Chapter 67 - Reading

The team left W County secure base and slowly headed for the cement plant.

Opening a cement plant didn’t require many qualifications, and there were many uses for cement. In every region there were several cement plants, but unexpectedly, cement plants would have mutated plants... Truly a strange phenomenon.

Mutated plants generally grew in deserted places.

The truck Qi Jingchen sat in had even more plants growing on top, and looked quite flowery and ‘fancy’. The other trucks were similar— In W County secure base, Nie Yi had bought a lot of seeds and saplings, and planted all of them on the roofs.

Naturally, the plants on top of the other trucks weren’t as beautiful as the ones on Qi Jingchen’s.

“Ge, the flowers and plants on our roof look really pretty,” Qi Yaoyao couldn’t help saying, before looking at the lettuce in Qi Jingchen’s embrace. “It’s just this veggie; why isn’t it growing? Obviously, lettuce should grow quickly if it’s watered!”

Qi Yaoyao didn’t like eating lettuce in the past. No, it wasn’t just lettuce, she hated a lot of other foods. But now... It seemed that starvation was the best method to cure pickiness.

“Minimalism is its best feature.” Qi Jingchen spoke out for his lettuce. If it had never grown, he would have just thought he hadn’t taken care of it well. He didn’t believe that anymore.

This lettuce must be an oddity... Thus, he became more willing to bring it along.

Could it be put that way? Qi Yaoyao looked at the lettuce a while longer. No matter which angle she looked from, she couldn’t find its best feature. She could only give up the thought and changed the subject. “Ge, shall I give you a shoulder massage?” She remembered when she was young, she would often run to her brother and massage his shoulders because she could get money from him. Now she just wanted Jingchen to feel more at ease, and wasn’t thinking of asking for money.

“Big brother, I’ll massage your legs.” When Qi An heard Qi Yaoyao’s words, he promptly squeezed over. He had worried that Xiaomao would cause Qi Jingchen to neglect him, but he soon realised he was wrong.

Qi Jingchen neglecting him wouldn’t be caused by the cute and obedient Xiaomao, but by Nie Yi and Qi Yaoyao!

He couldn’t go against Nie Yi, so he could only keep a close eye on Qi Yaoyao.

Qi An carried Xiaomao to Qi Jingchen’s side, sitting down on the little foldable stool he had brought over, and planned to massage Qi Jingchen’s leg. Just as he moved, Nie Yi lifted him by the shirt and pulled him away. Qi Yaoyao was also chased away by Nie Yi’s cold glare.

“Jingchen, I’ll massage you.” Nie Yi sat on the stool. No matter how Qi Yaoyao and Qi An fought, he would always be the final winner.

How big could the stool Qi An was sitting in be? It was completely incompatible with a big guy like Nie Yi! Qi Jingchen patted the space next to him. “You sit here. As for massaging my legs... It’s better if you don’t.”

Nie Yi’s strength was too great... Last time, he allowed Nie Yi to massage his back, which was a little sore from lying down too long. Once Nie Yi exerted his strength, he felt as though his back would snap.

Moreover, he was perfectly fine and didn’t need anyone to massage him! Especially since the other mostly wanted to take advantage of him.

After dealing with Nie Yi, Qi Jingchen’s gaze once again fell on the book in his hands.

“The car’s too jerky, don’t read.” Nie Yi frowned imperceptibly. “It’s not good for your eyes.”

“In any case, my eyes can only be used for a few more years...” Qi Jingchen’s voice was very light but he still closed the book. It made him happy to be cared for.

“We’ll reach your hometown very soon. When that time comes, you have to introduce me properly.” Seeing that Qi Jingchen didn’t continue reading, Nie Yi moved closer to speak. They would first head south to visit Qi Jingchen’s hometown, then go look for his uncle. Speaking of, was this considered meeting the parents? Should he get some gifts?

A few days ago, while staying to rectify the affairs of W County secure base, Nie Yi had secretly killed off those Qi Jingchen remembered had hurt him, including the forensic doctor responsible for cutting his flesh. Now, his mood was excellent and he was thinking about other things.

He could regard this journey as meeting Qi Jingchen’s parents while simultaneously having a honeymoon. And maybe, once Qi Jingchen’s ability awakened, they could establish a secure base as their home and start to fight for it.

Actually, he didn’t hold too much hope for Qi Jingchen to accept his feelings, but he knew that Qi Jingchen would never throw him away. This was already good enough; asking for more&#k2026;

Wasn’t there such a saying? With enough food, one will lust for more. Humans wanted to live well before they started thinking about anything else. However, the apocalyptic life simply couldn’t be lived well, so it was better if he didn’t think too much!

Dispelling some of his fantasies, Nie Yi leapt off the truck and used his ability without holding back. Once he used up his ability, he returned to the truck and started to cultivate.

It happened to be lunchtime when they reached the cement plant, so Nie Yi had people clean up the quite beautiful nearby chemical fertiliser plant, and their team settled down there, setting up pots and pans to cook.

When their team was small, they had used gas tanks to cook, but now that there were many more people, it wasn’t suitable to continue using gas tanks. As such, Nie Yi asked some people to fetch some big iron pots used for banquets in the countryside. They placed them on an oil tank with a section cut off and an opening dug out, then cooked using firewood.

They hadn’t brought firewood, but many things could be used to kindle a fire. They had torn down and chopped up a few wooden doors today, which fire ability users could set aflame and use to start cooking.

Over 2,000 people had been separated into 20 teams, which each cooked their own food. Those who loved eating noodles were grouped with others who loved eating noodles, those who loved eating rice would be a team, and those who wanted a change of taste could change teams as well.

The apocalypse was very sudden. Even though the entire nation probably couldn’t produce any foodstuff this year, the food in reserves from before was enough for survivors to eat for several years. In fact, plenty of food hadn’t been eaten in their past life; it was all wasted from being contaminated by dark energy.

Because he knew this, Nie Yi never treated his men badly when it came to food— Rather than letting the food go to waste, might as well eat it all!

W County had a lot of farmland. During their journey, they also gathered many vegetables and obtained a thousand kilograms of okras when they passed by a large okra field. Even though many okras were already a little tough, they didn’t really care.

This afternoon, they ate okras. They boiled the okras for a while, took them out to chop off the stems, then sauteed after adding oil, chili, and bacon. After sauteeing, they were delicious regardless of whether they were eaten with rice or rolled up with pancakes.

Of course, Qi Jingchen’s food was chosen more tastefully.

Nie Yi thoroughly boiled some tender okras, chopped them into halves before plating them, then sprinkled chili, minced pork, and the oil from sauteed mashed garlic on top. The dish looked very appetising.

Qi Jingchen ended up eating plenty, and even Qi Yaoyao, who didn’t like eating the somewhat gooey okras, ate very happily. Of course, the okra she ate wasn’t the one Nie Yi made, but the demonstration dish Mother Ping made when she taught Nie Yi how to cook them.

Qi Weiguo and the others ate with Nie Yi’s subordinates. They liked eating rice, so the person ladling out food filled their lunchbox with plenty of white rice.

They poured a ladle of pickled vegetables and luffa soupover the rice, then added some okras that had been sauteed with bacon. It was unbearably fragrant, and they ate until their lips were completely greasy. As they ate, they couldn’t help but shift their gaze towards Qi Jingchen.

Back when Qi Jingchen said Nie Yi was his boyfriend, they weren’t quite convinced. Now... they would believe Qi Jingchen even if he said Nie Yi was his servant!

historical

In the past, they had heard about homosexuality, and had even seen a marriage between two men in the news. They had thought that these people were crazy, but as they looked at Qi Jingchen now... Finding a man like Nie Yi was definitely better than finding a young miss!

They remembered that Qi Jingchen was once a very diligent little kid. When Qi Jingchen said he was Nie Yi’s boyfriend, they had wondered if perhaps Nie Yi had taken a liking to Qi Jingchen because he was hardworking and knew how to cook and do other chores. However, Qi Jingchen was clearly being served by the other.

To the extent that it wasn’t only his boyfriend Nie Yi serving him, he had a seven or eight year old boy serving him too...

While they watched Qi An drag a little girl around as he bustled about Qi Jingchen... Qi Weiguo and the others felt bewildered.

It wasn’t just Qi Weiguo and the others, even Nie Yi’s men felt that the young child labourer Qi An was rather pitiful... Of course, they saw that he was working willingly and didn’t feel right saying anything, so they just treated it as Qi Jingchen having too much charisma.

“Shall we go for a walk?” Nie Yi looked at Qi Jingchen. Last time, it was a water elemental plant and now it was a fire elemental; he could find them both on his own.

Qi Jingchen had just filled his stomach and didn’t like the neighbouring cement plant that was covered in dust. He promptly refused. “I’m not going.”

Nie Yi could only go look for the mutated plant all by himself...

The cement plant was large with several buildings; it was even filled with greenery inside, but all was dusted in grey... The green of the decorative flowers wasn’t even green anymore, but a dusty gray.

Nothing could be done about that; even though this cement plant had already shut down due to the apocalypse, there had always been dust on the floor. When Nie Yi walked towards the cement plant, he scattered clouds of dust.

Nie Yi unhurriedly walked through and inspected the decorative plants one by one. He didn’t find anything; rather, he ended up dealing with a level two zombie nesting in a duty office that wanted to bite him, and a few level one zombies.

Where on earth was the mutated plant? Nie Yi frowned and looked around once more, but still found nothing— Could it be that the person had lied about where he found the mutated plant?

Furrowing his brows, Nie Yi started his third round, and he looked very cautiously this time, opening each and every room, examining everything in detail. Yet, after a good while, he still couldn’t find anything, up until he opened a storehouse that stored raw material.

The primary raw material for cement was clay, and though this storehouse for raw materials was stocked full of clay, there was nothing else. Nie Yi looked around and suddenly sensed something.

At the very top of the gigantic pile of clay, facing the window, there was a red mutated plant that was the size of a finger. There was only one plant here.

The clay wasn’t topsoil and wouldn’t have seeds inside; who knew how this mutated plant grew from here... Nie Yi carefully dug it out and brought it back.

Such a treasure naturally had to be tested by his closest men first. Nie Yi called over Gan Shuo, Zhou Xiaofeng, and Qi Yaoyao, but these three unexpectedly had no reaction.

All their faces were filled with disappointment, but they weren’t envious as they understood they had no chance of awakening the fire ability.

“Ping Shengchao, gather everyone over; let’s go talk in the canteen,” Nie Yi said. He had Zhang Zihai, the other ten, and Gan Shuo and Zhou Xiaofeng stay behind to protect Qi Jingchen, a few family members, and Qi Jingchen’s fellow villagers. Then, he brought over the rest to the cement plant’s canteen.

The canteen had tables and chairs, but definitely wouldn’t have enough to seat 2,000 people. Instead, everyone chose to clear away the tables and chairs and wait for Nie Yi to speak while standing.

Nie Yi looked at these people, and had Ping Shengchao step forward to display his water ability.

When Ping Shengchao produced a water ball, everyone was completely dumbstruck— Wasn’t Ping Shengchao someone without an ability?

“I have a way for you to gain an ability,” Nie Yi suddenly announced.

Those who heard Nie Yi speak were immediately in an uproar. It had to be known that even though they had fewer casualties recently, there were still casualties, and generally, all of them were regular people.

They couldn’t do anything about it. A couple level two zombies would appear once in a while, and regular people would only face death once they came in contact with the black fog they sprayed!

Among the 2,000 people, the vast majority were common people, and all of them wished to become ability users.

Nie Yi waited for their excitement to calm down before explaining the situation with mutated plants. Then, he expressed that the regular people with good performances could have priority in obtaining mutated plants.

With that, he allowed Ping Shengchao to call out names, had them queue up, and try to sense the mutated plant in his hand one after another.

The first one up was Xu Nan. Unfortunately, he had no connection with this mutated plant. In the end, it was one of Fei Xuelei’s soldiers who managed to sense the energy in the plant.

Nie Yi also recognised this person because he usually performed pretty well and he was an amazing sharpshooter. Seeing that he had a connection with the fire ability, Nie Yi directly gave him the plant to eat, then instructed him in using his spiritual strength to help the team’s ability users cultivate.

The ability in Zhang Zihai and the others’ mind had already begun to rotate nonstop with his assistance, and this allowed the restoration of their ability to become much quicker. However, in order to avoid attracting Ping Shengchao’s suspicion, until now, Nie Yi had never helped anyone else do this.

They would probably stay outside for a long time, and he couldn’t avoid Ping Shengchao during this period. Naturally, he would seize the opportunity to raise his subordinates’ strength.

As for the future... After Qi Jingchen awakened to his ability, he wouldn’t have to pay careful attention to Ping Shengchao.

This meeting continued on for a very long time.

Nie Yi’s spiritual strength had gotten much stronger than before, so he was able to help twenty people transform the ability in their minds into a vortex, and only stopped when his ability was completely exhausted. After that, he set down some rules for his subordinates.

These rules were something he had used in his past life to manage the people who had relied on Qi Jingchen. He just had to modify them a little, so it didn’t take much effort. At the same time, he gave this team a name.

The team in Nie Yi’s last life was called the TianyanTeam. The others had assumed that he chose this name because he was a fire ability user, but he knew it wasn’t the case. Back when he named the team, it was just because Yan of the team name sounded like Yan— At that time, he really did like Yan Zhe.

Thus, the name Tianyan definitely couldn’t be used. In the end, Nie Yi gave this team the name Chenguang.

Chenguang Team.

While the Chenguang Team was being reformed, Qi Jingchen and the rest were waiting in the chemical fertiliser plant.

“Qi An, did you find the books I asked you for two days ago?” Qi Jingchen looked at the boy beside him.

A suspicious blush appeared on Qi An’s face, and he nodded. “I did.” As he spoke, he asked Xiaomao to take out two books from her space.

The two books looked quite normal, but they were wrapped with a book cover, so their titles couldn’t be seen.

With an unenthusiastic appearance, Qi Jingchen flipped open a book.

Even though he knew of homosexuality in his last life, he thought that it had nothing to do with him. After all, he had always been single- he couldn’t use his foster parents’ money to go on dates, and he had to make his own money before looking for a girlfriend. But he had once liked a girl and would take a few extra glances whenever a page of a scantily-clad girl popped up while he browsed the web.

As for after the apocalypse in his last life... After experiencing a great catastrophe, he never thought about feelings anymore. Even when he had guessed Nie Yi’s feelings, seeing that he himself resembled a walking skeleton, he just acted as if he wasn’t aware.

Frankly, he couldn’t even eat his fill back then. It wasn’t just him, but even Nie Yi probably had no mind to think so much.

But he never imagined that he would come back to life after dying. He didn’t know if it was due to Nie Yi feeling it was unfortunate that he died before he could confess, but in this life, Nie Yi was itching to announce their relationship to the entire world.

He should understand this subject a little more... Qi Jingchen read the book earnestly.

Qi Weiguo and the rest felt that the current Qi Jingchen was different and didn’t dare talk to him, but they still admired Qi Jingchen for studying so seriously even during the apocalypse— Someone who could have such an amazing boyfriend was, sure enough, exceptional, remembering to read books at all times!

They were filled with admiration for Qi Jingchen, but weren’t aware that the book Qi Jingchen was reading was mostly a description of two men moaning and groaning.

Able to keep such a solemn and serious expression while reading that kind of book, Boss was too amazing! Qi An stood at the side and admired Qi Jingchen even more compared to Qi Weiguo and the others.