Chapter Eighteen: The Return of the Thick Mist

After replacing three grinding wheels, a convertible pickup truck was finally finished. For the sake of stability, Ma Yi welded three-centimeter-thick steel bars to both sides of the windshield. His handiwork wasn’t exactly professional, but it served its purpose well enough.

At first, Ma Yi drove cautiously up in the mountains. The speed was slower than an electric bike, and several times he almost crashed into trees or the blasted mountainside. But as he grew more familiar with the controls, the F650 began to roar like a wild beast through the vast, empty villa district—charging up and down the hills, racing with abandon, until Liu Xue, watching, could barely contain her excitement.

Clinging to her older sister, Liu Xue insisted on learning how to drive, but Liu Wen refused on the grounds that she was too young. No way—if Ma Yi, with his sturdy build, got into a scrape, it’d be nothing, but if anything happened to this little girl, it could be fatal.

Liu Xue understood Ma Yi’s attitude; after being sternly scolded by her sister, she could only pout and reluctantly give up on the idea.

With his new toy, the old minivan that had accompanied Ma Yi on many journeys was now parked quietly in the garage. Whenever he had free time, Ma Yi would take the big pickup for a spin around the neighborhood, becoming intimately familiar with every curve and slope in the roads. He had once merely known how to drive, but now he could make the pickup drift with impressive skill.

As for diesel fuel, Ma Yi had no concerns at all. There were over thirty villas in the community; apart from his own and Chen Yuanshan’s, every house had a diesel generator and a massive fuel tank. Ma Yi had carefully kept records: depending on each household’s usage, the smallest reserve was four thousand liters, the largest ten thousand untouched. Adding up all the numbers, he had at least 230,000 liters of diesel at his disposal.

In other words, Ma Yi had at least 190 tons of diesel—enough to keep him driving for many years. More importantly, Chen Yuanshan had told him that not far from the supermarket, the small house on the flat ground was a gas station, with at least twenty tons of gasoline and fifty tons of diesel stored underground.

This put Ma Yi’s mind at ease about fuel. If he ever ran low, he could simply siphon some from the gas station and bring it home. If he ever managed to use up all the fuel there, he’d probably be sick at the mere sight of a car.

Because of this, Liu Wen collected all the racing DVDs, claiming it was for Ma Yi’s safety and to prevent him from learning any dangerous tricks.

Today marked the twentieth day of the apocalypse. Outside, at dawn, another strange fog rolled in. Whether it was due to sunspots or the nature of the mist itself, the dense fog shifted in color—sometimes a faint green, sometimes the tender yellow of new shoots, and at times a pale blue.

Ma Yi felt uneasy. He remembered how, twenty days earlier, that first fog had changed everything. A day passed and his family showed no signs of change, which allowed him to relax a little. But by the third day of the persistent fog, both Liu Wen and Liu Xue came down with severe diarrhea, and Liu Wen’s mother soon found herself trapped in the bathroom as well—only her father remained unaffected. The two sisters seemed unable to stop, and even as Ma Yi sat in the downstairs living room, he could smell the stench drifting from the second floor.

The odor was even worse than that of rotting zombies. Helpless, Ma Yi left the house and stood in the shifting mist outside, uncertain what would happen next. He was worried—he had been preoccupied with cars lately, neglecting exercise for days. With the three women occupied in the bathrooms and nothing he could do to help, he decided he might as well go for a run.

In the mountain lanes, Ma Yi jogged along the roads, checking each house as he passed to make sure everything was alright before continuing his run. His steady jog soon turned into a full sprint.

Thick fog filled his lungs with every breath, but it had no adverse effect; in fact, the more he ran, the more energized he felt.

For an entire day, the two sisters lay exhausted in bed. Liu Wen’s mother was cared for by her husband, leaving Ma Yi to look after the sisters. Liu Wen, weak and drained, didn’t care what Ma Yi saw as he helped her—she let him do whatever was necessary. As for Liu Xue, Ma Yi had expected the little girl to throw a fit, but instead she looked quietly at him as he tidied her up and then, at the end, asked, “Did it look good?” Ma Yi was so startled his jaw nearly hit the floor, and he could only deny having seen anything. The sight of that pink, smooth skin would have to remain buried in his heart forever. He had thought Liu Wen was already exceptional—this little sister was even more astonishing.

It wasn’t until noon the next day that the two sisters finally made their way downstairs, weak and pale. Their mother, on the other hand, bounced back after a night’s rest. Seeing Liu Wen recover her spirits after eating, Ma Yi was greatly relieved. He told the sisters to stay indoors and rest while he resumed his exercise. The presence of this strange fog made him uneasy—he felt it was wiser to grow stronger. Tie Zhu, seeing Ma Yi working out and thinking it looked fun, joined in, mimicking Ma Yi’s every move with great enthusiasm.

On the sixth day of the fog, Ma Yi noticed significant changes in Liu Wen and Liu Xue. Their energy and complexion had both improved markedly, and, more curiously, their chests had noticeably grown. It wasn’t that Ma Yi was staring—since the room wasn’t cold, they wore light clothes and were casual at home, so it was hard not to notice. Even their mother seemed visibly younger, though Ma Yi refrained from looking too closely.

“You seem… quite different,” Ma Yi said to Liu Wen, his gaze lingering on her now fuller chest.

“Ah!” Liu Wen was confused at first, but when she realized where Ma Yi was looking, she blushed and quickly covered the deep cleavage exposed by her loose top. She had noticed her bra feeling tight that morning but hadn’t thought much of it—now that Ma Yi had pointed it out, she couldn’t ignore it any longer.

“Sis, sis, I think I’ve grown three centimeters!” Liu Xue exclaimed, running over in excitement.

“Really? I’ll check too!” Liu Wen dashed off to measure herself.

“I think I got taller,” Liu Wen admitted nervously after a while, returning to Ma Yi. Originally 170 centimeters tall, she had grown three centimeters—something she hadn’t thought possible, as she’d already finished developing years ago.

“Anything else?” Ma Yi asked, ignoring Liu Xue’s excited chatter.

“I think I’m a cup size larger,” Liu Wen replied, blushing and glancing at Ma Yi. “And I feel much stronger than before.” She raised her delicate fist in a symbolic gesture.

“Could it be… this fog is actually beneficial to humans?” Ma Yi mused, looking back and forth between Liu Wen, Liu Xue, and their mother. The three women now looked more like sisters than anything else. He nodded and told the sisters to stay inside while he went to check on Chen Yuanshan.

“Hey, you found out?” Chen Yuanshan greeted him. “On the second day of the fog, I had the worst diarrhea—nearly blacked out. Me, Chen Liang, Liu Jing, and the PR manager, all four of us had it for a whole day. You’d think there’d be nothing left inside, but we just kept passing out this black stuff.” Chen’s story was rather unpleasant, but Ma Yi listened closely. Judging by Chen’s appearance—his rosy lips and bright eyes—he looked even healthier than before the apocalypse, and visibly younger.

“And you know what? I’m much stronger than before. I can carry two fifty-pound sacks of rice by myself, and walking feels easier. My nephew and the PR manager, Xiao Hu, are the same. Only Liu Jing didn’t get much stronger, but she’s much faster—she can sprint like an athlete from TV, covering a hundred meters in eight or nine seconds. We were all shocked.” Chen Yuanshan took a sip of tea, clearly enjoying life now that food and drink were no longer a problem.

Ma Yi listened in silence. It seemed the fog was not only harmless, but actually highly beneficial to humans.

After visiting the other survivors in the neighborhood, Ma Yi drew some conclusions. If the first fog had brought the zombies, the second was clearly for the benefit of the surviving humans. It seemed to divide people into two types: those with increased strength, and those with enhanced speed—usually sharing the same bloodline. There was no need to classify further. As for those who hadn’t experienced diarrhea, they were simply ordinary, unevolved people; the fog had no side effects or benefits for them.

He didn’t know what percentage of people had evolved, but out of the twenty or thirty people here, about half had changed. Ma Yi guessed the evolution rate was about fifty percent—though he knew this was unusually high for their community; elsewhere, the rate was likely lower.

Relieved that the fog hadn’t harmed the sisters, Ma Yi hurried home to share the good news.

“My sister, my mother, and I have evolved?” Liu Xue was overjoyed, but when she glanced at Ma Yi, her excitement faltered—if she ended up looking like him, how could she face the world? She was caught between joy and worry.

“You can go out and get some exercise, adapt to your new bodies,” Ma Yi said. He led the sisters outside to run through the fog, chanting slogans. Their mother, Chen Fang, stayed home to keep her husband company. Perhaps the commotion drew attention, because soon Chen Yuanshan and the other evolved survivors joined them, trailing after Ma Yi for a group workout.