Chapter 41 – Buying Flowers

After Nie Yi returned to the base, he went on a detour to speak to Zhao Chengqi about the matter of the level two zombie; only then did he hand over the assignment.

This time, he had gone out and gathered an abundant harvest. After handing it over and exchanging for some necessary supplies, he distributed the rest to his subordinates according to their efforts.

He could bring Zhang Zihai and the rest’s supplies to Base Two tomorrow, Xu Nan and his team’s supplies were handed over for Ping Shengchao to distribute, and the remaining was for the people in the house…

Shao Zhenglan’s use of her ability was getting better and better, so Nie Yi gave her the most workpoints. The two bodyguards, Ping Shengchao, and Jiang Huai’s abilities were also pretty good, so he gave them a lot as well, and finally, there was Qi Yaoyao who was given nothing.

These days, Qi Yaoyao had always gone out with Shengchao, and even though she wasn’t that good at killing zombies, she could at least handle the logistics. She was already pretty proficient in areas like moving things and cooking food. However, because she had always followed Nie Yi and stayed in his team’s living area and usually didn’t spend much workpoints to eat, no one had given her workpoints before either.

Qi Yaoyao herself knew that she was the most good-for-nothing here and naturally felt embarrassed to ask for workpoints. This time, she still felt that it wasn’t a big deal to not get anything, but Ping Shengchao suddenly said, “Boss, Qi Yaoyao had more or less put in effort; might as well give her some pocket money.”

Besides himself, Nie Yi had no goodwill towards anyone Qi Jingchen cared for. In their last life, Qi Yaoyao had once harmed Qi Jingchen, so he loathed Qi Yaoyao even more.

But he still needed to take care of Qi Yaoyao. Right now, the only people Qi Jingchen cared for was just him and Qi Yaoyao; if something happened to Qi Yaoyao, Qi Jingchen’s desire to die might become even stronger…

Rather than getting rid of Qi Yaoyao, it was better to use Qi Yaoyao to coerce Qi Jingchen… This was why Nie Yi didn’t kill her off, but don’t expect him to give her a good salary.

However, while he was too lazy to give Qi Yaoyao good pay, he wouldn’t go so far as to be unwilling to give a bit of money… Glancing at Qi Jingchen, who had no intentions of speaking up for Qi Yaoyao, Nie Yi’s heart eased as he chose two of the smallest denominations in the pile of workpoints in his hands and handed it to Qi Yaoyao. “Allowance for you.”

At first, the secure base had only distributed food, but after things smoothed out somewhat, there were these workpoints.

B City secure base was the largest secure base in the country and didn’t lack any facilities. Before a few days had passed, they had planned out and developed the various currencies to be used for their current base. The present times were extremely similar to the ‘rewarded the same, regardless of performance’ from decades ago, so this currency was also called workpoints.

According to the difficulty of their work, those who helped work for the secure base could earn more or less workpoints; those who generally didn’t understand the skills required for the secure base and could only sell manual labour would usually earn about five to six points a day, and the weak or slackers would earn even less.

Right now, a single workpoint could be exchanged for two steamed buns or other food in the secure base’s canteen. If they only wanted to be filled without eating well, then the food exchanged for a workpoint was just enough for a meal. This way, if they only spent three workpoints for a day’s meals, the leftovers could still be used to exchange for living supplies and such.

For the people of the lowest status, it was very difficult to earn workpoints. If it weren’t for the children and elderlies being distributed a portion of food, it was likely that the greater part of the population wouldn’t be able to support their family at all. However, for those who left the base in search of supplies, it was rather easy to earn workpoints.

If nothing else, if you brought back a storeful of grains and oil, you might get over thousands of points in one sitting, then exchange it for whatever you wanted to eat. Nie Yi had earned an incredibly hefty amount of workpoints this time, coupled with the extra rewards for saving Li Bi and the others. It was to the extent that even if he got rid of the change, the smallest denomination of workpoints in his hands was still ten points, which also meant that the allowance he had given Qi Yaoyao was twenty workpoints.

However, Qi Yaoyao was someone who didn’t understand the value of money and immediately beamed with happiness as she said to Qi Jingchen, “Ge! I have money now! Help me keep it ba!”

She wanted to walk towards Qi Jingchen, but was blocked off by Nie Yi before she even got close. “Don’t run to your ge so boldly!”

Qi Yaoyao was already used to being obstructed by Nie Yi and being unable to approach Qi Jingchen. Knowing that she might not be able to speak to Qi Jingchen anymore, she put away the workpoints in her hands and pondered over what she should buy tomorrow as a gift to Qi Jingchen.

Previously, Qi Yaoyao had never touched matters such as earning money. Having heard from her own parents about how Qi Jingchen had never wasted money when he was studying outside while she had wasted too much under Guan Jiayu’s instigation, she had felt that Qi Jingchen was just currying favour with her parents and forcing her out, but now that she thought about it…

Her ge had clearly been arduously taking part-time jobs…

Her ge’s handphone cost a few hundred dollars, and was the cheapest domestically produced model whereas the one she had wasn’t very good but was still two or three thousand, and she had also actually disliked it because it wasn’t the best…

Qi Yaoyao’s mood instantly plummeted.

At this time, Nie Yi had placed all his workpoints before Qi Jingchen, all of them were about 100 per banknote. Compared to those two coins Qi Yaoyao had, it was worth much more. “Jingchen, these are all for you, help me keep it.”

With that, Nie Yi even gave Qi Yaoyao a slightly prideful look.

“Idiots…” Qi Jingchen said, not even bothering to glance at the money.

Nie Yi had wanted to hand over his money to his wife… No, the boss’s plan had failed, but there was still some benefit at night.

The two nights outside, Qi Jingchen surprisingly hadn’t pushed him away, instead allowing Nie Yi to hold him… Naturally, Nie Yi would seize this opportunity and not let go of Qi Jingchen.

On this night, he held Qi Jingchen in his embrace and had a beautiful sleep, then…

Qi Jingchen’s sleep hadn’t always been good, and this morning, he had been rubbed awake by a certain, very hard thing.

At first, he was still a little dazed, unable to react to what it was, but very quickly, he understood what was going on.

In their last life, his flesh had been torn away, his body exactly like a skeleton; he didn’t even have the reaction men should have, but in the end, he still remembered that he’d have a pillar supporting the skyalmost everyday before the apocalypse.

Nie Yik2026; was just like this?

Qi Jingchen expressionlessly waited for a while, then, when he realised that Nie Yi actually continued to rub against him with no intention of stopping, he finally said, “If you don’t stop, I’ll sleep in the living room in the future.”

Nie Yi’s movements instantly stopped.

“You have too much internal heat, it’s better if you don’t hug me from now on,” Qi Jingchen continued.

Nie Yi’s facial expression immediately collapsed. “I swear I won’t have much internal heat in the future!”

Qi Jingchen was silent.

“Jingchen, do you want to eat anything? I’ll go get some for you.” Nie Yi wisely changed the subject.

“I want to eat fish.” Qi Jingchen looked at Nie Yi avoiding the subjectand suddenly felt like gnashing his teeth.

This feeling… is really quite unfamiliar… Qi Jingchen suddenly became absent-minded.

Nie Yi didn’t know that Qi Jingchen’s mind had wandered; upon seeing Qi Jingchen look at him with dark eyes, his heart moved for a moment and felt somewhat guilty.

Back when they were on the way to B City secure base, Qi Jingchen had said before that he wanted to eat fish, but he actually hadn’t let him eat till now…

“I’ll go look for fish later!” Nie Yi promptly said.

Qi Jingchen’s mind returned and he closed his eyes.

It wasn’t like he had no feelings for Nie Yi. In reality, Nie Yi was actually his most important person, even more important than Qi Yaoyao. After all, Nie Yi had always accompanied him during the most difficult times in their last life.

However… Someday, everyone will become zombies…

If it was going to be like his last life, with everyone dying before him, watching as Nie Yi died in his embrace, he felt that it was better if he died earlier.

As usual, Nie Yi brought Qi Jingchen to Base Two.

Qi Jingchen’s current body temperature was still rather high and it led to him feeling unwell all over. Unfortunately, this fever produced by ability awakening couldn’t be alleviated by relying on medication…

After arranging the deckchair for Qi Jingchen to lay on like always, Nie Yi coated his water ability onto his hands and stroked Qi Jingchen’s face and arms, lowering his temperature.

Of course, to others, he was obviously just eating tofu.

“Nie shao, did you guys meet something outside? I heard you encountered a level two zombie?” Yu Xuguang quickly came over and questioned, evidently a little anxious.

Right now, all of humanity was facing immense danger and the secure base didn’t dare to conceal the situation outside. As a result, just when they had brought back the news of level two zombies yesterday, it was now published by the secure base.

Nie Yi had been concerned over the early emergence of ability users, so it was natural for Yu Xuguang to be the same.

“Level two zombie?” Nie Yi said, “This label isn’t wrong, those zombies really did evolve.”

Yu Xuguang then remembered that the secure base had not determined the label ‘level two zombie’ yet and smiled awkwardly, then began to ask about the situation outside in detail.

“Xiao Yu-zi, let me tell you ba,” Zhang Zihai pulled Yu Xuguang away and began to vividly describe the matter of them encountering cannibals.

Yu Xuguang was still young and had never left the base. Zhang Zihai had originally thought that he would frighten Yu Xuguang, but unexpectedly, even though Yu Xuguang’s face was filled with loathing, he didn’t reveal any expression of fright.

“Xiao Yu-zi, you’re not scared?” Zhang Zihai was a little surprised.

“The matter of cannibalism will happen sooner or later, but all those who massacred one another to eat the meat of their own kind deserved to be killed,” Yu Xuguang said.

During the middle stage of the apocalypse, the secure base once had a conflict due to the diminishing food supply. At that time, he had personally seen someone eating human meat.

However, this behaviour was quickly spurned by everyone.

There were some bottom lines that, once broken, would only get worse… Everyone might only eat the corpse of their comrade after their deaths at first, but since they have already eaten corpses, wasn’t there a possibility that they would continue and want to kill their comrades?

Humanity itself was already dwindling down; if they massacred one another, it would only welcome extinction faster!

As a result, during the last stage of the apocalypse, cannibalism was in no way allowed, and truthfully, no one was willing to eat either.

Back then, everyone was in extreme despair. Many people in the base had killed themselves at that time, and when he had self-destructed, what other reason did he have besides not wanting to live?

“Deserved to be killed, that’s right!” Nie Yi laughed.

“Right now, all of humanity is facing danger, everyone should be united; there must not be situations of slaughtering humans occurring!” Yu Xuguang looked at Nie Yi in search of approval. He definitely couldn’t allow that dark lord continue to wildly kill people!

Nie Yi nodded. “Right, I think so too. Those who slaughter their own kind should be killed.” Those who had hurt Qi Jingchen should all be killed!

Seeing that Nie Yi’s three views were so upright, Yu Xuguang had a growing feeling that his method was right. He definitely had to prevent Nie Yi from standing against humanity!

Yu Xuguang and Nie Yi were having a conversation on different wavelengths. At the same time, Qi Yaoyao held the twenty workpoints as she walked around the market of the secure base.

Even though survivors could use their workpoints to purchase things from the secure base, at times, they didn’t have enough workpoints and wanted to use their goods to exchange for others, and so the market emerged.

Later, the secure base had directly dispatched people, designating a few places for people to set up a stall or exchange items. Simultaneously, there were people on patrol, ensuring the safety of the people there.

Currently, it was still daytime and there weren’t many youthful people in the market. It was basically some elderly who didn’t have to work who had set up stalls, but they had many things of almost every variety.

Delicate jewelry, expensive makeup, all sorts of high tech products… They were all now extremely worthless, only able to be exchanged for a small bit of food— Although people could still eat their fill at this time, many were thinking of ways to hoard more food…

“Does anyone have powdered milk? I want to exchange for some powdered milk.”

“Does anyone have antipyretics?”

“Does anyone have oil?”

…

All kinds of shouting inquiries fell incessantly on Qi Yaoyao’s ears. To her, it was all rather chaotic.

Those diamond necklaces and such which could be bought with one workpoint looked very pretty to her, but she also knew that she shouldn’t buy these.

But what did her ge like?

Qi Yaoyao looked for a while more, and finally found a pot of beautiful flowers.

“How much are these flowers?” Qi Yaoyao asked.

The person who took out the flowers to sell was an old man. His home had been in the secure base, so he had retained everything in his home. These flowers were one of them.

He might have had the leisure to grow flowers before the apocalypse, but now… Not only would placing these flowers at home just take up space, but if there weren’t enough fertilizers, it would also likely wilt very quickly.

“A pot for a workpoint, you can pick yourself!” The old man immediately said.

“It’s just some worthless yuejis, a pot for a workpoint?” Someone at the side just happened to hear this old man’s words and immediately spoke up, then implored Qi Yaoyao, “Little miss, you still have to save up even if you want to spend money.”

“Two pots for a workpoint! These roses are all fresh varieties that I meticulously cared for,” the old man said.

These yuejis really were beautiful. Alright ba, she had even thought they were roses… Believing that her brother would probably like them, she didn’t worry over it. “Then I’ll buy two pots.”

The person who had just advised Qi Yaoyao not to waste money wanted to continue speaking, but when they saw Qi Yaoyao take out a coin worth ten workpoints, they swallowed back the advice they wanted to say.

So it turned out that her family was influential… Thinking of this, he looked at the cleanly dressed Qi Yaoyao and felt some anger.

“Ten workpoints? I don’t have the change for it.” The old man was also surprised.

“Then can I exchange it with something else?” Qi Yaoyao suddenly recalled that she had also brought something else. “Are medicine tablets okay?”

“You have medicine tablets?” The old man was instantly excited.

Qi Yaoyao took out a sheet of medicine tablets. It was a commonly seen medicine before the apocalypse, metamizole. With a few dollars, they could buy a large bottle with a hundred pills inside. These sort of blister packs were sold for a dollar each.

This medicine was cheap but had multiple uses; a painkiller as well as a fever reducer.

Originally, Qi Yaoyao had wanted to give it to her brother to reduce his fever, but Nie Yi didn’t allow her to give it to her ge. In the end, it became her ‘secret stash’.

“I’ll use half the sheet to exchange for a pot,” Qi Yaoyao said. The pot containing the yuejis was very heavy, and she might not be able to carry two pots.

“Okay, okay,” the old man immediately said.

Qi Yaoyao selected a pot of beautiful yellow yuejis and carried it away. Nearby, Guan Jiayu who had seen Qi Yaoyao again was gnashing her teeth.

After she had seen Qi Yaoyao yesterday, she went to ask around about why Qi Yaoyao was with that group of people, as a result… That was actually Nie Yi’s team!

The person Qi Yaoyao was following was actually Nie Yi! The son of the secure base chief, the water and fire dual ability user!

Besides that, the entire population in the secure base knew how much Nie Yi treasured that lover of his; rumours said that he was at the beck and call of his lover.

And that lover of Nie Yi’s… According to what she had seen yesterday, wasn’t he precisely Qi Yaoyao’s older brother, Qi Jingchen?

Why did Qi Yaoyao get to live so well? Clearly, she wasn’t better than Guan Jiayu in any aspect, yet she used to have her parents and brother pamper her. Now, it was the apocalypse, and her brother had even found a great supporter for her!

If she could be like Qi Yaoyao, with so much money at hand, that would be great…

Guan Jiayu thought about how Qi Yaoyao always used to be softhearted and gullible, and suddenly had an idea.

To be honest, Qi Yaoyao’s brother didn’t look as good as her ne. If she could obtain Nie Yi’s love…

Baobao Notes

Extra chapter because I had a bit of a stockpile (from being stuck at home during the lockdown)