NOVEL NEXT Chapter 7: Business
TL: waterlemon
Word count: 1749
The white coat zombie made a gurgling sound in its throat. Pushing the little girl in its hand forward, the zombie opened its rotten palm, revealing several crystal nuclei. Wen Qingling was surprised.
This zombie actually had a trace of human consciousness.
It wanted Wen Qingling to help the little girl become a zombie with consciousness.
Jiang Lan: “We can try treating them first. Let’s wait till they are cured before requesting for the crystal nuclei payment.”
Wen Qingling took a small blood anemone from the office. “Wanna eat it?”
Roaring, the little girl pounced forward, holding the fist-sized blood anemone and nibbling on it. The smell of blood wafted out.
There were zombies gathered outside the clinic door, having been attracted by this smell. However, they dared not come forward and could only watch from a distance.
Wen Qingling did not know whether the current state of his parents was due to his blood or due to the blood anemone. He had no choice but to experiment a little.
The little girl only took a few bites before giving the remaining half of the blood anemone to the white coat zombie.
The white coat zombie looked very hungry. It grabbed the blood anemone and finished it in just a few bites.
Its memory was restored. Its chaotic brain gradually cleared up. The cloudy look in its eyes slowly disappeared, replaced by liveliness.
Wen Qingling had been observing them this whole time. Though their decaying bodies had not changed for the time being, their mannerisms and behavior had changed.
After waiting a while longer, the white coat zombie suddenly spoke in a hoarse, grating voice, “Thank. You.”
The rotting body had not recovered. The white coat zombie had only managed to regain its consciousness.
Wen Qingling took a larger blood anemone and encouraged the two to eat it.
The regeneration and restructuring of flesh and bone that his parents had experienced previously was once again seen in the two zombies.
Looking at their intact bodies, Feng Bin was very excited, though his face still could not express any emotions. “The crystal nuclei that I owe, I will definitely repay.”
The small Tongtong, with a stiff face, solemnly gave thanks as well. “Thank you big brother.”
Wen Qingling reminded them, “We look like people, but we are not human. If you’re hungry, you can hunt mutant animals to eat. Do not eat people and don’t give humans a reason to hunt you.”
Feng Bin nodded, “I will definitely restrain myself.”
Wen Qingling’s hypothesis was correct, the blood anemones really could help them restore their bodies and regain their consciousness.
Wen Qingling still wanted to know the difference between the zombies who recovered solely by eating the blood anemones and his parents who not only ate the blood anemones but also drank his blood.
After some comparison, he realized that the disparity in strength between the two groups was very large.
His parents’ speed and strength could almost be compared with third grade evolved lifeforms. Feng Bin’s overall strength, on the other hand, while higher than that of ordinary zombies, still fell slightly short of a first grade evolved lifeform’s strength.
Compared against a Butcher, Feng Bin’s raw strength was still weaker, though his speed was significantly faster.
However, they had one characteristic in common—they were all unable to absorb zombies’ crystal nuclei.
One week later, Feng Bin, who had gone out to collect consultation fees, returned with 194 crystal nuclei. From that point onwards, they no longer had any debt between them.
Within the same week, two more zombies took the initiative to visit the clinic. Like Feng Bin and Tongtong, they both managed to regain a trace of consciousness.
Coincidentally, they had also been controlled by Wen Qingling in the past. At that time, they were the ones who had roared the loudest, hell-bent on tearing into Luo Fengjue. Wen Qingling had been forced to tighten his control over the two.
As for the treatment process, these two zombies also relied on eating blood anemones to restore their bodies and consciousness first, before going out to earn their medical fees.
This phenomenon led Wen Qingling to think more deeply. Was his spiritual power aiding them in restoring consciousness?
With this speculation in mind, Wen Qingling got into the habit of spreading out his spiritual power when he had nothing else to do.
He would let his spiritual power wander around the streets and alleys of South City, brainwashing the zombies there, hoping they would regain consciousness earlier.
His spiritual powers drifted on the edge of South City. There, he saw a mother-son pair crying their lungs out, and an off-road vehicle driving into the distance.
The sky was about to turn dark. If the mother and son continued staying in the wild, they would not live to see the next morning.
Wen Qingling looked at the blood anemones beside his hand. Would they be useful to humans? Or would eating them cause humans to turn into zombies?
Wen Qingling drove over. When he arrived, the young woman was hysterical.
“Come and eat me, you monsters! Come on! I don’t want to continue living anyway, but I’ll at least take you down with me!!”
Wen Qingling stopped the car and looked at them through the window.
The woman’s voice stopped abruptly, and she ran over with the boy in her arms, crying and begging.
“Please save us, where are you heading to? Can you give us a ride? We are going to the Ling City base. These, I’ll give all these to you, please save us.”
With trembling hands, the woman pulled out all the crystal nuclei she had kept hidden close to her body. These crystal nuclei totalled dozens.
Wen Qingling got out of the car, and his eyes fell on the little boy.
“He’s transforming.”
Hearing this, the woman hurriedly hugged the child, a look of panic on her face.
“No, he is fine, he can be saved as long as we return to the Ling City base.”
The Ling City base was a big base. Because it was built near the Ling City, it was thus named the Ling City base.
The South City base where Wen Qingling was currently located was just a small base at the south border of Ling City. It only had a little over a hundred survivors, and could not be compared with large, established bases like Ling City’s.
Wen Qingling was surprised.
“Does Ling City base have a vaccine?”
The woman nodded, then shook her head, flustered.
“Possibly, someone in Ling City base was bitten by a zombie, but he didn’t turn into a zombie. He may have antibodies, or he may have been vaccinated, I’m not sure. But we’ll have hope as long as we return to Ling City base.”
Wen Qingling lifted the boy’s clothes and the woman quickly grabbed his hand. A scene flashed in Wen Qingling’s mind—the boy was bitten by a zombie and the small squad wanted to abandon him.
Though the woman begged bitterly, the squad still snatched her weapons and forced the woman and little boy off the car.
This was an ability available to those with a spiritual-type ability—Appraisal of the Past.
Through touch, they were able to glimpse into the moment which the other found most memorable, or the moment when the other’s emotions had fluctuated the most.
Wen Qingling: “The zombie’s poison is about to spread to his whole body. You can’t make it back to base.”
Hearing this, the woman collapsed and sobbed.
“Impossible, impossible. We can definitely make it as long as we’re fast enough.”
Wen Qingling: “Then do you know where the people with antibodies or vaccines are? Can you find them? Would you be able to make it in time?”
The woman wailed louder. She only saw hope, but did not know how fleeting it was.
Wen Qingling grabbed a blood anemone from his bag and placed it on the boy’s body.
“Wanna eat it?”
The boy’s eyes were lifeless and his body twitched constantly—signs of an impending transformation.
Wen Qingling did not know whether the boy wanted to eat the blood anemone, but he knew that the blood anemone wanted to eat the boy.
The tentacles on its mouth plate suddenly stabbed towards the boy’s neck, each tentacle making a gulping sound, as if they were sucking the boy’s blood.
Frightened, the woman screamed, wanting to smack the blood anemone away, but was held back by Wen Qingling.
“Don’t move.”
The woman screamed, “It’s sucking Xiao Wen’s blood!”
Wen Qingling’s eyes stared unblinkingly at the boy. “It’s absorbing the zombie poison.”
The woman paused. Only now did she realize that the zombie poison, which had originally spread to the boy’s whole body, was rapidly receding.
When the last of the zombie poison was removed, the blood anemone automatically removed its tentacles. As it had drunk some blood, its head had become a little bigger.
At this time, the boy regained consciousness and weakly shouted, “Mommy.”
Crying and laughing, the woman held her son, kissing him incessantly and leaving behind both tears and snot on his face.
Unable to continue watching, Wen Qingling took the blood anemone and crystal nuclei away before asking, “Can you drive?”
“I can.”
Wen Qingling threw the car keys to her.
“The car is for you, go back to the base as soon as possible, the sky will turn dark soon.”
Wen Qingling turned to leave, but the direction he was heading to was unexpectedly South City.
Alarmed, the woman hurriedly grabbed him.
“Where are you going?”
Wen Qingling: “Home.”
The woman looked at South City and said with difficulty, “Your home is in… South City?”
Wen Qingling did not reply to her question.
“Go back ba.”
Leaving behind those words, he walked away.
Following behind, the woman shouted, “South City is full of zombies, and it is very dangerous at night. Do you want to go back to the Ling City base with me?”
Not receiving a reply, the woman shouted again, “Will I still be able to see you again next time?”
This time, Wen Qingling replied.
“I’m running a clinic in South City.”
He had finally managed to advertise the clinic. There would probably be a steady stream of crystal nuclei in the future.
The woman stood still, watching his figure disappear into the cityscape of South City. Only then did she finally drive away.
TN: New update is here, thank you all for the comments on the previous chapter! There’s a double release btw, no special reason, I just had extra time on my hands and wanted to get it out to you guys faster.
Gonna share some random stuff now. It won’t affect the story content, so feel free to skip to the next chapter~
Anyways, I’ll be releasing at least 1 chapter/week. Releases will be on Sundays, in the afternoon or evening. If I have extra time on my hands (like this week), I’ll just release more. Please look forward to my surprise gifts(?) hahaha.
As for the novel content, I’m trying to translate it so that it’s more readable in English. I will definitely stay true to the original meaning of the RAWs, but I may rephrase, add or cut a few words to make the sentences flow better. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or comments regarding this~ (´・ω・｀)
For those interested, I’ve got an example right below. I personally felt that the RAWs sounded a little abrupt, so I kinda fleshed out the sentences a little…? (ﾟωﾟ；)
Raws:
女人看了看南城，艰难道：“你家在……南城？”
闻清灵：“回去吧。”
闻清灵离开。
Translated literally:
The woman looked at South City and said with difficulty, “Your home is in… South City?”
Wen Qingling: “Go back ba.”
Wen Qingling left.
Translated with… flesh(?):
The woman looked at South City and said with difficulty, “Your home is in… South City?”
Wen Qingling did not reply to her question.
“Go back ba.”
Leaving behind those words, he walked away.
And that’s it for the TN! If you’re still here, thanks for reading so far! See you next week!