Raising The Zombie King

The sky was drizzling and the world seemed to be shrouded in a veil.

‘Is something wrong?’

Lin Yuzu took back the cold lunch and the first thing that came to mind was the worst-case scenario, which she soon dispelled herself. No matter how passive Xiao Xiao is, she’s still a zombie king. There is no creatures in this world that can threaten her.

‘Then why is it. . .’

Lin Yuzu suddenly realized one thing. Xiao Xiao always followed her for the past two days, acting almost like a shadow behind her. After a while, after she got used to this, she never considered the situation where Xiao Xiao couldn’t keep up.

She may simply be just lost.

Lin Yuzu thought about it for a while and walked back along the way she had come before, and sure enough, she saw the white figure at her previous rest stop.

The woman in a white coat was sitting on the ruined wall by the side of the road, looking down at the things in her hands. She didn’t wear a hat and her snow-colored hair hung over her shoulders, wet with hazy rain.

Lin Yuzu stepped over the gravel on the road and made a faint noise.

Xiao Xiao looked up at the right moment, and under her snow-white lashes were a pair of pure ice-blue colors. Those jewel-like magnificent eyes that were reflecting the figure that was walking over, slightly widened and then curved up to form a pleasant arc.

Lin Yuzu inexplicably followed suit and curved her lips, “What are you looking at?”

Xiao Xiao twisted her palms and held them up to her to see. There was a small white flower, a pure white five-petal flower with a crimson calyx that had a moist, watery feeling. Lin Yuzu went ‘Ah’ and looked at the giant tree in the center of the town.

The distance is too far to see clearly, but one can see that the shade of the tree is decorated with white stars.

“The flowers bloom so fast. . .” Lin Yuzu exclaimed. Feeling that her fingers were hooked, she looked down and saw Xiao Xiao open her palm and placed the flower on it, “For me?”

Hmm

Although there was no answer, Xiao Xiao nodded seriously.

“Thank you.” Lin Yuzu carefully put it away. She then cleared her throat when she met Xiao Xiao’s gaze, “I found a place to live. . . Do you want to move in together?”

Xiao Xiao looked at her and slowly blinked her eyes.

She took out her notebook and flipped to the first page.

— Can you let me stay?

Lin Yuzu was speechless for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief and smiled, “Well, you can. . . No, I’m inviting you.”

The eyes that looked at her from behind the pages of the notebook curved and nodded briskly.

She said ‘move in’, but Xiao Xiao doesn’t seem to have anything to move.

Lin Yuzu took her on the way back. Before going back, they found cleaning tools in the grocery store on the side of the road. After all, the house hasn’t been inhabited for eight years. Just cleaning it will take a lot of effort.

Lin Yuzu walked ahead with a broom and mop, while Xiao Xiao carried two buckets and is a few steps behind. She seems to be curious about everything, especially the plants on the side of the road, and would easily stop to look at them.

When Lin Yuzu walked for a while, she had to look back once in a while to see if she had lost her. It was like taking kinder garden children out for a field trip, it was funny. Before the two met, she never worried that Xiao Xiao would be lost, but now she had a premonition that she would if she wasn’t careful.

Her hunch became a reality when Lin Yuzu turned her head after some time.

The road behind her was empty and no white figure could be seen. Lin Yuzu wanted to sigh again, she looked along with the weeds that had been trampled on the roadside. Xiao Xiao crouched under a tree, holding something in the plastic bucket that should have been carried in her hand.

“What are you doing?”

Lin Yuzu smelled a rich and sweet scent, and squatted down, looking into the bucket. It flowered again.

This time, the whole plant was dug out together with the huge root system that looked like fruit. The thick layered leaves were clustered around the sturdy flower stems and the big orange flowers bloomed above them – which looked a bit like lilies. The open petals drooped a little further with their tips looking like raindrops and pale yellow stamens that are short and dense.

The yard is so big that planting flowers wouldn’t be a problem at all, so Lin Yuzu asked, “Do you want to raise it?”

Xiao Xiao nodded.

While they were communicating, a small bird with blue feathers seemed to have been attracted by the fragrance and fluttered its wings and landed on the edge of the barrel. It was not afraid to turn its head around and looked at the two before lowering itself to touch the stamen with its pointed beak.

The floral scent suddenly intensified, and there seemed to be a lot of rancid smell.

Lin Yuzu watched the flower core open up like a person’s mouth that widened in an instant, revealing a crimson hole and jagged spikes.

Lin Yuzu, “. . . . . . . .”

The blue-feathered bird swayed and flapped its wings, but couldn’t fly and fell downward.

Xiao Xiao caught it with her hand.

She put the fallen bird softly on the side while the flower in the bucket still had its mouth wide open, seemingly not reacting. It took a while before it closed its stamens and turned back into a quiet plant. The earlier incident seemed like an illusion and the plant seemed a little more sluggish than before.

“Do you. . .” Lin Yuzu reconfirmed once again with difficulty, “. . . . want to raise it?”

Xiao Xiao was keenly aware of the changes in the atmosphere and looked at her with a slightly dazed questioning look, as if asking, ‘Can’t I?’

‘No! Can not!

Lin Yuzu feels that as a co-habitant, she had the right to refuse her roommate’s unreasonable request to keep dangerous creatures at home. But she met Xiao Xiao’s eyes, and after a moment of silence, she reluctantly said, “If it’s in the yard. . .”

Xiao Xiao obediently planted it in the courtyard.

While she was planting the flowers, Lin Yuzu was cooking the cold vegetables. It was raining outside and they didn’t have time to clean the inside, so it was still full of dust. In the end, Xiao Xiao was facing the yard – which was still mostly weeds – and sat on the porch, holding the bowl and slowly blowing it cool.

She took off her mask, revealing her whole face. Her facial features are soft and beautiful, like the delicate flower in Lin Yuzu’s pocket. If there was any school flower list in SW University in the past, Lin Yuzu believes that Xiao Xiao must be on that list.

Xiao Xiao lowered her head and drank the soup.

Lin Yuzu saw her hair hanging on the side of her face, falling into the bowl several times. She couldn’t help herself but reach out and caught it, causing Xiao Xiao – who was holding the edge of the bowl – look at her with a puzzled expression.

Lin Yuzu, “I’ll help you tie it up.”

She had cut her hair short for convenience a long time ago, so there was no hair tie around her. She had to use the elastic band on the hood of her clothes to make do with it. Probably because of the previous rain, Xiao Xiao’s hair was cool, and when it was pulled up, it looked like she was holding a cup of spring water.

Lin Yuzu tied Xiao Xiao a simple ponytail, and after combing her hair up, she discovered that her ears were pointed, like the ears of elves she’s seen in movies and TV series.

She couldn’t resist squeezing it with her hand, and Xiao Xiao, who was eating, flinched. . . and choked.

Xiao Xiao covered her mouth and coughed, turned her head to cast a disapproving glance while the tips of her slightly red ears trembled.

She looked surprisingly a little cute. . .

“Ah no, pfft, sorry.” Lin Yuzu met Xiao Xiao’s strong condemnation, but she couldn’t stop smiling. She immediately apologized while helping her recover.

Xiao Xiao turned away.

After a short break, Lin Yuzu and Xiao Xiao started cleaning the master bedroom. The living room and the kitchen were broken because of the roof and most of the furniture is damp and rotten due to the wind and rain, but the bedroom was well enclosed, so it was still useable but it needed to be mildewed.

Lin Yuzu also found a disordered six-by-six Rubik’s cube on the bedside table.

She tried to restore it. In this world without games, educational toys were very welcomed. But she herself isn’t good at this and felt that her thinking gradually knotted the more she fought hard against the toy.

Suddenly, Lin Yuzu raised her head and Xiao Xiao, who was mopping the floor next to her, put down her mop and seriously stared at her holding the Rubik’s cube.

“. . . .cough” Lin Yuzu almost forgot that she was still cleaning, “Working, working.”

Xiao Xiao looked at her, fiddled with the Rubik’s cube with her hands for a while and quickly and deftly restored the cube.

Lin Yuzu, “. . . .”

She pondered for a moment and said sincerely, “Please turn it back. Don’t disturb the fun of ordinary people exercising their IQ.”

Xiao Xiao shook her head condescendingly. She didn’t know what she was shaking her head to. She glanced at Lin Yuzu with an indulgent look, returned the Rubik’s cube and went out carrying the sewage bucket that had been washed with the mop.

After being raised at home, her personality has changed for the worse.

Lin Yuzu watched her back with an unconscious smile in her eyes. She placed the restored Rubik’s cube on the empty space on the bookshelf, next to the original owner’s books – which was carefully wiped by Xiao Xiao, and arranged them neatly, placing them in different categories.

Most of these books are technical books related to computer programming. They should be perfect to use for fire burning while the remaining magazines and novels can be used to pass the time.

This is Lin Yuzu’s idea. In comparison, Xiao Xiao treats each book carefully.

The sky gradually darkened, and the soft and dense spring rain ceased. After the rain, the slightly cool air was brought in by the wind through the windows.

After cleaning the bedroom, Lin Yuzu boiled water to clean her body and wash her hair on the way. She then returned to the room wearing loose clothes.

The musty smell of the bed was still too strong so they chose to sleep on the floor. With only one futon, they had no choice but to sleep together.

Xiao Xiao sat cross-kegged on the side against the wall, writing and drawing in her notebook.

She can write even without light at night. The zombie king’s night vision ability is really enviable.

Lin Yuzu sat outside, yawned and was ready to sleep when she turned her head and saw Xiao Xiao stopped her writing, tilted her head, and looked at her.

She touched her face, “. . .? What’s the matter, I didn’t wash my face clean?”

Xiao Xiao’s eyes reflected her appearance at the moment. Her white cheeks felt moist after being washed, her semi-wet hair were softly attached to her cheeks, her round eyes were a little dazed, and she looked cute and childish. . . like a14 or 15-year-old middle school student.

Xiao Xiao felt a sense of love and pity for the cub and touched her head.

“. . .” Lin Yuzu grabbed her hand with a dark face, “Don’t touch my head.”

Ever since she was a child, because of her looks, she attracted a variety of elders and peers, and even younger brother and sisters who wanted to touch her head. The person then seriously suspected that it was because of being constantly touched on the head that she wouldn’t grow any taller.

Xiao Xiao expressed innocence and doubt with her eyes.

“Anyway, no.” Lin Yuzu refused to discuss this topic, “What are you writing?”

Xiao Xiao directly handed her the notebook.

Lin Yuzu was taken aback, “Can I read it?” In fact, she just asked casually.

Instead of answering, the notebook was shoved over, and in the darkness, Lin Yuzu could only see simple lines on it. She turned on her solar-powered flashlight and realized that Xiao Xiao had drawn simplified houses and flowers on it. The brush strokes were smooth and vivid, and the drawings were actually pretty good.

[Day 756

She invited me to stay with her.

I like it here. There are a lot of things that can grow in the yard at the entrance.

What I like most is staying with her.]

Lin Yuzu slowly reacted to these short sentences. This should be Xiao Xiao’s diary.

Xiao Xiao pressed her hand and turned the notebook to the first page.

Lin Yuzu raised her eyes and met Xiao Xiao\s eyes under the flashlight’s scattered light. Amidst the floating dust, her pure ice-blue eyes were quietly watching her.

The author has something to say:

Yes, Yuzu is not only short, but also has a lovely face of a loli.