Ch 37: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Qu Weiwei opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was the ceiling of the metal shack she rented. The tiny, less-than-ten-square-meter space had an electric wire stretched from outside, connected to a bare lightbulb that swayed faintly.

The light wasn’t on, and the room was dim. Only faint beams of light seeped through the gaps in the metal sheets.

She… hadn’t died?

Since joining Farm No. 3, Qu Weiwei had diligently infused her energy into the plants. They were told these plants were part of vaccine research, and everyone carefully tended to them, hoping for a way to end the apocalypse.

But that morning, when the researchers extracted some sap from a mutated willow tree, the tree suddenly went berserk, attacking everyone in the farm without discrimination. Qu Weiwei had been nearby and saw it all—the thick vines slicing off half her right arm before sending her flying through the air.

The pain had been unimaginable. She had blacked out instantly.

…Her right arm!

Qu Weiwei gasped in horror. She couldn’t imagine how she would survive without an arm! She quickly sat up, only to find her right arm still perfectly intact.

Had she imagined it?

A wave of relief flooded her, but as she extended her right hand and examined it closely, she realized something was different.

Her skin looked noticeably smoother and fairer compared to her left hand. Even the calluses she had developed from high school exams were gone.

“You’re awake?” a man’s voice came from the doorway.

Instantly, Qu Weiwei’s scalp tingled with fear.

Surviving as a woman in the apocalypse was especially difficult. She always locked her door tightly at night and even barricaded it with a table. Though the base’s security was relatively good, theft and harassment still happened. Even if the patrol squads enforced strict punishments, the immediate damage couldn’t be undone.

She had taken every precaution to prevent anyone from breaking in. If someone had entered her shack, the metal walls should have made noise and attracted attention.

But this time, why hadn’t she locked the door? Why was there someone else in her room? And… how had she even made it back here?!

Thankfully, the intruder quickly turned on the light, illuminating the dim, cramped space with a faint, yellowish glow. It was Song Kaiji.

Qu Weiwei let out a breath of relief. If there was anyone in the base she could still trust, it was probably Song Kaiji. Their tin-roofed shacks weren’t far from each other, and they had looked out for one another more than once. “Why are you here?”

She touched her right arm and asked, “How did I get back? I clearly remember… I was attacked by that mutated willow tree at the farm. My arm…”

“Your whole arm was severed,” Song Kaiji added.

Qu Weiwei’s face paled as memories of the searing pain before she blacked out came rushing back. So it hadn’t been a dream after all. “Then now…?”

“The research institute sent you and the others to the base hospital but was only willing to cover the cost of keeping you alive. I borrowed a lot of supplies to get you a limb regeneration procedure. This arm—” Song Kaiji gestured at her right arm, “—was regrown today.”

He stepped forward and handed her a bun. “Eat. The healing ability users said you need to consume plenty of protein and nutrients in the next few days. You shouldn’t use your ability for now, and try not to move your new arm too much. This is all I have left.”

It was one of the meat-filled buns Shen Qing had given him earlier. Song Kaiji had eaten one and stashed the other in his spatial storage, unwilling to waste it. Now, it ended up benefiting Qu Weiwei. But at the moment, his mind was elsewhere, and he didn’t mind losing the bun. Instead, he watched Qu Weiwei carefully, gauging her reaction.

Fortunately, Qu Weiwei wasn’t someone who forgot favors. Hearing that the research institute had only paid the bare minimum for her survival, she felt a wave of cold bitterness. She had always known that in the apocalypse, human lives were worthless, but experiencing it firsthand made her realize just how cruel and despair-inducing it was.

If not for Song Kaiji, she would have become a cripple today. She had no idea how she would have survived with only one arm.

This debt of gratitude, in contrast to the institute’s indifference, felt even more precious. “It must have cost a fortune,” she murmured. “Who did you borrow from? How much? I’ll definitely pay it back.”

The hospital invoice was there, so Song Kaiji simply handed it to her. “Aside from what the research institute covered, it cost an additional four hundred pounds of food. I paid one hundred and fifty pounds myself and borrowed two hundred and fifty.”

He had never mentioned Shen Qing to Qu Weiwei before, so now he simply said, “It’s a client I met while running my stall.”

Qu Weiwei’s eyes widened. She had expected the regeneration procedure to be expensive, but she hadn’t imagined it would cost this much.

Was it worth it? Of course. A whole arm! Even in the pre-apocalypse world, no amount of money could buy a regrown limb. But at the same time, for someone like her, four hundred pounds of food was an astronomical sum.

Qu Weiwei touched her new arm, unsure whether she should be grateful or deeply worried. “When… when can I even pay this back?”

Her mind raced.

She definitely couldn’t stay at the farm. Even if she was willing to overlook what had happened, the research institute would never take her back. But she hadn’t left the farm empty-handed either.

When she first joined, she had only just reached Level 2 in her ability. After months of stable energy infusion, supplemented by occasional crystal cores, she had gradually reached mid-Level 3. Now, she could summon vines for combat.

Maybe, if she was lucky, she could join a small ability user squad and go on missions with them.

But how many zombies could she kill in a day? Ten? Fifteen at most? Four hundred pounds of food… how long would she have to work to pay that back?

Song Kaiji observed her closely before speaking. “The client who lent me the supplies wants to form an ability user squad. Would you be interested in joining?”

Seeing her stunned look, he added, “Since you’re my friend, he said that if you’re willing, you don’t have to pay back the debt. He’ll cover your recovery expenses, feed you well while you heal, and take care of you—but in return, you’ll have to work for him in the future.”

He hesitated for a moment before continuing, “It shouldn’t be too dangerous. But the boss made one thing clear—whatever he asks you to do, secrecy is the most important rule.”

Qu Weiwei froze. It took her a long time to process what she had just heard.

This… this was like a gift from the heavens!

Four hundred pounds of food, gone—just like that. On top of that, she’d be taken in by an ability user squad, given food while she recovered… Just the thought made her mouth water. It had been ages since she had eaten proper food.

As for the secrecy requirement? She understood perfectly.

Rich people always had their secrets.

“I’ll do it! Of course, I’ll do it! My god, where else can I find an opportunity like this? Where’s the boss? Take me to see him—I have to thank him for saving my life!”

Song Kaiji let out a sigh of relief. “Get some rest first. I’ll take you to meet him tomorrow.”

Although he didn’t understand why Shen Qing suddenly wanted to form an ability user squad, since it was something Shen Qing had asked of him, Song Kaiji was determined to handle it well.

As for Shen Qing—he had his own reasons.

The events of the past few days—being falsely accused by Wang Liuzi, being treated like an easy target by other stall owners, nearly being extorted by that elderly couple—had left him with a deep sense of powerlessness.

Initially, he had planned to establish his authority in his own world by hunting wild boars, proving himself useful to the village. But now, he realized… that wasn’t enough.

Before, he had been poor, and people like Wang Liuzi had tried to bully him. Now, if he made money by hunting wild boars, would he start encountering people like that elderly couple? Those who seemed weak and pitiful but still found ways to take advantage of him?

That couple had no connection to him, so he could just shake them off and walk away. The base was huge—he might never see them again.

But what if it happened in the village?

What if it was someone he was distantly related to? What if they refused to leave his home?

At that moment, Shen Qing finally understood something—something he had never truly realized before.

Why did villagers like having large families? Why did they want many children, especially sons?

Because in a village far removed from government control—or in an apocalyptic world where laws barely existed—strength was the foundation of survival.

People in the apocalypse sought powerful ability users to join their squads, ensuring they were not only safe from zombies but also from other humans.

Similarly, in the village, people wanted sons because if someone dared to bully their family, they could gather seven or eight strong young men and retaliate immediately. Just like when Miao Xing and Miao Wang had brought a group to beat up Shen Zhigao—could the village chief do anything about it? Could the Shen family report it to the authorities? Of course not.

Even during droughts, when villages fought over water, the determining factor was which village had more men—and which village had the more ruthless fighters. If they lost the fight, they got less water, and their entire harvest would suffer.

When Shen Qing was younger, he had often wondered—why were women and gers always seen as inferior?

He had seen it firsthand. In the fields, the village wives and young gers worked just as hard as the men. They harvested crops, labored under the sun, then went home to cook and manage the household. Their contributions were no less than the men’s.

But when he had asked the adults about it, they would just laugh and say, “A man can harvest several acres in a day when he really puts his back into it. Can a woman or a ger match that?”

At the time, young Shen Qing hadn’t understood.

But now, he did.

A ger is a ger, and a man is a man.

Old Lady Shen and Shen Zhigao had pointed at his nose and scolded him countless times, calling him delusional. But ironically, it was only after he had beaten every boy in the village and gained a fearsome reputation that Shen Zhigao stopped hitting Miao Shi—and even became wary when facing him.

Shen Qing gradually came to understand.

People always said that men were the pillars of the family, that women and gers couldn’t support themselves and had no choice but to depend on men—thus, men were superior.

But that logic was completely false.

It was a grand lie spun by society to keep women and ger subservient.

The truth was simple: men controlled physical power—or more accurately, violence—and at the most fundamental level of society, especially in villages, violence was power.

A woman or a ger could earn ten times more than a man through weaving, embroidery, or other skilled crafts, but as long as their fathers, brothers, or husbands wanted that money, they could simply beat them up and take it.

This kind of domestic plundering was so common in the village that no one even questioned it.

And Shen Qing himself was proof that, while ger and women were generally weaker than men, there were exceptions to everything.

If he could control physical power himself, did gender even matter?

Wang Liuzi despised him, looked down on him, yet still ended up being pinned to the ground and beaten senseless. What could he do about it? Bark like a mad dog?

Shen Qing turned his gaze toward the base gates, watching the teams of powerful ability users entering.

Now that he had figured it all out—that true power came from strength and violence—why shouldn’t he take that power into his own hands?

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Thandar: I love the character development of Qing Ge’er. He’s always learning and trying to improve 😍😍😍