Lu Tianyi was a little surprised to hear Teng’s words. He looked at the boy and said, “Teng, did you always know that?”
Teng nodded. He knew that before he was born.
Lu Tianyi felt a little sad and sighed, “Yeah, even you know that already. No wonder you’ve been calling me Little Uncle. It turns out you have another uncle.”
Teng raised his hands and touched Lu Tianyi’s chin as he said, “What does it matter? You are my uncle. My mama now owns your sister’s body, so she’s taken up a lot of things from your sister, such as the mess she left behind and her bad reputation, as well as you as her little brother. For my Mama, having one more little brother is not a big deal anyway.”
While speaking, he dropped his hands and sat up in Lu Tianyi’s arms. Then, he folded his own arms and continued with a mature look, “Besides, Mama has been nice to you. She never treated you as an outsider. Am I right?”
On hearing that, Lu Tianyi lowered his head to glance at the boy and ended up being humored by the look on the boy’s face. “Yes, you are right, Teng.”
Teng spread his arms and said, “What has happened has already happened. What can we do to change it? Even though my Mama isn’t your sister, but her body is still your sister’s body. And you also have me, right? I am your real nephew, am I not? Maybe my Mama will give me a little brother or sister, and by that time, you’ll have one more family member, right?”
“You’ve really been thinking a lot,” said Lu Tianyi to the boy with a smile, “You actually want your Mama to give you a little brother or sister. Will your little brother or sister be as lucky as you are? Besides, don’t you have Ling Ling as your sister already?”
Teng spread his arms and said, “I was joking, of course! I just wanted to make you happy.”
“You’re a little baby who has an old soul, aren’t you?” Lu Tianyi said to him. Taking to the kid did make him feel better. He was now less depressed than before.
He understood all that Teng had said. There was nothing he could do to change what had already happened. He was aware of that, but he still felt sad because of that. He couldn’t control his feelings.
After all, Lu Tianyu was his only family member. She was evil and had done a lot of bad deeds, but she was still his sister.
He had been feeling that Lin Qiao was wildly different from his sister, but after knowing the truth, he still had difficulty accepting it.
He had been thinking a lot lately, and what he suspected now turned out to be true. Only the body of his sister remained. The soul in it was no longer his sister. Was she still his sister?
Lu Tianyu never saw him as a little brother. He had no idea if he should accept Lin Qiao as his sister. Teng was right, though. Lin Qiao had been so nice to him. She found him before he turned into a zombie. He turned into a zombie anyway, but she did try to save him.
Thanks to her, he managed to keep his human appearance.
As a zombie, he couldn’t possibly return to Sea City Base, nor go to any other base. However, staying in All Being Base, he could not ignore Lin Qiao’s presence. He had been thinking all these days about how should he see the zombie lady who wore his sister’s skin. There wasn’t a result yet.
He looked at Teng and asked helplessly, “Did your mother send you here to comfort me?”
Teng nodded and said, “Yeah. She’s been paying attention to you these days. You aren’t happy, so she sent me here to talk to you.”
“And you can cheer me up?” Lu Tianyi tapped the boy’s forehead with a finger and said, “How old are you? Do you think you can solve my problem?” After saying that, he rubbed the boy’s head with his palm.
Clap! Teng slapped off his hand. How come the adults always liked to rub his head? Wouldn’t his hair fall off because of that?
“Who else can talk to you? Do you want my mama to come here and talk to you herself? You don’t want to see her now, do you?” Teng crossed his little arms before his chest, then lay down in Lu Tianyi’s arms and looked at his face confidently, as if he knew what he was thinking.
His adorable look softened Lu Tianyi’s heart. “So many thoughts are going on in my head. Seeing her will only make me think even more. She is… special. I don’t know what to do.”
Teng nodded and said, “If you don’t know what to do, stop thinking about it and let things happen naturally. If you can forget about the fact that my Mama is now wearing your sister’s skin, you can simply pretend that she doesn’t exist. If you can’t forget about it, you can just see her as your other sister, like how my Mama sees you as her other little brother. Sometimes, you don’t have to be genetically related to be family. Anyone who is nice to you sincerely can be your family.”
The last sentence he said made Lu Tianyi stop short. Seeing the serious look on the little boy’s face, he suddenly felt that all he had been struggling about earlier actually didn’t matter.
The boy was right. Sometimes, families didn’t need to be related genetically. What was important was the way they treated each other. The one who cared about him with as true heart was always better than the ones who never truly cared.
The post-apocalyptic era was not like the peaceful time before. Currently, fewer and fewer people cared about other people. Lu Tianyu was indeed cold to Lu Tianyi. She never cared about him, not even a little bit.
“Alright, alright, your heartless sister is gone, but you still have us. You have the smart and adorable little Teng!” Teng reached out a hand and patted the back of Lu Tianyi’s hand as he said.
Lu Tianyi found the boy’s behavior amusing. He felt much better indeed! He gave a sigh as he rubbed Teng’s fluffy head again and said, “Alright, for your sake, I’ll let things happen naturally. The life here is not bad after all.”
After saying that, he carried Teng out of the house and stood on the stairs, looking at the fields.
The space didn’t belong to him, but many things in there were built by him singlehandedly. The vegetable field, the melon field, the rice and wheat fields, and those birds behind the house, he had spent a lot of time and effort on them. If he left and let some other people do his job, would the farm be ruined?
“Maybe you should find me an aunty to distract yourself,” Teng added, “So, you wouldn’t be having unnecessary thoughts every day. Uncle Kong and Aunty Long are doing well. They’ll soon get together. You should find yourself someone too. What do you think? It’s a good idea, isn’t it?”
While speaking, he looked at Lu Tianyi with a grin.
Lu Tianyi wasn’t expecting to hear the boy mention the fact that he was still single. He looked at the boy and said, “I’m a zombie. How can a zombie find himself a wife?”
“You can get yourself a zombie wife. Many girls in my Mama’s army are nice,” Teng answered his question quickly, then continued with, “And you see, Uncle Xie is going to become Tongtong’s father.”
Lu Tianyi didn’t know what to say.
