By morning, the rain that had fallen all night had finally stopped.
The ground was a little muddy, but the scenery on the mountain was lovely.
From here, the entire city lay shrouded in mist, its ravaged buildings half hidden in the haze, their outlines dim and indistinct.
It almost looked like the safe, bustling South City of old.
The survivors found somewhere to set up a stove and busied themselves lighting a fire and cooking.
Lu Jiayi yawned and poked his head into the vehicle.
"Where's Ye Ruan?"
Gu Cheng smugly pulled open his coat, revealing a little ball of fur curled up inside.
A breeze blew in, and the little furball shivered.
Gu Cheng hurriedly zipped up his coat and gently patted the little rabbit through the fabric.
Lu Jiayi clicked his tongue. "Gu, you're shameless. What's this, taking advantage of being closest to him?"
Yu Jingjing burst out laughing.
"Haven't you heard of getting in there first? It's so hard to find a mate these days. My brother's just being resourceful!"
Lu Jiayi cupped his hands in salute. "Master Yu, you certainly have a way with words."
Yu Jingjing waved a hand casually. "You're all too kind."
Gu Cheng gave each of them a smack on the back of the head.
"Are you two doing a comedy routine here?"
"If you've got nothing to do, go help that older guy gather branches for the cooking fire!"
After the two idiots left, Li Rang came over and stood beside Gu Cheng, heaving an exaggerated sigh.
Gu Cheng shot him a sidelong look. "Spit it out."
Li Rang scratched his head. "Captain, have you forgotten that rule in the special person unit?"
Of course Gu Cheng hadn't forgotten. In fact, he remembered it very clearly.
Given their unusual origins, there weren't many special people.
The three teams only had a little over a hundred members between them.
Before the apocalypse, they had carried out missions around the world as mercenaries.
Most special people had been artificially created as embryos and had no parents.
A few were children born to married members of the previous generation.
Special people were formidable fighters and even possessed extraordinary abilities. Producing this many was already the limit.
Concerned that their numbers would dwindle over time, headquarters had made a recommendation.
It was less a recommendation than a demand.
They wanted members of the three teams to find partners among their fellow members, and... they had to have children.
In other words, gay relationships weren't allowed.
Gu Cheng gave a careless smile.
"What's there to be afraid of? Give the Commander-in-Chief a hundred times the guts, and see if he dares lay a finger on me."
Fang Ci came out of the Biohazard Vehicle and picked up the conversation:
"The First Team is the elite among special people. Even if every one of us were gay, the higher-ups wouldn't say anything."
Li Rang's eyes lit up. "Then do you think... I have a chance?"
"I heard everyone on the Third Team is good-looking. They might be the weakest team, but they're the pretty faces of us special people."
The weakest team.
The rabbit nestled in Gu Cheng's pocket pricked up his ears. He really wanted to argue, but he had no energy.
Gu Cheng promptly dashed Li Rang's hopes. "You? Go to bed early. You can have anything in your dreams."
Li Rang: "..."
Ye Ruan spent the entire morning tucked against Gu Cheng's chest. Gu Cheng wandered around and even made a special trip to show him off to a group of children.
"Look at the little bunny. This is my little bunny."
"Cute, right? So soft, isn't he? Isn't he adorable?"
"Hey, hey, hey! Li Tuantuan! Let go of his ears! Only Uncle Gu gets to touch those!"
"You can look, but you can't touch. Line up if you want a look."
Gu Cheng obnoxiously showed him off, earning envious looks from all the children before finally walking away, satisfied, with his hands behind his back.
By afternoon, Ye Ruan's fever had gone down. While Gu Cheng was taking a nap, he hurriedly hopped out of his pocket.
Those little brats had ruffled all his fur.
When Yu Jingjing saw Ye Ruan come out, she immediately rushed over.
"Little Ruan! Are you still feeling sick?"
"Not anymore." Ye Ruan pointed at the axe in Yu Jingjing's hand.
"What are you going to do?"
Yu Jingjing said, "Cut down some trees. We don't have many portable gas canisters left, so we're getting some wood just in case."
Ye Ruan thought he could help and asked softly:
"Can I come with you?"
"Of course!" Yu Jingjing hugged Ye Ruan's arm, and the two headed toward the woods outside camp.
Fang Ci, who was standing guard outside camp, saw them and came over. "Where are you going?"
Yu Jingjing smiled. "Little Ruan and I are going to cut down trees!"
Fang Ci nodded and looked at the silver-haired, red-eyed young man beside her.
"Have you taken your medicine? Has your fever gone down?"
Ye Ruan blinked, touched his forehead, and checked for a moment before answering honestly:
"It's still warm, but I don't feel sick anymore."
Fang Ci sighed and held the back of his hand against Ye Ruan's forehead for a few seconds. As he withdrew it, he bent a finger and ran his knuckle down the young man's nose.
It hurt a little, and Ye Ruan twitched his nose.
"A low fever. It should be gone by tonight."
Fang Ci slung his gun over his back. "I'll come with you."
Yu Jingjing's expression turned a little strange.
Fang Ci seemed gentle, but he never actually took the initiative to approach anyone.
It made no difference whether they were men or women, young or old.
But with Ye Ruan...
Yu Jingjing looked from Ye Ruan to Fang Ci, then suddenly understood.
The three entered the woods. Yu Jingjing swung her axe enthusiastically, supplying her own sound effects with every chop.
"Eighty! Eighty! Eighty!"
Ye Ruan backed away two steps, thoroughly shaken by the sight of this sweet, adorable girl chopping down a tree.
Fang Ci's eyes curved slightly. "That's just how she is. Full of energy."
"She's very cute. Like Number 27 from the Third Team."
"Number 27?" Fang Ci asked. "Is that a designation for a team member?"
"Yes! Number 27 is called Tang Tang, a little hamster special person."
Fang Ci smiled. "Must be very cute."
Ye Ruan nodded and pulled the oversized coat closer around his shoulders, his hands tucked inside the sleeves.
Fang Ci fell silent for a few seconds, then rubbed Ye Ruan's head, withdrawing his hand before Ye Ruan could react.
"From now on... you can come to me if anything happens. Don't worry about being a bother. I..."
A flush crept across Fang Ci's face. Avoiding Ye Ruan's gaze, he added:
"I, I want to help you."
Watching Yu Jingjing chop away so enthusiastically, Ye Ruan wanted to help her. He didn't notice anything unusual and nodded in casual agreement.
"Oh... okay. Thank you, Fang Ci."
Apparently, he hadn't understood.
Fang Ci coughed and was just about to be more direct.
But Ye Ruan had already walked away.
He picked a tree with a trunk thicker than Yu Jingjing's waist.
Ye Ruan twitched the rabbit ears he had just let out twice, wrapped his slender arms around the trunk, and dug his ten long fingers into the bark.
The next moment, before Fang Ci's astonished eyes-
Ye Ruan uprooted the entire tree!
Yu Jingjing looked over at the noise and couldn't hold back:
"Holy shit!"
Ye Ruan hurriedly dropped the tree, grabbed his furry floppy ears to hide his face, and forced an awkward smile.
"It, it just rained... the soil's really soft."
Yu Jingjing pressed a finger beneath her nose and sucked in a sharp breath.
Fang Ci stared for two seconds, then smiled again. "You must be the child of special people? Different from us?"
Children born to special people were more powerful than those artificially cultivated by headquarters, and stronger too.
However, some abilities, such as immense strength, were only available in half-beast form.
Ye Ruan brushed the mud off his clothes and answered:
"Yes. My mother used to be the First Team's deputy captain."
Yu Jingjing took a step forward, her voice urgent:
"Is your mother called Ye Qingman?"
Ye Ruan asked curiously, "Do you know my mother?"
Yu Jingjing clenched her fists excitedly and bounced twice on the spot:
"She's my idol! Even now, there's a whole wall of magazines about her missions in the library in the First Team's dorm building!"
Ye Ruan's red eyes sparkled.
His mother was his friend's idol. That was something to be proud of.
Fang Ci took a handkerchief from his pocket and helped Ye Ruan wipe the mud spots off his coat.
"Never mind her. She's far too excitable. But your mother really was one of the elite of the previous generation of special people. With such an outstanding son now, she must be happy and proud."
Happy...
Ye Ruan lifted his eyes, and for an instant, their red seemed to fade.
"She probably... isn't happy."
Even after retiring, she couldn't escape headquarters' control.
When they returned to camp, Gu Cheng was already awake and discussing their next route with Lu Jiayi and the others.
Ye Ruan had barely entered the Biohazard Vehicle when the big bad wolf followed right on his heels.
Before you continue