Grand-aunt’s voice sounded somewhat distorted across the phone.
It was the first time she had ever spoken to Ma Xiaoli like this.
A uncanny feeling caused Ma Xiaoli’s heart to drop—when they were starving during the apocalypse, grand-aunt had always used the concept of “filial piety” and her status as an “elder” to guilt-trip her, sourly demanding with a cold face that she go search for supplies immediately so as not to starve her precious eldest grandson!
Ma Xiaoli had no intention of letting grand-aunt’s family off the hook in the first place, and furthermore, she needed to take grandmother away.
In her past life, they claimed grandmother was bitten by zombies, but she couldn’t even see grandmother’s remains. Who knew if they had insaniacally pushed grandmother out!
“Sure, grand-aunt, I’ll be back.”
Ma Xiaoli made her voice sound deliberately relaxed. After responding, she rode her electric scooter back.
At two in the afternoon on a Wednesday, university students might not have classes, but how could elementary school students be on holiday?
Yet when Ma Xiaoli pushed open the door and entered the house, grand-aunt’s precious eldest grandson, Li Jiahao, was slouched on the sofa casually playing on his phone.
Not only that, even her cousin-uncle and cousin-aunt, Li Jiarong and Mai Zixuan—who were supposed to be at work—were present as well!
Seeing Ma Xiaoli arrive, Li Jiarong and his wife actually shed their usual indifference, enthusiastically coming up to shower her with warm greetings. Meanwhile, grand-aunt walked out of the kitchen. Seeing that Li Jiahao was still playing games, she—who could never bear to scold her grandson even a little—actually gave him a shove, telling him to behave and greet her.
And Li Jiahao actually put down his phone, climbed up from the sofa, cracked a fake smile on his face, and greeted her obediently: “Hello, Cousin.”
Li Jiahao was a born brat—let alone greeting people, he constantly played malicious tricks on her whenever they met!
In her past life, he even stole the zombie crystal core she had redeemed with points for upgrading to swap for compressed biscuits. Caught red-handed, he even warned her with righteous indignation: “What’s wrong with swapping for some biscuits when I’m hungry? The base rules state that crystal cores must be handed in! Believe it or not, I’ll report you for hoarding crystal cores secretly. I’m your younger cousin, they will definitely believe me and throw you out to feed the zombies!”
This family of grand-aunt’s had never been early risers without a profit to make. Seeing them now made things look increasingly off.
Ma Xiaoli subtly glanced at the four large, heavy-looking bags of medicine resting right on the entrance shoe cabinet. Thinking of Luo Xiaoxiao, who had already begun hoarding supplies, she couldn’t help but exercise extra caution. “Is today a holiday? How come cousin doesn’t need to go to class, and cousin-uncle and cousin-aunt don’t need to go to work?”
Speaking up to here, she suddenly paused, sniffing the food aromas in the air forcefully with a face full of shock: “Grand-aunt, you actually stewed old pigeon soup? Steamed giant mud crabs? No, wait, I seem to also smell rice-cooker baked sand-ginger chicken…”
The small old woman’s amiable expression stiffened subtly at this moment: “Xiaoli, your nose is truly more sensitive than a dog’s…”
Ma Xiaoli pretended not to hear her sarcasm, instead grinning cheerfully: “Of course. Doing part-time delivery runs and food deliveries for over 2 years, one sniff of my nose tells me what good dishes are being made.”
Saying that, she lifted her foot to walk toward the kitchen: “Grand-aunt, how did you know I’ve been so busy that my feet haven’t touched the ground, without even time for lunch?”
The small old woman’s face instantly shifted. Her legs, which usually required a walking stick to assist in walking, actually ran nimbly at this moment, blocking her steps outside the kitchen: “Hey, hey, hey, don’t rush. The dishes were just put into the pot and aren’t ready yet…” A pair of eyes blinked wildly at her wooden-like daughter-in-law as if seizing up.
Mai Zixuan hurriedly took over the conversation: “That’s right, Xiaoli. We didn’t expect you to return so early, the dishes aren’t finished yet.” She smiled amiably, but in reality she had cursed this small old woman eight hundred times in her heart—
This afternoon, her husband and her were suddenly called back by this small old woman in a rush, thinking something major had occurred. Unexpectedly, she spouted a mouth full of nonsense claiming she was reborn, saying the world was about to be destroyed by zombies, and then muttered a bunch of incomprehensible absurdities…
At first, neither of them believed it, even thinking whether the old woman had contracted some major illness and needed money to check her brain at the hospital. Just as they were fretting over whether to send her to the hospital, their precious son actually came running back eagerly as well.
This was only the third day of the school term! Their son was supposed to take the middle-school to high-school entrance exam this year!
The couple was just preparing to double-team beat their truant son, when unexpectedly the son held his neck stiffly and said: “It’s about to be the end of the world, what class is there left to attend!”
After saying that, the son threw his backpack on the ground, rummaged through boxes and chests, and stuffed snacks into his mouth frantically!
That gluttonous appearance looked as if he hadn’t eaten anything for hundreds of years!
At this point, the couple had no choice but to take their words seriously—but the apocalypse was too incomprehensible, so they began probing for details.
Yet what made them tremble with fear was that under their guidance, the things their son said were completely identical to what the old woman had said earlier!
By this point, the couple had to put away their doubts, believing this bizarre ghost-story-like tale. They then began guiding the grandmother and grandson pair to meticulously recount their experiences after the apocalypse as well as their encounters before rebirth.
When mentioning the events prior to rebirth, both grandmother and grandson had faces of bewildered rage.
The old woman’s face shook with dark rage: “Don’t bring it up! That cheap girl Ma Xiaoli, even when being surrounded and bitten by zombies, she actually used her superpower to drag us down with her!”
The son shivered even more with a face full of fear: “Those zombies hurt so much when biting people, *waaa*~”
Seeing her precious grandson cry out loud, the old woman felt even greater grief from within, embracing her precious grandson, soothing him while spewing venomous curses at Ma Xiaoli.
Hearing these descriptions, the couple felt stunned and alarmed. Li Jiarong cursed with a dark face: “Great, we raised her for so long, and she turns out to be an ungrateful white-eyed wolf, returning kindness with enmity and dragging us to die?!”
Mai Zixuan, however, grew anxious: “Now is not the time to talk about this! Mom, don’t rush to curse first. Tell us carefully, why did we help that Luo… Luo Xiaoxiao harm Ma Xiaoli back then? Weren’t they best friends?”
The old woman was suddenly interrupted and felt extremely displeased, but hearing his wife ask this, Li Jiarong instantly realized as well: “Right, how did that happen? Didn’t you say that Luo Xiaoxiao was a very powerful spatial superpower user? Why would she turn around to harm Ma Xiaoli?”
The old woman twitched her mouth reluctantly: “Who knows about the messy affairs between those cheap girls, maybe it was over a man…”
The couple was instantly rendered helpless, speaking in unison: “Mom!”
Unexpectedly, Li Jiahao proved even more useful, suddenly struggling out from the old woman’s embrace: “I heard it!”
The couple hurriedly asked: “Speak quickly!”
Li Jiahao rolled his eyes, suddenly bringing up conditions: “Then you have to promise me to buy me the Gundam model kit I like…”
Mai Zixuan was nearly choked to death by him: “Speak quickly! Speak or I’ll beat you!”