Chapter 23: Introductions
"Mommy, who are these uncles and big sister?", sleepily asked Chu Lili, who seemed to have dozed out before.
The chubby guy couldn't help but twist his mouth a little. How big was the difference, they were called uncles while Sister Ren got the title of a big sister. How envious. "I'm Su Chang."
"Hu Wei.", said the other man.
"My name's Ren Ming, little sweetie." Said the woman, taking out her hand and stroking Chu Lili's head. Seeing that she didn't have evil intentions, Chu Lixue just let her be.
"Chu Lixue."
"My name's Chu Lili, I'm mommy's daughter.", said little Lili, hiding her face inside Chu Lixue's chest. As to whatever she was shy or scared of them, nobody knew.
Previously, when Lili called Chu Lixue her mommy, the group of students didn't really notice anything weird. While some of them were concerned about being called uncles, Ren Ming simply thought that the little girl was still half-asleep and made a mistake.
Hearing her now saying that Chu Lixue is her mother, they truly didn't know what to make of it. Su Chang's face was wide open, so much that one could probably put an egg inside it right now.
"Mommy? I must have heard that wrong, right Wei?", asked Su Chang, slightly bewildered.
"I think we both have problems with our ears..."
Ren Ming could feel her face turn red from shame. She couldn't believe how stupid her classmates sometimes could be. "Hey, you bastards. Stop being so disrespectful!"
"It's fine. Lili is my daughter; I've adopted her some time ago." explained Chu Lixue. Even through the students reactions were pretty funny, she could feel that they were simply surprised, they didn't look as if they wanted to be disrespectful with their speech.
"Oh, I'm sorry.", said Hu Wei.
"Yeah, we're sorry. Ehm... your daughter looks pretty cute. How old is she?" Su Cheng was a little disappointed in himself since he didn't wish to overreact. He was simply too shocked in that moment. Seeing that Chu Lixue didn't seem to hold it against them, he quickly changed the topic.
"You want to tell them yourself, princess?"
"I'm 8 years old, so...-soon I'm going to turn 9.", said Chu Lili, practically staggering.
Her response somewhat made Chu Lixue tense. Even through it just looked like her daughter was a little shy of strangers, she could feel her trembling a little in her arms. It seemed like she still didn't do too well with strangers, some emotional trauma still bothering her after the incident with the group chasing her before.
Chu Lixue still didn't know much about her daughter's past. She tried talking about it with Lili, but aside from the fact that she was 8 years old, and that before the Apocalypse she was going to a pre-school in A City, she didn't really get much information's from her.
'Well, small steps Chu Lixue! After some time your daughter will learn to lean on you and open up to you!' She thought to herself, hoping that her daughter would truly get closer to her and open up.
Chu Lixue and the students continued to talk with each other for a little longer, and seeing that they were slowly running out of time, they choose a time later on to meet again and talk some more. Saying their goodbyes, everyone slowly went out towards their workplace.
Chu Lixue didn't want to use her car too much. She was living relatively close to the place where their group usually gathered, and what was more important, was that she needed to save some gasoline. She didn't leave the base yet, so she didn't have time to make any reserve for that. Gasoline sold inside the base was pricy, so she preferred to simply walk to work.
…
Walking on the sidewalk, Chu Lixue could faintly hear what a family ahead of her was talking about. The middle-aged woman, who looked pretty slim said to her husband. "If we had known this part of the base would turn into a zone for people with abilities, we should have directly bought a place her! There's no place safer than the military district in the base now. What about now? We can't move here even if we wanted!?"
"How would I know they would change this area to a zone for ability users?! Didn't you also say that the houses here were too pricy?" The husband was impatient. "It's not like I forced you to buy the apartment in the residential area. When I asked you about it, you didn't talk me out of it, but even said that I was smart for finding a cheaper home!"
Originally the three came to see if there were any larger houses in the district for sell. The apartment they bought looked nice, but was pretty small. Alas, it turned out they couldn't get one here even if they offered double the price now.
The daughter placed her hands in his pockets. Her parents had bickered all night without stopping, who wanted to talk to them. She yawned, feeling that her parents were absurd. If the base was broken into by zombies, then it wouldn't make a big difference if they lived in the residential area or here.
Chu Lixue listened as the couple continued to bicker, then simply decided to move onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road. While she found them a little funny, she was scared her daughter would hear some improper things.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone