Eaten Ch.159.1

Chapter 159.1: The Li Siblings

Wu Heng: “You’re pretty impressive too.”

Xie Chongyi ignored the compliment. “You didn’t answer my question.”

After saying that, he reached into the inner pocket of his coat, felt around, and took out a pen. He held it beside Wu Heng’s face. “Say it—you won’t abandon your wife who shared hardship with you.”

“What’s that?” Wu Heng glanced at the black object.

“A voice recorder.”

“…”

Wu Heng took a deep breath. “I won’t.”

“That’s incomplete. Again.”

“I won’t abandon you.”

“Altering the meaning. Again.”

Xie Chongyi was only acting so recklessly because he knew he was a poisonous creature no one could eat.

Wu Heng lowered his head and wiped his mouth. Tilting his head, he leaned closer to the recorder. “I won’t abandon Xie Chongyi.”

“Is that good enough?” As he lifted his eyes, he felt his nape being pinched.

At some point, Xie Chongyi had stood up. He leaned forward across the not-so-wide table, tilted his head, and kissed Wu Heng. The recorder was clasped in both their hands.

A faint set of footsteps—clearly not belonging to any animal—came from behind Wu Heng.

Wu Heng instinctively tried to turn his head, but Xie Chongyi smoothly pressed him into the crook of his neck instead. Lifting his eyelids, Xie Chongyi looked toward the few people outside the kitchen window.

“Hogging all the food!” Lin Mengzhi’s face was red as he pointed at the stack of porcelain plates on the table. After saying it, he realized that wasn’t the main point and corrected himself: “You actually snuck around kissing behind our backs!”

Xue Qi leaned on the windowsill. “Even if they kissed right in front of you, you wouldn’t be able to join.”

Xue Shen was more concerned about the food. “Is there any left?”

Wu Heng composed himself and pushed Xie Chongyi away, answering only Xue Shen’s question. “No.”

“When it comes to food, I don’t believe a single word you say,” Xue Shen replied. He jumped in through the window and walked over to the pot of still-boiling shrimp meatball soup. “What’s this?”

“Pig swill,” Wu Heng said without changing expression.

“Who made this?” Lin Mengzhi climbed in through the window as well. “A’Heng, did you make it?”

Xie Chongyi raised his hand slightly. “Me.”

“Then I’ll just have three bowls.”

“You could also choose not to eat,” Xie Chongyi said.

More and more people slowly took seats around the cold table. It was obvious the portions weren’t enough. Ruan Silian washed her hands and tossed several large bundles of cornmeal into the soup, then chopped up a few of the cleaned snakehead fish from the bucket and added them to the pot. Outside the window, the green-headed duck was so furious its eyes practically shot flames at the crowd—this meal alone was about to eat up a month’s worth of the guesthouse’s food supply!

“This soup’s pretty good, but I remember Old Xie doesn’t know how to cook,” Xue Qi said, wielding the big ladle. “He used to hate even stepping into the kitchen. Today he’s really going all out for love. Wu Heng, a good man like this, you’ve got to hold on tight.”

Dou Lu said, “You sound just like my uncle.”

“Lulu, where have you been making your fortune lately?” Xue Qi asked with a suppressed laugh.

“Get lost.”

“Have all those crayfish really been cleared out?” Ying Liuquan hadn’t done much work, and he’d used his ability only sparingly. After eating half a bowl, he put down his chopsticks and took over Ruan Silian’s task so she could go eat something too.

“No,” Wu Heng said. “But in a few days, it should be about done.”

“I have a question!” Xue Qi raised his hand to speak. “That duck outside is really strong. Why not breed more mutated ducks and let them control the crayfish population? And with that duck around, we wouldn’t have to worry about the flock not listening.”

“The base might only have that one duck. If there were as many as you’re imagining, we’d have been eating duck yesterday,” Xue Shen said. “It’s precisely because there are no natural predators that the mutated crayfish have reproduced to this scale.”

Ruan Silian said, “But we should still leave some for Qianzhou. Crayfish are a good food source too.”

Wu Heng nodded. “Of course.”

“I have another question!” Xue Qi pointed at the person sitting at the very end of the row opposite them. “Who are you? What’s your name? Who introduced you? What’s your ability? And what exactly are your contributions and achievements?”

Xue Qi’s words drew everyone’s gaze to the pink-haired boy. He was wearing the same uniform as Dou Lu and Xie Chongyi.

But unlike them, he showed none of their calm composure. He was tense, guarded, his frame too slender, his features too delicate. The forced coldness he tried to project didn’t inspire fear—instead, it was more likely to stir up certain cruel impulses in others.

Qiu Li didn’t answer a single one of Xue Qi’s questions. Instead, he shot back, “What’s it to you? What right do you have to question me?”

Xue Qi withdrew his hand. “Wow.”

“I’ll explain, I’ll explain!” Dou Lu sprang to her feet, clutching her chopsticks. “He’s Qiu Li, a betta-fish symbiote. I don’t know exactly what he looks like in full form, but his weapons are two short blades. On land he’s average, but in water he has a huge advantage. Back at the Northern Base, he went underwater—super impressive, seriously. This time, he personally applied to Wu Dian to come with us to Deathlands.”

Dou Lu kicked her chair aside, walked to the head of the long table, and pointed at Qiu Li. “As for his personality—you’ve seen it. Absolutely terrible. And his face—you’ve also seen it. Better-looking than all of you—parentheses, except for a few people, parentheses.”

“But you look really young. How are you in the military? A volunteer?” Lin Mengzhi asked, puzzled. He was so thin—he would’ve been filtered out in the first round of assessments.

“He’s like Yue Shanqing, both of them were symbiotes we rescued at that auction. Since his family’s gone, he just came back to Jingzhou with us,” Dou Lu explained. “Qiu Li just has a bad temper, but—”

“But he’s still very good-looking, right?” Xue Qi cut in, exposing Dou Lu’s attempt to defend him.

“You think I’m that shallow?!” Dou Lu shot back.

“So, Qiu Li, how old are you this year?” Ruan Silian asked gently.

Qiu Li glanced at her, and his expression softened slightly. “Sixteen.”

“Two months short of sixteen,” Dou Lu added.

“Then that makes you only a year older than our youngest sister,” Ruan Silian said with a gentle smile. Noticing his lips were already chapped—he probably needed water more than the others—she asked tentatively, “Would you like some water?”

Qiu Li looked at her and, after a moment’s hesitation, nodded.

“Why are you being so nice to this bad-tempered guy? Toss him to Wen Yuan for a few days of training and he’ll behave,” Lin Mengzhi said, rolling his eyes. “Sister, I want some water too!”

Qiu Li stayed silent. After a long pause, he finally asked, “Where is your younger sister?”

“Off roaming the martial world,” Lin Mengzhi said, idly playing with his chopsticks.

Dou Lu hadn’t witnessed it herself; she only knew about Wu Zhi because the others had told her. Wu Zhi was still so young—and not very bright. Dou Lu felt more worry and heartache than anything else. Hearing Lin Mengzhi put it that way, she couldn’t help saying, “Shouldn’t we bring her back?”

Wu Heng took a sip of water. “No need. When the time comes, she’ll come home on her own.”

—

Next to Qianzhou Base was Qingzhou Base, where a fine drizzle fell just the same.

“This outfit used to cost several thousand before the apocalypse. Now I’m only asking a few A-grade energy cores. You’re practically getting a steal,” the clothing shop owner said, a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he squinted at the man and the girl who had walked in. He’d seen this kind of pairing countless times since the apocalypse—one buying, one being sold.

Liu Shen shook the water off his gloves without lifting his head. “Pick it yourself. You pay for whatever you choose.”

“I don’t have money,” Wu Zhi said.

“You think I’ve got money? I’m already feeding you freeloaders.”

Wu Zhi didn’t respond. She casually pulled a white jacket off the rack. Slipping off her worn, glossy old coat, she put the jacket on. The teenage girl had a graceful figure and a sharp, upright bearing—she drew attention the moment she put it on.

Liu Shen slumped into the sofa, the tattoo on his face twitching. “That stains too easily. Take it off. Get a darker color.”

“I like white,” Wu Zhi said.

Liu Shen was just about to start cursing when the shop owner lumbered heavily over behind Wu Zhi. “White’s good. White suits a little girl so well. Look at this waist, this… beautiful, really beautiful.”

“Boss,” he turned and addressed Liu Shen as boss instead, “how much are you selling her for?”

“Huh?” Liu Shen scratched his head, looking like nothing more than a roguishly handsome ordinary man.

The next second, the clothing shop owner’s smile froze on his face. A snow-white dagger was clenched in the girl’s hand, the blade buried to the hilt in his throat.

Wu Zhi pulled the dagger free. Blood from his severed artery sprayed several meters in a slanted arc. She kicked the man to the ground. There wasn’t a trace of emotion in her pale eyes. Only when the pool of blood beneath him spread farther and farther did she lift her foot and crouch beside his head.

“How much is your life worth?” she asked.

“No charge.”

Seeing it was about enough, Liu Shen grabbed her by the collar and hauled her up. “Grab the clothes and get out!”

“You’re always causing me trouble. If someone reports me again, I’ll hand you over myself.”

“Just count how many people you’ve killed on this trip. In one week you’ve killed as many as I do in a year.”

Wu Zhi stuffed several large bags full of clothes in one go. When she turned around, Liu Shen had already run off. She hurried after him. Outside the mall, people were coming and going. The ragtag group she belonged to was laughing and joking under a large tree not far away, and Liu Shen was walking toward them.

Once they reached Deathlands, she would grow strong enough to stand beside her brother. When that time came, she wouldn’t have to keep company with this bunch of ugly people anymore.

“Brother Shen, you’re saying that brat killed someone again?!”

“She looks more like a criminal than we do.”

“Stop right there!!!” A base guard’s voice suddenly rang out from the second-floor balcony of the mall. Before the words had even fully fallen, a massive fireball hurtled toward Wu Zhi’s back.

The people under the tree merely watched the spectacle.

“Clean up your own mess. We’re leaving.”

The large bags of clothes in Wu Zhi’s hands fell to the ground. She stood where she was. A massive bow, radiating cold air, appeared in her grasp. She drew back an invisible bowstring—then abruptly released her fingers.

With several sharp whooshing sounds, enormous ice arrows—so fast the naked eye could barely track them—shot toward the incoming fireball.

The arrows collided with the fireball almost instantly. Without the slightest pause, they pierced straight through it. The fireball shattered into a spray of sparks, while the ice arrows, after punching through, merged into a single shaft. Its force didn’t diminish in the slightest as it flew with flawless precision into the window where the fire-element ability user stood.

Glass exploded outward. The ability user’s shoulder was pierced clean through, and his entire body was nailed to a stone pillar dozens of meters behind him.

With the pursuer dealt with, Wu Zhi bent down to pick up the new clothes scattered on the ground and muttered, “Since you’re a fire-type ability user, I won’t kill you.”

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