Chapter 32: Word Has It You Have an Issue
Shen Chengyin’s duties at the Revival Base hospital were exceptionally light. Most of his hours were spent in the training facility, casually exchanging insights with fellow metahumans.
Rare ability users like him had to do virtually nothing to have an endless stream of zombie crystal cores and premium provisions brought straight to their feet.
When the staff learned he was a primary-tier life user already capable of mending flesh and closing wounds, the attending physicians nearly devoured him whole in their fervor.
“Are you telling me that with you around, surgical incisions won’t even need sutures anymore?!”
“This defies all medical logic! Spurring cellular regeneration out of nothing, without taking any physical toll…”
“The world went to hell months ago, who gives a damn about conventional science?”
Having stayed in Revival Base for a week, Shen Chengyin had grown entirely numb to their endless gossip. Tucking a folder beneath his arm, he strode impassively past the chatter toward the training facility.
“Wait, wait! Mr. Shen!”
One of the doctors suddenly rushed forward to catch his arm, leaning in with an air of profound secrecy.
Seeing this, the surrounding physicians threw Shen Chengyin looks heavy with sorrowful pity.
Lowering his voice to an urgent whisper, the doctor murmured right into his ear, “Mr. Shen, your life ability is nothing short of miraculous… But can it really do nothing for erectile dysfunction?”
Shen Chengyin: “…”
After an agonizing silence, the man replied flatly, “I have never tested that.”
“A man’s pride is entirely tied to that! It’s the cornerstone of a man’s lifelong happiness—how could you never have tried?!” The doctor slapped his own thigh in pure dismay.
As the hospital’s resident specialist in male reproductive medicine, he had felt nothing but professional sympathy for Shen Chengyin ever since the rumor reached his desk.
Shen Chengyin frowned, genuinely bewildered. “Why would I ever test such a thing?”
Assuming Shen Chengyin was playing dumb out of deep shame, the doctor gave an understanding nod. “Rest assured, given the current trajectory of life ability research, reaching the intermediate tier will likely cure all mortal ailments. When that day comes, this little shortcoming of yours will be a piece of cake.”
He patted Shen Chengyin gently on the chest with the back of his hand, shook his head in mourning, and strolled away with his hands clasped behind his back.
The hallway was bustling. Watching the urologist leave with such a desolate expression, the surrounding onlookers caught on immediately.
So the rumor was true after all.
This stunning newcomer really was broken down there. Apparently, when his ex-girlfriend discovered it while they were dating, he had chased her bare-assed across three city blocks trying to silence her!
What an utter disgrace!
After the doctor departed, Shen Chengyin couldn’t shake the persistent feeling that something was severely wrong.
Rooted to the spot, he swept his eyes across the corridor. The surrounding staff averted their gazes in frantic guilt, scrambling in all directions as though dodging a walking plague.
His brows knit tight. After a brief pause, he turned on his heel and strode straight toward the nurses’ station.
That was the beating heart of all hospital gossip. With a few minor bribes, there wasn’t a single secret one couldn’t dig up there.
By dusk, the scavenging squads wrapped up their duties and returned to base.
After turning in his haul of zombie cores, Su Han was in no hurry to head home. Loitering casually in the mission hall, he shot the breeze with representatives from a few familiar squads, steering the chatter toward the hospital and its rare healing abilities.
“Word is a new life ability user was assigned to the hospital?” someone asked.
“Yeah, Shen Chengyin. An old acquaintance of mine,” Su Han said, nodding with an air of seasoned, complicated familiarity. “His power is quite unique—accelerates wound healing.”
“Doesn’t that make him a miracle surgeon?” another chimed in with undisguised envy.
Su Han offered a faint smile without answering. Instead, he took a slow sip from his canteen, dropping a soft, seemingly unprompted sigh of regret:
“It sounds great on paper… What a shame that when it comes to certain ‘fundamental’ issues, even the miraculous power of cellular healing is entirely useless. He’s terribly sensitive about it, too. If you folks ever cross paths with him, please don’t bring it up. It wounds a man’s pride.”
He cut himself off abruptly, letting a face full of sorrow and meaningful silence finish the sentence.
The men traded baffled looks, scratching their heads over his veiled meaning.
Su Han gave a quiet cough and pitched his voice low, looking around warily as if terrified of being overheard:
“Truth is, Shen Chengyin had an ex-girlfriend once… What was her name again? Ah, right, Li Tiangan—”
Someone interrupted, “Damn, that’s a pretty wild name for a girl, isn’t it?”
“She used to run with street gangs before the world ended; it was her street handle,” Su Han explained smoothly.
“Now that’s taste! Sounds badass,” a young punk with a buzz cut agreed enthusiastically.
Su Han pressed on: “Back then… he couldn’t get it up himself, but he pressured her into covering for him so they could get married. When the truth spilled, things got ugly fast.”
“What?!”
“Holy shit, for real…?”
A hushed murmur rippled through the gathering.
Watching their reactions, Su Han knew the seeds had been planted deep.
“Still, he’s an old friend of mine. A scumbag he may be, but he isn’t entirely rotten at heart. Just keep it between us—never mention it to his face,” he added with earnest concern.
The listeners caught his drift at once.
Over the past few days of scavenging together, Su Han had proven to be upright, warm, and exceptionally pleasant on the eyes, easily earning everyone’s favor.
Without realizing it, the veterans had naturally taken him under their wing like a little brother.
Aside from being hopelessly limp, Shen Chengyin didn’t seem to have any other glaring flaws. As long as he kept his hands off the base’s women, they didn’t hold a grudge.
Seeing that his casual smear campaign had hit the mark so thoroughly, a wave of smug satisfaction warmed Su Han’s chest. He neatly pivoted the topic to today’s scavenged haul, acting as though the whole exchange had been nothing more than an innocent, sympathetic slip of the tongue between friends.
Now he wouldn’t have to worry about Shen Chengyin and Cheng Ruoyan hooking up behind his back.
Next on the agenda was digging into Cheng Gaolang. Despite being in the base for a good while, Su Han had only heard that name uttered in passing a handful of times.
Aside from knowing he was Cheng Ruoyan’s uncle and Cheng Yibin’s younger brother, Su Han was entirely in the dark about him.
Wrapping up the chat, Su Han found a quiet eatery and took a seat.
The only currency circulating in the settlement was zombie crystal cores; an ordinary meal of three dishes and a soup ran upwards of several dozen primary cores.
Emptying his pockets, Su Han could barely scrape together enough for a single modest dinner.
He had to squeeze every drop of useful intel out of the duration of this meal.
Patrons who could afford to dine in a restaurant were all folks of wealth and status, yet Su Han sat there for two hours without spotting a single familiar face.
Refusing to leave empty-handed, he chewed his food in tiny, agonizingly slow bites. Just as the kitchen was preparing to close for the night, a noisy clamor erupted at the entrance.
“All right, all right, hurry up and bring out some hot chow for us, we’re fucking starving here!”
“Hauling ass across that long-distance route… we haven’t had a warm bite in three whole damn days!”
Apocalypse: Becoming The White Moonlight Of A Possessive Mad Dog
