"Where's the pretty girl who took you away earlier? She's not pregnant either, is she?"

Zhang Xiaojuan coughed up all the water, her face turning red from vomiting. She stood up and jokingly asked the bespectacled young man a question.

Suddenly, two suspicious blushes appeared on the bespectacled young man's face, and he hurriedly stammered, "No, don't talk nonsense, Sister Xinqiao is still single."

"Your face is so red, you have a crush on someone?" Han Rui raised an eyebrow and interrogated her with a smile.

"No, I didn't do it, don't talk nonsense!"

The bespectacled young man's weak explanation only earned him knowing smiles from the crowd.

Just then, all the dishes were served, and he immediately urged everyone to eat in order to temporarily divert attention from the awkward situation.

Everyone was exhausted from the journey, so when the food was served, they picked up their bowls and chopsticks and devoured their rice.

Only Zhang Xiaojuan held her bowl and chopsticks, staring blankly at the fragrant dishes on the table, hesitant to pick up her chopsticks.

"Won't this stuff make me pregnant? I'm still young and can't handle this kind of shock." He swallowed, looking blankly at Lu Sheng and Xu Yi, hoping to hear some professional advice from them.

Lu Sheng swallowed a mouthful of braised eggplant, glanced at him, and said, "Don't worry, if you get pregnant, Teacher Xu will give you an epidural."

Zhang Xiaojuan: "..."

"Teacher Xu, can you do something about her?" he asked Xu Yi helplessly.

A faint smile flickered behind Xu Yi's gold-rimmed glasses. "I can't control that."

Zhang Xiaojuan looked at him with disappointment and frustration.

There are three men in the team, and the other two are henpecked and have no status in the family at all! When will men be able to stand up for themselves?

It's pitiful that he, with his upright character, was powerless to help others!

"Forget it, if we're going to have a baby, we can all have one together. At worst, Sister Lu can raise the baby."

Unable to overcome hunger in the end, Zhang Xiaojuan gritted her teeth and joined the army of people scrambling for food.

The two groups ordered more than a dozen dishes, and in no time, even the soup was gone. Lu Sheng and her group paid for the villagers' accommodation and meals in advance, and then left the hotel under the pretext of purchasing supplies.

"Let's go to the market first, and then go see Liang Xiaoyun and Sun Zhe."

Lu Sheng walked at the front of the group, and the group followed the bespectacled young man quickly toward the market in the slums.

"Is there anything you want to buy, boss?" the bespectacled guy asked curiously.

Lu Sheng shook his head. "I want to see the birth rate in the slums."

The three pregnant women they met along the way were all K3 indigenous people, whose living conditions were relatively good, so their pregnancy wasn't considered particularly outrageous.

But the slums are different.

Residents in slums struggle to make ends meet, let alone actively seek children. Even if they completely overcome their sexual dysfunction, very few would risk pregnancy.

Four o'clock in the afternoon is the busiest time in the market. Lu Sheng and her friends struggled to squeeze into the endless stream of people, constantly glancing at the people around them.

"This is a bit outrageous. We've only walked a few hundred meters and I've already seen two or three pregnant women."

Zhang Xiaojuan rubbed her chin, looking at the pregnant young women on both sides of the stall with a surprised expression. "Is it that the environment at your K3 base is so good for cultivating fertility?"

There were so many people in the market that Lu Sheng and her friends were eventually squeezed to a steamed bun stall, craning their necks to look around.

The entire market stretches for several hundred meters, and Lu Sheng can spot five or six young women with slightly protruding bellies at a glance.

Although she was pregnant, the poor in the apocalypse had to work and eat to make ends meet, and these people had to persevere even with their big bellies in order to get food.

Five or six pregnant women may not seem like a lot given the population of the slum. However, considering the current harsh living conditions, this number becomes somewhat significant.

"Sister Lu, maybe we're overthinking it." Zhang Xiaojuan bought a bag of pan-fried buns with ten crystal cores and distributed them to everyone. "I was just thinking, during the Eternal Night, everyone doesn't have much else to do, so it seems quite normal to have some children..."

Lu Sheng and the others: "..."

The innocent-looking young man's face was already as red as a monkey's bottom, and he awkwardly stuffed two big steamed buns into his mouth.

"Actually, I think Juan'er's words don't completely disproportionately make sense," Xiao Yu, Zhang Xiaojuan's best friend, weakly defended her. "There's so little that Yongye can do, which is part of the reason, isn't it?"

After a brief discussion, the group decided to go find Sun Zhe and Liang Xiaoyun first.

They plan to investigate the mystery of K3 step by step, and for now, they'll catch up with acquaintances.

They hadn't seen each other since Sun Zhe decided to keep Liang Xiaoyun at the K3 base to take care of her. Lu Sheng knew that Sun Tiantian was still thinking about Sun Zhe, so she offered to have the bespectacled guy take them to find him.

Because Liang Xiaoyun had not been able to wake up, she was kept in the hospital research building that was specially built for Xiao Guozheng and his wife.

When the bespectacled young man arrived with Lu Sheng and the others, it was just in time for the shift change between the morning and evening duty personnel.

Upon learning that Sun Tiantian was Sun Zhe's older sister, the officers on duty suddenly revealed a meaningful smile.

Congratulations!

The officer who was leaving his shift suddenly said something to Sun Tiantian out of the blue.

Before the group could even process the meaning of the smile, they had already followed the bespectacled guy into the special observation room on the second floor.

Sun Tiantian, longing for her family, knocked briefly on the door and then eagerly pushed it open.

"Xiao Zhe..."

As soon as the door opened, Sun Tiantian's joyful smile froze on her face. The group of people who followed her in also paused awkwardly for a moment.

Liang Xiaoyun lay on the bed, looking emaciated, covered with a thin summer blanket. The only part of her body that was exposed was her right hand, which had an IV tube inserted into it.

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