QT: LAC Chapter 130: Eighth World (13)

Chapter 130: Eighth World (13)
Translated by Zombie Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Sulo

Because the elderly person and children had very little self-protection ability, Bai Ting being a careful person hid them in a very secret place, which was hard to find for both humans and zombies.

Leading Bai Duan and Nie LanLei, Bai Ting took several detours where obstacles were piled up, then they reached the basement where the others were hiding. As soon as she pushed the door open, she saw several children sticking close to each other, they were tense and alert.

Seeing Bai Ting enter, the children’s eyes suddenly brightened, they relaxed, and made no secret of their dependence and trust on Bai Ting — it was obvious that Bai Ting knew how to wear the mask of being gentle and patient on her face, she did so ever since she was a child. Even though she had thought about abandoning them many times, she never let these children notice.

The children called her ‘big sister’ softly, and gathered happily in front of Bai Ting, “Big sister, why are you back so early today? We thought that a bad guy was at the door!”

“Sorry for scaring you guys,” Bai Ting patted the children’s heads one by one, “Big sis came back early this time because she met her brother.” As she spoke, she led the children away from the door, then signaled Bai Duan and Nie LanLei to enter the basement.

Because Bai Duan had already moved out several years ago, he didn’t know the orphans who entered the orphanage after him, and the children looked at him strangely. However, because Bai Duan was brought back by their trusted sister Bai Ting, there was no exclusion or vigilance in that strangeness, only pure curiosity.

“These are the children I managed to protect,” Bai Ting gave Bai Duan a wry smile, with a slight depression between her eyebrows… “There were many more orphans who didn’t turn into zombies, but I had no way of protecting them all. After escaping for such a long time, at present, only these children are left.”

Hearing Bai Ting’s words, the children also thought of their friends who died one after another during the escape, they had a close to crying expression as they snuggled up to Bai Ting, maybe it was to comfort her or to get comfort.

Seeing the sadness in the basement gradually intensifying, Bai Ting quickly picked up their spirits and smiled at Bai Duan, “Let’s not talk about this now, the headmistress should be resting deeper in the basement. I’ll take you to see her.” After that, she pushed away the children around her and walked towards the basement.

Walking further in, she raised her voice at the same time, she called, “Headmistress! Guess who I met today? Look who is here!”

Soon, a voice came from not far away. It was obviously from the woman who had just woken up from resting.

Bai Ting turned her head and smiled at Bai Duan and said, “The headmistress is old now, and her hearing is not very good. She used hearing aids before the end of the world. Now she doesn’t have that anymore, as the hearing aids fell off while we were escaping, so you need to speak louder to her.”

Bai Duan nodded and looked at the old woman who was supported to stand up by Bai Ting in the dark corner of the basement. He really felt that she was a lot older than when they last met, but she still looked gentle, calm and kind.

Headmistress Bai took out her folded presbyopic glasses from her pocket, put them on, and then looked at Bai Duan carefully. Bai Duan also turned on the flashlight, so that headmistress Bai could see more clearly. After a while, headmistress Bai’s eyes brightened, “You are… Xiao Duan? It’s Xiao Duan, isn’t it?”

Bai Duan quickly handed the flashlight to Nie LanLei, he stretched his arms out and held headmistress Bai, he smiled and nodded, “Yes, it’s me, headmistress.”

“Good. It’s great to see you!” The wrinkled, flabby hand of headmistress Bai slapped the back of Bai Duan’s hand and held it tightly. It was hard to not be excited.

“Xiao Duan is a very powerful esper now! When I saw him, he could easily kill a large herd of zombies!”

Bai Ting stood on one side with a smile and a very happy voice, “He also said that he would take us all to the military base!”

“Military base?” Headmistress Bai was stunned, “That’s the one at the South of the city, which is quite far away from us?”

“That’s right there! When we get there, we can live a safe life!” Bai Ting replied with a smile.

Hearing this news, headmistress Bai’s first reaction was naturally to be happy, but soon she sighed again, “Leave me behind. Xiao Duan, you and Xiao Ting take the children with you. I’m old and can’t walk. But these children are obedient, sensible and fast. They won’t cause you too much trouble… ”

Bai Ting puckered her lips. It was obvious that Bai Duan was only helping them because of headmistress Bai, and they could only turn to Bai Duan for help.

Bai Duan held headmistress Bai’s hand and said firmly, “Don’t worry, headmistress, I said it, so I will accomplish it. No matter you or these children, I will bring all of you to the military base safely.”

“Really…?” Looking at Bai Duan, headmistress Bai asked with seriousness and doubt, “I won’t be alive for long anyways. If I became a burden to all of you, then… I can’t even rest in peace when I die!”

“Headmistress!” Bai Ting cried out discontentedly. Obviously, she didn’t like headmistress Bai talking about her death so lightly. She was also feeling guilty, since the headmistress seemed to have noticed her thoughts about them being a burden.

“Really, I won’t risk hurting myself,” Bai Duan nodded, his voice smooth and convincing.

“…That’s good,” Headmistress Bai stared at Bai Duan for a few seconds. Seeing that his eyes did not waver for even a minute, she finally felt a little relieved. “You are a reliable child. If you said that it will be fine, we will all trust you!”

Hearing this, Bai Duan finally smiled and nodded, “We came here to find some supplies at the nearby farmer’s market. You should start packing up and get some rest afterwards. Wait for us to get back, we’ll embark early next morning.”

“The nearby farmer’s market?” Bai Ting was stunned. “There are so many zombies in there. I thought about going in to have a look when I was collecting food, but…”

“I know,” Bai Duan nodded at her. “We can deal with it.”

Bai Ting quickly noticed the word ‘we’ and immediately became more anxious. Instinctively, she blurted out, “He will go too?”

“Of course,” Bai Duan noticed that Bai Ting seemed to have an odd opinion about Nie LanLei. That made him a bit displeased, but he didn’t fight back against her either.

That was when Bai Duan felt the end of his sleeve being tucked by someone, he subconsciously looked at Nie LanLei’s direction. Bai Duan’s eyes met with his, and somehow looking into his eyes, Bai Duan understood what he was trying to convey — God knows, Bai Duan never thought that they had such a ‘special ability’!

Bai Duan with a slightly weirded out expression turned his head back to Bai Ting — of course, in the eyes of outsiders, his expression was still calm — Bai Duan coughed softly, “Of course, he will go with me, I… will protect him.”

After saying that, Bai Duan’s mouth twitched slightly, while Nie LanLei took the opportunity to give Bai Ting a very proud and ostentatious look, then moved closer to Bai Duan.

Bai Ting who felt like she was just stuffed with a face of dog food mixed with aged vinegar, “…………”

It took Bai Ting a lot of energy to stabilize her emotions and thoughts. Bai Ting, who was critically hit, managed to calm down and smile, “Of course, I know that you can protect him, but isn’t it safer to leave him here? I can help take care of him… ”

“No need,” Bai Duan interrupted Bai Ting. “We’re used to doing this together.”

Bai Ting puckered her lips. She was very dissatisfied with Nie LanLei’s way of bragging the intimacy of their relationships, especially when it would get Bai Duan into unnecessary dangers. She felt that Nie LanLei was not worthy of the excellent Bai Duan. In order to prove that she was better than Nie LanLei, she mustered up her courage, even though she was very afraid of the crowd of zombies in the farmer’s market, “In that case, I will go with you too? I can be regarded as a force of combat… ”

“Sorry,” Bai Duan’s eyebrows wrinkled, obviously he had exhausted all of his patience, and his tone was not polite anymore. “I have some secrets, and I don’t want them to be known by others.”

Bai Duan had always been distancing himself from the crowd, he was used to being independent and going his own way. Combined with his experiences in so many worlds, they made his character more and more tough. He didn’t like to have outsiders dictating his own decisions, which was the complete opposite of the gentle and obedient facade Nie LanLei had going. Bai Ting also naturally sensed his impatience.

After the apocalypse, many people had their own secrets. Those were their trump cards to ensure their own survival. Bai Duan was too lazy to come up with a lie to fool people, so he directly voiced his refusal. Even if Bai Ting was not happy about the outcome, she didn’t dare to push further.

Biting her lips while looking at the two people standing side by side, as if they were always close to each other, Bai Ting finally nodded her head, “OK, I see. Then… be careful.”

To tell you the truth, Bai Duan’s attitude when refusing was really hurtful, not to mention Bai Ting liked him. Bai Ting comforted herself by thinking that Bai Duan and her were still not familiar enough, and that was the only reason why Bai Duan used such harsh words.

——However, Bai Duan, who was so indifferent and self-disciplined, who was only ever so gentle and indulgent to his lover, was much better than those who indulge themselves in extravagance and abandon the shackles of morality after the apocalypse, those who just go for every girl they see.

If she could push Nie LanLei away, then occupy the position beside Bai Duan, to enjoy Bai Duan’s tenderness, then she will definitely love Bai Duan’s personality so much! So, in order for such a day to come, all these grievances and sorrows now were tolerable.

She imagined the bright future optimistically. Bai Ting’s mood finally got a little smoother as she looked at Bai Duan and Nie LanLei walk out of the basement.

Headmistress Bai looked at her quietly, she had clear insights even in her turbid eyes hid under the presbyopic glasses. After a moment, she said, “Xiao Duan seemed really close to the boy beside him, I’ve never seen him being so close with somebody ever.”

“Yeah, I guess they’ve been together ever since the beginning of the apocalypse,” Bai Ting barely smiled and didn’t want to tell headmistress Bai about the real ‘relationship’ between the two.

Headmistress Bai didn’t say much, she sighed a little, then asked the children to pack their things — although they didn’t seem to have much to pack.

In the first half of her life, she was a businesswoman, and a successful one to boot, so she had met all types of people. She naturally knew the children she raised better than anyone else.

Bai Ting’s hesitation was all noticed by headmistress Bai, she knew them clearly, but she was in no position to ask Bai Ting to sacrifice her own life for her and the children, so she could only pretend to not know. But this time, she couldn’t turn a blind eye anymore.

Headmistress Bai knew that Bai Ting, similar to Bai Duan, was a person with correct ideals. They would not turn around until they actually hit something. They would not listen to others’ persuasion in any case.

So, the only thing she could do was to look at Bai Ting closely, and not let her go on a wrong path or come up with bad ideas. She wouldn’t let her do something irreparable out of jealousy to these people who had good intentions, who were risking their lives just to help them.

——I hope… These good children will all live a happy and long life.