Chapter 9, this zombie will steal money

The green-eyed zombie seems to be quite wary of the Taoist in the next room, carefully holding Qiao'er without making any other sounds

What complicates matters further is that they categorize all the necessary items, and when needed, they must exchange with one another or trade one item for another, which they refer to as money. Taking someone else's belongings without permission is punishable by beating

The eaves could not shelter them from such rain, so they had no choice but to take Qiao'er and slip into the mortuary. Inside the hall were dozens of coffins; it was Qiao'er's first time in such a place, yet she understood that those were travelers who had died far from home, waiting for the corpse bearers to send them back to their homeland

The green-eyed zombie stared intently at the approaching light, and Qiao'er felt a bit flustered. Another flash of lightning illuminated the surroundings, revealing the corpses leaning against the wall, each with a yellow talisman affixed to their foreheads, indicating that the corpse handler had stopped here for a rest. Perhaps aware of the impending rain tonight, they had arrived a bit earlier than usual

That is a talisman meant to prevent corpse transformation, so it naturally cannot subdue something that has already become a demon, Qiao'er is in a predicament

After observing for several days, in addition to these, it also discovered many interesting things, such as the fact that most humans live as a man and a woman, that many male individuals tend to sleep on the woman they cohabitate with before going to bed at night, and that although the blacksmith at the village head also lives with a woman, he often spends many nights sleeping with the woman who resides with another man in the west village.

During that time, Qiao Er was very unhappy, living in constant fear and not daring to leave the side of the Green-eyed Zombie. As a result, the Green-eyed Zombie and the Red-eyed Zombie had several fights, exhausting the Red-eyed Zombie to the point that it would avoid her from a distance, no longer daring to scare her

By the time they returned to the mountains, it was already late at night. Qiao and * Tu * Shu'er went to the bowl beside the coffin to drink water. The green-eyed zombie stood beside her and watched for a while. She then drank some porridge, which had actually gone cold. If it weren't for the cave being warm in winter and cool in summer, it would have probably frozen by now. However, Qiao couldn't think of so much; she couldn't start a fire. If she didn't eat more, she would only feel colder.

At this moment, the green-eyed zombie seemed to relax its guard, crawling into the coffin to sit. Once Qiao'er finished her porridge and climbed in, it embraced her and lay down, even reaching out to touch her mouth, its eyes swirling with a green hue, appearing to be in deep thought.

It is often said that those who walk the night roads for too long will eventually encounter ghosts, and the matter of the Taoist temple long harboring corpses to cause disturbances has finally spread.

Qiao'er took the opportunity to climb up at this moment. The red-eyed zombie stepped on the young Taoist, and she climbed up from the other side. Snow had already begun to accumulate in the mountains and forests, and her clothes were soaked with snow as she hurried back to the cave in a disheveled state

It bared its teeth and roared at her, looking furious. However, upon seeing it, Qiao'er felt even more wronged; disregarding its anger, she hugged its neck, tears streaming down her face.

The young Taoist revealed only his head, struggling in vain, and was also terrified of the wild beasts and ghosts in the mountains, leaving him utterly frightened and shaken.

In the end, he discovered that some women's bellies would gradually swell. Upon returning, he carefully felt Qiao'er’s belly and found that it had not grown larger, which reassured him

Qiao'er no longer spoke, but followed it closely without leaving a step behind.

With this understanding, it no longer stole things casually - it knew that they generally had a lot of money stored in a place called a money shop, so it went directly to steal money, and then earnestly exchanged it for food for Qiao Er.

In the past, when such matters arose, the people from Cuiwei Mountain would generally intervene, and this time it was the chief disciple of Cuiwei Mountain, Fan Shaojing, who came forward

Qiao'er also does not know the reason; perhaps the sensitivity of demonic and sinister entities is inherently greater than that of humans, as they always seem to sense danger approaching

As the person approached, the sound of the door opening could be heard. Just as the words were spoken, in a swift motion, it reached out and tore off the talisman from the forehead of a certain corpse next door, slapping it onto its own forehead with a loud sound, and quickly stood upright in a serious manner

It knows that the humans in the village do not reside in natural caves; instead, they construct elevated caves on flat ground. After completing these, they do not sleep on the ground but instead make wooden coffins—referred to as beds. Once the beds are made, they lay many mats on them. This habit is similar to Qiao'er, who also lays many mats in its coffin.

The sudden downpour was wild and the atmosphere was exceedingly eerie, causing Qiao'er to feel quite frightened. She clung tightly to it as it soothingly wrote in her palm, telling her that they would leave once the rain stopped

His skills have long made him unafraid of firelight, yet he still fears sunlight. Therefore, he often takes the opportunity at night to go to the streets to exchange for some buns, steamed bread, wontons, and other items. He cannot speak human language, but he knows to point with his finger. Those people usually give him some money, but he never counts how much it is—nor does he know how to count.

... ...

The two individuals took shelter from the sudden rain in the hall, when a loud thunderclap and a flash of bright light suddenly struck outside, causing the entire funeral home to tremble.

The little Taoist named Xiao Si had a rather unfortunate fate; the red-eyed zombie buried him in a pit, leaving only his head exposed. On that snowy night, his cries could not reach the Daoist temple at all. If it had not been for the old Daoist Chong Ling, who, concerned about his delayed return and fearing something might have happened, came searching in the mountains, he would likely have frozen to death in that pit

The red-eyed zombie resembled a large-tailed sheep with long forelegs and no hind legs. It watched with great interest as it buried the young Taoist, admiring this masterpiece for a while, but soon grew bored and left him behind.

"Because zombies do not need to avoid the rain." A voice replied softly in the darkness, clear and devoid of sleepiness

The ancestral hall has been around for an unknown number of years, both inside and out in a state of disrepair. Qiao Er felt an overwhelming sense of dread and eeriness, unable to discern anything unusual. Yet, it held Qiao Er tightly, and the earthen walls of the house exuded a putrid odor reminiscent of a long-abandoned corpse. The rain fell heavier and heavier, accompanied by flashes of lightning, and despite wrapping herself in three layers of padded jackets, Qiao Er still felt cold

In recent days, it began to prohibit Qiao'er from consuming the food brought by the old Daoist Chongling. Initially, Qiao'er was quite perplexed, and after several disputes, she even suspected that the food might be poisoned. Reflecting on the incident where the young Daoist attempted to bury her alive, she felt it was highly likely, and thus she dared not touch the water and food offered by the old Daoist Chongling anymore

At this moment, she finally felt afraid, but then she thought it was nothing—wasn't this person beside her a zombie

Fortunately, the young Taoist merely opened the door slightly to take a distant glance, and upon seeing nothing unusual, closed the door and went back to sleep

The green-eyed zombie tightly embraced Qiao'er, remaining motionless and silent. Suddenly, a faint light flickered from the next room, as someone brought a lantern over, occasionally accompanied by the words: "Master, I can go; you should rest now."

In the days to come, Qiao'er was closely attached to the green-eyed zombie, and even the old Taoist from the Tushunling could not find an opportunity to take action.

By the time the rain finally ceased in the late hours of the night, it carried Qiao'er out of the charity hall and returned to the mountains. Qiao'er was unaware of the great risks it had taken to avoid this downpour. Upon hearing the two leave, someone in the adjacent room whispered, "Master, why did you not take it in?"

On a stormy night, the corpse transporter is also extremely vigilant; if the corpse undergoes transformation and cannot be delivered safely, the compensation demanded by the family is very high

When it returned to the cave in the evening, it deliberately slept on Qiao'er, and aside from being warm and soft, there was nothing else. Thus, it secretly believed that human beds must not be warm or soft enough; otherwise, why would it always prefer to sleep on women?

The green-eyed zombie has not returned yet. She is afraid that the old Daoist Chongling and the Taoist named Xiao Si will pursue her, so she hurriedly packed her clothes and planned to escape. However, the snowy night in the mountains is slippery and difficult to navigate; she stumbled along, making little progress after a long time. Instead of being pursued by the old Daoist Chongling, she was caught by the green-eyed zombie.

It is not a simple task to properly nurture a human. Fortunately, the green-eyed zombie is already aware that there are many beings like her living in the village at the foot of the mountain. Each day, after causing some trouble, she secretly hides in the shadows to observe the daily habits of these humans.

When the snow in the mountains accumulates to a foot, an incident occurs on the side of the old Daoist of Chongling

Its stature was already tall, so it was no problem to block Qiao'er. Just as Qiao'er felt relieved, it looked around and saw that something was still amiss—there were no symbols on its forehead

After living this way for a few days, Qiao'er feared that the old Daoist Ling would become suspicious, so she often poured the food sent from the temple outside the cave, attracting some birds to compete for the food. The birds also possess a certain intelligence; upon discovering that there was food here, they came daily to seize it, yet there was no unusual behavior observed during their foraging.

It took her a long time to understand—could it be that it wants to independently raise her ?

In the evening, the green-eyed zombie ventured out more frequently, unaware of where it had observed human eating habits. The food it brought back became increasingly diverse, and on one occasion, it even stole a steamer of freshly made meat buns.

She was indeed quite frightened; on such nights in the past, she would have preferred to stay in her coffin and sleep rather than come out. However, that night she stayed right beside it, thinking it was the red-eyed zombie come to scare her again, gesturing with an egg, indicating for her to smash it.

That night, the green-eyed zombie carried Qiao'er out. Coincidentally, it began to rain heavily at midnight. It was aware that this toy was frail and could not be exposed to the rain, so it sought a nearby funeral home to take shelter from the rain

The old Daoist Chongling dug him out and brought him back to the temple, so furious that his beard stood up high.

In fact, if one truly wishes to conceal it, it is exceedingly difficult to do so, as it is in tatters. Other corpses are properly dressed, wearing their burial garments neatly, yet how can it appear in such a beggar's attire?

Their food is not moonlight, but rather a variety of plants and animals, many of which require a certain substance for heating, which they refer to as fire. This is quite different from the habits of zombies, who are very averse to fire

It initially roared at her, but later seemed somewhat confused. It wrote in her palm to ask, and although Qiao'er did not respond completely, she cried and wrote "Daoist". It did not fully understand, yet it no longer frightened her, retracted its fangs, and still carried her on its neck as it returned to the cave

As the sound of footsteps drew nearer, the zombie suddenly stood straight against the wall, shielding Qiao'er behind itself, mimicking the other corpses by standing rigidly in place