He wanted to find Xie Chiyuan, and he wanted to find Zai Zai.
Yu An brainwashed himself and started staring at the zombies rushing by, no longer looking at the bright green umbrella lights.
After secretly following for a while, a village suddenly came into view. The village consisted entirely of self-built houses, but they were quite well-built, mostly single-story cement houses, with a few two-story buildings.
Most importantly, the village lights were on.
Seeing the zombies about to enter the village, Yu An panicked. If there were any survivors in the village, just a few zombies could wreak havoc!
He disregarded everything else and rushed out.
The next second.
A man clutching a kitchen knife darted in front of him like a ghost. The man's face was thin as skin and bones, and his eyes were fixed on Yu An.
Yu An: "..."
Yu An was startled.
After recognizing the person in front of him as human, he timidly greeted them, "Y-you, hello. I'm human, my name is Yu An—"
"It's getting dark, why aren't you home yet?"
The man interrupted him, his voice hoarse and unpleasant: "Your sister is waiting for you at home. If you don't come back soon, she'll come looking for you."
Yu An was stunned: "Huh?"
His thoughts were thrown into disarray by the man's words.
The man pointed to a small bungalow behind him and scolded him angrily: "You're getting more and more ambitious as you grow up! Look at you, your house is so deserted when you don't come back."
Amid the man's reprimands, Yu An seemed to slowly begin to remember.
The small house in the middle of the village is his and his sister's home. His father, uncle, and grandfather have all passed away, and he now lives with his sister.
But--
Yu An's head started to ache again, though he clearly remembered that he still had things to do.
From the moment he started to feel confused, he kept repeating what he needed to do: "I need to find Xie Chiyuan, I need to find... Zai Zai."
The man who led him back to the village didn't hear what he was saying, so he frowned and asked, "What little brat?"
Yu An was interrupted by him, and her self-brainwashing muttering stopped abruptly.
A few seconds later.
Yu An continued, but her tone became confused as she repeated, "I... I'm looking for Xie Chiyuan's child?"
man:"?"
The man still didn't understand, so he asked, "What?"
Yu An blinked, and in her daze, she merged the answers herself.
He said earnestly, "I'm looking for my and Xie Chiyuan's baby!"
The man frowned and looked at him, seemingly unsure how to respond after a long while.
A gust of wind blew by.
The green umbrella-shaped mushrooms seemed even more dazzling. The man was momentarily dazed, then, as if waking from a dream, he led the way, taking Yu An into the village.
People gradually emerged from the village; they were all alive and well, but there were only five or six of them.
As for the initial zombies, Yu An did not find any trace of them.
"Stop running around like that, stay home. Spend some time with your sister, don't let her always think about going out. We have plenty to eat and drink in our village, she's enjoying herself by staying here peacefully."
The villagers chattered and gave Yu An advice, and only after watching him push open the door and walk into his house did they move away from the doorway.
Compared to the zombies, Yu An felt more uncomfortable with these living people.
He went into the house but didn't see his sister. He knew he had a sister, but he had no recollection of her face.
The house was a mess, with the girl's clothes scattered about, dirty and few in number. He walked around the house but couldn't find his sister anywhere.
He was the only one at home, along with the small green umbrella mushrooms that are very common in the village.
These small umbrella-shaped mushrooms grew exceptionally large in his home. In particular, in the pigsty, there was a large umbrella-shaped mushroom that was several tens of centimeters long, emitting a faint green glow, which made Yu An involuntarily bend down.
Would you like to wear something with this outfit?
Yu An placed a women's sweater that had fallen on the ground onto the umbrella-shaped mushroom. The mushroom wiggled its body and tilted outwards, as if trying to be cute.
Yu An looked at it and said slowly, "My baby is prettier than you."
Giant Umbrella Mushroom: "..."
The giant umbrella mushroom straightened its cap, refusing to act cute anymore!
The mushroom and the person stood facing each other for a while. Yu An rubbed his eyes. Although this mushroom was similar in color to Little Nine, it wasn't as pretty, smelled as good, or as shy as Little Nine.
He wanted to rest for a while and then resume his activities during the day.
The thought had barely formed when a piercing scream suddenly echoed from a house at the back of the village.
This time it wasn't the howling of zombies, but the shrill screams of humans.
Because the houses were so close together, Yu An couldn't ignore them even if she wanted to.
He hesitated for a moment, then slipped out the back door to check what was going on. He hadn't gone far when he reached the house from which the shouts were coming.
He could see clearly inside through the window.
The zombies we encountered not long ago are all inside; they're devouring a corpse. The corpse is fresh and warm, but its eyes are wide open, refusing to close.
Not far from the zombies were several villagers.
Although the villagers were carrying items for self-defense, the scene made it seem as if they were raising zombies. The backpacks that the zombies had dragged back earlier were now in the hands of the villagers.
"These people are crazy."
Yu An had only this one thought left. He looked at the bloody scene of zombies eating people, and then at the indifferent onlookers, and for a moment he couldn't tell who was more disgusting.
After rummaging through their backpacks, the group started talking again.
"Is Yu An home yet?"
"arrive."
"He looks so fair and tender, don't rush to use him as animal feed. Let him rest for a couple more days..."
"good."
Every word of their conversation reached Yu An's ears. Translated, it meant they intended to use Yu An as a reserve resource.
Yu An leaned out the window, her hands and feet were ice cold.
He turned around blankly and went home, found a clean blanket and went to sleep. The blanket was thick, but Yu An's heart felt ice-cold.
In the darkness, the little umbrella mushroom thoughtfully turned off the lights automatically.
Yu An tucked the blanket under her hands and sniffed.
"I need to find Xie Chiyuan." He not only muttered to himself, but also wrote down what he needed to do: "I need to find my and Xie Chiyuan's baby!"
Once we find him, he'll run away with the baby!
--------------------
Author's Note:
Anzai, now fully awake: I need to find Xie Chiyuan, I need to find Zai!
Confused Anzai: I need to find my and Xie Chiyuan's baby!
Xie: ?
What?
Chapter 9
The night was cool and still, the sky was cloudless and moonless, and not a single star could be seen.
Yu An curled up in the blankets, not sleeping well by himself. He was actually a very clingy person, and he used to randomly grab a baby to sleep with him.
Without Zai Zai by her side, Yu An raised her hand and gently patted the blanket over herself.
As he patted him, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier until he finally fell asleep completely.
In the middle of the night, Yu An accidentally kicked off the blanket while turning over. Not long after, several mycelium strands, seemingly appearing from nowhere, pulled the blanket off the floor and covered him back up.
The mycelium worked hard to cover the ground for most of the night, but silently disappeared when the first light of dawn appeared the next day.
"Chirp, chirp."
The chirping of wild sparrows was making a racket outside the window. Yu An rubbed his eyes, woken up by the noise, and sat up with his usual blank expression.
I stayed there for quite a while.
Then someone knocked on the door, and it was a hoarse male voice. He called from outside, "Yu An, Yu An, are you up yet?"
"Open the door!"
"Yu An, did you run away?"
The knocking grew increasingly urgent. Yu An put on a light-colored sweater, casually ran her fingers through her hair, and then slipped on her shoes and went outside.
The door opened.
Yu An met the gaze of the person who knocked on the door. His face was tense, and he looked displeased: "I'm still sleeping."
Seeing that he was still there, the man's expression softened a little. He informed Yu An, "We're running out of food. There's a potato field at the east end of the village; go dig up some potatoes to eat. And bring some back for everyone while you're at it."
Yu An blinked and slowly said "Oh".
After seeing the man off, he returned home. There was a washstand in front of the mirror. After washing his face, he rolled up his sleeves and saw the bite marks on his arm.
The dragon tattoo fades when it gets wet; just wiping it off completely faded the dragon's shape.
Yu An looked down at the teeth marks and the bluish-purple patch of skin next to them.
When he woke up, his empty mind was filled with a few memories, and he suddenly realized: "So I'm a zombie."