Chapter 348: So Much Better
Yuche drew the last strip of metal away from the front door as Chenghai pulled the lock free.
The door opened inward, and the smell rolled into the sitting room first: rot, damp cloth, old blood, and the sour stink of a dead body that had spent too long walking.
The first zombie lurched forward with both arms out, its ruined mouth opening as if it expected the house to panic and offer itself up.
Rouxi lifted one hand, and the vines answered before the zombie crossed the threshold.
They rose from the porch steps in thick, green coils, sliding over stone and wood with the eager rustle of leaves. One wrapped around the zombie’s throat. Two more caught its wrists. Another pair snapped around its ankles, and the creature jerked to a stop so abruptly that its jaw clacked shut. For a single breath, it hung there, spread open in the doorway like a warning.
Rouxi smiled.
Then she closed her hand.
The vines pulled in five directions at once.
The zombie came apart with a wet crack that sprayed black blood across the porch, the doorframe, and Rouxi’s shirt. Its head tore free first. One arm followed, then the other, and the rest of its body split badly enough that pieces of spine dropped onto the front step.
The grass drank before the body finished falling.
Thin blades stretched upward, greedy and trembling, catching the black blood as it rained down. Flowers along the walkway opened their petals toward the spray, and the vines dragged the larger pieces across the porch like meat being hauled back to a den.
Yuche leaned one shoulder against the wall beside the window and watched Rouxi instead of the dead thing being eaten.
She had blood on her clothes, color in her cheeks, and a smile bright enough to make every sensible person in the room reconsider what kind of woman they had decided to follow.
Yuche did not reconsider.
He had excellent taste.
Lingyun made a low, delighted sound behind her. "That was beautiful."
Rouxi tilted her head toward the lawn, where more zombies dragged themselves over the exposed path. "There are more."
"I know," Lingyun replied, flames flickering over his hands. "I’m trying to be supportive."
"Be supportive quietly."
"No."
Chenghai kept one hand on the door and watched the porch, the vines, and Rouxi’s position. If one dead hand reached farther than she allowed, he would remove it. None of them reached that far.
The vines came faster for the next two. They snaked across the porch, climbed the railing, and dropped from above. One zombie had both legs ripped from beneath it before it reached the first step. The other was lifted into the air by the neck, wrists, and ankles, its body twisting while ruined fingers clawed at empty space.
Rouxi stepped out onto the porch.
Black blood dripped from the side of her face and ran down her shirt, but she didn’t wipe it away. She lifted both hands, and the plants surged around her feet without touching her. Leaves brushed the air near her ankles. Flowers turned their faces toward her, waiting for the next body.
Yuche’s smile sharpened. This was her house, her garden, and her territory. The mansion belonged to her long before it belonged to the walls, the gates, or the men standing inside it.
The second zombie burst apart over the lawn. Blood fell in thick, dark drops, and the entire front garden seemed to breathe in at once. The burned sections near the walkway shivered. New tendrils pushed through the soil, thin at first, then thicker as they reached for the pieces the vines were dragging back.
Zhenlan stepped closer to the open door, his gaze moving from the feeding plants to the damaged line beyond the front yard. "They’re repairing faster than before."
Rouxi’s eyes followed his. "They’re hungry."
Yuche laughed under his breath. "Spoken like someone who feeds her flowers corpses."
Rouxi glanced at him. "What can I say? They have refined tastes."
Another zombie stumbled through the open path, followed by two more. These had lost enough flesh that their bones showed through their legs, but they kept moving, drawn by the open door, the living bodies, and the smell of blood soaking into the lawn.
Rouxi’s smile widened again.
She could have crushed them the moment they stepped onto the property, but she let them come close enough for the garden to rise around them. Then she let the plants eat.
A vine caught one zombie around the waist and lifted it sideways. Another looped around its neck and tightened until the head stretched away from the shoulders. The flowers beneath it opened wider, and when Rouxi flicked two fingers, the vines tore the body in half directly above them.
Once again, black blood poured down like rain. The flowers caught it, and the grass drank what missed.
Lingyun stepped onto the porch behind Rouxi, fire curling along his arms. He kept the flames close, ready to burn anything that came too far, while Chenghai held the doorway and Zhenlan guided the air so the stink and black spray drifted outward instead of into the house.
Yuche kept the window reinforced and let thin blades rest beneath the porch boards. Insurance, nothing more. Rouxi needed space, so they gave it to her.
The next three zombies reached the lawn together.
Rouxi raised both hands, and the vines rose with her. Five wrapped around each body. One throat, two wrists, two ankles. The dead jerked upward, suspended in a row in front of the mansion while their jaws worked and their fingers twitched.
Rouxi looked up at them, black blood on her face and happiness in her eyes. "Much better," she murmured.
Then the vines pulled.
All three bodies tore apart at once. Blood burst across the lawn in a dark shower, splattering Rouxi’s arms, the porch steps, and the flowers already opening beneath them. The grass stretched higher, drinking until the ground rippled. Vines dragged limbs into the beds. Roots shifted beneath the soil, weaving through the damaged sections and pulling loose earth back into place.
Yuche watched the gap in the barrier begin to close.
New growth moved through ash and black blood, knitting together what the parasites had forced apart. Thin vines crossed the exposed path. Grass crawled back over bare soil. Flowers pushed up where burned stems had collapsed earlier, small and hungry and very much alive.
Rouxi lowered her hands, breathing harder now, but the smile stayed on her face. She looked over her shoulder at them, covered in gore and satisfaction. "See? This is better."
Lingyun stared at her like she had personally invented sunlight. "So much better."
Another sound came from the road. Yuche turned his head toward the entrance of the cul-de-sac, where more shapes dragged themselves through the dim light.
The vines around Rouxi lifted their heads, and when Rouxi looked toward the approaching dead, her smile widened again.