Surviving the apocalypse with a wife and a system! [GL]

The little girl immediately turned to her and retorted, "I really won’t cry."

Yan Cijin’s heart softened. "Okay, okay. We’ll see."

Bai Li watched them and felt the feeling in her chest settle just a little. The whole room was still a mess in some ways, but it also felt strangely warm. There was no need to rush. No need to force anything. The world outside was already bad enough. At least in this room, the people inside could still laugh, still tease each other, still worry about whether someone’s hair was dry or whether the food would spoil.

That thought made Bai Li’s eyes drift back to Yan Cijin again.

The woman had leaned slightly forward to help the little girl with a toy, and a fine line of sweat still sat near her temple because she had not fully rested after the work earlier. Bai Li looked at that tiny bit of moisture and suddenly thought of all the things she had just told herself she was not ready to face. Her heart tightened again, then softened at the same time.

She was not ready.

But she was also not blind.

Yan Cijin was beautiful in a way that was almost annoying. Beautiful enough to make Bai Li forget her own pace sometimes. Beautiful enough to make her wonder whether she could really stay calm forever. Beautiful enough that, if the world had been safer, Bai Li might have already stepped closer and stopped pretending she was only thinking about room organization and supplies.

The little girl suddenly climbed onto Bai Li’s lap again and cut off her thoughts completely.

"Auntie, look," she said, holding up the kitten doll. "It has a hat."

Bai Li blinked, then looked down. "Oh, it really does."

"It’s pretty, right?"

"Mm, pretty."

Yan Cijin saw the way Bai Li got interrupted by the child and almost laughed. Bai Li’s expression had changed so quickly that it was hard not to find it funny. Earlier she had looked like she was quietly thinking about something serious. Now she looked like a person who had just been dragged back into the ordinary world by a tiny hand and a toy doll. Yan Cijin secretly liked that side of her too. It made Bai Li seem more alive, more real, less like the untouchable person she sometimes pretended to be.

While the two of them were distracted, Bai Li’s phone lit up again with another round of messages. She ignored the screen for a moment and watched the little girl place the doll on her knee like she was showing it off to both adults. The child talked about the kitten’s hat, then about its eyes, then about how it should have a little bed too. Bai Li listened and answered every single thing seriously, even the silly parts. Yan Cijin watched from the side and thought, once again, that Bai Li was way too good with the child.

That thought made her heart feel both warm and sharp.

Because if Bai Li was this good with LiLi, then Bai Li would probably be a very good person to stand beside in a real home too. A home with noise, with toys on the floor, with a little girl running around, with a woman who still pretended she was fine while secretly needing warmth. The idea was so natural that Yan Cijin almost stopped herself from thinking it through too much. She did not want to let herself dream too clearly. Dreams became painful when they were too detailed.

Bai Li got up after a while to check the doorway and the windows again. She had already thrown the used sheets out, but she still wanted to make sure the room was secure. The building was quiet now, but that kind of quiet was never fully safe. Quiet just meant people were waiting. Sometimes it meant they were hungry. Sometimes it meant they were watching. Sometimes it meant they were already thinking about how to get into someone else’s home.

Bai Li adjusted the curtains and looked out through a small gap. In the distance, she could see the dim shapes of other apartment windows, a few lights still on, and the dark outline of the street below. No movement worth noticing yet, but she trusted her instincts enough to know that did not mean much. The people in the building had already started to turn on each other with their eyes. It was only a matter of time before some of them turned with their hands too.

She closed the curtain and turned back into the room. Yan Cijin was helping the little girl stack her toys in a neat little row, and the child was pretending to be very serious about it. Bai Li looked at them for a second and then said, "I’m going to make dinner later. We should eat something warm before we sleep."

Yan Cijin nodded. "I can help."

Bai Li glanced at her. "You already helped a lot today."

Yan Cijin’s face flushed very lightly again, though this time it was a little different. She had already gotten used to Bai Li’s quiet care, but every time Bai Li said something like that, her heart still jumped in a way she could not fully explain. She lowered her eyes and said, "Then I’ll at least help wash vegetables."

"Okay," Bai Li said.

The little girl immediately raised her hand. "I can help too."

"You can help eat," Bai Li replied.

The little girl gasped. "That’s my job?"

"Very important job," Bai Li said with complete seriousness.

Yan Cijin laughed. "Then LiLi has to do it well."

The little girl stood up straight and saluted with her tiny hand like she was taking the mission very seriously. "Yes, ma’am!"

Bai Li almost bent over laughing. Yan Cijin also laughed, and the room warmed up again with that simple little moment. Outside, the world was still falling apart. Inside, a child was taking her job of eating very seriously, a woman was pretending not to be embarrassed when she was clearly embarrassed, and Bai Li was trying not to stare too much at the woman next to her because her

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TO BE CONTINUED.

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