Chapter 694: Sudden Collapse
"Brother Zhang, where is Fan Tangtang? Can I go find him to play?"
Bai Yifan had just stood up when he saw Zhang Yiming coming in with a tray.
The tray was filled with washed peaches, bright and enticing, both large and red.
The fresh fragrance of peaches filled the room, diluting the original musty smell of decay.
"He’s in the room inside."
Zhang Yiming, wearing white gloves, handed a peach to Bai Yifan and nodded toward a room with his chin.
The smile on his face remained unchanged.
But Bai Yifan always felt that Brother Zhang was melancholic inside.
He had seen another world’s Brother Zhang looking sunny and bright, that world’s Brother Zhang truly was sunshine from the heart!
It was apparent that the Brother Zhang in front of him was not truly happy.
In fact, there is no such thing as true happiness.
Until the zombie antidote was developed, Brother Zhang probably would never truly be happy.
"Thank you, Brother Zhang! But can I take two?"
Bai Yifan took the peach Zhang Yiming handed him and blinked.
Of course, he also had to bring one for Fan Tangtang.
"Here you go."
Zhang Yiming smiled and took out another large, red peach and handed it to Bai Yifan.
Bai Yifan took the peach, tilted his head, and looked at Zhang Yiming, feeling that the sensation of staying with Brother Zhang had changed.
Clearly, Brother Zhang was still the same Brother Zhang from before, but he always felt a faint sense of gloom, similar to how it felt being with that future Brother Zhang.
That thought only lasted for a moment before Bai Yifan dismissed it.
After all, they’re the same Brother Zhang, one from the future, one from the present, and such feelings are unreliable; maybe it’s just an illusion!
Holding the two peaches, Bai Yifan hopped towards the room where Fan Tangtang was.
The door was closed. After Bai Yifan entered, Fan Liping followed him inside.
Fan Tangtang was sitting on the bed, looking confused, his hair messy, with a slightly disheveled quilt.
He looked as if he had just woken up.
"Tangtang, are you awake?"
Bai Yifan handed Fan Tangtang a peach, then sat on the edge of the bed and started munching on his peach.
The red peach was crisp in bite; not as good as those in space, yet it had another kind of flavor.
"Huh? ... Okay."
Fan Tangtang, puzzled, took the peach from Bai Yifan’s hand and carefully took a bite, not daring to look towards the living room.
If Bai Yifan were to observe Fan Tangtang closely, he would see his small body trembling slightly.
This was due to the fear from the brainwaves that Bai Yifan could not perceive.
Zombies don’t need sleep, so Fan Tangtang naturally had not just woken up.
He had been "shocked" by Zhang Yiming’s brainwaves and just regained consciousness.
"How is it, is it good?"
Seeing Fan Tangtang munching on the peach contentedly, Bai Yifan casually asked.
After all, he didn’t know what else zombies liked to eat besides flesh.
However, the Zombie King he met, Zhang Yiming and Fan Tangtang seemed to eat everything; just didn’t know if they liked it.
"...It’s good."
Fan Tangtang nodded vaguely, continuing to munch on the peach.
Fan Liping gently held Fan Tangtang’s arm, fearing he might suddenly say something inappropriate.
In Zhang Yiming’s presence, he naturally couldn’t tell the Bai Family about how "ferocious" Zhang Yiming had been these two days.
In reality, Fan Liping was overthinking it; Fan Tangtang dared not say much at all.
"Good?" Bai Yifan paused, looked at the peach in his hand, and muttered to himself, "If all the zombies liked peaches, Old Tao from Taovillage would become the wealthiest among zombies!"
If that were the case, zombies wouldn’t seem so terrifying to humans, merely having the effect of scaring little children.
Fan Tangtang blinked obediently and kept silent.
The entire village was enveloped by Zhang Yiming’s oppressive brainwaves, cold, fierce, bloodthirsty, ferocious.
This cruel mood made it impossible for Fan Tangtang to be lively; even when Bai Xiqin arrived, he dared not go over to join the fun.
Daring not to mention the idea of having Bai Xiqin kill Brother Zhang~
Fan Liping, watching the carefree Bai Yifan munching on peaches, breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Only the Bai Family could behave so casually in front of Zhang Yiming.
And only in front of the Bai Family would Zhang Yiming show a smile.
Most of the time, Zhang Yiming’s face bore no smile, his cold demeanor appearing even colder than Leng Yebai’s by threefold.
"By the way, Tangtang, where are your grandpa, Xiao Song Zombie, and your mom?"
Bai Yifan suddenly remembered something, looking around as he spoke.
He hadn’t seen the Xiao Song Zombie, Grandpa Fan, or even Zhang Yiming’s henchman, the zombie in a suit.
"They... busy."
Fan Tangtang paused under Fan Liping’s gaze and Zhang Yiming’s brainwave interference, nervously uttering just three words.
Daring not to speak nonsense.
"Alright!"
Bai Yifan only asked one question and thought nothing more, continuing to happily munch on his peach.
What Bai Yifan didn’t know was that on the second floor of this villa, some zombies full of festering flesh lay scattered.
Among them were Grandpa Fan, Xiao Song Zombie, and Zhang Yiming’s subordinates, including the zombie in a suit.
They had not yet regained consciousness.
Among them, a figure wearing casual clothes trembled as he crouched, covering his head in the middle of the zombie pile, looking incredibly woeful.
This was the owner of this countryside courtyard, Zombie King Li Mucheng.
He was fortunate to survive at Zhang Yiming’s hands, submitting to him and becoming one of his subordinates.
These past two days, the fluctuations from Zhang Yiming’s brainwaves struck him hard.
He wished he could jab a finger into his own temple to remove the crystal core from his brain.
Compared to Fan Tangtang, his ability to endure was much lower.
After the Bai Family arrived, Zhang Yiming toned down his brainwaves significantly, and Fan Tangtang had regained his senses. Without careful observation, one wouldn’t notice anything unusual about Fan Tangtang.
However, Zombie King Li Mucheng had not yet recovered, hugging his head while squatting on the ground, trembling.
Fan Tangtang’s mom, Hu Meiling, was unaffected by the brainwaves. At this moment, she was holding a pitch-black rag, cleaning a room upstairs.
The white walls of the room were smeared with black blood, which upon closer inspection, had been pounded out with fists.
Accompanying the black blood were slight cracks in the wall, occasionally revealing the bricks beneath.
The entire room was a chaotic mess, with traces of hand-pummeling everywhere and black blood splattered within.
The black blood, though not decayed in odor, was rich black, denoting it unmistakably as zombie blood.
Hu Meiling sighed, continuing to tidy the room.
These were all traces Zhang Yiming had left.
He seemed to have suddenly gone mad.
She and her husband had heard banging sounds coming from upstairs, accompanied by a suppressed... crying.
Despite his severe "breakdown," just a minute before the Bai Family’s arrival, he had changed clothes, put on gloves to cover his battered hands.
He had reattached a smile to his face, leaving only the instruction for her to clean the room before welcoming the Bai Family.
To be truthful, Hu Meiling was still quite puzzled.
Although Zhang Yiming had long accepted his identity as a zombie and seemed quite restrained, why did he collapse so suddenly?
Hu Meiling didn’t know why Zhang Yiming collapsed, but she did understand that once the Bai Family arrived, Zhang Yiming would surely return to normal.