When I returned to the room, Suo Tian was already asleep.
I closed the door, sat by the bed, and saw that he had probably just taken a shower—his hair was still a bit damp.
I leaned down and kissed his face, then turned and lay down beside him.
It was still late summer, and the heat hadn't faded much.
One of the most frustrating things about headquarters was that the air conditioning would shut off at night due to the power cut.
Suo Tian didn't seem to care about the temperature, but I did—I couldn't stand either heat or cold.
During the hottest period, I even scrubbed the floor until it shone during the day, just so I could lie on the cool surface at night, stretching my legs out and using the leftover chill from the daytime air conditioning.
It had gotten slightly better recently.
The temperature would drop at night, and by the latter half, I'd even need a thin blanket.
Though it was still technically summer, it hadn't rained for at least two months.
There were a few overcast days, but in the end, only a few drops ever fell before the sun came out again.
There had even been several days of water outages.
We had no choice but to use the not-so-clean water from the backyard swimming pool to bathe at night…
That pool—I had originally planned to raise fish in it, but after strong protests from Han Xue, Jun Di, and the others, I had to give up on that idea.
In truth, I was never someone with much sense of lifestyle or refinement.
Being a few years older than Yangyang, I had always taken on the role of the older sister who looked after her younger sibling, living in a rather rough, unpolished way…
The next day, Suo Tian left before dawn.
I was still half-asleep and didn't even think to worry.
He kissed my forehead before leaving.
It wasn't until I woke up fully later in the morning and saw the empty half of the bed that I faintly remembered he had gone out.
Once it clicked, I couldn't help but start worrying—had he gone to clear the walkers outside the northern side?
Even if it was supposedly "less," it was still a massive horde…
After half a year of peaceful living, all my old tough-girl habits had been worn down by Suo Tian and the environment.
My days were filled with cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, doing laundry, taking care of the kids, or visiting neighbors.
Aside from the times Xiao Hu and Tingyun misbehaved and annoyed me, that tough side of me had all but disappeared.
Combined with lingering memories from when we were struggling to survive outside, I spent the entire morning in a daze, worrying about Suo Tian.
With that many walkers… would he be in danger?
Would he get hurt? What if he got bitten…
While I was making breakfast, Uncle Gazi noticed my distracted state.
To keep me from hurting myself, he pulled me to the sofa in the living room and had Han Xue and Xu Shu take over the cooking.
"Chen girl, what are you thinking about? You've been out of it all morning," Uncle Gazi said, patting the seat beside him, clearly intending to have a proper talk with me.
I slumped down next to him.
After thinking for a moment, I said, "…Uncle Gazi… I think I might be losing it."
"Losing it? What do you mean by that, girl?"
"How should I put it…" I scratched my head and shifted to face him.
"Before, I didn't really feel this way. But recently, whenever Suo Tian leaves my sight, I feel like I've lost my soul. I worry about everything—there are a thousand bad possibilities running through my mind. I keep thinking something might happen to him. But he's so capable… honestly, even if the whole world had problems, he probably wouldn't. So tell me, Uncle Gazi… am I going crazy?"
Uncle Gazi burst out laughing.
He gave my head a couple of light pats and said, "How is that crazy? That's a good thing."
"A good thing?"
Clearing his throat, Uncle Gazi looked at me with a smile.
"Girl, I'm going to say something you might not like. Ever since you joined us with Tingyun, there were many things I noticed about you. I didn't say them out loud, but I had my thoughts. You were young, after all. Back when we were out there, you had courage that others couldn't match—but you lacked judgment. In many situations, you came across as impulsive… even a bit selfish."
I opened my mouth to argue, but he waved his hand, signaling me to let him finish.
"But since we moved here, and life became stable, you've changed a lot—more than I expected. You've started to notice others, to care about more than just yourself. Still, at the end of the day, you're a girl. Your personality is too strong, and we didn't always understand you. It's only now, with life settled, that we can see your change clearly."
He paused, then smiled faintly.
"Actually… that boy Suo Tian is the one who truly brought out the softer side of you. The fact that you feel this way now means he's really found a place here."
He lifted a finger and tapped lightly against my forehead.
I gave a helpless smile. "Cooking and doing laundry every day—what kind of change could there be? Uncle Gazi, you're joking."
Even though I said that, his last sentence still stirred something in me.
Suo Tian's influence on me had grown unexpectedly strong.
Not long ago, he didn't come back for two nights, and I barely slept at all during that time.
"Don't underestimate cooking and laundry," Uncle Gazi replied.
"It's the little things in life that show a person's changes the most."
Just as he finished speaking, Tingyun's sharp cry suddenly came from outside the door.
We all froze for a moment, then quickly rushed out with Uncle Gazi.
At the doorway, two slightly older boys—around eight or nine—were holding Yiyi, who was struggling desperately in their arms.
Tingyun and Xiao Hu were on the ground like slippery fish; Xiao Hu was sticking his butt up, trying to climb back up on his own, while Tingyun seemed to have hit something and was crying her heart out.
I hurried over and picked Tingyun up, checking her over.
Aside from a scrape on her face, she seemed fine, and I finally let out a breath of relief.
Xiao Hu was tough—he had already gotten back up by himself.
The two older boys froze when they saw me and Uncle Gazi.
It was obvious—they must have been the ones who pushed Tingyun and Xiao Hu down.
People are protective of their own—it's only natural.
Seeing Tingyun crying like that made my heart ache.
I turned to the boys and asked, "Whose kids are you? Why are you holding our dog? And why did you hit our children? Where are your parents? I'm going to go ask them properly."
I stepped forward as if to grab one of their arms.
The boys quickly backed up and tried to explain, "No, we didn't hit them. We just gave them a light push, and they fell."
"They're so small—how could they handle you pushing them? Look at her face!" I pressed on, a bit childishly refusing to let it go.
"Alright, alright, here's your dog. We didn't hit them. Believe it or not."
The boys suddenly got aggressive, tossing Zheng Yiyi hard toward our feet.
The poor dog yelped loudly in pain.
That really made me angry.
I put Tingyun down and grabbed one of the boys by the arm.
"You even dare to throw our dog? I'm definitely going to talk to your mother today. How can kids be left like this?"
The boy tried to shake me off, but he wasn't strong enough.
After struggling a few times without success, the other boy, seeing his shouting wasn't helping, suddenly kicked me hard in the shin.
"You—" I had just started to speak in irritation when two heavyset middle-aged women interrupted from afar.
They came waddling over from the villas ahead, shouting sharply from a distance, "What are you doing?! Why are you bullying our kids?!"
They were clearly the boys' mothers.
I let go of the boys, and they immediately ran over to the women.
Each woman pulled a child close, checking them over, then marched toward me aggressively.
"What are you doing?! Bullying our kids when no adults are around?!" the woman in the floral dress snapped first.
I was taken aback and quickly explained, "No, your kids pushed ours for no reason. Look—her face is scraped."
I turned and picked up Tingyun to show them.
The short-haired woman glanced at Tingyun and curled her lip.
"Such a tiny scratch, and you're making such a fuss. Who knows if our kids even pushed them? No one else saw it. Isn't it just whatever you say?"
Hearing that, Uncle Gazi couldn't help but speak up from behind, "You think we'd lie over something this trivial?"
"Who knows?" the floral-dress woman rolled her eyes.
"A bunch of people freeloading here for half a year—what wouldn't you do?"
At first, I didn't even understand what she meant.
But when it clicked, my anger flared instantly.
"What kind of talk is that? What do you mean freeloading? We live here properly. No one's kicking us out—who are you to say anything?"
"Hah, don't act so proud," the short-haired woman sneered.
"What's so great about you? Slept with that boss a couple of times and now you think you're his wife? Look at you, dragging your whole family along—it's a joke."
I was shaking with anger, my lips trembling as I pointed at her, but I couldn't get a word out.
Uncle Gazi clearly wasn't used to arguing with women either.
He could only stand there, repeating, "How can you talk like that? How can you talk like that?"
"What's going on?"
Lili came out holding a spatula, probably about to call us in for dinner.
She happened to walk into the scene just as the argument was unfolding.
— The end of the Chapter–