"well."
Tang smiled bitterly: "The situation we least wanted to see has happened."
"Report the situation when we get back." Xie Chiyuan had already vaguely sensed something when he went to the village to deal with the mutants, so he wasn't as affected as Tang Xin.
Yu An listened to their conversation, feeling completely bewildered.
"What are you talking about?" He didn't understand a word, and didn't even know what the appearance of the crystals meant.
Tang Xin treated him as one of his own, so he casually explained, "The zombies have evolved, and these crystals are proof of that. Zombies with these crystals are smarter than other zombies, and if you don't cut off their heads, they will exhibit this zombie-like behavior."
Zombies, evolution.
These words left Yu An speechless for a while before he could process them. He subconsciously touched his head.
This idea caught Tang Xin's eye, and the latter reassured him, "Don't worry, this thing won't appear in our heads."
Yu An was worried.
He's a fake human; he might even have this thing growing in his head.
The little white mushroom was still gently bumping around in Yu An's pocket, wanting its older brother to give it some crystal cores to eat, but its little tricks were ruthlessly suppressed by its older brother.
A while later.
Xie Chiyuan lit a fire and burned all the corpses. After the burning, Tang Xin went forward to check if any crystals had been missed.
Just as Tang Xin went to check on him, Xie Chiyuan, standing behind Yu An, suddenly asked, "Awake?"
Yu An: "..."
Yu An didn't want to talk; he just wanted to play dead.
Xie Chiyuan lowered his eyes, looking at the boy shrouded in protective clothing, his dark eyes narrowing slightly: "Deliberately ignoring me?"
Having nowhere to evade the question, Yu An could only feign ignorance: "I don't know what you're talking about."
Xie Chiyuan scoffed.
I clung to him the whole way, but now that we're back, he's denying everything.
Yu An was determined to play dumb, and he listened to Xie Chiyuan's words with one ear and let them go with the other.
The two didn't stay long. Tang Xin, having finished his inspection, came over and reported, "No new crystals found. Let's go. Increase patrols tonight, just in case anything else happens."
Yu An followed them, walking back without saying a word.
After the three returned, Xie Chiyuan and Yu An could go to rest, but Tang Xin had to continue working overtime. He needed to use instruments to analyze the crystal composition again overnight.
"Brother, I'll stay with you."
At the corner, a young man dressed in casual clothes who looked exactly like Tang Xin was waiting there.
Tang Xin saw him and her eyes warmed: "I don't need you, go to sleep. I'll go back as soon as I'm done, it won't take much effort."
The two brothers walked forward side by side, talking to each other.
Yu An, on the other hand, wanted to return to his room. Although he had no sense of direction, he could still remember the route he had taken, so getting back was quite easy.
We walked for a while.
Yu An stopped, unable to bear it any longer. He had already taken off his protective suit, and although he had run his fingers through his hair, it was still a mess.
"You, you shouldn't follow me anymore."
Now that Yu An knows that Da Tou is Xie Chiyuan, he has absolutely no intention of messing with Da Tou anymore. Da Tou may be sweet and charming, but he's the murderer who cut off his child.
Xie Chiyuan looked at the boy's sticking-up ahoge (cowlick), and for a moment, he wanted to reach out and brush it aside.
But he wasn't about to do that, so he simply said calmly, "I'm not following you, I'm going back to my room."
Yu An was half-believing and half-doubting.
As the two walked along the same path, Yu An subtly caught Xie Chiyuan's aura. He pursed his lips, trying to remind himself not to let the food cloud his judgment.
"You don't need to be too embarrassed."
Xie Chiyuan walked beside him and said indifferently, "I won't mention what happened in the village before. Just remember to never have any designs on me again."
Xie Chiyuan mistook Yu An for someone who admired him. He was bewitched by the mutant in the village, which is why he revealed his feelings.
Such a young boy, now that his thoughts have been exposed, is naturally ashamed and refuses to admit it.
Xie Chiyuan's understanding attitude made Yu An retort angrily, "I never liked you in the first place, and I never will!"
Xie Chiyuan: "Oh."
He said calmly, "I believe you."
Yu An: "..."
Pshaw, I don't believe it!
Xie Chiyuan's perfunctory "belief" infuriated Yu An. He quickened his pace and ran forward without looking back, not wanting to walk alongside Xie Chiyuan at all.
A moment later.
Yu An was dumbfounded when she saw Xie Chiyuan return through the peephole in the door.
The people at the base arranged a room for him that was next to Xie Chiyuan's.
Yu An stood at the door for a while before locking it, taking a shower, and climbing into bed.
Little White Mushroom sat on the bed, radiating a dejected aura. His pitiful appearance did nothing to soften Yu An's heart.
"Xiao Jiu".
Yu An sat cross-legged in front of the little white mushroom and seriously explained to him, "You can't eat random things right now. In a couple of days, I'll take you out of the base."
The food for the little cubs comes from the nutritional supplements provided by the research institute.
There are no nutrients here, so Yu An plans to go outside to find some alternatives.
Little Jiu rubbed against her older brother's finger, looking weak, pitiful, and greedy: "Big brother, that crystal core is delicious. I'll grow bigger if I eat it."
Yu An frowned: "Dirty."
How can you put something growing out of a zombie's head into your mouth?
Little Nine, unable to get any food, became so sad that he turned into a mushroom ball. The mushroom ball rolled up and hid itself under the pillow.
Yu An's stomach started to rumble from his greedy eating.
He patted his empty stomach and finally decided to stick to his principles: he wouldn't lick Xie Chiyuan's boots!
"Go to sleep, you won't be hungry when you're asleep."
Yu An lay down, both to comfort the little Jiu and to comfort himself. He closed his eyes, banishing Xie Chiyuan from his mind.
After he fell asleep, Little Nine jumped out. He looked at the window, then at his older brother who was still sleeping.
"never mind."
Xiao Jiu lay down next to Yu An: "We can't let Big Brother get angry."
The night was quiet, and the older brother and the little one were both hungry, so they searched for food in their dreams.
The next day.
Yu An went to do the things the uncle had asked him to do. He found Liu Qingshan and gave him the box.
"The uncle said he wanted to leave this box to his son."
In the uncle's room, Yu An also found a photograph on display. The photograph showed the uncle's son, a 16-year-old boy wearing a school uniform, black-rimmed glasses, and with slightly thick bangs.
Liu Qingshan stared at the box for a long while before saying in a low voice, "His son is long gone."
Yu An was stunned.
“Two months ago, his son encountered a zombie horde.” When Liu Qingshan talked about this, he didn’t dare to look at the box: “No one can survive a zombie horde.”
"Later, when the zombie horde dispersed, he couldn't find his son and refused to believe that something had happened to him."
Even though Liu Qingshan said that the uncle's son was gone, Yu An still handed the box to him.
This is what the older man asked him to do.
Liu Qingshan left with his suitcase. Just as Yu An was about to put the photos away, Little White Mushroom suddenly interjected, "Big brother, this person in the photo looks familiar to me."
Yu An: "?"
Little White Mushroom glanced at the photo a few more times. Then, meeting his older brother's gaze, he gave a definite answer: "I've seen him. He's not dead."
These words made Yu An's calm heart suddenly relax.
He picked up the little white mushroom and touched it with delight: "Great, maybe we'll run into him again when we go out."
Two days later.
During another routine inspection at the base, inspectors discovered that Yu An had disappeared without any warning.
Yu An, who ran away with Xiao Jiu, was determined to go to the abandoned Yu Old City to find Xiao Ba, whose tentacles had been cut off.
The inspectors, after searching everywhere for him without success, turned pale with fright and ran frantically to find Xie Chiyuan: "Oh! Officer Xie, your wife is gone!"
--------------------
Author's Note:
An'an now: I'd rather starve than have a husband!
Later, An'an: Waaaaah, give me a puff!
Chapter 16
In the past two days, although Yu An clarified at the base that he had no relationship with Xie Chiyuan, it had little effect.
When they returned to the base, many people saw Xie Chiyuan carrying him back, and those who went with Xie Chiyuan said that the two of them hugged each other all the way in the car.
Language seems particularly unconvincing in the face of these facts.
Therefore, on the day Yu An disappeared, the inspectors searched the entire base. By the time they found Xie Chiyuan, Xie Chiyuan had already received the news from someone else.
The inspector was filled with shame: "Sir, I'm so sorry, I've lost your family member."