My Ex-Girlfriend Is a Zombie Queen - Chapter 8

Lu Yu carried the heavy gift box with a hollow expression, offering only a faint, toneless word of thanks. This was the first time she had received a gift that wasn’t delivered into her hands by Ye Qianli herself, and for a fleeting second, she almost called out to Zhao Hui to take it back. Her A-Li no longer remembered her, so what was the point of a gift? It was nothing more than a source of fresh sorrow.

*****

Heavy, leaden clouds blanketed the sky as Lu Yu left the research institute, looking as though they might collapse into a torrential downpour at any moment. She tried to steady her fraying nerves before catching a taxi to the office.

Because she had taken several days of leave, her colleagues, who had spent the week being tormented by President Jia, couldn’t help but sneer when they saw her. “Oh, look. Miss Lu finally graced us with her presence. I suppose when you’re an heiress, you treat the office like your own living room, coming and going as you please.”

Lu Yu ignored the biting sarcasm. She sat at her desk and began to process her backlog of tasks with mechanical precision, welcoming any distraction that might stop her from spiraling back into the bittersweet, icy depths of her memories. Yet, in the quiet gaps between tasks, her gaze still drifted uncontrollably toward her phone, hoping that the next call would be from the woman she loved.

Night fell, and the office gradually emptied. Outside, the rain intensified, but the screen remained dark, never lighting up with the string of numbers she knew by heart. It seemed the call was never coming. She tried reaching out to some of Ye Qianli’s close friends, only to be silenced by a blunt, thoughtless reply: “If even you don’t know where she is, there’s no way I would.”

Staring blankly at the rain lashing against the window, Lu Yu felt a growing dread at the thought of going home. That apartment was a vault of their shared history, and now it felt like a bottomless abyss ready to swallow her whole. To make matters worse, she had been so distracted when leaving that morning that she had forgotten to pack an umbrella. She decided to wait for the rain to let up before choosing between heading home or finding a nearby hotel.

Ring!

The internal office phone jolted her out of her daze. “Manager Lu, someone left a package for you at the security post.”

“I’ll be right down to get it.”

She didn’t remember ordering anything lately, and she rarely used the company address for personal mail. However, Ye Qianli used to send her packages when she was away on business, sometimes mailing them directly to the office. A tiny flicker of hope sparked in her chest. Forgetting her coat, she rushed downstairs.

“The person didn’t even leave a phone number, they just said it had to be handed to you personally,” the security guard noted, noticing her confusion.

Lu Yu thanked him and clutched the box to her chest as if it were a priceless treasure. A faint smile touched her lips for the first time in two days. It must be from A-Li, she told herself, though she knew she might just be indulging in wishful thinking.

Her excitement was tinged with such anxiety that her hands shook as she used a pair of scissors to slice through the tape. As she peeled back the layers of wrapping paper, a card beginning with the words “Miss Lu” caught her eye. Her heart, which had just begun to soar, plummeted instantly.

“Miss Lu, I still cannot recall anything about the past, and I find it impossible to believe I shared ten years of my life with a stranger. It is pointless for me to keep these photos and rings, so I am returning them to you. I think it is best if we do not see each other again.”

The handwriting was messy and appeared rushed, but in Lu Yu’s eyes, it simply looked like the woman couldn’t be bothered to spend another minute on her. Her fingertips turned white as she pressed them against the words “Miss Lu,” wishing she could claw a hole through the paper. This was the first time Ye Qianli had ever addressed her so formally. It was polite, cold, and suggested they had no history at all. The ten years they shared were now nothing more than a delusion Lu Yu was forced to carry alone.

She stood there for a long time, cradling the diamond ring engraved with their initials. Whenever they had held hands in the past, the ring would carry the warmth of Ye Qianli’s skin. Lu Yu used to love the crisp, pleasant sound of their rings clinking together. Now, the metal was as cold and hard as a stone. It felt terrifyingly foreign.

Then there was the photograph. She remembered it perfectly; it was from their graduation year. She had dragged Ye Qianli to the most famous studio in the city, determined to commemorate the end of their campus life. The woman had grumbled that it was too much fuss, yet she had cleared her schedule for days to go on a photo-trip and ended up enjoying herself immensely. Later, she had tucked one of the photos into her wallet, telling Lu Yu with a smile, “I’ll look at this whenever I miss my wife.”

The edges of the photo were faded from years of being handled, proving how often it had been pulled out. But now, it seemed Ye Qianli no longer missed her, nor did she want to look.

“…You jerk.” Lu Yu looked away, her heart aching so intensely she felt she might break. “A-Li, how could you…” She couldn’t finish the sentence, a profound grief choking her until she could barely breathe.

Knock, knock, knock!

“Manager Lu? Still here so late?” A colleague pushed the door open, only to freeze upon seeing the “Heiress” looking deathly pale. Her beautiful eyes had lost their luster, leaving only a hollow, lifeless void. She looked like a rose on the verge of withering away.

“Oh… I lost track of time,” Lu Yu said, snapping out of her daze. She scrambled to hide the contents of the package. Aside from the items that broke her heart, there was a brand-new umbrella tucked at the bottom of the box.

“They say there’s a rainstorm coming tonight. You should head out soon,” the colleague said. Sensing he had walked in at a bad time, he made a quick excuse and left.

Lu Yu stood frozen for a moment longer before shutting down her computer. It wasn’t until she locked the door that she realized she had left her keys inside the office. By the time she reached the building’s exit, the wind was howling, and the rain was falling in frozen sheets that threatened to collapse her new umbrella.

The storm had arrived.

The ride-hailing apps were completely booked, with dozens of people in the queue ahead of her. Just as she was debating whether to spend the night on her office sofa, a taxi happened to pull up right in front of her.

“Heading west? This is my last trip before I clock off,” the driver said, rolling down his window with a friendly tone. He felt a sense of relief; business had been slow, but a strange customer earlier that afternoon had paid him a week’s worth of wages just to wait here and pick up a specific person tonight. The customer had even given him a script to follow, insisting he follow it word-for-word and ensure the passenger reached her destination safely.

“Yes, to the XX neighborhood.”

Lu Yu noted the license plate, folded her umbrella, and climbed into the back seat. She glanced at the gift from the research institute, which remained unopened even after all the day’s chaos. It sat there alongside the ring and the photo Ye Qianli had sent back, as if they were all gathered to celebrate the end of their ten-year journey.

Lu Yu closed her eyes. Her dry, burning lids couldn’t produce any more tears, leaving her with nothing but a hollow, helpless ache.

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