After laughing, Ye Minzhe pressed his forehead against hers. "I'm a hot-blooded teenager. I'm with the girl I love, so it would definitely become hard."
Song Jia took a step away from Ye Minzhe, breaking out of his embrace in embarrassment.
"Pervert."
Ye Minzhe curled the corners of his lips and easily agreed, "En. But I'm only perverted to Jia."
Song Jia took another step back. There was something scary about a person that joyfully accepted insults. Was this brat actually a closet M?
"Ye Minzhe." She opened her mouth and gestured towards the bed. "Let's talk about life."
The two of them sat cross-legged on her bed, facing each other. Ye Minzhe grabbed one of the pillows and tucked it under his chin, gazing at Song Jia with bright eyes.
"Does Jia want to talk about our future life?" He adjusted his position, making sure the pillow covered his lower body.
Song Jia flicked his forehead. "Can you get your mind out of the gutter? Ye Minzhe, I want to ask you something. Since when did you start liking me?"
Ye Minzhe tilted his head, the sweep of his eyelashes casting shadows in the dim lighting.
"Since when did I start liking Jia? That's easy. After I splashed Jia with mop water and our eyes met."
Song Jia, "..."
Did the mop water put a heart filter on her? It wasn't a very romantic scene. She recalled that her hair was a mess and even her make-up had ran down her face at that time.
Besides, didn't he warn her not to fall in love with him? How could he change his mind so quickly?
"Ye Minzhe, do you know how ridiculous that is? If what you said was true, then it had been only a few days ago. This isn't even long enough for infatuation to set. And now, you're planning to marry me. Think about it. Didn't you use to hate me?"
"Maybe I loved Jia at first sight."
Song Jia's expression turned serious.
"Ye Minzhe, don't use that word casually. Besides, we've met months ago. If it was truly love at first sight, shouldn't you have liked me instead of hating me?"
Seeing that he had turned silent, Song Jia pressed on, "Ye Minzhe, I think you probably don't like me. At least consider it properly, don't talk about marriage or anything else first."
"Jia, I don't know either, but it's true that I like you!"
Ye Minzhe finally opened his mouth, his eyebrows were deeply knitted, and his gaze was deep yet complicated. He reached out to grab her wrist.
"I don't know either, don't ask me. But I like you...want you, need you, love you, whatever it is! That's what I feel!"
His lips had flattened into a thin line, and his expression was earnest. "Jia, look..."
He removed the pillow and showed her his restless body. "When I'm with you, I can't think of anything else but becoming one with you."
Song Jia blanched. She grabbed a pillow and whacked him.
"Ye Minzhe, you pervert!"
She threw away the pillow and stormed out of the room. She should have known better than to have a heart-to-heart talk with a patient afflicted with BT disease!
Ye Minzhe felt deeply wronged. In fact, he only wanted to tell her that not only was he going crazy in his heart, his body was going crazy too. He wanted to erase all distance between them, from joining their souls through marriage, to joining their bodies through love-making.
"But it's true that I didn't like Jia before..."
Rolling over, Ye Minzhe let his arms and legs splay across the large and empty bed. His head of black curls was carelessly tousled by the movement, and as he looked at the ceiling, he suddenly covered his mouth with his hand and laughed.
"I actually confessed to Jia..."
...
Inside the Ye estate, a teenager was slowly tasting the spring of his youth.
But in the outside world, a global mass hysteria started to spread.
The mode of transmission for the zombie virus was so fast that in only a few days, several cities were directly announced to be a lost cause. The incubation of the virus was also short, since after a healthy person was infected, it would only take a few minutes for them to transform into a zombie.
The virus moved faster than the scientists could respond and contain it. It could also mutate rapidly, which meant that even if a vaccine was to be created, once the virus mutated again, the vaccine would no longer be useful.
Governments from different countries began to issue emergency broadcasts and alerts, trying to save as many people as possible. The more they saved, the less zombies there would be. However, there were also governments that tried to evade economically devastating publicity by hiding the facts.
The people could also no longer be easily controlled, and the worst-case scenario had finally happened.
Laws and policies began to break down, as people started prioritizing self-interest above all else. Misinformation, deception, crime in the pursuit of self-protection, and outright murder happened regularly. Protests and massive rallies began to take place.
In less than a month, it became a lawless world.
"Dad, how could our company go bankrupt? That's impossible!"
Ding Xiuxiu leaned against the wall, her expression filled with disbelief as she listened to the person on the other side of the phone.
"Didn't you say you already transferred all our assets on a private island? How could Assistant Yun betray you?"
It was not only Ding Xiuxiu who was having the same problem. In fact, she was the last one to receive this type of bad news. Nearly all of their classmates had received reports of their families sinking into poverty one after another.
Most of them had decided to take the risk and go back to their families, while some decided that staying at the Ye estate was their best choice. Of course, the Ye family wasn't doing any better. But because they had too many assets, there were still several left for Papa Ye to be able to take it easy.
Besides, he had one foot in the underworld. Even if his wealth was slowly being drained, there was still his private stash of illegal weapons and loyal gangster brothers, no?
Ye Minzhe also quickly proved his capability, personally overseeing that the Ye estate was being fortified as much as possible. They had already stocked up enough food to last them for three years, and installed solar panels for electricity. Guards patrolled around the clock, while CCTVs were being installed everywhere.
Sometimes Ye Minzhe would fly a drone and observe the chaos outside, while also taking the chance to study the zombies more carefully.
Sometimes, that drone would also follow Song Jia, hanging in mid-air outside the window of her room. Of course, after an incident with a flying shoe, it didn't follow her anymore.
Ever since he 'confessed,' Ye Minzhe decided to take things one step further and directly pursued Song Jia, regardless of what the people around them thought.