Chapter 28: Little Lu, Is That You? (2)
Liu Jie and a few others were going up to the second floor, wanting to see if there were any more zombies or survivors. The remaining few were scattered in various rooms, rummaging through cabinets. Brother Li, the only one doing nothing, leaned against the door, having lit a cigarette at some point and was now exhaling smoke.
“What are they doing?” Lu Weiyi asked casually, while observing Brother Li’s expression.
“Collecting food,” Brother Li exhaled a puff of smoke, still wearing his casual, smiling face.
He probably didn’t notice!
Lu Weiyi pretended to search for food as well, turning and going to the balcony, his back to everyone. He was just thinking about putting the bead core into his space when he saw the bead core on his wrist disappear from view.
Lu Weiyi froze for a moment and reached out to pinch the short leaves on his wrist. Another tender little green branch snapped at him, and something suddenly moved in his mind. Lu Weiyi then remembered that when this thing appeared, there was an extra consciousness in his brain at the time, but it had been well-behaved and unresponsive these past few days, so Lu Weiyi had completely forgotten about it.
As for the disappeared bead core, it had directly appeared in Lu Weiyi’s space, placed neatly with the other bead cores in the specially prepared box.
Lu Weiyi suspected that this thing could also directly take things into his space.
While observing the others with his mental power, he silently thought about taking a potted flower placed on the ground into his space. As his gaze reached it, another cotton-thread-thick tender branch extended directly from under his feet to the flowerpot. He could sense where this little green branch was, and even when concentrating, he could see the scene in front of the little green branch, just like it was a part of his body.
As soon as the flowerpot was touched, it directly appeared in his space, leaving a mark where something had been placed.
“Little Lu, what are you doing?” Liu Jie came down from upstairs and shouted loudly.
Lu Weiyi was startled and instantly placed the flowerpot back in its original spot, turning his head to look at Liu Jie who was walking over.
“I’ve been calling you for a long time, you’re…” Liu Jie saw the things on the balcony and exclaimed in surprise, “No wonder you were staring at it, this is good stuff!”
Only then did Lu Weiyi see that the balcony in front of him was full of potted vegetables. Small tomatoes were already bearing fruit, clusters of red and green looking delicious. Cucumbers had grown a finger-length section, and there were some green vegetables that should have already had one harvest, now just seedlings, but growing very well, showing that they could be harvested again soon.
Liu Jie’s words attracted several people who walked over. Looking at the red and green, several people silently swallowed their saliva. It had been a week since the earthquake, and most people were eating instant food. Some had limited supplies at home and had even gone hungry for a day or two, especially after the zombies appeared. At this time, cherry tomatoes, which were usually not paid much attention to, became particularly precious.
Several people moved the pile of vegetable pots to the living room. A small pile of things searched from this house had already been gathered on the floor, including rice, flour, some beans, and vegetables from the refrigerator that hadn’t spoiled yet.
Brother Li took a bag of rice first, poured out more than half of it, casually threw the rest aside, looked at Lu Weiyi, and raised his chin.
Lu Weiyi was puzzled.
“Brother Li means you killed the zombie, so you get to pick things first,” someone explained.
Lu Weiyi had done building sweeps with his team before, but back then they would take everything and distribute it uniformly back at base. Seeing them immediately start “dividing the spoils” now, Lu Weiyi was still a bit unaccustomed.
However, he could understand. The team had just formed, the personnel were unstable, and dividing the spoils on the spot was the safest way. No wonder everyone carried a big bag filled with all sorts of things besides their weapons.
“I want this.” Lu Weiyi’s gaze was fixed on the pot of red and green fruiting tomatoes in the hall. Without any politeness, he hugged the flowerpot.
Someone beside him had been watching, but didn’t say anything. The others divided the remaining things, but the few pots of vegetables were left unwanted.
“You guys don’t want them?” Lu Weiyi asked them.
“You can’t eat them directly, taking them would be a waste,” someone said, their gaze again fixed on the small tomatoes in Lu Weiyi’s arms.
Lu Weiyi avoided his gaze and looked at Brother Li, the leader. “Don’t you want anything else?”
“Hmm,” Brother Li nodded, interested to see what he wanted.
“Then can I take those seasonings home later?”
“Little Lu, you can’t cook now, taking those won’t do you any good,” Liu Jie said.
“I’m still going to live here for a few days, maybe I’ll be able to cook someday. I want to take them back so I don’t run out when I need them.”
As soon as these words came out, several people looked at him with a subtle gaze as if he were a fool, probably thinking he didn’t know that the earthquake had damaged the electricity and gas pipelines. Liu Jie was too embarrassed to directly expose his “naivety” and only said, “Then you can come back later to take them. The doors of the uninhabited buildings in the community are all open. You can go find whatever you need yourself.”
