A Daddy-Type Boyfriend's Schemes

Ever since they had first gotten together, Jiang Nian had realized that it was a little scary when the usually serious man became lovestruck.

Cheng Jing stared at him for a moment, then lowered his body and pinned him down completely:

"Back when we were together, you already had me worrying about losing you. Now it's the apocalypse, so be good and give me a little more security."

When he finished, he buried his head against Jiang Nian's shoulder and nuzzled him, looking utterly dejected.

"Uh... I didn't do anything, did I? Besides, that beauty came up to you first..."

Jiang Nian was a little speechless. He gave himself a serious review and found nothing he had done wrong.

To put it traditionally, he had really upheld his male virtue!

But Cheng Jing refused to let it go:

"But I feel like you've been much colder to me lately..."

"I didn't, I'm not, don't talk nonsense!"

Jiang Nian denied it three times in a row. Seeing that Cheng Jing seemed to have fallen into a strange emo mood, he offered quiet reassurance:

"Brother Jing, just tell me what I did wrong, and I'll change..."

He couldn't resist his boyfriend's forceful display of affection, so of course he had to coax him. That devastatingly handsome face was lethal!

"..."

Cheng Jing said nothing, simply holding him in silence.

It looked like the problem was serious. Jiang Nian began to panic and kept coaxing him:

"Really, I'll definitely change!"

At the same time, he racked his brains:

Where had I dropped the ball lately?

"Really?"

Cheng Jing finally asked, his voice full of grievance.

Jiang Nian stroked his head:

"Really, truer than a pearl!"

Cheng Jing propped himself up and looked at him:

"Then let me do it two more times at night. You've been going out every day lately, and the density of our affection has gone down. It's bad enough that you limit how many times we do it each week, but now you want to limit the time too. That's a form of emotional abuse, and you need to change!"

Ever since he had started going out with the others, Jiang Nian had imposed "sanctions" on him.

"..."

Jiang Nian's serious expression cracked, and his earlier worry and anxiety vanished.

After all that bullshit, this was what he had been waiting for!

Did he have to seize on the subject and go to such lengths to get to the point?!

Angry, Jiang Nian raised a hand to pinch the man on top of him, but Cheng Jing caught his wrist and pinned it to the back of the sofa above his head, continuing his complaint:

"You said you craved me before. Have you gotten tired of me already?"

"I..."

Jiang Nian was both annoyed and amused. In the end, he turned his head away:

"I'll change, I'll change, I'll change. Happy now?"

A certain someone still wasn't satisfied:

"What do you mean, happy now? Are you that reluctant?"

"I... I'm not reluctant!"

Jiang Nian couldn't even stay angry anymore. Cheng Jing just had to make it this sappy, did he? No problem!

Using the leverage from his pinned wrist, he raised his upper body and leaned in to kiss him:

"Brother Jing, I was wrong. I'll definitely change. From now on, you can do whatever you want~"

It was just acting sweet. It wasn't as though he didn't know how!

Sure enough, Cheng Jing released him, his expression brightening as he lowered his head to kiss him:

"Good."

"..."

In the end, Jiang Nian was pinned down and rolled around with him on the brink of things going too far before the two of them finally got up to eat.

Halfway through the meal, Jiang Nian looked at the radiant man and offered a gentle reminder:

"Brother Jing, if you're unhappy about something in the future, just tell me directly. We don't need to beat around the bush with each other... Sometimes I might not understand when you do."

He was such a handsome, austere type, so how did he fall apart the moment he got into a relationship?!

He even tried playing mind games, as childish as some greenhorn. Honestly!

"Okay."

Cheng Jing nodded and put a braised chicken leg in his bowl:

"Eat more."

Then he put down his bowl and chopsticks and peeled shrimp for him.

"Thanks, Brother Jing."

Jiang Nian accepted the food without worry. In any case, Cheng Jing would definitely collect repayment for all this effort that night.

He would stay home and look after Xiao Ya tomorrow, and let Sister Qian go out for a day.

By early February, more than five months had passed since the apocalypse began.

Ever since the extreme cold had set in, the central satellite broadcasts had been reporting on zombies and the cold-weather disaster in various places, reminding people to take all kinds of precautions.

Today, they finally reported on the apocalypse bases.

They said the various apocalypse bases were basically complete. Although the bases had been established under the leadership of the authorities and the military, many ability users had joined afterward, so the rules established at each base were somewhat different.

Some were under the jurisdiction of the local authorities in the area where they had been built, some were under military jurisdiction, and some were made up mostly of ability users.

But regardless of the type of base, all of them would actively take in and rescue survivors from across the country.

Once it was judged possible to carry out rescues, the rescue forces would set out from their respective bases to search for survivors.

Alternatively, survivors who were capable of doing so could make their own way to the bases using their coordinates.

The satellite broadcasts over several consecutive days rekindled hope in the despondent people. After all, having something to look forward to gave them the will to survive.

Jiang Nian told Cheng Jing that the weather would gradually warm up in early March.

The base rescue teams would probably set out around the middle of March, searching for survivors according to the distress signals sent by each city.

That meant they only had to hold out for another month before the extreme cold lifted.

Everyone was happy to have news of the rescue bases, and after their group dinner that evening, Jiang Nian took out a map.

Referring to the locations of the apocalypse bases across the country announced in the satellite broadcasts, he marked them on the map, and then they discussed and narrowed down which base they would head to.

They had two modified vehicles and plenty of gasoline, with just enough room for ten people and their luggage.

So, once it started warming up, they would pick the right moment to leave. Otherwise, once all the snow melted and the zombies came out, travel would be difficult.

Besides, the earlier they entered a base, the better. The resources available to those who entered later would get worse and worse, even for ability users.

With their team's strength, entering a base early would let them quickly establish a foothold.

In any case, neither the Qingyun City authorities nor Zhou Li would stop them.

Because everyone's circumstances were different, not everyone would go to the same base. The authorities had already asked the survivors at the western district settlement to start planning and preparing.

As for which base to go to, the others offered no opinions and simply waited for Cheng Jing and Jiang Nian to decide, treating the two of them like living fathers they could rely on.

Not counting those under construction or awaiting construction, there were currently only nearly three hundred bases of varying sizes across the country. Three were relatively close to Qingyun City:

L Base, K Base, and South City Base.

L Base was led and managed by government officials. Given the current circumstances, if the trip from Qingyun City went smoothly, they could reach it in about a week.

K Base was jointly led and managed by government officials and ability users. Under normal circumstances, the journey there from Qingyun City would take around ten days to half a month.

There were only four apocalypse bases in the country entirely led and managed by the military. South City Base was one of them, and the other three were North City Base, West City Base, and East City Base.

Of the three nearby bases, South City Base was the farthest from Qingyun City, and getting there would take around twenty days.

There was no need to consider any of the more distant bases.

Those travel times assumed everything went smoothly. If things didn't go smoothly, there was no telling how long it would take; they might never arrive at all.