Chapter 83 - Volume 2 Chapter 1
Volume 2 Chapter 1 Forced Mission, agreeing to support
Afterwards… she helped him out. Afterall the pure Er Dai wouldn’t understand anything.
This is something Shao Qing could think of, the best plan, yet…it was something that was hard to do.
This was something that would easily cause someone to fall apart. In fact at that time, Shao Qing was really about to collapse, wanting to avoid the entire problem by walking away. But then she saw the emerging veins on his body wriggling around like a spiderweb that was about to burst apart his red skin.
To the end, Er Dai was unwilling to hurt Shao Qing. He was jabbing his own hands causing one hole after another to appear.
Shao Qing sat on the bed expressionless and couldn’t help but lift up her legs. She had experienced a lot of things. But she was still a traditional person. Having those kind of relationships with someone else was something that she thought should occur after marriage.
In Shao Qing’s heart, these kind of things needed to be done with one’s most beloved. Only after being married in a holy wedding ceremony could one do these things but now….
Er Dai wasn’t willing to go out and find other woman and she didn’t want to just watch as Er Dai died within her arms. Then….
Using her recently grasped spiritual power she notified Shao Tong and had her erect a protective screen around the entrance. Afterwards she stooped over and lightly kissed Er Dai on his burning lips.
Er Dai immediately acted as if he was a fish about to die from thirst who had just encountered water, quickly jumping on this opportunity. However, he was quickly pressed down by Shao Qing, unable to move.
Nervous, Shao Qing extended her hand. Because her finger was trembling it took two tries to undo Er Dai’s clothes. Finally with one fierce move, she directly tore Er Dai’s clothes to shred.
Er Dai’s chest was extremely pale, it’s surface covered with a lot of old wounds. These probably all occurred before he was a zombies, that’s why they never disappeared.
Shao Qing was very familiar with these wounds. She couldn’t help gently caressing each and every single scar. The slightly protruding wounds was a knife wound. In fact the wound must have been rather crucial entering the body three inches to have a lasting wound until today.
This side was round, a bullet wound. Maybe the bullet was still in Er Dai’s body.
At his rib there was one made by a dagger. It just happened to be located between his ribs, the target was probably his lungs. The person who made it must have been very experienced.
Not waiting for Shao Qing to touch all his wounds, Er Dai began to rebel. He grabbed Shao Qing’s hands and pushed it towards a certain region, constantly pitifully crooning.
Shao Qing sighed and pressed Er Dai’s moving hand: “Be good, you’ll be fine soon….”
……
Repeating it over and over until the second day, when Shao Qing finally crawled up she felt as if she was coming apart. It was especially like that time many years ago when she just entered the army, the feeling she would get after training each day.
Once she opened her eyes, she saw Er Dai lying on the bed looking at her like a dog. Shao Qing immediately felt a bit uncomfortable.
Er Dai was especially gentle, scared to use too much strength that might leave behind a trace. Finally it was on her clavicle that he left behind a hickey.
Once Er Dai saw that hickey, his entire body became excited. Rubbing against her just like a big dog.
Shao Qing rubbed his head and put on clothes. It was a little challenging to get down from the bed since her legs were still a bit jello like, but Er Dai immediately went to support her. He even massaged her legs to kiss up to her.
Shao Qing was not accustomed to it and felt embarrassed getting Er Dai to help. Walking out by herself she felt that no matter who she made eye contact with, their gaze all looked strange to her.
Especially since everyone at her place were her close friends. Shao Qing felt more and more uncomfortable. Sitting down on the sofa, Er Dai ran back and forth pouring
Shao Qing water, grabbing fruits for her, being very attentive.
Walking out from the kitchen, Yan Hanqing was holding a pot full of chicken soup with a complicated look: “I stewed chicken for Shao Tong and them to eat. Do you want some to drink? I think you should be able to absorb it.”
Shao Qing shook her head: “All food are no use to me. If I drink, then I’ll just puke it out later. It’s too bothersome. You guys go eat, I’ll just go absorb a crystal.”
When Shao Qing was going to prepare to leave and absorb a crystal, Er Dai also wanted to tag along. But was stopped when Xiao Baozi pulled on his clothing. When Shao Qing closed the door she saw Xiao Baozi thwarting Er Dai.
Shao Qing then took a big breath. She felt all her vital energy had been used up from sighing.
Sitting down to absorb the crystal, Shao Qing jumped up with shock. Before, she had been feeling embarrassed and had placed all her attention on the outside world that she didn’t even realize that she was only one step away from rank 4.
What did she do? How could she have in one night suddenly reached rank 4? This was practically like eating a miracle elixir!
Unavoidably she recalled the censored things that happened last night. After calming down, Shao Qing got rid of those embarrassing thoughts. Beginning to think more deeply, if she wanted to research this she will have to start from the source. First of all, how did Er Dai turn out like that?
Even though Er Dai was different from the average zombie, having his own mind and consciousness, his body wise there wasn’t much of a difference. At least in that aspect they were similar.
If there weren’t any special reason, why else would he have turned out like this.
That doesn’t make sense!
Thinking back carefully, she realized that she had only seen this aspect in only one zombie, the one who had molested Cheng Jiao who later on got sliced up into cucumber paste.
Calling to mind that zombie, everything suddenly became clear. This was because just yesterday she was completely perplexed on the fact that she clearly had remembered having a high rank zombie crystal yet couldn’t find it.
There was a great likelihood that this piece was accidentally given to Er Dai! Without knowing, Er Dai must have absorbed it thus last night’s incident.
This could be the only reason, otherwise what else could explain Er Dai’s sudden change?
With this, the rest was easily calculated. It was probably because of this crystal that led to the sudden changes to Er Dai. After, her and Er Dai doing that kind of thing, the crystal’s energy had some sort of transformation and a portion of it entered her body.
That zombie should be a rank 4. In other words, her and Er Dai shared the rank 4 crystal evenly. In addition, there were also some indescribable energy causing her to nearly rise to rank 4.
This was the most likely explanation. But no matter what, things that have happened has happened. One needed to just continue to look ahead. At least the upgrade in strength was a consolation.
Spending a night worth’s energy, she urgently needed to replenish her strength. Taking out the remaining rank 4 crystal she began to absorb it. Probably due to last night’s intense effort, when Shao Qing woke up, that piece of rank 4 crystal had surprisingly been nearly all absorbed.
Shao Qing could also distinctly sense that she just needed a wee bit more, that final push, then she would be able to break through. Thus she decided to breakthrough in one spurt.
In an instant the rank 4 crystal was completely absorbed. Immediately following, Shao Qing took out another few pieces of rank 3 crystals. In one go she absorbed them all. Now within her body she was filled with a flood of energy. Attempting the method taught by Meng Shen, she used her consciousness to guide the energy to rush at the nucleus within her brain.
Bang! In that split second, Shao Qing felt that there were fireworks inside her head. Then everything was a blank. Only after a long time of tranquility did she awake.
Stepping across to rank 4 from rank 3 was easier than what she expected. She could clearly sense the brimming life force flowing out of her nucleus. Surging out in waves throughout her body, any location that was passed through by her energy seemed to resuscitate her flesh.
In that moment, Shao Qing believed that if she continued to increase her rank; one day her body would once again change back into a normal persons.
This fact wasn’t what made her most happy. The thing that made her most excited was that Xiao Baozi had a chance in the future to become a normal human being.
Isn’t that what she had always wanted?
After calming herself down, Shao Qing went out. At this time it was already the afternoon. Gu Panpan and the rest were sitting on the sofa. Seeing Shao Qing come out, Er Dai right away attached himself to her. Closely following was Gu Panpan: “Jie, you’ve finally come out!”
“What is it?” said Shao Qing as she peeled Er Dai off her. Although Er Dai had always attached himself to her, this time Shao Qing had a guilty conscience and couldn’t help but want to tear away from him.
Er Dai felt especially wronged, but just like a young married woman he did not dare speak.
Gu Panpan didn’t mind the small details and merely said: “The thing is this, just earlier the base had sent people over saying that our superhuman squad had to represent S City survival base to escort the Jiang Bei survivors back!”
Shao Qing frowned. Once it was Meng Shen. Once it was Yan Pingsheng. Both were unable to persuade her. But now they are just directly coming by force?
”Did you mention to the base that we do not have intentions on receiving any missions for the next little while?”
Gu Panpan replied: “I did. We automatically thought that something didn’t add up. In this base there are so many superhuman squads, why would they choose us of all people. That’s why I tactfully rejected them. Afterwards the person said that this mission is compulsory, we have to complete it. However the reimbursements would be plentiful.”
Shao Qing immediately felt angry. She did not understand why Meng Shen and those people had repeatedly tried to get them to accept the mission. Was there some sort of plot, but no matter what it definitely wouldn’t be something good.
This kind of trap is originally something she would never tread on. But now there is someone trying to push her feet down, who could be happy in this situation?
“Did they say anything else?” Shao Qing coldly asked.
“They said that we are representing the base’s reputation. Once we are on the road we must treat them like friends. At appropriate times we should show off our base’s strength. They will also give us half of the remuneration at the beginning and after we finish sending them off we will get the second half.” Gu Panpan panted with rage: “Who said we wanted their rewards!”
Shao Qing also felt a headache. Sitting down, she told Gu Panpan and the rest of what had occurred previously. Finally to sum it up: “We still have to stay at this base right now, so we can’t afford offending them. So we definitely have to accept this mission. But, there must be some sort of scheme. At that time, everyone must be careful. Hopefully nothing will happen.”
While the entire superhuman squad was standing on alert, on the other side Yan Pingsheng was getting intoxicated. Reclining on a chair, he was whining to Meng Shen: “That Hao Yun is such a greedy pig. He probably already felt vigilant when we wanted to have Adorable Treasure as our escorts, they definitely will organize another superhuman squad to come monitor us. At that time, it’ll be all up to you….”
Meng Shen was expressionless: “Why is it all up to me?”
“Aren’t you pretty familiar with that….. Shao Qing? I even saw you stay up all night writing a love letter to that person. Now that I’m giving you this chance, you’re still not willing to take it?! Yan Pingsheng rolled his eyes: “In reality, you’re probably really happy. A widow or what not definitely is a particular taste. I always thought that you were frigid, but now do I know that you are outwardly cold but deep and passionate inside!”
“Get lost!” Meng Shen coldly glared at Yan Pingsheng, but did not explain why he had stayed up all night writing. Thinking about that made him sad. Resting on the desktop the entire night to write that in exchange for just a slightly better glance.
Yan Pingsheng once again mumbled to himself, then said: “Your mouth says no but your heart says yes! I’m going to bed first….”
Meng Shen tugged at his collar. He couldn’t help but recall Shao Qing. She was the most unique woman he had ever seen.
……
On the second day, Yan Pingsheng directly went to Shao Qing’s place, in the glorified name of coming to discuss the upcoming mission.
When he arrived, it was right when Shao Qing’s family had dinner. Yan Hanqing had just made dinner, Gu Panpan and them each had a dish they were carrying out from the kitchen.
A rich fragrance filled the air causing Yan Pingsheng’s nose to twitch. His eyes glued to each dish being carried out. It looks… very delicious….
“We just made it, would you like to join us?” Shao Qing smiled lightly acting very courteous.
Yan Pingsheng felt that he ought to first decline, to express that he was reserved. Afterwards when Shao Qing once again invited him then he would pretend to forcible accept. This pattern would be more classy.
Hence, Yan Pingseng waved his hand: “That wouldn’t be proper. I have already eaten, you guys can eat.”
Shao Qing nodded her head: “Then we’ll start eating, I’ll go get you a glass of water.”
Yan Pingsheng: …..
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!
He looked at the cup of hot water in front of him then looked at the family eating all the delicious food. If he could turn back time, Yan Pingsheng would definitely be thick skinned and say: “That would be great. It just so happens that I haven’t had dinner yet.”
This is probably called unsuccessful acting.
While Yan Hanqing was eating, Shao Qing carried water over to Yan Pingsheng: “So what may I do for you?”
Yan Pingsheng immediately curbed his thoughts, then sincerely said: “Naturally, I would like to speak to you about the upcoming escorting mission. For this I have to first apologize to you. We had brought up to S City that we didn’t have enough hands and wanted to borrow some. Later on we had mentioned your names but we didn’t communicate with you guys first. Now your base had proposed we select you guys. This was all my fault, I hope you can forgive me.”
Shao Qing obviously felt furious, but her face didn’t reveal that at all. She would only deliberately cause him to be humiliated over small matters. Calmly speaking: “Being chosen is our squad’s honor. When will we be heading off or is there something else regarding the mission?”
“We’ll be departing tomorrow afternoon. You guys won’t have to do much. Just make sure you protect us well on the journey.” Yan Pingsheng at once took out a small bag, then poured out the things inside on to the table: “This is the reward that was promised. The other portion would be delivered at the designated time.”
Placed on the table was the promised ten pieces of rank 3 crystals. Those crystals being displayed on the display at last calmed Shao Qing’s anger by a bit. Taking a glance she then nodded her head: “We’ll meet at the plaza tomorrow afternoon? We’ll be there on time.”
“En, 1 o clock.” Yan Pingsheng forced himself to not look towards the table. Yet the smell of the dishes was acting as if it was trying to act against him and constantly headed towards his nose. Yan Hanqing’s culinary skills had real substance. The fragrance had almost caused his drool to fall down, yet he had to forcefully keep calm.
“Then is there anything else?” Shao Qing’s meaning was clear. If there’s nothing else, then quickly leave; don’t bother us while we’re eating dinner.
Hearing this statement that was obviously meant to chase him away, Yan Pingsheng also felt ashamed to stay any longer. Quickly standing up: “There’s nothing else. Then I’ll leave first, I won’t bother everyone eating dinner.”
Shao Qing didn’t even have the intention to send him off. She just stared blankly as he miserably left by himself. After he was gone, Shao Qing grasped a piece of zombie crystal. Using her own weak mental energy to probe, she could sense that each and every crystal was full with energy; nothing wrong at all.
“Everyone eat dinner. After you’re finished, I’ll divide the crystals evenly. Everyone must work hard tonight. Take advantage of tonight so that when we are on the mission tomorrow, we might have a few more rank 3 superhumans.” Shao Qing spoke as she also checked if there were any special crystals.
The rest silently finished their dinner. Afterwards, Yan Hanqing cleaned up the dishes while the rest continued to sit.
Currently, Gu Panpan and Gu Chuan were both peak rank 2 superhumans, only a step away from rank 3. After absorbing a rank 3 crystal, their chances of breaking through would increase substantially.
Although Yan Hanqing had awakened his powers late, good preparation is key to success. He had also raised himself to rank 2. Although he was slightly worse than the Gu Chuan brother and sister duo, he still had a large chance of breaking through.
Er Dai…. cough cough. After experiencing the harmonious events of last night, he had already reached rank 3.
Shao Tong’s superpower was rather rare, but she was also the weakest out of the group. In addition to the fact that spiritual superhumans couldn’t simply rely on absorbing energy to evolve, therefore her chances of breaking through was the smallest.
Even Xiao Baozi who ate his ‘snacks’ day in and day out had reached rank 2. However, Xiao Baozi didn’t really have any combat capabilities, so his firepower could be overlooked.
After thinking it over, she gave Er Dai a piece of rank 3 crystal. This was for him to use to consolidate his boundary. Following that she gave Gu Panpan 2 pieces. Gu Panpan was a strength based superhuman, so evolving was easiest in comparison to the others. Giving her two pieces should be sufficient to increase her rank to rank 3.
Giving Shao Tong one piece to absorb, this was for her to slowly accumulate it bit by bit. Shao Tong also wanted to breakthrough, but the crucial point was that she already had that special crystal hanging on her neck.
Gu Chuan and Yan Hanqing each got three pieces. Shao Qing ordered them to not conserve the crystals. Zombie crystals were meant for absorption. They must level up to rank 3 by tomorrow, thus allowing them to have an extra level of security when they head out on their mission.
Ten pieces were quickly divied up. The group was then disbanded by Shao Qing to quickly go into seclusion for cultivation. Waiting until they were all gone, Xiao Baozi then slowly climbed over to Shao Qing’s thigh. With big round eyes staring up at Shao Qing, he asked: “Is Dai dai my new father?”
Shao Qing almost missed grabbing onto the sofa when she fell towards it. Choking a bit, her eyes opened wide: “Baby, what are you saying?”
Xiao Baozi felt wronged as he hugged onto Shao Qing’s waist, quietly speaking: “Mama’s entire body smells like Dai Dai…. also Mama and Dai Dai were sleeping together….”
Shao Qing’s cheeks became as red as a monkey’s butt. Being spoken to like this by her own son was simply shameful play. She just wanted to find a hole on the ground and jump in and hide.
Xiao Baozi lied on Shao Qing’s chest, sticking out his bum, his voice had a sobbing tone as he said: “The book said, if there’s a daddy and a mommy then mommy will give birth to a baby and then you won’t want me anymore….. Is that true….”
Shao Qing automatically felt her heart ache. She hugged Xiao Baozi and kissed him on the cheek: “Honey, in my lifetime I won’t be having another child. You are my one and only. I don’t want anyone but you.”
Xiao Baozi stuck out his lips, then clasped onto Shao Qing’s neck: “But, recently Mama doesn’t like me. Mama is always busy and doesn’t sleep with me anymore. I have to sleep with Tongtong and play with Tongtong. Mama doesn’t even speak to me anymore.”
When Shao Qing thought about it, she realized that this past few days she had been especially busy and indeed had neglected Xiao Baozi. Little kids were extremely sensitive, especially Xiao Baozi. All of a sudden, lacking that sense of security, it wasn’t strange that he was overthinking things.
Shao Qing’s heart felt sour and she immediately squeezed Xiao Baozi to her chest and showered him with kisses. “Mama was wrong. So, Mama will hold you while you sleep okay?”
“Okay.” Xiao Baozi kissed Shao Qing’s cheek, then lazily said:”I want to listen to a story, but not little red riding hood….”
After coaxing her darling to sleep, Shao Qing sat on the sofa motionless; while Xiao Baozi used her thigh as a pillow as he slept.
Looking at the plump delicate Xiao Baozi, her heart felt full. Even if she were to lose everything, at least she had her treasure. As long as Xiao Baozi is there, no matter if it’s facing a mountain of daggers or a sea of flames, she would be willing.
……
Once Xiao Baozi went to bed, he slept the entire night. His sleeping habit was well behaved, the entire time he did not switch around his positions. It was only because he was hugging Shao Qing’s waist, his drool had caused her clothing to become wet.
In the end when he was smacking his lips and flipping his body over, he revealed a fair white belly. Seeing this, Shao Qing couldn’t resist poking at it. Soft to the touch, it felt especially good so she couldn’t help but poke at it again.
Xiao Baozi thus was awaken by her pokes. Rolling on top of her thigh, “My darling woke up just on time.” Kissing Xiao Baozi, Shao Qing lifted him up: “Let’s go. We have to pack up the rest of the things. We are departing at noon.” Seeing Yan Hanqing and them walk out, Shao Qing let out a breath of relief. Someone who had just recently broken through would temporarily release some of their energy, one could easily tell them apart. Besides Shao Tong who didn’t break through as expected, everyone else had broken through to rank 3.
With this being the case, then their superhuman squad would consist of one rank 4 superhuman, 3 rank 3 superhuman and one abnormal but could be considered as rank 3 zombie, one rank 2 spiritual superhuman and a Xiao Baozi who is an extra.
This line up was extremely formidable.
Shao Qing believed that even if all the rank 3 squads at the base joined together, they wouldn’t be able to be their opponent.
Using Team Gale as an example, Team Gale obviously couldn’t be compared to this group of 7. Just from last time’s mission where not all the members contributed, it clearly showed that sometimes it isn’t the more the better.
As long as the captain and the vice captain weren’t defeated, then the team would have still been fine. They only needed Lin Xiaofeng and Cheng Jiao to be fine for Team Gale to not ruin their constitution.
If they don’t have other members, it’s okay they can recruit more. But if they didn’t have a captain then it would be over.
With the three rank 3 superhuman squads, each team consisted of 20 or more members. A majority of the members were ranked 2 with the exception of a few that had some extraordinary abilities.
So far, the highest known ranked superhuman was rank 3 Dian Feng. Therefore Shao Qing herself could already challenge their superhuman squad.
“It can’t be better now that everyone has broken through. Now let’s just pack up our things. In a while we will be meeting at the plaza.”
The things that needed to be packed weren’t much. It was just some rations, some clothes to change into and some wraps and medicine. Only a little bit of them were placed in the car, the majority was stored within Shao Qing’s spatial dimension.
This way it would be a lot safer, there would be fewer chances of it being lost. Even if something were to happen to Shao Qing, then the car would have materials ready.
The remaining odds and ends didn’t even have to be mentioned. Shao Qing and the others moved quickly. Within the hour they had already finished. After eating lunch, they all departed towards the plaza.
Seeing a familiar person from afar, that familiar person wasn’t any stranger but was the superhuman squad who wanted to merge with Adorable treasure, Blazing Flame squad.
Blazing flame was ranked slightly higher than Team Gale. This was especially the case since Team Gale had lost six to seven members. Blazing Flame’s captain was a fire elemental, thus the name of the team probably came from the captain’s ability.
Blazing Flame was the only rank 3 team that had a female as a captain. Blazing Flame’s captain was called Yan Ruru. It was because they had seen Shao Qing’s capability, that’s why they wanted to merge Adorable Treasure into their team.
When two squads were standing together, the scene they painted was completely different. Yan ruru’s side had everybody completely geared up from head to toe, as if they were some special model.
Whereas on Shao Qing’s side, the captain was carrying a baby and there were two who seemed like they were not even adults. Yan Hanqing was even holding onto a bottle of soy sauce he just bought as they were passing through the market.
From one look this side had a dense natural aura to them.
In other words the appearance they had were completely different.
Yan Ruru and Cheng Jiao were quite similar, but the difference was that she was extra imposing. In fact, just from one look you can tell that her temperament was intense. Yan Ruru’s lips couldn’t help but draw out in displeasure: “You’re bringing a child with you?”
Shao Qing scratched Xiao Baozi’s chin: “Call Aunt.”
Xiao Baozi blinked his massive eyes. Staring at Yan Ruru, he revealed the most adorable smile: “Aunt, nice to meet you…”
Yan Ruru’s heroic spirit immediately softened as her appearance beame gentle: “Very good…”
Seriously speaking, Shao Qing said: “I won’t be relieved leaving my son anywhere, that’s why I have to bring him along.”
Yan Ruru lowered her voice: “But you’re still bringing him outside to such a dangerous area. Why don’t you hire someone to take care of your child? In the mission hall there’s a lot of missions similar to that directed for ordinary people. If you are still worried, I could even introduce you to two who are trustworthy.”
Shao Qing shook her head: “Even though it’s dangerous, it’s only a little and I would be more at ease. But without him in front of my own eyes, I wouldn’t be able to focus on doing my mission. If there was some critical moment and I died then there would be no one else to take care of him in the future. So why not just have him by my side, where we will live and die together.”
Yan Ruru patted Shao Qing’s shoulder and didn’t continue, but she just said one last statement: “Just don’t affect the team okay.”
Shao Qing nodded her head. At this time, Yan Pingsheng’s side came over. Yan Pingsheng’s side also had some superhuman users, but during the road here they had received some injuries. Since they have not completely recovered, this is the main reason why they had to hire some superhuman teams.
“It is nice meeting the two captains.” Yan Pingsheng smiled and extended out his hand to shake hands with both Shao Qing and Yan Ruru. When he is serious, he would still have a certain elegant poise. Meng Shen who was on the side also exploited the opportunity to come shake hands with Shao Qing.
His lips slightly curved, but his smile was still practically non existent: “You agreeing has made me really happy.”
Shao Qing wanted to retort back. If it wasn’t for the base’s compulsory mission, she definitely wouldn’t have accepted this mission. Leaving from S city’s survivor base to Jiang Bei survivor base was such an incredibly long journey. During this long trip, who knows what kind of incident would pop up. The dangers and inability to predict what would happen was too high.
Even though she wanted to ignore him, Shao Qing’s expression didn’t change as she shook Meng Shen’s hand. Afterwards, the captain from the Jiang Bei superhuman squad came over to ask: “When are we heading out?”
The captain of the Jiang Bei team was the only male captain of the three squads heading out. From his appearance, he looked rather honest and steady, so he should be reliable.
“Let’s head out immediately.” Yan Pingsheng waved his hand. Afterwards, he beamed a smile at Shao Qing while asking: “Captain Shao, would you like to sit in our car? We could have some small chat.”
Shao Qing’s lips twitched, then she decisively rejected his offer. Who wants to chat with you?
Yan Pingsheng felt regretful, but did not stop her. He knew that him forcing Shao Qing and the group to accept this mission had already left them resentful. He has to make up for that and gain a favourable impression. He has to keep nagging and hope that his efforts will pay off.
The first group to leave the base was Blazing Flame followed by the Jiang Bei base with Shao Qing’s group following at the end.
In the Jiang Bei’s car, they were carrying a lot of goods t. However, you couldn’t make out what was underneath because it was covered by a tarp. It was most likely the goods obtained from trading with S city.
Talking about dimensions, the survivor base at Jiang Bei was slightly larger than S city. Even the number count for people was slightly more than S city. In fact, the Jiang Bei base was right beside a wide river. The zombies weren’t able to cross the river, so its safety was a bit higher than S City’s.
The only thing is that since the apocalypse, the temperature and weather has become nasty. No matter what the seasonal produce might be, it was extremely hard to grow. Just from that fact, S city was better.
Once lunch time had arrived, the three teams gathered together but all ate separately. They each set up their own kitchen and most made some simple rations from their pot. Whereas, on Shao Qing’s side, they had all split up the work to make real dishes.
In reality they weren’t making any sort of complicated dish. They just threw in some cold leftover rice, added eggs, vegetables, then fried it a bit and finally added some sliced meat and heated everything up.
In contrast to the others, it was like comparing the sky and the earth. When Yan Pingsheng sniffed the delicious aroma, he lifted his head up and started towards Shao Qing’s side. He saw a layer of golden yellow egg wrapped around rice adorned with crisp green vegetables and a thin layer of meat.
Looking at his side, they had a pot full of rations that looked like dog food and a side of preserved vegetables for lunch.
The difference was too big!
While Yan Pingsheng was heistating, Yan Ruru had already arrived at Shao Qing’s side worming her way over: “Do you guys always prepare such a lavish meal when you travel?”
“A child cannot be deprived of nutrition.” Shao Qing smiled then handed Yan Ruru a bowl. Her impression of Yan Ruru was rather good right now. Yan Ruru didn’t act pretentious or unnatural, and just received it and said thanks.
Yan Pingsheng immediately bit on his chopsticks, going into his pitiful loop: He wanted to eat Waahh! Why could the difference be so big? Waahh! If he were to go now would he be able to receive a bowl? Wahhh! But if Shao Qing didn’t offer him a bowl, wouldn’t that be really embarrassing? Waahhh!
When he had finished sorting out his feelings, he realized that Meng Sheng had already sat over there. Meng Sheng was extremely direct: “Could you give me a bowl? A small bowl would do.”
Since Meng Sheng had asked and he had also helped Shao Qing before, Shao Qing naturally wouldn’t not give him face; thus giving him a bowl.
Fortunately, they had made a bit too much otherwise they wouldn’t have had enough.
Yan Pingsheng decided to stop crying. Standing up and taking his bowl over with a whoosh, his eyes were sparkling: “I would like to eat some as well.”
With regards to Yan Pingsheng, Shao Qing was rather blunt. Yan Pingsheng had never helped her and was also the ringleader who made her have to accept his mission, thus why would she have to give him any face?
Shao Qing calmly divied up the remaining rice to Meng Sheng and the rest. Each person’s bowl had a mini hill protruding out. After doing that, Shao Qing showed Yan Pingsheng the empty pot and expressed: “Look, there’s none left.”
Standing there with his empty bowl, Yan Pingsheng felt extremely miserable. Especially when he saw Yan Ruru and Meng Sheng sitting by the side eating and giving him taunting looks. Yan Pingsheng was laden with grief. Disregarding Yan Ruru, Meng Shen and him were a group! Why was the treatment so different?
Could it be the love letter that Meng Shen had written when he was sprawled out that night? If he wrote one now, would he still make it!?
Facing Yan Pingsheng’s miserable appearance, Shao Qing felt rather disturbed and softly said: “How about I give you my bowl?”
No matter how much he wanted it, Yan Pingsheng couldn’t take a girl’s lunch. Swallowing back his tears of blood, he replied: “No, actually I’m already full…”
No, I want to eat. I want to eat. I don’t want to go back and eat that pot of dog food!
“Oh.’ Shao Qing gave an understanding look, then passed the bowl over to Meng Shen: “Since he won’t eat it, you can eat it. In any case, I’m already full.”
Meng Shen’s spedily poured the content of the bowl into his own bowl. Afterwards looking towards Shao Qing he gave her a smile: “Thanks.”
Yan Pingsheng wanted to kneel at that moment. Shao Qing was absolutely targeting him! Definitely!
Yan Pingsheng felt extremely wronged, especially comparing himself to Meng Shen. Returning back to his seat, he looked at the dog food being cooked, then looked back to the blessed Meng Shen throwing himself at his bowl causing him to feel even more off.
“Brother Yan.” The small chubby man gave Yan Pingsheng a bowl of rice topped with some pickles, giving him a pitiful glance: “Let’s eat.”
If there wasn’t any comparison, there wouldn’t have been any damage. After all, everytime they headed out they would eat this kind of ration. But now that there was a comparison, Yan Pingsheng really couldn’t eat. Taking one mouthful, his heart started to tear up. Compared to Meng Shen’s deadly tongue, Shao Qing was even more savage.
Eating on one hand and cursing on the other, that Meng Shen and Shao Qing, are definitely made for each other!
After dinner and resting up a bit, they continued to journey forth. Before it became dark, they had to make it past the small towns. These small towns were already vacant of people and were instead filled with zombies. If they couldn’t finish before dark and they were still in that area, there would a very high likelihood that they would be attacked during the night. That would be very inconvenient.
Once they make it past the short distance to the small town, the zombie population would be less dense, making it considerably safer.
This knowledge was gained through the gradual accumulation of people after the apocalypse. After the investment of blood and numerous lives, each experience would be used to save countless others.
“The road ahead is blocked.” As they were travelling forward, the Blazing Flame squad who were leading passed the news of their discovery. They could only stop where they were. Telling her team to look after the car, Shao Qing brought the clingy Er Dai and Xiao Baozi to take a look.
Yan Pingsheng was already waiting there when they arrived. For some unknown reason, a large crevice appeared out of nowhere on the ground. The most likely cause was an earthquake. Each branch of the crevice was about five to six metres, even the most narrow one was one metre. The car definitely wouldn’t make it across.
Yan Pingsheng’s group had ugly expressions on their face. This was because during their journey before the road was still fine. Who knew that when they were returning it would have become like this.
More importantly, this was the safest route. Regardless of which path they choose now, they would not be able to avoid passing areas of dense zombie population, a guaranteed loss of personnel.
“What should we do?” Yan Ruru also had her eyebrows pinched together: “Do we need to take a detour?” Looking over at the length of the cracks, no matter which edge they traversed it didn’t seem possible.
“We cant make a detour.” Yan Pingsheng gritted his teeth: “If we detour to the left, it just so happens to be the highway. There are a lot of abandoned cars there creating barricades. Even if we were to overlook the zombies stuck there, just a little past that is the city. Going through a city is just too dangerous. Detouring to the right will have us encounter a large piece of wetland. There’s likely swamps and a large quantity of variation creatures making it impossible to drive the cars.”
Yan Ruru couldn’t help but retort: But we just simply cannot continue this way. If we don’t make a detour, how can the cars make it past these cracks? Even if we were to abandon our cars, it would be too difficult for our people as well.”
Meng Shen squatted down to the ground to look. The cracks were very deep. So deep that the bottom couldn’t be seen. Taking a rock he threw it down. The sound of the rock bouncing off the edge once could be heard, but there was no sound of it hitting the bottom.
Trying to fill up that small crack is probably impossible. The only thing we can do now is to think of another plan.
“Maybe…. we could get an earth elemental to create a path.” After thinking about it for a long while, Meng Shen suddenly spoke out.
“How would they make it?” Yan Pingsheng’s eyes immediately lit up. Meng Shen earnestly replied: “This portion of the journey is a maximum of 100 metres. The middle still has some stable ground, so we would only need to cover up the parts with cracks and make a road like a bridge to support the car.”
Yan Pingsheng and Yan Ruru both thought that the plan was feasible, so they both called for their earth elementals. The earth elementals they called over was each squad’s strongest earth elemental user: one rank 3 while the other was at the peak of rank 2.
After Yan Pingsheng explained Meng Shen’s thoughts he said: “Are you guys able to create a bridge? It has to be about two metres wide but doesn’t need to be too thick, just as long as our cars can pass through.”
“We can try.” One of the earth elementals immediately bent down and placed his palms onto the ground. Activating his superpowers, the soil seemed to be shaped into a two metre wide bridge by an incorporeal hand connecting the cracks horizontally.
Delighted Yan Pingsheng quickly called out: “let’s call one of the cars over first to test it out. Prepare a wind elemental user. If the bridge caves in then they will need to use their entire energy to support the car. After a strength user would be in charge of dragging the car out.
After Yan Pingsheng’s orders, the two side immediately got to work. Once everything was ready, the off road vehicle that was given high hopes began to gradually drive across the bridge.
Under everyone’s scrutiny, the car crossed the bridge. When the car returned the bridge made from earth still hadn’t collapsed.
There were immediate burst of cheers, but Yan Pingsheng saw that Shao Qing who didn’t say a single thing the entire time had her brows knitted together, face deep in thought.
Seeing this, Yan Pingsheng couldn’t help but try to provoke her: “Captain Shao, is there a problem?”
Shao Qing pointed at the piece of crack and asked the two earth elemental users: “If you kept making a bridge the entire way, would you be able to support the ten plus cars? Could the two of you handle that?”
The situation became silent and cold including the thumps of Yan Pingsheng’s heartbeat. They had forgotten that a superhuman’s superpowers had a limit. Once it’s used up, it’s all used up.