Chapter 66 - Departure
Fei Xuelei’s secure base had always been in B City, and Fei Xuelei and his soldiers were also people dispatched by B City secure base to rescue the nearby civilians. Therefore, Fei Xuelei’s secure base was actually a branch of B City secure base, and Nie Yi also had to send those people to B City secure base.
But W County secure base wasn’t the same.
Besides the fact that Nie Yi currently had no plans of returning to B City secure base, even if he were to return, he couldn’t possibly bring W County secure base’s people on such a long journey to B City. Even if he really went through the hardship to bring these people back to B City secure base, he wouldn’t earn any goodwill and receive B City secure base’s reproach instead.
So what he had to do now was to settle the people here down.
Nie Yi was rather unwilling to do this sort of thing. After all, he didn’t harbour any goodwill to this secure base. Moreover, like Qi Jingchen said, everyone was going to die eventually… Then, why couldn’t these people just die sooner?
Unfortunately, he had entertained this thought in his mind, but also knew that he couldn’t do this. Because that would disappoint his subordinates, and… Qi Jingchen liked liveliness.
As such, Nie Yi stepped up and began to arrange various matters in the secure base.
Xiaomao had a separate space, but Nie Yi didn’t allow her to take the food from this base. Instead, it was all left behind, then made public.
W County was a county that grew crops, and had several food factories. The secure base had tons of food, and when Nie Yi announced the numbers, everyone was extremely excited at first, but later fell silent.
At first, there were some that had thought that Nie Yi had killed Su Haisheng because he wanted to secretly seize this secure base, but now believed otherwise. Instead, they thought it was good that Su Haisheng died.
They had so much food, yet so many people starved to death every day…
“Currently, the food reserves in W County secure base are like this. I will find people to manage these materials together, and the daily consumption will also be published from this day onwards. But I want to say in advance that if you think everything is fine with this much food, then you’ll only be eating without providing!” Nie Yi said, “If you want to survive, you cannot stay in the secure base without budging!”
Nie Yi spoke the truth, and everyone knew this very well.
If Nie Yi had said this to B City secure base, it would only go through one ear and out the other for those who had been saved by the military at the very beginning of the apocalypse and had never suffered. But most of the people in this base had been victims of starvation before.
They had nearly starved to death, so how could they be afraid of leaving the base? After hearing Nie Yi’s words, there were already several people thinking about how they should go outside to look for food and hoard them.
Even those who weren’t daring enough to kill zombies were thinking that they could plant potatoes and corn in the mountains nearby, especially potatoes. If the potatoes were well taken care of, they could harvest it in three or four months, and they might even be able to collect a second crop before winter.
Nie Yi ultimately entrusted the secure base to nine people to jointly manage. Among them were officials before the apocalypse, factory directors, and even a university student who had awakened to their ability. They had various identities, but none of them saw human life as weeds.
Throughout that night, the entire base was bustling. The next day, no one slacked off and worked hard at their jobs instead… Some had even formed teams and took this chance when Nie Yi had cleared out the zombies outside to look for food nearby.
Of course, there were people who were taking a nap; such as Qi Jingchen.
In order for this base to step onto the right track as soon as possible, Nie Yi planned to stay for another two more days. In any case, there was nothing to do during these two days, so Qi Jingchen simply slept a little more. When he woke up, Nie Yi had long left.
In the past, Nie Yi would always be by his side when he woke up every day. With no one by his side when he woke up, Qi Jingchen was a little unused to it. He cleaned himself up with the water Nie Yi left, then walked out.
“Big Brother Qi, you’re awake!” Qi An was sitting outside Qi Jingchen’s room while carrying Xiaomao, and immediately spoke when he saw Qi Jingchen step out. He took out bowls that had been wrapped with cling film. “Big Brother Qi, Nie Yi had already made breakfast for you to eat after you woke up.”
Breakfast was congee, scrambled eggs, radish sprout with salad dressing, as well as kelp with salad dressing. Recently, Nie Yi was learning how to make salad dressing.
But salad dressing was truly convenient. Qi Jingchen loved spicy food. Heat up a bottle of chilli oil, and after rinsing the vegetables in water, add salt and chilli oil then toss it. A bowl of vegetables was done.
Qi Jingchen was very satisfied with breakfast, and finished off two bowls of congee in one breath. After that, he called Qi An over. “I hear you want to collect food?”
“En!” Qi An nodded.
“There’s no rush in collecting food, especially the food nearby. Those are better left for the people here. However, you can go collect some seeds, like cabbage seeds or radish seeds,” Qi Jingchen said.
Nie Yi had planted some cabbages and radishes, and now they had all germinated. When thinning out the small cabbages and radishes, some were planted somewhere else, the others… became salad.
“Then I’ll go look for seeds!” Qi An nodded
“Go ba,” Qi Jingchen said. He wasn’t worried about Qi An. After all, Qi An had once been a general under him.
Qi An was an impetuous person and immediately picked Xiaomao up. Xiaomao was now used to this little gege carrying her, and pasted herself onto Qi An and said in a milky voice, “Gege, I want to eat milk candy.”
“Gege will help you look for some!” Qi An promptly nodded. Xiaomao was his treasure, and whatever she asked for would be granted by him.
Qi An carried Xiaomao out and just happened to bump into Qi Yaoyao. When Qi Yaoyao saw Qi An, her lips promptly curled.
Qi Jingchen was clearly her gege, but why did he treat this kid better than her? Qi Yaoyao was feeling jealous, but thinking that Qi An was still young and just a child, she calmed down.
“Yaoyao, did you need something?” Qi Jingchen looked at Qi Yaoyao and asked curiously.
“Ge, do you want to visit Uncle Weiguo and the others?” Qi Yaoyao asked, then became somewhat at a loss. “Uncle Weiguo said that Nie Yi had once seized them to ask about you… You and Nie Yi…”
In the past, Qi Jingchen appeared as if he didn’t care about anything, and wasn’t concerned about Nie Yi at all. Qi Yaoyao had thought he didn’t like Nie Yi, but that didn’t seem so now… Recently, these two were genuinely intimate.
“I was acquainted with him a long time ago.” Qi Jingchen smiled, then revealed a bitter expression. “I worried that mom and dad won’t be happy, so I said nothing.” In any case, his relationship with Nie Yi was now tacitly approved by everyone, so he had nothing to explain.
Qi Yaoyao was stunned, then immediately accepted this reason. After all, her parents had never even heard of homosexuality. If Qi Jingchen had announced it back then, it would definitely lead to family conflicts. “Then why did you seem as if you didn’t like Nie Yi back then?”
“I didn’t feel well and thought I was going to die,” Qi Jingchen said, then shifted the topic. “Yaoyao, at that time, I thought I couldn’t protect you forever so I had you kill zombies. Don’t blame me.”
“I know, ge, you did it for my own good,” Qi Yaoyao immediately said.
“Even though Nie Yi speaks bluntly to you, he wouldn’t just stand by and watch if something happened to you. I wasn’t worried at that time.” Qi Jingchen stroked Qi Yaoyao’s head. He wasn’t used to such an obedient and clever little sister.
His feelings for Qi Yaoyao definitely couldn’t compare to what he felt for Nie Yi, and wasn’t even on par with Qi An. After all, he hadn’t interacted with her for so many years. But no matter what, he would protect Qi Yaoyao, giving her a safer life before she dies.
And for Qi Yaoyao to live safely, she had to understand the current situation so she wouldn’t be deceived by outsiders.
“I know.” Qi Yaoyao nodded. Though she had always been killing zombies, everyone had been protecting her and this was all due to Nie Yi.
“Nie Yi doesn’t like that you’re close to me. I don’t know what to say, so I can only wrong you,” Qi Jingchen continued.
“I’m fine! It’s already good enough now!” Qi Yaoyao exclaimed. After learning that Nie Yi had never forced her brother, she thought about it and felt that Nie Yi wasn’t bad. If it wasn’t for Nie Yi at the start, she and her ge might have starved to death at home.
As such, she now even felt that her ge seemed to be excessive sometimes… “Ge, are you okay with Nie Yi?”
“It’s fine. He likes it this way.” Qi Jingchen smiled. Of course his relationship with Nie Yi was fine. The matters between them weren’t what it seemed to outsiders. “Go ba, visit Uncle Weiguo.”
He had Qi Yaoyao bring those people back to avoid Su Haisheng fussing about them. Now that Su Haisheng had been dealt with, he should go and pay them a visit.
Qi Jingchen left first while Qi Yaoyao followed behind, but she felt as if she had been struck by lightning. Nie Yi liked her brother acting impolite with him… Could he be the legendary M?
It wasn’t long before Qi Jingchen and Qi Yaoyao arrived at Qi Weiguo and the others’ residence. At this time, Qi Weiguo had just been talking about them.
Qi Weiguo and the others knew of the extremely powerful Nie shao who had come from the capital; they had also seen Nie shao’s team kill zombies outside the base. However, they had never met the man himself, up until last night.
They were living together with Nie Yi’s subordinates. During yesterday’s public meeting, they were squeezed to the very front and could see Nie Yi’s appearance.
Once they saw him, they were stunned. This Nie Yi… wasn’t he the one who had stopped them to ask about Qi Jingchen?
This person had been incredibly fierce back then and they were scared witless. As such, they wouldn’t recognise him wrongly… B City secure base chief’s son, the mighty Nie shao, why was he looking for Qi Jingchen back then?
It should be known that while Qi Jingchen was a rather promising child in their village, their village wasn’t remote, and the villagers’ family circumstances were generally okay. Family planning was very strict and they valued education very much, so there were many university students, and some had achieved much better results for their college entrance exam compared to Qi Jingchen. In short, Qi Jingchen was just a regular youth. How did he meet such a great person?
“Say, what on earth is going on with Jingchen? I thought Nie shao just thought highly of him, but Nie shao had even specially looked for him and even recognised us…” Qi Weiguo was a little baffled.
“Yes ah…” the others agreed, “Nie shao treats us too well, providing us with good food and drinks. It makes me a little uncertain in my heart.” Actually, they had only been eating together with Nie Yi’s subordinates, but to them who had practically resorted to eating weeds a few days ago, the dishes and rice served were definitely treasures.
They were feeling overwhelmed by Nie Yi’s favour when they suddenly heard Qi Yaoyao’s voice from outside. “Uncle Weiguo, I’m here!”
Qi Weiguo and the others promptly went out to meet her, and saw Qi Yaoyao walking towards them with a handsome youth.
The youth was very handsome, and looked even better than a young lady like Qi Yaoyao. Qi Weiguo couldn’t help taking a couple more glances, then abruptly realised this person seemed familiar.
“Uncle Weiguo,” Qi Jingchen greeted.
Qi Weiguo finally recognised him. “You’re… Jingchen?”
“Yes.” Qi Jingchen smiled.
This person really was Qi Jingchen. There wasn’t much of a change to his facial features, but there certainly was a great change in him. As Qi Weiguo looked, he felt that the difference between the past and current Qi Jingchen was as great as the real appearance of the girl living next door to his home and her appearance in photos.
He had no idea what she did to the photo, but the pimples on her skin had disappeared, and she had turned fair, her face small while her eyes had become larger.
If it was before the apocalypse, Qi Weiguo might have thought Qi Jingchen had gone for plastic surgery. However, he had met Qi Jingchen not long before the apocalypse started… Who would have the time for plastic surgery during the apocalypse?
But Qi Jingchen really had changed too much…
Qi Jingchen’s change was too large and his temperament was even more unlike the past; it made Qi Weiguo and the rest cautious and timid.
Qi Jingchen had already forgotten how he interacted with these people in the past. Aside from being a little more familiar with Qi Weiguo, he was already very unfamiliar with the other two of the four, and so he deliberately chose to create a sense of alienation between them.
They spoke briefly about the recent development, and Qi Weiguo finally couldn’t help asking, “Jingchen, what’s your relationship with Nie shao?”
“Nie Yi? He’s my boyfriend.” Qi Jingchen smiled.
Nie Yi and the rest stayed in W County secure base for another two more days before departing.
The number of trucks and supplies he came with was the same as what he had departed with. When the secure base’s people saw this, they were even more grateful to him, and many even wanted to follow Nie Yi to leave.
In all honesty, W County secure base could be established because the local government had organised it at the start. Back then, the government had first asked the food factory workers to gather and move the grains to the secure base. The police and firefighters also followed their higher-ups’ instructions and moved the state-established granaries in W County over.
Su Haisheng had actually done well initially, and had been a local official who had quite a few achievements, which was how he could become the chief. Unfortunately, as he gathered more ability users, it eventually became his dictatorship rule.
Some people had been desperate enough to move provisions back for the secure base back then. However, as they were mere regular people with no abilities, they ended up starving.
Now, these people wanted to leave. They also dared to beg Nie Yi to help because they had experience in confronting zombies, but he didn’t agree to their requests— he had no plans of adding more people to his team.
He didn’t even bring along the children Qi An had saved. The dangers they would face on the road were severe, and it was very inconvenient to bring along children. Might as well leave them here— After all, W County secure base was already considerably decent since it had gone through reorganisation.
In the end, they had only brought along Qi Jingchen’s fellow villagers that had been frightened by Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen’s relationship.
After leaving W County secure base, their next destination was a cement plant that was about half a day’s journey away.
In their last life, W County secure base was lively and glorious; later, it was a fire ability user from W County who had found a fire elemental plant in that cement plant.
This fire ability user was Su Haisheng’s trusted aide. As his ability was already strong, he didn’t eat the mutated plant; instead, he brought it back to B City secure base to exchange for guns and ammunition. It was because of this that Nie Yi knew of its definite location.