Who moved her body?

"Have you checked the entrances and exits?"

"We've already checked. Zhao Ren didn't leave the island; he should still be there. We've searched everywhere he could have gone, but we still haven't found him."

Dr. Chen snorted, "Just as I expected."

"Should we notify the island's security center and have them search for Zhao Ren within the restricted area?"

"Not for now." Dr. Chen frowned, glanced at the joyful party not far away, and turned to walk towards the back of the villa.

The two security guards outside the main gate cautiously watched the path connecting to Situ Feng's villa. When Dr. Chen appeared, they clearly showed tension and unease.

As Dr. Chen slowly approached, the security guard immediately straightened his back and called out, "Dr. Chen!"

"Why haven't I seen you before?" Dr. Chen asked.

"We are the newly transferred security personnel."

"Oh, I see." Dr. Chen sized up the two security guards, nodded silently, and asked, "Has anyone been here?"

"No!" the two security guards answered in unison.

"Hmm, very good. Open the door, I'll go in and take a look."

"Excuse me, Dr. Chen, no one can enter without the boss's orders." The security guard reached out and stopped Dr. Chen.

"The boss is hosting a cocktail party and asked me to come and check it out." Dr. Chen took out his front door key, jingled it, and then opened the door.

Dr. Chen pushed open the door, and the two security guards behind him exchanged a glance, but Dr. Chen saw all of this out of the corner of his eye.

"The boss is waiting for me to come back and report. He'll be worried if I'm late."

The two security guards withdrew their murderous gazes and watched Dr. Chen walk through the gate.

……

Just as Guan Jie finished typing the string of numbers into the computer, Dr. Chen walked in.

"I guessed right, you do have ulterior motives. How could someone like you be content to just be a bodyguard? Unless you're using Xu Haiyang to achieve your goals, but I never expected your target to be Shanshan."

"Now you know."

The glass dome slowly rose, with Guan Jie standing with his back to it, between the dome and Dr. Chen.

"You've gotten what you wanted. Now I'm going to save her." Guan Jie clenched his fist. "If you're here to stop me, I won't hold back."

Dr. Chen shook his head.

"It's too late, it's too late."

Guan Jie frowned, puzzled, and followed Dr. Chen's gaze to look at the glass dome that had already been raised.

The Song Xiaoxian inside the glass dome was completely different from the one three days ago. Her sunken temples made her forehead protrude, large patches of hair fell to the sides of her head, and dark blue scalp looked like pieces of dead flesh haphazardly stuck to her head.

Song Xiaoxian's high, straight nose revealed half of its white bone, and the fleshy skin beside her nose trembled back and forth with her weak breathing. One side of her cheek was already rotting, and the reddish-black rotting flesh looked just like the ground crawling with earthworms.

Guan Jie's fist lost its last bit of strength, and he walked toward the glass enclosure in disbelief.

The red dress was still vibrant, covering Song Xiaoxian's neck and below. The leather on her wrists had sunk into her flesh, making it impossible to distinguish between the flesh and the leather.

Only the fingernails stubbornly continued to grow, now a full centimeter longer than they had been three days ago. It was as if only the fingernails of the person inside the glass case were still alive, while the rest of the body was dead.

"No, how could this be? Xiao Xian, no, you're not!"

Guan Jie laughed and stepped back, then grabbed Dr. Chen by the collar and lifted him up.

"Tell me, where did you hide Xiao Xian? This isn't her!"

Dr. Chen neither resisted nor cried for help. He pointed to the glass enclosure and said, "You know, the person you're looking for is inside."

Guan Jie raised his fist, but Dr. Chen simply closed his eyes and waited.

No fist landed, and Guan Jie released Dr. Chen.

Guan Jie seemed to have exhausted his last bit of strength, and returned to the glass enclosure like a walking corpse. He stroked Song Xiaoxian's face through the glass, his heart aching with excruciating pain.

"Xiao Xian, I'm sorry I'm late!"

Song Xiaoxian opened her eyes, which were like deep abysses, in a daze. Those big, dark eyes were like a white lotus blooming on ruins, so beautiful that it took one's breath away.

"Xiao Xian, Xiao Xian, you're awake."

Guan Jie hurriedly wiped away his tears and forced a smile.

Song Xiaoxian's fingers twitched, and she stared at Guan Jie for a long time, her eyes finally revealing a sweet smile.

"Jay, I have to go. I'm sorry. Am I ugly?"

"No, Xiaoxian, you will always be so beautiful. I won't let you go, I will never let you leave my world again."

Guan Jie stood up and sniffed, feeling a lump in his throat.

He walked over to the computer. "I brought you some medicine. As long as you get it injected, you can survive. Wait for me, Xiao Xian."

He was going to open the glass cover; he was going to inject the medicine into Song Xiaoxian; he was going to save Song Xiaoxian.

Dr. Chen rushed forward to stop Guan Jie, "She's already beyond saving. It's too late now, the medicine can't save her."

"I'll give it a try." Guan Jie pushed Dr. Chen aside.

"She died once before, and she survived because we injected her with an inactivated zombie virus. The virus's powerful replication ability can repair a person's damaged body. Shanshan died in a car accident, and most of her vital organs and brain were destroyed, so Shanshan's nervous system was mainly replaced by viral replication. But now Shanshan's autonomic nervous system has awakened, and the autonomy of the nervous system exceeds the range that the virus can control. The host's immune system will be awakened, and the virus will be engulfed by the immune system. That's why Shanshan is the way she is now."

Dr. Chen stepped into the glass enclosure and said, "In the early stages, the autonomic nervous system had the upper hand in the struggle, but now, as you can see, the inactivated virus will be activated after it gets out of control."

"What do you mean?" Guan Jie's hand froze in mid-air.

"Shanshan will soon lose all consciousness. Her current responses to you are merely fragments of fleeting memory. In a sense, she's already dead. Even if you inject her with medication, she won't return to her former self. She's just a... zombie!"

"No!" Guan Jie looked at Song Xiaoxian inside the glass case with pain. Her beautiful eyes sometimes sparkled and sometimes went blank.

Time seemed to stand still. Dr. Chen looked at Guan Jie, and Guan Jie looked at Song Xiaoxian inside the glass case.

"Even if she becomes a zombie, I will keep her alive!"

"When she loses all consciousness and is confined to a dark, damp basement, devouring bloody, rotting flesh every day, will you still love her as before? Zombies don't just mean they're unconscious; they also carry deadly viruses. Are you really willing to put the entire city and the whole world in danger for the sake of a woman you love?"

"Shut up! I don't care, I just want her to live."

Guan Jie's lips trembled with excitement. Suddenly, something blinded him. He rubbed his eyes hard, gritted his teeth, and typed the first character on the computer.

……

"Jay, no!"

Just as Guan Jie was about to type the last character, he heard Song Xiaoxian's voice.

"I don't want to live like that next to you, Jay. I don't want to live without consciousness."

Guan Jie hesitated.

"I've already died once, without any pain. If I had a choice, I'd rather leave like that than live again and let you see the ugly me now." Song Xiaoxian's hands trembled uncontrollably, as if she were drawing all her strength into her heart to keep herself conscious.

"I want to remain beautifully in your heart forever, Jay, be a good boy."

Guan Jie pursed his lips tightly and closed his eyes forcefully to control the fingertip that was about to strike.

Dr. Chen breathed a sigh of relief.

"I love the rapeseed flowers in spring, the vast fields of golden yellow, so dazzling that I can't open my eyes. You lied to me and said there were bees on my head, which scared me so much that I ran away... It was so beautiful then."

Guan Jie swallowed the bitterness in his throat, leaned over the glass dome, and looked into Song Xiaoxian's beautiful, deep, and mysterious eyes, as dark as the night sky. He knew that Song Xiaoxian was slowly drifting away.

"The wedding dress is so beautiful, but you didn't see it."

Guan Jie nodded, his voice choked with emotion, "I'll buy it for you, I'll buy it for you..."

"We need to choose an auspicious day to get our marriage certificate. I'd like to get it in May so I can dress up nicely in the spring."

"Okay, we'll go on whichever day you say, and you can wear whatever you want," Guan Jie said.

"I want to have three children, two sons and a daughter."

"Okay, whatever you say," Guan Jie said.

"Jay, look, how beautiful the clouds are in the sky!"

"Yeah, like a marshmallow," Guan Jie said.

……