Chapter 171: Drunk
“Where did you come from?” Since they weren’t given any scallions, Dou Lu decided to ask a few questions instead.
“From the Northern Base.”
“Wasn’t the Northern Base destroyed?”
The relaxed expression on the bearded man’s face disappeared. “The Northern Base is gone, but the land where it stood is still there. That’s where we came from.”
A vine crept up along the doorframe and formed a stool for Wu Heng to sit on. He asked, “What’s the situation at the Northern Base now?”
“Everyone’s already on the road heading south.”
“Where are they planning to go?”
“They’ve been divided into several batches and are being sent to all the major bases.”
An involuntary look of envy appeared on Wu Heng’s face.
If only all those people were his.
The bearded man found the expression oddly out of place. Seeing that the other person wasn’t very old, he simply asked directly, “What kind of expression is that?”
Wu Heng touched his face. “Nothing.”
After a moment of silence, he suddenly pointed at the mountain-like pile of scallions in front of him and said, “Want to eat together?”
?
The people who were sorting vegetables all turned their heads in unison, looking at Wu Heng in confusion.
Wu Heng, however, remained completely calm. His favors weren’t so easy to accept—accepting his food even more so. Watching the three of them instantly replace their gloomy faces with delighted ones and squeeze into the vegetable-sorting group, he couldn’t help but smile faintly behind them.
—
Area D outside the campus.
Area E included two bridges spanning the river. Half the buildings were still in a damaged state, waiting to be repaired. The streets followed the same routes as before, but many were cracked or broken in different ways, each with its own strange appearance. Compared with Area A, it was far from complete or clean.
Xue Shen held a notebook in his hand. As he walked, he wrote in it, neither affecting his writing nor his pace.
“Not counting the family members they brought with them, Area E has 26,850 ability users. The highest rank is B,” Xue Shen said while walking. “Including the other districts, the total number of ability users might be around seventy to eighty thousand. Old Xie, with so many people—and all of them ability users—and Area A full of high-level ones… are you sure this will work?”
“Not a big problem.” Xie Chongyi held the tall greyhound by a leash in one hand and a cup of cheap but refreshing mint water bought from a street stall in the other.
“You know we’re not talking about the same thing,” Xue Shen said, pushing up his glasses. “If Wu Heng finds out, he’d rather watch those seventy or eighty thousand people die.”
“He won’t find out.”
“Are you betting that I won’t rat you out, or do you think swallowing seventy or eighty thousand streams of energy impurities in one go won’t affect you at all?” Xue Shen closed his notebook. “You’re putting me in a very difficult position.”
Xie Chongyi bit down on the straw and shot him a sideways glance. “What’s so difficult about it?”
“If Wu Heng finds out I helped you hide how your condition is getting worse, he might not chop you to death—but the chance of him chopping me to death is one hundred percent.” As an outsider, Xue Shen was far calmer and clearer about the situation. “You should tell him. He has the right to know.”
“It’s not like he doesn’t already know I don’t have long to live. There’s no need to keep reminding him of it every moment.” After saying that, Xie Chongyi clearly didn’t want to continue the topic. He tugged on the leash in his hand and warned the greyhound, “Hey, you’re not allowed to say anything either.”
The greyhound simply kept walking forward.
Walking on the other side, Xue Shen said, “Don’t worry. It’s not like X, that big blabbermouth.”
The two of them walked down the street with a large greyhound. Even though they tried to keep a low profile, they still drew plenty of attention.
Along the way, not only did adults glance at them, but children also cried out excitedly, wanting to run over and pet the dog. Their parents quickly pulled them back—before the apocalypse, dogs couldn’t just be touched whenever someone wanted, and after the apocalypse, that was even more true.
It wasn’t just the dog attracting attention—the people were too.
In an apocalypse where everyone lived in constant fear and often didn’t know when their next meal would come, gaunt faces and sallow skin were common everywhere.
But these two wandering through the districts were different. Well-fitted clothes wrapped their tall, straight figures, and not a trace of the fear or shadow brought by the apocalypse could be seen on their faces. After all, what the apocalypse destroyed had never been humanity’s outward vitality.
As night fell, a hurried group passed by the two of them.
Xue Shen grabbed the last person in the line. “What happened?”
The other person looked Xue Shen up and down before answering, “A group of zombies is approaching. It might be a zombie tide.”
“Weren’t the zombies in Hanzhou driven out pretty thoroughly?”
“They were. But now zombies are short on food too, so every once in a while they come back. We just drive them away again.” After saying that, the young man adjusted his cap and hurried off to catch up with the group.
Beside him, Xie Chongyi took some jerky from his pocket and fed it to the greyhound.
The greyhound chewed the jerky and swallowed it in just a few bites. Xie Chongyi wiped his hands on its back while looking toward the street district that had become noisy because of the approaching zombies.
“We should head back for dinner.”
“I thought you’d go check what’s happening outside the city walls,” said Xue Shen, genuinely surprised to see him calmly feeding the dog.
“I’d still like to live a few more days,” Xie Chongyi replied lazily.
“That’s not the attitude you had a few hours ago.”
Xie Chongyi gave a faint smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I only deal with problems most people can’t solve.”
Xue Shen let out a long “Oh.” “Using Xie Chongyi for everything would be a waste of resources.”
“But you could go. That would be perfect.”
“Mocking me?”
“Not at all.”
…
Tonight the lights weren’t as bright as the night before; they were somewhat dim. But the atmosphere was livelier than in previous days.
Ability users who had specially come from other places to celebrate Shen Miao’s birthday had all gathered, and quite a few of them had even come to the room where Wu Heng and his group were staying.
Wu Heng was unusually generous, taking out quite a few good things to treat these strangers he had never met before.
Four tables were pushed together. On them were scallion meat pancakes, scallion meat buns, scallion fried eggs, and cold mixed scallions—all prepared together by everyone. There were also two large basins of stir-fried chicken and a pot of chicken rack soup. The Chinese toon shoots had simply been blanched with a bit of salt.
Other ability users also shared food: naan the size of a face, instant soup packets made of potato starch, lotus root starch, and vegetables that only needed hot water, refreshingly tangy-and-spicy pickled vegetables, and even some dried nuts and fruits to snack on.
“So you actually had this much food?!” Dou Lu exclaimed in shock.
“Not much, not much,” the woman who spoke quickly waved her hands. “We just eat whatever grows in the fields. If we can’t finish it, we find ways to preserve it. Food is really precious now. It’s just that we keep eating the same few things over and over—there’s nothing new to eat.”
Someone beside her added, “Sometimes if going out doesn’t go well—or we can’t go out at all—we’ve had days where we stayed home gnawing on potatoes for half a month straight.”
“Wait—where did the celery in this stir-fried chicken come from?!”
But no matter what, life for ability users was still far better than for ordinary humans.
Yang Ao was so busy stuffing food into his mouth that he couldn’t stop at all.
Wu Heng was eating the flour-free scallion egg pancake that Ruan Silian had specially made for him. The scallions had been freshly pulled that afternoon, and the eggs were from wild chickens. The pancake came out round, thick, fragrant, and tender. After taking several big bites and deciding it tasted good, he separated a small portion and handed it to Ruan Silian.
“Save a share for the class monitor.”
When Ruan Silian stood up, several pairs of eyes stuck to her and wouldn’t move away.
Wu Heng’s fork scraped loudly against the bottom of his plate with a harsh grrkk-grrkk sound, and those gazes instantly shifted to his face.
Everyone understood perfectly well: the only reason they could enjoy such a feast tonight was because he had agreed to it.
A burly figure suddenly slapped the table and stood up. The yellowish drink in his hand was the beer Wu Heng had provided. Even though the person sitting across from him was just a young boy, his expression remained very respectful. He didn’t dare act familiar with someone far stronger than himself after only sharing a single meal.
“Uh, let me say something,” he said, letting out a drunken burp. “Today, the reason we can enjoy such a good meal is all thanks to Wu Heng—your name is Wu Heng, right?”
The boy was chewing pine nuts and nodded.
The big man continued, “Back then, this kind of food wouldn’t have meant much, but now you couldn’t buy it even with gold. Take this chicken for example—haven’t we run into them before? On the mountains they run around in flocks. But how many people can actually catch them? You might say those with high ability levels can—but no, that’s not how it works. Those chickens have mutated too.”
“So, I have to thank you. You don’t even know us, yet you brought out so much food to treat us. I’ll drink a toast first.” He tipped his head back and gulped it down—glug, glug—and the large mug of beer was empty in no time.
Lin Mengzhi, Xue Qi, and Dou Lu watched from the side, suspecting that the man’s real goal was simply to drink their alcohol freely.
After finishing his beer, the burly man gestured for Wu Heng to drink as well.
Wu Heng hesitated for a moment before taking a sip of the beer—which, to him, tasted like traditional Chinese medicine mixed with urine.
The others were quite perceptive. After the burly man sat down in satisfaction, they began standing up one after another to toast Wu Heng.
Wu Heng drank every single one.
The bearded man rubbed his belly and raised his cup. “Are you from the Hanzhou Base? Working for Ning Bizhen?”
“Working for him? What nonsense is he dreaming about?” Lin Mengzhi cut in, spitting out the chicken bone in his mouth.
Hearing the boy say that, the others’ expressions changed. A middle-aged woman glanced out the window and lowered her voice. “Since we’re on his turf, it’s best not to offend him.”
“Tch.”
“So you were also invited here to celebrate Shen Miao’s birthday?” someone asked.
“We came on our own—just to have some fun,” Dou Lu replied. “You all came for Shen Miao’s birthday? Are you close with Ning Bizhen or something? How come you all showed up just because he invited you?”
Dou Lu had only asked casually, but the people who were questioned suddenly changed expressions. The relaxed cheerfulness from earlier vanished, and they all looked as bitter as gourds.
“That’s… hard to say,” someone muttered.
“If it’s hard to say, then don’t say it. It’s not like we can’t guess,” Xue Qi said with a bright smile. “Eat, eat.”
The sounds of hearty eating continued. In the middle of it, several people once again toasted Wu Heng. Seeing that his childhood friend’s eyes were already starting to change color, Lin Mengzhi stepped in a few times to block the drinks for him. These annoying adults who had spent years in society still liked playing this kind of social drinking game—even in the apocalypse.
Meanwhile, Wu Heng noticed that his reactions had inexplicably become sluggish. Several times he tried to join the conversation, but each time he was a beat too slow.
After failing several times, Wu Heng silently focused on stuffing food into his mouth.
His table manners were actually very good—he ate neither too fast nor too slow, didn’t spill anything, and even when taking big bites he didn’t look messy. But things were different when vines suddenly appeared on the table, grabbing food and stuffing it into his mouth along with him.
“Ahhh!!!!”
One vine suddenly snatched a piece of fried meat from a woman’s hand. She thought it was a snake and screamed in fright.
Clatter! Clatter!
The vines began causing chaos right on the dining table under everyone’s watchful eyes. They didn’t eat cooked food like this—what they loved was fresh human flesh and raw meat. But with their consciousness muddled right now, they didn’t attack anyone; they merely slapped the table and played with the humans.
Meanwhile, Wu Heng continued eating seriously, bite after bite, completely unaware that vines had crawled out of his body.
“H-He… is he a mutated plant?” someone stammered, staring at the strange yet oddly beautiful sight.
“Is he drunk?”
“Do plants lose control and start killing people?”
Lin Mengzhi threw down his chopsticks and, together with Xue Qi, grabbed the vines and tried to stuff them back under Wu Heng’s legs.
“Go back, go back!”
“I swear—he didn’t even drink alcohol! Aren’t you embarrassed acting like this?”
The vines suddenly wrapped around Lin Mengzhi and Xue Qi and began wildly swinging them around the room.
“Whoa—I’m gonna throw up!” Xue Qi shouted. “Why isn’t my brother back yet?!”
Just then, a huge dark shadow suddenly screeched to a stop outside their room. The door was immediately slammed open, and a large panting dog appeared in everyone’s view.
Xie Chongyi and Xue Shen had finally arrived.
The vines had already silently stretched to the doorway. Xue Shen jumped back. “What’s going on here?”
“Class Monitor! Wu Heng is drunk!” Dou Lu shouted loudly.
Taking the opportunity, the vines rushed out into the corridor and began wildly dancing along it.
Unlike the other vines—those that were too lazy even to grow leaves—the plant growing beneath Wu Heng’s feet was a standard poppy plant: broad serrated leaves spread outward, slender stems swayed, and black blossoms had already bloomed.
Meanwhile, Wu Heng was completely absorbed in eating, his cheeks stuffed full, utterly unaware of what was happening around him.
Xie Chongyi walked over to him. Beneath the table, the flower plant slowly leaned toward the boy’s legs. He reached out his hand.
Before he could touch Wu Heng, a startled voice suddenly shouted, “Don’t touch a mutated plant at a time like this—it might hurt someone!” From the sound of it, the person seemed to be speaking from experience.
“Thanks for the reminder.” Xie Chongyi smiled slightly in the direction of the voice, then directly grabbed Wu Heng by the shoulders and turned him to face himself.
The boy’s gray-green eyes filled with confusion at the sudden interruption. Still chewing, he looked up at the human above him.
“Did you all make him drink alcohol?” Xie Chongyi asked as soon as he spoke, immediately searching for someone to blame.
Still flying through the air, Lin Mengzhi wailed, “We’re innocent, class monitor! I even helped drink quite a lot for him!”
“Brother, brother, brother! Hurry, hurry! Get me down!” Xue Qi shouted.
Gulp.
Wu Heng swallowed the mouthful of food, then wrapped both his arms—and the vines around him—around Xie Chongyi. After wiping his mouth on the other man’s clothes, he said:
“Xiao Xie, they wouldn’t let me talk.”