Chapter 53
[Reward: One high-definition “Full-Belly Farm” map set! Please check and receive it.]
[Notice: This base belongs to the little house owner. You may observe the safety status of “Full-Belly Farm” at any time. This function never expires.]
The moment Wei Cheng saw the map reward, his heart leapt.
Back when they had successfully entered Highland Shelter, the system had rewarded them with a map.
That map had not only helped them complete the 2,000-coin task, it had also helped them escape hell when the White Villa District of the shelter fell.
With a map, they would be able to manage and defend the base much more effectively.
At that moment, Wei Cheng noticed a red dot in the task area.
[Task Panel]
[Daily Tasks]
(Recognizing characters) (Math) (Physical activity)
Notice: The little house owner hasn’t studied for three days! Baby, don’t become an illiterate apocalypse child!
[Beginner Tasks]
(1) Defend the farm
Reinforce the fence as soon as possible to prevent zombie hordes from invading; establish the farm’s core zone; build a lookout tower.
[Urgent task, long completion time. Complete all objectives to unlock 50% of the firearms zone. There will be a surprise!]
(2) Do not blindly take in survivors. Keep your eyes open and tell people from monsters.
[You will receive 1,000 Twisty Coins for each survivor you take in.]
Looking at the two tasks, Wei Cheng felt both happy and troubled.
What pleased him was that completing them would help them earn a large amount of Twisty Coins, and they might finally discover what major weapons were hidden behind the firearms zone.
What troubled him was their lack of manpower. Reinforcing the farm fence alone would take more than a month, not to mention establishing a core zone and building a watchtower.
And these were exactly the things they had already discussed before.
Taking in survivors so they could work…
People’s hearts were hard to predict. If they took in too many people before their foundations were stable, some of them might start thinking they had special status, and that would cause trouble later.
It was better to follow his original plan and move forward slowly. First, they would go to the construction materials market and gather useful supplies.
Wei Cheng then opened Guanguan’s personal information panel.
[Guanguan]
Identity: House Owner
Age: 3
…
Base: Full-Belly Farm
Twisty Coin Balance: 23,180
Safe House Stockpile: 250
Twisty Car Transformation Level: Intermediate Form 250
(When Intermediate Form reaches 2,000, it will unlock ten-person escape…)
Contract Companions: 2 people
Shen Zheng (Male, 26) Loyalty: 88%
Yi Qi (Male, 26) Loyalty: 80%
“We’re rich again!”
Hearing that voice, Wei Cheng hurriedly turned around, only to see the child he had finally managed to coax to sleep propping himself up on the pillow with his chubby white arms, peeking out and staring at the system panel.
His eyes were still barely open from sleepiness, yet he was already worrying about whether they had gotten rich.
“How did you wake up?”
Wei Cheng withdrew the panel, tucked the little chubby child back into the blanket, and smiled. “We got rich. We earned another big pile of money. Go to sleep now, hurry up, sleep. Big brother is going to sleep too.”
Guanguan was satisfied. He closed his eyes and smiled. “Okay.”
Wei Cheng adjusted the bedside lamp, lightly patting Guanguan’s round little back. “Go to sleep. Tomorrow big brother will take you and the little dog to run wild all over the ranch.”
Before long, Guanguan had fallen into a deep sleep, clutching the corner of Wei Cheng’s shirt in his little hand.
—
Another bright sunny day. The air was filled with the scent of mountain forest dew.
Wei Cheng had Guanguan tucked under one arm in the bathroom while washing up.
He could not really carry him properly anymore, only clamp him under one arm.
Guanguan had woken up once during the night, so he was not too energetic in the morning.
He lifted his damp little face and said slowly, “Big brother, baby is about to stop being obedient.”
He even gave a warning before misbehaving?
Wei Cheng laughed as he wiped his face. “Tell me, how are you planning to be disobedient?”
“I want to open the blanket and hide inside the quilt cover so big brother can’t find me.” Guanguan gestured with his little hands, then looked up at him. “Is baby bad?”
“Not bad.”
Wei Cheng smiled. “Why do you want to hide inside the quilt cover?”
Guanguan said, “Guanguan wants to sleep lazy-lazy!”
So that was it—he had not slept enough.
“Don’t hide in the blanket. If big brother can’t find you, he’ll get anxious.” Wei Cheng coaxed him, “After breakfast, big brother will help you sleep a little more, okay?”
“Don’t want big brother worried!” Guanguan twitched his nose. “What are we eating for breakfast?”
Wei Cheng said, “Uncle Shen brought fragrant shrimp-and-egg burgers.” Actually, there were lots of vegetables hidden inside too.
The moment Guanguan heard that, he grabbed his little towel and started furiously wiping his face.
He was suddenly energized!
“Don’t scrub your face raw.”
Wei Cheng laughed and snatched the towel back. “Look, your cheeks are all red from rubbing.”
Guanguan’s eyes sparkled. “Does Uncle Shen make delicious food?”
“The outside of the egg burger is golden-yellow. It definitely smells amazing.”
Wei Cheng glanced at the child’s curls, which looked like they had been blasted by a cannon, then sat him on the dry sink counter and took out a box of colorful little-animal hair ties. “Your hair’s grown again. Pick a hair tie.”
Guanguan leaned forward and chose for a while. “This little dog, and this little dog.”
A gray puppy flower and a black puppy flower.
Wei Cheng tried to reason with him. “If we tie one little tuft on top, one puppy flower is enough. Two will hurt your scalp. You can keep the other one in your pocket, okay?”
“Big brother, baby wants two puppy flowers!”
Guanguan patted the left side of his head, then the right. “One on this side, one on this side!”
“Two little braids?” Wei Cheng tried not to laugh. “Really?”
Guanguan was a little chubby, but his face was as delicate as carved jade. If he wore two little braids, he would look even more like a little girl.
Guanguan clutched the two puppy flowers and refused to let go. “Want them! Both!”
Once his hair was done, Guanguan did not even ask if he looked pretty. His whole mind was fixed on the shrimp-and-egg burger. Holding out his arms, he said, “Big brother, carry me, let’s go eat breffast!”
Wei Cheng was almost melted by how adorable he looked. He picked him up. “Wait, big brother still has to change your clothes.”
By the time he came out of the safe house with Guanguan, he could already hear the two uncles laughing and chatting in the dining room.
Yi Qi was facing the doorway. The moment he saw Guanguan like this, he burst out laughing. “Oh my, where did this little girl come from?”
“Not little girl!”
Guanguan hurried over, planted his hands on his hips, and protested, “I’m a boy!”
Guanguan had snowy-white skin, light curly hair, and two little ram-like pigtails tied on top of his head. He was wearing a yellow-and-white fuzzy sweater with a frilly doll collar, and the coat was a bit long, covering his legs and leaving only his chubby little socked ankles visible.
He looked like a tiny yellow warbler chick that had just hatched!
Shen Zheng was stunned by how cute he looked. He quickly picked Guanguan up and set him on his lap, pinching his cheek. “So cute! Baby, how are you this cute!”
Guanguan knew Uncle Shen was praising him, so he bared his little white teeth and grinned. “Because baby tied two little dog flowers!”
“The flowers are cute too.”
Only then did Shen Zheng put him down on a chair. “And you said Guanguan is the vain one. Chengcheng, you’re way too good at dressing up a child.”
Wei Cheng just smiled and sat down without saying anything.
Guanguan finally got his wish and bit into the egg burger Uncle Shen had made. The moment he took the first bite, his eyes widened. He used his little fork to nibble away at the burger bit by bit, cheeks stuffed full, feet swinging as he made a deeply approving sound. “Uncle’s cooking is so yummy! Guanguan is deliciously dazed!”
Shen Zheng clutched at his heart. “From now on, Uncle will make breakfast!”
In the morning, Guanguan had said he was sleepy, but after playing on the grass for a while with Little Xing, he completely forgot about wanting a second nap.
Wei Cheng and the two uncles took another round inspecting the farm, and along the way, they also told them the base name they had settled on.
“Full-Belly Farm?”
Yi Qi crossed his arms and laughed. “You can tell at a glance Guanguan came up with that name. But if I were a survivor and heard about a base with a name like that, I’d come whether it had food or not.”
Wei Cheng repeated Guanguan’s words from the previous night and smiled lightly. “He hopes that every grown-up and every child in the world, as long as they come to our base, can eat their fill and eat well.”
“In the apocalypse, being able to eat your fill and eat well is about as rare as becoming an official and getting rich before the apocalypse,” Shen Zheng said with emotion. “It may be a child’s simple words, but it’s a really good name. Just hearing it makes people feel hopeful.”
Then the three of them started talking about the task.
“We’ve got five wooden cabins total nearby. We’ll fence those in and use them as the core zone.”
Wei Cheng said, “But that means our steel plates and steel pipes still aren’t enough.”
Yi Qi said, “Definitely not enough. Weren’t you saying you also want to build a lookout tower? The tower absolutely has to be poured with cement.”
Wei Cheng nodded. “Tomorrow we go to Wuqing City’s biggest construction materials market.”
“The two of us will go. Let Guanguan and Shen Zheng stay at the base.”
Shen Zheng said, “Better if we all go together. No matter how remote Wuqing City is, it’s still a city. There are a lot of zombies, and we need a lot of things. The two of you won’t be able to manage it all, and a round trip will take at least two days. I’m confident I can take care of Guanguan, but I’m afraid Guanguan won’t be able to stay away from Chengcheng.”
Yi Qi objected immediately. “Your wound just healed. Why are you trying to wear yourself out?”
“My wound healed a long time ago!”
Yi Qi said again, “And what if the base gets taken while we’re all gone?”
Shen Zheng fell silent. What Yi Qi said actually made sense too.
After thinking for a moment, Wei Cheng made the final call. “Stop arguing. We all go.”
He said, “The base is just an empty shell right now. We haven’t put that much into it yet, so even if we lose it, it’s no great loss. But if the base runs into strong hunters or a zombie horde, Uncle Shen and Guanguan won’t just fail to hold it—they could get hurt. Guanguan can hide in the safe house. What would Uncle Shen do? Rather than them staying here worrying about us while we worry about them from outside, we might as well all go together.”
Hearing Wei Cheng lay it out that way, Yi Qi was clearly shaken. He stopped objecting to Shen Zheng going to the construction market.
—
The next day, before dawn, the farm was already busy.
The two uncles put all the useful supplies into the safe house for temporary storage.
This time, instead of taking the conspicuous ambulance, they drove a black sedan to Wuqing City.
In the dry, cold winter air, the drowsy Guanguan sat in the back seat with his little black dog and his big brother.
Rubbing his eyes, he asked, “Big brother, what treasure are we looking for?”
“Treasure that can make our base safer.”
Guanguan yawned. “Then we definitely have to find lots and lots!”
Shen Zheng turned around with a smile. “Bless us with that lucky wish, Guanguan. I hope we find everything we need smoothly!”
Four hours later, daylight broke, and zombies could be seen shambling along both sides of the highway.
They had entered Wuqing City.
Author’s Note:
Uncle Shen: Ask! Hurry up and ask!
Chengcheng smiles: Can my little brother be a child model?
