After an awkward and lengthy three seconds, Lin Dao coldly said, "You can eat the food on the table from now on." He then closed the door.
Bryta, who was frozen in place, blinked and understood what the other person meant.
Actually, since the day he moved in, aside from the incident where he was choked for touching something in the other person's study, they had rarely interacted. Mr. Lin Dao always left early and returned late, appearing extremely busy. It seems that their mercenary work was indeed very demanding.
With no clothes to change into, Blaita sneaked back to her neighbor's house through the ceiling slit with Little White, smuggling her beloved running wheel and other clothes over. Luckily, Mr. Lin hadn't noticed the few insignificant things that had appeared in the house.
Bryta breathed a sigh of relief.
As Lin Dao walked out of the room, he remembered what Bretta had said in his dream that night.
He didn't understand the meaning of the preceding sentences, but the last two words, "Eat me," lingered in his mind. Why would Bretta suddenly say that? Was it sleep-talking, or... had he discovered something?
Behind her, Bretta could still smell his scent. She quietly pushed open the door, poked half her head out, and whispered, "Mr. Lin Dao, thank you. I've found a job, and I'll move out as soon as I have the money. I won't bother you anymore, and I definitely won't touch your things."
Lin Dao turned his head to the side upon hearing this, and seeing his cautious appearance, asked, "What kind of job? Can you afford the rent?"
Bretta, who hadn't received a single penny yet, said, "...Soon." He didn't know why he had deliberately skipped the previous question.
He didn't say anything, and Lin Dao didn't intend to ask any further. He was very busy lately and had no time to care about Blaita.
The next day, backstage at the Barna Ballroom in the slums. Britta had just changed into a more exquisite, bright red ballet dress with silver embroidery. Chu Hui was personally overseeing her makeup application. Britta was beautiful; she didn't need much embellishment. A simple touch of vermilion on her lips was enough to create a strikingly elegant effect.
Chu Xiang has a knack for publicity; she's been building hype for days, saying that the Bana Ballroom has a new sign that will be unveiled tonight. In this post-apocalyptic world, entertainment is scarce, and just like in the Old Gold Era, food and sex have become the most attractive things for humans.
They were like molten lava erupting in the apocalypse, indulging themselves before it rushed towards them, enjoying each day's feast before death with a numbing, exhilarating pleasure in this remote, narrow, noisy, and chaotic darkness.
As the grand finale, Bretta didn't need to go on stage so early. Some clever guys were warming him up in front of him. Chu Xiang saw that he looked carefree and reached out to hit him on the head. It didn't hurt, but it was enough to wake him up.
Britta sat up straight.
Chu Xiang, a feisty woman, found it amusing: "I meant to wake you up, not to make you stiff as a board. Tsk, you're even harder to teach than Chu Hui." After spending a few days with her, Chu Xiang also discovered that Blaita was somewhat special. Although she looked dull and silly, she was actually very smart and learned everything quickly.
She turned and told Chu Hui to keep an eye on things, then went outside to get busy.
Bretta watched her walk away blankly. When he turned around, he found Chu Hui staring at his face very close to his, which he hadn't noticed at any time. He felt a little embarrassed and stammered, "W-what's wrong?"
Upon hearing this, Chu Hui moved a little further away and let out a cold snort.
After spending a few days with him, Bleta found him increasingly strange and wondered what she had done to offend him.
"You two... really have no relationship?"
He didn't explain clearly, but Bretta realized he was referring to Mr. Donovan and herself, and shook her head: "Really not. Maybe people of the same race just look alike?" Bretta suspected she was a Germanic lab rat.
He countered, "Then you and Sister Xiang look quite alike, so you two are...?"
"She's my older sister," Chu Hui said nonchalantly.
Bryta was somewhat surprised, after all, Xiang Jie's life seemed to be quite good, so why was Chu Hui...?
Perhaps sensing his surprise, Chu Hui said, "She is her, and I am me. I don't spend her money."
Bleta's understanding of human kinship was even more incomprehensible.
However, there were many things he didn't understand: "Oh, then why is she a mother..."
"—Don't mention those damn words to me!" Chu Hui suddenly went berserk, like an angry little wild beast, startling Bryta, who quickly shut up.
Silence fell over the room for a moment.
After a while, in the dimly lit room illuminated only by an emergency light, Chu Hui spoke up on his own.
“My sister used to live up there, in the most beautiful lighthouse in the base. I was up there too, only seven or eight years old. Actually, for a long time after I was born, I didn’t know her at all. I only saw her once when she was passing by on a certain floor and I found that she looked a lot like me.” Chu Hui suddenly lowered her eyes and said with a self-deprecating smile, “I even thought she might be my mother. Later I found out that she was only ten years older than me.”
During her training at the base, Britta learned that it had a strict reproductive matching system to ensure the continuation of the human race. She also learned that everyone was born and underwent genetic testing; those with superior genes received further higher education resources, while those with inferior genes were used for human development work after basic education. In the slums, however, the majority were the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled—completely devoid of any social value, discarded and flawed.
Bryta didn't like this explanation, and after a moment's thought, cautiously asked, "Then you..."
“She escaped,” Chu Hui said in a tone unbecoming of his age. “She gets pregnant and gives birth every year, sometimes more than one child at a time. That time… she had a massive hemorrhage and almost died along with her unborn child. They… knew she could never have more children like that, so they decided to save the baby. Luckily, Sister Xiang survived.”
Chu Hui seemed to be pulled back by painful memories as she spoke, her lips trembling uncontrollably. She took a heavy breath and said, "I still remember Sister Xiang back then, covered in blood. She weakly touched my face and smiled, saying—"
“Ahui, my mission is complete. From now on, I want to be myself.”
"To hell with the mission! She's risking her life to continue this so-called flame, but any random alien outside could destroy it all!" Chu Hui's eyes were dark and unfathomable as he suppressed the pent-up anger in his chest and said in a sinister tone, "...Humanity has long been abandoned by Earth. Rather than being a filthy and lowly human, I'd rather be an alien, at least strong enough to protect myself and Sister Xiang."
Bleta listened to his words with some confusion and asked, "Protect? Aren't humans very safe in the base?"
Chu Hui wanted to laugh when he heard this: "Really? Then what happened at the underground boxing arena last time? Think about the people who survived, especially those mercenaries. Only the strong survive, and the weak can only fend for themselves."
He stared at Blaita and said meaningfully, "Even you survived because of Little White, right? I'm really curious how you manage to control a plant species that can even understand your words..." Chu Hui was a smart man, and he stopped his probing questions at the right moment.
Even as Blaita was about to become wary, she felt that the other party meant no harm.
He actually wanted to say that he had also been saved by Mr. Lin Dao that day. He belatedly realized that the reason Mr. Lin Dao was able to catch the elevator car was probably because he was a black snake mutant, and extremely strong.
It turns out that simply pretending to be human is not enough; one must become stronger.
How can I become stronger?
"Tata! Come out, it's your turn!" Chu Xiang's voice from outside the door interrupted his thoughts.
"Are you here yet? Where is everyone?!" Several men outside the Bana Ballroom whistled and shouted.
Sitting at the bar, Lin Dao was dressed in the usual attire of a bounty hunter, wearing a black turtleneck mask and sitting discreetly to the side. His eyes, like those of a hawk, seemed to casually and quickly scan the faces of everyone present, as if he had no interest in the little beauty who would be the highlight of the evening.
After the host on stage enthusiastically hyped up the atmosphere with a flurry of spittle, he shouted, "Next up is our star of the night—Tata!"
Lin Dao, who had just taken a sip of the protein shakes beside him, looked up upon hearing this and suddenly choked—
The handsome young man, who had already stepped onto the stage, was dressed in a bright red dance costume that perfectly outlined his figure. His usually well-behaved and innocent face now showed a slightly awkward smile to the men below. He quickly reached out and grabbed the pole, and began to perform an adult erotic dance with skill and agility!
Colonel Klindall's face darkened as he watched the boy above, who blushed slightly at the lewd whistles and jeering at the men, but quickly let loose and danced with abandon.
Now he knew what kind of job he meant by "finding a job".
Bretta was naturally agile and jumped with great lightness. Her high-difficulty moves were very impressive. Her charming and alluring movements, combined with her fair skin under her bright red dance dress, her extremely flexible body, and her beautiful, delicate, and spotless face, with her bright smile, were both innocent and seductive.
The tips displayed next to the screen kept increasing.
Lin Dao watched in bewilderment as Britta smiled carelessly at the men above, and gripped the cup tightly in his hand, feeling a chill run down his spine.
On stage, Britta saw the reward money rapidly approaching 600 points. Calculating how much she would receive, she danced even more energetically. Happy inside, her smile grew even sweeter.
Someone shouted, "Come down after you jump and have a drink with me!"
Not far away, Chu Hui watched Blaita dance with a complicated expression, while Chu Xiang, who was next to him, lit up when she heard this. In the apocalypse, alcohol was an ultra-high-end consumer product.
She stepped forward and responded loudly with a laugh, "Drinking is easy! I happen to have a bottle of my treasured whiskey. Gentlemen—" Her narrow eyes swept over everyone present, and she paused deliberately, creating suspense, before saying, "Starting at one thousand points, highest bidder wins! I'll have Tata personally drink with you!"
The words had barely left his mouth when someone started shouting. A thousand points wasn't difficult for those who spent years licking blood from the edge of a knife. It just meant expending energy and facing danger to deal with those troublesome alien creatures. Compared to such a beauty on the stage, it wasn't entirely out of the question.
"One thousand and one!"
"One thousand and three!"
"One thousand and five!"
The atmosphere grew increasingly heated, and more and more people gathered in the entire Bana Ballroom. Lin Dao, with his brows furrowed, kept rapidly scanning everyone who had appeared.
Hearing those bids, I felt inexplicably irritated.
This is perfectly normal, and it was something he did voluntarily.
Voluntary? That idiot was probably scammed and was even laughing while helping the scammer count the money.
While quickly calculating in her mind how much commission she could get from selling this bottle of wine, Blaita was already happily thinking about where to rent a house in the future, how many cans of beef jerky to buy, and how many bottles of exotic cola to buy.
Lin Dao calmly scanned the faces of the crowd, searching for West, who had recently disappeared and was hiding. Suddenly, he stopped at the silhouette of a man he had just glanced at. He turned around and, without mistake, saw that the man was wearing a very familiar floral tweed coat. But the man vanished in a flash.
"Two thousand contribution points." A deep voice with a slight British accent suddenly rang out from a dark corner at the back.
After the price was raised to such an exorbitant level, almost everyone else withdrew from the bidding.
After hearing the voice, Bleta couldn't see the person's face clearly, but she felt uneasy, even though Chu Xiang said she was just drinking with the guests.
Chu Xiang stood on the stage and asked loudly, "Are there still two thousand contribution points left?"
"Three thousand." A familiar voice rang out from a corner of the bar.
Bretta looked incredulously toward the sound, recognizing the figure immediately, and murmured in astonishment, "Mr. Lin Dao..."
Chu Hui, who was not far behind the stage, heard his voice, looked up and followed the sound, and saw a tall, masked man with furrowed brows.
Just when Chu Xiang thought the matter was settled, the person who had spoken earlier suddenly spoke up:
"Four thousand donation points."
This shout caused an uproar. The men present excitedly discussed who this person, who could spend so lavishly, could be. Why was he coming to a slum dance hall to join in the fun?
At this moment, Britta, who was standing on the stage, was somewhat worried and stood there helplessly.
"Five thousand, always a thousand more than the second-place bid," Lin Dao said without changing his expression.
The moment the masked man sitting at the bar uttered those words, the noisy atmosphere of the entire dance hall instantly fell silent.
Seeing this, Chu Xiang knew something was amiss, and her expression turned grim: "This..."
A few seconds later, no more bids came from the corner behind. The person next to her seemed to be making a concession gesture. Chu Xiang breathed a sigh of relief, smiled, and raised the bottle of whiskey, saying, "Congratulations to this gentleman on getting this precious bottle of wine. I wish you and Tata a pleasant evening!"
Author's Note: Wishing everyone a Happy Lunar New Year's Eve! Happy New Year! May all your wishes come true! May you become rich and happy! Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants between 2022-01-29 22:25:46 and 2022-01-30 19:58:04!
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Shuimo Bubai 10 bottles; Gu Xun 3 bottles; Yun Jian, Zaowan Shangle Xie Yu, and Alice 1 bottle each;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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