"Wait!" Liu Jun abruptly called Lin Qiao's name.
Lin Qiao stopped walking, then turned back to her and asked, "What's the matter?"
"It has been over ten hours. Let me go out and check on Tongtong. He must have been freaked out," said Liu Jun.
"Ah! I almost forgot about him! Sure, I'll send you out," Lin Qiao patted her own head and said.
While speaking, she hurriedly sent Liu Jun out of the space, then flashed back in and kept walking toward the small building.
In the living room, Xie Dong paused for a second upon seeing Yun Meng. However, he didn't make any sound, and just took an extra glance at her.
Yun Meng's scales had been covered by clothes, but her tail was still exposed in the air.
Lin Qiao and the others were used to her tail, but she herself seemed to be paying extra attention to that tail after restoring her memory. She constantly turned back to look at and wag it.
After finding herself a seat in the living room, Lin Qiao looked at Yun Meng and said, "If you want to say something to us, just say it. We can be the listeners if you don't feel like keeping all that to yourself. It'll be fine if you don't want to share it, but I think it's better for you to let it out. It's like opening up an old wound, but you got to squeeze out the rotten blood in it."
Qiu Lili nodded, looking at Mengmeng curiously.
Yun Meng looked at the others and thought for a second. After that, she gave a bitter smile, which looked even worse than a crying face.
She said, "My name is Yun Meng. Actually, I'm from the Northeast. When the apocalypse happened, I was in Beijing. Back then, I was a healthy human being. I had learned martial arts, so I survived. I tried my best to go back home to my family. I was happy when I found them all alive. However, when I sent them to a base, they pushed me into a zombie crowd."
Lin Qiao, Qiu Lili, and the others all looked at her silently.
She went through all the difficulties to find her family, but when they finally arrived in a safe place, they betrayed her and pushed her into a zombie crowd. That was really despairing.
Yun Meng's eyes were a little unfocused when she continued, "They pushed me out together. They thought that I had been wasting their food."
Lin Qiao and the others couldn't think of a word to say.
Qiu Lili slightly widened her eyes and said, "What? They pushed you out for that reason? Your family didn't think you as their family member at all, did they?"
Lin Qiao sighed and said, "People have changed after the apocalypse. Many dark sides that used to be buried deep in people's hearts are exposed now. So, in the post-apocalyptic world, zombies aren't the scariest… humans are."
Both Yun Meng and Qiu Lili nodded in agreement while Xie Dong and Shen Yujen fell into deep thoughts.
At that time, Lin Qiao continued, "But, there are human beings in my base too. Even though I've been managing human beings and zombies separately, some contacts are still unavoidable. If you don't want to stay here, you can leave when I go back."
Yun Meng heard what she said. She raised her head to look at Lin Qiao and responded with confusion, "Leave? No… I don't want to leave. I want to be with you guys. It's fine that there are people in this place. Nothing will happen as long as I stay away from them. Can't I stay?"
She thought that Lin Qiao was trying to drive her away, so her eyes wore a faint flurried look.
Lin Qiao looked at her and stayed silent for two seconds, then said, "I'm not trying to drive you away. I just want you to think it through before making the decision. Perhaps, you'll regret staying here someday."
Yun Meng quickly shook her head. She sat straight like a student, saying, "No, I'm not leaving. I won't regret. I never regretted what I've done. I don't regret sending my family to the base. I'd do it again even if I knew what would happen in the end."
Seeing the determined look on her face, Lin Qiao nodded and said, "Alright! Since you've said so, I have no reason to say no."
"What about you guys?" She asked, and the others shook their heads.
Lin Qiao then looked at Mengmeng and asked, "So, were you bitten by zombies when they pushed you out?"
Yun Meng nodded and said, "I was hurt. When we were arriving at the base, they suddenly pushed me out of the truck. I was almost unconscious back then. By the time I realized what happened, all I saw was the truck driving away and the zombies pouncing on me."
Lin Qiao sighed and said, "In this case, your family should be in a base in the Northeast. You came to the South, so I guess you subconsciously wanted to avoid that direction."
Yun Meng nodded.
Lin Qiao looked at her and said, "Now you've woken up and become like a totally different person. You were a naughty child before! You even bit my head! Do you remember that?"
"Ah… that… I do remember that… Eh…" Yun Meng felt awfully embarrassed as Lin Qiao mentioned that. She looked at her awkwardly and stuttered to respond.
Qiu Lili looked at her with surprise, "Eh? When did you bite her head?"
"Eh-hem… About that… We'll talk about it some other day! That's some ugly history!" Yun Meng was so embarrassed, and a little speechless. She was probably brain-damaged before, as so many things that she did were strange and hard to understand.
"What happened to you earlier was more than just memory-loss," said Lin Qiao, "I guess you were mentally impaired. Both Junjun and I have had memory loss, but we didn't become like that."
Qiu Lili stared at Yun Meng and said, "I think Qiaoqiao is right. You did havea terribly low IQ earlier."
Yun Meng couldn't be more embarrassed as she said, "You can't blame me for that. I didn't cause that myself. I did not only become a zombie, but I also became like that."
Lin Qiao laughed, "You maintained that way, and that was already good enough. Also, you were lucky to meet us. If you didn't, you might have been killed by some stronger ones and had your nucleus dug out already."
Yun Meng thought for a moment and felt that Lin Qiao was right. "Yeah, it was such a good thing to meet you!"
Lin Qiao looked at her and responded, "And you really like children."
Yun Meng smilingly nodded and said, "Yeah, I cannot resist adorable children. I've always been a natural queen of children."
She didn't realize that Lin Qiao had successfully diverted her attention and pulled her out of the awful memory about how her family pushed her into a zombie crowd.
Lin Qiao nodded and said, "I can tell. The first time I met you, you abducted the little one. I was so worried as I thought you'd hurt her."
Qiu Lili added, "Back then, you also tailed Qiaoqiao to our territory! If she didn't warn me about you in advance, I'd have beaten you until you ran away."
Hearing about the things that she did when her brain wasn't working, Yun Meng really wanted a hole to crawl in.
"I also want to know why were you so clinging to Lili before. Just now, I thought you were going to hug her!" said Lin Qiao.
Yun Meng silently glanced at Qiu Lili, then said to Lin Qiao, "She's a clean freak. She wouldn't let me hug her for sure, so if I tried to do that, I'd end up hugging the air. That would ruin the atmosphere!"
Lin Qiao and the others didn't know what to say.