Raising The Zombie King

. . . So hot.

The cicadas outside the window cried one after another and heatwaves poured into the house continuously.

It’s been more than ten days since they returned from the raccoon forest and it’s only been sunny ever since, today’s dizzyingly hot as if it suddenly turned into the height of summer.

Why is it so hot. . .

Lin Yuzu wore hot pants with suspenders and laid on the table, flipping through [The President’s Contract Bride] with blank eyes, looking like a dead fish.

She had an ice basin next to her, provided by Xiao Bai’s ability, but it couldn’t alleviate this unusually hot weather at all.

It’s really hot. . .!!

Especially with an oversized fire attribute plushy leaning against her feet, it’s even hotter!

Lin Yuzu gently kicked and rubbed the air-conditioned Zhaocai, “Stay away from me, aren’t you hot? Lean over and I’ll shave off your fur.”

Zhaocai, “Meow”

He didn’t take her threat to heart at all.

Lin Yuzu was just talking. Even after the weather got hot, Zhaocai began to shed like crazy and their house became full of cat hair.

After all, she had heard before that some cats would feel ashamed and suffer from depression after getting shaved.

With Zhaocai shedding his gorgeous fur every day and majestically going out to patrol the area, the chances of getting sick are too great.

If he really gets sick, should Xiao Xiao give him some psychological counseling? Lin Yuzu imagined such an image . .

. . . It’s not impossible.

“Meow~”

“Okay, okay, don’t rub on me, it’s hot. . . go find Xiao Hong to play with you, okay?”

“Meow~”

Not good. Zhaocai walked around Lin Yuzu two more times and kept harassing her until she was held down and rubbed her head. She got dizzy before she broke free and ran to the porch outside.

The big lazy cat propped himself up, avoiding the strong daylight, and paced leisurely in the shadows. His tail hung back with a brisk sway.

He walked over to his food bowl, his whiskers twitching, and lowered his head. . . nothing.

The umami snacks that appeared from time to time, every day, but today, after leaving it for a while, they’re gone.

Zhaocao suddenly turned his head and the carnivorous flower in the corner of the yard with half-closed petals with its esophagus obviously wriggling,

After storing the food, it opened its mouth in his direction, emitting the familiar food smell, “Pfft.”

Zhaocai, “. . .”

Hey, aren’t they hot. . .
Lin Yuzu listened to the sound of the plant fighting a cat violently erupting in the yard. She then closed her book, picked up the mostly melted ice tub, and went to the living room to look for Xiao Bai.

The two slender birds don’t have the same self-healing ability as her so the injuries they sustained haven’t been healed yet and are now temporarily staying over.

Lin Yuzu finished replenishing the ice storage and changed them by hand. Xiao Qing quacked twice and touched her hand with his head to express gratitude.

The duel outside intensified and Xiao Hong used the vines in the yard to fly violently to protect her body and led the cat to jump up and down and back to the drying rack.

After Zhaocai was pitted, he trained more often and stopped being fooled immediately. After slamming his paws to stop and stomped once more and leaped over the drying sheets.

. . . However, the scheming vine directly entangled his hind legs and tripped them.

The drying rack broke and fell on the ground. Lin Yuzu heard the commotion from inside the house and guessed the development. She sucked in a breath of cold air and pushed out the door, “It’s you two again!”

There was a plush rolled up in the dusty quilts and covers, rubbing his fur all over them! Lin Yuzu, who had only managed to clean it up an hour ago, turned black in front of his eyes.

The cat who did something bad realized that the mess he made was a big deal and meowed and slipped out the door.

“. . .” The sun is too bright and she’s too lazy to go out and chase him. Lin Yuzu only caught Xiao Hong, who can hurt others but can’t run away like the cat, “No dinner. Come and help me wash the clothes.”

The carnivorous flower dropped and closed her petals.

After the big cat ran away for a certain distance, he calmly slowed down after seeing that no one was chasing him.

He saw the zombie king on the way home, walking under the big sun from a distance. It didn’t seem to mind the heat as she looked down at the bunch of purple flowers in her hand.

Feeling the familiar source of intimidation, Zhaocao feigned calmness and sat down, his tail fluttering around vainly behind him, raising a cloud of dust.

The zombie king passed by and turned her head to look at him, “Zhaocai?”

Zhaocai opened his golden cat pupils wide and purred lovingly, “Mee ooww~~”

“. . .” The zombie king continued, “Don’t make her angry.”

“. . . meow.”

She then walked away.

Zhaocai shook his ears and left happily.

It circled around its territory, finding nothing unusual or interesting, and decided to explore uncharted territory.

Walking upstream along the river, he came across a lotus pond. The oncoming summer breeze sent a fresh scent as Zhaocai stared at the water surface under the cover of the cascading lotus leaves where a shadow was swimming.

He stretched out his paws to pick the creature up, a small carp, was fished alive and flopping on the shore.

After playing with it for a while, Zhaocai ate it. It didn’t taste as good as the food at home. The big cat plucked away the remains of the food and carefully licked his paws clean.

The wind gradually stopped, but the lotus leaves at a certain place suddenly shook without the wind.

Zhaocai paused. He kept his paw raised and turned his head towards the center of the lake.

A gold western carp rose this time. Its bright golden pupils reflect the burning sky and the thin pupils seem to have brightened under the light.

. . .

To read the original translation, please visit: triple ‘w’ dot nihilumcreations dot wordpress dot com slash raising-the-zombie-king slash

. . .

“So, Zhaocai ran away from home?”

It was the third day that the fire-spitting big cat is missing. Lin Yuzu was using scientific methods to borrow sunlight to light a fire.

“Probably.” Xiao Xiao replied while crushing the ice cubes formed by Xiao Bai into powder as requested by Lin Yuzu.

She had just returned from the field. Even after Lin Yuzu had recovered from her injury, she was still in charge of planting.

Lin Yuzu followed once and found that she couldn’t help at all because all the troublesome work was done by mutant creatures under Xiao Xiao’s command.

With the fire finally lit, Lin Yuzu sighed, “Call it back, otherwise we will have to manually start the fire when the sun is out.”

Xiao Xiao tilted her head, “He seems. . . unwilling.”

“Unwilling?” Lin Yuzu looked up in surprise. She had never seen a mutant creature defy the power of the zombie king, “Is there something wrong? Should we go look for him?”

“It seems no danger. . . Yuzu.”

“Hmm?”

“Fire went out.”

“. . . ah.”

All in all, them finding their house cat is imperative.

After Lin yuzu finished the last bite of her homemade watermelon smoothie, the icy cold sensation melted in her mouth.

Taking advantage of the brief time when the sun was covered by clouds, she stood up as if she was dead, “. . . Let’s go.”

“Okay. . . hold hands.” The taller Xiao Xiao opened her umbrella and held it as she extended her hand towards Lin Yuzu.

Lin Yuzu suddenly felt that the hot weather wasn’t as annoying anymore.

Xiao Xiao isn’t afraid of heat. She walked next to Lin Yuzu halfway under the umbrella, As long as she didn’t stay in the sun for too long and her hands still felt cold.

Lin Yuzu suddenly thought while on the road, “Will you need to hibernate during winter?”

“No.” Xiao Xiao seriously thought, “But, will be afraid of the cold, the night to light fire. This year, with Yuzu, it’s okay.”

Lin Yuzu imagined Xiao Xiao, who was alone in the fire trying to keep herself warm. . . What would she think at that time? Lin Yuzu then squeezed her hand, “. . . I’ll always be with you in the future.”

Xiao Xiao curved her eyes.

The sun slowly moved out from behind the clouds. The umbrella can block the upper body but couldn’t cover their legs. The sun was shining on Lin Yuzu’s legs, so Xiao Xiao changed her position slightly and blocked the sun for her.

Lin Yuzu noticed her movements and her voice unconsciously softened, “I’m going to be spoiled by you if you keep that up.”

She once had the experience of hiking under the head of the sun with a heavy load. The situation then was so much worse that her skin peeled due to the sun was common. If she couldn’t hold on and fell, she would fall down forever.

No one would help her and everyone had gone numb because they had to take care of themselves first.

Things that have been taken for granted before now seem to be a little bit tolerable. This must be because Xiao Xiao is by her side.

Xiao Xiao said, “It’s okay. Like spoiled Yuzu too.”

Ahh. . . what can I do about this.

Lin Yuzu pressed the back of her hand against her cheek, unable to distinguish whether the heat came from the hot weather.

“That that. . . A lake ahead?”

The summer wind is also hot and the warm wind brought a sweet fragrance.

Lin Yuzu raised her head and was surprised to see that the vast lake was filled with crowded lotus leaves.

The continuous cool blue color came reflected in her eyes, just like a breeze blowing from the heart, and the pink and white lotus flowers in between stood tall and graceful.

“There’s still such a place!” Lin Yuzu’s spirit was lifted by the unexpected scenery.

It wasn’t far from home, but it seemed that they had not walked in this direction before so they surprisingly didn’t know that there was such a lotus pond.

Xiao Xiao’s eyes slightly lit up, “Come and play next time.”

“Mmm, we’ll take advantage of these few days since there won’t be such a good view after summer.” Lin Yuzu was also someone who’s rarely willing to go out in this kind of weather. She took a deep breath and saw the familiar fur color when she looked around.

“Zhaocai!”

Zhaocai, lying in the shadows by the lake was looking over the lake and sat up with a jolt when he heard his name.

It looked their way, seemed to recognize the people, and came over, rubbing Lin Yuzu all over despite the dirt in his body.

Lin Yuzu pushed it away in disgust, “You’ve really made yourself dirty again. . .”

She examined the cat that she hasn’t seen in three days from top to bottom. It didn’t have any bad spots except maybe rolling in the mud. He looked like a cat who was living happily.

“So that’s why you’re not coming back, huh?”

“Meow. . .”

“. . .” Lin Yuzu couldn’t understand. She who never learned this kind of foreign language looked at Xiao Xiao.

Xiao Xiao thought for a moment with a puzzled look and said vaguely, “It’s waiting here, for mutant creature.”

Lin Yuzu, “. . .”
Could you be looking for a mating cat here?

She stroked Zhaocai’s head and the big cat purred under her skillful strokes, squinted comfortably, and soon fell limp on the ground, exposing his belly defenselessly.

Xiao Xiao then said, “It seems. . . To be a fish, golden.”

Lin Yuzu, “. . . eh?”