The first time Lu Jiayao met Lin You was on the second day when the world suddenly became chaotic.
Although she had seen Lin You's photo a long time ago. In the freshmen's semester of senior year, a good friend sent it to her on WeChat, and excitedly wrote the words:
"Primary school girl from the business school!"
"I've seen real people, the little one is super cute!"
"Legal loli! awsl!"
Lu Jiayao: "..."
It doesn't look like a college student in the photo at all, more like Lin You, who is in junior high school, wearing a loose knit sweater, with long black hair hanging down to her waist and slightly curled at the end. She held the mobile phone in one hand, and waited obediently on the side of the road with the suitcase in the other, with thin white knuckles exposed in the slightly longer cuffs.
The autumn sun fell on her body, and the falling red maple set off a face as white and pure as fresh snow.
Ah, my sister also has this dress... not as good as hers.
Probably such an impression.
When they met, Lu Jiayao recognized her immediately. That little girl who was wearing pajamas full of cat patterns and ran behind others, her legs were not fast in sprinting, her physical strength was poor, and she was out of breath, was her.
Lu Jiayao was upstairs, and seeing her fall in embarrassment, her two companions just hesitated for a moment, then ignored her and continued to run.
It must have been a heavy fall, the little girl struggled to get up from the ground, when the zombies behind her were all in front of her eyes, she screamed, and threw the trash can at her hand in a panic!
She actually missed it.
The slow-moving zombies were put into the trash can and struggled in it.
She probably dislocated her hand due to an outburst of desperation, she looked around blankly with her arm on her arm, and when she found herself alone, she began to cry, crying while running, hiccupping from crying.
Lu Jiayao, who planned to go down to save others, was amazed.
Such a pause, and they miss it.
Later, when Lu Jiayao left City S, she ran into her again, squatting in the supermarket with a fire ax in hand, her hair tied up indiscriminately, her face covered in ashes, she choked while eating while sobbing softly.
But this time, he looked like he knew how to hide and how to attack, and he would still close his eyes even when he was beheading a zombie.
"Don't close your eyes!" Lu Jiayao helped her get rid of the zombies coming from behind. The old mother's mentality came from nowhere, and she hated iron and steel, "Keep your eyes wide open to see clearly when you encounter danger! Otherwise, you won't know how you died. !"
"Oh, oh..." She held the fire ax covered in blood, and looked over with pitiful eyes, "Thank you."
Lu Jiayao asked: "Do you want to come to my team?"
Lu Jiayao's team is almost all acquaintances, and the situation is the same. They go to school in S City, but their family members are all in the north. They want to go north to find someone.
Lin You blended in quickly, which may have something to do with her pleasing appearance and personality.
Lu Jiayao taught her to use cold weapons, which were too heavy for her to handle, so she had to practice short blades. Another boy in the team is a rich second generation who often goes to gun clubs, so he taught her how to use a gun.
But she couldn't get rid of her habit of closing her eyes in the face of danger, so Lu Jiayao could only train her every day.
Later, everyone's abilities gradually appeared. She was looking forward to it at first, but later found that her abilities were very useless, so she hid and cried secretly.
Lu Jiayao was helpless: "What's there to cry about?"
Lin You buried her face and whispered, "What should I do, Senior Sister? I, am I very useless, always dragging people down, so everyone gave up on me..."
No one here will give up on you, right? And the ability is not good, wouldn't it be better to train yourself more? You are also a fast learner. There was nothing Lu Jiayao couldn't do since she was a child, and she couldn't understand Lin You's mood.
But... Forget it, Lu Jiayao thought, maybe she just felt uneasy and needed someone to comfort her, so she said, "It's nothing, you stay behind, we will protect you."
Not half a month after she finished speaking, Lin You was scratched by zombies in order to protect her teammates.
Everyone knows what will happen after being infected with the zombie virus. No one had the heart to shoot her, and no one wanted to bear the guilt of killing their companions with their own hands for the rest of their lives.
Lu Jiayao felt that as the captain, she should be more decisive, just like she used to make every decision.
— but she couldn't.
So they fled as a group, leaving the little girl who was still trying to smile at the end.
Lu Jiayao has lived for more than twenty years and rarely looks back on her life, let alone regrets anything. However, after that day, she repeatedly thought of the person who was left behind, the lonely figure that was gradually pulling away in the ruins, the first time they met, and the photos of her first meeting.
Occasionally, when I dream back at midnight, I will think of her smiling face.
Until she saw the information about a certain experimental plan in the Linshan base.
"Venus".
The girl who was dubbed this title has almost no change in the smiling appearance in the photo from many years ago.
Then... the moment of goodbye, the same is true.
"... Sister?"
Why would a person remember such a distant sound until now? Lu Jiayao looked at the person in front of her and thought so.
Nothing has changed.
Her hair was a little longer than what was seen in the information, and the soft ends of her hair were slightly curled. Wearing almost defenseless short-sleeved hot pants, the weapon is exposed, and the white skin is almost reflective under the dazzling sunlight.
Standing on this dilapidated ruin, she was filled with a sense of incompatibility.
why? She put away her weapon and came over, looking here with lake blue eyes that were lighter than she remembered, speaking in the same tone as before.
"Senior Sister Jiayao, is it you?" After being surprised, Lin You withdrew the dagger to show that she had no malicious intentions, and stepped forward, "Ah, you may not remember me, I am..."
"I remember." Lu Jiayao interrupted her, her expression didn't change, she looked completely indifferent, "You're still alive."
"Well... a fluke."
Lin You smiled wryly. I haven't seen her for many years. Although she wouldn't misunderstand Lu Jiayao's malicious intentions, she still can't get used to the senior's speaking style.
Because Lu Jiayao stopped attacking, the raccoon dog who came over saw Lin You and yelled twice in aggrieved manner.
Lin You waved to it, and discussed with Lu Jiayao: "Senior sister, I know this raccoon dog. Did you have any conflicts with it?"
"Know mutated creatures?" Lu Jiayao asked back, looking at her with blue-gold pupils, put away the knife after a while, but didn't say anything, "You can do whatever you want. It just rushed out suddenly, so I did it."
The raccoon dog hid beside Lin You, remembering Xiao Xiao's words, it didn't rub her, it just barked twice.
After being petted, it took out a wild fruit wrapped in broad leaves from the bricks and stones beside it, and put it in Lin You's hand.
Did you come to this kind of place to give this away... Lin You's heart softened, and she patted its lowered head reassuringly.
The wound on Raccoon's body needed to be treated, and Xiao Xiao was still waiting behind—because she was human, Lin You wanted to negotiate with herself first, but she didn't come out.
Lin You looked at Lu Jiayao, and thought about her words: "Is Senior Sister passing by?" It looked like she was alone.
"..." Lu Jiayao didn't answer. Seeing the interaction between Lin You and the raccoon dog, she suddenly asked, "Do you live here?"
"Yeah." Lin You didn't deny it, she still remembered Lu Jiayao's help to her at the beginning, maybe it could be called kindness, "If you need help, Senior Sister, you can tell me, although I may not be able to do much …”
Lu Jiayao sneered lightly: "No."
"..." Lin You said, "then..."
"Won't you invite me to sit down?"
Lu Jiayao looked at her quietly: "Is it inconvenient?"
"..." Lin You was silent.
Lu Jiayao is a very perceptive person, and Lin You was afraid that it would be troublesome if she saw something, so she didn't really want to have more contact with this senior.
She replied with some hesitation: "Sorry... Senior Sister. My companion is not very..."
"Convenience."
The plain voice cut off her words, Lin You turned her head in surprise, Xiao Xiao walked out from the corner behind the wall in a fair manner.
"..."
The unkind eyes of the two met in mid-air.
Lu Jiayao held the knife, she was tall and stepped on the ruined wall, her sharp gaze was full of oppression; but Xiao Xiao who was below raised her face slightly, her momentum was not inferior, her ice blue eyes were like frozen glaciers.
"Xiao Xiao?" It was the first time Lin You saw her look like this.
"..." Xiao Xiao paused, but still chose to turn around and smile at her, "It's okay. You are Yuzu's friend, don't worry about me."
Her aura suddenly softened to its usual appearance.
Lu Jiayao's hand holding the handle of the knife slowly tightened and then loosened. She asked Lin You, "Do you live with it?"
Lin You subconsciously stepped in front of Xiao Xiao: "... um. She is... my family."
Lu Jiayao looked at Xiao Xiao again, this time they briefly looked at each other, and immediately looked away.
Lu Jiayao said, "It's okay to stay overnight."
Lin You looked at Xiao Xiao, Xiao Xiao bent her eyes and smiled at her: "Youzi, just decide. I'm fine."
Oh, is it really all right
In the end, Lu Jiayao followed them back home.
Lin You was inexplicably worried. Although Lu Jiayao didn't look like she was going to fight, there seemed to be a strange tit-for-tat between her and Xiao Xiao... It didn't seem like hostility between human and inhuman, why...
Lin You was processing the lotus roots dug out today in the kitchen, and Xiao Xiao, who usually came to help, volunteered to entertain guests in the lobby today.
There are two cups of tea on the table. They found wild tea trees when they went out to play in spring, and then fried them themselves.
Xiao Xiao, who entertained the guests, was treating the injured raccoon dog without saying a word.
Lu Jiayao looked around at the furnishings in the room, but said nothing.
The dull atmosphere in the room didn't break until the sound of Linyou frying vegetables with oil came from the kitchen.
Lu Jiayao looked at the simple puppet stitched together with scraps of fabric on the table. It could barely be seen that it was a flower. Next to it was a golden-brown felt cat doll. The material probably came from the mutated creature lying outside.
"...she's still the same as before."
"..."
Xiao Xiao raised his eyes and looked at her, his ice blue eyes were as indifferent as his pupils.