Song Qing had only played the game of picking up stones a few times when she was little, back at her maternal grandmother’s countryside home with a few friends. She had not played it for many years and was already quite rusty. She squatted on the concrete ground in the courtyard with the little boy.
The little boy, Li Yiqi, let her go first. Song Qing did not hold back. With her small, fair hands now healed, she held four smooth, rounded stones and clumsily tossed them up and down.
She had only reached the second round when one of the stones slipped from her hand and fell to the ground with a crisp sound. She bit her lip in frustration.
Li Yiqi grinned as he took the stones from her.
Looking at his curved eyes, Song Qing suspected that he was secretly laughing at how clumsy she was.
Then little Li Yiqi skillfully tossed and caught the stones with his small hands. Before long, he had made it all the way to the final round.
Song Qing squatted beside him, her fair little face filled with envy.
“Little Yiqi, you’re so good at this!”
“Pfft.”
A loud male laugh came from behind her. Song Qing turned around to look.
A tall, thin man was standing on the doorstep. He wore black pants and a gray shirt. His appearance was rough and rugged, with sunken cheeks, thick black eyebrows, and a brown scar about half the length of a finger on his left cheek.
At the moment, he was holding a large steamed bun and chewing on it. The same kind of bun that took her seven or eight bites to finish disappeared in half a bite from his mouth.
Compared with those men from before, this one actually looked more like a bad guy. But he had come out from inside the house, which clearly meant he had the homeowner’s permission. Song Qing did not rashly judge him.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Wang Haiting. You could say I used to be one of those men’s companions.”
Seeing the wariness in the girl’s eyes and the way her body had tensed, as if she could erupt at any moment, Wang Haiting hurriedly took a step back and waved his hands.
“Don’t get excited. I was only their companion before. I’m not like them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been locked in the cellar and starved until I became this thin.”
When he was rescued last night, he had seen the villagers dealing with the bodies. He had also heard that Ji Guohao and the others had all been taken down by this seemingly delicate and fragile girl.
He had not lived long enough yet. He certainly did not want to end up dead at the girl’s hands without even knowing what happened.
“Big Sister, he’s the uncle who helped us. He’s a good person.” Li Yiqi tugged at Song Qing’s clothes and whispered.
“Oh, I see.”
Song Qing’s tense body relaxed.
She had already activated half of her ability. If the man had taken any longer to explain himself, she might have attacked him.
Seeing that he was safe, Wang Haiting swallowed the remaining half of his steamed bun in one bite before walking over to play the stone game with them.
Song Qing was surprised to discover that this man, who looked like a bad guy and had a pair of large, thick-knuckled hands, was actually very nimble when playing with the stones. He and the little boy played back and forth quite skillfully.
He could even spare some attention to chat with her while playing.
Song Qing also learned about his background.
It turned out that before the apocalypse, he and Ji Guohao’s group had worked at a large hotel. He had been the head chef, while Ji Guohao had been a security guard. The others, including Xiao Liu, had worked as either security guards or servers.
After the apocalypse broke out, there were far too many zombies in the hotel. Wang Haiting had fought his way out of the kitchen with a long-handled ladle. When he ran into Ji Guohao and the others, they formed a group and escaped the hotel together.
Several people in their group awakened abilities, so they drove several cars and set out to find somewhere safe to settle down. When the zombies had first appeared, nowhere was safe.
They had traveled on and off for a year, losing many companions along the way. Eventually, they heard that a large base had been established in the south called Hua’an Base, which was very friendly toward ability users, so they planned to head there.
When they passed through Li Family Village and stopped to rest, Ji Guohao and the others said that the village had plenty of food, was far away from the city, and had relatively few zombies, making it very safe. So they decided to stay there instead of going to Hua’an Base.
At this point, Wang Haiting sighed and tossed the stone in his hand up and down.
“Actually, I agreed to stay at first too. In one year, more than half of our group of over twenty people had died. The journey was just too dangerous.”
“When I agreed to stay, I thought we would get along peacefully with the villagers, join them in their work, and become part of the village. But Ji Guohao developed evil intentions. He felt that with so many ability users among us, there was no need for us to live under someone else’s roof. He persuaded the others to abuse the villagers.”
“I disagreed and tried to stop them, but I ended up suffering the same fate as the villagers. I was locked in the cellar and fed irregularly, barely getting enough food to survive. The scar on my face was also from that time.”
“I used to weigh a perfect 180 pounds, but in that one year, I was forcibly starved down by fifty pounds. I was actually quite handsome before.”
Wang Haiting made pitiful faces at Song Qing and the little boy.
The expression on his rough, fierce-looking face was truly difficult to describe.
Song Qing widened her eyes and carefully examined his face before shaking her head. She simply could not imagine this fierce-looking face ever becoming handsome.
Little Li Yiqi looked up at the big man in confusion. He was young, but he was not completely without memories. Even before the big uncle had lost weight, he could not exactly be called handsome, right?
He had even been frightened by the uncle when they first met.
Could it be that what children considered handsome was different from what adults considered handsome?
Li Yiqi scratched his head and thought hard.
Wang Haiting was deeply wounded by their expressions and stubbornly added, “I really was handsome when my face had more flesh on it. Really! When I worked at the hotel, several girls around seventeen or eighteen even chased after me.”
Song Qing was suspicious.
Leaving aside whether he had really been handsome when his face was fuller, judging by his age, he looked like he was already in his thirties or forties. Even if girls around seventeen or eighteen wanted to chase after someone, they should be chasing men around their own age, right? Why would they chase someone that much older?
Could they have been won over by his personality?
“I. Am. Only. Twenty-five.”
Wang Haiting gritted his teeth and emphasized each word.
“I’m sorry.”
Song Qing covered her mouth in surprise. She had actually said what she was thinking out loud!
Then she was shocked by what he had said.
He was only twenty-five?
He was even younger than Jiang Chenyu?
He was only two years older than her!
It was completely impossible to tell!
Wang Haiting was so frustrated that he could not take it anymore. He stood up and went inside the house to look for more steamed buns.
He needed food to heal his wounded heart.
Little Li Yiqi watched his angry retreating back and opened his mouth, giggling.
“Big Sister, Uncle is so pitiful.”
Song Qing was infected by his laughter and wanted to laugh along, but she held it back. She blinked as she looked at Wang Haiting, who was now chewing on steamed buns inside the house.
Had she been too rude?
“Big Sister, let’s keep playing. Forget about Uncle.”
Li Yiqi pulled her along to continue playing.
Somehow, he had heard that she could make earth change shape, so he asked her to turn the yellow mud into all sorts of things for him to play with.
Facing the little boy’s innocent and hopeful face, Song Qing could not bring herself to refuse. She activated her ability and began doing delicate work, making crude tanks and superheroes according to his requests.
As they played, she became excited herself and created many little clay figures. She and Li Yiqi played a tank battle, relying on her ability to make the little figures fire tiny clumps of mud from the mud guns in their hands.
“Bang, bang, bang!”
The mud pellets shot toward Li Yiqi’s tanks and superheroes, covering them with holes and making the little boy cry out excitedly.
“Big Sister is so amazing!” Li Yiqi stared at the little figures that could magically shoot mud, his face full of wonder.
“Hahaha!”
Song Qing threw her head back and laughed happily. She became so excited and pleased with herself that she leaned too far backward and landed on the ground, getting yellow mud all over her bottom.
Now it was Li Yiqi’s turn to laugh.
The two of them played until noon.
When Song Qing smelled the rich aroma of meat coming from the kitchen, she hurried inside. She saw the tall and muscular Wang Haiting wearing a little pink apron while tossing a wok.
Several dishes had already been placed nearby.
One plate of golden-brown sweet-and-sour pork immediately caught her attention. It was evenly coated with a translucent sweet-and-sour sauce and looked incredibly appetizing.
“Can I eat it?” Song Qing asked eagerly, swallowing her saliva.
Wang Haiting, who was cooking in the kitchen, and Wang Xia, who was helping him, both answered at the same time.
“Help yourself.”
Song Qing picked up a large piece and put it into her mouth.
She was instantly amazed by the sweet-and-sour pork.
The outer coating was crispy, while the meat inside was tender and juicy. Combined with the sweet-and-sour sauce coating it, it was practically a feast for the taste buds.
The savory aroma of the meat and the sweet and sour flavor of the sauce blended together perfectly.
All she could say was that he truly deserved to be a chef from a large hotel.
After finishing one piece, she immediately ran upstairs to wake Jiang Chenyu.
Sweet-and-sour pork tasted best when it had just come out of the wok. If it sat for too long, it would no longer be crispy.
When she entered the room, she saw Jiang Chenyu leaning against the headboard with one leg bent and one hand resting on his knee. His posture was relaxed, and his expression was calm.
He looked like he had been awake for quite some time.
“You’re awake! Why didn’t you come downstairs to find me? It must be so boring staying here alone.”
Song Qing walked over and pulled him out of bed.
“Come on, let’s go downstairs. Lunch is ready. There’s super delicious sweet-and-sour pork. It was made by a chef from a large hotel!”
Jiang Chenyu got out of bed with her pulling him along and followed her outside.
He had not been bored at all.
He had been awake for more than two hours, with his mental power covering the entire house. First, he had watched her enthusiastically playing with mud with a five- or six-year-old child. Then he had watched her sniffing the aroma of food like a little hamster before entering the kitchen to ask for something to eat.
At the dining table, Jiang Chenyu ate very little. Even while busily eating her own meal, Song Qing did not forget to pick out the dishes she thought were delicious and put them into his bowl.
Jiang Chenyu lowered his head and looked at the bowl piled high with food. When she reached over again, he stopped her hand, his expression helpless.
“Don’t add any more. I can’t finish it.”
The large hand resting on the back of Song Qing’s hand was fair and slender, with fingers like pieces of jade bamboo. But he was too thin. There was hardly any flesh on his hands, and the veins on the back were clearly visible.
It would look even better if there were a little more flesh covering them!
She put the piece of chicken from her chopsticks back into her own bowl and pouted.
“Brother Yu, you’re too thin. You don’t even eat as much as I do. You need to eat more so your body can get better.”
“Okay, I’ll try my best.”
Jiang Chenyu nodded in agreement.
In his heart, he sighed.
She was energetic like a little calf every day, running around and doing all sorts of things. It was normal for her to eat as much as him, especially since he barely moved around.
Putting on the gentle big-brother persona, he offered to help.
She immediately made a fuss and pressed him back into his seat, telling him to rest properly. So he simply went along with it and sat there without moving.
His body had been imprisoned for more than a year. He had been subjected to large amounts of blood being drawn every day and had been cut open for various experiments. His body was now severely depleted.
No matter how much he ate in a short period of time, he could not make up for it immediately. He needed time.
Song Qing and Jiang Chenyu settled down at Wang Xia’s home.
Gradually, villagers came by to give Song Qing various things as a token of their gratitude.
There were dried vegetables, cured meat, cured duck, dried mushrooms, and other foods—all treasures from the countryside.
Song Qing accepted them with a bright smile.
She checked Jiang Chenyu’s injuries every day, made time to train her own ability, and, after learning that Wang Haiting was a second-order water-type ability user, often practiced with him.
Sometimes, they failed to hold back.
Both of them would end up covered in mud and water, then point at each other and laugh at one another.