They spent the night at the gas station.
The next morning, Lu Yu woke before her. When Lin Wan opened her eyes, he was already sitting in a plastic chair, spreading everything from his backpack across the ground and reorganizing it.
She glanced at him.
There was fresh gauze wrapped around his left arm. She didn't know when he'd changed it. She had stood watch for the first half of the night, but when he took over for the second half, she'd fallen asleep.
“Your wound—”
“It’s fine. Let’s go.”
Again. Two words, and the door slammed shut.
Lin Wan didn't press him. She had learned to find answers in his silence—if he said he was fine, at least it meant he could still hold on. If he said nothing, that was when she really needed to worry.
They left the gas station and continued west along the highway.
The weather was strange today. The sun was out, but the light was gray, as if filtered through a veil. The cloying sweetness in the air was stronger than yesterday—not the kind that hit you in the face, but a stickiness that seeped into your skin and refused to wash away.
Lin Wan covered her nose and mouth with gauze and followed behind Lu Yu.
After walking for about three hours, they passed the entrance to a small town.
The town was small. One main street, two rows of low buildings, and an elementary school at the far end. The street was deserted, with broken glass and overturned trash cans scattered across the ground. A small truck sat crookedly by the roadside, its door hanging wide open. No one was in the driver's seat.
Lu Yu stopped.
His body tensed slightly. It wasn't the kind of tension he showed when they encountered mutated entities—then, he would put his arm across her and his entire body would look like a bow pulled taut. This tension was different. More subtle. As if he were on guard against something he hadn't identified yet.
“What is it?” Lin Wan asked softly.
He didn't answer.
His gaze swept over the buildings on both sides of the street before stopping on one in the middle of the main road. It was a grocery store, its metal shutter pulled halfway down. Several plastic crates sat outside the entrance.
The crates were new.
Not the faded old kind, bleached by wind and sun. These were clean, intact, and had only recently been placed there.
“Someone’s here,” Lu Yu said.
Lin Wan’s heart began to race.
Since the apocalypse began, apart from that mutated entity, they hadn't encountered anyone else. She had almost forgotten that other people existed.
“Survivors?”
“Not sure.”
He turned to look at her.
“Stay here.”
“What—”
“Stay here. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound.”
His tone wasn't a suggestion. It was an order.
Lin Wan wanted to argue, but something in his eyes made her swallow the words. There was something in that look she rarely saw—not concern, but a sharper emotion.
Fear.
But he wasn't afraid of that man.
He was afraid that man would see her.
Lu Yu set his backpack at her feet, took only his folding knife, and headed toward the grocery store along the shadows at the edge of the street.
Lin Wan crouched behind an overturned motorcycle and watched his back.
His gait was different from usual. Lighter. Slower. Every footfall was calculated, landing without making a sound.
This wasn't the way an ordinary person walked.
She had noticed it before. But every time the thought surfaced, something else interrupted her—his wounds, his silence, the occasional tenderness he let show. Those things covered up her questions and let her choose not to think about them.
But now, watching him silently approach the building like a cheetah, she couldn't avoid the thought any longer.
Who was Lu Yu, really?
Lu Yu reached the grocery store and pressed himself sideways against the wall, peering inside through the gap in the metal shutter.
He waited for several seconds.
Then his shoulders relaxed a little.
He straightened and pushed up the metal shutter. The scrape of metal echoed through the empty street.
“Come out,” he said.
Silence.
“I know you’re in there.”
Another few seconds of silence passed.
Then a voice came from inside the metal shutter.
“Don’t shoot.”
It was a man’s voice—hoarse and trembling.
“I don’t have a gun,” Lu Yu said.
Slowly, someone crawled out from beneath the metal shutter.
He was a man in his forties. Extremely thin, with prominent cheekbones and deeply sunken eye sockets. He wore a jacket so dirty its original color was impossible to make out, and there were two tears in the knees of his pants. His hair was a tangled mess, and he hadn't shaved in at least two weeks.
When he stood, his body swayed. He had to brace himself against the metal shutter to keep his balance.
“You… you’re a survivor?” the man asked, looking at Lu Yu. His eyes held a mixture of fear and hope.
Lu Yu didn't answer.
His gaze swept over the man from head to toe, as if checking for something.
“Alone?” Lu Yu asked.
“Yes. Just me.” The man's voice grew urgent. “I’ve been hiding here for almost two weeks. There’s still some stuff in the grocery store… canned food, water, some medicine. I never dared go outside. Those things out there—”
He shuddered.
“You’ve seen them?” Lu Yu asked.
“I have.” The man's face changed. “Three of them. They came from the east side of town. I hid inside and locked the door. They circled outside all night.” His voice began to shake. “That sound… that hissing… I thought I was going to die.”
Lu Yu showed no reaction after hearing him out.
“Which way did they go?”
“West. Three days ago.”
Lu Yu frowned slightly.
Lin Wan watched everything from behind the motorcycle. She couldn't make out every word they said, but she could see Lu Yu's expression.
He was thinking.
And he wasn't thinking like an ordinary survivor. He was assessing. Calculating. Fitting the information the man provided into some framework she couldn't see.
The man suddenly glanced behind Lu Yu.
“Are you alone?”
Lu Yu's body tensed almost instantly.
The change was extremely subtle. If Lin Wan hadn't spent the past few days observing him, she wouldn't have noticed. His shoulders lifted by less than an inch, the fingers of his right hand curled slightly, and his weight shifted from his left foot to his right.
It was the stance he took before making a move.
She had seen it before. He'd made the exact same movement just before that mutated entity charged them.
But the only person standing in front of him now was a thin, terrified middle-aged man.
“Yes. Alone,” Lu Yu said.
He was lying.
Crouched behind the motorcycle, Lin Wan's heart pounded.
He didn't want this man to know she existed.
Why?
If this was just an ordinary survivor, why hide her? Why, when he saw that man, had his first reaction not been, We have another companion now, but Don't let him see her?
The man seemed to relax.
“That’s great… I thought I’d never see another living person again.” His eyes reddened. “Where are you going? Is there somewhere safe? I heard there was something in the south—”
“What?” Lu Yu's tone suddenly changed.
It wasn't cold. It was sharp.
Startled by his tone, the man took half a step back.
“I… I only heard it. I picked up a radio on the road earlier and caught bits and pieces of some signal. Someone said there was a shelter in the south, one run by the military, specifically for taking in survivors—”
“What frequency was the signal?”
“I don’t know… I don’t understand that stuff. The radio ran out of power later anyway.”
Lu Yu fell silent.
His expression didn't change, but Lin Wan saw his right hand slowly relax.
He knew something.
About that shelter, the military, and the south—he knew something.
Lin Wan's fingernails dug into her palm.
“You can come with me,” the man said. “Two people are safer than one. I know where there are supplies around here. I can—”
“No.”
Lu Yu's refusal was as clean as a knife slicing through something.
The man froze.
“I… I’m not a bad person. I’m just—”
“I know.” Lu Yu's tone softened slightly, but there was still no room for negotiation. “Go south. Follow the highway all the way. Don’t take the back roads. Travel during the day and find somewhere to hide before dark. Those things are more active at night.”
He paused.
“Take as many supplies from the grocery store as you can carry.”
The man opened and closed his mouth, as if he still wanted to say something. But Lu Yu had already turned away.
When he came back, his steps were faster than when he had gone.
Lin Wan stood up.
He walked over to her, picked up the backpack on the ground, and handed it to her.
“Let’s go.”
“Wait.”
He stopped.
Lin Wan looked into his eyes.
“Why didn’t you let him know I was here?”
Lu Yu's expression didn't change.
“Not everyone is worth trusting.”
“He was just an ordinary person.”
“How do you know?”
Lin Wan was left speechless.
She didn't know. She had simply seen a thin, frightened, lonely man and instinctively decided he wasn't a threat. But Lu Yu had clearly seen something else.
“Even if he is an ordinary person,” Lu Yu said. His tone was calm, but every word carried weight. “If he knows you exist, that’s one more variable. He could be captured and interrogated, or he could decide to trade you for something. Anything is possible.”
“Trade me for what?”
Lu Yu didn't answer.
His silence unsettled her more than any answer could have.
“The shelter you mentioned.” Lin Wan changed the question. “Do you know about it?”
He glanced at her.
It was a very brief glance.
Then he turned and started walking toward the edge of town.
“Let’s go. We can’t stay here long.”
Lin Wan stood where she was, watching his back.
Wind swept in from the end of the street, stirring up gray dust and scraps of paper. In the distance, the grocery store's metal shutter swayed gently in the breeze, giving off a low metallic groan.
She thought of the man's face—that expression blending fear and hope. When he said, “That’s great. I thought I’d never see another living person again,” the tremor in his voice had been real.
And Lu Yu had told him he was alone.
He had hidden her.
Like a secret no one else could know about.
Lin Wan took a deep breath and followed his footsteps.
They didn't speak again.
After leaving the town, the land on both sides of the highway opened into wide stretches of wasteland. Weeds grew to knee height, rolling in the wind like a sea of dead yellow grass.
Lin Wan walked behind him, her thoughts spinning.
He knew about the shelter. He knew about the military. He knew the behavioral patterns of the mutated entities. He knew where there would be a supply point within five days. He walked without making a sound. His first reaction upon seeing a stranger was to hide her.
These fragments had been scattered throughout her memory, and she had never put them together.
Not because she couldn't. Because she didn't dare.
Because once she did, she would have to face a possibility she didn't want to face—
He hadn't saved her by chance.
He had known exactly what he was doing from the beginning.
The thought was like a needle lodged somewhere in her chest. It didn't hurt much. But it was always there.
She quickened her pace and moved up beside him.
“Lu Yu.”
“Yeah.”
“Were you… in the military?”
His pace didn't change.
About five seconds of silence passed.
“Why do you ask?”
“You walk without making a sound. You know when those things are active. When you see someone, your first reaction is to assess the threat.” She paused. “Ordinary people don’t act like that.”
Lu Yu didn't look at her.
His eyes remained fixed on the road ahead.
“What difference does it make if you know?”
It wasn't a rhetorical question. He genuinely wanted to know.
Lin Wan thought for a moment.
“None,” she said. “I just want to know who you are.”
The wind swept across the wasteland, sending waves through the grass.
Lu Yu walked for a long time, so long that Lin Wan thought he wouldn't answer.
Then he said:
“I was.”
Three words.
Lin Wan's heart skipped a beat.
Not because of the answer itself. Because he had answered.
Since they met, this was the first time he had given her a direct answer about his past. Not “It doesn't matter,” not silence, not another door slammed shut.
He had pushed the door open a crack.
A very narrow one.
But she had seen the light inside.
“When did you leave?” she asked, keeping her voice as calm as possible, afraid she might scare him off.
“A long time ago.”
“Why did you leave?”
Silence.
The door closed again.
Lin Wan didn't ask anything else.
She was already satisfied.
They continued walking. The sun slowly drifted west, and their shadows lengthened across the wild grass.
After about an hour, Lu Yu suddenly stopped.
He tilted his head, as if listening for something.
Lin Wan stopped too and held her breath.
The wind. The rustling of the grass. The dull thud of something collapsing in the distance.
Then she heard it.
Far away, there was a low, continuous hum. Not an insect. Not the wind. It was the sound of machinery.
Like an engine.
Lu Yu's expression changed.
Not fear. Not vigilance.
It was an expression she had never seen on his face before.
Complicated. Conflicted. As if he were being torn between two completely opposite thoughts.
“What is that?” Lin Wan asked.
He didn't answer.
He stood in the middle of the wild grass, staring toward the source of the sound. The setting sun fell across his face, gilding his features.
His lips moved.
Lin Wan couldn't make out what he said.
But she thought the word sounded like a name.
Or a code name.
The wind scattered the sound.
Lu Yu turned to look at her.
His eyes were different from usual. Normally, when he looked at her, his gaze was steady and restrained, carrying a warmth she couldn't quite describe. But now there was something else in his eyes.
Guilt.
Only for an instant.
Then he looked away.
“Let’s go,” he said, his voice low. “We need to find somewhere before dark.”
He turned and continued walking.
Lin Wan remained where she was, watching his back.
The setting sun stretched his shadow long and long, all the way to her feet.
She looked down at it.
Then she lifted her foot and stepped onto it.
As if afraid it would disappear.
She caught up with him.
Their shadows overlapped on the wild grass, moving together with their footsteps.
Lin Wan looked at the two intertwined shadows, and a powerful feeling suddenly surged through her.
It wasn't unease. It wasn't fear.
It was a premonition.
She felt that something was drawing near.
Not a mutated entity. Not danger.
A truth she would have to face sooner or later.
And that truth would change everything.
She didn't know whether she was ready.
But she knew one thing.
Whatever that truth was—
She would never let go of his shadow.