Chapter 119
In Fenghuang, Gong Lixin and his party were on their way to the granary in the western suburbs. There was Xiao Shui acting as a guide and they took many shortcuts. But because of the road being blocked by cars and being attacked by streams of zombies from time to time, their speed was very slow and they only made it halfway there only after three or four hours.
"It’s noon. The temperature is too high. Let’s find a place to rest for an hour, alright?" Jin Shangyu kept wiping the sweat on her face, gasping even as she suggested it to the group. Among the group, except for the heat-resistant Gong Lixin and Song Haoran, all of them were sweating and looked very uncomfortable.
"Let’s rest here." Song Haoran jumped and slaughtered a few low-level zombies before pushing open the glass door of a barber shop on the side of the road.
The crowd quickly followed, closing the glass door with the back of their hand and pulling down the curtains on both sides to block the sight of the zombies. The blazing sun was also mostly blocked by the door curtain and the hot rays of the sun didn’t pelt their bodies anymore, making everyone relieved. The barber shop was not very spacious. The original clean and bright decoration had already molted and became old, covered in a thick layer of dust. Even the air had the smell of moldy decay that was unique to the apocalyptic days.
But everyone had long been accustomed to this smell and even ignored the dirt on the floor. Sitting down, they breathed slowly through their mouths to prevent the sound of heavy breathing from attracting a zombie siege. Only one of the women was acting up. The hot woman leaned lazily against the wall, looking at the floor with disgust.
"Ah Jian, help me wash my face. It’s dirty!" Her voice was slightly hoarse and not as crisp and gentle as the ordinary woman, but it also sounded spoiled.
Ah Jian was the man who was injured by the door before. He was a third-level low-grade water ability user. When he heard her call, his heart felt hot. He immediately stood up and walked towards her to wash in the back hall. The sound of rushing water came mixed in with the sound of sucking lips and tongues and the woman’s moans. The two men from last night who were f**king the women seemed to hear nothing and took out dry food from their bag to eat.
In these apocalyptic days, human beings cared mostly about life, strength, food and clothing. Love and loyalty had long been thrown away.
There was still a long way to go. In order to save energy, the two didn’t have the intention of going all the way. They laughed after a while before turning back out from the back hall. The man sat down with a dazed expression and opened his backpack to search for food. The woman’s cheeks were flushed, her eyes full of charm and lust. She held a clean towel in her hands and leaned down to wipe the gray floor.
It wasn’t known if it was intentional or not, but she chose a piece of space around Song Haoran. Her hips swayed in front of Song Haoran’s eyes, almost as if she was making sure his eyes were glued to her actions. Song Haoran’s thick brows scrunched up into a tight frown and his dark red irises were filled with disgust that couldn’t be hidden away. Stretching out his long legs, he kicked hard towards the woman’s leg and stomach and coldly said, "Go away!"
The woman shrieked, leaned back and fell into Song Haoran’s arms. Without waiting for Song Haoran to make a move, Gong Lixin, who was sitting beside him, moved first. With a wave of his arm, the woman felt a blow from his palm and slid across the floor to the other side.
Looking at the long trajectory of the woman, Jin Shangyu lowered her head even as her shoulders pumped up and down as she worked very hard to suppress her laughter. She quite appreciated Gong Lixin’s rudeness.
"Are you looking for death?!" The woman rubbed her sore chest, her face twisted in anger as she roared. A black, green light shone in her eyes as she quickly approached Gong Lixin, throwing a brown seed with her hand.
Gong Lixin barely glanced at it. He waved his palm again, making the woman fly once again and, this time, hitting the wall. The seed that had been thrown, burst out into several vines, but white flames from his palm instantly reduced it to ash.
Except for Song Haoran and Lin Wenbo, the others all stared wide-eyed, their hearts shaking. A double-system ability user! Turns out that he’s a fire and strength dual ability user! They shouted from the bottom of their hearts in unison and, unconsciously, regarded the teenager with awe as they secretly thought that, fortunately, they didn’t stand up for that woman. The woman knelt down on the ground and trembled in fear. She didn’t dare say another word, let alone breathe too hard. Only then did she realize that the person who had almost been killed was always herself.
"Stay away from my Brother Song. I don’t like it." Gong Lixin warned word by word to the woman, making her wince. The thought of this woman almost falling into Brother Song’s embrace and seizing the position that belonged to him alone made him feel suffocated and uncomfortable.
"Hehe~" Song Haoran heard his words and couldn’t help laughing. He stretched out his long arms, took the cute youth with his scrunched-up brows into his arms and covered the other’s lips with his own. The dark red irises were full of limitless tenderness.
The young man was stunned for a moment. After the initial reaction, the cat-like eyes curved up and he took the initiative to wrap around Song Haoran’s neck and opened his pink lips to accept the other’s encroachment without reservation. The sound of kissing kept echoing and the two people had their eyes closed yet their faces were filled with pious and hot emotions. The strong and loving tenderness spread throughout the air. This was not a lust-filled kiss, but a kiss full of love. The beautiful picture impacted everyone’s eyes and mind, slightly touching their dead, cold heart.
There was a stunned expression on the face of the woman kneeling on the ground. She then lowered her head, concealing the irresistible envy and jealousy in her eyes. How rare was love in these apocalyptic days!
When the two’s lips touched, Lin Wenbo’s golden eyes dimmed for a moment, but quickly went back to their original brightness. He lowered his eyelids and took out a few boxes of compressed cookies and a bottle of water from his backpack.
At the beginning, he would always felt a knife-like pain, but the pain had gradually turned into numbness over time. In the end, the numbness turned into a habit. Life was short and he would rather die than stop his relationship with Gong Lixin, so he could only suffer so. He thought that when he was intimate with Xiaoxin, Haoran must feel the same as him and thinking of that, he felt relieved. Maybe one day, Xiaoxin will fall in love with one of them and abandon the other. But, as time goes by and his love for Xiaoxin grows stronger, he no longer expects such an ending and even rejects it. Actually, their situation is fine like this.
When he returned from his internal meditation, the two had stopped kissing and reluctantly separated. He smiled slightly and held a cookie to the youth’s lips. He said softly, "Hurry up and eat something. We’ve still got a way to go this afternoon."
"Hn, thank you, Brother Lin." Gong Lixin bit the cookie and his warm little tongue rolled over the other’s fingers, licking the residue of the finely cracking cookie.
Lin Wenbo’s eyes dimmer, his mouth slightly hooked up. He turned around and took a bottle of water and brought it to the youth’s lips, carefully holding a hand under his chin to prevent drops of water from wetting his shirt. Seeing the youth holding his mouth open in front of the bottle and swallowing obediently with his cat-like eyes upturned with a happy expression, Lin Wenbo couldn’t help but chuckle a few times before carefully wiping the wet corners of the youth’s lips with his fingers.
They got along well with each other. The secret sweetness and warmth surged around them and was no less intense than the sweet kiss from before, which made everyone look at each of them frequently and, knowing the relationship between the three, secretly envy them.
Jin Shangyu looked at the three numbly, her eyes holding complicated emotions. Thinking of the strength of the youth and his dual system, her brows peaked up even as she slowly lowered her heard. Her face was hidden in the shadows and others couldn’t see her expression. A few minutes later, after finishing his own lunch and Lin Wenbo moved to guard the door, she immediately got up and sat down next to the youth, smiling sweetly at him.
The young woman’s smile was brighter than the sun on the outside, but something caught Gong Lixin’s eyes, causing him to lose track of his thought for a moment. Looking down for a second, avoiding directly looking at the young woman, he pursed his lips before he asked, "Do you need anything?"
"Well, are you really a dual fire and strength ability user?" Jin Shangyu tugged at his sleeve as her bright eyes stared at his jade white cheeks for a moment.
"I’m not..."Gong Lixin swallowed the last three words he was about to say. He turned his face, his eyes narrowed as he stared thoughtfully at the woman, his expression unreadable. He didn’t know what the power was, but he almost spit out the truth to the young woman. Fortunately, he woke up in time. This situation is very strange!
"I’m not a dual fire and strength ability user." Secretly thinking with his clear mind, Gong Lixin stared into the young woman’s eyes as he said, "I’m a quadruple wind, fire, ice and strength ability user."
As soon as his words fell, the room fell silent. Even the sound of chewing dry rations and swallowing water stopped as everyone stared dumbfounded at him. Especially Liu Qing, who had forgotten that he had his water bottle tilted and all of it fell onto his neck, but he seemed unaware of that fact. Jin Shangyu stared at the teenager with her eyes widened to their limits and even almost popping out.
"You, you’re a four-system ability user?" Jin Shangyu stuttered, holding her tightly clenched hands together, making her joints turn pale. She asked urgently, "What level are you?" There was also a trace of anxiety mixed in her question.
"I’m probably fourth-level mid-grade." He thought for a moment as he answered uncertainly.
Everyone took a deep breath. Jin Shangyu suddenly let go of his clothes and whispered, "A four-system ability user at fourth-level mid-grade...how’s that possible? I can’t believe it!"
"Then I’ll show it to you." Gong Lixin said with a smile on his lips. His tone was cheerful and eager to please, just like an innocent boy who was anxious to please the girl they liked.
Hearing his words, Lin Wenbo’s and Song Haoran’s face sank. They turned their heads to look at him and, receiving the hint from his expressive eyes, their tight expression relaxed. They gave it some thought before thoughtfully glancing at Jin Shangyu.
Jin Shangyu nodded stiffly and stared at the youth’s delicate white palm without blinking as it rose upward. The others held their breaths, their eyes focused. They would not believe it without seeing it.
Gong Lixin let out a hint of his inner strength and concentrated the size of a soybean in the palm of his hand. White flame-like-stars hung from the sky, flickering up and down. Although the shape was small, the heat emitted from it instantly raised the temperature in the barber shop by several degrees. A lot of sweat poured out from the forehead of the crowd. The closest to him, Jin Shangyu, raised her hands to protect her head and face as she hurriedly moved back to avoid being burned by the flame.
When Gong Lixin saw this situation, he immediately switched elements. The erratic flames didn’t move from its spot, but gradually solidified into a lotus-shaped ice crystal. The temperature in the room suddenly dropped and everyone shivered, unconsciously snuggling together in search of warmth. Jin Shangyu’s hands covering her head and face were immediately lowered and she hugged her chest tightly even as her teeth rattled each other.
Her awkward appearance seemed to please the youth. The young man’s five fingers gathered together and crushed the ice crystal. The temperature in the store immediately rose and the thin crystals in the youth’s hands were blown away by a breeze. The crystal dots were reflected under the sun and looked beautiful. Alas, the flowing wind swirled around the room slowly, blowing with it a touch of coolness, a touch of wetness and bringing indescribable comfort.
The people snuggled together slowly separated with an expression of contentment on their faces. Someone even let out a long sigh to express their physical and mental bliss.
Seeing this, Song Haoran and Lin Wenbo immediately removed the faintly glowing colours of their eyes and squinted them, enjoying the pleasant temperature in the room. Hn, it’s more comfortable than turning on the air conditioner! They agreed in unison.
"Strength system is a bit more violent, so I won’t show it." The youth’s clear voice broke the magic of the moment and awakened everyone from their intoxication. The eyes of everyone were glued to the young man and the look in them changed continuously. Finally, it changed from shock to fear and surrender.
"Hehe~" Jin Shangyu was speechless and could only laugh. She stood up stiffly, moved to the corner to sit and buried her head between her knees, no one knowing what she was thinking.
Gong Lixin looked at her dejected figure without understanding and exchanged a skeptical look with Lin Wenbo and Song Haoran.
CrazedCookies: So, my exam is next Saturday so no chapters next week since I’ll be busy. Wish me luck!