Eaten Ch.161.1

Chapter 161.1: New Member

A corner of the guesthouse had been torn away, but no one cared or tried to pursue the matter. These days, a pile of steel and concrete wasn’t even as valuable as a single pound of grain.

News that the couple in charge and their youngest son had died spread from outside the city to inside it. After a brief uproar, Li Pingguo took the person-in-charge’s seat—she was the only surviving child of the previous two leaders, and a powerful S+ ability user. It was only natural that she assumed the position.

“That was way too close just now! If Shen Ping’an hadn’t sensed someone approaching you, your energy core and your child would’ve been dug out already!” Lin Mengzhi sat on the floor with his chin resting against the edge of the bed, his heart still pounding.

Two wood elements fused into one, one light element… the child…

“Who’s the child?” Xue Qi hadn’t expected that.

“The poppy!” Lin Mengzhi said.

Wu Heng leaned against the headboard, listening. In his hand he held a dark brown strip of jerky, tilting his head as he tore into it with his teeth. On the floor, Shukui and X were gnawing on the same kind of jerky.

Xie Chongyi lay on his side beside the boy. He wasn’t leaning against the headboard; instead, his arms were wrapped around Wu Heng’s waist, his cheek nestled against the boy’s lower abdomen.

On the surface, it looked as though Xie Chongyi had already fallen asleep. But where no one could see, his hand had long since slipped to Wu Heng’s lower back, his fingertips pressing and kneading along the bones without pause.

Wu Heng seemed completely unaware and continued talking with the others in the room.

“He can’t dig it out.”

“He can’t,” Xue Qi agreed, pulling both legs up onto the bed. “That bug Xie Chongyi put on you is terrifying.”

“It’s not a bug,” Wu Heng said. “I mean the mutated plant.”

The more Dou Lu thought about it, the colder her back felt. “But that guy has an affinity-type ability. What if the poppy falls in love with him?”

Wu Heng shook his head slightly. “He’s only an S-rank ability user. Before he can even activate his influence, the poppy will probably have already dealt with him.”

Hearing this, the others finally let out sighs of relief, though they couldn’t help feeling a little envious. Counting it up like that—dog, bird, vine, and bug—Wu Heng had four guards by his side!

But Lin Mengzhi had never gotten a full look at the so-called bug. All he’d seen was the scythe-like limb that pierced through “Li Nian’s” heart. His face was full of confusion.

“Where did the bug Xue Qi mentioned come from? Since when did you raise a mutated insect?”

Wu Heng switched the jerky roll from his left hand to his right, then raised his left hand, palm inward, generously showing the black ring-shaped object on his ring finger to everyone in the room.

“Ohhh—” Lin Mengzhi lifted his head along with the others, suddenly enlightened. “What’s with the ring flex?”

“…” Wu Heng lowered his hand helplessly. “This is the bug the class monitor gave me.”

Those who hadn’t paid much attention to the exact shape of the ring all shot their gazes toward his left hand the instant he put it down. Lin Mengzhi, Xue Qi, and Dou Lu were even more direct—they pounced forward, grabbed Wu Heng’s left hand, and bent over it to study it closely.

“This is a bug?!!!” Dou Lu was in disbelief. She very carefully reached out to touch it with her finger. It was cool, dark, and hard.

She only touched it once before quickly pulling her hand back, afraid it might bite—Xue Qi had said it recognized no one.

“It should be. I can feel it—it’s alive,” Xue Qi said uncertainly.

But he wasn’t completely sure, so he nudged Xie Chongyi. “Old Xie, this is that bug of yours, right?”

Xie Chongyi seemed to be asleep and didn’t respond.

Lin Mengzhi stared at it for a while, then an idea sparked in his mind. “I want one too, class monitor~~~~”

The supposedly sleeping Xie Chongyi suddenly made a sound of refusal. “No.”

“…”

Leaning against the windowsill, Xue Shen saw that Lin Mengzhi was about to explode again and spoke up, “The reason it obediently loops around Wu Heng’s finger is because it has the same kind of feelings for Wu Heng that Old Xie does. But Old Xie doesn’t feel that way about you. If it touches you, it’ll only devour you. It won’t turn into a ring.”

Dou Lu was two seconds quicker to react. She straightened up in awe. “So the ring wasn’t shaped by the class monitor and then put on Wu Heng’s finger—it changed its form on its own based on emotion?”

“That’s more or less what you mean.”

“Judging people differently,” Lin Mengzhi muttered.

“As it should,” the “asleep” Xie Chongyi chimed in again.

Xue Qi yelped noisily, “…Old Xie, you deserve the worst things in the world.”

Only then did Xie Chongyi slowly lift his eyelids. But the person he looked at was Wu Heng, who had stayed out of it all along. Soon, his eyes drooped again as he said lightly, “What each person gets in life carries the same total value. I’ve already obtained the best. Naturally, the rest should be the worst.”

The boy tightened his arms around the narrow waist in his embrace, completely ignoring the petrified expressions around him. He kept adding fuel to the fire, the ignition moment right on cue. “I’m not as greedy as you. Wanting this and wanting that.”

“?”

“…”

“!”

Just as the others were about to erupt in anger, Wu Heng cleared his throat. “Let’s talk about something serious.”

The few people squeezed onto the same bed with him and Xie Chongyi immediately put away their playful posture and adopted solemn expressions, ready to listen.

Wu Heng tilted his head and bit into his jerky. “What are we eating tonight?”

Even Ruan Silian didn’t react at first. Leaning against the armrest of the sofa, she said, “I’ll go ask the cafeteria chef what’s for dinner later. A’Heng, you talk about the serious matter first.”

Faced with the expectant eyes around the room, even Wu Heng’s ironclad heart softened just a little. His voice grew quieter. “The serious matter I meant is what we’re eating tonight.”

Ruan Silian blinked, as if momentarily speechless. After a long pause, she sighed helplessly. “Alright then.”

The others weren’t nearly as patient—especially the well-built ones on the bed.

“I can’t take them anymore! What about you guys?” Lin Mengzhi said while rolling up his sleeves, glaring furiously at the two shameless troublemakers on the bed who always teased them—Xie Chongyi had even led A’Heng astray.

Wu Heng was still thinking about dinner when several dark figures lunged at him. He had only just begun to blink when his wrist was suddenly seized by a hand from below.

In the next instant, his whole body was dragged into a warm embrace. As he struggled, his forehead brushed against the boy’s Adam’s apple as it moved up and down.

With one arm wrapped around Wu Heng, half pressing him beneath his body, Xie Chongyi used his other hand to block the pillows being hurled at them and the “demonic claws” trying to reach under the blanket.

“Flatten Wu Heng!”

“Drag him out!”

“Old Xie, if you keep taking his side we’re beating you up too!”

“Lin Mengzhi, quick, pull off the blanket!”

The bed was practically overgrown with people. Lin Mengzhi launched an attack from the foot of the bed, only to be kicked over by Xie Chongyi and sent tumbling off onto the floor. Xue Qi got smacked across the face by Xie Chongyi and clutched his cheek. “This is blatant humiliation! Bro!”

“Coming,” Xue Shen said, taking off his glasses as he walked toward the bed.

X and Shukui mistakenly thought this was some kind of fun game and anxiously circled the bed again and again. But after Dou Lu’s careless elbow nearly knocked X out the window, X immediately behaved and hopped onto Ying Liuquan’s head, curiosity extinguished.

The whole group was in complete chaos.

With a loud bang—

The massive human ball tangled together on the bed suddenly sank downward, then burst apart with a crash.

Wu Heng struggled free from Xie Chongyi’s restraint and poked out his head, hair in total disarray, eyes dazed.

“The foot of the bed collapsed!” Dou Lu said nervously. “We’ll definitely have to pay for it.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than there was another loud crash.

The head of the bed collapsed too.

At this point, everyone was essentially sitting on the floor.

Wu Heng rested his chin on Xie Chongyi’s shoulder. “Whoever broke it pays.”

Xue Shen drew back his long legs and stood up calmly, as if nothing had happened. He put his glasses back on and returned to leaning against the window with his arms folded. “Sometimes when men and women are… being intimate and things get too intense, the bed can collapse. The probability of a similar situation happening with two men is even higher.”

For once, the others were quick on the uptake. They all sprang up together and immediately turned to accuse Xie Chongyi and Wu Heng of shameless indecency in broad daylight.

“…”

—

They didn’t start discussing serious matters until dinner. The members of Wen Yuan’s team happened to all be present as well.

Wu Heng was putting all his effort into drinking the fish and taro soup in his bowl.

“Did any of you go back to the location of that previous room?” Yang Xiaoyun asked.

“I did,” Xue Qi replied. “Why?”

“Did you see the bodies of that family of three?”

“Nope.” Xue Qi raised a finger and wagged it. “All gone.”

“Li Pingguo looks timid and weak, but her moves are really swift and ruthless,” Wang Ruixiang said with a sigh, shaking his head.

Xue Qi kept wagging his finger. “Captain Wang, at your age how come you still don’t know how to think a little worse of people? Always beneath her parents, with an outstanding older brother above and an amiable, well-liked younger brother below—being stuck in the middle with that kind of personality is a kind of misery many people can’t relate to. Getting rid of them and sitting alone at the top of Qianzhou Base—how wonderful that must be for her.”

The table fell silent for a moment.

Jiang Xun looked up and asked Xue Shen, “Did Xue Qi used to love reading those underdog-rise-to-power web novels with Long Aotian–type protagonists?”

“He’s eating.”

A gentle female voice sounded beside Wu Heng as she squeezed in, edging Lin Mengzhi out of the way.

“Hey, you—” Lin Mengzhi turned his head in dissatisfaction, only to realize it was the cool, distinctive ice-type ability user from that morning. He rubbed his face. “Why are you here again?”

“… ”

From across the table, Xue Shen witnessed every single one of Lin Mengzhi’s exaggerated facial changes. The way he immediately put on airs upon seeing a pretty girl was nauseating.

Xue Shen tossed down his chopsticks and stopped eating.

Xue Zhi paid them no mind. Smiling brightly, she said, “I heard the former head of Qianzhou was replaced?”

“Everyone knows already?” Wu Heng glanced at her.

“The news has spread everywhere. Li Pingguo’s pretty lucky, actually—you just solved Qianzhou’s biggest problem, and she became the new person in charge.” Xue Zhi clearly wasn’t too concerned about the matter. “When are you leaving?”

Wu Heng paused mid-motion. “How do you know we’re leaving?”

“Do you really think you look like someone who’d settle down here and live a peaceful life?” Xue Zhi shot back.

“We haven’t decided yet,” Yang Xiaoyun answered from farther away.

Xue Zhi nodded to show she understood. After that, a mysterious smile surfaced on her face. Wu Heng noticed it—and didn’t like it. It gave him the uncomfortable feeling of being targeted.

Sure enough, she lifted her hand and pointed. “I want that.”

Wu Heng turned his head. She was pointing at Shukui, who had monopolized a plastic bucket and was wolfing down dinner with loud snorts.

“Not that one.” The greyhound dog had been entrusted to him by someone on their deathbed. “Do you want the bird instead?”

Hearing such outrageous words, X came charging across the dining hall from the other end of the table, knocking over several people’s bowls along the way.

“Wu Heng, you really should discipline it. It should be a general, not a hooligan.”

“I don’t want the bird.”

X shrieked in fury.

But Xue Zhi looked at the massive gray bird barreling toward her and continued calmly, “Parrots live too long. Even before the apocalypse, they could live for decades. I’m afraid I might not even outlive it. If I die first, what happens to it? Simmered soup or roasted over fire?”

“Besides, birds like this are even more loyal than dogs. Without you, it wouldn’t live long anyway. I don’t want it.”

X had already stopped in front of her. Standing on the dining table, it was taller than Xue Zhi even while she sat. Its gray-white feathers framed molten-red eyes. Its blade-like talons had unconsciously pierced straight through the steel tabletop. That powerful, hook-like beak could crack open a person’s skull as easily as cracking sunflower seeds.

“Don’t want to live?” it asked the human in a hoarse voice.

Seeing it poised to strike, Wu Heng pointed at its thick legs with his spoon. “There’s chili on your feathers.”

All of X’s momentum instantly deflated. It buried its head between its legs, searching for chili flakes.

Xue Zhi shifted her gaze away from the bird. “I like dogs. Can I follow you?”

“Like dogs?” Xie Chongyi’s voice came from beside Wu Heng. “Not people?”

“Don’t assume that every major decision has some grand motivation behind it,” Xue Zhi said honestly. “That dog looks exactly like the one I used to have.”

Xue Qi guessed, “It died saving you after the apocalypse started?”

“No. My dog passed away from old age a month before the apocalypse. A natural death,” Xue Zhi said. “I can help you feed it, walk it. And that bird too—I’m actually pretty good at taking care of pets. I—”

“Okay.” Wu Heng nodded, almost as if he’d been waiting for her to say that.

“I’ll head upstairs first, say goodbye to some old classmates,” Xue Zhi said as she stood up.

Lin Mengzhi’s gaze followed her all the way until her figure disappeared through the cafeteria doors.

Dou Lu waved five fingers in front of his eyes. “Hey.”

“Middle-parted long black hair, fair skin, pretty, and has personality. Exactly your type.”

Lin Mengzhi looked so satisfied he might as well have skipped dinner. He turned and gave Wu Heng a tight hug. “A’Heng, hurry and give me a few outfits that make me look super handsome. I think this is my first love.”

“What about Liu Ning?” Wu Heng asked calmly.

Lin Mengzhi’s expression froze. “I admit Assistant Liu is my favorite type… but he’s a guy. I can’t do guys. So now I’m going to like Xue Zhi.”

“Lin Mengzhi, you switch affections way too fast,” Dou Lu said in disgust before turning to Xie Chongyi. “Class monitor, don’t let Wu Heng hang out with him.”

Xie Chongyi replied lazily, “I don’t interfere with my boyfriend’s social life.”

“Wow, class monitor, you’re such a good person!” Lin Mengzhi exclaimed in delight.

Xie Chongyi responded with a polite smile so perfunctory that everyone except Lin Mengzhi could tell it was completely insincere.

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