Bai Li was a little surprised by how quickly the child had chosen her seat arrangement, but Yan Cijin was already smiling. "Okay, whatever you say." Bai Li said with a smile. It was only because her hand was injured that she was already playing along with the little girl. The child cheered and nimbly climbed onto the sofa, patting the spots on either side of her with her tiny hands. "Mommy, Auntie, come here!"

The child’s reaction was so quick and direct that Bai Li almost laughed. She had only said she was leaving, and the little one had already acted like she was about to disappear forever. Bai Li’s own heart felt a little softer at that. She had always known children were honest in a way adults were not. They liked someone, they reached out. They did not hide it. They did not play around with it. That made the small hand around her leg feel strangely heavy in a warm way, like a little weight she did not mind carrying at all. Yan Cijin looked over at the two of them and seemed to be thinking the same thing, because the corner of her mouth lifted more before she tried to hide it. Bai Li bent down a little more, careful not to twist her injured hand too much, and spoke to the child in a gentle voice. The little girl’s eyes stayed on her face like she was trying to memorize every word. It was the kind of trust that adults almost never gave so freely, and it made Bai Li feel like she needed to answer it properly.

Yan Cijin’s eyes crinkled slightly as she sat to the left of her little one, while Bai Li sat to the right. The little girl was overjoyed, her short legs swinging faster than usual as she looked from one side to the other. Usually, her mother and grandmother sat beside her, but this felt different. The little girl had never had a mother, and she had started kindergarten a month ago. Seeing other children with mothers or fathers, she was actually a little envious, though she had not told her mother or grandmother. The little girl glanced at her mother, then turned to look at Bai Li. If Bai Li’s hand hadn’t hurt, the little girl would have wanted to sit in Bai Li’s lap and cuddle. Yan Laojin couldn’t bear to watch. Her little dumpling was so easy to please. A bag of snacks and she was already so affectionate with someone else. It made Yan Laojin feel both amused and vaguely helpless. Yan Cijin watched TV with the little girl for a while before going to the kitchen. "Mom, let me help you cook." Her mother was already moving around, and Yan Cijin did not want to just sit there doing nothing while Bai Li stayed as a guest. "No need, just wash the vegetables for me." Yan Laojin sighed, looking at her daughter, and said softly, "Cijin, we don’t have many eggs left, and not many vegetables either. I don’t know how long it will take for those monsters outside to be eliminated. If this continues, the food we have stored will be dwindling." Her voice dropped a little lower on the last sentence, because that part had been sitting in her mind for a while. The apocalypse had changed everything so fast that even ordinary things like eggs and vegetables suddenly felt precious. Yan Cijin was silent for a moment. Her mother only knew that there were many zombies outside, but she had never seen them with her own eyes. She had come all the way back from the hospital with Bai Li, and now Jinghua City could be said to have completely fallen. Waiting for the zombies outside to disappear was almost impossible. "Mom, don’t worry too much, there will always be a way." Yan Cijin could only comfort her. She could not explain everything yet, and even if she did, her mother would probably not believe the whole truth anyway. So she said what she could and kept the rest in her heart.

Yan Laojin’s kitchen was not big, but the moment she started working, the place came alive. The knife tapped softly on the cutting board, water ran in the sink, and the smell of cooked food slowly filled the room. In a normal time, all of this would have felt ordinary, maybe even a little boring. But after everything outside, just hearing a few simple cooking sounds was enough to make people relax. Bai Li sat in the living room with the little girl and could clearly hear the sounds coming from inside. For a moment, she almost forgot there were zombies outside, forgot that the city had changed, forgot that the world had turned strange and dangerous. The apartment felt like a tiny safe pocket that still remembered what daily life used to be. The little girl noticed Bai Li looking in the direction of the kitchen and immediately started talking about food in her soft, excited way, as if she had already decided lunch would be the most important thing in the world. That childlike energy made Bai Li smile again without trying. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"I hope so. But since Bai Li is here, we should cook a few more dishes. She even brought a lot of things for LiLi." Although Yan Laojin was still a little afraid of Bai Li, she had not come empty handed, and she had saved her daughter’s life. She should treat her well. That much was obvious. Yan Laojin was the type of mother who could be suspicious for ten seconds and then flip into hospitality the next second if she decided someone was worth it. Bai Li had already passed that test more than a little. "Hmm." Yan Cijin said, because there was no reason to disagree. The rice and flour at home could actually last for a while,

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TO BE CONTINUED.