The Young Mistress Turned Into a Zombie - Chapter 7

However, things took a turn the zombie never expected.

After a three-hour break, the group set off again, traveling along the empty subway lines.

Although they seemed to have planned this route in advance, Shen Que and Jiang Hui remained cautious. They took turns standing guard during every rest stop. Shen Que had unlocked the zombie’s handcuffs, but she refused to let go of her hand the entire time. Meng Lin struggled several times, trying to reclaim her dignity as a zombie, but she failed.

The zombie had no idea how far they had walked.

All she knew was that she was exhausted to the point of wanting to die.

She hadn’t reminisced about the past when she’d had a class reunion with these two rivals three years ago. But now, as she walked through the sunless tunnels until her head spun, she found herself missing those days. She missed the society of laws and order. If her fellow zombies had any ambition, she swore she would sue these two in a Zombie Court for zombie abuse!

This brutal, heartless march finally ended when Jiang Hui announced, “We’re here.”

Shen Que dragged the lifeless zombie out of the skylight, carrying it in a clumsy mix of a hug and a hoist.

The surface world was bathed in bright daylight. The surrounding buildings had lost their skyscraper grandeur, and beyond the ruins of unfinished structures, the fields were lush with green grass.

“I’ll leave the rifle for you, but you’ll have to find your own ammo,” Jiang Hui said. She didn’t ask where Shen Que was headed next, her tone sharp yet teasingly playful. “The landlord’s grain bin is nearly empty, so don’t blame me for not showing you any more sympathy.”

Shen Que shook her head and handed the rifle slung over her shoulder to Jiang Hui, gesturing to the pistol at her waist. “This one is enough for me.”

Jiang Hui shrugged and accepted the weapon without protest. Guns were vital, and they both knew it.

“Alright, no more nonsense. Trust me to deliver the rest,” she said with a wave, pulling Xia Li to her feet. “As for how Old Lu will react, I can’t guarantee anything.”

She walked away laughing, then suddenly stopped and turned back. Her smile held a touch more sincerity this time. “Don’t die out here. It’s a pain to recover bodies.”

*****

Rain began to fall, a soft, clinging drizzle that conjured a thin mist over the suburbs.

The zombies in the rain were utterly bewildered.

Wait, what’s going on? Why did they just leave?

Meng Lin glanced at the strange object that had been shoved into her hand. The thin plastic wrapper crinkled. It was an old-fashioned piece of candy.

Old-fashioned and cheap, like some unbranded product. The edges of the pale green wrapper had worn down to a translucent white. The candy inside had melted and resolidified so many times that it had lost its original shape.

Meng Lin thought back to the girl’s expression before she left, and a pang of bitterness tightened her chest.

She figured Jiang Hui was taking her to meet up with her other companions. The woman might have a foul mouth, but she clearly had a conscience. Following her was bound to be safer than staying by Old Deng’s side.

The problem was, what was Shen Que doing now?

Was the Zombie Research Institute in a different location? Was she really going to escort her there all by herself?

Just as she was wondering, a sudden chill touched her wrist. Meng Lin looked down, and fury flared in her eyes.

Handcuffed again! Handcuffed again! Is this woman insane? What kind of grudge does she hold?

But the next second, she froze. The other end of the handcuffs was locked around Shen Que’s own wrist.

She took Meng Lin’s hand. The metal cuffs clinked together like a pair of linked silver bracelets. Their different skin tones overlapped—a sight that felt both strange and familiar, like a bustling night on campus years ago. Back then, Shen Que had forbidden her from drinking or clubbing, insisting instead on dragging her around the plastic-covered running track for lap after lap of exercise.

It had been so lively then, with people strolling and singing. Just an ordinary night.

Now they stood in the rain. Shen Que reached out and gently peeled the tape off Meng Lin’s mouth.

“There’s no one else here now,” Shen Que said. “Let’s go. We need to find a place to get out of the rain.”

The rain showed no sign of stopping, and the muddy paths along the abandoned fields were slick and treacherous.

The zombie was being completely uncooperative, dragging her full weight on her backside. Shen Que had to pull her along.

I can’t fight her, and I can’t run away, Meng Lin thought. My house and my cat are still back in City A. More importantly, she was becoming increasingly convinced that Shen Que was mentally unstable. Ever since Jiang Hui and the others had left, Shen Que seemed to have dropped her facade, revealing a calm, quiet madness.

It made the zombie’s heart race with anxiety.

Two other zombies wandered out from the bushes, catching their scent. They shrieked and lunged, but Shen Que drove her knife through their skulls, one after the other.

That was the sixty-seventh one. Shen Que stood under a tree, grabbing a handful of wet grass to wipe the brain matter off her knife.

“It’s okay. Don’t be afraid,” she said, trying to comfort Meng Lin as she cleaned the blade.

But Meng Lin couldn’t help but be terrified.

On this journey, Shen Que had slaughtered every zombie they encountered without even touching her gun. She relied solely on a military knife. Since they were handcuffed together, Meng Lin was forced into a front-row seat for every kill. She was terrified that Shen Que might lose herself in the bloodlust and accidentally stab a hole through her own head.

They were now on the outskirts of a village, likely in the suburbs. To attract tourists, the houses along the main street had been renovated in a traditional style.

There were still plenty of zombies in the village. Shen Que decided not to rush in. Instead, she led Meng Lin through the flower fields to a secluded two-story house near the edge of the fields.

The house had a small courtyard and a sign hanging from the eaves. It was a cafe called Yedu.

The name alone screamed “pretentious hipster.” The decor was clearly designed with effort, but not much—just a generic, mass-produced “wabi-sabi” aesthetic from 1688. Only the prices on the menu were honest.

The cafe was a complete mess, likely looted more than once. In a storage room on the first floor, Shen Que found a zombie locked from the inside. It was wearing an apron with the cafe’s logo, probably the owner.

After a quick cleanup of the mess, Shen Que shut the doors and windows and unlocked the handcuffs binding their wrists.

Meng Lin felt a wave of confusion at the sudden freedom. She had been bound to Shen Que for so long that she didn’t know what to do now.

Technically, she was a zombie. Ordinary zombies either wandered aimlessly or attacked people indiscriminately. But for some time now, she had been using a high-level survival strategy: playing dead in front of Shen Que, pretending to be a mindless, vegetative corpse. Perhaps it was because she seemed so harmless that Shen Que had finally lowered her guard.

Meng Lin’s eyes darted around.

Good, she thought. I’ll keep this up until I find a chance to escape.

With that, she flopped back into the sofa, fully embracing her role as a corpse.

Shen Que said nothing. She picked up a relatively clean blanket from nearby, shook off the dust, and gently draped it over Meng Lin.

The zombie, exhausted from her forced journey and soaked to the bone from the rain, could barely keep her eyes open.

Meng Lin had been lazy when she was alive, and now she was a low-energy zombie in every sense of the word. Zombies didn’t need to sleep, but they still had physical limits. Ordinary zombies wandered around to recharge, but Meng Lin’s method was more eco-friendly: she just lay flat and stared into space.

The rain tapped softly against the window. Shen Que was busy with something, her footsteps coming and going.

Meng Lin let her mind drift, sinking into a light sleep with the white noise. For the first time in a long while, she dreamed.

In her dream, she was back in early June of her twentieth year.

It was the eve of her birthday. She had just had another huge fight with her mother, Chu Buting, who had deigned to visit her.

She was so sick of it. Sick of her control, sick of her neglect. If she hated Meng Lin so much, if she despised her, why did she still hold her so tightly in her grasp, keeping her locked under her watchful eye? Meng Lin didn’t understand. She just wanted to escape, to get as far away from Chu Buting as possible.

The year of her college entrance exams, she had secretly applied for a school in England. Chu Buting found out, and the plan failed.

Now she was twenty. She had even begged, humbled herself, and pleaded for her mother’s permission, but it still wasn’t enough.

Everyone envied her for being born into such a good family. She was born in Rome, slept in a golden bed, sat on a golden toilet, and was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She could have anything she wanted. Why did she still have so many problems in this life?

Yes, why?

She had hands and feet, yet she couldn’t even decide where she wanted to go.

Meng Lin rudely dismissed the bodyguard and driver Chu Buting had arranged for her. Grabbing a single suitcase, she moved out of the apartment her mother had provided.

She checked into a hotel suite, skipped all her classes, and spent her days and nights drifting through clubs and bars. Just another useless rich kid, even her rebellion was a cliché.

Meng Lin couldn’t remember how much she’d drunk that night. She only recalled waking up in a haze, reaching out and touching something soft and warm. When she opened her eyes, the room was a complete mess.

Across from her sat a strange woman wrapped in a hotel robe.

Meng Lin looked down. She was completely naked, reeking of alcohol.

Shock!

Her first instinct was that she’d been picked up by a stranger. But seeing the woman’s cold, disgusted expression, she wondered if she’d been the one harassing someone while drunk.

Either way, two women alone in a room in the middle of the night, completely naked… and she had these blurry, fragmented memories of wrestling and nakedly tangling together.

Her first time! It was a one-night stand!

And she couldn’t even remember how it felt.

But saving face was more important. Meng Lin pretended to be calm, leaning back against the headboard like a seasoned pro and clearing her throat.

“Don’t misunderstand,” the woman said, cutting her off. She frowned as she explained, “I saw some guy harassing you at the bar. You were barely conscious, so I chased him away. Then you clung to me and insisted I take you back to the hotel.”

Her voice was lovely. That was Meng Lin’s first impression of Shen Que.

Shen Que held a damp towel, perhaps to wipe her face. Her white T-shirt and jeans, freshly washed, were draped over the table to dry. Her long hair was still half-wet, with stray droplets clinging to her collarbone. She carried the woody scent of Acqua di Parma, the hotel’s toiletries.

If it’s this woman, I guess I’m not losing out, Meng Lin thought.

“You’re a terrible drunk,” Shen Que said, her voice dripping with reluctant, self-pitying coldness. She immediately began to lecture her. “If you don’t know your limit, you should be more careful when drinking. A wise person doesn’t stand beneath a crumbling wall. You brought this on yourself.”

“…Huh?”

Meng Lin hated being lectured. Seeing Shen Que turn to leave, she lunged forward and grabbed her. The robe’s tie slipped instantly.

The retort Meng Lin had been preparing died in her throat. Her eyes widened, then widened again.

Wow. What a perfect chest. Those abs are divine…

I see it, I want it!

“Wait, don’t go!” Meng Lin’s expression shifted instantly, her tone turning aggrieved. “You’ve already insulted me. At least finish the job and be a good person to the end?”

Shen Que looked at her as if she were a relentless thug. “Do you even know who I am?”

Meng Lin: “Don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

She sneered with utter disgust. “I’m a kidnapper, a thug, a vagrant, a scam artist, a con artist, and a future prison meal connoisseur.”

Wow. I didn’t know before, but now I think I have a pretty good idea of who you are.

Meng Lin stole a glance at Shen Que’s hands as she straightened her robe. The fingers were long, slender, and elegant. So beautiful!

“Today is my birthday,” Meng Lin said, playing the victim while acting completely unreasonable. “I went out drinking alone because I had no one to spend it with. You’ve already been messed with by me for half the night, and your clothes won’t dry anyway. Just stay here and sleep with me. I’m so drunk; what if I accidentally choke to death on some water later?”

Shen Que’s anger turned into a bitter laugh. “Did you even hear what I said?”

Meng Lin replied airily, “Does it really matter?”

“I’ve already been stripped bare and seen by you,” she said, spreading her hands. “Even though you’re a kidnapper, a thug, a vagrant, a scam artist, a con artist, and a future prison meal connoisseur, you haven’t actually hurt me. The real question is this: if you’re a good person, there’s no harm in just sleeping here with a clear conscience. But if you’re actually a bad person, then I’ll have no choice but to call the police.”

“You’re stripping me?” Shen Que stared in disbelief. “You threw up all over me!”

“Oh, really?~” Meng Lin asked back with a beaming smile. “Did you record it? Do you have proof?”

“…”

Shen Que glared at her. “Are you trying to scam me right now?”

Whoa, such a murderous aura!

“My head hurts! My hands hurt, my waist hurts, my legs hurt… everything hurts…”

“…”

“I need water, I feel sick~~~ Since you’re the one who found me, you have to take responsibility for me!”

“…You’re a menace!”

After that night, Meng Lin became interested in her and hired someone to investigate her background.

They were in the same year at the same school. Shen Que came from a poor family. The Eldest Young Lady’s desire for conquest was ignited.

She firmly believed that there was no soul that money couldn’t corrupt. If there was, you just had to add two more zeros.

After a period of relentless pursuit, Meng Lin discovered that ordinary methods wouldn’t work. Shen Que was the kind of person who yielded to kindness but resisted force.

So, after Meng Lin “accidentally” met with danger for the Nth time, putting on an expression of “Oh my, Sister, I’ve fallen,” Shen Que finally lost her patience.

“Stop acting crazy and get up!”

Shen Que, Shen Que.

It seems I’ve been picked up by you once again.

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