My Ex-Girlfriend Is a Zombie Queen - Chapter 3

By the time they stepped out of the house, it was nearly noon.

Even though the sunlight was bright enough to make one squint, a thin, biting chill still drifted through the air, and the damp cold seemed to seep directly into their collars.

“Should we call a ride or take the subway?”

Lu Yu looked up at the woman who was meticulously wrapping a scarf around her neck. She stood on her tiptoes, seizing the chance to press her lips briefly against the other’s. Upon seeing the faint smudge of lipstick she had left behind, her beautiful eyes curved into crescent moons, making her look like a cat that had just finished a bowl of cream.

“Let’s get a taxi. It’s too cold out here,” Ye Qianli replied. She seemed not to notice the little prank, and as she took Lu Yu’s hand, she naturally enveloped it within her own palm. “…Honey, once the settlement for my current project is finished, we should have enough for the down payment on that SUV you liked.”

“Eh?”

Lu Yu blinked, momentarily dazed by the woman’s solemn whisper. She hadn’t expected her to bring up that topic. Since leaving the Lu family and having her credit cards canceled, she had rarely touched a steering wheel. When she went out for business, she used the company’s commercial vehicles to maintain appearances.

However, those cars always had to be returned by the next day and could never be used for personal errands. Because of this, she and Ye Qianli usually chose date spots that weren’t too far away, as traveling back and forth was simply too inconvenient.

“There’s no rush to buy a car,” she managed to squeeze out after a moment of hesitation.

Only a few years after graduation, Ye Qianli had already managed to buy an apartment in a high-end neighborhood with excellent transit links. Unlike Lu Yu, who came from a prominent family, Ye Qianli had lost her parents in an accident at a young age. She had bounced between various relatives’ homes and endured countless cold shoulders, so her success today was built entirely on her own hard-earned progress.

Lu Yu often wondered if Ye Qianli would have pushed herself so hard if they hadn’t met. To prove herself to the family standing behind Lu Yu, the woman had taken on the exhausting and dangerous work of virus research.

“I don’t want you to feel neglected or restricted while you’re with me,” the woman said, softly interrupting Lu Yu’s thoughts as her grip on her hand tightened instinctively. “I want to give you the best.”

Even if she couldn’t achieve it quite yet.

A heavy sensation settled in Lu Yu’s chest, as if a large stone were pressing down on her heart. Ye Qianli struggled to hide the gloom in her eyes, but a second later, a soft, warm body crashed into her arms. She reflexively wrapped her arms around Lu Yu’s slender waist.

“Why are you saying things like that… don’t say them anymore.” Lu Yu’s eyes were slightly red, and she sniffled, trying to keep the tears from falling. “I don’t need you to support me. Besides, I… I’ve already broken my habit of spending money recklessly.”

Sometimes, when she thought back to the decadent extravagance of her past, it felt foreign and disconnected from her current life. Yet, she felt no longing for it.

“A-Li, I think our life right now is wonderful, as long as I’m with you,” she whispered into the woman’s ear. Before she could finish, a delayed wave of shyness washed over her cheeks, staining them a delicate pink.

A passionate, almost ravenous kiss fell upon her lips. It was tender yet forceful, easily stealing the breath from her lungs. By the time Ye Qianli finally pulled away, satisfied but reluctant, Lu Yu was panting and limp. She had to lean entirely on the other woman to keep from sliding to the floor.

It took them a full half-hour just to make it from their front door to the elevator.

******

“Lord have mercy! That rat was as big as a puppy, with sharp teeth, and it actually tried to bite a cat—”

“That’s impossible. You must have been seeing things.”

In the circular plaza at the entrance of the neighborhood, a few neighbors were gathered around a card table. They were so caught up in their conversation that they had forgotten to play their hands, shouting excitedly at one another.

“I saw it with my own eyes! A huge rat with white fur and red eyes. It was incredibly fast; it vanished in a blink.”

Seeing familiar faces, Lu Yu curiously pulled Ye Qianli over to join the crowd. “Sister Zhang, is it possible your home cooking is just too good and you’ve fattened up the local rats?”

“That wasn’t fat. It was… it was like a mutant rat from a horror movie! The kind that gives you nightmares just by looking at it.” Sister Zhang sighed with lingering fear, patting her chest. “I’ve seen big rats when I worked labor jobs before, but never anything that size. My cat has been hiding under the bed for half the day and won’t come out. He’s just shaking.”

This sparked a wave of chatter among the card players, though it was clear most of them weren’t taking it seriously. They soon began urging each other to keep playing.

As the game resumed, Lu Yu turned around to find Ye Qianli’s expression looking uncharacteristically grave. Feeling playful, she hooked her finger around the woman’s cold fingertip. “A-Li, Sister Zhang lives right above us. Do you think a giant rat could crawl down through the pipes?”

Like the others, she assumed Sister Zhang had simply been mistaken. These neighbors loved to boast and exaggerate when they played cards, so the truth was always a bit suspect.

“It won’t,” the woman replied flatly, her eyes lowered.

“Mmm, I almost forgot you’re an expert when it comes to mutant rats.” Lu Yu leaned against her, her voice overflowing with trust. “If you say it won’t, then it won’t.”

“…Because the pipes are too small for it,” the woman whispered in a voice so low it was almost inaudible. Her expression was cold, but when she looked back at Lu Yu, her features softened automatically. “Should we go eat?”

“Sure!”

Having slept until noon, Lu Yu was indeed hungry. She immediately tossed the topic aside and pulled out her phone. “It looks like a new place opened nearby… let me search for it.”

“We aren’t eating nearby today.”

As she spoke, Ye Qianli hailed a car. When she announced the destination, there was a moment of silence.

Lu Yu felt her words get caught in her throat. If she remembered correctly, the last time they had gone to that high-end restaurant. The most expensive in the city was for her birthday, shortly after she had broken away from the Lu family.

The woman had booked a private room, hidden a diamond ring in the cake as a surprise, and arranged everything perfectly for her close friends. At the moment the ring slipped onto her finger, Lu Yu felt like the luckiest person in the world.

However, as the party ended, one of her former friends had said meaningfully, “You used to refuse to come to places like this, saying you were sick of the food. It looks like it’s been a long time since you’ve been back…”

That casual comment, followed by a question about the diamond’s carat count, had punctured her newly woven dream. That night, after the guests left, Lu Yu had been desperate to explain herself to Ye Qianli, only to find that the woman had clenched her fists so hard that her palms were shredded and bleeding.

Lu Yu had burst into tears instantly. “A-Li, I’m not the ‘Eldest Miss Lu’ they talk about. I only want to be with you. I don’t care what you look like or how much money you make.”

She had said so much, yet she hadn’t been able to dissolve the obsession that was becoming increasingly clear in the woman’s eyes. It was also that night that Ye Qianli decided to quit her stable job to join a virus research institute that required signing non-disclosure agreements.

******

Stepping into the restaurant again, Lu Yu’s state of mind was completely different.

“A-Li, did you get your paycheck?” She didn’t want to keep guessing, so she asked directly.

“Not yet.” The woman paused, handing her the menu. “It’s a rare day off, and I wanted to take you somewhere nice.”

Lu Yu felt a sting in her nose and quickly used the menu to hide her face, not wanting to show her emotional state in public. Almost immediately, she felt a familiar strength at her waist followed by a warmth she craved.

“Honey, I just finished a major project, so… don’t worry.” The woman gazed at her steadily, leaning down to kiss away a stray tear. In her deep, dark eyes, there was only ever room for one reflection.

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