Chapter 297 - 284: Reputation Ruined
Theoretically, thirty years had passed since the Second Great Mutation. Even if the Central Base had stockpiled a massive amount of frozen mutated beast meat back then, it should have been nearly all consumed by now.
Otherwise, the major bases wouldn’t have been suffering from constant food shortages all these years.
Gu Xi still remembered the look on Shen Yue’s face the first time he ate normal chicken... This meant that even Shen Yue had never eaten properly preserved mutated beast meat before.
He was Shen Zhennan’s son, after all.
But now, jerky like this had just casually appeared inside an ordinary vehicle belonging to the base’s Guard Team.
It seemed the base wasn’t entirely without food reserves all these years. It was just that those precious supplies had likely long since fallen into the hands of a select few.
Like the Gu Family, or the Qee Family...
Food—safe food—was undoubtedly the most important resource in the post-apocalyptic world.
Life in the apocalypse wasn’t easy. It wasn’t strange at all for people to risk their lives for a single bite of food.
And over the years, who knew how many powerful ability users these so-called great families had roped in using resources that should have belonged to all of humanity?
Gu Xi lowered her gaze. ’So, this is the source of the so-called great families’ confidence...’
"Gu Xi, what are you thinking about?" Qi Xiang asked quickly when she saw the look on her face.
"Nothing." Gu Xi shook her head.
Just then, Zhao Li, who had been waiting outside the stone house, suddenly walked over. With a dead-serious expression, he said, "Miss Gu, our captain should be... you know, capable. All these years... um, he’s just been abstinent. It’s not that he *can’t*."
Gu Xi: "..."
Qi Xiang: "..."
Zhang Wen, who was just walking over: "..."
Zhang Wen walked past them in silence, celebrating inwardly. ’Good thing the captain isn’t here.’
But before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, Ye Junhan looked up at them from a short distance away.
Zhang Wen immediately lowered his head and fled in a panic.
Beside them, Qi Xiang snickered out loud. She gave Ye Junhan a provocative raise of her eyebrow. ’Serves you right for looking down on me all these years. How about it? Now even your own man suspects you’re incapable, doesn’t he?’
Ye Junhan ignored her and handed the roasted sweet potato he’d been tossing in his hand to Gu Xi. "A City Reservoir has been called the Land of Death all these years because it’s perennially shrouded in miasma. This miasma is somewhat special; protective suits and gas masks are useless against it."
"The research institute has studied it for many years without any breakthroughs." Ye Junhan looked up. "In the early years, the military also dispatched a few research teams here, but... in the end, none of them ever came back."
"Could it be people from the Liu Family sabotaging things from the inside?" Qi Xiang proposed a possibility.
Ye Junhan didn’t answer.
"Perhaps we can start with that laboratory at the research institute? There should be some data on the A City Reservoir inside." Nearby, Wei Heng took the spatula from Qin Yi, reclaiming his position as head chef. "I still remember the location of our initial mission."
"But it’s been so long. Even if there was something there initially, it’s probably empty by now." Qi Xiang wasn’t very optimistic about the suggestion.
"As for the miasma," Gu Xi said after a moment of thought, "let me go take a look first, and then we’ll decide." ’The thing that’s always following me has been whining about being hungry, hasn’t it? This time, I can take it for a big meal.’
"It shouldn’t be a huge problem," she said.
"In that case, with our current strength..." She glanced at Gu Xi, then at Ye Junhan, and did a quick calculation. Besides herself—who was useless in a fight—their small team had a full thirteen top-tier combatants. That was enough.
"How about we go for a quick, decisive strike and just charge right in?" Qi Xiang tilted her head, her face alight with excitement.
Gu Xi peeled the skin off her sweet potato, looking at the honey-colored flesh that had been roasted to perfection. After a moment’s thought, she said, "We can do that."
"When do we leave?" Wei Heng asked, glancing at the rain, which was falling harder and harder.
"What should we do with those guys from the Guard Team?" Qin Shi asked as she walked over.
’We can’t just abandon them here, can we?’
’But if we take them along... never mind them being a burden, if we run into danger on this trip, who knows if they’ll wake up and stab us in the back?’
To put it bluntly, Qin Shi simply didn’t trust that bunch from the base’s Guard Team.
"When will they wake up?" Ye Junhan asked.
Gu Xi looked up. "They were poisoned before they were parasitized. But it’s not a big problem. Yabao has already taken care of it. They should wake up soon."
"Poisoned? That’s not right," Qi Xiang said, leaning in. "The Guard Team and the research institute had several vehicles. How come only their vehicle was poisoned?"
"I checked their vehicle earlier. The data recorder was broken, and all the information inside was gone," Ye Junhan said suddenly. "We can’t rule out sabotage."
Qi Xiang’s interest was piqued as she caught sight of the men lying side-by-side on the ground. Cupping her chin, she said, "So you’re saying it’s possible one of their own poisoned them?"
"But why?"
’Could it have been just to set a trap for us?’
’But how would they have known that Ye Junhan’s group would definitely pass through here?’
Qi Xiang couldn’t figure it out.
Gu Xi tossed the branch in her hand into the fire. "We’ll know whether that’s the case or not once they wake up."
She took a bowl of porridge from Wei Heng and had a spoonful. "Is this Eight Treasure Porridge? Who made—"
Before she could finish, Qin Yi was looking over, blinking. "I did." ’How is it? Not bad, right?’
"It’s great." Gu Xi swallowed the porridge in her mouth, her expression unchanging, and slowly added, "But don’t make it again."
’Life in the apocalypse was hard. She didn’t have much sugarcane left in her storage space, so there was no need to waste that bit of brown sugar.’
Qin Yi sensed something was wrong. She snatched the bowl from Gu Xi’s hand, took a sip, and then looked up expressionlessly at Zhao Li, who was just about to sneak away.
A moment ago, while Gu Xi and the others had gone into the stone house to check on Mr. Ye, her sister had tended the fire while she did the cooking.
She hadn’t originally planned to make Eight Treasure Porridge. Then Zhao Li had come over and said that the others had over-expended their abilities and were severely drained, so they wanted to eat something sweet to recover.
Qin Yi saw that Lin Yuan and the others did look rather pale—not much different from a young woman who was pale and drained during her period. So she took out a packet of brown sugar that Gu Xi had previously given her for a sweet treat and decided to make a simple version of Eight Treasure Porridge.
—The so-called simple version of Eight Treasure Porridge was one where any missing ingredients were all replaced with sweet potato.
’Sweet potatoes were a staple food, anyway, and they were sweet.’
At first, she only added one spoonful of sugar. But Zhao Li said that for such a big pot of porridge, one spoonful couldn’t possibly be enough... and so the entire packet of sugar went into the pot.
Seeing everyone’s eyes turn to him in unison, Zhao Li quickly raised his hands defensively. "I just saw that Lin and the others were really weak and wanted to help them recover." It wasn’t because he had a sweet tooth.
’At most... he was just a little curious what the brown sugar that Ouyang, that tomboy, treasured so much actually tasted like.’
Who would have thought that the moment he finished speaking, Lin Yuan and the others would all raise their heads in unison and stare at him expressionlessly, their gazes filled with condemnation. ’Who’s weak? You’re the one with the sweet tooth, and you’re trying to pin the blame on us.’
’Have you no sense of comradeship?’
’Unbelievable.’
What made them even more indignant was that the reputation of every member of the Special Service Team being strong and robust was now ruined because of this kid Zhao Li’s sweet tooth. And he even said they were weak... What if they couldn’t find wives in the future because of this?
Zhang Wen’s thoughts, however, went even further.
’They were all parasitized. Lin and the others are weak, so could the captain also be...’ ’No wonder Qi Xiang doubted the captain’s... capabilities.’
Zhang Wen subconsciously looked up at Ye Junhan, his gaze filled with a worry he himself wasn’t even aware of.
Ye Junhan: "..."
A gust of wind blew past, making the flames flicker. The rain outside grew heavier.
Gu Xi suddenly looked up at the men still lying on the ground. She tapped the small green sprout on her fingertip and said nonchalantly, "If you don’t get up now, you won’t ever have to get up again."