Chapter 8: The Thoughtful Fan

“Stinky… fine then.”

Zheng Xinyu pouted, feeling it was a bit excessive to ask for washing in a time of water shortage, but she really wanted to clean up—right now, for instance, she hadn’t rinsed her mouth after waking up, only swallowed a sip of water, and the sticky, gummy feeling was awful.

“Oh!” Just as Zheng Xinyu was struggling with the thought, she suddenly remembered she had mouthwash!

She skipped back to her room, rummaged through the courier packages sent by fans, and pulled out two large bottles of mouthwash, presenting them to Zhang Su like a treasure.

“Once, during a live stream playing a game, I got ambushed, so I went all out with massive damage—I didn’t realize the guy who ambushed me was also watching the stream. He said my breath was too, too stinky, so he mailed me two bottles of mouthwash.”

Talking about her own embarrassment, the tense, fearful atmosphere eased considerably, and she unconsciously flashed a shy smile.

Zhang Su smirked at Zheng Xinyu: “Aren’t you supposed to be the cute, innocent girl persona?”

As he spoke, he took the mouthwash and examined it—peach flavor, fifteen hundred milliliters per bottle—truly huge bottles, enough to last a long time!

“Come on, you know that’s just a persona, not the real me. Seriously, what a pain.”

Zheng Xinyu rolled her eyes, and Zhang Su could see the bloodshot veins in her sclera.

“By the way, what other cool stuff did your fans mail you? Anything useful right now?”

Zhang Su glanced curiously at the corner of Zheng Xinyu’s bedroom, piled high with courier boxes—by rough count, at least a dozen, big and small!

Zheng Xinyu made a weird face and shook her head: “Just weird stuff. If you’re curious, go through it—I doubt any of it’s useful.”

She vaguely remembered things like *Postpartum Care for Sows*, *Military Boxing*, a spoon as long as her arm, a masquerade mask, and a demon-slaying cross, among others.

There were some sensible items too, but she’d already eaten or used up all of those.

Zhang Su nodded seriously, thinking he should go through them when he had time—times had changed; things that seemed useless in daily life often proved unexpectedly valuable in critical moments.

With the mouthwash, they’d at least solved the bad breath problem; the slight oiliness on their faces would have to be endured.

Zhang Su walked back to the bedroom, picked up his phone, and saw there was still no signal. He returned to the living room, sat on the sofa, and glanced at Zheng Xinyu, who was staring blankly. “Hey, what’re you thinking about?”

Zheng Xinyu pointed toward the window. “Someone screamed for help again—sounds like it came from the neighboring unit, really close to us…”

“The louder you scream, the faster you die… They’ll be surrounded by zombies soon enough!”

Zhang Su rolled his eyes, thinking some people just didn’t get the situation.

Zheng Xinyu pouted. “I really wish none of this were real. I was just slurping noodles, and you walked out of the bedroom and scolded me—I rushed to pack up. That kind of day would’ve been so nice.”

“Yeah, so nice.”

Zhang Su looked up at the ceiling. “I still feel like this is all a dream—unreal.”

“Pfft…”

Zheng Xinyu suddenly let out a light laugh.

Zhang Su, puzzled by Zheng Xinyu’s odd behavior, asked: “How can you still laugh? What’re you thinking about now?”

“I was just thinking… Brother Su, if our landlord died in this catastrophe, wouldn’t this apartment just become ours? He’d better not dare raise the rent, hmph!”

At the end, she wrinkled her nose, silently cursing the landlord.

“Cough!”

Zhang Su was taken aback, glaring at Zheng Xinyu: “Keep cursing me like that, and I’ll spank you until your butt blooms!”

“Huh?”

Zheng Xinyu, lost in her wicked fantasy, froze at Zhang Su’s words. Her eyes widened as she stared at him, her mind racing—after about seven or eight seconds, she snapped back to reality and pointed at him in disbelief.

“You—you—you… don’t tell me you’re the landlord!”

Zhang Su sighed heavily, shrugged, bent down, and fumbled under the coffee table—sliding open a hidden drawer, he pulled out two red booklets.

“Eight years ago, when this complex was completed, I bought all the units outright. Back then, they were cheap—only three thousand per square meter. With renovation, I spent only four hundred thousand!”

He handed the certificates to Zheng Xinyu.

Zheng Xinyu’s lips parted slightly as she took the property deed, opened it, and saw Zhang Su’s name—undoubtedly real.

“You… this! So it was you who said I couldn’t eat durian in the room, and you who banned pets! You charged me 1.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour for electricity—you’re dead!”

In an instant, Zheng Xinyu recalled all the landlord’s demands she’d endured—and the fury of being tricked surged up. She raised her tiny fist and swung it at Zhang Su.

Zhang Su casually caught her fist, pulled her forward, and wrapped her in his arms. Seeing her face flush instantly, he expected her to scream and nodded toward the door. “Don’t yell!”

The torrent of curses died in her throat. Her already reddened cheeks turned even redder—she was embarrassed, furious, and frantic.

Feeling Zhang Su’s iron-strong arms, her heart pounded wildly. She gave up struggling—his embrace felt too safe.

As she stopped resisting, his grip loosened—and then she felt a smack on her rear.

Slap! Slap!

Zhang Su patted her butt, grumbling: “You’re heavy as a sack of bricks, and you just plopped on me—almost cracked my ribs. There’s no hospital around right now!”

“I…” Zheng Xinyu looked down at Zhang Su’s calm face, her anger boiling over. She yanked her oversized T-shirt back, revealing her figure, then pointed to her curves.

“One sixty-five, fifty-two kilos—open your dog eyes and look clearly!”

Zhang Su knew Zheng Xinyu had a good figure, but as he prepared to tease her further, he glanced up and his brow twitched: “Temperature’s dropping. Don’t wear just a T-shirt—put on something warmer.”

Hearing Zhang Su stretch out the “one,” Zheng Xinyu instantly understood. Her angry expression froze. She turned and dashed toward her room, moving quietly—her movements comically awkward.

Zhang Su sat alone in the living room. Once completely still, he could hear the shuffling footsteps of Zombie Li outside the door.

Scrape… scrape…

“This is a ticking bomb!”

Zhang Su thought. Keeping Zombie Li outside the door wasn’t sustainable—if something fell, he’d start pounding again.

One zombie pounding was manageable, but if others heard and came running, it’d be disastrous—the door wasn’t that strong!

“How do I solve this?”

Zhang Su pondered.

Then, in his mind, a line of ink-blotted text appeared.

【How to deal with the zombie outside: A. Capture alive, B. Kill, C. Lure away】

(PS: System online. But as the description said, it won’t be overpowered—no protagonist slaughtering a million zombies alone…)

(End of Chapter)