Chapter 23 The Chosen One

Chapter 23 The Chosen One

Lemons on the lemon tree, under the lemon tree, only I am sour.

Bai Suizhi gently nudged Kahn's hand. "Come on, let's head back."

Though Kahn's mind was still rebooting, he instinctively prioritized Bai Suizhi's feelings. "Are you happy now?"

Hearing this, Bai Suizhi felt like teasing him again. "What if I'm still not happy? What would you do then?"

Kahn's expression grew serious. After a long pause, he replied, "Then we won’t go with them."

Bai Suizhi raised an eyebrow. "Just leave them here?"

Kahn gazed at the group of boys, all under eighteen, in the distance. "We’ll leave the helicopter for them and find another one. If we truly can’t, we’ll drive."

Bai Suizhi: "What if they don’t know how to fly a helicopter?"

Kahn: "We’ll teach them first, then we leave."

After a brief pause, he added, "If you don’t want to teach them..."

Just as Kahn was about to speak, he saw Bai Suizhi’s face alight with curiosity, devoid of any trace of unhappiness or distress.

Only then did he realize Bai Suizhi was deliberately playing with him. He shot Bai Suizhi a mock-fierce glare, though his eyes were soft and lacked any real menace. He mumbled, continuing his thought, "You definitely wouldn’t do that."

Bai Suizhi continued to challenge him. "Who says I wouldn’t?"

Kahn: "You’re not that kind of person."

Bai Suizhi: "What kind of person?"

Kahn: "Someone who leaves people in the lurch."

Bai Suizhi: "Then what kind of person am I?"

Kahn: "A good person, a very good person."

Bai Suizhi actually felt a little embarrassed. "I'm not as good as you make me out to be."

Kahn looked earnestly into Bai Suizhi’s eyes. "You're a hundred times, a thousand times better than I could ever say."

Bai Suizhi averted his gaze, looking at the floor. "Alright, let's stop talking about this. It's so sappy, honestly..."

Kahn: "Then let’s talk about Gu Ze."

The suddenly bashful Bai Suizhi, a burly man who had just been squirming, snapped back to reality, shooting Kahn a resentful look. The object of his gaze returned it with a faint, puzzled expression.

Kahn: "Don’t want to talk about it?"

Bai Suizhi sighed helplessly. "No."

Kahn: "Oh, then go ahead."

The ruthlessly practical Comrade Kahn extinguished all the romantic notions and bashfulness in the tender-hearted Comrade Bai Suizhi's mind, nipping them in the bud.

Bai Suizhi’s voice was utterly flat, mirroring his now serene and untroubled heart. "Gu Ze is my half-brother. We’ve met even fewer times than you and I have. I don’t have any issues with him; it’s just that seeing him so suddenly, coupled with thinking about some past events, made me lose control of my emotions."

Kahn: "You don’t need to control your emotions. Be happy when you want to be happy, and don’t pretend to be happy when you don’t want to."

Bai Suizhi felt like he had once again become that damp little puppy in Kahn’s eyes. Before his emotional dam broke, he quickly changed the subject. "Now do you believe I'm fine? Let’s hurry over. If we stay here too long, Oliver will worry."

Kahn, like an earnest little inspector, circled Bai Suizhi, meticulously examining every expression on his face. Only after confirming that not even a trace of a dark cloud remained did he nod in satisfaction and give the order to proceed. "Mm, let’s go."

While they were talking, Oliver hadn’t been idle. He was chatting animatedly with Chen Yi. As for Gu Ze, who knew what he was sulking about again, he sat alone to the side, single-handedly isolating everyone.

The awning on the rooftop of this mall was expansive, large enough to shield all five of them from the moonlight. The moment Oliver saw this prime spot, he let bygones be bygones. Slinging an arm over Chen Yi’s shoulder, he said, "Dude, you guys are living the high life. This is a sweet setup for sleeping."

Chen Yi said proudly, "It's just making do."

It wasn’t until Oliver got closer to the awning that he saw several pieces of fabric with a faint golden sheen spread underneath. He thought this must be their bedding these past few days, but why did it glow?

When Oliver widened his eyes for a closer look—holy shit, what kind of person calls legitimate silk sheets "ragged strips"?!

Although the edges of the sheets were a bit dirty, their expensive and luxurious appearance still dazzled Oliver’s titanium alloy dog eyes.

Oliver’s young heart suffered a huge blow. "You call these ragged strips?" He had never even slept on silk sheets!

Chen Yi scratched the back of his head. "Well, the quality really isn’t that great. How good can the finished products sold in malls be?"

Oliver swallowed a mouthful of metaphorical blood. "Speaking of which, why did you bring sheets when you escaped?" Shouldn’t it be like him, using the sky as a blanket and the earth as a bed, or if unfortunately encountering patrolling zombies, having to take refuge in a dumpster for a brief rest? How could the difference in escape experiences between people be so vast?!

Gu Ze, who had been sulking seriously nearby, suddenly spoke up to correct him. "It wasn’t an escape; it was a strategic retreat."

Oliver took a deep breath. For the sake of some strange obsession, he corrected his wording and continued questioning. "Fine, strategic retreat. Then why did you bring sheets? Never mind that they’re cumbersome; in weather like this, sleeping outdoors for a few days is completely fine anyway."

Gu Ze fell silent again. Chen Yi took over. "Gu Ze said he’s not used to sleeping directly on the ground. Also, if we encounter zombies, the sheets can be used to restrain them."

Oliver felt the latter reason was pretty much negligible. He didn’t believe that in such a vast mall, you couldn’t find a more practical tool than sheets. Unwilling to let it go, he asked another question. "And you just happened to grab silk sheets on a whim?"

Gu Ze: "How could that be?" His tone carried a subtle hint of disdain, as if worried about Oliver’s intelligence.

Seeing Oliver’s face turn beet red, Chen Yi immediately stepped in to smooth things over. "Gu Ze went to find them himself."

Oliver: "By himself?"

Chen Yi said sheepishly, "Yeah, I value my skin too much. But Gu Ze is really nice; he brought a share for me too."

Oliver looked at Chen Yi speechlessly. No sane person would risk their life for a few sheets! What’s with the guilty look?!

Hearing Chen Yi’s words, Gu Ze snorted lightly. "It’s just that this mall is too small; only these kinds of sheets were available."

He sounded almost regretful. Chen Yi chimed in, "Yes, yes, we’ve wronged our young master."

Gu Ze shouted angrily, "Chen Yi!"

Chen Yi immediately made a zipping motion over his mouth.

Oliver looked at the two, at a loss for words.

He changed the subject, trying to steer the conversation back on track. "Do you light signal fires for help every day?" He looked at the nearly burnt-out distress signal, thinking this topic surely couldn’t go wrong.

Chen Yi: "No. Originally, we used the LED light tubes left by the previous group who left, but those ran out of power quickly. So during the day, we use the dead light tubes to spell out SOS signals, and at night, we burn wooden sticks."

Oliver: "How many days have you been burning them? This method can’t last long, right?"

Chen Yi grinned, showing a full set of eight white teeth. "Just today. Heh, didn’t expect you guys to show up right when we did."

Oliver: "..." Talk about chosen ones.

Amidst this stark contrast, Oliver found himself missing Bai Suizhi and Kahn intensely. Though the first time they met, the two were impeccably dressed, full of energy, and even drove a fully stocked luxury G-Class—far surpassing these two rooftop inhabitants—at least Kahn and Bai Suizhi would consider his feelings when speaking and show concern about whether he slept well or ate enough. Of course, they never said it outright; it was Oliver's sharp observation that picked up on it. And often, this silent kind of care is what really gets to you.

Then, looking back at these two, every word they said hit right where it hurts. Of course, he brought it upon himself by persistently questioning them. Truly, it was like the lemon tree bears lemons, and I'm the one left sour under it.

Perhaps Oliver's almost tangible resentment finally made Chen Yi's dormant empathy kick in. Pointing at his own clothes and face, Chen Yi said, "Actually, we're having a pretty hard time too. To get the wood strips to burn, we burned all our spare clothes and had no water to wash our faces. That’s why we look so disheveled now."

Oliver got straight to the point. "So you’re saying, aside from the clothes you’re wearing now, you brought a lot of other clothes with you?"

Chen Yi corrected him, "That was before. They’re all burned now. And even these clothes are dirty now. Sigh."

Oliver retorted, "Maybe you should take a look at what I'm wearing?"

Chen Yi asked, "What’s wrong? Isn’t it just a black-and-red color-block T-shirt? Though the color blending isn’t great—probably too many impurities mixed in. Bro, you gotta be careful when buying clothes nowadays. There are too many unscrupulous sellers out there."

Oliver replied with a heart as calm as still water, "This was originally a white T-shirt."

Chen Yi: "..." He didn’t even dare to imagine what those vividly colored "doodles" on it were made of.

Gazing into the distance, Oliver’s eyes looked slightly watery, glimmering faintly under the moonlight.