Chinese New Year (Spring Festival)

TLN: Chinese New Year = CNY

Today is Chinese New Year, Zhang Xiao Qiang’s first Chinese New Year since the apocalypse, a lonely Chinese New Year. Reminiscing back to when he was younger, everyone in the home would get up early to prepare Chinese New Year goods, Zhang Xiao Qiang would take a warm shower and put on new clothes, and see his parents prepare a big meal.

A rooster drained of blood was lying on the floor weakly kicking, scattered feathers were gently fluttering in the air. Mother had a bucket of hot water ready to scald the rooster. Zhang Xiao Qiang and his sister were looking on while nibbling on melon seeds.Mother raised it, grabbing it by its two legs, the chicken was just hanging upside down, blood dripping along the beak onto the ground, leaving a red trail. The whole rooster from the head to the legs were rotating clockwise, until it made a final effort to break free before finally dying, its wings fluttered in the pail, and some of the boiling water spilled out. Zhang Xiao Qiang and his sister screamed out and hid. Then mother scolded them, loudly reminding them not to dirty their new clothes.

On normal days, father’s solemness is hard to come by, never with a serious face. Carrying the plate of spring rolls that were wrapped yesterday, keeping it beside the pan while watching the heat, humming an off-key tune, letting Zhang Xiao Qiang and his sister sit nearby singing along. The people on the streets were also in a hurry to get home, wanting to get home a little earlier to spend CNY with their families.

When it was night, father took out a large red firecracker and hung it outside. Zhang Xiao Qiang was like a tail behind father’s back, following him around, his sister was hiding behind the door, covering her ears and looking out.

“crackle crackle”the fireworks started, the family of four sat together, the table had a variety of dishes, father poured himself a cup of rice wine and slowly sipped it. Mother was holding a rice bowl talking, about how they needed to get up early tomorrow to visit grandma. Zhang Xiao Qiang and his sister were eating the food in large mouthfuls, eyes looking at the table, darting between the dishes.

after the big meal, the parents cleared the table, zhang xiao qiang and his sister sat near the white charcoal fire, eating melon seeds looking out at the “cny night event”. Father was now sitting in the middle with a cup of tea, taking a sip from time to time, when Chen Pei Si appeared on the screen, zhang xiao qiang and his sister laughed heartily, the parents had smiles on their faces.

Thiking of the past, and of the current siatuion, a sadness filled his heart.

The apocalyptic CNY made Zhang Xiao Qiang feel great loneliness, looking at his phone by his pillow, he wished that someone would send him a happy CNY greetings text, even if it was just a 1008 telecommunication advertisement!!! The phone remained silent, feelings of despair started to grow, the growing loneliness was going to make him go crazy, he picked up the phone and threw it on the ground. [My dad’s not a phone!]

“pa da…”the phone hit the ground and split into 3 parts, the main body, the battery, and the back cover. It did a staggered bounce before falling back down and rolling to one side. Zhang Xiao Qiang held his head and sat on the edge of the bed, blankly staring at the phone!!!

Not knowing how long had past, his emotions started to stabilize, he picked up the bottle next to the computer and gave it a shake, watching the cockroach inside cheerfully running around, Zhang Xiao Qiangs mood started to improve again.

At least he was alive, at least he could stand here and leisurely toy with the cockroach, his luck was better than at least 90% of the worlds, and he could still breathe this air that probably wasn’t fresh.

“haha!!!!!!!” Zhang Xiao Qiang laughed at himself, he always thought he was an experienced recluse, never had any empathy, why did he suddenly feel all moody and melancholic at the end of the world?

It was CNY today, China’s most important event, why couldn’t he celebrate it himself?

And so he did, Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at his watch, it was almost noon, he started to get busy, he used the bottled water and started to boil it, he took the luxury of a bath, this was the first time he had a bath since the apocalypse. After being refreshed he put on some clean clothes, discarding the dirty water from the bath and entered the living room.

A bowl of boiled fish, a dish of pork braised in brown sauce, a bowl of steamed egg and a big bowl of cabbage soup.

Normally this would just be a simple meal, but in an apocalypse this was a luxurious dinner on the table. He placed 3 extra sets of utensils on the table, for his sister and parents, next to his father’s chopsticks was a glass filled with rice wine, he also poured a cup for himself of Great Wall Cabernet Sauvignon and slowly sipped.

He unconsciously finished a bottle of wine, the depression in his heart made him want to drink more. Picking up the bottle of rice wine, he started pouring it in his mouth. He drank half the bottle, his eyes were blurry and he felt like he had returned to the past, the whole family sitting around, mother was talking about some family gossip, with father ignoring all of it, but holding the cup and slowly swirling it, reaching for some food with his chopsticks to go with the wine, and his sister at the side asking for a new pair of shoes.

Zhang Xiao Qiang woke to an intense headache, he slowly got off his bed, the cold air made him feel chilly, the picked up a water bottle and finished it off, to deal with a night’s worth of dry mouth.

The leftovers from yesterday were heated in an microwave, and eaten for breakfast. He had too much liquor last night, his mouth was left with a bitter taste, he couldn’t taste what he was having for breakfast.

Following his routine of practicing thrusts, after completing his morning tasks he took a break. Taking out his MP9 military crossbow, he stood by the windowsill practicing his aim, 8 steel marbles have been used for this practice, but he was not willing to use the 6 arrows, because it would be hard to get back after shooting it. After dozens of attempts his aim was significantly better, at least he wasn’t just shooting towards the east all the time.

The MP9 sniper crossbow had its crosshairs trained at one of the agile type evolution zombies. The zombie was just loitering, his MP9 was slowly following the zombies movement. The zombie under his crosshair started moving, rushing over in a single direction.

“Was something happening?” Zhang Xiao Qiang put down the sniper crossbow, and picked up the 10x binoculars and looked through it. In the sights, he could see one zombie pounced on an agile zombie, then the normal zombies nearby also started to move towards them.

“Zombies were infighting???”Zhang Xiao Qiang held the binoculars in a daze! The binoculars pointed at the zombie being attacked.

This was a variation of the agile zombie type, it looked better than the normal agile zombie; it was more flexible, around 1.4 metres tall, significantly smaller than normal zombies. It bent back with quick movements and the other zombies couldn’t catch it. It was holding something in its two hands and eating it. At first Zhang Xiao Qiang couldn’t see what it was eating, it was only when it faced him did he see it, he could see a mouse tail exposed in its hand.

The mouse was not big, so the disturbance wasn’t long, after the mouse had been eaten, the zombies settled down.

Looking at the slightly stronger agile zombie return to the other side of the street, there was a row of old houses, there was a sewer in the corner, the mouse must have came out of there.

“so D Virus was only effective on human beings.” Zhang Xiao Qiang thought. He saw that agile zombie quietly waiting by the sewer, relating it to the strength type zombie that he killed a few days back.

“D virus in the rain landing on the flesh and blood of the zombies cause them evolve??” Zhang Xiao Qiang finally had some understanding of why they started to evolve.

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