Xue Ling sat across from Wen Yi, placing the tablet in front of her.

This tablet was provided by Wen Yi. The screen was sturdy and clear, without too many flashy functions. It could only input text and select read-aloud.

There were also many associated words and convenient phrases underneath. Inputting sentences was very easy—much smoother to use than the tablet she had used before.

It felt like it was made specifically for people in situations like hers.

Under Wen Yi’s gaze, when she picked up the tablet’s stylus to input text, Xue Ling’s movements were slightly tense and restrained.

Other than Wen Jiuzhe, she hadn’t communicated with normal humans who knew about her zombie identity for a very, very long time.

Before, she hadn’t felt it while worrying about Wen Jiuzhe. Now that things were temporarily fine, she instead felt a bit uncomfortable.

Wen Yi observed her unobtrusively, and was genuinely a little curious about what she wanted to say.

Hopefully it wouldn’t be threats or suspicions like her boyfriend’s, or deciding to volunteer herself as experimental material out of consideration for him. That would be very boring—she really would get annoyed enough to ask the person to leave.

“Can you tell me about Wen Jiuzhe’s past?” a female voice came from the tablet.

This was an unexpected topic.

Wen Yi was slightly surprised. “I’m not very familiar with him. We didn’t interact much in the past. What do you want to ask?”

She looked a bit aloof, but her attitude was fairly friendly, so Xue Ling asked directly, “I want to ask—several years ago, before the zombie outbreak, what did he go back to the Wen family to do?”

Wen Yi: “He didn’t tell you?”

“He did, but not everything.” Thinking of Wen Jiuzhe’s previous evasive explanation made Xue Ling angry.

He definitely hadn’t told the truth. Xue Ling had guessed it long ago.

“I’m not very clear either. Probably Grandpa told him to go back and do some things that weren’t very nice, and also planned to arrange a blind date for him. He didn’t want to. Not long after he went back, Grandpa died at his hands,” Wen Yi said, her expression frighteningly calm.

Xue Ling’s pen stopped on the tablet, stunned by this explosive piece of news.

This… Wen Jiuzhe and Wen Yi shared the same grandpa, right?

Seeing the shock written all over Xue Ling’s eyes, Wen Yi felt a kind of regret, wishing she could take back what she had said.

“Don’t mind it. I don’t really like my grandpa either. I won’t take revenge on Wen Jiuzhe because of this. I wasn’t even planning to settle accounts with him over what he did to my younger sister Wen Xiang, let alone my grandpa’s matter.”

Wen Yi spoke with extreme coldness, like an assassin.

She was the first child of this generation of the Wen family. Before she was born, Grandpa had been hoping she would be a first-born son and first-born grandson. Later, when he discovered she was a girl, he was especially disappointed.

From childhood to adulthood, no matter what achievements she attained, he would never feel happy—only more regretful: “If only it were a grandson.”

Her father flirted everywhere outside. Her mother couldn’t control her womanizing husband, and could only blame her for not being a son, for not being able to make her father pay more attention to the family.

Wen Yi was raised by different nannies from a young age. Her mother became almost possessed, desperately wanting to give birth to a son to prove herself, hoping to use this to make her husband change his heart and to satisfy her stern father-in-law.

In order to give birth to Wen Xiang, her mother nearly lost half her life and also lost her ability to bear children. From then on, she lived in self-pity with Wen Xiang, only teaching her to curry favor with their cousin Wen Xuan, making her follow behind Wen Xuan from childhood.

Wen Xuan was an idiot, but he was a grandson. So in Grandpa’s eyes, everything about him was good, and everything in the family was left to him.

Wen Yi didn’t care—whether it was a father who couldn’t even remember her name clearly, a mother who blamed her for not being a son, a younger sister who wasn’t close to her, or that extremely biased grandpa.

But she was really annoyed by her grandpa, who styled himself as the family patriarch, making arbitrary decisions and arranging her life on his own.

They erased her pride and passions, belittled the honors she had earned, believed her only value was marriage, demanded that she marry the child of some leader, and demanded that she support the Wen family’s industries.

Although these annoying demands temporarily disappeared after she found herself a boyfriend with an equally prominent family background, she still loathed her grandfather’s omnipresent desire for control.

So later, when she discovered that Wen Jiuzhe was going to make a move against the Wen family, as the only one who noticed the signs, she even lent a hand.

“There are some things I don’t want to say to Wen Jiuzhe. You can pass them on to him,” Wen Yi said coldly.

“As long as he’s willing to cooperate properly and show his own value, there’s no conflict between us. He can rein in his victim mentality, I don’t have that much time to scheme against him.”

Xue Ling replied stiffly with a “Okay,” then typed again: “It feels like you also had a hard time in the Wen family.”

Wen Yi picked up the thermos beside her and took a sip of water. “Only fools and idiots can live comfortably in a place like that.”

Xue Ling: Sis is calm, but her attack power is really strong.

Holding the tablet, she felt like maybe the pen was leaking electricity, making her hands feel numb. She didn’t know what else to say.

After a moment of silence, seeing her looking at her pitifully, Wen Yi finally said, “If you want to know about Wen Jiuzhe’s past, you asked the wrong person. I’m not close to him. In the past, I only saw him a few times a year.”

“Oh, okay, I was just asking casually,” Xue Ling replied.

Before coming, she had only wanted to understand Wen Jiuzhe’s past life a bit, and to slightly probe the relationship between Wen Jiuzhe and Wen Yi.

After all, she wasn’t familiar with Wen Yi. Since this was their first interaction, even if she wanted to ask her for some help, she had to build the relationship first—at least wait until they were a bit closer.

But! She hadn’t been prepared to hear tragic family ethics dramas and illegal crime records!

“Actually, it’s fine to talk about anything, just chatting a bit,” Xue Ling continued typing to ease the awkwardness. “I’ll be following your convoy from now on, so today I just came to say hello first.”

Wen Yi understood why Wen Jiuzhe protected this girlfriend of his like the apple of his eye.

This kind of personality really was easy to take losses—once she felt awkward, she liked to explain for a long time, afraid others might get angry.

Wen Yi didn’t like idle chatter, nor did she like wasting time on things without value. But seeing Xue Ling clutching the tablet and desperately trying to ease the awkwardness, she still gave face for once and spoke about something she remembered.

“Wen Jiuzhe… every time I went home, I would find that he didn’t sit at the table to eat. He would hold a big bowl by himself and stand in the kitchen to eat.”

Xue Ling felt surprised. “Is your family really like what they show on TV, with rules like illegitimate sons not being allowed to eat at the table?”

Wen Yi: “Grandpa told him to sit in the dining room and eat together. He refused, saying that seeing the Wen family made him want to vomit.”

“…” Xue Ling, “He just… says it like that directly?”

Wen Yi: “Yes. Directly.”

It made Grandpa so angry that he broke two walking sticks from banging them, but Wen Jiuzhe still refused to sit with them and pretend to be one happy family. Grandpa kept scolding him for not knowing the rules.

“Wen Xuan told me before that your family even has to study the six arts of a gentleman?” Xue Ling had been curious about this for a long time.

Wen Yi looked at her, a trace of understanding in her eyes. “Wen Xuan likes you too?”

Xue Ling: “…”

Wen Yi: “When men are chasing someone, what truths can come out of their mouths?”

Xue Ling nodded in deep agreement.

Wen Yi: “But it’s true that we have to learn calligraphy with a brush, and we’re required to recognize antiques. There are family courses in that area.”

“Wen Jiuzhe learned it too. He smashed a Ming-dynasty vase and got beaten half to death.”

Xue Ling was a little angry. “No matter how valuable something is, if it’s broken by accident, you can’t beat him to death over it!”

Wen Yi: “He smashed it right in front of Grandpa. After smashing it, he sneered and said he did it on purpose, and that if they had the ability, they should beat him to death.”

Xue Ling: “……”

Wen Yi remembered that it was a collection Grandpa quite liked, so he was so angry at the time that he nearly had a stroke. After that, Wen Jiuzhe no longer had to learn that.

Wen Yi suddenly realized that she actually remembered quite a lot of things about this “not-close” younger brother.

Although they hadn’t met much, whenever she went back, she would always hear news about him.

Usually it was that he didn’t follow the rules Grandpa set and got punished, or that Wen Xuan and Wen Xiang bullied him.

Occasionally, she would run into him in a corner of that large residence.

In the kitchen outside of mealtime, she would see him cooking by himself, holding simple food and standing in the kitchen wolfing it down, his fingers still dripping with fresh blood.

When Wen Xuan and Wen Xiang were driven mad searching everywhere for Wen Jiuzhe, she found the noise annoying and took a book to look for a quiet place to read, only to accidentally discover him leaning against the back wall of the residence, looking at the sky, with fresh wounds on his face.

Every time they encountered each other, her gaze would always sweep over him coldly. Wen Jiuzhe’s guarded eyes would also look toward her, and then they would both quickly withdraw their gazes, neither taking the other seriously.

From the time he first entered the Wen family at eleven or twelve, growing into a tall and sturdy teenager, Wen Jiuzhe had always resisted everyone in the Wen family in an untamed way.

Just like what he said to Grandpa on the very first day he walked into the Wen family: “Even if you get my mom fired and force her to bring me to the Wen family, it’s useless. I’ll never treat this place as home.”

Wen Yi was the eldest young lady who wasn’t expected. When the Wen family talked about her, they would regretfully say, “What’s the use of being so good at studying? She’s not a man.”

When talking about Wen Jiuzhe, they were contemptuous and wary: “No matter how capable he is, he’s still an illegitimate child. His birth is disgraceful and he’s not liked by the old master. He’ll never compare to Wen Xuan in this lifetime.”

They might share a tiny bit of the same misfortune in some respects, but their relationship was worse than that of strangers.

Xue Ling organized her words for a long time before expressing her view: “He—he might really have broken it by accident. He was just being stubborn.”

Wen Yi: “You’re quite protective.”

Xue Ling: “Although he does sometimes make people angry, he’s actually a very obedient and considerate person, with a really good temper. It’s just that sometimes his way of expressing things isn’t very good.”

Wen Yi was at a loss for words. She couldn’t control the confusion and slight shock that surfaced on her face.

She looked at Xue Ling’s dark red eyes. Unlike the murkiness of other zombies, they were a very clear red, making her expression appear sincere, as if she truly thought this way.

Wen Yi glanced at her own arm and saw goosebumps rising on it.

A bit uncomfortable, she didn’t want to talk about Wen Jiuzhe anymore.

“You’ve finished asking your questions. Now it’s my turn,” Wen Yi decisively changed the topic.

“I remember that Wen Jiuzhe took away a quarter of the Taisui back then. You must have eaten all of it, right? Did you eat the Taisui before you were infected, or after you were infected?”

“I ate it before I was infected,” Xue Ling answered honestly.

“How were you infected? Is it convenient to talk about?” Wen Yi casually picked up a notebook and started recording.

“I don’t know either. I wasn’t bitten by a zombie. I just suddenly changed. At first I even thought I was sick.”

“Oh? You’re among the first batch of naturally transformed zombies.” Wen Yi clearly became interested upon hearing this and carefully looked her over again.

She thought for a moment, then suddenly said, “Wen Xuan ate half of the Taisui. The zombie he turned into was very different from ordinary zombies—his appearance was closer to that of a normal person.”

“The medicinal liquid extracted from his corpse made Wen Jiuzhe different from ordinary zombies as well. He can still say some simple words now.”

Xue Ling was shocked. “What? Wen Jiuzhe can still talk?!”

Then what was he pretending to be mute for just now, only growling twice at her and using the tablet to communicate the rest of the time—he hadn’t said a single word!

Wen Yi felt not the slightest guilt about exposing Wen Jiuzhe’s secret. She said:

“I don’t think your condition is very good. Perhaps the extracted medicinal liquid from Taisui could help you as well.”

“I still have an experimental subject here who consumed a quarter of the Taisui. I can extract the medicinal liquid again for you, to improve your condition. In exchange, you cooperate with me on some research. How about it?”

Xue Ling: “……”

“Didn’t you just agree that you wouldn’t trick me into a lab for research?” Xue Ling asked.

Wen Yi: “This doesn’t count as tricking.”

Xue Ling realized it—Wen Yi and Wen Jiuzhe really were a bit alike. When they said things like this, they were both completely righteous about it!

“Don’t you want to be like Wen Jiuzhe? I don’t think your condition counts as good,” Wen Yi asked again.

Xue Ling still shook her head.

She had promised Wen Jiuzhe not to let Wen Yi conduct research, at least not before their first cooperation was over.

The future was too far away. She would get through what was in front of her first, then see.

The car door was slammed open with a loud bang. Wen Jiuzhe stood at the doorway, murderous aura all over him. The moment he saw Xue Ling sitting opposite Wen Yi, the ferocity on his face eased.

He braced one hand beside Xue Ling, almost enclosing her beneath him, took the pen from her hand, and input text on the tablet.

“Why did you run here? I couldn’t find you for a long time just now.”

Wen Yi turned her swivel chair back around and sent them off. “If you have nothing else to do, you can leave.”