Chapter 65 Petty
After Jiang Ye's friendly conversation, the man finally calmed down and started speaking like a normal person.
"What are you saying? I don't understand a word!" he said, his face contorted with grief, his stomach growling with hunger.
“Since you don’t understand,” Bai Chenzhu said, rubbing his forehead in exasperation, “then start with yourself. Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are you dressed like this?”
The person understood what he meant.
He pointed to the plaque outside the small building and said, "I am Li Hui, the person in charge of Jinqiu Village. This is where I work and live."
"So, do you know the apocalypse is coming?" Bai Tao peeked out, covering her eyes, and couldn't help but peek at Li Hui through her fingers. But it was too scary, so she immediately shrank back.
"What do you mean by the apocalypse?" Li Hui asked, bewildered.
“There are zombies.” Jiang Ye roughly grabbed his collar, dragged him to the wall, and pressed his head down to look. “Look carefully, there are no living people left in the village, only zombies. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed anything after being here for so long.”
“I don’t know!” Li Hui muttered. “Everyone in the village got an infectious disease, and many of them were sent to the hospital and never came back. There were fewer and fewer tourists. Didn’t the authorities later say that work and school should be suspended and people should stay home as much as possible? So I haven’t left the house since.”
"I just kept waiting and waiting, hoping that I could wake up one day and see the once prosperous village again."
“Until one day, I woke up and found that the village had really been restored, the sick people had been cured, and the tourists had all returned! But every night, I would start having nightmares.”
Li Hui hugged his arm, still shaken. "I dreamt that there was no one left in the village, just me. There was no food at all, so I had to go from house to house looking for food. And those monsters would chase after people. I had to hide and hide to barely survive..."
Bai Chenzhu crossed his arms and tore away his fig leaf. "Now open your eyes and see clearly? Daytime is your dream, nighttime is reality. You are an ability user, deceiving your five senses and taking your daytime dreams as reality. Since we came here, our five senses have been affected by your ability, and now we cannot leave because of your subjective factors."
Li Hui was furious. "You're talking nonsense! Nonsense! I didn't do anything like that..."
Tang Zhao kicked him angrily, "Wasn't that you who was lurking around our car last night! You wouldn't let us leave, and you kept using your superpowers on us!"
Thinking that there was indeed a truck loaded with supplies last night, Li Hui's eyes darted around.
Jiang Ye saw through his little scheme and threatened him, "Still thinking of using your superpowers? The consequence of forcibly using superpowers that your body can't handle is becoming a half-dead skeleton. Before you want to be our enemy, you'd better look in the mirror first."
There was a water tank next to the basketball court. Jiang Ye simply picked up the man and carried him over. Li Hui was a grown man, but his weight was unbelievably light. Jiang Ye could lift him into the air with one hand and press his head down against the edge of the tank. "Look carefully."
Staring at the ugly human skin skeleton on the water, Li Hui screamed in disbelief. He had no mind to think about anything else, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
He was so terrified by his own grotesque appearance on the water's surface that he fainted!
Bai Tao swallowed hard, still shaken. She tugged at Bai Chenzhu's sleeve, asking worriedly, "Brother, you've been using your powers since last night, are you alright?"
If this also turns into a skeleton, that would be terrifying!
Li Hui may have awakened a supernatural ability that obscures his five senses, but the fact that he could maintain it for so long and cover the village was something he paid for with his life. Bai Chenzhu patted her hand with lingering fear, "Do what you can, don't overexert yourself like him."
To put it bluntly, Li Hui doesn't look like he has many days left to live, so there's no need for them to bother with a dying man.
——
Staring at Li Hui, who had been screaming and acting crazy since waking up, Bai Chenzhu walked towards Jiang Ye and asked, "What do we do now?"
Jiang Ye simply knocked Li Hui unconscious with a karate chop. "That's it, make him lose consciousness, let's go."
So they carried Li Hui back.
When Zhou Zhuohua saw that they had returned with a skeleton, she was shocked. "Why did you bring back a corpse?"
"This is the superhuman," Tang Zhao said.
Zhou Zhuohua peeked over and looked at him with a strange expression. "He's severely malnourished. If he doesn't get some nutrition, he'll really die."
Tang Zhao snorted coldly, saying indifferently, "We don't need to worry about him. He's woken up from his dream now and will figure out how to survive on his own."
Jiang Ye and Zhou Zhuohua switched places, and Jiang Ye returned to the driver's seat.
There were only five seats in the car, and Jiang Ye didn't intend to let Li Hui get on, to prevent any trouble. He said, "Tang Zhao, you get off first, carry him to the main road, and we'll put him down after we drive away."
Tang Zhao took Li Hui, nodded without asking any questions, and turned to lead Li Hui out along the path in the middle of the flower field.
This time, he finally left Jinqiu Village and came to the main road. Tang Zhao looked around happily and took a deep breath.
Jiang Ye drove the car onto the main road. He looked Li Hui up and down, then suddenly slashed him on the neck. "This guy just woke up. His eyes are rolling. He's pretending to be unconscious."
"Luckily, I didn't let him get in the car." Tang Zhao couldn't help but worry, and mimicking Jiang Ye's actions, he hit Li Hui several times. "Is he really dizzy now?"
"Okay, let's go." Jiang Ye casually tossed the person into the flower field, and before Li Hui woke up, he stepped on the gas and the car sped away.
Finally leaving that awful place, Tang Zhao exclaimed, "Whoosh!"
Zhou Zhuohua rested her chin on her hand and looked at him, "Like a happy little puppy."
Tang Zhao didn't hear clearly and asked innocently, "What dog?"
Zhou Zhuohua smiled and teased him, "I was just saying you're handsome."
Tang Zhao puffed out his chest, very proud, "That's right!"
Zhou Zhuohua chuckled to herself.
Bai Chenzhu stared intently at the rearview mirror until the golden flower field was far behind him, then he breathed a sigh of relief and pinched the bridge of his nose.
But Li Hui's skeletal, dying appearance was deeply etched in his mind. "This is really a ghost story."
It turns out that only people can scare people.
He clenched his fist, the ginkgo leaf pendant by his ear swaying slightly. "Jiang Ye, you said that only by breaking through the limitations of the body can one 'evolve'. Is the side effect of evolution to become like Li Hui?"
Bai Tao was originally looking at Tang Zhao, but upon hearing this, she quickly leaned between the two seats in front of her, straining her ears as if afraid she had missed something.
Jiang Ye casually turned the steering wheel and said, "I didn't say that ignoring physical limitations is 'evolution.' Li Hui doesn't look like he's evolved at all. The reason he has such a powerful ability is because he risked his life to achieve it."
Bai Chenzhu frowned, "I've never told you this before..."
"Actually, my superpower also has some problems."
"Hmm?" Jiang Ye was slightly surprised.
Bai Chenzhu paused for a moment, then said, "My mental strength seems to be a bit more than others."
To be precise, while others are like rivers, he is as vast as the sea, capable of extending outwards to perceive the surrounding environment and the existence of living things over a wide area.
If it lasts a long time and covers a wide area, wouldn't that be the same as Li Hui's situation?
"Am I burning my own life?" Bai Chenzhu was still haunted by the experience of getting dizzy after taking just a few steps and never wanted to go back to that state.
Bai Tao recalled the stone that Bai Chenzhu had used to lure Bai Guangzheng. At the time, Bai Chenzhu claimed that he had 'squeezed out' all his spiritual power. Bai Tao was shocked when she saw the stone; the spiritual power on it was powerful and pure, far beyond what she could compare to.
Jiang Ye had expected this. "I knew it even if you didn't say it. Have you forgotten the 'butterfly' you put on my head before? I've never seen anyone so idle that they could muster so much mental energy. I can only say you're exceptionally gifted."
It's just a pity that its attack power seems a bit low; I wonder if it will change later. Jiang Ye thought to himself, but didn't say it aloud.
He glanced sideways and saw Bai Tao covering her mouth in amazement as she retreated to her original position, while Bai Chenzhu still frowned with worry.
"Don't be afraid, I'm watching over you, nothing will happen," Jiang Ye said.
Bai Chenzhu's brows relaxed slightly, but he said, "With your carefree attitude, it would be a miracle to believe you."
Jiang Ye touched the tip of his nose. "Didn't we just see a 'ghost'?"
——
The road ahead was mostly through desolate mountains and wilderness, with only a few dilapidated mud-brick houses along the way. The group followed the road signs as they drove, enduring wind and rain.
Zhou Zhuohua stared at the fuel gauge with worry, "If we don't find a gas station soon, forget about Luming Ancient City, we'll have to walk in a couple of days."
"Don't rush." Bai Chenzhu dusted off the map. "There's a service area a little further ahead. Let's see if we can refuel there."
Bai Tao complained, "This so-called ancient city is way too far away."
Bai Chenzhu laughed and said, "Fuyun City is not close to Luozhou either. Be patient. It's just that we've encountered more mutants now, which has delayed our journey."
That makes perfect sense. It took them a little over a week to travel from Fuyun City to Luozhou. At that time, the apocalypse had only started a month earlier, many people were still observing and hiding at home, and there weren't many zombies yet. Their journey was very smooth.
But this time, besides Jinqiu Village, they also encountered many people who stopped cars and robbed them on the road. As time went by, everyone became restless and began to seek their own way out, and began to believe in the law of the jungle.
With more people, troubles arise.
"What's there to be afraid of? We still have food." Jiang Ye had a casual smile on his lips, but there was no smile in his eyes. "It's not time to fight to the death yet. When that happens, people will turn into beasts, and it's not uncommon for them to eat their own kind."
Cannibalism? Bai Tao covered her ears. "Don't say that, it's terrifying!"
Bai Chenzhu knew he was talking about reality, and he became interested. "In your opinion, if it really comes down to fighting tooth and nail, what will society be like and how will it function?"
"I'm just saying whatever comes to mind, just listen." Seeing that he was interested, Jiang Ye said more. "Bases replace cities, and there are bases of all sizes everywhere. But no matter which base it is, people with superpowers and humans are divided into two classes, and it's all about who has the bigger fist."
"Of course, there are also transactions and exchanges between the bases. The largest and strongest bases are the six major bases in total."
"Back then, the base defended against zombies and produced supplies. Unfortunately, by the time people united to establish the base, the technological products of the past had been destroyed in just a few years. It was too difficult to gather people to repair them, and their material life plummeted. You could say it was like going back almost a hundred years."
Tang Zhao was so surprised that he silently calculated when a hundred years ago was, then he was startled and exclaimed, "Wasn't that shortly after the end of the Qing Dynasty? Before television even existed! Brother, aren't you exaggerating a bit?"
"That's right, there's not even a TV." Jiang Ye laughed and said, "I just made this up myself, take it with a grain of salt."
Bai Tao looked miserable. "How terrifying. Someone like me will probably only be sent to the front lines to kill zombies for food, right?"
“Yes.” Jiang Ye said seriously to Bai Tao, the lord of Luo Zhou Base in his previous life, “With your kind of ability, you can only be sent to the outer perimeter to do the hardest and dirtiest work and get the fewest steamed buns.”
Bai Tao went to Zhou Zhuohua to cry, feeling wronged. She sobbed for a long time, but not a single tear came out.
Zhou Zhuohua patted her head in a cooperative manner, soothingly saying, "Don't believe him. Your special ability can kill zombies. If you evolve, you might be able to fight against ten thousand people. You'll definitely be very popular. Who would waste your talent by sending you out to suffer?"
Jiang Ye said, half-jokingly, "If I were the lord, I would do it too~"
Although he now feels a bit of camaraderie with Xiaobaitao, Jiang Ye dares to say that if Dabaitao fell into his hands, he would definitely throw her out to the outermost edge to torment her.
Bai Chenzhu chuckled and said, "You lord are really petty."
Jiang Ye hummed a song as he drove, infuriating Bai Tao.
The angrier Bai Tao got, the happier he became, and he deliberately said a lot of things to scare her.
Bai Chenzhu counted the road signs, "Jiang Ye, there's a service area ahead."
"Okay." Jiang Ye slowly drove the car down.
It was getting dark, but the convenience store in the service area was still lit. Bai Chenzhu stared at the light. "Be careful, there are people in the service area."
They drove up to the gas station, which was already empty of workers—a perfectly normal situation. The gas station was somewhat dark. Jiang Ye had just gotten out of the car and was about to reach for the fuel nozzle when the lights suddenly came on.
Bai Chenzhu squinted for a while after the light shone into her eyes.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you need to pay a toll when you arrive at my service area." An unfamiliar voice, but familiar lines.
Bai Chenzhu opened his eyes and saw eight people standing opposite him, holding all sorts of weapons, their intentions clearly hostile. The leader was a fat, bald man.
Bai Chenzhu sighed, pressed the door open, and tossed the lighter to Jiang Ye, "Let's finish this quickly."
Jiang Ye lifted the lid, looking as if he was about to light it. He tilted his head and grinned wickedly, "How about I give you a fireworks display?"
Gas stations are prohibited from using open flames!
The arrogant bald man opposite suddenly changed his expression, "Wait!"
Damn it, they just wanted to rob someone, how could the other side be so crazy!
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