Chapter 30: She Said She Wanted to Sing Me a Lullaby
The woman wearing a roadblock on her head looked a bit flustered, like a newcomer on their first day.
Perhaps she rushed in to put on the roadblock precisely to prevent me from seeing her title.
But the Principal said information about my abilities would be blocked. Why would she know what my abilities are?
Or is it just a coincidence? She simply grabbed something to wear on her head because she didn’t want anyone to see her face.
But why was it okay for Ruansui to see, but not for me?
Who exactly is she?
No matter how I thought about it, there were inexplicable contradictions. However, pursuing it further probably wouldn’t yield any results, so I decided not to ask any more questions.
But Ruansui didn’t think that far. She still innocently asked with curiosity.
“Um, why are you wearing… that thing?”
Huh?! Oh, uh… This is a hobby! That’s right, just a hobby! I’m a zombie too, so I have to dress fashionably, hahahaha…
…This person, just like me, can’t lie well.
Not only did her tone give her away, but her excuse was so pathetic that I couldn’t bear to watch.
“I-is that so…”
Because the excuse was too outrageous, Ruansui didn’t know how to respond. She could only awkwardly shift her gaze away, ending the conversation.
“R-really! Look, there’s a Roadblock Zombie in Plants vs. Zombies! It’s a fashionable accessory for us zombies!”
It was strangely convincing. Could it be that roadblocks are really a decoration for zombies?
Wait, zombies?
“You’re a zombie?”
“Ah, that’s right, I am… a zombie…”
She’s actually a zombie! I really couldn’t tell at all. Her skin was pale, just like Li Nai’s, and she was wearing a clean-looking dress.
Noticing my scrutinizing gaze, she crossed her arms and turned away.
As the atmosphere became silent, the subway made a grinding sound and restarted its operation.
I and Ruansui sat down and stopped talking. What just happened was too bizarre; we both needed some time to process it.
However, I was more concerned about… the woman with the roadblock.
She seemed to be staring at me; I could feel her gaze.
Her gaze penetrated all obstacles and fell upon me.
At the same time, I was also paying attention to her. If it was just curiosity, it didn’t seem like enough reason. But if I had to explain why I was paying attention to that woman, I couldn’t find any clear reason.
I was just curious.
I really wanted to see her appearance.
I felt like this was something very important to me.
Normally, my curiosity isn’t that strong.
But now, it was like being tickled by a cat, making me want to walk over and remove that obstruction.
However, my rational side restrained this impulse.
I simply closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.
Out of sight, out of mind. If I couldn’t see it, I probably wouldn’t care about it so much.
After resting with my eyes closed for more than ten minutes,
I opened my eyes and looked outside through the window. I saw a station and many bungalows.
The announcement for the stop was played for the first time, but it was just an uncomfortable “ah ah ah ah” sound.
“This is the last stop. Let’s get off.”
The female zombie wearing the roadblock came up to us and said so.
It seemed like we had really arrived.
Before we could even leave the carriage, someone ran out from the just-opened door and said,
“Oh! You’re finally here! We’ve been waiting for a long time! It’s so strange, the delay for every other train is only a few minutes? But your train is almost half an hour late!”
That boisterous person was indeed Li Nai.
From her words, it seemed everyone else had already arrived. It was indeed only Ruansui and I who encountered unexpected situations.
“Because something happened… Sorry for making you wait~”
“Well, well, I’m not in a hurry, but your harem is getting impatient.”
Ruansui’s face turned as dark as…,
“Ha-harem?”
Damn it! Li Nai, you idiot!
Look at what you just said!
Don’t say things that can cause misunderstandings in front of Ruansui!
“Lord Juncheng! Are you alright!”
Following closely behind was Yu Lei, who immediately came to my side, patting various parts of my body to check on me-
Ruansui’s face turned two shades darker.
“I-I waited a long time.”
The petite Xue Qing followed behind Yu Lei, hugging my waist without looking back.
Ruansui’s face darkened three shades further.
“Juncheng, why didn’t you reply to my text messages? Did you block me again? Ugh, how am I supposed to send you those risqué photos then~”
Ruansui’s face turned completely dark, emanating black energy!
“Uh uh uh uh!”
It’s over, it’s over! She’s wearing the crown given by the Skeleton King right now! If she gives the order, I’m afraid I’ll be torn to shreds by those undead!
“Speaking of which, why weren’t you two separated? Could it be the power of love~?”
…Yes, that’s right, it’s the power of love, hehe.
Ruansui, who was on the verge of exploding, seemed to calm down a bit with Li Nai’s unintentionally spoken words. She squeezed my hand tightly and said with a smile.
…It was barely salvaged.
I can’t handle this happening a few more times. It’s like holding a ticking time bomb that could explode at any moment.
Li Nai, you idiot, stop being so foul-mouthed!
…Have they gathered already…
Hmm? What is that woman muttering to herself?
She really knows something, and knows more than I could have imagined.
Moreover, it wasn’t just me who noticed her; another person had also noticed her.
Li Nai looked at the female zombie with a strange expression and said,
“Huh? Grandma? Why are you here?”
Ah… this woman is Li Nai’s relative? So that’s why she came to pick us up… Something’s not right.
“Shut u—hahahaha! What are you wearing! You’re wearing a roadblock—even zombies don’t do that! Could it be that you’ve been working overtime so much that your brain is broken… Oh right, you’re a zombie, you don’t have a virus in your body, so how could your brain get damaged? That’s strange. Could it be that you ate my pudding and caught a virus, Grandma?”
A gust of wind blew past. The female zombie with the roadblock on her head instantly appeared before Li Nai and struck her abdomen with a beautiful liver shot.
However, Li Nai was not simple either. She seemed accustomed to such sudden attacks and quickly put up a cross guard, blocking the punch.
Waaah–! Why are you hitting me all of a sudden! Are you crazy!
“Shut up! You little brat! You’re always causing trouble for me!”
The female zombie, angered by the failed attack, threw a spinning punch at Li Nai’s chest again.
“Cough! Pfft!”
-So ruthless, that punch must have been quite strong. I felt like I heard bones breaking.
It made Li Nai spit out her tongue and drool…
Uh, is this domestic violence?
The female zombie, whom Li Nai called Grandma, held the immobilized Li Nai in one arm and said, while covering her mouth, which couldn’t be seen,
“Oh, oh ah ah—I’m so sorry to make you see this. You must be my daughter’s friends, right? I’m Li Nai’s adoptive mother. You can just call me Aunt Qing.”
“…Hello, Aunt Qing…”
“My, my, hello. But it seems my daughter is unconscious. Well then, I’ll take her place to guide you…”
“She only looks like this because you hit her…”
But after witnessing Li Nai’s mother’s formidable style, we didn’t dare say anything more and could only follow her out of the subway.
As a result, after truly seeing the City of the Living with my own eyes, I found that it seemed no different from the surface.
If there was anything different,
It was probably that most of the residents were zombies, their clothes were tattered and stained with blood.
They mostly had names, and their titles often contained the words ‘semi-awakened’. Only a small portion were in the ‘awakened’ state, like Li Nai.
Their movements were quite slow, and some were even crawling. They would also let out moans.
But other than that, they lived surprisingly normal lives.
They didn’t try to attack us, they just stopped curiously to look at us, like encountering foreigners on the street, or seeing a celebrity.
“However, why are there basically no tall buildings in this city? At most, they’re only two stories high.”
Lan Hua’s question was the same as mine. Why are all the buildings in this city bungalows?
“Because it’s difficult for zombies to climb stairs, so there are no tall buildings in the city.”
Then Lan Hua pointed to a building and asked again.
“Then why is that building five stories high? What is that place?”
“Oh, that building is a school. The schools here are different from yours. They are used to educate newly awakened undead. They need to learn how to live in the inner city, skills for climbing stairs, and also ‘how to get to the bottom when falling into water’, and first-aid lessons like ‘the correct way to pat out fire on yourself when rolling’.”
And these courses sound so stupid!
“Why teach this kind of thing… Isn’t this common sense?”
“Although it is common sense, for newly awakened zombies, it is all unknown.”
“Don’t awakening grant self-awareness? Don’t they remember memories from their past lives?”
“Only when they are fully awakened can they recall memories from their past lives. If they are only semi-awakened, they only possess consciousness, and they can’t even speak clearly. They can only communicate using ‘Ah-language’.”
“Ah-language?!”
So these guys weren’t making those muffled howling sounds because they couldn’t close their mouths, but because they were talking!
“Yes, hahaha~ I miss those days. Nana used ‘Ah-language’ until she was minus three years old.”
What the hell is minus three years old! Does it refer to their zombie age!
“Um, what exactly is ‘Ah-language’…”
Ruansui also expressed her doubts. Everyone was curious about this strange language.
“Actually, if you can understand ‘Ah-language’, it’s very easy to live in this city…”
“It’s actually very simple. For example, ‘Ah-Yi-Oh-Yi’ means ‘Good morning’, ‘Wu-Oh-Ah-Yi…’ means ‘Don’t!’, and ‘Ha-ah~’ means ‘Okay’.”
“Oh, oh, hearing you say that, it really seems quite simple…”
Like Morse code, expressing different meanings based on the length of a few sounds. In that case, learning it shouldn’t be particularly difficult.
“‘Ah-ah-Yi-Ming-ah-~ Oh-Yi-Gawa-~ Ah-uh’ means ‘prion that binds bacterial phage protein O’.”
“What the hell!”
“Hmm? Are you talking about ‘Ah-language’! I couldn’t speak it at first either!”
Li Nai, who was held by Aunt Qing, suddenly raised her head, startling me.
She recovered so quickly. Should I say she’s worthy of being a zombie?
“It’s just that Mom used ‘Ah-language’ to sing me lullabies, so I unconsciously remembered it.”
“A lullaby sung in ‘Ah-language’… I really want to hear it.”
I feel like it would be quite amusing.
To think you could fall asleep listening to that kind of song, Li Nai? You must be brain-damaged.
“If you want to hear it, shall I sing it for you?”
Aunt Qing suddenly said this, with a hint of excitement in her tone.
Eh? How did it turn into this?
