Although it was hard to believe, it was the truth. When the tip of his foot touched the young Lam Ching-Ying, he felt the baby’s hand pushing his foot. It was weak but real.

He was pushing.

He was still alive.

At this moment, Su Bai felt so absurd. He was still alive after all this?

Since he was alive… Su Bai moved his foot and reached out to pick him up.

The fox, who was still alive after her stomach was smashed by Su Bai, was staring the baby which she had planned to eat immediately after its birth.

It was a premature delivery, which was extremely harmful to both the mother and the baby. For the fox, this baby was now less efficient to improve her power.

Of course, her “food” was now in Su Bai’s hand.

Su Bai looked at the kid. For a moment, he was about to eat this baby. He could somehow figure out that the “leg” that the fox was offering to Seven was not a chicken drumstick but one of this baby’s legs. This baby must be something great, like Tang’s Monk in Journal to the West[1]. Although immortality might not be possible, its flesh must somehow be powerful and beneficial. Otherwise Seven wouldn’t risk breaking his principles just to eat the baby’s leg.

However, Su Bai, who was capable of biting zombies, was now hesitating in front of this baby. He licked his lips. At last, he held the baby, turned around and was about to leave.

“You just walk away like this? Is that legal?” Seven was kneeling with both hands supporting against the ground. Blood was still running out of his eyes and his body was shaking, which indicated great suffering.

“You made an oath with her, right? And it seemed strong. Seven, this is the first time I see you in bad shape.” Su Bai said with his back to Seven, “I’ve always thought you’d look outstanding, no matter what.”

“Amitabh.” Seven said, managing to stand on his feet. It was not easy, but he got up. When it came to great determination, even Su Bai was impressed by Seven.

“I’m leaving, and I’m taking the baby. If you wanna stop me, well, I can just kill it and abandon MT 1, no big deal. But you, on the other hand… It’s not the estimated delivery day or the MT 1 deadline, so… will you be killed because of your failure to protect the baby?”

Seven didn’t say anything, just straightened his back and stared at Su Bai.

Su Bai shook his head, “It appears that you’ve appointed on a certain date, not until the child birth. So, goodbye then.”

Seeing Su Bai jump over the wall and disappear with the baby, the fox turned to Seven: “Why didn’t you stop him? Are you dead?”

“He didn’t eat the baby immediately, that is to say, he’s not gonna hurt him. Your son is safe.”

“Humph. How can you be so sure?”

“Because he’s a psychopath.” Seven said. A psychopath could not be treated with rational thoughts, but Seven failed to notice the crazy side of Su Bai before.

In fact, it wasn’t because Su Bai was good at hiding it, but because even himself had forgotten that he had a crazy side.

…

Su Bai didn’t leave the county. He found an empty house for the night. The owner must be on a long trip, there was stored water but no food in case of thieves.

He was not hungry, so he just lied on the bed with the baby on the other end of the bed, closed his eyes and started to have some rest.

After sleeping for the whole night, he woke up to find nothing had happened. He knew Seven would find him if he wanted to, because he was just in the neighborhood. But Seven chose not to.

Anyway, he had the baby. If Seven found him, he would threaten to kill the baby and Seven would be dead.

However… the new born baby was motionless after being left unattended on the cold bed for the whole night.

Was he dead? Then Seven… Well, sorry, Seven.

Su Bai leaned over the bed and looked at the baby with unusual calmness. He didn’t know why he did that last night. Turning everything around despite of the cost, that didn’t sound like him, or how he reacted to things after entering this story world. He had always be careful and cautious. Usually he wouldn’t do anything until he had analyzed both advantages and disadvantages, but last night, he went nuts.

He put his hand on his forehead. Actually, he knew that what he did last night was an act of his true self. It was resulted in his violence due to mixed vampire and zombie blood, his constant impulse and his extremely abnormal thoughts.

That was his true self.

Su Bai used to think that his mental illness would be ignored since he was in a story world since his longing for kill was fulfilled because he was killing people all the time.

But he was totally wrong. That sort of metal illness and personality was following him like a shadow, like maggots in his bones. And now it was getting worse.

Most importantly… He didn’t hate it. He didn’t hate what it felt to be reckless… in fact, he even liked it.

That was who he truly was.

In Su Bai’s mind, he was picturing a vampire standing among mountains of dead bodies and oceans of blood, with blood running out from his mouth; also a zombie, groaning on a pile of corpses.

His fist fell on the bed with a crack.

The baby suddenly quivered. Then he rubbed his eyes, looked at Su Bai and cracked a smile:

“Ya, ya, ya…”

He stretched his arms as if he was asking for a hug.

“Ha ha.”

Su Bai smiled. The baby did not only survive the premature delivery, but also an unattended long night. He was a survivor. He didn’t seem to need any protection. Just leave him in an untraversed valley where no one could find him and that would do just alright.

Su Bai got off the bed and reached out for the baby. But he stopped halfway.

The baby was ready for a hug, but fell because Su Bai’s sudden stop. He fell onto the bed, turned around and looked really confused.

Su Bai grabbed his arm and held him up. That was uncomfortable. He tried to reach out for Su Bai’s clothes, but his arm was too short.

Su Bai went to the water jar, kicked the cap off and threw the baby into the water.

The baby fell out of his mother’s stomach through an open cut, so he was all covered in blood. Su Bai was disgusted by his filthiness, so he decided to bathe him.

Of course, Su Bai didn’t wash him after throwing him into the water. He just walked to the well in the yard, pulled up a bucket of water and started to clean himself up.

After about five minutes, Su Bai was back.

The baby was floating, facing upwards, with his legs kicking to make himself going around on the water. He was having fun.

Su Bai found a piece of clothes in the room, tore it apart, walked to the jar, picked up the baby and wrapped him up, then walked out.

It was morning. Su Bai went to a noodle restaurant. For him, blood was necessary during wartime, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t need normal food. Su Bai was far from living without food.

He ordered two bowls of plain noodles with two eggs, went to a table in a corner and sat down.

He put the baby in a chair. Sucking his own thumb, the baby looked at Su Bai and immediately cracked a big smile when he found that Su Bai was also looking at him. He kept making sounds, but Su Bai had no idea what he was saying.

The noodles with eggs were served. Su Bai started eating without caring about the baby at all. He didn’t notice that the baby was drooling and staring at him with teary eyes until he had finished all the noodles.

He picked up an egg and threw it onto the baby’s face. The baby immediately grabbed it and started eating. A newly born baby could eat a boiled egg by himself— that was indeed a miracle. But Su Bai knew this baby must be special. Otherwise, the fox and Seven wouldn’t want to eat him.

After breakfast, Su Bai didn’t know where to go. The target of MT 1 was in Su Bai’s arms, with greasy stains on his face, sucking his own thumb from time to time.

“Master Lam is back!”

“Master Lam is back!”

Someone was yelling while beating drums and gongs. A lot of people in the neighborhood surged into the streets celebrating the return of Master Lam Chin-Ying.

News had came into the county that several villages in the mountains were attacked by zombies. Everyone was on edge. They all hope Lam Chin-Ying could wipe out the zombies.

Su Bai was standing in a corner behind the crowd and looking at Lam Chin-Ying on a hackery and his messy hair, broken gown and glazing eyes.

Next to him sat Gyatso with a horrible scar over his face. And he was missing an arm.

Fatty was lying on the hackery. His skin was terribly pale. As a zombie, Su Bai knew Fatty was injured much worse than last time. Now ptomaine was getting into his heart.

The baby seemed to be infected by the crowd, he was clapping his hands and yelling.

Su Bai looked at the baby in his arms and then the people on that hackery.

Suddenly, he felt it so…

… ironic.

————————————

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Journey to the West is a well-known Chinese novel published in the 16th century and attributed to Wu Cheng’en. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. In English-speaking countries, Monkey, Arthur Waley’s popular abridged translation, is most commonly read.

The Tang’s Monk, also known as Tang Xuanzhuang, Tang Sanzang or Master Tripitaka, was one of the main characters in the book. He was protected by his three disciples throughout the adventure because various monsters and demons were trying to obtain immortality by eating his flesh.