My Ex-Girlfriend Is a Zombie Queen - Chapter 5

“Miss Lu, this is our shop’s latest…”

“What about the collection piece I asked you to find? Have you still not tracked it down?”

Seeing the assistant shrink back and fall silent, Lu Yu glanced at the exquisite sculptures in the display case with a flicker of impatience. Her brow furrowed slightly as she realized that Ye Qianli would likely have no interest in these flamboyant trinkets.

She remembered a time during their school days when they had stumbled into a prestigious private art gallery. Faced with a dizzying array of expensive exhibits, Ye Qianli had ignored them all, choosing instead to stare blankly at an inconspicuous wooden carving tucked away in a corner. When Lu Yu pressed her for details later, the woman had simply said that the piece had momentarily reminded her of her parents.

At the time, Lu Yu had impulsively offered to buy the carving regardless of the cost, but Ye Qianli had firmly stopped her, insisting that it was unnecessary and that those memories belonged in the past.

“Now that I have you by my side, what else could I possibly want?”

The woman’s tone had been flat, yet the words had felt like honey to Lu Yu’s heart. Now that ten years had passed in the blink of an eye, Lu Yu found herself constantly recalling those seemingly insignificant details while she racked her brain for the perfect gift. She wanted Ye Qianli to have her wishes granted, just as the woman had always done for her.

“Is the private room secured?”

On her way back to the office after leaving the shop, she couldn’t help but call to check on the arrangements she had requested.

“Everything is set, Miss Lu. However, the bouquet you ordered won’t be arranged until tomorrow,” the person on the other end replied with professional courtesy.

“Fine. I’ll come by tomorrow to check it myself.”

Just as she was about to add a few more instructions, Lu Yu saw an incoming call from an unfamiliar number and hurried to hang up.

“Hello?”

A minute later, her eyes, which had been narrowed in distraction, suddenly widened in shock. She didn’t even notice when her phone slipped from her hand and clattered onto the floor.

******

“Where is Operating Room 2?!”

Lu Yu stumbled into the hospital and grabbed the first nurse she saw. She felt as though all the blood in her body had rushed to her head, causing her vision to swim in dizzying waves. When she first received the call, she had assumed it was a scam, but once the emergency center followed up, the horrifying reality set in: Ye Qianli had really been hurt.

“An overloaded truck overturned and crushed Director Ye’s car. She was then rear-ended by the vehicle behind her and pushed off the bridge…”

“Where is she? I’m asking you how she is!” Lu Yu cried out, her voice trembling uncontrollably as she stared at the closed doors of the operating theater.

“Well…” Zhao Hui swallowed hard, unable to look into Lu Yu’s eyes, which were a painful mix of hope and despair. “The doctor said Director Ye’s physical injuries were actually the lightest of the group, but—”

“But she sustained a blow to the head, and the resulting consequences are currently unpredictable.”

Before Lu Yu could press for more information, the doors opened. A doctor in a white coat stepped out, his clothes stained with blood, yet his expression remained unnervingly calm as he finished the explanation. At the same moment, the red light above the door flickered to green.

Lu Yu had no room in her mind to process what the doctor meant. Her entire soul was focused on the woman currently being wheeled out on a gurney. Simply seeing the thick layers of gauze wrapped around Ye Qianli’s head caused her heart to stop for a beat. When she finally caught her breath, she realized her face was wet with a sudden, uncontrollable torrent of tears.

“A-Li…” she sobbed, rushing forward to grab the woman’s cold hand, her voice choked with emotion.

She followed the gurney to the ward like a ghost, her eyes never leaving Ye Qianli’s pale, unconscious face. The only sound she allowed into her consciousness was the sharp, rhythmic beeping of the monitors.

“Sister-in-law, I have to head back to the institute, but I’ll come back to visit Director Ye another day,” Zhao Hui said, feeling like an intruder now that the surgery was over.

“Mm.”

Lu Yu didn’t even look up. Her fingertips gently traced the diamond ring on the woman’s ring finger—a matching set to her own. Her gaze was hollow. She desperately wished this was all a nightmare, and that when she woke up, everything would be as it was. Ye Qianli would be sleeping soundly beside her, habitually pulling her into a warm, radiating embrace even in her sleep.

A-Li, you have to be okay… Her eyes burned with a dry, searing pain. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had called her during lunch as she usually did, instead of sneaking off to pick out a gift, if the timing would have shifted just enough for the truck to miss her. But there were no “ifs” in reality.

She sat by the bed for a long time, unable to eat or drink, standing as still as a statue. Her phone buzzed several times, but she had no heart to answer it. Outside the room, the sounds of mourning drifted in from the families of other victims, and eventually, people began discussing funeral arrangements in hushed, somber tones.

None of that mattered to Lu Yu.

She remembered the moment she had been kicked out of the Lu family without a cent to her name. Without her title, she had nothing. Just as she felt she might drown in her own helplessness, she had seen the woman standing on the street corner holding an umbrella, looking as though she had been waiting for an eternity.

Her heart had screamed for her to move, but her feet felt as though they had taken root. She stood there frozen until Ye Qianli approached and draped a coat over her shoulders.

“Have you made up your mind?” the woman had asked. She rubbed Lu Yu’s cheek, and the faint calluses on her fingertips made Lu Yu shiver.

“Yes.” She had nodded heavily, then looked at the woman with sudden anxiety. “Why are you asking that?”

She had been terrified that Ye Qianli might regret choosing her. Even when she had defied her parents and severed ties with her family, she hadn’t felt this kind of fear—the fear of stepping into an abyss.

“I’m just worried that I won’t be able to give you the life you want,” the woman had said softly. Her expression was cool, but her voice was incredibly gentle. “But I will work hard. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you never feel neglected, honey.”

She had kept that promise. Over the years, no matter how difficult things became, she had protected Lu Yu with a ferocity that far exceeded anything she had known in the Lu household.

Thinking of this, Lu Yu forced a small, stiff smile for the unconscious woman. She squeezed Ye Qianli’s hand, finally managing to bring some warmth back to it after holding it for so long. Though she was exhausted, she couldn’t bring herself to close her eyes, fearing that if she slept, everything she still held dear would vanish like smoke.

Eventually, exhaustion won. She drifted off for a brief, fitful moment, only to be startled awake when a nurse arrived to change the dressings.

“Is the wound serious? How long will it take to heal?” she asked, repeating the same questions from earlier. The answer remained the same vague “about a month.”

She moved her dry lips to speak again, but her words were cut short by a sudden murmur: “The patient is waking up.”

Lu Yu turned with a mix of shock and joy, looking eagerly at the pale woman on the bed. The weight that had been crushing her chest finally lifted, and for a moment, she wanted to throw herself into her lover’s arms and act spoiled as she always did.

However, reason prevailed. She suppressed the surge of emotion and carefully reached out to help Ye Qianli sit up. Before she could touch her, her hand was coldly pushed away.

“A-Li?” she asked, her eyes filling with fresh tears, unable to comprehend the rejection.

“I’m a bit confused right now,” the woman said, rubbing her temples. She looked at Lu Yu with a coldness that was entirely foreign. “Who are you?”

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