Chapter 375: Qin Nian’s Birthday
Just as Lu Weiyi was about to put his phone away after Antonio responded, Antonio reached out, signaling he wanted to see the video of the little sweetheart playing happily. Lu Weiyi tossed the phone to him and walked ahead with Lu Xi.
“This was actually kind of a surprise,” Lu Xi said, though his face was full of excitement from a major discovery.
“I always thought fire and ice were the two strongest combat elements, so our converters were focused on those. But Professor Zhong reminded me—there’s also the lightning element. If we had a converter for that, we might be able to shoot actual lightning.”
He described the scene, immediately piquing Lu Weiyi’s interest.
“Then we discovered a way to convert crystal core energy into electricity during production!” Lu Xi said excitedly. “The energy in a C-grade crystal core, once converted, can power a household for a month. A B-grade core has four to five times that energy. Higher grades have even more. If we could harness this energy from crystal cores…”
“We’d be developing a whole new energy source,” Lu Weiyi added. Just moments ago, they were discussing how to solve the electricity issue—now Lu Xi had made a breakthrough. “Technology is the primary productive force—those old sayings weren’t wrong.”
“It’s just a concept. There are still issues with the conversion process, and it won’t be easy to achieve in the short term,” Professor Zhong Qi said, noticing the interest from both of them. He was worried Lu Xi’s words might be misleading and cause unrealistic expectations, so he quickly added a caveat.
“Developing and deploying a new type of energy will definitely take time. But you can keep researching in that direction,” Zhuang Mingxu said.
“Brother, do you have any A-grade or S-grade crystal cores? I want to test their energy levels,” Lu Xi clung to Lu Weiyi’s arm, looking hopeful and playfully pleading. “The highest we have right now is B-grade, and I want to know how much energy those higher ones contain.”
“I’ll give you an A-grade to play with. You can look at the S-grade one, but not use it,” Lu Weiyi said, taking out an A-grade water-element core and an S-grade earth-element core from his space and handing them over.
“You encountered an S-grade zombie again?” Zhuang Mingxu asked. He hadn’t heard that Lu Weiyi had an S-grade earth-element core.
“Yeah, we ran into a few this time. I think SS-grade ones aren’t far off,” Lu Weiyi said with a serious expression. Perhaps after this winter, more SS-grade zombies would start appearing in the spring. Then, there would be another wave of bloodshed.
The pace of human ability users could not stop even for a moment.
Lu Xi, gleeful, took the curious researchers to the instrument room for testing. Zhuang Mingxu followed them. Lu Weiyi stayed behind to talk with Antonio about the lab.
“Brainpower works fast, but our base’s conditions can’t support production,” Antonio said truthfully. He then sneered, “Some people are dissatisfied, complaining that our conditions are worse than the Capital Base. Keeping them here just wastes talent.”
“Sounds like they’re too idle,” Lu Weiyi concluded.
“Exactly,” Antonio said, giving a thumbs-up.
“Then let’s give them more to do,” Lu Weiyi decided to suggest it to Zhuang Mingxu later. After all, the base needed research outcomes—but not every single one had to be implemented right away.
Antonio asked a few questions about the zombies outside. When Zhuang Mingxu returned, he followed them back to the Central Island.
That evening, Lu Weiyi had an in-depth discussion with Zhuang Mingxu about events on both sides. He also learned that Zhang Lin, the arrogant deputy captain of the Junlin Squad, had been parasitized by a plant controlled by Gu Qingji. After a secret trial at the base, he was publicly executed. Half of Junlin Squad’s supplies were confiscated, and the other half was used to compensate the families of the ability-user victims.
“I didn’t know Gu Qingji had such a dangerous thing. It seems similar to the mutated plant that parasitized Li Qing and the others.”
By the time they heard about it, they were far from North Island. The police had arrived before them. Gu Qingji was suffering from internal bleeding at the time and underwent thoracic drainage surgery. Dean worked hard to save him.
Afterward, Zhuang Mingxu focused on Zhang Lin’s interrogation. Since this plant ability was like a secret weapon and Gu Qingji hadn’t volunteered any info, it wouldn’t be appropriate to pry. Still, Zhuang remained cautious.
“That is the same thing that parasitized Li Qing and the others,” Lu Weiyi said, not surprised at all. He clearly already knew. “It’s a very low-grade mutated plant. It doesn’t evolve and has no real combat power.”
“Back then, Gu Qingji was the weakest among us. As a wood-element user, his combat abilities were limited. But he still wanted to go on missions, so I left him some for self-defense.”
“Gu Qingji knows how dangerous it is. He’s never used it until now. This time, he must’ve been truly desperate.”
As the team leader, knowing about this matter and secretly hiding it are two different things. After listening to the explanation, Zhuang Mingxu nodded, but still gave a reminder: “This thing is very dangerous. When you have time, make sure to tell him to be cautious. Don’t let it accidentally hurt someone.”
Lu Weiyi agreed and started talking about what happened outside the base. Upon learning that after they wiped out over a hundred members of the Menghu Team, they even planted a mole among them, Zhuang Mingxu was greatly amused.
“You guys are really something. In a few days, I’ll have someone check if that person made it back alive. Who knows, he might become a great asset to us someday.”
“I originally thought the Menghu Team would send more people to investigate,” Lu Weiyi said. “To avoid conflict near the base, I stayed outside for another half a month. But to my surprise, there wasn’t even a hint of movement.”
“They can’t spare the effort,” Zhuang Mingxu replied. “When those people didn’t return after a few days, the top leader of the Pingjin Base got wind of it. The Menghu Team has always been rather overbearing at Pingjin, so they were immediately suppressed by other factions. Losing over a hundred mid- to high-level ability users, their leader is busy trying to keep his footing. He doesn’t have the manpower to deal with you right now.”
“But once the cold season hits, they might come for us more aggressively,” he added. Despite saying this, there wasn’t the slightest trace of fear on his face—rather, there was a faint excitement.
Lu Weiyi ignored his morbid enthusiasm, chatted for a bit more, and went to bed early.
Meanwhile, Zhuang Mingxu went to find Yin Jin and returned to inform teammates living on the island that a father and son would soon be moving in. He asked Xi Shi to help provide some essential household items for them.
Lu Weiyi was still curious how someone Zhuang had suspected earlier would be so easily released—until the next day, when he saw a metal collar around Qin Nian’s neck.
Even though he understood Zhuang’s intent to guard against Yin Jin, seeing such a thing on the child’s neck still struck him as cruel.
“It was my own choice,” Yin Jin said calmly.
He pulled a small controller from his pocket and handed it to Lu Weiyi. “This is Nian Nian’s control device. Deputy Base Leader Zhuang said I could choose one person from the team to keep it. I wouldn’t feel safe if anyone else had it. Could you hold onto it?”
Perhaps it was because this man had rescued him from the lab, or because even when unwell he had still persisted in channeling psychic power to Qin Nian for months—or maybe because this was one of the few people who showed neither probing curiosity nor defensiveness toward him.
The moment Zhuang Mingxu offered the choice, the first person who came to Yin Jin’s mind was Lu Weiyi.
He knew clearly that if Lu Weiyi hadn’t brought it up, he might have spent the rest of his life hidden away in a dark laboratory with his child.
Placing this life-and-death device in Lu Weiyi’s hands was a silent gesture of gratitude and allegiance, a pledge that—even for the sake of his son—he would never do anything to harm the base.
Lu Weiyi looked over at Qin Nian, lying on the bed. Zhuang Ai Yi and Taotao were curiously chatting with the boy. Seeing the stark contrast between the children only made the scene more heart-wrenching.
“He said as long as I don’t do anything to endanger the base or try to leave it without permission, the child will be safe. Is that true?” Yin Jin asked. His tone was even, but it couldn’t hide his bitterness and resignation.
Lu Weiyi nodded, stored the controller in his spatial storage, and handed him a pre-apocalypse packaged cake—one of the few ready-made food items he had left that year.
He couldn’t bring himself to say “Happy Birthday.”
Yin Jin accepted it with a smile and thanked him.
The room, which had been empty just yesterday, now had doors and windows installed in only half a day.
Xi Shi had a good temperament. Over a year of the apocalypse hadn’t changed him much. Although the team had been a bit cautious at first, they had grown familiar with each other, and he now played the role of a big brother figure.
He didn’t harbor any suspicion toward the newly arrived Yin Jin and even brought Dean along to help set up the place. By the end of the morning, the once-bare room was fully furnished and stocked with daily necessities—thanks in no small part to Zhuang Mingxu’s tacit approval. Within reasonable limits, he showed as much leniency as possible toward this new life.
Qin Nian, being the first newborn child since the apocalypse, naturally drew the attention of the entire team. By midday, everyone gathered under the pretense of checking on the baby, throwing him a small birthday celebration and gifting him many New Year’s crystal cores, while also getting to know Yin Jin.
After hosting a small full-month celebration for Qin Nian with the children, Xi Shi became more familiar with Yin Jin. Once he was sure that Yin Jin wasn’t a danger to the base, he took him the next day to start stockpiling food for winter.
The base was now bustling. Once all the squads had returned, preparations for winter swung into full gear.
The plantation’s crops were being harvested and stored en masse. Machines buzzed everywhere—threshers kicking up dust, cotton processors rumbling nonstop—the entire base was engulfed in a lively atmosphere. Zhao Changming also sent word that the rocket launcher was ready to enter the testing phase.
“They’re moving that fast?” Ning Yuan asked while piloting a medium-sized fishing vessel disguised as heading out to sea. In truth, they were transporting Zhao Changming and the others to the ocean depths to test the crystal core-powered rocket launcher.
