Chapter 26
Liu Huaizhao led the way in front, while Qin Zunyue and Zheng Shu followed behind in the car. The speed was very fast. Tong Le didn't even dare to open his mouth, for fear of biting his tongue because the road was too bumpy.
They didn't stop until nightfall. They were already starving, but Qin Zunyue still asked worriedly, "Will we be able to catch up with them this way?"
"No, they are mortal and need rest too."
Qin Zunyue finally breathed a sigh of relief and started to eat the dry food.
Thanks to the country's construction work before the end of the world, they had a very smooth journey. They didn't encounter any roads that were impassable by cars, whether on the main roads or small roads. However, the roads were severely damaged and very bumpy, which made people tired.
After finishing their meal in silence, they returned to the car to rest - this would save time in setting up camp.
Just like before, other people except Qin Zunyue and Zheng Shu were on guard.
Liu Huaizhao was standing in the same line with Tong Le this time. He looked at Tong Le nodding like a chicken pecking at rice and couldn't help laughing. "Why don't you go to sleep? I'm enough here."
"No, no, no." Tong Le patted his face, trying to wake himself up. "Let's chat for a while. I won't feel sleepy after chatting."
"What to talk about?" Liu Huaizhao asked.
Tong Le scratched her head. She usually talked a lot, but now she suddenly couldn't think of any topic.
In fact, she was very curious about Liu Huaizhao's past, but Qin Zunyue had once told her not to talk about these things with Liu Huaizhao, so she couldn't ask anything.
It was Liu Huaizhao who spoke first. He gently rubbed the pig bone on his wrist with his thumb and asked, "Why don't you tell me about your time in the shelter? Well, let's start with Qin Zunyue."
After saying that, he looked away guiltily.
Fortunately, Tong Le didn't think too much about it and agreed. However, she didn't know what to say for a moment. She thought for a while with her chin in her hand and said, "Then I'll tell you, but you can't tell Brother Qin."
Seeing Liu Huaizhao nod, she lowered her voice and said mysteriously: "You certainly can't guess, Brother Qin was particularly rebellious for a while?"
"Rebellion?" Liu Huaizhao was a little confused. It was not that he didn't know what rebellion meant. He had read a lot of books of this era and was already very close to modern people. It was just that he didn't expect Qin Zunyue to be associated with the word rebellion.
After all, he is now so good-tempered, so gentle, so kind, and so caring.
"You can't tell!" Tong Le said. She straightened up and glanced at the two cars parked quietly. After confirming again and again that there was no movement, she moved closer to Liu Huaizhao. "By the end of the world, Brother Qin was already thirteen years old and sensible. He would help the teachers at the shelter take care of us. No, to be precise, he had been taking care of us before all the teachers were taken in."
Qin Zunyue nodded. Tong Le had mentioned these things before.
"Later, I was adopted by Teacher Xu and rarely returned to the orphanage. When I saw Brother Qin again, he had already grown up. Children in the orphanage can choose their future careers at the age of fifteen and then participate in unified training. When they become adults, they can directly enter the workforce. Brother Qin wanted to join the army at that time."
Liu Huaizhao thought about it and believed from the bottom of his heart that Qin Zunyue was very suitable for this job.
"Teacher Xu mentioned this at the time. He said that Brother Qin was very responsible and was particularly suitable to be a soldier."
Liu Huaizhao nodded in agreement.
"But in the end, Brother Qin gave up the training."
Although he didn't know why Qin Zunyue didn't join the army, Liu Huaizhao still subconsciously said: "He should have a better idea. This can't be considered rebellion."
"Listen to me." Tong Le observed the car again and whispered, "He is rebellious. Although he didn't join the army, he didn't choose any career either."
"He went on to become a Monster Hunter!"
Liu Huaizhao was startled and said, "Monster Hunter? Aren't there a lot of Monster Hunters in the safe city? Don't you... occasionally hunt monsters too?"
"But Brother Qin was one of the first monster hunters!" Tong Le's eyes flashed with admiration. "It was only two or three years after these monsters appeared. Humans weren't that skilled at dealing with them yet, and Brother Qin wasn't even an adult yet."
"Why did he do this?" Liu Huaizhao asked.
Tong Le shook his head and said, "Who knows? That's why he's rebellious. Uncle Wang treated him like his own son. He almost pissed him off to death at the time."
"What happened next? How did he convince Uncle Wang?" Liu Huaizhao asked.
Tong Le continued, "I'm not sure about this. I just heard it from Teacher Xu. Anyway, Brother Qin really did become a monster hunter. At that time, the headquarters had already started to collect golden elixirs, but not many people dared to kill monsters. So Brother Qin earned a lot of food at that time, and the people in the shelter could eat their fill every day.
Later... maybe six or seven years later, Brother Qin seemed to have been seriously injured, so he stopped doing this business and started taking us hunting, occasionally killing monsters."
"What about his previous teammates?" Liu Huaizhao was a little curious. After all, Qin Zunyue couldn't act alone.
Tong Le shook his head and said, "I don't know. I haven't seen him. I was still young when I first left the shelter. After I grew up, I wasn't very familiar with Brother Qin and the others. It's just that Teacher Xu liked him very much, so she would occasionally tell me about him."
Liu Huaizhao was about to say something when he heard the sound of a car door opening. He turned around and found that it was Yan Liao who came out, ready to take over their night watch.
Tong Le also looked back, then tugged at Liu Huaizhao's sleeve and said, "You know it, but don't ask Brother Qin if there's nothing else to do. He doesn't seem to want to talk about it."
Liu Huaizhao nodded to indicate that he understood.
Yan Liao had already walked over to Tong Le and sat down. He glanced at the two people who had suddenly fallen silent, said nothing, and just leaned his head on Tong Le's shoulder.
"What's wrong, Xiao Liao, are you still sleepy?"
Yan Liao didn't say anything, held Tong Le's hand and closed his eyes.
So Tong Le stopped talking and the three of them sat quietly. After a while, Wei Zhirong and Qiao Lang also got off the car. Yan Liao then opened his eyes and raised his head, watching Tong Le get on the car and sleep.
Liu Huaizhao also stood up and returned to the car.
Liu Huaizhao gently opened and closed the passenger door, then lay down on the seat that had been lowered to the bottom. When he turned his head, he could see Qin Zunyue's sleeping face.
This was not the first time they slept together. They had slept in the same room for safety before in Tiancen City, but this time they were closer and there was no one else here.
What's more, the space inside the car is so narrow compared to the bedroom, and this narrow space is so quiet.
It was so quiet that Liu Huaizhao could clearly hear his own heartbeat - and Qin Zunyue's heartbeat.
The two heartbeats entangled with each other in this narrow and quiet space, gradually becoming in sync.
Liu Huaizhao couldn't help but slow down his breathing and stared at Qin Zunyue's closed eyes.
"What's wrong?"
But the next second, Qin Zunyue, who was supposed to be asleep, suddenly opened his eyes.
“!!”
Liu Huaizhao was a little frightened and jumped up, hitting his head on the roof of the car.
Now it was Qin Zunyue's turn to be frightened. He quickly stood up, put his big hand on the top of Liu Huaizhao's head, and asked softly, "Where does it hurt?"
In fact, the feeling of shame was stronger than the pain on his head, so Liu Huaizhao was too embarrassed to say anything.
But his silence made Qin Zunyue even more panicked. Thinking that Liu Huaizhao was in so much pain that he couldn't speak, he turned on the emergency light and carefully looked at Liu Huaizhao's head.
"It's okay, it's okay." Liu Huaizhao stepped back suddenly and the back of his head hit the car window again.
“…”
The two looked at each other and couldn't help laughing.
Qin Zunyue reached out and rubbed the back of his head, but this time Liu Huaizhao did not move.
After this conversation, Qin Zunyue didn't mention the fact that Liu Huaizhao was staring at him, as if he had forgotten or something. Liu Huaizhao breathed a sigh of relief.
"Take a rest." Qin Zunyue handed him his blanket and pulled the one that Wei Zhirong was covering in the back seat over, completely forgetting that Liu Huaizhao was using a constant temperature blanket.
Liu Huaizhao himself did not mention it. He would not feel hot anyway, so he covered himself with Qin Zunyue's blanket.
He buried himself in the blanket and fell asleep.
Qin Zunyue, who had already closed his eyes, opened them, reached out to tuck the hair that fell on his face behind his ears, and then thought that he had to drive tomorrow morning, so he forced himself to fall asleep again.
The two of them slept until dawn, packed up briefly, and started on their journey again.
Liu Huaizhao was still leading the way. Qin Zunyue stepped on the accelerator and listened to the two people behind him yawning and bickering.
"I'm so sleepy."
Qiao Lang threw himself on Wei Zhirong, but Wei Zhirong pushed him away with a look of disgust. "Are you still sleepy? At least you sleep lying down on the passenger seat, but I can only sleep sitting up, okay?"
"Even if we put down all the chairs, you can still lie down, okay? Who can you blame if you feel too constrained and don't want to lie down?"
Wei Zhirong was too lazy to pay attention to him. He closed his eyes and tried to use the bumps of the car as a cradle to coax himself into some sleep.
Seeing that Wei Zhirong ignored him, Qiao Lang closed his mouth and eyes.
They had left the main road and were driving onto a narrow winding mountain road.
As the vegetation grew, the road became increasingly bumpy. For safety reasons, Qin Zunyue slowed down a bit. "If this continues, I'm afraid we'll have to abandon the car soon."
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Liu Huaizhao stopped, so he stepped on the brakes.
"What's wrong?"
Liu Huaizhao returned to the ground and said, "Get off the car. We can't go through."
They carried their pre-packed bags on their backs. To prevent any accidents, they had packed a lot of dry food in the bags. Qiao Lang put on his bag and said, "Isn't there still a way to go up?"
Liu Huaizhao didn't say anything, but gestured for him to look at the opposite hill.
When they looked, they saw three blurry black shadows between the two mountains.
Qin Zunyue looked at the distance between the two mountains and said, "It seems like they discovered we were following them and brought us here on purpose."
"Most likely." Liu Huaizhao said.
"Humph, it's a pity these people don't know we can fly." Qiao Lang said proudly, then took a few steps forward and suddenly retreated.
"Holy crap! Why is it so high?!"
Tong Le looked at him like a fool and said, "Nonsense, you're not scared, are you?"
"How is that possible?" Qiao Lang puffed out his chest in dissatisfaction, "Let's see who can fly faster later."
"Boring." Tong Le rolled his eyes.
"Alright." Liu Huaizhao interrupted, "Let's go once you're ready. Don't get lost later."
Several people swallowed the golden elixir prepared in advance, skillfully transformed the fresh air into spiritual power, and then took off into the air.
This was the first time for several of them to practice flying at high altitudes. It would be a lie to say they were not afraid, but having Liu Huaizhao behind them made them feel a little more at ease - after all, even if they fell, at least Liu Huaizhao could rescue them.
Fortunately, except for the initial lack of experience and poor flying skills, they became more and more skilled, and Tong Le and Qiao Lang even had a real competition.
Liu Huaizhao smiled and said, "Slow down, I need to replenish your energy."
As he spoke, he sent the pure energy in his body into their eyebrows through the air.
Qin Zunyue felt a slight itch between his eyebrows, a feeling he was very familiar with.
But today's speed seemed to be a little slower. He looked at Liu Huaizhao strangely and found that the smile on Liu Huaizhao's mouth had disappeared.
Qin Zunyue was startled and asked, "What's the problem?"
Liu Huaizhao's expression was somewhat serious. "The pure energy in your bodies... has not decreased."
According to previous situations, the pure energy they obtained from swallowing the golden elixir would slowly disappear over time, but today, not only did it not disappear, it even increased in number.
Zheng Shu listened to their conversation from the side, pondered for a moment, and said, "Do you feel that your body is getting lighter and lighter?"
After hearing this, the others felt it carefully, and then Tong Le shouted, "Yes! Xiao Liao, do you feel it?"
Yan Liao nodded.
"Is there something wrong with this place?"
The next second after Qin Zunyue finished speaking, their feeling of lightness disappeared, and was replaced by a force that pulled them downwards - that force made them fall quickly into layers of white fog.
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