Ch 124: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Under the table, Qu Weiwei lightly kicked Song Kaiji.

Only then did Song Kaiji suddenly realize that he hadn’t seen Qi Zhan around the villa for a few days. Looking at Tang Wenjie, although he always vehemently denied having any sort of relationship with Qi Zhan, today his attitude was different—there was a certain calm loneliness about him.

Did they have a fight?

Song Kaiji mulled over it for a moment, touched his nose, and decided not to pry.

To be honest, back when they were still in college, sharing a dorm, Tang Wenjie was the epitome of a straight guy. The type of girls he liked was also very specific: long black hair, big eyes, a curvy figure with a slim waist and long legs—the typical straight-guy aesthetic.

When they first met Qi Zhan, Song Kaiji had assumed that Tang Wenjie was only close to him because Qi Zhan had helped him get through the difficulties of his ability awakening. As for Qi Zhan’s ambiguous remarks, Song Kaiji had brushed them off as just jokes. He never expected Tang Wenjie and Qi Zhan to actually end up together.

Who would have thought that all that teasing back and forth would actually lead to something real?

Now that Song Kaiji himself had already “crossed the line” and wasn’t an innocent rookie anymore, he could more or less guess just how far things had gone between Tang Wenjie and Qi Zhan.

He still found it a little surprising. Sure, he himself had ended up with Shen Qing—but that was different.

He had never been particularly attracted to women before, but he had also never been interested in men. He just… liked Shen Qing. If Shen Qing were a man, he liked him. If Shen Qing were a ger, he liked him. If Shen Qing were a woman, he would still like him. What he liked was the one and only Shen Qing.

But Tang Wenjie was different. He had very clearly been into women before. Could someone’s orientation really change so quickly? Had Tang Wenjie truly fallen for Qi Zhan, or was it just a passing phase? Song Kaiji couldn’t quite figure it out.

In the end, they chose a small village near the border between Red City and Lan Province. The village was technically within Lan Province, but it was only about 1,500 meters from the Red City border. Search teams and ability-user squads from Red City rarely ventured in that direction. The city itself was huge, with many surrounding counties, but the areas frequently explored by teams made up less than one-fifth of the region. Unless there was a special task, there was no need to head toward another province.

For this trip, in addition to Tang Wenjie and Qu Weiwei, Shen Qing and Song Kaiji selected four ability users from their new recruits. Ge Bingbing and Yu Le stayed behind to oversee things, with Ge Bingbing leading the remaining outer-city team members on continued missions to kill zombies.

“If they’re not going, that’s fine, but don’t let them just sit around and do nothing. Find something for them to do—don’t let them get used to freeloading,” Shen Qing said. With Tang Wenjie and Qu Weiwei leading the team, their strategy of using metal cages combined with vine walls was foolproof. But with Tang Wenjie and Qu Weiwei gone, it wouldn’t be good if Ge Bingbing’s team suffered any losses.

As for making them work, it wasn’t that Shen Qing was stingy about food, but he didn’t want them getting too comfortable with idleness.

He could be a generous boss who treated his people well, but he wasn’t interested in being a charity.

Ge Bingbing flipped her hair. “I got it. No need to worry about me.”

She planned to have the two new wood-type ability users in the team start practicing vine-wall techniques like Qu Weiwei. The others would support them. Even if they couldn’t match Qu Weiwei and Tang Wenjie’s level, they at least needed to start training their instincts.

In the future, they would likely go on more frequent missions, and relying solely on Tang Wenjie and Qu Weiwei wasn’t sustainable.

Before heading out, Song Kaiji sent Yu Le to find Chen Jiaxi’s son to pass along a message to her. If the research institute pressed her for progress, she should stall for time, saying that the search had shifted toward the northeast. Although they had already chosen a specific village, no one knew what the actual situation would be like until they got there. If necessary, they could simply pick another village in that direction.

Once they returned with solid information, Chen Jiaxi could report to the institute’s higher-ups. Song Kaiji and the others would wait for the research team to set out for a couple of days before pretending to have just returned, handing the seeds over to the city’s top officials. This way, Chen Jiaxi could secure her reward first, and if she didn’t get one, at least no blame would fall on her.

This time, they had made ample preparations before setting out. They brought along five or six extra vehicles, both large and small, to prevent another situation like last time when their vehicle was totaled, forcing them to scavenge for cars on the highway. As usual, Mother Tang prepared plenty of packed meals and buns for them, and Shen Qing also brought along some starch sausages.

Lan Province was farther away than Zi Province. The journey involved stopping to clear zombies and collect crystals along the way, but overall, things went smoothly. It wasn’t until the sixth day that they reached the provincial border.

The situation there was much better than they had anticipated. A vast stretch of farmland lay before them, connecting several villages. There were no people, and even the zombies were sparse—only a few wandered around at the village entrance.

It was Shen Qing’s first time seeing a modern rural village up close, and he found it fascinating. Since arriving in this world, he had only been in Red City Base, which was built around an amusement park resort, hotels, and nearby residential areas, making it feel entirely urban. Even when they traveled to Zi Province, they had stayed in the city.

Now, seeing this world’s countryside, he felt both a sense of familiarity and curiosity about the differences between this rural landscape and the one he had known.

It was nothing like his hometown, where more than half the families lived in mudbrick houses with straw roofs, and only the wealthiest could afford brick-and-tile homes. Here, every single house was built with red bricks and neat tiled roofs, and they were all roughly uniform two-story buildings.

Even the gates were wide open—unlike in his world, where gate size reflected status. Only officials could have grand, red-painted double doors, while even the richest commoners were restricted to small, modest entrances.

The courtyards were paved flat with cement, and some wealthier homes even had decorative flower beds and ornamental walls with tiled facades.

Shen Qing kept looking around, eyes full of admiration. When would Lantang Village be able to reach this level? When would every household be able to build such nice houses and live such good lives?

Thinking of the workshop they were building, Shen Qing felt a renewed sense of determination. Initially, his goal had been to build power and security for himself. But seeing this modern countryside, something in his heart softened. He began to think—why stop at just himself?

It was like what Song Kaiji had said about helping Red City Base with crop seeds. He recalled the saying from his books: When poor, focus on self-preservation; when successful, help others.

Since learning to read and absorbing new knowledge, Shen Qing had started to understand the wisdom in those words. He wanted to keep “succeeding” more and more—not just in wealth, but also in his mindset, his vision, his generosity.

Not because he had suddenly become kindhearted, but because he realized that poverty had made him selfish.

And poverty wasn’t just about money—it was also a mindset.

He was still Shen Qing, but now, he wanted to be a better version of Shen Qing.

Tang Wenjie and the others got out of the vehicles and quickly cleared out the remaining zombies in the village. “When the apocalypse broke out, it wasn’t farming season or a major holiday, so most villagers were probably working in the city. Only the elderly and children were left behind. Judging by the tracks at the village entrance, someone must have already scavenged this place.”

Only a few straggler zombies remained. Some were small and fast, making them harder to spot. If they hadn’t had the metal cage for protection, they might have actually been ambushed.

“But at least we haven’t run into any more of those mutated zombies along the way,” Song Kaiji sighed in relief. The last time they went to Zi Province, they had encountered mutated zombies working in tandem with mutated plants, which forced Shen Qing to reveal, in a moment of crisis, that zombies wouldn’t attack him. It was fine that Tang Wenjie and Qu Weiwei knew, but this time, they had four new recruits with them—people they hadn’t built deep trust with yet. Letting them discover Shen Qing’s secret was too risky.

For the past few days, Shen Qing and Song Kaiji had been practically inseparable, sticking together at all times. The zombies attacked Song Kaiji, making it appear as if they were also attacking Shen Qing—eliminating any chance of suspicion.

“Running into one wouldn’t be so bad,” Qu Weiwei said as a metallic vine shot from her fingertips, skewering two sluggish old zombies shuffling toward them. “Mutated abilities are much stronger than regular ones. If we could find a fire-element crystal for Xiao Tang, he might be able to melt iron. I used to play this online game where mages had a move called Fire Rain—molten iron would rain down as a massive area attack. Imagine how powerful that would be!”

Song Kaiji immediately wanted to cover her mouth, afraid that the heavens might hear her and grant her wish. “We have a serious mission this time—safety first, safety first!”

They entered Dong Niu Yi Village as planned. The four new recruits had no idea why they had come to this particular place—they simply followed Shen Qing and Song Kaiji’s instructions. Shen Qing scanned the village and split it into east and west sections. “You four take the east side. Search every house for useful supplies, and eliminate any zombies you find. Gold, books, electronics—anything valuable—pile it up in the living rooms. I’ll come by later to collect it. We’ll search the west side. If there’s any danger, run and yell to alert us.”

The four nodded. They were the best among the new outer-city recruits. When they joined the team, they were already at level three, and one of them, a fire-type ability user named Shen Yan, had recently broken through to level four. While Tang Wenjie and Qu Weiwei were stronger, Shen Qing and Song Kaiji lacked offensive abilities, so splitting the teams this way balanced their overall combat strength.

The two teams split up. On the surface, Shen Qing’s group was searching for supplies, but in reality, they were looking for a good place to hide the seeds. The village had likely been scavenged before—there was no trace of food left. If any seeds remained untouched, it would be suspicious.

Eventually, they found an old courtyard with a cellar that still contained some half-rotten radishes and a few bundles of withered green onions.

Shen Qing didn’t touch those. Instead, he discreetly placed a few scattered bags of radish seeds nearby and tucked a few more packs of cabbage and celery seeds into a cabinet corner.

Chen Jiaxi needed to complete her task. If the research institute sent people and found absolutely nothing, that would be suspicious too. Leaving them some existing seeds would ensure she got her reward without giving the institute an undue advantage.

With the important task complete, Shen Qing finally relaxed, wandering the village and curiously observing the modern countryside. He even took out his phone to snap a few pictures while chatting quietly with Song Kaiji.

“They don’t build houses like this in my village. Everything is separate—main houses are main houses, side rooms are side rooms. I’ve never seen buildings connected like this… How do they even construct a second floor? I’ve only seen wooden ones before, never brick.”

“The roofs back home are all sloped—you have to place the main beam. But here, some are sloped, and some are flat. Even the sloped ones—I don’t see a main beam anywhere.”

“Concrete and rebar? I know concrete—it’s what you use to smooth floors. But what’s rebar?”

As they chatted and searched, Shen Qing found some gold jewelry in a few nightstands, collected a few brand-new quilts from an unused home, and even discovered some elementary school textbooks in a child’s bedroom. At first, he was excited about the gold, treating the search like a treasure hunt. But by the time he held a beige school bag filled with textbooks and looked at the wall covered in awards, his expression gradually darkened.

Song Kaiji walked over and gently covered his eyes. “Don’t look.”

Shen Qing had arrived in this world long after the zombie outbreak. To him, zombies had always just been zombies—monsters. But searching through the village, something about the familiarity of rural life made everything feel different. Seeing the traces of people’s lives left behind, he finally realized that these zombies had once been living, breathing people.

That tiny, lightning-fast zombie outside the village… might have been the very same child whose name was on those award certificates.

Shen Qing let out a long sigh, his chest tightening. “How… how did the apocalypse even start?”

How had such a good world turned into this living hell?

Song Kaiji shook his head. “I still don’t know. Maybe the government knows, but they never told the public. Or maybe even Red City’s officials don’t know… All we know is that one day, the news announced a meteor shower, saying it would be visible between certain hours. When the time came, glowing embers fell like hailstones—just a few, scattered across the city. Then suddenly… the entire city—maybe the entire world—fell into a deep sleep.”

The embers weren’t big—no bigger than a cigarette butt flicked from a high-rise window. At first, people stood at their windows or under rooftops, marveling at the strange sight. But then, the first person collapsed. And then another. And another.

Everyone fell into a deep sleep for three whole days.

When Song Kaiji woke up, it was pouring rain outside. The streets were already swarming with zombies.

“So the meteor shower carried the virus? And what determined who turned into a zombie and who didn’t? Was it contact with the fragments? Proximity? Or was it random, like ability awakenings?”

Song Kaiji hesitated. “It seems random… but I really don’t know.” He had once wondered if transformation was linked to pre-existing health conditions, like immune strength, but it was just a theory—one he had no way of proving.

That evening, they chose the most luxurious house in the village as their base. Shen Yan, now filling in for Sun Cheng as the cook, made dinner. Shen Qing had recently become obsessed with instant noodles—the taste of modern food fascinated him.

A huge pot of braised beef-flavored noodles simmered on the stove, with eggs cracked in one per person. Shen Yan sat by the pot, controlling the fire, slicing starch sausages into thin spirals as he dropped them in.

“These sausages look kinda weird…” He frowned, inspecting the texture. They didn’t look like the pre-apocalypse kind, and the taste was slightly different too—but still good.

Tang Wenjie glanced at him. “They’re not store-bought. My mom made them.”

“Wow, Auntie is amazing,” one of the other three newcomers praised. “Boss, we found some valuable items. Even if we don’t use them, we could sell them at the market and make some extra crystals. My sister is at home all day with nothing to do—cooking and cleaning are always taken by others. If you don’t mind, she could run a stall for our team. It’d help bring in some income.”

Shen Qing’s team treated them well, and these new members, having just joined, were eager to prove themselves and secure better opportunities for their families.

They had all been recruited by Yu Le—a completely ordinary girl without any abilities, yet she was highly trusted by the boss and handled much of the team’s logistics. Seeing that, they hoped their own family members could also get similar chances.

The one speaking was Lu Ji, a wind-type ability user. Shen Qing and Song Kaiji remembered him well—he was the only wind user in their team. They exchanged a glance, thinking this was a good opportunity to set a precedent.

“No rush,” Shen Qing said. “Setting up a stall is just the beginning. If things go well, we might even be able to get our own shops when we get back—move up into the higher levels of the city. When that happens, we’ll definitely need people to manage them.”

He wasn’t just making empty promises. Even if the seed situation hadn’t come up, Shen Qing had already planned on securing some storefronts. Once the starch sausage workshop in Lantang Village was up and running, he intended to sell them in both Anping County and Red City.

Ever since Li Aiguo passed away, Zhang Sujuan had been in low spirits. With her injured leg making it inconvenient to move around, she was often cooped up inside her room. She used to have Yu Le to keep her company and chat with, but now Yu Le had to go out and work. Shen Qing planned to open a shop and let Zhang Sujuan handle the cash register—or even if she didn’t do anything, just sitting in the store and watching over things would help her pass the time and lift her mood.

The group was momentarily stunned. After a brief silence, Shen Yan finally asked, “Actually, we still don’t know—what exactly is our mission here in Lan Province? What are we looking for?”

To them, this trip seemed completely pointless. They had come all the way to a remote village with hardly any supplies. Sure, they had scavenged a few things, but the value of those items was nowhere near enough to justify traveling this far. If they had just gone into Red City’s downtown area, they could have found much more.

Shen Qing flipped his palm over, revealing a small bag of seeds in his hand. “We spent a fortune on the black market for this piece of information… Apparently, this village contains seeds that Red City Base desperately needs. We just found these while searching. Did you guys not find anything in the area you searched?”

The four newcomers widened their eyes and exchanged confused glances. “No…?” Had they not searched carefully enough? “We’ll go back and check again!”

Shen Qing nodded solemnly. “Make sure you do. Tomorrow, we’ll also have to thoroughly search the other villages.”

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