"Happy birthday, brother~"

The lights suddenly went out. Gu Yicheng thought something had happened. He became alert and prepared to guard against any unexpected situations around him. But when he turned around, he saw the girl holding a cake in front of him.

Gu Yicheng was stunned for a moment, then returned to normal and smiled helplessly.

Is today still his birthday?

To be honest, if she hadn't mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten about it.

Seeing this scene, no matter how angry Gu Yicheng was, it probably disappeared in an instant, not to mention that he was not angry with her this time. He just felt very annoyed to see those people who kept surrounding her and acting like a third wheel.

How could he bear to be angry with her?

Ruan Ning noticed that he was staring at the cake, and said excitedly, "Brother, make a wish and blow out the candles, then taste my cake and see how it tastes!!"

He never believed that making wishes was useful, and this was too naive. However...

Gu Yicheng looked at Ruan Ning intently, followed her instructions, closed his eyes and made a wish, blew out the candles on the cake, and asked, "Did you make this yourself?"

The cream on the cake was not evenly spread and the shape looked weird.

Ruan Ning bit her lip and nodded shyly, with a hint of expectation in her eyes, "Hmm..."

Gu Yicheng took the blown-out candle off the cake and said frankly, "This cake looks... a little ugly."

After hearing this, Ruan Ning widened her eyes and looked at him angrily, "..."

Well, she couldn't refute it. Ruan Ning herself knew that her hands were relatively clumsy, and even though she had tried very hard to learn how to make cakes, the cakes she made were still disappointing. The cake in front of her was not only not delicious, but also not very pretty, but this one was already the most successful one among all the cakes she had made. She had failed many times before, and she was afraid of wasting them, so she and the others who accompanied her to make cakes together ate all of them. Because she was afraid that they wouldn't be able to finish them this time, she only made a very small size.

And everyone had prepared another one downstairs. She had originally thought of letting him try hers that didn't taste so good first, and then the good one, so that there wouldn't be any comparison.

Under the girl's resentful gaze, Gu Yicheng opened his mouth, took a sip, and said with a smile: "Hmm, very sweet. It tastes good."

Ruan Ning knew that he was trying to comfort her, and said with a depressed look: "Brother, you don't have to force yourself to eat it. If it doesn't taste good, then don't eat it. There is another cake downstairs, and everyone is waiting for you to come down. We can go and eat that one."

"I'm serious. If you don't believe me, you can try it." As he said that, Gu Yicheng took half a step forward, clasped the back of her head with one hand, and went deep into her mouth. Their lips and teeth intertwined, and Ruan Ning tasted the sweetness of cream.

In her daze, she couldn't help but think that it tasted very sweet...it seemed like she put a little more sugar when whipping the cream.

"But it seems even sweeter this way." The man spoke in a hoarse voice, low and lingering, so sweet that it made people feel half limp.

As the only person present who heard it, Ruan Ning's ears turned red instantly.

In order to hide her panic, she quickly took out a palm-sized mahogany box from the space. Inside was the two fourth-order crystal cores that she had taken from Yu Xian half a month ago.

Originally, she wanted to wait until they were downstairs to give him the gift, but the situation was special now. If she didn't say something to ease the atmosphere, her face would be so red that she couldn't face anyone. So she just took it out in advance. She had to give it to him sooner or later anyway, so it made no difference if she gave it now.

"Ahem, birthday present." She said with her eyes evasive. The man's fiery gaze made her feel a little uncomfortable, as if she was being stared at by some large beast.

Gu Yi accepted the gift but did not open it. Instead, he put it aside and said, "No hurry, I'll open it later."

"Hmm."

Ruan Ning closed her eyes and responded to his enthusiasm. Gu Yicheng sensed her response and his movements became more affectionate.

Half an hour later.

The real man walked down the stairs slowly and leisurely. Ruan Ning took his hand, with a hint of shyness on her fair and clean face.

Just now, this man kissed her for a long time, so he came downstairs so late.

Ruan Ning felt embarrassed when she thought about the two of them being intimate up there while people were waiting for them to go down and cut the cake. Her face was getting hotter and hotter, but fortunately everyone's attention was on the person next to her, and no one would look at her.

"Happy birthday, Brother Gu!"

"Happy Birthday, Captain Gu!"

Tonight, all members of the Dawn Team came to celebrate their captain's birthday. At the same time, they also celebrated their team's ranking first in the team rankings. It was a double blessing.

Ruan Ning was only responsible for the surprise part of the celebration upstairs. Everything downstairs was arranged by Lin Yang and Chaozi, and she did not intervene.

This was probably the birthday with the most people in front of Gu Yicheng. He never liked crowds and didn't really like celebrating birthdays. At most, Lin Yang and Chaozi would invite more people to celebrate together. But they both knew Gu's personality and rarely invited more people to bother him.

The birthday cake below was even bigger, and it was made by a chef who specialized in making pastries before the end of the world. Ruan Ning had tasted it beforehand, and it was indeed the best. Compared to the small birthday cake she just made, the taste and appearance were simply one in heaven and one in hell.

Gu Yicheng showed no impatience when he saw so many people surrounding him today. He closed his eyes and made a wish with a smile on his face. He blew out the candles, which seemed very childish to him before and he would never do it.

Ruan Ning had been standing beside him, her eyes soft: "Happy birthday."

"Give me a kiss!"

"Give me a kiss!!"

"Give me a kiss!!!"

No one knew who started the booing, but everyone started to shout one after another. The target of the booing was naturally today's birthday star, a couple that everyone knew was in love. Maybe it was because the atmosphere was too lively today, or because there were so many people present, so everyone had a little more courage. If it were any other time, they would never dare to be so rude to the captain.

Ruan Ning: “…”

If it wasn't for today's birthday party, and Gu Yicheng had no idea about it, Ruan Ning would even suspect that they were hired by him. Otherwise, why are they all helping him? ! ! Shouldn't the theme of today be celebrating his birthday? Why did they have to involve her!

"Stop making a fuss and come and eat the cake." No one dared to say anything after Gu Yicheng opened his mouth. After all, the two protagonists were not willing to show their affection in public, and the captain's prestige had been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people for a long time. Everyone quickly made a stage for themselves and started to share the cake in a noisy manner.

Cakes are a rare commodity in the end times. Only Ruan Ning is willing to waste so many ingredients and hopes to make one by himself. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't even dare to think about it.

This birthday went very smoothly. Yu Yiyi and Ruan Ning even folded stars as birthday gifts for today's birthday boy.

Gu Yicheng was in a very good mood today. He didn't care that the little girl had been acting as a third wheel between him and Ning Ning some time ago. He accepted the gift with a smile.

However, there is one person who cannot get away with it.

"Lin Yang, shouldn't you explain to me what happened a few days ago?" Gu Yichen curled his lips and smiled.

When Lin Yang saw Brother Gu's familiar smile, he swallowed and subconsciously glanced at Sister Ruan Ning beside him.

Ruan Ning blinked and gave him a look that told him to fend for himself. She really couldn't handle it just now, so she told him about the bad advice Lin Yang gave her to attract more attention.

Lin Yang immediately understood what was going on, and with a strong desire to survive, he quickly said, "Misunderstanding, Brother Gu, this is all a misunderstanding."

Lin Yang wanted to explain something, but he found that Brother Gu had smeared the cream on his face with the cake, turning him into a cat. Ruan Ning even went over to add two more strokes.

Lin Yang had a face covered with cream on both sides and a pitiful look in his eyes, but what could he do? He didn't dare to fight back against Brother Gu, let alone bully Sister Ruan Ning.

Finally, he could only bully Chaozi and took half of the cream on his face when Chaozi wasn't paying attention. After such a quarrel, I don't know what happened, it turned into everyone adding some color to each other.

In the end, only a few people were left clean.

A month passed quickly, and Yu Xian personally brought people to pick up Yu Yiyi and take her back to Chaoyang Base.

In the living room of the villa, Yu Yiyi held Ruan Ning tightly and refused to let go, with a look of reluctance on her face, "Sister Ningning, I can't bear to leave you."

Ruan Ning patted her shoulder and said, "Yiyi, it's okay. If you miss me in the future, you can come again. And if I have the chance, I will also go to Chaoyang Base to see you." This sentence was said to Yiyi, and also to herself. The two bases are not particularly far apart, and it only takes one day to go back and forth, so if you want to meet, there are still many opportunities.

"Well, when I grow up and become stronger and can leave the base by myself, I will come to see you, Sister Ningning, once a month." Yu Yiyi has been here for a long time and has developed feelings for this place. She is reluctant to leave suddenly.

Yu Yiyi was reluctant to leave, and Ruan Ning was also reluctant to leave her. Not only her, but other members of the Dawn Team also regarded Yu Yiyi as their own. After all, there had not been a child in the team for a long time, and everyone had a good impression of Yu Yiyi. After spending these days together, they all liked this lively and lovely little girl. It felt that the team became much more lively after she came.

However, all good things must come to an end, and Yu Yiyi will eventually have to return to the Chaoyang base.

This time when Yu Yiyi went back, Ruan Ning brought her a lot of things. They were all things they bought at the Hope Base this month. There were also her favorite snacks and game consoles, and Ruan Ning also helped her take a lot of them and put them all in the box.

When Yu Yiyi came to Hope Base, she had two boxes. When she left, the two boxes were completely unable to hold so many things. In the end, she had to pack two more boxes before she could fit all the things.

Yu Xian could tell that Yiyi had a good time at Hope Base. She looked at the powerful man beside her and thanked him sincerely, "Captain Gu, I'm really sorry to trouble you this time."

Gu Yicheng said calmly: "If you want to thank someone, you should thank Ningning. If she didn't like your niece, I wouldn't care about this matter."

During this period, the people at the training center could not find any loopholes to exploit, so someone found out about Yu Yiyi's situation at the Hope Base, and then turned their attention to the Dawn Team. They wanted to kidnap Yu Yiyi and then use her to threaten Yu Xian. Several waves of people were sent over this month, some of whom Gu Yicheng found out which forces sent them, and some of whom he could not even find out.

However, all these hidden dangers were blocked by Gu Yicheng alone, and he didn't even tell Ruan Ning a thing, allowing her to spend this month happily.

"Ms. Ruan, I am definitely the one who is most grateful." Yu Xian's eyes showed a hint of understanding, "I can see that Captain Gu loves your girlfriend very much. I hope you two can continue to be happy."

"Yes, I will." Gu Yicheng said, his eyes fell on Ruan Ning who was standing in the hall and saying goodbye to Yu Yiyi, his brows full of tenderness.

Gu Yicheng looked at it for a while, then retracted his gaze and changed the subject, "Have you ever thought about moving your training center to the Hope Base? I heard that recently there are many people in the Chaoyang Base who are secretly trying to sabotage the training center." The first bird to be shot is the training center, which is not the one in charge of the Chaoyang Base, and the managers are not doing anything. The training center is now in its heyday, and it is bound to block the way for some people. Among the teams sent to kidnap Yu Yiyi before, there were people from the Chaoyang Base. If you want to completely solve this situation, there are only two ways, one is to drive away the other forces in the Chaoyang Base and replace them with yourself, and the other is to change a base.

Yu Xian understood what he meant, thought for a moment, and said, "No, our training center is based in Chaoyang Base. It will be even harder to survive if we change the location." In any large base, there will be many forces taking root. It is not easy for foreign forces to take root in someone else's territory. Especially in Hope Base, where all the major forces are intertwined. This is one of the reasons why Yu Xian never thought about moving to Hope Base.

Gu Yicheng narrowed his eyes and said in a deep voice: "What if I say I can help?"

******

Recently, some people claimed that they were inexplicably attacked by unknown creatures near the imperial capital. Strangely, these people were not in danger of their lives, as if the creature that attacked them was just playing a trick on them.

Because what happened was so absurd and these people could not find any evidence, few people believed them.

Ruan Ning also heard about this, but like most people, she didn't take it to heart.

Until one day, Gu Yicheng came back from a mission and brought back something.

"Xiaohua?" Ruan Ning said in surprise as he looked at the familiar-looking mutant plant lying in the flowerpot.

Then, Ruan Ning could feel the grievance that was spreading all over her body. She remembered that she had said that she would go to City C to see it when she had time, but Yu Yiyi was in the Hope Base for the previous month, and she promised Yu Xian to take care of her, so she didn't care about Xiaohua's affairs.

Ruan Ning was naturally very happy to see Xiaohua, but the question now was, why was Xiaohua, who should be in City C, here now?

Ruan Ning hasn't heard any news about the disappearance of giant plants similar to the one in City C recently. What is going on?

She couldn't communicate with the plants, so Ruan Ning could only place her hope of answering her questions on Gu Yicheng, who brought the little flower back.

"Brother, how did you bring Xiaohua back?" Ruan Ning was really curious about how Xiaohua came back from City C.

The plant can move by itself? ? Could it be that someone saw that it was valuable, so they dug it out of the soil and brought it here? ! !

Gu Yicheng had never heard of a giant flower coming out of that city in his previous life. He didn't expect that after he sent this mutant plant away, this little guy could still come back? ! ! It seems that he still underestimated the survival ability of this little guy.

It was really an accident that he encountered it.

"I found it on the side of the road. It looked like someone had uprooted it from the ground in City C, and then took it to the imperial capital and left it there. Fortunately, that person only treated it as an ordinary mutant plant and did nothing with it, so it had the opportunity to come to me for help. And it must have remembered my scent, so it found me when I passed by."

The course of events was surprisingly similar to what Ruan Ning had guessed.

"But if I'm not mistaken, its body is still in City C. I feel it is very weak now, so we should send it back as soon as possible." Gu Yicheng added.

If Gu Yicheng hadn't known that Ning Ning would be very sad if she found out that the little guy was in trouble, he wouldn't have rescued it and would have just let it die on the side of the road.

"Then let's hurry up and send Xiaohua to City C."

Ruan Ning was sure that the mutant plant in front of her was Xiaohua, not just a mutant plant that looked very similar to Xiaohua. Although she didn't know how it managed to distinguish itself from the huge original, after Gu Yicheng's analysis, she immediately thought that if someone caught it in its current state, wouldn't it be easy to destroy it? All living things have their weaknesses, and it seems that this is Xiaohua's weakness.

Fortunately, only Gu Yicheng and Ruan Ning had seen the little flower in this state. No one else could have connected it with the giant flower that occupied half of the city. Even Gu Yicheng would not have confused the two if he had not known how it ate.

Gu Yicheng nodded: "I'll drive."

The two of them didn't waste any time, simply packed up, and drove away from Hope Base.

I haven't been to City C for more than a month, and it has really changed a lot. Every corner of the city is full of all kinds of mutant plants, and even the houses on the roadside are entangled with all kinds of vines.

And unlike the mutant plants bred in the breeding center that would not attack humans, these would, although they would not actively attack, but as long as someone got close, they would suffer more or less.

This scene reminded Ruan Ning of the scene he had seen in the living area of ​​​​B University before. It was just that the scene in front of him was bigger and more spectacular.

The deeper you go, the more plants there are, and the more difficult it is to get in. These plants block all the paths and prevent others from passing.

However, Ruan Ning also concluded that their direction was correct, and the huge body of the small flower should be in this direction. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many plants around.

The little flower was lying in the flowerpot. Ruan Ning gave it a crystal core to keep it alive in case it really died.

On the way from Hope Base, Ruan Ning saw its flower buds gradually wilting. It seemed that it had been away from its main body for too long, so it looked increasingly listless. However, after entering City C, the situation improved a lot, and it even had the strength to extend its tentacles to wrap around her wrist.

Ruan Ning looked at its heartless appearance and felt very disappointed. Didn't it seem quite smart when it stayed by her side before? How could it be so careless this time and be uprooted so easily? !

If Gu Yicheng had not passed by the place where it was dropped during his mission and had not discovered its existence, then wouldn't he have seen it again in the future?

When Ruan Ning thought of this, she felt a little uncomfortable and didn't want to bother with this little guy who made her worry.