Chapter 102 : Zombie Empire 16 (2/2)

……

Only after Qi Mingxue left did Qing Yu—who had been acting as a background prop all this time—move forward. “Boss, look at this.”

He had found a diary from somewhere and it was flipped open. The paper was very old and the words written on it were a bit blurred:

1995, July 25th, heavy rain

This is already the sixth day since the rainstorm began. There have been disasters everywhere. My meeting with him can only be pushed back. I hope I get to see him soon.

1995, July 30th, overcast

I heard we got a strange corpse today. As to why it’s strange, my colleagues don’t know either. That corpse seems to have existed for a long time. It’s being guarded closely. How curious.

1996, August 27th, overcast

I joined the new research team. We’re researching that mysterious corpse. We had to sign a confidentiality contract. No one’s allowed to bring a single word concerning this out of the laboratory…

1996, October 11th, clear skies

He came.

……

1997, October 22nd, overcast

I saw the corpse that was the reason we were required to sign the confidentiality contract…

I don’t know how to describe it. It’s very weird. It makes people uncomfortable but everyone here seems excited. When I saw their expressions, I felt strangely sick.

……

The diary entries were written in no particular consistent frequency. There wasn’t much description about the corpse, but every time there was, the author would use the word ‘strange’ or ‘odd’ to describe it. The author would also use words like ‘uncomfortable’ or ‘repressed’ to describe how they felt when they saw the corpse.

There was another person mentioned. That person ought to be the person the diary’s owner liked. There wasn’t much about him in the diary either. Only a few words in relation to him were written, and his name was always replaced by ‘he’. The last few pages had some blood splatters on them.

1998, July 6th, rain

I’m pregnant. I’m very happy. Perhaps I’ll be able to have a cute son not too long later… En, perhaps it’ll be a daughter. But no matter a boy or a girl, I want to give this child the best this world has to offer.

1998, July 18th, rain

I think they’ve all gone crazy.

1998, October 19th, clear

I have to get out of here

1998, October 25th, rain

He’ll help me. For the child.

1998, November 2nd, clear

Everything is prepared. I can’t let this child of ours

……

The entries ended there. But the name it was signed off with stunned Shi Sheng.

Cheng Su. Gu Nan’s mother.

Shi Sheng felt depressed. ‘This body WAS a main character after all… to be expected the world would give her a complicated background… No wonder I activated a side quest…’

[1] Shi Sheng is making wordplay here. Or puns? Never could tell with literature. The original line is here:

“阿拾……老子还阿屎呢！”. “阿拾” was the way Qi Mingxue addressed Song Shi, “Ah Shi”. But “阿屎”, which is also pronounced ah shi is something like “A shit.”