Chapter 5: Raising a zombie
Shao Qing had an intuition that the zombie had the exact same idea as her. In the same way that she wanted to catch him as food, he also wanted to catch her as food.
Narrowing her eyes, Shao Qing inwardly schemed how she was going to capture this intelligent zombie. After all she was a human. If she lost to this zombie in brains, then that really would be losing face for humans.
Not urgently or slowly, they continued to travel for another two hours. Seeing that it was the afternoon, she decided to find a location to rest since she was also capable of getting tired.
Even if her body wasn’t that tired, her psyche was already fatigued. Finding a small shop with few zombies, she quickly tidied up the place. After cleaning up, Shao QIng carried Xiao Baozi inside. With nightfall approaching, the shallowly sleeping Shao Qing became aware of movements near the door.
Earlier, she had placed a wooden stick against the door. This was so if there was any movement, she would notice right away. Appearing dead silent, after another little while, a shadow came crawling in through the window.
The window was one of the locations Shao Qing was paying extra attention to. Waiting for the shadow to gradually approach, the already awake Shao Qing quickly stood up and instantly knocked him to the floor. Shao Qing didn’t know what would happen to her if she was bitten or scratched by the zombie, so she wouldn’t dare to risk it. With speed, she grabbed onto the two arms of the zombie in front of her, then with a snap, she broke his two arms. In the split second when the zombie attempted to raise his head to bite her, Shao Qing stuffed a new stocking into his mouth.
After two minutes, tied up like a fried dough twist (crisp snack food made by deep-frying plaited dough) he wriggled on the ground with all his might. But no matter what, he was incapable of breaking free.
Shao Qing leaned in close to take a look. From a glance, the zombie looked like an eighteen/ nineteen year old youth. His appearance was delicate and pretty, but too bad he wasn’t human.
Carrying the sleeping Xiao Baozi to the corner to continue to sleep, she pondered how to deal with this strange zombie while she prepared for the daybreak of the next day.
Early the next morning, Shao Qing crawled out and looked at the zombie huddling in the corner, shrunk into a small ball and making a rather pitiful appearance.
The first thing Shao Qing did was absorb a piece of the grey crystals retrieved from the zombie’s body. Determining that the crystal doesn’t produce any harmful effects to her body, then did she decide to save some for Xiao Baozi.
She also discovered that he still had the crystals killed from those zombies. The majority however was not on his body, only a small portion was found.
With this being the case, it seemed like she will have to stay here for a little longer to gather some crystals. Then she could take Xiao Baozi and leave this place.
After all, gathering zombies to kill is comparably easier than gathering superhumans.
With this thought, Shao Qing prepared to kill the zombie so afterwards she could go out to find some more provisions for Xiao Baozi. However, right when she approached him, he awakened and unceasingly made crying sounds as if he was threatening Shao Qing.
Squatting down, she extended one of her hands towards the zombie’s head. He really was indeed more intelligent than the other zombies. Knowing that Shao Qing was about to kill him, his original vicious appearance changed. At the same instant of squirming backwards, he let out a faint whining sound to curry some good will and favour.
Although his eyes were already completely ash black, it still had a faint sparkle within them. Shao Qing’s lifted hand paused for a moment, hesitating a bit. Previously, the reason she didn’t immediately kill off the zombie was because she felt that this zombie gave off a similar feeling as her. She was the freak among humans while he was the freak among zombies.
However, if she was to bring around a zombie, no matter where she went, it would be inconvenient. Thus, Shao QIng decided to kill him.
Yet seeing this zombie’s struggle to survive, Shao Qing couldn’t help but recall the time when she was bathing in her pool of blood. She had also thirsted for survival.
“Do you understand human speech?” Shao Qing giving up on her previous action, reached out to touch his long, soft hair. Even if the zombie was unable to understand Shao Qing’s words, he was still able to sense her killing intent slowly disperse. Hastily, he used his head to rub against Shao Qing’s palm to demonstrate his willingness to be obedient.
Shao Qing sighed, then sat beside the zombie. “Before you leave this city, follow me. We’ll hunt some crystals and you’ll get a quarter of the share.”
Seeing the zombie’s obedient appearance, Shao Qing secretly felt better as well. Still, she took some precautions as she undid the bindings. The zombie didn’t strike out against her, he simply crouched down in the corner.
Shao Qing then noticed that the two arms she had just broken last night were already healed. This zombie is really peculiar. Using it as a reward for being well behaved, Shao Qing handed him a crystal.
The zombie used his big black eyes to stare at Shao Qing. After quite a long time, he then stealthily extended his hand out to take the crystal from Shao Qing’s hand, then consumed it at lightning speed .
It appears that he is able to directly digest these crystals.
After eating the crystal that Shao Qing gave him, the zombie felt a little closer towards her.
“Such a foolish expression, in the future I’ll call you Er Dai” Saying that, Shao Qing immediately laughed. Being given the name Er Dai, the zombie was able to feel that this was not a very good name. Yet, he did not protest. He didn’t dare protest. He even made an especially sincere look towards Shao Qing that would cause people to feel that he was a bit adorkable.
[Er Dai= Second Fool ]
Seeing that Er Dai’s cheeks and clothing were filthy, Shao Qing felt like she had to help Er Dai tidy up.
Finding a massive tub, she filled it up with water. After, she started to peel off Er Dai’s clothes. Er Dai stood there open and guilelessly, allowing Shao Qing to peel him naked.
Shao Qing’s gaze shifted downwards, sweeping across Er Dai’s pale body, then stopped at a certain somewhere: “Ah! Unexpectedly it didn’t rot and fall off.”
The Er Dai who shouldn’t show a trace of shame or embarrassment had a sudden weird urge to retreat. However, when he was attempting to retreat, he was thrown right into the tub by Shao Qing.
Before throwing him in, Shao Qing teased his certain area, lightly laughing. “All the hair has completely fallen off...” Then seeing the confused Er Dai, Shao Qing felt somewhat embarrassed and immediately started to give clean Er Dai.
Zombies really aren’t fond of water. He continuously flounced around in the water, but Shao Qing was still able to get him squeaky clean.
After washing him and changing him into a new set of clothing, if you didn’t look carefully, you would not be able to recognize that Er Dai was a zombie.
Rubbing Er Dai’s hair that was sticking up, Shao Qing was completely satisfied. At the beginning, she was certainly helping him due to her sympathy, but now that she thought of it a bit more, having a zombie as a companion actually wasn’t that bad.
At the very least, a zombie wouldn’t stab her in the back. In that respect, she’d rather have a zombie as a companion than a human.
Seeing one big, one small sitting on the ground using the exact same confused stare on her, Shao QIng’s heart softened. It was that feeling that all women who became mothers would have: maternal love.
This slow brimming of softness, for the time being, replaced Shao Qing’s trauma. It allowed her to clearly recognize that besides revenge, there are other possible reasons for her existence.