Chapter 71
At that, Guanguan’s little peach-butt battle face almost switched on instantly. “No! No! Not Wei Fat Cub!”
The little girl froze for a moment. “Then what’s your name?”
“My name is Wei Guanguan!” The child hugged the long, chubby little gray dog in his arms and slowly held up three fingers. “I’m four years old this year!”
The girl covered her mouth and laughed, then lightly tapped her younger brother’s fingers. “You’re missing one finger.”
“Oh.” Guanguan’s short, pudgy index finger sprang out from his palm, and in exactly the same tone as before, he repeated, “I’m four years old this year!”
The little girl thought her little brother was just too cute, even cuter than a lamb.
For once, she smiled happily and introduced herself generously. “My name is Sun Yueyue. I’m eight years old this year, and I’m in third grade at Experimental Elementary School. The Yue in my name is made from the character for jade and the moon in the sky, because my mom’s surname is Wang, and they hoped I’d be as pretty as the moon. Baby, you can call me Big Sister Yueyue.”
Guanguan’s little brain went blank, his chubby face full of confusion. So that was how names were supposed to be introduced!
The little one tilted up his head, pretending his own name was very impressive too. “My Guanguan is yogurt can-can, honey can-can, fruit can-can… Brother hopes Baby can eat cans every day!”
Sun Yueyue nearly got hungry just listening to that, and swallowed unconsciously. “Your name really does sound delicious.”
Guanguan shook his little head and lifted his chin proudly. “That’s exactly right!”
Sun Yueyue’s gaze fell on the beautiful little gray dog. Back when her dad lived in the countryside, he had raised lots of dogs too.
She asked tentatively, “Baby, can Big Sister pet this chubby little dog?”
Before Guanguan could answer, Gray Cub’s ice-blue eyes went wide. Shaking his plump little head, he barked furiously at the girl in a babyish voice.
The kid was so mad he almost started talking!
Guanguan quickly hugged the rampaging Gray Cub tighter. “Little Dog Brother isn’t called chubby. His name is Gray Cub.”
Both master and dog were extremely sensitive to the word fat.
The adults, hearing the commotion, all turned to look.
Wei Cheng shifted slightly. “Guanguan?”
“I’m here!” Hugging the little dog, Guanguan toddled over happily. The big black dog behind him sauntered over too.
Sun Yueyue had not dared look too closely before, but this time she got a clear look at the black dog’s size.
She quietly let out a breath of relief.
Good thing she had not asked what that big chubby dog was called.
Just then, Director Wang also came over with Mingming and Xiaotiao. The two boys ran straight toward their Brother Chengcheng.
“Brother Chengcheng! You’re back!”
Mingming gave Brother Chengcheng a quick once-over and signed: Did Brother Chengcheng get hurt?
Wei Cheng rubbed both boys’ round little heads. “No, big brother didn’t get hurt.”
He had barely lowered his hand when his palm got nudged by a plump little head.
Guanguan was secretly laughing, his little teeth showing.
Wei Cheng laughed too, and held on to Guanguan’s little hand.
Sun Dali and his wife exchanged names with Director Wang and said a few simple words.
Director Wang had already heard from Shen Zheng about the family of three, so he was quite warm toward them. “Your child looks about the same age as ours. It’s rare to meet kids the same age, so let them play together.”
Wei Cheng said, “Grandpa, we don’t need to hurry to play. Let’s prepare something for Uncle Dali’s family to eat first.”
Director Wang nodded. “All right, Grandpa will look after them. Chengcheng, you take your little brothers back first.”
Wei Cheng gave a slight nod and led Guanguan, Xiaotiao, and the others back toward the core area.
When people first start getting along, they all need some distance.
After they had gone through more together and their hearts had drawn closer, he would naturally let the family move into the core area.
That was how it had been with Shen Zheng and Yi Qi at the beginning too.
After returning to the core area, Wei Cheng relaxed mentally, and exhaustion immediately swept through his body.
At first, Guanguan was still trailing behind his brother, chattering nonstop, but when he saw his brother slump sideways onto the sofa, too sleepy to keep his eyes open, he quickly covered his mouth.
Then he picked up a bucket of toys and quietly went out the door.
Mingming and Xiaotiao both crowded around him. “Wow! New toys again!”
Guanguan generously handed the little bucket to the two older boys and repeated what his brother had taught him. “Brother found lots and lots of toys!”
“Brother Chengcheng is the best!” Xiaotiao hugged the heavy little bucket. “Let’s go play by the gate! There’s a pile of sand there!”
The watchtower was built near the gate of the core area, still some distance from the five little cabins in the back.
Mingming’s eyes lit up with excitement too.
Guanguan waved his little hand. “Baby wants to see Uncle Shen!”
Xiaotiao grabbed Guanguan’s and Mingming’s hands. “Okay! Let’s go see Uncle Shen!”
The three children knocked on the cabin door. After quite a while, movement finally came from inside.
As soon as the door opened, all three children pinched their noses shut.
Guanguan blocked his nostrils with two fingers and said in a muffled voice, “Uncle, can you take a bath?”
Xiaotiao was even more direct. “So stinky! Medicine smell! It’s medicine smell!”
Yi Qi put away the medicated wine and ointment he had just used and smiled. “Your Uncle Shen has a big patch of bruising on his back. These medicines smell strong, but they’ll help him get better faster.”
Guanguan immediately caught the key point. “Uncle Shen is hurt!”
The three kids ran to the bed.
By then, Shen Zheng had already pulled on his black short-sleeved shirt with one hand.
Guanguan frowned. “Uncle! Does your hurt hurt? Guanguan will blow on it!”
“It doesn’t. It’s just a small injury.” Shen Zheng rubbed the child’s head and smiled. “Where’s your brother?”
Guanguan pressed his little hand to his cheek. “Brother’s sleeping!”
Shen Zheng said with a smile, “Good baby. Let your brother rest a little.”
Wang Xiaotiao hurriedly added, “Uncle Shen, get better soon! You’re our mama hen!”
Sometimes Shen Zheng and Yi Qi would play hawk-and-chicks with the children.
Guanguan did not want his precious big brother or his favorite Uncle Shen to play the bad hawk, so then one uncle had no choice but to do it.
Yi Qi had just finished washing his hands and came back, laughing. “Can’t I be your mama hen?”
The three children shook their heads in perfect unison. “No!”
Yi Qi shrugged and said to Shen Zheng with a smile, “Hear that? The kids like you that much. You’d better not go getting hurt so casually again.”
Shen Zheng thought of something and beckoned to Guanguan. “Guanguan, do a twisty dance for Uncle.”
He still felt grossed out by the way Zheng Hui had looked at him.
It was not like he knew nothing at all about men liking men. Back in school, more boys than girls had chased after him. But his mother had been diagnosed with cancer at the time, his father drove for the Qiao family, and he himself had to study, go to the hospital to keep his mother company, and on weekends shake bubble tea at a tea shop with his good buddy Yi Qi outside the school gates. He had had no time at all to think about love or romance.
He did not know whether it was some kind of aftereffect from being disgusted by Zheng Hui or something else, but just now, when Yi Qi had been rubbing medicated oil on him… something had felt off.
Right now he urgently needed a little baby twisty dance to cleanse his soul.
As soon as he heard “twisty dance,” Guanguan’s little chubby face turned smug, and he immediately put on airs. “What are you talking about? Baby doesn’t know how to dance.”
Shen Zheng burst out laughing and grabbed Guanguan’s little hand affectionately. “Come on, do one. Uncle wants to see Guanguan dance.”
Yi Qi leaned against the wall and egged him on. “Do one, do one.”
Wang Xiaotiao shouted too, “Guanguan, you can do it! Back at the orphanage you were always in the front row!”
Hearing that someone still remembered his glorious past, Guanguan lifted his chin even higher.
The child did not even need music. Shaking his head, he immediately struck a pose.
“Pat your little head, round and round, clap your little hands, loud and loud…”
As he sang in his sweet baby voice, he switched into full motor mode. “Rub your tummy, soft and soft, twist your little butt, da-da-da!”
If he had been shy a second ago, now he was having the time of his life.
His soft, snowy little arms waved like ripples, and because his tummy stuck out so far, the moment he twisted his butt once to the left and three times to the right, the entire child came vividly to life like a fat spinning top that had turned into a spirit.
Yi Qi nearly laughed himself to death. “This kid has way too many music germs.”
Wang Xiaotiao cried out excitedly, “Guanguan is so cute!”
Mingming said nothing, focusing only on clapping enthusiastically.
After finishing, Guanguan even stuck out his chubby little foot and gave a final bow. “Thank you, everyone.”
Shen Zheng laughed. “Hahaha, you’re too cute, Guanguan. What a flexible new little butt! Come here, let Uncle hug you.”
Guanguan had been so thoroughly praised that his whole face turned red with delight, and he launched himself into Shen Zheng’s arms.
The child did not mind the medicinal smell on Uncle Shen at all. His little steamed-bun paws patted his uncle’s shoulder gently, and in the same tone his brother used on him, he said, “Uncle, now that you watched Baby dance, you have to get all better.”
For some reason, Shen Zheng’s eyes turned hot. He nodded gently. “Mm. Uncle will get better very soon.”
—
The sun sank low, and the evening breeze was cool.
The adults, dressed in raincoats, masks, hats, and rubber gloves, were clearing away the zombie corpses that had piled up almost like a hill.
Beyond the wall came bursts of laughter and the occasional dog bark.
Four children and two dogs were kicking a watermelon ball around on the wide grassland.
Hearing his daughter laugh, Sun Dali became dazed. Something thumped painfully onto the top of his foot, and when he looked up, his wife Wang Sumin was glaring at him.
“Don’t slack off! Everyone’s working.”
Sun Dali smiled. “I’m not slacking. Hearing Yueyue laugh just feels unreal. It’s been so long since she’s laughed this happily.”
Sumin lowered her eyes and used force to drag a corpse onto the pickup truck bed. “You went out talking with Mr. Yi after dinner yesterday, but what you don’t know is that Yueyue threw up after lunch. When I was rubbing her stomach, she held me and cried, saying, ‘Mom, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to waste food…’”
Sun Dali could not bear to hear it. “How is that wasting food? The child has gone hungry and full by turns for too long, and it’s been too long since she’s had meat. Her stomach just couldn’t handle the oil.”
Then he lowered his voice. “Sumin, do you want to stay here?”
Sumin gripped the shovel. “When I see how well the children on the farm are being raised, I keep thinking… maybe my daughter could also have the chance to eat her fill and grow up properly here…”
“If we join a base, then we have to work for it. What happened with Highland Shelter really was too hurtful…” Sun Dali watched his usually tough wife’s eyes redden and gritted his teeth. “Don’t cry. Actually, I want to stay too. I’m somewhat familiar with Shen Zheng and Yi Qi, and I truly like the children on this farm. There’s no class hierarchy here either. If we really could stay, it would be a good thing. But when I talked to Yi Qi yesterday, he didn’t seem to have any intention of keeping us. We can’t make things difficult for them. Whether we leave or stay, I don’t know either.”
Sumin sighed. “Let’s just keep working.”
Nearby, Wei Cheng had heard the couple’s whispered conversation clearly.
Fortunately, the wall was a steel wall and not a mud one. The black, filthy zombie blood on it could be washed off with water, but even so it took them three full days to clean the area around the wall.
During that time, no one actively asked Sun Dali’s family to stay, nor did anyone tell them to leave.
These two remained stuck in suspense, so they put all their strength into working. Not only did they scrub the steel walls until they shone, they also helped Director Wang tend the corn seedlings beneath the core area.
Director Wang praised them again and again. Old people always liked hardworking young folks who knew how to farm.
That evening, Sun Dali and his wife, full of nervousness, knocked on the core area gate.
When Yi Qi heard why they had come, he said, “The two of us can’t make that decision.”
Sumin nodded. “Then the master of the farm is that elderly gentleman?”
Yi Qi stood. “Wait here.”
The couple exchanged nervous looks.
A moment later, children’s giggles drifted over from the doorway.
Yi Qi came in carrying a chubby little baby.
The child wore a little old-man white tank top, his two arms white and plump. He had clearly just taken a bath and was still surrounded by that fresh, damp, just-washed feeling.
Behind them followed a slightly older boy whose hair was still a bit damp.
Sun Dali smiled without thinking. “Guanguan’s still not asleep yet?”
Guanguan covered his mouth and laughed. “One uncle stole Baby out of the bed!”
Stolen out of bed and still this happy—it was obvious he really hated going to sleep.
Yi Qi grinned. “Sun Dali, it’s no use asking us if you want to stay. These two children have to agree.”
Shen Zheng added, “We’ve all known each other for a while and know what kind of people we are. We won’t hide it from you—this farm was discovered first by these two kids. They may be children, but they’re also the real owners here.”
The young couple were both startled to hear that.
Sun Dali looked at Wei Cheng, then at Guanguan, who was in Yi Qi’s arms busily braiding his hair, and said seriously, “Guanguan, Wei Cheng, we met in Highland Shelter and crossed paths again in Wuqing City. I used to run a little fast-food stall. I don’t have any special skills, but I’m fairly strong, and I can help protect the farm.”
“My wife used to run it with me. She’s very good at cooking—she can make all kinds of food, even nutritious meals for children and the elderly. Would you be willing to let us stay?”
Wei Cheng fell silent for a moment, then asked, “Guanguan, are you willing to let Uncle Sun Dali’s family of three stay?”
Sun Dali and Sumin’s hearts leapt straight into their throats…
“Willing!” Guanguan, still grabbing at Yi Qi’s hair, happily said, “Big Sister Yueyue is really good at kicking the watermelon ball! She doesn’t bully Brother Mingming!”
So the child still remembered how Mingming had once been singled out.
Wei Cheng smiled faintly and took Guanguan back from Yi Qi’s arms. “Since Guanguan agrees, then you can stay.”
The little child waved at the adults, grinning with his tiny teeth showing. “Good night, Uncle and Aunty!”
Back in their own little cabin, the familiar system voice rang in both children’s ears.
[Congratulations! Full-Belly Farm has welcomed three survivors you had briefly known before! Reward: 3000 twisty coins!]
[The core area has been successfully established, and the farm walls and traps have been successfully completed. The task is now two-thirds complete. If you wish to unlock the mysterious firearms zone, please complete the perimeter walls and build the watchtower as soon as possible!]
Base: Full-Belly Farm
Twisty coin balance: 27,980 (24,908 ? 27,980)
Guanguan ran all over the room. “The money arrived! We can buy lots and lots of melon!”
As soon as summer came, Guanguan had fallen in love with eating watermelon.
Wei Cheng laughed. “Stop running around. If you work up a sweat again, you’ll need another bubble bath.”
The moment he said that, Guanguan ran even harder, his two little chubby legs kicking up faster and faster.
The child now even knew how to trick people into giving him another bath.
Knowing that Sun Dali’s family could stay, everyone else was very happy too.
That day, Shen Zheng and Director Wang took Sun Dali’s family to continue building the watchtower, while Wei Cheng and Yi Qi drove off with Guanguan to another place.
Before Zheng Hui died, he had told them where the tanker truck was.
But with the situation at the farm so urgent back then, they had not been able to force him to lead them there. Compared with a tanker truck, the safety of their family had mattered more.
This time, they came out only with a try-your-luck attitude.
If they found it, good. If not, forget it.
Still, with Guanguan around, the goddess of fortune might very well be on their side.
After searching for nearly half a day, they finally found the tire tracks of a large truck at an abandoned fish and shrimp breeding farm over a hundred kilometers outside Linshui City.
With hands on their guns, they carefully made their way in, and in a huge, empty wooden shed they found the undamaged small tanker truck.
Yi Qi’s eyes lit up. Stuffing his handgun back into his pocket, he went over to inspect the truck closely.
“Diesel. Two thousand liters!”
Wei Cheng smiled too. “Not bad. That means our diesel supply is topped up again.”
The first time they had obtained diesel had been on the highway.
The second time was after killing Red Hair in Wuqing City, when Uncle Shen had snagged a pickup truck full not only of canned food but also fifty 30-liter fuel drums.
Over the winter, with the generator running often and the walls being built, both their diesel and gasoline had gradually dwindled. This time, they had found another two thousand liters—enough to last them until the next winter.
Guanguan, wearing a little bucket hat, stood there with his hands behind his back and nodded solemnly. “Baby got rich again.”
They waited until the weather turned fully cool before daring to act.
While Guanguan slept in the safehouse, Wei Cheng and Yi Qi put on headlamps and started siphoning fuel.
Soon, white fuel containers were lined up all over the ground.
Mosquitoes bit them nonstop, but they did not dare spray any bug spray, so they simply clenched their teeth and endured it while draining every last drop of diesel.
By the second half of the night, the darkness had grown deeper still. Wei Cheng sent every fuel drum into the basement.
Just as the two were about to get into the car, they suddenly heard a sharp screech of brakes not far away.
Yi Qi’s face tightened.
