The news that the Xihe squad had brought back a large quantity of spirit stones capable of resisting the eerie quickly spread throughout City A. The seven of them were instantly elevated to honored guests of the city lord, who even allocated a luxurious villa in the city center for them to reside in.
The team’s reputation also blazed through the public consciousness. Every day, crowds of people squeezed their way to the villa, hoping to catch a glimpse of the heroes’ faces, or to beg the heroes to reveal the location of the Spirit Stone Mountain, or to plead for a single spirit stone for their own protection.
Outside the villa, Cheng Yuchuan had set up an ability barrier that kept others out, but the overly clamorous shouts still managed to pierce through, disturbing their rest.
Ring-ring-ring~
The landline in the living room rang once more. This was already the seventh call in three days. Cheng Yuchuan wearily pinched the bridge of his nose, rose, and picked up.
“Hello? Is this Captain Cheng Yuchuan? I’m Assistant to Mr. Li Yuanshan. Mr. Li would like to invite you over for a chat. Would you happen to be available right now?”
“Has Li Qing come back?” Cheng Yuchuan asked, his fingers tapping the desk impatiently, one knock after another.
A soft chuckle came from the other end, followed by a few seconds of silence before the voice replied, “Apologies, the young miss hasn’t returned yet. Mr. Li is currently handling all affairs of City A on her behalf. Regarding the matter of the spirit stones, Mr. Li wishes to discuss it with you in person.”
“Have Li Qing call me when she’s back. I’ll only talk to Li Qing. Don’t call again, if there’s one more, our team will withdraw from City A entirely.” Cheng Yuchuan dropped the harsh ultimatum and hung up directly.
Before heading to the Spirit Stone Mountain, Cheng Yuchuan had told Li Qing the location of her younger brother. He wasn’t surprised that she’d gone to City O to find him, but City O was only three hundred kilometers from City A. Even in the harsh end-times environment, ten days was more than enough for a round trip.
Moreover, this Li Yuanshan had immediately made a grand show of publicizing their return with the spirit stones, then tried to commercialize and exploit them for profit. When Cheng Yuchuan refused to hand them over, he resorted to all sorts of probing tactics to dig out the location of the Spirit Stone Mountain.
He’d claimed the villa was for their comfort, yet turned around and stirred up the masses to beg for spirit stones day and night, as if desperate to drain every last stone from their storage.
The one they’d left on the RV had long been swallowed up by Li Yuanshan. The fifty massive spirit stones Cheng Yuchuan had given to the city defense force to strengthen City A’s protections had yet to be put to any real use, instead, quite a few households in the city center now sported a spirit stone as decoration.
Some had even gone so far as to carve and sculpt them into art pieces, treating spirit stones entirely like ordinary ornaments.
Something that could save ordinary people’s lives had become a plaything for the powerful elite to toss around at will. If it weren’t for Li Qing’s sake, and for the sheer number of people in City A, Cheng Yuchuan wouldn’t be wasting his time with this man.
What angered Cheng Yuchuan most of all was that Li Yuanshan had casually used Lu Xihe’s name as the team’s name and plastered it across the newspapers.
Now everyone in City A called them the Xihe Team. When begging, they’d praise the team to the heavens; when they got no response, they’d start hurling all kinds of abuse, and the name they cursed most was Lu Xihe’s.
Even though he knew full well these were all dirty tricks orchestrated by Li Yuanshan, Lu Xihe himself couldn’t care less. He ate and drank as usual, doing whatever made him comfortable. But Cheng Yuchuan couldn’t stand hearing it.
The person he treasured and cherished most, why should these people be allowed to trample all over him?
Even his name shouldn’t be subjected to anyone’s contempt or insult.
Too much resentment had piled up in his heart, and even when he closed his eyes to rest at night, he’d nearly slipped into a qi deviation.
＜Xihe Team, we beg you, give us a spirit stone.＞
＜Xihe Team, spirit stones are the common property of all humanity. Are you hiding them all away to let us die?＞
＜Xihe Team, black-hearted bastards, go to hell!＞
＜Xihe, die! Xihe, die! Die!＞
Xihe… die…
Die!!
Die!!
No one can escape the fate ordained by heaven. No one.
Those without a system will ultimately meet the end of death.
…
Lu Xihe had just returned from having a late-night snack at Yu Yicheng’s place when he saw Cheng Yuchuan wreathed in black aura, brows tightly furrowed, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
“Cheng Yuchuan?” Lu Xihe approached slowly and heard his uneven breathing, his expression one of great agony. “Cheng Yuchuan.”
Two calls with no response, and Lu Xihe was a little frightened by the sight of him.
He reached out and pressed his palm over Cheng Yuchuan’s back, using the same method Cheng Yuchuan had once used to guide him into calming his own energy, channeling his healing ability to soothe the restless power surging within Cheng Yuchuan’s body.
“Brother, calm down. Wake up!” Lu Xihe shouted loudly, all the while pouring healing energy into him continuously.
Startled awake in an instant, Cheng Yuchuan saw who was before him, his heart still racing with lingering fear. He yanked the person into his arms and held on tight.
Feeling the hot, powerful heartbeat against his chest, Cheng Yuchuan’s anxious, unsettled heart finally began to ease.
Lu Xihe gently patted his back until Cheng Yuchuan had fully calmed down, then asked softly, “What happened to you?”
Cheng Yuchuan paused, looked up to meet Lu Xihe’s eyes, and blinked playfully as if trying to be cute. Then he found himself ridiculous and couldn’t help but let out a light laugh. “Nothing. I fell asleep while thinking about something and had a nightmare.”
Lu Xihe rolled his eyes in exasperation and said irritably, “You scared me half to death, all that black aura around you, you look like you’ve gone into demonic cultivation.”
Cheng Yuchuan let out a dry chuckle, his right hand finding the soft flesh at Lu Xihe’s waist and kneading it lightly, on and off. “Might be an ability leak. Devouring abilities are black.”
“…” Lu Xihe cast a scrutinizing gaze at Cheng Yuchuan’s face, then glanced down at the other’s restless hand. “Why would it leak?”
“Uh…” Cheng Yuchuan thought for a moment before answering, “It happens when I haven’t rested well. It’ll pass in a few days.”
“Really?”
“Of course it’s really.” Cheng Yuchuan’s eyes wandered, but his hand kept moving.
“Bro, I actually know you pretty well, don’t you think?” Lu Xihe’s expression darkened, and his tone carried a hint of displeasure. “Three strikes, that’s it. This is the third time I’m asking, think carefully before you answer. Really?”
“…”
At that point, what else could Cheng Yuchuan not understand? When he lied, Lu Xihe could tell.
He buried his face against Lu Xihe’s chest, nuzzling for a moment, then let out a long sigh before confessing, “I’m pissed.”
“Pissed about what? About the things they’re shouting?” Lu Xihe knew full well.
Cheng Yuchuan was the one controlling the ability barrier. To them, it served to muffle and filter noise, but to Cheng Yuchuan’s ears, he heard everything raw and unfiltered, the original words, unedited.
The nice and the nasty, Cheng Yuchuan had heard it all. In the three days since moving into the villa, he hadn’t had a single peaceful night’s sleep.
“At worst, you catch a few insults, it’s not like you’ll lose a chunk of flesh. Why get so worked up over it?” Lu Xihe sighed helplessly, a flicker of barely perceptible disappointment passing through his eyes.
He forced a smile and said, “You know they’re all hired trolls brought in by Li Yuanshan to stir up trouble. In the apocalypse, resources are scarce, and ordinary people can barely scrape by, they don’t have time to pick fights.”
Lu Xihe turned his head toward the window, his gaze landing on the crowd still furiously pounding the ability barrier with hard objects at midnight. “Those people out there are either idle thugs who took money to do a job, or folks with a bit of power and influence at home, trying to make a racket so they can grab the first slice of any benefit that comes out of it.”
“I know, but I’m still pissed.” Cheng Yuchuan’s voice was muffled, head lowered so his expression was hidden, but the droop of his head made him look pitiful.
When it came to matters involving him, Cheng Yuchuan was always petty. Lu Xihe had known that for a long time.
Back in high school, some jerk had harassed him, and Lu Xihe had gotten revenge on the spot, beating the guy until he was sniveling and threatening to tell the teacher. When he got home, he’d gone to brag to Cheng Yuchuan about his heroic feat, only to find out Cheng Yuchuan had secretly gone and taught the guy another lesson on his own.
Even now, Lu Xihe found it absurd to think about. Cheng Yuchuan was two years older, and from childhood, he’d always struck Lu Xihe as the mature, steady older-brother-next-door type. If someone hadn’t seen him bag the guy, drag him to a secluded corner in the middle of the night, and kick him a few times, and then reported it to the Cheng family, Lu Xihe wouldn’t have believed Cheng Yuchuan was capable of it.
After they got together, there was no need to even mention it. Once, Lu Xihe went to his house to hang out and got pecked by a chicken on the way, just pecked on his slipper, no less, and by lunchtime, there was a fresh plate of chicken on the table.
If Cheng Yuchuan would make a fuss over something that small, then Li Yuanshan had truly stepped right into his minefield this time.
“If you’re that pissed, just go out at midnight, bag the guys, drag them into an alley, and kick them a few times. You’re pretty good at that, aren’t you?” Lu Xihe teased with a laugh.
Cheng Yuchuan’s lips curved slightly, and he answered without hesitation, “I am good at it, but with my current strength, one kick might send them straight to the afterlife.”
Didn’t Cheng Yuchuan want to? He’d already thought about it long ago. It was just that murder was against the law, and his moral conscience wouldn’t allow it.
Besides, after the apocalypse, he still had to go home with Lu Xihe and live a peaceful, happy, easygoing life. If he threw it all away over a moment of impulse and ended up rotting in prison, that wouldn’t be worth it.
Lu Xihe was amused by his dead-serious answer and said, “Then just hold back a little.”
“Can’t. Too pissed.” Cheng Yuchuan shook his head, seemingly dissatisfied with the layers of fabric between them. He used his ability to conjure a few flames, speeding up the warming of the bedroom, and stripped off Lu Xihe’s padded jacket and sweater in a few quick motions, leaving only a soft set of thermal underwear.
Suddenly losing two layers, despite the heater and the conjured flames, the room was too large and the apocalypse-era heating too poor, Lu Xihe couldn’t help but shiver from the cold.
Cheng Yuchuan unbuttoned his own coat and wrapped Lu Xihe entirely inside it, holding him warm and snug. His heart swelled with contentment, and for that moment, all his worries and frustrations were temporarily soothed.
Right, temporarily. The grudges would still be remembered later.
“If you’re that pissed, then when we hand out spirit stones later, give them the small, ugly ones. The small ones can’t block high-tier threats, consider it our personal revenge dressed up as official business.” Lu Xihe said.
“Can we just not give them any?” Cheng Yuchuan pouted, annoyed.
“It’s a matter of life and death. Don’t throw a tantrum.”
A flick to his forehead, and Cheng Yuchuan settled for less: “Then let me take some crumbs and mold a middle finger to show them, that should work, right?”
Hearing this, Lu Xihe let out a snicker: “How childish can you get? Where’s your protagonist aura?”
“Some dog walked by earlier and ate it.”
The two chatted for a while longer and were just about to turn off the lights and pull up the covers to sleep when a few rhythmic knocks sounded at the door, followed by Qi Jin’s voice filtering through the crack.
“Captain, we’ve spotted Miss Li and her group at a location 130 kilometers from City A. Shenwan has already gone to meet them, they should arrive in City A in about three hours at the earliest.”
Cheng Yuchuan was still wondering when Qi Jin and Xiang Shenwan had left the villa to go searching for people when he heard Lu Xihe reply to the outside: “No rush, have them find a place to rest first, take their time traveling during the day, and bring them straight back to the villa when they arrive. Keep it quiet, especially from the Li family.”
“Got it.”
Qi Jin acknowledged and left on his own, leaving Cheng Yuchuan utterly bewildered and out of the loop.
“Shh!” Before Cheng Yuchuan could ask, Lu Xihe reached out and pressed a finger to his lips, a hint of barely perceptible excitement and cunning hidden within her smile-filled eyes:
“The show is about to begin~”