Chapter 74 — The Thief
The two exchanged a long look, then Luo Xun suddenly turned toward the stairs. “I’m getting my laptop. I’ve still got that USB camera—tomorrow I’m setting it up on the balcony, facing the vegetable rack!”
He had to find out how those lettuce leaves were “disappearing.”
The little creature was lying beside the quail glass case, its pointed ears twitching slightly as it dozed with its eyes closed. Since it seemed to enjoy playing with the quails, Luo Xun had moved a cushion—originally prepared for it—to the side of the quail coop, so it wouldn’t have to lie directly on the floor during the day.
He set up the laptop in a suitable position—on a small makeshift metal table that Yan Fei had quickly bent into shape. Pulling over the power cable, he connected the laptop and webcam, then switched it to video recording mode.
Clapping his hands, Luo Xun’s eyes glinted with righteous fury. “Let’s see what kind of ‘ghost’ has been sneaking in to steal our vegetables!”
He was sure it couldn’t be Li Tie and his group. First, the timing didn’t match up; second, they had their own vegetable patch. And if they wanted something that they hadn’t grown yet, they’d just come over and ask—not do something so lowly!
Yan Fei nodded slightly. He also thought the missing leaves looked like the work of a “thief.” The thief seemed cautious, taking only a few leaves each day, probably afraid of being discovered. But what puzzled him was—why only the bottom row of vegetables? And why only the lettuce? The lush chives nearby were completely untouched.
If it were him, and he didn’t want to be found out, he’d pick a few leaves from each plant to make it less noticeable—not target just the bottom row. So was this thief clever, or stupid?
After dinner, Yan Fei went next door and connected the underfloor heating pipes in one of Zhang Su’s empty bedrooms, installing a separate control valve for it—this was one of Luo Xun’s improvements. Each room could now have its own temperature controls and independent valves, which could even be shut off completely when not needed. It was far more convenient than what Li Tie’s group had at their place, saving both energy and effort.
Overnight, the sky outside was still dim when Yan Fei woke early to heat up breakfast. Meanwhile, Luo Xun hurried to check the laptop footage. Confirming that everything on the balcony had remained normal through the night, he sighed and lifted the metal cover off the quail cage before heading to the living room for breakfast.
Breakfast was carrot-filled vegetable buns, made earlier when their carrots were about to spoil and frozen for later. Recently, since they had to eat lunch outside the city walls, the couple hadn’t been bringing food back from the base, and so Luo Xun had gone back to the habit of eating breakfast and dinner at home.
Thankfully, their daily points earnings had increased lately—enough that even buying ready-made meals from the base cafeteria wouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, a few days ago, the base had a zombie virus outbreak linked to contaminated food, so they didn’t dare eat outside for now. If they had more free time, they might have gone to the military mess hall for dinner—it was cheaper there.
Still, with all the fresh vegetables they grew at home, who could stand eating mass-produced food every day? Their current setup was much better.
After breakfast, the couple joined up with Li Tie and the others and drove back to the military camp.
On the way, Li Tie joked with a grin, “Brother Yan, you could build an entire house out of those metal materials. Bet it’d be more comfortable than our apartment!”
Yan Fei chuckled. “In winter, sure—it’s warm. But in summer, once the sun hits, it’ll turn into an oven.”
Everyone blinked at that before laughing in realization. True—without any heat insulation, living in a metal shell would be like staying inside a giant oven! They hadn’t thought it through.
After half a day of work, Yan Fei still had enough energy and mental power to tinker with Zhang Su’s house when they got back. Before long, the entire heating system there was complete.
Once Luo Xun connected the water and power, he began testing it. The solar panels at Zhang Su’s house were “borrowed” from unit 1601 by Wang Duo—under the guise of official use—since Wang Duo had also contributed to gathering supplies earlier. The two backup batteries, however, were something Zhang Su had mysteriously “found” somewhere.
Water on, power on—Luo Xun checked each room carefully, while Yan Fei sat nearby absorbing crystal cores to restore his mental energy. He always had a surplus of cores, so every night before bed, he’d absorb as much as possible. It wasn’t wasteful at all.
When the test was done, Luo Xun stood with his hands on his hips at the doorway, nodding with satisfaction. “It works just like I imagined—way more convenient than the previous design. Each room’s temperature can be adjusted anytime. I just got a new idea: what if I upgrade it into a full temperature-controlled greenhouse? I’m drawing up the blueprint! We’ll use it in our house next!”
Having the experience of two prior setups, Luo Xun was now full of new ideas.
Of course, he’d need a few extra components to bring them to life. Tomorrow afternoon, when they returned, he planned to check the street stalls—maybe he could trade for the parts he needed.
Yan Fei smiled, watching Luo Xun dash off to refine his design, then got back to work after finishing his crystal absorption. To deal with thermal expansion and contraction—and since they didn’t have proper heat-conducting materials—Yan Fei filled the gaps between the heating pipes with a special flexible metal mesh, then laid the metal floorboards on top.
It was mentally draining work, so by the time Luo Xun finished his new drawings and Zhang Su’s group returned, Yan Fei had only managed to finish the corridor and master bedroom flooring.
Seeing today’s results, Wang Duo and Zhang Su were quite satisfied. They didn’t have much else to do at home anyway, and those two areas were all they really needed functional for now.
Arms crossed, Zhang Su stomped lightly on the new metal floor and nodded approvingly. “Not bad. I don’t know how you did it, but it barely makes a sound when you walk on it.” The soundproofing was impressive.
Yan Fei, also pleased with their handiwork, said, “The layers in between were treated to block vibrations and sound. By the way, did you ask about that thing?”
Being just as sharp as Yan Fei, Zhang Su immediately knew he was referring to the crystal cores. “I found someone willing to trade, but it’s not worth the cost. So I handed in my resignation to the hospital director today—but he didn’t approve it.” He rubbed his chin, tilting his head thoughtfully. “Luckily, he did grant me some vacation time. I can use that to go out and hunt some myself.”
Go out and hunt them yourself… What, did he think zombies were potatoes?
Fresh from finishing his new blueprint, Luo Xun silently muttered that to himself—but honestly, for a capable ability user like Zhang Su, fighting low-level zombies probably was about as easy as digging up potatoes.
“So,” Zhang Su said, smiling slyly, “what do you two say? Interested?”
Yan Fei looked up in surprise. “You’re planning to form a team to go out?”
Zhang Su spread his hands helplessly. “The base’s rules are still the same as before — if you want to go outside, you must form a team, you must take on a mission, and each team has to have at least ten people. Going out alone isn’t a problem for me, but if I get surrounded by zombies and there’s no one to help me dig out the crystal cores, I won’t have time to recover my powers.”
He had actually thought about joining a random team and sneaking off once they were outside to hunt zombies on his own — it’d save him a lot of trouble that way. But after thinking about it carefully, if he ran into a large horde of zombies, how would he have time to pick up the crystal cores? Without those, how was he supposed to restore his mental energy? No matter how strong his abilities were, he couldn’t withstand that kind of drain!
That’s why he thought of Yan Fei, his wife, and Li Tie’s group.
“What, what? You mean going out to hunt for crystal cores?” As expected, they seemed to have already talked about this on their way back. Li Tie and the others looked very interested.
Ever since that incident downstairs last time, Li Tie and the others had been practicing every day — swinging their metal rods hundreds of times to train their bodies. So when they heard Zhang Su wanted to go out and collect crystal cores, they immediately said they wanted to join.
Their goal wasn’t the crystal cores themselves — they wanted to train their combat awareness in the apocalypse. They didn’t want to turn into powerless shut-ins if the base was ever breached one day.
He Qiankun raised his hand. “Our leader said we get two days off every month, and we haven’t used ours yet this month!”
Luo Xun also remembered something and looked at Yan Fei. “We have days off too, but we can’t take them until the outer wall is finished. We’ll resume work at the beginning of March.”
Zhang Su tilted his chin up with a small grin. “I can move my leave to those two days.”
“So can we!” Wang Duo quickly raised his hand on behalf of Li Tie’s group.
“In that case, we’ve got… eight people total. We can just grab two more to make it a full team!” Luo Xun said with a smile. He’d been killing zombies from the top of the city wall every day, and his crossbow accuracy had reached an almost monstrous level. Although powered second-tier zombies were a bit of a hassle, as long as they didn’t go too far from the base and just hunted near the perimeter, it wouldn’t be a problem.
Yan Fei didn’t object either. Even though he always had extra crystal cores left over each day, he knew that if his powers weren’t used in real combat, his instinct for danger would dull. Just like that last time with the fire-type zombie — if he’d still had his old alertness, that wouldn’t have happened.
They weren’t planning to go out like those scavenging teams who risked their lives to find food and supplies. They just wanted to head outside the base to hunt zombies nearby and build their combat instincts.
“Then it’s settled,” Yan Fei said. “This time we’ll go out and see what the situation’s like. If it looks safe, we can go once a month. But if it’s too dangerous—” he turned to Li Tie’s group, “—then next time, if Zhang Su and I go out to hunt cores, the ordinary people will stay inside the base.”
By “ordinary people,” he also meant Luo Xun. Even though Luo Xun’s aim was amazing, if things outside turned ugly, how could he let someone whose only attack method was a crossbow risk his life? It’d be better for him to stay home, grow vegetables, and raise quails.
“No problem,” Luo Xun was the first to respond, smiling brightly. He knew his own limits — and the zombies’ — and he knew he could handle himself for now. Then he looked at Li Tie’s group. “I’ve got some spare crossbows and bolts at home. I’ll lend them to you for this trip. If you get used to them, we can gather some metal outside and make custom weapons for you. If not, it’s no big loss.”
“Alright, got it!”
“Understood, Brother Yan, Brother Luo!” the five-man group nodded eagerly. They just wanted to try it out and adapt — not go play heroes.
The reason Luo Xun and Yan Fei agreed to go with them wasn’t just to keep their combat senses sharp, but also because, although there were now second-tier zombies outside, their numbers weren’t that high.
At least, in the past few days while the couple had been helping with the wall construction, they hadn’t encountered any zombies with powers.
When they got home, Luo Xun went to the balcony for his usual inspection. There, he spotted the laptop — the one he’d moved there after their vegetables had mysteriously gone missing.
Seeing him fiddling with the computer, Yan Fei came over too. Though both were exhausted, curiosity got the better of them.
Who had been stealing their vegetables?
Debts and grudges always have a source — even if the vegetable leaves had just self-combusted or weathered away, they were determined to get to the bottom of it!
They opened the full-day surveillance recording and fast-forwarded through it. For a long time, nothing in the footage moved — until finally, their little pet appeared on camera, trotting across the frame.
Since the little guy often roamed freely around the house, running and playing everywhere, the two of them didn’t think much of it. Even when they saw it wander near the shelf for a while — with its backside facing the camera — they didn’t pay attention. They fast-forwarded until their own return home, but still didn’t see anything suspicious stealing their vegetables.
“…What’s going on here?” Luo Xun and Yan Fei exchanged baffled looks. They had watched the footage from morning to night and hadn’t seen a single thing touch the vegetable leaves — yet, compared to the photo they took yesterday, the leaves had definitely decreased! Could it really be… haunted?!
“Let’s bring it upstairs and check slowly.” Since they couldn’t figure it out, Yan Fei simply carried the laptop up to the bedroom. After washing up, the two sat together on the bed and resumed watching the footage.
They slowed down the playback and focused on one plant — the third lettuce from the left — to track when exactly a leaf went missing. And then—
“Wait! Wait! Go back! Rewind!” Luo Xun hurriedly pointed at the screen and paused the video. They could clearly see that one of the outer leaves was now gone — yet just moments earlier…
“The… little one!” Both Luo Xun and Yan Fei stared in disbelief as they rewound to the part showing their pet with its butt facing the camera. After careful comparison, they confirmed it — before the little guy came by, the leaf was still there. After it left, the leaf was gone! Did they even need to ask what happened?!
Throwing on clothes, they both rushed downstairs, where the little creature looked up from its small bed, wagging its tail, blinking innocently at them.
The two men stared at it for a long moment — big eyes meeting small — and suddenly both felt a headache coming on. Now what were they supposed to do? Ask it? Would it answer?
Not ask? Then how could they be sure?
Yan Fei abruptly stood, went out to the balcony, and soon returned holding a fresh, green lettuce leaf. He placed it in front of the little one.
The creature looked at him, then at the lettuce, and blinked at Luo Xun with a look of innocent confusion.
Luo Xun’s mouth twitched. Taking the leaf, he tore off a small piece and held it near the little one’s mouth. “Here, eat.”
Would a dog eat when it wasn’t hungry? Especially vegetables? The two of them weren’t sure — but impatience got the better of them; they couldn’t wait until mealtime to test it.
The little guy glanced between Luo Xun and the bit of lettuce — it wasn’t large, and eating it wouldn’t hurt. Besides, this was personally offered by its two owners. So, it opened its mouth, took the leaf, and started chewing.
It actually ate it!! Their dog actually ate vegetables!
The two men were frozen in shock as if struck by lightning, staring blankly at this completely unscientific sight. It took a while before they managed to regain their composure and exchange looks of disbelief.
Finally, Yan Fei was the first to recover. He patted Luo Xun’s shoulder. “If it can eat vegetables, it’ll be a lot easier to feed. The dog food we have will probably only last for a year anyway.”
Luo Xun had stocked up on quite a bit of dog food, but it all had expiration dates. No matter how well-prepared he was, he couldn’t have bought enough to last a lifetime. So, if their dog could adapt to eating vegetables, that was actually great news.
But still…
“My dog… is a vegetarian…” Luo Xun murmured, his worldview collapsing. He leaned against Yan Fei’s shoulder.
Yan Fei patted his back comfortingly. “Hey, at least it’s better than coming home to find it’s eaten all your quails, right?”
Well, that was true. Luo Xun sighed and comforted himself as the two headed toward the stairs.
As for the vegetables? Did they still need to guard them from the little thief?
Guard, his ass! That was their family member — practically their son! So what if it ate a few leaves? Let it eat! They could afford it!
—
That night, after helping Zhang Su’s family lay the heating pipes, the next day after work, Yan Fei helped them finish the flooring. As for furniture, tables, and reinforcing the walls — those could wait. Zhang Su made a list of all the furniture he needed and handed it to the couple. Luo Xun, once again unleashing his creative design instincts, teamed up with Zhang Su’s supplies and sketched all kinds of quirky, multi-functional chairs and benches, planning to have Yan Fei build prototypes — maybe even add some to their own home later.
Once the final layer of paint dried in Room 1603, it looked much cleaner and brighter than before. In a few days, they could probably start on their own flooring too — though first, they wanted to see how Zhang Su’s underfloor heating performed. If the metal flooring worked well, they’d switch to that. As for the wooden floors they had? They could sell them. There were always people in the base willing to buy wood to use as cooking fuel, even if it gave off a harsh smell when burned.
Of course, Luo Xun’s suggestion was to wait until autumn or winter to sell — prices would be better then. As for storage, they could build some shelves in the hallway for miscellaneous items. And besides, they lived on the rooftop — they could directly access the roof from their second floor! No one had thought about using rooftop space yet, so they might as well take advantage of it first.
Time passed quickly. Their days were a steady loop of home ? military camp ? wall construction ? military camp ? home. Thanks to the hard work of Yan Fei and the other three metal-type ability users — and the couple’s own tireless efforts at home — by three days before March arrived, they had finally finished everything they’d been working on.
The outer defensive wall — its metal shell had now been built up to a full six meters high, enough for the earth-type ability users to take over the remaining work.
At home, the flooring in Zhang Su’s neighboring apartment had long been completed, and the entire place was now filled with metal furniture of various kinds. Even a king-size iron bed had been forged for their master bedroom — something Wang Duo was very satisfied with (it made certain “activities” a lot more carefree~).
In Yan Fei’s unit, the walls had long since dried, and Luo Xun’s newest designs were ready. The new underfloor heating system had been fully installed. After comparing the heating performance between Li Tie’s apartment and Zhang Su’s, they both came to a decision — abandon the wooden floors and switch to metal!
For one, metal flooring actually had pretty good sound insulation. To confirm this, they even went down to the 15th floor — Apartment 1502, Xu Mei’s place — and tested it. While Wang Duo and the heavyset He Qiankun jumped and stomped upstairs, there wasn’t a sound below. Of course, they had Xu Mei’s permission first. She was the only resident on the 15th floor now, as no one else had moved in yet.
Xu Mei had been going on frequent missions outside, and when she learned that Yan Fei was willing to help process metal items as long as she brought back enough materials, she started collecting all sorts of metal scraps. After returning, she had them make a massive iron gate similar to the ones on the 16th floor, sealing off the entire 15th floor.
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