Ch 86: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Li Li was so furious she almost slapped her brother herself! The only reason they were still alive instead of being killed by Song Kaiji back in Red City Base was that Song Kaiji believed there was still a chance his uncle and aunt were alive. Now, bringing up his uncle’s spirit “watching from above”—was he trying to provoke Song Kaiji, or was he just afraid he wouldn’t die fast enough?

But unlike Li Li, Li Liang was thinking much more clearly.

Li Li had only stood by and watched the whole incident unfold. Later, when she reunited with Song Kaiji, she chose to help her brother by hiding the truth and deceiving Song Kaiji, even attempting to use him as a benefactor to get into the base and be taken care of.

That was bad, sure, but in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t an unforgivable crime. She hadn’t played a direct role in the danger that befell Song Kaiji’s parents.

Li Liang, however, was different.

If it weren’t for him, that water-type ability user’s boyfriend wouldn’t have taken action in the first place!

Given how Song Kaiji was already treating them, it was clear that he was only keeping them alive to use them as leverage to find his family. Once they reached Zizhou, even if his uncle and aunt turned out to be alive, would Song Kaiji really let him go? Li Liang didn’t believe for a second that Song Kaiji would forgive him just because his parents were safe. At best, he wouldn’t be killed on the spot but simply abandoned.

No car, no supplies—wasn’t that just another way of dying?

Since he was going to die anyway, why should he obediently play along with Song Kaiji and let himself be used? If he was going down, he’d drag Song Kaiji down with him! At this point, he had no reason to hold back. As for what would happen to Li Li if he angered Song Kaiji… well, he was about to die; how could he still care about someone else?

As expected, Song Kaiji’s expression turned pitch-black.

In reality, he had looked for that water-type ability user and her boyfriend. Once his grief subsided, he had asked Chen Jiaxi for help. New ability users arriving at the base were all registered, and with Zizhou being their obvious point of origin, combined with the fragmented images in Li Liang and Li Li’s memories, it wasn’t hard to track the woman down.

She was a gentle-looking woman, which fit her role of generously providing small amounts of free water to others. But at the same time, she was rational—she wasn’t a saint willing to let others exploit her.

When Song Kaiji confronted her, she openly admitted, “Yes, it was my boyfriend who did it—or rather, my ex-boyfriend. We broke up because of this.”

“I hated Li Liang, sure, but I never thought about killing him over such a petty thing. We were just traveling together for a few days on the way to Red City, and after that, we were going to go our separate ways. Whether I saw him again in this lifetime didn’t matter to me. As annoying as he was, he wasn’t worth my time or energy.”

She frowned, not mentioning that Li Liang had been an obnoxious pest around her—constantly clinging to her in a desperate bid for free water while simultaneously using crude tactics to get her attention.

For people like Li Liang, the more attention you gave them, the more emboldened they became. The best way to deal with him was to act like he didn’t exist. That was what frustrated him the most.

…She just hadn’t expected him to get so frustrated that he ended up blocking her car in a rage.

She could ignore a nuisance like Li Liang, but her boyfriend, Wang Zheng, was different. Or rather, ever since the apocalypse and their ability awakenings, she had started to realize that Wang Zheng was no longer the man she once knew.

He had begun to idolize brute strength, obsessing over power and seeing the world in terms of survival of the fittest. He looked down on ordinary people, and any disrespect toward ability users—especially himself—was something he couldn’t tolerate.

The day after Li Liang and she had argued, Wang Zheng had already made up his mind to kill him.

To this day, she sometimes regretted stopping him back then. If she had let him act, maybe only Li Liang would have died, and none of this would have happened.

“In any case,” she continued, “he acted without my permission. When I found out, we broke up.”

Their ideological differences had become irreconcilable. Wang Zheng was a metal-type ability user, just like Tang Wenjie, but much stronger. After arriving at Red City Base, he was quickly recruited by a powerful ability-user team. Now, they had no further contact.

“If you’re looking for revenge, he’s the one who did it. You should be going after him, not me. If you don’t believe me and insist on blaming me—well, I can understand that.”

She smiled slightly and turned her gaze toward Song Kaiji. “Even though we’ve broken up, in your eyes, we might still be considered the same unit.

“Just like how, in your eyes, Li Liang is the only one who deserves punishment, but to us, you’re all family.

Families protect each other, help each other—it’s impossible to say for sure that punishing one won’t bring the others after you. Look at yourself: you came knocking on my door, didn’t you? If this were Wang Zheng, he’d just regret letting any loose ends escape in the first place.”

“But I won’t be anyone’s scapegoat,” she added firmly. “The base prohibits private fights. If you want, we can take this outside.”

Song Kaiji had been silent for a long time before finally leaving.

He couldn’t say she was wrong. He couldn’t justify shifting his anger onto her just because of his pain.

Even now, with his teleportation ability, he wasn’t confident he could defeat a level-four water-type ability user.

As for Wang Zheng?

Song Kaiji didn’t stand a chance against him—none of their team did in a one-on-one fight. Even in a group battle, Wang Zheng had already joined a stronger faction. Picking a fight with him now wouldn’t end well.

Meanwhile, Li Liang kept jeering, “If you’ve got the guts, go find him! What are you showing off in front of me for, huh? You’re just a coward who bullies the weak and fears the strong! Can’t even avenge your own parents? Or what—are they not even your real family? Guess Uncle wasn’t worth risking your life for, huh? Hahaha—ugh!”

Before he could finish laughing, he suddenly choked—because Qu Weiwei had shoved a leaf into his mouth to shut him up.

Song Kaiji’s face grew darker and darker.

Because, the truth was, Li Liang had hit a nerve.

For all the times he had felt powerless and desperate in the apocalypse, none of them compared to this moment. This—this sheer, helpless rage—was the worst he had ever felt.

“I’ll kill him,” Song Kaiji murmured. “One day, I will.”

“Don’t listen to him—he’s just trying to get under your skin.” Seeing how pale Song Kaiji looked, Shen Qing immediately supported him.

Qu Weiwei sighed. “My fault for loosening the gag. I thought he might suffocate, but I should’ve just let him. Here—” She kicked Li Liang and tossed some food toward Li Li. “If he dies, we still have one left. We don’t need him that badly.”

The moment Chen Jiaxi heard that, she seemed deep in thought. “Is that so? Then lend him to me for a bit.”

She had just realized she had awakened an ability, but she still didn’t fully understand its nature. Psychic-type ability users had different specializations, and hers, which allowed her to extract people’s memories, wasn’t exactly something many people would volunteer to help her practice with. Li Liang, however, was the perfect test subject. “It shouldn’t cause him any harm,” she added.

Song Kaiji said nothing and left the room. Qu Weiwei immediately threw Li Liang over to Chen Jiaxi. “Be careful with him—don’t accidentally kill him.”

She glanced toward the door Song Kaiji had just walked through, looking worried.

She and Song Kaiji had arrived at Red City Base around the same time, had similar experiences, and thus, she understood his mindset quite well. The base had been under strict official control from the start—safe and orderly. While this was fortunate for them, it also meant they had missed out on many of the brutal lessons that came with surviving in the apocalypse.

These lessons weren’t just about strengthening abilities or improving combat skills—they were about hardening one’s heart.

If Tang Wenjie had been in Song Kaiji’s position, he wouldn’t have been as easily provoked by Li Liang’s words. Tang Wenjie had come to the base later, had seen more horrors, encountered more villains, and been through far worse. He wouldn’t have been so shaken.

Qu Weiwei hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should follow Song Kaiji to comfort him. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Shen Qing standing there, frozen in place.

She immediately shoved him forward. “Go after him! Don’t let him wander around—there are tons of zombies outside!”

Shen Qing: “Huh? Ah? Oh—okay!”

Seeing Shen Qing rush off after Song Kaiji, Qu Weiwei finally sighed in relief. Honestly, this group would fall apart without me!

When she had first started working with Song Kaiji, Qu Weiwei had thought there was no chemistry between him and Shen Qing—that it was just Song Kaiji being awkwardly affectionate. But lately, after observing their interactions, she had started to think there was something going on.

Like when Song Kaiji had shielded Shen Qing from that mutated plant attack—no regular team member would go that far for a mere employer.

It wasn’t exactly love, not yet, but if Qu Weiwei had to sum up the general mindset of apocalypse survivors, it would be this: We don’t know if we’ll be alive tomorrow. If you like someone, just say it. If you hesitate today, you might be bitten by a zombie tomorrow and regret it forever.

But these two? Acting like clueless, bashful schoolkids, tiptoeing around their feelings as if they weren’t living in the end times. Honestly, they’re too well-fed. They need a stronger sense of crisis.

Shaking her head, Qu Weiwei planted a seed and let it sprout into broad leaves, sealing the window cracks to prevent any scent from leaking out and attracting more zombies.

She wondered if this time, those two would make any progress.

---

Back at Red City Base.

A researcher in a white lab coat stared at the celery in his hand with barely restrained excitement. He turned to the wood-type ability user next to him. “Catalyze it two more times—let’s see what kind of seeds it produces!”

Green light glowed from the wood ability user’s palm as the celery seeds rapidly sprouted, grew, matured, and eventually produced new seeds.

“It’s still not quite what we want,” the researcher muttered. “Maybe it’s because it skipped the pollination process?”

Using ability-enhanced growth wasn’t the same as natural cultivation. Even in pre-apocalypse rural farming, seeds had to be refreshed every few seasons—either bought new or traded with neighboring villages. Otherwise, crop yields would gradually decline. Using abilities to speed up growth only exacerbated this issue.

Still, the results were promising enough to make the researcher’s eyes gleam. “Where did this celery come from?”

An administrative staff member sitting nearby answered, “A few days ago, my wife found a woman selling it outside the base at the flea market.”

It had been pure coincidence. As a research facility employee, his family received direct farm shipments and never needed to buy produce outside. His wife rarely even left the base.

That day, however, their kid had thrown a tantrum over not having access to a certain video game. His wife had searched through various electronics vendors inside the base but couldn’t find a tablet or phone that had the game downloaded. In desperation, she had gone outside the base to try her luck.

There were social classes in every era. Even in the apocalypse, where the world had supposedly reset, some children were starving to death in tents outside the base, while others threw fits because they couldn’t play a game.

That was when his wife had spotted the woman selling celery.

Since the official farms hadn’t delivered celery recently, she had bought some out of curiosity—partly because she had never seen it sold before and partly because she had intended to go home and complain to her husband about the farm’s supposed negligence.

The moment he took a bite, though, he knew it wasn’t from the official farms or research centers. His instincts kicked in, and he fished the discarded celery stems out of the trash, bringing them to the wood-type ability user for testing.

“This is exactly what we’ve been looking for,” he explained. “The yield is low, the taste is slightly inferior—like the wild celery I used to eat in the countryside as a kid. But it’s stable. It can reproduce through its own seeds. If we crossbreed it with the farm strains, we might be able to create a perfect hybrid.”

The researcher in the lab coat didn’t respond immediately. He simply examined the celery closely, adjusting his glasses, his expression sharp and calculating.

“The woman selling it—where did she get the seeds?”

“We couldn’t find out,” the administrator admitted. “Since it was an outside transaction, there’s no record. Some say she resembles a former wood-type ability user from the third farm. Others say she doesn’t look like her at all, that the ages don’t match. Some claim that woman died during the mutated willow tree riot.”

“Ever since we discovered this celery, we’ve been trying to track her down. But she hasn’t shown up again. Maybe she realized we were looking for her and went into hiding.”

In reality, Qu Weiwei had undergone a complete transformation since joining Shen Qing’s team.

Good food, restful sleep, and high-end skincare had worked wonders on her appearance. In just over a month, she had become a completely different person—so much so that even her former coworkers might not recognize her if they passed her on the street.

Plus, sometimes she wasn’t the one selling the vegetables; Mother Tang did it instead. And with no security cameras in the apocalypse, tracking someone purely through word-of-mouth was like chasing a ghost.

“We need to investigate this,” the researcher finally said, setting down the celery with a smug, predatory grin. “If she was from the third farm, then there’s no doubt.

She must have stolen our carefully cultivated seeds before escaping.

Otherwise, where did she get them?

And who knows—maybe she has even more valuable goods hidden away.”

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Thandar: Ughhhh bad people at every turn. Can we just talk nicely? 😩😩😩😩