Chapter 284: Cooking
“The team members are all immobilized now, practically useless. Even Weiyi’s health isn’t good. Under the pursuit of all Capital forces, escaping is impossible.”
“In fact, leaving the Capital base might be even more dangerous,” Zhuang Mingxu said, looking at Lu Xiao. “Besides, Weiyi wouldn’t leave at a time like this. He only has a few close family members left in this world. There’s no way he’d leave knowing the danger and have you hold the rear to buy time.”
“I’m fine. I have plenty of men under me; they can’t deal with me in the short term. If it comes down to it, I’ll send you away first, then lead my team to join you. Isn’t your base spacious and sparsely populated? Then I can rest easy and let you live out your days there,” Lu Xiao said.
Zhuang Mingxu didn’t respond. With the whole base chasing them, Lu Xiao and his people were barely noticed. “We should discuss how to break up their alliance.”
“The Zheng family is spreading rumors. For rumors to take effect, it takes time—at least three or four days. We should use this time to try to win over other forces,” Zhuang Mingxu said calmly. “How much of the Zhuang family’s forces can you control?”
“I control most of the supplies, but…” Lu Xiao trailed off.
Without forces, the supplies would just be split up by others and serve no real purpose. What matters now is military strength. Unfortunately, he only had a few outstanding powered individuals, with the rest being ordinary people.
“The Hunter’s Guild is currently fragmented, but its teams form factions and alliances. Not all teams care about missing captains or deputies. I’ve already arranged contacts with those still wanting to redeem their members. Maybe having hostages will keep them from attacking us even if they won’t help.”
“The biggest uncertainty comes from the Zhao family,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
“Right. The Zhao family controls a quarter of the base’s forces, and their subordinates are very strong—you don’t need me to say more. Zhao Qiang’s powered level is very high. Many of his subordinates are well-known on the base’s expert rankings. If he agrees to cooperate with the Zhao family, even if we take the Zhuang family’s forces, survival will be difficult.”
“Also, the Zhao family really has no choice now. The Zheng family is ready to strike. If the Zhao family doesn’t participate and the Zheng family gains alone, then the Zheng family would dominate the Capital base in the future, and the Zhao family would look weak. They’re forced to take a share.”
“Then we have to break the cooperation between the Zheng and Zhao families,” Zhuang Mingxu said after thinking. “What does the Zhao family need most right now?”
“Needs? In the apocalypse, who doesn’t need something?” Lu Xiao gave a bitter smile, then thought seriously. “If I had to say what Zhao Qiang wants most, it’s probably plant-type crystal cores.”
“Zhao Qiang is a level-up fanatic. Once the crystal cores started working, he absorbed them continuously. Every upgrade after that was extremely difficult. When he was going from B to A level, he almost died. At that time, his unruly factions were restless, but he survived.”
“Since then, he’s been buying plant-type crystal cores at high prices, preparing for his upgrade to S-level. But high-grade plant crystal cores are very rare now. Killing one usually means a whole faction gets involved. Take that mutated tree in Qiqiao Town, for example—I don’t think the Zhao family has given up and will strike again,” Lu Xiao said.
“Upgrade…” Zhuang Mingxu slowly chewed on the word and smiled. “I’ll try to convince the Zhao family. The rest, I probably can’t help much.”
Lu Xiao looked at him, wanting to ask what reason he’d use to persuade the Zhao family, but didn’t ask. In this world, who didn’t have secrets?
“Alright, I’ll go visit the others,” Lu Xiao said. Since the Only Team hadn’t left, there was no way he would give up now.
After giving some instructions, he left with his men again.
Zhuang Mingxu also sent an invitation to Zhao Qiang, hoping for a meeting.
With nothing else going on at the villa, Zhuang Mingxu checked the time and decided to go into the kitchen to cook.
Qi Lin was surprised to see him skillfully washing vegetables and cutting meat. Xu Yi outright asked, “You can cook?”
“My Big Daddy cooked delicious food. In our family, Big Daddy always cooks,” Zhuang Mingxu didn’t speak, but Zhuang Ai Yi couldn’t help bragging.
“You remember?” Zhuang Mingxu was puzzled. He had been away and was very young at the time.
“I remember. Big Daddy gave Ai Yi egg custard—it was so delicious,” Zhuang Ai Yi made a gesture like something delicious, then glanced at Tao Tao behind him, who looked confused and innocent. He quietly asked, “Big Daddy, can Ai Yi still have egg custard?”
“Yiyi wants to eat?” Zhuang Mingxu asked, glancing at the vegetable basket and noticing there were no eggs.
Most of their supplies were stored in Lu Weiyi’s space, and at the moment, he didn’t want to bother him.
“Yiyi wants to let little brother try it,” Zhuang Ai Yi said.
“The eggs are with Little Daddy. He’s sick and resting. Can we wait until he wakes up and have it next time? Big Daddy will make meat porridge for you instead,” Zhuang Mingxu said gently.
“Okay,” Zhuang Ai Yi agreed readily, then pulled a piece of candy from his pocket and bent down to comfort Taotao like a proper big brother.
Most of the team members were in sub-health conditions, so Zhuang Mingxu didn’t make anything complicated—he cooked two pots of meat porridge. One pot made with mutated meat for the ability users, and the other with regular meat for himself and Zhuang Ai Yi. He also steamed a pot of rice and stewed a mixed vegetable dish.
With the help of an earth-ability user, the people on the second floor were soon brought down and moved to the sofa by Qi Lin.
Everyone sat around in a half-reclined, boneless-looking, which looked hilariously out of place.
“How are you all feeling? Any better?” Qi Lin asked.
“My mind’s clear, just no strength,” Gu Qingyue replied. When he looked up and saw Zhuang Mingxu cooking in the kitchen, he froze for a second and called out, “Brother Zhuang.”
Zhuang Mingxu nodded back, wearing an apron with a sense of ceremony as he brought out a big pot of porridge. “Got the strength to eat on your own?”
He acted like nothing had happened, making everyone in the living room fall silent and look around at each other.
Then Dean came bouncing down the stairs like a lively butterfly and landed beside Antonio, who had just been moved down.
“Brother Zhuang!” Dean called out when he saw Zhuang Mingxu. “Where did you go? Didn’t—see you,” he said while gesturing.
“I went elsewhere. You doing okay now?” Zhuang Mingxu asked, observing his energetic demeanor.
Dean gave a thumbs-up. “Great!”
His cheerful, clueless attitude really didn’t match the idea that Zhuang Mingxu had intentionally made him suffer.
Seeing others too hesitant to speak up, Ning Yuan took the initiative to ask what happened in the lab. “We heard your conversation with Zhuang Mobai.”
It took Zhuang Mingxu a moment to understand what he was referring to. Thinking about Zhuang Mobai’s tactics, he felt a bit disgusted. It had been a step-by-step attempt to sow discord.
“I woke up already in the lab, but I was separated from you all. I was on the second floor, you guys were on the fifth. I had some freedom, but couldn’t move around freely,” he explained calmly. “Dean’s ability is unique, so I had to try to keep him close.”
This was also his way of explaining why he didn’t help the others.
Even though Antonio had already asked Dean what happened when he woke up, he still felt uneasy. “I heard him getting injections.”
Antonio said this cautiously, and Dean quickly waved it off. “Not that injection—otherwise, it’d be a lot worse. They’d use more of the other stuff. It hurts like hell…” He rubbed his arms dramatically as if he had goosebumps, and Antonio hugged him tighter.
Still, Antonio looked at Zhuang Mingxu and said, “I still want to fight you.”
“Sure—once we’re all safe,” Zhuang Mingxu laughed heartily.
Then he remembered the situation that night. “When Li Ji and the others stormed in, I called out for a long time. Was there really no movement in the house?”
“We were all passed out,” Ning Yuan said.
“Someone probably drugged our food. Only you and Xu Yi didn’t eat, so you two were fine,” Gu Qingyue said, not sure whether that counted as lucky or not.
“We were already getting suspicious. No outsiders came in. Who could’ve done it right under our noses?” Xu Sa frowned, puzzled.
“It was a speed-type ability user—someone under Zhuang Mobai,” Zhuang Mingxu said, drawing everyone’s attention. “I saw him. I had a conflict with Weiyi at home, and I was worried about the elder, so I went back. We bumped into each other. He told me about the situation at home, and I thought he was just informing me. Turns out he came out of the kitchen.”
Later, Zhuang Mingxu realized something was off—the guy hadn’t come from Zhuang’s villa, but from a farther route. But he’d been too angry at the time to notice.
The misunderstanding was cleared up. Though the situation was still bad, no one held it against him.
Just surviving in this world was already a blessing. No one dwelled on it further.
Qi Lin scooped a few bowls of porridge and looked around the group slouched near the sofa. “Alright, brothers. Time for you to enjoy being served again.”
“Your service involves stuffing food up our noses?” Lin Mo said flatly, showing zero interest.
“Be grateful, man! I’m a grown man—I’ve never even fed my wife, and now I’m feeding you? Shouldn’t you be moved?”
“That’s because you don’t have a wife to feed,” Lin Mo shot back. “Besides, with so many of us helping you practice, you should be grateful. With those clumsy hands of yours, feeding someone is like shoveling pig slop. Any girl would be scared off.”
“If you’re not happy with my feeding, are you saying you’ve got options?” Qi Lin grinned wickedly.
Lin Mo silently glanced at the few people who could still move. Zhuang Mingxu had that badass aura even when in a wheelchair. Xu Yi always looked like he was judging mere mortals with his arms crossed. And as for Dean…
Lin Mo looked at Antonio’s muscular arms and silently turned back. “I think your feeding’s great. Really.”
Qi Lin burst into loud, shameless laughter.
At that moment, Dean had already settled on Antonio’s lap with a bowl of porridge, and the two were feeding each other affectionately.
Xu Sa noticed Xu Yi standing with arms crossed and tried to offer him a way out of the awkwardness—only to see Li Zhuang beside him smirking at Xu Yi.
Xu Yi unconsciously stiffened, hesitated for a moment, then picked up a bowl of porridge and asked, “Do you want to eat?”
He looked exactly like a wronged little wife, which shocked Xu Sa.
“No need, just thank you, Doctor Xu, for bringing it over,” Li Zhuang replied politely, even smiling with great friendliness.
But Xu Yi obediently complied anyway.
Xu Sa began to suspect something was going on between them, but when he met Li Zhuang’s ever-present mischievous grin, he silently turned away and looked at Liu Rui, who had slid to the floor. “You okay?”
Liu Rui was sitting on the ground, staring at a bowl of porridge with a spoon in his hand, trembling nonstop like he had elderly epilepsy. He slowly scooped a spoonful into his mouth and nodded, “C-can do it… I-I… I’ll feed you…”
The image of a crippled man with indomitable spirit was displayed in full, making Xu Sa so awkward he felt he could dig a villa out of the ground with his toes.
Zhuang Mingxu brought out the stewed vegetables and ladled a scoop into everyone’s bowl. “I was worried your digestion might be off, so I made something light. I’ll try to ask the lab about your condition later this afternoon, and see if we can get something more nutritious for dinner.”
He picked up a bowl himself, ready to go feed Lu Xi, only to see Zhuang Ai Yi already carrying his own little bowl, trotting over with a sweet smile and his head tilted up. “Little Uncle, Ai Yi will feed you.”
Right behind him was the even smaller Taotao, like a little tail, struggling to hold his bowl steady but mimicking him: “Taotao will feed too.”
“Thank you, Ai Yi, you’re amazing,” Lu Xi happily accepted his nephew’s offering.
Zhuang Mingxu turned instead toward Gu Qingyue and his brother, giving them a quick once-over before heading to Gu Qingyue first. “Respect the elders, care for the young—you go first. It’s not convenient to find outside help now, so let’s all make do.”
“Thanks, Brother Zhuang,” Gu Qingyue, whose condition wasn’t as strong as the others, didn’t stand on ceremony.
Despite the phrase “make do,” Zhuang Mingxu was clearly far more skilled and gentle than the others with their clumsy hands.
“Brother Zhuang, gotta say, this food is actually pretty good. Never heard you could cook before,” Qi Lin said as he sat among Lin Mo and a few others, holding a small steel bowl, taking turns feeding each other without a care.
He chatted with Zhuang Mingxu while eating.
“Mingxu made this? I thought your skills couldn’t have improved that fast,” said Liu Yang, the last to come out.
Qi Lin didn’t reply, but shoved a spoonful of porridge meant for Liu Yang into Lin Mo’s mouth instead.
“You still remember me asking you to cook for me while you were in a wheelchair?” Zhuang Mingxu laughed.
Qi Lin thought about his condition back then—yeah, not ideal.
But this kind of light-hearted teasing was something the old Zhuang Mingxu wouldn’t have said. Even with his closest team, with whom he had survived life-and-death situations for over a year, he had always kept a certain distance. Now that his legs had recovered, he had become noticeably more open.
“Mingxu has kids at home,” Ning Yuan said matter-of-factly.
Everyone assumed he meant Zhuang Ai Yi, until Ning Yuan continued, “He’s the classic ‘dad-type boyfriend.’”
“What’s a ‘dad-type boyfriend’?” a few of the straight guys looked at each other in confusion.
It was internet-savvy Gu Qingji who gave an awkward cough and explained, “A boyfriend who acts like a dad.”
The whole living room erupted in laughter.
After this whole rollercoaster, the atmosphere between them had actually become more harmonious.
After the meal, seeing everyone’s spirits lifting, Zhuang Mingxu began talking about their current situation and the plan moving forward.
“With all of us in this condition, staying here feels too dangerous. Maybe we should talk to Major General Lu about leaving the Capital Base and going back to ours,” Ning Yuan suggested, feeling uncertain about staying.
“The Zheng family already has their eyes on us. Leaving now could get us ambushed outside the base,” Antonio disagreed. “Bringing more people means more resources, which will only speed up their actions.”
“What if we leave secretly?” Xu Sa asked.
Zhuang Mingxu pointed at himself, Qi Lin, and Xu Yi. “How likely is it that just the three of us can get all of you safely back to base?”
No one answered.
They had made it this far thanks to powerful abilities and good teamwork, and even then there were some close calls. Now that their combat members were all compromised, trying to make it back would be a death sentence if they ran into any mutated animals.
Just then, the bedroom door on the first floor opened. Lu Weiyi leaned against the doorframe, his cold gaze sweeping over them. “Nothing will happen. I’ll get you all back.”
Zhuang Mingxu immediately got up and helped the weak Lu Weiyi to the sofa. “How are you feeling? Still have a headache?”
“Much better,” Lu Weiyi replied, sipping the water Zhuang Mingxu handed him.
“If the Zheng family mobilizes all their forces against us, even if my uncle’s group joins us in leaving, the base would still hunt us down. What they want is our supplies. Worse, if we return to our own base, we might bring them right to it. Then they’ll be after the place we’ve worked so hard to build,” Lu Weiyi said softly, his voice making him seem even weaker.
With his youthful face, he looked even less like a team leader.
After visiting so many bases, they knew theirs was uniquely safe—something they hadn’t fully appreciated until they arrived at the Capital Base, where news of zombie attacks came almost daily.
That kind of thing couldn’t happen at their base.
“Better to shatter their hopes completely—make sure they never dare think about it again,” Lu Weiyi added, his calm voice carrying a quiet but deadly chill.
The Capital Base was one of the closest bases to their stronghold, and any slightly further supply point would have overlap.
Although the bases now can’t produce much, they aren’t exactly in short supply either. But if a large wave of zombies or mutated animals emerges, who can guarantee they won’t head for safer locations? At that point, conflict between bases could ignite instantly.
Their own base didn’t have the advantage in numbers, and there were still quite a few ordinary people among them. Lu Weiyi had to start preparing early.
“You guys rest first. Don’t overthink everything,” Lu Weiyi didn’t explain further. “I’ll get you all out of here.”
“Honestly… I don’t really care if I die here,” Xu Sa shrugged, squeezing Liu Rui’s hand beside him. “Don’t carry everything on your shoulders.”
“Y-Yeah… right,” Liu Rui said, and as long as he was with Xu Sa, nothing else mattered to him.
“That’s right. We’re a team. We’re all older than you—how could we let you bear it all alone?” Gu Qingyue said in a big-brother tone.
Gu Qingji didn’t say anything, just nodded.
“Exactly, squad leader. We’re brothers—life and death don’t scare us,” Qi Lin glanced at the people around him and bumped fists against their shoulders.
Although their words were impassioned, Lu Weiyi didn’t seem moved. He thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve imagined what dying would look like.”
Everyone quieted down to listen to him speak. “Maybe I’ll die surrounded by zombies, after giving my last ounce of strength; maybe while defending the base during an attack; or during a fierce fight against mutated animals.”
“But it would definitely be after resisting with everything I had. It won’t be like now—powerless, like fish on a chopping board.”
Yes, in their current state, they had no room to resist. If they really died here, it would be shameful.
It would waste all the effort and powers they’d fought so hard to acquire.
“We’ll talk it through among ourselves and try to come up with a better plan,” Zhuang Mingxu didn’t think it was right for Lu Weiyi to shoulder everything either.
All he could really do was put people into his space or use his powers at a critical moment.
But given Lu Weiyi’s condition, Zhuang Mingxu didn’t want him using his powers unless absolutely necessary. He cast a worried glance at Lu Weiyi’s brow.
He brought over a bowl of porridge and fed it to Lu Weiyi spoon by spoon so he wouldn’t have to move, then looked at the others and said:
“I’ve already spoken with Major General Lu. I’ll handle the Zhao family. I’ve sent a meeting request to Zhao Qiang. I’ll try to persuade them not to cooperate with the Zheng family. Major General Lu said he’ll take care of the rest.”
“How do you plan to persuade him?” Lu Weiyi leaned against the sofa, slowly eating the porridge Zhuang Mingxu fed him. Zhuang Mingxu casually wiped the corner of his mouth—clearly used to tending to him.
“Zhao Qiang has absorbed too many crystal cores. Rumor has it he’s at a similar level to the others. The last time he leveled up, he nearly died. Now he’s going all out to collect plant-type cores,” Zhuang Mingxu explained.
“You want to sell him plant-type cores?” Lu Weiyi asked.
“No. He could easily detain all of us and take the plant cores by force,” Zhuang Mingxu paused, “So I propose we promise to help him upgrade safely. How about that?”
“…That works,” Lu Weiyi agreed. Although the cost was high, it was worth it in the current situation.
Still, the pressure on Lu Xiao’s side was immense. Lu Weiyi knew how much power the Zheng family held.
Lu Xiao’s forces were likely only a third the size of theirs. Even with allies, they had no real advantage.
He slowly chewed his food, trying to recall what had happened during this stage in his previous life, hoping to find something useful.
After a while, a smile finally broke on Lu Weiyi’s lips. His eyes curved, and he said lightly and with ease, “I’ve got an idea.”
