Chapter 81 - Father
Seeing that the RV had become still, Chu Yunxiu no longer concentrated her energy on Ping Shengchao and only the expert in the RV was left in her mind.
The zombies outside were getting stronger, and they would be eaten up by zombies sooner or later if this continued; perhaps they would even become zombies as well… However, if the expert was willing to help them, perhaps they had a chance to turn the tables!
Chu Yunxiu took a few steps forward and stood by the RV. The surrounding other ability users, especially the ones with water or fire abilities, gathered around. Everyone’s gazes were focused on the car door as they waited for the expert to come out.
There truly was someone who came out. However, that person absolutely wasn’t the strong fire and water dual ability user they had seen, but instead a young boy who looked about seven to eight years old.
Currently, the outside was very cold, and the wind blowing on one’s face brought a penetrating chill. Without the circumstances pre-apocalypse where everyone ate and drank their fill, both adults and children generally had frostbite or chapped skin. The worst even had flushed cheeks, but this child had a tender pink face that gave people an urge to pinch his cheeks.
“Xiaomao, come here. Big brother will carry you.” Qi An first came out of the car then called Xiaomao over. After Xiaomao stepped on the steps to the car door, he carried her up.
Xiaomao was haggard when they originally saved her, but after caring for her for a period of time, they had managed to fatten her up. Ever since Qi An learnt a bit of child-rearing knowledge from Mu Yi, and started applying vanishing cream on her face every day, her face had become even more tender.
Two small children who looked like porcelain truly were extremely beautiful, and those Z County ability users felt somewhat rueful when looking— Even Chu Yunxiu’s nephew, who was the least lacking for food, had turned from a somewhat pudgy kid to bare bones. For these people to raise children to look like this, they were clearly powerful… However, why wasn’t that strong person coming out yet?
While they were still confused, a leg slid out of the door again.
The leg was wearing a pair of clean ugg boots which were without a spot of dirt. When it stepped on the snowed ground, it even made people feel worried that the snow would dirty the shoes. Looking up from the shoes, there were khaki-coloured casual pants and a long, black mink fur overcoat, which also gave a sense of not having a speck of dust… Immediately after, that person appeared before everyone.
Previously, everyone had secretly praised that the two children were being cared for well, but when they saw this person, they suddenly realised that the two kids really weren’t much. It was such a difference once they compared the children to this youth, the children were obviously a little rough.
The youth was wearing a mink fur cloak, and his whole body appeared furry. The black mink fur was in stark contrast to his skin, making it look even fairer, and he simply looked as though he had walked out of a photo.
“Ping Shengchao, Nie Yi is about to rise a level. You will be in charge of the matters here for the time being.” Qi Jingchen came down from the car to say this, then looked at the people nearby who had just come down from upstairs. “Call Yaoyao and the others over and see if they have any acquaintances.” This county was somewhat large. If they strolled a lap inside, they would probably run into a few familiar faces…
The zombies outside were beaten back, and many strong people had also come to this community. This made the people who originally hid in houses and were afraid to come out all poke their heads out of their homes one after another.
At first, Qi Jingchen had been puzzled by why the people hiding at home wouldn’t come out to fight, but now that he saw their appearances, he couldn’t help but admit that even if they had joined the fray, perhaps they would only cause be inconveniences— These people had already long lost their strength from starvation.
They were generally bony, and wore dirty clothes. While they gathered over to peek from afar, they didn’t dare come close at all.
“Ping Shengchao, have people cook some congee for them to eat,” Qi Jingchen said.
“I’ll have them prepare some right away,” Ping Shengchao said. After hearing that Nie Yi didn’t come down because he was upgrading, Ping Shengchao became excited. He even pondered whether he should add a bit more seasoning for the congee they’ll be giving in celebration— They, the Chenguang Team, had gathered a lot of supplies, so they weren’t scarce for food at all!
Qi Jingchen was somewhat inharmonious with everything around him. When he just came out, Chu Yunxiu didn’t dare go over to talk to him until now, when Qi Jingchen ordered Ping Shengchao to cook congee. Chu Yunxiu carefully greeted, “Good… Good day…”
Over here, they weren’t used to saying such a formal greeting, but she had unconsciously spoken like so.
“Hello.” Qi Jingchen nodded at Chu Yunxiu, and his gaze fell on Chu Yunxiu’s husky.
A mutated animal who could awaken to an ability was even rarer than a mutated plant, and there were absolutely none that had an owner. He never thought he would actually bump into one here.
As for the ownerless ones… Cough cough, he had eaten some in his last life…
“Bark bark!” The husky suddenly barked while pouncing over to Qi Jingchen. He hopped left and right, and, oh god, even wanted to sink its claws into Qi Jingchen’s clothes.
Qi Jingchen was very interested in this dog, but it was too dirty, and its body was covered in the smell of zombies&#k2026;
At the moment when Qi Jingchen frowned, Zhang Zihai directly caught the dog and simply didn’t allow it to touch Qi Jingchen.
“Sorry, Xiaoxiao didn’t mean it,” Chu Yunxiu hastily said and looked at Zhang Zihai worriedly, afraid that her dog had offended this strong person and would be killed off.
“It’s fine, but you have to be careful. Don’t have it agitate Qi shao.” Zhang Zihai returned the dog to Chu Yunxiu. This resulted in the husky unexpectedly being very restless in Chu Yunxiu’s embrace, running and leaping, still wanting to rush over to Qi Jingchen…
“Xiaoxiao!” Chu Yunxiu nearly knelt for this overly excited dog of hers, and could only hug the dog unrelentingly. The dog probably thought Chu Yunxiu wanted to play with it and finally no longer stared at Qi Jingchen, instead beginning to play with Chu Yunxiu.
Chu Yunxiu, who originally wanted to go over and start a conversation with Qi Jingchen, now had no choice but to accompany her dog in going wild…
“Do you want to go in and sit?” Another ability user stood up and spoke to Qi Jingchen.
“No need… Wei Jinrong?” Qi Jingchen sized up the ability user for a while, then hesitantly called out his name.
“You… you know me?” When Wei Jinrong heard Qi Jingchen, he was both surprised and delighted, but couldn’t recall for his life where he had met this person.
“I’m Qi Jingchen,” Qi Jingchen said. The Wei Jinrong before him shared the same dormitory in high school. Their relationship was rather good, but he got much busier after he entered college, so their contact lessened.
“Qi Jingchen?!” Wei Jinrong looked at Qi Jingchen in astonishment. He stared for a good while before he realised that this person’s facial features were the same as the Qi Jingchen he recalled. However, Qi Jingchen’s at that time had a bit of acne, and wore the school uniform everyday. His appearance was only somewhat similar to the person before him.
“It’s me. I came back for a look.” Qi Jingchen smiled.
“It turns out that you’re from here!” The ability users around Wei Jinrong hurriedly said. Even though they currently weren’t clear about what status Qi Jingchen had, if they ignored everything else, just the way Qi Jingchen dressed showed that he definitely wasn’t some minor character in this team.
Aside from Qi Jingchen, everyone else was wearing the same uniform!
“That’s right.” Qi Jingchen nodded. He had attended primary school in the village, but spent his middle and secondary school in the county. He truly was very, very familiar with this county town.
Qi Jingchen’s eyes were filled with reminiscence, and Wei Jinrong came back to himself as well. “Qi Jingchen, I never thought you’d be this amazing now! There’s still a few of our schoolmates here ne. Wanna go visit?”
“No thanks. I want to go back for a look.” Qi Jingchen pointed and the RV. Although he knew that Nie Yi wouldn’t have a problem upgrading this time, he still wanted to accompany Nie Yi.
“Yes, yes, you should go.” Wei Jinrong nodded repeatedly. That dual ability user was already very strong before he advanced in level, so after he did… they definitely should curry favour with him well.
The reborn Qi Jingchen could see that Wei Jinrong was already pretty good. After such a long time since they drifted apart, he truly didn’t have much feelings so as to chat with Wei Jinrong, so he returned to the RV very soon.
Previously, regardless of how cold it was outside, Nie Yi would always keep the inside of the RV warm and comfy. However, he was now focused on rising in level and had no way of maintaining this. It was to the extent that the place was getting steadily colder because a lot of energy in their surroundings was flying towards him.
Qi Jingchen tightened the cloak on his body and walked to the side, watching Nie Yi as he ate.
It was too cold outside and they simply couldn’t plant anything without it dying. However, they still found a way to deal with this; that was to create a large canopy on the roof of the truck.
There were a few trucks that they had spread full with shelves, and filled the shelves with plants; then, they encircled them with a plastic sheet, and occasionally had a fire ability user go over and raise the temperature, thus forming a mobile canopy.
These mobile canopies mostly had potatoes and sweet potatoes planted. The potatoes had a high output and short growth period, and were one of humanity’s main food sources during the late stage of the apocalypse. As for the sweet potatoes, their leaves could be eaten as vegetables; the tuber’s flavour was good as well, so it was also a very suitable food to grow during the apocalypse.
Qi Jingchen was now eating the potato Nie Yi had previously roasted for him. But quite a while had passed, and the previously warm and toasty potato had turned cold, and there was no taste when he ate it.
The inside of the RV was silent and without a single noise. Chu Yunxiu and the rest waited outside for a while, but ultimately could not stand the bitter cold and went into the houses.
Of course, there was a greater reason they did this; it was perhaps also because Ping Shengchao had people cook congee.
The ground floor of the few multistory buildings in this community had been used for various things. In the center, the largest building’s ground floor had been turned into the community’s gym. Not only was the interior extremely spacious, there were also several pieces of exercise equipment arranged.
Now the exercise equipment was moved aside, and a few large woks were set up in the center.
The people here were already very, very hungry. When Ping Shengchao was cooking congee, in order to feed them even quicker, he first cooked a few pots of congee with cornflour and instant oatmeals for these people to each drink a bowl, only then did they start cooking with husked rice.
Chu Yunxiu actually wasn’t lacking in food, but having just gone through a battle, she drank down the hot oat and corn congee, and felt comfortable all over. Her dog Xiaoxiao had even been scalded because it was in a hurry to drink.
She was already so affected, so the others did not need to be mentioned. This place wasn’t lacking people who hadn’t eaten in days, and now they did not even care about being burnt when they held the congee, hurriedly gulping it down their stomachs…
Although the others were wolfing down their food, Wei Jinrong drank very slowly, and the corner of his lips had a curl of a smile— Qi Jingchen always had a good relationship with him, so from now on… perhaps he would have a good life! Maybe he could even eat his fill for every meal!
Wei Jinrong was moved, but finally smiled bitterly. In the past, he felt uncomfortable when there was no meat in his meal, but now it was already difficult enough to eat one’s fill…
“Mr. Wei.” Just as Wei Jinrong was thinking about his worries, someone suddenly came to his side.
“What is it?” Wei Jinrong asked.
“Mr. Wei, was that person just now called Qi Jingchen?” The person who came to Wei Jinrong was a middle-aged man around his fifties. He appeared to be in tatters, but when he said the three words “Qi Jingchen”, his eyes suddenly lit up.
This person, even if he wanted to learn about Qi Jingchen through Wei Jinrong, coming up to ask like this was just too obvious… Wei Jinrong frowned, somewhat unhappy.
“Did he come from Donglin village that year?” the middle-aged person asked.
Wei Jinrong thought for a moment before saying, “I think so. Why?”
“I’m his dad!” This middle-aged man’s entire appearance suddenly livened up, his eyes filled with joy. “I’m his dad! This child… he’s become promising now ah!”
“That’s not wrong ah. I’ve seen his dad before; I don’t think he looks like you.” Wei Jinrong frowned. Qi Jingchen’s father obviously had been a short man who wasn’t very good with words.
A trace of embarrassment appeared on that man’s face, but he soon said, “I’m not mistaken; I definitely am not mistaken. Take a look at me, don’t I look a bit similar to him?”
This man’s face was covered in wrinkles, his whole person appeared extremely aged. Wei Jinrong couldn’t really see which part of him was similar to Qi Jingchen…
“Look, this is my daughter. She’s simply a carbon copy of her brother!” The man added while pulling over a young girl.
This girl was a little thin and tan, and was simply day and nightwhen compared with the current Qi Jingchen. However, she genuinely did look very similar to the past Qi Jingchen.
Wei Jinrong recalled that Qi Jingchen truly had a little sister. Even though he had never met her because that girl didn’t live in the county, it could be seen that Qi Jingchen cared about his sister very much… Like this, his belief in the person before him grew.
In the end, he had trusted this person’s words when Chu Yunxiu walked over. “That Qi Jingchen who came out of the RV to see us just now, his sister is over there. Don’t you know Qi Jingchen? Hurry up and go see her ah!
That’s right, Qi Jingchen’s sister seemed to be called Yaoyao. He would always Yaoyao this, Yaoyao that all day!
Wei Jinrong looked suspiciously at the father and daughter beside him.
Xu Yehui spotted Wei Jinrong’s expression, and embarrassment surfaced on his face again. Yet right at this time, the girl beside him that he had pulled over and said to be “a carbon copy” of Qi Jingchen suddenly spoke up. “Dad, since when did I have an older brother?”
“Silence!” Xu Yehui glared at his daughter, then left while pulling her along.
At the beginning, Xu Yehui was incompatible with his first wife, so they had a divorce. And after their divorce, their son was judged to be given to him.
At the time, he was very busy with work and naturally had no time to care for this child. So he sent him to his parents to be raised, and met his current wife two years later.
His current wife was young, beautiful, and had a good family background. It was him who spent a great deal of effort to pursue her, but when she learnt that he unexpectedly had a son in the countryside, she was unwilling to marry him…
Xu Yehui naturally did not want to give up on the woman he loved, so he thought of a plan— put his son up for adoption.
After he married his second wife, they immediately had a daughter; it was the girl beside him, called Xu Qiuyu.
Xu Yehui basically had never come in contact with Qi Jingchen before, and thus never cared about this son. However, he had taken care of Xu Qiuyu since she was a baby, so he treasured her very much.
The reason they were here right now was because he brought his wife and daughter to his hometown to play.
They played rather happily, but then the apocalypse came…
“Dad! You scared me! Also, that Qi Jingchen; how did he become my ge?” After Xu Qiuyu was pulled away by Xu Yehui, she looked at him indignantly.
“He is your brother! Xiao Yu, later dad will bring you to see him. We’ll have a good chat with him; perhaps he’ll be able to save your mom,” Xu Yehui said. His current wife was called Qiu Tong. A few days ago, she started to have stomach aches for some reason, and had been in pain for over a week now.
“Dad, what on earth is with Qi Jingchen?” When Xu Qiuyu heard that he could save her mother, she no longer made a fuss.
When Xu Yehui saw his daughter’s behaviour, he finally relaxed, then explained everything about Qi Jingchen.
At the same time, in the RV, Nie Yi opened his eyes.