Chapter 26

Who had time for so many questions? Being alive was enough.
The others had acted as if the storage were an abyss. When Wei Yuan had asked her to go with him, she had thought she would face something life and death.
In the end they had just walked a loop through the dark.
Of course it hadn’t been that simple. Something had seemed to lurk in that darkness.
But… whatever. She had “seen” nothing. She could pretend nothing had happened.
Wei Yuan looked at this “calm” Jiang Shan and felt something more complicated in his eyes. In fact he had hoped she would ask something; he had been ready to answer.
Those answers wouldn’t have been honest. Who knew Jiang Shan wouldn’t give him the chance to spin a story.
She was too steady. Impossibly steady.
After refuelling, Zhang the driver let loose even more. The roof of the cargo bed seemed to be on the verge of falling apart. But Jiang Shan, adaptable as ever, could now sleep soundly through the bumps.
The truck only stopped for meals and nature’s call. Jiang Shan woke in the morning light. She had been using her backpack as a pillow and cushion. She saw Zhang Zheng and another man outside, side by side in the grass, doing something.
She looked away and slowly opened her backpack. Wei Yuan was already awake. He saw her take out her toiletries unhurriedly, step out of the truck as usual, find a clear spot and start brushing her teeth.
…
For days it had been like this. Jiang Shan brushed and washed on schedule every day—rock-solid routine, good habits. A model young person for the new era.
But… in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by people of unknown identity, Jiang Shan’s state of mind and behaviour seemed bizarre. Wei Yuan and the others had seen their share of the world—but day after day watching Jiang Shan, when she was clearly the most abnormal, they began to feel that they were the abnormal ones.
They had finally realized: the world was already abnormal. So no one did normal things. Yet Jiang Shan went on day after day doing what “normal people” did.
Jiang Shan looked at her toothbrush and went blank again. Then she looked at Zhao Ying. “Can I borrow some toothpaste?”
Zhao Ying: “…”
What the hell?!
Jiang Shan really did just want to borrow toothpaste. But Zhao Ying hadn’t brushed her teeth in two months. Where would she get toothpaste to lend?
Zhao Ying was wrapped in her suit. She felt her face must be green. For some reason she could smell something in her visor—bad breath?
Zhao Ying wanted to flip the table.
That evening the other three teammates saw Zhao Ying, for the first time ever, walk up to Jiang Shan on her own. The two whispered something. Then Zhao Ying, expressionless, took half a tube of toothpaste and went off by herself to the roadside to brush her teeth.
…?
Okay. Seriously impressive.
And because Jiang Shan had volunteered to go into the storage at the gas station, Zhang Zheng couldn’t keep scowling at her—he would have been the one to go in otherwise.
So in fact everyone’s attitude toward Jiang Shan was complicated: on one hand they still instinctively disliked this “survivor” who didn’t belong; on the other they felt she might not be so terrifying—her behaviour showed a normal human.
Maybe a human with unusually strong nerves.
In the cab they exchanged looks—mouths moving, no sound: “We should arrive before sunset tomorrow…”