Chapter 444: Chao Yan

"She, she won’t try to drink our blood, will she?"

Bai Yifan was so scared that he stuttered when he spoke.

That gaze was terrifying, nothing like a newborn baby.

A gaze from a newborn baby more frightening than those from the street thugs he saw in school.

Even scarier than the look his homeroom teacher gave him from the window!

So terrifying that a sixteen-year-old boy like him was afraid of this baby that wasn’t even an hour old.

Bai Yifan was so frightened that the protective golden light shone from his body, flickering on and off.

"This is her instinct. If you were infected by the virus, you might not behave better than her."

Wang Yiyun took off her black gloves, her voice somewhat bewildered.

How did the world end up like this?

Never being unemployed is fundamentally different from the end of the world.

Wang Yiyun thought she would rather suffer from occupational illness all her life than witness this scene.

Babies are innocent, yet the existence of the zombie virus prevents her from growing up in the spring breeze. If in the future she doesn’t awaken her consciousness, it means she will live her life in a state of bewilderment.

The female zombie sensed the baby’s movement, her stiff fingers creaking as she awkwardly held the baby closer to her chest.

It’s not that the female zombie didn’t want to feed the child with flesh and blood.

But she realized she had no independent mobility, the only thing she could do was protect her child.

Don’t anger the Bai Family.

After having the baby, the female zombie’s consciousness became stronger, all for her own child.

Whether human, animal, or zombie, a mother’s instinct is to protect her child.

The stiff fingers touched the baby’s skin covered in black mucus.

The female zombie, with no sense of light or heavy hand, held the baby but never felt the baby’s weight.

She had no sensation on her body, couldn’t feel pain, or the warmth of the baby in her arms.

She only relied on the faint brainwaves of the baby and her own eyes.

Therefore, no matter how careful she was, the sharp nails unintentionally embedded into the baby’s skin.

Black blood oozed from the baby’s wound.

However, the wound was more severe than a normal scratch.

On close inspection, one could see a bit of rotten flesh at the turned-out edge of the wound.

The rate of decay was too fast and there was no healing.

"Her, her skin, how, how..."

Bai Yifan pointed at a small rotten wound on the baby’s body, his fingers trembling slightly.

"She is an ordinary zombie but might have the chance to become a Zombie King," Bai Xiqin said.

Becoming a Zombie King is not easy for ordinary zombies.

The evolution of a zombie doesn’t rely solely on effort and talent, it’s mainly about luck.

Ordinary zombies have no consciousness, initially only relying on devouring flesh and blood to become stronger.

The earliest phase is the hardest. There are tens of billions of ordinary zombies globally, and the chance of becoming a Zombie King is too low.

It’s truly not as fortunate as those who turned into Zombie Kings immediately upon being infected!

The zombie baby was slightly jostled by the female zombie, felt no pain, yet still let out a roar.

"Roar――"

Like all zombies, the sound contained a hint of bloodthirsty violence.

The zombie baby twisted its neck again, staring at the Bai Family with bloodthirsty eyes devoid of innocence.

Black mucus dripped from its mouth.

"Why doesn’t she understand gratitude at all? We just saved her and her mother," Bai Zhengxuan said seriously. "If this were before the apocalypse, I would have picked up a ruler to teach the little one personally."

"It’s the smell from us affecting her."

Bai Xiqin paused for a moment, then slowly turned and left the supermarket.

The zombie baby’s sense of smell is very acute, but only towards humans. Other scents are almost unnoticeable to her.

If the Bai Family stayed in the supermarket, it would make the zombie baby more restless.

The newborn zombie baby wasn’t very obsessed with the idea of bloodthirstiness; even when Liu Jing bathed her, she didn’t react.

As time passed, the zombie baby adapted to the outside environment and began to release her inherent ferocity.

The Bai Family silently followed Bai Xiqin out of the supermarket.

Perhaps the zombie baby’s sense of smell was not as terrifying as adult zombies. As the Bai Family reached the supermarket entrance, the zombie baby’s restlessness quickly subsided.

Inside, the sounds of sucking could be heard again.

"Let’s give her a name!" Wang Yiyun looked towards the supermarket, her brow furrowed.

When she had her first child, Xiao Niu, the baby was also a tiny bundle, very soft and cute.

Back then, Xiao Niu was quiet, obedient, with fair and tender skin, unlike the zombie baby, as if from different worlds.

The apocalypse is truly cruel to a newborn zombie baby.

A name represents the trace of once existing in this world.

"What’s the point of giving a name when no one will be calling it? Isn’t her mother unable to speak?" Bai Yifan scratched his head, puzzled.

"It marks her existence in this world," Wang Yiyun said calmly. "With us knowing her name and calling it, we’ll recognize her if we meet again."

Maybe Wang Yiyun recalled her young daughter. Seeing the frail and pitiful zombie baby, she couldn’t help but feel sad.

"How about naming her Chao Yan?" Bai Xiqin looked at the distant sun and continued, "If it weren’t the apocalypse, she could definitely be a beautiful little girl in the future."

"Great name!" A faint smile finally graced Wang Yiyun’s lips, "In the future, if we encounter them, we’ll know the baby’s name."

"Chao Yan, with her heart towards the sunlight and a radiant face. A great name," Bai Zhengxuan sighed softly, "I hope a vaccine can be developed to turn those infected with the zombie virus back into humans."

The Bai Family listened to Bai Zhengxuan’s sentiment in silence.

They suddenly thought of the older Bai Zhengxuan and others from the future, surviving the apocalypse for more than a decade, and even when they returned to the past, the apocalypse hadn’t ended.

It’s said that in the world over ten years later, zombies became more powerful, and human safe zones were destroyed one after another.

There was no vaccine developed.

In that scenario, the end of the apocalypse seemed indefinitely far away.

Inside the supermarket.

The female zombie stared blankly at the supermarket entrance.

Hearing the name "Chao Yan," her decayed fingers gently stroked the zombie baby in her arms.

The violence in her eyes faded away, replaced by gentle eyes.

"Let’s go!"

Wang Yiyun lifted her foot and walked towards the bus.

Feeling both fortunate and pained.

Fortunate because no one in her family became a zombie; each had strong superpowers, so they didn’t suffer too greatly in the apocalypse (except for Bai Yifan).

Pained because the reason the family was safe now was due to her daughter suffering for years in the apocalypse before coming back to save them!

Wang Yiyun felt a soft hand tug at hers, looked back to see Bai Xiqin’s gentle face.

In an instant, all the negative emotions on Wang Yiyun disappeared, and a cheerful smile returned to her face.

Bai Yifan also smiled and pulled Wang Yiyun’s other hand.

Wang Yiyun frowned, "Did you wash your hands after using the toilet?"

Bai Yifan: ...