Chapter 51: Mibao’s Reputation Gets Ruined
“Eh, Uncle Zhu?”
Mibao saw Zhu Dafu sitting on the ground not far away, and quickly wiggled her little legs to run over.
Zhu Dafu had been walking since yesterday, his legs nearly numb. When he suddenly heard Mibao’s voice, he thought he was hallucinating.
It wasn’t until Mibao’s little hand poked his arm that Zhu Dafu finally came back to his senses.
“M-Mibao?” Zhu Dafu froze for a moment, then his eyes instantly stung with tears. “Waaah… I finally found you all!”
The burly Zhu Dafu scooped up the tiny Mibao in his arms and bawled like a child.
Mibao was completely dumbfounded by his crying. She could only mimic adults and pat Zhu Dafu’s arm. “Don’t cry, don’t cry… Uncle Zhu, don’t cry…”
Xiao Hei, who rushed over: “…”
Chaoyang and Ye Duo, who arrived a step later: “…”
The whole scene looked rather bizarre.
Five or six minutes later, after Zhu Dafu had calmed down, he told the three little ones what had happened yesterday.
“…I don’t know where Chaolu and that guy called Monkey are. She told me to come find you, so I just followed the river downstream.”
As Zhu Dafu spoke, he once again looked aggrieved, almost about to cry.
“Last night I even saw Qian Suiyou’s corpse. He must have run into something terrifying—half his body was chewed away!”
It was way too scary…
It was also thanks to his luck—walking, stopping, and hiding along the way—that Zhu Dafu had somehow managed to make it here safely.
Chaoyang’s face darkened when he heard that Chaolu had fallen into the river together with Monkey.
Clearly, Monkey must have been bitten by a zombie and mutated, carrying traits of both human and zombie.
And his attack power had greatly increased—he wasn’t an ordinary zombie anymore.
“Sigh… I don’t even know how my wife is doing.” Zhu Dafu sighed again. “According to what you’re saying, Xuehua should still be near the school, right?”
After all, the children had fallen into the river, but Zhao Xuehua hadn’t.
“We’re not sure either.” Ye Duo shook her head. “Maybe.”
Zhu Dafu sighed once more.
“So now… what should we do?” Mibao scratched her head. “Sister Chaolu fell into the river, so she might have been carried downstream near the forest; Auntie Zhao is still near the school… They’re in completely opposite directions.”
So, which way should they go?
Zhu Dafu froze on the spot.
Of course he wanted to go find his wife.
But Chaolu’s situation was also very critical…
Chaoyang didn’t even need to think—he was definitely going to look for Chaolu, and Ye Duo would be the same.
Zhu Dafu obviously understood this too—so in terms of numbers, it was probably only him who could go back to search for Zhao Xuehua.
“Then… let’s look for Chaolu first.” Zhu Dafu lowered his head slightly. “Besides, the place where Chaolu might be is closer from here.”
Seeing this, Chaoyang also felt a pang in his heart. He was silent for two seconds, then stepped forward and gave Zhu Dafu a hug. “Uncle Zhu, if we go downstream and still don’t find my sister, we’ll go search for Auntie Zhao right away.”
Zhu Dafu nodded, choking up.
Mibao stood off to the side watching this scene, feeling a heavy ache in her chest.
She couldn’t quite put it into words—it was just as if a big stone were pressing down on her heart.
So Mibao looked for a few seconds, suddenly picked up Xiao Hei (who was licking his paws), and then stomped off about five meters away.
Zhu Dafu: ?
Chaoyang and Ye Duo: ??
What on earth is Mibao doing?
“Xiao Hei, didn’t you say you’re a Beast-Taming System?” Mibao asked seriously and expectantly, looking at Xiao Hei. “Big brother told me a Beast-Taming System can make animals listen to you and help you out. Can you—right now—make the animals here help search for Auntie Zhao and Sister Chaolu?”
If that worked, Uncle Zhu and Brother Chaoyang would both be able to relax.
[…Sorry, I can’t help.] Xiao Hei replied expressionlessly, [first, my energy is insufficient; second, most of the animals here have mutated and are very aggressive — they’re hard to communicate with or control.]
You’d be lucky not to be bullied by those things that reek of rot.
At that, Mibao’s big hopeful eyes instantly dimmed.
“Oh…”
[Ha — worthless.] A sneering voice from Xiaonian sounded.
[You can’t even do this — what kind of Beast-Taming System are you?]
Xiao Hei: […Hey, don’t go too far — I, a wild system, have dignity too!]
[Your Beast-Taming System can’t tame beasts — what good is that?]
[…I just woke up…] Xiao Hei protested.
[Then start building up energy, then.] came the taunt.
[There aren’t any normal animals around here for me to gather energy from!] Xiao Hei snapped.
[Worthless.]
[You’re being too much…] Xiao Hei tried.
[Worthless.]
[I’m not—]
[Worthless.]
[…]
Xiao Hei slumped weakly onto the ground, as if he had lost all his strength and options.
Yeah, yeah, fine — he was useless, okay?
“Eh? Why are you two arguing?” Mibao looked utterly confused. “Don’t fight!”
[Don’t worry, Mibao. We’re not fighting — this is called bickering.]
Xiaonian kept smiling.
[So hurry up and think of another way, Xiao Hei.]
The little black cat silently rolled his eyes.
But even while exasperated, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration:
[Since the animals here have mutated, maybe the plants have gained minds too? Compared to animals, plants should be gentler. We could try seeing if we can communicate with them.]
Mibao didn’t really understand that whole string of words — all she caught was that Xiao Hei was saying there was a way.
“Okay, okay! What do we do?” Her eyes sparkled brightly.
Xiao Hei: [You’re the host. The beast-taming power works best through you — I’m at most just a medium. Uh… look, there’s a tree behind you. Put your hand on its trunk, and I’ll activate the ability and see if it responds.]
If the tree reacted, that would prove it was possible.
Mibao nodded and immediately went to try.
But after holding her hand there for quite a while, the tree didn’t react at all.
[Looks like it won’t work.]
“No! Try again! Maybe this tree is just sleeping?” Mibao was reluctant to give up. “Or maybe it’s just too dumb?”
The big tree: “……”
[Fine then, let’s try again.]
And so, one girl and one cat clasped hands and began trying to “listen” to the tree’s voice.
Not far away, Zhu Dafu: “……”
What on earth was Mibao doing?
Why was she talking to a cat one moment, then dragging it over to press against a tree trunk the next?
“Did she… maybe hit her head when she fell into the river?” Zhu Dafu couldn’t help glancing at Chaoyang and Ye Duo beside him, asking tactfully.
Chaoyang and Ye Duo: “……”
They… could more or less guess the truth.
“Ahem, yes!” Ye Duo’s mouth twitched, but she nodded and admitted it directly. “So sometimes she does some strange things.”
Mm… best not to think too much of it.
Chaoyang, standing nearby, couldn’t help covering his face.
But in order to give Mibao’s bizarre behavior a reasonable explanation, he could only bite the bullet and echo: “Yeah… so Mibao thinks animals can talk… um… and maybe she thinks plants can talk too?”
Just as the two of them finished racking their brains to explain, Mibao’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“Ah! I hear a voice talking!”
Mibao said excitedly.
