Chapter 15.5 - You know the exit. I won't see you out.
She was deep in her thought, and she remembered so strongly how she felt during her last days after the apocalypse. She felt a deep sense of remorse and anger after losing XinWen, and a great sadness when she was unable to tell him how much she loved him, that she forgave him.
"Hua-jie, are you alright?" Li XinWen's question snapped Li JingHua out of her memories. Her eyes landed on Li XinWen who was looking at her. Then, memories of Li XinWen's death flashed in her mind and Li JingHua could no longer hold back her tears.
"Ah'Wen..." she weakly called out to her brother as the tears fell down her cheek.
Seeing this, Li XinWen's eyes widened and before he could even register what he did, he found himself already on Li JingHua's side, pulling her into a tight hug. Li XinWen was not the original Li XinWen of this world and yet, he felt his heart clench in pain when he heard Li JingHua's voice as she called out to him. 'Such a turbulent emotion, and the guilt in her eyes... She mentioned that she had experienced rebirth. Then, does that mean, she is experiencing this life the second time? Something must have happened to Li XinWen in the future she speaks of, evoking such an emotion from this strong young woman. Is that why she is protective of me? Or to be more exact, of the original owner of this body?'
Several questions ran in Li XinWen's mind but they remained unanswered, as he was unable to bring himself to voice them out. Especially as Li JingHua clung onto him while silently crying her heart out as if he was her last lifeline. Li XinWen looked around helplessly before he lifted his hand and started massaging Li JingHua's head gently. While doing so, he made sure to send out warm strands of spiritual energy into Li JingHua's mind in order to calm her.
With the help of Li XInWen's spiritual energy, it didn't take long for Li JingHua to calm down. She wiped her tears and looked over to the rest of the people present in the living room. "I apologize for my outburst. Let me continue... where was I..." Li JingHua tried to remember where she stopped earlier. "Ah, yes. The epidemic. Those with a weaker constitution, once they died, it took about five to ten minutes for them to change, but in some cases, it can be instantaneous. The period depends on the infected individual's condition before turning…"
Xue Rui, who sat silently listening to Li JingHua up to this moment had been contemplating whether all this talk about the apocalypse and rebirth was actually true. Perhaps due to the incident earlier with Min XiaoYu, Xue Rui felt all of his emotions muddled, his thoughts in chaos.
'This is giving me a headache… How did today turn out like this…today was supposed to be special…agh!' he thought in frustration prompting him to ask Li JingHua in a cynical manner.
"Change? You're not about to tell us that people are going to change into zombies now are you JingHua?" crossing his arms and giving Li JingHua a scrutinizing look.
The question was so sarcastic and condescending it left a bad taste in the mouth. Li XinWen and Min XiaoYu exchanged glances before looking at Xue Rui then back to Li JingHua.
As if unfazed by Xue Rui's statement, Li JingHua gave him a helpless smile.
"Rui, I know that this is all hard to believe but it is the truth. In the first place why would I go through all this trouble to make up a story about the apocalypse and zombies?"
"Exactly JingHua, why are you actually making up these stories about rebirth and the apocalypse?"
"I am not making up any kind of story. The apocalypse will happen and nobody can change that." Li JingHua responded, trying to keep her composure.
"It's frustrating to argue with you Rui… It's all right if you do not believe me. I expected as much." she said as she looked down on the floor.
"Clearly this is a waste of your time Rui and I do not want to spend my energy arguing with you about this. You can leave now. You know where the door is, I won't see you out."