I am the Zombie King of the Apocalyptic World
Chapter 1361 - 1356 Story 1

Chapter 1361: Chapter 1356 Story 1

He didn’t know why such things were happening to him. He often heard people talking about him, their words filled with nothing but pity and tragedy.

Why were such things happening?

Why did they have to be like this?

Listening to the carefree laughter of his peers, he sat there on the bare rock, soulless, as another gust of wind stirred the flowers and grass, brushing against his pant legs. It felt like a comforting gesture, yet also a form of veiled mockery, much like the adults who wore expressions of sympathy on their faces but whose hearts remained untouched by misfortune. They couldn’t empathize; instead, they longed for their own futures all the more fervently because of others’ suffering.

That night, as he lay in bed, tossing and turning restlessly, he had no concept of time, not even aware of the term "wee hours." Half-asleep, he heard the sounds of his father smashing things and his mother’s screams, laden with anger and resentment. His parents seemed like archenemies, unwilling to share the same sky.

It seemed someone else in the house couldn’t sleep, either.

His grandmother, lantern in hand, trembled as she stepped out of her room, her walking stick tapping a "thump, thump" against the ground, unusually distinct in the dead of night.

When his door creaked open and the frail light flooded his room, Lin Jie felt as if he had seen hope. It was as if he could foresee the next day being just like any other, with his parents no longer fighting and his home remaining harmonious.

That day, he learned from his grandmother about a word called "court." The next day, it seemed he would go to the court with his parents and grandmother. She told him that if anyone were to ask him whom he wanted to be with, he should cry his eyes out, make a scene and say he didn’t want his parents to be apart—then they wouldn’t get divorced.

His grandmother emphasized this repeatedly, and Lin Jie nodded heartily, excitement lacing his heart without noting the almost gray despair in his grandmother’s eyes.

Eyes are the windows to the soul, but within the old woman’s heart seemed only a chilling silence.

Perhaps it was the words of his grandmother that calmed his unsettled mind and allowed him to have a beautiful dream that night.

The same summer continued, with just one night gone by, unchanging. The sky remained blue as the day before, beautiful.

Finally, he arrived at the place his grandmother called "court," a scenario he had rehearsed countless times in his mind. It was the most solemn scene he had ever witnessed. Before this, it was a place that had scared him without reason.

He eagerly anticipated someone asking him the question so he could act as his grandmother had instructed.

But the moment never came. With crisp sounds from the gavel of the man in the black robe striking a brass base, it was as if everything had been decided. The man didn’t ask Lin Jie any questions—it was all too simple and overwhelmingly unacceptable.

In the end, he was awarded to his father. In that moment, he was stunned, wanting to rush forward and ask why he wasn’t questioned, but how could he, so young, know what to do next? Tears burst forth, echoing throughout the moderately sized courtroom as many onlookers turned their eyes to him, none offering comfort.

His existence was like something superfluous. He could vanish or remain, but no one seemed willing to pay attention or worry about him.

He was helped up by his grandmother and followed the crowd out of that unforgettable courtroom. Ahead of the crowd, he saw that his parents were far apart, like strangers to each other. His grandmother attempted to call out to his father, seemingly with something to say, but not once did he acknowledge her.

A fleeting look back carried a sentiment in his father’s eyes that Lin Jie couldn’t understand, but years later, he would realize it was hate.

The once loving couple each went their separate ways after stepping out of the courthouse: his mother climbed into a sedan, a novel sight in his era that always drew a crowd whenever it appeared in the village, him included. Once, he heard his father say that one day, when he had money, he would buy a sedan and take his mother and him to see the world’s unseen wonders.

But now, the sight of the sedan seemed to Lin Jie a symbol of something; he chased after it, not knowing what else to do but to desperately climb inside where a strange man he didn’t recognize grabbed him and threw him onto the roadside, his eyes filled with loathing as he slammed the car door and drove away.

He saw that his mother wanted to say something, but no words came out.

Meanwhile, his father detached from the crowd and disappeared down the other end of the street.

After that, he never saw his mother again, and his father disappeared without a trace. People said his mother had gone to a distant city, living a happy life. They said his father had found work far away, but he never returned.

He thought it was all over, life seemingly going back to normal except for the occasional comments he overheard from the adults about how pitiful the boy was and the reality of being left with only one relative.

But ironically, this life lasted only three days, just three days. On the night before the last, his grandmother didn’t return home. Lin Jie thought she would show up the next morning, but before dawn, he was woken up and dragged to the stream behind the hills. There, he saw his grandmother and faced an outcome he couldn’t accept.

His grandmother, his only remaining kin, had committed suicide in that ravine, her body left in the water for a day and a night!

The village committee organized a collection and held a simple funeral. They even contacted his father, but on the burial day, his father was nowhere to be seen, as if he had vanished from the world after disappearing from the street three days prior.

However, subsequent issues like Lin Jie’s wellbeing proved too complicated for everyone. No one wanted to take the responsibility, and the situation was all too ironic; everyone pitied him and everyone despised him.

That day, standing "On the tomb," Lin Jie had only three words in his heart: Why?

Besides that, he should have burst into tears, but he didn’t—not because the death of a close relative had left him too heartbroken to cry, but because, in his heart, there wasn’t a shred of emotion left. It was as if the disbelief at the beginning had vanished entirely, erased in less than two days.