Chapter 133: Dog Meat, Dog Meat, One Bite Please
Once everything was ready, Lu Weiyi tossed out the black dog’s body first. The frozen dog was still mid-pounce from when it had been stored, but now it was headless. As soon as it hit the ground, blood gushed out and its limbs twitched from residual momentum before finally going still.
“…” Everyone standing in a circle.
Then Lu Weiyi threw out the dog’s head, placing it next to the body.
“…”
Everyone glanced at each other, then silently dispersed, suddenly all very “busy,” pretending the earlier tension never happened.
“Lu Xiaoyi,” Xu Sa called out as he saw Lu Weiyi getting ready to leave on his electric scooter with Zhuang Mingxu and Zhuang Ai Yi. He quickly came over and handed him the ten crystal cores he had earned yesterday as wages. Five of them had been given by Liu Rui, who said they didn’t do anything for him anymore and should go to someone who could use them. Xu Sa whispered, “Uh… so, that dog’s a fire type, right? I’ll trade you some other element cores for it—how many do you want?”
“You’re lightning-type. Using other element cores won’t make much difference in boosting your ability,” Lu Weiyi said, glancing at Lu Xi and Dean, who were still circling the mutated animals curiously. He decided to head to the trading hall and let them play a while.
“This is for Little Stutter. It’s rare to come across someone with the same element,” Xu Sa explained.
Lu Weiyi eyed Xu Sa, and suddenly a memory flashed in his mind—back when they’d both been injured by zombies. He raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you use to like the school beauty?” That was way back in high school.
“What?” Xu Sa was a bit confused.
“Nothing.” Lu Weiyi wasn’t the type to pry into personal matters. He started the scooter and added, “The crystal cores were meant for Liu Rui’s upgrade anyway. Keep yours for yourself.”
“Alright then.” Xu Sa cheerfully pocketed all the crystal cores. When he turned around and saw Liu Rui still watching him, he finally understood what Lu Weiyi had meant. He chuckled and muttered, “That’s old news from a hundred years ago…”
*
Processing one mutated pig and two mutated dogs took the entire day. So much for a rest day—no one had a break at all. In the end, everyone agreed to take one more day off.
The good news was that that evening, they finally got to eat the long-awaited mutated meat. The bones of the mutated dog were used to make a soup base, and big chunks of meat were stewed into a hotpot. Add in handmade meatballs and some leafy greens for dipping, and top it all off with chilled beer—it was pure bliss.
“Just a little,” Lu Weiyi said, ladling out two small bowls of bone broth and giving one each to Zhuang Mingxu and Lin Yimu. “Try it.”
Zhuang Mingxu took a sip and raised an eyebrow. “It feels… warm.” Like a wave of heat spreading from his stomach. He couldn’t tell if it was just from the hot soup or if the soup actually contained some kind of energy.
“I thought I was imagining it,” Ning Yuan added.
“It does contain energy,” Lu Weiyi replied.
“Then doesn’t that mean if we eat enough of it, our powers could grow too?” Ning Yuan asked excitedly.
Lu Weiyi nodded but looked at him with slight disdain. “Even so, it’s not even a sliver compared to what you get from a crystal core. If you want to rely on eating this to grow your powers, do you know how much you’d have to eat?” Most of the energy in mutant plants and animals was concentrated in their crystal cores. The rest of the body might have a little, but it was barely anything.
“Still, it’s not bad for ordinary people to eat a little, especially in cold weather. A bowl of soup will warm you up quickly. But since those without abilities can’t absorb the energy well, it can build up and cause problems. Best not to eat too much,” Lu Weiyi advised.
As he spoke, he thought of the mutant fruits. They had a decent amount of energy and were gentler in nature. Whether ordinary people or those with abilities ate them, they were very beneficial to the body.
Lu Weiyi glanced at Zhuang Mingxu calmly sipping his soup, and Lin Yimu who was occasionally feeding Zhuang Ai Yi a spoonful. He made up his mind to grab more mutant fruits whenever he came across them.
*
The next day, the group unanimously agreed to rest for the morning. By around six in the evening, they broke up into smaller groups and went out to explore the trading market.
Lu Weiyi also wanted to see if there were any toys for Zhuang Ai Yi, so he went with Zhuang Mingxu and the child.
The trading market was the same as before—filled with vendors. It wasn’t clear if the people were the same as they’d seen previously.
“Someone’s selling water?” Lu Weiyi noticed a vendor with buckets and a sign indicating it was drinkable water, priced in exchange for food. He asked, curious.
“Yeah, these days the base water is only good for washing. You can’t drink it. Drinkable water all comes from water-type ability users. Most of them have been recruited by the base to provide centralized water. The amount they produce is fixed daily. Those with stronger abilities make a bit extra and sell it on the side,” Lu Xi, who had stayed in the base longer, explained.
Lu Weiyi nodded and looked around—everyone was bartering with food. “No one uses crystal cores?”
“No,” Lu Xi replied. “People usually absorb the cores directly to boost their abilities. As for ordinary people, they mostly trade for rare food like veggies, fruits, or meat. Our shop has always done well.” After the heavy snow, most produce had died, but before the snow, Lu Weiyi had hoarded thousands of pounds of it. Their prices were lower than others’, so naturally people preferred buying from them.
“Good. The trading hall is one of our main sources of income,” Lu Weiyi said. With so few people in the team, they couldn’t kill that many zombies, so the market income helped a lot.
“Weiyi, did you bring food supplies?” Xiong Jie, who had been shopping with Xi Shi, came back and shouted from a distance.
“I did. Why?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“There’s a guy up ahead selling live rabbits. Xi Shi thought we could buy some to raise ourselves for meat,” Xiong Jie replied.
“Daddy!” Zhuang Ai Yi, who had been holding Lu Weiyi’s hand and looking around, tugged on him and stared fixedly at a small vendor run by a kid about seven or eight years old.
“Hm?” Lu Weiyi followed his gaze. The boy was there with his mother, selling toy models—Iron Man, Transformers, etc.—all high-quality. Clearly, they had lived comfortably before the apocalypse. They even had a laptop playing the animated series Journey to the West.
“It’s just up ahead. Come by when you’re done,” Xiong Jie shouted back.
“Got it,” Lu Weiyi replied.
Zhuang Mingxu sat in his wheelchair and noticed Zhuang Ai Yi’s fascination. His heart ached a little. He asked the child, “How much is this?”
“We’ve also got Saint Seiya, Transformers, Teletubbies, and Peppa Pig,” the boy introduced eagerly, then hesitated, “…Three packs of instant noodles? Is that okay?”
Lu Weiyi didn’t intend to haggle, especially over something so minor. He swiftly handed over three packs and then took out a tablet, “Transfer the files over to this.”
“Thank you! Thank you, big brother!” The boy bowed deeply, clearly grateful that they could keep selling. His mother also thanked them.
Lu Weiyi nodded. Seeing the area was crowded and safe, and with his teammates not far off, he turned to Zhuang Mingxu, “You stay here with him. I’ll go take the food to Xi Shi.”
Xiong Jie was still standing guard ahead, clearly worried about Xi Shi being alone. He kept glancing back.
“Go ahead, I’ll stay with Brother Mingxu,” Lu Xi said, pulling Zhuang Ai Yi close to shield him from the crowd.
Lu Weiyi nodded and jogged off toward Xiong Jie.
A few hundred meters ahead, Xi Shi was crouched by a vendor selling rabbits. The seller had several cages filled with baby rabbits, all huddled in a tight clump in the summer heat—too many to count.
“Eight in total, six female and two male. I checked, they’re all lively. But it’ll cost at least a hundred pounds of rice,” Xi Shi said. He wanted them, but the price was steep. A hundred pounds of rice could feed the whole team for ten days, especially since they were all grown men with big appetites.
“But you can eat the meat. Meat’s going for thirty pounds of rice per pound these days. Rabbits grow fast—five to six months and they’re breeding. Each litter can have seven or eight, and they can have several litters a year. Just think how much meat that adds up to,” the vendor persuaded.
Lu Weiyi didn’t know much about raising rabbits, so he asked, “Is it worth it?”
Xi Shi hesitated, then nodded. Lu Weiyi immediately took out a fifty-pound bag of rice from his storage space and handed it to him. Just as he was about to say something, they heard Zhuang Ai Yi’s voice shouting through tears, “Daddy! Uncle!”
Lu Weiyi dropped the rice and sprinted toward the sound. Before he even got there, he could already see Zhuang Ai Yi crying loudly next to Zhuang Mingxu. His tiny hands clutched Lu Xi, who was dirty, with a scraped and bleeding arm.
Standing in front of them were Gu Qingji, Gu Qingyue, Xu Sa, and Liu Rui. Opposite them were five unfamiliar men—Song Qi and his group, who had been expelled from the Li family.
Although Li Ling had publicly claimed to cut ties with them and gave them supplies, in truth, he’d secretly threatened their families and ordered them to provoke Lu Weiyi’s team. He wanted to force them into a fight to gauge their strength.
The five men were just looking for an opportunity and an excuse. They’d been waiting for a moment when the entire team wasn’t out on a mission, only to find them strolling around the market. It was the perfect chance to go after the weakest one, who also attracted the most resentment—Zhuang Mingxu.
“What happened?” Lu Weiyi asked as soon as he arrived.
Zhuang Ai Yi ran over crying and hugged his leg, complaining, “They pushed Big Daddy. His chair tipped over.”
Lu Weiyi’s face instantly darkened—he hated it most when people targeted Zhuang Mingxu’s legs.
“Little Uncle tried to stop them, but the chair fell and he fell too,” Zhuang Ai Yi sobbed, then continued, “When Little Uncle couldn’t get up, they kicked him secretly.”
“You little brat, keep lying and I’ll kill you,” one of the men behind Song Qi glared viciously at Zhuang Ai Yi. The boy was so frightened he buried his head between Lu Weiyi’s legs.
Lu Weiyi picked up Zhuang Ai Yi and glanced at Lu Xi. “Where are you hurt?”
Lu Xi rubbed his shoulder and replied, “It’s nothing.”
A full-powered kick from an ability user should have broken a bone. Seeing him downplay it, Lu Weiyi turned to Zhuang Mingxu.
I hope he kills them how dare they target someone ina wheelchair and a child