Lu Shiliu didn’t go far after leaving. He mounted Da Hong and began to walk the rooster around the open area outside the chicken coop.
He was a Beast Tar, so exercising a rooster was a routine operation for him.
But he had only made two laps when a ssage from Shen Yue arrived—"Shiliu, how did it go?"
Shiliu was Lu Shiliu’s nickna, given to him by his adoptive father, Lu Chenyuan.
His adoptive father, Lu Chenyuan, was the Military Departnt’s chief weapons expert. He was also severely socially anxious, cold, and taciturn—the type to stay cooped up in a secret military lab year-round, rarely seeing anyone.
Lu Shiliu was a war orphan, adopted by Lu Chenyuan thirty years ago.
Everyone assud Lu Shiliu was so nad because Lu Chenyuan had found him on a particular day, leading to his given na, Shiliu (Sixteen). They also figured his nickna, Shiliu (Pogranate), was just a play on his given na.
But Lu Shiliu knew the real story. His na ca from the fact that his adoptive father, Lu Chenyuan, had been in love with a girl who loved pogranates for many years.
As it happened, on the day Lu Chenyuan found him, that very sa girl had casually tossed him a bright red pogranate. And so, his adoptive father gave him the nickna Shiliu.
Only after that did he get his formal na, Lu Shiliu.
According to his adoptive father, Lu Chenyuan, the girl who loved pogranates had even held him once.
He had been infected with a zombie virus shortly after he was born, and it was the pogranate-loving girl who had saved him.
But Lu Shiliu had only been an infant back then, so he had long forgotten what the girl looked like.
But he rembered her aura.
He had always rembered it.
Because she had saved him, his body had been altered by her ability, allowing him to instinctively rember her aura.
After growing up, Lu Shiliu wanted to repay her kindness, but his adoptive father told him the pogranate-loving girl had been missing for years.
His adoptive father had been searching for her all these years, but to no avail.
But today, just half an hour ago, the mont he saw that tiny green sprout shoot from Miss Gu’s fingertip, Lu Shiliu had once again sensed that familiar, comforting energy signature—it was exactly the sa as the one from his mory.
’But their ages don’t match...’
’That Miss Gu looks to be in her twenties at most, and she was introduced by Mr. Shen...’
Lu Shiliu thought for a mont. Instead of imdiately replying to Shen Yue, he first sent a ssage to his adoptive father, Lu Chenyuan.
Beside him, Da Hong was irritably scraping at the ground, sharpening its claws.
An hour later, Gu Xi walked out of the chicken coop, her expression calm. She was leading several chickens, each weighing over ten jin, tied together with a vine.
Behind her, Miss Qi followed, carrying a large bucket of rotten eggs and looking as if life had lost all aning.
Not far away, Lu Shiliu, having successfully placated Da Hong, was herding his chickens in their direction.
Gu Xi’s sharp eyes noticed a subtle shift in the way the young man was looking at her.
Gu Xi arched an eyebrow slightly. ’Could it be that he can’t bear to part with Da Hong?’
But after struggling through the darkest years of the apocalypse, Gu Xi had long since developed a thick skin.
’She was getting Da Hong, and that was final.’
After all, how could she pass up a black rooster with such abundant energy?
It was built to last!
Thinking of the creek by her new ho, Gu Xi brazenly asked, "Do you have any ducklings? I’d like to get a few to take back..."
’The state’s control over mutated animals is extrely strict. Opportunities like this don’t co easy...’
Unsure if she’d ever get a chance like this again, Gu Xi wanted to get as many mutated animals as she could.
Lu Shiliu stared at the long string of chickens bound by her vine, then said after a mont of silence, "Mr. Shen’s report only ntioned chickens, so I can’t give you any ducklings. But I can make an exception and give you so duck eggs..."
"But we can’t hatch them if we only have eggs," Qi Xiang chid in from the side. "You’re not expecting your Da Hong to incubate them for us, are you?"
To her surprise...
"That’s not out of the question." Lu Shiliu nodded solemnly. He even puffed out his chest and declared with considerable pride, "Da Hong is very capable. He’s helped the hens hatch their eggs a few tis before."
Gu Xi: "..."
Qi Xiang: "..."
...
「Three days later.」
When Gu Xi and Qi Xiang returned to the sloping land by the creek, chickens in one hand and eggs in the other, they discovered the place had been completely transford.
It turned out that while they were away getting the poultry and eggs, Wei Heng had been busy. He and the construction team had already finished building the houses.
Beside the forest creek, several rustic, standalone log cabins were nestled artfully amidst the lush greenery that covered the landscape.
Not far off was a pond and a few newly cleared rice paddies, with a small creek andering through the middle.
Qin Shi had even built a quaint little stone bridge over the creek.
On either side of the houses, a large grove of mutated erald bamboo, specially grown by Qin Yi, now stood tall. This ant they even had bamboo shoots.
A recipe imdiately popped into Gu Xi’s head.
Braised chicken with bamboo shoots.
Compared to Gu Xiaoxi’s brutally pragmatic approach, Wei Heng, who prided himself on his flair for the finer things in life, was far more romantic.
He had gone out of his way to create a small garden between the log cabins.
He had also thoughtfully enclosed it with a wooden fence and even asked Qin Yi to plant rose bushes along either side of it.
Although it was late autumn, the seasons had long since blurred in the post-apocalyptic world. Unnad wildflowers were now blooming in the little garden, lending it a rustic charm and attracting swarms of bees and butterflies.
’Excellent. Now I can put honey on the nu.’
’She’d been craving the taste of spicy honey-glazed wings for a long ti!’
Gu Xi was very pleased.
She had to admit, her new team mber was incredibly capable. In just one week, Wei Heng had completely transford her ho.
But that wasn’t the only thing that made Gu Xi happy.
With the lab completed and more equipnt in place, the two professors had also made a new discovery.
After running so comparisons, the two professors discovered that Gu Xi’s ability didn’t just increase a plant’s capacity for X Energy; it also altered so of the plant’s fundantal properties.
When this change reached a certain critical threshold, it was possible, with human intervention, to induce a "reverse evolution" in the plant.
A plant that had undergone this reverse evolution might no longer produce X Energy as it grew...
Of course, the theories involved were far too complex, and Gu Xi didn’t understand much about the science behind it.
She sumd it up in her head. ’It’s basically... things reversing at their extre?’
Seeing how intently she was listening, Mr. Zhao explained a bit more, then said, "Zhang and I are still short on experintal samples. You should put those chickens and eggs aside for now..."
Gu Xi noticed a strange look in Mr. Zhao’s eyes as he spoke.
He looked like he was hesitating, wanting to say sothing but not quite knowing how.
’He probably thinks I’m wasting my incredible talent for planting by ssing around with raising chickens, doesn’t he?’
’It’s a complete waste of my gift.’
’But as an outsider, it wasn’t his place to say anything...’
But Gu Xi had no intention of explaining her ability to anyone.
Mr. Zhao was in a hurry to get started.
Gu Xi didn’t even have ti to go inside her new ho. She tethered Da Hong and the other chickens in the small garden, asking the Qin Family sisters to watch them. After handing the two buckets of eggs to Wei Heng, she left with Mr. Zhao.
On the way, she suddenly asked, "Professor, did you show Ye Nan the seeds from the mutated upland rice I grew last ti?"
She rembered Mr. Zhao once ntioning that all seeds within the base had to be processed by soone from the Healing System.
However, healers were precious, and they didn’t have anyone with a Healing Ability here.
The only possibility was that Ye Nan had visited.
Gu Xi had always been skeptical about the claim that the Healing System could suppress the X Energy within plant seeds...
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