Chapter 88 - Plant Ability

In fact, Nie Yi had originally planned to construct his secure base a little later. After all, it wasn’t even five months since the apocalypse had begun; it was still a little early.

But the evolution of the zombies in this life was too quick. The Chenguang Team previously had a little more people so they were able to fearlessly hasten their journey even when encountering many zombies as well as gather more supplies, but what about later?

In the future, zombies would get increasingly stronger. When that time comes, ordinary people who did not awaken to abilities would be infected by zombies if they were even a bit careless. Not only could they not become a fighting force, they would probably even be a burden.

Nie Yi, however, did not wish to see the people that he trained ultimately and inexplicably become zombies. Might as well establish a base first and find a deserted place without many zombies to settle down.

Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen had gone to many places in their last life. At the beginning, when they were hunted by the several bases allied by B City, they once fled into Dabie mountain range and felt that it was quite good.

The temperature was suitable and the environment was elegant; there weren’t many people nor much ferocious beasts, and there was also a lot of land that could be farmed...

At that time, weren’t there many survivors who had precisely relied on hiding in the Dabie mountain range, which was how they were able to live a rather good life during the initial and middle stages of the apocalypse? At that time, the mountains had several villages, which had stabilised after clearing out the zombies there, and they had even offered shelter to many people who were fleeing from other parts of the country.

Of course, the main reason Nie Yi chose this place was because Qi Jingchen’s hometown was nearby.

After Nie Yi clarified the situation, none of the Z County survivors present disagreed; as for those not present...

During that night when everyone had gone home to sleep, Xu Yehui went to knock on the neighbouring house’s door.

When he saw Qi Jingchen unexpectedly save Uncle Xu and bring him back, he knew that his initial method was wrong, and also knew that Qi Jingchen probably wouldn’t really come to cause trouble for him— Since Qi Jingchen could save the other Xu members, it could be assumed that he was a little kindhearted.

“I wanted to ask, what did Nie Yi talk about?” Once the door opened, Xu Yehui asked this with a smile.

When the person inside saw that the one outside was actually Xu Yehui, he subconsciously wanted to close the door. However, Xu Yehui reached out and held the door open. In this hand, there was even a plastic bag with husked rice inside.

In the end, that person still opened the door, then repeated what Nie Yi had said before warning him, “That son of yours has a good relationship with Nie Yi; it’s best that you don’t harbour any devious intentions.”

“I know, I know,” Xu Yehui said. He naturally did not dare to think about devious plans anymore. Qi Jingchen wasn’t much, but he did not dare provoke someone like Nie Yi. Speaking of, perhaps that letter of his wasn’t given to Nie Yi by Qi Jingchen but was something Nie Yi, who had always kept a close eye on Qi Jingchen, had gotten ahold of himself.

When Xu Yehui returned, he revealed a happy expression, then told his daughter and wife of this matter.

“Dad, can we still follow Nie Yi?” Xu Qiuyu asked.

“We probably can. But we should still be more content with our lot,” Xu Yehui said.

Xu Qiuyu lowered her head; it wasn’t known whether she truly intended to obey her father’s words.

At the same time, Nie Yi was licking Qi Jingchen’s ear.

At the start, he slowly licked Qi Jingchen’s earlobe, then began to lick up to his outer ear. In the end, he practically took Qi Jingchen’s whole ear in his mouth.

“Are you done?” Qi Jingchen was finally at the end of his patience. “Don’t you feel dirty?”

“I’ve already helped you clean it,” Nie Yi said. His water ability really was useful.

“Sleep!” Qi Jingchen directly said.

“The other ear isn’t licked yet; don’t you feel uncomfortable?” Nie Yi said, “Think about it. I’ve already licked this ear, so I can’t treat that one unfairly, right?”

“I don’t have OCD,” Qi Jingchen said.

Nie Yi no longer continued nagging, smiling as he looked at Qi Jingchen with eyes filled with affection.

With Nie Yi suddenly no longer speaking, Qi Jingchen turned to look at him. Seeing Nie Yi’s eyes, he was a little unable to move his gaze away. After a while, he said, “You look really handsome.”

“Such a great hottie is gifted to you; do you want it?” Nie Yi immediately asked.

“Aren’t you already mine?” Qi Jingchen smiled.

Nie Yi was sent into a daze by Qi Jingchen’s smile. When he looked back at Qi Jingchen, he realised that Qi Jingchen had already fallen asleep.

Qi Jingchen was becoming increasingly lively; Nie Yi felt perfectly content. However, once he thought of those zombies outside, his heart sank.

He could make Qi Jingchen live happily now, but what about in the future?

Early the next morning, the Chenguang Team had already tidied up their things, and were ready and waiting.

Having stopped by W County for a few days, their supplies, as well as their trucks, had increased again. Fortunately, there were several people in the team who had learnt how to drive trucks during these past few days, so there were enough drivers.

The members of the Chenguang Team were prepared, and the survivors of Z county were as well. Altogether, they were no more than about three hundred people and ultimately squeezed into twenty trucks.

Each and every one of them had brought many things, and all of them carefully guarded their items. Their faces, however, didn’t have much fear or anxiety, even containing smiles that were brimming with hope for the future.

Among these people, it was probably Xu Yehui’s family of three who were the most apprehensive as they sheltered at the back of people and dared not reveal their faces, for fear that they would be spotted by Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen and chased out.

When Nie Yi saw that everyone was prepared, he brought Qi Jingchen out. Seeing that there were dust and paper bits that couldn’t be avoided on the road, he even cleaned it up with his water ability.

He protected Qi Jingchen as he got into the RV, then he clambered on top of it.

The fleet began to slowly advance and left Z County.

Nie Yi’s RV was at the very front. This was the car that bore the most pressure, as they were practically constantly being rushed head-on by zombies. However, Nie Yi sat on the roof, and unexpectedly didn’t let any zombies near the car. It was also at this time that everyone discovered that Nie Yi’s strength wasn’t just his abilities.

He used his ability with one hand while the other held a gun. Each time a gunshot rang out, a zombie’s skull would shatter. Several of these zombies’ heads even began dripping with black water after being shot and emitted black fog; evidently, they were level two zombies.

Fortunately, the seating in the truck was relatively higher, so they wouldn’t inhale the fog.

The fleet slowly continued forward and it wasn’t long before they neared Dabie mountains. But Nie Yi did not stop, and his car drove along the mountain range.

This drive went on for two entire days. The car fleet stopped at a village below Dabie mountains.

There were no more living people in this village, only zombies. Who knew whether those survivors had fled or turned into zombies. They cleared out the zombies and settled down here, then started to make fires and prepare a meal.

The members of Chenguang Team’s meals were very good; they could choose their own staple food, either rice or noodles, and their dishes were also sumptuous. For example, today’s dinner was winter bamboo shoots that the earth ability users had dug out when passing a bamboo forest. However, the Z county survivors and people they rescued during these two days had inferior meals. They ate only coarse cereal that was either made into congee or buns; they did not even have dishes.

Coarse cereal was considered good food before the apocalypse, as many supermarket packaged coarse cereals were much more expensive than the cheap husked rice. Many people also did not eat rice and insisted on eating coarse cereal, but now...

The husked rice and wheat flour that tasted good and was easily ingested, and could provide a lot of energy was everyone’s greatest necessity!

Of course, actually the members of the Chenguang Team did not eat the best, because the team still had Qi Jingchen.

Back in Z County, Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen spent most of their time in the room, so even though everyone knew Nie Yi valued Qi Jingchen, they had only seen Nie Yi cook for Qi Jingchen. Now...

During this journey, they saw how well Nie Yi treated Qi Jingchen. Those who had an interest in Nie Yi had mostly given up now.

Qi Jingchen’s dinner today was the winter shoot dug out from the previous bamboo forest, as well as caught bamboo rats.

Rats that roamed around human houses usually had germs all over them, and it was best not to eat them even if they were caught; however, bamboo rats weren’t the same. These rat species that lived in bamboo forests were very clean, and their meat quality and flavour were outstanding...

Those earth ability users had altogether caught only eleven bamboo rats. Nie Yi wanted six, and they themselves took the other five. The others could only look on enviously.

Once Nie Yi got his hands on the bamboo rats, he decided to raise four of them, as for the remaining two, one was made into stew and one was simmer-fried.

Using olive oil to saute colour into sugar, then adding the rat bamboo meat to stir fry, then adding salt,it wasn’t long before the simmer-fried bamboo rat was done. There were no additives at all, so Qi Jingchen definitely wouldn’t be unhappy eating it.

The other bamboo rat was made into stew with bamboo shoots. The seasoning required for this was even lesser, and he only needed to add a little salt.

Aside from this, in order to ensure that Qi Jingchen was nourished, he also had a bowl of steamed cabbage cores drizzled with sesame oil.

Eating white rice that was originally husked rice in vacuum-sealed packs and had not suffered any outside contamination, nibbling on bamboo rat meat, with Nie Yi even acting as his heater beside him, Qi Jingchen’s mood was very good. Seeing Xiaomao stare at him anxiously, he even spooned out some bamboo rat and bamboo shoot soup for her.

Xiaomao softly said, “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing,” Qi Jingchen said, and simply ladled out a small bowl of soup for Mu Yi— Mu Yi was pregnant, and should eat better.

Of course, he didn’t forget to leave some for Nie Yi.

Actually, Qi Jingchen had previously brought up the topic of having Nie Yi eat with him, but Nie Yi thought that his appetite was too big and might eat up all the food meant for Qi Jingchen, so he insisted on his unwillingness and only ate his leftovers.

Even Qi Jingchen thought that Nie Yi treated him too well like this, so this feeling was even more evident to other people...

Nie Yi was actually eating leftovers! Leftovers!!

Moreover, after eating Qi Jingchen’s leftovers, he didn’t make good food for himself either, instead going to eat the food that other members of the Chenguang Team had.

This truly was... a good man of a new-age.

“Woof woof woof, woof woof!” Just as everyone was being stupefied, the husky Chu Yunxiu raised then rushed towards Qi Jingchen while barking. Its tail wagged like a fan; this appearance was so, so flattering...

Chu Yunxiu held its waist so as to prevent it from throwing itself at Qi Jingchen. “Ancestors! You can’t jump at everyone in this world...”

Qi Jingchen couldn’t help but laugh when he saw this, and finally gave it a bamboo rat bone.

This dog unexpectedly curled its tongue around the little bone in a cherishing manner and ate it slowly, appearing to have the intention of savouring the flavour.

“This thing’s IQ... seems to have gotten higher ah...” When Chu Yunxiu saw this, she rubbed her forehead because of the sweat she produced from her battle of wits and strength against this dog.

It was already the apocalypse; aside from rolling around in bed, there simply was no other entertainment. Moreover, not everyone had a bed to even roll in, so aside from those on night watch, basically everyone else had gone to sleep early.

But Nie Yi and Qi Jingchen did not go to sleep; they had even left the camp together.

historical

“Nie shao, where are you going?” Someone on night duty asked.

“We’re going to stargaze at the mountaintop and wait for the sunrise,” Nie Yi said, then took Qi Jingchen to head to a mountain at the side.

Behind them, the person on night duty had a face filled with admiration— He truly deserves to be Nie shao ah! He’s still being all romantic even in the apocalypse!

Nie Yi, however, had no idea about the night guard’s thoughts. He actually had a reason to go up the mountain at night— At a mountain in the Dabie mountain range, an extremely powerful plant ability user had appeared.

That plant ability user was a woman, and her family was very rich. She originally should have had a life without worries and would marry a husband suitable for her status in the future. But in the end, she was unwilling to go down this road and chose another path.

She built a very beautiful house somewhere near a scenic area of Dabie mountains, and operated an inn.

Due to her having built this inn very beautifully and having good service, many people were willing to spend their holidays there. During the summer vacation when the apocalypse struck, her inn had several people who had come up the mountains for vacation.

When the apocalypse came, several of her guests turned into zombies, but those remaining had survived, because the owner had awakened to a plant ability.

Like how space ability users were separated into several kinds, plant ability users also had several kinds. Each had their partiality, and most plant ability users leant towards attack. It was only this plant ability user who not only could attack, but also plant and grow.

In Nie Yi’s memory, she only appeared in front of everyone during the middle stage of the apocalypse, then was later protected by a large-scale secure base in the southern area. Unfortunately, during the last stage of the apocalypse, everything was contaminated. Although she had the skill to speed the growth of plants, what she had managed to produce were very few...

At that time, Qi An had even once gone to her place to steal the plants she grew, but later, she died for unknown reasons.

“If we have her help, we’ll have enough vegetables to eat.” Nie Yi carried Qi Jingchen on his back and slowly walked up the hill.

This mountain had roads to use, and walking wasn’t that difficult. It wasn’t long before Nie Yi reached the peak, and saw an inn that was surrounded by various plants.

Sure enough, it was a place where a plant ability user was living in for it to be green and luscious on the mountaintop during winter.

The entire inn was silent, as if no one was living there. However, this wasn’t unusual. At night during the apocalypse, it was natural that no one would start a bonfire party. Even those on night duty would probably lean against the wall and quietly sit there to conserve their energy.

Nie Yi set Qi Jingchen down and stepped on the tender lawn, walking up to knock on the door.

The sound of knocking was extremely clear in the night, but there was no response at all... Nie Yi noticed that the door was unlocked.

Could it be that the people here had moved away? Perhaps he had gone to the wrong place. Nie Yi subconsciously pushed the door open, and just as he pushed it, he felt that something was wrong.

Accompanied by Nie Yi’s pushing on the door, something seemed to have snapped as there was the sound of a fine thread breaking. Immediately after, there was a ‘tick’ behind the door.

Before Nie Yi could understand what was going on, the conditioned reflexes of his body that had gone through a lot of dangers had already gathered Qi Jingchen up and rolled over.