trying to bite him.

“Shh,” The man’s hand patted the zombie’s hair. Incredibly, the zombie head quieted down, letting the man hold it in his arm.

Shen Shian’s eyes narrowed. This was the second time he saw the man successfully calm the zombie. But how could he communicate with a zombie?

“Thank you,” The man said to Shen Shian, “Thank you very much.” He knew that this was not a simple decision. The horror of the zombies could not be described and a zombie head was undoubtedly a time bomb. No one could be sure when it would explode. In other words, he might not be able to easily accept a time bomb that could explode and affect the both of them. It would of course be better if the danger could be removed sooner. So he sincerely appreciated the other party’s willingness to stop and then he could easily solve the hidden danger. For him, this is more important than anything else.

Shen Shian shook his head and said, “Sit down, I would like to ask you a few questions if you don’t mind.”

The fire in the shop was swaying, and the buzzing sound of the occasional firewood burst was clear and audible. Shen Shian took the child and sat on the sides of the campfire with the man.

“Let me re-introduce myself,” Shen Shian said, “My surname is Shen, my name is Shian. This is my son Shen Xun.” The reason why he dared to give his full name was because the other party’s situation must be looking to avoid the crowd. It was impossible for him to enter a security base, and it was also impossible for him to know that the military was looking for someone called “Shen Shian”.

“My surname is Chen, my name is Chen Nan,” The man paused, and then pointed to the backpack that had become bulging again, “That’s my younger brother, Chen Jiamu.”

“You just said that you wanted to bring him to Beijing.”

Chen Nan nodded, probably because his biggest secret was already exposed. At this time, he simply removed all precautions, “I am a student from the provincial sports college in province B and an A-level athlete of the provincial track and field team. There was a large national event in early May this year. In track and field competitions, as long as you get a good ranking, you may be selected for the national team. I promised my younger brother to fight for the national team, and then take him to live together in Beijing. He had always wanted to go to Beijing.”

“What about your parents?”

“We have no parents, only me and my brother.”

Chen Nan did not explain in depth, and Shen Shian did not continue to question. After a pause, he asked, “When did your brother get the mutation?”

“From the beginning of the virus outbreak.” Chen Nan lowered his head slightly, his eyes looked straight at the fire. His voice was not loud, but it was the hoarse and gloomy kind. “The sports school is usually fully closed during training. You can’t leave the school nor can you contact the outside world privately. I make a phone call about once a week and return home every half a month. If it is near an important event, the training is more busy, and it is common to stay out of contact with the outside world for a month or two. My brother had a cold before the virus broke out, but he never told me. I didn’t go home because of training for 28 days. I made two phone calls in the middle but I couldn’t find any anomaly. It was only after the virus broke out that I hurried back and found out that he became a zombie.”

He returned home and rescued a neighbor who told him that Jiamu had a cold. He said that it has been months since he took leave from school to go home and rest, but the situation was getting worse and worse. He was so weak that he could only stay in bed. Fortunately, the neighbor found something wrong and called the property manager to open the door, then he made him eat a hot meal. But even so, he failed to save his life after the virus broke out.

Shen Shian was silent for a while to calm down the other party and continued after a while, “If your brother was suffering from the flu, after the virus broke out, he should become one of the first zombies. Which meant that he has been mutated for a month and a half, but there was no sign of rot in his head, do you know why?”

Chen Nan shook his head, “I also thought about this question, but I couldn’t find the answer.” For a while, he even thought whether this meant that Jiamu was “alive” to some extent, but after witnessing Jiamu’s crazy desire and indiscriminate attack for flesh, it was enough to break his fantasies.

“I found that you seem to be able to appease his emotions. Can you communicate with the zombies?”

“No.” Chen Nan paused suddenly. After a while, it seemed that he finally made up his mind and said to Shen Shian, “I have an ability.”

Shen Shian, “What kind of ability?”

“I don’t know exactly how to define it, but I can produce plants.” Since he had decided to spill his secret, he continued, “The potatoes I used to exchange for instant noodles with you were produced by my ability.”

Sure enough. Shen Shian exhaled secretly.

After discovering that Chen Nan had purposefully collected seeds, and the potatoes were obviously newly grown, he made two guesses, one was that the other party had the same portable space as him and the other was related to plant growth abilities.

However, Shen Shian’s space was acquired before the end of the world. Regardless of his spiritual powers, the existence of the space itself was very mysterious and difficult to explain with common sense. The possibility of another person who has the same space in this world is too low. And on the premise that humans could evolve after the end of the world, it was more reasonable if it was because of abilities

The reason why he didn’t take the initiative to ask was if he really did, it was more likely that the man wouldn’t answer and instead, he would strengthen his guard. In addition, if his guess was wrong, and that the man was just lucky to find some fields and collected the seeds for making farmland in the future, inquiries about things related to abilities or space are very likely to make him expose his biggest cards.

Now the other party was willing to tell the truth, which was the best result for Shen Shian. Chen Nan was the second person with ability he has met since Ms. Dong in the library, and since his ability was related to plants, he had too many questions that he wanted to understand carefully, “Is there any limit to your powers?” He asked Chen Nan, “For example, how long does it take to produce a potato and how many can be produced?”

“It takes about 20 minutes to produce a potato, and I can produce a maximum of four a day.” Chen Nan answered honestly, after thinking, he added, “But not all four can be eaten, one must be left as a seed.”

Shen Shian’s heart beated anxiously, and he could not help but hold his hand tightly, “You mean, the potatoes you produced with your ability can also be used as seeds to produce new potatoes.”

Chen Nan nodded.