Chapter 292 - 236: Yiyi 2

Chapter 292: Chapter 236: Yiyi 2

"Mama’s voice..." The little girl standing at the door was the same one who had slipped away from right under Ye Qingniao’s nose—Yiyi.

It was hard to say whether it was instinct or her Superpower, but her fixation on her mother was so strong that even the faint voice from the video was enough to draw her out of hiding.

She mumbled to herself, then PITTER-PATTERED barefoot over to Li Wan’s side and looked up at her.

"I’ve seen you before," she said. "You were with those bad people."

She then circled around Li Wan and moved to Lin Fan’s other side. Standing on her tiptoes, she peered at the computer screen on the desk, only to find a blank desktop and nothing else. She turned her head, her large, dark eyes fixing on Lin Fan. There was fear in her gaze, but she summoned her courage to ask, "That was Mama’s voice just now... I heard it."

A yellow health bar at [30/120], an Energy Value bar at [82/120]. A dark blue border encircled the health bar.

Lin Fan confirmed it again. ’She’s an Awakened One, no doubt about it.’ He pushed aside his doubts, reached out, and pulled the little girl to his side. He flipped back her hood, revealing soaked hair.

Rainwater streamed down her little face, dripping onto the floor. Despite having the constitution of an Awakened One, her Life Value was very low for some reason. She was shivering, her lips trembling from the cold.

"Wait."

Lin Fan muttered, then turned and strode into the office’s back room. He rummaged through the bathroom cabinets and finally found a reasonably dry and clean towel.

When he returned to the little girl, Lin Fan crouched down. He draped the towel over her small head with his large hand and roughly scrubbed her hair until the rainwater was mostly gone.

The vigorous scrubbing made the little girl sway, but she didn’t make a peep. She just stood there obediently, letting Lin Fan do as he pleased. Her large eyes watched him through a gap in the towel, blinking intermittently.

Her gaze was filled with nothing but confusion, as if she were wondering where her mother’s voice had gone.

"Mama..." Lin Fan’s voice was a bit hoarse. He hesitated before saying softly, "That... that was just a recording your mom left. It only plays once... and then it’s gone."

"Don’t worry."

A gentle female voice cut in at just the right moment. Li Wan had been observing quietly from the side and had keenly sensed Lin Fan’s awkwardness.

’This man can kill without batting an eye, but he’s completely at a loss when he has to lie to a child looking for her mother.’

She didn’t dwell on the video. Dozens, if not a hundred, people had been fed to the zombies in this factory. She and the others had only survived through sheer luck, so she felt a deep sympathy for this orphaned girl.

She stepped forward, gently took the towel from Lin Fan’s hand, and crouched down. She began wiping down the girl’s clothes and straightening her tousled hair, her voice as gentle as a lullaby.

"Your mama had something very urgent to take care of, so she had to go on ahead. She asked us to look after you for her."

Li Wan reached out and gently took the little girl’s icy hand in hers, sharing her warmth. "You stay with us for now, and once it’s safe, we’ll definitely take you to find your mama. How does that sound?"

"But I heard Mama calling me just now..."

"Mama said Yiyi has to obey the uncle and auntie..."

"But aren’t you a bad person?" Yiyi stared at Li Wan, making her feel unnerved. After a couple of seconds, as if she was starting to believe them, she turned her head and asked Lin Fan, "Mister, where did Mama go?"

"Er..." Lin Fan hesitated at the little girl’s question. He reached out, lifted her up, and set her on the windowsill.

The office window faced north. Although the sun itself wasn’t visible, the sky outside had cleared, and sunlight still streamed in, bathing the little girl in its glow.

He opened the window and pointed to the northeastern sky. "Over there," he said, "in that direction. There’s a big base there where lots and lots of people live. They have hot food to eat and clean beds to sleep in. Mama is probably waiting for us right there."

"Really?" Yiyi asked, looking doubtfully toward the northeast.

"Really." Lin Fan forced a convincing smile.

"Then... what about the soldier lady? Did she have to leave for something urgent too?" Yiyi’s small hand clutched at Lin Fan’s clothes.

"Of course the soldier lady went on a mission. There are lots of other soldiers over there, uncles and aunties. I’ll take you to meet them in a little bit, okay?" Lin Fan said softly, gradually getting the hang of coaxing a child.

"Mm..." Yiyi seemed to have been placated. She rested her head against the window frame and gazed into the distance, falling silent for a while.

Meanwhile, Lin Fan stood behind her, his hands hovering protectively, and watched her Energy Value slowly tick upward.

’It’s not decreasing, which means she isn’t using any powers right now.’

’That means everything I’m experiencing is real and under control. Good.’

He breathed a sigh of relief. Just as he was about to lift the girl down from the window and move on to the next part of his plan, she suddenly froze while looking into the distance. She then turned her head to him and said, "Mister, I hear something."

Lin Fan froze as well and listened intently. Outside the window, there was nothing but the sound of the wind and the occasional roar of a distant zombie. "What sound? The wind?"

"Not the wind..." Yiyi shook her head with certainty, pointing her small finger to the north. "It’s a car. The sound of a car."

A chill went down Lin Fan’s spine. ’Could her Awakened ability be super-hearing? A bit like the first Awakened One I encountered.’

He was about eighty percent convinced she was right and immediately grew vigilant, peering north over her head.

A few seconds later, the faint rumble of an engine finally reached Lin Fan’s ears.

At a street corner at the edge of his vision, a modified black assault vehicle appeared. Like a lone wolf, it deftly dodged a mangled guardrail in the middle of the road and came speeding toward them, splashing through standing water. Crude steel ramming bars were welded to its body, and wire mesh covered the windshield.

Lin Fan narrowed his eyes. In an instant, several familiar health bars appeared in his vision, clearly visible through the vehicle’s thick glass.

Two green ones: [265/465] and [226/514].

Three yellow ones: [217/790], [72/100], and [92/100]...

"..."

’Speak of the devil.’

Staring speechlessly at the five health bars, Lin Fan pointed in their direction and said to Yiyi, "Your soldier lady is here, and she brought another soldier lady with her... and a soldier man."

’He just knew it. If Ye Qingniao and Cheng Qi actually managed to regroup with the main force, the troublemakers in his own group would definitely come looking for excitement. That’s why he’d specifically told her to stop them. But he’d expected this outcome. Ye Qingniao wanted to come herself, so asking her to stop the others? It was a completely lost cause.’

The two green health bars were, of course, Su Qing and Chu Zhaozhao. The two yellow ones belonged to the guides, Ye Qingniao and Cheng Qi. The final yellow health bar, however, belonged to someone Lin Fan hadn’t expected at all: Ye Qingzhou.

The assault vehicle didn’t just barrel straight ahead. Instead, it stopped several hundred meters away.

Five people crept out of the vehicle and began stealthily making their way toward Lin Fan, hugging the wall along the side of the road.

...

"Sister Qing, your injury won’t be a problem, will it? When we see Lin Fan, please don’t say I’m the one who brought you all," Ye Qingniao whispered to Su Qing from behind her. "Just say Cheng Qi did it. If he finds out it was me, he’s going to lecture me again..."

"Zhaozhao, is your arm okay? Lin Fan said there’s a huge monster in there," she added, sidling up to Chu Zhaozhao with a concerned look. "We have to be careful and not make a sound..."

"..." Cheng Qi, meanwhile, was silently trailing behind Ye Qingzhou, whispering something to him. When Ye Qingniao glanced back and saw the two of them talking, she quickly trotted back and gave Cheng Qi a light kick on the shin. "Don’t you dare talk trash about me..."

"What’s with this girl...?"

Chu Zhaozhao, who was walking up front, took the opportunity to sidle up to Su Qing and whisper,

"Is it just me, or is she laying on the ’sweet and innocent’ act a little thick?"

"That’s enough..."

Su Qing didn’t say anything more. She just gave Chu Zhaozhao a meaningful look, then a light pinch, before glancing discreetly at the three people behind them.

"Who knows... She probably has a guilty conscience."