Chapter 42 – Zhou Qi’s Supernatural Power
From Chi Hao’s perspective, the small grocery store was currently filled with countless units of fire energy.
Heat, after all, was merely the accumulation of fire energy, causing a rise in temperature. When fire energy exceeds a certain limit, it can ignite objects, a phenomenon known as the manifestation of fire energy.
As a fire ability user, controlling fire energy was a fundamental skill.
If he could release it, he could also absorb it.
If he absorbed all the fire energy in the room while new fire energy entered slowly, in theory, it could cool down the room.
However, since Chi Hao had never considered this idea before, he wasn’t sure if it would work.
Moreover, absorbing heat would consume his energy… Chi Hao looked up at Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi.
Zhou Qi, with his awakened abilities, was more heat-resistant, but the little boy was just a regular person, his cheeks flushed and large beads of sweat rolling down his forehead.
Chi Hao pressed his lips together. Not only had this child saved him, but he was also giving him food and shelter without charge; it seemed only right to contribute a bit.
Besides…
“Lunch is braised rabbit, stir-fried mushroom and pork slices, and seaweed egg drop soup,” Zhou Qi’s calm voice broke in.
Gurgle—
Chi Hao couldn’t help but swallow. What was this menu? He’d heard of stir-fried mushroom and pork slices, even tried it before, but braised rabbit? Seaweed egg drop soup?
He hadn’t tried those; were they tasty?
“Alright, I’ll give it a shot!” He steeled himself and agreed.
Chi Hao closed his eyes and began channeling his energy.
He was still seriously injured, and using his abilities could worsen his condition, just like when he had been forced to release flames against the four-eyed dog last night, resulting in him coughing up blood.
However, absorbing fire energy could indeed help his recovery if done slowly enough to strike a balance.
Only from a fire ability user’s perspective could one see the red energy in the room gradually converging toward Chi Hao, forming a small vortex around him.
Zhou Qi was the first to notice the change.
He watched Chi Hao with a contemplative expression.
Tang Yu’an noticed it a bit later but soon felt a breeze—or rather, the usual hot air within the room!
In nature, wind is created by temperature differences, which meant that this method was indeed working. However, to truly cool down the room, they had to stop the heat from continuing to enter!
Tang Yu’an ran to shut the doors and windows. His house had air conditioning, so the partition between the back and the storefront was fitted with a glass door.
Although the room felt stuffier with the windows closed, over time, as the fire energy was slowly drawn to Chi Hao, Tang Yu’an began to feel a slight coolness.
The room was genuinely cooling down!
It wasn’t as chilly as air conditioning, but the temperature was now comfortable.
Suddenly, Tang Yu’an thought of something, quickly opening the back door to bring the plants exposed to the sun inside.
Noticing this, Zhou Qi snapped out of his thoughts and helped him.
Once they’d moved all the plants indoors and shut the back door, blocking out the hot air, the room gradually cooled even further.
Tang Yu’an sighed in relief.
Seeing the plants looking visibly healthier in their pots, a smile spread across his face. Now, he wouldn’t have to worry about them withering from the heat.
These plants were left to them by his mother—not valuable in a practical sense, but precious in terms of memories, so he didn’t want to see them die.
His eyes sparkled as he looked at Chi Hao.
This new “employee” was definitely useful!
Perhaps there was too much fire energy around, because even Tang Yu’an, who wasn’t an ability user, noticed the air near Chi Hao seemed slightly distorted.
Getting a bit closer felt like standing next to a furnace.
After Chi Hao started absorbing heat, he sat motionless with his eyes closed, so Tang Yu’an didn’t disturb him and followed Zhou Qi into the kitchen.
“Brother Qi, what was up with you earlier?”
Watching Zhou Qi prepare ingredients, Tang Yu’an leaned in and whispered, not forgetting Zhou Qi’s unusual behavior at Tie Jin’s place.
Zhou Qi paused, glancing at the kitchen door, and after a moment’s thought, said, “I’ll tell you during the lunch break.”
At that time, they could use the shade umbrella, so they wouldn’t worry about Chi Hao overhearing.
“Alright.”
“Go rest for a bit; it’s hot in the kitchen.”
“I’ll stand by the door.”
Tang Yu’an stayed by the kitchen door, feeling the coolness of the room while watching Zhou Qi handle ingredients and cook.
He used to love standing by and watching his father cook. It seemed so fun, and he’d learned some cooking steps from him, though his cooking wasn’t as tasty as Zhou Qi’s.
“Brother Qi, are we really having braised rabbit for lunch?”
“Mm, I remember you like it.”
“Hehe, I do.”
Zhou Qi cut the rabbit into pieces, rinsed them, then added cooking wine and salt to remove the odor and marinated it. He then began preparing the dough for whole wheat buns.
When he’d made buns and steamed bread before, he saved a bit of starter dough. Now, he added water and soda to it, mixing it with whole wheat flour to form the dough.
While he worked on the dough, Tang Yu’an went to separate the soybean husks.
The store already had plenty of soybeans, and the item list function made it easy to separate the husks.
Soon, Tang Yu’an had a bag of peeled soybeans and a decent amount of soybean husks.
Meanwhile, Zhou Qi continued preparing their lunch.
Braised rabbit, stir-fried mushroom and pork slices, seaweed egg drop soup, along with a bowl of fluffy white rice, were almost ready for the table, each dish looking appetizing and fragrant.
Chi “Human Air Conditioner” Hao, of course, also received his portion.
As a mid-level ability user, absorbing heat wasn’t particularly demanding, so he was able to multitask—absorbing heat while doing other things without trouble.
Since he had limited mobility and the air around him became cooler as he absorbed heat, Zhou Qi set up a small table for Chi Hao so he could sit on the floor and eat alone.
“Brother Qi’s cooking is amazing!” Tang Yu’an said, his cheeks puffed as he ate.
Chi Hao nodded enthusiastically. He had never tasted such delicious meat, such fresh soup, or such fragrant rice!
The ability user squads had a designated cafeteria, and since childhood, he’d grown up on nutrition packs. He’d never cared much about food before and only liked eating mutant animal meat for strength gains. But now… the taste was amazing!
Zhou Qi served Tang Yu’an a bowl of soup, then began eating as well.
“Gathered around the table like this, it really feels like a meal,” Tang Yu’an mumbled as he scooped rice.
“Then let’s head out earlier in the morning from now on, so we can come back to eat together like this,” Zhou Qi suggested.
“Alright!”
Hearing this, Chi Hao looked up at them, watching them happily eating around the table.
Such an ordinary scene, yet rare in the wasteland.
Like him, they had lost their parents early and learned to live independently at a young age, but seeing them in this simple house, sitting around an old table, he felt a strange warmth.
Chi Hao pressed his lips together, lowering his gaze to focus on the delicious food before him.
After the meal, Chi Hao continued to act as the “human air conditioner,” absorbing heat to cool down the room, while the others climbed up to the attic for a nap.
He extended his mental energy up to the attic, drawing the fire energy down from above. But oddly enough…
Once they climbed up to the attic, they disappeared from his mental sense.
He frowned slightly, scanning the attic with his mental energy, but aside from the fire energy filling the space, he didn’t sense any living presence.
Reaching his limit, Chi Hao stopped “observing” and glanced up at the attic.
After they went up, even their voices disappeared.
How strange…
But thinking of his employee dashboard and the glucose he’d exchanged for out of thin air last night, Chi Hao shook his head. Perhaps this was another power of the mysterious merchant.
This young boy may be a child in age, but he was indeed an experienced employee, likely with far more benefits from the mysterious merchant than Chi Hao himself.
It seemed he’d need to work harder to catch up.
But first, he needed to heal.
Chi Hao lay down on the floor, closed his eyes, and began to rest. Half-asleep, his body continued passively absorbing the room’s heat…
In the Attic.
The shade umbrella floated quietly, isolating all sound.
Tang Yu’an had been up since five in the morning and was now struggling to keep his eyes open, but he forced himself to stay awake to ask Zhou Qi about his strange behavior earlier.
In response, Zhou Qi didn’t immediately explain. Instead, he pulled out a damaged dagger with a bent blade from his storage and held the broken blade in his palm, saying quietly, “I just felt like… maybe I could…”
Could do what?
Before Tang Yu’an could ask, he saw a faint glow appear in Zhou Qi’s palm, and the bent tip of the dagger seemed to melt, softening in his hand.
Tang Yu’an reached out in surprise, carefully poking the dagger’s metal edge to find it had actually become soft!
However, the effect didn’t last long. The glow faded from Zhou Qi’s hand, and the blade hardened again.
The two broken edges were now fused, and although the shape was a bit odd, it was no longer visibly broken.
Tang Yu’an took the dagger, inspecting it with curiosity. “Brother Qi, did you awaken a metal ability?”
Zhou Qi shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure.”
Watching Tie Jin control metal this morning, he could clearly sense how the energy in his hand altered the metal’s state. It was a subtle feeling, hard to describe, but he somehow… felt it wasn’t that difficult?
And just now, he’d managed to recreate that sensation, successfully altering the dagger’s blade, though it had quickly drained him.
“You reacted to the gold crystal, so you must have a metal ability,” Tang Yu’an analyzed.
“It’s more than that,” Zhou Qi suddenly said.
“Huh?”
Tang Yu’an blinked, watching as Zhou Qi pressed his hand to the blanket beside him, which still held residual warmth from earlier.
In the next moment, Tang Yu’an felt the blanket’s warmth vanish, replaced by a faint coolness.
Was that…
“Heat absorption?” Tang Yu’an blurted out.
Zhou Qi withdrew his hand, nodding. “I picked it up from watching Chi Hao earlier.”
“Wow! Brother Qi, you’re amazing! You learned it just like that!”
Facing Tang Yu’an’s admiring gaze, Zhou Qi’s serious expression relaxed a bit, though he shook his head. “Probably all ability users can do this to some extent.”
But… he seemed to possess more than one ability, which was unusual. He had a feeling he might be different from other ability users.
Whether that was good or bad, Zhou Qi didn’t know.
“Should we tell Chi Hao?” Tang Yu’an asked.
Zhou Qi thought about it, then shook his head. “We’re about to leave for the town. He’ll probably stay in the shop, so it’s better not to complicate things.”
They couldn’t predict what might happen, and although they could erase Chi Hao’s memory to reduce risk, re-hiring him afterward would be troublesome.
Also, if they tried to recreate this harmonious atmosphere, there was no guarantee it would work as well as it did now.
“Alright then,” Tang Yu’an said, looking at him. “Do you feel any discomfort? Has the parasite shown any reaction?”
Zhou Qi shook his head.
“That should be a good thing, right?” Tang Yu’an thought for a moment and quickly checked Zhou Qi’s employee profile.
Sure enough, in the skills section, both fire and metal element control had appeared.
“Brother Chi Hao can only control fire elements, but you have one more.” Tang Yu’an added, “And even water elements!”
If he could learn to control water elements in the future…
“Does that mean you could produce clean water yourself?” Tang Yu’an asked excitedly.
Zhou Qi paused, thought for a moment, and nodded.
He’d reacted to the water crystal, so it was definitely a possibility.
“That would give us an extra layer of survival security!”
Currently, they have to rely on store exchanges for water. Drinking water wasn’t too expensive, but they barely had enough for other uses.
And when they left the store, they had to stock up and store it in the portable warehouse, which took up a lot of space.
If, in the future, Zhou Qi could produce water as easily as Uncle Tie Jin produced metal, that would be incredibly convenient.
Tang Yu’an continued, “While Brother Chi Hao is still here, take this chance to learn more about controlling fire elements from him. That way, you’ll have more ways to fight.”
Since they couldn’t rid themselves of the parasite for now, they might as well use it to grow stronger.
“You’re absolutely right.”
Zhou Qi took a deep breath, feeling a growing calm. Being parasitized was an established fact, but perhaps he could develop a symbiotic relationship like Chi Hao.
Regardless, he needed to grow stronger—physically and mentally.
The parasite simply wanted to control him, so he would need to strengthen his will to resist its influence while making his body strong enough that if it ever wanted to kill him in desperation, it couldn’t.
In short, as long as he was strong enough, the parasite would be powerless against him and might even have to serve him.
Finally, he smiled, patting Tang Yu’an’s head. “Now let’s get some sleep.”
“Alright.”
Tang Yu’an lay down, and Zhou Qi followed.
Being home with Yuan Bao and the others keeping watch downstairs allowed him to relax fully. Unlike in the field, where he was constantly on guard, he could finally let his guard down and get real rest.
The grocery store quieted as the shade umbrella hovered in the attic, seemingly in a dormant state.
Outside, the sun climbed higher until it reached its peak around one o’clock, then slowly began to descend, though the temperature remained high.
Tang Yu’an slept soundly, only waking up drowsily when he heard Zhou Qi calling him.
“Brother Qi…” he murmured sleepily.
“If you sleep any longer, you won’t be able to sleep tonight.” Zhou Qi ruffled his messy hair. “I made green bean soup. Get up and have some.”
Tang Yu’an managed to pull himself up.
Rubbing his eyes, he went downstairs and saw Chi Hao, who was already sitting on the floor, enjoying his meal with a look of satisfaction.
Meanwhile, Zhou Qi had set a bowl of chilled green bean soup on the table for him.
“Check if it’s sweet enough.”
“Yes! Green bean soup!”
Fully awake now, Tang Yu’an ran over and happily began drinking the refreshing green bean soup.
The room was cool, thanks to Chi Hao absorbing the heat.
The chilled soup was subtly sweet and refreshing, melting on his tongue and sweeping away the day’s heat. Tang Yu’an waved a fan gently, feeling utterly content.
Chi Hao hadn’t felt this comfortable in a long time.
He’d watched Zhou Qi prepare the soup, which had looked quite ordinary, but the final product was surprisingly delicious!
He’d had green bean soup at the ability user cafeteria before, but it was nothing like this rich, smooth version with its slightly grainy texture.
Hot, it was already delicious, but chilled, it was even better!
“Zhou Qi, you’re an incredible cook!”
Thinking about leaving this place after he recovered brought a bit of melancholy to Chi Hao’s heart.
If only he could bring this kid to the fort with him!
Zhou Qi stayed calm despite the praise. After finishing his own bowl of soup, he returned to the kitchen to prepare dough.
He mixed in the soybean husks that Tang Yu’an had prepared, which were spotless and free from any dirt, thanks to the item list function—cleaner than if they’d been washed by hand.
He even considered adding a bit of sand, given how scarce clean water was in the wasteland, but in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he added more soybean husks and finely chopped straw.
He divided the dough into small portions, and Tang Yu’an helped roll them into balls. Just handling the dough felt a bit prickly, but hopefully, it would be fine once steamed.
The whole wheat buns were placed in the steamer to rise, ready to be steamed in about half an hour.
Meanwhile, Tang Yu’an kept himself busy by rummaging through the store and continuously using his identification skill.
When Zhou Qi finished his tasks and checked the identification catalog, it had expanded by over a hundred pages.
It wasn’t because Tang Yu’an had identified that many items, but rather because certain items had multiple origins, with each dimension’s code taking up a whole page—
The catalog in book form couldn’t collapse categories as the display panel did, so every entry was fully listed, making it seem especially dense.
Tang Yu’an found the interdimensional codes dizzying to look at.
Watching Zhou Qi close the catalog and head past Chi Hao, who was lounging contentedly on the floor, he quickly followed Zhou Qi upstairs.
In the attic, Zhou Qi placed the catalog on a small table and took out his phone to start taking photos.
Tang Yu’an opened the umbrella again and asked, “Brother Qi, what are you doing?”
“Making a chart.”
With Zhou Qi’s explanation, Tang Yu’an learned that photos on the phone could be converted into text.
Although there was a slight error rate, requiring careful checking, it was much more convenient than manual input.
Tang’s mother’s phone had office software, which she used to keep track of her inventory and occasionally had Zhou Qi help her fill it out, so he knew how to use spreadsheets.
Zhou Qi transferred the dimensional information for each item into the spreadsheet, verifying it carefully before narrowing down the search across the six dimensions they’d noted from the potatoes, making the search much more accurate.
He eventually narrowed the possibilities down to three dimensions: KJ2548, DM53944, and MR168845.
Looking at Zhou Qi’s work, Tang Yu’an’s eyes were full of admiration. “Brother Qi, you’re amazing!”
Since Tang Yu’an had just started middle school, he hadn’t needed to use office software yet, so it hadn’t even crossed his mind that there could be such useful tools on the phone.
“Auntie Tang taught me before,” Zhou Qi said. “If you’d like to learn, I can teach you.”
Tang Yu’an nodded eagerly.
Afterward, Zhou Qi put away the identification catalog and phone and then went to the kitchen to bring out the steamed whole-wheat buns.
As he lifted the lid, a rich aroma of rice and wheat wafted out, filling the small room. Regardless of the taste, it certainly smelled delicious.
Chi Hao couldn’t help but swallow. “What delicious thing did you make this time?”
“These are buns, similar to the stuffed buns we had in the morning, but without filling.” Tang Yu’an held back from the heat as he took one, tearing it in half and giving Zhou Qi one piece.
Chi Hao recognized buns, but he always thought Zhou Qi’s cooking tasted better.
“Could I try some, too?” he asked eagerly.
Tang Yu’an tore his piece in half, giving Chi Hao the larger piece, which moved him deeply.
These whole-wheat buns, with soybean husks and grass leaves added, had a slightly scratchy texture, which Tang Yu’an didn’t particularly enjoy. He only tasted a bit for the flavor.
Chi Hao, on the other hand, found it chewy and flavorful. It felt more substantial than the cafeteria’s buns, though the stuffed buns from this morning were indeed tastier.
“Aren’t you worried about making so much food and it going bad?” he asked as he ate.
Tang Yu’an and Zhou Qi exchanged glances, then looked at him and explained, “We’re heading to the town to trade soon, so we prepared these to take with us.”
Chi Hao paused. “You’re going to Jufeng Town?”
“Yes.” Tang Yu’an nodded. “Would you like to come with us, or stay here to rest?”
Chi Hao opened his mouth, then slowly closed it. Given his current physical state, he wasn’t quite fit to go to town.
“I’ll stay here,” he replied.
“Great!” Tang Yu’an said happily.
Although leaving him to guard the store was a bit risky, most of their important items were already stored in the portable warehouse. They’d be gone for about four or five days on this trip, and Tang Yu’an had been worried about how his plants would survive.
Now, the ideal caretaker had appeared!
“Can you water the plants every day and feed milk to the three pets?” Tang Yu’an asked. Chi Hao nodded, but then, unable to hold back, looked at them with an expectant gaze.
Seeing that neither of them said anything further, he couldn’t help but ask anxiously, “But… what about me? What do I eat?”
