My Beautiful Roommate and the Dog - Chapter 1

The day the zombie outbreak began, I had just come home from an overnight shift at the convenience store.

Someone pounded on the door. My eyes weren’t even fully open when I answered it.

“Who comes knocking this early—”

It was Zhang, the fitness coach next door.

His eyes were cloudy. He stared at me from an unnatural angle, a guttural *hrrk, hrrk* rumbling in his throat.

The unsurprising outcome was that the zombie bit me to pieces.

He had been a fitness coach even before this, and now he couldn’t feel pain. Who could possibly beat that?

Before I lost consciousness from all the bites, I saw the lame puppy I’d picked up a few days earlier baring its little teeth, trying to save me.

The zombie ignored the threat entirely. The puppy barely got one bite in before it was swatted into the wall.

When I woke again, I had become that lame puppy.

My own ravaged body lay sprawled at an awkward angle in the living room.

The puppy was a young native spitz. Everything else about it was fine; one hind leg was just a little lame.

I smiled bitterly to myself.

If I’d known, I would have picked one with four working legs.

I searched my body carefully and finally found my phone.

Thank goodness—it wasn’t broken!

I meant to check on my little sister first, but then my roommate An Chen suddenly called.

I fumbled with my dog paws until I managed to answer.

“Chen Jiahe, where are you right now?”

An Chen sounded frantic.

I was frantic too, but a dog’s mouth couldn’t form human speech. All I could do was bark helplessly into the phone.

An Chen went silent for a moment. When he spoke again, there was actually a sob in his voice.

“Chen Jiahe, say something! Stay right where you are and wait for me to come find you, okay…?”

The call ended only when the phone ran out of power.

At one point, my barking attracted a zombie. Strangely, it merely sniffed me twice before walking away.

Maybe zombies didn’t bite animals.

I lay perfectly still until it was gone, then got back to my feet.

I wanted to charge the phone, but once I’d jumped onto the table, I discovered that it was pitch-black outside.

Great. I had no idea how long I’d been unconscious, but the power was already out.

I really had the worst luck.

I was about to look for another solution when hushed voices suddenly came from outside.

“Boss, you’re sure there aren’t any zombies left in there?”

“Quit wasting time. The guy got bitten to death, so the zombie must’ve left. Find the supplies, and make it quick.”

I hurried under the bed.

People had eaten dogs even before the apocalypse. Now, there was no telling what they might do.

I waited until every sound around me had disappeared before crawling out warily.

They had stripped the apartment clean. They hadn’t even left a packet of spicy strips.

It was too dangerous here.

I decided to find my sister first.

She had just finished her college entrance exams and had gone to her best friend Lin Wanwan’s villa a week earlier. She should still be relatively safe there.

I found the little dog backpack that had come free with a bag of dog food. After some effort, I stuffed the dead phone into its small outer pocket.

I planned to contact An Chen when I could.

But just as I got the backpack on and prepared to leave, human footsteps sounded in the corridor again.

Seriously? How many times was I going to be robbed in one day?

Reluctantly, I squeezed under the sofa.

Then I heard a familiar voice.

It was An Chen—my beautiful roommate, the one too delicate to take care of himself!

His long golden hair had been tied carelessly into a low ponytail. Ash streaked his androgynously beautiful face, and dark, dried stains covered his clothes.

He looked nothing like his usual proud, pampered self.

“Chen Jiahe, how can you be so useless…?”

An Chen trembled as he held my mangled, bloody body. His eyes were red from crying, yet he kept cursing me.

“You went to the gym every day. Were all those muscles just for show…?”

On the one hand, I was moved that he had braved the danger to find me.

On the other hand, I felt a little aggrieved.

The zombie had played dirty. How was I supposed to react in time?

Besides, going to the gym hadn’t even been my idea. He was the one who complained that my pecs weren’t big enough to feel good under his hands and forced me to go.

I pressed my paws together unhappily.

The tiny sound caught his sharp ears. He approached the sofa slowly and barked, “Whatever you are, get out here!”

My heart leaped. I crawled out cautiously. “Woof?”