The twins woke up and found that Yue Zheng had already returned. They climbed down from their small beds, giggling and happily rushing into his arms.
“Have you washed your faces?”
The two little heads intentionally rubbed against Yue Zheng’s chest until they wiped off the saliva and eye crust marks on their faces. Then, they looked up with their rosy little faces at Xu Song and said, “Not dirty!”
“You little rascals! You’ve rubbed everything onto Daddy.” Xu Song rubbed the heads of the two little ones, pulling them into the bathroom.
After having lunch, mother Xu went to the back container with sewing machines and other tools to make clothes for the two children. Their growth was fast, and the old clothes had become too short. Since fabric and materials were not lacking, they could make clothes for the children all year round.
Xiao Shu followed mother Xu, hiding in her pocket like a little bodyguard.
Now, it was almost time, and mother Xu walked back directly from the connected cars.
“Ah, everyone’s back?” Seeing Yue Zheng in the living room, preparing to put the just-made clothes on the coffee table, and noticing paper and pen on it, she asked, “Is it still needed?”
“No, it’s not needed.” Yue Zheng quickly packed up, and seeing mother Xu putting the finished small clothes and pants on the coffee table, he asked, “Long-sleeved?”
“Yes, the weather is so strange now. Last summer was cold like this. We’ll be going outdoors again later, and it’s not easy to guard against grass, leaves, and little insects. It’s better for the children to wear long sleeves to avoid bites.” mother Xu, who had lived in the countryside with Xu’s grandfather, knew that people there, even in summer, always wore long sleeves because of the proximity to the mountains. Going into the mountains with short sleeves? It would be impossible to come out in one piece.
“It’s good.” Yue Zheng picked up a piece and compared it. It was slightly larger than the clothes the children were currently wearing. If the growth rate of the children wasn’t too exaggerated, it could last until next year.
Mother Xu took a sip from the water cup and asked, “Should we wait for them to finish building the East Zone in the base before going out?”
Yue Zheng shook his head. “Let’s see how it goes. Maybe there will be other arrangements in the next two days.”
His application had just been submitted, and he didn’t know how the higher-ups would react. Even if the base couldn’t spare people for a while to handle those matters, they shouldn’t object. As for the other aspects, they could go out first and gradually gather information.
In fact, in this post-apocalyptic world, once survival issues were resolved, there wasn’t much else to do. They were relatively powerful now, and the future of humanity in this changed world was uncertain. Since they had the capability, they should make efforts to collect information and help humanity gain a clearer understanding of this post-variant world.
They couldn’t and weren’t obliged to help the entire base solve food and survival problems. Giving someone a fish was not as good as teaching them to fish. Since they could travel far and see more now, they could slowly gather information and help humanity understand this changed world more clearly.
“Let’s go.” Xu Song dragged the two little troublemakers out of the bathroom. The two little guys, taking advantage of their small size, crouched on the ground, letting Xu Song drag them along, laughing and playing all the way.
After everyone sat back on the sofa, Xu Song asked the two little ones, “Earlier, you mentioned that in the air-raid shelter, you heard the Jade Bee say that someone wanted to eat you? What were the person’s exact words?”
Tianyou tilted his head and waved to the beehive, and two white, transparent bees flew onto his fingertips.
Holding clothes, Mother Xu, who was drawing on Tiancheng’s back, raised her head at the sound and also looked at Tianyou.
“That person said that we are both white, fat, and beautiful, and being twins, if they were stolen and eaten, even if they were raised, they would definitely be more delicious,” Tianyou explained. Some words were unclear to Tianyou, and Jade Bee could only convey the general meaning. The little guy interpreted it according to his own understanding.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Tianyou inquired with the Jade Bees for a while before drawing, “Their hair stands up, and they have flowers on their bodies. There were three of them speaking…”
Xu Song frowned and thought for a moment, then turned to fetch some previously drawn sketches from the place where he collected various documents, saying, “Which one of them resembles the outline?”
The two bees circled around the roughly outlined human figures on the paper, indicating that three of them might be the ones they encountered.
Because bees couldn’t clearly describe colors due to their visual differences from humans, if they encountered them again, they would surely recognize them.
Having the two little bees fly back to the beehive, Xu Song looked at Yue Zheng. Yue Zheng nodded slightly, saying, “We’ll talk about it when we leave.”
The children were not clear, but they knew that due to the collapse of the social system, various unimaginable and even conscience-challenging things happened among humans in the base almost every day.
A cute pair of twins like them falling into the hands of those people would lead to an obvious outcome.
In the base, there were quite a few incidents of selling one’s own flesh and blood for a meal. Being killed and eaten was the best-case scenario.
Mother Xu patted the heads of the children, saying, “If you encounter such people again, come back and tell Grandma. Grandma will teach them a lesson.” Mother Xu’s personality was increasingly approaching her superpower, especially when her own children were targeted, which was something she couldn’t tolerate. If she knew who said these things now… she would definitely grab a gun and rush out immediately.
Whether or not those people who plotted against their car last time said these things, anyway, on the day they went to find trouble, the two of them would bring the bees along to identify them. If it was really them, they would have to apologize.
Before evening came, Yue Zheng’s communicator displayed new information. Elder Wu’s secretary sent a message, inviting the two to enter Zone A tomorrow to discuss the details.
“We have a way in,” Xu Song smiled with narrowed eyes. Although they could figure out a way themselves, having official support behind them and not having it were two different things. With the former, there were people who could provide various support, and technical support could also be found when needed. The latter required figuring everything out on their own.
“Let’s go in together tomorrow to see the situation,” Yue Zheng began to plan in his mind how to discuss this matter with them. At the moment, the base couldn’t spare manpower specifically for this task, and for a long time to come, there probably wouldn’t be anyone with the strength to go out and handle it.
Their team was powerful, and if they continued to develop in the base like this, there was a chance they might be feared by those above. If they directly transformed into a technical or research-oriented team, the higher-ups wouldn’t pay much attention. This would be beneficial for both sides, and the higher-ups would probably be happy to see it happen.
“Come, eat more, don’t be polite.” Mother Xu held a large spoon and added another spoonful of potato stewed meat to Liu Shishi’s bowl.
Liu Shishi quickly held the bowl, saying, “No need, it’s too much, too much!”
“Ah, such a good girl, why have you become so thin?” Mother Xu didn’t have a daughter, and although her son brought a son-in-law back, he was still a man.
Now she noticed that Liu Shishi had become as thin as a bamboo pole, with a small face no bigger than a palm. Even Tiancheng and Tianyou’s arms and legs were almost catching up with her, and her overflowing motherly love grew even stronger.
“Auntie, you’re too kind,” Luo Wen’an wiped his mouth, and there was still a small piece of food bulging in his stomach. If he wasn’t worried about his stomach not being able to handle it, he estimated he could eat two more bowls.
“When you have time, come talk to me, chat a bit. Nowadays, it’s not easy for anyone,” Mother Xu smiled and placed the soup in the middle of the table.
Early in the morning today, after Xu Song and Yue Zheng got up and did some stretching outside, they coincidentally “encountered” Luo Wen’an and Liu Shishi who were taking a stroll.
Because Xu Song and Yue Zheng were going to Zone A for discussion, they simply let Mother Xu entertain them.
A group of young people, thin as wolves, made Mother Xu sigh for a long time. She set up tables under the car and in the newly partitioned open space and treated them to a meal.
“Auntie, when will Yue Zheng and the others be back?” Seeing that almost everyone had finished a pot of stewed vegetables, Wang An asked somewhat embarrassed.
“It’ll probably take a while, no worries. There’s still leftovers, eat as much as you want. Don’t be polite,” Mother Xu smiled and said to Wang An, looking at the equally thin He Nian and Zhao Xin, “These two kids are not even twenty yet, right?”
Zhao Xin nodded embarrassedly, “I’m nineteen this year.”
“I’m eighteen.”
“Ah, still just kids.” Mother Xu sighed, “If it weren’t for the apocalypse, Xiao Song would only be a junior this year. He would enter his senior year after summer vacation.”
Everyone felt a bit melancholic for a moment. Their ages were similar, Luo Wen’an and Su Daji were the same age as Xu Song, and Liu Shishi had just turned twenty. The oldest was Wang An, but he was only thirty-one this year.
Mother Xu sat with the twins and a few others under the car, chatting. Abu lay not far away, finishing the lunch Mother Xu prepared for it and yawning. A ostrich strolled leisurely on the open ground, while another one nestled in its nest. After a while, it suddenly stretched its neck and called out twice.
“Eggs! They laid eggs!” Tiancheng and Tianyou suddenly cheered and ran to the ostrich nest.
As long as they were on the move or traveling, the ostriches would temporarily stop laying eggs until they settled down again. They had been back in the base for a few days now, and only today did they return to their usual egg-laying routine.
Liu Shishi’s eyes lit up, and she followed the twins to the ostrich nest to see the newly laid eggs.
“Can we hatch little ostriches from these?”
“No, Grandma said they are all females and can’t hatch little ostriches.” Tianyou and Tiancheng, each struggling, managed to carry the huge ostrich eggs out. “Grandma! Grandma!” Although there were still some ostrich eggs at home, the two little guys were still excited.
“Put them there, take out the big bowls and green onions. Grandma will make scrambled eggs for you.” The twins cheered and ran back to the car to bring down the “bowls,” which were egg-beating tools the size of large basins. Tiancheng also carried a large bundle of fresh green onions.
“You guys also taste it together.” Although there were ostrich eggs in the car, Mother Xu forgot for a moment, and now that they were laying eggs again, she decided to let them taste the fresh ones.
Luo Wen’an and the others felt embarrassed. After persuading for a while, seeing that Mother Xu had already cracked the eggs, cut the green onions, and set up the wok for frying, they could only sit back honestly on their respective “stools.”
On the motorhome and container truck, Abu and the two ostriches had the insignia of 0246 and the B-level team. Although Yue Zheng and Xu Song didn’t have the insignia on them, Mother Xu and the twins wore the team insignia. Even if they were fools, they knew that these two former partners were now in a pretty impressive team…
Just now, they asked Mother Xu and confirmed that there was only their family of five in this team, leaving them extremely speechless.
Although they knew these two were extraordinary back in City S, the situation in City B far exceeded their expectations… and completely dispelled their thoughts of merging with Xu Song’s team. The benefits were too substantial, and they had made it clear that they would leave the base soon. They didn’t have the thick-skinned audacity to stick to them.
“Bullets… How much discount does the B-level team get…” Luo Wen’an sighed. They knew this was their biggest expense; buying weapons was really expensive!
“Cut it out.” Su Daji poured cold water on him. “Even if they can help us buy once, what about the future? Let’s rely on ourselves.”
“Yeah, I’m going to eat more now!” Luo Wen’an raised his neck, his eyes gleaming green, staring at the golden and fragrant ostrich eggs in the large pot in front of Mother Xu. How long had it been since he last ate this? Even if he found bird eggs in the wild, he wouldn’t dare to fry them in oil, at most boiling them in water. But frying eggs… it felt like he hadn’t eaten them for several lifetimes!
In the office, Xu Song, Yue Zheng, and several relevant personnel from Base B sat facing each other. On each side, there were freshly printed documents still emitting hot air.
After signing their names, they shook hands amicably.
“Congratulations, the first special operations team of our base,” Elder Wu smiled and gestured to his secretary to hand over another thick set of documents to the two. “When are you ready to go out?”
“As soon as possible, we might go out tomorrow,” Yue Zheng took the documents and handed them to Xu Song, who quickly checked if everything was in order.
“What about your convoy? Do you want to let the elderly and children in your family return to Zone A first?”
“No need for that. We have some friends who are currently waiting in the East Zone for the completion of the base. We’ll ask them to help look after them,” Yue Zheng replied.
Elder Wu knew about the previous attack incident in Zone A and understood that Yue Zheng and the others gave face to Zone A. He didn’t bring it up again.
“Alright, if you have any issues, just use the terminal to contact us. The permissions and functions of this new terminal are stronger than the previous one, and it comes with several GB of capacity. You can directly transmit images taken back to the base via satellite signals. Contact the base whenever you need.”
Yue Zheng expressed his understanding, and they left together.
A researcher in a white coat beside them asked uncertainly, “Elder Wu, is it really okay not to send technical personnel with them? Even if they manage to bring back the equipment, they probably won’t learn how to use it for a while, right?”
Elder Wu shook his head, “Although I don’t know why they don’t want our technical personnel, these two young people will definitely not do anything without confidence. You can wait for them to bring the things back, then have someone hand over all the organized data to them and teach them how to operate the equipment. It should be enough.”
The researcher still couldn’t believe it—just teach them casually, and they’ll learn? Those were the latest equipment, and those experiments, without professional learning for a year and a half, who could guarantee the accuracy of the experiments?
Well, anyway, they were the ones going to get the stuff themselves. The base would at most provide various data, methods for using the equipment, and precautions in all aspects. If they couldn’t complete the mission, it wouldn’t be their fault, right? Those things left outside, over time, would break sooner or later. It’s better to let them try it.
Researcher doesn’t understand the mutated genius of Xu Song… Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦮🦔🦗🐝
Ahh, new arc. Leave the sh*tty base asap.
Thank you