Xie Li's Tongue Tip Tangled with Hers

'I know!'

Xie Li gritted her teeth and hacked away a rat that lunged at her. 'Shut up. I'll take you back to find your mom. Your mom is my mom too — so shut your mouth, stop talking, save your strength.'

Lan Ran let out the breath she'd been holding. She closed her eyes and slumped against Xie Li's shoulder, her arms hanging limply across Xie Li's chest, warm liquid dripping from her fingertips and trailing down the front of Xie Li's jacket.

Xie Li ran back the way they'd come with Lan Ran on her back — one hand swinging the cleaver to clear the path, the other braced under the person on her back. Holding the blade in one hand left her no way to defend against the mutant rats swarming in from every direction.

Her cargo pants were bitten through, her legs streaked with blood. One rat seized the moment and leapt onto Lan Ran's back, jaws snapping toward her neck.

Xie Li reached back and caught it, fingers closing around the mutant rat's throat, and flung it away — only for another rat to jump onto her arm, tearing through her jacket and sinking its teeth into her flesh.

'Ugh...' Xie Li let out a muffled grunt, shook her arm hard, and sent the rat clinging to it flying.

Breathing in ragged heaves, she forced herself forward, step by labored step, with Lan Ran on her back.

Watching the scene behind her, a desperate urgency seized her — she wanted to go back and help Xie Li, but the mutant rats ahead still needed someone to hold them off, or the whole group would grind to a halt entirely.

All she could do was watch Xie Li struggle through the swarm, and she swung her iron hammer harder.

Despair spread through everyone's hearts like a slow tide.

They all felt it — the group was moving forward, but barely, and the mutant rats kept hurling themselves at them without any sign of thinning out.

There was no running away from this.

Xie Li was at her limit too. Her body was covered in wounds, the rats closing in thicker by the second, and the hand gripping her cleaver was so soaked in blood that the handle was slipping from her grasp.

The one clearing the path ahead was nearly swallowed by the mutant rats herself. She was only one person, not a god — she couldn't carry everyone out of this alive.

Just as the despair reached its breaking point, a low rumble of a sound — like muffled thunder — rolled through the darkness. A single 'mrrrow.'

The mutant rats raging through the underground passage froze as if someone had pressed pause. Every last one of them stopped.

They lifted their heads. Ears pricked. Whiskers trembling. Their crimson eyes swiveled as one toward the far end of the tunnel, and not one of them dared move — as though they had come face to face with a natural predator.

In the darkness, everyone could see two golden eyes, brilliant as small suns, floating closer.

The mutant rats began to stir. Each step those golden eyes advanced, the rats retreated a step.

As the distance closed, the mutant rats broke into a frantic, scrambling retreat.

They clambered over one another, trampling and shrieking in terror, and within seconds the dense mass of crimson eyes had vanished completely — leaving behind nothing but a floor of corpses and bright red bloodstains.

Everyone tightened their grip on their weapons and backed away step by step, putting distance between themselves and those golden eyes.

Covered in blood, she sprinted to Xie Li's side and planted herself in front of her, watching the approaching golden eyes with wary alertness.

With her back to Xie Li, she dropped her voice: 'How bad are your injuries? Can you still run?'

Xie Li shifted Lan Ran on her back and answered, 'I'm fine. Don't be tense — I know this cat.'

She guessed the answer in an instant. 'The one from the warehouse?'

'Yeah, should be. Its eyes are gold too.'

In the time it took to say those few words, the golden eyes had already arrived in front of Xie Li.

Flashlights swept over in a chaotic tangle of beams, and everyone finally saw clearly: it was an enormous orange cat.

Its coat was a warm, sunny orange, and its body was larger than a full-grown tiger — yet despite that massive size, it had made not a single sound as it walked toward them.

Xie Li looked at the Big Orange Cat, whose shoulder height reached her chest, and curved her lips into a smile. 'We meet again. Thank you — once we're out of here, I'll treat you to meat.'

The Big Orange Cat glanced at her, flicked its tail, and turned around unhurriedly, padding forward with an elegant, leisurely gait.

It swayed its round, plump backside for a few steps, then noticed the humans behind it hadn't followed, and stopped. It looked back at Xie Li over its shoulder — as if to say: keep up, you useless human. Must this great king rescue you personally?

With the immediate danger lifted, she felt some of the tension ease from her chest. She turned and held out her hand to Xie Li. 'Give Lan Ran to me.'

Xie Li didn't refuse the offer.

She thought: if Lan Ran were conscious and found out she'd been carried on her back, she'd probably bolt upright from her deathbed and start howling at the top of her lungs.

She took Lan Ran onto her back and followed the Big Orange Cat's lead; the rest of the group fell in behind them and moved forward.

In the darkness, the faint rustle of movement was still audible — those rats hadn't gone far, still trailing behind them.

The Big Orange Cat glanced back, and a burst of terrified squeaking immediately erupted in the dark. The sounds from behind fell silent.

After a stretch of walking, light appeared at the end of the tunnel — light that meant hope.

The Big Orange Cat looked back at Xie Li once more, then turned and climbed the steps with its signature swaying stride.

Xie Li lifted her foot to follow. She was pulled back: 'It probably wants you to wait a moment before going up.'

The words had barely landed when a low cat's cry rang out from the platform above, followed by the shrieking howl of Zombies.

Everyone waited below. The commotion above gradually died down. She waved the group forward, signaling that it was safe to move.

Xie Li was the first to climb up to the platform. Sunlight poured down and made her squint.

She raised a hand to shade her eyes and took in the scene around her.

The platform was strewn with the shredded remains of Zombies, scattered here and there in pieces. The culprit, the Big Orange Cat, lay sprawled in the sunlight, lazily grooming its fur with the air of someone enjoying a perfectly peaceful afternoon.

A breeze swept across the platform, carrying the scent of grass and earth, dispersing the stench of rot and the tension wound tight inside everyone.

Xie Li drew a long, deep breath and felt as though the rot and blood that had filled her lungs were washed clean by that single gust of wind.

The taut wire of her nerves finally went slack. Her legs gave out, and she dropped straight down onto the ground.

One by one, the others in the group sat down too, letting the breeze brush their faces and soaking in a brief, sunlit moment of peace.

After a short rest, Bai Jingning forced herself to her feet and called out for everyone to help each other tend to their wounds.

The group that had entered the train station had been nearly a hundred strong. Coming out of the underground passage, only a few dozen remained — nearly half had been lost. Those who hadn't made it out were companions they had lived alongside day and night over these past few days.

Of the half who had made it out, almost everyone was injured.

Heads bowed, they looked at their wounds, and a helpless uncertainty settled over them.

What happened when you were bitten by a mutant rat? Would you turn into a monster like a Zombie, or die of plague? No one knew — but the wounds still had to be treated. Leave them alone and you'd die even faster.

Xie Li turned her head and swept her gaze across the crowd, eyes moving from one blood-streaked face to the next. She noticed that the two drivers who had kept the vehicles going the entire way had not walked out of the underground passage.

She looked away. A quiet ache settled in her chest.

Everyone else had rested at some point along the road, but those two drivers had kept going without stopping. They had held on for so long — and in this final stretch, they hadn't made it through.

They must have simply run out of strength. A shame — she didn't even know their names.

Xie Li didn't let herself dwell on it. This was a world where anyone could die at any moment; perhaps everyone had already made peace with living each day as if it were their last.

She patted herself off and stood up, then walked over to Lan Ran's side.

She was already tending to Lan Ran's wounds. Iodine Tincture was poured over the injury, a cotton swab pressed into it, the antiseptic seeping straight through the torn hole in Lan Ran's arm and dripping down — the sight of it made Xie Li's teeth ache.

The unconscious Lan Ran lay with her brow furrowed tight, her face as white as paper, and she had not woken up.

Though she had said she wasn't a medical professional, every time she treated a wound this raw and bloody, her hands were perfectly steady — she looked every bit the expert.

Disinfect, apply medicine, bandage, wrap — she wound Lan Ran up like a mummy before she finally set down her supplies.

Xie Li looked down at Lan Ran's ashen face. 'Will she die?'

'No. Nothing vital was hit. As long as the wounds don't get infected, she'll be fine.' She set aside the leftover gauze, opened a fresh bottle of Iodine Tincture, and looked at Xie Li. 'Take off your jacket.'

'Good.' Xie Li answered and reached up to pull the zipper — tugging at it several times without getting it open.

She lost patience with the fumbling and stepped in herself, pulling the zipper open in one motion and stripping the jacket off her.

The whole sequence was smooth and practiced — it looked like she'd had plenty of experience undressing girls. A seasoned repeat offender.

She glanced at the mangled bite marks on Xie Li's arm and frowned. 'Hold out your hand.'

Xie Li rested her hand on her knee. 'Are you hurt?'

'No. All the blood on me is from the mutant rats.'

Xie Li saw her frown deepen and offered quietly, 'Mine looks worse than it is — all that blood and torn flesh, but it's really not that serious.'

She said nothing, and silently pressed harder as she cleaned the wound.

Xie Li hissed softly in pain.

She looked up and glanced at her. 'Hurt?'

'Doesn't hurt.'

She didn't reply. She lowered her head and kept applying the medicine.

But her touch eased up just a little. The wounds were this bad — she couldn't bring herself to keep being rough with her.

Finished with the arm, she said without looking up, 'Roll up your trouser legs yourself.'

Xie Li bent down and pushed the fabric up. Her calves had more wounds than her arms — the upper body was easier to protect, but the legs were nearly impossible, especially with so many rats on the ground. Getting bitten was unavoidable.

She crouched in front of her and continued — cleaning, applying medicine, bandaging.

She had just finished with Xie Li's wounds when Ning Meng came over with her young general on her back. 'Dr. Jin, the General... she was bitten by mutant rats too.'

'Set her down on the bench.' She gathered the medicine and went with Ning Meng to a nearby bench to bandage Fu Yunsheng's wounds.

The Big Orange Cat, which had been waiting patiently to one side, seized the moment and padded over to Xie Li. Its tail swished with impatience, and its golden eyes fixed on Xie Li with the look of someone who had been stood up — the gaze of a wronged party.

Those eyes said it plainly: where's the meat you promised? This great king saved all of you, and you're making this great king just sit here and wait?

Xie Li understood immediately. She held up her arm to show the Big Orange Cat. 'I wasn't trying to stiff you — I just got hurt and had to get my wounds treated first. Come on, let's go eat.'

She stood up and gestured for the Big Orange Cat to follow.

The Big Orange Cat followed Xie Li forward with a measure of skepticism, tail held high as it walked — proud as a sovereign surveying its domain.

Xie Li slipped around behind a pillar, peeked back to confirm no one could see them from there, and with a thought, drew from her Space a large cut of beef and half a side of pork, setting them down in front of the Big Orange Cat.

'Eat up — eat plenty.' Xie Li crouched down and looked at the Big Orange Cat's enormous head, her voice sincere. 'Thank you, truly, for today. If it weren't for you, we might have been completely wiped out.'

She finished speaking and reached out, wanting to ruffle that great fuzzy head.

The Big Orange Cat rumbled a purr at her, its golden eyes broadcasting a single word: bold.

It shot Xie Li a glare, picked up the beef in its mouth, retreated to the other side of the pillar, turned its backside to her, and began eating with great relish.

Xie Li withdrew her hand, deflated. 'Fine, don't let me pet you. Enjoy your meal — I'm heading back.'

The Big Orange Cat paid her no mind, buried in its food.

Xie Li returned to the group and sat down beside her.

The sun had begun to tilt westward. Their two shadows stretched long and slanted across the ground. Xie Li glanced at the two silhouettes leaning close together and made conversation: 'How is she doing?'

She answered, 'Same as before. Can't tell why she's still unconscious. Her injuries aren't too serious, at least — Ning Meng has been watching over her the whole time.'

'Oh...' Xie Li murmured, palm resting on her knee, idly picking at her fingers.

She hadn't really wanted to talk about her fiancée — she'd just needed something to say.

She looked up at the sky. 'We need to move quickly. We have to find the locomotive and the carriages before tonight if we want somewhere safe to sleep.'

'I'll go with you.' Xie Li pushed herself up off her knees.

She waved her off and lowered her voice. 'Xie Li, this is the apocalypse. When Zombies come, everyone runs for their own life — no one will look after your friend.'

Xie Li stopped. She gave her a nod. 'I understand. You be careful too — stay away from places with a lot of Zombies. I'll... worry about you.'

'Don't.' She waved a hand back at her without turning around, walked quickly over to Bai Jingning, exchanged a few brief words, then vaulted off the platform and headed toward the outermost track.

Xie Li watched her figure grow smaller until that tiny point disappeared at the far end of the tracks. Then she looked away and turned her gaze back to the Big Orange Cat.

The Big Orange Cat had finished eating and was sprawled on the platform, lazily licking its paws. It was thorough about it — one paw done, it wiped its face clean before setting it down. When it switched to the other paw, it turned its head and met Xie Li's eyes across the distance, catching her in the act of watching.

Xie Li beckoned to it. The Big Orange Cat hesitated, then stood, stretched luxuriously, yawned wide enough to show all its teeth, shook out its fur, and strolled toward her with unhurried elegance.

'We're leaving this place. Do you want to come with me?' Xie Li asked, looking into those golden eyes.

The Big Orange Cat let out a 'mrrrow,' tilting its head to look at her.

Xie Li couldn't tell whether that sound was a yes or a no, so she sweetened the offer: 'Come with me and I'll keep you in meat.'

'Mrow?'

'Really, as much as you want. As long as you don't go around hurting people, I'll give you meat every single day.' Xie Li said this with complete confidence.

Setting aside everything else, the frozen meat she'd stockpiled was more than enough to feed the Big Orange Cat for years. She also had a livestock Space — once they left the city and reached the countryside, she'd surely come across domestic animals. She could raise them in the Space, and every day she could feed the Big Orange Cat fresh chicken, duck, fish, pork, beef, and lamb. That would surely win this great cat over.

'Mrrrow~' The Big Orange Cat rolled its eyes at her, turned its back, and walked away without a backward glance, tail swaying.

Even from behind, its disdain was unmistakable.

Her attempt at recruitment had failed. Xie Li felt a small pang of disappointment.

Just a small one. She could only blame herself for not being the protagonist — if Fu Yunsheng had been the one to meet the Big Orange Cat, that silly cat would have followed her without a second thought.

Xie Li was still wallowing in self-pity when a thunderous rumbling broke out across the platform.

At the far end of the tracks, an old locomotive came chugging toward them — clang, clang, clang — making a tremendous racket, with a carriage hitched behind it that looked like it had been detached from some other train.

The Zombies inside the station were roused by the noise. They surged out of the waiting hall, tumbling down the stairs in a dark, dense mass.

Bai Jingning stood at the edge of the platform, watching the train draw closer, and shouted to everyone: 'Run — get on board as fast as you can!'

The group began to move. The injured leaned on one another; those with lighter wounds carried those with heavier ones; others clutched supplies, pressing and jostling as they poured into the carriage.

Xie Li hoisted Lan Ran onto her back and ran at the rear of the group. Her eyes stayed fixed on the Zombie Herd closing in from behind as she calculated in her head the odds of it catching up with them.

Fortunately, the station was large enough, and everyone moved fast enough — before the Zombie Herd could close the gap, every survivor on the platform had squeezed onto the train.

She stood outside the locomotive cab and called out: 'Xie Li, hurry — get on!'

One hand gripped the railing; the other stretched out toward her.

Xie Li sprinted the last few steps to the locomotive. She grabbed her hand and pulled hard, and Xie Li tumbled forward into her arms.

'Get your footing.'

Xie Li steadied herself and turned to look back at the platform.

The Big Orange Cat lay sprawled at the platform's edge, basking in the evening sun, tail swaying idly, utterly indifferent to the Zombie Herd surging up behind it. The Zombie Herd automatically flowed around it — whether out of fear or lack of appetite, it was impossible to say.

Watching the Big Orange Cat sit immovable amid the oncoming tide, Xie Li's heart ached with longing.

That cat truly would not bend for anything. Infuriating. Her heart hurt so much!

'Stop staring. Cats don't like to be tied down — if it's meant to be, you'll meet again.' She tugged at Xie Li's arm. 'Come inside. Put Lan Ran down first — carrying her like that, her wounds will tear open.'

'Right.' Xie Li pulled her gaze away and followed her into the locomotive cab.

The cab wasn't spacious — the control console took up half the space, leaving only the driver's and co-driver's seats, their iron frames padded with a thin layer of foam that looked anything but comfortable.

Xie Li settled Lan Ran into the co-driver's seat, reclined the backrest so she was half-lying down, then shrugged off her own pack and dropped it on the floor, pulled off her jacket, and draped it over Lan Ran, tucking it in at the edges.

'There are only two seats in here, you know. You pulled me up here — does that mean you didn't want to sit alone and wanted me to keep you company?'

The small note of smugness in Xie Li's voice was impossible to hide.

She kept her hands busy with the buttons and levers on the console. 'I was worried the carriage behind us might be dangerous. Everyone in there was bitten by mutant rats — if any of them turn, the carriage will become a slaughterhouse.'

Xie Li paused and looked back at the carriage, completely sealed off from the cab. 'But you're not afraid that Lan Ran and I might turn? You'd be in danger then.'

She glanced back at her, and there seemed to be a trace of amusement in her eyes. 'I think you and Lan Ran don't pose much of a threat to me.'

Xie Li: ...

So she was being underestimated. How annoying. Does being a good fighter make you so great? Yes, actually, being a good fighter really is great.

Xie Li wisely chose to drop the subject. She turned to look at the scenery passing outside the window and asked, with studied nonchalance, 'How come you're not worried about your fiancée being in danger back there?'

'Ning Meng will protect her.'

The answer was airtight. Xie Li still couldn't find a single crack in it.

Sometimes she felt like she might be a little different to her — and sometimes she felt like there was no one at all in her eyes.

She didn't even seem to care much about her own life. Why else would she always be the first one charging in?

First time falling for someone, and it had to be this impossible-to-read woman. Truly hard to figure out.

The scenery outside the window wasn't worth looking at. Xie Li turned back to the console and made conversation: 'How do you even know how to drive a train?'

'I don't. I learned on the spot. This kind of old traction locomotive — it's been obsolete for years. There was never any reason to study it.'

She said it so lightly, with no idea whatsoever how devastating those words were to Xie Li, who had never been much of a student.

Who just picks something up on the spot and learns to drive a train?

Dr. Jin excepted, apparently.

Xie Li closed her mouth and said nothing more. Even in her silence, the cab was far from quiet.

The old locomotive was loud when it ran — the clang of wheels on rails, the roar of the engine, all of it blending together into a low, droning hum that was almost hypnotic.

Leaning against the window, Xie Li felt her eyelids growing heavier and heavier, her head beginning to droop.

She glanced back at her. 'If you're tired, make do with the space in the back.'

Xie Li opened her eyes and looked at the empty floor behind the seats.

The floor was thick with dust and old oil stains — it looked filthy. But she didn't mind. It wasn't as though she was clean herself.

She shifted over, dropped down onto the floor, and leaned against the iron wall of the cab, closing her eyes to rest.

Xie Li hadn't meant to fall asleep, but for some reason her head felt heavy and a drowsiness crept over her, and before she knew it she was gone.

She had a dream — the first in a long time. She dreamed she was hiking through a desert. The sun blazed overhead, the sand burned underfoot, and even the wind that blew was scorching hot.

She walked and walked across the desert, and no matter how far she went, she couldn't find the edge of it.

The surface temperature kept climbing. Xie Li felt as though she'd been thrown into a furnace — her skin scorching, her marrow drying out, death imminent.

In a haze, a faint coolness touched her lips. Xie Li forced her eyes open with every last scrap of will she had. Her vision was blurred, everything tinged red, as if she were inside a burning furnace — and in that sea of red, a woman's silhouette was crouching in front of her.

'What... happened?'

'Xie Li, open your mouth — drink some water. You're running a fever.' She cupped Xie Li's chin and brought a bottle of Mineral Water to her lips.

The bottle tilted, and clear water trickled from the corner of Xie Li's mouth.

Xie Li tried to open her mouth, but her body seemed beyond her control. Every muscle in her body was cramping.

This is bad. This feeling — was she really infected? Would she die? Could she come back from this?

Would she grieve for her? If she turned into a Zombie, would she accidentally hurt her?

Maybe it was better to just burn up from the fever — that way she wouldn't be a danger to her.

Xie Li drifted through these thoughts in a daze, one after another flashing through her mind like a lantern show.

'Don't go under — hold on, Xie Li.' She patted Xie Li's cheeks, the urgency in her voice impossible to suppress. 'Can you drink some water? We need to bring your temperature down.'

The anxiety in her eyes deepened. Xie Li had been conscious for only a few seconds before she slipped away again.

She looked down at Xie Li — flushed all over, practically steaming — then tilted her head back and took a mouthful of water. She leaned down, pressed her lips to Xie Li's, and used the tip of her tongue to coax her teeth apart, passing the water through.

Water carrying a trace of warmth flowed into Xie Li's mouth. In her daze, she swallowed.

The method worked. She straightened up, took another mouthful of water, and leaned down to pass it over again.

The moment their lips met, Xie Li seemed to recover a flicker of consciousness. She felt something soft pressing against her lips — warm and damp.

Instinct drove her to open her mouth and lean in, actively winding herself around that slick, soft tongue.

She wasn't truly awake. This was all instinct — like a drowning person seizing the last piece of driftwood, holding on tight, drawing gently.

Water trickled in from the tip of that tongue, and she swallowed it down, then chased after that softness again, seeking more.

The tips of her ears flushed a faint pink — because of Xie Li's insistence.

Perhaps partly, too, because of the fever-high temperature inside Xie Li's mouth.

The hand she had braced beside Xie Li's ear slowly curled inward, knuckles tightening, her breathing losing its rhythm.

Xie Li's tongue tip tangled with hers, drawing on her, like an infant searching for milk — burning hot and urgent, without any technique at all.

She closed her eyes, parted her lips, and let that small tongue roam freely between them.

She was not unaware of what it would mean — if Xie Li had been infected with plague, and she was exchanging fluids with a feverish Xie Li like this.

And yet she did it anyway.