Chapter 190: Xu Yi’s Disappearance
The base was not that large, always busy with people coming and going. Xu Sen’s whereabouts weren’t hard to find. Wang Ming inquired along the way and soon confirmed that Xu Sen was at the newly built government office in the base.
“Is the Xu family in charge of the base now?” Lu Weiyi asked as they walked toward the office.
“No, it’s managed jointly by us, the Xu family, and two other squads. The office is just a temporary setup. Affairs haven’t been divided yet. Right now, everyone is scrambling for supplies.” Wang Ming didn’t hide anything, knowing everyone understood that this would determine squad size and future development.
Not long after they started walking, they arrived at the original government office location. Xu Sen was just coming out after talking with someone.
“Lu… Young Master Lu?” Xu Sen looked at Lu Weiyi with surprise—he had assumed Lu Weiyi wouldn’t come.
After sending the others away, Xu Sen approached Lu Weiyi and sized him up. His complexion and expression didn’t show the sadness or despair expected after a disaster; instead, he looked less aloof and more resilient.
He smiled and shook Lu’s hand. “You’re late. Xu Yi is gone.”
“Dead? Or…?” Lu Weiyi asked.
Xu Sen gestured to walk outside. The three of them stepped out as Xu Sen explained, “We don’t know. The flood came too suddenly. By the time we escaped and tried to find him, Xu Yi was already gone, along with the two ability users guarding him.”
“Could it be that…” Lu Weiyi didn’t finish.
Xu Sen understood the implication. “No. Those two are my trusted men. Their families are still here in the base.”
Lu Weiyi nodded. “If that’s the case, I’ll be going then.”
“That’s… it?” Xu Sen was surprised.
Lu Weiyi didn’t feel close enough to chat much.
Xu Sen thought this man was cautious—probably to a maddening degree—and asked, “Do you have any new or useful information from Qingyuan base?”
Information flow between bases was poor these days. If there was any discovery, it was usually tightly kept. Given Lu Weiyi’s military connections, Xu Sen figured he must know some of the hidden news from Qingyuan. This rare chance for information exchange was not to be missed.
“Yes,” Lu Weiyi said, then with Xu Sen’s expectant look added, “Crystal cores?”
Wang Ming suddenly chuckled, then quickly suppressed it when Xu Sen glanced at him.
Xu Sen didn’t know how the once ethereal young prince had become so worldly. “We could exchange information.”
“You probably don’t know more than us,” Lu Weiyi said lightly. The apocalypse had only lasted a bit over half a year, but he had lived through it for years—how could anyone know more than him? Exchanging info now would only benefit them.
“Young Master Lu, we can’t have a proper chat like this,” Xu Sen said, feeling slightly frustrated. He was well-educated and calm by nature, but Lu Weiyi’s unpredictability was getting to him.
“Alright, a friendly price—five thousand crystal cores for one piece of info, or supplies if you prefer,” Lu Weiyi said bluntly. Since mutant plants were growing, absorbing plant crystal cores to help upgrade was easily detected. Better to trade them for money now.
Xu Sen gasped softly but refrained from saying, “Why don’t you just go steal some?”
“It’s about how to improve upgrade survival rates,” Lu Weiyi added casually.
Xu Sen and Wang Ming’s expressions grew serious.
“Are you serious?” Xu Sen asked.
Lu Weiyi raised an eyebrow.
This info was not something any squad could afford to miss. Xu Sen was silent for a moment. “How can you prove it?”
“All our squad’s ability users have upgraded,” Lu Weiyi said lightly.
Wang Ming gasped; their squad had three B-class ability users who were now stable in the base. Thinking about Lu Weiyi’s squad size, he silently shut his mouth, wondering if it was still possible to latch onto them…
Xu Sen was also surprised but kept his expression neutral.
“Where are you now? I’ll think it over and come find you,” Xu Sen asked.
“Outside the base,” Lu Weiyi answered. “Probably leaving soon. We’re pressed for time.”
“Since you’re here, why not stay a few days?” Xu Sen hoped for more time to consider. After all, five thousand crystal cores wasn’t a small sum.
“I need to find a healing ability user. Zhuang Mingxu’s leg can’t wait,” Lu Weiyi gave an honest reason but ignored the location.
That made it hard to argue. Xu Sen said, “I’ll come find you this afternoon.”
“Okay,” Lu Weiyi nodded, and before leaving reminded him, “This info was discovered by our squad. No one else has mentioned it.” He smiled at Xu Sen, cutting off any attempts to ask others, then returned to the hospital with Wang Ming.
On the way, Wang Ming stopped being so enthusiastic and became quiet until almost at the hospital, then asked, “Was what you told Xu Sen true?”
Lu Weiyi nodded. “You want to know too?”
“Who wouldn’t?” Wang Ming said loudly, then looked around nervously as if caught doing something secretive.
“Pay up,” Lu Weiyi said.
Wang Ming took a deep breath, made a theatrical finger gesture, tapped Lu Weiyi’s shoulder, and in a fake high-pitched voice said, “No fair,” then wiggled away.
The act was quite at odds with his otherwise refined appearance.
*
The newly built Hope Base had everyone mobilized. There was no refugee camp at the gate—just two bare trucks parked conspicuously. A tent hid a kitchen where lunch was being busily prepared.
When Lu Weiyi and Gu Qingyue returned, the table was already filled with dishes. Perhaps because they had something rare, Xi Shi had been invited to kill a one-meter-long big fish and prepared a homemade-style full fish feast: pickled fish, sour soup fish, sweet and sour fish, chopped chili fish head, steamed fish, and finally a pot of clear fish bone stew. Just the aroma was enough to make anyone’s mouth water.
“Finally back! If you didn’t come soon, we would’ve started eating already!” Xu Sa anxiously pulled the three of them inside, shoved chopsticks into their hands, then hurried over to the table shouting, “Dinner’s ready! Dinner’s ready!”
“Time to eat!” Lu Xi shouted childishly.
Everyone quickly dug in, their fast movements leaving afterimages across the entire table. Even the usually elegant Lu Weiyi was swept up and didn’t hold back. After taking a small bowl, he glanced sideways and saw Gu Qingyue and Lu Xi sitting on either side of him.
Looking around, he noticed another smaller table at the far side of the tent where Zhuang Mingxu, Zhuang Ai Yi, Lin Yimu, Xi Shi, and Dean were eating rice with the dishes.
Tomato-braised beef brisket, red-cooked pork, and some lighter stir-fried vegetables—they didn’t look poor. But compared to the lively atmosphere on their side, that table seemed artificially separated, especially for the kids. Little Zhuang Ai Yi didn’t understand what was going on; he kept sneaking glances over, swallowing secretly.
The air was thick with spicy, pungent aromas. For Zhuang Mingxu, who loved anything spicy, it was definitely tempting. But since he couldn’t move, his stomach had problems and he was constipated. No matter how many mutant fruits he ate daily, nothing helped. Proud as he was, Zhuang Mingxu secretly took laxatives.
He never spoke about it, and Lu Weiyi tacitly pretended not to know but quietly limited how often he ate spicy food. Although Zhuang Mingxu never complained, Lu Weiyi clearly noticed his appetite had decreased.
Lu Weiyi suddenly felt a bit pained. He lost his appetite for the food in his bowl.
He once hoped Zhuang Mingxu would still have a powerful ability like in his previous life. Now, he just wished he could be an ability user at all—even one who had a hard time upgrading and was practically useless—just so his body wouldn’t be so fragile, so he wouldn’t have to be so cautious about eating.
Lu Weiyi ladled several bowls of fish soup from a small palm-sized bowl, handing one to each of them, and placed small amounts of each dish on their table. “It’s okay to eat less,” he lowered his voice to avoid affecting others’ mood, trying to sound casual.
But these few people—one with life experience and the other two who had been with him for years—couldn’t fail to see through his masked discomfort.
“Okay,” Zhuang Mingxu smiled softly, picked up chopsticks and tried a piece of fish, but immediately started coughing and choking. After a while, laughing with a strained voice, he said, “Looks like no more spicy food for me.”
“Then just eat less. Too much of that causes inflammation. Later we can stew some pear soup to cool down,” Xi Shi agreed.
Little Zhuang Ai Yi didn’t understand and drank the fish soup with his eyes squinting happily.
Dean didn’t care much; he stared enviously at that table, wrinkled his nose, and took a deep sniff. “I really want to eat that. Smells so good.”
“Maybe next time we’ll get non-mutated fish, and then we won’t let them eat any,” Lin Yimu said, coaxing Dean like a child.
“Yeah, not even a bite for them,” Dean said, biting into a big piece of red-cooked pork with satisfaction, his eyes glued to their own table.
The adults joked and teased to ease Lu Weiyi’s mood, but he still couldn’t relax.
He recalled the years after the apocalypse in his previous life: mutated animals became more and more common, and ordinary animals almost became rare. People without abilities couldn’t absorb mutant animal energy and had to be vegetarians.
This led ability users to start promoting the idea that ordinary humans were evolutionary failures, a symbol of low genetics. Some base leaders quietly accepted this, pushing ordinary people into extremely low status.
If Lu Weiyi had only listened to Zhuang Mingxu talk about building a base before, now he suddenly felt it was imperative. Depending on other bases and sharing influence wasn’t enough to control public opinion. Only by holding everything in their own hands could their future avoid being dominated and looked down upon.
After five months in the apocalypse, Lu Weiyi—once content to be a “couch potato”—suddenly had a new dream.
