Chapter 65: Organization, Setting Out for Zone B

Bian Changxi couldn’t make sense of her own thoughts; her mind was a chaotic jumble, as if she’d walked into a dead end. In the end, she could only shake her head and force herself not to dwell on it any longer.

In the apocalypse, talking about feelings was a luxury—survival was the only real business.

She pulled herself together, turned around, and carried an armful of supplies into the farm.

Tiny sprouts, bean-like and tender, had already begun to emerge from the soil. Three days ago, she’d planted cabbage, edamame, and other crops here. Three days had passed outside, but only a little over two days inside the farm space. The seedlings were thin and delicate, adorably fresh, adding a hint of vitality to the dark earth.

Bian Changxi squatted to observe them for a while, then walked over to the creek. She checked the fruit trees—apples, oranges, and the like—but there was no sign of progress. At this rate, it would be years before she could eat any fruit. Meanwhile, fresh food was becoming scarcer in the outside world. Their group of more than ten people hadn’t had vegetables since yesterday, and their fruit reserves were almost gone. Every day it was just jerky, biscuits, and bread. They weren’t starving, but there was no quality of life to speak of.

After a moment’s thought, she fetched a bag of crystal cores from the warehouse and dumped them all into the creek.

These were the reward Gu Xu had given her. She’d already poured more than half into the farm, keeping the rest for emergencies. After all, everyone knew she had a stash of crystal cores—if she couldn’t produce them when needed, it would arouse suspicion. But thinking it over, speeding up the farm’s time was more important right now.

She watched the fish and shrimp darting happily in the water, then checked on the dozen or so chickens and ducks in their rough coop. They seemed lively enough, but apparently had nothing to eat. Each one was pecking furiously at the dirt, so hungry they were clucking and quacking at her in protest.

Embarrassed, she rubbed her nose. How could she have forgotten about this? Aside from pulling some grass for them when she first brought them in, she hadn’t fed them at all.

These were breeding chickens and ducks—they were important.

She searched around, but there wasn’t much suitable feed in the farm or warehouse, and the fish and shrimp in the creek weren’t ready to be caught. Fresh fish was even rarer than meat; she couldn’t bear to use them. In the end, she dug out a few bowls of cooked white rice from her apartment supplies, chopped up sausage, braised eggs, and canned food, and mixed it all together as feed.

As she fed them, she muttered, “You’re eating better than people right now. You’d better work hard and lay some eggs for me soon, hatch the next generation.” Then, I’ll butcher you.

Watching them eat contentedly, Bian Changxi felt relieved. She marked off a corner of the black earth and brought out her stash of Chinese medicinal herbs, selecting the most important and useful ones to plant.

Though these herbs had been processed and were shriveled and dry, the magical black earth might just coax something out of them.

As she’d said before, medicine and medical systems were indispensable at any time. After this catastrophe, most medicines would be lost. She remembered that a few months into her previous life’s apocalypse, there was already a medicine shortage. By six months, almost all medicine was gone. With everything in ruins, survivors focused on rebuilding shelter, securing food, and understanding the new world—there was no energy left for pharmaceutical production, and industrial capacity was devastated. Western medicine wasn’t something you could just whip up.

By contrast, Chinese medicinal herbs that could be grown became extremely important.

Of course, with the changing environment and humanity itself evolving, people’s bodies and the types of injuries they suffered were changing too. Old medicines gradually lost their effectiveness.

But newly grown medicinal herbs would also mutate to meet people’s needs, keeping up with the times. In this sense, the farm’s inability to produce mutated crops—originally an advantage—might become a drawback. Still, Bian Changxi figured she could at least preserve some seeds for now; it didn’t cost her much effort.

Before long, she finished planting the herbs. Looking at the still-empty black earth, she thought she’d need to plant rice soon—there were only a few pounds left in the warehouse, and her cooked rice was almost gone.

Speaking of rice, she realized she was hungry again. She washed up in the creek, changed into clean clothes, made herself a bowl of rice, and ate it hot with canned beef and egg soup.

Hmm, she needed to set up a kitchen soon. Otherwise, it would be inconvenient to cook for herself. She had all the utensils—she just needed a generator, preferably solar-powered, since the sunlight in her space could generate electricity.

“Oooh…”

A weak animal cry pulled her from her thoughts. She turned and, oh, nearly forgot—there was still a mouse bundled up like a little worm in the corner of the farm.

She strolled over, bent down to look at it for a while, then gave it a nudge with her foot. “Stupid mouse, you’ve got some nerve to be whining. If you’d behaved and not tricked me, you could be eating with me now. I’d feed you until you were plump and fat, let you bathe in the creek and get all soft and clean—wouldn’t that be better than this? Ungrateful little thing!”

“Oooh…” The fat mouse, blind and unable to move its limbs, wriggled its exposed snout, whiskers twitching, its voice soft and pitiful.

Bian Changxi sighed, opened a precious carton of milk and set it in front of the mouse, along with her leftover canned beef. “Eat up. I can’t let you starve. But until I figure out who sent you and why, don’t even think about me letting you go.”

She was sure the fat mouse had been sent by someone. After pulling off such a big job, whoever was behind it should be making a move soon. She’d just wait and see. In any case, since she’d already swallowed up all those explosives and weapons, no one was getting them back, no matter who they were.

Speaking of which, she realized she hadn’t checked whether those things were usable, so she hurried to the warehouse to inspect them.

As it turned out, the weapons were all functional. The guns were high quality, no worse than the ones Gu Xu had given her, and there were plenty of boxes of bullets—more than enough. As for the explosives, she wasn’t sure how to use them and didn’t dare test them in the farm, but since the guns were real, the rest probably was too.

There were also some cold weapons, all exquisitely crafted and deadly—definitely not just for show.

She even found some syringes, which she thought she’d seen with Gu Xu before, though she didn’t know what they were for.

Most of the items had no markings except for a few with labels and instructions. The two computers, when turned on, just displayed a screenful of gibberish—completely unusable. With no clues to go on, Bian Changxi could only put them aside for now.

She kept a small portion of each medicinal herb for herself and took the rest out of the farm. After all, she couldn’t just make so many things disappear from her side without explanation. As long as she could grow them, a small amount would be enough for her to use freely; otherwise, having more was pointless.

By the time she left the farm, an hour had passed. She realized that this time, she hadn’t felt any discomfort after staying inside for so long, which made her happy. She lay down on her bed, tried to clear her mind, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

When she woke up, it was already evening, and Chen’s mother was calling her downstairs for dinner.

“Coming!” She took a sip of water to moisten her throat, rubbed her face with her hands, threw on a jacket and shoes, and headed down.

Not everyone was there. Besides the four deceased members of the Chen family and Lin Rongrong, only Gu Xu and Qiu Feng were present, standing by the door talking about something, the atmosphere a bit tense.

Seeing Gu Xu, Bian Changxi felt a little awkward, but she wasn’t the type of girl to get caught up in romance. She quickly pulled herself together and continued downstairs as if nothing was wrong.

“I’ll be off, then,” Qiu Feng said, glancing at Bian Changxi and nodding to Gu Xu before hurrying away with a pack of compressed biscuits and a bottle of drink.

Bian Changxi paused and asked Gu Xu, “Why did Qiu Feng leave in such a hurry? Is he busy?”

Gu Xu nodded. “You know the army sent people back into the city for supplies this morning, right?”

“I know. They set out for Zone B at the same time as us, but that operation was much bigger, wasn’t it? Is there trouble?” Bian Changxi replied. She knew the army had organized people to go back into the city, since that was where the bulk of the supplies were.

There were four or five hundred thousand survivors in the new district, and the number was rising rapidly every day. The demand for supplies was enormous. Officially, the army was only responsible for management and protection, and survivors were supposed to be self-sufficient. But if people really started going hungry, the army would have to step in—otherwise, if hundreds of thousands rioted, it would be a disaster.

To solve this, they needed reserves, but ideally, people would be motivated to provide for themselves. So the army’s first priority was to organize people to collect supplies. The Zone B operation was just a small affair; the real action was in the city.

Bian Changxi and her group weren’t under severe survival pressure, so they only went to Zone B and didn’t join the city operation.

Gu Xu said, “They were supposed to be back by three this afternoon, but only a small group returned half an hour ago—and almost all of them were injured, in complete disarray.” He took off his military jacket and loosened the collar of his white shirt underneath. The weather was hot, and most people were sweating in short sleeves, but Gu Xu looked cool and composed, with only a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead and collar. Even the way he loosened his collar was graceful, nothing like the roughness you’d expect from a soldier.

“More people are coming back in waves. The military has sent people to assist, and Qiu Feng went to help.”

Bian Changxi blinked. “Wasn’t there a distress signal?”

“They say they tried, but the distance was too great—the military didn’t receive it.”

“Oh.” So Zone B’s signals got through, but not the city’s. It seemed the army’s communications system was starting to fail.

“The zombies in the city have gotten stronger?”

“Looks like it.”

With a guilty conscience, Bian Changxi hesitated but couldn’t help asking about the underground area beneath the 4S dealership.

At the mention, Gu Xu’s expression grew even more serious. “It’s an exhibition hall down there, but that might just be a front. I suspect it’s actually a base for a weapons smuggling ring.”

“That serious?” Bian Changxi’s eyebrows shot up. “So the army sent Yue Li and the others to investigate?”

“They don’t have the resources for that. They just heard there was good stuff down there and wanted to grab what they could.” Gu Xu gave a slight, almost imperceptible, sneer—indeed, sneaking around like that didn’t do much for the army’s dignity. But his brow remained furrowed, as if something was still troubling him.

Bian Changxi could tell this wasn’t the end of it, so she probed, “You seem really concerned about this.”

ps:

Thanks to dear Qiqiao Yezi for the pink ticket!

I have a huge, tough exam tonight, so I’m posting everything for today in advance. Please, everyone, don’t hesitate to wish me luck!"

"**Chapter 66: Falling Into Water, The Spatial Blade Appears**

Gu Xu said, “Before the apocalypse, we were carrying out a mission. I suspect that exhibition hall is a clue.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, it was completely empty inside. Nothing to investigate.”

Bian Changxi narrowed her eyes and probed, “Well, since the world’s ended, there’s no point in continuing with old missions, right?”

Gu Xu was silent for a moment. Bian Changxi thought she’d touched on something classified and overstepped, but then she heard him reply quietly, “It’s not about continuing the mission. There are just some things I need to understand.”

His tone was calm, but Bian Changxi could hear the cold determination and resolve behind it. She lowered her head, hiding the emotions in her eyes.

Night fell. Two figures slipped quietly out from under the main gate, quickly vanishing into the darkness. Bian Changxi, probably because she’d slept too much during the day, was unusually alert as she lay in bed. She suddenly sat up, went to the window and peered out, thinking for a moment before using vines to hook onto the drainpipe and silently climb down.

If she wasn’t skilled, sneaking out like this would never fool the experts in the building. Luckily, there were plenty of survivors nearby, which meant plenty of drama and noise—nights were rarely peaceful.

On top of that, Qiu Feng and Wu Dalang, both military men, hadn’t returned that night. Qiu Yun was off socializing and also didn’t come back, and even Gu Pei seemed to have left and not returned. The two who’d just gone out were probably Gu Xu and Shadow, which meant there was no one in the whole building more skilled than her.

This was also because the military had arrived and the main base was nearby, making things much safer than before. There was no need for night watch anymore.

So she landed on the ground without alerting anyone, then set off after the two.

After tailing them for a while, she realized they really were heading to Zone B, and if they were going there, there could only be one destination. Both had powers—enhanced night vision and senses—so she didn’t dare follow too closely. After a brief internal struggle, she gritted her teeth and took a roundabout route to get there first.

Meanwhile, Gu Xu moved through the night, his eyes sharp as a hawk’s, scanning all directions. His presence was so restrained he was almost undetectable. He avoided both people and zombies with ease, and even if he did run into zombies, he and Shadow could silently take them out in an instant.

The two of them were like silent bayonets, cutting down obstacles as they advanced.

But Gu Xu’s mood was far from as calm as he appeared.

There was a new lead on the pre-apocalypse mission. While his four teammates had simply been surprised and then let it go, Gu Xu couldn’t be so relaxed—he knew more than they did, and carried a heavier burden.

Before they set out, the commander had called him in alone, dismissed everyone else, put aside all his work, and stared at him with a complicated expression. Gu Xu knew then that this was no ordinary matter.

“Be fully prepared and set out as soon as possible. Once the mission is complete, return immediately. If—if anything happens before then, I order you not to return to the capital for one year!”

Gu Xu had been puzzled. But some missions always came with odd restrictions—he’d seen it before. As a soldier, his job was to follow orders. He bowed slightly and asked just one question: “What kind of accident?”

“You’ll know when it happens.” The commander waved him off. The man, who had always seemed as unshakable as a mountain, suddenly looked weary. “Of course, I hope that day never comes.”

Maybe the commander had long foreseen this catastrophe.

The apocalypse, zombies, superpowers—the world turned upside down, order rebuilt. Things that only appeared in ancient prophecies or fiction, the commander had somehow anticipated.

But that wasn’t the most pressing issue. Why had the commander forbidden him from returning to the capital for a year? What was going to happen there? And what did the mission’s target have to do with all of this?

Gu Xu was always searching for answers. Qiu Feng and the others were growing anxious because they couldn’t reach the commander—they were about to lose patience and risk heading north if not for Gu Xu holding them back. He himself was restless, but he trusted the commander. If the commander had foreseen all this, he must have a plan. But Gu Xu couldn’t just sit and wait for a year, so he’d found a way into the military system.

He’d deliberately drawn in Qu Nan, befriended him, and waited for his chance. By helping stabilize the new district, he’d earned himself a place.

He needed timely information, needed to build up strength, needed to keep tracking the target, and wanted to see if using himself as bait would flush out any snakes.

He hadn’t expected to get a lead so soon.

This was a rare opportunity—even if it was just an empty shell, he couldn’t let it go. He’d gone in with Yue Li and the others during the day, but only taken a cursory look to avoid suspicion. Now he’d brought Shadow along for a closer look.

Shadow didn’t know as much as Gu Xu, but he could sense something was up from Gu Xu’s attitude. He didn’t ask questions—just did what needed to be done.

They quickly arrived at the 4S dealership. The military had given up on the place after realizing it was a dead end, but after the bloody battle there during the day, the smell of blood had attracted a lot of zombies. Now, at night, they were prowling and howling everywhere—no one could afford to be careless.

Suddenly, there was a commotion. Gu Xu saw a shadow flicker in the distance, then nothing—just some zombies moving in that direction.

“Should we chase?” Shadow noticed too.

“No, let’s go in first,” Gu Xu said. Zombies were blocking the dealership entrance, but Gu Xu had been here earlier and knew where the real entrance to the underground showroom was. He led Shadow in a wide circle, opened the door to the underground hall, and carefully entered. Shining his flashlight, he was surprised to find two laptops on the floor.

The laptops were right under a hole in the ceiling. Gu Xu shone his light up, but saw nothing. The two exchanged a glance. Shadow continued searching the area for danger, while Gu Xu put on gloves and turned on the computers.

Shadow soon returned. “All clear. How’s it look?”

“It’s all gibberish, but the pattern is similar to what we’ve seen before. We’ll need to bring it back for Qiu Feng to crack.”

“There’s a strong smell of gunpowder in the next room—probably enough to blow up a military compound,” Shadow said.

Gu Xu replied coldly, “Don’t forget, that man was the commander’s arch-enemy. Even though he’s been out of power for years… it looks like he never stopped. Who knows how big an underground network he’s built—we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg.”

If the target wasn’t so formidable, the commander wouldn’t have equipped them with so much heavy gear. Shadow said, “Too bad the apocalypse hit at just the wrong time. We almost caught him.”

Gu Xu was regretful too. He’d fought the man before, but at the last moment, the man’s subordinates had suddenly rushed out and grabbed everyone—by then, those subordinates must have already turned into zombies. If Gu Xu had gained powers from that, the man probably had too.

The enemy was hidden, they were exposed. A dragon had entered the sea—Gu Xu had a feeling he’d have a powerful enemy in the future.

Shadow asked, “Were these laptops here during the day? Feels like someone left them here on purpose.”

“No, there was nothing here during the day, but there were some fresh signs of activity. Someone said they heard gunshots from inside—I think there were two groups fighting, and they took everything with them afterward.”

“And then one side deliberately left the laptops?”

It didn’t make sense—unless someone was helping them, or wanted them to know something…

“Who’s there?” Both of them suddenly looked up at the hole in the ceiling. When they rushed over, there was no one there—not even a mouse. It was eerily quiet. But they were sure they’d just heard someone breathing.

Meanwhile, Bian Changxi climbed back in through the window, closed it, and entered her farm space, barely holding her breath. Before she could even let it out, she was ambushed by several mutated rats, attacking from both sides.

Oh no, she’d forgotten that when she’d entered that little room with the hole at the 4S dealership, there’d been a bunch of mutant rats inside. Worried about leaving traces, she’d just grabbed them all and thrown them into her farm space.

Catching rats was like risking her life—she’d ended up with a bunch of scratches.

But that was beside the point. She quickly drew her knife and fought. When the ground was finally littered with corpses, she let out a long breath and collapsed, not wanting to move.

She was exhausted!

She wasn’t a spy or an assassin—just an amateur. She’d had to get there before Gu Xu and Shadow, without being spotted. It was a miracle she’d made it—she was running on fumes.

Luckily, she’d taken a detour, ridden a motorcycle, and moved fast enough. The zombies’ stench masked her scent. She’d slipped out the back of the dealership, climbed walls with the help of vines—the only real trouble was the zombies, but in the end, she’d made it through.

She carefully reviewed her actions, making sure she hadn’t left any traces, then quickly wiped off her sweat, changed into similar clothes, and left the farm space. She’d just sat down on her bed and was about to check her wounds from the mutant rats when—

Someone knocked on the door. “Changxi, are you awake?”

Bian Changxi’s heart pounded. They were all adults and didn’t stand on ceremony, but Gu Xu was always mature and proper—if he was knocking on her door in the middle of the night, it definitely wasn’t for anything ambiguous. Had he figured her out?

She cursed inwardly, swallowed, messed up her bed to make it look slept in, tucked her shirt into her waistband—accidentally pressing on her wound and grimacing in pain—ruffled her hair, and went to open the door. At the same time, she thought to herself: This proves those things really are connected to Gu Xu. Now there were only three questions left.

First, how did that damn rat know about the place?

Second, the rat clearly wanted her to take the stuff before Yue Li and the others could get it—was it doing it for Gu Xu, or for someone else, like Gu Xu’s target?

Third, what attitude should she take?

She opened the door and asked, feigning surprise, “It’s so late—what’s up?”

Gu Xu still carried the chill of the night, holding a flashlight pointed at the ground. The reflected light illuminated the small space between them.

His eyes were deep and unreadable, like stormy but silent waves on a dark sea. He looked at Bian Changxi for a long moment. “Urgent notice: a lot of people returning from the city are injured. We need wood-type ability users to help the doctors.”"