“How come Qian Lele doesn’t share their last name?” Shen Yu asked casually.
Xi Yue looked at Shen Yu with a glare that practically said, I can’t believe you’re such a gossip, before explaining, “It seems they aren’t blood relatives. I remember they arrived together that day. Old Man Fang let Qian Lele choose whether to live on his own or live together, and Qian Lele said he didn’t want to be separated from them. So, that’s how things ended up the way you see now.”
“Since Lele managed to become a family with Old Man Fang, he probably has no relatives left. Although I’ve never lived out there myself, seeing how bedraggled those adults look, it really couldn’t have been easy for a four- or five-year-old child to survive. But now that he has Old Man Fang taking care of him, things will definitely get better for him from now on,” Xi Yue said with a hint of sorrowful sighing.
When Shen Yu first saw Qian Lele’s gaunt, emaciated appearance, he hadn’t paid him much attention. It wasn’t until Xi Yue called him Lele that he took a closer look at the boy’s facial features and felt a slight sense of familiarity.
Once he confirmed that the boy was indeed named Qian Lele, Shen Yu couldn’t help but feel emotional as well.
Back then, the Qian Lele that Shen Yu had encountered had cold, hollow eyes and acted with ruthless cruelty, destroying more than half of the City B Base at such a young age. Yet the current Qian Lele was just like a normal child—able to laugh, crave sweet treats, and enjoy watching cartoons. It truly made one envious…
Qian Lele had come here and gained a family of his own. As for himself, could he also have a home of his own? He wondered to himself, turning his gaze toward Xi Yue…
“Come over here! What are you doing standing at the door dazing off? Isn’t that bag of fruit heavy to hold?” Xi Yue called out from the sofa, waving her hand at Shen Yu.
Shen Yu let out a quiet smile, walked over, and placed the fruit on the coffee table.
Xi Yue opened the bag and pulled out the contents.
Laid out on the coffee table was a small bunch of bananas, two large mangoes, a punnet of blueberries, two apples, two peaches, a bunch of green grapes, and surprisingly, even a small watermelon.
“Grandpa Fang is way too generous, bringing over so much fruit. Maybe we should return some of it, this is really too much,” Xi Yue said. Although she was craving fruit, she felt embarrassed accepting such a valuable gift from someone else.
“Keep it, it’s their heartfelt gesture. Fruit spoils easily if left out, so next time we get some, we can just send a portion over to them,” Shen Yu suggested. Seeing how much Xi Yue loved fruit, he thought to himself that he could use his ability tonight to urge a few more to grow.
“That works too. If I really can’t draw any from the blind boxes, I’ll just buy some snacks for the kids.” Thinking it over, Xi Yue felt it was a solid plan, so she happily went off to wash the fruit.
“Shen Yu, which one do you want to eat? Also, we need to finish off the cake in the fridge today too.”
Xi Yue prepared to put the fruit they weren’t eating into the fridge. Opening the door, she spotted the leftover cake from last night. Feeling her still-un-digested, round belly, having too much food to eat really was a sweet dilemma~
“Just pick whatever you want to eat, I don’t have any particular preference.”
“How about we split an apple? I’m still way too full right now, I just want a little taste~”
Shen Yu took the washed apple from Xi Yue and effortlessly snapped it into two halves with his bare hands.
Meeting Xi Yue’s wide, staring eyes, he patted the stray lock of hair sticking up on top of her head and said with a smile, “I’ll go downstairs and watch over things. You stay up here and rest.”
“Then you can come back up after nine o’clock! There aren’t many people around at night anyway.”
Shen Yu nodded to show he understood, then went downstairs while munching on his half of the apple.
Inside the City C Base, the base commander sat in his chair, gazing down at the self-heating mini hot pot in his hands. This was an item that had suddenly appeared in the trading market today. Aside from self-heating hot pots, there were also self-heating rice meals and various canned instant noodles.
The appearance of a large stash of supplies wasn’t strange in itself; after all, it had only been eight months since the apocalypse began, so someone could have stumbled upon an undiscovered supermarket or warehouse.
What was truly bizarre was that the production date printed on this batch of food was actually yesterday!
Knock, knock, knock. After three knocks on the door, the person outside pushed it open and stepped inside. The visitor was a man in his forties, wearing a faded military uniform.
“Find out anything?”
Wang Li—the base commander of City C Base—looked up to question his secretary, He Xuexin.
“This batch of goods was sold yesterday afternoon by the space-element user Su Chengkang to Chen Laosan in the trading market at a price of ten crystal cores each. A total of thirty-four thousand crystal cores were exchanged, settled in full on the spot.”
“Su Chengkang’s family of twelve, along with the wind-element user Chen Liming and the water-element user Su Kexin, left the base early this morning.”
“Su Chengkang is a Tier-3 space-element user. Yesterday morning, he and his cousin Zhou Sheng, a Tier-4 earth-element user, headed toward the outskirts of City B to scavenge for supplies. According to the records at the base gate, they returned to the base around noon.”
“I questioned the ability users who went out with them yesterday. Someone saw them driving as if heading directly into City B. Should we look into their family’s recent activities to see if there’s any sort of conspiracy?” He Xuexin handed the gathered background files on Su Chengkang’s entire family to Wang Li.
Wang Li flipped through their information, falling into deep thought for a moment.
“No need to investigate further. He sold these goods so ostentatiously precisely because he was waiting for us to notice. Have Qin Yu’s team head to City B to investigate the situation.”
“Winter is coming again soon. The winter clothes set aside for the ordinary civilians should be handed out tomorrow first. If anyone tries to steal or loot, kick them directly out of the base.”
“Hold off the team that was preparing to travel to the capital to trade for sweet potatoes for now. Let’s wait for news when Qin Yu’s team returns.” Having finished giving his instructions, Wang Li dismissed He Xuexin.
Ever since the arrival of the apocalypse, cities everywhere had fallen into chaos as people scrambled to flee outward. Wang Li, leading the troops stationed in City C, had not retreated; instead, he stayed behind in the city to search for and rescue survivors.
After establishing the base, as the population grew, various issues inevitably cropped up. Some people tried to claim special privileges just because they were ability users, looking down on ordinary civilians. Others felt that since the end of the world had arrived and they didn’t know how long they would live anyway, their minds gradually grew twisted, driving them toward crime.
Wang Li suppressed all these wicked elements with an iron fist, thoroughly cleansing the overall atmosphere of the base.
He was a soldier, one who had carved the duty of defending his country and protecting its people deep into his bones. Even though the country was no longer a country and homes were no longer homes, he still used his own way to protect the people within this base.
Even while occupying a high position, Wang Li never felt entitled to enjoy the finest resources. He continued to eat potatoes and sweet potatoes just like everyone else, reserving the best resources for those standing on the front lines defending the base.
Because of Wang Li’s steadfastness and reliability, even though he possessed no special abilities, the people under his command held him in deep respect.
Having received their assignment, Qin Yu’s five-member team set off into the night.
Meanwhile, Xi Yue bought some yarn from the system mall. Back in her original world, she had learned how to knit sweaters and scarves from her grandmother. After her grandmother passed away, she moved out of her school dormitory to live on her own, spending her free time following video tutorials to practice cooking, knitting sweaters, and weaving scarves, which earned her quite a skillful set of hands.
The yarn felt exceptionally soft and comfortable to the touch. Xi Yue prepared to knit a few items to pass the time.