After the old man left, Shen Yue lay back on the hospital bed, his eyes narrowing slightly.
’The more I think about it, the more sothing feels... off.’
’She’s just a young girl with so talent for planting. It’s not like they haven’t found people with similar skills over the years. Why is this mission top secret?’
’Is it because of the malignant mutation of the mutant plants nearby? Or is this related to the Special Service Team?’
’But even so, that shouldn’t warrant a top-secret classification.’
’What’s more, the old man delivered the mission briefing to personally. For years, to avoid any appearance of favoritism, he’s almost never interfered with my assignnts.’
’More importantly, when I was just reviewing the mission target’s file, I noticed a deletion countdown tir in the top-left corner of the Light Screen.’
’This indicates that even with the old man’s status and clearance, he doesn’t have the authority to retain this file. Once opened and read, it will automatically be erased from my personal terminal after five minutes.’
Shen Yue slowly tapped his fingertip.
’This mission... it’s probably more than just top secret.’
...
「Three days passed in a flash.」
The plots of land that Wei Heng had cleared just a few days ago were now already overgrown with weeds nearly a foot tall.
And that was *after* spraying them with herbicide.
It just went to show how terrifying the growth and reproduction rates of wild mutant plants were in the current environnt.
Just as Gu Xi was wondering if she should till the land again and plant another batch of sweet potatoes, she suddenly received a notice from the camp:
Apparently, a team of agricultural experts dispatched from the Central Base to guide local production had just arrived at their South City Camp No. 9527.
Furthermore, the team had specifically requested to visit Gu Xi’s fields for a survey.
Gu Xi guessed this was probably related to the two truckloads of crops they had brought back to the camp to trade for supplies last ti.
She wasn’t too worried. ’What’s ant to happen will happen.’
Having just fought a malignant mutant plant two days ago, Gu Xi felt a bit more confident now.
After receiving the notice, Gu Xi and Wei Heng discussed it and decided not to do any more planting that afternoon.
After all, they planted sweet potatoes very quickly. If they planted them now, what would the experts see when they arrived tomorrow morning?
’Did the experts co all this way just to stare at an empty field?’
’That probably wouldn’t be good.’
The next morning, while Gu Xi and Wei Heng were munching on sweet potatoes, they saw a large, modified SUV approaching from the direction of the camp.
The two exchanged a glance. ’They’re here so early? Did they set off before dawn?’
’Should we offer them breakfast?’
While they were still pondering this, the large SUV pulled to a stop in front of them.
The first to get out was a tall young man.
The man had well-defined features and deep-set eyes. After getting out, he leaned lazily against the vehicle, looking listless as if he hadn’t fully woken up. Yet, when his gaze swept over them, it carried an intense, oppressive weight.
Gu Xi noticed a distinct, rugged unruliness about him.
He reminded her of a forr companion of hers—soone who seed casual and indifferent about everything, yet sohow inspired an inexplicable sense of trust.
’He’s clearly a high-level ability user, too. But... it seems like there’s sothing wrong with his powers?’
After he got out, two ashen-faced, white-haired old n stumbled out of the car. They seed to have had a rough ti with the bumpy ride, as they threw up as soon as they were out.
A mont later, a man in his early thirties wearing black-rimd glasses was the last to erge from the SUV.
Gu Xi only needed one look to recognize him—Xv Yiyisan.
Thirty years had passed. The little boy everyone used to jokingly call "Little Crybaby" had now grown into such a composed man.
Gu Xi suddenly felt a sense of grandmotherly pride.
After getting out of the car, Xv Yiyisan headed straight for Gu Xi, his eyes faintly red. ’She has the exact sa na as Sister, and she looks almost identical to the Sister in my mories. Could she be the descendant of Sister and that man?’
Gu Xi watched the man stride up to her and raised an eyebrow slightly. ’This isn’t right. Why is Little Crybaby looking at so strangely?’
’Did he recognize , or not?’
Ever since Year 15 of the apocalypse, after Gu Xi put on the Blood-colored Asura Mask, she had almost never taken it off in front of others.
At first, thanks to the base’s propaganda, the na "Gu Xi" was t with a period of feverish adoration from the public.
But before long, the na "Gu Xi" was gradually replaced by the title "Blood-colored Asura."
A few years later, very few people rembered that beneath the mask of the Blood-colored Asura was a young woman nad Gu Xi.
This was especially true after the winter of Year 21 of the apocalypse, when the human bases faced the largest-scale zombie siege in history.
That day, a million zombies besieged the base, leaving it on the brink of collapse. Wearing the Blood-colored Asura Mask, Gu Xi, under the cover of her teammates, leaped alone into the horde of a million zombies.
After a bitter fight, she decapitated four Zombie Kings in a row!
From that mont on, the Blood-colored Asura beca a legend in a single battle, watched by all!
After that, almost everyone knew only of the Blood-colored Asura. Aside from the few companions who had been with Gu Xi from the very beginning, hardly anyone in the outside world knew the Asura’s real na.
And Little Crybaby was a child Gu Xi had personally dug out from the ruins after that zombie siege.
He was only five or six years old at the ti and was likely traumatized by the siege. His eyes were constantly brimming with tears, giving him a perpetually weepy look.
That’s how he earned the nickna "Little Crybaby."
At the ti, Gu Xi handed Little Crybaby over to the staff at the base’s relief station and left.
But unexpectedly, a few days later, the child sought her out again, clung to her leg with teary eyes, and insisted on following her.
Gu Xi spent those years living a rough life of constant fighting. She was hardly the type to know how to raise a child.
But Little Crybaby just stubbornly hugged her leg and wouldn’t let go, his dark, tear-filled eyes looking up at her.
He was crying silently.
What could Gu Xi do?
She couldn’t exactly get rough with a child, could she?
So, she said, "I don’t like kids who cry. If you can stop your tears in three seconds, I’ll agree to let you stay."
’The boy hasn’t stopped crying for days since his rescue,’ she thought. ’The switch controlling his tears must be broken. There’s no way he can stop that easily.’
To her surprise, she had barely finished counting to three when Little Crybaby actually stopped crying!
Gu Xi: "..."
Back then, she was constantly out on missions, each one a life-or-death struggle and incredibly dangerous. It was impossible to bring a child along.
But she always kept her promises. Since she had agreed to let Little Crybaby stay, she couldn’t just ignore him.
With no other choice, Gu Xi kept the child and then tossed him over to Ye Xin.
Ye Xin was the team’s healer and had always been good at taking care of people.
Because the base had just suffered the zombie siege, there were countless wounded people, so Ye Xin was temporarily staying behind at the base hospital to help out. She and Li Ming were responsible for the team’s logistics and intelligence.
Those were Gu Xi’s busiest years, and she had almost no ti to stay at the base.
After the zombie siege, Gu Xi only stayed at the Central Base for seven days before receiving a distress call from another base and imdiately rushing over.
But as soon as she left, Little Crybaby went right back to his state of silent crying.
Nothing anyone said could console him.
He was incredibly stubborn.
But how could such a little kid keep crying like that all the ti?
Worried the boy would cry his eyes out or make himself sick, Li Ming and the others eventually ran out of ideas and called her.
Gu Xi had just finished killing a batch of high-level zombies and was still radiating killing intent. She was in no mood to coax a child, nor did she know how. So, with a cold expression, she simply started counting, "One, two..."
And just as she reached three, Little Crybaby stopped his tears and went quiet.
And that was how Little Crybaby got his joke of a na—Xv Yiyisan.
Xv Yiyisan was practically raised by their team.
Because of this, he was one of the very few people since Year 15 of the apocalypse to have seen her true face beneath the Blood-colored Asura Mask.
So, Gu Xi wasn’t at all surprised that he might recognize her.
’But what’s strange is the look in his eyes... It’s as if he recognizes , but at the sa ti, doesn’t?’
Gu Xi felt sothing was off.
Wei Heng also sensed sothing was wrong. He subconsciously took a step forward, shielding Gu Xi. "Mr. Xv?"
Xv Yiyisan snapped back to reality and gave Wei Heng a slight nod, but his gaze remained fixed on Gu Xi’s face. "My apologies, that was rude of . It’s just that this Miss Gu Xi bears a striking resemblance to an elder I deeply respected from my past..." *And she even has the exact sa na.*
Gu Xi was speechless. ’How am I supposed to tell you that the deeply respected elder you’re talking about is standing right in front of you and is about to learn how to plant sweet potatoes from you?’
"Mr... Xv." Gu Xi thought for a mont, then stepped out from behind Wei Heng and extended her hand toward the little crybaby from all those years ago. ’It’s been a long ti, Little Crybaby.’
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