The “delicate” plant that had just acted was naturally the pothos boss.
Now, aside from being unable to speak, its intelligence and analytical ability were already about the same as a human’s.
Perhaps this was what it meant to be exceptionally gifted: skipping straight from kindergarten to university among a group of kindergarten children. Usually, it had to discipline the little ones. Now, it even managed people too.
And while it was fine for it to discipline the kindergarten children, if outsiders dared to discipline them, or had crooked thoughts about digging the plants away, it would not mind killing the bad person and turning them into snacks for the little ones.
Fu Erdie had not left yet because she was waiting for this group to arrive and wanted to observe the situation.
As an experienced old hand, Cao Bingqing told Fu Erdie, the boss of the complex, not to casually show herself to receive people. She had to maintain a cold and mysterious image, so the other side would feel respect and awe, rather than thinking she was easy to talk to and bothering her at every turn.
“For a leader, awe is more important than approachability.”
So said Cao Bingqing.
In short, although Fu Erdie was curious about these people’s faces, it was enough to recognise them vaguely.
Among the 22 people sent by the base this time, the person in charge of managing them was Xu Qi, the one who had previously liaised with He Xuan.
Xu Qi was a minor leader in the external relations department, so why would he personally bring a 22-person team out?
Xu Qi did not hide it. “The base has always been worried about the food problem, so they thought they’d send me over to take a look. Who knows, maybe there are more things we can trade?”
Cao Bingqing smiled and nodded. “I’ll help pass that on. But as you’ve seen, our base is just a small residential complex with only a few people. The food we have now is all thanks to my daughter alone. How many jin of grain can she produce in a day? Barely feeding a few dozen people is already the limit. Oh, right, I haven’t been to a base since the apocalypse started, so I haven’t seen other plant-type ability users. Can the plant-types over there produce food in bulk?”
Xu Qi sighed. “More or less. Some plant-type ability users can’t even stimulate crops to grow; they can only use plants for ambushes or make them poisonous and things like that. There are only a little over twenty who can produce crops. The strongest one is a third-rank plant-type ability user who works herself to death every day to produce one thousand jin. The other second- and first-rank plant-type ability users produce anywhere between fifty and five hundred jin a day. Altogether, at most, it’s four thousand jin. Difficult.”
Cao Bingqing continued chatting cheerfully, but in her heart, she doubled that number.
At full capacity, they could probably produce eight thousand jin a day. But those plant-type ability users definitely would not be willing to work themselves into exhaustion like production-team donkeys. And the grain they produced would definitely have to be bought with crystal cores. Since the base lacked crystal cores, they might only get five or six thousand jin of grain in a day. Compared with the daily need of sixty thousand jin, that was only one-tenth.
Xu Qi did not let Cao Bingqing fish for information for free. He smoothly followed the topic and complimented, “I met your daughter last time. At the time, I only thought she was filial, personally coming to pick up her grandmother and aunt. I didn’t expect her to actually be the boss of Senyu Residential Complex. I was really a little rude. Ah, living in your complex is truly too fortunate. One or two thousand jin of grain a day, and at most you only eat forty or fifty jin. Even with us included, it’s only one or two hundred jin. You can store four-fifths of the grain.”
Xu Qi exaggeratedly shook his head. “I’m so jealous I could cry.”
Cao Bingqing narrowed her eyes.
He was trying to probe her daughter’s ability level.
However, her daughter had already been fourth-rank before. Around the new year, she had announced that Sang Wenhao had risen to fourth-rank, but had not said whether she herself had risen. In any case, she was definitely above third-rank.
Xu Qi wanted to find out Xiaodie’s level and see whether Xiaodie still had extra production capacity. If she could provide one thousand jin every day, that would be equivalent to giving D City a continuously producing third-rank plant-type ability user.
Cao Bingqing thought that her daughter could indeed do it. If she did nothing else and only produced crops, she could even produce two or three thousand jin of grain in a day.
But that was far too tiring. Why should she suffer like that?
“Brother Xu, you’ve misunderstood. Our complex doesn’t have much stored grain. Xiaodie produces one or two hundred jin a day, which is already enough to eat. There’s no need to produce more and leave it sitting there. Of course, if there were many crystal cores given to her so she could level up to seventh or eighth rank… Ah, listen to me joking. I don’t really know what rank counts as high. But if Xiaodie levels up and can casually produce three thousand or thirty thousand jin of grain a day, wouldn’t your base be stable? Brother Xu, what do you think…?”
Xu Qi: “…”
He had not expected that while he was eyeing their grain, the other side was also eyeing their crystal cores — and aiming straight for high rank in one bite.
Right now, the highest rank was fourth. They had poured all their resources into a young man who had belonged to the military before the apocalypse. Their crystal cores had been instantly drained by more than half, leaving only emergency reserves and the cores used to make other ability users work. Only then had they barely pushed the young man to fourth rank.
That young man was a soldier, one of their own, so they could invest in him with confidence. But investing in an outsider? Whether that would be like throwing meat buns at a dog aside, the main issue was that even if they threw in all the remaining cores, it would still be impossible to create another fourth-rank, let alone some completely uncertain seventh or eighth-rank. What nonsense!
So as an old fox himself, he truly hated other old foxes the most!
Dealing with this couple brought him no advantage at all. Instead, he might even be sold and help them count the money.
“By the way, where is Ms. He Xuan now? Last time, I dealt with her. I’d like to pay her a visit.”
Cao Bingqing sneered inwardly. Since he could not handle an old thing like her, he wanted to find a younger person who was easier to talk to?
Dream on.
“They spend most of the day training their abilities, so there’s no way. Tonight, I’ll tell her and pass on your message. As for the complex’s trade decisions, they mainly depend on me, actually. No helping it. I’m the mother of the complex boss, after all. The complex’s matters and household matters are more or less the same. I have to manage them all.”
Fu Chenghong, standing beside her, could not help nodding in agreement. “True. Whether before the apocalypse or now, my wife has always been in charge.”
Xu Qi: “…” Damn it!
Every one of them was an old fox!
No matter how much everyone cursed inwardly, their faces were all warm and smiling. They even agreed to invite him to the fifteenth floor for dinner that evening, to welcome him properly and liven things up.
Fu Erdie watched the video her father had recorded and could not help laughing, giving her mother a thumbs-up.
But speaking of using crystal cores to raise an ability user, then having that ability user feed back into the base…
Fu Erdie felt there really was something worth considering there.
From the information they had so far, people knew about the existence of attribute-less ability zombies, but not attribute-less ability users.
It was not necessarily that there were no other attribute-less ability users. It was very possible that this already rare type of ability user had not noticed their own specialness, had no awareness or opportunity to absorb crystal cores, and therefore no one currently knew where they were or what they were doing.
If Fu Erdie revealed her attribute-less trait, then when it came to taking the base’s crystal cores, eating them, levelling up, and feeding back into the base, she would have a strong advantage.
But risk and opportunity coexisted.
If the D City base believed this was mutually beneficial cooperation and would not harm her, then what about the other ability users in the base?
Especially those ability users who had already noticed that the base lacked crystal cores and were hoping the base would issue more tasks and distribute more crystal cores. If she suddenly appeared and took those crystal cores, wouldn’t she be cutting off their income? More seriously, it could be said she was cutting off their path to advancement.
Fu Erdie felt there was no need for that for now. Even if she did not care about what other ability users thought, she cared about this matter of feeding back into the base.
She could grow stronger slowly and regularly on her own, and there was no especially urgent threat nearby. Why should she find a fast track to improvement and then burden herself with such a huge task?
This topic was suppressed for now.
To distinguish between the people of the complex and the hired employees, Fu Erdie installed barred doors and iron locks at the two stairwell entrances on the sixteenth floor. Although these two doors were usually open, having doors could psychologically remind outsiders before they entered — inside belonged to the internal personnel of the complex, and they should not enter and exit casually.
The sixteenth floor now was not so much many people’s private residences as it was an office floor. As long as they were not discussing private matters or sleeping, most households kept their doors open or merely pulled them shut without locking them. Whether it was the technical department arguing and discussing among themselves, the ability users practising coordinated tactics, or the logistics team cooking, preparing food, and counting supplies, people had to keep moving between apartments.
So overall, the sixteenth floor was not a residential floor in the strict pre-apocalypse sense. It was more like an office floor.
Under these circumstances, Cao Bingqing had to specifically explain things to the hired personnel and establish more precautions. For example, if they wanted to enter the sixteenth floor, they had to knock and ask the spider plant to pass on a message.
For example, unless required for work, they could not go to areas above the sixteenth floor.
For example, they could not pick food from outside their own rooms that did not belong to their daily wages or meals, unless the plants offered it voluntarily.
For example, they had to clearly understand how to store water and charge devices when Fu Erdie was present and the rooms had water and electricity, and how to conserve water and stored electricity when Fu Erdie went out. There were also the special plants in the bathrooms that corroded and absorbed excrement, and how those had to be carefully maintained.
In short, there were many points to note. Everything Fu Erdie had thought of, and even things she had not thought of, were all listed by Cao Bingqing and Fu Chenghong. Then they guided the hired personnel to quickly familiarise themselves with Senyu Residential Complex’s work and life model, as well as its rules.
That day, on the fifteenth floor, Cao Bingqing, He Xuan, and Xu Qi ate together. By the second and third days, everyone had started working, and all kinds of tasks unfolded in a chaotic but orderly manner.
After that, Fu Erdie fully charged the huge storage battery used by the technical department and took Sang Wenhao to look for Cen Xiyang’s parents.
This time, accompanying them were the house inside the box van, the newly promoted all-round ace zucchini, the potato seedling that had insisted loudly on coming along, and many newly planted intelligent mutated plants from the past few days that were still in the seedling stage.
These plants had only grown a little and had not really rooted deeply, so they could all be moved into the box van.
Seeing how enthusiastic they were, Fu Erdie agreed. After all, when killing zombies outside, they could not throw dandelion fluff to feed every time. The dandelion’s intelligent mutated seeds were not endless.
Just like this, the box van set off with a lively pile of plants.
Fu Erdie had been to Cen Xiyang’s home before. From childhood to adulthood, she had also eaten with her uncle and aunt many times, so she was relatively familiar with the location of their home.
The problem was the same as before: most of the city traffic was blocked, so they could not drive.
The box van was slower, and they also had to find a route, so flying to Cen Xiyang’s home took three hours.
Fu Erdie was not sure which window corresponded to Cen Xiyang’s home, so she simply stood on the rooftop of another building across the road and used a loudspeaker to call Cen’s father and mother’s names.
No one responded. Fu Erdie used the old method: while having the dandelion disperse her and Sang Wenhao’s scent, she parked the box van on the rooftop. Then, based on her memory and the door number Cen Xiyang had given her, she cleared the zombies they encountered while going downstairs and arrived at the Cen home. She melted the lock cylinder and opened the door.
A zombie filled with the stench of rot lunged at them and was bound by metal strips.
Fu Erdie looked at his face.
It was Cen’s father…
Fu Erdie closed her eyes and nodded.
A metal spike pierced through Father Cen’s forehead, ending his movement.
Cen Xiyang had said that if her parents had turned into zombies, then they should deal with them and let them rest as soon as possible. If possible, they should use a lighter and matches to handle the body, bring the bones and ashes back, and let her bury them personally.
Fu Erdie placed Father Cen’s body to one side and entered the room with Sang Wenhao.
There were bloodstains everywhere, and marks left by zombies scratching everywhere too.
The tables, chairs, benches, beds, and wardrobes were all ruined. The clothes and quilts inside had been torn into a mess. Fu Erdie could not tell whether Mother Cen had been caught at the time, whether she had had time to pack things and escape, or whether Mother Cen had not yet finished work and had still been at her company when the apocalypse chaos arrived.
She was not certain of anything. She searched the home bit by bit to see whether any message had been left behind.
After searching around and finding nothing, she wrapped Father Cen’s body in a bedsheet, carried it on a metal board up the stairs step by step until they reached the rooftop, then transformed the metal board into a metal box, enclosing the body, and set it on fire.
The fire burned for a full half hour, and the movement attracted many zombies.
Fu Erdie no longer had the dandelions disperse the scent. Every zombie that came was dealt with. Three ability zombies that rushed over after hearing the noise also became crystal cores in their hands — one each for Fu Erdie, Sang Wenhao, and the box van’s white light.
After everything burned out, only bones and ashes remained in the metal box.
Fu Erdie carefully collected them into a small box, pressed her palms together, closed her eyes, silently wished him peace, and returned to the box van.
Cen Xiyang had given them many addresses. Besides this home, there were her parents’ company addresses, the teahouse Mother Cen often went to, the Chinese restaurant Mother Cen often visited with colleagues, and so on.
When giving these addresses, Cen Xiyang had been very embarrassed, but Fu Erdie had asked her to write down every address or place name she knew.
“I really do want to find Uncle and Auntie, but I’m also going out to train and kill zombies.”
She and Sang Wenhao were already very strong. The ability zombies around the complex had also been cleared during the last few days at the end of the year.
If they wanted to become stronger, they needed to take the initiative and find more ability zombies.
Actually, Fu Erdie felt that her and Sang Wenhao’s uninterrupted nightly ability circulation was equivalent to eating crystal cores every day. That was also why Sang Wenhao had not seemed to eat that many crystal cores, yet still reached fourth rank.
But that was not enough.
After all, if powerful ability zombies, attribute-less zombies, or even a zombie king existed, then whether they hunted their own kind or ability users, it would be very convenient for them and pose no psychological obstacle.
Fu Erdie and the others would not attack ability users for no reason, and there were no ability zombies nearby. There were also very few crystal cores available for trade, because other people had few crystal cores too. So they could only take the initiative, go out, and kill ability zombies themselves.
So when she came out to look for Cen Xiyang’s parents, she was also looking for ability zombies along the way and would not return for a while.
After handling the zombies on the rooftop, Fu Erdie followed the addresses Cen Xiyang had given and went around them one by one. When she encountered ability users trying to rob them, she killed them in a single exchange, just like killing zombies, flying around in an extremely ostentatious manner.
Finally, they unintentionally saw a familiar red sedan on a small road.
Fu Erdie took out her phone and compared it with the photo of the sedan and the licence plate number.
It was Mother Cen’s car.
There was no corpse inside the car, but there were bloodstains.
They followed the bloodstains forward. When they reached an intersection, various blood traces had mixed together, and after being washed by rain and mud, the trail disappeared.
At this point, all the addresses Cen Xiyang had given had lost usefulness.
Fu Erdie began Plan B. She turned on the loudspeaker with the pre-recorded message:
“Cen Lanxiu, I am your daughter’s friend, Xiaodie. I came to take you to find your daughter. If you hear this, please signal in any way you can, including but not limited to calling out, flashing lights, lighting a fire, reflecting with a mirror, and so on.”
The sentence played on repeat at maximum volume, extremely clear in the silent, ruined city.
The box van circled the nearby streets several times, then stopped on the rooftop of a relatively tall building and waited for signals from every direction.
After a long time, there was no movement from humans, only more and more zombies gathering.
Sang Wenhao casually dealt with the ability-zombie-like ones among them and remotely controlled metal to dig out the crystal cores from the zombies’ skulls.
They ignored the remaining zombies, casually chose a direction, continued shouting through the loudspeaker, and killed the ability zombies that ran out, ignoring ordinary zombies.
From a very high bird’s-eye view, one could see zombies from all directions and all places following Fu Erdie’s voice toward her. Anyone who did not know better might think some celebrity was holding a fan concert with tens of thousands of attendees.
Seeing that there were so many, Fu Erdie re-recorded the loudspeaker message and added a sentence to the original search message:
“I am deliberately luring zombies. Survivors or ability users who don’t want me to draw zombies toward you, please warn me when I approach your rooftop, and I will detour. If you’re trapped inside and want to come out, you can also decide for yourself while I’m drawing aggro.”
Fu Erdie had brought several loudspeakers. This one played at maximum volume, while the others charged. When this one ran out of power, she would swap to another and charge the dead one.
She wandered everywhere without a fixed direction. Once the area beneath her and the surrounding streets were packed densely with zombies, Fu Erdie finally selected a square and flew quickly in that direction. While continuing to play the loudspeaker, she descended and stopped in the centre of the square, stepping out of the box van.
Fu Erdie held Sang Wenhao’s hand, and their abilities circulated at high speed.
Sang Wenhao fused, twisted, and reshaped nearby abandoned vehicles, iron poles, steel bars, and all kinds of metal, finally forming an enormous horizontal blade suspended in the air, fifty metres long.
The moment the zombies surged over, the long blade charged forward with unstoppable force. With one slash, ten thousand were cut at the waist, blood spraying everywhere.
Strictly speaking, Sang Wenhao’s ability could not perform area attacks.
His metal blades could not split into many attacks and harvest a large area of zombies like the short-haired woman Ye Jia’s wind blades. His attacks were all one stroke at a time, one target at a time.
To create an area attack, they had come up with the current method. There was no need to create many blades, and no need to control many pieces of metal at once.
Just one blade. One thin, sharp, fifty-metre-long great blade, sweeping straight across.
The sight of limbs scattered across the ground from the large-scale waist-cutting, and zombies still moving with their heads and upper bodies after being cut in half, made Fu Erdie’s heart clench. She physically wanted to retch.
Sang Wenhao’s face was also pale. He was not much better.
He said softly, both to Fu Erdie and to himself, “As long as we deal with them, it’s fine.”
Fu Erdie closed her eyes. Her entire nasal cavity was filled with the stench of rot and blood.
“It’s fine. This is just an instinctive reaction.” Fu Erdie felt the sweat and warmth in their intertwined palms and said firmly, “It’s like motion sickness. It doesn’t matter.”
The dozens-of-metres-long blade withdrew, launched again, and harvested another large patch of zombies.
An hour later, when all the surrounding zombies had been cleared into writhing upper bodies, Fu Erdie turned off the loudspeaker and released large swathes of dandelions. Then she released the potato and zucchini she had brought this time, along with more than fifty juvenile intelligent mutated plants, letting them clean up the battlefield of severed limbs. Only then did she return to the box van to clean off the bloodstains.
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