Chapter 4: The Male-Female Fruit

Chapter 4: The Male and Female Fruit

For the next straight week, Shu Hanqing didn't accept a single mission.

His name was nowhere to be found on routine supply searches around the base's perimeter, nor on the low-level jobs to clear out zombies. In team operations, his spot stayed empty.

One day, he slept deeply.

Shu Hanqing distinctly remembered pulling the curtains tight before bed, yet he could have sworn he felt light creeping in.

He opened his eyes and looked down. The dirty clothes piled on the chair were gone, the empty cans tossed at the foot of the bed had vanished, and a new trash bag had been put in the bin.

Shu Hanqing sat bolt upright, the thin blanket sliding to his waist. His first thought was that he'd sleepwalked into some neat-freak's showroom.

Then he saw Mu Ye. Mu Ye stood by the desk, arranging his last two tilted books by height. His silhouette, outlined by the thin daylight filtering through the window, was as still as a painting.

On the desk sat a still-warm breakfast—steamed buns and congee from the base cafeteria's limited supply, the kind that sold out in a minute if you were late.

"Hanqing," Mu Ye turned around, "did you rest well? Let's go on a mission together."

Shu Hanqing slept shirtless out of habit. His skin against the cotton sheets gave him a sense of security, and the skin around his neck was especially sensitive—any slight constriction made him feel like he was suffocating or drowning, much less any necklace or accessory.

He'd looked it up before; it roughly fell under some kind of touch-related psychological condition.

Mu Ye's eyes fell on him. To avoid exposing the Thunder Mark on his back—which absolutely could not be shown—Shu Hanqing instinctively hunched his shoulders, spine curving defensively. He hurriedly yanked the slipping blanket up to his chin, wrapping himself so that only his head poked out, his voice muffled by the fabric: "I've been really busy lately."

"I already cleaned your room for you."

Mu Ye continued: "I harvested all your crops—potatoes, tomatoes. Fed the chickens, milked the cows, fixed the broken fence section with new wood. Also, I noticed your storage boxes weren't sufficient, so I built two new warehouses from spare materials against the south wall. Your virtual garden—I leveled it up twice and unlocked new rose seeds."

The message was clear: Shu Hanqing had nothing to be busy with now.

Shu Hanqing's temples throbbed. His digital farm, from planting to harvest, was something he'd built up little by little.

Mu Ye's whirlwind of activity was fast, sure, but it had stripped away all the fun. He glanced around the room: "Who told you to touch my game console?"

"Sorry," Mu Ye said quickly, "I'll ask for your permission before using it next time."

It was like punching a pillow.

Shu Hanqing looked away.

Rong Hua hesitated for a few seconds: "Hanqing, is your superpower still yellow?"

The base ran level tests on superpowered individuals every so often for registration and management, and even certain special privileges were based on rank.

Every superpowered individual's energy level was classified by visible colors along the spectrum, from the lowest crimson to the legendary deep purple at the top.

Shu Hanqing was currently stuck at yellow—in an awkward, in-between state.

There was no helping it. The vicious purple-gold Thunder Mark coiled across the skin of his back—a brand left by Lei Zheng's top-tier superpower—prevented Shu Hanqing from absorbing crystal cores at all. Lately, his power had even shown signs of declining.

Maintaining the status quo already took everything he had. His energy was like a container with a hole in the bottom—all out, no in. Yellow was already hanging by a thread.

Shu Hanqing: "Wasn't I tested a week ago? It's still yellow."

"There's a new mission now," Mu Ye stepped closer. "Apparently a batch of high-tier zombies escaped from the Seventh District lab—products of lab experiments. Their crystal cores are said to have very high energy levels."

Mu Ye's gaze settled on Shu Hanqing's covered-up shoulders: "Are you in? If you successfully absorb them, your power might climb another tier."

Raising one's power was a matter of strength and survival.

Shu Hanqing was a bit tempted: "Is the destination that abandoned botanical garden up north?"

Mu Ye didn't seem surprised that he knew. He nodded: "Then let's go together."

The Plot Guide in his head protested strongly, forbidding him from going.

Shu Hanqing shot back mentally: "If you don't approve, then think of a way to stop my power from declining!"

"If I stay cooped up in this room any longer, I'll really become a waste of space. Easy for you to say, standing there without a care in the world. I'll be dead myself before your system even gets around to judging me and erasing me as a bug."

The apocalypse was just like this.

Brutal—where people would draw blades over half a compressed ration in a corner of the trading market. Whoever's fist wasn't hard enough might end up as rotting meat in some zombie's mouth outside the walls, or trampled into dust under the heels of their own kind.

The Plot Guide fell silent for a moment: "If you go, you'll inevitably get tangled up with the protagonist."

Shu Hanqing: "And if I don't get tangled up, could I actually move their relationship forward?"

The Plot Guide: ??

The danger of the abandoned botanical garden up north wasn't just from the high-tier zombies that had escaped the lab—zombies with malformed crystal cores embedded in their brains. The wildly evolved flora and fauna of the post-apocalyptic world were the true masters there—entangled and deadly, killing without a trace.

Shu Hanqing had only learned about it from reading that book that a peculiar mutant plant grew there, bearing two distinctly different fruits. The female fruit was darker in color, like an overripe wild berry, exuding a cloyingly sweet fragrance that overwhelmed the senses. The male fruit was gray and nondescript.

Eaten separately, nothing happens.

But if one person consumed the female fruit and another the male, when the effect kicked in, rationality would be overwhelmed by instinct, and they'd be drawn to each other.

If the ones who happened to eat the female and male fruits were Mu Ye and Rong Hua—wasn't that perfect? The perfect path for the plot to take.

The Plot Guide, after hearing this, reluctantly agreed.

"I'll go."

Seeing Shu Hanqing agree, Mu Ye looked pleased. He said he'd go take the mission right away. Mu Ye sat down on the edge of the bed, leaning in a little closer: "What's wrong, Hanqing? Is there something on my face? Why do you keep staring at me?"

This kind of gentleness—Shu Hanqing had never been able to resist it in the past.

Shu Hanqing looked away uncomfortably: "Nothing."

When he said he'd go, Mu Ye seemed delighted. He pulled out his points card: "You probably don't have many points left, right? Use mine first. I don't usually spend much."

Shu Hanqing hesitated for a moment, not taking it: "Then what about you?"

Mu Ye pulled out Shu Hanqing's nearly empty card from beside his pillow: "I'll use yours. Didn't you say the other day we'd go back to how we used to be? We used to share our points all the time."

Before.

Before, Shu Hanqing had genuinely wanted to be good with Mu Ye—to the core. He'd clung to him desperately, wanting to split everything he had in half—no, give it all to him. Sharing points cards was just the least of it.

But now...

"No need." Shu Hanqing snatched his own card back and shoved Mu Ye's into his palm. "That was then. It's different now."

Mu Ye was puzzled: "What's different?"

Shu Hanqing didn't want to talk. This chasm had been carved open by him—paid for with one life in his past incarnation and a back full of Thunder Marks in this one—while Mu Ye stood on the far side.

He'd moved around a little too much just now, and the blanket he'd had pulled up to his chin slipped down a few inches, revealing his collarbone and a small patch of pale chest.

Mu Ye's gaze landed there—and stalled.

The next second, his fingers brushed the patch of skin on Shu Hanqing's neck near his shoulder blade.

"Hanqing," Mu Ye's voice was low, almost a whisper. "Haven't you noticed? Your tattoo's changed, hasn't it?"

Shu Hanqing went rigid and jerked back, the spot Mu Ye's fingertips had touched burning like fire. "No, I haven't noticed."

He didn't dodge fast enough, and his on-guard expression landed right in Mu Ye's line of sight.

Mu Ye's eyes darkened in an instant. With his strength and speed, he could easily drag the man into his arms, suppress all his futile struggles, peel off that annoying blanket, and get a good, close look at whatever secret was hiding on Shu Hanqing's skin.

But he couldn't.

A thick, murky gloom churned behind Mu Ye's eyes for a few seconds before he forced it down and slipped that composed, polite mask back on.

He dropped his gaze, no longer looking at Shu Hanqing's guarded face, and just reached out to tug the blanket back up, his motions gentle.

"Alright, then," Mu Ye straightened, "see you at the assembly tomorrow."

The second he was gone, Shu Hanqing remembered something—the key to this room. Mu Ye had a copy.

He'd have to remember to get it back next time.

With that in mind, he picked up the bun from the table—already slightly cool—and took a bite. The dough had gone a little limp from the steam, but the filling was red bean paste mixed with a little lotus seed paste—so sweet it was almost cloying, but it melted soft on his tongue.

Mu Ye even remembered that—his thing for that sickeningly sweet taste.

Shu Hanqing always kept fruit candies in his pocket—cheap hard candies wrapped in colorful cellophane, apple, orange, grape.

He used to smoke, quite heavily. Nicotine could numb the nerves for a bit and make you forget the despair of the apocalypse.

But later, because Mu Ye didn't like it. He never said he hated it, but every time Shu Hanqing lit up, Mu Ye's brow would crease. So Shu Hanqing quit. Quit completely.

Candy became the fallback addiction—a poor substitute for the real thing.

Shu Hanqing figured he could quit Mu Ye just the same.

Shu Hanqing looked around the room Mu Ye had cleaned until it looked brand new.

Everything was in its place. Even the half-dead pothos on the windowsill had its shriveled leaves carefully picked off.

He had to admit, Mu Ye was a neat freak. Back when they lived together, Shu Hanqing's life had been wrapped up in that kind of order—steady, comfortable.

Shu Hanqing went into the bathroom, turned his back to the mirror, and craned his neck awkwardly.

Across his back, those tangled, almost living purple-black patterns had spread a little further. The color was darker than a few days ago, the edges shot through with an ominous dark gold-purple.

One branch, like a viper's forked tongue, had already crept past his shoulder blade, winding toward the side of his neck—mere millimeters from the thin, vulnerable skin behind his ear.

He stared at it for a long moment, then turned on the tap and splashed cold water on his face.

"So what about that solution you said you'd think of?" Shu Hanqing asked in his mind. "You weren't just blowing smoke, were you?"

The Plot's response lagged a few seconds, its electronic voice somehow managing to sound genuinely wronged: "I really did think of something. There are two options. First, find a high-level psychic ability user to give you ongoing mental guidance and repair. The process is slow, demands a highly skilled practitioner, and comes with risks."

"Second, find Lei Zheng and have him fully reclaim the lightning ability source still left in your body. This method is the most direct and easiest—no extra time or energy on your part—but I don't recommend it."

Shu Hanqing squeezed toothpaste onto his brush, stuck it in his mouth. He looked at himself in the mirror, mouth full of foam, and mumbled, "I'll take option one."

Going to find Lei Zheng would be weird, wouldn't it?

"Alright. But until you find a suitable psychic ability user, if you're forced to use your power, try absorbing the pure energy from zombie cores directly—convert it on the spot, use it on the spot."

Shu Hanqing stopped brushing. "So I'm just a walking energy converter?"

When he showed up at the assembly point the next day, Shu Hanqing was in a black, tight-fitting high-neck combat suit. The fabric was a special elastic fiber—basic protection without restricting movement too much.

The collar hugged his neck, a little tight. Shu Hanqing had always hated that kind of constriction, but he had no choice now—the raised collar was just enough to hide the edge of those abnormal Thunder Marks creeping up his neck.

The suit was cinched at the waist, tracing his figure cleanly.

The vehicle door was open, and a good number of people were already inside.

The second Shu Hanqing stepped onto the running board, several eyes landed on him. Mu Ye sat in the back, looked up, saw him, and gave a small wave, pointing at the empty seat across from him.

Shu Hanqing didn't go over. He sat down where he was, right next to Yun Ying, who had her hair in a high ponytail. A little ways past Yun Ying sat Rong Hua.

Shu Hanqing hadn't seen Rong Hua in a long time.

He didn't bring up the clothes, and Rong Hua—that rude kid—showed no sign of returning them either.

The vehicle was a modified military truck, with simple benches welded along the sides of the cargo bed and supply crates piled in the middle.

The others' glances passed over him, but Yun Ying's gaze had been fixed on him since he got on, unapologetically direct.

"So hot, Brother Shu," Yun Ying said like a shameless flirt. "How come when you wear this, you look so... sexy?"

She even made a show of wiping the corner of her mouth, where there was no drool at all.

Shu Hanqing was just feeling the collar was too tight, tugging at it uncomfortably. He bent down to tuck his pant legs into his high-top combat boots, pulled a dagger from the side pocket of the boot shaft and weighed it in his hand, then adjusted the strap strapped to his calf.

After finishing all that, he straightened up, looking bewildered: "How am I sexy?"

Yun Ying's finger traced a smooth, flowing curve in the air, her gaze roaming over him, from his taut chest to his narrow waist: "You've got a great body, Brother Shu."

She leaned in a little closer: "Can I touch your chest?"

Shu Hanqing was 184 centimeters tall—definitely not short by anyone's standards. But standing next to Mu Ye, Mu Ye would tower over him by half a head, with a broader, more solid frame.

Shu Hanqing had a slender build, but he carried muscle well—even, smooth lines. Everything was in the right place: a slim waist, absurdly long legs, a firm rear, and chest contours clearly visible under the tight fabric. In his usual loose T-shirts, it wasn't obvious, but now, squeezed into the elastic material, every curve was on full display.

Shu Hanqing heard her, didn't feel offended, and was actually a bit amused. He tilted his head and said generously: "Sure, go ahead and touch."

Yun Ying's eyes lit up. Her fingers first poked lightly at the spot on his left chest near his heart—firm and springy, with that particular elasticity of muscle.

Then she pressed her whole palm against it, deliberately pushing down, and burst into laughter, shoulders shaking, ponytail swinging: "Oh my god, it feels amazing! It's soft, bouncy, like there's a water balloon inside. Rong Hua, you want to feel it too?"

Rong Hua, suddenly called out, looked dazed, not following the jump in conversation. Instinctively, following Yun Ying's lead, his gaze landed on Shu Hanqing's chest—wrapped in the tight combat suit, outlining a clear, full curve. Because of Yun Ying's touch and Shu Hanqing's own movements, the fabric had wrinkled slightly.

Rong Hua stared, and for a moment, his eyes went blank.

Shu Hanqing immediately pulled Yun Ying's hand away from his chest, then instinctively raised his arms and crossed them loosely in front of his chest, the gesture carrying a hint of belated embarrassment. "Alright, alright, two feels is enough."

His ears were slightly warm, but his tone tried hard to sound nonchalant: "It's just a dude's chest—why you getting so hyped about it?"

Rong Hua saw how he was all smiles and chill when Yun Ying touched him, but the moment anyone so much as glanced his way, he immediately put up a defensive stance.

That prickly teenage pride and awkwardness kicked in: "Who even wants to touch? I don't care."

Shu Hanqing let out a mental *heh*, thinking, *Did I even invite you to touch?* This little punk's got some nerve.

Mu Ye watched Shu Hanqing fooling around with the others and spoke up from not too far away. He quickly ran through the mission briefing—the threat level of the escaped zombie, its possible range of activity, and the crystal core retrieval procedure. The main goal was to bring the core back to base to confirm mission completion, after which it would be redistributed based on contributions.

Finally, his gaze swept over everyone sitting or standing in the truck bed: "Priority one is staying alive, and watch each other's backs. Got it?"

"Got it!" A chorus of replies, ragged but loud, echoed through the truck.

The gates of the abandoned botanical garden had rusted and fallen apart long ago. Overgrown vines and mutant shrubs had completely sealed the entrance.

But for a team with a bunch of superpowers, this wasn't a big deal.

Flames scorched, ice blades sliced, and a pure strength-type just bulldozed a path through. Before long, they'd cleared a narrow path barely wide enough for one person.

Everyone got a walkie-talkie, they set the channels, and after testing the crackly static, the team began advancing into the depths of the ruins.

Yun Ying stuck to Shu Hanqing like a shadow, right on his heels. Her combat boots squelched through the damp, rotting leaf litter.

"Brother Shu, I'm staying with you."

Mu Ye was mid-way through assigning groups when he heard that and looked over: "The three of us will be one team. Yun Ying's ability is special and needs looking after."

"Rong Hua, you and Chen Wu's group will enter from the east side."

Rong Hua stood a few steps off. At the mention of his name, he shot them a glance, lips pressed tight, saying nothing.

Shu Hanqing clicked his tongue internally and told the plot system in his head: *He's getting jealous.*

The plot system's electronic voice replied: "I can't fully parse the complexity of human emotions. But your inference is logically plausible."

Shu Hanqing raised his hand and pointed at a patch of woods on the west side of the garden that looked especially thick and kinda creepy: "Let's go this way."

That was the direction the plot system had flagged earlier—where the male-female fruit grew.

Mu Ye and Yun Ying followed where Shu Hanqing pointed and headed deeper in.

It was eerily quiet, with only the rustle of footsteps on fallen leaves and snapped twigs, and the occasional weird call from somewhere off in the distance—no telling if it was a bird or something else.

The wandering zombies they'd expected never showed. The air was thick with damp earth and the sweet, rotten smell of decaying plants.

Mu Ye walked at the front, holding an energy detector. Green dots on the screen flickered occasionally. He said in a low voice: "The tracking signals the lab implanted under their skin—the last place they pinged is around here. Be careful."

While Mu Ye was focused on what was ahead, Yun Ying quietly tugged Shu Hanqing's sleeve and asked, curious: "Brother Shu, you seem to have a real problem with Xiao Rong?"

Shu Hanqing kept walking, his gaze sweeping warily over the surrounding bushes: "Why would I have a grudge against him? But that kid—seems like he's gotten pretty chummy with you?"

Yun Ying nodded: "Because I always have good snacks on me."

"Actually, Xiao Rong's super easy to please. Don't let his usual standoffish act fool you. Just give him something tasty—especially something sweet—and little white star-shaped flowers will bloom in his hair. That means he's really happy. It's so cute to watch."

Shu Hanqing listened, face blank. So plant-type ability users sprout flowers on their heads when they're happy. Kinda funny.

After about ten more minutes of walking, the light got dimmer. Huge mutant trees blocked out the sky.

Shu Hanqing suddenly stopped and sniffed the air.

A rich, sickly-sweet fruity smell drifted through the damp air in waves.

He pushed aside a clump of ferns with serrated edges and saw the tree. It wasn't tall, the trunk was twisted, and the branches weren't exactly full, but hanging off it were dozens of fruits. They were pear-shaped with smooth skin, but the colors were crazy vivid and tempting—especially the bigger ones, which were deep purple, almost black.

That's the one.

Shu Hanqing pulled a collection bag from his side pocket and handed it to Yun Ying: "Hold this."

Then he started picking the fruit.

One deep-purple female fruit, one grayish male fruit. Before long, the two kinds were mixed in the bag, giving off a stronger and stronger sweet smell.

Yun Ying held the bag, leaned in curiously for a look, then sniffed the almost-too-sweet aroma, puzzled: "Brother Shu, are these fruits actually edible? They smell so good."

Shu Hanqing hummed in acknowledgment, still picking as he grabbed another male fruit: "They're edible."

*But you can't eat them.*

Mu Ye had said earlier he'd go ahead to scout the path deeper in and told them to wait there.

Shu Hanqing picked a good amount of fruit. *Might as well grab extra—just in case.*

Yun Ying looked at the bag of tempting fruit and couldn't help reaching for one of the pretty deep-purple ones to sniff.

Before her fingers could touch it, Shu Hanqing gave the back of her hand a light smack.

"Don't touch." He looked at her with a rare seriousness in his eyes. "It's not that I'm playing favorites with guys—girls can't eat this fruit. A young lady, especially one as pretty as you, would break out in ugly red blotches all over her face if she ate it. It might even rot."

Yun Ying yanked her hand back and pressed it to her cheek, eyes wide with leftover fear: "So guys can eat it?"

Shu Hanqing nodded.

Yun Ying said: "What kind of fruit is this? It's sexist."

Just then, Mu Ye pushed through the branches and walked back, a few blades of grass stuck to his combat suit.

Shu Hanqing immediately picked out the grayish male fruit from the bag, walked over, and held it out to Mu Ye: "Here, try it? Smells sweet—I just picked it."

Mu Ye took it, pinching it between his fingers, and examined it.

Shu Hanqing urged: "It's edible. I checked—no poison. Come on, try it. It's really sweet."

Mu Ye wiped it off, brought it to his lips, and took a small bite. The flesh was pale grayish-white, not very juicy. He chewed slowly a few times, Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed: "Mm, real sweet."

Shu Hanqing was satisfied with that.

He picked out another female fruit from the bag and handed the rest to Yun Ying: "Hold onto these for me—put them in your space."

He added: "And don't think I'm holding out on you. This stuff is genuinely bad for you. Have I ever lied to you?"

Yun Ying nodded obediently. A faint white light flickered at her fingertips, and the bag vanished. To her, whatever Brother Shu said was always right—if he said she couldn't eat it, then she couldn't.

The group kept searching deeper into the botanical garden.

But the high-level test subjects that should've been roaming around here seemed to have vanished into thin air, no trace left.

After going around in circles, they met up with another squad at the designated rendezvous point.

Shu Hanqing held the fruit, his gaze swept across the crowd taking a quick breather before quickly locking onto his target.

Rong Hua sat leaning against a collapsed concrete beam, half-turned away, tinkering with a customized combat knife in his hands. Shu Hanqing walked over, and though Rong Hua didn't look up, his grip on the knife tightened slightly.

Shu Hanqing crouched down beside him, leaning in a little closer.

This kid's taste was seriously out there.

"Hey," Shu Hanqing nudged him lightly with his elbow, holding the deep purple fruit right in front of his eyes. "Here, try something good. It's delicious—go on, have a taste?"

Rong Hua didn't even lift his eyelids, grunting out two curt words through his nose: "...I don't want it."

At that moment, Shu Hanqing's hands genuinely itched—he really wanted to pin this ungrateful brat down and beat some sense into him right there.

The kid was way too much.

He took a breath and changed his approach, pushing the fruit forward again, just about to brush Rong Hua's lips. "Mu Ye just had one and said it was great. You sure you don't want to try?"

At the name Mu Ye, Rong Hua froze mid-motion with the knife. He darted a quick look at Shu Hanqing, then looked at the fruit, reached out to take it, and brought it to his lips for a small bite.

The flesh was deep purple, and the juice stained the corner of his mouth.

Almost instantly, at the roots of the few strands of red-dyed hair on his forehead, several thumbnail-sized white flowers sprouted right before his eyes.

Shu Hanqing blinked, stunned for a second, then deftly plucked one of the little white flowers, pinched it between his fingers, and held it up to examine closely. "...So it really does bloom."

He muttered under his breath, half in disbelief, half in amusement.

Rong Hua, seeing Shu Hanqing pluck his flower, got sulky and stormed off again.

A short break.

Yun Ying took out a water flask from her storage space and poured everyone a cup of pale purple liquid with a rich fruity aroma.

Shu Hanqing's throat was bone dry. He took it and eagerly tilted his head back and chugged a big gulp. It was sweet and tangy with a refreshing fragrance—far better than the endlessly diluted synthetic drinks back at the base.

He downed it in one go, smacked his lips, savoring it, and handed the empty cup back to Yun Ying, eyes bright. "Where'd you get this? Tastes great."

After she refilled his cup about halfway, he raised it for another sip, holding the juice in his mouth as he asked in a slightly muffled voice.

Yun Ying was pouring juice for Mu Ye when she heard him. She looked up, a smug little grin on her face, and answered crisply: "From those pretty fruits you gave me earlier! There were so many, and I figured it'd be a waste if they rotted, so I juiced them, added some water, and figured it'd be a nice thirst-quencher for you fellas!"

The juice Shu Hanqing had been holding in his mouth spilled straight out from the corner of his lips.

Yun Ying: "...Brother Shu, what's wrong?"