Eaten Ch.218.2

Chapter 218.2: “There are no three months left”

The residents’ district square was even larger than the military and administrative district’s. In the center lay a long, unused yellow stone slab—over ten meters long and three to four meters high—surrounded by a dense crowd.

Wu Zhi stood at the front of the formation. The line before her was the quietest, everyone watching her expression with extreme caution. She looked no older than sixteen, but on the very first day she arrived in Kuhuang, she had executed troublemakers without hesitation to set an example. She killed infected people just as easily, without even blinking.

Combined with her stark white hair and pale white eyes—so different from other ice-type ability users—she no longer looked like a human with warmth, but more like a little god of slaughter.

A blinding pair of headlights shone from afar. The vehicle slowed as it approached, finally entering the square.

Wu Zhi’s gaze followed the faces of the people looking toward the car. Then she turned back—and the expression that had never once shown a smile suddenly broke into something bright and joyful.

“Brother!”

Hearing Wu Zhi call out “Brother,” Lin Mengzhi at the back knew Wu Heng had arrived. He turned to Liu Ning and said shyly, “Wait a moment, I’ll come back later,” then ran toward the front.

“We’re here,” Shen Ping’an said, cutting the engine as he spoke to Wu Heng, who had already woken at some point.

Wu Heng tapped his fingers lightly on his knee. X squeezed out through the car window and flew up to stand on the roof.

The young man opened the door and stepped out under everyone’s gaze. A trace of lingering fatigue still remained between his brows. His indifferent, weary expression made it clear he was not in a good mood. But his tall, outstanding figure—and the fact that he was young yet held a high position—was more than enough for people to overlook the faint oppressive unease he gave off.

Wu Zhi ran up to him, wanting to hug him but not daring to. She stomped her feet in place like she used to as a child.

“Brother, I’m back. Did you miss me?”

Wu Heng still preferred her when she acted like a little dog. Satisfied, he patted her head without saying a word.

But Wu Zhi was already very happy—anyone who had witnessed her brutal side before would have felt like they’d seen a ghost.

Lin Mengzhi and Mo Xie came together. Mo Xie was not as tall as Lin Mengzhi, but compared to Lin Mengzhi’s reckless youthful energy, Mo Xie’s calm elegance was overwhelming. Even though he had thinned somewhat since their last meeting, he still carried a faint, almost effortless aura of lethal composure.

The two of them delivered the roster of Kuhuang’s survivors, with each person’s ability and level clearly listed.

Wu Heng casually flipped through a couple of pages before stopping. He looked at Mo Xie.

“We’ve met before.” He had some impression of him.

Mo Xie had already learned from Lin Mengzhi that Wu Heng was face-blind and didn’t mind it. He extended his hand with a faint smile.

“Mo Xie.”

Wu Heng did not shake his hand. Instead, he rolled up the roster, tapped it against the side of his leg, and after a brief pause said, “Shen Ping’an has already assigned your residential areas. You can take them there now and settle in. Get a good rest tonight. Tomorrow, all of you will undergo a more detailed medical examination.”

“Right, I remember you were the person in charge of Kuhuang before. From now on, this community is still under your responsibility. If anything isn’t clear, you can ask Lisa from the Xianghu Community, or just go directly to Xue Shen or Shen Ping’an…” Wu Heng frowned as he spoke, clearly unwilling to leave Xie Chongyi alone at home. The more he talked, the more irritated he became. “Ask whoever you want. Figure it out yourself.”

Mo Xie nodded. “Understood.”

He turned and walked back toward the crowd.

Lin Mengzhi stayed behind. He suddenly hugged Wu Heng tightly and said excitedly, “I’m dating someone!”

Wu Heng was still confused. “Dating what?”

“Dating someone!”

“Dating who?” Wu Heng was genuinely impressed by Lin Mengzhi’s tendency to fall in love at the drop of a hat. Before leaving Suyou City, he had been so hung up on Bo Ying that he even brought Bo Ying’s grandmother to live in his house. And now? Bo Ying’s grandmother probably hadn’t even figured out the layout of the house yet, and Lin Mengzhi had already moved on again.

“Liu Ning!” Lin Mengzhi’s face turned red. He let go of Wu Heng and smoothed out his wrinkled uniform. “Hey, don’t look down on me. I know I change my mind a lot, but honestly… being gay isn’t as disgusting as I thought. It’s actually kind of… nice.”

“…”

Wu Heng fell silent for a few seconds.

“You’re serious with him, or…” he paused. Then he remembered how he had confidently told Xie Chongyi not long ago that Lin Mengzhi didn’t like men—only for Lin Mengzhi to already be dating one.

And then he thought of his “lonely housemate,” the class monitor.

Thinking of that, the corners of his mouth lifted slightly before he could stop it.

“Let’s have a meal together tomorrow,” he said. “Call Liu Ning too.”

Lin Mengzhi, who hadn’t even figured out how to tell his best friend yet, immediately seized the opportunity. “Okay!”

At the side, Wu Zhi was practically jumping in frustration. Why was he only talking to Lin Mengzhi and not her?

“Brother…” she said, opening her bag. Inside was a pouch full of raspberries.

“I picked them for you.”

Wu Heng gave her some face. He picked one up with his pale fingers and tossed it into his mouth.

A moment later, his mouth twitched.

“Next time,” he said flatly, “don’t pick them.”

“Was the trip back smooth?”

Wu Heng’s expression became slightly more serious as he asked about the actual business.

Lin Mengzhi and Wu Zhi also stopped fooling around. Lin Mengzhi cleared his throat first and said, “Not really. A lot of bases are gone—those places have all turned into deserts. Along the way, many people asked us to take them to Deathlands. At first I was going to bring them, but Wu Zhi said it wasn’t within our mission scope and was worried it would cause trouble, so we didn’t take a single one.”

Wu Heng nodded. “Good call. People from other bases should be handled by other teams. Just focus on your own tasks.”

Lin Mengzhi blinked. “Anything else? If not, I’m going to get busy. I still need to send them all to the community.”

“Liu Ning too?” Wu Heng asked with a faint, almost amused smile.

“No.” Wu Zhi raised a finger and shook it emphatically. “They already discussed it on the way. Sister Liu Ning is going to stay at Meng Zhi’s place, not in the community.”

Wu Heng glanced at Lin Mengzhi with a meaningful look. Under Lin Mengzhi’s instantly flushed face and frantic “don’t say it” begging expression, Wu Heng said lightly, “Quite the appetite.”

Lin Mengzhi fled in embarrassment.

Wu Zhi was still standing in front of Wu Heng.

“Brother, can I sleep at your place tonight?”

Wu Heng nodded slightly, a trace of fatigue in his voice. “You can. But I won’t have time to take care of you tonight.”

“Are you tired?”

“It’s about the class monitor.”

“Oh, that I know.” Wu Zhi stared closely at Wu Heng’s expression until he got into the car. She still hadn’t fully reacted when Shen Ping’an called her name. Only then did she snap back to reality and quickly climbed in after him.

“Brother, before I go to your place, I need to stop by Liu Shen’s first. I want to give him the raspberries.”

The car started moving.

Wu Heng leaned back in his seat. “Is he treating you well?”

Wu Zhi nodded, then shook her head. “Not exactly… but compared to the others in the team, he’s still pretty good.”

Wu Zhi, as proof, held up the monkey hanging from her backpack. It was so worn it could barely be recognized as a plush toy.

“This monkey—” she said, “a big snake once tried to take it from me. Because I killed her cat, she wanted to kill me too. Liu Shen saved me, and helped me get the monkey back, but only half of it. So he sewed it back together for me. Look, isn’t it a size smaller than before?”

“At first I really hated Liu Shen. I wanted to kill him. He’s really shameless and indecent—he can’t compare to you at all, Brother. But later… he wasn’t actually that bad to me. So I thought about it—if he gets old in the future, and still doesn’t have a wife or kids, I guess I could still bring him a bowl of food every day.”

“Brother, I’ll also take care of you and the class monitor when you’re old.”

Wu Heng had already been half asleep. Hearing this, his drowsiness faded a little.

“You’re not much younger than me,” he said flatly. “Who takes care of who is still uncertain.”

The young man rarely spoke much with his sister. Wu Zhi, feeling both surprised and delighted, hugged her monkey and boldly leaned her head against Wu Heng’s shoulder.

“Then Brother and the class monitor will take care of me!”

—

When the others came in one by one, carrying big and small bags, and saw the empty living room, dining area, and kitchen, they wanted to pick a fight—only to realize that the person sitting in the living room was Wu Heng.

Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable… This couple must have planned it in advance!

Shen Ping’an set down the meat he had bought with over a thousand labor points, took off his coat with practiced ease, found his usual apron in the kitchen, and tied it on. “I’ll cook.”

Xue Qi walked past him carrying fruit. “All that’s missing is a chef~”

As soon as he said that, something felt off. Where was the actual cook? “Wait, where’s our Vice President Lin? I haven’t seen him much these past few days!”

Wu Heng, chewing on pumpkin seeds, walked into the kitchen and kicked two large baskets of fish and shrimp he had taken out an hour earlier. “Cook these too.”

Xue Qi leaned over the baskets and saw not just crayfish, but also crabs, eel, and small whitebait. He froze. “Wait—where did you even get these?”

“From my space. There’s plenty,” Wu Heng replied.

Xue Qi immediately hugged Wu Heng. “Boss, I love you! Lord, thank you! Wu Heng, you’re amazing! I’m so sick of eating meat all the time—finally we can switch things up!”

Shen Ping’an pulled him off Wu Heng. “If anyone else heard you say you’re sick of eating meat, they’d probably want to eat you instead.”

They messed around for a bit, and a few more people entered the living room. Xue Shen arrived a little later. He walked around indoors, then eventually went into the kitchen and casually stood beside Wu Heng. “Lin Mengzhi didn’t come?”

Wu Heng curled his lips into a smile. “He said he has a surprise for you.”

Wu Zhi appeared out of nowhere. “A surprise~”

The siblings exchanged a smile.

Xue Shen showed no discomfort at all and calmly adjusted his glasses. “More like a scare.”

“Has anyone seen Dou Lu?”

The smile at the corner of Wu Heng’s mouth faded slightly. “She’s at the clinic taking care of Ruan Silian.”

Except for Dou Lu and Ruan Silian, and Lin Mengzhi—who kept saying he’d be there “soon, soon”—almost everyone else had arrived, and none of them came empty-handed. Even Yang Ao brought a bag of tomatoes—the greenhouse-grown ones Ao She had cultivated. They couldn’t be grown outdoors, so they were especially sweet and expensive.

Even Rui En, who had hit it off immediately with Ying Liuquan, showed up uninvited.

Lying in front of the TV cabinet, Xue Qi excitedly rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a pile of discs. “They treat Wu Heng way too well! I haven’t seen these in ages! Why didn’t anyone give me any? Am I not good to them?”

The discs were old. Xue Qi randomly picked one from the bottom, inserted it, and stared wide-eyed at the screen, waiting for the image to appear. But before anything showed up, a man’s groan came through first. Instantly, all the noise in the living room disappeared as everyone turned to look at Xue Qi.

“Who’s making that sound?” Xue Qi still hadn’t reacted.

Then, on the screen in front of him, two naked men appeared.

“Whoa, what the—”

Before Xue Qi could process it, Ying Liuquan rushed over and yanked out the power cord.

The living room fell into dead silence. Then, someone—no one knew who—laughed first from the second-floor railing. After that, everyone burst into laughter.

“What the heck, why would someone give the lord adult videos?”

“Wu Heng, do you watch this stuff at home all the time? Does the class monitor watch it with you?”

Wu Heng shoved a handful of pumpkin seeds into his mouth, completely expressionless, without the slightest hint of a smile. He definitely didn’t watch it.

Xie Chongyi leaned over the second-floor railing, his eyes full of amusement as he looked down. The tips of Wu Heng’s ears were bright red, his face tense—he was the worst at handling jokes.

At that moment, the half-closed door was suddenly pushed open. Lin Mengzhi appeared at the entrance, both hands full of drinks. “I’m here! Is the food ready yet?”

“Since you’re the last one to arrive, you’re not allowed to eat—yo—”

Xue Qi’s words abruptly cut off when he saw the stunning beauty standing outside the door. He shot up instantly, then quickly sat back down, remembering—this was Liu Ning. But why would Liu Ning be here at their gathering?

Liu Ning had long hair draped over her shoulders, a faint smile on her face. A white shirt was neatly tucked into a black, mid-length hip-hugging skirt. Her sharply defined, deep features were softened by her delicate facial contours, and with the light makeup she’d specially put on, her gender became even more ambiguous.

Lin Mengzhi was clearly mentally prepared—but the moment he saw everyone, all preparation went out the window. He hurriedly set down what he was holding, took Liu Ning’s things to put them aside, then pulled Liu Ning inside and carefully closed the door. His eyes darted around the room. “Um… let me introduce you. This is my boyfriend, Liu Ning.”

The room fell into an even deeper silence—so quiet it felt eerie.

As usual, Teacher Ying was the first to react. Saying “welcome, welcome,” he stood up halfway. “Come on, come on, have a seat!”

With the teacher leading, everyone quickly snapped out of it. It wasn’t that they couldn’t accept same-sex relationships—Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi, for example, were perfectly fine in that regard. The problem was that Lin Mengzhi had always acted strongly homophobic, constantly swooning over pretty girls, and his ideal partner preferences couldn’t have been straighter. So suddenly seeing him dating a man… they were a bit, shocked.

Seeing that no one cold-shouldered Liu Ning or teased him, Lin Mengzhi finally relaxed a little. Liu Ning was surrounded by people, while Lin Mengzhi, drenched in sweat, casually found a seat.

But the moment he sat down, the person next to him shot up like a spring—Xue Shen.

“Stay away from me.”

Xue Shen, looking down at him with obvious disgust, threw out the line and moved to sit far, far away from Lin Mengzhi.

“Wow, what the hell!” Lin Mengzhi rolled his eyes.

Amid the lively room, Wu Heng quietly went upstairs and, like Xie Chongyi, leaned over the railing.

“Did you already know about this?” Xie Chongyi asked.

“The day Kuhuang arrived, Mengzhi already told me,” Wu Heng said, clearly satisfied as he observed Xue Shen’s expression.

Xie Chongyi let out a laugh. “You should’ve told Xue Shen in advance.”

“Why would I?” Wu Heng didn’t understand. “Mengzhi is the one dating him. Even if someone were to say it, it wouldn’t be me.”

“True.” Xie Chongyi nodded and stopped leaning on the railing. He straightened up and stood beside Wu Heng. “Then something’s going to happen.”

“Like what?” Wu Heng asked in a low voice.

Xie Chongyi seemed about to explain, but after opening his mouth, he closed it again. He smiled leisurely instead. “Let’s wait and see. Not necessarily.”

Wu Heng didn’t press further. His gaze fell on Liu Ning’s straight, slender back. Her shoulders were slightly broad, but it didn’t affect her overall elegance. He sighed softly. “She’s really good-looking.”

“Yeah, she is.” Xie Chongyi followed his line of sight, understanding what he was admiring. He played along, though his smile gradually cooled. “Do you have any skirts in your space? Like the kind she’s wearing?”

Wu Heng looked confused, but still answered honestly, “I collected a lot back then. There should be some.”

Xie Chongyi cast him a teasing glance. “I think you’d look even better in one.”

Wu Heng froze.

After a moment, he turned to look at Xie Chongyi, his eyes bright and clear like green water. “Should I wear one for you tonight?”

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