Chapter Sixteen: Merely Resources (3/4)

Liu Mengchao carried Qi Xiaoxiao on his back, with Saeko Busujima following close behind. Although Liu Mengchao bore the weight of another person, his movements were nearly silent. There were several occasions when Saeko witnessed zombies shuffling right past Liu Mengchao, as if he were invisible to them, staggering along without the slightest recognition of his presence.

“At the next intersection, turn left,” Saeko said as she paused at a crossroad, glancing at the distant horde. “The city hospital is just at the end of the street. I heard from the people at the dojo that a group of Chinese herbalists arrived earlier this year, which is why the hospital suddenly has a supply of traditional medicine.”

“I see,” Liu Mengchao nodded, quietly checking Qi Xiaoxiao’s breathing behind him. It was steady—good.

“In that case, you two wait here. I’ll find you a place to hide first.” Liu Mengchao looked around. The streets were lined with houses in the Japanese style, not the wooden Showa-era homes, but rather two-story residences like those in a Doraemon episode.

“Saeko, keep an eye on Qi Xiaoxiao,” he said, frowning as he approached a house with its window ajar. Bloodstains smeared the window—evidence enough that zombies lurked within.

“How long will it take?” Saeko asked, slowly guiding Qi Xiaoxiao onto the lawn of the residence and unsheathing her wooden sword as she surveyed the area.

“About the time it takes to drink a cup of milk tea, and I’ll have the door open,” Liu Mengchao replied with a smile.

He flexed his limbs, took a running start, and the bloodline granted by Assassin’s Creed awakened within him. Once, Diamond had received the Assassin’s legacy and could scale the skeleton of a skyscraper with bare hands. Compared to that, this two-story Japanese house was but a light appetizer.

Thud, thud—two muffled impacts sounded as Liu Mengchao kicked off the wall. Using the rebound, he gripped the second-floor balcony rail with both hands. Planting his feet against the wall, he closed his eyes and listened for signs of activity inside. Hearing nothing, he flipped over and landed softly on the balcony.

The balcony door was unlocked. Liu Mengchao had already assessed the interior situation at first glance. A little girl of about four or five clung to her mother’s body. Her head, however, had rolled aside, and her small mouth was stuffed with indistinct flesh and blood.

She had clearly become a zombie, stripped of reason and left to gnaw at her own mother by instinct alone. As for her father, his fate was no better. His skull split open like a watermelon smashed with a club, the middle-aged man in a T-shirt lay on the floor, clutching his son, who looked to be about ten.

“A family of five,” Liu Mengchao murmured, glancing at a family photo hanging in the bedroom and shaking his head in silence. The smiling faces of the parents and their three children seemed, at this moment, laced with cruel irony. The older brother in the photograph, with dyed blond hair and a necklace, looked every bit the delinquent, but the genuine smile on his face revealed his love for his family.

“May you find peace in death,” Liu Mengchao whispered, casting a final look at the fallen family members before descending the stairs.

Click—the door creaked open. Liu Mengchao’s sunny smile greeted Saeko at the threshold.

“Welcome to our temporary shelter.”

Liu Mengchao held the door for the two women outside, gesturing them in.

“Here’s paper and here’s a pen,” he said, producing them from somewhere and setting them before Qi Xiaoxiao.

Licorice root, Euphorbia, Chinese thoroughwax, seaweed, and Daphne genkwa, one qian each.
Aconite, fritillary, trichosanthes, pinellia, Bai Lian, and Bletilla, two qian each.
Veratrum, ginseng, glehnia, salvia, scrophularia, asarum, and peony, three qian each.

“That’s all?” Liu Mengchao frowned, sensing a faint familiarity with these traditional medicines, though his expertise lay in psychology rather than herbal medicine.

“Hurry,” he said, turning to leave, but suddenly glanced back at the two women with a peculiar look. This scene, for some reason, felt strangely familiar to him.

“Is this what a family looks like?” he wondered, glancing at Qi Xiaoxiao, who sat weakly in a chair. Shaking his head, he stepped outside.

There had never been many people in this world to whom Liu Mengchao paid attention, but now, it seemed there was one more.

“Qi Xiaoxiao, how do you know so much about traditional medicine?” Saeko relaxed as Liu Mengchao left, smiling as she asked.

“It’s my family’s legacy,” Qi Xiaoxiao replied, steadying her breath. “My father was once a famous martial artist who practiced Xingyi and Bagua. My mother was a distinguished doctor.”

“Then you must have had a happy childhood.”

“Happy?” Qi Xiaoxiao laughed self-deprecatingly. “If you consider never seeing your father after the age of two, and living with your mother alone for eighteen years, then I suppose you could call it happiness.”

“What about Liu Mengchao?” Saeko asked curiously. “How long have you known each other?”

“Until I was about eight,” Qi Xiaoxiao tilted her head, pursing her lips. “He was ten then; I think I’d just started school. Afterwards, my mother and I moved away.”

“But you seem very close,” Saeko said, blushing despite herself.

“Yes, we slept in the same bed for ten years, though before he turned five, he wet the bed every night.”

The mention of bed-wetting made Qi Xiaoxiao laugh aloud.

“And these herbs?” Saeko, suddenly not wanting to hear more about Liu Mengchao, changed the subject. “Will they really cure your illness?”

“It’s not an illness. It’s what the Chinese call internal injury—incurable,” Qi Xiaoxiao replied, her eyes suddenly gleaming like a sword as she looked at Saeko. “These are the eighteen herbs in traditional medicine that should never be taken together. But they’re also the most potent stimulant.”

“Stimulant?”

“It will let me move freely and unrestrained for the next two days.”

“Stimulants always have side effects!”

“Who knows? By then, I’ll probably be dead anyway.” Qi Xiaoxiao smiled at Saeko. “Liu Mengchao has always been like that. For those he cares about, he’ll do anything. For those he doesn’t, they’re no different from weeds. In my current state, I’d only drag him down.”

Weeds...

While Saeko pondered whether she herself was just a weed in Liu Mengchao’s eyes, Bai Ya raised her own question.

“Lord Substitute of the Main God.”

“What is it, Bai Ya?” No sooner had Liu Mengchao left the two-story house than Bai Ya’s voice sounded in his ear.

“You left the other four Reincarnators behind and came to rescue this newcomer, Qi Xiaoxiao, alone. Are you sure that’s wise?”

“Bai Ya.”

Liu Mengchao narrowed his eyes and vaulted up onto the wall. The walls ran one after another, zombies wandering below in restless circles. With their dulled bodies and minds, it never occurred to the undead that someone might climb above.

“There’s something you need to understand,” Liu Mengchao said, quickening his pace. The wall, barely wide enough for a foot, felt as broad as a highway beneath him.

“It’s like with Anna. She was my sister first, and the Main God second.”

With that, Liu Mengchao accelerated, becoming a white blur, leaping from rooftop to wall to window—using paths no ordinary person would imagine—in a wild dash toward the hospital.

He sprang like an eagle swooping on its prey—Leap Kill!

A faint click—the mechanism released, driving the hidden blade into a zombie’s skull. Liu Mengchao stood between two tall buildings, unnoticed by the distant undead.

Thank you, Assassin’s Creed.

“Qi Xiaoxiao is the same. She was my sister first, and a Reincarnator second.”

“And the other four Reincarnators?” Bai Ya voiced her doubt.

“They?” Liu Mengchao strode forward, both arms outstretched.

Click! Click!

Twin hidden blades shot out, dropping two zombies instantly.

“They’re just resources for the jackpot.”

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