And Cheng Qisheng—the very person being prayed to for divine protection—was indeed watching Zhu Feifan.
She remembered him.
After all, among the people of Blue Sea, being hemophobic was rarer than winning the lottery.
When Cheng Qisheng first discovered him, she had even wondered whether Blue Sea humans were beginning to biologically degenerate.
But later, she realized she had been overthinking it.
Generation after generation, newborns among the Blue Sea population had remained consistently normal.
Over all these years, Zhu Feifan had been the sole exception.
Which only made her pay even more attention to him.
After all, when everyone else was strong and only one person was weak, she always wanted to find out exactly what was going on.
Then Cheng Qisheng watched as Zhu Feifan happily returned to his own dwelling, grabbed onto a chain, and swung along it all the way to his father’s dwelling, his uncle’s dwelling, his classmates’ dwellings, and his construction team leader’s dwelling, telling everyone the good news.
She: “……”
Alright. Even if he was hemophobic, he was still a Blue Sea person after all.
Unaware that the great Creator God was observing him, Zhu Feifan sat on a small stool inside the team leader’s dwelling and excitedly finished sharing his news. Then a faint trace of disappointment crept into his expression.
“My mother, aunts, grandmother, and cousins are all in Building 405. I won’t make it there in time today, so I can only tell them tomorrow.”
Although everyone had mobile phones and received their daily routes through them, electricity was currently being used very sparingly, let alone other infrastructure.
Ordinary people’s phones no longer had network signals or communication functions. Communication had regressed to its most primitive form—face-to-face conversation.
The construction team leader laughed heartily.
“No problem. Just tell them tomorrow. Good news isn’t going anywhere.”
With that, he handed Zhu Feifan a white steamed bun.
“Here. Eat it. I bought it when I heard you were taking the exam. Now that you’ve passed, consider it a celebration gift.”
Zhu Feifan’s eyes widened, and he quickly waved his hands.
“No, no, no! I only came to share the good news—and to tell you I’m quitting the construction team. This white-flour bun is too expensive. I can’t accept it!”
After the great upheaval, Blue Sea’s top priority had been keeping everyone alive. Naturally, high-yield, easy-to-grow coarse grains had been prioritized.
The goal wasn’t for everyone to eat well, but simply to make sure everyone had enough to eat.
Most ordinary citizens of Blue Sea now ate coarse grains every day and only occasionally got to enjoy fine grains once or twice.
Military rations were slightly better, which was also one of the reasons more and more people were joining the army.
If Blue Sea residents working in the city wanted fine grains, they could afford them—but only with some effort. They were still a rare commodity, suitable for giving as gifts.
Zhu Feifan had already received plenty of care from the team leader while working in construction. How could he possibly accept something as valuable as a white-flour bun now?
The team leader didn’t waste any more words.
His tall figure suddenly closed in. In one swift motion, he wrapped an arm around Zhu Feifan and locked him firmly in place, while his other hand pinched Zhu Feifan’s cheeks, forcing his mouth slightly open.
Then he grabbed the steamed bun from the small table and shoved it straight in.
Done.
“Alright. It’s already in your mouth. You’ve gotten saliva on it. Whether you want to or not, you’re eating it now.”
Zhu Feifan pulled the bun out and stared at the team leader in shock. That speed and technique were obviously not something an ordinary person possessed.
“Boss, were you in the military?”
The team leader chuckled and proudly pointed at the long scar on his face.
“Got this during the Purple Forest Campaign ten years ago.”
Zhu Feifan was even more shocked.
The Purple Forest Campaign had been a major battle in Blue Sea’s modern history. It was during that war that President Qin Zhi defeated the last major power, the Yuan Nation.
Afterward, the remaining small and medium-sized nations lost all ability to resist. Within just four years, President Qin Zhi completed the unification of Blue Sea.
“You… you fought alongside President Qin?!”
Good heavens—he had actually been laying bricks alongside someone of that caliber?!
The team leader coughed lightly.
“Well… I was on the Yuan Nation’s side at the time.”
Zhu Feifan: “……”
He hurriedly tried to salvage the situation.
“You survived President Qin’s army without losing any limbs. That alone is incredible.”
But if the team leader was that skilled, why wasn’t he in the military?
After Blue Sea was unified, everyone was supposed to become a citizen of Blue Sea. With his abilities, he should have easily qualified for military service.
At the question, the team leader’s expression dimmed slightly. He patted Zhu Feifan on the shoulder.
“I’ve got kids. Two of them. The older one is nineteen, the younger one thirteen.”
“My wife died in the war. My mother, my father, my wife’s family… they’re all gone too.”
“If I joined the military… and something happened to me as well, sure, there’d be compensation, and the government would take care of things—but what about my kids? They can’t grow up without a parent.”
Zhu Feifan’s heart tightened. He looked at the team leader sympathetically.
“This… was all because of the Purple Forest Campaign?”
“Oh, not really. My wife died in the war between Yuan Nation and Da Nation. The others… they died during failed uprisings.”
Zhu Feifan: “……”
The team leader ruffled his hair.
“You were fifteen or sixteen back then, right? You should remember. Yuan Nation was extremely militaristic—always fighting wars and never developing anything. No one farmed the fields. People were starving. What else could they do? They rebelled.”
“But civilian uprisings couldn’t defeat the Yuan government, so they all died.”
“You don’t need to look at me like that. Back then, if they hadn’t rebelled, they would’ve starved anyway. At least rebelling gave them a quicker end. They fought until the very last moment—I’m proud of them.”
The team leader pulled Zhu Feifan back down to sit.
“I’m telling you all this because I want you to understand—I’ve been hungry before. I know what hunger feels like. Even though Blue Sea values bravery, I know just how important food is.”
“In my eyes, you people who study agriculture are just as worthy of respect as soldiers.”
“Work hard. Blue Sea doesn’t have as much land as it used to, and our food reserves aren’t as abundant, but our God saved our lives. We still have a long future ahead of us.”
“People like us who can only do manual labor will support you from behind. Once you figure out those alien seeds, if one acre can feed a hundred people, then we won’t have anything to worry about anymore!”
Zhu Feifan felt a mixture of emotions and finally managed to squeeze out a sentence:
“Boss… one acre feeding a hundred people sounds almost impossible.”
After all, he was only a freshly graduated master’s student.
The team leader laughed loudly.
“Didn’t our God already bring us to another planet under divine protection? What’s impossible about that? Kid—believe in yourself!”
“It’s just one white-flour bun anyway. Once you develop those seeds, everyone will have enough food. I’ll be eating buns by the cartload!”
That day, Zhu Feifan ate a white-flour bun for the first time in a long while.
The next day, his family held a celebration for him. They pooled their money together and bought him a large steak.
His mother’s leave had ended, and she was returning to the military that day. Before leaving, she slapped him on the shoulder with a loud thump—so hard and with such unrestrained excitement that Zhu Feifan winced in pain.
“Eat well! Eat enough so you have strength! Work hard! May the God bless you!”
Zhu Feifan shared the steak with his family and saw his mother off. Then he made his way to the research institute.
He took a deep breath.
It was strange. Even though he was already twenty-five, he had always felt as though he hadn’t really grown up yet.
But now, standing outside the institute, Zhu Feifan suddenly felt that he had.
He was no longer thinking only about finding a job.
Instead, just as the team leader had said, he wanted to cultivate a truly outstanding crop—just as his teachers at school had once said, a goal worthy of dedicating one’s entire life to, even if it meant pouring everything into a single seed.
He noticed that quite a few people had gathered outside the research institute in this district. They were probably all people who had passed yesterday’s exam.
He looked down at the message on his phone from the AI confirming his employment:
Field Breeding Technician.
Work hard!
After entering, he began looking for the hall assigned to his group. Just as he found the correct section and was about to line up, the girl in front of him turned around and asked:
“Hi, are you also a Field Breeding Technician?”
He looked up and saw someone around his age, with a similarly dark complexion and an equally weathered appearance.
There was no need to guess her profession—she was clearly in agriculture.
Zhu Feifan glanced at their matching skin tones and suddenly felt a sense of familiarity, as though he were back at school. He quickly replied:
“Yes, I am. Which group are you in? I’m in Group 143A.”
“I’m in B. Same group as you!”
Zhu Feifan brightened immediately.
“What a coincidence! So we’re going to be colleagues. My name is Zhu Feifan. What’s yours?”
The girl smiled and introduced herself.
“My name is Ma Yuetian.”
“However, we probably won’t actually be colleagues. Group A works inside the city, while Group B has to go outside.”
Zhu Feifan was startled.
“Go outside? Outside to farm?”
“Yep. There’s too little farmland inside the city, so we have to go out. I’m really looking forward to it. I originally wanted to join the military, but I got rejected because I’m under 180 centimeters tall. I heard that if we go outside the city, we’ll be moving together with the military. I was so excited I couldn’t sleep all night.”
Ma Yuetian smiled brightly, showing no trace of anxiety about going outside at all. In fact, that was the normal state of Blue Sea people.
Even though she had never been official combat personnel, the thought of going outside—where she might encounter zombies—didn’t scare her in the slightest.
At worst, she’d just grab a farming hoe and go at them.
Zhu Feifan looked at her enviously.
“That’s great.”
He wanted to go too. But because of his hemophobia, he couldn’t afford to take risks. Fainting inside the city and fainting outside the city were two very different things.
Ma Yuetian patted him on the shoulder.
“It’s fine. You’re still contributing from inside the city. We all do our part, and in the end, it’s the results that matter.”
“Also, when I come back on leave, I’ll tell you about all the exciting things outside. Oh, right! Did you know? Our group is actually really lucky this time—we might be going to the neighboring city with the military!”
“Guess why they’re letting us go with them?”
“Ah?! Oh my God!! You can go to another city?! Wait, don’t tell me—let me guess!”
“Go ahead, guess. You’ll never get it.”
The two of them immediately became absorbed in an enthusiastic conversation.
And Cheng Qisheng became curious as well.
The key problem was that this hemophobic guy never guessed correctly, yet he stubbornly insisted on trying. She waited for three minutes and still didn’t get an answer.
Cheng Qisheng: “……”
The great Creator God decided to check the backend directly and find out the reason herself.
She flipped through Aether’s uploaded records. It seemed the number of troops deployed for this operation wasn’t large—fewer than three thousand people at most. She flipped through a couple of pages but still couldn’t find it.
Forget it.
The great Creator God decided to simply ask Aether directly.
“Aet—Aether, what is the military operation that resident Ma Yuetian mentioned?”
“Understood, City Lord. Aether is retrieving the information.”
The jellyfish floating above her head immediately sprang into action. At her summons, it drifted down and, within seconds, pulled up the corresponding military operation.
“Operation codename: Rescue the Farmer.”
“Reason for operation: While in Wudu City, adjacent to Qianli City, the Uralala Crystal Hunter Squad rescued a group of local university students. They brought back intelligence indicating that Wudu City University’s College of Agriculture contains a large number of surviving locals. Among them is a local agricultural expert whose status in this world is comparable to Academician Gu Tian.”
—Academician Gu Tian was the person who had once developed the high-yield starfruit vegetable.
Aether continued earnestly:
“Objective of operation: The military, in coordination with agricultural initiatives, has assessed that rescuing agricultural experts from the zombie world will greatly benefit seed-breeding efforts and the collection of additional crop data from this world. The expert’s intellectual capabilities are also considered highly valuable for integration into Blue Sea.”
“Decision: Marshal Alice Reina approved this rescue operation at 00:32 last night. Operation time: 8:00 AM tomorrow.”
Cheng Qisheng raised an eyebrow.
Rescue a farmer?
She knew that Old Eighth had always been obedient—always quick to respond to anything she said—but this was perhaps a little too obedient.
The Blue Sea military was actually deploying troops… to rescue agricultural experts from a zombie world?
And they were even sending helicopters?
If they could really rescue someone comparable to Academician Gu Tian, that would indeed be excellent.
The Creator God finished her cup of starfruit vegetable juice, diluted what remained with water, and continued drinking.
She decided she would wake up early tomorrow.
She wanted to watch the entire operation.