Chapter 81 Uncle's Family Noodle Soup
"Where did you get your mutated wheat?" Zhou Min asked, looking at the "master".
“Of course I figured it out myself,” the “sir” said matter-of-factly, then looked at him warily: “How did you know I had mutated wheat?”
Zhou Min said, "He's lying."
The "master" had a bad feeling and quickly said, "Everyone be careful! This guy is definitely after our mutated wheat; he wants to steal our treasure!"
Upon hearing this, the others tensed up again. They knew how precious the mutated wheat was and were afraid that Cheng Zhiyu and his group had really come to steal it.
They all looked at them warily.
Liu Ping'an was surprised that "sir" would suddenly say such a thing. He quickly said, "No, no, Zhiyu would never do such a thing. It must all be a misunderstanding."
Regardless of whether it was a misunderstanding or not, "sir" sneered, his triangular eyes scanning Cheng Zhiyu and his group up and down. These people had mentioned mutated wheat as soon as they arrived, and he suspected that they knew something.
After all, the source of his mutated wheat...
Furthermore, seeing that the group of people had rosy complexions, he figured they were well-fed. He decided to tie them up first, thinking he might be able to get some good stuff.
"It's a misunderstanding, it must be a misunderstanding!" Liu Ping'an kept saying from the side.
"What misunderstanding? I think you're the one who tipped them off, planning to collude with your nephew to steal everyone's mutated wheat! You're a traitor too!" The "sir" stirred up everyone's emotions, and seeing them all tense up, he chuckled inwardly: "Tie them all up! Interrogate them properly! I don't believe they would know about the mutated wheat for no reason!"
The crowd was somewhat stunned, thinking, if they were really after the mutated wheat, why not just drive them away instead of tying them up?
"What are you all standing there for? Hurry up and do it... Ah! What are you doing? Let me go!" The "master" was urging everyone on when suddenly a vine shot over and he was immediately tied up.
The "adult" struggled desperately and even tried to burn the vines with its small flame, but it was no use at all.
He finally realized he was afraid and kept asking others to save him.
"What are you doing?" Someone frowned and demanded that Cheng Zhiyu release the people: "Release our adults immediately!"
"Release them immediately." They surrounded Cheng Zhiyu and his group, their eyes filled with vigilance.
"What kind of adult is this?" Tian Qiao couldn't help but laugh. "Your adult's mutated wheat, you stole it from us, didn't you?"
"What! How is that possible?" Some people were skeptical: "He said he developed the mutated wheat, how could he have stolen it?"
"Yes, don't talk nonsense."
Cheng Zhiyu thought to himself, "Luckily, I have some mutated wheat stored in my space."
He took out a bag and said, "Is this the kind of mutated wheat?"
Everyone looked and realized it was true.
“There’s a traitor in our Xiahe base,” Zhou Min said. “The other party ran away with a dozen or so mutated wheat grains. These wheat grains aren’t anything special; our base distributes them by the dozens of kilograms at a time, so we didn’t bother looking for the traitor. We never expected that these mutated wheat grains would end up in the hands of this ‘big shot.’ Tell me, where did you get these mutated wheat grains?”
Everyone else was focused on: What? The people at the Xiahe base can produce dozens of kilograms of this mutated wheat at a time.
They had been hesitant when Cheng Zhiyu said he could take them away, but now they were very tempted.
For a moment, they couldn't care less about these so-called "adults".
Bah! What kind of adult are you? You're clearly a liar!
Everyone was already dissatisfied with this "master". He ordered them around and exploited them all day long, treating them like servants. If it weren't for the mutated wheat, why would they listen to this guy?
"Tell me, where did you come from?" Cheng Zhiyu looked at the bound "adult".
The "adult" struggled desperately, his face flushed red, still spouting the same old rhetoric: "What do you mean, 'where did it come from'? I researched it! What? You're allowed to create mutated seeds, but I can't? You marked the seeds, how dare you claim they're yours! It's clearly my creation! Let me go!"
"You're saying you're a fire-type ability user, and you've created a mutated seed that only a plant-type ability user could create?" Tian Qiao laughed uncontrollably. "Your ability is that powerful? That's perfect, let me take it back and study it."
Tian Qiao immediately adopted the demeanor of a "research fanatic".
The "adult" swallowed hard in fear and could only say, "Alright, it's true that I didn't develop it, but, but this is something I brought from another base, it's not your seed at all!"
Zhou Min said, "He's still lying."
"Tsk, so much nonsense." Cheng Mo frowned impatiently and raised his hand: "Cut off your tongue first."
When the "adult" saw a knife appear in front of him, he was so frightened that he wet himself and shouted, "I'll talk! I'll talk! Don't cut my tongue out!"
Cheng Mo sheathed his knife, seemingly somewhat disappointed.
The "master" said reluctantly, "I snatched these seeds from an old guy. He said he had something good and asked me to take him to the big base. He said he would give me half of it as payment. This is the half he gave me."
“They’re still lying,” Zhou Min said.
The "adult" was going crazy. How could this guy know whether he was telling the truth or not, no matter what he did or whether he made it up?
Seeing that his tongue was about to be gone, he dared not cheat any longer and said, "I'm not stupid. The nearest large base is so far away. My little ability is no match for it. I might die with him."
“He’s an old man, and he’s carrying such good stuff. He’ll get robbed sooner or later, so I might as well just rob him first.” The “adult” had his own set of logic.
Cheng Zhiyu: "Where is he?"
The "sir" hesitated for a moment, but still told the truth: "You should thank me for killing him, shouldn't you? He was a traitor to your base. I killed him to avenge you."
Cheng Zhiyu asked the other party about some of the person's characteristics, and finally confirmed that it was Xiang Qizheng.
Xiang Qizheng originally wanted to take the seeds to the large base to make a fortune, but it was too dangerous outside and he didn't know the way, so he could only ask this "big shot" for help and ask him to take him.
But the other party refused, so he had no choice but to show them what he had in his hand. Little did he know that this would bring about his own demise.
He knew zombies were terrifying, mutated animals were terrifying, but he forgot that sometimes humans are the most terrifying.
Finally, the "adult" killed him and casually dumped him by the roadside. Because the main base was too far away, and to avoid encountering a situation where he was killed and robbed, he simply impersonated the powerful "adult" and came to this mountain ravine that he had accidentally discovered, and began to swindle and deceive.
But their good days didn't last long before they were discovered again.
The bound "adult" cursed himself inwardly for being so unlucky; how could it be such a coincidence that he ran into this?
After the "master" finished speaking, the person next to him gritted his teeth in anger: "Well, this guy lied to us! He said that those mutated wheat were his own invention!"
"Pah! I knew it was impossible. Think about it, if he could develop mutated wheat, how could there only be a dozen or so grains? He still exploits us every day, eating our grain. I felt something was wrong before." This was a bit of hindsight.
"That's right! After all that, he turned out to be a fraud. If it weren't for the mutated wheat, I wouldn't have believed him!"
"Um... does the Xiahe base really have a lot of this mutated wheat? Dozens of kilograms at a time?"
"If that's the case, I'd like to go too, but I don't know if I can."
"Haha, I have relatives in Xiahe Village... no, I should say Xiahe Base now. Maybe I can go there and stay with them."
"What should we do with this person? I heard him kill someone."
"Sir," he hurriedly said, "I was forced into this situation. I really didn't mean to kill anyone. I've confessed everything. Please let me go."
Even without Zhou Min saying it, everyone knew that this guy was lying.
You didn't intend to kill, but you still did.
However, Cheng Zhiyu didn't want to kill anyone, so figuring out how to deal with this person became a problem.
Of course, he didn't want to bring the man back to the base, but releasing him directly seemed like letting him off easy.
Cheng Mo seemed to see through his thoughts and said, "How about crippling his superpower?"
Upon hearing this, the "adult" panicked and struggled frantically: "No, you can't do this! If you destroy my superpower, I'd rather be dead!"
Although his superpowers are currently very weak, and any superhuman could easily defeat him, he considers his status as a superhuman to be noble, and he is incomparable to these ordinary people.
Also, as long as the superpower is intact, even if the improvement speed is a bit slow, it can still be improved, so at least there is a self-protection ability.
If his superpowers are really taken away and he is turned into an ordinary person, how will he survive?
Just like Xiang Qizheng, any random superhuman could kill him.
Besides, without superpowers, how would he get to other bases? After all, there wouldn't be any mutated wheat or a bunch of idiots for him to fool around with.
Who are you threatening? Let them die if they want.
Cheng Zhiyu nodded slightly, his face cold: "Let's do it your way."
Cheng Mo said gently, "Okay, leave it to me."
In truth, he said there was no need for such trouble; he could have just killed him. But what could he do when his son, Zhiyu, was so kind?
Xiao Juan released the "adult," but before the other party could even be happy and try to run away, he was trapped inside a large water sphere. Cheng Mo walked in front, while the large water sphere rolled behind him.
Just like a rolling ball.
"The adult" screamed frantically.
Soon, the person and the ball walked away. A moment later, Cheng Mo returned from outside, but the "adult" had already disappeared.
Cheng Zhiyu didn't ask any more questions. He asked the people here if they were willing to go with them. If they were, they could pack their things. If they weren't, he wouldn't force them.
Upon hearing this, everyone was eager to comply. They knew they couldn't grow anything in this remote mountain valley and would starve to death sooner or later.
If we leave with them, we might be able to go to the Xiaohe base and live a peaceful life.
They hurriedly packed their things, afraid they would miss it.
Cheng Zhiyu and his uncle Liu Pingan arrived at the cave dwelling where the other party was. Liu Pingan's family of three didn't have much. They only had a little bit of wheat, some pots and pans, a blanket, a few pieces of clothing, and that was it.
Aunt was still a little dazed, feeling it was unreal: "Your uncle just said he heard your voice, and I didn't believe it. I didn't expect it to really be you."
Longlong happily circled around Cheng Zhiyu: "Brother, you're so handsome!"
Cheng Zhiyu smiled, feeling a pang of sadness at the sight of the thin child. It was just back during the Lunar New Year when they visited their uncle's house, and Longlong was chubby. His uncle had even said that he was too fat and needed to lose weight.
It hasn't been that long.
He took out some snacks from his storage space and gave them to Longlong to eat.
Longlong's eyes widened immediately, and he almost fainted from happiness. So much food! All of them were his favorite snacks.
In the past six months, Longlong has become much more sensible. Instead of answering directly, he looks at his parents.
Liu Pingan smiled and said, "Your brother gave it to you, so just eat it."
Longlong nodded, happily took the snacks, carefully opened a bag, swallowed hard, couldn't resist taking a bite, and then his eyes lit up, and he quickly asked his parents to try some.
Liu Ping'an subconsciously said, "You eat it, Dad doesn't want to eat it."
My aunt originally wanted to say she didn't want to eat, but seeing how thin her husband looked, she said, "You should eat some too."
Finally, the family of three all tried it, and happy smiles appeared on their faces. Before the apocalypse, they used to say that snacks were junk food, but now they felt especially happy eating them.
Everyone outside had finished packing their things. Cheng Zhiyu had already put the SUV into his spatial storage because he was taking these people to the Xiaohe Base, and if he drove too fast, he was afraid they wouldn't be able to keep up.
Anyway, it's not far, let's just walk there.
In the group, everyone saw Liu Ping'an and his family of three eating, and their eyes were full of envy, making them swallow hard.
"That's great, their nephew even came all the way here to see me. No matter how capable my nephew is, he would never come looking for me."
"What are you saying? It's the end of the world, who cares about society?"
“I have a relative in Xiahe Village, my aunt. I don’t know how my aunt’s family is doing. If I go there, will they let me stay?”
"Alas, I have no relatives there." The person who said this looked distressed, fearing that he would not have a good life at the Xiaohe base and would be better off staying in the mountain valley.
But everyone else had to leave the mountain valley, so he had no choice but to leave as well. Otherwise, if he stayed there alone, wouldn't that be suicide?
I don't know if the Xiaohe base is really that good, or if the other party is lying to me.
And so, the group moved slowly toward the base, filled with trepidation, joy, and unease.
These people hadn't had enough to eat in a long time, so they were weak and walked very slowly.
After walking for more than an hour, they encountered a group of superhumans from the Xiaohe base who were on a mission.
Everyone was delighted to see Cheng Zhiyu: "Brother Cheng, you're finally back! Everyone's been talking about you!"
"Yeah, Brother Cheng, hey? Why are there so many people here?"
Among the people called "Brother Cheng," there are some who are older than Cheng Zhiyu, but ever since that zombie horde attacked the base, everyone has admired him. "Brother Cheng" is a kind of respectful title.
Just as Cheng Zhiyu was about to speak, someone in the crowd shouted, "Erzhuang, is that you, Erzhuang?"
Erzhuang was stunned when he saw the person calling him.
The other person quickly replied, "I'm your aunt!"
Erzhuang finally recognized her and quickly went over: "Auntie, is it really you?"
Erzhuanggu nodded repeatedly: "It's me, it's me. I was thinking of going to find your family, but I didn't expect to run into you on the road."
When Erzhuang asked about the rest of his aunt's family, his aunt wiped away her tears and said, "Your uncle, your younger brother and sister were all bitten by zombies. At that time... I even thought about dying."
She was all alone in the family, and she felt bitter. Every day she lived numbly in that remote mountain valley, just taking it one day at a time. Even if she died the next moment, she wouldn't care.
Especially when you see that other people have family with them, it's even harder to describe how you feel.
She just mentioned that when she came to the Xiahe base, she thought of her younger brother's family. She wanted to come and see them, because she still has relatives here.
What a coincidence that I ran into Erzhuang.
Er Zhuanggu couldn't stop crying. Before, no one cried when she cried, but now she finally had a chance to vent her sadness.
Upon hearing this, Erzhuang also started crying, sobbing, "Why is my aunt's life so miserable!"
Aunt Erzhuang pulled Erzhuang aside and asked, "How's your dad? And how are your grandparents?"
"I... my grandpa didn't make it, but my grandma and my dad are both fine." Erzhuang wiped away his tears.
When Erzhuanggu heard that her father had passed away, she felt a pang of sadness, but also a sense of relief that her mother and brother were still alive and well, and that she still had family!
With that thought in mind, she cheered herself up and decided to go back to the base with Erzhuang.
When everyone in the group saw that Erzhuanggu had found her relatives, they were filled with both anticipation and trepidation, and continued to follow her back.
Upon arrival at the base entrance, you will be subject to quarantine.
Cheng Zhiyu and the others all had to wait outside.
However, everyone at the base heard the news and came to see if any of their relatives were there.
Grandpa Zhao was busy working in the farming department when Fang Guowei came over and told him about what happened at the door: "Why don't you go and take a look? Maybe your relatives are there."
Grandpa Zhao quickly asked, "Which villages are they from?"
His daughter got married and moved away; he doesn't know if there are any villages with daughters like that.
Fang Guowei mentioned the names of a few villages, and a glimmer of hope appeared in Grandpa Zhao's eyes. He quickly said, "I...I'll go there."
Seeing his hurried manner, Fang Guowei quickly said, "Hey, don't rush, slow down."
Grandpa Zhao said, "I know, I know."
But he couldn't slow down his movements. How could he slow down? The thought that his daughter might be at the door made him want to fly over and check on her.
When they arrived at the base entrance, there was a chaotic crowd. Grandpa Zhao looked hard, but he couldn't see anyone at all.
Fortunately, Cheng Zhiyu saw him and, from a distance, asked, "Grandpa Zhao, are you looking for someone?"
"I'm looking for Zhao Xiang, Zhao Xiang, my daughter!" Grandpa Zhao said hurriedly, "Xiao Cheng, please help me find her."
Cheng Zhiyu agreed, hoping to find Zhao Xiang. Before, Grandpa Zhao had lost his son and grandson and was very distressed. He even stopped eating and planned to starve to death. Later, he joined the farming department and had something to do, which finally improved his spirits.
He was afraid that if he couldn't find Zhao Xiang, Grandpa Zhao wouldn't be able to handle the blow.
"Zhao Xiang, is there anyone named Zhao Xiang?" Cheng Zhiyu called out.
Cheng Mo and the others also called out to Zhao Xiang, but after calling for a long time, no one answered. Cheng Zhiyu's mood sank down, and he was a little worried. Could it be that she didn't exist?
Just then, an anxious voice came: "Here, I'm here..."
A disheveled, thin woman, holding a little girl's hand, quickly said, "I'm here..."
Cheng Zhiyu breathed a sigh of relief and quickly led the other person to the edge of the isolation zone. Before he could speak, Zhao Xiang started sobbing, "Dad! You're alright... that's good, that's good."
Zhao Xiang's daughter wiped away her tears: "Grandpa!"
Grandpa Zhao was both overjoyed and heartbroken. His daughter had only brought her granddaughter; the rest of the family was probably gone...
But no matter what, at least she has her daughter and granddaughter.
The doorway was filled with the sounds of people searching for each other; those who were found were laughing and crying, while those who weren't looked dejected.
And those who had no relatives in the base looked bewildered, filled with worry about the future.
After the quarantine ended, those with family members went into the base with them, while those without family members stayed outside, feeling scared and unsure of what to do next.
Cheng Zhiyu asked Tian Qiao to take his uncle's family of three home first, as he needed to find Lin Kang to discuss the arrangements for the people at the door.
It's mostly filled with ordinary people, with only a few people possessing superpowers.
After arriving, Cheng Zhiyu explained the situation, somewhat apologetically: "I brought everyone here without asking you."
“We’ve already discussed this before. The base is a bit short-handed. Besides, we’ve harvested the mutated wheat, and the granaries are full. We can easily accommodate a few hundred people.” Lin Kang smiled. “Moreover, we already agreed that you would take over the base as soon as you returned. I’ll gradually hand over the work I’m currently doing to you.”
As Lin Kang spoke, he couldn't contain his relief and joy; at least he wouldn't have to suffer from headaches every day anymore.
He's completely unsuitable for management!
Cheng Zhiyu: "..."
“I was thinking that we definitely couldn’t bring this group of people back. There are already people living in the existing houses in the base, and there’s no place for them to live,” Cheng Zhiyu said. “Besides, bringing them all back at once would be difficult to manage.”
Lin Kang nodded, agreeing with his point: "That's what I was thinking too. So what are you planning to do?"
Cheng Zhiyu: "We only fenced off a part of the village as a base before. There are still many houses outside. Let's arrange for them to live there first, and then slowly build the wall."
Lin Kang agreed with his decision: "I told you that if you brought the person back, you must have already thought about how to arrange things. Let's do it this way."
So that's how it was arranged. Actually, the area outside the base is safer than other places. After all, if zombies get here, they're coming for the base, so we have to deal with them quickly.
Several hundred people were assigned accommodations. When they smelled the aroma of food, they swallowed hard, thinking that Cheng Zhiyu hadn't lied. It seemed that the food at the base was very good. They wondered when they would be able to eat.
Fortunately, they still have a little food left, which should last them a few days. They don't know when they will be able to enter the base.
"Dinner's ready! Come and eat!" someone called out.
Everyone was stunned. Eat? Are they going to let them eat?
Before they could react, they instinctively went over to look and saw several middle-aged men and women from the base wearing aprons pushing several buckets filled with steaming hot noodle soup.
"This...this is for us to eat?" someone asked incredulously.
An old woman laughed and said, "That's right. We'll provide one meal today, so eat your fill. But tomorrow you can't just eat for free. We'll have to build a wall around it and provide two meals a day."
The group was stunned. They had been expecting to have food once they entered the base, but they hadn't realized they could find it outside as well.
"Did you bring your own bowls? We have some here if you don't have any, but you have to wash them and return them after you finish eating," the old woman said.
"Yes, we have bowls!" the crowd said hurriedly, afraid that if they were a step too late, they would not have anything to eat.
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