Chapter 30

: Come Eat Strawberries
Translator: 
Law 
 Editor: 
Hitesh_
While watching Lin Qiao’s movements, Wu Yueling came closer with her nose covered, but she still kept herself one or two meters away from them.
Lin Qiao washed the strawberries, but then realized that she had nothing to hold them on, so she paused again.
As she recalled that the strawberry leaves were quite large, she thought she might as well go out to pick some of them and bring them here to hold these strawberries.
With this thought in mind, she gently put the few washed strawberries onto the ground, then once again disappeared from the space. She exited the space, picked a few large and intact leaves, and returned to wash them with the lake water. After that, she washed the strawberries again and wrapped them within these leaves.
She sniffed the strawberries, and as she had anticipated, the bad smell was now gone.
Lin Qiao carried the strawberries in both hands, then took a few steps toward the edge of the grass. Putting the strawberries on the ground along with the leaves, she stood up straight while looking and waving at Wu Yueling.
Wu Yueling’s eyes were filled with confusion when she saw the zombie waving. She tightly pinched her nose and stayed where she was, continuing to spectate instead of going to Lin Qiao.
When Wu Yueling refused to come to her, Lin Qiao’s ears suddenly pricked up as she detected a slight noise. She turned her head and saw a small grey fluffy ball shoot out of the grass. It stood by the grass, looking at her and the strawberries by her feet.
Lin Qiao looked back at it. Surprisingly, she found that the rabbit’s eyes were actually glowing while staring at the strawberries. It seemed that the rabbit wanted to come over but didn’t dare to.
The rabbit’s wary posture reminded her of Wu Yueling.
‘Are these two of a kind?’ 
Lin Qiao asked herself.
Sensing the yearning in the rabbit’s eyes, Lin Qiao tried throwing the smallest strawberry over to it.
The rabbit was startled by the strawberry which was suddenly thrown at her. It reflexively turned around and darted back into the grass straightaway.
Lin Qiao stood still. As she had expected, the rabbit stuck its head out of the grass again a few seconds later. It looked around and found no danger, then leaped out and inched its way to the strawberry. After that, it reached forward with its forepaws, grabbed the strawberry, and then immediately turned around, slipping once more into the grass.
Earlier on, it wouldn’t eat the strawberry even when Lin Qiao forced it to. But now, it was literally stealing those strawberries.
Lin Qiao watched the rabbit carry the strawberry away in confusion, then turned around and waved at Wu Yueling.
‘Come over here.’

While looking at Wu Yueling’s sparkling eyes, she spoke to the child in her heart. She didn’t know if she could send out her thoughts, but the eye-contact worked indeed.
However, she saw Wu Yueling shaking her head at her in the next moment.
‘This… Did she hear my thoughts?’ 
Lin Qiao paused, uncertainty clouding her thoughts.
She picked up a strawberry, held it under her nose, and sniffed. Then, she looked at Wu Yueling and waved at her again while saying a few worlds silently.
‘Come over here. The strawberries have been washed. They no longer stink.’

After finishing this sentence in her heart, Lin Qiao stared at Wu Yueling and waited for her response. She wasn’t sure if the little one shook her head because she had heard her thoughts or if she was just smart enough to guess her meaning from her movements and expression. Either way, it seemed that they now had a way of communicating with each other.
Wu Yueling didn’t say a word, she never had. She wouldn’t even say a word to Wu Chengyue, and had always expressed her thoughts only through movements. Therefore, she might have been able to guess Lin Qiao’s meaning from her movements.
As expected, Wu Yueling made some movements of her own after Lin Qiao implied that the strawberries were washed and no longer stank. She slowly loosened her hands which had been pinching her nose, then raised her nose and sniffed toward the strawberries. After confirming that she truly didn’t sense the bad smell, she put down her hands. However, she still didn’t walk over to Lin Qiao.
‘Really not stinking? Is she lying to me? Those strawberries are poisonous, aren’t they? Will I die if I eat them? But, that rabbit ate some last time and it didn’t die.’ 
As these thoughts ran through her head, Wu Yueling look at Lin Qiao and struggled.
Lin Qiao sensed her thoughts. Instead of standing there, she slightly turned her body and sat on the ground by the strawberries. Then, she picked up a strawberry and smelled its sweet aroma. No wonder that rabbit ran over so fast. Clearly, its sense of smell was quite sharp as well.
However, this sweet aroma held little attraction for Lin Qiao, and didn’t awaken her appetite. Instead, it was the smell of Wu Yueling that had been making her drool this whole time.
She glanced at Wu Yueling meaningfully and waved at her again. Seeing that Wu Yueling was finally coming over, she pointed at the strawberry in her hand, then put it into her own mouth and took a bite.
The strawberry had a soft and smooth texture, but Lin Qiao still couldn’t taste its flavor.
Unlike its skin, the flesh of the strawberries was pink.
Lin Qiao finished the strawberry with a few bites, then spread her open hands toward Wu Yueling.
Wu Yueling had already started to believe her a little by now. She slowly walked over, and while walking, she sniffed the air for a trace of that bad odor which she had sensed earlier.
However, even as she came close to Lin Qiao, she couldn’t smell that awful odor again.
Lin Qiao picked up a beautiful and plump strawberry, then handed it to her. The strawberry still had drops of water on it, making it look tempting in its own way.
‘Eat, not poisonous.’ 
Lin Qiao said to Wu Yueling with her eyes.
She was worried that Wu Yueling wouldn’t understand her meaning, so she pointed at the strawberry, then waved her hand and swept it across her own neck. After doing that, she closed her eyes, tilted her head, and rolled out her tongue to imitate death for Wu Yueling.
However, the kid was only confused by all that.
Moments ago, Wu Yueling had already understood her meaning. However, seeing her make such a scary look, the child immediately felt weird and didn’t know how to react.
Lin Qiao opened her eyes and looked at Wu Yueling’s blank face. She didn’t sense the latter’s thoughts, but the kid looked at her in a way that one might look at a psychopath, making her fall silent.
She was despised by this little kid, wasn’t she?
After staring at the weirdly acting Lin Qiao for a few moments, Wu Yueling silently reached out a hand and took the strawberry which Lin Qiao had held out for her, carefully putting it under her nose and sniffing it. She smelled a nice, sweet aroma instead of the bad odor, then squeezed it and found that it was a little soft.
Lin Qiao raised a finger and then pointed it at her mouth. She meant to encourage Wu Yueling to take a bite and taste the strawberry. However, the latter looked at her with hesitation, doubting for quite a while.
She didn’t dare eat it, as she was afraid that it might be poisonous. However, the strawberry now smelled quite delicious. It smelled so good, so sweet! Would it taste quite sweet as well?
Seeing her struggling look, Lin Qiao knew what she was thinking without even sensing her thoughts. She then pointed in the direction where the rabbit had disappeared while speaking to her silently with her eyes, ‘It’s alright. The rabbit didn’t die.’

Finally, Wu Yueling could no longer resist the temptation of the strawberry’s aroma and opened her mouth, making a gentle, small bite. She had chosen to believe Lin Qiao.
A sweet and slightly sour flavor spread from the tip of her tongue, immediately making her eyes shine. She then took a larger bite, after which, she began eating with an enjoyable face, no longer caring whether the strawberry was poisonous or not.
She munched on the strawberry readily. After all, her stomach had been empty as she had been starving for quite long.