When Miss Chen’s soft warm lips touched his cheek, Su Bai didn’t feel any joy about this unexpected romance. Instead, he quickly put his hands around the girl’s neck. If he hadn’t managed to keep a bit of sanity, he would have broken the girl’s neck already. However, he suddenly remembered whose territory he was in, and paused for a second. Then he chopped the girl on her neck with one hand. She immediately pa.s.sed out.

On the other side, Liang was still waiting with his eyes closed. He had figured out what she was going to do, so he was smiling expectantly.

Su Bai grabbed his neck and knocked him out against the coffin.

Then he climbed out and took a closer look at what he was wearing. It looked neither fish nor fowl because it showed no specific design but was apparently an imitation of official costumes in Qing Dynasty.

As a matter of fact, in the middle or late period of Qing Dynasty, there had been redundant officials. Many landlords or rich families would buy official posts in order to bring glory on themselves. When they died, their official costumes would be put on or at least put in the coffin and then buried with them. As Seven had said, the present time should be the middle period of Qing Dynasty or even earlier, before the rules were violated and ignored. Maybe the Dreadful Radio had made a mistake, or it just gave up some rationality to make the story more interesting.

Su Bai took off Liang’s clothes, got changed, then put Miss Chen and naked Liang into the coffin and covered the lid, leaving only a gap for them to breath. Then he left the mortuary.

Su Bai stretched himself in the light of the setting sun. He didn’t know how long he had been out, but he had almost recovered from all his injuries; he just felt so hungry. He wandered about, and found a place with cooking smoke curling up.

It must be the kitchen in the mortuary. Usually, Taoist Lam and his students lived here. Now, Kuan, who had just made tea for his teacher and Councillor Chen, was making dinner.

Apparently, Kuan felt it was unfair that he had to cook while Liang got to stay with Miss Chen.

"d.a.m.n you, Liang. You should be helping me with dinner by now!"

He complained while adding more firewood into the stove. Little did he know that Liang was far ahead of him, and the two of them were secretly dating already. In their case, only the one who took action first could get the beauty.

Su Bai walked past the kitchen gingerly. He was suffering from a hunger that could not be satisfied with ordinary food; but he would rather not feed in the Taoist’s home, otherwise, it would be really intense between him and the Taoist.

In the front room, Councillor Chen was discussing with Taoist Lam about removing the grave and its reburial. He had no idea that his "ancestor" had secretly walked to his door. Normally, Taoist Lam should be much more vigilant, but Su Bai was just a normal person right now; he couldn’t feel anything evil, so there was no way he could know that the zombie he brought in was approaching.

The windows were sealed with paper, and Su Bai didn’t need to poke it because there were already several holes on it. He moved his eyes closer and looked inside. That Taoist looked familiar, and he was indeed very impressive. He could blow Su Bai off with only a mirror; sure, he was taking advantage of Su Bai’s exhaustion, but even in the best days as a zombie, Su Bai wouldn’t have much odds against him. Although, he wouldn’t have much professional advantage if Su Bai turned into a vampire.

Just then, the discussion ended. Councillor Chen was leaving, and Taoist Lam turned his face to Su Bai when he stood up to escort Councillor Chen. Su Bai’s eyes slightly widened; he finally recognized that face, but he felt so ridiculous. It was Lam Ching-Ying[1]. His zombie films were well-known for a time and even started a new trend for Hong Kong zombie movies. Unfortunately, he died in his forties due to liver cancer, but those roles he created had touched generations. Dreadful Radio did make a good choice, because he fit into this story world perfectly.

Just when Su Bai recognized Lam Ching-Ying, he heard the voice of Dreadful Radio:

["Main Task 1: Protect Lam Ching-Ying from death for 7 days"]

["Main Task 2 will be issued after MT 1 is accomplished."]

["If MT 1 fails, 300 story points will be taken from everyone; anyone without sufficient story points will be eliminate while the rest of audiences get to MT 2."]

It was such a funny and annoying main task for Su Bai. If it had been issued earlier, he would find himself an excuse to stay with the Taoist as a student or help-seeker; but now he was nothing but a zombie to them. If he walked to the Taoist yelling "Don’t be afraid, I’m here to protect you", Lam Ching-Ying would probably kill him in rage with that peach wood sword.

"Kuan, Liang!" Lam Ching-Ying called for his students. Councillor Chen was leaving, his daughter must not be held up for any longer.

Su Bai stepped back quietly. Before he could work out a perfect excuse, he’d better avoid meeting him. Even if he had to leave the mortuary and protect Lam secretly, it would still be a better choice than to fight with Lam now.

Kuan walked out of the kitchen with several dishes. Seeing someone in Liang’s clothes, he immediately called out:

"Liang, come and help!"

Su Bai stopped; then he immediately turn around and ran away.

Kuan also realized what happened. "You’re not Liang! Who are you!" He shouted, put the dinner on the ground and went after Su Bai.

Lam Ching-Ying was standing outside the room with Councillor Chen. Seeing Kuan chasing Su Bai, Chen was confused. "Is that a thief in the mortuary?"

"Mr. Chen, please stay here. I’ll go and check it out."

"Sure, go ahead, don’t worry about me."

...

Su Bai was going for the mortuary gate, but Lam Ching-Ying was coming from that direction. He hesitated, considered the pros and cons about getting engaged with Lam Ching-Ying, then decided to change his plan. He went toward the backyard of the mortuary, planing to escape by climbing over the walls.

Kuan was still after him, and Lam Ching-Ying was approaching.

Su Bai broke into one of the rooms. He thought he could climb out of the window and then over the wall behind this room, but when he got in, he saw no window. The only way in and out was the door through which he had entered.

Moreover, in this dimly-lit room, there were zombies in Qing official costumes displayed in lines. Su Bai put his hands by his waist and licked his lips. Such a scene was often seen in Hong Kong zombie movies, a group of zombies tagged with spell papers were kept in a Taoist’s house, and could follow his orders like an army.

Kuan rushed in and saw Su Bai standing in the middle of the room. He didn’t recognize that Su Bai was the zombie they brought in; n.o.body would imagine a zombie to change its clothes, and it was so dark that he couldn’t see Su Bai’s face.

He fetched a bell from a table by the door, looked at Su Bai and said teasingly:

"You stupid thief! How dare you steal in a mortuary! You’ve asked for this, so I’m gonna teach you a lesson today."

He started shaking the bell. With the crisp sound, dozens of zombie in the room began to wobble and then raised their arms.

"Catch him!"

Kuan ordered while shaking the bell. He seemed to be enjoying this way of catching a thief.

Zombies were jumping at Su Bai. He kicked one off and pushed out another, but more and more zombies were coming at him. Kuan didn’t order them to kill, because he just wanted this thief to be caught. Besides, he didn’t dare to take the risk. Those zombies were quite fierce, he was not sure if he could still control them if they had tasted blood.

Gradually, Su Bai found himself losing. He was extremely outnumbered and had been pressed on the ground after he fell.

Kuan giggled: "You just wait. I’ll tie you up and bring you to our county magistrate."

But the next moment, Kuan’s smile froze. He saw that the zombies were stepping back without listening to his order or his bell, and they even lined up in two lines as if they were waiting for someone to walk through.

Su Bai slowly stood up as a zombie. Before entering the story world, Seven joked about Su Bai’s relatives; now he had realized that maybe it was more than just a joke.

When he turned into a zombie, he could sense some spiritual waves from the zombies around him. Those zombies were tagged by spell papers and thus under control, they could answer to Kuan’s bell because their mind was controlled as well. They were more like ignorant infants.

Even though Su Bai was not an advanced zombie and was far from a Zombie King, he was highly intelligent. Therefore, after he heard the spiritual waves of those zombies, he tried to let out his own waves. He was of them, and his waves were definitely much more pleasant than the bell. As a result, those zombies listened to him like children obedient to an adult.

Su Bai stared at Kuan with his ghostly green eyes:

"What did you just say?

"I didn’t catch that.

"Say it again."

————————————

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Lam Ching-Ying (1952.12.27-1997.11.8): A famous Hong Kong stuntman, actor, film producer, action director and director, best known for playing the stoic Taoist priest in Mr. Zombie ( or Mr. Vampire).