Chapter 49 – Wasteland
A few years ago, Zhou Sheqing had given her this necklace, and Su He had worn it constantly, never taking it off.
If there was a listening device inside, the most likely person to have placed it was Zhou Sheqing.
“Is the listening device still working?” Su He heard her own voice in a daze, sounding surprisingly calm.
“It’s too far away, and in the underground city with its chaotic magnetic field radiation, the listening device would be difficult to operate,” Yu Yan said, examining the small device he had dismantled. “But there is a locator here. The person who placed the listening device should know you’re in the underground city.”
“After the evolution liquid went wrong, her uncle wanted to abandon me, to push me out as a scapegoat, but she refused. She hid me in a secret laboratory, hoping I could find a way to improve the evolution liquid.”
“She promised me that this time she would follow my instructions and not misuse the evolution liquid, but I no longer trust her.”
Su He didn’t know what she was saying. Her mind was buzzing, feeling a panic and loneliness similar to when she had first learned about her parents’ deaths.
She clutched the necklace tightly, slowly realizing that she had lost something precious once again.
“I’m sorry, senior. I probably caused you trouble this time. I’ll leave immediately. The Zhou family might send someone to find me at any moment, and I can’t let you be implicated.” Su He mumbled, her hand trembling as she held onto the table.
Su He was certain that Zhou Sheqing would come looking for her.
She knew that the Zhou family was not in a good situation now, and Zhou Sheqing could not handle such pressure. She would definitely need Su He, whether to continue researching the evolution liquid or to exchange her with the Central Research Institute for a chance.
Even if she still remembered the friendship from these past few years, it wouldn’t delay things for long. She might already be bringing people over right now.
“I’ll take Xiao Ye and leave immediately… No, let Xiao Ye stay here. His evolution isn’t complete, and he’s still weak. I’ll leave with the necklace by myself.”
Yu Yan held Su He back. He didn’t seem at all flustered, still maintaining his usual relaxed demeanor.
“Don’t panic. Where do you plan to go? Do you have any place to go right now?”
No. Su He took a deep breath, her mind finally starting to function. “Maybe I could go to Second District. It’s the Song family’s territory, and Zhou family’s influence there is minimal.”
“Do you think that if the Zhou family leaks the news that the evolution liquid came from you, the Song family or other family groups won’t want to find you? Falling into their hands might be no better than being with the Zhou family,” Yu Yan analyzed.
“I have a suggestion. How about we go to the Wasteland District?”
Su He was stunned. “The Wasteland District? Us?”
“Yeah, us. We’ll take 012 and Xiao Ye with us and find a place in the Wasteland District to prepare for the Zhou family’s people,” Yu Yan said with a smile. “I happen to know a suitable location.”
Seeing Su He’s expression, Yu Yan knew that the kind-hearted protagonist’s sense of morality was kicking in. Before she could refuse, he added:
“I’ve had you help me a lot. You lost a lot of hair back then because of my illness. Now, I’m actively inviting you to help with 012’s situation. Of course, I’ll take responsibility.”
“Moreover, you’re my junior and my friend. Helping you is the right thing to do.”
Su He’s forced calm expression slowly crumbled. Her mouth and eyes drooped, and as soon as she blinked, tears began streaming down her face. She cried so hard that her appearance became unrecognizable, looking like a little girl.
Yu Yan patted her on the head. “It’s okay. None of this is your fault.”
Through her sobs, Su He said, “Senior, you really feel like my dad.”
He didn’t seem like much most of the time, but he was incredibly reliable when it mattered.
Yu Yan withdrew his hand. “…There’s no need to be so formal. Just call me ‘brother.’”
No need to be a dad.
Su He sniffled again. “Even if we go to the Wasteland District, why take Xiao Ye and 012 with us? They’re still in the middle of their evolution.”
Yu Yan replied, “Exactly because they are evolving that we need to take them. Without the stimulus of danger, their evolution will be very slow. If we delay too long, their evolution might fail.”
Su He asked, “Will it really make a difference?”
Yu Yan said, “Let’s give it a try.”
Su He pressed, “Then where exactly is this Wasteland District? Are we sure we can handle the Zhou family’s people?”
Yu Yan answered, “Let’s give it a try.”
Su He thought, “……”
Is this really reliable?
Whether it was reliable or not was uncertain for now, but Yu Yan’s decisiveness was impressive. He organized everything that day in the underground city and drove off with 012, Su He, and Xiao Ye toward the Wasteland District.
This was Yu Yan’s first time venturing deep into the true Wasteland District. The bumpy roads near the underground city were long gone.
As far as the eye could see, there were only thorny vines and wild grass sprawling across the ground, with no signs of human presence.
There were no roads, so one had to create a path. Yu Yan’s vehicle was equipped with a very high chassis, and the wheels were reinforced and covered with a special material, allowing it to drive over these menacing thorns.
Although there were still some remnants of human civilization from centuries ago scattered across the ground, most of the buildings had collapsed beyond recognition or were consumed by trees and vines.
Now, this area belonged to mutated creatures.
The one-meter-high carnivorous ants, rats with steel spikes on their backs like hedgehogs, and bloodsucking wasps that could penetrate anywhere, which Yu Yan had seen in documentaries, could all potentially be encountered here.
Of course, there were also larger predators.
Yu Yan drove at the front, with 012 in the passenger seat, and Su He with her silver wolf in the back seat.
The two high-level mutants, both in the middle of their evolution, couldn’t stay in the same confined space. They sensed each other’s threats and nearly came to blows.
Yu Yan and Su He each tried to calm them down, and then raised the isolation glass between the front and rear seats, which finally brought a fragile calm.
After delving deeper into the Wasteland District, 012, who had previously made occasional chirping sounds, fell silent. It stared expressionlessly out of the window, its body tense and muscles tight, indicating a state of heightened vigilance.
Yu Yan, feeling bored while driving, noticed that 012 seemed fully focused, as if listening intently. He reached over and patted 012’s chin.
012, who had to stick to him all the time these days, didn’t react, keeping his gaze fixed on the distant trees.
Yu Yan scratched his chin again, and 012, without moving his head, reached up and grasped Yu Yan’s hand, holding it close to his chest in a soothing gesture, while still paying close attention to the surroundings.
Their vehicle rolled over a patch of wild grass that was about a person’s height. The grass outside the window shifted, and 012’s gaze swept downward, likely seeing something, but he did not react.
Suddenly, there was a loud howl from the back seat, and with a thud, the silver wolf’s front paws slammed against the window.
Fortunately, the silver wolf was too large to move around in the back compartment, or its repeated collisions might have flipped the car.
“Xiao Ye, calm down, get down!” Su He said, hugging the silver wolf and trying to soothe it by holding its neck and ears.
012 remained calm, preferring to stay hidden and aim for a quick, decisive strike.
In contrast, the silver wolf Xiao Ye was more instinctual and aggressive. Faced with any threat, it tended to react with intimidation first.
The rough terrain made driving difficult, and the vehicle was prone to getting stuck.
Yu Yan sprayed some insect repellent on himself, grabbed an energy gun and tools, and got out of the car to check on its condition.
The vehicle’s tires were entangled by the tough mutated vines on the ground. Yu Yan bent down and tried to cut through the vines with a cutting tool, but it was ineffective.
Switching to a high-temperature torch, he directed the flames at the vines. The vines recoiled like snakes, and the nearby leaves folded together like sensitive plants.
After clearing the area, Yu Yan stood up and was surprised to find 012 standing behind him, holding a bloody half of a snake.
The window of the car was rolled down a crack, and Su He, still shaken, said, “Senior, that was really dangerous. The flying snake suddenly came out of the grass and almost bit your neck.”
She had just seen that scene and hadn’t even had time to shout a warning before 012 had grabbed the snake.
His speed was so fast that Su He didn’t see when he had gotten out of the car and moved to Yu Yan’s side.
After discarding the snake, 012 approached Yu Yan, rubbing his forehead and licking his cheek, trying to comfort his companion who had almost been attacked.
Yu Yan thought: But I wasn’t startled?
On the remaining journey, whenever they encountered a situation that required getting out of the car, 012 would follow Yu Yan outside.
Su He got out to help, and the silver wolf also jumped out, trailing behind her. Even if no danger was present, the wolf would bark loudly to drive away any potential threats lurking in the wild forest.
The wolf, having evolved from a mid-level mutant to a high-level one, would maintain its wolf form throughout the entire evolution process until it was complete.
While driving, Yu Yan adjusted the direction several times and headed toward a specific destination.
Su He asked, “Senior, you mentioned someone would come to pick us up. Does anyone actually live in a place like this?”
Surrounded almost entirely by mutated plants and animals, Su He didn’t even dare to roll down the window.
Colorful striped insects, about the size of a palm, were crawling on the broad leaves, almost brushing past the car window.
There was a constant tapping on the roof. Xiao Ye barked upward as several centipede-like creatures, as thick as a forearm, crawled across the roof and left behind moist trails.
Su He recognized them as spine-less centipedes. She had used their secretion extract in a potion she made before; untreated, it was highly toxic.
The forest was so dense that the car was jolting from side to side over the uneven terrain, occasionally bumping into things.
Su He couldn’t clearly see what they were hitting; she only noticed that the senior ahead skillfully maneuvered the steering wheel, driving steadily like a rock, and even managed to chat with 012 next to him.
Meanwhile, she was on the verge of throwing up.
Before Su He could vomit, the road conditions finally improved slightly. She saw a few small hills behind the forest ahead.
In front, a large bare tree stood with a figure on a branch about two meters high, waving both hands at them.
“Hey! Over here!” Another figure below the tree was shouting.
“The people coming to pick us up have arrived,” Yu Yan said, driving the car toward them.
The little cat, Xiao Wei, jumped down from the tree and landed on the car hood, pulling up the little rabbit, Xiao Hong, with him. The two children crouched on the hood and pointed the way.
“Drive over there.”
Following their directions, the car navigated through the forest and approached the nearby hills.
Su He got out of the car and was surprised to see the “hills.” From a distance, they looked like mountains, but up close, she realized they were actually giant mutated trees tangled together, growing amid the ruins of high-rise buildings, forming what looked like tree mountains.
The collapsed skyscrapers were stacked together and almost completely covered by dense trees and wild grass. Only a few reflective shards of glass on top revealed their former identity as tall buildings.
Yu Yan, acting like a tour guide, explained, “This city was quite famous before the great disaster. Do you see the tallest mountain? It used to be a landmark building in this city, but now it’s entirely hidden by the trees.”
Xiao Wei flicked his cat tail and asked, “You seem quite familiar with this place?”
Yu Yan smiled and replied, “Of course, if you’re coming here, you need to know a bit about it.”
Xiao Hong asked, “Our big brother isn’t coming?”
Yu Yan answered, “No, Lu Qiufeng is busy watching the excitement in Fifth District.”
On the way, Yu Yan had mentioned to Su He that the people coming to pick them up were friends of Lu Qiufeng, but Su He hadn’t expected that Lu Qiufeng’s friends would turn out to be two mutated children.
She held onto the restless silver wolf, precisely pinching its jaw when it tried to growl softly, and advised, “When you meet other kids, be friendly and don’t scare them.”
Xiao Wei, the lively little cat, came up to the silver wolf and sniffed its scent. “Is he also a mutant? His smell is a bit different from ours.”
Xiao Hong, the little rabbit, was a bit frightened by the large silver wolf and kept a safe distance.
Su He, eyeing the cute, shy rabbit, smiled and asked Xiao Wei, “Can I touch your ears?”
Xiao Wei tilted his head and asked, “Are you a friend of my big brother, just like him?”
Su He replied firmly, “Of course, I have a very good relationship with Lu Qiufeng!”
Xiao Wei said, “In that case, alright. On behalf of my big brother, I’ll let you touch them.”
Su He happily petted Xiao Wei’s ears, and the silver wolf howled, “Awooo!”
Instantly, Su He clamped a hand over its mouth to muffle the sound.
They walked into the skyscraper covered in trees. As expected, the interior was in ruins, but it was spacious, with water dripping from the ceiling like a waterfall.
Xiao Wei jumped to a pool and struck a basin vigorously, the clanging sound echoing through the building.
“We’ve picked up the people, everyone come out to discuss matters!”
After shouting several times, figures began to appear from all around, all of them mutants.
“This is the friend of my big brother I told you about. He’s the one who went to the Rainbow Cage Manor to rescue my big brother,” Xiao Wei said, pointing at Yu Yan to introduce him.
