The Reborn Otaku’s Code of Practice for the Apocalypse – CH163

Chapter 163 — The Child

The large bed in the master bedroom, like the other bulky furniture, hadn’t been moved away. After entering the room, Luo Xun carefully looked around before finally spotting a tiny bundle hidden among a pile of clutter inside the wardrobe.

The bundle wasn’t large. It wasn’t wrapped in the fabrics they had seen yesterday either, but instead in a mess of thin dresses and jackets scavenged from who knew where after the apocalypse. The clothes were haphazardly wrapped around what looked like a frail little body. If one didn’t look closely, it would be easy to mistake it for nothing more than a heap of old clothes.

The moment he saw it, Luo Xun’s hands trembled slightly, and anger surged up inside him. He carefully lifted the child—still hidden in the wardrobe and wrapped in filthy rags—into his arms. If the two of them hadn’t heard movement earlier, how could this child possibly have survived?!

Yan Fei had also walked over by then. He froze at the sight. He had guessed the child might still be here since they’d heard sounds, but hidden inside a wardrobe…

Luo Xun carefully bent down and carried out the baby wrapped in those crumpled clothes that offered almost no warmth. Under the light from outside, he finally noticed that the baby, who had still been rosy-red yesterday, now had patches of frightening purple on his body.

“…These are probably from suffocation.”

The baby didn’t even have the strength to struggle in Luo Xun’s arms. Only the eyeballs beneath his eyelids moved slightly, his tiny mouth opening weakly as he let out a nearly inaudible sound.

Laying him on the bed, Luo Xun immediately took off his backpack and quickly untangled the heap of clothes wrapped around the child. Then he took out the cotton cloths he had prepared the night before and carefully wrapped them around the baby layer by layer before finally looking up at Yan Fei.

Yan Fei was looking back at him with an indescribable expression in his eyes.

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“Is it ready yet?”

“Would plain rice porridge be enough? Should we stew some bones and make broth?” Song Lingling kindly suggested.

Xu Mei frowned. “Maybe… we should try making some?”

“You two who’ve never had kids should honestly just stay quiet over there. Stop throwing out random ideas before you feed the baby to death.” Zhang Su stood with his arms crossed, looking at the two women with utter disdain despite them supposedly being women with not even the slightest bit of maternal common sense.

Xu Mei and Song Lingling glared at him and shouted in unison, “Of course we’ve never had or raised children! Have you?!”

Zhang Su leisurely raised an eyebrow and smirked proudly. “I haven’t given birth, but I work in a hospital.”

The moment those words came out, everyone else instantly fell silent and turned away to continue what they were doing.

“They’re back! They’re downstairs now!” Li Tie and the others had been watching from the balcony. Suddenly he shouted excitedly.

Luo Xun and Yan Fei hurried upstairs, climbing all fifteen floors in one go. Xu Mei and the others were waiting in the hallway. They saw Yan Fei carrying a box wrapped in cloth—most likely the ashes. In Luo Xun’s arms was a small bundle—the baby.

Neither of them looked very well.

After entering the room, Luo Xun took the bowl of rice soup Xu Mei and the others had cooked and cooled to the right temperature. He sighed heavily.

“We’ll just treat a dead horse like it’s alive and try anyway.”

The baby’s struggling and crying had grown even weaker than before. It was freezing outside, and this was only a newborn a little over two days old. He had been left alone in that empty room without heating for who knew how long, and nobody knew what he had gone through. Heaven knew whether he could still be saved.

At least they managed to feed him some rice soup. But the little guy seemed too weak even to suckle anymore. Luo Xun had to carefully spoon tiny amounts into his mouth. Afterward, the baby only had enough strength to smack his lips weakly before shutting them tightly, as though he had fallen completely asleep.

They checked his temperature and felt a faint pulse. Only then did everyone finally breathe a little easier.

“What exactly happened?” Once they were sure the child was truly asleep, everyone lowered their voices and asked.

Luo Xun looked helplessly toward the window before explaining, “The baby’s father moved away. When we got there, all we found was the child and Yan Fei’s mother’s ashes… Aside from the large furniture, everything that could be taken had already been moved out.”

Everyone’s eyes widened in shock. They exchanged looks, speechless for a long while.

After quite some time, He Qiankun scratched his head. “Y-yesterday that guy still seemed pretty reliable. How could he…”

How could he do something like this?

Meanwhile, Zhang Su pulled back part of the blanket wrapped around the child and pinched the baby’s tiny body, still faintly purple though the color was fading. He frowned.

“He probably suffocated at some point, but recovered afterward. We’ll just have to see if he can pull through.”

The moment those words were spoken, everyone looked at the child again with renewed fear, as though he were made of paper and might tear apart from the slightest gust of wind.

After Luo Xun entered the room, Yan Fei had first gone upstairs to put away the urn before coming back down. The moment he entered, he heard Zhang Su’s words.

But his expression didn’t change much.

Everyone had known from the day this child was born that his condition wasn’t good. He was premature to begin with, and now he’d even been abandoned by his biological father. Whether he could survive to adulthood was anyone’s guess.

But…

His gaze swept over Luo Xun, who was holding the baby, and something stirred in Yan Fei’s heart.

Originally, he had intended to keep the child temporarily and do everything possible to save him. Afterward, he would find the child’s biological father and return the baby to him to raise himself.

But although Luo Xun never said it outright, the way he treated the child made it obvious he genuinely cared.

He kept saying he didn’t want to raise a child and had no plans to adopt one. Yet perhaps even Luo Xun himself didn’t realize just how gentle his movements became whenever he held the baby, or how carefully he took care of him.

They were destined never to have children of their own. Among the younger generation of their homebody squad, there was only little Xinran, and she was being raised mainly by Xu Mei and Song Lingling.

Since Luo Xun genuinely liked the child, and since they clearly could afford to raise him now, if the child really managed to survive and grow up safely, Yan Fei honestly didn’t mind having one extra mouth to feed.

Provided the kid behaved and wasn’t troublesome.

With that thought, he walked over and lightly patted Zhang Su on the shoulder before saying to everyone else, “We’ll keep the child with us for now. Once his condition improves a little, we’ll take him to the hospital for a checkup.”

The weather outside was still too cold, and the hospital was quite far away. The baby had just been exposed to the freezing wind on the trip back. If they immediately took him outside again, who knew what might happen?

Zhang Su shrugged helplessly. “Then I’ll go with you in a couple of days.”

In truth, everyone in this group could be considered good people.

Usually, for the sake of survival and self-preservation, they avoided interacting too much with outsiders and refused to expose their trump cards to others. But when it came to their companions, every one of them had a soft side.

Even Zhang Su.

The baby was actually very easy to care for and caused little trouble. He ate very little and cried softly, never becoming noisy or irritating. Most of the time he was quiet. Aside from making a few weak noises when hungry or after soiling himself, he barely made any sound at all.

But children like this were also difficult in another way.

Because he didn’t fuss, a careless caretaker might only realize much later that his diaper had already become completely soaked, leaving half his body wrapped in wet cloth.

Fortunately, Luo Xun was a very attentive person.

On top of that, little Xinran and the puppy treated the baby like some fascinating new toy. The two of them would often press their heads together, resting their chins side by side on the bed as they stared at the infant sleeping in his swaddling clothes. The moment the baby moved even slightly, the girl and dog would excitedly run off to find the adults, as though this was even more fun than any toy.

So after keeping the baby at home for two days, the two grown men had actually managed to take rather good care of him.

Although he still ate pitifully little, and although Luo Xun sometimes lost sleep at night because he kept waking up to check whether the child’s diaper was wet.

Still, because the baby was surviving solely on rice soup—and only tiny amounts each feeding—the two of them worried constantly about his nutrition and felt increasingly troubled.

As for going to the hospital, Zhang Su suggested waiting another week. If the child’s condition stabilized and the weather became less cold, it would be safer to go then.

Things at home gradually settled down.

However, there was still no news at all about the child’s biological father.

Although Yan Fei had already decided not to return the child to him, he still wanted to know where the man was and whether he might cause trouble later on. After all, the man had probably wrapped the child up and stuffed him into the wardrobe only because he thought the baby was already dead. But there was no telling whether unexpected complications might arise in the future.

Unfortunately, the man’s phone remained switched off. There was nothing they could do for now. The base hadn’t even completed its most basic census yet, so finding someone—even if they were still inside the base—was like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Early that morning, after changing the baby’s diaper and feeding him some rice soup, Luo Xun placed the child into a stroller Yan Fei had specially made from pure metal. The inside was lined with soft cotton padding and cloth.

He carried the baby downstairs to the first-floor living room, planning to prepare breakfast before starting the usual morning routine of tending to their crops.

Before Luo Xun even entered the kitchen, someone suddenly pounded rapidly on their door.

“What happened?” Yan Fei got up to answer it, and Luo Xun followed over as well.

The moment the door opened, Li Tie rushed in with an excited, flushed face.

“We found it! We found it!”

“Found what?”

“The information! The solar panel documents! Information from outside the base!” Li Tie excitedly grabbed Yan Fei and started dragging him toward their apartment. Luo Xun hurriedly followed while pushing the baby stroller behind him.

As he walked, Li Tie continued excitedly, “Not just the solar panel documents either! Fatty found something else too. Maybe there’s something in there we can actually use!”

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