The Pregnancy Dream

Second, he'd survived because Snow Bird had carried him back to its nest. He didn't know why Snow Bird had done that. Perhaps it had simply been feeling generous, since it had never been hostile toward humans.

Third, he didn't know why his ability had grown stronger. He'd passed out when Snow Bird brought him back to its nest, and when he woke again, he was already at the base. It was entirely possible that his ability had awakened under the threat of death.

As for his chest wound healing so quickly, Lou Quan and the researchers weren't particularly surprised. News had already come from Central Base that ability users recovered from injuries several times faster than ordinary people.

That was one of the reasons everyone was so eager to get their hands on the Ability Awakening Reagent.

But they hadn't witnessed it firsthand and didn't know just how fast "fast" was. They simply took Lou Yu's recovery to be within a reasonable range and recorded it for future reference.

Lou Yu didn't know whether Lou Quan and the researchers fully believed his answers. While he was recovering, they drew his blood for experiments and had him test the current strength of his ability. He cooperated fully. Even if the results later contradicted his account, all he had to do was stick to the stubborn line of "I don't know, I'm not sure."

After all, they weren't going to kill him, their only research subject at the moment.

Lou Yu settled into the research institute. The researchers were all academic fanatics, and they kept taking apart the half-true, half-false things he'd told them and asking about them over and over. They were so meticulous they practically wanted to crack open Lou Yu's head and look inside for themselves.

Even Lou Quan, who was only watching, got annoyed. Lou Yu, however, remained earnest and patient. There was a reason he had such a good reputation at the base.

With Lou Quan, the base's highest authority, intervening, the base's ill-intentioned people couldn't find so much as a crack to investigate through, even in secret. They had nothing to report to the big shots at Central Base, and it kept them tossing and turning all night.

Lou Quan still had a conscience. Since Lou Yu had been so willing to cooperate, Lou Quan didn't directly help him with the matter of those people plotting against him, but he did make things much easier for Chen Lin and the others, allowing their investigation to avoid plenty of detours.

There were plenty of spies from the major Central Base families in Yong'an Base. They were the only ones with both the ability and the motive to hurt someone. Chen Lin and the others simply needed to find evidence and pin it on the specific person or people responsible.

Over the next half month, Chen Lin and the others came and went from the research institute, and, with Lou Yu's help, they got the matter settled.

In the end, they determined that the Shen Family and Bai Family were involved, with the Shen Family as the mastermind.

The Shen Family had been the first in Central Base to develop the Ability Awakening Reagent. For a time, they'd been unrivaled.

Lou Yu had a grudge against the Shen Family. That was the fundamental reason he'd left Central Base in the first place, so he wasn't surprised that they had tried to harm him this time.

"Forget the Shen Family. Didn't the old man from the Bai Family want to arrange a marriage between the Lou and Bai families before? I heard he'd taken a liking to you. Have they changed their tune because they can't have you and would rather ruin you, or did you leave some romantic debts behind when you left Central Base?"

Lou Quan lounged in his chair with no regard for appearances, raising an eyebrow at Lou Yu. He looked like he was dying for some gossip.

Lou Yu didn't even change his expression. "How would I know what the perpetrators were thinking? I'm the victim."

Lou Quan glanced at him. "Sure, keep brushing me off."

Lou Yu calmly drank his hot water and ignored him.

Lou Quan continued, "Still, the Lou Family couldn't possibly have been completely unaware when the Shen and Bai families made their move. Even if they didn't know beforehand, they played dumb when your people investigated afterward. That couldn't have been an accident... Little brother, does Uncle really want to cut ties with his own son?"

The Lou Family Lou Quan was referring to wasn't himself and Lou Yu, but the Lou Family at Central Base. The Lou Family had also established its own influence in Yong'an Base, independent of Lou Yu and Lou Quan and under the control of the main family.

Lou Yu glanced at Lou Quan. "I don't know about that. But you and Uncle have been 'father and son in perfect harmony' for over a decade, so you should understand the older generation's thinking better than I do. Why not share some of your experience?"

If anyone could be called a "family traitor," it was Lou Quan, the first in the Lou Family. So many years had passed since what happened back then, yet it was still a favorite topic of idle conversation for many people at Central Base. Clearly, there was plenty to chew over.

"Ugh..." Lou Quan frowned. "Did you coat your mouth in poison today? Doesn't everyone say you're the most gentle and considerate?"

Lou Yu lived up to that reputation. "I learned from you. I've only picked up a little."

"..." Lou Quan didn't want to talk to Lou Yu anymore. Lou Yu felt the same way.

Lou Quan poured himself a cup of hot water too. The brothers sat facing each other in silence and slowly drank. They looked as if they were savoring not plain water, but some kind of fine wine.

No wonder water was called the epitome of tolerance. Before the great disaster, it had been polluted by humanity's efforts to purify it. After the great disaster, it had undergone the least mutation-one could say it had barely changed—so people in danger could still use it normally. Now it could even ease people's awkwardness. It was truly the most versatile of all.

Actually, Lou Yu's bad mood today wasn't directed at Lou Quan. He was simply in a foul mood, and Lou Quan happened to be particularly annoying, so he'd walked right into the line of fire.

As for the reason for Lou Yu's bad mood, it was and wasn't related to the Shen and Bai families' plot against him.

After investigating, Lou Yu's side had obtained solid evidence proving that people from the Shen and Bai families had deliberately driven the mutant wolf pack to the south side of the safety zone. The wolf-attracting spray on the patrol vehicle had been their work, too.

But when it came time to assign blame, the two families' foundations in Yong'an Base remained untouched.

The two families threw a few underlings out to take the fall, claiming that the people at the top knew nothing. Although Lou Yu knew that was a lie, he couldn't do anything about it for now.

Lou Quan didn't want to completely offend the Shen and Bai families over this and risk them ganging up on Yong'an Base and disrupting his research plans. So even when he helped, he only cleared the way; he didn't get involved directly.

To anyone who didn't know the truth, this "revenge" looked like much ado about nothing—or a completely failed act of retaliation.

But this situation had been entirely within Lou Yu's expectations. With his current influence, going up against a powerful family like the Shen Family or Bai Family was no different from throwing an egg at a rock.

But he'd investigated and "retaliated" despite knowing that because he wanted to drag his conflict with the Shen Family out of the shadows and into the open, so everyone would know that he, Lou Yu, was at odds with the Shen Family.

Back then, those in power had deliberately concealed what had happened between him and the Shen Family at Central Base. He hated the Shen Family, and the Shen Family hated him. Both sides wanted the other dead.

The Shen Family had made the first move this time, so they couldn't blame him for being ruthless from now on.

Why had the Shen and Bai families panicked when they learned he'd returned alive? Because they knew he held grudges, was extremely vindictive, and, with an ability, really could get his revenge.

Half a year ago at Central Base, the Shen Family had thought he was insignificant and paid no attention to his hatred. As a result, they'd suffered a major setback at his hands and had ultimately been forced to share the technology for the Ability Awakening Reagent-their greatest advantage—with the three other families.

It looked as if he'd lost this round, but the Shen and Bai families weren't necessarily the ones who'd have the last laugh.

Lou Quan would use the opportunity to reorganize the base's complex forces and consolidate his rule, but he'd do it behind the scenes, so the Shen and Bai families wouldn't notice.

And Lou Yu's revenge, whether through a covert attack or an open killing, would gradually begin from this moment onward.

As for the real reason Lou Yu was in a bad mood, even he couldn't quite make sense of it.

He just felt irritable all over, as if he'd run into some enormous, infuriating problem. He was burning with anger, yet there was nothing he could do about it.

Since nothing had happened up to this very second today that could have stirred up such intense emotions in Lou Yu, his first instinct was that he'd been affected by someone else. It was like a white cloth falling into dye: whatever color the dye was, that was what the cloth became.

But Lou Yu had no way of knowing who the dye was or where it was, so this was only a guess, with no proof to back it up.

While Lou Yu was full of suspicion, somewhere out in the wild, chaos had broken out.

All the mutant monsters ranked below Snow Bird were fleeing. Even if it meant risking a trespass into another mutant monster's territory, they wanted to get as far as possible from the valley where Snow Bird lived.

Because Snow Bird had suddenly gone berserk! He killed every mutant monster he caught, whether or not it was on his menu!

Everywhere he went, rivers of blood flowed and corpses littered the ground. The carnage was beyond words.

The mutant monsters with some intelligence were wondering whether Snow Bird was about to die. Years ago, before a high-level mutant monster in the area suddenly dropped dead, it had gone on a killing spree like this too.

As the fleeing mutant monsters screamed, Snow Bird kept screeching. His cries sounded like bloodcurdling sobs, each one more shrill than the last, but they meant nothing in particular. No one could understand what he was shouting.

Only Tao Qiu knew that he was screaming just to vent, and that he was already on the verge of breaking down inside.

-He! A male mutant monster had actually gotten pregnant!! This world was insane!!!

Although he'd already accepted the series of strange events he'd encountered since regaining his human memories and considered himself mentally strong, when Tao Qiu discovered he was pregnant, he still felt as if his entire worldview had been shattered.

Whether in his previous life as a human or this life as a bird, Tao Qiu had never encountered a male getting pregnant and giving birth. It defied all biological common sense, yet it had happened to him.

Ever since discovering his new ability, Tao Qiu had thrown himself into making fruit ripen early and eating it to slow the progress of his death.

Especially after experiencing firsthand that using this ability was just like playing a game: the more he used it, the more it leveled up and increased in proficiency, becoming even more powerful.

Although it was slow, it gave him more to look forward to in life, and he could hardly wait to work at it day and night.

After discovering that the dirt floor of the cave didn't give him enough room to put his ability to use, he'd even cleared a patch of "vegetable garden" at the bottom of the valley to practice his plant ability.

When Tao Qiu, who was wholly devoted to farming, saw his abs gradually disappear and his belly grow round, he'd only thought he'd been eating too much lately and was gaining weight.