Chapter 99 – Uncle

Edited by Meri

The man wore a military uniform, but his temperament and appearance were more like a soldier’s, than a scholar’s.

Nie Yi looked at the other, and sensed a familiarity, especially in the eyes. They were practically identical to his mother’s, Li Ping.

“Uncle?” Nie Yi called out probingly, a little doubtful at the same time.

The transfer stand outside Yuncheng secure base wasn’t small. This place had a perimeter wall, a few plants, and people on guard. There was also a place to stay over for those leaving the secure base in search of supplies and to store their vehicles.

Liu Lixin’s team had in actuality left Yuncheng secure base yesterday, and only found the zombie pig after staying here overnight.

This area was considered quite important to the Yuncheng secure base, but it was still located outside Yuncheng secure base. According to reason, Li Shu, a secure base chief, would not appear here.

“Nie Yi, it really is you!” A trace of delight appeared in the corners of Li Shu’s eyes. “I wanted to go look for you, but I unfortunately could not leave.”

Li Shu was not young and already nearing forty. But, probably due to good self-care, he looked to be in his early thirties. His temperament was gentle, and he was very approachable. Currently, as he looked at Nie Yi, sorrow flashed through his eyes after the excitement. “You’re already so big in the blink of an eye. You’re very much like your mother… Why did you come here?”

Nie Yi didn’t remember much about Li Shu, but he still remembered his mother. He actually wasn’t that much like his mother. Rather, the Li Shu before him was very similar to Li Ping. The mother in his memories was precisely this sort of gentle person. This made him feel a little closer to Li Shu.

Of course, even if he was closer to Li Shu, he was unable to feel moved. He could only say, “Mom has always missed uncle, so I came to visit.

When Li Shu heard this, guilt flashed through his eyes, but he soon smiled again. “I just knew you’re a good child! Nie Yi, these are?”

Li Shu’s question was aimed at those by Nie Yi, but his gaze quickly rested on Qi Jingchen.

When Nie Yi saw Li Shu’s behaviour, he knew that the things he had done in B City secure base had most likely spread here. He very quickly introduced his followers, and when it came to Qi Jingchen, he straightforwardly said, “This is my lover, Qi Jingchen.”

When Nie Yi said this, he was prepared for Li Shu to react coldly. However, Li Shu wasn’t unhappy at all. He even extended a hand towards Qi Jingchen, saying, “Hello. I’m Nie Yi’s uncle, Li Shu.”

Qi Jingchen did not like touching people aside from Nie Yi, but Li Shu, in the end, was Nie Yi’s uncle. He shook hands with him. “Hello, I’m Qi Jingchen.”

After greeting him, he smiled. Two little dimples instantly appeared on his face, his whole person appearing tender and white.

When Li Shu saw his appearance, he turned his head to stare at his nephew before saying,”Nie Yi didn’t bully you, right? If he did anything wrong, don’t hesitate to tell me. I’ll definitely discipline him well.”

“Nie Yi won’t do anything wrong.” Qi Jingchen’s face was filled with protective feelings for Nie Yi, but he added a sentence in his heart— Even if he did, Qi Jingchen would discipline him personally.

Li Shu was very satisfied with Qi Jingchen’s protectiveness, but also felt a little odd— Qi Jingchen’s seemed a little too young?

On the other hand, his nephew…used to be a tiny bundle, and now he unexpectedly was this mature. Li Shu was clearly the elder, but he couldn’t display an elder’s atmosphere before Nie Yi.

But Li Shu himself wasn’t someone who liked putting on airs, and just treated Nie Yi normally. He did not know that even though he treated him normally, Nie Yi had seen the love in his eyes, and still felt a little unused to it.

“Chief Li!” Right then, seeing that Li Shu and Nie Yi were just about done talking, Liu Lixin called out a little excitedly.

Li Shu was not powerful, and though his military rank hadn’t been low pre-apocalypse, he mainly did administrative work. After the apocalypse, he did not go around fighting and killing, so they didn’t exactly worship Li Shu, but definitely were very respectful towards him— Li Shu had always been very attentive to the civilians of Yuncheng. If there were no Li Shu, perhaps Yuncheng secure base would have long fallen into chaos.

“Leader Liu.” Li Shu nodded at Liu Lixin, then frowned. “Leader Liu accepted the task of hunting down the zombie pig, right? Is the zombie pig very strong?” Liu Lixin’s team’s appearance was extremely miserable!

“Chief Liu, that zombie pig’s strength is far more than strong. If it wasn’t for Nie Yi, perhaps we wouldn’t even return alive,” said Liu Lixin with a forced laugh.

“Can Leader Liu tell me a little more about this zombie pig?” Li Shu asked, then looked at Nie Yi. “Nie Yi, that zombie pig is the first zombie animal to appear in the vicinity of our secure base. I want to take a look, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to accompany you to the base. How about you return with Leader Lie first, later?”

Previously, Nie Yi had been curious about why Li Shu would come here, and immediately frowned when he heard this— Though zombie animals were powerful, they absolutely did not require a secure base chief to personally deal with them.

In his last life, Li Shu was killed by someone, and he had helped avenge him. Could it be that in this life, someone wanted to harm Li Shu again?

Thinking of this, Nie Yi sized up the people behind Li Shu. Forget about their abilities, there were several level three ability users among them. But if they had no experience against zombie animals, perhaps the zombie pig would just have just taken a while longer to kill them than Liu Lixin and his men.

“Uncle, I’ve already killed the zombie pig.” Several thoughts passed through Nie Yi’s mind, but none of them were revealed on the surface.

“Yes ah Chief Li, Nie Yi is just too powerful. We couldn’t beat that pig at all, but it was scared by Nie Yi so much it even ran!” Liu Lixin said.

Li Shu gave Nie Yi a startled look, then revealed delight. “No wonder you were able to come here!”

The reason Li Shu wanted to leave the secure base this time was because he knew the zombie pig was very powerful and intended to personally deal with it, wanted to look into zombie animals and gain some data, and use the data to share with the other secure bases.

Although there were already several places in the country that had zombie animals roaming about, humanity did not have much understanding about them. Thus, they were very disadvantaged in a fight. If they could gain some information, it would be a great service to mankind.

Because he was concerned about this, Li Shu took out pen and paper on the spot and asked Nie Yi to write a report of the battle, then chatted with Qi Jingchen, and even played with Qi An and Xiaomao.

Qi An couldn’t help but roll his eyes when he was teased, but conversely Xiaomao was teased into peals of laughter, so much that Qi An glared at her a little resentfully— this fellow was too immature. It was just an uncle’s casual teasing, yet she laughed to this degree!

Li Shu seemed to like children very much. After Nie Yi wrote the report, he even ended up taking the initiative to pick Xiaomao up and lead them into Yuncheng secure base, making Qi An feel even more unhappy. Of course, Qi An’s dissatisfaction was suppressed by Qi Jingchen.

“Big brother…” Qi An looked at Qi Jingchen, distressed.

“This is my wife’s uncle,” Qi Jingchen faintly stated.

Qi An immediately did not speak with a bitter face, but Li Shu, who had been walking in front, turned his head to look at Qi Jingchen and reveal a smile.

Qi Jingchen knew that Li Shu was a wind ability user who probably had ears that were especially sensitive like Jiang Huai and had heard his words. However, he did not care, and merely smiled at Li Shu.

Li Shu looked at Qi Jingchen’s behaviour, a flash of conflicting feelings in his eyes.

“Jingchen, I’ll carry you.” Nie Yi couldn’t stand seeing Qi Jingchen ‘making eyes’ towards another person and immediately spoke up. Of course, he also did this to prevent Qi Jingchen’s certain ‘unusual aspects’ from being discovered by others.

There was still another reborn person hiding in the darkness. This situation made Nie Yi become all the more vigilant.

Qi Jingchen did not refuse and took the initiative to reach towards Nie Yi and allow himself to be carried. Li Shu gave them another look and did not get angry, though there was slight ridicule in his eyes.

“Your uncle is pretty good,” Qi Jingchen quietly said to Nie Yi’s ear. He could sense that Li Shu genuinely did not have any malice towards him.

Nie Yi did not speak, but his spiritual strength coiled around Qi Jingchen’s body. After trying meat as a vegetarian, he could never be satisfied, and now hated that he couldn’t always be fused together with Qi Jingchen. Since they couldn’t do it physically, then spiritually!

Qi Jingchen calmly responded with his spiritual strength.

Probably due to Qi Jingchen ‘encouraging’ him during the walk, although Nie Yi walked a very long path, he didn’t feel tired at all.

But when he approached Yuncheng secure base, he was thinking about business, or, to be specific, thinking about Li Shu from his past life.

Li Shu had been done in by a subordinate. The subordinate was called Feng Qinyun. This person was someone Li Shu had personally selected for promotion, yet he caused Li Shu’s death so that he could seat himself in the position of Yuncheng secure base leader. However, this person did nove live comfortably for long, because he soon died by Nie Yi’s hands.

Before Nie Yi met Li Shu, he didn’t really care about his death. Now, however, he already decided to warn Li Shu to be careful of Feng Qinyun.

Nie Yi had thought of this, and even begun to ponder how he should warn Li Shu. However, things unexpectedly developed in a direction he did not expect!

After Li Shu brought them back to his residence, they unexpectedly met Feng Qinyun.

“This is my lover, Feng Qinyun,” Li Shu introduced. He had a smile on his face, and his gaze towards Feng Qinyun was filled with affection.

Nie Yi raised his brows and couldn’t help but ask, “What about Auntie?” Li Shu was a wedded man. After all, people like them could get married late, but basically couldn’t not be married.

“We’ve already split,” Li Shu said. “Actually, your auntie is also like me. From the start, we already spoke of being shields for each other.”

Speaking of this, Li Shu’s gaze towards Nie Yi conversely contained faint guilt. Liking men was said to be hereditary. He was, and so was Nie Yi. Perhaps it was their Li family who passed it down.

Qi Jingchen’s spiritual strength coiled around him, and Nie Yi’s complexion instantly recovered his normalcy. Then, he took the initiative to introduce himself, Qi Jingchen, and the rest.

Li Shu was a somewhat gentle person, while Feng Qinyun looked rather flashy. He seemed to be in his thirties, and was very handsome. It could not be denied that this was a very attractive man. “Nie Yi, I’ve often heard Ah Shu speak of you. Hello.”

“Hello.” Nie Yi smiled at the other, the two appearing joyous and harmonious.

“Qinyun, go find someone to prepare something to eat and bring it over.” Li Shu felt very gratified when he saw this scene, and spoke to Feng Qinyun.

“Uncle, I hear that Yuncheng has many vegetables planted? I want some fresh vegetables,” Nie Yi abruptly said.

“Then let’s bring some fresh vegetables,” Li Shu said.

“I’ll go right away. Right, Ah Shu, how was that zombie pig?” Feng Qinyun looked at Li Shu.

“Already killed by Xiao Yi.” Li Shu proudly said. Nie Yi being able to kill the zombie pig was something he thought worth being proud of. “Xiao Yi deserves to be a fire and water dual ability user, he’s extremely strong!”

When Feng Qinyun heard this, he looked at Nie Yi in surprise. “I didn’t expect Xiao Yi to be this amazing!”

Being called ‘Xiao Yi’ by a person he despised, Nie Yi couldn’t help but frown, but he quickly smoothed it out. “It was a fluke.”

“Being able to kill that zombie pig by a fluke isn’t easy! I’ll go and ask them to prepare more dishes, and bring some wine,” Feng Qinyun said with a smile. Before leaving, he even hugged Li Shu and planted a kiss on Li Shu’s face.

Li Shu was immediately a little uncomfortable with being so affectionate in front of the younger generation, but Feng Qinyun had already left with a smile.

Feng Qinyun and Li Shu weren’t good at cooking, so all their meals were at a dining hall in the secure base. If they had guests like today, they’d ask the chefs in the dining hall to help prepare some dishes.

“Xiao Yu, I have some things your mom left behind. Want to take a look with me?” At this time, Li Shu spoke to Nie Yi.

Nie Yi knew that Li Shu definitely had words he wanted to say alone between them. It just so happened that he also had some things he wanted to ask Li Shu, so he promptly stood up.

Li Shu’s house was a two story building that had a very small floor area. This building was newly built; downstairs was a living room, going upstairs even required a bamboo ladder, and the second floor had two rooms. One was a bedroom, and the other a study; the decorations were extremely simple and crude.

“Our secure base in the mountains is newly built, so there are a few things that we’re lacking,” Li Shu smiled and brought Nie Yi into the study room, taking out a photo album from the table drawer.

At the start, Nie Yi had thought Li Shu mentioning having his mother’s things was just an excuse, but after flipping through the album, he learnt that it was not so.

This photo album had several of his mother’s photos, even some of him when he was young. There were a few that were yellowed.

Nie Yi looked through them one by one, and even saw a family photo of him, Li Ping, and Nie Boyuan. In the photograph, he was seated in a carousel and wearing a red cap, looking a little foolish.

Li Shu waited for Nie Yi to look for a while before suddenly asking, “Xiao Yi, is Qi Jingchen an adult already? You didn’t lead a family’s young child astray, right?” Previously when he saw Qi Jingchen smiling at him, he felt a sense of guilt— this child looked as if he had just reached adulthood, at most!

Nie Yi really did not expect Li Shu to ask this and promptly replied, “He’s already about to turn twenty three, and graduated from university.”

When Li Shu heard this, he was finally at ease. “If it’s like this, I can relax. Since you’re already together, you should live your days well. Although my place cannot compare to B City secure base, we have more abundant natural resources. It won’t be long before we can harvest the several grains we planted, so everyone doesn’t have to go hungry anymore. Do you want to stay?”

“Uncle, I want to travel everywhere,” Nie Yi said.

“Travel everywhere?”

“The apocalypse is already here; perhaps everyone will die at some point, so I want to take the time while I’m alive to see more of this world.”

When Nie Yi spoke, he had a bit of an appearance as though he understood the affairs of life, and this conversely amused Li Shu a little. “What nonsense are you saying? Even though there are zombies outside right now, everything will get better!”

Nie Yi did not want to bother with this topic and abruptly asked, “Uncle, what do you think of Feng Qinyun?”

“What do you mean by what do I think?” Li Shu looked at Nie Yi in confusion.

“I think there’s something amiss with him,” Nie Yi said.

Li Shu, however, did not believe him at all. “How could there be anything amiss? Xiao Yi, don’t say this in front of him, or he’ll get angry.”

Li Shu clearly had a lot of trust towards Feng Qinyun, so what had happened in his last life? Nie Yi did not have any proof right now, so he ultimately did not rashly speak more about Feng Qinyun. Seeing Nie Yi’s behaviour, Li Shu also no longer mentioned Feng Qinyun, but secretly made a decision to find a way for these two to interact.

The two of them did not speak for long before Feng Qinyun brought back many dishes that were unexpectedly very sumptuous.

“We don’t have many meat dishes now, but a lot of vegetables are already mature,” Feng Qinyun said with a smile, then told Li Shu, “I specifically asked them to prepare your favourite dry pot wild mushroom.”

Nie Yi directly took out a pot from the things he brought, then took the vegetables Feng Qinyun brought to prepare cooking for Qi Jingchen…

Li Shu looked at Nie Yi rather helplessly. He previously thought Nie Yi had asked Feng Qinyun to bring vegetables back because they intended to have an open fire themselves, but didn’t expect that he actually wanted to cook on the spot for Qi Jingchen.

After their meal, it was already dark out. However, both Li Shu and Feng Qinyun were very busy, so they arranged for Nie Yi and the rest to stay next door before leaving for the nearby assembly hall. Li Shu even specifically brought away the battle report Nie Yi had written.

This secure base had set up a hydraulic generator and could provide some electricity. In Nie Yi and the others’ room, the compact fluorescent light emitted a soft white light.

“Go watch that Feng Qinyun,” Nie Yi told Qi An. Two days ago, Qi An’s ability had reached level three, and his concealment had become even stronger. As long as there wasn’t too much of a distance when he teleported, he could position himself as well.

“Why?” Qi An was a little unhappy.

“If you find evidence, I’ll catch wild game for you to eat,” Nie Yi said.

Qi An left their room with a teleport.

Baobao Notes

Extra Kofi chapter!