My Cherry Will Explode in the Apocalypse – CH85

Chapter 85: A Fire on a Rainy Day

After Lin Jia finished treating them, he looked completely drained, barely able to stand.

“Thank you, Mr. Lin,” Fifth Master said to him. Then he turned to his men behind him. “Quick, help Mr. Lin to the room next door to rest.”

Su Ruizhe watched as the two underlings helped Lin Jia into the second bedroom. That room was arranged more like a living space; at a glance, one could see a full-sized double bed. The sheets and bedding looked brand new. Once Lin Jia was helped onto the bed, he fell asleep almost the instant his head touched the pillow.

“Mr. Lin’s ability is rather special. Every time he uses it, he becomes extremely tired. A good sleep and he’ll be fine,” Fifth Master explained proactively when he noticed Su Ruizhe repeatedly looking in Lin Jia’s direction, guessing that he was worried about him.

Su Ruizhe nodded noncommittally and didn’t respond.

Since everything was settled, Fifth Master had Li Bin, who was in charge of registration, come over to register Zhan Yun and the others. Fifth Master himself stayed close by, chatting with them off and on, trying to pry more information out of them. Their strength was simply too formidable—if they joined the base and could be used by his brothers, that would be ideal. If not, they would be troublesome.

Zhan Yun couldn’t be bothered to indulge him. He stated plainly that they were only passing through to take shelter from the rain and didn’t plan to stay long. He didn’t say where they were from, only that they were heading northwest. Hearing this, Fifth Master finally felt somewhat relieved and hoped the rain would stop soon so he could send these hot potatoes away as quickly as possible.

After registering their basic information, even though they were mentally prepared, Fifth Master and Seventh Master were still startled. No wonder these nine people dared to travel such long distances.

“What? Don’t believe it? Do you want us to prove it to you?” Cheng Jiao tossed out lightly another jab.

“No, no… no need,” Fifth Master said hurriedly, truly afraid of this formidable woman. He waved his hands repeatedly. “What happened earlier was all a misunderstanding—it was our fault. How about this: today’s lodging will be provided by us, free of charge.”

“Now that’s more like it.”

Fifth Master truly dared to be angry but not to speak. He kept a forced smile on his face and led them back downstairs.

The place Fifth Master arranged for them was a three-story house, which was already considered a good option. The furniture inside was fairly complete, but because it hadn’t been cleaned in a long time, it was especially dirty and messy.

“You expect us to live here?” Cheng Jiao frowned the moment she saw the state of the place.

“Sorry, sorry. All the vacant houses in our base are like this. At least this one has furniture. Once it’s cleaned up, it’s livable.”

Fifth Master wasn’t lying. In this life, Lincheng Base had no solar power supply, and its development couldn’t compare to the previous life at all. After more than three months of effort, it was still only a small- to medium-sized base. Lincheng also had no particular specialties, so no other bases’ teams came here intentionally.

Those who came to Lincheng were mostly people seeking refuge. According to the base’s rules, once grain was handed in, they could find any empty house to live in and pay rent monthly. The base wouldn’t manage anything else—the furniture and cleaning were all the residents’ responsibility. This house had originally been Fifth Master’s own intended residence, but it was too close to the garbage zone on the other side, with a poor environment, so he had chosen another place instead.

He figured that since Zhan Yun and the others would only be staying a day or two, it wouldn’t matter.

Cheng Jiao was about to say more, but Zhan Yun stopped her. He just wanted these people gone as soon as possible so they could rest properly.

“Thank you. We’ll stay here,” Zhan Yun said to Fifth Master.

“All right, all right. Do you want me to find a few people to help you clean?”

“No need. We’ll do it ourselves.”

“Then we won’t disturb your rest any longer.” Fifth Master bowed and scraped, preparing to take his leave.

Just as Fifth Master, Seventh Master, and the others were about to leave, Seventh Master suddenly felt a sharp pain in his ankle. He cried out and looked down, only to find that a small black cat—who knew where it had come from—had bitten him on the ankle.

“Xiao Hei!” Everyone in Zhan Yun’s team immediately thought of the strange incident that had happened after Xiao Hei bit Zheng Jiahe before. They were instantly alarmed, worried that Xiao Hei might have swapped bodies with Seventh Master again…

To their surprise, after biting Seventh Master, Xiao Hei lifted its little head and sauntered away with catlike steps. Nothing like what they had imagined happened. Everyone immediately let out a sigh of relief.

“Sorry about that. This kitten is our kid’s pet. It probably wanted to avenge its little master, haha,” Zheng Jiahe said, playing dumb and chuckling foolishly.

Shooting and injuring a child had already put him in the wrong. Now that he’d been bitten by a cat, he couldn’t exactly bite back. Seventh Master glanced at the wound on his ankle, where beads of blood were seeping out, and could only swallow his anger along with his bloodied teeth, leaving together with Fifth Master.

“Th-then I’ll be going too. Everyone, please rest early,” Xu Fengying said, knowing it wasn’t appropriate to continue disturbing them, and left as well.

Once everyone was gone, Zheng Jiahe grabbed the kitten and scolded it, staring it down. “Don’t go biting just any filthy people! That’s so dirty!”

A very human-like look of disdain actually appeared on Xiao Hei’s fluffy little face. It opened its mouth, let out a small burp, and spat out two tiny fireballs.

“Ow, ow!” A bit of Zheng Jiahe’s hair got singed by the fireballs.

“Why are you yelling? Hurry up and come help clean!” Cheng Jiao glared at him.

“Xiao Hei spit fireballs!”

“What?! What’s going on?!”

Everyone gathered around the kitten again. Xiao Hei obligingly spat out two more little fireballs.

Unfortunately, since Xiao Hei couldn’t speak, there was no way to figure out exactly what was going on. They could only guess that Xiao Hei’s ability might allow it to copy or acquire others’ abilities.

They temporarily set the matter aside and continued cleaning the house. If not for the vacuum cleaner being too noisy and likely to attract attention, Su Ruizhe would have liked to just take one out of his spatial storage.

Fortunately, with Cheng Jiao, a wind-type ability user, and Zhan Yun, a gravity-type ability user, getting rid of the accumulated dust was quite easy. Zhan Yun used gravity compression to keep the dust from rising above one meter, and then Cheng Jiao swept it all out the windows with a gust of wind.

This method only removed the surface layer of dust. To clean thoroughly, they still needed to wipe everything carefully with rags, but it did save a lot of effort.

Su Ruizhe took out several empty buckets and had Song Chengshu fill them with water. Then everyone pitched in for a big cleanup. It didn’t need to be spotless—just clean enough to live in.

All the old, dust-covered sheets were thrown away and replaced with brand-new ones. When they left, they would simply take the sheets with them.

After two hours of hard work, they finally finished cleaning the place.

**At this moment, the rain outside had grown even heavier. Thunder rolled in peals, lightning flashed from time to time, and bean-sized raindrops hammered against the windows, producing a crisp, staccato sound.**

Weather like this—howling wind, driving rain, damp and bitterly cold—was indeed unsuitable for traveling.

“Alright, everyone’s had a long day. Get some rest early,” someone said.

“Okay.”

After a quick wash, everyone returned to their respective rooms to sleep. However, in the middle of the night, Zhan Yun and Su Ruizhe faintly heard cries and shouts.

The two exchanged surprised glances and got up to look out the window. The street outside was completely deserted, but across from them, in the shantytown, fierce flames were blazing. Although the rain outside was heavy, the shantytown had roofs, so for the time being the rain was unable to extinguish the fire there.

The shantytown consisted of large numbers of crude, dilapidated houses packed tightly together. The fire quickly began to spread, cries for help rang out, and thick smoke soon billowed into the air.

Across the way was a row of run-down, old-style shacks that they had seen earlier while following Fifth Master over. Zhan Yun guessed that someone had tried to light a fire to keep warm and accidentally ignited one of the decaying houses, causing the blaze.

Despite the torrential rain, the fire continued to spread rapidly.

The two immediately got out of bed. Su Ruizhe took out two ski jackets, and after pulling them on, they hurried downstairs. At the door, they ran into the others as well—clearly, everyone had been awakened by the noise.

“A-Liang and Old Song, come with us. The rest of you stay here,” Zhan Yun said, then grabbed Su Ruizhe and dashed straight out the door.

With rain this heavy, umbrellas were useless; it was easier to just charge through the downpour.

The four of them quickly rushed into the shantytown across the street. With a casual motion, Song Chengshu summoned two columns of water and blasted them toward the source of the fire, successfully suppressing the flames.

Zhan Yun, Su Ruizhe, and Zhang Shuoliang hurried inside to help evacuate the residents.

After rescuing the people trapped in the burning houses, they finally got a clear look at the situation inside the shantytown. Raggedly dressed people huddled together, shivering in corners. Dry straw was spread all over the ground, likely used for warmth, but the temperature had dropped too quickly for it to help much. Someone had lit a fire pile, which ultimately led to the blaze.

Fortunately, Zhan Yun and the others had arrived in time, brought the fire under control, and rescued those trapped, so there were no casualties.

“Thank you, thank you,” the group was soon surrounded by the residents, who repeatedly expressed their gratitude.

“There’s no need…” Seeing that the situation was resolved, Zhan Yun waved his hand and prepared to leave—only to be called back by someone.

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