to Yan Cijin and rubbed her soft little cheek against her arm with complete confidence, acting as if she were indeed a tiny kitten demanding attention. The child had already gotten fully into the ga and now wanted everyone to join in. "Mommy, am I the cutest little kitten?" Lili rubbed her little face against Yan Cijin and acted cute, her voice bright and sweet. Yan Cijin laughed, wrapped her arms around her daughter, and kissed her cheek. "Yes, our Lili is the cutest little kitten." Lili’s eyes lit up at once. "Hehe, Mommy is the big kitten." She said it with such complete sincerity that Yan Cijin could not help laughing even harder. The little girl cuddled into her arms, still rubbing her face around in a silly cat like way, and Yan Cijin felt the serious weight in her chest soften a little. No matter what was happening outside, at least inside this ho there was still laughter. There was still this small harmless ga, this little circle of warmth, and it made the world feel less sharp for a mont.
Yan Cijin looked up at her mother and comforted her, still smiling from Lili’s antics. "Mom, don’t listen to those people’s nonsense. That’s why I didn’t go out just now. There are monsters outside now, and there’s no way to use the law to restrict people’s behavior. So now we not only have to guard against zombies, but also against people. No matter who knocks on the door, we can’t open it." Yan Laojin nodded at once. She was already convinced of that anyway, but hearing her daughter say it so clearly made her more serious again. Yan Cijin’s voice was calm, but underneath it there was a real warning. The world had changed. People could not be asured by old habits anymore. So were worse than monsters because they could smile while planning to hurt others. "You are right," Yan Laojin said. "I know those people. They are not the kind who know when to stop. They sll trouble and they all run toward it together." Yan Cijin looked down at Lili and stroked her hair gently. The little girl had gone back to rubbing her face against Yan Cijin’s arm, still pretending to be a kitten. "She was so well behaved when I changed her dressing," Yan Cijin said, thinking aloud. "Like a little kitten." As she said this, she recalled helping Bai Li wash her face that morning. Bai Li had been so obedient, letting her rub and massage her without complaint, even more docile than Lili in that mont. It was just those people in the group talking nonsense. Bai Li was not cold to her. Bai Li just did not like being bothered by nonsense. Yan Cijin could understand that. In fact, she found that side of Bai Li a little reassuring. It ant Bai Li would not let nonsense get under her skin too easily. She had her own way of dealing with things. That kind of calm, direct strength was not sothing Yan Cijin could easily ignore.
The little girl’s eyes widened with curiosity at the word kitten, and she imdiately leaned in closer to Yan Cijin again. "Little kitten? Mommy, is it a little kitten like ?" Lili nuzzled her mother and interrupted with complete innocence. Yan Cijin chuckled and pinched her cheek. "Yes, a little kitten just like you." Lili’s little face lit up with pride. "Hehe, then Bai Li is a big kitten too?" She had clearly rembered the earlier talk and was now trying to fit everyone into her ga. Yan Cijin laughed again, because Lili’s logic was so adorable and so natural that it made the whole room feel lighter. "Yes, maybe Bai Li is a big kitten," she said, smoothing the little girl’s hair. "But she is a very quiet big kitten." Lili nodded with a serious little expression as if she had understood sothing important. "Then she should eat her food and be good," she said. Yan Laojin couldn’t help smiling at that. The child was too young to understand the full danger of the apocalypse, but she could still sense the mood of the adults around her. She could tell that Yan Cijin was worried. She could tell that Yan Laojin was annoyed. And she could tell that Bai Li’s na made the room turn a little thoughtful. Children were strange like that. They did not understand the storm, but they could still feel when it was raining.
On the other side, Bai Li, who was being verbally abused in the group chat, was sitting in front of her computer looking at news from various places now. She wanted to keep reading GL novels, but she also knew when to stop and study the current news a bit for survival. She did not take the insults in the group chat to heart at all. That kind of noise was easy to ignore once you had seen enough of human behavior. People got loud when they were scared. They got greedy when they were desperate. They got righteous when they wanted to take from soone else without feeling bad about it. Bai Li had already seen all of that. She had seen it in her past lives, she had seen it in the building group chat, and she had seen it in the way so people tried to turn their own hunger into another person’s burden. She was not interested in their little theater. What interested her more was the larger picture. The world outside was changing at a speed far beyond what ordinary people understood, and if she wanted to survive this ti, she needed to stay one step ahead. So she clicked through the news, glanced over international reports, and checked the ergency updates from different areas. Most of Country A had already fallen. There were videos everywhere now. So were shaky and blurred, shot by terrified hands, showing people running through streets while zombies chased them.
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TO BE CONTINUED.
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