Chapter 60: Heading to City G
After Yu Dongdong awakened his ability, his appetite grew as well. He used to feel full after just a small bowl of instant noodles; now he could eat two large bowls in a row, drink every last drop of the soup, and still look unsatisfied, pestering Su Ruizhe to cook him another pack. It was hard to tell whether Xiao Hei had been influenced by Dongdong, but when Yu Dongdong was burying his head in his third bowl of noodles, Xiao Hei actually came over too and stuck out its tiny tongue to lick a couple of mouthfuls of noodle soup.
“Hey! You can’t eat that!” Su Ruizhe hurriedly reached out to stop it. Although he didn’t have much experience raising cats, he’d heard that cats have delicate stomachs. Foods like instant noodles—high in salt and oil and unhealthy—were absolutely not suitable for them.
But Xiao Hei didn’t listen at all. Nimbly dodging Su Ruizhe’s hand, it snatched up a strand of noodles and slurped it straight down.
Su Ruizhe was both anxious and angry. If it ate something bad and got sick, where was he supposed to find a veterinarian?!
“Brother, it’s okay. Xiao Hei thinks it tastes really good,” Yu Dongdong’s soft, glutinous voice chimed in.
Su Ruizhe froze and looked at Yu Dongdong, asking in surprise, “You can communicate with it?”
Yu Dongdong shook his head. “Xiao Hei can’t talk to me, but I seem to be able to feel that it’s very happy.”
Su Ruizhe figured it was probably Yu Dongdong’s mental power allowing him to sense Xiao Hei’s emotions. Considering that Xiao Hei wasn’t an ordinary cat to begin with, he could only comfort himself—maybe evolved animals had different digestive systems from normal ones…
—
Zheng Jiahe woke up around noon the next day, but for some reason, Zhan Yun’s high fever still hadn’t gone down.
“Bro… why aren’t you awake yet? I’m really worried… Aren’t you hungry? I’ve kept some food warm on the stove…” Su Ruizhe spoke softly as he used a damp towel to cool Zhan Yun down. Although he believed Zhan Yun would definitely succeed in advancing, he couldn’t help worrying. Every half hour he wiped Zhan Yun’s head, face, and neck with a wet towel, and kept feeding him fruit juice and water to prevent dehydration from the prolonged fever.
Zhan Yun’s fever lasted a full day and night. It wasn’t until close to noon on the third day that he finally woke up.
“Brother Zhan! You’re awake?!” Su Ruizhe had been paying close attention to the room. When he saw Zhan Yun come out, he couldn’t hide the joy on his face. “Are you hungry? I’ve got food ready—I’ll bring it out right away.”
After being unconscious for so long, Zhan Yun was surely starving. Su Ruizhe had prepared the dishes early and kept them warm, just waiting for him to wake up so he could eat immediately.
“No rush.” Everyone else was asleep at the moment, and there were only the two of them in 501. Something stirred in Zhan Yun’s heart, and he stepped forward to pull Su Ruizhe into his arms.
“Bro…” Su Ruizhe’s face flushed bright red, and he stammered as he called out to him.
“When I had the fever, I kept hearing someone talking to me,” Zhan Yun said, hugging his young lover from behind and deliberately leaning close to whisper in Su Ruizhe’s ear.
“Bro… I…” Su Ruizhe’s voice trembled, his jade-white ears turned vivid red. Zhan Yun had been unconscious for far too long, and Su Ruizhe hadn’t felt at ease, staying by his side the whole time. Whenever he got nervous, he couldn’t help talking, rambling on and saying quite a few embarrassing things. He never imagined Zhan Yun had heard it all—it was mortifying!
“When I had the fever, the one I was thinking about was you too…” Seeing how the person in his arms shrank slightly, lashes fluttering, Zhan Yun found him unbearably adorable. He chuckled softly, lowered his head, and kissed Su Ruizhe. His lover’s lips were soft and smooth, with a faint fruity scent—he must have snuck some fruit earlier.
Zhan Yun’s kiss wasn’t domineering or intense, but gentle and lingering. Their lips and tongues entwined as both of them sank into the intimacy.
“Bro…” When the kiss ended, Su Ruizhe leaned against Zhan Yun’s chest, breathing lightly—only to feel something hard pressing against his thigh. When he realized what it was, his face instantly turned so red it looked like it might drip blood.
Unwilling to tease him too far, Zhan Yun took a deep breath and let him go, his voice hoarse as he said, “Go get some food for me. I’m hungry.”
As he said the last two words, Zhan Yun deliberately let his gaze linger over a certain unspeakable part of Su Ruizhe’s body, making him so embarrassed he couldn’t even lift his head.
Fortunately, the food had been kept warm, so it didn’t take long before it was all set on the table. Steaming white rice, fragrant corn-and-pork-rib soup, big chunks of braised pork—rich aromas filled the air and made one’s mouth water.
“Little Zhe, have you eaten?”
“We’ve all eaten already. This was prepared especially for you. Hurry and eat while it’s hot.”
“Alright.”
“Bro, Captain Li came by today. We’re to gather at the base gate at six o’clock this evening,” Su Ruizhe said, taking the opportunity while Zhan Yun was eating to tell him about Li Ming’s visit.
Li Ming had been waiting for Zhan Yun’s reply. With departure scheduled for that very night and still no word from Zhan Yun, he was getting anxious. In the early hours of the morning, he’d come personally, only to find Zhan Yun still unconscious—and no one else could make the decision. In the end, Su Ruizhe stepped in and gave Li Ming an answer: as long as Zhan Yun woke up before the evening departure, they would definitely join the operation. Only then did Li Ming feel at ease and leave.
“Alright. We’re heading out tonight.” Zhan Yun nodded. This time, they were certainly going to take part in the mission.
—
At six in the evening, Zhan Yun and his group drove their off-road vehicle to the base gate right on time to assemble. At the gate, four military trucks and a container semi-truck were already lined up and ready to go.
When Li Ming saw Zhan Yun and the others arrive, he immediately let out a sigh of relief. “Captain Zhan, welcome aboard!”
Zhan Yun nodded to him. “Captain Li, looking forward to working together.”
This wasn’t their first time cooperating, so there was no need for small talk. They got into their vehicles and set off right away.
Li Ming’s military trucks were responsible for leading the way, with Zhan Yun’s off-road vehicle following behind.
Before departure, Li Ming handed them a walkie-talkie to facilitate communication. Its effective range was two kilometers.
In addition, Li Ming gave each of them a rice ball about the size of an adult man’s fist. Inside were pickled vegetables and even a small piece of sausage.
As the saying goes, people are made of iron and food is steel—you have to eat your fill before you can fight. Even emperors don’t let their soldiers go hungry!
The rice balls were still warm and tasted pretty good, but for ability users, one rice ball of that size was still a bit insufficient. Fortunately, they were driving their own off-road vehicle, so they could quietly set up a little “private kitchen” in the car and eat some extra food without worrying about anyone noticing.
The trip from the base to City G would take about two to three days. The route had already been cleared once by a previous rescue team, so the journey went relatively smoothly. They only had to deal with the occasional zombies wandering along the road.
Before dawn, they stopped in a small village to rest. There were no living people left here—only zombie after zombie, shambling about like walking corpses and baring their fangs at them.
After thoroughly clearing the village inside and out, the soldiers dug out the zombie crystal cores, piled the bodies together, and burned them all to ashes before heading indoors to rest.
However, when Li Ming saw that Zhan Yun’s team had actually brought along a four-year-old child and a pet cat, he was left rather speechless. Still, this was Zhan Yun’s team’s business. As long as they were capable of protecting the child and the cat and didn’t affect the mission, there was no place for him to comment.
The next day, as soon as the sun set, everyone immediately set off again. While the vehicles were driving, the usually quiet Dongdong suddenly spoke up, “Brother, there’s a car behind us.”
Dongdong was now a mental-type ability user, so there shouldn’t be any mistake with his perception. Everyone immediately looked back, but the night was deep and there were no streetlights on the road, so they couldn’t make out anything behind them.
It wasn’t until they reached a bend in the road that, under the moonlight, they vaguely caught a reflection glinting off a vehicle’s body.
It seemed to be a black car, deliberately driving without its headlights on. No one knew when it had started trailing them from afar, carefully following under the cover of darkness. If not for Dongdong, they had no idea how long it would have taken them to notice.
Zhan Yun immediately reported the situation to Li Ming over the radio.
Li Ming was quite surprised. This stretch of road had nothing ahead or behind—where had that car come from? And why was it following them?
If they were survivors, shouldn’t they be trying to ask for help? What was the point of sneaking along like this?
No matter what that car’s intentions were, they had to get to the bottom of it.
Zhan Yun’s off-road vehicle suddenly turned off its lights and silently pulled over to the side of the road. Li Ming’s convoy continued forward. On the dark road, the lights gradually disappeared, and under the cover of darkness, no one would notice that a vehicle was parked there.
Before long, the car that had been “tailing” them drove past.
Zhan Yun suddenly switched on the high beams. The powerful imported headlights lit up the road ahead brilliantly, instantly exposing the black van that had been following them for who knows how long.
The vehicle in front was clearly panicking. It slammed on the accelerator, trying to shake Zhan Yun’s team, only to discover that a row of lights lit up ahead as well. Two military trucks had somehow blocked the road in front of it, and dozens of soldiers stood with weapons raised, aiming at the vehicle.
A piercing screech of brakes rang out as the black van finally came to a stop.
“Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” The van’s door opened, and a short, chubby man got out of the driver’s seat, holding both hands high.
“What are you doing?!” Li Ming shouted sternly.
“I’m just an ordinary civilian! My wife and kids are in the car!” the man said hurriedly, calling for the others to get out. The seven-seater van was packed full. Out came a middle-aged woman, three men, and two young, pretty girls. “This is my wife, my two daughters, my son, and their two friends.”
“Why were you secretly following us?!”
“We escaped from City N and are heading to City G to look for my parents. The roads haven’t been safe lately, and we’ve got three women in the car—it’s really dangerous. When we saw your headlights on the road, we thought that traveling with more people would be safer, so we followed you quietly. We really didn’t have any bad intentions!” the chubby man said earnestly.
Listening to him, it didn’t seem like there was anything obviously wrong. As soldiers, Li Ming and the others couldn’t very well make things difficult for ordinary civilians. If they were on a rescue mission, taking these people along wouldn’t be a problem. But right now, they were carrying out an urgent mission that concerned the entire base and involved real danger. They couldn’t bring them along—especially not to City G.
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