Chapter 157

Xie Zhou pulled Pingping back after the boy had already run to Zhou Li’s side, staring at Zhou Li with a probing gaze.

Currently, that small base had been completely wiped out, leaving only Pingping. He was the sole survivor, making him exceptionally precious.

It was common knowledge that ability users who did not join any base faced a much harder time surviving in the outside world. Having experienced too much, their wariness would naturally be heavier. How could such a person be so open and sincere with someone they hadn’t known for long?

He was even willing to bring Pingping along, taking him into Dawn Base as a burden.

Based on Xie Zhou’s understanding of Fang Sinian, the man never used force to coerce others into doing things. Instead, he preferred using schemes and incentives to make people complete tasks of their own accord.

That way, even if they truly regretted it in the end, they would only blame their own choices rather than thinking the problem lay with Fang Sinian.

From the moment they entered Dawn Base, choices would likely be presented, creating a gap in treatment between ability users who brought burdens and those who didn’t.

Faced with an action that tangibly infringed upon his own interests, the man before him had agreed with a readiness that was somewhat excessive.

Such behavior would have been praised as high-minded even before the apocalypse, let alone so many years after it began.

Zhou Li sensed Xie Zhou’s probing gaze and shrugged helplessly.

“My Xiao Guai likes you, so… you probably aren’t a bad person. Besides, I can feel that you are even more powerful than I imagined. Staying with you will ensure my safety as well.”

“Xiao Guai?”

Xie Zhou asked instinctively. Zhou Li rolled up the sleeve of his loose combat uniform, revealing a black bracelet on his arm.

Xiao Guai seemed to sense its master was showing it off to someone else and quickly retracted its camouflage, poking its head out.

Xie Zhou instinctively drew a sharp breath. Even though he had seen many things since the apocalypse began, he had never seen anyone carry a snake around their wrist like a bracelet.

“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. My Xiao Guai is quite well-behaved. It’s a mutant snake, just like that husky you’re raising.”

Pingping’s movement to nuzzle his little master froze instantly, and An An also snapped his head up to stare at him.

Zhou Li pointed casually at An An and continued with a smile:

“And this… zombie?”

Faint purple light already swirled around Xie Zhou’s fingertips. He was prepared to kill the man before him to silence him at any moment, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

“Don’t start anything. Look, I told you all this, isn’t that enough to show I have no ill will toward you? My Xiao Guai is also a mutant beast. Don’t be nervous, calm down, calm down.”

An An grabbed his father’s wrist and shook it gently, letting out a low raspy sound. Only then did Xie Zhou’s emotions gradually settle, though he continued to stare at the man with a frown.

“Then what is your purpose?”

Hearing the softening in Xie Zhou’s tone, Zhou Li spoke with a smile:

“Well, it’s definitely because… I think you’re strong enough, and you’re willing to keep both a mutant beast and a zombie by your side. These two must be extraordinary as well. My Xiao Guai has been too scared to move for days.”

The current Zhou Li had shed his previous flippant demeanor. Standing there calmly explaining himself, he looked more like an ability user surviving in the apocalypse.

If he were truly as harmless as he appeared, it would have been impossible for him to survive until today.

“If I’m not mistaken, you have a grudge against Fang Sinian, right?”

“What a coincidence. So do I.”

At the mention of Fang Sinian, a flash of resentment darted through Xie Zhou’s eyes. Seeing this reaction, Zhou Li’s lips curled in satisfaction.

“I had been thinking that the difficulty would be too high if I were alone. If I had another person with formidable strength, it should be much simpler.”

“What makes you think… that after you’ve learned my secret, I’ll let you live? Wouldn’t it be simpler to kill you and do this on my own?”

Hearing Xie Zhou’s words, Zhou Li knew he had guessed correctly. He answered with a very obvious smile:

“That’s true, but I don’t think you would be foolish enough to discard such a good helper like me, right? Besides, having the same enemy makes us the most reliable allies.”

In the current apocalypse, Dawn Base was the only one capable of rivaling the Red Star Base^[1] in the Capital City. Their cruel system and obliterated humanity had indeed granted them incredibly formidable power.

If Xie Zhou intended to destroy the entire Dawn Base by himself, he would need extraordinary luck.

But the longer one survived in the apocalypse, the more impossible it became to pin one’s hopes on ethereal luck. That was practically equivalent to giving up.

Dawn Base’s system was relatively well-established. Even if one Fang Sinian died, another would step up to fill the void, endlessly.

Zhou Li felt that given Xie Zhou’s resentment toward Fang Sinian, what he planned to do was definitely more than just killing him.

Based on his guess, what Xie Zhou wanted most was to make the entire Dawn Base vanish from this place completely, destroying everything Fang Sinian believed in until it was clean.

“Are you willing to tell me your story?”

Xie Zhou knew it was slightly presumptuous to bring this up, but he truly couldn’t help his curiosity about what could cause Zhou Li’s resentment toward the base to be so thick.

“If you want to know, then of course.”

Zhou Li’s story was much simpler than what Xie Zhou had encountered. He had joined Dawn Base shortly after its establishment, making him part of the first group of people.

At that time, Fang Sinian’s goals weren’t as apparent as they were now. To recruit more ability users and build the prototype of the base, the benefits offered were very generous.

For instance, Zhou Li, who originally had no intention of joining any base, agreed because Fang Sinian said that after he joined, there would be dedicated people to look after his younger brother.

Back then, Zhou Li was exhausted every day and didn’t have the spare energy to properly care for his brother.

Wood-type ability users weren’t popular at the time. The only thing Fang Sinian valued in Zhou Li was his higher ability level compared to others.

Zhou Li’s brother had a congenital intellectual disability. Before the apocalypse, Zhou Li had run a small company and hired professional caregivers for him, so it hadn’t affected their lives.

After the apocalypse, his high ability level allowed him to barely look after his brother as the two of them struggled to survive.

However, less than a month after joining the Dawn Base created by Fang Sinian, Zhou Li returned from a mission to find only an empty room. His brother, whose intellect remained forever at the level of a three-year-old, was gone.

According to the woman Fang Sinian had hired to care for him, his brother had said before leaving that he didn’t want to keep being a burden to his older brother, and hoped his brother could live a better life after he was gone.

What kind of end awaited an ordinary person with the mind of a three-year-old and no awakened abilities after leaving a base guarded by ability users? One didn’t even need to think to know the answer.

At the time, Zhou Li had searched frantically following the clues his brother left behind. In the end, after a zombie tide had passed through, he only found the Longevity Lock^[2] he had bought for his brother with his first paycheck.

The Longevity Lock had been crushed flat after being trampled countless times, though the characters engraved on it were still legible.

Living with his brother had indeed been harder than being alone, but even if it was difficult, Zhou Li had found it sweet.

He had depended on his younger brother since they were children. That boy was his only relative in this world, and in his eyes, his only connection to existence.

No matter how many obstacles and hardships raising a brother with an intellectual disability added to his life, Zhou Li had been willing to bear them.

If an accident had truly happened one day and his brother’s life had ended because of it, Zhou Li would not be as miserable as he was now. The emotions of guilt had accompanied him for far too many years.

Even now, when he occasionally fell asleep and dreamed, he would still see his brother’s face.

His brother only had the mental capacity of a three year old; what could he possibly understand?

Perhaps he had simply heard people saying his older brother worked very hard for him, and thought that if he were gone, his brother would be happy.

That little fool, who would stuff a piece of chocolate into his pocket to save for his brother even if someone else gave it to him, how could he know that life and death were such distant concepts?

Perhaps before leaving the base, he was still thinking that if he left, his brother would rub his head and praise him for being a good boy when he returned.

“I want Fang Sinian to die. I want him to die a miserable death. I want to watch him be torn apart alive by zombies. I want him to be conscious as he feels everything.”

After Zhou Li finished speaking, a casual smile still lingered at the corners of his lips as he released the hand covering An An’s ears.

It was not good for the little zombie to hear such things; he did not want the tiny An An to learn bad habits.

Ever since his brother left, whenever Zhou Li wandered outside and saw children in need of help, he would lend a hand. It seemed to be his way of making up for the debt he owed his brother, a way to make his heart feel a little better.

His hatred for Fang Sinian had reached an extreme, which instead left Xie Zhou unsure of how to respond. After a long silence, he answered in a low voice:

“I am not certain if what happened back then was Fang Sinian’s doing.”

“If the person who was important to you committed suicide, don’t doubt it. It was him.”

“Besides him, who else would use such vicious methods? There aren’t many people engaged in psychology-related work after the end of the world.”

Zhou Li rubbed the Husky’s head and released his Xiao Guai to play with the dog.

Despite the Husky currently being about the size of a wolf, it was actually incredibly cowardly. The moment the little black snake approached, it jumped up in a fright, making “he-he” sounds as if trying to threaten the snake to stay away.

“If you are unwilling to believe it… why not take the child inside and try? See if this child will follow in the same footsteps.”

Upon hearing these words, Xie Zhou subconsciously gripped An An’s wrist. With a cold face, he refused:

“Impossible. No matter what happens, I will not take the baby to risk it. If I want to know the truth, I can investigate it myself.”

An An hugged his father’s leg and rubbed against it gently, making “he-he” sounds in his throat.

If he could speak, he would probably tell his father that he felt he was very strong and definitely wouldn’t be easily deceived by others. No matter what anyone said, he was unwilling to leave his father.

Dad had told him that everyone else just craved the massive amount of supplies stored in his space, and only Dad truly loved him. He wanted to be his father’s most, most, most beloved little treasure!

As if seeing through his thoughts, Xie Zhou stared at An An with a warning look. An An dejectedly drooped his head and made two “he-he” sounds, indicating he understood and wouldn’t act recklessly.

“If you aren’t carrying the goal of revenge, I suggest you don’t join Dawn Base, for his sake and its sake.”

Zhou Li watched the Husky start climbing a tree out of fear of Xiao Guai and burst out laughing at the sight.

Xie Zhou could currently judge, albeit barely, that this person harbored no ill will toward him. At least not for now.

Even if he had other motives, to some extent, their goals were the same.

“If I remember correctly, not long ago, you still hoped I would go to Dawn Base with you so that your hope of successful revenge would be greater.”

“Revenge is revenge, but I have never thought about dragging innocent people into it.”

Zhou Li had been drifting outside for so many years. After visiting so many places, he still could not let go of what happened back then, which was why he had returned to settle the score.

He always carried the Longevity Lock with him, the one that had been stepped on and deformed by zombies while he was searching for his brother.

“My brother was as cute as An An when he was little. Of course I can’t bear to see him fall to the same fate as my brother.”

After Zhou Li finished speaking, he let out a long breath and took a box of self-heating hot pot out of his backpack, preparing to start his dinner.

Wood-type and Water-type ability users were currently very sought after. With his high ability level, the treatment he would receive after going to Dawn Base would definitely be excellent.

So many years had already passed; a little more time wouldn’t hurt. He was patient and could afford to wait.

He couldn’t lose his conscience just for the sake of revenge; otherwise, he would be no different from Fang Sinian.

If his brother found out, that little ancestor^[3] would surely put his hands on his hips and say he didn’t want such a bad older brother.

As Zhou Li began preparing dinner, Xie Zhou had An An take out some cooking tools from the space.

In any case, they were ability users who had been traveling outside for many years and were very experienced in surviving in various places.

Except for inside bases, electricity could not be used in most other places. But Xie Zhou was different; relying on his own comprehension, he had successfully used his Lightning Ability to power some electrical appliances.

Zhou Li watched with his own eyes as Xie Zhou began cooking in full swing in the open air. Even Xiao Guai beside him was equally dumbfounded.

The longer one drifted outside, the more one missed the plain and simple life of the past.

Something like the self-heating hot pot Zhou Li carried had become a relatively rare item now, but he had long since grown sick of eating it.

In his view, a whole crate of self-heating hot pot couldn’t compare to a simple home-cooked dish of stir-fried greens.

Self-heating hot pot only required moving one’s hands, but stir-fried greens required a pot, firewood, seasonings, a spatula, and so on. Zhou Li had forgotten how long it had been since he last tasted the latter.

Even though he knew his behavior was a bit improper, Zhou Li still thick-skinnedly leaned over.

“Xie Zhou, I can provide you with fresh vegetables and fruits, cough, you see…”

“I prepared a portion for you.”

Xie Zhou replied while busy working. If it were just himself, he would likely be too lazy to do these things; after all, convenience was the most important thing when traveling.

Zhou Li, who hadn’t eaten a decent home-cooked meal in a long time, felt his eyes grow a bit red when he picked up his bowl to eat.

“If you aren’t afraid of the long journey, go to Red Star Base. It’s a base established by the state, after all, and ordinary people can get by there. Although the treatment isn’t as good as here at Dawn Base, it can at least guarantee he won’t have problems.”

Based on Zhou Li’s years of experience traveling in the apocalypse, he had developed his own set of standards for judgment. The best way to see if a base was worth living in long-term was to see how ordinary people lived there.

If ordinary people could live a normal life in the base, then no matter what happened, the living environment for ability users wouldn’t be bad.

“At Red Star Base, they keep several zombies who have retained their ability to think, and some even hold important positions. All the survivors there can accept the existence of zombies who have kept their sanity.”

“But here at Dawn Base, the news I heard before was that a zombie who retained his memories was sent to the laboratory by them, and they injected him with various drugs.”

“They didn’t touch the critical Crystal Core, nor did they use brute force. Through drug injections and dissection, in the laboratory with the best equipment currently available, he was tortured to death while fully conscious.”

If this were for the sake of researching a way to end the apocalypse as quickly as possible, the experiments might not seem particularly outrageous.

But if the subject of that experiment was someone they knew, they would certainly be unwilling to let him suffer such harm out of personal sentiment.

Compared to lying in a laboratory, watching helplessly as others used knives on one’s body, enduring that dual torture of mind and flesh, it was far better to live freely and happily outside.

Moreover, An An was still so small.

“You’ve done well with many of the details, but at this stage, do you really think others won’t be able to tell what he is?”

The Zhou Li standing before them now was a very typical example.

Xie Zhou had always thought he had hidden it well, believing that in the eyes of others, the baby was just a quiet, introverted child.

But judging from Zhou Li’s current attitude, it seemed he had seen through the baby’s identity from the very beginning.

“How did you tell?”

“He doesn’t eat, he doesn’t speak, he doesn’t drink water, and his body is stiffer than that of a normal human.”

Xie Zhou could still find ways to compensate for the first two, but there was truly no way to change the last one.

An An stood there, innocently picking at his hands, thinking he had done something wrong.

Xie Zhou walked over to him, leaned down to pick him up, and gently rubbed his small head, comforting him in a very tender voice:

“It’s okay. How could a little zombie look exactly like a human? Then would you even be a little zombie anymore? It doesn’t matter even if others find out; you will always be Daddy’s treasure.”

With his father’s careful comforting, An An’s anxious emotions finally calmed down.

He hugged his father’s arm and rubbed against him dependently. Anyone with eyes could see how deep the bond between father and son was.

Zhou Li sat on the other side, clutching his younger brother’s Longevity Lock in his palm, suddenly unable to stop himself from reflecting on his own past.

When the apocalypse first arrived, even though he was among the first batch of people to awaken abilities, life had been extremely difficult during that initial period before he had mastered his powers.

Survival was a luxury, and the mental pressure was so great that it was hard for him not to vent his frustrations on everything around him.

Perhaps it was because he hadn’t given his brother enough of a sense of security back then, or perhaps he had scowled in front of him, making the boy feel he was unhappy, which led the child to be so desperate to do something to please him.

A child’s thoughts were very simple: if someone is unhappy, find a way to make them happy.

The people of Dawn Base had absolutely exploited his brother’s overly innocent heart at the start. Otherwise, a little fool like his brother wouldn’t have even known what a “burden” was.

After packing their things and preparing to hit the road again, Zhou Li leaned over and asked:

“Brother Xie, where are you planning to go now? Would it be convenient to take me along?”

Xie Zhou glanced at him and asked curiously:

“You’re not going to get revenge for your brother anymore?”

“Brother Xie, you know I’m a Wood-type user. How much power could I really have? Catalyze some poisonous fruit to death?”

The combat capabilities of Wood-type and Water-type users were not strong. Most of the time, they stayed inside the bases providing the necessities of survival for other ability users.

In other words, they were logistics. Although indispensable, they could never occupy a dominant position.

“I plan to go to Red Star Base. If the people there are trustworthy, I’ll leave Pingping and the baby there, then head back to join Dawn Base.”

Xie Zhou had always thought he had hidden An An’s condition well, believing that ordinary people shouldn’t be able to see the abnormalities in him.

Thinking about it now, the reason it had been kept secret so well was mostly because they hadn’t interacted with many people.

Aside from necessary resource exchanges, they basically had very little contact with others. During those brief interactions, he had always been holding the baby.

Given his own significant strength, others didn’t dare to observe too closely.

“Brother Xie, so you still plan to go back and cause trouble for Dawn Base?”

“Yes.”

With similar methods and the same underlying reasons, Xie Zhou found it hard to believe that his wife’s choice to commit suicide had nothing to do with Fang Sinian.

Back then, because he was carrying out secret missions, he had delayed his wife’s youth for so many years. Before he could even make amends and live a few good years together, his wife had died during the peak of their love. The pain was exceptionally deep and unforgettable.

“Alright, then I’m following you. Brother Xie, if you tell me to go east, I definitely won’t go west!”

Xie Zhou noticed the baby’s little eyes constantly glancing toward Zhou Li’s sleeve. Guessing that the baby might be craving a turn with that little black snake, he cleared his throat and said in as natural a tone as possible:

“In that case… let the baby play with your Xiao Guai for a while.”

“Sure thing, Brother Xie.”

Without almost any thought, Zhou Li agreed immediately. Only after he finished speaking did his eyes widen as he suddenly realized something was wrong.

“Heh heh!”

The tender “heh heh” sounds An An made were filled with excitement. He even nodded and smiled at him, as if saying thank you.

Zhou Li bit the bullet and pulled Xiao Guai out, letting it coil around An An’s wrist.

It coiled exactly once around Zhou Li’s wrist, but on An An’s wrist, it had to coil one and a half times. The little black head rested obediently against An An’s cold skin, looking somewhat aggrieved.

The baby liked this little black snake very much, constantly poking its head gently with his index finger. Seeing this, Xie Zhou couldn’t help but remind him from the side:

“Don’t use force. Xiao Guai will feel pain too.”

An An stared at his father with a face full of innocence, tilting his head in confusion.

“Heh.”

He didn’t use force, he was just touching it gently.

The little black snake also seemed to realize its social anxiety was causing this little zombie to suffer a false accusation, so it hurriedly poked its head out to clarify for him.

“Don’t worry, Xiao Guai is very smart. If it feels pain, it’ll sneak away on its own.”

Zhou Li, the owner, wasn’t worried at all, letting An An play as he pleased. When this wretched little snake first came to him, it had caused him no small amount of trouble.

Red Star Base and Dawn Base were separated by an entire province. Zhou Li, who had more experience communicating with people, went into Dawn Base to trade for a car.

Gasoline was expensive, and since Xie Zhou said An An had some stored in his Space, Zhou Li didn’t use Crystal Cores to trade for it. Although he didn’t lack them, he still felt it was better to save where possible.

The off-road vehicle set out. Xie Zhou and Zhou Li took turns driving. An An sat in the back seat with Pingping, and the little black snake, having grown tired of being coiled, came down to hang itself in a spot to watch the scenery.

The environment in the apocalypse was complex and full of devastation.

Occasionally, while resting in the passenger seat, Xie Zhou would see the baby holding Pingping through the rearview mirror. When the baby closed his eyes to rest, Xie Zhou’s heart would feel exceptionally peaceful.

Driving on the road, the long journey was somewhat boring. Zhou Li, who had been cooped up for too many years, couldn’t help but strike up conversations with Xie Zhou about anything he saw.

“How did you first discover your son had turned into a zombie? Weren’t you scared after he turned?”

Xie Zhou, who had been resting with his eyes closed, opened them and looked at Zhou Li upon hearing this.

“For safety, I had joined a squad at the time. A man asked me to save his girlfriend, saying he would look after the baby for a while. By the time I brought his girlfriend back, the baby’s arm already had a wound from a zombie attack.”

“They wanted to kick the baby out, so I took him and left the squad to live on our own until now.”

“That’s my son. What do I have to be afraid of?”

Zhou Li thought about it for a moment. If his own brother turned into a zombie, he would probably find a way to keep him as a pet, and he would absolutely never let anyone dig through his brother’s head for a core.

It was true that just as some people feared ghosts before the apocalypse, some people feared zombies after it.

However, if those creatures had been the family members they lived with day and night before they turned into zombies or ghosts, no matter how terrifying they became later, they would always remain as they were in the beginning within their hearts.

“That makes sense.”

Sitting in the back and pretending to sleep with his eyes closed, Little An’an felt so happy upon hearing his father say this that he gleefully crossed his legs.

He reached out and gave Pingping’s head a vigorous rub, his small feet swinging back and forth with utter leisure.