Sang Wenhao couldn’t fly. He could control metal to levitate.
Various metal components formed footholds in the air, allowing him to leap. Step by step, Sang Wenhao jumped swiftly and far, so much so that it almost seemed as if he were flying through the sky.
Fu Erdie could feel that the wounds on his body were all covered with hard iron plates.
Since his entire body was covered in injuries, almost all of it gave off the hard texture of metal.
It felt as if what was carrying her was not a flesh-and-blood person but a mechanical vehicle.
Hah, talk about being a tool man to the core!
The corpse of the mutated zombie still lay on the ground. Sang Wenhao pried open its shattered skull, revealing the cracked crystal core inside.
Fu Erdie recalled how the speed-type zombie’s crystal core had vanished earlier, so she watched Sang Wenhao’s handling of it with some tension. She saw him wrap the crystal core entirely in a leaf within the zombie’s brain before carefully extracting it, as if it couldn’t be exposed to light. He then handed it to Fu Erdie and resumed carrying her as they flew toward Building 7.
Fu Erdie: “…”
She guided Sang Wenhao, and the two of them flew directly to the balcony of Unit 16-1.
Sang Wenhao paused mid-air for a moment, studying how to get close enough to make it convenient for the person on his back to open the window.
Just as he was thinking about it, the window opened on its own.
Inside the window, on the balcony, a cluster of overly lively plants stretched their branches and leaves outward, as if trying to pull them both in directly.
Fu Erdie: “Don’t move! Don’t move! You’re not strong enough to hold us up, let alone pull us in, you might even knock us over!”
No joke, this was the sixteenth floor, not the first. Falling from here would ruin even an iron man.
The plants had no choice but to make way, allowing the two to climb inside.
As soon as they entered the balcony, Sang Wenhao felt his breath clear. The sticky, thick, and foul stench of the apocalypse vanished completely.
Immediately after, the weight on his back lightened. Turning around, he saw that Fu Erdie had already been enveloped by several massive pothos leaves, rubbing against them back and forth like a kitten seeking affection from its owner.
The balcony window closed again as the pothos supported Fu Erdie to sit on the balcony. Surrounded by various leaves welcoming and clustering around her, there was also an undercurrent of subtle competition among them.
Sang Wenhao witnessed a plant with relatively soft and slender branches and leaves trying to come over for a cuddle, only to be “accidentally” swatted away by the spider plant.
Sang Wenhao: …
No one paid him any attention, and the balcony was crowded, so he entered the living room, looking for a place to sit.
But as soon as he stepped inside, he was firmly tied up by vines that extended from somewhere unknown.
A leaf swayed in front of him, dotted with green liquid. Seeing this, Sang Wenhao strongly suspected he was being treated as food, about to be preyed upon.
The ones making the move were the tomato and cucumber plants. During the battle downstairs today, they had already mastered the techniques of tying and tripping people. Moreover, after Fu Erdie left, they had eagerly scrambled to feast on the zombies, and now they had grown significantly stronger and more robust.
A few hours earlier, many zombies had struggled to run away because there was no human flesh to attract them.
Some zombies, however, were more foolish. They never even considered fleeing; instead, they adopted a “come what may” attitude. With no flesh or scent to draw them, they simply stayed put, making them easy prey.
Out of all the zombies that had gathered around the neighborhood, aside from the few hundred that scattered from the periphery, fewer than fifty had run out from the buildings.
These zombies became a nourishing feast for the plants, leaving them all nearly bursting from overconsumption.
In the past, the plants would have gone to sleep after eating too much. But now, concerned that their “kindergarten director,” Fu Erdie, was still outside, they hoped only to digest quickly and grow as much as they could, extending themselves to the neighboring building to rescue their beloved director!
But it seemed their director didn’t actually need their rescue, she had simply flown back on her own…
How impressive! Truly worthy of being the director!
As for this inexplicable person who had returned with their director, who knew if he was a companion or a villain holding her hostage? Of course, tying him up was the right move!
That said, the tomato and cucumber plants knew their limits. Without their director’s permission, they wouldn’t act rashly.
Sang Wenhao didn’t move either. He didn’t feel deceived and simply let himself be tied up obediently.
He had finally figured out why Fu Erdie believed she had no abilities.
These mutated plants, and even the mutated house, were likely all mutated under her unique ability.
Yet rather than being mere extensions of Fu Erdie, they seemed more like independent entities that simply adored her. And Fu Erdie hadn’t been outside since the apocalypse began. For all she knew, she probably thought the outside world was full of such mutated houses and plants.
At that thought, an unconscious smile tugged at the corners of Sang Wenhao’s mouth.
Amidst the layers upon layers of leaves, Fu Erdie managed to catch sight of Sang Wenhao’s predicament and quickly spoke up to explain: “He’s a good person. I ran into danger outside, and he helped me.” Although, to some extent, the danger had come with him.
Fu Erdie pushed aside the green leaves and steadied Sang Wenhao. The cucumber and tomato plants obediently retreated, moving behind Fu Erdie and coiling about playfully, though it was unclear what they were expressing.
Fu Erdie stroked them. “Thank you for looking out for me. For now, he’s a good person and a friend I’ve shared hardships with.”
With that, she turned to the wall and touched its shimmering white surface. “Can you help treat him?”
It was afternoon, and a light rain was falling outside, leaving the room somewhat dim. After Fu Erdie spoke, the lights didn’t turn on, but the specks of white light on the wall grew brighter.
Heeding Fu Erdie’s words, the light surged into the man’s body, examining him.
In just this short while, Sang Wenhao felt a great sense of relief, as if someone bedridden for a long time could suddenly stand and walk again, the bandages on his body loosened.
He sat on the floor, careful not to lean against the pristine white walls for fear of dirtying them.
Gradually, a comfortable fatigue spread through his body, warming his limbs and filling him with a sense of vitality.
He opened his eyes, which had grown heavy, and looked at Fu Erdie. “Can I sleep on the floor? Sorry, I might get your floor dirty.”
From where Sang Wenhao couldn’t see, the pothos plant pushed the spider plant forward.
Spider plant: …
The spider plant understood immediately! Damn pothos, when it came to cleaning for the director, it handled it itself, but when it came to cleaning someone else, it shoved the job onto others! If it had any spine, it’d let someone else do the director’s cleaning too! Jerk!
But given the pothos plant’s increasingly overbearing authority, the spider plant reluctantly stepped forward, frantically scrubbing the man’s face and head.
Fu Erdie: …
Sang Wenhao: …
Sang Wenhao was still wearing a leaf-made outfit like a wild man, so he wasn’t exactly dirty. But his face was covered in blood, and his hair hadn’t been washed in months. Although the house had purified the smell after he entered, he was still very grimy.
The spider plant was the most agile of all the plants. After grinding millet day after day, it had become adept at handling things that looked difficult to clean.
Under its control, a potent corrosive liquid weaved through his greasy strands, leaving the hair and scalp unharmed while carrying away all the grime without a trace.
Sang Wenhao had already been exhausted and sleepy; now, feeling the “massage” on his head, he grew even drowsier.
After all, he hadn’t bathed yet, and Fu Erdie didn’t want him sleeping on the sofa. So she made a bed for him on the floor, laying out a soft mat and covering it with a thin blanket. “Go ahead and sleep. You’ll feel much better when you wake up.”
Without a second thought, Sang Wenhao collapsed onto the mat, his eyelids drooping as he sank into slumber.
Sang Wenhao had spent nearly half a year navigating the harsh realities of the outside world, where he’d witnessed the darker sides of humanity. He should not have let his guard down so easily with someone he’d only just met that day.
Yet, somehow, he couldn’t help but trust her, and trust this room.
As his consciousness faded into drowsiness, a thought suddenly struck him: Could it be that making people feel at ease was her ability?
Watching him fall into a deep sleep, Fu Erdie turned her attention back to the plants around her.
None of the plants were injured. Moreover, after consuming so many zombies, they had all grown considerably.
She gently patted the “little ones” on their leaves. “You all should rest too. Now that the mutated zombies are gone, everyone is safe. After a good sleep, you might even become as strong as Big Boss Pothos!”
Nothing motivated the plants more than the prospect of surpassing Big Boss Pothos!
One by one, they retracted their roots back into the walls and entered a state of dormancy to digest, leaving only the pothos plant behind, unwilling to leave Fu Erdie’s side.
Like a child who had suddenly grown up overnight, it hovered around Fu Erdie, eager to help her with any worries. It wouldn’t settle down to rest until it was certain that Fu Erdie had finished everything she needed to do and was ready to rest herself.
Fu Erdie’s eyes softened involuntarily. “Then come keep me company while I take a look around.”
The little old lady wasn’t home right now.
Fu Erdie figured she must have gone out for a specific reason, so she needed to go find her.
The moment she opened the door, Fu Erdie’s eyes widened slowly as she instantly understood what had happened.
Previously, the pothos plant had expanded its coverage to the entire 16th floor, significantly cleaning up all the rooms on that floor except 16-1.
However, without the support of the houses, the air purification had its limits.
But now, the entire 16th floor was as pristine as Unit 16-1. The freshness of the air could perhaps be attributed to the pothos plant’s increased strength. But the floors, hallways, and walls of the 16th floor had all shown varying degrees of wear and tear, from zombie impacts, from people fleeing in the early days of the apocalypse, and from normal usage before the apocalypse…
All of these factors had left the building with countless signs of use.
But now, those traces were gone.
Fu Erdie touched the hallway wall in disbelief. “Was it you?”
The unremarkable wall flickered.
It was!
It really was her house!
The house’s domain had extended outward, now covering the entire 16th floor!
She was overjoyed.
The pothos plant and the house now jointly ruled this floor.
Fu Erdie usually didn’t like being exposed to sunlight when at home. Apart from intentionally seeking out the sun, she would either draw the curtains or let the sunlight stream in while she stayed in the shaded areas out of its reach.
The pothos plant clearly knew this.
At home, with other plants around, it wouldn’t completely cover the balcony. Now that it was out in the hallway, it stretched out like some peculiar vine, blotting out the sky.
Only the patches of sunlight filtering through the gaps between its massive leaves gave any indication of whether it was day or night outside.
The hallway walls also shimmered with a delicate, dreamlike white glow.
Wherever Fu Erdie went, the white light softly flickered along with her.
The light and the pothos plant seemed like spirits dancing around her, so quiet, so lively.
Fu Erdie couldn’t help but press her hand against the wall as she walked, each step creating a rippling ring of light that spread outward from her fingertips.
By the time she reached the end of the hallway from 16-1 to 16-10, she finally found the little old lady.
Zhang Dongxuan was truly an ordinary person. When Fu Erdie and the plants went out to fight, the only thing she could do was stay in the bedroom and not cause trouble.
From the angle of 16-1, one could see the road outside, but not the scene of the battle within the neighborhood. Worried, Zhang Dongxuan couldn’t help but come to 16-10 to observe.
The 16th floor was too high, and her eyesight wasn’t good. She could only vaguely make out the general situation downstairs.
Zombies had gathered from all directions, while the plants’ branches, leaves, and vines thrashed about everywhere.
Ant-sized shadows of zombies surged forward one after another, crowding into the buildings, and Zhang Dongxuan was deeply worried about Fu Erdie.
Just then, she suddenly noticed the air around her becoming much more pleasant.
It felt just like being at home.
She turned her head and saw the enlarged leaves of the pothos plant.
It wasn’t that the pothos plant had been rapidly absorbing zombies and increasing its strength during the process, leaving it with no energy to control where the nutrients it gained flowed. As a result, its main body naturally took the lion’s share and began growing wildly.
Its main body had already spread to every corner of the 16th floor, so the pothos in 16-10, where the little old lady was, was also growing very quickly.
While the others were fighting, the little old lady witnessed the pothos plant’s main body and the house’s domain continuously expand.
She watched with delight as the uneven walls of the room, some softened by water damage, became smooth and pristine, just like new.
“Congratulations to our girl!” The little old lady was thrilled for Fu Erdie. “Now the whole floor is safe. You don’t have to squeeze into just one room anymore.”
Usually, the little old lady was the one who watered and tended to the various plants in Building 7, so she clearly understood the difference between ordinary mutated plants and intelligent mutated plants.
Ordinary mutated plants simply had higher survival rates and increased yields, but they couldn’t interact with people, let alone fight zombies. They could only grow within the space of a mutated house.
For now, Fu Erdie’s balcony was packed to the brim with crops, and even the living room had quite a few.
Now that an entire floor was within the mutated house’s domain, the space available for growing vegetables had expanded tremendously!
Having farmed her entire life, the little old lady was most sensitive and interested in such things. Without even waiting to see how the situation downstairs with the zombies turned out, she excitedly began talking about her planting plans.
“So many people in this building moved here after their rural homes were demolished. Even after moving into apartments, they still went to grow vegetables on the surrounding wasteland, so they had plenty of seeds at home. We collected them and stored them in the rooms but never used them, now we finally can! I plan to start planting in this room, beginning with seasoning crops. The only seasonings we have growing right now are chili peppers and scallions, it’s too monotonous. Then, I’ll plant loofahs, watermelons, and other vine crops. They grow fast and are convenient to eat. When we’re too busy to cook, we can just grab one and eat! Oh, and we can even set aside one room specifically for raising chickens!”
The more the little old lady spoke, the brighter her eyes became!
Raising livestock and cleaning up manure is an extremely tedious and physically demanding task. If one is even slightly lazy and fails to clean up in time, chicken coops and duck pens become unbearably filthy.
When she was younger, the little old lady could handle tending to chickens, ducks, pigs, and cattle without much issue. But now that she was older, even though the house and her food kept her free from illness, her legs still ached after standing too long, and her back still hurt after bending over too much.
Aging, like death, is not a disease. It cannot be cured, nor can it be prevented.
The fact that she could still move around well, going up and down every day to water the plants, was already thanks to the house.
No, actually, even watering was no longer necessary. These plants had already connected themselves throughout the building, they could draw water on their own, channel it to their roots, and fend for themselves.
“We can raise some chicks and ducklings, and some small fish. The waste and dirty water they produce can all be handled by the house. All we need to do is feed them every day, and they’ll grow up on their own.” The little old lady chuckled, her eyes crinkling with joy.
Fu Erdie couldn’t help but smile as well.
Each floor of Building 7 had ten units. Her home, 16-1, was considered a relatively small unit. On this floor, there were units with larger layouts and better orientations.
However, Fu Erdie had grown accustomed to her cozy home and was used to all its amenities, so she didn’t plan to move.
Instead, she intended to let the little old lady choose a room to move into, giving them both more personal space.
The little old lady was naturally willing. “But do I still need to go down to the second floor to check the monitors?”
“Taking care of the crops is already hard enough work for you.”
As for the monitors, they had been needed before out of a lack of security, to ensure that zombies didn’t enter Building 7. Now, if any zombies appeared, there would be no need to wait for them to step on anything; the plants would actively go after them, making the arduous task of protection unnecessary.
Fu Erdie acted on her decision immediately and went down to the second floor to help the little old lady move.
On her way down, she noticed just how much the plants had changed.
Their sizes had increased, their stems had thickened, and even the delicate dandelions were now as large as soccer balls.
This dramatic transformation reached its peak when she saw the succulents on the second floor.
Before the battle, the succulent had been like a “lotus throne.”
After the battle, it had grown into a lotus sculpture as tall as a full story.
At that moment, it was trying to shrink its massive body as much as possible, attempting to squeeze out through the window.
The window frame had already been crushed by its efforts, causing the entire second floor to tremble slightly.
Amid the shaking walls, Fu Erdie spotted the roots of the pothos plant, lush, green, and now noticeably thicker.
No wonder she hadn’t felt any tremors upstairs. It was Big Boss Pothos carrying the weight once again, forcibly holding the crumbling walls together.
Fu Erdie’s expression immediately darkened.
But now wasn’t the time to scold the little one. It had grown this big and wasn’t as agile as the other plants. If it didn’t move out now, it would end up breaking through the ceiling!
Wait a minute, breaking through the ceiling?
Fu Erdie reached out and stopped the succulent, which was still moving at a snail’s pace. “Can you bend your fleshy leaves out through the window and then grow upward?”
She waited for a “yes” or “no” answer, but instead, the succulent demonstrated that it could bend while frantically shaking its leaves.
Fu Erdie: “Would it hurt the main stem?”
The succulent shook its leaves.
“Would it be very uncomfortable?”
The succulent shook its leaves again.
Fu Erdie made various guesses, but the succulent rejected them all.
Watching it bend toward the window while shaking its leaves back and forth, Fu Erdie gave up and said, “It can’t be because you think it would look ugly, can it!”
The succulent nodded.
Its plump leaves bobbed so vigorously they looked like they might snap off.
Fu Erdie: …
Fu Erdie knew that every little one in her kindergarten had its own personality, but she really didn’t expect the succulent to have such strong aesthetic principles.
“You think it would be ugly for your leaves to grow only in one direction?”
The succulent: 【Nods】
Fu Erdie: “Then why not just take over the whole floor and grow in all directions?”
The succulent imagined that scene: a pure, adorable, beautiful, and charming plant like itself, stretching its tentacles out through every window on the second floor in a wild, sprawling manner…
No way, no way! Absolutely not!
Afraid that the kindergarten director would force it, this little beauty, to become the very thing it hated most, the succulent continued squeezing its way out.
And so, the wall bearing the doorframe finally couldn’t withstand the unbearable weight of life, crack, a fissure split open.
Fu Erdie: …
The vein on her forehead refused to stop throbbing.
“Get down here!” She grabbed the succulent’s fleshy leaf, refusing to let it move any further.
The succulent looked pitiful and didn’t dare struggle against Fu Erdie’s grip.
Fu Erdie’s mind raced. How could she convince it to change its aesthetic?
Her gaze drifted to the pothos plant, still hard at work holding the walls steady. A sudden idea struck her. “Don’t you want to catch up to Pothos and become the number one mutated plant? Then you have to learn from Big Boss Pothos, first take over a floor, and then take over an entire building!”
The succulent tilted its leaves: Huh?
“Wait right here!”
Fu Erdie quickly left the second floor, went down to the open area of the neighborhood, and took a photo of their building from a distance.
On the sixteenth floor, the lush main body of the pothos plant had spread across every wall, both inside and out, making it look from afar as if a cluster of creeping vines had suddenly appeared.
Fu Erdie didn’t care whether it looked out of place or not; this was proof of Big Boss Pothos claiming its territory.
She pulled out her phone, took the photo, and returned to the second floor to show the succulent.
Er…
How was the succulent supposed to “see” the photo?
Before Fu Erdie could figure it out, the succulent leaned in on its own and “looked” at the image on the phone.
That Pothos, who always loomed over it like a mountain, had actually already filled the director’s entire floor!
The succulent froze in shock.
Pothos was so agile, moving up and down as it pleased, even going down to the neighborhood flowerbeds to have fun before coming back.
If it followed suit and went outside, it might never be able to come back!
Fu Erdie whispered like a tempting devil: “You think reaching out through the window looks wild and unruly? No. As long as you stretch far enough, beautifully enough, growing all the way up the outer wall to the rooftop, the entire building will be yours! You’ll be even stronger than Pothos!”
As she said this, Fu Erdie reached behind her and stroked the pothos plant’s leaves, soothing it.
Sorry about this, she thought. She had to use it as motivation for the succulent.
But honestly, when it came to Big Boss Pothos, all these plants had an inexplicable desire to compete!
As long as she dangled Big Boss Pothos as the goal, aesthetic preferences and personality quirks all went out the window!
Afraid the succulent couldn’t picture the scene, Fu Erdie opened a drawing app on her phone and used her skills as an illustrator to paint a picture for it.
The succulent was red and white, resembling a lotus. So she drew a giant, lotus-like succulent, with the building nestled in the open center of its bloom.
In the drawing, the towering 24-story building became the delicate little stamen at the heart of the flower.
Worried the succulent might think the “stamen” looked ugly, she even beautified the building, making it as white as the succulent’s white parts, completely blending them together.
“How about that! Isn’t it grand? Isn’t it special? And inside, it’ll have its own unique space!”
The succulent: …
The succulent was tempted!
This looked so good! So beautiful! And once it grew this big, it could wrap up both its beloved director and the despised Pothos inside its leaves, doing whatever it wanted with them!
If a succulent could show expressions, it would have revealed something sinister and determined, a look completely at odds with its beautiful appearance.
Finally, the succulent stopped fussing about going out the window and started figuring out how to take over all the windows on the second floor.
Meanwhile, the pothos plant silently pulled the cracked wall back into place.
Fu Erdie sighed for the umpteenth time.
It was truly exhausting for the only “university student” in her kindergarten, even more so than for her, the director.
She hadn’t forgotten her original purpose for coming to the second floor: to help the little old lady move.
Opening the little old lady’s door, Fu Erdie quickly packed up her few belongings into several large boxes, ready to move them upstairs one by one.
Just then, a few banana-leaf-sized pothos leaves reached over and lifted the boxes onto their blades.
Fu Erdie stared in surprise, then quickly realized: “You’ve mutated this fast?!”
Before this, it could only help her walk, unable to exert much strength. Now it could carry boxes weighing dozens of pounds!
The pothos plant nodded. One of its leaves stretched out the window, pointing upward.
Fu Erdie immediately understood. “Then I’ll leave it to you. Please help take the boxes to 16-5.”
After making her rounds, calming the succulent down, finishing the move, and confirming that the battle had resulted in no undesirable losses or damage, she returned to 16-1, showered, and went to bed, holding the dog.
As she drifted off, she stroked the dog’s soft fur. “From now on, with Pothos and the succulent on the first floor, you don’t have to stay guarding the second floor anymore. You can stay with me.”
The dog understood and excitedly licked Fu Erdie’s hand.
“Good night.”
That night, all the people and plants slept deeply.
The next day, Fu Erdie had gone to bed early and woke up early, getting up before dawn at around five o’clock.
She took the dog and quietly left the room without disturbing Sang Wenhao, still asleep in the living room, and began running up and down the stairs to exercise.
Partly it was for exercise, but partly it was also for her usual rounds.
As she climbed the stairs, Fu Erdie thought about her ability.
Sang Wenhao said she had ability, and for now, she couldn’t see any reason she would have been deceived.
Assuming she really was an ability user, what was her power?
Was it causing houses and plants to mutate?
Fu Erdie thought it was possible, but there were inconsistencies.
Take the mutated plants, for example. They hadn’t mutated through her direct intervention. Instead, they had gradually mutated after spending time in 16-1, which seemed to have more to do with the house.
If it had nothing to do with the house and everything to do with her, then she could simply go search the neighboring building, find some new seeds that hadn’t been exposed to the house’s influence, carry them with her, sleep outside the 16th floor each night, and observe over time whether the plants mutated.
Aside from promoting mutation, her ability might also be related to her blood.
She remembered back when she encountered the ability user intruder and almost died. After she woke up, both the house and the plants had mutated significantly. That was related to the ability user zombie’s crystal core, but her blood likely played a role too.
Every time she got injured, the house would absorb her blood first, using it to generate more of that white light. That suggested her blood was special to the house.
The dog had also been injured, but the house hadn’t done anything with its blood, instead, the plants had absorbed it as nutrients.
Later, when she was dealing with the speed-type zombie, she had passed out outside the door and refused to go in. The plants had helped stem the flow of blood from her wounds. Back then, the house had absorbed the blood on the ground, while the pothos plant had likely absorbed the blood on her shoulders.
In the following week, Fu Erdie suddenly noticed that the pothos plant’s leaves had also gained some ability to stop bleeding and treat external injuries.
It was very subtle, but it was definitely there!
Then most recently, there was the incident yesterday when she carried the potato seedling to rescue Sang Wenhao. The potato seedling had also absorbed her blood, hadn’t it? And then it produced potatoes that could suppress injuries to some extent.
…Wait a minute!! Potatoes?!
Damn! She had forgotten the potato seedling in Building 6 again!
Fu Erdie wanted to rush out to find the potatoes, but she remembered Sang Wenhao, who was still asleep.
On the first day she had a guest, it wouldn’t be good to leave him waking up to find no one around, would it? Besides, the potato seedling was in Building 6, maybe it was happily absorbing garbage and had already grown into a big potato seedling by now.
She continued running up and down the stairs for exercise, making her rounds, while continuing to brainstorm.
The signs so far suggested her blood did have special properties. What she needed to do now was experiment.
Fu Erdie thought it over. The best test subject was the succulent.
First, the succulent had the thickest “health bar” of all the plants. If her blood turned out to be useless or even toxic, the succulent’s resilience would likely keep it from dying.
Second, if her blood really did promote plant growth, mutation, and recovery abilities, then with the succulent already being so tough, adding recovery abilities would make it even tougher, wouldn’t that make its shield even stronger?
The more Fu Erdie thought about it, the more it made sense. She made a note to experiment on the succulent as well.
Regarding her ability, she’d make a note of those two points for now.
The other matter was how to handle Sang Wenhao.
When it came to friends, Fu Erdie tended to follow her gut instincts. If she got along with someone and found them agreeable, they became her friend. If she didn’t get along with someone and they made her feel threatened or malicious, she would treat them like she had the invading ability user person, pushing them off the sixteenth floor without mercy.
Sang Wenhao was the former type.
He had used a sniper rifle and a loudspeaker to warn her. Even though he knew his body would weaken each time he exerted himself, he still fought that metal-hardened zombie, all while keeping an eye on Fu Erdie’s situation and pulling the zombie back the moment something went wrong.
Later, in Building 6, perhaps because he felt his time was running out, or perhaps because he had no intention of hiding anything, he laid out everything he knew about the apocalypse without holding back. He was completely honest and didn’t try to leverage the information for any advantage.
Afterward, despite the risk of being deceived by her, he hardened his entire body, enduring his injuries and pain, and carried her swiftly through the zombie horde to the safety of her home.
And when they arrived, he didn’t struggle even when tied up by the cucumber and tomato vines. After being put down, worried about dirtying her room, he specifically asked her and chose to sleep on the floor rather than the sofa or the bed.
Throughout their brief time together, he hadn’t pried into her secrets, even though, once he woke up, he’d likely figure them out on his own.
In short, from the moment they met until now, Fu Erdie had a very good impression of him.
If she let him slip away now without recruiting him, she’d feel it was a real loss.
But on the other hand, Fu Erdie knew she tended to judge people by intuition, which could lead to oversights and blind spots. She felt she needed more time to interact with him before deciding whether to fully accept him.
She wanted to see if he was reliable and whether he would ever consider killing her to take over the house and all its resources.
Of course, even if it wasn’t about taking resources but rather about wanting to dominate the building… Fu Erdie wouldn’t be too happy about that either.
She wanted to remain the one in charge. If Sang Wenhao wanted control and refused to leave…
Fu Erdie frowned, thinking.
A purely combative approach wouldn’t work. Even if she and the plants fought with everything they had, they might not necessarily defeat him, and being dragged down with him wasn’t worth it.
So, she needed to recruit Sang Wenhao while making him understand that his survival depended on the house and the plants’ healing abilities.
And the house and the plants took their orders from her.
With that logic sorted, Fu Erdie felt the next steps were clear. She arrived at 8-8, a spot where the plants liked to rest, and gathered them all for a meeting.
Now, aside from the succulent, whose roots still hadn’t grown very long, every other plant in the building could roam freely about.
Fu Erdie spoke to the air, and plants began emerging from all directions.
“Little ones, for a while now, our Building 7 will be welcoming a new friend. He’s the one you met yesterday, Sang Wenhao. To make sure he doesn’t underestimate or harm me—”
Before she could finish, the plants went on high alert at the word “harm.” They immediately mobilized the parts of themselves within 16-1, ready to eliminate anyone who dared threaten their director.
Fu Erdie, unaware of this, continued, “I’d like to ask you all for a favor.”
The plants’ inner thoughts: Is it to kill that man? Just say the word, Director, and we’ll do it immediately!
Fu Erdie: “I’d like you all to make it clear that you listen to me. If he sees that you follow my lead, he’ll respect me more and won’t dare entertain any bad ideas.”
The plants were stunned.
Listen to the director? Weren’t they already doing that?
Why was the director acting strange?
Fu Erdie, seeing them frozen, grew a bit nervous. “Is that okay?”
The plants: …
So… they were just confused.
Wasn’t it only natural for them to listen to her?
She was their favorite and closest friend, and also the smartest one. Following her made every day happy, and there was always meat to eat, what more could they want?
Even if they didn’t quite understand, they still crowded around her, nodding as they rubbed against her face and hands.
Fu Erdie felt that familiar, overflowing sense of love again.
So pure, so touching. The best gift from the finest plant spirits in the world.
“Thank you,” she said with a smile, stroking the layers of leaves, inexplicably moved.
As for the house, Fu Erdie felt she didn’t need to say much to it.
Perhaps because the house had absorbed so much of her blood, Fu Erdie often felt that it could understand her thoughts. At the same time, it was now the thing in this world that would protect her the most.
Today, the little old lady woke up in her new room, 16-5.
A new room, a new look. She put on a relatively new floral shirt and began watering, picking vegetables, and cooking.
There was a new guest, a young man at that. Estimating the appetite of a young person, she planned to make a pot of millet rice, a large plate of sour and spicy shredded potatoes, a bowl of spicy stir-fried cabbage, a generous serving of scallion omelet, and a big pot of pickled vegetable soup.
The main reason was that they had accumulated so much food lately that even the plants were full and no longer wanted to eat.
If this young man couldn’t finish all this food, it would all have to be thrown away, what a waste!
Sang Wenhao, unaware that he had already been designated as a food disposal unit, woke up at noon.
There was no one in the living room. The plants on the balcony were lazing about in the sun without making much movement.
Sang Wenhao instinctively took a deep breath, savoring the fresh, clean air in the room, then got up briskly, ready to put on his jacket.
As he reached for it, he suddenly froze.
He was still wearing that leaf outfit!
The embarrassing scene from yesterday resurfaced in his mind. Sang Wenhao realized that the young woman had probably forgotten about the basic necessities a man would need.
Having endured all kinds of trials in the apocalypse, a little embarrassment was nothing.
He headed toward the front door, planning to find some wearable clothes in other rooms of the building.
But when his hand touched the doorknob and he turned it, the door wouldn’t open.
Sang Wenhao: …
He tried again, still no movement.
If he hadn’t realized by now that he was being confined, something would be seriously wrong.
But it probably wasn’t the young woman who had locked him in, it was the mutated house.
Sang Wenhao tried to speak. “You can understand me, can’t you?”
The house didn’t respond.
“I need a set of clothes I can wear. I’m leaving the room now to go get them. Don’t worry, I’ll only take clothes and nothing else.”
The house still didn’t respond.
Sang Wenhao, still in his leafy outfit, sat back down on his floor bed and took another look around the room.
Compared to the dimness of yesterday, the living room was now much brighter.
On the TV cabinet in the living room was a digital clock facing the floor bed, its numbers ticking away second by second.
It was now noon. He didn’t know if Fu Erdie was sleeping in the bedroom or if she had gone out to do something.
After waiting five minutes, the front door opened. A spider plant leaf carried in a bag of clean clothes.
Inside were all kinds of men’s clothing, everything from T-shirts and shirts to socks and underwear, a miscellaneous assortment of essentials.
The spider plant dropped the bag and quickly disappeared. The front door closed again.
Sang Wenhao glanced toward the master bedroom, then cautiously made his way to the bathroom. He locked the door and found a black tracksuit to set aside for later.
He wanted to take a shower. But with water being so scarce in the apocalypse and him knowing nothing about how this room worked, he simply tried closing the drain and turning on the faucet.
No water came out.
Sang Wenhao sighed inwardly.
Sure enough, water shortage was an eternal problem.
Before he could even finish that thought, the showerhead suddenly burst forth with a powerful stream of water. Water splashed onto the floor and sprayed against his pant legs.
Sang Wenhao’s muscles instinctively tensed, ready to react. When he realized it was just the house releasing the water to urge him to shower, he gradually relaxed.
The water was warm, perfect for bathing, and it flowed directly without any heating process.
He stripped off the leaf outfit and stood under the showerhead, letting the water wash over him.
Such a luxury. Taking a bath with water.
It felt good.
He showered quickly, not lingering under the water even though he hadn’t bathed in six months. He used body wash three times, and the whole process took only ten minutes. After turning off the shower and putting on the black tracksuit, he stepped out of the bathroom feeling clean and refreshed.
The living room was still empty, but the front door was now open.
The familiar spider plant was there, standing at the entrance, its leaf tip pointing in a direction as if guiding Sang Wenhao.
He followed without hesitation, making his way from 16-1 to 16-8.
Before him was a large, spacious living room. Seated at the center were an elderly woman and a young woman, Fu Erdie and Zhang Dongxuan.
The table was laden with an abundant spread of food, including a three-delicacy soup made with luncheon meat.
Seeing the amazed, eager look in Sang Wenhao’s eyes, Fu Erdie thought to herself: The spider plant waiter’s obedience and cuteness must have stunned him.
She had deliberately not gone to fetch him herself, wanting the spider plant to show off a bit.
It looked like it worked perfectly!
Smiling, Fu Erdie gestured for him to sit. “Eat as much as you like.”
Sang Wenhao, completely unaware of Fu Erdie’s little scheme, swallowed hard. After confirming several times that he was allowed to eat everything, his composed expression finally cracked, and he abandoned all pretense, digging in with unrestrained enthusiasm.
There was no white rice, but there was millet rice. Paired with pickled vegetable and radish soup, sour and spicy shredded potatoes, and a table full of other dishes, he felt like he could eat an entire cow!
By the time he was stuffed to the brim, the only thing left on the table was the luncheon meat three-delicacy soup.
Meat was precious in the apocalypse. He had already taken the liberty of eating the other dishes with the host’s permission, but he couldn’t bring himself to take the meat as well.
Seeing this, Fu Erdie unceremoniously picked up the remaining meat and ate it herself.
“Sang Wenhao, I want to discuss something with you.” With a full stomach, Fu Erdie cautiously broached the subject. “As you’ve seen, there are still a few hundred wandering zombies in our neighborhood. Would you be willing to help me lure them all to Building 7? As compensation, I can offer you a comfortable place to stay and enough food to fill your stomach every day.”
“Absolutely!” In the apocalypse, there was no place more comfortable than this, not even the bases could compare!
Fu Erdie quietly observed Sang Wenhao’s expression. “Then, how about we start with Buildings 8, 9, and 10 and take care of all the zombies on this side today?”
Sang Wenhao resumed his earlier restrained and composed demeanor. “No problem. Whatever you say goes. I’ll follow your lead.”
“Um,” Fu Erdie couldn’t help adding, “Three buildings in one morning is a lot of work, though. I used to only clear one floor per day.”
Sang Wenhao didn’t seem too concerned about the workload. Instead, he said, “If your plants can handle it, I can lure all the remaining zombies in the entire neighborhood over in one day. And if they can still take more, I’ll go outside the neighborhood to bring more.”
Fu Erdie: …
Fu Erdie wasn’t well-versed in the subtleties of human interactions. She had spent the entire morning thinking and preparing various ways to frame her requests.
But she never expected that none of them would be needed.
Fu Erdie instinctively bit at a piece of dry skin on her lip, then proposed something she herself thought was a bit excessive: “I want to raise some chickens on the 16th floor. After we finish clearing the zombies today, could you go out tomorrow to look for some chickens?”
Sang Wenhao was about to say “no problem,” but then his brain registered what she had actually said. He looked at her with an expression of disbelief, like a contractor staring at a client.
Fu Erdie: …
She felt a pang of guilt.
She really wasn’t that kind of person. But she didn’t know how else to establish her position as the one in charge, or to make sure Sang Wenhao developed the habit and understanding that he needed to contribute in order to receive.
Maybe she should just forget it.
After all, if she wanted to eat meat, she would have to go out and find chickens herself eventually. If Sang Wenhao wouldn’t go, she would have to do it anyway.
But asking a guest who had just arrived to do something with no clear direction, that really did seem a bit unreasonable.
Fu Erdie felt guilty.
“Forget it…”
Sang Wenhao: “Chickens won’t work.”
Fu Erdie sighed inwardly. She had expected as much.
Then, the next moment—
Sang Wenhao: “But rabbits will.”
Fu Erdie: …?