Chapter 173: Shen Miao’s Birthday Banquet
Ruan Silian had not forgotten Du Yaoyuan. After lowering her head to think for a moment, she asked, “Then… could it take root inside a human body?”
“Yes,” Wu Heng began, before continuing, “but when the time comes, I can make them leave your bodies smoothly.”
The consciousness of the mutated plant grew more defined as its host grew stronger. It and Wu Heng were essentially one entity—whatever Wu Heng intended, it would carry out. Besides, it was naturally inclined to attach itself only to the strongest.
“So, who’s first?”
“Me! Me! I’ll go first!” Lin Mengzhi didn’t think there was anything wrong with Wu Heng’s arrangement at all.
Lin Mengzhi walked up to Wu Heng and grabbed the thickest vine among them. The texture felt nothing like it looked—rather than soft and slippery, it was actually a bit prickly.
The chosen vine drooped its tip, lifted Lin Mengzhi’s sleeve, and slipped straight inside.
“Huh? Where’d it go?” Lin Mengzhi stared at his now empty palm.
The vine had slipped into his clothes, slithering like a snake. Lin Mengzhi’s body stiffened and he jumped on the spot.
“Damn, that feels disgusting!”
Very quickly, it coiled over the boy’s chest. The fabric bulged for a moment before slowly flattening again.
“Done?” Xue Qi ran over, pulled open Lin Mengzhi’s collar, and peered inside. There was nothing in his clothes.
Lin Mengzhi shook out his shirt and raised a fist. “Tonight I’m going one-on-one with Ning Bizhen.”
Wu Heng extended his hand toward the others while reminding them, “It can only ensure that after you’ve been infected with a gu parasite, you’ll still stay somewhat conscious. But it can’t completely stop the gu insects from entering your bodies. What about the rest of you?”
“I’ll go.” Xue Qi took the second turn. This time the poppy vine wasn’t as mischievous and simply slipped in through his palm.
“Little fish, little fish, you should get one too.” Lin Mengzhi picked up a wriggling vine and tossed it into the fish tank on the coffee table.
Several heads immediately crowded around curiously. This time they could clearly watch the whole process of how the vine entered the body.
The beautiful betta fish had been swimming leisurely. When the vine slipped into the water, its tail flicked twice. Then the tip of the vine headed straight toward it.
The betta pressed itself against the side of the tank. It appeared compliant, but its fear was obvious.
Just as the vine was about to reach the fish’s body, it grew thinner and slipped directly beneath one of the scales on its side. At that moment, the fish’s tail slapped hard against the tank wall twice, splashing water all over the people standing nearby.
Yang Ao and Yang Yu sat in the corner, watching as everyone in the room accepted a vine one after another. There were far more ability users in their group than they had imagined—almost everyone had powers. Even the teacher, who looked the least like an ability user, had received a vine of his own.
Most people already feared not fitting in, and those who didn’t fit in feared even more that they wouldn’t meet the standards of other outcasts—let alone in an apocalyptic era where ordinary people were treated as worse than accessories.
They didn’t need things like human rights or a voice. They just didn’t want to be abandoned.
“Um… is there anything we can do?” Yang Yu asked proactively.
Wu Heng looked at her, but she had no way of guessing what he was thinking.
“There is.” Wu Heng turned and left the room. Soon, he came back holding a blue plastic flowerpot. In the pot was a fragile-looking poppy seedling, less than three inches tall.
The boy placed the heavy pot into Ruan Silian’s arms and said to her and the Yang siblings beside her, “Watch over it.”
“This is…?”
“The class monitor’s flower.”
“You’re not ability users. According to Yang Ao, Ning Bizhen wouldn’t waste his power on you,” Wu Heng said, looking at the flower that was still steadily growing. “But just in case, take it with you. When the mutated plants inside other people’s bodies protect it, you can benefit from it, but it’s not 100% safe.”
Ruan Silian tightened her hold on the flowerpot.
“I know. Tonight was always going to be dangerous.”
Wu Heng grabbed the jacket from the sofa and put it on.
“Alright then. Get ready, we’re heading out.”
—
Tonight was Shen Miao’s birthday. The gray sky and the surrounding buildings were forced to take part in this artificially staged celebration.
Compared with the casual clothes worn by their group, the ability users who had been “invited” by Ning Bizhen were clearly dressed with much more care and formality. Of course, compared with the time before the apocalypse, it was still far from impressive—many people wore suits, but it was obvious that quite a few of them didn’t fit very well.
They had shared meals with quite a few of these ability users before, and when they met in the corridor, they still greeted them.
The birthday party was being held inside the castle where Ning Bizhen and Shen Miao lived together. After climbing to the fourth floor of the castle, they could already hear the lively sound of gongs and drums coming from the playground below.
As they passed by the playground, Wu Heng saw that many large animals were tied up on the other side. From their eyes and condition, it was clear they were all mutated—cats, birds, cattle, horses, snakes, monkeys, chickens, ducks, and even crickets larger than dogs. Some were simply tied up with ropes, while others were curled up in cages. Each of them had a white bow tied onto its body to celebrate Shen Miao’s birthday, yet there wasn’t a trace of joy in their eyes.
Even in the apocalypse, they were still forced to perform and suffer ab*se. Wu Heng felt a trace of pity in his heart—better to just let him eat them instead.
“Are they all going to perform on stage?” Ying Liuquan asked. He was the most soft-hearted and hated scenes like this the most.
But there was nothing he could do. There had never been anything he could do.
“If they’re not going to perform, then why drag them here?” The bearded man suddenly jumped down from an old conifer tree above their heads, appearing like a ghost.
Xue Qi crossed his hands in front of his chest. “Refuse animal performances.”
The bearded man smiled in a strange way. “How do you know they’re all animals?”
“…?” Wu Heng paused slightly. “You mean there are animal symbiotes among them?”
“Huh?”
The bearded man’s companion explained, “Symbiotes are even better for performances than ordinary animals. No matter how big or strong animals become, they’re still just animals. But symbiotes are both animals and humans—they have the higher-level thinking that humans possess, so performing is easy for them.”
“This is completely insane,” Dou Lu said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“That’s the castle where Mr. Shen lives? This is our first time here,” the bearded man said, gazing at the tall buildings nestled among mountains and water in the distance. His carefully groomed, fluffy beard trembled slightly along with the look of admiration on his face.
—
Inside the courtyard, white roses bloomed in vast clusters. Beneath the layered clouds and mountain shadows, lights flickered softly within the house.
There were many people responsible for receiving guests—and even more guests themselves. When Wu Heng had come yesterday, the living room had been empty. Now it was crowded with visitors, and piles of gifts were stacked everywhere like small mountains.
Together, they showered compliments on Shen Miao, who stood there in a pure white suit, exuding an extraordinary elegance.
“Mr. Shen, this is a snow lotus I specially brought from our hometown. Before the apocalypse, it was a protected plant.”
“Thank you.”
“Mr. Shen, this fur coat is made from snow leopard skin from our base. Those leopards are incredibly ferocious now, we only managed to produce this one piece. Happy birthday to you!”
Watching this scene, Lin Mengzhi rubbed the soles of his shoes hard against the mat at the bottom of the steps while poking his childhood friend in the arm.
“So many people can’t even get enough to eat, and they’re living this extravagantly.”
“A’Heng, when we get to Deathlands later, we absolutely mustn’t end up like them. Otherwise we’ll definitely have nightmares at night!”
“Exactly,” Dou Lu said from behind Wu Heng. She looked back at the courtyard full of white roses, then toward the distance—she could almost hear the roars of zombies coming from outside. The sight only made her feel irritated. “Damn it. Later on, watch me chop Ning Bizhen into minced meat.”
“Please have some water.”
A soft, gentle voice appeared in front of Wu Heng.
Wu Heng didn’t quite understand what was going on, but he accepted the water. He soon noticed that only he had been offered a drink. For a moment, he didn’t drink it and instead walked inside.
“My name is Shen Ruyi. Shen Ping’an is my older brother. My mom said you’re my brother’s friends,” Shen Ruyi said eagerly. Instead of leaving right away, he stepped into their group and spoke impatiently.
Wu Heng didn’t look back, so he didn’t realize that the other person had said that while looking at the back of his head. He was watching Shen Miao. Shen Miao had already noticed them when they came over from the lakeside. By this point, he simply told the people who were still flattering him to make themselves comfortable, then walked straight toward them.
His target was obvious enough that even Lin Mengzhi noticed it. Lin Mengzhi leapt in front of Wu Heng, raised both hands high, and gave a deep ninety-degree bow.
“Mr. Shen, may you live forever!!!”
The boy’s voice was so loud that people on the entire first floor turned to look. Yet he acted completely natural. Straightening up, he grinned and added, “But we didn’t bring a birthday gift.”
“That’s alright.” Shen Miao smiled gently and looked at Wu Heng. “The gift you gave me earlier, I planted it in the courtyard. Did you see it when you came in just now?”
Wu Heng nodded.
“Then come inside and sit. There’s plenty of food in there.” After saying this, Shen Miao turned around and personally led Wu Heng inside.
The hall was spacious, with roses placed even in the corners. The white Devon Rex cat meowed and followed along as well. Shen Miao only stopped once they reached the buffet room filled with various foods.
“Given the circumstances, the hospitality may be lacking. Please forgive any shortcomings.”
The other guests in the dining room had been selecting food and hadn’t paid attention to who had entered. But Shen Miao’s voice made them look up—what kind of person would Shen Miao personally host like this?
—A group of kids.
The people in the room looked at them, while they looked at the dazzling spread of food in the room.
There were three long buffet tables meant for cold dining. One row held champagne, another row red wine. There weren’t many kinds of desserts, but in the apocalypse they were already extremely rare. The fruit platters were also impressive—apocalypse fruits were always both beautiful and sweet. Several large plates of chicken steaks and beef steaks were still steaming hot…
“Can we really eat all of this?” Yang Ao stared at the table full of food in disbelief.
“Of course.” Shen Miao nodded, telling them to help themselves to whatever they liked. If there was something they wanted that wasn’t there, they could tell him and he would ask the kitchen if it could be made.
After Shen Miao left, Xue Qi stared at his back for quite a while before finally turning around and saying, “Actually… he seems like a pretty good person.”
“Why is there so much food? No wonder they call him the emperor!”
“Do you think Ning Bizhen might actually be sincere toward Shen Miao, throwing a birthday party for him with so many people and so much food?”
“Adults’ world is so complicated.”
“But if you think about it, being able to lock up the person you like and see them every day… that’d be pretty awesome!”
“…Who just said that? Who’s that twisted?”
“A’Heng, what do you—” Ruan Silian wanted to ask what Wu Heng thought, but when she turned her head, Wu Heng was already gone.
After looking around, she found that at some point Wu Heng had moved to the dining table. He was standing there, spearing a chicken steak with a fork and taking big bites. In his other hand, a piece of sushi was waiting in line to be sent into his mouth.
“…”