Chapter 347 - The choice

Chapter 347: Chapter 347 - The choice

For several seconds, Yunfeng could only stare at the vial in Qiu Yue’s hand.

Then the meaning of what the doctor had just said finally sank in.

Someone could get bitten and survive.

His entire face lit up.

"Then give it to us."

Qiu Yue blinked. "What?"

"The serum." Yunfeng pointed at the vial. "Give it to everyone. Me, Muchen, Jai, Hana, my mother, all of us. If it can stop the infection, shouldn’t we take it beforehand? Then we won’t have to worry about getting bitten."

The thought alone made something loosen inside his chest. Ever since the apocalypse began, a single bite had been hanging over all of them like a death sentence. It didn’t matter how strong someone was or how many zombies they could kill. One mistake, one set of teeth breaking through the skin, and everything could end.

If Qiu Yue had found a way to remove that fear, Yunfeng wanted every person he cared about protected immediately.

But Qiu Yue’s excitement disappeared.

"No."

Yunfeng’s smile faded.

"No?"

"I can’t give this to all of you."

"Why?"

Footsteps sounded behind them before Qiu Yue could answer. Muchen had apparently given up on sleeping. He came down the stairs slowly, one hand holding the railing and the other resting beneath his belly. His hair was still messy, and the blanket Yunfeng had tucked around him earlier had been replaced by a robe thrown hastily over his sleep clothes.

"I heard something about a cure."

Yunfeng immediately stood. "Why are you out of bed?"

Muchen gave him a look.

"I’m pregnant, not bedridden."

He walked past Yunfeng and carefully lowered himself onto the sofa beside him. Yunfeng automatically reached over to support his back until he was comfortable, earning another irritated glance that he completely ignored.

Qiu Yue waited until they settled before holding up the vial again.

"The problem is that this isn’t a normal medicine. The substance I isolated came from that zombie’s mutation. Her ability suppressed powers. This serum does something similar."

Yunfeng frowned.

"Similar how?"

Qiu Yue’s gaze moved toward his hair.

Yunfeng noticed.

"What?"

"Your hair."

Yunfeng reached up instinctively.

Muchen leaned closer and immediately saw what the doctor was looking at.

There were thin streaks of white beginning to show at Yunfeng’s roots.

Muchen’s eyes widened. "Your hair is changing back."

Yunfeng quickly grabbed a section and pulled it forward, trying unsuccessfully to see the top of his own head. "Seriously?"

"Yes."

Qiu Yue nodded. "Which confirms what I suspected. The zombie girl’s ability was temporary. Whatever she did suppressed your power, but it didn’t destroy it. Your body is recovering on its own. I’d say your ability should return completely soon."

Yunfeng’s shoulders relaxed.

Muchen’s did too.

Neither of them had said much about it since yesterday, but Yunfeng knew Muchen had been worried. He had caught him staring at his black hair more than once, especially whenever Yunfeng wasn’t looking directly at him.

Yunfeng gave his knee a small squeeze.

"See? I’m fine."

Muchen slapped his hand away. "Let him finish."

Qiu Yue adjusted his glasses.

"The serum is different."

Something in his tone made Yunfeng’s smile disappear.

"Different?"

"The girl’s suppression disappeared because you were only exposed to her ability. This serum has been extracted and concentrated specifically to interfere with the infected cells. If someone with an ability takes it, there’s a very high chance the same process will affect the part of their body responsible for that ability."

Muchen’s hand slowly moved over his belly.

"You mean temporarily."

Qiu Yue shook his head.

"No."

The room became quiet.

"From everything I’ve seen so far, the effect would most likely be permanent."

Yunfeng stared at him.

Qiu Yue continued carefully, "If you take this serum after being bitten, it could save your life. But if you’re an ability user, you should assume that your power will be gone afterward. Completely."

Muchen’s fingers tightened over his stomach.

His first instinct was to look at Yunfeng.

Yunfeng understood that look immediately.

Muchen’s power had become part of how they survived. So had his. So had Jai’s, Hana’s, Yuki’s and Zei’s. In this world, losing an ability wasn’t some small side effect. It could mean losing the very thing that kept you alive the next time a horde came through.

"So what’s the actual use of the cure?" Muchen asked quietly. "If taking it beforehand means losing our powers, then what are we supposed to do with it?"

"As emergency medicine."

Qiu Yue placed the vial carefully on the table.

"That’s what this is right now. Nothing more."

He leaned forward.

"If someone gets bitten, we administer it before the infection progresses too far. For an ordinary person, there shouldn’t be any ability to lose in the first place. For someone with powers..."

"They choose," Yunfeng finished.

Qiu Yue nodded.

"Power or life."

Muchen looked down at his belly.

Yunfeng’s excitement from earlier slowly settled.

Of course it couldn’t be that easy.

For one brief, stupid moment, he had imagined Qiu Yue handing everyone a vial and the fear of infection simply disappearing. They could go outside without constantly worrying about a scratch or bite ending someone’s life.

He should have known better.

More importantly, this didn’t match what he remembered.

Yunfeng leaned back against the sofa, staring at the dark red serum on the table.

The cure from his future hadn’t appeared this early.

He didn’t remember exactly how many years it had taken, but he knew it had come much later, after humanity had already established colonies and research facilities. And that cure had been different. It could remove the infection without stripping ability users of their powers.

That was the cure that had eventually ended everything.

This wasn’t it.

Not yet.

Yunfeng glanced at Qiu Yue.

Still, calling what the man had created useless would be ridiculous.

His mother didn’t have powers.

Neither did Shinju.

There were plenty of ordinary survivors in the base, including the women and children they had rescued. For them, this serum could mean the difference between a bite being a death sentence and something they might actually survive.

Even for an ability user, Yunfeng knew what he would choose.

If Muchen were bitten tomorrow and the price of keeping him alive was taking away his ability, Yunfeng would inject the serum himself without hesitating.

Powers could be lost.

A life couldn’t be replaced.

"So can you make more?" Yunfeng asked.

Qiu Yue’s face immediately soured.

"That is where we have a problem."

Yunfeng sighed. "Of course there is."

"You think I enjoy having problems?"

"You’ve been smiling like a madman since you came through the door."

"Because I made something that stops zombie infection. I’m allowed to be happy."

"Fine. What’s the problem?"

Qiu Yue picked up the vial and held it carefully between two fingers.

"This took me the entire night to produce, and most of that time was spent improvising with equipment that isn’t meant for this kind of work. The medical facility here has the basics, but whoever stocked that place clearly wasn’t preparing to research a rapidly mutating zombie virus."

Muchen raised a brow. "Strange. You’d think that would have been their first concern when decorating."

Qiu Yue ignored him.

"I need proper centrifuges, cold-storage equipment, testing systems, sterile culture equipment, chemical supplies..." He stopped when Yunfeng’s expression began going blank. "A lot of equipment."

"Thank you. That I understood."

Qiu Yue pushed his glasses higher.

"If I have the right equipment, I can refine the process. More importantly, I can stop making this stuff a few vials at a time. Right now, if ten people were bitten at once, I’d have to decide which of them gets to live."

That wiped the remaining humor from the room.

Yunfeng glanced at the tiny vial again.

One vial looked incredibly small now.

"Where can we find what you need?"

"I’ve been thinking about that." Qiu Yue leaned back, rubbing his tired eyes for the first time since arriving. "Hospitals might have some of it, but they’ve probably been looted already. Universities and private laboratories are another possibility, but we’d have to search several locations."

He paused.

"The nearby military base is our best option."

Yunfeng’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Qiu Yue continued, "A military facility that size should have a proper medical unit. If they were conducting any research after the outbreak began, even better. I don’t need everything to be perfect. I just need enough equipment to build a functional laboratory here."

"And then?" Muchen asked.

Qiu Yue looked at the vial in his hand.

"Then I make more."

His exhaustion showed now. Beneath the excitement and the dark circles around his eyes, he looked like someone who had been awake far too long, working with the knowledge that a mistake could ruin the only sample he had.

"Enough that we don’t have to save it for only the most important people," he said quietly. "Enough that if a child gets bitten, nobody has to stand there calculating whether the medicine should be saved for someone stronger. Enough that we can carry a few doses whenever we leave the base."

Yunfeng’s expression softened.

That was something worth risking a trip for.

He reached for the vial, but Qiu Yue immediately pulled it away.

"No."

"I was just looking."

"Look from there."

Yunfeng stared at him.

Qiu Yue clutched the vial against his chest.

"I spent all night making this."

"I wasn’t going to drink it."

"I don’t trust you."

Muchen snorted beside him.

Yunfeng turned toward him. "Why are you laughing?"

"Because neither do I."

Yunfeng rolled his eyes and leaned back, but his gaze remained on the serum.

A half-finished cure.

It wasn’t the miracle he had first thought it was. It couldn’t protect all of them without a terrible price, and there wasn’t nearly enough of it to matter on a large scale yet.

But it was a beginning.

And Yunfeng knew better than anyone where that beginning could eventually lead.

"We’ll go to the military base," he said.

Muchen immediately turned toward him.

"We?"

Yunfeng froze.

The look on his lover’s face made him realize his mistake.

He slowly corrected himself.

"We’ll decide who goes to the military base."

"Better."

Qiu Yue looked between the two of them before carefully gathering his vials.

"I don’t care who goes. Just bring me my equipment."

Yunfeng glanced at the black circles under his eyes.

"You’re not going anywhere until you sleep."

"I don’t have time to sleep."

"You look dead."

"I’ve been studying dead things all night. It happens."

Muchen pointed toward the stairs. "Sleep."

Qiu Yue frowned at him.

Muchen stared back.

For some reason, Qiu Yue seemed to decide that arguing with a pregnant omega first thing in the morning was not worth it.

He stood with a sigh, still protecting the vials like they were newborn children.

"Fine. Four hours."

"Eight," Yunfeng said.

"Four."

"Six."

Qiu Yue started walking away.

"Four."

Yunfeng watched him go and shook his head.

Beside him, Muchen’s hand quietly found his.

Yunfeng looked down as their fingers intertwined.