As the morning arrived, the sun illuminated the room brightly.
Although the light woke up Xiaoyun, he could barely move as he was still a little hungover from the previous night.
Eventually, the hunger in his stomach made him finally get off the bed. But before he left the room, he decided to check his phone first.
The time says it was already eight o'clock, and several messages from Chengyi and Pinli asked him where he went.
After replying to them individually, Xiaoyun went to the restroom to freshen himself up a little.
---
As Xiaoyun walked downstairs, he noticed there were four people already sitting on the sofa.
When Xiaoyun reached the bottom of the stairs, Xiaoyun was able to see their faces fully.
"Come on, Qing Qing! You are so close!"
The one raising her voice was Leyan, seated on the left side of the sofa.
She was wearing a long-sleeved white shirt paired with denim jeans, clearly trying to be more modest in her attire, as barely any skin was shown.
However, her size made the shirt push up much more than normal, and her long legs combined with the jeans formed a curvy figure that made it look even more enticing.
"Mingming is too stupid! Why did I bet for him to win?" Yueyue yelled out in anger, with her face full of regrets.
She looked much more energetic than yesterday, wearing a white sports vest, tight yoga pants, and a ponytail.
Although Yueyue looked more on the petite side due to her smaller upper body, she clearly inherited Leyan's lower body, as her thighs and long legs almost looked the same.
"Everybody there is so bad. None deserve to win besides Ling Ling."
The one supporting Ling Ling was sitting on the far right side of the sofa, looking slightly older and slightly taller than Yueyue.
"This should be Yueyue's older sister, Yuqi." Xiaoyun thought to himself.
Compared to the other two who didn't wear makeup, Xiaoyun could tell Yuqi had put a lot of work into her face, with makeup and lipstick applied.
But what made Yuqi stand out was her full office lady suit.
Her suit at the top side was barely able to contain what was underneath, as she clearly inherited Leyan's size upper body.
"Sister Lin Lin, come on, I believe in you!"
The scream came from the girl sitting in between Leyan and Yueyue.
She was much shorter than the other three, as her height was only up to Leyan's chest.
"She must be Yueyue's younger sister, Nami..." Xiaoyun noted in his head.
Besides her height, nothing can be seen underneath the blue and white high school uniform.
But Xiaoyun could tell Nami didn't inherit any of Leyan's traits as the uniform looked more empty than just a typical oversized school uniform.
Although she is not as beautiful as the other three, her slightly baby-fat face and twin ponytails were the cutest things Xiaoyun had witnessed.
It almost evoked a feeling deep inside Xiaoyun's heart to protect her cuteness at all costs.
"Um, good morning, everyone."
As Xiaoyun spoke up and waved toward the four, Yuqi and Nami's face was in complete shock.
It wasn't until Xiaoyun clearing his throat that Yueyue ended the embarrassing atmosphere.
"This is my classmate Xiaoyun. He walked me home yesterday, and because it was so late, he couldn't return to the dormitory. So he stayed in Dad's office room for the night."
After Yueyue explained it, Leyan also nodded to confirm it.
"Mom, can you tell me next time? I don't even know there is a man at home."
Yuqi looked at Xiaoyun with disgust, as Nami also nodded in agreement with Yuqi's statement, albeit with a curious look rather than disgust.
"You were asleep then, so I didn't tell you. You're the one that told me never to wake up you for any other reason besides work."
After Leyan finished arguing, the three girls returned to the TV, and the show suddenly started getting more and more hyped.
Seeing Xiaoyun awkwardly standing beside the sofa, Leyan told him to wait and walked into the kitchen.
When Leyan returned, she held a pair of chopsticks and a bowl of dumplings.
"Xiaoyun, come and try my dumplings." Leyan patted the only empty seat on her left side.
As Xiaoyun sat down next to Leyan, she instinctively started using the chopstick to feed him with dumplings.
Seeing Leyan's enthusiasm for feeding him, Xiaoyun followed along with it.
"The dumplings are delicious!" Xiaoyun replied as he chewed food in his mouth.
"Of course, I just cooked them this morning."
After Xiaoyun ate one piece, Leyan picked up another piece of dumpling.
Yueyue turned her head and noticed Leyan feeding Xiaoyun with admiration in her eyes.
A sudden surge of jealousy appeared in her mind, although she didn't know what she was jealous of.
Seeing Yueyue's facial expression change, Xiaoyun took over the plate and the chopstick.
"Um, I can eat this myself. Thank you, Miss Leyan."
After Xiaoyun finished speaking, Leyan's face turned red as if she realized what she was doing was too close.
---
When the variety show competition was almost over, the TV suddenly cut to urgent news in bold letters as the new anchor appeared in casual clothes rather than in uniform.
"Hi everyone, I am Li Gang, the news anchor for today.
Currently, it is eight-forty on a Friday morning. Unfortunately, all normal programming will be put on pause as we just received an emergency notification from the government."
All five were completely surprised, as the emergency broadcast had not been used for a long time.
"At two o'clock last night, an unknown virus broke out in the United States.
From the videos on the internet, the patient's symptoms are very similar to rabies. We now transferred to Mi Wang, who was at the white house conference."
The camera cuts to the hotel room, with a woman in the middle of the camera.
"Hi everyone, I'm Mi Wang.
An hour ago, the White House press secretary hosted an emergency press conference. They stated that there was a small rabies outbreak that is under investigation.
And the US National Guards are already maintaining order in the four places where the outbreak occurred. They had advised for people to remain calm——"
The camera cuts to another screen abruptly onto the next one.
"Hello, I'm Pinming. We are in front of the largest hospital in Los Angeles on the west coast of the United States.
The total number of cases in the United States has been updated to 35,000 people. The medical vehicles behind me are already moving in and out nonstop.
A resident said it had been happening for several hours now. When we tried to request permission to enter the hospital, security forbade us from going inside to interview the patients."
After Pinming finished speaking, the camera cut back to the news anchor.
"Thirty minutes ago, the EU held an emergency meeting and halted all planes from the United States from landing at European airports. The UK has also temporarily suspended aircraft from the Americas."
"And as for domestic news, the foreign minister has also issued a no-fly order prohibiting aircraft departing from the United States from landing in any airports in China."
The news anchor paused for a second as he seemed to be conflicted about what to say next.
"Um, according to the advice of experts, please do not rush to buy food in a panic. The country currently has zero cases, and the army has begun to mobilize to be ready to help the police maintain order.
Experts are also investigating the contagiousness of the virus. We invited the professor of virologist tonight at six o'clock to the capital, and he will be here to explain the possible virus prevention."
The camera cuts to a list of cities displayed on the screen.
"All schools will be on pause until further notice, and all entertainment businesses are recommended to restrict their operating hours...
At this time, 20 cities have announced curfews tonight, lasting from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am.
Please remain indoors. Police officers will check all vehicles, and only emergency personnel and mobilized reserves are allowed to travel."
After the list was released, the emergency news began to replay itself as it cut back to the beginning.
"We need to be prepared," Leyan commented as she was much more alerted by the news.
"It shouldn't have much impact here since it's in the United States, right? Besides, they had already sent in their soldiers to contain it. "
Yuqi didn't seem to worry much as she felt it was an overreaction by the government.
"There's so much air travel. It's going to get here at some point... It's not like we can't afford to prepare for it." Yueyue argued.
"But what should we do to prepare? Food? Weapons? Guns?" Nami curiously asked.
"You're out of your mind, Nami. It's just a small disease outbreak, not some apocalypse." Yuqi disagreed as she gently knocked on Nami's head.
"I'll go to the supermarket to buy some food for the house." Leyan got up and walked over to the garage.
"Mom, I'll go with you." Yueyue also got up and followed Leyan to the garage.
Seeing that the two had already left, Yuqi also stood up.
"Then I'm going to work, Nami. Take care of the house." Yuqi patted Nami's head and walked over to the garage.
---
The two awkwardly sat in the living room as neither of them had anything to say to each other.
Xiaoyun eventually got the courage to get up from the sofa and speak up.
"Um, I'm returning to the dormitory. It was nice meeting you, Nami."
Just as Xiaoyun walked all the way to the doorway, a voice appeared behind him.
"Wait, don't leave yet!" Nami yelled out loud.
Xiaoyun turned back around, only to see Nami get up from the sofa.
"Did you grow up in an orphanage?" Nami asked curiously.
Xiaoyun thought for a second, then nodded.
Nami then waved her hand to make Xiaoyun lower his head.
After Xiaoyun lowered his head, Nami reached inside Xiaoyun's clothes and took out the necklace Xiaoyun had worn since childhood.
"I finally found it!" Nami jumped with joy.
Xiaoyun looked at Nami, holding his necklace in bewilderment.
"What about my necklace?" Xiaoyun was visibly confused by Nami's reaction to his necklace.
Nami suddenly jumped into Xiaoyun's arms as she hugged him by the waist.
"I finally found you!" Nami excitedly announced out loud.
"Huh? Who?" Xiaoyun got even more confused by Nami's reaction.
Nami looked up at Xiaoyun and revealed the answer, "You are my long-lost brother!"
Xiaoyun froze for a second as he couldn't believe the words he had just heard.
"You're joking, right? This is not funny." Xiaoyun put Nami back on the ground.
"You saw the photo inside the office room, didn't you? And there was a boy next inside the photo, right?" Nami asked.
Xiaoyun nodded in agreement.
"Although mom said that boy was my uncle's son, when I asked my aunt, she told me my uncle's son had never been to the house.
Also, have you noticed that you and Yueyue are very—"
Xiaoyun interrupted before Nami could finish.
"There are so many people in the world who look very similar. Nami, your joke is a little too far."
Xiaoyun refused to believe Nami's answer as the things he had done with Leyan last night appeared in his mind.
"I'm not kidding! Look, you, Dad, and Yueyue all have black spots on their necks." Nami pointed out.
Xiaoyun pulled out his phone and saw the black spot on his neck in the selfie.
"And if you really don't believe me, here's my necklace with my name. It's the same model as yours."
Nami took out her necklace and handed it over to Xiaoyun.
Holding the two necklaces in his hands, Xiaoyun finally accepted the reality he was now put into, as Nami's evidence was just too overwhelming to be coincident.
"I… I can't be Leyan's son... If I really am her son, then me and Leyan would have committed—"
Xiaoyun paused before finishing the whole sentence as Nami stared at his face with a confused look.
"I'm sorry, but can you give me some time to think about it first? Please keep this a secret between us. I need some time..."
After returning Nami's necklace, Xiaoyun turned around and rushed out of the house.
---
When Xiaoyun returned to the dormitory, he lay on the bed without saying a word.
"Are you okay, Xiaoyun?"
Chengyi paused the game as he noticed some tear marks on Xiaoyun's face.
Xiaoyun did not answer as he looked up at the upper bunk in silence.
Pinli noticed Xiaoyun's silence and paused his game as well.
"Xiaoyun, if you have trouble, just tell us. We will help you find a way." Chengyi offered his help as he got a little concern from Xiaoyun's silence.
"Brother, you have greatly helped my dad, and I can never repay you enough. Please let us help you," Pinli said.
The three sat silently for a few minutes before Xiaoyun got up from the bed and looked over at the two.
"Would you be happy if you were orphaned and found your long-lost biological parent?"
The two thought for a second, and then Chengyi spoke first.
"It depends on the situation. For example, if my parents can't afford to support their children, it would be understandable.
Besides, it's been so long, I would have dropped any grudges I have against them."
Pinli spoke next and gave his opinion on the topic.
"I mean, most parents wanted to keep the kid, or else the kid wouldn't have been born in the first place... So the kid should be happy to find their biological parents."
"Unless you have a grudge against your biological parents," Chengyi added as a final note.
Xiaoyun shook his head and asked another question.
"What if the person you like is now a part of your family?"
"Like cousins? I mean, it's kind of weird, but as long as it is a distant cousin, it should be fine." Chengyi didn't think much and replied right away.
"Yeah, and if you are talking about direct relative... That's just too rare to happen. I had only seen those in niche local newspapers in those lovers turn out to be long lost siblings."
Pinli noticed Xiaoyun was staring at the ground as if he nailed perfectly what Xiaoyun was talking about.
"Xiaoyun, did you fall in love with someone who is coincidentally a part of your long-lost family? No way, right?"
Seeing Xiaoyun not answering back, Chengyi and Pinli both looked toward Xiaoyun in shock.
They couldn't believe those niche local newspapers had actually happened to someone in front of them.
But suddenly, Xiaoyun changed his face and smiled as he held up his phone in the air.
"Ha ha! I was just joking. You guys really fell for the oldest trick in the book. You guys just got baited!"
Xiaoyun instantly photographed the two's shocked faces before they could react in time.
"Geez, you scared both of us. You better not upload that to the dorm chat."
Chengyi and Pinli turned back around and went back to their game.
"Even my best friends can't accept what I have done... what should I do?" Xiaoyun muttered as he looked at the photo that he had just taken.
After thinking for a bit, Xiaoyun took out his luggage and pulled out a small black rock.
It was a rock given by Uncle Li during a trip to the mountain.
Ever since Uncle Li passed away, he would take out the stone whenever he had a problem, as if the stone could give him advice.
"Grandpa, I finally found my family... But I had done forbidden things with my mom..." Xiaoyun murmured as he rolled to the other side of the bed.
"Why did mom lie to Nami that the boy was not me? Why is she trying to hide my existence? And what should I do now? Confess to Mom?"
Xiaoyun thought for a second but quickly rejected the idea.
"No, it's impossible. The things I did with her will make her feel even more guilty... I have to hide this from her."
As Xiaoyun lay on the bed holding the stone, he eventually fell asleep, having lost so much sleep the night before.
---
When Xiaoyun woke up, it was already four o'clock in the afternoon, and he was the only one in the room.
After washing his face, Xiaoyun felt fully refreshed.
"Huh, where's the stone?" Xiaoyun searched around the room but couldn't find the black stone.
"Forget it. The two of them must have taken revenge and hid the stone."
Xiaoyun sat in the dorm for a bit, then decided to take a walk outside the park.
Dozens of people were in front of the dormitory gate, all holding their luggage and waiting for a car to pick them up.
As Xiaoyun walked onto the street, he couldn't help but notice there was no one walking at all.
Everyone was in a car on the road, heading toward the city's outskirts. Meanwhile, the road into the city center was empty, with no cars at all.
"Geez, people are this scared by the news and flee in panic? Isn't this too much of an overreaction?" Xiaoyun thought to himself as he walked into the park.
As Xiaoyun continued to walk inside the park, his phone suddenly started ringing.
It was Pinli calling him as he checked his phone.
"Hey Xiaoyun, are you awake?"
"Yeah, and I'm walking in the park right now."
"Have you read the news?" Pinli sounds very urgent.
"That morning's urgent news, right? Yeah, I watched it."
"It's not the one in the morning. You didn't watch the one at noon? You need to get out of the city now!"
The phone call abruptly ended as if Pinli was doing something urgent.
"What the hell is he talking about?"
Xiaoyun started checking through the news tabs on the phone.
"1: The United States has completely collapsed, and all connections have been cut off?"
"2: There are already 10,000 patients in Europe. When will it spread to us?"
"3: Live broadcast! Japan is already in chaos!"
"4: The virus is airborne? Within a thousand miles?!? Experts explanation here."
Xiaoyun couldn't help but feel the news headline was beyond exaggerated, so he took it with a grain of salt and clicked on the first one.
"As of one o'clock in the morning, I originally called my brother in the United States, only to hear that he didn't answer.
Then I called a few of my American colleagues, but they didn't respond either.
In the end, I saw the video on a certain game forum. Everyone should see it for themselves."
Just as the video was about to play, the entire new article disappeared out of thin air as an error message popped up.
Xiaoyun clicked on the second headline. This time, it was a video clip.
"Hello everyone, I'm Anwei. Everyone knows this virus has broken out worldwide, and some small countries have completely disappeared—"
The news article disappeared again as Xiaoyun was getting a little annoyed.
"What the hell is going on..." Xiaoyun muttered as he refreshed the news tab, but it had completely stopped working.
Xiaoyun didn't back down and started to search on the internet. But every forum that mentioned anything about viruses was completely wiped out.
Fearing something bad was happening, Xiaoyun ran back to the dormitory.
As he walked past the dorm gate, there were only a few people left in front of the gate.
When Xiaoyun entered the dorm room, Chengyi and Pinli already finished packing their luggage.
"You're finally back. Pack up quickly." Chengyi hurried Xiaoyun as he stood still.
"What happened?" Xiaoyun asked as he was still confused about what was happening.
"The global virus has broken out, and many countries have been downed. Just pack up first." Pinli replied as the two began helping Xiaoyun pack everything into his suitcase.
"Is the virus that serious?" Xiaoyun asked as the suitcase was finally finished packing.
"They act like the zombie outbreak in the movie, and the whole world is going crazy right now. So what do you think?" Chengyi replied as the three walked out of the dorm room.
"Here's a video I saved. The zombies could even build a human ladder like those movies."
Pinli opened the video and showed it for Xiaoyun to see.
In the video, the person recording was on the second floor. He first filmed a person being chased by a horde of zombies on the road.
Then, the camera turned to the other side, where the zombies were slowly building a zombie ladder up to the second floor of the other building.
"What? This got to be CGI and faked." Xiaoyun argued back.
"Fake? Then why is the government wiping the internet and suppressing any news about the virus?
We are safe for now as there are no cases, but I am afraid it will be all over if someone is infected." Chengyi argued back.
Xiaoyun realized what Chenyi said was true as he had just experienced it firsthand earlier.
"Everybody is saying that going to the countryside is the safest since there are fewer people there...
Chengyi and I are going back to our hometown to seek refuge. Why don't you go with us? My dad has an extra spot." Pinli offered as they stood at the dorm gate.
Xiaoyun thought for a while, then shook his head.
"No, I know where I'm going." Xiaoyun replied with a determined voice.
After waving goodbye to his roommate, Xiaoyun pulled his suitcase and left.