Going back home

The two sat on the sofa silently, as neither of them had anything to say. But Xiaoyun could feel his time was starting to run out.

"Yuqi, I need to tell you something."

"What is it?" Yuqi nervously asked.

"Here's the gun I found. I need you to use it on me."

Xiaoyun quickly pulled the safety off and handed the gun over to her, forcefully shoving it into her hand despite her attempt not to take it.

"What? I-I can't do this. I don't know how to use a gun."

"I need you, okay? Please... Ahem Ahem... I don't have a lot of time left." Xiaoyun pleaded as his voice became increasingly weaker.

"Please stay with me! It's all my fault! I should have been the one that deserved to die..."

Tears began to fall from her eyes as her heart started aching, holding the gun that she couldn't bring herself to use on anyone.

"All this would have never happened if I hadn't gone to the restroom. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."

Xiaoyun held her in his arms, not knowing what to do to comfort her, but he knew there was no point in sugarcoating it.

"Please don't cry. Listen to me. If I... Ahem, Ahem... I turn into a zombie. I need you to shoot me."

The moment he finished talking, she started crying even harder as she dropped the gun onto the coffee table.

"Okay, okay, you don't need to shoot me. Just tie me to a chair if you don't want to do it... I just don't want to hurt you."

Yuqi nodded in agreement, this time as she slowly held her urge to cry. But her voice was still unable to stop sobbing.

"Come on, sis, you are older than me. Why are you crying like a baby? Remember your stone-cold face when you first saw me?"

Xiaoyun's words seemed to have worked as the sobbing stopped completely.

"It's not your fault, please don't blame yourself. *Cough Cough* I was careless, and I don't regret coming here."

Seeing him starting to cough more and more, Yuqi's face almost seemed to be on the verge of crying again.

"There are zombies outside *cough* I need you to stop crying... You don't want to die to the zombies, right?"

She nodded in agreement, giving him a little relief as he gently patted her on the head.

A moment of silence appeared between the two as neither of them wanted to speak up until Xiaoyun suddenly started having a reflection.

"Hey, Yuqi... Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No..."

"You're just like me then... I'm still kind of sad that I didn't even have a girlfriend before I died.

Isn't that pity? And If it weren't for my mom, I wouldn't even know what women *Cough Cough* are like..."

Xiaoyun's cough became increasingly severe, to the point that he couldn't even finish speaking.

"No, No, No, don't leave me... It's not a pity. There's nothing wrong with not having a girlfriend."

Yuqi thought for a second, then quickly spoke out her mind.

"Y-You are my boyfriend now! You won't be dying when your girlfriend is next to you, please."

A warm smile appeared on his face as it started to turn pale, almost as if he just got the happiest message from her.

"Thank *Cough Cough* you."

Seeing all of the blood underneath his face seemingly disappearing, Yuqi quickly made up her mind and leaned forward.

After what felt like forever to Xiaoyun, their lips finally separated.

"Thank you, sis. Before I go, can you call me brother one last time?"

The blood underneath his face started to reappear, and his body seemed to gain a surge of energy.

"Brother?"

As soon as Yuqi said it out loud, the apparent energy disappeared, and his back fell onto the sofa.

Xiaoyun had finally lost consciousness as his eyes slowly closed. His entire body was starting to turn pale.

"No! No, I don't want to be alone again! Please come back!"

Yuqi couldn't help as she collapsed into his arms and started crying again. But after crying for a bit, she finally stopped.

Inside, her mind was filled with the last things he wanted her to do as she wiped away all the tears on her face.

She quickly got up from the sofa, dragging Xiaoyun's body to a chair in the kitchen before she found some zip ties inside the kitchen cabinet.

After tying his hand, then his arm, then his legs and neck, she headed over to the window and ripped the entire curtain to cover his eyes and body.

With everything done, she slowly sat back down before her phone suddenly started vibrating.

"Hey Yuqi, did Xiaoyun find you? His phone isn't picking up." Leyan's worried voice asked.

"Yeah, we are both currently in a hotel for the night. Xiaoyun was a little tired, so he fell asleep early."

Yuqi calmly replied, her voice appearing to have everything under control despite the tears on her face.

"Okay then... Well, good night, Qiqi."

"Goodnight, Mom——"

Unable to bear it, Yuqi immediately hung up and started crying again.

But it was much quieter than before as the sound of zombies growling outside the streets made her more afraid than ever.

"Why am I crying so hard for a stranger? I met him today and even gave him my first kiss. Why does my heart hurt so much?"

Yuqi couldn't understand the emotion inside her heart as she looked towards the curtain.

"Is it because he saved me?"

Yuqi thought for a long time but couldn't answer her own question, eventually falling asleep on the sofa.

---

In the middle of the night, Yuqi was woken up by the urge to go to the restroom.

After she finished using the restroom, she quickly moved over to the curtain to check.

To her surprise, Xiaoyun didn't turn into a zombie, and his face was no longer pale like earlier.

But he showed zero signs of waking up, motionless like a corpse. When she touched his neck, his heartbeat had disappeared.

A defeated Yuqi covered him back up with the curtains and headed back to the sofa.

---

When Xiaoyun woke up, he thought he was dead at first as he couldn't move, see or smell anything at all.

Feeling the fabric texture covering his entire body and the zip ties on his limb, he quickly realized Yuqi had done what he had asked.

"Did she really need to tie me that hard? Is she still in the hotel?"

Xiaoyun tried to yell for help, but his mouth was stuffed with a piece of clothes.

After struggling for a bit, he finally realized he was tied to a chair, with his arm and leg strapped to it.

Fortunately, he was able to tiptoe around because the zip tie on his legs was a little loose, giving him a bit of space to maneuver.

But with a blindfold covering his eyes, he could only move in a random direction with no way to tell.

As he kept on tiptoeing forward, he suddenly felt something soft in his hand.

"Ah! What the hell was that?"

Hearing the familiar voice, he let out a sigh of relief.

---

Meanwhile, as Yuqi woke up from the sofa, she noticed a giant curtain figure standing right before her.

"A-Are y-you a z-zombie?" Yuqi asked nervously.

The curtain shook its head rapidly and tried to talk, but there were only muffled sounds.

Realizing it was actually Xiaoyun and not a zombie, Yuqi was overjoyed with happiness.

"Wait, stop moving. I'll untie it for you."

The curtain finally stopped moving as she went over to the coffee table to get the scissors she found in the kitchen.

As soon as she removed the curtain, she could see his face, looking exactly the same as before he was bitten.

She quickly cut through all of the zip ties and removed the piece of cloth from his mouth, finally freeing him from the restraints.

Just as Xiaoyun was about to stretch out his sore muscles, Yuqi had already happily jumped into his arms.

"I miss you so much! I thought I'd never see you again."

"Me too. I thought I was dead——"

Before he could finish talking, she kissed him right on the lips. His eyes widened in shock, unable to believe what just happened.

After what feels like forever, she finally lets him go.

"Don't jinx it, okay?"

As she shyly looked down to the floor, Xiaoyun's mind was still a little stunned.

"Um, are you really the real Yuqi?" Xiaoyun accidentally asked the question in his mind.

"What do you mean by that? Of course I'm Yuqi. Who else can I be?" Yuqi replied, looking a little confused by his question.

"Never mind."

As the two sat back down on the sofa, Yuqi suddenly asked something that had been on her mind ever since he woke up.

"Xiaoyun... Can you promise me you will never leave me again?"

"Sure, I won't leave you."

Xiaoyun replied, not thinking much of it and assuming that Yuqi felt a little too alone while he was gone.

As the two hugged each other again, his stomach suddenly started growling.

"Ah, you must be hungry... I remember seeing some food on the table. I'll go make breakfast."

Watching Yuqi get up from the sofa and walk over to the kitchen, Xiaoyun quickly took off his pants and removed the bloody bandages.

To his surprise, the bite mark was completely gone. If it weren't for the blood stain, no one would even suspect he was ever bitten.

"Why did I not turn into a zombie? Why did the bite mark just disappear?"

He thought and thought, but he couldn't come up with an answer that explained the phenomenon.

After giving up trying to think of an explanation, he quickly went to the mountaineering bag and took off his blood-stained clothes.

With the new clothes on, he walked over to the window and took a look.

The zombie horde had completely disappeared, but there were still more than enough zombies on the street for him to handle.

More importantly, there were no bushes to hide them this time, as the road and the sidewalk were completely open.

"Breakfast is ready!" Yuqi said out loud from the kitchen.

As Xiaoyun headed over to the kitchen, there were two bowls of noodles on the table.

He took a seat across from Yuqi and started eating the noodles, eating all of it just within less than a minute.

"Mmm, it's delicious."

"Really? I didn't add any besides salt."

Yuqi got a little curious and decided to taste the noodles herself. But they were just bland noodles.

---

After the two finished eating, Xiaoyun brought Yuqi to the window so she could see the zombies with her own eyes.

As the two of them walked toward the window, Yuqi suddenly grabbed Xiaoyun's hand.

He was surprised by her action, but he didn't say anything about it.

After they looked out the window for a while, they were a little lost on what to do next... Until an idea suddenly popped into Xiaoyun's mind.

"Let's go to the roof and have a better look."

Three minutes later...

After walking up five flights of stairs, they finally reached the roof. Looking down, they could still see the zombies in front of the hotel.

Meanwhile, to the left and right of the hotels were two apartment buildings, and to the back was a back alleyway park spot.

He thought for a second before realizing the other two buildings were too far to jump to, leaving him with only one option.

Yuqi quickly realized it, too, as there were no zombies in sight in the parking lot and the surrounding road.

"It would be real handy if there was a rope to climb down..."

Just as Xiaoyun was thinking about a rope in his head, it suddenly appeared in his hand.

"Huh, where did this rope come from?"

Hearing his comment, Yuqi looks over to his hand and sees the rope that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Wait, I remember your hand was empty earlier," Yuqi pointed out.

"I know... Weird."

Xiaoyun quickly handed the rope to Yuqi and thought about having a rope in his hand again.

To their surprise, a new rope of the same length and size suddenly appeared in Xiaoyun's hand.

"What? This doesn't seem right?" Xiaoyun murmured as he handed the rope to Yuqi again.

This time, Xiaoyun thought about him holding a 30-meter rope he had carried for work.

And sure enough, a 30-meter rope appeared right before him.

"This makes absolutely no sense," Yuqi murmured as she couldn't believe what she had just witnessed.

"I don't know what's happening... But we got a rope now."

Xiaoyunq quickly tied the rope to the pillars as hard as he could, then pulled it a little to make sure it was firm.

Afterward, he threw the rest of the rope down the back of the apartment just long enough to touch the ground.

"Yuqi, I'll go down first, and you'll follow me when I go down... Also, you should remove your high heels."

She quickly removed her high heels and handed them to Xiaoyun, who put them in his hiking bag.

"Don't be afraid. It's only six stories high. Just watch how I get down."

Xiaoyun took a deep breath, tied the bat behind him, and slowly climbed along the rope.

After several minutes of nonstop climbing and platforming across the balcony, Xiaoyun finally reached the ground safely.

He quickly waved his hand to signal her turn to go down.

"It's too high..."

Yuqi's legs started shaking as she noticed the height of the hotel. But she could also see Xiaoyun was still waiting on the ground.

"No, I can't just be a burden to him anymore. This is lower than the company's building... Yeah, I'm not afraid. I can do this!"

After cheering herself up, she began copying Xiaoyun's swings and climbed down the rope.

Halfway through, Yuqi rested on a balcony roof for a bit before continuing downward.

But suddenly, just as she began making the last stretch, the rope suddenly snapped.

With a split second left, Xiaoyun immediately imagined three beds in front of him.

"Clunk."

The bed appeared in front of him just in the nick of time, giving Yuqi a soft landing as she lay directly on top of it.

"Are you okay, Yuqi?" Xiaoyun asked as he started climbing on top of the three stacked beds.

"I'm fine, but my legs are a little weak..." Yuqi replied as she tried to stand up on her own but failed.

"Let me help you."

Xiaoyun slowly supported her down the bed before her leg finally became good enough to stand on her own.

But when he offered to switch shoes, she refused and grabbed the high heel for herself.

When asked why, she made him realize that not all shoes with heels were high heels.

The shoes she was wearing were actually flat heels, not the high heels that he had always thought of.

"Where did this bed come from?"

Yuqi curiously asked as the two of them began walking down the empty park connected to the parking plot.

"I don't know, to be honest... I just saw you falling from the building, so I thought about beds to soften your landing.

Then boom, they just appeared out of thin air." Xiaoyun explained as he described the bed with his hands.

Silence appeared between the two, as Yuqi still didn't really wrap her mind around the sudden superpower.

"Well, I am happy you are my boyfriend! I can't thank you enough for what you have done for me."

Yuqi suddenly kisses him on the cheek as a reward, then shyly looks toward the ground.

But Xiaoyun's brain was all over the place, his mind realizing how much he might have fucked up his already complicated relationship.

"Wait, she took my wish seriously? Fuck... why did I just dig myself a bigger hole?"

---

After walking for almost five minutes, they finally left the silent park and returned to the road.

Then, after another hour of walking nonstop, they finally arrived back home.

Xiaoyun knocked on the door as the two stood in front of the house, silently waiting for someone to open from the inside.

"It's me, Xiaoyun."

After saying it out loud, the door finally opened.

"Welcome home! You guys..."

Nami was a little shocked to see that the two were still holding hands, almost looking like a couple standing next to each other.

"Um, Yuqi fell down the stairs, so I was just... just supported her. Yeah, supporting."

Xiaoyun quickly replied as they both let go of each other's hands simultaneously.

"Really? My dear 'brother' Xiaoyun?"

Nami heavily emphasized 'brother,' looking at him with a sense of suspicion in her eyes.

Before Xiaoyun could say anything, Yuqi pushed Nami aside before the two headed inside the living room.

"Move out of the way. I haven't showered for two days already."

As she headed upstairs, her cold face and attitude returned as if they were her natural protective barrier.

"Where are Yueyue and Mom?" Xiaoyun curiously asked as he closed the door.

"Mom is gardening in the backyard, and I think Yueyue is at the gym."

"Huh? Do you have a backyard? And a gym?"

Xiaoyun's face looked a little shocked by Nami's reply, as he thought the house was just an ordinary one.

"Do you think I'm joking?" Nami questioned as she looked back at Xiaoyun's serious face.

"Okay. Take me to the backyard then."

As Nami guided Xiaoyun past the kitchen, he saw a giant backyard surrounded by a two-meter-high fence and a giant garden in the middle.

To the left is a small pavilion with a hot tub, and on the right is a swimming pool.

"Why does the house look so small compared to the backyard?"

Xiaoyun asked curiously as he began to realize how naive he was thinking that Yueyue was living in a normal house at first.

"I don't know. You'll need to ask Dad about that." Nami replied.

As the two walked toward the garden, they saw Leyan in the middle of the field, tending to her garden.

Leyan also noticed the two walking toward her as she looked up at the two.

"Ah, Xiaoyun, you are finally back. Yuqi came back too, right?" Leyan asked as the two of them stood outside the small garden fence

"Yeah, Yuqi is back... Miss Leyan, what are you planting?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.

"This one has lettuce, and there grows peas. Here, it grows cabbage and potatoes.

It looks like there's nothing there, but the seeds are underneath the dirt. Oh, and for this one..."

Just as Leyan was about to continue rambling on, Nami interrupted her.

"Okay, okay, Mom. We know you love gardening... Mom, you might want to change first."

After Nami finished speaking, Leyan looked down and realized her shirt was soaked with sweat.

"Oops, we'll talk later."

Leyan rushed out of the garden in embarrassment, covering her chest with her hands.

"Let's go back inside," Nami suggested as she was beginning to sweat a little.

---

As the two of them sat down on the sofa, Nami was a little bored until she suddenly decided to start gossiping.

"Hey, Hey, Xiaoyun."

"What?"

"Do you want to know more about your sisters?"

"Um... Sure."

As soon as he said yes, Nami's face was filled with excitement, as if she had been waiting for this exact moment.

"Brother, do you know that elder sister likes to read novels very much? Most of them are the kind of authoritarian CEOs with newcomers working for the first time."

"Huh? Really? That seems like the opposite of her. I am surprised she likes reading that kind of stuff."

Xiaoyun's face looked a little shocked by Nami's revelation, but he didn't really think too much about it.

"Here's the twist, though. It is not the domineering male you might think of, but it's those domineering females and a fresh graduate boy."

"Oh... That's kind of expected coming from her." Xiaoyun murmured as he thought back to the cold face.

"There is even more explosive gossip for Yueyue. Do you want to hear it?"

Xiaoyun nodded, intrigued by what she had in store for him next.

"Did you know Yueyue wasn't always shy in front of strangers? She used to be much more social and was like a class celebrity."

"Really?" Xiaoyun asked in disbelief, thinking back to how shy she looked when they first met.

"Yeah, really. She was even the class monitor... But then she was bullied by several girls in high school."

"Wait, why?"

"Because some of the girls were jealous of the attention she got from the boys. It got even worse when they learned our dad left us.

It's got, like, really, really bad... At one point, she was beaten to the ground and had her clothes torn apart."

"What? How is that tolerated in school? Where are the teachers? Where mom? Did nobody care about it?"

The anger in Xiaoyun's voice made Nami move back a little before moving closer again to continue the story.

"Nobody in school dared to speak out because the bully was a relative of the school board of directors. They were only holding back because of Dad's wealth.

But as you know, Dad got in a car accident... Mom fell into a depression after learning you also disappeared on the same day.

Yuqi was rarely home at that time since she lived in college dorms, and I couldn't do anything either since I was just in middle school."

Nami paused for a second to take a sip of water from her cup, then continued.

"Fortunately, sister Ningjing saw Yueyue getting bullied one day and decided to beat the shit out of them.

It turned out her parents had an even bigger background, so the bully was forced to leave Yueyue alone."

As the story finished, Xiaoyun gained a new appreciation for Ningjing, although her hulk-level size still made him a little afraid.

"I need to thank Sister Ningjing in person one day."

"No need. Mom had already personally thanked Ningjing's family after she had gotten over everything... Speaking of mom, do you want to know how Mom and Dad meet then?"

Xiaoyun nodded.

"I'm not exactly sure if this was one hundred percent true. Take it with a grain of salt...

So the story goes, Dad met Mom when he was in college. But then they had to break up after he had to inherit Grandpa's business...

Then, after a year, Dad formed the Songming Group after some risky business decisions.

He was the famous, successful entrepreneur going on national television, while mom was just a nurse in a small hospital——"

"How did they marry then?" Xiaoyun interrupted Nami, wanting to know the answer right away.

"I heard that Dad fell down the stairs while drinking at a business meeting. It was so severe that he needed to go to the hospital.

It just so happened that Mom was on duty as a nurse that night, and the two talked all night.

Then boom, a few days later, the two were getting married... Several months later, Yuqi was born."

"Huh, Flash marriage? That sound too exaggerated, almost like those love at first sight in TV dramas." Xiaoyun commented.

"Exactly... Don't tell this to anyone, but Mom's friends Miss Wuli and Miss Shuli told me that Mom and Dad——"

Nami moved a little closer, making him lower to her head level as she whispered it directly to his ears.

"——they already liked each other in college, but they were too shy to move forward... Dad was dying trying to find her the whole time——"

Just as she was about to finish gossiping, someone suddenly tapped her on the back, causing her to stop.

Turning around, she sees Leyan standing right behind her with an angry face.

"Are you gossip again, Mimi?" Leyan questioned as she quickly put Nami in a chokehold and gently knocked on her head.

"I-I didn't say anything! Okay okay! I'm sorry! I swear I'll never gossip again." Nami apologized.

As Leyan let her go, Nami immediately ran upstairs before the two of them could say anything else.

"I'm sorry if she bothered you." Leyan bowed down apologetically.

"No, no, I should be sorry. I was the one who asked her to tell me about the gossip."

As the two sat on the sofa in silence, Leyan finally decided to speak up.

"How's the situation outside?"

"It's very dangerous outside. There were a lot of zombies in the city when I left... But since we are on the city's outskirts, we should be safe for now."

"That's good to hear... How about Yuqi? Was she okay when you found her?" Leyan asked.

"Yeah, Yuqi is okay. I think she's taking a bath now."

As the silence appeared again, Xiaoyun could tell she wanted to say something. But her face got redder and redder until he remembered it.

"Oh, I forgot to find, uh, those pills. I was too busy bringing Yuqi back——"

"Forget it, you two getting home safely is all I care about..."

As the two continued to sit next to each other, Leyan couldn't help but notice the smell.

"Xiaoyun... There is a lot of bloodstain smell coming from your body." Leyan softly whispered.

"I know... But Yuqi is already taking a shower." Xiaoyun murmured, realizing Nami had sat through the smell without telling him.

"You can just go to my room and take a shower... I'll go cook some food first."