Zou Yue anxiously bit into his nails as he glanced at his phone. He had never cut him off mid call before. Either something was very wrong or his father was enraged by his disgusting stalking habit.

“What’s wrong?”

Chisato-san tossed him a bottle of water and sat next to him. “What’s making you eat your nails,”

“I am not eating it.” Zou Yue pouted.

“Then don’t tell me you are spitting it out in my dojo?”

Yue subtly picked up the small piece of fingernail from the ground. “I did not,”

“I have eyes you know.” Chisato grumbled.. “Anyway, what’s bothering you?”

“My dad… he found out one of my secrets,” he played with the wooden sword in his hand.

“Which is?”

“I was stalking someone, Chisato san,” he said with a soft blush.

“Wow, was not expecting that. Stalking is a bad behaviour. It makes the other person uncomfortable. You should not do that,”

“I won’t!! Not anymore, at least. Bet my dad is very disappointed in me.” he tried calling him but once again got only a busy tone. “See, he is not even picking the phone,”

“Don’t worry when he picks up, just apologise to him and to the person you were stalking.” Chisato san whispered and stood up. “Now get up and practice,”

Suddenly, the phone rang. Zou Yue nervously picked it up. “Dad, please listen to my explanation,”

“It’s okay son… did fan xui ever hurt you, be truthful to dad,”

“Never,” Zou Yue firmly whispered.

“okay…then just answer me this… will fan xui survive after this five months,”

Zou Yue excused himself to Chisato san and moved over to the corner of the room. “Of course he does. He is the most powerful person in the entire world. Most literally that man single-handedly destroyed so many of those ‘Undead.’ you can say he is the reason that most humans survived even after ten years,” he whispered softly.

“Good good.”

“Why did you ask that suddenly?” he frowned slightly.

“Nothing, just wanted to know. Now go and practice your sword. I’ll call you by night.”

“Dad, wait,” Zou Yue hurriedly stopped him.

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry for being a bad person,”

“It’s okay Yue, I don’t blame you. But don’t do that again. It’s a bad habit,” his father’s gentle voice whispered in his ears.

“Okay~ I won’t~” he happily giggled.

His father humped and cut the call.

Zou Yue hopped back to Chisato san and giggled even more. “My father forgave me!!”

“Good, now let’s practice for real,”

“Yes~” he picked up his wooden sword and started to swinging it straight down. He alternated his swings with each if his leg positions hereby created a coordinated move.

“Your legwork needs to be finessed and you swing it…..” Chisato san suddenly stood up straight. He peered into the corner of the room with a deep frown. “What the hell,” he ran to the small glass tank. The snake inside was belly up with its mouth wide open. “He is not moving,”

“What?” Zou Yue rushed there and glanced inside the terrarium. There were small black scratch marks all over the snake’s body. ‘No…. don’t tell me….’

Chisato san sighed and put his hands in.

“No!” Zou Yue pushed him away and stood in front of it. “It…. it’s dead. I will deal with its body,”

“It’s my pet.. I will…” Chisato san stood up and walked close.

Zou Yue kept him at an arm’s distance in fear that the air bone virus might affect him. “He is your pet, so it must be devastating for you. Let me do it.” he ran to his room and brought back a clean towel. He rolled the dead snake up and took it out of the terrarium.

“Here. Place him in.” Chisato san handed him a small ornate wooden box.

“You plan to bury him?” Zou Yue placed the snake in and closed the box swiftly.

“Yes,” Chisato san sadly sighed.

“You can’t!!” he hurriedly stopped him.

Chisato curiously looked at him. “Why?”

“umm… haven’t you heard of ‘Antyesti?’. In Sanskrit, it translates to last sacrifice. Hindus believe that a life born in water should return to water,”

Chisato san frowned even deeply. “You want me to toss his body in water?”

“No! Not his body, but his ashes. You see, every life is born in water. In mother’s womb, we live for almost nine months in amniotic fluid. So the Hindu’s believed that after death the body should return to water again to complete the cycle of life.”

Zou Yue desperately spewed all the history lessons his father had once taught him. Because burying a virus infected body will only contaminate the surrounding land. He did not want that risk at all.

After a year of the end of world, the scientist discovered that burning the infected body was the best-case scenario. The virus dies in hotter temperatures and the ashes do not contaminate the land or the water source.

“Fine, let’s take him to a pet funeral hall,” Chisato san whispered.

Little Trexa gran watched this from the corner of the room. She glanced at her paws with a confused look.

Zou Yue smiled and walked ahead with the box in hand.

Only after the snake’s body was cremated did he let out a breath of relief.

The terrarium back in the house was left untouched. He cleaned it out himself by soaking it in bleach and other cleansers. This can kill any kind of residue virus off of it.

After doing so, he left the dojo and walked back to his room. It was dark inside. He tiredly stumbled in and plopped onto the bed. “Ahhh so tiresome…”

Suddenly, he heard a small scratching sound.

He sat up and switched on the light. In the corner of the room, Trexa gran was scratching at the wood vigorously.

“What is it Trexa? What’s wrong?” he squatted down and gently touched her head

She flung his hands away and continued to scratch. A small snap was heard. Only after that, she jumped into his palm happily.

“Baby, what were you doing? You are damaging the property…” he whispered, touching the scratches gently. He felt something wet there. His finger tips were stained red and there were small pieces of red things on the ground.

“Blood?” he glanced at Trexa gran questionably.

She held up her paws and showed him her nails. All of them were ripped off, leaving behind bloody flesh.

“oh my god!! Baby!! It’s bleeding!!!” he hurriedly applied some medicine, and a bandaged to her small paws.

“Why did you do that? Why…”

Trexa gran gently scratched her palm; it only left a bloody trail rather than a scratch. She excitedly looked at him for praises.

“Oh, my baby… you hurt yourself because you did not want to hurt others.” his eyes filled up with tears automatically. He gently sobbed, nuzzling against her. “I’m so sorry… I’m so sorry that I could not find you before… if I had you would not have surfed from that cruel men’s medical testing.”

Trexa just silently squeaked and patted his forehead, as if she was trying to console him.