Chapter 79: Zombie… Can It Swim?
Fatty swallowed and trembled, pointing his finger at Lin Yan, his head jerking like a robot towards Wu Xie: “Young comrade Xiao Xiao, I’m not well-read, don’t lie to me. This thing. A zombie? What a joke?”
Wu Xie numbly reached out and pushed Fatty’s arm down, nodding blankly: “Yes, you’re right, it’s a zombie. I get it now, anything that gets involved with Lin Yan is not normal.”
Shaking his head to snap out of his shock, Wu Xie struggled to walk towards Lin Yan, intending to get a closer look at what that little white zombie was like.
It was only when he got closer that he realized calling that white furball a zombie might be overestimating it. No matter which direction he looked, that thing was a standard ball! Who knows how those two little thin arms inside the ball managed to extend!
This white furball was currently perched on Lin Yan’s shoulder, hugging his neck. Up close, it was still trembling. Across from Lin Yan, Zhang Qiling was possibly at a loss for the first time in his life. Facing a strange thing fearfully clinging to his companion’s shoulder, he was unsure how to treat it. If he killed it, he estimated Lin Yan might not agree; if he didn’t resolve it, what if something happened?
This white furball was different from the white-haired zombies he had encountered before. Not only could he not find the little zombie’s fangs, he couldn’t even find its legs, yet based on its aura, it did indeed possess the aura of a white-haired zombie.
In the stagnant atmosphere, Zhang Qiling thought for a moment, sheathed his knife, and went to Lin Yan’s side. He glanced at the furball that had shrunk to the back of Lin Yan’s neck entirely upon his approach, looked at Lin Yan with complex eyes, and asked: “What is your relationship with this thing?”
Lin Yan shook his head somewhat blankly, instinctively adjusting the white furball on the back of his neck to make it perch more securely: “I don’t know. You’ve met this little thing before, it’s the little jar that guided us before. Later, when Wu Xie and I encountered it again, it even gave me a bead.”
Zhang Qiling nodded slightly. He shifted his gaze to stare at the white furball, making it tremble and try to shrink further behind his neck.
Just as everyone was about to become unbearable from the stagnant atmosphere, he spoke, addressing the white furball: “If you understand what we’re saying, make a sound.”
The white furball tentatively poked out half of itself from behind Lin Yan’s neck: “.Ying ying ying?”
This greatly surprised everyone. They had thought this little zombie only had instinctual reactions, but they didn’t expect it to have consciousness and understand what they were saying.
Zhang Qiling pondered slightly and said to it: “Don’t do anything to hinder us, or else…” He flashed his knife, and the little white furball trembled even more violently, shaking up and down repeatedly, as if nodding, tickling Lin Yan’s neck unbearably: “Ying ying ying ying!!!”
Lin Yan, unable to bear the tickling, quickly supported it with one hand and took it down, placing it in his arms. It wasn’t like the sparse zombies in old movies; this furball’s fur was as thick as a pet cat’s, and it felt warm to the touch, not cold like traditional zombies. If it had a heartbeat, it wouldn’t seem like an inanimate object at all.
Lin Yan was curious, holding the little thing in his hands, he stroked its head – it should be its head, as it was just a round ball: “Little thing, what exactly are you? Why don’t you seem like a zombie at all?”
Wrongly positioned after being taken down, with its back of the head facing Lin Yan, the white furball looked blankly at Zhang Qiling’s retreating back: “.Ying ying ying?”
Wu Xie and Fatty, who had been intimidated by Zhang Qiling’s presence and saw him walk away, quickly gathered around. Their curiosity could no longer be contained. Wu Xie immediately saw the white furball’s two big, round eyes looking at the front with confusion: “Oh, the little guy is quite cute. Look at its eyes, so obedient.”
Fatty, from the same perspective as Lin Yan, could only see its fluffy back of the head: “Huh? Where are its eyes?”
Wu Xie moved his hands, turning the white furball around: “You’re holding it the wrong way, they’re here!”
Now that it was turned around, Lin Yan and Fatty saw the white furball’s front, its two big black pupils looking at them with novelty: “Ying ying ying!”
The ball-shaped little zombie recreated the scene from before, extending two fluffy little thin arms from the ball towards Lin Yan, seeking a hug. Lin Yan, who had never raised a pet in his two lifetimes combined, was the first to be hit by its cuteness, with a benevolent expression: “Come, come, Daddy will hug you~”
Before Lin Yan could pick it up with his hands, the little thing lunged forward and bumped into Lin Yan’s neck. Lin Yan felt a sharp pain on his neck: “Hiss!” Seeing his expression was off, Wu Xie quickly reached out to take the little zombie: “What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing!” Lin Yan frowned and pressed his hand down: “It seems to be drinking my blood? But it also seems… Huh? It stopped?” Knowing his blood was special, Lin Yan was indeed a little scared the moment the white furball started to suck blood, but the warm sensation on his neck and the comforting aura from the white furball told him it had no ill intentions towards him.
As expected, after two seconds, the little thing stopped moving and began to rub the place where its fangs had pierced. Fatty, standing beside, hadn’t even reacted before this absurd scene ended: “This. This little zombie can actually—can actually suck blood?” His voice rose, and Zhang Qiling looked over. Fatty instinctively lowered his volume and quietly asked Lin Yan.
Lin Yan nodded, he was also a bit confused. The little thing seemed to have latched onto him. If you say it had ill intentions, it hadn’t done anything yet; if you say it didn’t, it did suck some of his blood. Could his blood also be useful to zombies? In that case, was Zhang Qiling also a zombie in some way?
The white furball seemed sleepy, its eyes blinking. After rubbing against Lin Yan’s neck, it plopped down directly from his shoulder onto his head. It nuzzled and rubbed again, finding a comfortable spot and settling down. It covered his head like a flattened ball of water, resembling a white plush hat.
“Is it asleep?” Wu Xie leaned in for a look, unable to find the white furball’s eyes at all. Lin Yan tilted his head up, trying to see, but his perspective revealed nothing.
Seeing him look up, Wu Xie quickly reached behind his head, afraid he might shake the white furball off. To his surprise, though the little zombie looked like a flattened ball, it held on tightly and didn’t move from Lin Yan’s head at all. Lin Yan felt the little thing gripping him. He tentatively shook his head and, finding that the little thing was still firmly attached, felt relieved.
“It should be asleep, but do zombies need to sleep? I think maybe my blood did something, and it might be… hibernating? Evolving? Recovering? I don’t know. This is my first time seeing this thing, but I’m not worried about it falling off when we dig the tomb-robbing hole later. Oh right, do you guys think this little zombie… can swim?”
“This…” They had only seen zombies a few times, so how would they know if zombies could swim? Wu Xie frowned and said uncertainly, “It probably can, right? Look, sea monkeys can swim too, can’t they? Are sea monkeys… zombies?”
Fatty Ye shook his head. “Whether it can swim or not isn’t important. Isn’t this thing on your head right now? If it’s holding on tight, it should be fine. If all else fails, put it in the bag, that should work, right? I don’t think you need to worry about whether it can swim. Zombies don’t breathe at all, are you really worried about it suffocating?”
Wu Xie and Lin Yan exchanged a look, giving Fatty Ye’s deduction their full endorsement. “That makes sense, Fatty!”
“Call me Fatty Ye!”
PS: The little cheat, the white furball zombie, is officially online! Let’s crowdfund a name!
