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“I think there’s something wrong with Xiao Hong lately.”
Lin Yuzu said as she bounced on her toes while throwing the bed sheet she was holding over toward the clothesline. Xiao Xiao sat on the porch behind her, holding two thin straws in her hand, and responded, “Hmm. .”
Lin Yuzu used the same way to dry the covers, “Right? It’s become quieter, there’s less food, and. . .”
“Hmm?”
“Moreover,” Lin Yuzu jumped twice again and hung up the white coat jacket that Xiao Xiao had changed out of, “Don’t you think that the clothes’ rail is set up too high?”
“High?”
“I think it’s too high! It’s impossible to reach.”
“Any lower, sheets will drag through ground.”
Lin Yuzu thought for a long time before saying, “If you use two drying poles to dry horizontally, you won’t have this problem.
“Trouble. Obviously, let me do it.” Xiao Xiao focused on the movements of her hands without raising her head, “It’s Yuzu, short.”
“I. Am. Not. Short.” Lin Yuzu sternly retorted, “It’s an average height. When I was in school, I was sitting in the back-middle.”
Xiao Xiao, “Kindergarden?”
Lin Yuzu, “. . . . Xiao Xiao, the girl who digs into the root of the problem is not cute, ah.”
“Oh. . . Alright.”
“What?” Once Lin Yuzu laboriously finished drying clothes, she sighed a breath of relief as she sat next to Xiao Xiao, “I just wanted to ask what are you doing?”
“Reward.”
Xiao Xiao raised her hand, she twirled a thin grass stem with her index finger and thumb, revealing a lively grasshopper underneath. When she shook it, it looked like it was jumping around deftly in the air.
Lin Yuzu was a little surprised, “You still know how to make this.”
She let the grasshopper rest in her palm and couldn’t help but reveal a bright smile, “Thanks, but when you say reward, what’s the reward for ?”
Xiao Xiao groaned for a moment, “Of drying clothes, the reward? Hard work.”
Lin Yuzu, “. . . This is a joke.”
“No.”
“Then turn back and look at me and say it. . .”
After chatting with Xiao Xiao for a few minutes, Lin Yuzu peeked in through the window and placed the grasshopper on the desk in the bedroom. Before she could retract her body, she heard the sound of something falling to the ground from the yard.
Xiao Xiao greeted the big cat that crossed the courtyard walls, “Zhao Cai.”
“Meow~”
Lin Yuzu turned back just in time to see Zhao Cai, who was covered in dust, leaves, and weeds, circling around the clothesline and taking his paws to pick at the dangling sheets.
Lin Yuzu, “. . .”
Xiao Xiao, “Ah.”
There was an extra black mark on the clean blue and white checkered sheets that just had been washed.
In this world where fully automatic washing machines are not available, every day’s clothes are washed by Lin Yuzu by hand. It, of course, includes today’s troublesome and laborious bed sheets and quilts.
Lin Yuzu sighed deeply and smiled kindly at the big cat with an innocent expression, “You don’t get to run away today. I will have to insist you take a bath–“
“Miaow!”
“Xiao Xiao, close the door!”
Ten minutes later, with Xiao Xiao’s help, Lin Yuzu finally got what she wanted and pushed the big cat into the basin and rubbed soap all over its body. Zhaocai’s fur that was bathed absorbed all the water and clung to his body, completely losing its plush and cute edge.
Xiao Xiao forbade it to shake away the water under Lin Yuzu’s instructions, so he could only patiently sit on the veranda and wait for Lin Yuzu to dry him.
“It’s going to be finished soon, don’t be so dejected.”
Lin Yuzu combed Zhaocai’s fur with a needle comb. Probably because of his fire ability, the moisture on Zhaocai’s body evaporated particularly quickly and it didn’t take long for it to completely dry up.
“Hmm.” Xiao Xiao, who was reading a book next to him, nodded and handed Lin Yuzu’s dried fish to Zhaocai, “Reward.”
The dried fish wasn’t enough to satiate him so he turned his head away in a lack of interest. Xiao Xiao held the dried fish and thought for two sends before extending it towards Lin Yuzu’s mouth, “Reward?”
Lin Yuzu, “. . .”
Under Xiao Xiao’s expectant gaze, Lin Yuzu had no choice but to eat it.
After finishing Zhaocai’s gorgeous fur, it relaxed and rested its head on Lin Yuzu’s lap with its eyes closed and took a nap, bringing warmth and heat. Lin Yuzu stroked its head and began to care about another family member.
The carnivorous flower in the corner of the yard quietly bent its branches and half-opened its orange-red branches, looking very depressed.
“It’s really not right.”
Lin Yuzu once again mentioned the topic of drying clothes, “Today, it didn’t mock Zhaocai.” If it was the usual Xiao Hong, the moment Zhaocai turned into a house cat, it would’ve slapped its leaves and let out a loud, ‘puff puff puff’.
Probably after hearing its name, the napping big cat twitched its ears.
Xiao Xiao flipped through the book [C Traps and Defects] on her hand and responded nonchalantly, “Yeah. Recently, eating too well.”
Lin Yuzu was a little skeptical, “Eating well?”
Xiao Hong basically waits for them for its meals, unlike Zhaocai who goes out to hunt on his own, it had transformed completely into a domesticated houseplant, not to mention that Lin Yuzu didn’t think that their food was particularly good.
Xiao Xiao answered, “Crystals, fed to it.”
“Ah. . .” Lin Yuzu immediately reacted, Xiao Xiao was talking about the crystals they took out after catching the mutant creatures, and since Lin Yuzu didn’t need them that much, Xiao Xiao said they were useful and gave her everything.
She then became interested, “Just like the awakened, will they upgrade after absorbing crystals?”
Xiao Xiao, “Yes?”
“Why are you answering with a question. . .” Lin Yuzu asked. “Ans what will happen after upgrading?”
Xiao Xiao shook her head, indicating that she didn’t know either.
Lin Yuzu looked at the listless Xiao Hong. Compared to its bucket size when Xiao Xiao first dug it back, it seems to have unknowingly grown a…. number of times and it had completely occupied a corner of the yard.
If it grows again. . .
Lin Yuzu imagined a carnivorous flower taller than the house and immediately erased this image. It’s best to evolve it in other ways and not grow anymore. In fact, she felt that Xiao Hong had been too smart and is about to become sentient. Maybe after upgrading, it will grow eyes and nose, or hands and feet and soon crawl out the soil. . . .
. . . .
To read the original translation, please visit: triple ‘w’ dot nihilumcreations dot wordpress dot com slash raising-the-zombie-king slash
. . . .
In fact, it looks pretty good as it is now.
Lin Yuzu ended her imagination that could make people lose their SAN value.
The spring warmth, the clouds on the clear sky that occasionally formed a silhouette of a swallow. In the leisurely afternoon, with the sounds of Xiao Xiao turning the pages, Lin Yuzu leaned on the big cat for cushion and yawned, a little drowsy.
She didn’t know what happened last night. Some wild animals were howling most of the night that disturbed other people from dreaming. She didn’t sleep well that night and got up early in the morning, following her biological clock. The lack of sleep was almost overwhelming her.
“I’ll sleep a little, wake me up later.”
“En.”
There’s nothing to do in the afternoon, right. . .
Lin Yuzu thought for a while and eventually didn’t resist the drowsiness for too long. She adjusted her position and fell asleep against Zhaocai’s soft body.
She had a dream.
It seems like it was before the end of the world where she was with her parents and visited the famous cherry blossom viewing spot in W city. Although it wasn’t surprising, it ended up turning into viewing human heads.
Lin Yuzu was swept away by the crowd and as she walked, the people around her gradually lessened. On the vast plain stood huge cherry blossom trees as white petals fell one after another.
The water beneath her feet was still shallow and was blue like glaciers. Strangely enough, it wasn’t cold at all as the blue started to fill the world and she was floating in it, wrapped in a cool soft-touch something, like jelly.
When the wind blew, it was a little cold. . .
Lin Yuzu opened her eyes in a daze and her eyes reflected the gentle sunset glow in the sky.
The sun is almost down.
Didn’t Xiao Xiao wake her up? Lin Yuzu slowly awoke, feeling the weight on her body, Zhaocai’s long tail wrapped on her arm that occasionally fluttered. The two created a circular posture where they pillowed on each other.
And Xiao Xiao hugged her waist while her head rested against her shoulder and leaned close to her side, sleeping deeper than she did.
Between the two of them was the copy of [C Traps and Defects] that had a dried flower clipped at the corner of the book in between its pages to serve as a bookmark. It was made from the flower that Xiao Xiao gave Lin Yuzu the day she agreed to live with her.
Lin Yuzu tried to move and Xiao Xiao’s snow-colored hair wrapped around her arm. Compared to the hug that day, Lin Yuzu felt that she was closer to herself than before.
Ah. . . My hands are numb.
Lin Yuzu looked at Xiao Xiao’s innocent sleeping face. Thinking about not wasting any time, she decisively called out to her, “It’s time to wake up, Xiao Xiao? If you don’t wake up now, you won’t be able to sleep at night.”
Xiao Xiao opened her eyes blankly at her wake-up call, and when her ice-blue eyes that seemed to be tinted with amber due to the setting sun reflected on them, Lin Yuzu suddenly recalled a portion of her dream.
“Flowers. . . Ah, let’s go enjoy the flowers tomorrow.”
Xiao Xiao, who just woke up, blinked her eyes with doubts written on her face.
Lin Yuzu carefully considered, “Yes, we should go out for an outing this spring.”
“. . . outing?”
“Enjoying flowers and picnics in scenic places. . . Like the things we usually do,” Lin Yuzu thought about other activities, and then she caught a glimpse of birds flying across the sky and an inspiration flashed, “How about finding an open area to fly some kites?”
Xiao Xiao questioned, “Kite flying?”
“Yeah, but there’s no kite, ah. . .” Of course, she can’t buy one now and Lin Yuzu only has vague memories about kite making from her childhood craft class. She remembered Xiao XIao’s perfect technique of weaving grass and asked with a little hope, “Do you know how to make them?”
Xiao Xiao slightly tilted her head as if she was going through her memories, “. . . probably.”
It seems that Xiao Xiao’s no different from her and only possesses some theoretical knowledge.
Lin Yuzu said, “Should we use the bamboo strips leftover from the last basket we weaved to try?”
Xiao Xiao nodded her head in agreement. Her number fingers swiftly created the skeleton and when it came to putting the fabric on, Lin Yuzu hesitated to whether use her shirt or short sleeves, and finally, Xiao Xiao let her dismantle two umbrellas.
The dark blue and light green umbrella cloths were spliced together. Although it looked a little messy, it could still fly into the sky even if it shook a little.
Xiao Xiao looked at the simple kite in mid-air with a shine in her eyes. She was now more excited than Lin Yuzu, “Tomorrow, let’s fly it?”
“OK.”
When the next day came, when they got up, it was drizzling outside.
The author has something to say:
Zhaocai didn’t want to be a pillow for the two at all, it was threatened by Xiao Xiao.