CH 9.1

“Do you have a pen?”

“What for?” 

“I’ll draw what I saw for you.”

Li Weiwei handed me a ballpoint pen and a small notebook. “That’s all?” He said as if afraid that I would not be able to draw under the pretext of using the simple tools, so I rolled my eyes, took the items and focused on drawing.

As a professional comic book author without much imagination, solid drawing skills were the foundation of my life. I sketched out scenes I couldn’t describe through words. With quick strokes, it’s inevitable that the picture was a little sloppy, but it didn’t affect the entire image of the scenery and the people. 

Neither I nor Li Weiwei said a word as I drew. In a quiet underground office of the Vampire Association, there’s only the light sound of the pen scratching against the paper’s surface and my breathing as I drew each stroke echoing in the room. 

When I stopped the pen and looked up, I found Li Weiwei staring intently at the notebook. He raised his head and our eyes met. I could hear him breathing and the figure reflected in his pupils were so close. 

I lifted the drawing up, putting the notebook between us as a barrier shielding me from him. “It’s done.”

Li Weiwei leaned back on his chair, held his hand out and called my name. “Su Xiaoxin.” 

Seeing his gesture, I immediately said in defense, “Okay, I didn’t tell you it would be good so just see it as it is. No need to judge.”

“Your drawing isn’t bad.”

Boom. My heartbeat raced for no other reason than that… Li Weiwei actually complimented me!

“The way you draw is also good.”

My eyes widened. When the ability I was proud of the most was being recognized by the person who’s most unlikely to do so, after the initial shock and astonishment, I couldn’t keep the corners of my mouth from twitching slightly. “Then…”

“The next time you see me, don’t talk, just draw.”

“…”

I was so naïve. What ivory can this guy spit out of his mouth? [1]

I tapped the notebook with the pen. “Look at this! Here’s what I saw!”

Li Weiwei fixed his gaze at my sketch again. “An air-raid shelter during the Great Bombing. It didn’t look big. This must be a mother who lost her child. Give me a detailed portrait of her face and I’ll get people to scan and distribute a copy of it.” 

I was stunned. “Scan and copy for distribution?”

“What you saw is probably the memory of the zombie that bit you before their death.” Li Weiwei spoke with a cold expression, sending chills down my spine. “Li Peipei told me about your dreams yesterday. I discussed it with a few doctors and a hunter. It is possible that the zombie’s saliva entered your blood, and the result was seeing what happened to the zombies before their deaths. It is reasonable to say that a zombie’s saliva shouldn’t have that effect, but those zombies showed signs of mutation. What sort of mutation their saliva contained however was still unknown.”   

“I…” I said with a trembling voice, “Am I poisoned by a corpse?” Am I… Going to die? I tried, but fear and the urge to cry still ended up being evident in my voice.  

Li Weiwei glanced at me, and the conceited expression on his face seemed to say, with this daddy here, it’s not so easy for you to die. 

I tried to control my emotions, and after a while, I couldn’t help but think about my comics. I have to go back and write a good outline for my unfinished comics. If something were to happen to me, the story could give the readers an explanation and they wouldn’t be left hanging! That’s what it’s like to be a professional comic artist! 

As I thought about it, I turned the pages of the notebook, drew an oval shape and began to sketch the facial features of the woman in my dream. As I drew, I suddenly remembered something and paused for a moment to ask Li Weiwei. “Last time I was bitten by that zombie, why didn’t you make me draw its appearance right away?”

Li Weiwei wiped his glasses, then asked me with narrowed eyes. “Well, then, do you remember what that zombie looked like?” ”

………

Oh. To be honest, I forgot most of what happened that night. I only remember the man in black whose face I didn’t get to see and his gentleness… Indeed, it seemed that after a day or two of being attacked, I didn’t care about being bitten at all. Instead, I was immersed in the feeling of a “love at first sight.” 

I remained silent and focused on my task. After wiping his glasses, he put it back on the bridge of his nose then stood up. “Once you’re done, I’ll bring someone over who’ll come back with us.” 

Without giving me another chance to ask questions, he walked out with his hands clasped behind his back.

After about an hour, the tip of the ballpoint pen stopped at the corner of the woman’s eye, deepening a shadow. I straightened my back and breathed out. After I looked at my surroundings, I returned to my drawing, adding two strokes to the corner of her mouth. 

“Wow!” I heard a childish exclamation, and a black head immediately came over next to me and avidly said, “That’s amazing!” A child, whose eyes were as translucent as obsidian, was looking up at me. “You’re really good at this!”

Very few children appreciated my work. I was about to say a few words of modesty, even though I felt so proud at the moment, when the notebook in my hand was taken away by Li Weiwei who just came in. He picked up the receptionist’s landline and made a call. “Hello. Come to the front desk and get the documents. Send me a copy today. It’s a Class 2.”   

The Vampire Association’s arrest warrants were divided into six categories—a special warrant and classes one to five. 

Generally, the first class warrant was the highest order. For example, if there’s an occurrence of non-human serial killings, or non-human large-scale fights with heavy casualties, it will issue a first class arrest warrant for the main criminals. The second class on the other hand was the highest level for ordinary events. It seemed that the matter with the zombie put a great pressure on them. 

As for the special warrant, Li Peipei said that it strictly belonged to their non-human organization and was something that most people didn’t know…

“Little sister, not only do you draw beautifully, but you’re also beautiful yourself, I’m surprised.”

Huh?

Translator’s Notes:

1. There’s a Chinese saying, “there’s no ivory in the mouth of a dog”.  It means you cannot expect a decent language from a filthy mouth as ivory represents valuable stuff while the dog represents nasty people. ↵