Chapter 23 The Apocalypse 22
In Mu Huai's eyes, the loving couple, who were sharing an umbrella, breathing intimately, and holding hands, naturally let go of each other's hands as soon as they crossed the street corner.
Just moments ago they were almost whispering sweet nothings, so close and affectionate, but now they maintain a certain distance. If it weren't for the umbrella forcing them to get closer, they would probably be separated by an even greater gap.
Luo Mingchuan wasn't used to walking side-by-side with Lu Xuejin, their shoulders touching, so his pace slowed down a bit as they walked. He held the umbrella, keeping it sheltering Lu Xuejin from the sky, but most of his own shoulder was exposed to the drizzle.
The area that has been soaked is still expanding.
Mu Huai would never have imagined that all the deep affection that made him feel ashamed was fake.
Bound by their marriage, one sees the other as a toy to be manipulated at will, while the other is determined to feed the demon with his own body, believing he can keep a close watch on the danger beside him.
They were like a massive, silent whirlpool forming in the deep sea. The surface was only disturbed by the slightest currents, calm and still. Only those within it could feel the terrifying gravitational pull, strong enough to tear everything apart. They grappled with each other, sometimes near, sometimes far, sometimes far.
Lu Xuejin is at the center of the vortex, possessing an innate gravitational pull that naturally attracts everything around her. Luo Mingchuan, on the other hand, is the silent guardian surrounding her.
Luo Mingchuan had just rushed back from outside the base, and without even washing up or changing his clothes, his sleeves still carried a faint smell of blood. He often went out during the day and returned late at night with that unpleasant odor.
"He is your new prey." Luo Mingchuan's voice was muffled in the drizzling rain.
Lu Xuejin was looking at the buildings shrouded in misty rain and a sliver of warm sunlight filtering through the clouds. Hearing the sound, he turned and raised an eyebrow, casually asking, "Hmm?"
"..." The fingers gripping the umbrella handle tightened silently. "It's nothing."
Luo Mingchuan recalled the look the chief researcher had given him as he left.
Calm, composed, with a fleeting hint of annoyance. Unlike others, who always looked at Lu Xue with naked desire.
Mu Huai did not seem to be seduced by Lu Xuejin.
but……
But the intuition flowing in his blood screamed, telling Luo Mingchuan that this was not the case at all.
What good can fruit grow from the same branch as a shepherd's? It may look shiny and appealing, but if you peel back the skin, it's probably just a lump of rotten flesh inside.
He felt perfectly justified in his dislike of Mu Huai.
He remained silent the whole way until he got home, when Luo Mingchuan finally uttered his second sentence, which he had been preparing for a long time.
“Behave yourself in the base. There are too many people here. Even if you want to have some fun, keep it down.” He reached out and pinched Lu Xuejin’s nape, half-threatening and half-compromising, “If someone finds out your identity…”
The consequences are self-evident.
A man who is used to taking direct action is quite clumsy when he first starts making threats. Before he finished speaking, Luo Mingchuan had already turned away, pretending to adjust his umbrella, thus avoiding Lu Xuejin's gaze.
Shake the umbrella and watch the raindrops slowly slide off the surface, then wipe away the wetness with a cotton towel.
Luo Mingchuan absentmindedly folded his umbrella, when out of the corner of his eye he noticed the previously quiet figure beside him suddenly move—
Lu Xuejin moved closer to him, her clear eyes looking at him with beautiful contours and a small dimple on her pursed lips.
"Okay," he said lazily, dragging out the last syllable.
The voice is naturally pleasant to the ear, but once you deliberately strain your voice, it becomes as sweet as amber honey.
Luo Mingchuan's tongue twitched slightly, as if he could truly taste that sweet flavor that was both cloying and spicy.
She's being coquettish and charming again.
Having seen through the trick, Luo Mingchuan didn't want to say anything more, tied on his apron, and turned to go into the kitchen.
Despite his harsh words, he was still impeccable as a nanny, efficiently washing vegetables and heating oil in a pan.
Lu Xuejin hummed a broken little tune as he strolled over to the pet carrier to tease the pig-nosed snake. However, his aura was too frightening for the snake, which curled up and remained motionless, staring at him with its rice-grain red eyes, its forked tongue hanging out blankly.
"Baby, how high is your IQ?" the young man asked maliciously, pinching the snake's tongue and tugging at it. "Is it as high as my husband's?"
Dong Yao: [……]
Hognose snakes clearly disdain competing with humans in intelligence.
Feeling bored, Lu Xuejin noticed that both the person and the snake in her house were avoiding her. Remembering there was another mechanical creature, she immediately felt a urge to tease Dong Yao.
She thought to herself, "I thought my husband's memory had been completely erased."
[?] Dong Yao was puzzled. [It was indeed completely cleared out, otherwise your old man and Chen Mo would have recognized you long ago. Besides, Luo Mingchuan is just a fragment of his consciousness, so he doesn't have many memories of you to begin with.]
"Hmm?" Lu Xuejin shook her head demurely, indicating her disapproval. "But look, the meals he made for me are all to my liking; he prepared bathwater for me, cleaned the floor, and tidied the kitchen..."
He would point out a finger for each word he mentioned, and before he knew it, he had counted all ten fingers, and there were still many details he hadn't listed.
“And his housework habits are exactly the same as Chen Mo’s, and he hasn’t forgotten what I like to eat…” Lu Xuejin’s face immediately blossomed into a sweet smile, “Look, even if I have amnesia, my husband’s body’s instincts still love me.”
He spoke in a sickeningly sweet tone, his eyes sparkling as if all the sunlight had been shattered and fallen into them.
Anyone who saw him would think he was a handsome young man in love.
Dong Yao: [……]
What's going on? Can data get sick?
Why do I feel physically uncomfortable? It's like being grabbed by a host and forced to drink several large bottles of aged honey, causing nausea.
Speaking of which, what does honey taste like?
Lu Xuejin still didn't let it go: "Before, when I couldn't sleep, he would sit on the edge of the bed and read poetry to me. I heard that he was very busy before marriage and rarely had a break throughout the year, but after we got married, he stayed at home all day."
He softened his voice, his eyelashes fluttering slightly, his eyes sparkling: "Back then, I felt that just sitting quietly together was incredibly blissful."
[...] At this moment, Dongyao realized from Lu Xuejin's strange smile that she was toying with it, and speechlessly pointed out the contradiction in its host's words, "But baby, you said before that you rarely come home."
"Ah." Lu Xuejin exaggeratedly covered her mouth, lowering her eyes shyly, "You found out."
Does that mean he's always spending time with you, or that he rarely comes home but is completely obedient to you?
Lu Xuejin shook her head reservedly, without answering.
Dongyao QAQ: 【…Baby, you're so naughty.】
[I just calculated that with my current dedication points, I might reach the maximum enough to treat Luo Mingchuan with the special medicine. The longer this drags on, the greater the risk that he won't wake up from his slumber; his soul will be eroded by time until nothing is left.]
[Baby has tried very hard to get acquainted with Mu Huai! But given her current status and limited interaction with him, she still can't access the research institute, let alone the core secrets of the base. *cough cough*—] Dong Yao suddenly coughed deliberately. [Well, considering this is Baby's first mission, the system can provide a mission gift pack!]
It emphasized: "I specifically requested permission from the main system; there was no cheating."
Dong Yao waited for Lu Xuejin's reaction, but found that the young man no longer paid attention to him and his attention returned to the man wearing an apron and busy at the stove.
What an active and lively baby...
The apron was a free item that Lu Xuejin had taken from the cafeteria lady. The small piece hung on Luo Mingchuan's body, outlining his strong muscle lines, and the cute fried egg pattern barely covered the mottled bloodstains on his clothes.
This was the first meal Luo Mingchuan cooked himself after arriving at the base.
Lu Xuejin picked up a piece of food with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth, commenting, "Delicious."
With his other hand supporting his cheek, he slowly opened his eyelids, and Luo Mingchuan's figure was reflected in his beautiful eyes.
He said gently, "Thank you for your hard work."
Even though he knew it was just a casual remark, perhaps a new trick the other party came up with out of boredom, Luo Mingchuan's heart still couldn't help but leap with joy for a moment.
His culinary skills were honed from childhood, not only to satisfy his own needs and appetite, but also partly due to the childish marriage promise made by his father when he was young.
Luo Mingchuan was only a few years old at the time, in the midst of exploring the world and not yet having established a complete cognitive framework. Hearing the man say he had a future wife, he was only focused on learning to cook well. Because, as the neighbor had said, the way to a wife's heart is through her stomach.
Although he quickly realized that the idea that men couldn't be wives was just a joke his father made while in a daze and had no effect, he still subconsciously paid attention to various recipes.
After all, this older brother surnamed Lu was his only relative besides his father, and he would have to take care of him when he got old.
Who else but him could take care of someone as fragile as glass?
After dinner, Luo Mingchuan took off his apron and went out to throw out the trash. Just as he opened the door, Lu Xuejin called out to him.
"Here's another bag." He handed over a small plastic bag.
In the instant he turned around, Luo Mingchuan caught a glimpse of a middle-aged man with gray hair, tattered clothes, and a pale face, huddled in the shadows of the stairwell, staring intently at him with his cloudy eyes.
Luo Mingchuan frowned and slammed the door shut.
The middle-aged man staggered up to him, babbling incoherently, "Your wife... is so beautiful!"
Luo Mingchuan glanced at him lightly, and in that instant, the middle-aged man trembled violently as if he were being stared at by a bloodthirsty beast. But he was delirious and unaware of fear. After a moment of trembling, he chased downstairs and continued to shout incoherently, "So beautiful, so beautiful... You have to keep an eye on him! Keep an eye on him!"
He lost his balance, rolled to the ground, and didn't know how to get up. He just lay there on the ground, turning over and over and talking nonsense.
Luo Mingchuan lowered his eyes, concealing the surging ferocity deep within his pupils.
"Sigh, what a tragic story," sighed the building manager standing by the corridor. "He and his wife came not long after the base was built. They lost their child, but at least the couple could support each other. Who would have thought..."
The administrator paused for a long time before whispering, "There's a powerful and influential superhuman who's taken a liking to his wife... You're a resident of 321, right? Young man, remind Xiao Lu to go out as little as possible; he's prone to attracting trouble."
Luo Mingchuan ignored it and simply put the plastic bag into the trash can precisely.
This is Lu Xuejin's game; he won't ruin it.
But if someone is blind... well, they are outcasts and shouldn't live in human settlements anyway—after killing those scum, it's only natural to take Lu Xuejin away.
A month passed in the blink of an eye. As the hunting team's role became increasingly crucial, Luo Mingchuan's status within the base rose accordingly, and his benefits improved in all aspects. They moved into a high-end apartment in the central area. This also made it much easier for Lu Xuejin to access those upscale cultural venues.
The zombie horde that had emerged a few days prior had been completely wiped out, and the excavated crystal cores piled up like mountains, enough to support the evolution of dozens more high-level ability users. The base held a celebratory banquet in celebration.
The banquet hall was lavishly decorated, with arched columns supporting a high and spacious area. The ivory-white carvings were exquisite and lifelike, and the gentle melody of a violin flowed from the stage, permeating every corner. Waitstaff moved among the sparse crowd, carrying drinks and delicate tea and snacks.
Even in the apocalypse, there is no shortage of extravagant and decadent pleasures.
Those who appear in such occasions are either promising superhumans or people of high status; they show no sign of fear or distress in the face of the apocalypse.
The strong are always composed.
Lu Xuejin stood in the corner with a glass of wine. He had only dressed up a little today, yet he was already dazzling. People who knew him and those who didn't all gave him sizing looks, both openly and secretly.
The greed and desire in those eyes vanished instantly when they touched the tall figure that followed the young man like a shadow.
From the start of the banquet until now, Luo Mingchuan has stayed by his side without leaving for a moment.
"What a good dog," someone muttered, covering their lips with their wine glass.
Lu Xuejin gently swirled the glass in her hand, watching the clear wine ripple.
Dongyao: [The baby looks so beautiful in the light tonight!]
It took out its camera and started taking pictures of Lu Xuejin. After finishing, it remembered its main task and cautiously advised, "But baby, isn't the progress stuck for too long?"
Lu Xuejin smiled, glanced at Mu Huai in another corner, raised her head and drank the wine in her glass in one gulp.
Luo Mingchuan was unable to stop him in time and ended up with an empty wine glass.
"It's just fruit wine," Lu Xuejin patted his shoulder.
Then, a lazy thought popped into my head: "What's the rush? It's not too late to start now."
Perhaps it was the alcohol taking effect, but a hint of arrogance appeared between his brows, and his soft features exuded a decadent and luxurious charm, making him even more captivating under the glittering lights.
Just then, someone walked over quickly and whispered, "Deputy Captain Luo."
Judging from his appearance, it seems like he has something important to discuss.
Luo Mingchuan was impatient with the infighting at the base and was about to refuse when Lu Xuejin pushed him forward a few steps, saying, "I need to call you. Don't always stick to me."
The cloying tone of the voice made the newcomer glance at the flushed young man, and his heart pounded and his ears burned. Luo Mingchuan suddenly turned to block the view, his brows furrowing, "Let's go."
After taking a few steps, he turned back and pointed at Lu Xuejin with concern, as if to say: Behave yourself and don't cause trouble.
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