Carrying My Sugar Daddy Through the Apocalypse – CH54

Chapter 54: Childhood Friend Knocks on the Door

The village was inhabited, with various items piled up into a wall, leaving only one entrance with people guarding it. The villagers were somewhat xenophobic and had even tried to charge a toll when they arrived. If they hadn’t had more than a dozen vehicles and a large number of people at the time, they might have actually succeeded.

Lin Yimu and the others had most of their supplies on the trucks. The off-road vehicle’s trunk only contained the fruits and vegetables they had picked yesterday. Their staple food consisted of a few packs of biscuits and instant noodles, and a case of water, not even enough for everyone to eat their fill in one meal. If they didn’t find supplies tonight, they would have to go hungry tomorrow morning.

After discussing, the four of them didn’t enter the village. Instead, they found a remote small courtyard near the outskirts, cleared the nearby zombies, and then Lin Yimu went back to pick up the others and lead the way. The remaining three searched the surroundings for food.

Most of the villagers were enclosed within the wall. The few scattered houses outside had either been moved into or already ransacked. After searching around, the three only found a few green tomatoes, the unripe kind. When everyone else arrived and saw this situation, they were all a bit speechless.

“Are the beds ready? Let’s get the sick people to rest first,” Lin Yimu said, carrying Lu Weiyi’s backpack. Li Zhuang carried the sleeping Lu Weiyi, Antonio held the unconscious Dean, and Liu Rui carried the still-unconscious Xu Sa. The group looked as disheveled as could be.

“There’s a kang bed. The bedding has all been taken away, only a woven mat is left,” Gu Qingyue said, opening the door to let them in.

After settling the four sick people, it was already dark outside, making it unsafe to go out again. The remaining food was only enough for one meal, and the case of water was gone after one bottle per person.

“This is all we have. Everyone divide it up. Until we find more food, this is all you get. Ration it yourselves,” Lin Yimu laid out the things from the car, but didn’t touch Lu Weiyi’s backpack.

Each person had their own backpack, containing their own food and supplies. Their group’s backpacks had been lost, so only Lu Weiyi’s remained. It was his own, so naturally, others had no right to demand a share.

Of course, the other few people also had no intention of asking for a share.

Everyone agreed, took their share, and tacitly chose not to eat.

Xu Sa was Lu Weiyi’s childhood friend. When he woke up and wanted to share his things, no one would object. But if Lin Yimu distributed some of their meager supplies to them now, it would inevitably make people feel uncomfortable. After all, they hadn’t collected supplies together, and before the food shortage, no one cared about an extra mouth. But now that supplies were scarce, sharing wouldn’t make sense.

As for Xiong Jie and Xi Shi, they were just acquaintances, so it was even less likely they would get any. Xiong Jie and Xi Shi also had no objections to this.

In the pitch-black room, a piece of firewood wrapped with rotten cloth at the end served as a torch. The group sat in their respective corners, trying to ease their emotions.

“Are you hungry? I’ll go look outside again to see if there’s anything to eat,” Xiong Jie could go hungry, but he didn’t want Xi Shi to starve.

“I ate a lot at noon,” Xi Shi pulled Xiong Jie down to sit beside him, wanting to lean on him but feeling a bit embarrassed in front of the younger generation. “It’s too dark, don’t risk it.”

In his youth, Xiong Jie had been sentenced to twenty years in prison for manslaughter. He once thought he would only be able to reunite with his lover when they both had white hair. He never expected the arrival of the apocalypse to bring them together early. Now, as long as he could be with his lover, he felt nothing else mattered.

Xiong Jie wasn’t fussy. He put his arm around Xi Shi’s shoulders, letting him lean against him to rest, and looked at the only person he knew, Liu Rui. “Stutterer, I heard you took Little Xu to the Ping An Safe Zone? How did you end up here?”

“Bro… Brother Sa… got sick. Th… they… wouldn’t let us in. Later… ma… many… zombies… attacked… the ba… base, so… we… we left… together,” Liu Rui finally finished speaking after a long time. Xiong Jie was probably used to it and was quite patient.

“Then where are you planning to go?”

“Brother Sa’s… fri… friend,” Liu Rui pointed at the sleeping Lu Weiyi and continued, “Go… to… Qingyuan, I… I’ll go… too.”

“You’re going to Qingyuan?” Xiong Jie asked Lin Yimu, who seemed to be the one in charge of the group.

“Yes,” Lin Yimu replied concisely, worried about his young master.

“We’re also going to Qingyuan. Would it be convenient to travel together? If we find supplies, I can share some. We won’t be a burden on the road,” Xiong Jie traveling alone with the weak Xi Shi was no different from feeding zombies.

“Sure, we all know each other. No need for supplies,” Lin Yimu said.

“Then thank you very much,” Xiong Jie wasn’t pretentious. After thanking him, he asked about Xu Sa.

“When we separated, wasn’t he still doing well? How come he’s so serious now?” They had left the prison together when the zombies appeared. Xiong Jie wanted to find Xi Shi, and Xu Sa’s intention seemed to be to find his friend.

“Later… got… got sick. I… I… I couldn’t… find… a doctor, di… didn’t know… what medicine, so… it got… even worse,” Liu Rui said, feeling very guilty. He always felt that his lack of education had made Xu Sa’s illness worse, and his eyes turned red as he spoke.

“Wasn’t he going to see his friend from the beginning? If you don’t know his friend, he doesn’t seem like someone incapable of finding a doctor.”

“Di… didn’t go,” Liu Rui said. Seeing that Xiong Jie didn’t understand, he continued to explain, “I… don’t kn… know the… way. To… today… at noon… we… just met.”

Having survived a catastrophe, the group had no interest in talking at the moment and quietly listened to Liu Rui’s stammering.

Hearing him mention Xu Sa’s illness, Gu Qingyue remembered to check on Xu Sa’s condition. He pulled away his tightly clasped hand from Gu Qingji, got up, and walked to Xu Sa’s side on the kang bed. The thermometer was gone, so he could only rely on his feeling. Estimating that the fever had subsided, he unfolded the tightly wrapped quilt.

The quilt closest to his body was already completely soaked with sweat, not to mention his clothes. “The fever’s gone, we need to change his clothes and give him some water.”

Wearing soaked clothes wasn’t good, but in this situation, they had no spare clothes.

Liu Rui directly stripped Xu Sa naked, covered him with the quilt, and then hung the stripped clothes outside to dry.

Water… he still had the bottle Lu Weiyi had given him at noon. He had only drunk half of it and then put it away, which was perfect for now.

Liu Rui clumsily fussed over Xu Sa, the woven mat rustling as he moved it around. Dean, who was next to them, frowned, suddenly sat up, and cried out with a sob, “David!”

“I’m here, I’m here,” Antonio hadn’t been far from Dean. As soon as he moved, he immediately ran over, hugged him, and gently coaxed, “Baby, don’t be afraid, I’m okay, look at me, I’m really okay.”

“Tsk.”

“Fuck.”

Two different sounds rang out, followed by two more.

“Oh, little young master’s awake?”

“Brother Sa!”

In the midst of the chaos, Dean cried uncontrollably, Antonio hugging and kissing him to soothe him; Xu Sa’s whole body ached, and his throat felt like it was on fire. Liu Rui beside him offered water, his eyes shining like a puppy’s as he watched; Lu Weiyi looked like he had just woken up and was in a terrible mood, staring blankly at the noisy group in front of him, while Li Zhuang waved his hand in front of him and got it slapped away without mercy. The crisp “smack” woke him up a bit.

“Lu Xiaoyi, the long march has finally converged!” Xu Sa said, his voice hoarse, smiling at Lu Weiyi and reaching out to rub his head, only to receive another slap from Lu Weiyi, who coldly replied, “Xu Er Gou!”

“Er Gou died long ago,” Xu Sa replied, referring to the two dogs he used to have.

Lu Weiyi also remembered, rolled his eyes at him, and didn’t say anything more.

“Young Master, drink some water,” Lin Yimu helped Lu Weiyi sit up. As soon as he let go, Lu Weiyi leaned sideways as if he had no bones, directly falling into Li Zhuang’s arms, who was leaning against the wall.

“Trying to get compensation?” Li Zhuang supported him, noticing his weakness, and let him lean on him, frowning. “What’s wrong with you?”

Lu Weiyi shook his head. He was still a bit tired, feeling weak all over, but his mental power wasn’t depleted at all. He couldn’t explain why. He took the water Lin Yimu offered, but his hands trembled so much he couldn’t hold it steady. Li Zhuang simply took it and held it to his lips, feeding him two sips.

“How do you feel? Is anything uncomfortable?”

Lu Weiyi shook his head. “No strength.”

“Do you want to sleep a bit more? We’ll keep watch tonight, you don’t need to worry. Do you want to eat something first?”

Lu Weiyi shook his head. He wasn’t hungry or sleepy, just physically weak. He glanced at the little green branch on his wrist, which was still dull and lifeless, and felt it must be related to it.

“Since you’re not sleeping, let’s discuss abilities,” Li Zhuang said, letting Lu Weiyi lean against the wall beside him, resting his head on his shoulder. His gaze went to Antonio and Liu Rui, who had already demonstrated their abilities.

“Headache?” Lu Weiyi looked at Li Zhuang. The first time he had overused his ability, his head must have felt like it was about to explode. He was quite resilient to be able to maintain such a calm expression now.

After using up one’s ability, it could actually be relieved by replenishing some ability energy. However, in the early days of the apocalypse, before crystal cores appeared, one could only rely on self-recovery.

Lu Weiyi remembered that he had awakened his ability after the heavy snow in his previous life. At that time, even if Zhuang Mingxu made him use up his ability to train and level up, he would prepare crystal cores for him to replenish immediately. He had experienced that pain, but each time it wouldn’t last too long.

Li Zhuang thought that Lu Weiyi’s demonstrated ability looked much stronger than his own, so he must have experienced this pain before. He didn’t hide it anymore and nodded, looking at the other two. “Have you guys felt this pain before?”

Antonio held Dean in his arms, stroking his hair, and nodded. “It hurts a lot every time my ability is used up.”

Liu Rui also nodded.

“Metal,” Li Zhuang pointed at Antonio.

“Fire,” he pointed at Liu Rui.

“Earth,” he pointed at himself.

“Wood?” He looked at Lu Weiyi.

Lu Weiyi glanced at him and didn’t deny it. Zhuang Mingxu had told him to always keep a trump card and not let anyone figure out his abilities completely. Otherwise, if they chose to deal with him, he wouldn’t have any ability to fight back.

In his previous life, although many people knew he was a mental ability user, no one knew exactly how many abilities he could derive from it.

“So, abilities are divided according to the five elements?” Li Zhuang pondered, looking at Liu Rui and Lu Weiyi. “Your two abilities seem to be stronger.”

In the early stages of abilities, apart from scaring timid people, the actual effect wasn’t very practical. Someone like Antonio making a table full of cutlery circle around was considered powerful, but if Lu Weiyi had tried to make them circle, he probably wouldn’t have been able to attack with any of them, because that would have been his limit.

Lu Weiyi consciously trained his ability. Even if it wasn’t very useful, he would repeat the process of using it up and recovering every day. As for Liu Rui, he had no choice. Carrying a completely powerless Xu Sa, he could only constantly show that he had an ability to make people think he wasn’t easy to mess with, so that he could barely buy himself some time to escape.