The Fu Family were running into problems after Fu Bingwen left with Vanessa. She was surprised by how easy they fell with a few scandals and trouble with some supplies. After a bit digging, she found a couple of people who were pushing it, no doubt to get in her good grace.
Until someone released the news that Fu Bingwen wasn't his father's child, but his older Uncle's kid. Still the same mother, unfortunately. Vanessa investigated the situation, feeling angry. The one who released the news, said Fu Bingwen's father had seduced his brother's wife. Eventually he forced himself upon her, where she then had Fu Bingwen.
She dug and dug and dug, every little bad thing that Fu Family did and covered up in the last few centuries. She found out that his mother had liked Fu Wenxing since she was a kid. His biological father was raped by that woman, using a drug that was banned by the Empire. Vanessa gritted her teeth in angry, not only did it completely wrecked the victim's spiritual growth, it stunned the growth of any children of the victim.
If Vanessa and Fu Bingwen wanted kids, they won't ever reach her level in power or strength. She made a lot of enemies, she thought that when she had children, they would be safe after a certain age. If she hadn't dug up the past and she had children with Fu Bingwen, she knows she wouldn't take precautions. She always thought natural growth was the best, a trait leftover from even before zombies.
It should be great news that Fu Bingwen's father was A+ rank. But now everything made sense, why everyone in his family was A-B rank and he was a C rank.
(Someone higher up wanted her to have kids with him. Why else would a General be able to get summoned by a declining family? Someone knew the Fu family secret, people here live so long. Waiting for a couple decades was nothing, it was like couple years for some.)
(Vanessa wanted to drop Fu Bingwen, he was a weakness. Weakness got you killed, the desperate teenager yelled at her, we can't take the chance!
...
...
Why did the thought hurt her? Of giving him up?)
-x-
Fu Bingwen looked at Vanessa, who was cutting off the dead parts of a petunia. It was a very beautiful plant with vibrant purple and pink flowers. The green leaves were also a great background for them. He knew that she had a love for nature that many people here don't have.
The people were worse than the modern world he knew. Everyone thought that if they killed this planet, that there was another planet to takeover. He wondered what they will do when they run out of planets with green life. It takes years to grow trees, decades for a forests to regain true life.
Fu Bingwen bent down as he watched her dump used tea leaves onto the soil of the petuina before watering the soil with a spray bottle. "They are very beautiful."
"Thank you, my favorite one is the Nightsky petunia, over there," she pointed at a petunia that was a dark purple with white dots. He looked at the big plant, understanding why that one was so big compared to the other petunias she has. "Isn't it so beautiful?"
They were plain compare to the other flowers she takes care of, she has such a wide variety of petunias. But Fu Bingwen can see why she likes them. Vanessa put back the pot and grabbed another to care for, "I think you would like my garden back at home. I have more plants, lilies, roses, iris and more than I can name."
"How long have you been collecting plants?" He asked her, watching how she pruned it. Her hands were so beautiful, he wondered how they stayed so nice when she is a soldier.
She paused for a moment, "76 years, give or take a couple years." She continued, it needed a bigger pot. She grabbed a red sticker and put it on the pot, before grabbing the Fairy orchid and carelessly took it out of the pot. Fairy orchids seemed to die if you treated it kindly, so Vanessa didn't really care for it besides taking it out to see if the roots are rotting or if she needs to loosen the roots. She doesn't even water it, she just lets the rain do it.
"7-76 years?" Vanessa didn't notice something wrong with his tone of voice as she nodded. Lifting up orchid, she used a stick to poke around the roots, dirt and rocks falling back into the pot. Grabbing the scissors, she snipped some rotting roots off, the rain on this planet was causing a lot of rot in her plants.
She needs to look up the water quality, maybe setup a small greenhouse and water the plants when it rains. Automatic sprinklers are a thing, she can find a system that can match the rain outside. "I have always had a love for plants, it only made sense that I got the Wood Ability when the apocalypse happened."
"The apocalypse..what do you mean?" He asked her. So many question, she thought as she dumped the old soil and rocks onto the lawn. She put some clean stones and fresh soil in the pot with the Fairy orchid. After making sure the orchid was in the pot safely, she moved onto the next pot.
"You know, the zombie apocalypse, it started back in 2020, right on New Year's day." She snorted, she was getting something for a party with-with- "My family had a big party, I wasn't there, I was at the store. Getting some more pepper, the only store opened was almost forty minutes away."
She looked down at the flower, it was so small and fragile. Daisies were weeds to people who want a perfect yard, but she liked the simple look of them. "Plants mutated, they were the most dangerous thing to ruin into. Some people believed that the earth was trying to cleanse itself from humans. Because no matter how much zombie blood got into the ocean, the scientists said that they can never find traces of the virus. As if the moment the blood got into the ocean, it just disappeared. What little left of the normal animals were never harmed by zombie animals or even mutant animals and plants, just human zombies."
Fu Bingwen didn't speak, what was he supposed to say? Comforting her with soft words wasn't enough and giving pity to her would be a insult. He slowly walked to her, his footsteps were louder as she looked blankly at the plants. Carefully, he wrapped himself around her, watching to see if she would react badly.
"It was actually a family reunion, planned it for two years. Family I never knew showed up, there was 547 people, including the kids and babies." She looked up, vision was getting blurry as she continued to ramble. "I was the 548th, the only survivor. By the time, I got back, they were all zombies, it took a whole month to kill them all."
Fu Bingwen froze, he read zombies novels like any kid who got a computer in their room at home, doing anything but their homework. Knew that zombie apocalypse can kill billions, but it was fictional. He felt bad, but most zombie novels were the main characters falling in love and being on the top. A normal person would think she was insane but he died and now he was living in the future, getting married to the strongest Woman/Person in the empire.
He wasn't stupid enough to think he could be the only one who went through this. He didn't think he was someone who could be a main character, but part of that favorite side couple, sure. Vanessa was sweet and wasn't demanding, she didn't love him with a fiery love that burns them both.
Vanessa picked him up and set him down on her lap, he wrapped his arms around her. Her hand rubbed his back in circles as she buried her head in his neck. Fu Bingwen held her tighter and starting telling her a part of his life, "I am from a world where men were like women and women like men, this world is honestly scary. I don't really like it and my family loved me dearly...I miss them so much."
They stayed there, talking about their old worlds, ones that only they would mourn and miss. Fu Bingwen wrapped around Vanessa, who held him tightly as she could without hurting him.
-x-
Niles looked at the two idiots who fell asleep outside without a protective cover. If he didn't care for her so much, he would have left them there and let Fu Bingwen get sick after the shower that was supposed to happen tonight.
Instead he turned the greenhouse function on, which brought out a glass cover and made the inside warm. Always so god damn forgetful, Vanessa, he thought as he walked into his room in the house. Sure he could go back home to sleep, but there was robots remodeling it and putting a pool on top of the roof.
At least, she had the house security on fully or the front page of every single website would be General Flores and her husband are completely bonkers. He could imagine the backlash of that, so much work. He still don't understand zombies, but hopes that it never happens here.