Chapter 295: Xu’s Mother Pays a Visit
At this point, Zhuang Mingxu suddenly thought of something—maybe he could have Zhuang Mobai research an antidote for it. It might come in handy someday.
“You’re not researching ways to fight zombies, but ways to fight ability users?” Lu Xiao frowned but didn’t say much more. After a pause, he asked, “Do you think this stuff could work on mutant zombies?”
“We can try it sometime, but we don’t have many doses left,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
“Use it sparingly. You never know when it’ll come in handy,” Lu Xiao reminded him. Then he remembered his nephew. “How’s Xiao Yi doing?”
“Healers have tried, but it’s useless. He says he has a lead,” Zhuang Mingxu answered. He couldn’t help with the treatment, so he focused on handling everything else so Lu Weiyi wouldn’t have to worry.
Lu Xiao shifted his gaze toward the direction of their bedroom. Ever since Lu Weiyi learned they had successfully trapped Zheng Yi, he had stopped concerning himself with other matters. He spent most of his time in the room, claiming he was trying to find a solution to the crystal core issue.
“He secretly asked Gu Qingyue to identify some painkillers, thinking we wouldn’t notice,” Zhuang Mingxu said, a wave of heartache washing over him as he spoke.
He had inquired about the time when Zhao Qiang’s crystal core had problems and had thoroughly purged the traitors in the team. Calling it a bloodbath would be no exaggeration. But his little friend endured it all without uttering a word.
To avoid causing unease within the team, he didn’t even dare to show the slightest weakness. He even made excuses just to quietly ask for some painkillers.
His complexion was already poor, and though Gu Qingyue promised not to tell anyone, he casually hinted at it during a chat with Gu Qingji, ensuring others overheard.
Most of the team now knew about it, which was one of the reasons why, despite their physical recovery, they couldn’t really feel much joy.
Zhuang Mingxu glanced around the living room.
Xu Yi was still playing with the two little kids. Lu Xiao had brought over a bunch of new toys, including a ride-on remote-controlled car. Zhuang Ai Yi sat on it holding Tao Tao, charging around recklessly, often bumping into passersby. Whenever he lost control, his voice would echo, “Uncle (or Uncle Lu), get out of the way! Ai Yi can’t control it!” Sometimes, Xu Yi would grab the remote and sneak a turn himself when no one was looking.
Li Zhuang and Antonio were always holed up in their room, quietly recovering their abilities. They were the first to show signs of their powers returning.
Xu Sa was sprawled on the couch while Liu Rui massaged his still-unresponsive legs.
Gu Qingji mimicked his brother, pressing a warm towel to Gu Qingyue’s back, which had lost most of its sensation.
Qi Lin, along with Lin Yang and Zhou Nan, was tinkering with a radio transmitter. Apparently, at certain times, radio waves had become functional again. They wanted to see if they could contact the island.
At that moment, Lu Xi came out carrying a steaming bucket of soup. His strength hadn’t fully recovered yet, so carrying it was visibly difficult. Lu Xiao immediately got up to help.
“Dad, I asked big brother for some ginger and made ginger syrup. Have a bowl. The rest is for the uncles in your squad,” Lu Xi said as he handed a bowl to Lu Xiao. “Brother Qingyue said it’s easy to catch a fever in this weather, especially for ordinary people like the ones in your team.”
“Oh, great!” Lu Xiao beamed, flashing his white teeth. The large bucket in his hand looked like a toy. He ladled himself a bowl and then grabbed his walkie-talkie, calling out, “Someone come over, got something good for you.”
“Boss Xiao!” someone ran through the rain, a young man grinning widely.
“Here—my son made this ginger syrup for me. I’m letting you guys benefit too,” Lu Xiao said proudly, practically screaming praise my son with his expression.
“Little Xi is so filial! Thinking of you in this weather, your father-son bond is really something. I haven’t seen such a harmonious family in years—Boss Xiao, you’re truly blessed!” The young soldier was quick-witted, laying on the compliments until Lu Xiao was positively glowing. With a wave of his hand, he signaled for him to take it.
Lu Xiao then took a noisy slurp of his drink. “Wow, so much sugar—Little Xi must’ve worried I’d find it too spicy.” He smacked his lips, “This ginger’s freshly harvested too—strong and spicy. One sip and I’m already sweating…”
Zhuang Mingxu watched this childish display in silence. If this man weren’t Lu Weiyi’s actual uncle, he might not have held back a few barbed words.
Fortunately, someone soon broke the awkward moment.
Someone came in to report that a woman claiming to be Xu Sa’s mother had come with two children and was waiting outside in the rain, hoping to see them.
Everyone at the door turned their eyes toward Xu Sa.
That incident—only Li Zhuang and Lu Weiyi knew the truth, and neither were the type to gossip. Naturally, the others had no idea.
Zhuang Mingxu, however, was familiar with Xu Sa’s family situation. Still, he didn’t expect Zhang Bijuan to have survived the apocalypse. Truly confirming the old saying: Only the worst survive the longest.
Judging by Xu Sa’s expression, he didn’t seem surprised—he probably already knew.
“The woman brought two kids and is waiting outside in the rain,” the scout added hesitantly.
Xu Sa gave a short, cold laugh and said, “My mother’s been dead for years.”
The messenger wanted to say more, but Lu Xiao gave him a look that silenced him, and he quietly withdrew.
Everyone in the room tacitly pretended as if nothing had happened.
Zhuang Mingxu smoothly changed the subject, “Didn’t someone want barbecue? Go grab the meat from the kitchen. Are we cutting it into chunks for skewers or slicing it up?”
“Brother Mingxu, we’re injured,” Xu Sa said lazily.
Seeing he could still joke, Zhuang Mingxu smiled and shot back, “Injured people don’t eat?”
“Sigh, looks like the days of having everything handed to us are coming to an end,” Xu Sa sighed dramatically as he got up, leaning on Liu Rui to head to the kitchen.
The Gu brothers helped lighten the mood, following behind.
Only then did Lu Xiao signal someone to look into the situation. “Should I have them driven away?”
“Not yet,” Zhuang Mingxu replied. Xu Sa hadn’t made his stance clear, and he didn’t want to interfere.
Soon, the group had prepared lunch, and Lu Xiao’s men returned with the report.
The “Morning Light Squad” was formed around the Qin family. Its core members were relatives, friends, and employees of the Qin Corporation.
Before the apocalypse, the Qin family ran a food processing business. At the start of the crisis, they used their supplies to attract a group of ability users. Once Qin Hu and his son Qin Zhifei awakened fire-based powers, they took full control of the team.
Both Qin Hu and Qin Zhifei were strong fire-type users. The team also had a healer, so although they weren’t at the top of the Hunter Guild, they weren’t lagging behind either.
Xu Sa’s mother, Zhang Bijuan, had successfully married into the Qin family after sacrificing Xu Sa. She even gave birth to a son and daughter for Qin Hu. Before the apocalypse, although Qin Hu had plenty of flings, none of them dared challenge Zhang Bijuan. Apart from her stepson Qin Zhifei occasionally giving her the cold shoulder, her life had been fairly smooth.
Unfortunately, after the apocalypse, one of Qin Hu’s lovers awakened a healing-type ability. With that, she managed to firmly establish herself within the Morning Light Squad and even began stepping into the inner circle.
Zhang Bijuan, having no ability herself, naturally had no say. Given the current circumstances, as an ordinary person, she stood no chance against an important healing-type ability user and could only endure in silence.
That was until Zhuang Mobai’s people found them.
He offered a whole street’s worth of supply points in exchange for the Qin family causing trouble for Xu Sa, aiming to provoke Xu Sa into reacting violently and drawing the attention of the patrol squad. Once Xu Sa was detained, Zhuang Mobai would have time to slowly gather intelligence on the Only Squad and implement his plans.
However, Xu Sa clearly didn’t take the bait, which eventually forced Zhuang Mobai to use a large amount of his ability to control Zhuang Mingxu and make a rushed move against the Only Squad.
Though the Morning Light Squad didn’t fulfill their cooperation agreement, Zhuang Mobai still gave them a supply point out of formality. But shortly afterward, Lu Xiao took control of the Zhuang family, so the supplies never ended up in the hands of the Morning Light Squad.
To make matters worse, due to their cooperation with Luo Qi, one of their members was captured.
Now that Lu Xiao was publicly exchanging captives for supplies from various teams, Qin Hu and his son naturally didn’t want to lose resources for nothing. Their solution: push Zhang Bijuan out once again.
After hearing all this, Zhuang Mingxu immediately recalled what Lu Weiyi had said before about his emotional instability giving Zhuang Mobai an opening to exploit him. “Looks like his plan was layered. If Qin Zhifei succeeded, we’d be forced to stay and he could slowly carry out his plan.”
“If he didn’t succeed, and Weiyi happened to intervene, given their relationship, Weiyi would definitely help him out — which would escalate the situation. And if he didn’t help, that emotional hesitation would give Zhuang Mobai another opportunity to act.”
Zhuang Mingxu couldn’t help but praise, “Zhuang Mobai really is a schemer.”
“I always wanted to ask,” Lu Xiao said, tapping the documents delivered by subordinates, “if he wanted you for surgery, why not just knock you out and do it? Why all this effort?”
“I only found out later — the donor just needs to be a strong ability user, someone whose crystal core can withstand the energy loss during transplantation. But the recipient has higher requirements: physical strength, psychological endurance, strong will — all of these increase the success rate.”
Zhuang Mingxu initially thought it was because of the small blood connection between them, but after a few visits to the lab, he gradually pieced together the real situation.
Lu Xiao looked at Zhuang Mingxu with a trace of pity.
Zhuang Mingxu couldn’t stand that look and turned to go call Lu Weiyi for lunch.
The furniture on the villa’s first floor had been cleared out, and four barbecue grills were set up. The group split into teams and cheerfully handled everything themselves.
Xu Sa was joking with others nearby like nothing had happened. Lu Weiyi, naturally, didn’t notice anything wrong.
Until after the meal, when Lu Xiao asked Lu Weiyi to hand someone over.
Lu Weiyi didn’t want to bring the person straight from the villa—it would be too obvious. So he used the excuse that they were staying where Zhuang Mobai used to live.
Zhuang Mingxu went with him to bring them back, and when they arrived at the gate, they saw a mother and two children curled up on the ground directly facing the front door.
“Who are they?” Lu Weiyi didn’t roll down the window.
“…Xu Sa’s mother,” Zhuang Mingxu briefly explained the investigation results. “Xu Sa didn’t say how to handle it, so we didn’t interfere.”
