Two more days passed before Yang Yang caught sight of her Mom and Mama again.
She was not pleased. Several days with no parents whatsoever — Yang Yang was very annoyed, and she intended to make this known. She lay on her back in Jiang Wanning's arms with an expression of pointed indifference, pretending not to notice that Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin had entered the room.
Both of them had made themselves presentable, and the bedroom had been aired out completely. Jiang Yanxin's ears were still faintly pink — despite Chen Wan's assurances about the soundproofing, the knowledge of what had kept them occupied for three days was difficult to be entirely unselfconscious about. Three days in bed. Even Yang Yang hadn't been tended to properly.
Jiang Yanxin went toward her younger sister to see Yang Yang. The little one turned her face pointedly to one side and pursed her lips.
Chen Wan crouched down beside her and smiled. "Why won't our baby look at us? Don't you miss Mama and Mom?"
"Hmph! You're bad, bad! You didn't play with me!" Yang Yang maintained her position with admirable resolve, giving her short legs two dissatisfied kicks for emphasis.
Chen Wan reached over and gently took Yang Yang's small hand between her fingers. "Don't be like that, sweetheart. Mama and Mom are back now, aren't we? We really did have something important to deal with these past few days. Our Yang Yang is the most wonderful girl in the world — can you stop being angry for us?"
Yang Yang did not remove her hand. Chen Wan took this as a good sign and pressed on, moving her hand to the little round tummy. "How about this — shall Mama toss you up high? Would that make the anger go away?"
Yang Yang wrinkled her little nose at Chen Wan and said nothing. Chen Wan, testing the waters, slipped her hands under Yang Yang's arms and lifted her, then gave her a small toss upward — catching her perfectly — and then again. Yang Yang broke immediately, dissolving into bright, helpless giggles.
Chen Wan pressed her lips to Yang Yang's soft cheek. "Mama missed you so much these past few days. Did my little troublemaker miss Mama?"
Yang Yang, now thoroughly won over, rubbed her face against Chen Wan's. "Missed Mama~."
"Our baby is so sweet. Mom missed you, too — go let Mom hold you for a bit." Chen Wan passed her over to Jiang Yanxin.
Jiang Yanxin took her and gave her a gentle bounce. She genuinely had missed this small person over the past few days — more than she'd expected to. She pressed a kiss to Yang Yang's cheek, smiling. "A few days apart and you've learned to be properly annoyed with us. Very impressive."
"Missed Mom~" Yang Yang burrowed against Jiang Yanxin, staring up at her face with round, devoted eyes — and then she spotted it. A small red mark on her mom's neck. Yang Yang let out a tiny gasp, reached up with her small hand, and pointed at it with great concern. "Mom — what's that red thing on your neck?"
Jiang Yanxin cleared her throat, ears going red all the way to the roots. What was it indeed? It was what happened when she'd told Chen Wan not to leave marks anywhere visible, and Chen Wan had apparently not listened even slightly. The apocalypse offered no foundation or concealer anywhere — she'd had to walk out wearing every single one of them in plain sight.
She explained quickly. "Oh, that? A bad mosquito bit Mom. It'll be gone in a few days."
Ye Lan and Jiang Zhao Yuan's eyes passed briefly over their daughter's neck and then moved away with great politeness and speed. Young people's susceptibility periods certainly seemed more intense than they remembered — but then again, it spoke well of Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin's feelings for each other. Ye Lan found herself genuinely reassured.
Yang Yang's expression sharpened with righteous fury the moment she heard about the mosquito. She balled up her small fist. "I'll punch the bad mosquito for Mom!"
Jiang Yanxin laughed and flicked her eyes sideways at Chen Wan. "Perfect. I'm counting on you, Yang Yang — please deal with the mosquito for me."
"Yes!" Yang Yang brandished her tiny fist with conviction.
Chen Wan looked on with a distinctly aggrieved expression and blinked at Jiang Yanxin. She had been trying to make Jiang Yanxin feel good — how had she become the villain of this story?
By the time Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin emerged from their room, it was past six in the evening. Everyone agreed to set out for Funan University first thing in the morning — it was only reasonable to give Chen Wan time to recover. Susceptibility periods were a test of stamina for both Alphas and Omegas.
Over dinner, Chen Wan had a thought over in her mind. That night, she would ask Yi Yi — was it possible to add a small, separate bed to their room for Yang Yang? The little one was three and a half now. It was probably time she began learning to sleep independently.
Yang Yang, catching Mama's gaze across the table, gave her a cheerful smile, entirely unaware that Mama was currently plotting against her sleeping arrangements.
That evening, while Jiang Yanxin was telling Yang Yang her bedtime story, Chen Wan was positioned behind Jiang Yanxin and being quite naughty about it — causing Jiang Yanxin's voice to waver more than once and earning herself several sharp looks. Under those looks, she would settle temporarily into listening with Yang Yang, but she kept reaching out to poke Jiang Yanxin every few minutes, derailing the narrative. Three days of insufficient sleep might have finally caught up with her, because by the time Yang Yang dozed off, Chen Wan had beaten her to it.
Jiang Yanxin tucked Yang Yang in, smoothed the blanket, and glanced over at Chen Wan — sound asleep, completely still. That explained the unusual good behavior toward the end of the story. She had suspected as much. Chen Wan had apparently been corrupted by three days of her susceptibility period, which Jiang Yanxin privately found more funny than anything else. Not that she minded the less-well-behaved version either. She was her wife, after all.
The next morning, everyone was up early — Qin Ke especially, who had woken before five. What they were going to retrieve from Funan University had been sitting at the back of her mind for so long that even in sleep, she couldn't let it go. She just needed today to go smoothly.
By six in the morning, Yang Yang was still mostly asleep when Chen Wan carried her, warm and drowsy, to the bathroom to wash up. The promise of a beef bun for breakfast was the thing that finally convinced Yang Yang to cooperate with waking.
The bun had been made by Ye Lan and Jiang Zhao Yuan, who'd wanted to offer something different after all the noodle-heavy meals, and had found flour in the compressed storage. They'd filled and folded the buns together and stored them in the refrigerator, where they could be steamed fresh each morning with very little effort.
Yang Yang sat on the sofa and remained half-asleep — until the warm, savory steam from the bun reached her, and her eyelids drifted open of their own accord. She ate with focused intent, and by the time the second bun was done, she was genuinely, fully awake
Chen Wan finished eating and looked around the table. "When we go to Funan University today, Dad, Mom, and Wanning should stay in the RV with Yang Yang. The zombies have already reached Level 2 — it's too dangerous out there. The four of us will go in. Yanxin, your ability might be close to awakening — this could be the trigger we've been waiting for. It's not a simple mission, so everyone please be careful."
"Understood." Jiang Yanxin nodded. She was curious, too — she wanted to know what her ability was.
Chen Wan noticed Jiang Wanning's expression had gone slightly subdued, and quickly added: "Wanning — eat your crystal cores every day and let your body recover properly. When we're back, Yi Yi will start teaching you how to handle a firearm. We'll bring you along next time. This trip is too rushed — there hasn't been time to prepare you."
"I understand, Sister Chen Wan." Jiang Wanning nodded obediently. She did want to be useful — and Chen Wan had promised to teach her when they returned, which meant next time would be different. "Just take care of my sister."
"Always." Chen Wan smiled.
After breakfast, everyone tidied up quickly. Ye Lan and Jiang Zhao Yuan, determined to be useful in whatever way they could, took over washing the dishes. entirely and insisted on doing every last pot and bowl. Jiang Wanning kept Yang Yang occupied.
Chen Wan laid out the weapons for the mission — each of the four would carry two sidearms and a pouch of ammunition. She gave Qin Ke an extra ammunition pouch, in keeping with her ability. Each of them also took a machete for close quarters — in a fight at that range, blades were essential. Qin Ke additionally slung a rifle across her back and carried a generous supply of rifle ammunition. The loadout was as complete as it was going to get.
Chen Wan turned to Yi Yi. "Which building is the lab in? And which floor?"
Yi Yi glanced at Chen Wan and quickly pulled up the information in her optical brain. "The android bioengineering laboratory we're looking for is on the sixth floor of Qinfen Building at Funan University. It's high up, and there will almost certainly be a significant number of zombies throughout the campus. Everyone, please be careful."
"Understood. We'll drive the RV straight onto campus. I'll keep the steel panels down around the exterior — at this level, the zombies shouldn't be able to break through the shell. We move fast, go straight up to the floor, get what we need, and come back. No unnecessary fighting." Chen Wan thought it through and added, "Taking the RV is non-negotiable — ordinary vehicles won't hold up against a zombie surge of this scale. And on the way, we can harvest Level 2 crystal cores."
With the plan settled, Yi Yi took the wheel. Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin stayed with Yang Yang to say their goodbyes.
"Sweetheart — Mama and Mom need to go out and take care of something. We'll be back by afternoon at the latest. Will you be a good girl and stay here with Grandma, Grandpa, and Little Auntie?"
Yang Yang gave a small, solemn nod. She had spent plenty of time by herself before, and this time she had people with her, so she wasn't frightened — just puzzled. "But Mom, Mama — didn't you just finish being busy the other day?"
"This is a different kind of busy, sweetheart," Chen Wan said — and immediately felt a sharp pinch at the soft skin above her hip. She turned to find Jiang Yanxin looking at her with an expression that said everything.
Chen Wan looked back at her wife, aggrieved. "It really is a different kind," she said under her breath.
"Are you talking back to me?" Jiang Yanxin gave her hands a deliberate flex.
Chen Wan immediately pulled Yang Yang in front of herself like a small shield and surrendered. "No. Never. I'm sorry, honey."
Jiang Yanxin broke into laughter despite herself. Ye Lan and Jiang Zhao Yuan watched the exchange with knowing smiles and said nothing. All those worries they'd had — clearly wasted. The two of them were perfectly happy, and exactly as their daughter had said, Chen Wan was very good at doing what she was told.
"That's more like it."
Chen Wan spent a few more minutes with Yang Yang before handing her over to Jiang Wanning and going to sit up front with Yi Yi.
In the outskirts, the Level 2 zombies were scattered — ones and twos, nothing organized. But the moment they entered the city proper, the situation shifted entirely. The zombies spotted the RV and began surging toward it in waves of dozens. These ones weren't mindlessly charging into the vehicle's path — they had learned to dodge, and they had learned to climb. If not for the mechanical arms extending from the RV's exterior, continuously dragging them off and hurling them away, the situation would have been far more difficult. As it was, the ones who couldn't quite evade in time were simply run down, and the group made reasonable progress.