Her past life memories were slowly returning to her.
Su Jin was very familiar with this airport. When the zombie apocalypse first broke out back then, she had run here in a hurry, desperate to get onto a plane back home. However, the airport was already packed with people, and everyone wanted to get back to their families. As news of more plane crashes reached them, the airport soon began to stop functioning.
By then, zombies were appearing in the airport itself, and many people were getting infected. Su Jin and a few others had been trapped in a lounge at the airport for more than a week before they were eventually rescued.
Su Jin dragged her luggage behind her, standing silently outside the lounge that had been her prison for a while. She only woke from her reverie when her phone rang.
The caller was Assistant Zhang from the company's local branch, informing her that he was already at the arrivals gate. Su Jin hung up and walked straight toward him, spotting him from a distance away. Since he had not noticed her, she walked behind him and patted him in greeting.
The bespectacled Assistant Zhang jumped in shock, but he soon recovered. "Are you Su Jin?"
"Yes, Assistant Zhang, I am. Nice to meet you."
"Come into the car, then, this way. I parked in the basement," Assistant Zhang said as he took the luggage from her. There was something he could not understand, though. Since they were attending an exhibition, he was not dressed for work, so how did the young woman recognize him at a glance? How very strange.
Su Jin saw that Assistant Zhang's head was still tilted in confusion as he walked ahead of her with her luggage in tow. Giggling secretly to herself, she said, "Don't be so surprised. I saw you in the pictures of the company's annual party, so I immediately recognized you."
Was that it? No wonder. Assistant Zhang said, "Seems like I must have a pretty appealing face, then. Haha."
"..."
Assistant Zhang was over the moon, and Su Jin had no idea what to say to that.
Along the way, Assistant Zhang never stopped chatting with Su Jin. Her impression of him from her past life was quite decent, so Su Jin kindly gave him a word of advice too.
"Your family's already hoarding supplies, you say?" Assistant Zhang asked.
"That's right, because some viruses are going around, and some posts online say that things might get messy in the next month. Apparently we should stay home and hoard as much food as we can," Su Jin said with a straight face.
"Do people really believe the stuff they see online? But you have a point, I'll make sure to fill up my fridge when I get back. Seriously, Lil Su, you have no idea what a waste that giant fridge I bought is. I'm just a single man, and my cooking always sucks. It takes me two hours to cook and ten minutes to eat, and that's not even accounting for the washing…"
Assistant Zhang began ranting again. A month from now, however, he would suddenly find that the huge fridge he was complaining about ended up becoming his life-saving treasure trove.
Su Jin warned Assistant Zhang as a way to repay him for his help in her past life. Back then, she was all alone in G Province, and Assistant Zhang was the only one who kept trying to call her when the zombie outbreak first happened. He had also been the one who led the rescue team to the airport to save her, all because she had sent him her location just minutes before her phone battery died. He had passed the word on to the rescue team and indirectly saved Su Jin as well as the people with her.
They soon arrived at their hotel, and Assistant Zhang left soon after he helped Su Jin check in. She closed her room down and fell face-first into the hotel bed.
It had been such a long time since she had enjoyed the luxuries of a soft bed and clean sheets. Was humanity truly heading for ruin? Su Jin wondered to herself, depressed.
Right, there was her special ability. Su Jin reached out her hand and tried to summon her vines. A small emerald sprout appeared in the middle of her palm. She was thankful that her wood-type special ability had returned with her, and it was at early Level 3, too. Although it was not as strong as it had been at the end of her previous life, when she was peak Level 6, she was still happy enough with this amount of power.
Wood-type ability users were some of the most pathetic in her past life. They could not be used to fight, and all they were good at was growing crops and other plants. Almost everyone who awakened to a wood-type ability would be relegated to the logistics department of their base, where they merely tended to the vegetable garden.
However, Su Jin had always disagreed with that common sentiment. Her wood-type ability was good at both offense and defense, and she was as adept at fighting zombies as any other ability user.
Since the heavens had given humanity one last fighting chance, it was only natural that there would be no useless abilities. Su Jin caressed the sprout on her palm and cheered herself up. As though encouraged by its master's thoughts, the sprout began to sway even more happily.
There was the ring of an incoming video call from her phone. Su Jin used the vines to 'grab' her phone from the table to her bed.
It was pretty convenient. Su Jin was pleased, and the sprout danced proudly again when it saw how satisfied its master was.
…
The call was coming from her father. Su Xiangzhe finally heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that his daughter was safe and sound.
The atmosphere at the other end of the call was warm and comfy. The family had gathered for dinner that day, with her maternal grandparents taking the main seats at the round table. Next to them were her maternal uncle and her mother, her uncle's wife and younger sister, and opposite to them were her younger cousins Lin Xiuyuan and Mao Qiqi.
"What did you cook up this time, Grandpa?" Su Jin said with a laugh.
"What else can he cook? It's the same-old, same-old. Now, the soup I made, that's the good stuff." The phone was snatched away by Su Jin's maternal grandmother, Li Xiuying, who proceeded to turn the camera so she could show off the soup she had brewed to Su Jin.
Su Jin looked at the colorful sweet soup on her screen and found herself at a loss for words. Grandma was great, but her fatal flaw was her lack of talent in cooking. To make things worse, Grandma was creative with her inventions, constantly putting together a collection of oddities and cooking them all at once. It did not matter whether anyone finished the soup in the end; she simply enjoyed the process.
However, Su Jin knew that Grandma's habit was a result of the entire family's love. Every time she brought out a new soup, the younger ones would always make a huge fuss out of it. Lin Xiuyuan was especially good at his elaborate yet meaningless flattery.
Su Jin was no exception, either. "Wow, Grandma, what's this? I've never seen it before. Wish I could try it!"
"Oh, this is my specialty invention, cordyceps goji berry seaweed chicken soup. It's really good for you!" Grandma's face was flushed with excitement.
"That's nice. Well then, enjoy your meal. Lin Xiuyuan, remember to drink enough for my portion too," Su Jin said with a snigger.
"Gah, Sis… F-Fine! I'll drink a whole bowl for you, but don't forget what you promised me!"
Lin Xiuyuan sounded like a soldier marching to his death. Su Jin could not help but burst out laughing.
After that, she greeted her parents and the rest of her family. It was only when she remembered that they still had to have dinner and, uh, finish that soup, that she reluctantly hung up.
Her family was so adorable. Of course she had to do everything in her power to protect them.
Finally, she noticed that she had a few missed WeChat calls from Lu Hao.
To tell the truth, Su Jin and Lu Hao's marriage was not one purely of love.
Lu Hao was her father's comrade's son. The two of them were of the same age, and they stayed in the city, so they naturally had an arranged meeting, followed by their engagement, and finally their wedding.
The whole process took about a year, and Lu Hao was constantly busy with work, so the two of them did not spend too much time together.
In her past life, she had spent the two years after that fighting on her own. She later found out that Lu Hao had immediately set off to G Province in search of her as soon as the apocalypse began, and had even posted rewards for any information of her in all the bases. Eventually, someone took Su Jin to his team, but he just happened to be out on a mission, so they just missed each other by a hair. After that, Chen Xiarong pretended to be his confidante and led her to her death…
At this point in time, Su Jin and Lu Hao had just gotten married. Compared to other newlywed couples in the height of their affections, she figured that she and Lu Hao were being relatively more rational.
Su Jin held her forehead. Geez, he had just somehow stumbled into becoming her husband, huh?