The group arrived at the entrance to the survivor's settlement while rays of the setting sun were still lighting their path. The people in charge of taking care of the gate were looking at them very suspiciously and were ready to attack. Jiayi got out of the car before anyone else and walked up to them with only his handheld radio in hand.

No one from the group had really talked to him about how he was going to get the other survivors to trust them but he seemed to have had a plan. Over the radio, the Major who had visited with Su Ling explained the situation to the gate guards who recognized him and his voice immediately.

The gate guards were concerned and called over their leader, a young military man who seemed to get the gist pretty quickly.

“We can go in now,” Jiayi said to his group and walked over to his car, and got in so he could lead the way as the gates opened.

There weren’t many working cars so the people who were outside their lodgings looked at them with confusion and fear as they entered. 

The 5 cars parked where the leader of the settlement told them to but they didn’t leave their cars. Their equipment was valuable and they were really only here for the night.

Yan Xing felt anxious as the leader asked everyone to show their necks and wrists for marks. He did so but as soon as the leader was done he retreated into a ball, pulling his legs up so he was hugging them as he sat in the car. 

“What’s wrong? It went fine didn’t it?” Jiayi asked as soon as he made sure nothing happened with the others. He stroked Yan Xing’s hair.

“There’s a lot of people here…” Yan Xing murmured.

“…Do you feel hungry..?”

Yan Xing quickly shook his head.

“No…” Yan Xing murmured.

“What’s wrong then?” Jiayi asked and lifted Yan Xing’s chin a little.

“I-I just feel a little sick…” Yan Xing really didn’t know how else to word what he felt but he thought ‘sick’ was the closest thing to it.

Jiayi sighed a bit, there wasn’t much he could do about Yan Xing feeling sick. Especially when Yan Xing himself was unsure of what he was feeling. 

“Sleep for a while,” Jiayi said and moved Yan Xing to the back of the car.

Yan Xing wasn’t particularly sleepy and the uncomfortable feeling in his chest didn’t help. He watched Jiayi from the back seat for a while, until his eyes felt heavy and he fell asleep uncontrollably. He was unaware that it was Jiayi’s power doing that.

—

Yan Xing woke up at sunrise, he was very cold suddenly and didn’t know why so he pried his eyes open and realized Jiayi had rolled the windows down to talk to Yi Boqin.

He sat up and retreated into a ball in the corner of the back seat, avoiding the cold wind coming from the window.

“How long are we staying here?” Yi Boqin asked.

“I’m going to check out the town in a bit and then we’ll leave once I’m done. Tell everyone to just stay in their cars.”  Jiayi explained. 

Yi Boqin nodded and went off to the other cars.

“A-Xing? Are you up?” Jiayi asked, rolling the window back up.

Yan Xing responded with a sleepy hum.

“I’m going to be leaving the car, so you need to be up and ready to keep watch.” 

Yan Xing was startled awake by that.

“Y-You’re leaving me here?” 

“Just for a little while. It’ll be fine, everyone else is awake and will help you if anything happens.” Jiayi said and smiled at him softly.

Yan Xing was still clearly not happy about it all but Jiayi got ready to leave before he got a response.

“It’ll only be around half an hour. Don’t worry.” Jiayi said and ruffled Yan Xing’s hair before leaving.

—

There weren’t many shops that were set up by survivors but the leftover shops from when the area they inhabited was just a normal town were still there. Jiayi took his time to just go through there. As expected, the supermarket was almost empty but that was not what Jiayi was mainly looking for anyway.

He wouldn’t be able to get what he wanted unless survivors started selling but he could at least look around for things he was missing.

He entered a beauty store within the shopping mall area of the town and took some things with him. He doubted that Yan Xing would start showing the normal signs of being a zombie but just in case it would be good to have concealer handy.

Jiayi also went to the hair dye area and got many boxes of black hair dye. In the past, Yan Xing left his hair its natural color but Jiayi had a feeling that wouldn’t be the case this time. Maybe not now but later on Yan Xing would probably prefer to keep it dyed.

—-

“Doesn’t it bother you?” Jiayi asked Yan.

Yan had pulled on the strings of his hoodie, trying to hide his white hair as they walked through the city.

“It used to. But it’s been months already so I’ve accepted it. I just keep my hoodie on and mind my business and people usually don’t try and question me about it.” Yan explained quietly.

Truthfully he didn’t care if people spread rumors about him being a zombie—partially because they were right and partially because his hair color really had nothing to do with his zombie nature.

He was born like this and he had suffered with it his whole life already so he honestly was just over it.

People with dyed hair often got a lot of stares like these, especially if their hair was pristine and not grown out. If their hair stayed that color then they either had been maintaining it, which was quite odd since you were supposed to be fighting for your life and saving your time and resources for survival and not for redying your hair, or… maybe you didn’t have to fight for your life very often…cause you’re a zombie.

—

Yan Xing panicked a little as someone knocked on his window but he quickly noticed it was just Yi Boqin again and calmed down, lowering the window completely.

“Here, these were in our food bag. These are the ones you always eat right?” Yi Boqin said and handed Yan Xing a box of the protein bars Yan Xing usually nibbled on.  Yan Xing was a bit surprised but he nodded quickly and took them.

“T-Thank you…” 

“Don’t worry about it, also… the people here don’t really seem to be hostile, just very curious so don’t be afraid to stretch your legs a little, at least near the car.” Yi Boqin said and smiled.

Yan Xing made a look and Yi Boqin shrugged helplessly, “Anyway, I’m sure Jiayi will be back soon.”

Yan Xing was going to say something but a thud stopped him. He and Yi Boqin both looked to the left where a woman had fallen down and was trembling while pointing at Yan Xing, the woman didn’t even have to say it and Yan Xing could already tell what kind of conclusion she had come to. Although he wasn’t as unhealthy looking as in the past, he was still pale and sickly looking and had unnaturally colored hair so there was one obvious conclusion that most people, not just this woman would’ve come to.

The woman herself had bleached hair but her roots were very clearly grown out while Yan Xing’s hair was very obviously pure white, which was totally normal given it was his natural hair color but not normal because the woman was in no way aware of that.

The woman was terrified and could only murmur out quietly as she processed what she saw but luckily Yi Boqin heard the murmur and quickly acted to try and fix the ‘misunderstanding’.

“Zomb—” She murmured at first but it looked like she was about to yell it out in a second.

“No! He’s not a…” Yi Boqin hesitated, he didn’t want to draw too much attention to the situation, especially since Yan Xing seemed horrified enough. Yan Xing had already holed himself back into the car, closing the window quickly.

“Please don’t be scared miss, He’s my younger brother, he was born like that…”

Yi Boqin let out a sigh of relief as he saw that Jiayi had finally returned. Jiayi was naturally someone who people tended to believe easily, he was the picture of a perfect leader and a dependable person. He was also handsome, handsome enough to make the woman follow along with his words like a moth to light.

Yan Xing was terrified as he curled into a ball in the backseat, he had made a mess out of everything. 

What if people actually found out? What if Jiayi was thrown into question because of how close they had been? What if Yi Boqin and everyone chooses to abandon Jiayi because of him? Or worse…would Jiayi even choose to stay with him if they found out?

The door to the car opened and Yan Xing sunk even further into hiding. He hurriedly curled himself on the floor right behind the front seat, wishing to disappear forever.

“A-Xing. We’re leaving now. Don’t worry about it.” Jiayi said and crossed over to the back seats to look a Yan Xing.

“I messed up I’m sorry I messed up I’m sorry I messed up I’m sorry I messed up I’m sorry,”

Jiayi’s heart ached as he heard Yan Xing’s mantra. He tried to lift Yan Xing off the ground but Yan Xing’s curled-up position only let him move him so he was sitting on the ground instead of laying.

“Yan Xing it’s fine, I just told her that you were born with that hair color and she believed me. It’s okay.” Jiayi said and stroked Yan Xing’s head.

“Nothing more is going to happen with that…It’ll be fine. I got some hair dye if you want to try and use it.” Jiayi continued speaking and only the mention of hair dye managed to convince Yan Xing to lift his head a little.

“We’ll take a break on the road at noon and I’ll help you okay?”

Yan Xing didn’t say anything but he pulled on a hoodie and hid his face and hair before jumping back to the passenger seat. Jiayi sighed, he got a glimpse of a tear-streaked face but Yan Xing practically ran away from him so he didn’t get the chance to say anything. Jiayi got back to the driver's seat and started driving. Everyone else was waiting for him to go first.

–

Yan Xing was silent and hiding his face but Jiayi could tell he was still paying attention to the road around them, looking out for zombies.

“I don’t know if your hair growth rate was affected by becoming a zombie but I brought a lot of hair dye just in case. I figured you might want to cover it up in the future…I just didn’t think you’d have to experience someone accusing you of being a zombie before I even told you about it.” Jiayi murmured, “Sorry I didn’t tell you that earlier.”

Yan Xing didn’t respond, he wasn’t angry or anything, he was just still terrified of being found out.

—-

At noon, Jiayi signaled to everyone that he would stop by waving his hand out of the window. They stopped at what was really the middle of the road but there weren’t any zombies nearby.

Jiayi got out of the car and went around to Yan Xing’s side to quietly coerce him into coming out. Yan Xing hesitantly did and Yi Boqin walked over to them when he noticed. Everyone else went out to stretch their legs a little as well.

“ Yan Xing, don’t worry about this morning okay?” Yi Boqin looked apologetic as he came over.

“It’ll probably happen more as time goes on though…That’s why I bought these.” Jiayi explained and showed Yi Boqin the many boxes of black hair dye that he bought.

Yan Xing was still silent but he took his hood off this time, he was cold but he knew he couldn’t dye it with his hood on. There was a lake nearby so Yi Boqin decided to help out and get some water for them to do Yan Xing’s hair.

“Wait what are you doing Ge?” He Guang asked, confused about how Jiayi was mixing up hair dye all of a sudden.

“People keep thinking he’s a zombie because of his hair even though it's his natural color so he wants to dye it,” Jiayi explained.

“Oh…I was going to ask you to let me have some so I didn’t have to keep my hair looking like this.” Wu Yanyu murmured, her orangey blonde hair was starting to grow out and her black roots were showing.

“The military city probably has another store…Not sure if it’ll be as easy to get as it was in the last town though.” Jiayi murmured as he put the hair dye on Yan Xing’s hair.

Yan Xing’s silence was normal but It was a bit unsettling to see him quite this sad. And since his hood was down and his hair was all up it was easier to see that he’d been crying.

“Don’t worry about it too much, once your hair is dyed you won’t have to worry about it.” He Guang said and patted Yan Xing’s shoulder.

Yan Xing just kind of nodded. He hadn’t cried over his hair since he was a kid so he felt a little stupid for doing so. He could also just tell that everyone was pitying him and that almost made it worse.