Chapter 179: Leaving Hanzhou Base
The city walls didn’t need to be rebuilt. Although it was Wu Heng who had granted them stronger life, that life still belonged to the walls themselves.
On Central Street in Area C, the central area was the mall where they had first held a group activity together. The mall was already unrecognizable. Even though it was clear that the survivors in the district were still continuing to use it for its original purpose, it was completely different from what it used to be.
Most people gathered here upon hearing the news. Inside and out, the place was packed. They all hoped Wu Heng would stay.
“We’re people of Hanzhou to begin with—why leave again? What if some outsider comes and bullies us later?”
“I don’t get it. Could it really be better out there than at home?”
“Where did Ning Bizhen go? Get him out here—I’ll smash him with a hammer!”
Wu Heng sat on the floor of the second-floor corridor, completely ignoring the chatter rising from downstairs. Resting his chin in his hand, he stared off in a daze, while beside him Xue Shen talked endlessly.
“One-third of the ability users have already been assimilated by Ning Bizhen’s parasitic insects. Old Xie couldn’t force the bugs out of their bodies. After Ning Bizhen and the mother parasite died…” Xue Shen paused briefly, “…they all died as well. Those still in the process of assimilation mostly killed themselves.”
Dou Lu asked nervously, “Did a lot of people die?”
“Nearly ten thousand.”
This was beyond what many had expected. They had thought only a small number would die, or that people would just be injured. Injuries were manageable—they could be treated. So for a moment, no one spoke.
“Then… are we still going to Deathlands?” Xue Qi leaned over the railing, looking down. The expressions on everyone’s faces below made his heart ache.
“Of course we are!” Lin Mengzhi swung his hands outside the railing. “Wasn’t it agreed from the start? We’d go somewhere no one can control us, where no one can lord over us. As for Hanzhou, Jingzhou will naturally take charge of it—why should we worry about it?”
“Then when do we set off?”
“Judging by everyone’s current condition,” Xue Shen said, sweeping his gaze around, “we can leave anytime.”
Lin Mengzhi slid over and sat down next to Wu Heng, tilting his chin toward the opposite side. “You two—no, you three. What are the three of you planning to do?”
Yang Ao and Yang Yu were both stunned by the question, especially Yang Ao. He hadn’t expected that everyone was actually not planning to stay in Hanzhou, so his mind had been in turmoil the whole time. In truth, he understood clearly—Ning Bizhen was dead, but whether it was one new ruler or ten, people like him and Yang Yu, who had no abilities, would never truly have it easy.
So from the beginning, Yang Ao had thought: once Ning Bizhen died, Wu Heng or Xie Chongyi would take over Hanzhou. Having a leader who was their own classmate, someone whose character they could trust, would at least be far better than some unrelated stranger. But now, it seemed that plan was about to fall apart.
“What kind of place is Deathlands?” Yang Yu asked.
“It’s a new continent that appeared after the earthquake. I’ve heard it’s a terrifying place—filled with miasma and crawling with strange beasts. When I first heard about it, it was still unclaimed territory. Not sure about now,” Xue Zhi said.
“You’re going there to seize it?” Yang Yu asked in shock.
“If it’s unclaimed, how is it ‘seizing’?”
Yang Yu said nothing more. She tried hard to hide the turmoil in her expression as she lowered her head. In her eyes was the peacefully sleeping child in her arms, a milk bottle still in its mouth—this was the first milk the child had tasted since being born into this world.
As if making up her mind, she tugged hard on the hem of Yang Ao’s clothes from behind and looked at the group with an earnest expression. “Then… can we go with you?”
Yang Ao almost thought he had misheard her and hadn’t even had time to respond before Xue Shen across from them shook his head.
“You don’t have abilities, and you’re carrying a child. If something unexpected happens, we might not be able to look after you.”
“It’s okay! It’s okay!” Yang Yu said urgently. “We’ll do our best not to hold you back, and we’ll do our best to protect ourselves.”
Xue Shen lowered his head to look at Wu Heng. “Wu Heng, what do you think?”
“Whatever.”
Yang Yu was overjoyed—so much so that tears almost spilled from her eyes. But before she could voice her thanks, the sound of footsteps behind her forced the words back down.
Doctor Chen walked out from the empty room into the corridor, looking around before finally spotting Wu Heng. He said, “I’ve done everything I can. The family should prepare for the funeral as soon as possible.”
“……”
Wu Heng’s gaze turned cold. “Speak plainly.”
“Xie Chongyi should stop using his abilities, both of them, including the spatial one he awakened later. That way, he might be able to live a bit longer.”
“What happens if he keeps using them?” Wu Heng asked.
“The human body has limits. While his abilities are growing stronger, the dark energy inside him is also surging. Whether his mind or body collapses—it’s only a matter of time.” After saying that, Doctor Chen sniffed his palm. “It’s been raining nonstop. I’ve started to smell.”
Dou Lu glanced at the silent Wu Heng and asked Doctor Chen, “Is there no way to remove those things from our class monitor’s body?”
“Maybe it’s worth a try, but this isn’t my area of expertise. You’ll need to find some scientists.”
“Let’s set off first,” Xie Chongyi’s voice came from behind them. His complexion wasn’t great, but he wasn’t weak yet—he just looked like he hadn’t slept well.
Dou Lu frowned. “What about the people downstairs? They’ve blocked the place completely.”
“Abilities aren’t just for show.” Xue Qi leapt onto the wall. “Spider-Man is heading out first!”
Wu Heng only took Xie Chongyi with him. The two of them reached the place where they had parked earlier as quickly as possible. Xie Chongyi pulled open the car door, wanting to get in quickly—but the moment he stepped one foot inside, someone yanked him back.
“I’ll save you,” the boy said, tilting his head up. His face was covered in glistening droplets. “I promise.”
Something inside Xie Chongyi seemed to break its banks.
Streaks of water ran down Wu Heng’s face—it was clearly rain, but taking it as tears wouldn’t be wrong either. “Even if you can’t use your abilities, it’s fine. As long as I’m here, no one will dare b*lly you.”
Xie Chongyi let out a laugh. In Wu Heng’s gray-green eyes, he saw his own reflection—smiling more awkwardly than ever before. He withdrew his hand from the car door, cupped Wu Heng’s face, and their rain-soaked lips crashed heavily together, like a seal marking the promise as officially in effect.
At some point, Xue Shen had appeared inside the car. Sitting with one leg crossed over the other, he looked refined and composed. “If you keep kissing, you can sit on the roof.”
—
The rain still hadn’t stopped. Spring on Earth hadn’t passed yet.
“Severe flooding and several unknown epidemics have broken out in multiple regions. Typhoons are making frequent landfall. Energy fluctuations have increased to more than seven times what they were a month ago. Evolved zombies and mutated animals and plants have appeared in many areas—their aggression several times stronger than three months ago. Please… protect… support one another…”
The magnetic field kept shifting, and with the interference from the rain, signal towers occasionally failed. The broadcast went from intermittent to completely gone, leaving the car in silence, with only the sound of their breathing remaining.
At some point, dawn broke. Wu Heng, leaning against Xie Chongyi, woke with a start. He looked out the window—outside was an endless stretch of green plains. He had the vines wipe away the curtain of rain on the window before realizing the “green plains” were actually a cornfield, most of it already flattened.
There were plenty of zombies along the road as well. At the sound of the car, they would stagger toward it, only to be mercilessly crushed under the wheels. But as long as their heads weren’t destroyed, they would still snarl at the food they failed to reach.
“—zzzt—crackle—”
The car radio, which had been silent for so long, suddenly came to life on its own.
“Hey, can you hear me?” Ginger’s voice came through. “Ning Bizhen’s been dealt with. Thanks for your hard work, everyone.”
Lin Mengzhi, sitting in the passenger seat, widened his eyes in disbelief. “How do you know that?”
“If tens of thousands of people die in a short time and we don’t notice, that would be our failure,” Ginger said in an almost casual tone. “When you reach Deathlands, if you need anything, have Xiao Xie contact us.”
Lin Mengzhi sneaked a glance at the back seat—Xie Chongyi was still asleep, and Wu Heng looked as if he wasn’t listening at all. He leaned closer to the radio and whispered, “Do you know about Xie Chongyi’s condition?”
Ginger paused for a moment, not quite reacting. “You mean his sex life with Wu Heng isn’t going well?”
“? Uh, no, not that,” Xue Shen, who was driving, explained as Lin Mengzhi flushed bright red. “Old Xie’s condition is getting worse. Haven’t you found a solution yet?”
Silence fell on the other end of the broadcast. After a long while, Ginger’s voice finally came through again.
“We’ve been trying to find a way.”
After the transmission cut off, Lin Mengzhi cautiously stole a few more glances at Wu Heng in the back seat. The quieter and calmer Wu Heng appeared, the worse Lin Mengzhi felt inside. If it had always been someone insignificant, that would be one thing—like those two scumbags whose deaths were practically celebrated. But Xie Chongyi was different. He truly hoped Xie Chongyi could live well. If Xie Chongyi really died, he didn’t even know whether Wu Heng would still be able to go on living.
Although Lin Mengzhi thought that, for Wu Heng’s sake, he could even date him himself, Wu Heng didn’t like just any guy—he liked Xie Chongyi. No one could replace him.
The road conditions were terrible. Along the way, there were either tall wild grasses blocking the path or cracks in the ground and large pools of water.
The child in Yang Yu’s arms would cry every so often, but it seemed to sense that this wasn’t home. The cries were soft, little whimpers—more coos than wails—so they weren’t bothersome.
After driving for seven or eight hours straight, they finally spotted a village with lights on.
They first saw it from higher ground. It lay in the middle of lush green fields, with only four or five scattered lights—there couldn’t be many people there.
When they got closer, they realized the village walls were even taller than those in Hanzhou. As soon as Lin Mengzhi got out of the car, he ran a full circle around the village and said it looked just like a giant well pit.
Shows how small the place was—they had barely just parked and hadn’t even decided whether to knock and ask for shelter when a small iron window in the wall slid open from the inside. A wary face appeared behind it. “What do you want?”
After taking a few energy cores, the man opened the gate and let them in. He was unlike any survivors they had encountered before—not only did he not ask where they came from, he showed no curiosity whatsoever about whether they had supplies in their car. He simply lifted the hem of his pants and kept walking forward.
“Quack, quack—”
To the left of the muddy, soft main road was a yard filled with large ducks, each as tall as a person. Their eyes were blood-red. The moment they saw strangers, they flapped their wings and leapt in place, but the man expressionlessly struck them back into the yard with a single blast of his ability.
After being hit, they settled down. They no longer jumped around causing trouble, but stood in place, stretching their necks and quacking threateningly at the newcomers.
“You haven’t eaten, right?” The man glanced back at the group, who hadn’t caught up yet. “I’ll cook duck for you tonight.”
That sounded way too good.
But something felt off.
It would’ve made more sense if they were the ones being cooked and fed to the ducks!
The man kept walking, but when he noticed the sudden silence behind him, he stopped and stood on higher ground.
“My father predicted it half a year ago—that a group of people would pass by our home today. Early this morning, he told me to wait for you at the gate. He has something he wants to say to you.”