Why Do You Keep Looking at My Feet?

"Thirty-two eighty? Down to the last cent, huh? What's this little bit of money good for?" Su Jin grumbled. "Enough to buy ropes to hang ourselves, I guess. One each."

Fu Qingdai looked troubled. "Cousin, this is all I could find. I asked my mom for money, and she chewed me out. She said she'd buy whatever I needed herself. I'm home all day, so I don't have any excuse to spend money."

"Cry! Throw a fit! Do I really have to teach you how to do that?" Su Jin scolded lightly. "Besides, having your mom buy things works too. Ask for something useful. You're old enough to know better-why can't you use your head?"

A trace of embarrassed anger crossed Fu Qingdai's face. "I did! I asked her to buy food and rice, and she called me crazy! When I asked for biscuits, she bought me one box... What good is one box?"

"Anyway, I don't want to steal money again. I'm scared they'll catch me and send me back to the psychiatric hospital."

"Qing Dai, money's about to become worthless paper! And I'm right here in your house. What's there to hesitate about?" Su Jin clapped his hands as he lectured her. "You expect me, an alien, to get a job here? If you won't steal, what am I supposed to support you with? I came all the way from Orion, even had to take a spaceship, and you..."

Halfway through his lecture, a sudden heaviness settled over Su Jin's heart, and he stopped short.

Fu Qingdai sat on the edge of the bed with her head bowed, large tears rolling down her face.

Then she drew up her long, snow-white legs and buried her head between them. She made no sound, but her shoulders kept shaking.

She held it in for a while, but finally she could no longer stop herself from crying aloud.

Outside the door, two furtive figures pressed close and listened.

"She's crying... Old Fu, it sounds like our daughter's crying. Should I cut up some fruit and take it in to check on her?"

"That's detoxification. She's detoxing! Stop eavesdropping. You'll interfere with the director's treatment."

Before long, Fu Qingdai's sobs faded, and she fell quiet.

"There, you'll feel better now that you've cried it out," Su Jin comforted her softly. "Just steal one more time. I believe you can do it."

At that, Fu Qingdai raised her head to look at Su Jin, tear tracks still on her face.

"Cousin... After tonight, there'll only be two days left... Is this really all we can do? Is there really no other way?"

Su Jin's heart clenched. With his face taut, he slowly shook his head.

"My grandpa and grandma... and my friends... What about them..." Fu Qingdai looked anguished and helpless. "I know something's going to happen, but no one believes me! If only I were older... then so many people wouldn't ignore my warnings..."

"It wouldn't help, Qing Dai. Even if you became the richest person in the world, your parents would still think they knew better." Su Jin pulled a tissue from the desk and handed it to her. "Wipe your nose. You're about to get snot in your mouth. Don't choke on the salt."

The girl blushed and took the tissue, wiping haphazardly at her tears.

"If you became a government official, though, your parents might listen."

"Why?" Fu Qingdai asked, still a little choked up.

"Money and power are different. Once you're an official, your parents will know who outranks whom."

His deliberate change of subject eased Fu Qingdai's mood a little. In a slightly hoarse voice, she asked, "Cousin... what are we going to do afterward? Where will we go? Are we just going to stay here forever?"

Su Jin sank into thought.

He had actually considered what to do once the zombies appeared. There really wasn't a particularly good plan; the best option was simply to stay put and wait.

They still knew nothing about what the zombies would actually be like. He couldn't even say whether people would be infected by a virus or some other mysterious force.

But zombies were still biological organisms... In theory, they shouldn't survive very long without eating.

Perhaps if they hid indoors for ten days or a couple of weeks, the zombies would starve to death.

With bellies full of rotting guts in this sweltering weather, they might even burst while walking around before they had time to starve.

Zombies in movies never died, of course, but those were only movies.

Even if some mysterious force meant the zombies really wouldn't die without food, that wasn't much of a problem either.

Judging by Fu Qingdai's diary, their physical capabilities weren't much different from a human's. Her descriptions even made them sound a little stiff.

Useless trash like that could only throw its weight around in movies. In a modern industrial society, they were little more than walking targets.

Once the state's machinery of violence got moving, clearing out those fleshy targets would be a trivial matter.

This world wasn't as developed as Earth, but it had industrialized long ago. From what he had seen in the bookstore and in movies, it had tanks, artillery, and missiles-everything.

It even had a strategic weather weapon comparable to a nuclear bomb, something he had only heard of on Earth but never seen in practice... the Cold-Sky Missile System.

Logically, this world's technology was less advanced than Earth's, but perhaps its natural environment, atmosphere, or elements differed enough to allow the development of a weapon that could alter the weather on a massive scale.

The weapon had only been used once in this world's history. That single deployment had inflicted two hundred thousand casualties, and the localized low temperatures had persisted for an astonishing period of nearly a month.

Based on his overall assessment of this world's military capabilities, handling a zombie crisis should be child's play. The only question was how long they would have to hold out before rescue arrived.

With that in mind, Su Jin said, "Our first priority is getting through that rain. We'll deal with the rest later. I have my own plans... Qing Dai, if you're too stressed, take tomorrow off and rest. You don't need to do anything. On the last day, I'll need your help with something."

"What is it?"

Su Jin took a medicine bottle from his pocket and said seriously, "These are sleeping pills. That evening, grind them into powder ahead of time and slip them to your parents. Once they're sound asleep, come out at eleven. I'll need you to give me a hand setting up some safety measures."

"I understand, Cousin." Fu Qingdai nodded earnestly.

Su Jin smiled and pulled his phone and earphones from his pocket. "I like a girl who knows how to listen. Here, play with this and relax a little."

Fu Qingdai accepted the phone curiously and put on the earphones as Su Jin instructed. Soon, she was listening to some alien tunes.

The lyrics were incomprehensible gibberish to her, but the melodies were clearly fresh and intriguing.

As the music and phone distracted her, Fu Qingdai's expression gradually relaxed. She sat curled up on the edge of the bed, the slender arches of her feet bending slightly into soft, alluring curves.

Her delicate, pale toes pressed lightly against the bedsheet without her noticing, trembling gently.

A few minutes later, she accidentally locked the phone's screen.

Fu Qingdai glanced up at Su Jin, and her cheeks immediately flushed.

She removed the earphones and asked awkwardly, "Cousin... why do you keep looking at my feet...?"

"To see whether you're good at running." Su Jin slowly redirected his gaze and casually opened a desk drawer. "Oh! Stationery!"

Fu Qingdai narrowed her eyes slightly and watched him suspiciously.

Keeping a straight face, Su Jin opened another drawer. This time, he was genuinely surprised to find it filled with all kinds of candy.

"Candy? You've stocked up on quite a lot."

"Ah... I asked my mom to buy me some extra candy. I thought it might come in handy."

Su Jin looked down and casually took a package of "chocolate" from the drawer, unwrapped it, and sniffed it.

The wrapper said chocolate, and it smelled like chocolate too.

It should be safe to eat. Since arriving in this world, he hadn't experienced any food allergies or poisoning.

He hadn't had time to buy candy yet, and having fast-acting carbohydrates to replenish their energy was essential.

Unexpectedly, Fu Qingdai had filled that gap. The girl had done pretty well.

After examining it for a moment, Su Jin lowered his head and bit off one tiny corner of the chocolate.

This had already become a habit since coming to this world: with unfamiliar food, he only ever tried a tiny amount first.

A rich chocolate flavor spread through his mouth, and Su Jin nodded in satisfaction.

"The candy here tastes pretty..."

Halfway through his sentence, Su Jin's eyes flew wide open!

A red flush spread visibly from his chest and abdomen up to his neck. By the time blood vessels threaded across the whites of his eyes, his entire face had turned crimson!