A gentle cloth softly brushed against her cheek, and Hua Yun felt her heart soften as well.
Mrs. Wan slowly wiped with the cloth, but when she reached the neck, she suddenly paused: "Yun'er bled so much from the beating, we should call a doctor."
Hua Lei came in holding a branch of elm, plucked a handful of leaves, stuffed them into his mouth, chewed twice, took them out, and slapped them onto Hua Yun's forehead. The motion was fluid and seamless, clearly something he did often.
Hua Yun, like a little adult, sighed: "That little elm tree was definitely worth transplanting."
Hua Changnian and Mrs. Wan didn't know what to say. Their eldest daughter, Hua Yun, was mentally impaired and had always been prone to bumps, bruises, and bullying, often coming home injured. A few years ago, their eldest son had learned that elm leaves could stop bleeding and had specially dug up a small tree from outside, treating it like a treasure and planting it. It had since become Hua Yun's personal doctor.
Hua Bing also plucked a few leaves, chewed them, and applied them to Hua Yun's hand: "Second Aunt hit the hardest."
Hua Yu gritted her teeth: "She's guilty, I bet her daughter had something to do with what happened to our sister, that little wretch!"
"Watch your language!" Mrs. Wan scolded.
Hua Yu rolled her eyes, unimpressed.
Mrs. Wan immediately lost her steam—those harsh words were hurled at their own family every day.
Hua Changnian covered his head with both hands, muttering gloomily: "How can we call a doctor? The consultation fee, the medicine fee—we have no money, and Mother and Father probably won't give it either."
Hua Lei sneered: "Give what? Didn't Third Aunt say to just throw Eldest Sister into the wilderness? They're all hoping for someone in our family to die."
Die.
I don't want to die, I don't want to become a dead person, even if I'm shattered to pieces. Resisting, struggling, Hua Yun's fingers twitched.
Hua Bing had already moved to her exposed calf, chewing elm leaves with Hua Yu, but no one noticed.
After sneering, Hua Lei shed tears: "I think we should hurry and let Eldest Sister eat something. After being beaten and locked up for so long, she'll starve to death if she doesn't eat."
Eat.
Hua Yun's throat instinctively moved, and an unknown force flowed out. Slowly and with difficulty, she opened her eyes, meeting the gaze of a young man backlit by the light. Though she couldn't see his face clearly, she sensed deep concern.
"Eldest Sister is awake. Eldest Sister?"
The young man's face suddenly loomed closer. Hua Yun squinted her eyes—she didn't recognize him.
The family rushed over joyfully, clamoring to ask if she was in pain, hungry, or uncomfortable.
Hua Yun's sluggish nerves were raging. After struggling for a long time, she finally mustered the strength to form a sound.
"Hungry… hungry… hungry…"
"Ah, Eldest Sister is better, she's calling for food!" Hua Yu jumped up, chattering excitedly about how she was better.
Hua Lei also rejoiced: "That elm tree really was worth planting."
Hua Bing nodded with a smile: "Eldest Sister is hungry."
Hua Yun felt like crying—was being hungry something to celebrate?
Little did she know that for this Hua Yun, the most normal state was calling for food. If she ever stopped calling for food, something was wrong.
Mrs. Li stood up happily: "It's good that Yun'er is hungry, it's good. Mother will go to the kitchen…"
Before she could finish, she froze. Mrs. Li had just said that the eldest branch of the family could no longer eat from the common stores.
"Husband…"
Hua Changnian gritted his teeth: "Should I go borrow some?"
Hua Lei fumed: "Who would Father borrow from?"
Grain was the lifeblood of farming families. Unless they were close, who would lend any? Yet his parents only knew how to work hard and were poor at managing relationships—who could they turn to now?
Hua Changnian opened and closed his mouth, unable to utter a single name after a long while.
Hua Lei snorted in anger, turned around, and ran out.
Hua Changnian squatted on the ground, holding his head.
Mrs. Wan shed tears again.
Hua Yu lay close to Hua Yun’s mouth, listening to the faint, almost imperceptible cries of hunger, and did not go to comfort her parents.
Thump, thump, thump—Hua Lei ran back, holding the hem of his shirt, which cradled seven or eight tiny bird eggs, each no larger than a fingertip.
“I found these a couple of days ago but didn’t dare bring them back. Now there’s nothing to fear. Second Sister, hurry and cook them for Eldest Sister.”
Hua Yu responded, but before she could lift her head, a strong force knocked her over.
Hearing the word “food,” Hua Yun somehow mustered some strength, rolled over, and sat up. Hua Lei happened to be standing right in front of her, and she buried her head in the fold of his shirt.
Hua Lei was stunned, staring blankly as Hua Yun buried her head against him, nuzzling and rooting like a little piglet. After a moment, she lifted her head and grinned at him, baring her teeth.
Calm yet bewildered, Hua Lei reached out and plucked a small piece of eggshell stuck to the corner of her mouth. Then he glanced at his shirt—his lips twitched uncontrollably. It was spotless, not a single wet mark. Had Eldest Sister swallowed all the bird eggs whole?
“Open your mouth!” Hua Lei jumped up. “How could you eat the eggshells too? Don’t scratch your throat.”
Having regained a sliver of strength, Hua Yun opened her mouth wide under the intense scrutiny of the five family members.
Hah—truly spotless. All the eggshells were gone.
The family fell silent. Mrs. Wan wept again. “My poor child.”
Hua Yu stomped her little foot and took Hua Yun’s hand. “Sister, I’ll go dig for wild vegetables.”
Hua Lei grinned. “I’ll go find a few more bird nests.”
Hua Bing had already slipped behind the door to pick up a small basket.
Hua Changnian felt somewhat superfluous—or perhaps useless?
Hua Yun stared blankly at Hua Yu’s hand holding hers. It was small, thin, and sallow, but with blue veins visible beneath the skin, coursing with flowing blood—crimson blood, and… flesh.
“Urgh—” Hua Yun turned to the side, retched once, then clamped her mouth shut.
She had just swallowed those bird eggs. She couldn’t vomit them up.
The family panicked again.
“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?”
“Maybe she hurt her head.”
“She’s hungry. Sister is hungry.”
Hua Yun also wanted to know what was wrong with her. How she had arrived in this strange place—she wasn’t in a hurry to find out. Her body seemed to have shrunk—she wasn’t anxious about that either. The people around her were unfamiliar, yet they all acted as if they knew her well—she could ask about that slowly.
But! The strange reactions of her body—she had to figure them out first!
She remembered clearly: she had been bitten by the Zombie King. The virus raged through her body, and she could feel her body mutating before she lost consciousness. But she had no regrets. Though she had lingering attachments, she pressed the self-destruct button on her Battle Suit without hesitation. Even if it meant being torn to pieces, she absolutely refused to become one of those disgusting, ferocious creatures.
Yet now she wasn’t dead! She didn’t believe it was possible to remove the Battle Suit and escape the blast radius in 0.01 seconds. She raised her hand to look—this was a hand she controlled. Though it wasn’t the same scar-ridden hand from before, and it was much smaller, dark, and thin—it was alive, untainted by the virus.
But why did she crave flesh and blood so intensely?
Hua Yun slowly lifted her head, staring blankly at the neck of the little girl in front of her—Hua Yun’s neck. She wanted to—truly wanted to—pounce and bite, to suck and feed. But then a thunderous roar exploded in her heart: You are human, not a Zombie. You cannot eat people!
Hua Yun’s head throbbed with pain, and she fell back again.
“Yun’er,”
“Sister,”
“Eldest Sister,”
Hua Yun stared vacantly, her eyes wide open. So… was she both human and a Zombie?
Mrs. Wan held Hua Yun's head, tears falling drop by drop onto Hua Yun's face.
"My dear Yun'er, how are you? Does your head hurt? Husband, go fetch a doctor, hurry!"
Hua Changnian, forgetting his family's lack of money, responded and ran out the door.
"Mother… Mother?"
Hua Yun hadn't expected her childish, indistinct call of "mother" to startle everyone in the room. Hua Changnian, with one foot still in mid-air, whipped his head around so sharply he nearly strained a muscle.
Mrs. Wan was incredulous: "What? Yun'er, what did you say?"
Hua Yun blinked. What had she said?
"…Mother?"
This time, everyone heard clearly. Mrs. Wan excitedly kissed her head, Hua Yu jumped in circles, and Hua Bing clapped his hands, exclaiming, "Sister can call Mother now, Sister can call Mother now!"
Hua Lei also looked delighted, saying, "Big sister has finally learned her second word."
Hua Yun wasn't sure if she was affected by the virus, but her mind felt like a lump of paste, impossible to stir. It took her a long while to realize that the first word was "hungry"!
What was going on?
By the time she understood the situation, it was already evening. Fortunately, the three children were chatterboxes, surrounding her and chattering away, recounting everything about her from childhood to now. Finally, Hua Changnian squeezed in: "Yun'er, call me Father, Father."
Hua Yun stared at him blankly for a long time before shifting her gaze away.
It wasn't that she wanted to be blank; she simply couldn't react. It felt as though her reflex arc had looped several times from her head to her feet, occasionally even short-circuiting.
Ignoring Hua Changnian, Hua Yun quietly sorted through her thoughts.
She had fallen into the shattered passage of a black hole and, by some stroke of luck, ended up in this Alternate Dimension. Her original body must have been blown to pieces; even if it hadn't exploded, it definitely couldn't have withstood the spatial compression. The change happened too quickly, likely allowing her Spiritual Magnetic Field—her soul—to be completely ejected and rebound, just in time to be thrown into the body of this little girl whose own Spiritual Magnetic Field had just vanished but whose flesh was compatible with hers. So, she had borrowed this body to continue living?
Hua Yun could only explain it this way. Yet, she couldn't understand why, after changing bodies, she still retained the subconscious instinct of a Zombie to feed. Could it be that drastic physical changes also affect the spiritual body? No scientist had ever researched this. If only…
Hua Yun smiled bitterly. There was no "if only." From what she had heard, in this new life of hers, she could never go back.