Chapter Twenty-Six: Son-in-law Ma Yi

Ever since Ru Hua began helping out, Ma Yi’s days had become much easier. He no longer worried about food, nor about the evolved beasts lurking nearby. In his leisure hours, he kept his hands to himself around Ru Hua. Sometimes, he spent his free time with his wives, sometimes he threw himself into the study of martial skills. Life, for Ma Yi, was abundant and comfortable.

“Brother-in-law, look at me! Quick, look!” Liu Xue spun Ma Yi’s spear in her hands. She wielded it with a certain heroic flair, though she treated the spear more like a staff, twirling it in circles, which made Ma Yi chuckle. He had brought the spear back for Liu Xue from their old shelter.

“Not bad, you’ve improved since yesterday,” Ma Yi praised without so much as blushing or catching his breath. The little girl, having heard from her sister that Ma Yi was skilled with the spear, had pestered him endlessly to teach her. Yet as soon as he began, she treated it all as a game.

“Sis, did you hear that? Brother-in-law praised me!” Liu Xue, leaving the spear planted in the garden, ran over to Liu Wen, hugging her slender waist and whining playfully, forcing Liu Wen to put down her book with a helpless smile.

Ma Yi’s eyelid twitched. So, in Liu Xue’s hands, the spearhead was just for sticking into the ground? Oh well, he’d given it to her to use as she pleased. Whether she cherished it or not was up to her; he didn’t need it anymore.

Liu Wen smoothed Liu Xue’s messy hair, her slender fingers pressing gently to her sister’s forehead. “You, you treat your brother-in-law’s treasured spear like a firewood stick, not cherishing it at all.”

She spoke carelessly, but Ma Yi, listening nearby, found the remark oddly unsettling.

“Hehe, all right, all right, I’ll be careful with it next time.” Liu Xue skipped back, pulling the spear from the ground and actually found a rag to start wiping it clean.

Outside the house, near the parking lot, a silver-white zombie was leading over a dozen bronze-hued zombies in practicing some of the combat techniques Ma Yi had developed. On seeing Ma Yi approach, this zombie—whom Ma Yi called Fatty Two—redoubled his efforts, regarding Ma Yi with equal parts respect and fear. They had all been local tyrants; it took a thorough beating from Ma Yi to put them in their place. Now, Fatty Two obediently trained his new underlings.

Ru Hua was sunbathing atop an off-road vehicle, the increasingly hot weather seemingly perfect for her. Sensing Ma Yi’s approach, she leapt down and clung to his arm. She now wore clothes as Ma Yi instructed, no longer running about half-naked in rags, though she was still getting used to it. Still, she did as Ma Yi wished—if she obeyed him, he was pleased. She had no idea why Ma Yi liked those long, thin black stockings so much—they were so sheer and tight—but if Ma Yi liked them, then so did she.

The tendrils on Ru Hua’s head had grown to half a meter, her once silvery skin now darkening with a luminous golden sheen. She’d grown much stronger in recent days; Fatty Two, after all, was her catch, though it was Ma Yi who tamed him.

Ru Hua nuzzled Ma Yi affectionately. Her favorite pastime now was basking in the sun with him—she nestled by his side, quietly watching the big zombies practice, gazing at the distant fields, or simply watching the clouds drift by.

Sitting atop a crushed convertible, Ma Yi closed his eyes, letting the sun burn down on him. Rather than feeling uncomfortable, he found it oddly pleasant. His skin had slowly darkened—not from sunburn, but from growing stronger.

“Ant Bro is sunbathing again.” Chen Yuanshan and Chen Liang hopped down from a pickup truck. Now that there were hardly any stray zombies in P City, they’d grown much bolder under Ma Yi’s watch, often scavenging for supplies or hunting down lone zombies.

Ma Yi had told them to just call him by name, but perhaps feeling it too disrespectful, they started calling him “Brother Ma Yi,” which morphed into “Ant Bro.” Ma Yi didn’t mind, so now everyone called him that.

Recently, more than thirty new survivors had arrived in the villa district—all rescued by Chen Yuanshan while foraging. There were men, women, and even children. The villa community now housed close to a hundred survivors. As long as they kept the peace, Ma Yi would shelter them for a lifetime if need be.

The newcomers were all deeply wary of Ma Yi, keeping their distance whenever possible. They all knew his identity—he was a corpse king.

“Looks like you’ve found a lot,” Ma Yi said, glancing at the supplies piled in the pickup. Behind it, a truck carried several strong men—evolved humans.

“It’s all thanks to you. Ever since you consolidated the city’s zombies, all we do is go out and haul supplies back.” Chen Yuanshan offered him a cigarette.

“Don’t get careless. There could still be stray ones hiding out there.” Ma Yi took a drag, his gaze flicking toward the nervous survivors.

“All right, we’ll get going then.” Chen Yuanshan nodded, old and shrewd, well aware that caution was the key to survival.

Ma Yi waved them off, and the two men drove away.

Life, he mused, was nothing if not dramatic. People he’d never even met in his old life now bowed before him.

He now commanded four powerful subordinates—Iron Pillar, Hammer, Fatty, and Swiftwind—all on the verge of their third evolution. While Fatty Two was the only doubly evolved zombie in the villa district, there were plenty more out training elsewhere. As for the singly evolved J-class and S-class zombies, there were dozens lurking beneath the villa district.

Once a lonely nobody, now he needed only to nod and the two charming managers rescued by Chen Yuanshan would come running. What more could a man want?

But a sense of crisis never left Ma Yi. He was sure something major was coming.

Ru Hua cuddled closer, sensing his unease. She didn’t know what he was thinking, but his brooding made her restless; seeing him unhappy unsettled her too.

Ma Yi snapped out of it and lifted Ru Hua’s chin. For all her exquisite features, what was the point? Would future zombies possess wisdom? Understand beauty or ugliness? He’d only met Ru Hua by chance; her beauty surely wasn’t meant for him. Then why was she like this?

He laughed at himself—how sentimental he’d become. Perhaps when things settled down, or he grew stronger, he should travel and see the world.

Seeing him smile, Ru Hua flicked her long tongue across his face. The icy touch cleared his mind. He leaned back into the car, basking in the sun—there was little else he could do now.

Ru Hua lay across him, a serene smile on her delicate face.

With the zombies of P City wiped out, the survivors had a chance to breathe. P City was mostly light industry, one of the nation’s top hundred county-level cities, situated on the plains but not a major grain producer. After Chen Yuanshan looted the granaries, little food was left.

What supplies did remain allowed the undiscovered survivors to eke out an existence, but not for long.

Then, human ingenuity came into play. In some households, the elderly would occasionally switch on an old radio and, to their astonishment, picked up a local broadcast: there was a survivor enclave in Y City, with clean water and ample food. The news spread like wildfire among the survivors.

Some preferred to stay, fearing what horrors might await outside. But most were tempted; Y City was just over a hundred kilometers away. But to get there, they’d have to cross S City. If luck was on their side and Iron Pillar’s zombie army had passed through, S City might be mostly cleared. If not, they would face over two million zombies blocking their way.

The enclave’s message circulated among the survivors. They waited for someone to take the lead toward Y City, confident that in a group, they’d be lucky enough to make it. Few considered that they themselves might be the ones lost along the way.

June’s sun was scorching and blinding. In a flash, Ma Yi had already spent half a year in the apocalypse.

Liu Wen paced in denim shorts, her long legs often swaying past Ma Yi’s view. Her white camisole revealed a generous figure, and she seemed riper than ever—always presenting herself as if for the picking. It made Ma Yi’s head buzz.

Liu Xue had shot up as well, now standing a full 1.75 meters. The sisters dressed alike, but compared to Liu Wen’s fair skin, Liu Xue was wilder, tanned from spending more time outside. Liu Wen teased her about it, and Liu Xue would blame Ma Yi, saying it was his fault for making her train under the sun.

Their mother, Chen Fang, was another story—she looked not a day over forty, her figure no less impressive than Liu Wen’s, and even more robust above the waist. Ma Yi found himself envying his idle father-in-law; fortunately, Liu Wen would become like this one day.

Lately, Ma Yi felt he was close to a breakthrough, but couldn’t quite grasp it. Ru Hua, now blazing gold in both presence and power, had surpassed him, despite Ma Yi having eaten several times more beast-king meat than she had. Yet he still couldn’t break through—the yellow tint in his darkened skin neither spreading nor fading away.

He could tell his strength had grown, but he couldn’t cross that threshold. Ru Hua had promised that once he did, his power would soar, just as hers had doubled since her silver days. For now, all he could do was find a little comfort in her dazzling golden form.

“Brother-in-law, go change the pool water. Every time you bathe, it turns black,” Liu Xue ordered, hands on her hips, glaring at the daydreaming Ma Yi like a haughty princess. Last time, when Ma Yi forgot her request, Liu Xue monopolized Liu Wen for over a week in retaliation.

“All right, I’ll do it.” Ma Yi smiled ruefully, recalling how he and Liu Wen had played in the pool last night, tiring her out until her arms went numb. Now, who knew what little creatures might be swimming in there? If he didn’t clean it, and Liu Xue somehow ended up becoming a mother, that would be awkward—though Ma Yi still wasn’t sure if he was even capable of fathering children, given how much his body had changed.

He obediently drained the pool and scrubbed its walls, the cold groundwater making him shiver. Liu Xue, laughing, attacked him with the hose, and their playful quarrel filled the air with joy.

Liu Wen sat beneath the awning, watching the two with a gentle smile. She wondered if, had she chosen not to stay with this man, life would have been different. She’d seen the survivors who came here—men got by, but women were treated like communal property: humble, numb. Even evolved women fared only slightly better, as men continued to dominate. In the face of absolute power, dignity was a fragile thing. She recalled the days of peace, when women fought for equality—yet, when disaster struck, it was men who had to step up.

Ru Hua entered from outside. A month ago, Liu Wen had decided that Ma Yi should bring Ru Hua over to live with them. After so much time together, they’d grown familiar, and though they lived just twenty meters apart, it always felt like two separate families. Liu Wen’s parents took Ma Yi’s unusual circumstances in stride, having witnessed what the other survivors had endured.

Chen Fang, Liu Wen’s mother, was direct: “Ma Yi, as long as you truly love Wenwen, nothing else matters to me.”

“Auntie, don’t worry. I may not be much, but I always keep my word. I promised that Liu Wen is the woman I love most, and no matter who else comes along in the future, I’ll still love her and never let her suffer,” Ma Yi vowed.

“And don’t call me Auntie anymore. You’ve been with Wenwen for so long, and there’s no marriage registry now. Just call me Mom,” Chen Fang replied, her eyes serene and all-knowing.

“All right, Mom, you can rest easy,” Ma Yi said with a broad smile. He had finally, truly become a part of this family, accepted as the Liu family’s son-in-law.