The day after A'Jie woke up, the atmosphere in the safe house was a bit delicate.
As the sixteen-year-old boy's body gradually recovered, his spirit coiled up tightly like a frightened hedgehog. He became exceptionally silent, spending his days huddled in a corner, hugging his knees, and not interacting with anyone. He would stare blankly at the wall, as if his soul was still trapped in that bloody afternoon when his parents were torn apart.
Su Wan'er tried to approach him with her gentle nature, bringing him hot soup and changing his bandages, but A'Jie just accepted it all numbly, without a word, without a glance.
"The kid has PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)," Lin Mo told Chen Shouzhou in private. "This kind of psychological trauma is much harder to heal than physical injuries."
Chen Shouzhou looked at the small, huddled figure in the corner, sighed, and then put on his signature, flippant smile.
"Old Lin, you don't get it," he said, patting Lin Mo's shoulder with an air of profound mystery. "For this kind of difficult case, I have a secret family recipe. It cures all ills."
With that, he took a bowl of meat broth, swaggered over to A'Jie, and sat down beside him.
"Hey, buddy, what's on your mind?" Chen Shouzhou said, striking up a conversation as if they were old friends.
A'Jie didn't respond, remaining as still as a statue.
"Not talking? Fine, I'll tell you a story to pass the time." Unfazed, Chen Shouzhou cleared his throat and said with a serious expression, "Do you know why zombies never play hide-and-seek?"
Still no response from A'Jie.
"Because," Chen Shouzhou answered his own question, deliberately lowering his voice for suspense, "they can never find the people who are hiding—because they've already eaten them all! Hahaha, isn't that hilarious?"
Dead silence filled the air, broken only by the crackling of the bonfire.
Chen Shouzhou's dad joke had successfully lowered the temperature of the atmosphere to freezing point.
Unembarrassed, he continued, "Here's another one. One day, a mutant rat fell into a rice vat. It was overjoyed, eating and sleeping all day. But one day, the rice ran out. It wanted to get out, but found it had grown too fat and could no longer jump out. What does this story teach us?"
He looked at A'Jie, winking expectantly.
A'Jie still didn't react.
"This story tells us that you should never casually switch jobs, or you'll starve to death!" Chen Shouzhou announced the answer himself, followed by another round of dry, self-amused laughter.
Nearby, Su Wan'er silently observed the interaction. She noticed that although A'Jie showed no reaction on the surface, whenever Chen Shouzhou made an exaggerated gesture, his peripheral vision would unconsciously flick towards him. He wasn't numb; he was just scared—scared of reconnecting with this cruel world.
She walked over to Chen Shouzhou and wrote on her notepad: "Perhaps he just needs some time."
Chen Shouzhou nodded. Of course, he knew. He wasn't telling these terrible jokes to be funny. He was using the most harmless, non-aggressive way to tell the boy, "Hey, I'm here. I won't hurt you. This world sucks, but it's not completely hopeless yet."
"Then we'll wait with him," Chen Shouzhou said softly.
From that day on, Chen Shouzhou began to give A'Jie a tour of their "kingdom." Like a proud king, he introduced every inch of his "territory" to the boy.
"See this fence?" he said, pointing to the crooked but electrified barrier. "I call it 'Thor's Kiss.' Whoever touches it gets a shock. Cures all kinds of disobedience."
"And this plot of land," he pointed to the seedlings that had just sprouted new leaves. "This is our 'Hope Farm,' the future vegetable and fruit supplier for our safe house. We're counting on it."
He explained how every brick and every wire was acquired, recounting how they fought off Lei Bao and escaped from the supermarket. He told these harrowing experiences in a relaxed, even boastful tone, as if he were telling someone else's adventure story.
A'Jie followed behind him silently, listening and watching. Gradually, a flicker of light returned to his once-empty eyes.
A few days later, to help A'Jie regain his sense of self-worth and trust in the team, Chen Shouzhou organized a unique "survival skills test."
He took A'Jie to a complex area of ruins and had him demonstrate how to climb a half-collapsed wall without making a sound, and how to distinguish between zombie and mutant beast tracks on the ground.
Having survived in the wasteland with his parents for years, these skills were deeply ingrained in A'Jie. Though silent, his movements were incredibly nimble. He was like a phantom cat when climbing and like an experienced old hunter when identifying tracks.
After the test, Chen Shouzhou clapped him firmly on the shoulder and praised him sincerely, "Not bad, kid! You're more agile than I am! From now on, you're the chief scout of our safe house! As for your salary... I'll put it on your tab for now!"
Hearing this, A'Jie, who had been stone-faced all this time, finally showed the faintest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
That night, by the bonfire, Chen Shouzhou didn't tell any more bad jokes. Instead, he told A'Jie a story about a librarian.
He told a story of how, when the virus broke out, that librarian used his knowledge of the library's layout, using bookshelves, carts, and ropes to create various traps, outsmarting a group of clumsy zombies and eventually escaping.
"...So you see," Chen Shouzhou concluded at the end of the story, "sometimes, knowledge is more useful than a gun. The brain is a good thing; you should use it more."
A'Jie listened quietly and was silent for a long time. Just when Chen Shouzhou thought he wouldn't respond again, he suddenly looked up and asked, in a hoarse, slightly uncertain voice, his first question:
"Were you... really a librarian before?"
Chen Shouzhou was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing, doubling over with mirth.
"That's right!" he nodded emphatically. "And I know a hundred ways to turn a bookshelf into a deadly trap. Want to learn? I'll teach you!"
The next morning, in the safe house's simple kitchen, Su Wan'er was preparing breakfast.
A'Jie walked over silently and stood beside her. After a moment's hesitation, he said in a very soft but clear voice, "Can... can I help chop the vegetables?"
Su Wan'er's hand, which was chopping, paused abruptly. She slowly looked up at the boy before her. Though there was still a hint of timidity in his eyes, the emptiness and deadness were gone, replaced by a cautious desire to belong.
Something gently tugged at Su Wan'er's heart. She nodded and handed him a small knife and a potato.
A'Jie took the knife and began to clumsily peel the potato. He looked at Su Wan'er's lips, which had remained closed and silent all this time, and then thought of Chen Shouzhou's wild words and actions. Suddenly, he mustered up his courage and asked softly:
"Sister, you... you can talk too, right?"
Su Wan'er's body froze again. She didn't answer, just lowered her head and silently continued with her work. But her shoulders were trembling slightly.
At that very moment, Chen Shouzhou, who was on watch in the watchtower, suddenly heard the system's prompt in his mind.
[Ding! Hidden quest 'A Broken Heart' progress updated. Completion: 30%.]
[Congratulations, Host. You have received a phased reward: Skill 'Mental Soothe (Beginner)'!]
[Mental Soothe]: You can, to a certain extent, alleviate a target's negative emotions such as tension and fear through physical contact or language. Remark: When using on a member of the opposite sex, please exercise discretion, or you may be mistaken for a pervert.]
Chen Shouzhou couldn't help but laugh out loud at the new skill and its quirky remark.