Chapter 56: Going home might mean using her brother to pay off her debts.
The guard who knew Cheng Zhiyu slapped his thigh and said, "Zhiyu and Xiaoqian are back. His parents are so happy. I'll have someone tell your parents."
He couldn't leave, otherwise he would have gone and said it himself.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Zhiyu, who was asking about his sister's recent situation, said, "Then I'll leave it to you."
Tian Qiao: "Thank you."
Guard: "It's nothing, just a matter of letting them know."
As he spoke, he called over someone, said a few words to them, and the person nodded and ran off.
Cheng Zhiyan glanced at Cheng Mo, who was sitting next to her brother, coughed lightly, and touched her nose: "Mom and Dad are both fine. You reminded us before that we didn't go out for the first few months. Later, I did some missions, so we still have some food at home."
Cheng Zhiyu sighed and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
Cheng Zhiyan chuckled foolishly.
She didn't actually feel it was hard work; on the contrary, she was glad that she had awakened her superpower, which allowed her to take care of the people she cared about. If she didn't have her superpower, her family would probably have had an even harder time.
She glanced at Cheng Mo again without realizing it, thinking she was being discreet, but Cheng Mo still noticed.
Cheng Mo squeezed Cheng Zhiyu's hand: "Zhiyu, I'll be leaving for a bit."
Cheng Zhiyu instinctively grabbed him: "Where are you going?"
Cheng Mo enjoyed this concern, which reassured him: "I won't go far, um... I'll be back within an hour, okay, Zhiyu?"
Cheng Zhiyu's ears burned. Uh... don't act cute in front of so many people.
He said with a straight face, "Ahem, go ahead, be careful."
Cheng Mo smiled and said, "I know."
After Cheng Mo left, Cheng Zhiyu turned his head and met his sister's curious gaze.
Cheng Zhiyu touched his nose: "What's wrong?"
Cheng Zhiyan smiled: "Brother, you and Brother Mo..."
Cheng Zhiyu: "?!"
Cheng Zhiyan: "...We have a pretty good relationship, haha."
Cheng Zhiyu always felt that his sister's words had a hidden meaning, but then he thought he was overthinking it. How could that be? His sister was very naive and didn't understand anything.
The innocent Cheng Zhiyan: Hehe.
Village mileage home.
Mr. Cheng rubbed his eyes and muttered, "What's wrong with me today? My eyelids keep twitching. Could it be something good? Haha."
While busy with her work, Cheng's mother took a moment to say, "What good could it be? As long as our Yan Yan comes back safe and sound, that's all that matters."
Speaking of this, Mr. Cheng nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, as long as Yan Yan is alright, that's all that matters."
They dared not even think about the rest.
Mr. Cheng is making furniture right now. His ancestors were carpenters, and the craft was passed down to him. However, since everyone buys ready-made furniture now, he has stopped making it.
After the apocalypse, he picked up this craft again. He made some furniture, and after handing it in, he could exchange it for some contribution points.
Therefore, Mr. Cheng worked on it whenever he had time, until his hands were blistered and bleeding.
Cheng's mother, like most women in the village, would clean the house when she had nothing to do, and spend the rest of her time mending clothes at home.
Because all the women in the village know how to make clothes, the contribution points for a single garment are exceptionally low; often, even a whole day's work isn't enough to buy a single meal.
But what could she do? That was all she could do, at least to lighten Yan Yan's burden a little.
Like her, Tian's mother also did these things. Tian's father didn't have carpentry skills, so he could only do odd jobs, mostly for people with superpowers, and often came back with a belly full of grievances.
Cheng's father asked Tian's father to come and do carpentry work with him, but Tian's father refused. He said he couldn't do the carpentry work well and would have to make Cheng's father redo it, so he decided to give up.
When Tian's mother had nothing to do, she would stay at the Cheng family's house, at least there would be someone to talk to.
At this moment, Mother Tian said, "Yan Yan will definitely come back safe and sound."
Everyone nodded. After the apocalypse, even when they gathered together, there wasn't as much laughter and joy as before.
Just then, there was an urgent knock on the door: "Are you home? Is anyone home?"
Mr. Cheng quickly replied, "Coming, coming, there's someone at home."
As he went to open the door, he wondered to himself, "Why are you in such a hurry? What happened?"
Cheng's mother and Tian's mother were also distracted and lost interest in making clothes, so they went to the door to take a look.
When Mr. Cheng opened the door, he saw the person who had knocked on the door, hands on their knees, panting heavily: "Huff...huff, your house..."
Mr. Cheng was extremely anxious: "What's wrong? Tell me quickly, you've got me all on edge."
Cheng's mother hurriedly asked, "What is it?"
The other person, panting, waved his hand and said, "Good...good thing."
Mother Tian: "What good news? Oh dear, this has me so anxious."
Fortunately, the other person finally calmed down and said with his hands on his hips, "It seems like... your son is back."
"My son? Is it Zhiyu? Zhiyu is back?!" Mr. Cheng grabbed the other person in surprise, not even feeling the pain from the broken blisters on his hands, looking at the other person excitedly.
"Is it really Zhiyu? Zhiyu is back?" Cheng's mother was also very excited.
Upon hearing this, Tian's mother, worried about her son, quickly asked, "Where is Xiao Qiao? Has Xiao Qiao come back?"
The other person scratched their head and said awkwardly, "Well... I don't know either, anyway, there were several people together."
"Of course Xiao Qiao is there!" Mother Cheng reassured Mother Tian. "They live in the same place, so they'll definitely come back together!"
Mother Tian nodded hurriedly: "Yes, definitely."
Mr. Cheng quickly said, "What are you standing there for? Let's hurry to the village entrance and take a look."
"Yes, go and take a look right away."
The group hurried to the door, when Cheng's mother suddenly remembered something: "Aren't you going to call Lao Tian?"
At this moment, Mother Tian didn't care about Old Tian at all. She said, "Go and see him first, then come back and find him."
"That's right, that's right." Mother Cheng was also eager to go and see, and didn't bother to look for Father Tian anymore.
They hurried to the door, muttering to themselves, but seeing only guards at the entrance, they felt uneasy. Could they have made a mistake?
The three of them watched expectantly, about to ask the guard, when Cheng Zhiyan's voice came from the isolation shed: "Oh dear, Mom and Dad are here."
Then, the three of them saw Cheng Zhiyu and Tian Qiao and the others walk out of the shed one after another, looking at each other from a distance.
For a moment, no one spoke, and everyone's eyes were filled with tears.
In these chaotic times, nothing is more fortunate than family reunion.
They were separated by a great distance, but they missed each other. When they finally met, their hearts were at peace.
Cheng Zhiyu lowered his head and wiped away his tears.
Tian Qiao couldn't hold back her tears and cried out, "Mom! Waaah... Where's Dad?"
Tian's mother, who had been crying, was speechless upon hearing this: "Why are you crying? Your father is perfectly fine!"
Tian Qiao awkwardly wiped away his tears. He knew his father was fine; he was just asking casually.
It does sound a bit strange.
Tian Qiao said sadly, "Mom, you've aged so much."
Tian's mother glared at her angrily: "Nonsense, I didn't dye my hair!"
Looking at his parents, who had aged considerably, Cheng Zhiyu said, "Mom and Dad, I'm back."
"Oh, it's good that he's back, it's good that he's back!" Mr. and Mrs. Cheng wiped away their tears. They had had countless nightmares about their son, but thankfully it was all just a dream, and their son was standing safely in front of them.
"Ouch! Why are you pinching me?" Mr. Cheng cried out, clutching his arm.
Cheng's mother: "Let me see if I'm dreaming."
Cheng's father was speechless: "Then pinch yourself, why are you pinching me?"
Cheng Zhiyu was amused: "It's not a dream, I'll be in quarantine soon."
They no longer need to be separated by a distance, gazing at each other from afar.
After their quarantine ended, Cheng Zhiyu and his team couldn't wait to enter the base. Cheng's mother quickly pulled her son up and down, then touched his face, saying, "It really is my son, waaaah..."
Mr. Cheng patted his son on the shoulder and laughed, "Who else could it be but our son? Look at you crying."
Then I got glared at.
Father Cheng: "..."
Cheng Zhiyu hugged his mother, who was shorter than him, and said, "Mom, it really is me."
Cheng's mother wiped away her tears, murmuring, "It's good that you're back..."
Mr. Cheng coughed lightly and asked his daughter with concern, "Did Yan Yan get hurt when she went out?"
Cheng Zhiyan turned around and said, "No, my brother is here. What could possibly happen?"
Mr. Cheng nodded, and Cheng Zhiyu let go of his mother and hugged him again.
The man, who was not good with words, was extremely embarrassed: "Haha, ...it's good that you're back." He repeated Cheng's mother's words again.
Cheng Zhiyu smiled; his parents were still the same as always.
After the apocalypse, so much has changed, and only seeing his family brings him some peace of mind.
They didn't rush back. They waited for Cheng Mo at the door for a while until he finished his quarantine, and then they went back together.
Then, Cheng Zhiyan received a small box as a gift from Cheng Mo.
Cheng Zhiyu raised an eyebrow. Could Dahei have gone out just to do this?
Tsk, he even gave his sister a special gift when they met?
Cheng Zhiyan was unsure whether she should accept the money, and looked to her brother for help.
Cheng Zhiyu smiled and said, "If he gives it to you, just accept it."
Cheng Zhiyan nodded and happily said to Cheng Mo, "Thank you, Brother Mo."
Cheng Mo nodded slightly, his attitude toward Cheng Zhiyu's family becoming a bit gentler.
When they got home, they found a crowd gathered at their doorstep. Just as they were wondering what was going on, someone with red eyes walked over and exclaimed excitedly, "Where's my child? Did my child come back with us?"
These people's children originally lived in City A, the same city as Cheng Zhiyu and his group. When they heard that the other party had returned, they wondered if their own children had also returned.
When he didn't see the familiar figure he had been longing for, his heart sank a little, but he still refused to believe it and wanted to ask again.
Cheng Zhiyu lowered his eyes and shook his head.
"You...you're all in the same city, why didn't you bring him back?" The speaker was somewhat agitated, his tone accusatory: "You two were such good friends when you were kids, you always played together, how could you just ignore him?!"
Cheng Zhiyu pursed his lips, thinking of those familiar figures, and was speechless for a moment.
Tian Qiao also opened his mouth. He had played with Cheng Zhiyu when he was a child and had a good relationship with him, but he didn't know what to say.
Just then, someone sneered.
The speaker looked up, crying, wanting to question how the other person could still laugh, only to see a cold and frightening face. The other person had no expression, but the look in their eyes reminded him of some kind of wild beast, and he was instantly terrified.
"You're the father of your child, why don't you go find him?" Cheng Mo retorted.
The other person was stunned for a moment, then opened their mouth and said, "I... I'm just an ordinary person, how could I possibly have the ability to find someone?"
Cheng Mo crossed his arms and tilted his head: "Hmm, it seems you don't love your child as much as you say. You care more about your own life than his. You're not willing to risk your life for your child, but you morally blackmail Zhiyu. Sigh... It's only because Zhiyu is kind that anyone dares to shamelessly bully him."
The person who was called shameless said, "...You! I just wanted him to come back and take my child with him. What kind of moral blackmail is this? As for you, I'm Cheng Zhiyu's elder. Who are you to talk to me like that?"
Cheng Zhiyu, who had been silent all along, was not happy. He could understand what the other party had just said as a sign of loving his son, but he couldn't stand it when Dahei was mentioned: "Uncle, he is a very close person to me, and I will not allow anyone to say such things about him."
Cheng Mo coughed lightly, trying hard to suppress the wildly upturned corners of his mouth.
Someone very close to him… He lowered his head and raised his hand to cover the smile on his face.
The other person didn't expect Cheng Zhiyu to talk back to him, and opened his mouth: "How can you talk like that?"
"Sigh, if you keep going, I, as your mother, really can't listen anymore." Cheng's mother frowned. "My son risked his life to come back, only to be cornered here by you. I understand your love for your son, but going on like this is going too far. Is your child the only one in City A? The other children aren't here, so why are you the only one questioning my son? Did you pay my son a bodyguard fee? You didn't give him anything, and you can't even do things yourself, yet you come here to demand things from him. I think Xiao Mo is right, you're shameless!"
Indeed, as Cheng's mother said, the other relatives in City A, although disappointed and saddened that their family members had not returned, did not dare to ask Cheng Zhiyu. He was probably the only one with the thick skin.
"You bring up how good we were when we were little, but why don't you mention how bad we are now?" Mother Tian also unleashed her fighting spirit, sneering, "My son went to your house and said he lost something. How dare you frame a seven or eight-year-old child?"
After things were finally cleared up, Tian's mother told Tian Qiao not to play with the children from that family anymore. Cheng Zhiyu and Tian Qiao had a good relationship, so he also distanced himself from them.
The man's face turned ugly after being told this, and he mumbled, "That happened a long time ago."
"Xiang Qizheng, I've wanted to say this to you for a long time. Every family's child is out there, their life hanging in the balance. How could you shamelessly go and question them? I don't know how you have the nerve to do that!" A villager, unable to stand it any longer, said directly.
"I'm not trying to be mean, but you went too far. The kid hadn't even come in yet, and you were blocking the doorway. It's only because they're good-natured."
"That's right, those people are all superhumans, they could crush you with a flick of their wrists. I think you're just taking advantage of their good temper, sucking up to them and acting like you're an elder. According to you, all the young people in the village are juniors, so why don't you dare talk to other superhumans like that? Bah! Shameless!"
Xiang Qizheng couldn't continue speaking and angrily turned and left.
Cheng Zhiyu silently admired in his heart, thinking that the uncles and aunts in the village were indeed good at talking.
The uncles and aunts soon dispersed, and Cheng Zhiyu and the others went inside the house.
Once inside, they were taken aback. Tian Qiao looked at the space between the two houses and asked, "The wall here has been torn down?"
Mother Tian nodded: "It was demolished a few months before the apocalypse. At that time, we couldn't even leave the house. After it was demolished, we could still talk to each other and take care of each other."
Tian Qiao nodded. When he was a child, he had so much fun playing with Cheng Zhiyu that he didn't want to go home. So he told his parents that he wanted to tear down the wall between their houses, but they refused. He never expected that he would realize his childhood dream now.
"You must be thirsty and hungry on your way back, Lao Cheng. Go exchange your contribution points for something." Cheng's mother patted her husband. They had saved up some contribution points before, not many, but they couldn't let their son and his friends go hungry and thirsty. So they gritted their teeth and used them all up.
Mother Tian said, "Let's exchange our contribution points as well."
"Our village even has a system of contribution points?" Tian Qiao said with interest.
Zhou Min said, "Now all the bases are using contribution points. The old currency system is gone and must be rebuilt, otherwise it will be inconvenient."
Wanting to know more about his family's situation, Cheng Zhiyu asked, "Are contribution points easy to earn? And how many contribution points are needed for daily necessities?"
The group exchanged glances, and Cheng's mother smiled bitterly: "It's not easy to make money. Besides, the village is short of supplies, so we can't exchange them for much."
Cheng Zhiyu looked down at his parents' cracked, peeling lips and their much thinner faces.
Cheng Mo squeezed his hand.
Tian Qiao was also a little sad, so he leaned closer to his mother and smelled her.
Tian's mother patted Tian Qiao on the head: "What are you sniffing for?"
Tian Qiao: "Uh... I thought I smelled something wrong, Mom, why do you smell so bad?"
Mother Tian looked embarrassed and angrily pinched Tian Qiao's ear: "Do you think I wanted this? Water is scarce in the village. There's not enough to drink, let alone water for bathing."
Cheng Zhiyu asked in confusion, "Doesn't our village have a small river? How can we be short of water?"
"Oh, don't even mention it," said Mother Tian. "At first, no one paid attention, and no one cared when the zombies died in the river. Later, we found that the water was polluted and undrinkable. Now we're relying on those few water-type ability users, but they can't get much water. And there's a well in the village, right? But the well water isn't much either."
"And the food too..." Tian Qiao hadn't expected the village to be so difficult. No wonder everyone looked so distressed on the way here. Even the superhumans didn't look much better.
"We have to find all our food outside," said Mr. Cheng. He explained that their contribution points were hard to earn and couldn't be exchanged for much food. He didn't complain, though. His daughter was a superhuman and knew that superhumans risked their lives every time they went out. What did it matter that they did some work at the base? They were lucky to have anything to eat.
"Aren't there any plant-type ability users in the village?" Cheng Zhiyu remembered that plant-type ability users in the post-apocalyptic world could grow things.
Cheng Zhiyan knew this: "There are a few, but the few plants they painstakingly cultivate are not enough to eat at all; they're probably only enough for themselves."
Cheng Zhiyu and the others: "..."
Zhou Min coughed lightly and comforted them, "Uncle and Aunt, it's alright. Brother Cheng is back, and he will definitely not let you suffer like this again."
Cheng's mother shook her head: "As long as Zhiyu is alright, that's fine. I don't want him to take any risks."
In her opinion, going out on missions was too dangerous. Every time Cheng Zhiyan went out, she was terrified. She would rather go hungry than let her two children be in danger.
Mr. Cheng thought so too.
Tian's mother also said to Tian Qiao, "Don't think that just because you're a superhuman, you can disregard danger. That xxx was also a superhuman, but he encountered a powerful zombie, sigh..."
Cheng Zhiyu felt a warmth in his heart: "There's no danger."
Tian Qiao: "That's right, killing a few alien beasts is quite easy for us."
Tian's mother thought her son was bragging, saying it sounded so simple, killing strange beasts was like killing chickens.
However, just as I was thinking this, someone knocked on the door.
As soon as the door opened, the village's supply distribution team arrived, carrying a large piece of pork, which looked to weigh seventy or eighty pounds. They were exceptionally polite to them, saying, "I've come to distribute supplies; this is for Cheng Zhiyan."
Mrs. Cheng and the others were shocked: "So many?"
I felt a little sad. Yan Yan had taken such a big risk. You wouldn't get this much for a normal mission.
"Ah...not just these." The person distributing supplies pointed to the six wild boars behind him, one of which weighed about 500 pounds and was the leader of the wild boars: "These are all yours."
Tian's mother's mouth gaped open: "This...are you sure this isn't from the whole village? How come there are so many?"
Tian Qiao boasted, "Haha, we were just passing by today. We casually killed a herd of wild boars, and each of us got one."
The group: "!!!"
Cheng's mother pulled Cheng Zhiyu up and down, looking him over from all sides: "Let me see, are you hurt?"
Cheng Zhiyu felt a warmth in his heart: "You're not hurt."
Cheng Zhiyan became more talkative: "Mom, don't worry, my brother is amazing. Those wild boars were down in a flash, they didn't even have a chance to fight back!"
Cheng's mother and the others watched in a daze as Cheng Zhiyu and the others dragged the wild boar back.
Cheng Zhiyu reached out to pull him away, but Cheng Mo wouldn't let him. The wild boars were still dirty and hadn't been dealt with yet. He held down the other's hand, used his water-based supernatural power to wrap the wild boars, and threw them into the yard.
Cheng's mother and the others stared wide-eyed again.
Cheng Zhiyu explained, "Dahei has water-based superpowers."
Then, Cheng Mo filled all the containers in the house with water. Hmm, he needed to make a good impression on Zhiyu's family.
Zhou Min looked at it and felt a pang of sympathy. "Ugh... It looks like a peacock."
He looked at Sun Yu, trying to find common ground, but the latter frowned and distanced himself: "Stay away from me, or I won't be able to resist hitting you."
Zhou Min touched his nose, silently moved away, and sighed, "Life is truly as lonely as snow."
Tian Qiao said she smelled bad, and Tian's mother was still bothered by it. Before the apocalypse, she was very clean and would take a bath every day. But the conditions in the apocalypse didn't allow it.
Now that the conditions were right, she immediately went to take a bath happily.
Mr. and Mrs. Cheng felt embarrassed. They coughed and said, "They don't smell good either. They should go wash up too."
Cheng Zhiyan coughed lightly, her face flushed, and carried a bucket of water back to her room.
Back in her room, she remembered the gift Cheng Mo had just given her. It wouldn't be polite to look at it in front of others, so she hadn't looked at it yet. But when she opened the box and saw what was inside, her eyes widened in surprise.
Cheng Mo picked out only level 3 zombie cores from the entire box; he wouldn't even consider anything lower-level, feeling it wouldn't be presentable.
After all, Zhiyu seems to dote on his sister.
Cheng Zhiyan's hand trembled slightly as she resisted the urge to absorb the crystal core and quickly covered the box.
This gift was incredibly valuable; level three zombie cores were hard to come by, let alone so many. For a moment, she felt like she was rolling in money.
No, no, she had to ask her brother first. She was afraid that if she absorbed the drug, she would have to sell her brother to pay it back.
After finishing their work, the family started cleaning up the wild boar.
"This piece should be enough to eat, right?" Cheng's mother cleaned the wild boar, which weighed over seventy pounds.
That's too much; they probably won't be able to finish it all.
As a result, Cheng Zhiyu and the others said it wasn't enough, so they cut open one of the heads and cut off another hundred catties of meat.
Cheng's mother: "..." Are you sure you can finish it?
However, seeing how certain Cheng Zhiyu and the others were, she didn't say anything more and just did it.
"What should we do with the rest? It's too hot, it'll spoil." Mr. Cheng was a little worried. He never expected that he would be worried about having too much food. It was a sweet burden.
Then Cheng Zhiyu asked him to bring over several large bags of rice.
The bag was about half a person's height. Cheng Zhiyu reached out, and the empty bag was immediately filled with rice.
Cheng's mother and the others were shocked countless times today. How could so much rice be produced?
Cheng Zhiyu filled several bags with rice, making enough space in his storage space, and then put the wild boar into his space.
The group, watching the wild boar vanish into thin air, were speechless.
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