Pregnant During An Apocalypse [BL]-Chapter 196 - Missing or dead?

Yunfeng’s eyes snapped open.

He wasn’t cold anymore, and the searing numbness that had crawled up his spine was gone — or at least muted. What greeted him instead was a dimly lit room, the air tinged with an uncanny stillness.

His breathing hitched when he recognized the wall opposite him.

It was covered in missing posters.

Hundreds of them — old, crinkled, yellowing at the edges. Some were printed, some hand-drawn. All of them had desperate, pleading eyes staring back. And all of them were taped with worn precision.

This was that room.

"...I’m back again?" he whispered, his voice unheard.

The first time he came here, his body had nearly died. His soul had escaped — drifting into this in-between future.

Ever since then, he showed up here occasionally when he was deep in slumber.

The room was strangely lit with a lot of inteface screens embedded on every side of the wall. All open and without any lock.

And sitting on the bed across the room was his sister, hana.

She hadn’t changed — and yet, she had.

Her once radiant face was pale and drawn, shadowed by monstrous eyebags that looked carved into her skin.

She was thinner. Exhausted.

Her usually upright posture was now slouched and defeated. And in her hands was the sleek interface screen — her fingers trembling slightly as she held it close to her.

He slowly stood, his limbs surprisingly steady in this dreamscape. His bare feet made no sound on the floor.

The last time when he was here using the interface system to study their history his sister had somehow noticed him and called out his name.

’is that why...’ his eyes roamed around the room at every single screen.

’Is she still waiting for me?’

The thought lodged in his chest like a blade.

He moved closer, sitting beside her without disturbing the bed. With a tentative hand, he reached toward the screen in her hand. His fingers brushed against it—and it moved.

The scroll jumped, reacting to his touch.

Hana’s head snapped up. Her tired eyes widened. "Yunfeng? Is that you?!"

Her voice was raw. Starved.

She clutched the screen tightly, eyes searching the room in a frenzy. "If that’s you—move the screen. Up and down. Any direction, just... please."

Yunfeng took a shaky breath and moved the screen up and down.

Hana gasped.

Her lips trembled, and her whole body seemed to cave in at once. "You... idiot," she croaked, tears pouring down her face. "Where the hell did you go? Why didn’t you call? Why didn’t you let your family know you were alive?!"

She sobbed, covering her face with both hands. "I searched every corner for you... you left without saying anything, like we didn’t matter to you..."

Yunfeng reached out instinctively. He wanted to hug her. To comfort her. He wrapped his arms around her, trying to pull her close, to bury his face in her shoulder—

But his hands passed through her.

He froze.

His arms were transparent. A soft blue hue rippled where he touched her, and then vanished. Hana didn’t even flinch.

Still crying, she wiped her face clean and looked down at the screen again. "Okay... Yunfeng... I need to know. Are you alive?" Her voice cracked. "O-once for yes. Twice for no."

Yunfeng hesitated.

He didn’t want her to suffer. Didn’t want her wasting her life in grief. So, slowly... achingly... he moved the screen twice.

Her scream ripped through the silence.

"No... no no no, Yunfeng... no! You can’t be... you can’t be gone..." She clutched the screen as if it were his last breath, sobbing into it, rocking back and forth. Her shoulders heaved with every cry. Her hands trembled.

Yunfeng knelt before her, aching. His chest felt like it was tearing open. He tried to cup her face, to wipe her tears, but again — his hand slipped through.

"I’m sorry," he whispered. "I didn’t mean to go..."

"Did....did you die in an accident?" Hana suddenly whispered, her voice small and trembling. "Once for yes, twice for no."

He moved the screen twice.

She blinked. "Y-you were... killed?" Her voice broke into a fragile whisper. "Someone... someone killed you?"

He moved the screen again. Once.

A deep silence fell between them. Hana looked haunted.

"I’ll kill them," she murmured. "I’ll find them. I’ll kill whoever did this to you..."

She was shaking now, trembling with grief and rage, wiping her snot and tears with a trembling hand. "Who? Tell me who it was..."

But Yunfeng didn’t have enough strength left. The screen flickered in his grip. He tried to move it — just a bit — to tell her, but the light faded. His vision wavered.

"I swear, Yunfeng, I’ll find them—whoever did this, I’ll—!"

The world suddenly tilted. The posters, the walls, the screen—all blurred together.

Then it went black.

He gasped, jolting upright.

His heart was pounding loudly in his chest.

He was back again.

Back to the past.

Breath coming in shallow puffs, Yunfeng looked around.

He was in a dimly lit basement, the concrete walls chipped and damp. His naked body had been clothed in a white t-shirt and a pair of too-big shorts. The familiar military coat — had been draped over him like a blanket.

He shivered, pulling it tighter.

His eyes stung as he held back his tears.

His future self was dead. He did not want his sister to have hope that he would be back.

He did not want her to search for him anymore.

He simply wanted her to live her life carefree and jolly like before.

Yunfeng sniffled wiping his tears away. "she... she can move on now..."

"who?" a sudden voice pulled him out of his dazed state.

Yunfeng glanced at kailun who came back with a bag of food. He shoved a crem bun in his hand. "eat quickly. We are starting in ten minutes."

Yunfeng gazed around. Only two soldiers were with them, they too were eating their buns in a hurry. "where are the others?"

Kailun took a deep breath. "Others.... didn’t survive."

Yunfeng froze up. "you went through the zoo..." he mumbled under his breath.

The old man’s wrinkles seemed pronounced at this moment. He let out a sigh rubbing his forehead. "yes... we.. we went through there.. went in as fifty and..... and came out as just three"