The World Turned into Zombies, So I Went Back to the Countryside to Farm 79p1

Chapter 79p1: Lou Xiao

When she first met Lou Xiao, she knew that she would become friends with this girl who looked seven or eight parts like her, but she never thought that she would point a gun at her.

It was the second half of her sophomore year of high school. Her father worked in the Hong City municipal government. Hong City was one of the popular provinces for the college entrance examination, so he had specially found a way to transfer her back to her place of origin for the exam.

It was an ordinary middle school in a county town.

She was standing below the stage, listening to the opening ceremony with boredom, when a cold voice suddenly interjected.

“Now, let’s invite the outstanding student representative to speak.”

“Hello everyone, I’m Lou Xiao from Class 1 of the third year of high school. Lou as in the ‘lou’ of ‘a perilous building is a hundred feet high,’ and Xiao as in the ‘xiao’ of ‘soaring into the clouds’…”

She looked up, and the girl in a neat school uniform and white shirt also looked over at this moment.

The so-called love at first sight was nothing more than this. The wind and clouds were surging in the sky, and the bell of fate rang at this moment.

From then on, she had been paying attention to everything about Lou Xiao, whether intentionally or not. She would always try to get close to her. So what if she was the top student in the school? Her own studies were not bad, and she had already memorized the knowledge of the third year of high school. It was definitely not a problem to take the graduation examination.

When she saw the report card on the school notice board, her name was ranked ahead of Lou Xiao’s, and only then did she show a satisfied smile.

The silent boy in the crowd shouldered his schoolbag, turned around, and walked away, still wearing the pair of yellowed canvas shoes.

From then on, the two of them began to compete openly and secretly. Wen Zhao even skipped a grade to the third year of high school and, when choosing a seat, she sat down next to her without any hesitation.

“Senior, I’m sitting here. You don’t mind, do you?”

Lou Xiao stiffly turned her face away. “I don’t mind.”

“School’s out. Let’s go, let’s go.”

“Zhao Zhao, where are we going to play today? Let me ride your motorcycle!”

When the bell rang for the end of class, Wen Zhao stretched and walked out of the classroom, surrounded by her classmates.

She had only been here for a few months, but everyone knew that she came from a good family and was generous, so they were particularly close to her.

The microcosm of society was already beginning to show in the school.

Lou Xiao looked at the two words “Wen Zhao” on the duty roster on the blackboard and picked up the broom with resignation.

Forget it. If I don’t clean, it will affect their class’s total score, which will also affect her selection as an outstanding class cadre.

Until dusk.

The setting sun cast its last ray of light on the desk.

Only then did Lou Xiao take the trash can to the garbage station to empty it. In the shade of a tree near the garbage station, she saw a person squatting.

The person’s soft long hair hung down, covering her eyes. She was wearing the same school uniform and gray skirt as her.

“Little cat, little cat, so pitiful. Sigh, it’s a pity my mom is allergic to cat fur, otherwise I would have taken you home.”

When the girl picked up the kitten and turned around, the two of them recognized each other at the same time.

“You…”

Lou Xiao put down the trash can in her hand.

“Let me see. My mom used to be a veterinarian in the countryside.”

Only then did the girl carefully hand the kitten over, muttering, “Do you even know how?”

Lou Xiao ignored her and just pinched the kitten’s hind paw back and forth, then took out a band-aid from her pocket, tore off the outer packaging, and stuck it on the exposed wound on its leg.

“Its bones are fine. It’s just a superficial wound.”

Lou Xiao handed the kitten back to her. Just as she was about to turn and leave after emptying the trash, she was called back again.

“Can… can you take it home? Just… help me raise it for a while. My mom is allergic to cat fur.”

Lou Xiao turned around and thought for a moment.

“My home is not okay either.”

“Why? Isn’t your mother a veterinarian?”

“She used to be, but to take care of me for school, she now has a stall at the school gate and doesn’t have time.”

After Lou Xiao finished speaking, she left. The girl saw that she didn’t want to talk to her. The person who was used to being the center of attention chased after her.

“Hey, Lou Xiao, why don’t you like me?”

Lou Xiao stopped. “You took my first place in the school.”

“Eh?” The girl was a little confused.

“If you get first place in the school, you get a scholarship.”

“If you really don’t know where to put the kitten, there’s an empty classroom in Building 3.”

After she finished speaking, she did not stay and left with a quick pace.

The girl looked at her gradually receding back and bit her lower lip.

The next day.

She ran to the teacher and asked for the test papers from the previous exam. When she got home at night, she spread them out on her desk and compared them page by page.

Besides the handwriting, the two test papers were almost identical, and even the problem-solving train of thought was very consistent.

This similarity made Wen Zhao’s heart skip a beat for a moment, as if it were fate.

Are there really two such similar people in the world?

Only her English composition had gotten 0.5 points more than Lou Xiao’s. This insignificant difference had made her the top student in the school.

Outside, her mother was still on the phone with some leader, her laughter hearty, but her tone was filled with a hint of respect.

Wen Zhao quickly understood.

This was the “friendship score” that the teacher had given her. She didn’t think that her hastily written composition was better than Lou Xiao’s.

When she went to find Lou Xiao with the test paper, she was grabbed by the collar and pinned against the wall at the end of the corridor.

“What do you want to say? To prove that you have good parents?! I’m telling you… I hate people like you the most!”

“Next time… next time I will definitely surpass you!”

Lou Xiao let go of her collar and turned to leave. The girl behind her coughed a couple of times and then called out to her.

“Hey, do you want to go and see the kitten?”

A person with no experience in raising cats but a lot of pocket money would buy everything: cat food, canned food, cat treats… almost filling the drawers of several desks.

Lou Xiao frowned and watched as she poured the cat food into the bowl.

“It’s still too young. The cat food has to be soaked soft.”

A black line appeared on Wen Zhao’s forehead.

“Ah—I was wondering why it wasn’t eating much.”

“I have goat milk powder at home. I’ll go and get some.”

When the two of them walked out of the teaching building, it was raining heavily outside. Neither of them had an umbrella, so they could only look at each other.

Wen Zhao held up her school uniform jacket and was the first to pull her into the rain. The two of them ran wildly in the downpour, and also ran through their carefree youth.

Wen Zhao stopped at the school gate, patted the back seat of her motorcycle. She was soaked to the bone, but her eyes were still sparkling. “Do you want to ride my motorcycle?”

Lou Xiao gently put her arm around her lower back.

The girl’s right hand was clenched into a fist and stretched towards the sky.

“Oh ho, sit tight. We’re setting off!”

That night, when she came back from school, her mother had also closed her stall early and returned home because of the heavy rain.

In the long, narrow, and crowded alley that was full of puddles after the rain, she was standing at the door and witnessed Lou Xiao getting off that girl’s motorcycle. The overly similar faces made her recognize her at a glance. Even the small mole on her nose was exactly the same as that man’s.

Lou Xiao had never seen her mother with such an expression. She was pulled into the house, and a hard slap was given to her.

“Kneel!”

At that moment, her and Wen Zhao’s budding friendship had come to an abrupt end.

Fate had made them intersect for a brief moment, and then had pushed them to opposite shores.

Lou Xiao remembered that she had never asked about her mother’s past. She only knew that she had never seen her father since she was a child. As far as she could remember, she had moved to the city.

That night, in her mother’s tearful and fragmented account, she finally learned that… Wen Zhao was actually her half-sister. She couldn’t believe this coincidence until her mother took out the yellowed photo. The man in the photo had very similar features to them.

“That was twenty years ago. Your father went to the countryside for poverty alleviation and was with me for a while, and then you were born. He promised to come back and marry me, but he left without a word.”

“I followed the address he gave me and found that the person who opened the door was a woman. I knew then that he… had betrayed me.”

For a man, this was nothing more than a romantic affair. For a woman, it was a matter of a lifetime.

Due to her health, the doctor also advised her to keep the child, otherwise it would be difficult for her to get pregnant in the future.

Lou’s mother sat on a bench in the hospital corridor, touching her slightly bulging belly, feeling the movement of a new life inside. Silent tears quietly flowed down.

After the child was born, faced with the misunderstanding of her parents and the gossip of the villagers, she resolutely took the still-swaddled Lou Xiao to the county town, working odd jobs while raising her.

This was Lou’s mother’s short but very sad first half of her life.

Faced with her tearful accusations, how could Lou Xiao not be furious? She clenched her fists and also shed tears.

“Mom… I’m going to find him… and get justice for you.”

Lou’s mother pulled her into her arms.

“Good child, don’t do anything stupid. That person… now works in the municipal government… he’s in a high position. We common people can’t afford to provoke him. Promise me, stay away from that family, okay? Mom… just wants you to grow up safely and happily.”

Lou Xiao buried her head in her embrace and whispered “okay” with a tremble, but Wen Zhao’s face flashed in her mind.

She gently closed her eyes, and a tear slid down the corner of her eye.

In middle school, the last time she had seen Wen Zhao was on her birthday. It was a cold winter.

Ever since they had seen the kitten together last time, Lou Xiao had applied for a class change and had never appeared in front of her again.

Wen Zhao was waiting for her on the path she had to take after school.

From a distance, Lou Xiao saw the figure, turned, and walked away. Wen Zhao chased after her on her motorcycle and blocked her way.

“Long time no see. Why are you avoiding me?”

“The college entrance examination is coming up. I want to focus on my studies.”

Wen Zhao took off her helmet, and her soft long hair fell down.

“Studying is not that urgent. I saw you touching a harmonica in the stationery store for a long time that day. Here, if I remember correctly, today is your birthday. This is for you.”

The hand she had held out was still in mid-air when she was grabbed by the collar. Lou Xiao’s eyes were red, as if she were a mortal enemy.

“Are you done? Do you think this boring game of following me is very interesting? Or does being a follower make you feel very happy? I’m telling you… the person I hate the most is you!”

“Don’t let me see you by my side again in the future!”

The smile on Wen Zhao’s face froze.

“What’s wrong… is this?”

Lou Xiao had already pushed past her shoulder and walked straight away, leaving only a meaningful look.

“We can never be friends. Don’t come again.”

The brocade box with the harmonica fell to the ground.

Looking at her resolute departing back, tears gradually welled up in the girl’s eyes. She bit her lower lip, turned the motorcycle handlebars, and sped off in the opposite direction.

Not long after she left, a figure came out of the darkness at the end of the alley, picked up the harmonica, and had kept it until now.

Their youth had thus come to a brief and grand end. The next time they met was at the police academy.

Wen Zhao had cut her long hair and had it at her shoulders, just like her. Her college entrance examination scores were not good that year, and she had repeated a year before she could stand in front of her as a freshman representative.

Lou Xiao had actually never understood why she, with her good family background and upbringing, had chosen to be a police officer.

Until she said softly, “Just think of it as me atoning for my sins.”

Her words were vague. Lou Xiao wanted to ask more, but she had already changed the subject. She had always thought that Wen Zhao did not know that they were half-sisters.

Sometimes, not knowing is the greatest happiness.

Looking at her excited eyes, full of curiosity for all new things, Lou Xiao swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue.

At that time, she did not know how much effort Wen Zhao had put in to be able to follow in her footsteps and come here.

She had gone on a hunger strike to resist the path that her family had arranged for her, and had only gotten another chance to stand by her side after she had fainted from hunger.