Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 360: Take The Fun Out Of Everything

Chapter 360: Take The Fun Out Of Everything

We stayed around the cabin that day, making sure that everything was in order. I wanted everything to be as perfect as I could make it when Wang Chang Ming came home.

I frantically cleaned and restocked the pantry where needed, but I kept what needed to be refrigerated in the bunkers. I didn’t want to call too much attention to ourselves. I was worried that some of the other people who arrived with us would eventually get jealous if they saw what we had.

Especially since all of them would be living on next to nothing until we managed to bring the city back.

However, as bad as it was to admit, I cared a lot more about my supplies and my family than complete strangers.

I worked hard and spent more money than I probably should to get what I had, and I wasn’t going to let someone come in and just take it all away because they thought they had that right.

That night, I fell asleep in a puppy pile of bodies, happy and content.

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The walk back to the main section of the city took us two days again. I went into almost every antique store that I could find, looking for things that we could use. While the guys were in good spirits for the first half, by the time we got to store number four, Fan Teng Fei had convinced me to just let him take everything and sort it out later.

Who was I to disagree with that idea?

And why the hell hadn’t I thought about it sooner?

By the end of the second day, I was ready to get off my feet and stop walking. No matter how good the shoes were, it didn’t matter if you were on them for almost 10 hours a day.

"Mommy!" screamed Wang Chang Ming as we tiredly approached the hotel. The sun was setting, casting a beautiful pink and purple glow to everything. "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy! I missed you!"

Crouching down, I breathed a sigh of relief that Chang Ming was alive and well. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Zhao Jun Jie, but times were hard, and he had a lot on his plate, too.

"Hey, Sweetie!" I smiled, pulling the warm body into my arms. His arms wrapped around mine in an almost stranglehold as I came to my feet, my arms wrapped around his waist. "Did you miss us?"

"Do we have a pool?" he asked instead, leaning back just enough to give me a side-eyed look. "Because I remember asking for a pool."

"I’m sorry," I replied, hanging my head. "There isn’t a pool. But there is a lake... would that count?"

"That counts! That counts! That counts!" Wang Chang Ming squealed, trying to wiggle out of my arms. "Can we go now?"

"Not today, Short Stuff," laughed Cheng Bo Jing, taking the child from my arms before I could drop him. "The sun is setting, and we need to get inside."

"But there aren’t any zombies around," replied Chang Ming, confused.

"No, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t err on the side of caution," replied Bin An Sha, adjusting his glasses on his nose.

"Because the cautious rarely err," shot back the boy with a smirk on his face like he had heard that saying more than a few times. Bin An Sha simply raised an eyebrow before giving him a smirk of his own.

"Exactly."

"Besides, we have to go see Uncle Zhao and Uncle Hu. We don’t want to just disappear without letting them know," added Si Dong as he rubbed Chang Ming’s hair.

The boy narrowed his eyes at the man as he continued to cling to Cheng Bo Jing. "Uncle Hu is too old to be an uncle. He is a grandpa. Grandpa Hu," hissed Chang Ming, making his point known.

"Fine, Grandpa Hu," smiled Ye Yao Zu as he looked over at me.

The guys had told me that they had convinced him that he was in the doghouse.

He really wasn’t. I mean, I was pissed for all of an hour, but then I got over it. It was Bai Long Qiang who advised me that I should milk it for all that I was worth, simply because.

And I really had to agree with him. I enjoyed getting an extra cookie or slice of bacon, and I definitely wasn’t going to say no to an extra blanket or the foot rub that he gave me last night. But now I was starting to feel guilty about it.

I smiled brightly at the man, trying to show him without words that everything was fine. And when he smiled back, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

"If you really have to talk to them, I guess it will be okay, but I want to go swimming as soon as possible. Do you think that there are fish in the water? What about sharks? There needs to be sharks in the water, too. Oh! And can we get a mermaid? I always wanted a pet mermaid!"

Cheng Ming’s happy chatter made me smile until his words clicked in. I had absolutely no idea what was in that water.

"I don’t think that there are sharks or mermaids in there," interjected Fan Teng Fei. But I know we could go fishing sometime together. What do you think about that?"

"Yesssss!" answered the boy, practically bouncing. Poor Cheng Bo Jing was having a hard time keeping him in his arms. "Let’s do that!"

"Alright. You be good so that we can get our stuff done and then I’ll take you out in the boat I found. Sounds good?"

"Sounds perfect," nodded the boy. "So hurry up and get the adult things done so we can hurry up and get the kid things done."

I really wanted to argue that I didn’t think that that was the way it works, but I also couldn’t fault his logic either.

Rip chuckled as he took Chang Ming from Cheng Bo Jing. "But first, sleep. We are tired after such a long walk, and I know you are probably tired from annoying Zhao Jun Jie all day. A good night’s sleep first, then the adult stuff, then two days of walking, and then the kids stuff."

Chang Ming narrowed his eyes at Rip. "You know how to take the fun out of everything, don’t you?"