Chapter 85 — Androphobia
Song Lingling coughed twice and stepped in to smooth things over for Xu Mei. “When we found her, she was crying. We didn’t hear Sister Xu… didn’t hear the people who were selling her say anything about the child.” Xu Mei had gone to get revenge on her scumbag ex-boyfriend, so she obviously hadn’t had the time to worry about anything else. Song Lingling had gone along to help her sister get revenge, and had even less energy to pay attention to other matters. Even saving the child afterward had been something they did almost as an afterthought, only after Xu Mei had dealt with her scummy ex. As soon as the child was in their arms, she’d cried until she fainted from blood loss, so there’d been no chance to ask anything.
“Ahem. Anyway, since you rescued her, just raise her properly. If there’s anything going on, you’ll definitely be able to ask about it later,” Luo Xun quickly said, trying to ease the atmosphere in the room, smiling at Xu Mei and the others.
Seeing that there was nothing more to say, Zhang Su abruptly stood up with a swish, pointed at the medical kit that had just been packed and set aside, and lifted his chin at Wang Duo. “Let’s go back.”
Lackey Wang immediately stepped forward, picked up the kit, and trotted after his queen, abandoning a whole roomful of his former bros as he returned with his queen to their sweet little nest.
Xu Mei also stood up. Song Lingling stepped forward and took the child into her arms. “Thank you for the trouble. We’ll bring the crystal cores over tomorrow morning.”
Li Tie and the others hurriedly waved their hands. “No, no, there’s no need to be so polite!”
Xu Mei smiled faintly. “We still have to bring them. And also Doctor Zhang’s treatment fee.” She’d thought about it for quite a while before confirming that when she’d worked with the people from the sixteenth floor before, she’d indeed heard that Zhang Su was a professional surgeon—chief physician level, at that. It was just that his appearance, behavior, and way of speaking were so wildly at odds with his profession that she hadn’t been able to believe it until she’d personally been stitched up by him just now.
Since this child had been rescued jointly by her and Song Lingling, even if the two of them had zero experience raising children, they still had to take responsibility and care for her themselves. After all, this was a girl—how could they hand her over to a bunch of grown men to look after? What’s more, the men had to work during the day. The two of them also needed to go out to hunt crystal cores and take on missions, but if the child really was an ability user, they could at least keep her by their side.
Once she mentioned paying Zhang Su’s medical fee, Li Tie and the others stopped insisting. They themselves could forgo points or crystal cores, but no one dared to make decisions for Zhang Su’s…
As they saw the two women downstairs, He Qiankun joked, “It’d be great if that kid really is an ability user. Even better if she’s an earth-type ability user!”
Luo Xun laughed and reminded him, “How could there be such a good thing?” If she really were an earth-type ability user, then just with that ability—even at her young age—she’d be able to find work with the base’s military. Why would Xu Mei’s ex-boyfriend have schemed to sell her? Of course, it was also possible that she was too young, her ability too weak, or that Xu Mei’s scummy ex wasn’t confident he could control the girl and make her work for them, so he’d sold her instead.
Such a bizarre incident happened late at night, but since the main people involved lived on the fifteenth floor, it didn’t have much impact on Luo Xun and Yan Fei. Early the next morning, when Xu Mei came upstairs to deliver points and crystal cores as payment to Zhang Su and Li Tie and the others, she casually mentioned to Yan Fei, “We’ve managed to get our hands on some metal materials these past few days and would like to ask you to help process them.”
“Sure. How about this afternoon after we get off work?” Yan Fei agreed immediately. He’d already planned to come back today and burn through some crystal cores to level up his ability anyway. Helping them process a bit of material was no trouble at all.
Xu Mei was delighted. “We’re not planning to go out these next couple of days. We’ll definitely be home today!” She was injured, and there was now a child at home who needed care, so it was a good opportunity to rest for a few days.
“Has the little girl woken up?” He Qiankun asked curiously.
“Not yet. She had a bit of a fever last night, but it’s much better after taking medicine. I think she should wake up today. If there’s any news, we should be able to find out by tonight,” Xu Mei explained, then returned to the fifteenth floor so as not to delay everyone from going to work.
The construction of the wall went exactly as Yan Fei had predicted. Once everyone got used to this method of work, they quickly mastered it and sped things up. Today’s output alone matched that of the previous two days combined. On top of that, Yan Fei deliberately overused his ability to burn through crystal cores. Just by himself, he produced a huge stretch of metal wall, earning several rounds of praise from Captain Guo.
Yan Fei smiled modestly. “I just make things more often in my daily life, so I got familiar with it a bit faster. Everyone will get the hang of it soon.”
Such humility earned him great goodwill from the other three metal-type ability users. His “role model” effect also positively boosted everyone’s enthusiasm. When work ended that day, Captain Guo verbally praised their efficiency for a long while before finally letting everyone head home to rest.
After climbing up to the fifteenth floor, it was Song Lingling who answered the door. Although Yan Fei had the ability to open other people’s metal doors directly, the fifteenth floor was occupied by ladies, after all. He couldn’t just barge in the way he did at Zhang Su’s place. In fact, aside from Zhang Su’s home, Yan Fei had never forcibly entered anyone else’s place—not even Li Tie’s—without informing the owner first.
Although the apartment was similarly bare, with almost no furniture, the place where the two women lived felt completely different from the crude dens of the men upstairs. Yan Fei could only maintain a warm, homey atmosphere in his own place because he lived with Luo Xun, who had prepared everything usable before the apocalypse. But look at Li Tie and the others’ place… even though everything was piled where it was supposed to be, there wasn’t a shred of aesthetic sense or warmth. No matter how you looked at it, it felt like a messy student dormitory.
Zhang Su’s home didn’t look that messy, but that was only because it was so empty. Aside from a few chairs and stools he’d asked Yan Fei to make, the living room had nothing but a huge metal punching bag hanging from the center of the room as decoration. Everything else… was better left unmentioned.
And now look at these two women’s place. Xu Mei, after being betrayed by her boyfriend and robbed by neighbors, had once been left with nothing—there wasn’t even a single wooden board in the whole apartment. But now that she’d picked herself up again, she’d occasionally brought back all sorts of odds and ends from trips outside the base, tidying the place up as best she could.
In the kitchen, everything was neatly arranged. The stove even had several ceramic tiles—who knew where she’d picked them up—carefully placed around it to prevent the walls and floor from being scorched.
In the living room, a mat laid on the floor against the wall served as a “dining table.” On the walls were small pieces of cloth carefully patched together from scraps and stuck up to serve as decoration and insulation.
Several battered boxes had been pasted over with nicer-looking paper and used as cabinets for storing supplies. Even the newspapers pasted up in the bedroom to cover the peeling walls had been arranged with more of an artistic flair than in anyone else’s home.
Luo Xun strongly suspected that either Xu Mei or Song Lingling—at least one of the two—must have worked in some art-related field before.
The two women warmly invited Luo Xun and Yan Fei inside. After taking a look around their little nest, Yan Fei raised the question, “So, what do you need made?”
“We want to reinforce the bathroom window and also make a table—something similar to the one Li Tie and the others have,” Song Lingling said quickly, pointing to a pile of miscellaneous metal materials stacked in a corner of the living room. Each time they went out, they could only collect a limited amount of metal. When they went out, they usually had to cooperate with others; with just the two of them, taking their own vehicle wasn’t cost-effective, and sharing a ride made it hard to bring back much of what they needed. That was why it had taken them several days to accumulate this much.
Xu Mei had quite a bit of experience going outside the city, but the only time she’d brought back a large amount of metal materials was on her last outing with Luo Xun and the others.
Yan Fei had used those materials to reinforce key parts of their house—doors, windows, and the like—and after making them a bed, there hadn’t been much left. If they wanted more materials now, they could only save up little by little.
Yan Fei nodded slightly, stood up, and went to the bathroom first to examine the structure of the window, preparing to make a protective railing for them.
Seeing that the little girl from last night wasn’t in the living room, Luo Xun asked Xu Mei—who had stayed in the living room because her injuries made movement inconvenient—“Where’s that child?”
Xu Mei pointed toward the bedroom. “She woke up during the day, played with us for a bit and chatted, and now she’s fallen asleep again.”
“What’s her situation?” Luo Xun asked.
Xu Mei stood up and led Luo Xun to the bedroom door, opening it just a crack. Luo Xun could see a tiny figure sleeping on the large bed Yan Fei had made for them earlier. The figure was thin and frail; if not for her head sticking out, at first glance one might have thought it was just the blanket bulging slightly.
“Her surname is Yu, her name is Yu Xinran. She is…” Xu Mei gently closed the bedroom door and led Luo Xun back to the living room. “…my ex-boyfriend’s niece.”
Niece? Luo Xun raised an eyebrow. “His brother’s daughter?”
Xu Mei nodded, a trace of sarcasm in her eyes. “His cousin’s daughter. After he was kicked out of here last time, he went to rely on that cousin. Not long after, the cousin and his wife died for some unknown reason, leaving only this child behind. When I ran into him, he was in the middle of selling her.”
After what had happened, Xu Mei’s hatred for her ex-boyfriend had naturally sunk to the bone. If she didn’t kill him with her own hands, there was no way she could let go of that hatred and continue living normally in the base.
Luo Xun and the others didn’t know how, after the apocalypse, Xu Mei had helped that man establish authority within their small group of survivors—offering plans, strategies, sharing hardships and joys together. Only she herself knew how much she had sacrificed for their future. Yet after giving everything, she was betrayed by the person closest to her. That pain and hatred far exceeded ordinary resentment.
From the moment she had recovered and pulled herself together, she had been investigating that man’s current situation. But after the base was once again stabilized by official forces, she hadn’t found a chance to act.
It was during that process that she discovered the strange circumstances surrounding the deaths of that man’s cousin and his wife—though it had nothing to do with her. It wasn’t until last night, when she finally found a good opportunity and Song Lingling was willing to help her, that she took action, ended his life, and incidentally rescued the little girl.
Luo Xun sat down across from her. “His cousin is dead? So that means this child doesn’t have a guardian now?”
Xu Mei nodded and said softly, “His cousin was only a distant relative. What he did has nothing to do with this child. I want to take her with me from now on.” In a sense, the man who had ruined her life was also the murderer of this girl’s parents—and after their deaths, he’d even tried to sell her to a group of blood-drinking lunatics.
Luo Xun nodded in understanding. He could understand why Xu Mei wanted to take in the girl. After all, he’d done something similar in his previous life—though his outcome… ahem, was miserably tragic and couldn’t be compared at all.
While the two were talking, Yan Fei had already finished working on the bathroom window and returned to the living room with Song Lingling to start making a table.
Yan Fei beckoned the pile of metal materials stacked in the corner. The metal door floated in midair, shifting, merging, twisting, and changing shape. Just then, the bedroom door opened. The little girl, still drowsy, came out rubbing her eyes after hearing voices outside. When she saw the metal table forming in midair, her eyes widened. Her small hand froze halfway through rubbing, and she stared blankly as the table slowly descended under the tall man’s control.
“Ranran, are you awake?” Xu Mei, who was facing the bedroom, was the first to notice her and waved to her.
Yan Fei also looked over after setting the table down.
The little girl continued to stare at him with wide eyes, mouth slightly open, dumbfounded.
Luo Xun squatted down in front of her with a smile. “What’s wrong? What are you looking at?”
The little girl glanced timidly at Luo Xun, then edged closer to Song Lingling, who had also walked over. She hugged one of Song Lingling’s legs, glanced again at Yan Fei, then buried her head against Song Lingling’s thigh, using it to hide her face.
This action left Luo Xun frozen in place for quite a while, unsure whether laughing now would scare the girl away.
Xu Mei apologized awkwardly to Luo Xun. “I’m sorry, Luo Xun. She’s a bit afraid of… people.”
What she really meant was that the girl was afraid of men. After all, the one who sold her, the one who cut her with a knife last night, and the ones who drank her blood were all men. Like the two women in 1502, this little girl was also suffering from varying degrees of androphobia.
Song Lingling crouched down, gently stroking the girl’s back and comforting her softly. “Ranran, don’t be afraid. Brother Luo is a good person, not like those bad guys!”
After a long while, the little girl loosened her grip on Song Lingling slightly and sneaked another look at Luo Xun—who, in order not to stimulate her, had already stood up and moved beside Yan Fei. She then secretly looked at Yan Fei and whispered into Song Lingling’s ear, “Big sister, this brother is really pretty.”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but the room was very quiet, so everyone present heard it clearly.
Being called “pretty” by a clueless little girl he couldn’t possibly get angry with dealt Yan Fei a serious blow to his psyche. Couldn’t she at least say he was handsome?
This time Luo Xun really did start shaking with suppressed laughter. He lowered his head, chuckling for quite a while before coughing and looking at Xu Mei. “Sister Xu, does this child have abilities?”
Xu Mei was also holding back laughter, not daring to show it. She didn’t know whether Yan Fei minded comments like that or whether he might get embarrassed and angry. After all, from the fact that he wore a mask every time he went out—and even dressed the same way inside the base—it was clear he didn’t like others commenting on his appearance. Hearing the question, she hurriedly nodded, put on a gentle smile, and looked at the little girl. “Ranran, could you show the uncles what you did at noon today one more time?”
Song Lingling also rested a hand on the girl’s shoulder, encouraging her softly.
When the little girl noticed Yan Fei and Luo Xun both looking at her, she lowered her head and burrowed behind Song Lingling again, trying to get her to block them.
Realizing he had become a terrifying monster in the girl’s eyes, Luo Xun felt a faint pang of bitterness—he actually really liked children…
Seeing the little girl shrinking behind Song Lingling in fear, and noticing the white bandage still wrapped around her arm, Yan Fei thought for a moment. Then he suddenly raised his right hand and summoned a small remaining piece of metal from the corner.
The metal writhed and twisted exaggeratedly in midair, each movement large and dramatic, stretching wide before folding back together.
Sure enough, drawn by the constantly changing metal, Yu Xinran subconsciously stopped hiding. She widened her dark, shiny eyes and stared in astonishment at the shifting metal.
It was a piece of stainless steel. Under Yan Fei’s control, it kept changing and twisting, gradually descending until it stopped in front of Yu Xinran. The movements slowly came to a halt, and in the end it became a silver-white flower, gleaming with metallic luster.
Yan Fei’s gaze softened. Standing behind the metal flower, he bent down slightly and said to her, “This is for you. Can you change something for uncle too?”
The little girl looked timidly at Yan Fei, then at the “flower” still floating in midair with eyes full of anticipation. She looked up at Song Lingling beside her, and when she saw Song Lingling smiling and nodding encouragingly, she finally said in a small voice, “I—I can’t make flowers… The things I make… they don’t look nice…”
So she really was an ability user.
A flash of realization crossed both Luo Xun’s and Yan Fei’s minds. Though they’d suspected it before, seeing it confirmed still surprised them.
“It’s okay,” Luo Xun said gently, lowering his voice. “No matter what you make, we’ll like it.” He put on his most harmless smile and tried to charm the little girl, completely ignoring the fact that she’d just called Yan Fei “big brother” and forcibly elevating his own seniority.
Luckily, perhaps because she sensed that these two uncles were kind to her and didn’t have any strange intentions, the little girl wasn’t as afraid of Luo Xun this time. She only glanced at him cautiously, then stretched out a skinny index finger and pointed at the wall not far beside her—
“Crackle, crash…”
The two of them stared in shock at the wall, where a hole instantly appeared, exposing the steel rebar and concrete inside. They cried out in surprise, “Sandification!!”
This wasn’t the earth-type ability the team needed, but her power was still extremely strong! It was a special ability that could turn whatever she manipulated into sand!!
Startled by their sudden exclamations, Yu Xinran jumped, looking like she’d done something wrong. She backed up, her body beginning to tremble slightly.
Luo Xun quickly turned back to her, his face full of delight as he smiled at the little girl. “Ranran, you’re amazing! You can turn walls into sand!!”
The trembling in Yu Xinran’s body eased a little. She asked Luo Xun in confusion, “Isn’t it scary?”
Luo Xun shook his head. “How could it be scary?”
“But Mom and Dad said that if I ruin the house, we won’t have anywhere to live anymore… and—and… turning things into sand is useless…”
Because after first awakening her ability, Yu Xinran didn’t know how to control it, she would often unconsciously sandify whatever she could touch—floors, walls, and the like. She had the power to turn these things into sand, but no ability to restore them to their original state!
Her parents were ordinary people. Faced with an ability they didn’t know how to use—one that instead damaged their home—they naturally forbade her from using it. Sometimes, after coming home from a long day of work to find the walls and floors turned entirely into sand, they would think she was deliberately causing trouble. In their anger, they would even beat her.
As for this “useless ability” whose purpose they could never see—and for which there was no need within the base—once her parents realized it brought them no benefit and only caused problems, they poured all of life’s hardship, exhaustion, and anger onto the child. They complained about why she couldn’t have a more useful ability. Even a water-type ability would have been fine—at least it could produce clean water. What use was an ability that turned floors into sand, aside from mischief?
“How could it be useless?!”
Although Luo Xun had never heard of any sandification ability users in the base in his previous life, the moment he discovered the little girl’s power, countless ways to use it flashed through his mind. For example, when Yan Fei and the others were digging foundations, she could directly sandify the target area’s soil. When they went outside the city to dig traps, sandification could completely replace an earth-type ability. The sand she created could even be combined with Zhang Su’s wind-type ability to unleash a sandstorm packed with coarse grit against zombies! The power of such a sandstorm would be far greater than simply blowing wind. Or they could use sandification to restrict zombies’ movements, obscure enemies’ vision, and more!
Of course, at low levels, sandification abilities usually needed to be used in coordination with other abilities. This kind of power was far better suited to the battlefield than to base construction. That was why ordinary people couldn’t understand its versatility, synergy, and flexibility. But for people like Luo Xun and the others—who went outside the base to fight zombies and harvest crystal cores—the value of Yu Xinran’s ability was immediately obvious.
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