Eaten Ch.157.2

Chapter 157.2: Flower Fairy

Two hours later, the base was fully swallowed by night. Those who had been working during the day returned at this hour, and from time to time, voices and the rumble of engines sounded along the road outside the guesthouse.

Swarms of crayfish crawled up from the bottom of the lake, their shells like armor. Countless large claws rose above the mass of bodies, clacking loudly against one another. The guards atop the base’s walls faced yet another sleepless night.

But Wu Heng slept soundly. Held in Xie Chongyi’s arms, Xie Chongyi slept more deeply than usual as well.

—

When Wu Heng woke naturally, Xie Chongyi was still asleep. He closed his eyes again and lay there for a while before the reality of finally seeing Xie Chongyi again truly sank in.

After a night of closed windows and shared warmth, the air in the room had turned damp and stuffy. Wu Heng tilted his head and saw that Xie Chongyi was still fast asleep. Gently pushing him away, he got out of bed alone and went into the bathroom to wash up.

“Knock, knock.”

Wu Heng had just set down the washcloth when there was a knock at the door.

He was about to go open it, but the moment he stepped out of the bathroom, he saw that Xie Chongyi was already standing at the open doorway. The person outside looked vaguely familiar—probably someone he had seen before, just not memorable enough for him to recall clearly.

In a particularly good mood, Wu Heng finished washing up, then carefully brushed Shukui’s teeth and even wiped down X’s feathers.

“Slower—slower!” X shouted with his beak wide open.

“….” Wu Heng paused slightly. Squatting in front of the large bird, his expression unusually calm, he said, “Do you not want your tongue anymore?”

“Your bird can talk?” Li Nian leaned into the doorway from the corridor, peering inside curiously. “I saw it yesterday, it’s really big.”

Xie Chongyi leaned lazily against the doorframe, looking sleepy yet composed. “What do you want?”

“I came to call you down for breakfast. It’s in the cafeteria on the first floor of the guesthouse. My mom specially had someone make alkali noodles and snakehead fish noodles—those are pretty hard to get on an ordinary day.” Li Nian smiled at Xie Chongyi in a friendly way. Then the smile faded as he asked, “I don’t think I saw you yesterday. Are you two together?”

“Which two?” Xie Chongyi raised an eyebrow.

“You and that long-haired boy, are you together?”

“If he’s not with his boyfriend, who would he be with?” Xie Chongyi replied evenly, another question in return.

Li Nian froze for quite a while, then his expression quickly turned awkward. “Oh… I see.”

“Then hurry up and get ready and come downstairs.” After saying that, he jogged off down the stairs.

“What kind of noodles are ‘alkali noodles’?” Wu Heng appeared behind Xie Chongyi, carrying the fresh, clean scent from washing up.

“They’re made with alkaline dough. You probably can’t eat them.” Xie Chongyi closed the door and, in the same motion, pulled Wu Heng into his arms for a hug. He buried his face in the crook of Wu Heng’s neck. After a long moment, he lifted his head and rubbed his cheek against Wu Heng’s. “Did you put on perfume?”

“No.”

“But you smell so good.”

Wu Heng hesitated, lips parting slightly, but said nothing. Xie Chongyi let him go. “I’ll go wash up.”

While Xie Chongyi was in the bathroom, Wu Heng slipped into his spatial storage.

Doctor Chen had already changed into his work clothes inside the space. Holding two little pheasants, he looked puzzled. “Why are you coming in now? Did something happen outside?”

“I’m getting clothes. Going out.”

As Wu Heng’s abilities had grown, the space had expanded tremendously—so vast that its edges were nowhere in sight. All the supplies he had gathered over time, meticulously sorted by Doctor Chen, occupied only a patch of land the size of a grain of rice in comparison.

“Doctor Chen, you’ve turned this place into a clothing supermarket.” When Wu Heng had first stored things, he had done it indiscriminately, stuffing everything inside in one go. Not just women’s clothes—there were piles of children’s clothes too. Thankfully, he had Doctor Chen to organize it all.

Doctor Chen followed behind him. “Are you proud of using one person for multiple purposes?”

“I’ll get you something to eat later.”

“I want to experience the thrill of hunting.”

Without looking at him, Wu Heng replied, “You can eat a sheep.”

Doctor Chen’s figure very quickly vanished with an excited string of odd noises behind the boy.

After changing clothes, Wu Heng left the space.

He sat at the foot of the bed and waited until Xie Chongyi came out of the bathroom before standing up.

They spoke at the same time.

“You styled your hair.”

“You changed clothes.”

Xie Chongyi explained casually first, “Just fixed it a little. Doesn’t it look good?”

Wu Heng shook his head. “It looks good.” He didn’t think anyone could look at Xie Chongyi’s face and say it wasn’t. Especially since “men change a lot as they grow up”—after a few months drifting around Jingzhou, Xie Chongyi had become sharper yet more restrained, though he still carried that air of not putting anyone in his sights.

The others had already arrived downstairs at the cafeteria. It wasn’t just their group eating there—quite a few ability users from other bases staying at the guesthouse were there as well.

The moment Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi stepped into the cafeteria—followed closely by Shukui and X behind them—they drew a number of subtle glances.

Whether it was the dog and bird, still sleek and glossy despite the apocalypse, or the striking looks of the two young men, either one alone was enough to turn heads.

“A’Heng!” Lin Mengzhi was standing at the window waiting for his noodles. The second he saw them, he shouted.

X flapped down from Wu Heng’s shoulder and landed right on top of Lin Mengzhi’s head, curling up there.

“There’s crayfish salad over there.” Xue Qi walked past Wu Heng with a plate of food, casually feeding Shukui a piece of shrimp as he did so. Shukui immediately trotted after him eagerly.

“What kind of dog is that?”

“It’s a greyhound!”

“Are dogs even allowed in the cafeteria?”

“I just saw a green-headed duck in the kitchen about as tall as a person. I thought it was going into the pot, but they said it’s the guesthouse’s guard duck. So I’m guessing there’s no rule here about pets not being allowed.”

People began whispering among themselves. Those who disliked dogs carried their bowls and plates away as quickly as possible. Those who liked dogs also hurried off with their bowls—only they ran straight toward Shukui instead.

After getting their breakfast, the two of them sat down at the end of a long table where most of their group had gathered. Nearly everyone else was eating steaming bowls of noodles.

Only Wu Heng was holding a large bowl filled with crystal-clear shrimp meat salad, mixed with a small amount of mutated fruits and vegetables.

X, utterly lacking in table manners, strutted back and forth across the dining table.

“Wu Heng, your bird is really greedy. It’s going to get itself in trouble because of that mouth someday,” Yang Xiaoyun said, pointing at the oily sheen on X’s tail feathers with his chopsticks. “Did its tail just sweep into someone’s bowl?”

“When we first got it, it almost ate poop. Now that life’s better, it’s gotten picky. Tsk tsk—forgot where it came from,” Lin Mengzhi said, shaking his head in mock lament.

“But these noodles are seriously good. I think there’s sesame in the broth.” Xue Qi stirred his soup with the tip of his chopsticks. “Too bad it’s limited. Otherwise, I could’ve had two more bowls.”

“If it weren’t limited, how could the base afford it? We’re lucky everyone even gets a bite.”

Wu Heng listened to their conversation without saying a word, steadily feeding himself forkful after forkful of shrimp.

At some point, Shukui had returned to his feet and was now lying there, burping contentedly—apparently having made the rounds and eaten its fill from everyone’s bowls before coming back.

“What’s its name?” A sweet female voice suddenly sounded by Wu Heng’s ear.

After swallowing the food in his mouth, Wu Heng looked over. The girl was already squatting beside Shukui, rubbing the dog’s head with both hands, her face full of affection. Thinking he hadn’t heard clearly, she asked again, “Is this dog yours? What’s its name?”

“Shukui,” Wu Heng replied, then popped another piece of shrimp into his mouth.

“That’s such a lovely name!” The girl slowed her hand, gentling the way she rubbed the dog’s head. She looked up, smiling brightly at the pale, broodingly handsome face above her—so fitting for the aesthetics of the apocalypse. “And you? What’s your name?”

“Wu Heng.” Focused on his food, Wu Heng answered while staring at the bowl of snakehead fish noodles in front of Xie Chongyi. “Is it good?”

Xie Chongyi didn’t respond verbally. He picked up a piece of fish, rinsed it lightly in the water glass beside him, then fed it to Wu Heng with his own hand.

After chewing and considering the taste, Wu Heng commented, “It’s average.”

Only once their interaction ended did the girl raise her hand upward. “My name is Xue Zhi. I’m an ice-element ability user, from the Qingzhou Base.”

Wu Heng shook her hand.

“You’re a dual-element ability user?” Xue Zhi asked softly after letting go.

Wu Heng looked at her in confusion. Nearby, Lin Mengzhi and Jiang Xun, who had overheard, also turned toward her.

“How do you know?” Lin Mengzhi nearly knocked over his bowl. He glanced around nervously, his face paling several shades.

Xue Zhi dusted off her clothes and stood up. “Word of mouth. I don’t even know how I know—I just do. I only came over to give you a friendly reminder for the dog’s sake. A man who carries jade invites trouble. Be careful.”

After saying that, she gave Shukui’s head two firm rubs, then turned and left, returning to her seat.

Lin Mengzhi’s breathing quickened. He held it in until she was out of earshot, then lowered his voice. “Who leaked it?”

Jiang Xun had lost her appetite entirely. Up until now, Wu Heng was the only dual-element ability user to have appeared. Even most people in Jingzhou didn’t know about it yet. Human nature was both the most testable and the least reliable thing in the world—some people could keep a secret to the grave, others could let greed take over in an instant.

She wasn’t worried that Wu Heng couldn’t handle himself. She was worried about the unnecessary trouble this would bring—and how much obstruction that trouble might cause them.

Lin Mengzhi leaned toward Jiang Xun’s ear. “After breakfast, I’m hanging each and every one of you up for interrogation.”

Jiang Xun: “……”

Meanwhile, Lin Mengzhi was already looking smug. “Everyone has the potential to betray Wu Heng. Except me.”

Xie Chongyi didn’t even spare him a glance. He set down his chopsticks, propped his chin on his hand, and turned to watch Wu Heng, who was still eating heartily. “If it wasn’t someone from our side, then it must’ve been someone you came into contact with yesterday.”

“We didn’t really meet many people yesterday. Just had dinner with the two people in charge and a few of their subordinates, their son and daughter… Oh, and when we were helping catch crayfish—those ability users…” Lin Mengzhi frowned as he counted. “But A’Heng didn’t even touch them, and we barely talked to them.”

“It doesn’t matter if they know,” Wu Heng said calmly after finishing his food and setting down his fork.

“What if someone comes to steal your energy core?” The more Lin Mengzhi thought about it, the more terrifying it seemed.

Xue Qi looked incredulous. “Who exactly is that suicidal? Please give an example of someone who’d dare try to steal Wu Heng’s stuff.”

“Wait—” Lin Mengzhi began forcing his not-so-abundant brainpower into motion.

Xie Chongyi released his chin from his hand and lazily raised it. “Me.”

Still unable to come up with an answer, Lin Mengzhi’s face fell. “Could you even beat A’Heng?”

Other than in bed, Xie Chongyi hadn’t sparred with Wu Heng in a long time. In truth, he quite liked the feeling of crossing hands with him. In those moments, Wu Heng was vivid and brimming with life—irresistibly captivating.

“No idea,” Xie Chongyi said. “But we could try.”

Under the table, his other hand reached over and lightly clasped Wu Heng’s fingers resting on his thigh.

“No need.” Wu Heng leaned back in his chair, brows lowered, expression cool and detached. Seeing the confusion on others’ faces, the corner of his lips curved ever so faintly. “The class monitor doesn’t need to steal. I can just give it to him.”

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