Capítulo 15: The Rise of Speed
Editor: Hitesh_
Lin Qiao was unwilling to give up. As she handed the things in her hands to Wu Yueling, she again 'said' a few words to her.
"Hurr? Hurr?"
'Ling Ling? Ling Ling?' she called her name.
At that moment, she noticed a change in Wu Yueling's expression. The little one paused for a second, then dragged her eyes away from the grass dragonfly in Lin Qiao's hand to look at her left and then right with confusion, only too see nothing. After that, she turned back and looked at Lin Qiao in the eyes, her eyes filled with confusion.
Seeing her reaction, Lin Qiao paused briefly as well. She felt a flicker in her heart, which she suddenly realized was delight.
"Hurr, roarrrrr?" She made another series of weird sounds as she tried again to say Wu Yueling's name. 'Ling Ling, can you hear me?' she asked.
This time, Wu Yueling's reaction was unexpected.
After hearing Lin Qiao's voice again, she stared straight at the former as her expression seemed to freeze. She kept staring at Lin Qiao without making any sound, or even having any thought in her mind.
Lin Qiao was confused.
Had Wu Yueling heard her or not? Why had her expression suddenly frozen like that? Had her voice scared her?
From Lu Tianyu's memories, Lin Qiao had learned that this child was an introvert who never liked to talk. With the exception of her father, she wouldn't let anyone get near her.
She was kidnapped by Lu Tianyu because the latter had used Wu Chengyue as an excuse. Lu Tianyu took advantage of the other's carelessness and tricked the little girl into a corner, then directly knocked her out and carried her away.
As for how a base leader's daughter could be kidnapped so easily, the sole reason was that Lu Tianyu had a powerful person backing her—another base leader had been helping her.
Wu Yueling's stiff expression relaxed quickly, but her eyes remained vigilant as she gazed at Lin Qiao. She could still see the grass dragonfly in the latter's hand.
As the child focused on the grass dragonfly, Lin Qiao immediately seized the opportunity to hand it to her.
By now, Wu Yueling was no longer afraid of Lin Qiao. She had seen a lot of zombies, and they were almost always ugly and gross. However, as long as this zombie didn't try to bite and eat her, she didn't care.
Looking at the grass dragonfly that Lin Qiao had handed to her, Wu Yueling now understood that it was meant for her. She remained motionless for a while, then slowly reached out her hand from the blanket and carefully took it from the former's hand.
Lin Qiao then slowly placed the funnel near Wu Yueling's mouth and beckoned her to drink a little. The water had already begun to seep out from the bottom of the funnel.
However, Wu Yueling only looked at the water silently without opening her mouth to drink it, but not avoiding it either.
Lin Qiao could only keep patiently holding the funnel, afraid to put it down.
After about twenty seconds by Lin Qiao's count, Wu Yueling finally made a move.
She lightly and tentatively leaned her mouth toward the funnel in Lin Qiao's hand, opening her mouth just a little to take a sip of the water in the funnel. About half of the water had already seeped out by that time. She then discovered that the water was quite sweet, so she continued drinking it.
By the time the child had finally drunk all the water in the funnel, Lin Qiao felt she should have had sweat trickling down her face, even though zombies didn't sweat.
'Phew! The little princess finally drank some water! My heart is so tired!' Lin Qiao complained silently.
But then, another problem occurred to her. By this time, the child couldn't feel hunger anymore as she had been starving for too long, but the water she just drank was likely to re-ignite that feeling of hunger.
After the girl had finished the water in the leaf funnel, Lin Qiao turned around and fetched another funnel-full of water for the child to drink.
After watching her finish the water again, Lin Qiao finally sighed with relief. She put the funnel in her hand, then took a step to the side and left the space.
Wu Yueling's eyes widened as she watched Lin Qiao disappear right in front of her. She stared at the spot where Lin Qiao had disappeared from for a while, then suddenly turned her head and began searching around her.
She searched the surrounding area with her eyes, but saw no trace of that weird zombie. There was no one but herself in that place. It was all quiet in there, without even a gust of wind to disturb the environment.
Suddenly, a strong and uneasy feeling emerged in Wu Yueling's heart. She opened her eyes even wider and tried very hard to search around in panic, but still found nothing.
There was not a trace of that zombie!
Her round eyes suddenly turned red, but she didn't cry out loud. Instead, she bit her lip tightly and gripped the grass dragonfly that Lin Qiao gave her, again curling up her body.
She didn't notice that both her hunger and thirst had actually been satiated after she drank the lake water that Lin Qiao gave her. Her physical condition wasn't as bad as Lin Qiao had thought. On the contrary, her energy was now slowly being restored.
...
Lin Qiao came out of the space and reappeared in the building. She sniffed at the air, sensing a fruity aroma from a long distance away. After that, she turned around immediately and walked toward the stairs.
She suddenly discovered that her sense of smell was getting sharper and sharper.
'Holy heavens! Am I turning into a dog? It seems that us zombies have quite some useful skills!' She ran down the stairs at high speed while thinking this.
She just wanted to find some food for the little one as quickly as possible. If the little one died before she could send her back to her father, she would become an unforgivable sinner.
Thinking of this made her run even faster. At first, she could cover only a few stairs with one step, but later on, she began jumping down and could almost cover a whole staircase with just a few steps while leaving behind a swishing noise.
She also noticed that her pace had regulated and was becoming faster and faster. She found that her limbs were nimbler and her legs stronger, yet much lighter than before.
She leaped down from the fifth or sixth stair, feeling absolutely no impact as she landed on the hard ground. By this time, she felt that she was as agile and light as a cat.
It had taken her a long time to climb these stairs, but by leaping down swiftly, she was soon out of the building.
She looked at the sky and found that it was still dark. However, she knew that dawn was coming soon.
She turned around and ran as fast as she could in the direction of the fruity aroma.
Lin Qiao was an impatient person, and therefore, she would never walk when she could run. At times when she couldn't run, she would walk fairly fast with giant steps.
She was running through the darkness of the night once again while trying to find out how fast she could run.
She focused her eyes on her legs and the road while listening to the slight whooshing noise caused by the wind blowing across her ears.
If anyone else was here, he or she would have been shocked by seeing how fast she was. She ran like a bolt of lightning, and her speed had already exceeded that of record-breaking Olympic athletes many times over.
However, Lin Qiao knew nothing of this. She only knew that the longer she ran, the more exhilarated she became. She felt that she could keep running forever as long as she didn't plan to stop.
Capítulo 16: Mutated Strawberry
Editor: Hitesh_
After half an hour of running, Lin Qiao's speed had elevated to another level, although she still remained unaware of this. It was only as she stopped in a strawberry field that she felt a slight chest congestion, and even then, she didn't know if it was because she had run too far or too fast.
However, the chest congestion didn't seem to affect her body too much, so she quickly ignored it.
She stood on the edge of the strawberry field, with dense and lush strawberry plants under her feet.
As for why nobody else had discovered this place? It was probably because these strawberries were obviously mutant.
In the present post-apocalyptic world, sixty to seventy percent of all the plants on earth had been infected, and were either dead or mutant. Normally, mutant plants would become poisonous or man-eating.
Similar to mutant animals, many mutant plants became dreadful killers. That was the reason why the surviving human beings in this world would not go near areas of dense vegetation, such as parks, mountains, and woods.
The leaves and roots of the strawberries in front of Lin Qiao were three or four times larger than usual, covering the entire field. The strawberries in this field had a weird green color along with red speckles, and there was a strong rotting smell permeating the whole area.
Because of how these mutant strawberries looked, the survivors in this apocalyptic world would all avoid coming near the area by their mere sight. They would not dare to approach, let alone taste them.
Lin Qiao, as a matter of fact, was unable to see the color of these strawberries. However, judging from merely their shape, she knew that these strawberries weren't normal. She was able to detect a faint strawberry aroma underneath the rotten smell, and was confused for a moment.
Looking at the appearance of these mutated strawberries, she knew that they shouldn't be edible in theory. However, after she sensed the hidden aroma, some kind of intuition told her that these strawberries weren't poisonous.
She was puzzled, but didn't hesitate to go straight down into the strawberry field. The strawberry leaves reached her lower legs.
She bent down and picked a large, ripe strawberry, then brought it near her nose to sniff it.
The bad odor was still there, but so was the aroma. The mixture of the two scents smelled strange, and made her nose a little itchy.
She pulled the strawberry away and rubbed her nose with the other hand while wondering if it was truly edible. Suddenly, she thought of the baby rabbit and the nest of baby mice that she had put into her space earlier.
She clutched the pear-sized strawberry, then turned around and disappeared from where she was, as though no zombie had ever visited this strawberry field.
There was a flash before her eyes, and then came the familiar white light.
She subconsciously searched for the little one the moment she came back. As expected, the child was in the same spot, but had curled up, squatting on the ground.
'She is still awake!'
Lin Qiao was a little surprised at this.
Wu Yueling was squatting sideways with her body wrapped in the blanket and her hands holding the grass dragonfly that Lin Qiao had given her. Therefore, Lin Qiao's sudden appearance didn's immediately attract her attention. She squatted there with her head lowered, playing with the grass dragonfly and looking like a chubby roll.
Lin Qiao didn't disturb the child, but turned her head to look around, carefully observing the areas of lush grass and listening for any sound.
As expected, she soon heard a slight noise.
No wind existed in this space, and therefore, no grass blades would be rustled by any wind.
This was the reason why Wu Yueling had felt a little scared after Lin Qiao suddenly disappeared. This place was way too quiet and expansive.
Lin Qiao held her breath and quietly walked toward the noise.
As for holding her breath, that was actually her imagination as all of her bodily functions had stopped. However, as they said, 'Old habits die hard'.
She walked silently over to a thick growth of grass. Her footsteps were completely soundless, and made no impact against the ground. Therefore, when she quietly reached the place where the noise came from, she saw a fist-sized rabbit squatting among the grass with its back to her, holding a fistful of grass and eating with vigor.
The rabbit was totally focused on eating, completely unaware of the zombie standing behind it.
Lin Qiao quietly moved closer. She held the strawberry with her left hand and reached out with her right hand, stooping as she slowly extended her hand to within about ten centimeters of the rabbit before thrusting her palm forward and grabbing it.
The baby rabbit was startled by the sudden grasp and began struggling, letting out panicked, shrill screams.
Lin Qiao lifted it up, watching it twist its body and struggle in her hand. The rabbit's screams immediately attracted Wu Yueling's attention.
The moment she turned her head, she saw the zombie who had fed her water standing in the grass. The grass reached the zombie's knees, so she could only see the latter from the thighs up.
Wu Yueling couldn't help but stand up when she saw Lin Qiao. Her eyes sparkled with a trace of surprise as she turned around and stared straight at her. She wasn't afraid of Lin Qiao anymore, because this zombie didn't want to eat or kill her.
Lin Qiao grasped the rabbit and walked away, not toward Wu Yueling but to a clean area by the lake. Then, she sat on the ground with her legs crossed.
She held the baby rabbit, letting it struggle in her hand. After a short while, the baby rabbit slowly calmed down as though it knew that its struggle was futile, or it might have gotten too tired.
After the rabbit had quieted down, Lin Qiao put the strawberry from her other hand close to the rabbit's face in order to see its reaction. She didn't know if the rabbit liked strawberries or not, and even if it didn't agree to eat it, she intended to stick a piece of the strawberry into its mouth to see if there would be any toxic reaction.
Maybe because the smell of the strawberry made its nose twitch, the rabbit's reaction was to draw back immediately, then turn its nose and mouth as far away from the strawberry as possible.
Lin Qiao patiently held the strawberry. She didn't break off a piece to put into the rabbit's mouth right away, but waited to see if it would sense its aroma.
However, the rabbit didn't seem to sense the faint, fruity aroma. Quite a while had passed, but it still didn't turn its head back.
Lin Qiao had no choice but to put the strawberry down and hold the rabbit on the ground to immobilize it. Next, she broke off a piece of the strawberry with her fingers and popped it directly into the rabbit's mouth. Then, she pinched its mouth and thrust the strawberry piece straight down its throat.
As a result, the piece of strawberry was stuck in the rabbit's throat. The rabbit was unable to cough it out, and had to swallow it.
After putting the strawberry piece into the rabbit's throat, Lin Qiao lifted it and continued to observe it. When she forced it to eat the strawberry, it had kicked its hind legs strongly for a few times, but made no other reaction after that.
One second, two seconds, three seconds… A minute passed by. Lin Qiao shook the rabbit and found it to be still alive, without showing any sign of dying.
How long did chronic poisoning take? The rabbit was not displaying any adverse reaction yet, but would the poison attack later after making its way through the rabbit's system?
As she was thinking about this, Lin Qiao abruptly swung her arm and threw the rabbit aside onto the grass. Then, she turned and saw Wu Yueling, who was standing silently behind her, less than three meters away.
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