The only one who could be considered to be thinking was Professor Zhao Shansi.
As someone without an ability, her life in the apocalypse had not actually been the worst. First, she had some resistance to unclean river water, and there were still no signs of lesions on her body. Second, she truly was a professor and expert with an extremely solid foundation in both theory and practice. She had achievements in building various infrastructure frameworks, so in the beginning, no matter what resources the base itself had, they were willing to protect her as much as possible and let her focus on research.
But after the base suffered repeated attacks from mutated zombies, their weapons were gradually used up, and a third-tier ability user became the leader of H City base.
And this third-tier ability user was, in a sense, someone who had “benefited” from the apocalypse. He had gained a status he had never had before, did not care about dead relatives or friends, and felt very comfortable in the apocalyptic environment.
He even enjoyed the apocalypse and hated the orderly society created by science and technology.
So less than two days after he rose to power, the treatment of technical personnel in the base took a sharp turn downward. Even professors like Zhao Shansi, who had no ability but were knowledgeable and highly skilled, lost their previous treatment. They could no longer eat well or live well, and could no longer focus on research in peace. Instead, they had to worry about their own survival.
Because of this, Zhao Shansi understood one thing: the various bases in the apocalypse were no longer at the stage where the government could have complete control. As weapons became fewer and fewer, they could only rely on ability users.
If the ability users were their own people, everything would still be fine. But the ratio of government staff to ordinary people was too uneven, and the difference in the number of ability users was also huge. In most bases, the strongest ability users were not their own people.
So if she wanted to join the next base, rather than looking at who currently held power, it was better to look at who the strongest ability user currently was.
When He Xuan and the others were talking to Fu Erdie, Professor Zhao had been observing the whole time. She discovered that this girl truly valued technical personnel. And in her own base… no, in the girl’s words, her residential complex, she occupied the dominant position.
Her boyfriend was very strong, yet he also acted according to her words.
This was definitely not a hierarchy that had appeared purely because they were boyfriend and girlfriend. It must have something to do with the girl’s own ability.
Perhaps because she was a plant-type ability user who could provide food?
Or perhaps the girl was a dual-type ability user, with a water-type ability too, making her the provider of food and clothing for her boyfriend and the entire residential complex?
No.
Abilities that provided food, water, and healing, although very useful and highly valued, often lacked offensive power. They were usually targets people fought over and were always assigned support roles in a team, with very little autonomy.
She must have something special about her.
That was a good thing.
A powerful person in charge who valued technical personnel and held survival necessities in her hands was Zhao Shansi’s best choice.
Professor Zhao was already forty-six years old. She had dealt with schools and corporate project departments and had her own way of handling things. She even had her own company. She was not the stereotypical academic fool who knew nothing.
Her gaze swept over everyone present.
Zhuang Licheng, as an electrical engineer, had to be won over. Pan Feizhou, the sports student with the metal-extraction ability, also had to be won over. Those two, along with herself, were the technical department members whom Fu Erdie had specifically named as eligible for a better living environment.
As for the others, Professor Zhao actually did not hope that all of them would go.
Especially one couple. Right now, they did not seem to have any ulterior motives, but after months of getting along, it could be seen that they loved scheming and also liked taking small advantages.
Being ambitious and greedy was not wrong. But being greedy and stupid at the same time, with neither character nor brains, made them ticking time bombs. Who knew when they might lose their minds and sell out the boss?
Their team had gone through countless hardships to escape here, and they had finally encountered someone who currently looked like a very good person to join. If those two ruined it, she would not be willing.
Professor Zhao lowered her eyes, thinking silently.
At noon.
After four hours of driving at high speed, Fu Erdie’s group finally arrived within Fentie City’s borders.
After passing through a transition zone, they saw vast stretches of farmland submerged by surging river water.
The water had not yet flooded the expressway, but it was only about twenty centimetres away. Another kilometre ahead, and the wheels would start entering the water.
Fu Erdie thought for a moment and asked Sang Wenhao to drive the car to the nearest small hill. They would switch to the box-car and continue forward.
The inside of the box-car was extremely clean. Looking at her own filthy state, He Xuan hesitated.
Fu Erdie directly gave her a bucket of water and a set of somewhat old but clean clothes, then transformed a metal frame into a temporary light-blocking shelter so she could wash and change inside.
Fu Erdie pulled Sang Wenhao to the top of the hill, activated her ability to recover energy and strength, and dealt with the surrounding zombies at the same time.
After He Xuan used a small amount of water to wash her hair and body, changed into clean clothes, and entered the box-car properly, her breathing became smooth. All the lingering rotten stench from the outside world was blocked out.
Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao entered the box-car. Seeing that the wounds on He Xuan’s arm were still rotting and worsening, Fu Erdie said, “I can treat your injuries, but for now I can only heal part of them, making the surface recover and stopping the inside from worsening. The rest will be treated after I find my parents. Is that okay?”
He Xuan quickly nodded!
That was more than okay!
“Thank you for your help. I can state my position directly: I recognise you as my boss! Whatever you tell me to do, I’ll do it! Whether it’s finding your parents or avoiding danger on the way home, I’ll do everything I can to let you, Student Sang, and our group all get home safely!”
Fu Erdie nodded politely at her.
The rest of the journey basically depended entirely on flying, and their speed dropped sharply.
In the morning, they had driven four hundred kilometres in the electric car. But in the afternoon, with the box-car constantly shifting, they only moved forty kilometres.
The main reason was that from now on, they had to check each location one by one. Every mountain peak where people might be hiding had to be visited, and they had to use the loudspeaker to call out.
Some survivors felt that they were around the same age as Fu Erdie’s parents, all in their fifties, and clumsily pretended to be her parents. After being exposed, they cursed in despair.
Fu Erdie ignored them all. After dealing with the zombies attracted by the loudspeaker, she scattered a few dandelion fluffs and flew away.
After six in the evening, they stopped to recover their abilities and eat dinner. After eating, they continued for another thirty kilometres and checked five mountain peaks before stopping at the sixth.
Fu Erdie felt that her parents definitely would not have stayed in the same place for the past six months. And at her speed, perhaps she could find them within a week.
But it was also possible that they had long since left the flooded area. If so, that meant they had the ability to obtain petrol and travel that far. Perhaps they had gone straight back along the route.
In that case, after Fu Erdie checked the mountain peaks in this flooded area and confirmed her parents were not there, she could turn back and search along the return route.
At night, Sang Wenhao widened the bed-box to 2.1 metres. He and Fu Erdie slept in a 1.4-metre-wide space, while He Xuan slept in a 0.7-metre-wide space. Between the two sides, they used a disinfected, reshaped steel plate pulled in from outside as a partition, barely turning the narrow space into two rooms.
Fu Erdie lay in Sang Wenhao’s arms, circulating her ability as she fell into a deep sleep. Early the next morning, they continued their journey.
Over the next few days, they travelled methodically according to the map.
Survivors who usually seemed sparse were now crowded on the tops of small hills or tiny rafts, wailing and crying for help as Fu Erdie and the others flew past.
If Fu Erdie found someone somewhat pleasing to the eye, she would throw down a small potato. But most of the time, she passed by with a heart as hard as iron and did not stop.
After travelling day and night like this for five days, they finally saw, on a rooftop that could barely support anyone anymore, two middle-aged people with gaunt faces, swaying unsteadily as they were battered by the water.
Inside the box-car, Fu Erdie’s loudspeaker was still repeatedly playing the recorded voice:
“Cao Bingqing, Fu Chenghong, your daughter has come to find you! If you hear this, wave your flashlight! The watch I bought you has a flashlight!”
“Cao Bingqing, Fu Chenghong, your daughter…”
In the rain curtain, after the two middle-aged people stood stunned for a moment, the woman began using the flashlight on her watch to flash desperately toward the box-car.
When Fu Erdie looked over, that beam of light happened to use up the last bit of battery and went out.
But that instant was enough for Fu Erdie to catch the woman’s blurry face.
It was Mom!
The person beside her must be Dad!
Fu Erdie’s tears burst out wildly, and she shouted hoarsely, “Dad! Mom! Hold on! I’m here!”
The window opened. The box-car swiftly descended and came beside the two middle-aged people. The two tired, pale faces, carrying traces of hope, burst into enormous surprise the instant they saw the girl inside the box-car, along with a thousand unspeakable emotions of sorrow and changed times.
“Fu Erdie!!!”
Her heart felt as if it had been struck by joyous, celebratory bells and drums. Fu Erdie felt the huge, heavy stone in her heart suddenly vanish.
“Dad, Mom…! I finally found you!”
The rainwater outside the window, the river water, and Fu Erdie’s tears mixed together, weaving into somewhat blurred patches of light.
She tugged Potato, letting Potato wrap its roots around her parents’ waists. Then she and Sang Wenhao pulled together, drawing the two people, who were still so overjoyed that they could hardly believe it, into the vehicle.
The carriage stopped beside the rooftop without moving. Under Sang Wenhao’s control, a steel cable pierced downward like an anchor, fixing the carriage to this section of water.
“Dad, Mom…”
Fu Erdie’s hands trembled as she hugged her parents, who seemed to have aged nearly ten years, and burst into sobs.
A full ten seconds passed before Cao Bingqing and Fu Chenghong finally pinched themselves.
“We’re not dreaming. We’re really not dreaming!” Their rough hands, covered in many calluses, touched Fu Erdie’s face and arms. “I thought we would never see each other again, wuwuwu!”
“We’re reunited!”
Alive and reunited!
Cao Bingqing wiped her eyes and widened them, holding her daughter’s face to look carefully. “You’ve lost weight. Daughter, you’ve lost weight.”
Fu Erdie cried and laughed at the same time. “Lost what weight? I’ve gained ten jin. It’s all muscle. Touch it if you don’t believe me.”
Listening from the side, Fu Chenghong could not help laughing too.
Fu Erdie was now healthy and fine, but she was worried that her parents had injuries. After crying for a while, she hurriedly asked them.
“We don’t have any major problems. No missing arms or legs. Just some small issues.”
Fu Erdie checked everywhere she could. On the surface, the most serious problem was their thighs and calves, which had been soaked in water the whole time. Especially the calves; after being soaked for three days, both legs were swollen and rotten. Their waists also had many bruises from being hit by floating debris.
Fu Erdie asked Potato to help clean the dirt from her parents’ bodies. Then, without seeming to, she glanced at He Xuan from the corner of her eye, placed her hand against the wall, and circulated her ability, making the wall produce a large amount of white light that instantly flowed into her parents’ bodies.
After her parents’ legs and feet improved a lot, Fu Erdie organised her words and explained her “ability” and the situation with the carriage.
“I have a plant ability and something similar to a ‘home’ ability. I can stimulate plants to grow and work, and I can also designate a certain space as my ‘home.’ Inside this ‘home,’ people I allow can receive clean water and thorough treatment.”
Because He Xuan was here, Fu Erdie did not tell the real situation. Instead, she described her ability with seventy percent truth and thirty percent falsehood.
“I need the house to treat people, and this treatment includes external injuries, internal injuries, and all kinds of diseases. It’s very comprehensive. Dad, Mom, you don’t need to worry about aftereffects like rheumatism. Rest for a few days and you’ll fully recover.”
“As for the house flying, that’s Sang Wenhao’s ability. He is my… almost-boyfriend.”
Her parents, who had been marvelling at their daughter’s ability, instantly raised their radar and looked again at this young man.
At first, they had only regarded this man and the woman beside him as their daughter’s teammates, and no matter how they looked at them, they seemed like good people. But now, suddenly, the feeling became a little complicated.
Looking at a junior and looking at a son-in-law were ultimately different.
Fu Erdie added a patch. “We’re still in the contact stage right now. We’re not officially boyfriend and girlfriend. If you have anything you want to ask, you can get to know him later.”
Sang Wenhao scratched his head a little awkwardly, then took out clean potatoes and water and handed them over. “Uncle, Auntie, eat a little first to fill your stomachs.”
The couple exchanged a glance, politely accepted them, and did not say anything more.
As for the child’s matters, they should let the child decide.
The box-car was small, but five people sitting around a small table was actually just right.
The water surface swayed, and the box-car rocked gently too.
Cao Bingqing and Fu Chenghong had the dirt on their bodies cleaned by Potato, and with the house treating them without reservation, their whole bodies relaxed. They briefly explained what had happened over the past six months of the apocalypse, then, after their stomachs were somewhat filled, fell into a deep sleep.
It turned out that at the beginning of the apocalypse, Cao Bingqing and Fu Chenghong had indeed been living well in that rented small villa.
But in August, somewhere upstream had heavy rain, and the embankments had not been repaired or controlled. The water rose quickly and submerged many fields.
Their villa was on the plain. When they saw water spreading from afar, they quickly prepared daily necessities, brought spare bicycles, and began fleeing for their lives.
The story after that was similar to many ordinary escapees’ stories. First, every petrol station they found along the way was either occupied by ability users or had already been emptied, forcing their vehicle to be abandoned on the road.
Facing floods that could sweep across the plain at any moment, the couple travelled light, taking the little food they had left and riding bicycles inland.
Just as Fu Erdie had thought, they had indeed followed the route agreed upon at the end of June.
But no matter how fast a bicycle could be ridden, it could not fly over a low-lying flood zone hundreds of metres long ahead. They dragged the bicycles for some distance, but once the water submerged the bicycles and they could no longer touch the ground and had to swim across, the bicycles were abandoned.
Just like that, they fled in a sorry state. The things they could use became fewer and fewer, and their food became soaked, rotten, mouldy, and foul-smelling. They could only try all kinds of ways to find wild vegetables to eat.
Last month, they became so weak that they could not run anymore, so they simply waited in a building abandoned by ability users, either waiting to die or waiting for the water to recede.
Inside the building, there were materials for fishing, spearing fish, and making fish traps. The two of them tried every method to catch fish to eat, no longer caring whether it was raw, cooked, or mutated, as long as it could be eaten.
In this way, the water rose from the first floor to the second, then slowly to the third and fourth, and finally to the rooftop of the seventh floor. Just as it was about to wash the couple away, Fu Erdie found them.
Leave a Reply