Qin Huai looked at the rope hanging in front of her, but no matter what, she was unwilling to grab it.
There was no need, was there?
They had travelled such a long distance back to C City. There were too many accidents they could encounter.
The best-case scenario was that all the zombies in the city had already left, and the ability-user teams stationed in the city who happened to encounter them were all good people, with no vicious criminals among them, and were willing to hire them to repair various devices and equipment in a relatively fair way.
But now, she was injured. Whether she could walk normally was unknown, let alone find a reliable ability-user team with repair needs in such a large city without any means of transport.
The food they had now was only enough for two people to eat for four days. After four days, if they still could not find something to sustain themselves, there would only be death.
Qin Huai looked at her bleeding arm and her leg, which might be broken and was now hurting so badly that she could not exert any strength, and made her decision.
She untied the food straps from the bicycle and knotted them to the climbing rope Zhao Xiaolu had thrown down.
“Pull the things up.”
Zhao Xiaolu frowned, but still pulled the food up first.
When she untied the climbing rope again and threw it back into the pit where Qin Huai was, Qin Huai said, “Go alone. With this food, you can eat for eight days. In those few days, you might have a better chance of finding some reliable ability users. Maybe you can even find family or friends. Even if the chance is one in ten thousand, it still exists.”
Zhao Xiaolu was furious. “Qin Huai, what do you mean? It’s not time to give up yet! We’re already almost home, and you’re lying here waiting to die? Is that worth it?! What was all that fleeing before for?!”
Qin Huai shook her head.
Once she made up her mind, she would not change it.
“My leg is ruined. My skills haven’t reached the point where I can exchange for such a powerful healing ability. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Qin Huai!”
The two argued, deadlocked.
More accurately, Zhao Xiaolu was one-sidedly scolding Qin Huai.
A year ago, they had been strangers. Over this past year, by a twist of fate, they had walked together, supported each other, and held each other up. That support had not only been physical and material, but also spiritual dependence.
Without each other, they would never have been able to stumble this far with ordinary human bodies.
So many times, in desperate situations during the apocalypse, when one side collapsed, the other stayed by her side and thought of a way to drag her out of the mud. Then when the other fell into a dead end, she would pull herself together again and continue finding a way.
They were partners who had lived and died together. They were inseparable family!
“You won’t come up, right? Fine, I’ll go down!”
“Zhao Xiaolu, are you crazy?!”
“Who isn’t crazy in this apocalypse?! Huh? Which normal person isn’t crazy?! Let’s die then! Everyone can just die together!”
“Get back up here!”
“If you won’t come up, what am I doing up there?”
“You!”
Not long after Fu Erdie entered the Qingfan Mountain forest area, her fifth-rank ability-user hearing allowed her to faintly hear the sound of people arguing.
They first quickly reached the fork in the road where the two women had separated from Yin Xuan, then went down the other road, following the voices toward where they had fallen. The whole process took no more than twenty minutes, and they arrived at the slope marked by the trail of a bicycle pressing through the vegetation.
The two people still arguing in the slope only belatedly raised their heads when they heard a vehicle passing.
The electric car door opened, and a familiar figure entered their sight.
“Fu Erdie …!”
“Xiaolu!”
The two spoke at the same time, overwhelmed with both grief and joy.
Fu Erdie had no time to be emotional. She hurriedly had Sang Wenhao form two metal chairs with backrests and armrests, lowering them down to bring the two women up.
This time, she had not brought the house, so she could not deal with their wounds for the moment. Fu Erdie stuffed a potato with recovery and bleeding-stopping effects into each of their hands, telling them to eat quickly, then rapidly brought them into the car.
“Please wait a moment. Our luggage is still behind,” Qin Huai said, thinking of the other bicycle still properly parked by the road.
Fu Erdie stopped the car. “Aside from food and ordinary daily items, are there any objects with special functions, or anything with special commemorative meaning?”
Qin Huai was an ordinary person. Unlike other ability users, she could not vaguely sense Fu Erdie’s strength. She only knew that Fu Erdie was probably a fairly well-off ability user, likely rescuing her too for Zhao Xiaolu’s sake. Not wanting to cause trouble, she quickly said, “They’re all ordinary things. If you need them, you can take them back. If you don’t care for them, it doesn’t matter if you leave them.”
Fu Erdie looked at Qin Huai’s clearly abnormally bent leg and her body covered in cold sweat from enduring pain. She nodded seriously. “Then I’ll send you back first. Whatever is missing later, I’ll compensate you double.”
She turned to Yin Xuan and said, “They’re very important friends of mine. If not for you, something would definitely have happened to them today.”
After all, even if the zombies had not caught up at the fork, they would have caught up at the current accident location.
Yin Xuan’s decision to lure the zombies away had truly saved Zhao Xiaolu, and also saved the hardware store owner.
The owner was Zhao Xiaolu’s life-and-death teammate, so she was also Fu Erdie’s friend.
Fu Erdie said, “Your electric bike broke, so I’ll give you that bicycle over there. If you need the packages there, you can take them back too. Or you can leave them. Do as you like. To thank you for your help, you and your teammates can live in Building One of the complex, long-term and free of charge. If you’re willing, you can move into the complex anytime.”
Yin Xuan’s eyes shone brightly.
She had thought getting a bicycle and two bags of grain was already the thank-you gift. She had not expected the real thank-you gift to be this!
“Can we move in tonight?”
Fu Erdie nodded. “If you’re not afraid of the trouble of travelling in the dark, then tonight is fine.”
“Not troublesome, not troublesome, hehehe!” Yin Xuan could not stop grinning, the corners of her mouth almost reaching the back of her head. “We ability users who used to only dare go out at night to search for supplies — how could this be troublesome? We’ll come tonight!”
The luggage lying in the sloped pit among the weeds was very difficult for ordinary people like Zhao Xiaolu and Qin Huai to retrieve. But to Yin Xuan, an earth-type ability user, it was something she could casually scoop up.
Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao took their friends home to be treated and settled. Yin Xuan quickly got on the bicycle and pedalled madly back toward the team’s gathering place in the university town, carrying all the large and small bags.
As for Fu Erdie, after roughly understanding the injuries and illnesses of the two women, she directly said, “Don’t worry about the leg injury or the wounds on your bodies. Once we get back, everything will be healed. From now on, you won’t suffer anymore. We’re going home. Whatever existed before the apocalypse, exists now too.”
Zhao Xiaolu blinked. Everything had gone so smoothly and so suddenly that it felt unreal.
Her body was still trembling slightly from excitement and her racing heart. Her eyes reddened, but her mouth said, “Then I want to play on my phone, play games, and chat online every day.”
Fu Erdie pulled a clean towel from the car and wiped the mud and sweat from her face. “Internet still isn’t possible, but single-player games and chatting with you are possible. In the complex now, there’s me, Xiyang, and my grandmother, whom you know. Everyone is there. Everyone will keep you company.”
Zhao Xiaolu looked at the person gently and carefully wiping her face. Through the side of Fu Erdie’s face, she saw the shadowy trees flashing by outside the window.
The remaining light of the sunset fell through the dust, freezing into a long-lost peaceful evening.
Zhao Xiaolu rarely cried, but now her tears burst like a broken dam, and for a long time she could not say a single word.
After a long while, she finally said, “That’s wonderful.”
Beside her, Qin Huai, who had truly survived a dead end, was already sobbing uncontrollably.
Sang Wenhao drove very quickly, and they returned to the complex in fifteen minutes.
The sun was now sinking behind the slope, and the sky was growing dim.
Zhao Xiaolu and Qin Huai had finally managed to stop crying, only to stare dumbly as they discovered that the complex was actually lit!
Not one room, not two rooms, but the whole! entire! complex! was lit!
After entering the complex, they saw a strange-looking twenty-four-storey building taking tiny steps in an open space.
Zhao Xiaolu, Qin Huai: “……?”
I do not understand, but I am greatly shocked.
There were quite a few people in the complex. They were moving and busy inside and outside Building Six, already used to the jumping building next door.
When they saw Fu Erdie and the others arrive, everyone greeted her loudly with smiles, calling her “Butterfly Principal.” The dandelions and the plants visible everywhere in the complex could not help coming over to rub and nuzzle against Fu Erdie whenever she passed.
Qin Huai sat on the floating metal chair, feeling as though she had arrived in a fairy-tale kingdom. Even her broken leg bone no longer hurt as much. Her entire person felt dazed and unreal.
Fu Erdie called for the house to stop, then brought the two injured women into this unique house made of plants.
Qin Huai thought a healing ability user would come and use healing ability on her. Instead, she saw Fu Erdie place her hand against the wall of the plant house. White light flickered, and white particles floated from the wall onto Qin Huai.
Five minutes later, her twisted broken leg returned to normal… and it did not hurt anymore?!
Qin Huai could not believe it.
Fu Erdie encouraged her. “You can try standing up.”
Qin Huai stepped down from the floating chair and placed both feet on the ground.
She really could stand, and it did not hurt!!!
She tried walking a few steps in place, then stamped her foot, and finally jumped.
Mm, only jumping hurt a little. But this pain was only like bruising somewhere on the leg that had not fully healed. It was completely bearable, not on the same level as the broken leg before!
After basically resolving Qin Huai’s problems, the white light entered Zhao Xiaolu’s body.
Zhao Xiaolu only had the common problems of ordinary apocalypse survivors, such as skin disease, dehydration, malnutrition, and so on. She had no major illnesses, so she was quickly healed.
“This is my ability. Mm… you can think of it as a home ability.” Fu Erdie repeated her usual explanation about having dual abilities. “As long as you’re in this space, any illness or pain can be healed. It’s already late today. Eat properly and rest first. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about specific arrangements.”
There were more and more people in the complex now, with different departments and types of work, so mealtimes differed. But among the core group on the sixteenth floor, apart from big shots like Professor Zhao and the technical department, everyone else basically ate and drank whenever they finished their serious work.
Especially the people in the technical department — recently, they had been extremely comfortable. To train their abilities, they had even developed a kind of game: playing gomoku on the walls.
The plant babies also wanted to play, so they cooperated by making a grid of straight horizontal and vertical lines, then using white gardenia flowers and yellow zucchini flowers as pieces, letting the ability users control the flowers with their abilities to play chess.
It was training, and also play. When they got tired from playing, they ate. When they got tired from eating, they wandered around, or let the plants toss them around for fun.
The plants treated this group of fearless ability users like yo-yos. They themselves did not like being thrown into the sky, and there were no other plants for them to play with, so only the ability users let themselves be thrown, which was also a way to train the plants’ strength.
Several times, plant babies got carried away and flung people more than twenty metres away without catching them.
Whenever this happened, the spider plant would pull the person back from the line between life and death.
Of course, if one day even the spider plant failed to catch someone, the house could still perform miraculous healing. As long as the person’s ability-user body did not die on the spot, they could be brought back to Building Seven, healed again, and continue messing around.
In short, the happy ability users and happy plant babies were the idlest group in the entire complex, playing while cultivating. They had no formal mealtime either.
To ensure this increasingly unreliable group of ability users could eat hot food, Granny Zhang kept the electric pot steaming sweet potatoes, steamed buns, steamed eggs, and the like almost whenever she was awake. Whenever someone wanted to eat, food could be served immediately.
Now that Zhao Xiaolu and Qin Huai had arrived, Granny Zhang calmly brought out large amounts of food. From baby cabbage to sweet-and-sour ribs, from fermented rice drink to sorghum liquor, from white flour steamed buns to egg cake — anything that could be made from simple, unpretentious ingredients was placed on the table.
After reuniting, Cen Xiyang and Zhao Xiaolu sat together, punching and shoving each other playfully. At first, they held back from crying and even mocked each other for having changed personalities, from tough guys into crying dogs. But as they laughed and talked about their respective experiences, they ended up hugging each other and crying loudly.
Slowly, the crying infected the whole table, and everyone began to cry. Then they opened drinks and beer to celebrate.
Because Cen Xiyang was too excited, she opened a can of carbonated drink and sprayed foam everywhere, causing everyone to laugh while crying. The scene was briefly out of control.
Looking at the excited and unrestrained crowd, Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao sat in the corner, silently watching. Their hearts felt somewhat sour, but more than that, they felt fortunate.
Their relatives had not been found during this period. Messages had been sent to other bases asking about them, but no effective reply had come back.
With a survival rate of one in a thousand, everyone had a pessimistic understanding of how likely it was that people with no news were still alive.
Perhaps only by crying and laughing loudly enough could they hide the sorrow buried in their hearts.
Fu Erdie leaned against Sang Wenhao’s shoulder.
That was right. The person beside her had even confirmed that both of his parents had become zombies…
She hugged Sang Wenhao like a sloth, hoping to use warmth and the automatic circulation of ability to dilute more of his sadness.
Sang Wenhao rested his cheek against the top of his girlfriend’s head and also said nothing.
Because quite a few beers had been opened, those who could drink and those who could not all wanted to indulge a little and drink freely.
Not only did they drink, they simply carried dozens of boxes of beer and drinks from storage downstairs, inviting the employees who were walking and chatting downstairs next door to come drink if they wanted beer or soft drinks.
Because the entire complex now had electricity, and Building Seven’s plant babies needed to practise walking, everyone had spent the day reassigning rooms and moving. They had to empty Building Seven as quickly as possible so that Building Seven would have more time to practise hopping and jumping.
That evening, after everyone finished moving, their mood was relaxed and they had nothing to do, so they wandered around the complex chatting. Now that they were invited by the slightly tipsy ability users to drink and party, they were also tempted.
A few people who had good relationships with the cousin Cao Yuanbai at work were the first to go over for drinks. Seeing this, the others relaxed and followed.
A group of people sat casually on the clean cement road and grass. Everywhere was clean anyway, so they sat wherever they liked, drinking and chatting.
A few more outgoing uncles and aunties immediately hummed songs and began dancing.
Seeing this, Sang Wenhao told Fu Erdie to wait for him. He went back and brought out a guitar.
Smooth, gentle guitar sounds rose, and a soft voice followed the melody, flowing through a small corner of the noisy crowd.
“City of stars, are you shining just for me.”
“City of stars, there’s so much that I can’t see.”
Streetlights and the lights from hundreds of rooms swayed and flickered.
Her city had not died.
Her boy, her girl, would always be there too.
She would work hard to protect the people she loved and wanted to protect.
Fu Erdie hooked her arms around Sang Wenhao’s neck over the guitar and kissed his warm, soft lips.
The guitar was placed on the ground beside them. Sang Wenhao wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his embrace.
In that instant, somehow, the two of them faintly understood why only they could automatically circulate ability with each other.
They had complete tacit understanding and trust. When they met, both had had nothing and no one, lonely and without support. After becoming each other’s support, they had unknowingly grown stronger together, become existences above others together, and become the inseparable pillars of the entire Butterfly Garden.
The house and the plants also accompanied her, but they were more pure and ignorant. They did not understand the twists and turns of human emotions.
Cen Xiyang understood. Cen Xiyang also trusted Fu Erdie enough. But by coincidence, after reuniting, their relationship had become that of protector and protected.
Although Cen Xiyang’s ability was highly offensive, whether in ability level or psychological dependence, Cen Xiyang relied more on Fu Erdie.
Fu Erdie also relied on Cen Xiyang, but this emotional support placed on a close friend had, as she grew stronger, shifted more toward protective desire.
Only Sang Wenhao, who had saved her from the beginning and had also been saved by her, was truly in a mutually protective and mutually dependent relationship with her.
The push and pull of ability was not simply her instinctively wanting to send her ability into him. He also wanted to push his own ability back, filling Fu Erdie’s energy space.
Although he could not see his own energy space and did not understand how to control that mysterious energy, because he had that instinct to protect her in return, it intertwined with Fu Erdie’s actively input ability and formed a complete automatic ability circulation process.
When Fu Erdie looked at the lively scene, even though many people were older than her and even her elders, she still felt a sense of detachment, as if she were watching children play while sitting alone to the side. Sang Wenhao noticed every subtle emotion in her and also showed the same state of being detached amid liveliness.
He and she were both strong people. They were protectors.
So they would protect each other.
That night, the plants also got high.
Because they also tried drinking alcohol.
The taste was strange. It did not make the plant babies drunk, but it made them excited. They imitated the way humans staggered around, swaying oddly in the wind.
Everyone had a great time.
The only ones who suffered were Yin Xuan and her group, who came late at night with their team to seek refuge.
From far away, they saw in the complex’s light and shadows that the plants were baring claws and waving branches wildly, as if drunkenly going mad.
Trembling, they reached the gate and knocked. The spider plant, which had been instructed to receive them, still remembered them. It opened the door, led them to the first floor of Building One, then pointed at each room door with keys inserted, signalling that they could choose freely.
Yin Xuan and the others: “…”
Afraid that they might have misunderstood, they chose a corner room and squeezed inside, put down their bags and bundles, then each received a potato. After that, there was nothing else.
They thought someone would come find them, but after waiting for a long time, only the spider plant left and returned, holding a pinyin chart and gesturing.
The group struggled to recognise the pinyin and connect the sounds.
“They are playing. Tonight, you can use this floor freely. The principal says to treat this place like a hotel.”
Yin Xuan blinked. “So… we can use water freely and electricity freely?”
The spider plant nodded its “head.”
Yin Xuan was so happy she almost jumped up.
They could finally wash themselves clean, one by one!
Out of politeness and caution, the twelve people in the team did not occupy more rooms. They only chose a corner two-bedroom apartment. After moving their things in, they went in pairs of the same gender to take turns bathing in the bathroom.
There were several sets of clean clothes in the bathroom and bedrooms, but everyone still did not dare use them. They only washed while scrubbing their own clothes clean, then came out wearing the same wet clothes.
It was late June now, and the night temperature was around twenty-five degrees. Everyone was an ability user and did not feel cold, so they sat one by one on the floor, waiting for their teammates to bathe while examining the room and thinking about how to sleep on the floor that night.
And so, while the rest of the complex ate and drank lively downstairs, Yin Xuan’s group had four women sleeping in the two bedrooms and eight men sleeping in the four living room spaces, falling asleep comfortably.
Late at night, when the spider plant was bored and about to doze off in the complex, it suddenly remembered that its principal seemed to have left a thank-you letter for it to pass on… It had forgotten…
Feeling somewhat guilty, it placed the letter beside the sleeping group, who had made floor beds, and quietly disappeared.
When they woke the next day, they finally saw the thank-you letter on the floor.
Fu Erdie had written it by hand. First, she expressed thanks. Second, she was worried that when they arrived, the people in the complex might already be asleep and no one would receive them. She feared they would feel awkward, so she had specially written the letter telling them to choose rooms freely on the first floor according to their group size. Everything on the first floor could be used, including the temporarily prepared clothes.
Yin Xuan looked at these few lines, then at the clothes everyone had worn wet all night and which had already dried. She sighed. “Butterfly Principal was truly generous to us. We were too cautious and ended up failing her kindness.”
They ate the breakfast the spider plant brought over — a pot of porridge and a basket of steamed dumplings — then left the room and waited at the entrance for a possible receptionist.
The complex was full of plants. As the tentacle monster whose tendrils spread through the entire complex, the spider plant saw that they had washed and eaten, so it reported the news to Fu Erdie. While at it, it also aggrievedly mentioned its mistake regarding the letter.
Fu Erdie stroked its head. “You already did very well! Everyone was playing yesterday, and only you were working overtime. But in the future, if good people who have shown us kindness come over like this, you can directly call me. Even if I’m playing, I still need to receive them.”
Indeed, there still needed to be someone specially on duty for reception. Plants could not conveniently speak, so there might be some things that were inconvenient for them to express. Treating a lifesaver like this had been her oversight.
She and Sang Wenhao were always together. They handled this matter together too, also bringing Zhao Xiaolu, Qin Huai, and Cen Xiyang, who wanted to thank the person who had saved her good friend.
After the group went over, they first apologised for yesterday’s negligence. Yin Xuan kept waving her hands. “We’re already very happy. You don’t know how precious this water is to us! And the room wasn’t crowded. Last year, when several of us went out searching for supplies and hiding from zombies, things were much worse than now. Even our current base is dirty and messy. It can’t compare to this place at all.”
Fu Erdie still felt apologetic and did not offer empty words. She gave everyone five jin of potatoes. “These potatoes have healing effects. As long as it’s not a particularly serious illness or injury, they can treat it. But if it’s lesions caused by river water, you still need to enter my home domain. Anyone who wants their body treated can come with me.”
The twelve ability users looked at each other. It was the first time they learned that Butterfly Principal had so many abilities!
Fu Erdie brought them back to Building Seven and carefully healed all the large and small illnesses in each person’s body.
Whether it was chronic old ailments or wear and tear of organs and bones, everything was repaired.
The group walked out feeling light all over. After standing dazed in the sunlight for a moment, they burst into immense joy!
They… what kind of golden thigh had they latched onto!!!
This healing effect — even all the healing ability users in C City combined could not do it. Yet Butterfly Principal achieved it with a mere movement of her fingers!
“Principal!” Yin Xuan took the lead, hugging Fu Erdie’s thigh. “We are willing to do anything for Butterfly Garden! Come on! Assign us tasks to your heart’s content!”
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