Chapter 12: Yezi and Huayi
As Xiaoyun walked out of the house with a blanket in his hand, Yuqi and Nami both got a little confused.
"What's this?" Yuqi asked curiously.
"It's a little girl we found," Yueyue replied as Xiaoyun readjusted the blanket slightly to let the little girl's head out of the blanket.
"Why is she wrapped in a blanket? Where did she come from?" Yuqi asked again.
"What do you think, sis? She clearly can't move if she has to be carried. Also, they had only entered the house, so where do you think they got it from?"
Nami rolled her eyes as she couldn't believe she had to state it for Yuqi.
"How dare you poke fun at your sister, you little brat."
Yuqi angrily rushed toward Nami and pinched her by the ear before putting her in a chokehold.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry." Nami apologized, but Yuqi still refused to let her go.
"Stop messing around. Let's go home first."
As Xiaoyun stopped them from goofing around, the four started heading back home.
---
Thirty minutes later...
"It's so hot... I'm never doing this again."
Nami collapsed onto the sofa as the burning heat from the outside had made her completely exhausted.
Yuqi also collapsed on the floor and nodded in agreement.
"Mom, can you check her? We found her at one of the mansions."
As Xiaoyun handed the girl over, Leyan immediately got up and examined her.
After a short diagnosis, Leyan realized the situation was much more urgent than she expected.
"The child's fever has subsided. But the sun outside was a little too strong for her. Next time, just call me and let me drive there instead of having her walk in this hot weather."
Leyan left the living room and carried the girl upstairs to her room. But when she came back down, only Nami and Yuqi were on the sofa.
"Where are Xiaoyun and Yueyue?" Leyan curiously asked.
"The two of them went out to continue searching," Yuqi replied as she continued scrolling on her phone.
"Going out again?" Leyan immediately got a little worried as the sun was starting to go down.
"Those two are literally the strongest in the family. I wouldn't be worried if I were you." Nami replied.
With nothing Leyan could do, she could only sit and wait for the two to come back.
---
After Xiaoyun and Yueyue ran back to the house at No. 302, they started running toward the next one.
But before they got to the next mansion, Xiaoyun stopped her from running any closer to it.
"Let's skip this one... Mom told me it's not a safe one."
Hearing Xiaoyun's response, Yueyue agreed to skip it.
Just as the two were about to run past No. 301 to check the front entrance, a car could be heard down the road.
Xiaoyun and Yueyue immediately ran to the bushes, watching the car parked at the front door of 301.
After waiting for a bit, a very young-looking woman walked out of the driver's seat before walking toward the passenger side.
Xiaoyun couldn't see what she was carrying out until a sudden noise came out from the other side of the car.
"Leave me alone, Huayi! Just let me die here. I can't make it." A man yelled as they finally reappeared in Xiaoyun and Yueyue's sight.
The man's legs seemed to be bleeding severely as blood had leaked out of his pants and the bandage over them.
"No! You promised me that you would marry me! I am not going to leave you behind, Yezi. We are going to make it."
The woman tries to carry the Yezi to the house but falls right onto the ground, too weak to carry him in her arms.
"Just leave me! What don't you understand it? I am a dead weight to you. Please, think rationally, Huayi."
Yezi's argument clearly doesn't work, as Huayi stubbornly tries to drag Yezi back to the house.
"I'd rather die than leave you behind! You are the only person that cared about me and protected me."
Huayi was finally able to move Yezi a little as he stopped resisting Huayi's help, but they were barely making any progress getting to the front porch.
"I never cared about you. I had been using you the whole time." Yezi sounded relieved after finally admitting some sort of truth.
"Then why did you save me when you could have left me in the back alleyway?" Huayi suddenly started crying as she questioned Yezi back.
"Geez, this is a whole drama show... they look like a couple that really care for each other," Yueyue whispered.
"That man is definitely injured very badly... But Mom told me that man might be an arms smuggler." Xiaoyun pointed out.
"We should help them... Even if he's an arms smuggler, it's still a human life. Besides, I don't believe an arms smuggler can make someone fall in love with them that much."
Xiaoyun thought for a second but ultimately agreed with Yueyue's statement as the two walked out of the bush together.
"Excuse me, do you guys need some help?"
Before Xiaoyun finished asking, Yezi instantly drew out a gun and pointed it at Xiaoyun's head.
"Who the hell are you?" Yezi asked as he put his finger on the trigger.
"We just wanted to help you because we saw that you were injured. We don't have any ill intentions," Yueyue replied as they raised their hands.
"I think they are actually planning to help us. Yezi, look at that boy's pocket. If they wanted to shoot us, we'd already be done for.
Besides, we have nothing to lose, right?" Huayi pointed out loud to Yezi, fully trusting the two strangers in front of her.
Yezi considered it for a second, then finally lowered his gun after realizing they gained nothing from hurting them.
"Well, sorry about that. My apologies."
"It's all good... Let's get you inside first."
Xiaoyun and Yueyue both supported Yezi together as Huayi walked to the front and opened the doors with her keys.
The inside of the house is very ordinary, in contrast to the luxurious front yard with a water fountain and fancy decoration.
"Just leave me on the sofa," Yezi asked.
Xiaoyun lay him down on the sofa as Yezi wished, then turned his attention to Huayi.
"Miss Huayi, do you know how to patch him up?"
Huayi shook her head, so Xiaoyun looked at Yueyue, who also shook her head. With no solution in sight, Xiaoyun started to panic as Yezi was bleeding out fast.
"Why don't we call Mom for her to take a look?" Yueyue suddenly suggested.
"You go call her. I'll go change his bandages."
Xiaoyun quickly turned to his backpack and created a pack of bandages before taking it out to hide his ability.
"Okay, it's going to hurt a little," Xiaoyun warned as he ripped Yezi's pants off.
The bandage below was completely soaked in blood, with the bullet wound clearly visible through the wound mark.
Yezi suddenly groans in pain as Xiaoyun removes the old bandage and applies a new layer onto it.
"You got shot by a bullet, Mr.Yezi?" Xiaoyun asked curiously.
Yezi didn't say a word, but seeing him clenching the sofa into pieces, Xiaoyun knew Yezi was in too much pain to reply.
"Is Yezi okay?" Huayi walked closer to Xiaoyun and asked.
"He's not looking too good right now," Xiaoyun replied.
"Mom is on her way. How is Mr.Yezi?" Yueyue asked as she had just finished her phone call.
"Not good. He got hit by a Bullet wound... I got no clue how to remove the bullet or stitch it."
The four sat in silence until Huayi spoke up.
"Thank you so much for your help. I don't even know your guy's names."
As Huayi took out her wallet and tried to give the money over, Xiaoyun shook his head and pushed it back.
"No need for that, Miss Huayi. And my name is Xiaoyun, and her name is Xiaoyue."
"Huayi, don't be so naive. It's a zombie apocalypse out there, and you are giving them money?
Go under my bed and take out the box. I'll give them the gift they deserve," Yezi directed.
Huayi immediately headed inside the bedroom, and when she walked out, she put the box on the coffee table.
"You can open it." Yezi pointed at the box and looked toward Xiaoyun.
As Xiaoyun slowly opened the box, he was stunned. Inside was some sort of military rifle, and the slick design and black color made it stand out much more than usual.
"U.S. military issued M16, it's all yours... But I just want you to promise me one thing." Yezi pleaded.
Xiaoyun thought for a second, then shook his head.
"This is too much. I can't accept this," Xiaoyun replied, not wanting to make a promise that he might not be able to fulfill.
Yezi ignored Xiaoyun's answer, grabbing the rifle and throwing it into Xiaoyun's arm.
"If I'm dead, you have to protect Huayi. That's all I ask you to do. Can you do that?" Yezi asked.
"Mr. Yezi, you don't need to do this. We will help her no matter what."
Seeing Xiaoyun not accept the rifle by putting it on the table, Yezi didn't try to convince him again.
"Well then, my last worry is gone... I am just curious. Are you two siblings?" Yezi suddenly asked.
"Yes?" Yueyue replied with a hesitant tone.
"Huayi, I need to tell you something. As you can see, I'm an arms dealer... I'm a bad person."
After Yezi finished speaking, Huayi rushed into Yezi's arms and burst into tears.
"I don't care! Even if you are the most evil man alive, you are good to me!" Huayi started crying louder as Yezi's voice got weaker and weaker.
"I think Xiaoyun is quite a gentleman and much younger than me. *Cough* Why don't you marry him——"
"I already have a girlfriend. I can't do that, Mr.Yezi." Xiaoyun interrupted Yezi as he didn't want to lie about it.
But Yueyue's heart suddenly dropped, as if she was getting jealous of that lucky person Xiaoyun was saying.
"Well, never mind, I guess. Huayi, can you light it up for me?"
Yezi took out a cigarette pack and handed the lighter over to Huayi, but she kept crying louder and louder in Yezi's arms.
"Well, look like I can't even die in peace... *Cough Cough* Maybe I deserve this for all the bad things I had done."
Yezi looked up at the ceiling as he lost himself in a flashback of all the moments in his life. But suddenly, the doorbell rang.
Yueyue rushed over to open it, only to see Leyan standing by the doorway carrying a medical kit.
"What's the situation?" Leyan curiously asked.
"He's suffering a bullet wound and has been bleeding for a while now," Yueyue explained as the two finally saw Leyan arriving in the living room.
"Yueyue, can you bring her to a different room? I need to focus." Leyan whispered as she noticed Huayi next to Yezi.
"Miss Huayi, let's give them some room." Yueyue patted Huayi on the back and supported her to the bedroom.
"Okay, now she is out of the way. I need to tell you I am not a doctor. I'm only a nurse." Leyan warned Yezi.
Yezi nodded in agreement as he didn't expect to live at this point.
"Xiaoyun, come here. I need you to assist me, okay?"
Leyan started taking things out of the medical bag as Xiaoyun rolled up his sleeve to get ready to help.
---
An hour later.
"You are really lucky that the bullet was small and barely missed the vein," Leyan commented as she cleaned up the blood stain.
"Thank you so much."
As Yezi tried to bow down in gratitude, Leyan quickly stopped him from getting up and signaled Xiaoyun to hold him down.
"No need to thank me. I'm just doing my job... But try to remain still, okay?"
With a nod from Yezi, Leyan started packing her first aid medical kit as she prepared to leave.
Huayi and Yueyue finally walked out of the room as Xiaoyun opened the door to bring them the news.
"I really don't know how I can thank you." Huayi excitedly walked over to Leyan as she bowed down in gratitude.
"No problem. Here's some anti-inflammatory medicine. It has a label on how to use it." Leyan explained as she handed Huayi a bottle before zipping her medical bag.
"Well then, look like we are all set. I need to go back home to cook dinner now."
As Leyan started heading toward the exit with her bag in her hands, Xiaoyun waved goodbye to them.
"It was nice meeting you today, Miss Huayi."
Yueyue warmly hugged Huayi as if they had gotten a lot closer while talking to each other in the other room.
"I should be the one saying that. Without you guys, my husband wouldn't be alive." Huayi bowed down in gratitude again as the two followed Leyan out of the house.
Just as the three got into the car, Huayi had gotten up to the balcony.
"Wait, I want to ask where you live. I just want to come and thank you personally. I don't have any bad intentions," Huayi yelled out the window.
Xiaoyun hesitated for a second, but seeing how close Huayi and Yueyue got and the fact that Yezi was willing to give him his rifle, he decided to tell them the truth.
"We live at... 303 on top of the small hill," Xiaoyun replied.
"Thank you!" Huayi and Yezi waved out the window as they watched the car drive away.
---
"Xiaoyun, didn't I tell you not to go to 301?" Leyan sounded extremely angry as she parked the car inside the garage.
"I know, I know, but he's injured. I can't just leave him to die like that." Xiaoyun argued.
"I was the one that decided to help. You don't have to blame Xiaoyun for this." Yueyue tries to take the blame, but Leyan doesn't take it.
"You two... You guys could have lost your life right there. Why don't you two just listen to what I say?
Do you know how worried I was when I heard you guys were at 301? You know, I thought you guys were kidnapped." Leyan pointed out as her voice got angrier and angrier
"Sorry..." Both of them apologized at the same time.
As they walked to the garage doorway, Leyan spoke up again.
"But then, why did you tell them our address? Just because we saved them doesn't mean they are going to all be thankful. What if they come back and bite us?
I had seen so many patients in the hospital yelling and even punching at the doctor who had just saved them.
They even have an entire rifle on the table. Like, who the hell just left that at the table? What are you thinking, Xiaoyun?"
Leyan finally reached her breaking point as she couldn't understand Xiaoyun's decision at all.
"I don't think they are that kind of people. I mean, he actually was the one that wanted to give me the rifle, but I rejected the rifle since I think they are honorable people." Xiaoyun explained.
"What? Honorable? That's an arms smuggler you are talking about." Leyan sounded surprised rather than frustrated at Xiaoyun, her anger starting to drop a little.
"I really mean it. I think he has changed to be a better person. Yezi seems to really care about Huayi, and it seems to be that he only got injured after saving her.
And he even wanted me to protect his fiancé Huayi when he was dying as a last will. I don't think a cruel person will care about others like that.
Besides, if they are a threat, why would he want to give away his rifle to me?" Xiaoyun argued.
After a short silence, Leyan opened the garage door to the living room.
"Well then, I really hope he is like you describe him to be." Leyan ended as they walked into the living room.
"Mom, you are finally back! I am so hungry." Nami yelled as she ran up to the three, hugging Leyan with happiness on her face.
"Okay, okay, I am going to cook dinner right now." Leyan gently pushed Nami to the side as she headed toward the kitchen.
"Ugh, my clothes are so sweaty... I'm going to go take a shower."
Yueyue left the living room and headed upstairs to take a shower. Xiaoyun also felt the sweat on his clothes, so he went to Leyan's bathroom to take a shower.
After finishing the shower, Xiaoyun decided to go to Yuqi's room.
"Who is it?" Yuqi's voice came out as Xiaoyun knocked on the door.
"It's me, Xiaoyun." Xiaoyun softly replied.
"Come in. The door is unlocked."
When Xiaoyun went inside the room, Yuqi was lying on the bed with a laptop.
The only thing he could see was Yuqi wearing a bra on top, with everything else being covered by a blanket.
"What you want?" Yuqi asked, still typing on the laptop, and didn't even look at Xiaoyun.
Xiaoyun closed the door and sat on the office chair. Then, he stared at Yuqi silently as she continuously typed on the computer.
"What exactly do you want?" Yuqi asked again as she finally stopped typing and looked at Xiaoyun, who just kept staring at her.
"Darling, you look so pretty when you work." Xiaoyun's sudden compliment made Yuqi's face blush.
"I didn't do anything special... Anyway, why are you in my room? You didn't just come here to see me, right?"
Yuqi went back to looking at her laptop, but she had stopped typing completely, as if her mind was too occupied to type.
"Yep, that's all. I just wanted to see your face, darling." Xiaoyun replied as he thought back to Huayi's and Yezi's love for each other.
"Whatever..."
As Yuqi went back to typing on the laptop, her face blushed red. But seeing Yuqi typing so much, Xiaoyun became a little curious.
However, when he moved closer to see what Yuqi was typing, she instantly slammed the laptop close.
"Come on. Lemme see it." Xiaoyun pleaded, his curiosity getting bigger as Yuqi continued to hide it.
"It's nothing. Okay? Also, what happened during your trip outside?" Yuqi puts the laptop aside as she changes the topic.
"Oh, you wouldn't believe what we saw..." Xiaoyun started explaining the whole trip he had earlier, which included Yezi's offering him the rifle.
"Babe, why don't you take the rifle when he gave it to you? They give it to you as a payment.
Even if you don't know how to use it, you still can intimidate other people with it." Yuqi argued.
"I mean, I can always just create the same copy. I don't want to take their weapon away if a zombie is walking toward them.
Also, they will be the first ones facing it since they are near the entrance. So it wouldn't make sense for us to keep it." Xiaoyun explained his thought process.
"I guess..."
As the two sat in silence, they stared at each other until they were interrupted by Leyan's door knock.
"Dinner is ready."
"Okay, let's go eat now," Yuqi said after hearing Leyan's footsteps were gone.
Just as Xiaoyun was about to open the door, he paused for a second as he noticed Yuqi was only wearing a bra and her panties.
"Darling, are you sure you want to go out in this?" Xiaoyun asked as he stood right in front of the door.
"What's wrong?"
Yuqi was confused, but she noticed that Xiaoyun was looking at her and turning quickly to face the wall, which made her even more confused.
"Um, you might want to check what you are wearing right now." Xiaoyun finally spilled the bean.
Yuqi finally looked down and realized what was wrong. Her body was practically naked right before Xiaoyun's eye the whole time.
"Shit! I almost forgot! I'll come down later."
Yuqi quickly pushed Xiaoyun out of the room and slammed the door right in front of him, not letting him stay in the room to watch.
"Whatever, I guess I go down first... Why is she so shy when we already did it..." Xiaoyun murmured as he walked down the stairs.
---
In the kitchen, Yueyue and Nami had already eaten, and Xiaoyun sat down and started eating.
"Where's mom?" Xiaoyun asked with a mouthful of food.
"Mom went to my room to check on the girl," Nami replied.
Not long after, Yuqi, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, also came down to eat.
When the four of them had almost finished eating, Leyan finally came down. But she held a little girl in her arms.
The girl was even shorter than Nami, and her body looked so skinny everyone in the room noticed the bones on her body.
"I'll get you some porridge. Wait for a second, okay, Lily?" Leyan gently seated the little girl before going inside the kitchen.
"Um, hello, Lily. I'm Xiaoyun."
Xiaoyun tried to greet them, but Lily moved back a little as if she was scared of him.
"You have to be more casual." Nami pointed out as she got up and walked closer to Lily.
"Hello Lily, my name is Nami."
Lily still didn't respond, but she didn't move back like Xiaoyun earlier, making Nami a little disappointed as she failed to make her talk.
Leyan finally came back with a bowl of porridge, lifting Lily onto her lap as she began to spoon-feed her little by little.
"Lily is a bit shy in front of strangers. She is still recovering, and she will be fine in a few days." Leyan stated as she continued to feed Lily.
"She doesn't need to eat more?" Yuqi curiously asked after noticing Lily's overly thin figure.
"She hasn't eaten for a long time. If she suddenly eats too much, it will be bad for her stomach.
Her stomach needs to get used to it slowly. Alright, Lily, let's go back to my room to sleep."
Leyan lifted Lily and gently carried her in her arms before putting her down on the sofa. The three also got up and followed Leyan to the living room, only to see Lily finally speak out.
"I don't want to go to sleep yet," Lily said softly.
"Well, let's watch some TV... I hope you don't mind Tom and Jerry. That's the only thing we got."
Leyan loaded in the DVD then dragged everyone else back to the kitchen and sat down.
"Is she really alright?" Yueyue asked quietly.
"She just hasn't eaten for a long time. Everything else is normal." Leyan paused for a second, then continued.
"Lily asked me what had happened to her grandparents, and I could only tell her that I didn't know. Do you two know?"
Leyan looked toward the twins for an answer.
"Her grandparents? If they were the two old couples living in the house... We were forced to kill them..."
After Xiaoyun answered, both he and Yueyue looked down and fell into silence.
"It's not your fault that they turned into a zombie... It had to be done to protect yourself and Lily."
Leyan tried to comfort the two, but it didn't really help at all.
"I'm sure the grandparents would be happy that you ended their suffering and saved their grandchild."
Yuqi's comfort made the two feel much better, but they still felt a little guilty.
"Ahem, you two should take a break early today. We'll talk to Lily."
Leyan signaled Yuqi to bring the two upstairs as she and Nami went back to the living room.