Chapter 75

Chapter 75

Seeing Cheng Mo’s obedience, Cheng Zhiyu thought he had successfully pulled one over on him and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, though a wave of guilt washed over him—he felt like he was deceiving his innocent boyfriend.

*Cough*, it’s fine. He could just make it up to him later.

He had no idea that Cheng Mo was already plotting.

"Let’s go see the rabbits," Cheng Zhiyu said, changing the subject and taking Cheng Mo’s hand.

Cheng Mo glanced at him and thought, *Hmph, this Cheng Zhiyu really is lying to me. When has he ever taken the initiative to hold my hand in public before?*

*Trying to make it up to me? I couldn’t care less.*

Even as he thought this, he tightened his grip on Cheng Zhiyu’s hand. Cheng Zhiyu complained, "Aren’t you worried about how sweaty it gets?"

Cheng Mo: "Not sweaty."

Cheng Zhiyu: *Fine, fine, whatever he wants.*

Looking at Cheng Mo now, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of guilt. But really, it was Cheng Mo’s fault—how could someone his age still not know about these things? And it wasn’t like Cheng Zhiyu felt comfortable teaching him.

"Rabbits aren’t that interesting," Cheng Mo said, uninterested, but he still followed Cheng Zhiyu.

Cheng Zhiyu smiled. "Remember that pregnant rabbit from a few days ago? I heard it gave birth. Let’s go see the babies."

Cheng Mo still wasn’t interested, but he didn't mind looking.

The mother rabbit was even fiercer after giving birth. From a distance, it growled at them aggressively, as if it would bite if they dared to come any closer.

Cheng Zhiyu and Cheng Mo didn’t get any closer, just watched from afar. They could see a litter of flesh-colored, hairless baby rabbits.

"This rabbit has gotten really aggressive since giving birth. I used to feed it often and could get close. Sometimes, when it was in a good mood, I could even stroke it. But after having babies, I can’t get near it anymore. Last time, it almost broke the skin with its bite," the keeper said sadly. They should have been close by now!

"It’s normal for them to be more protective after giving birth. It’s probably just protecting its babies," Cheng Zhiyu reassured him.

The keeper nodded. "Yeah, now I just toss grass to it from afar."

Cheng Zhiyu glanced at the still hairless babies and said worriedly, "It’s fine during the day, but what about at night? Won’t they freeze to death?"

They had worked so hard to raise these rabbits, hoping they would reproduce so the base could have meat to eat. If the babies froze to death, it would be a real problem.

"It's fine, the mother rabbit will curl around them to sleep at night. I also placed a heating lamp nearby. The litter was born yesterday, and this morning I counted—all ten babies are doing fine," the keeper said with a smile. The rabbit had given birth to a full litter of ten!

Before the apocalypse, domestic rabbits often lost several babies after birth. This rabbit’s litter seemed fine for now, but they still needed to keep a close eye on them to prevent any accidental deaths.

After watching for a while, Cheng Zhiyu noticed the mother rabbit getting agitated since they hadn’t left. Not wanting to upset it further, he quickly pulled Cheng Mo away.

"They're so ugly," Cheng Mo said once they were farther away.

Newborn rabbits really were ugly—completely hairless, just like little mice.

"Weren’t you like that when you were born?" Cheng Zhiyu teased, seeing his look of disgust.

"Nonsense, I had hair when I was born," Cheng Mo refused to admit he could ever have been that ugly.

"Oh? How would you know?" Cheng Zhiyu asked. "Do you remember being born?"

Of course, Cheng Mo didn’t remember, but: "I have photos."

As the Crown Prince, every stage of his life had been documented. He had seen pictures of himself right after birth—curled up in his father’s palm, no bigger than his palm, with wet hair clinging to his body.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t been particularly good-looking either.

To protect his image, Cheng Mo silently decided that if he ever took Cheng Zhiyu back to his home planet, he would hide those ugly photos where Cheng Zhiyu could never find them.

Cheng Zhiyu, however, was intrigued. "Then show me what you looked like when you were born, and when you were little. Also, what did you look like when you first took human form? Were you already this big?"

Cheng Mo: "Of course not. I was a child at first."

"Then I want to see that too," Cheng Zhiyu said, growing even more curious. He wondered if Cheng Mo had always had that stoic face even as a child.

"Sure, but now that I think about it, I might not have any photos from when I was just born. I think I misremembered," Cheng Mo said.

Cheng Zhiyu didn’t believe him. "You’re lying to me. I’m sure there are."

Cheng Mo: "...They're not good-looking. Better not look."

Cheng Zhiyu held his hand. "How could they not be nice? Even if they’re not—"

Cheng Mo cut in, flustered: "Cheng Zhiyu, do you think I’m not good-looking?"

"Hey, why are you getting so defensive?" Cheng Zhiyu said calmly. "I was going to say, even if they’re not good, they’d still look good to me."

Cheng Mo’s lips immediately curved into a smile. "Since you said it like that, I’ll have my mother look for them when I take you back."

"By the way, what about your childhood photos?" Cheng Mo asked. "I’ll ask your mom for them when we get back."

Cheng Zhiyu didn’t mind. Let him ask. He’d seen those photos himself—they were all well-shot, nothing to be embarrassed about!

When they got back, Cheng Mo indeed asked Cheng Zhiyu's mother for the photos. She smiled and went to her room, returning shortly with a photo album. "They’re all in here—photos of Zhi Yu from childhood till now."

Both of her children were good-looking, and Cheng Zhiyu's mother often took them for photos when they were younger. After they got a camera at home, she took plenty of pictures.

Cheng Mo was curious and started flipping through from the beginning.

Cheng Zhiyu's mother said with a smile, "Back when Zhi Yu was just born, he was our first child, and we had no experience. When they brought him to me, I was shocked and thought they brought me the wrong baby. He looked like a tiny monkey—so ugly I almost passed out. Luckily, he got better looking as time went on. They say all newborns look like that."

Cheng Zhiyu had been calm until he heard this. He suddenly remembered that he did have an ugly baby photo. Now he understood how Cheng Mo had felt earlier about not wanting him to see it. He immediately lunged to cover the photo. "Don’t look!"

But Cheng Mo had already seen it. His expression softened, and he didn’t think it was ugly at all. "How is he like a monkey? He’s adorable. Look at those big eyes—you can tell it’s Zhi Yu."

Cheng Zhiyu was so embarrassed by the praise he felt his scalp tingling. *Well, I guess love is blind.* He glanced at the photo—it was just as ugly as the hairless rabbits they’d seen earlier, but Cheng Mo thought it was incredibly cute.

Cheng Zhiyu: "...Alright then."

Luckily, they turned to the next page quickly—a picture from his one-month celebration. In just a month, he had transformed completely. His red skin had turned pale and soft, his features had become much more defined, and anyone would agree he looked adorable.

Cheng Mo thought he was just as adorable as in the previous photo and earnestly insisted that it was clearly the same person.

Looking at Cheng Mo’s serious expression, Cheng Zhiyu thought, *Well... fine.*

Later, there was a photo of Cheng Zhiyu with missing teeth, grinning with a wide, toothless smile.

Cheng Zhiyu was in disbelief—he didn’t even remember having such an ugly photo. Fortunately, Cheng Mo’s filter was extremely thick, and he still found it adorable. He even wanted to remove the photos from the album to keep them, but Cheng Zhiyu's mother wouldn’t let him.

"When the power comes back on, charge your phone and take pictures of them. It's the same thing," Mom Cheng was adamant about preserving every single photo.

Cheng Mo: "...Alright." He really wanted them badly.

But this was Zhi Yu's mother—he couldn’t just grab them. Sigh.

Cheng Mo looked disappointed and sighed, "When will the power come back?"

The base still had no electricity. At night, the superhumans on patrol carried torches. At first, everyone found it hard to adjust, but as time passed, they got used to life without electricity.

Cheng Zhiyu here did have a generator he'd collected earlier, but it required diesel, and he had already used up all the diesel he had.

"Who knows?" Mom Cheng sighed. She also wished for electricity—after decades of living with it, she was long accustomed to it. But this was the post-apocalyptic world; having the life they had now was already pretty good. She didn’t dare hope for more.

Cheng Mo, however, did hope for more. He wanted to take pictures of these photos with his phone so he could carry them with him all the time.

He reached out and held Cheng Zhiyu’s hand. "Zhi Yu, let’s go find another generator?"

Cheng Zhiyu felt a little embarrassed. Cheng Mo was being way too persistent about taking pictures of his childhood photos.

What was so worth photographing? He thought several of the photos were quite ugly.

He let out a light cough and said, "If we’re going out, just finding a generator would be a waste. Why not look for solar power setups instead? We could use solar power to supply electricity to the base."

The more feasible options now were solar and wind power, with solar being more suitable. The sun was blazing hot every day, while wind power wasn’t very practical here since it hardly ever got windy.

"Besides, if we’re going out anyway, why bother with all this trouble? Let’s see if we can find a photo printer and make copies of these photos." Wasn’t that better than taking pictures with a phone?

Cheng Mo thought it made sense and couldn’t wait to ask when they could set out.

Cheng Zhiyu sighed helplessly, "What’s the rush? Let’s wait until after the wheat harvest."

The mutant large wheat would mature in the next couple of days, while the mutant ratoon wheat would take a bit longer—probably about a week. They didn’t need to wait for the latter; they could leave after harvesting the mutant large wheat.

Cheng Mo nodded in agreement.

After that, he continued looking at the photos, pointing at each one and asking Mom Cheng what was happening in them.

"This was Zhi Yu’s first day of kindergarten," Mom Cheng said with a smile, as if reminiscing about the past. "We were worried about whether he’d cry since it was his first time away from home, but he didn’t. His dad and I thought it went surprisingly smoothly. Then, as soon as we got home, we got a call from his teacher saying our kid was crying like there was no tomorrow and had even made the whole class cry. In the end, we had no choice but to bring him back."

Cheng Zhiyu blushed upon hearing this. How come I never knew about this?

Mom Cheng said, "There’s plenty you don’t know."

He was so young back then. Kids in rural areas started kindergarten early—he was probably only four. What could he possibly remember?

"And this one was taken when he was in elementary school," Mom Cheng said, laughing.

Cheng Mo asked why she was laughing. Mom Cheng glanced at Cheng Zhiyu, who suddenly had a bad feeling.

Then Mom Cheng said, "Zhi Yu was quite popular back then. He came home and said he had eight girlfriends, haha..."

Cheng Mo gave Cheng Zhiyu a side-eye. "Oh, eight girlfriends. Impressive."

His tone was slightly sarcastic.

Cheng Zhiyu cleared his throat and quickly explained, "They were just grade-schoolers. What did they know?"

What eight girlfriends? It was just others thinking he was good-looking and saying, "Cheng Zhiyu, I’ll be your girlfriend."

Little kids had no idea what "girlfriend" even meant. He just said okay and ended up with eight girlfriends in one day. But he wasn’t close to any of them—they hardly even talked.

Mom Cheng, caught up in the moment, forgot this was her son’s boyfriend. She quickly cleared her throat and said, "Haha, what do little kids know? They were just playing around."

Cheng Zhiyu nodded. "Yeah, just playing around. Don’t be so petty."

That night, the petty Cheng Mo whispered in his ear, "Eight girlfriends? Can I alone satisfy you?"

Cheng Zhiyu: "..."

"I told you it was just playing around," Cheng Zhiyu said, exasperated. "Are you really that immature? You're still holding a grudge about this."

"Oh, how can I compare to eight people?" Cheng Mo said with a pained expression.

"Trying to pull this on me, huh?" Cheng Zhiyu snorted and said, "Fine, you can’t compare. I’ll go find seven more tomorrow!"

Cheng Mo’s expression changed. Realizing he’d gone too far, he immediately said sternly, "No, you won’t! I was just joking."

Cheng Zhiyu: Hmph! Try to mess with me.

After that, Cheng Mo settled down completely, though he was acting all hurt.

Cheng Zhiyu gave him a reward after the scolding: "I was joking. How could I? There’s only you."

Cheng Mo was finally cheered up. He hugged him and mumbled, "That’s more like it."

——

The base had been buzzing with activity these past couple of days because the first batch of mutant large wheat was about to be harvested.

Small River Base was originally a village, and everyone there knew how to farm. Whenever they passed by the mutant large wheat, they could tell it was almost time to harvest.

Still, every time they saw the wheat, which stood half a person’s height with enormous grains, they couldn’t help but marvel at how amazing it was. Their old wheat had been so small—this was huge by comparison.

But they were happy about it. It was clear this’ll give a huge harvest—how could they not be excited?

"I wonder when this wheat will be harvested," someone said. These past few days, even those who didn’t pass by the area would make a detour just to take a look.

"I’d say within the next couple of days," said someone with experience. Just by touching the wheat ears, they could tell it was almost ready.

"Thank goodness! Now the base won’t run out of food!" The speaker sounded incredibly excited.

"Yeah, that's great! I’ve been worried every day, afraid we’d run out of rice and have nothing to eat. I lost my appetite. Now, seeing this wheat, I can finally relax."

"You lost your appetite? Quit exaggerating. I saw you eating just fine."

"Hey, don’t expose me like that. Look, isn’t that Xiang Qizheng? He’s so thin I hardly recognize him. At first glance, he almost looks pitiful."

"If you pity him, eat less and give your share to him! How can you feel sorry for him? He doesn’t deserve it. He stole so many seeds just to eat them himself. Who knows how much wheat those seeds could’ve produced? Ugh! He got what he deserved!"

"Exactly. What’s there to pity? I heard mutant seeds are really precious. If he’d stolen that many in another base, he would’ve been kicked out long ago. Our base has been plenty lenient, mostly out of consideration for old neighborhood bonds."

"It’s not that. I just feel bad for his wife. She’s suffering because of him. I heard Xiang Qizheng takes it out on her when he doesn’t get enough to eat. She has no choice but to give him some of her share, and now she’s lost a lot of weight too. She breaks down whenever I see her. It’s heartbreaking."

But crying didn’t help. Who’s getting enough these days? If your own family wasn’t full, how could you possibly share with others? Only someone out of their mind would do that. At most, you could offer some sympathy.

Not far away, Xiang Qizheng listened to the chatter and watched the nearly ripe mutant large wheat, a complex look in his eyes.

These people are ruthless; he couldn't stick around any longer, or they'd torture him to death sooner or later!

No way, he had to figure something out...

Finally, after everyone had been waiting, it was time to harvest the Mutant Large Wheat.

Mutant Large Wheat is totally different from the wheat of the past, so they couldn't use the old combines. Fortunately, the farming department had previously recruited folks who knew machinery. After researching for so long, they finally managed to create a new harvester.

They tested it out, and it worked, though the speed was a bit slow. Still, it was acceptable—after all, it was fixed up from old gear, and it was definitely faster than manual labor.

Truckload after truckload of Mutant Large Wheat was hauled to the village’s large drying ground, the air smelled fresh with wheat.

Everyone looked thrilled. A harvest meant they had the ability to grow food. As long as they had land and seeds, they wouldn’t starve to death—how could they not be pumped?

Soon after, the base announced good news: once the Mutant Large Wheat was dried, everyone would get fifty pounds each to start.

"Fifty pounds! That’s so much!" someone exclaimed in surprise.

"The yield of this wheat is exceptionally high. Our ordinary wheat used to give maybe a thousand pounds an acre max, but this wheat pulls in over 5,000 pounds!"

"No way!"

"With that calculation, our base has enough grain to last a year."

"Don’t forget, there’s also Mutant Ratoon Wheat, plus potatoes and sweet potatoes."

As everyone tallied it up, they couldn't stop grinning. This was great—finally, they didn’t have to worry about starving. Now that they had grain, and the base had started raising animals, it might not be long before they could have meat whenever.

Hadn’t they seen the hens they brought in before already laying eggs? Though the numbers were small, only those who had pitched in could get eggs.

Nobody minded; instead, they were psyched and ready to go.

"Is that Mutant Cotton planted over there?" someone pointed not far away.

"Yeah, I heard the cotton grows red. Weird, right?"

"They say that red cotton can put out heat—it’s really warm."

"Haha, with weather this hot now, who needs extra heat? Though nights are pretty cold—just use a hot water bottle in bed or something, right?"

"True. Logically, it's almost winter, but it’s still so hot."

Compared to food, everyone was not as into the cotton, feeling that while it might be useful now, it wasn’t a necessity.

But it wouldn’t be long before they felt grateful that the base had planted Mutant Cotton!

After arriving at the base, Chi Hongyi and the others, who had been stuck in their research, finally noticed how hype the base had become.

"What’s everyone so busy with?" Chi Hongyi watched from a distance. Everyone at the base, whether Superhumans or ordinary people, seemed incredibly happy.

"The Mutant Large Wheat has been harvested, and everyone’s busy picking up their grain," explained Xiao Wu, who helped them out, his smile unmistakable. "Professor Chi, they'll drop your grain off at the cafeteria. You can just go there to eat. The cafeteria is serving oil-splashed noodles today."

The cafeteria referred to the farming department’s cafeteria. It had been agreed earlier that the farming department would provide one meal a day. Now that the crops were harvested, the promised perk was finally actually happening.

Hearing this, Chi Hongyi immediately smiled. "Then I’ll have to go grab Old Chu and Old Feng to try it."

When mealtime came, Chi Hongyi indeed went to fetch Feng Wentao and Chu Mingda. The two were initially absorbed in their work and, upon hearing about eating, instinctively said, "Not now, we’ll eat after we finish this."

These few were total workaholics, often so engrossed they forgot to eat. Today, Chi Hongyi was weirdly eager. "I heard from Xiao Wu that the cafeteria is open today, serving oil-splashed noodles. Are you really not going? If you go late, it might be all gone."

The last part was a lie—Xiao Wu had said they could go anytime—but if he didn't say that, these two wouldn't budge.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, they stopped working and prepared to go to the cafeteria.

Chi Hongyi added, "I heard the noodles are made from Mutant Large Wheat. We have to try it and see how it differs from ordinary wheat."

They never had the chance to eat mutant plants back at Chaoyang Base—seeds were always reserved. Who would have thought they’d get to eat it so soon after coming to Small River Base?

The cafeteria was packed on its first day open. Some people from outside the farming and livestock departments wanted to eat there but found out they couldn’t. They weren’t too disappointed though—after all, they’d been given wheat, so they could just make their own meals!

But the smell was amazing. The cafeteria was filled with the scent of oil-splashed noodles. It had been so long since they’d had such flavorful food.

Chi Hongyi and the others went over, showed their IDs, each took a bowl of oil-splashed noodles, and sat down.

The oil-splashed noodles were thick, hand-pulled noodles, served with fresh lettuce and finely chopped garlic topped with chili powder, all sizzled with hot oil, releasing a rich, spicy garlic fragrance.

Though Chi Hongyi and the others usually holed up doing research, using your brain still makes you hungry. The moment they saw the noodles, they were starving. No one bothered talking; they immediately picked up their chopsticks and mixed the noodles.

Without even checking if it was well mixed, they couldn’t wait to take a bite.

They were all amazed—the noodles were fragrant and chewy. Chi Hongyi, being from the south, couldn’t tell how it differed from noodles made from ordinary wheat, but he found it delicious.

Feng Wentao, as a northerner, felt the difference more distinctly—the noodles had more chew than regular noodles, with a stronger wheat aroma. Most importantly, since it was a mutant plant, eating it made him feel refreshed, sweeping away his earlier fatigue.

Feng Wentao exclaimed in admiration, unable to help feeling that his decision to come to Small River Base was right!

Meanwhile, Chu Mingda ate while looking around. Seeing how those who couldn’t eat in the cafeteria weren’t angry at all but were discussing what to make with their wheat back home, he suddenly remarked, "Small River Base is different."

It was very different from other bases.

Compared to the zoned-out, tired folks in other bases, the people here seemed full of hope, lifting everyone’s spirits just by seeing them.

Over here, Cheng Zhiyu glanced at the current yield. Everyone did the calculations and broke into smiles.

Great, finally, they didn’t have to worry about running out of food.

Cheng Zhiyu told Lin Kang he planned to make a trip out: "To look for usable solar panels, and also, Professor Chi and the others mentioned seeing if we can find some research equipment."

Lin Kang told him to be careful and to bring more people, adding, "When you get back, we’ll hand over the matters we discussed earlier."

Lin Kang wanted Cheng Zhiyu to manage the base. In the short time since he returned, the base had undergone earth-shaking changes.

Just as they were talking, someone rushed over in a panic: "Bad news! It seems Xiang Qizheng took the chance to slip out!"