Chapter 441: Eternity 2.

"You already drank from it."

"I can wash it."

"How practical."

"How annoying."

Yan finally laughed, and Bai’s mouth twitched into a smile before she

could stop it. Their easy teasing made the corridor feel almost normal.

For a few moments, there was no apocalypse, no city full of zombies, no

question about how long the building would stay standing, and no need to

keep counting the days since the world had changed. There were only two

women in a quiet hallway, one of them fixing a door and the other

enjoying the fact that she could make the first woman smile with very

little effort.

They had just finished putting the tools away when a small voice came

from the apartment.

"Bai Li? Yan-jiejie?"

Lili appeared in the doorway with her hair sticking up on one side and a

little toy toolbox clutched to her chest. She was still sleepy enough

that she blinked slowly at the corridor light. Her socks did not match,

and one of them had slipped halfway down her heel. She looked from the

repaired door to Bai’s toolbox and then down at her own collection of

plastic tools, clearly trying to work out whether she had arrived too

late to help.

Bai’s expression changed so quickly that Yan almost laughed again. The

stern woman who had just delivered a lecture to a hinge lowered her

screwdriver, crouched, and spoke in a softer voice.

"You’re up early. Did you sleep well?"

Lili nodded, then held up the toy toolbox. "I brought mine. I can help."

"Of course you can. We’re almost finished here, but I have another job

inside that needs a very important assistant."

Lili’s eyes widened. "A big job?"

"A very big job. I need someone to check whether all the little screws

in the kitchen drawer are in their proper places. They are very sneaky,

so I need an expert."

Lili looked serious immediately. "I’ll check them."

Yan pressed her lips together, trying not to smile too openly. Bai had

just turned a loose collection of spare screws into an official mission,

and Lili was accepting the assignment with the solemnity of a trained

engineer. Bai gently fixed the child’s sock, then took the toy toolbox

and gave it back with the handle facing the right direction.

"One rule," Bai said. "You only use your tools where I say it’s safe.

You don’t touch real screws or sharp things unless one of us is with

you. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"And if I tell you to stop, you stop right away."

"Right away."

Bai held out her little finger. Lili hooked hers around it. The

agreement completed, Bai stood and let the child take her hand as they

returned to the apartment. Yan followed them, carrying the toolbox and

the two cups of tea, and thought that it was unfair for someone so

terrifying to zombies to be this gentle with a sleepy little girl. It

was also unfair that watching it made Yan’s chest feel warm in a way she

could not comfortably explain.

Inside, the apartment smelled of clean water, warm rice, and the faint

herbal scent of the tea. Their home had become more organized over the

last days, though Bai still believed it had too many things left out and

Yan believed Bai would eventually try to label every spoon. The living

area connected to the kitchen, with the storage cabinets and water

station arranged along one wall. The balcony doors had extra seals and

reinforced bars hidden behind the curtains. A small backup power unit

hummed in a utility nook. Shelves held preserved food, dry goods,

medical supplies, and containers marked with dates. The apartment was

not luxurious, but it was dependable, and in the apocalypse dependable

had become a kind of luxury most people could only dream about.

Bai brought Lili to the kitchen drawer and let her inspect the harmless

screws and spare fasteners in a small tray. She explained the difference

between a screw that was still useful and one that had a damaged head,

then showed Lili how to sort them by size. Lili took the job seriously,

using both hands to place each item where Bai indicated. Whenever she

finished a small pile, she looked up for approval. Bai praised her work

without exaggerating, and the child seemed to glow each time she heard

that she had done something correctly.

Yan put the tea away and began preparing breakfast. She could hear Bai

explaining why small objects should be put back in the same place every

time. The lesson was not really about screws. Bai was teaching Lili that

careful habits could make a frightening world easier to live in, and

that even a child could help create safety without needing to fight

anyone. It was a lesson Bai rarely explained directly. She simply made

space for Lili to participate and took her seriously when she tried.

"Bai Li," Lili asked after a while, "if I get really strong, can I go

with you when you fight zombies?"

Bai paused, considering how to answer without frightening her or making

a promise she could not keep. "Getting strong is useful, but it doesn’t

mean you have to fight. You can help people in lots of ways. You can

notice things before the rest of us do. You can remember where the

medicine is. You can stay calm when somebody else gets scared. And if we

ever need to leave a dangerous place, listening when someone tells you

to move is very important. That’s also a way to protect people."

Lili considered this. "But I want to protect you."

Bai’s expression softened again. She placed the final sorted screw into

its container, then crouched beside the child. "You already help protect

us by staying safe and telling us what you notice. You don’t have to be

the strongest person in the room to matter. Promise me you’ll remember

that."

Lili looked into Bai’s face for a moment, then nodded. "I promise."

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TO BE CONTINUED.