Han Fei, born into a mafia family, belonged to the Triad. The current boss was his older cousin. Twenty-five years old, handsome and dashing, with an unruly and defiant personality.
The Triad’s influence stretched across the entire country and even worldwide. Wherever there were Chinese people, there would be Triad members. Their members were embedded in all layers of society: doctors, teachers, police officers, military officers, students, government officials, and so on. The Triad operated mysteriously, its organization tightly structured, its business spanning every field, involved in both black and white dealings. The dark side was managed by his cousin, covering illegal activities such as drug trafficking, extortion, □, kidnapping, organizing human smuggling, all kinds of forgery and fraud, pirated video production, loan sharking, gambling, etc. Han Fei was the exact opposite, he was responsible for the side that could appear in the sunlight: restaurants, hotels, real estate, nightclubs, bathhouses, even the entertainment industry.
After the apocalypse broke out, Han Fei was the first to awaken a spatial ability, and afterward awakened a fire ability as well, he was a dual-ability user. This time he was leading a portion of his subordinates to L Base to rendezvous with his cousin. Along the way they collected all kinds of supplies, and by now they carried a vast amount of materials with them. His abilities also advanced very quickly; two weeks into the apocalypse, his dual abilities had already reached Level Two.
This time Han Fei was leading twenty-six Triad members, including five core members of the organization. Among them, eighteen had abilities, calling them an ability squad wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Their destination was L Base, which would become the Triad’s largest stronghold after the apocalypse, and from there they would… little by little, develop in an organized manner. Yes, their ambitions were big, they absolutely were not planning to just occupy a single base, nothing that simple! Their journey had been smooth; although they encountered zombies multiple times, the members were all professionally trained, so nothing troublesome happened.
Six identical modified Hummers drove along the highway. Han Fei was sitting in the back seat of the second vehicle, eyes closed, resting. The vehicle ahead suddenly stopped for some unknown reason, forcing their car to brake sharply. Han Fei opened his eyes in confusion, waiting for his men to report the situation.
A voice came through the intercom from the first car: “Brother Fei, there’s a person lying in the middle of the road. How should we handle it?”
“Drive them off!”
“Uh… Brother Fei, the person grabbed onto the front bumper and won’t move.”
“Bring him over.” Han Fei rubbed his forehead and gave the order.
The vehicles came from afar, closer and closer, closer and closer, closer and closer— D*mn! Why weren’t they slowing down yet?! Thump—thump—thump— His heartbeat roared. No way they’d actually run him over! Screw it!
The car did stop, barely! The tires were practically touching his clothes! A young man dressed casually stepped out of the passenger seat. At first, Qi Yue had hoped he would be greeted kindly, maybe at least asked what happened. Who knew the young man would come over and immediately try to chase him away! And with such a vicious attitude!
Qi Yue lay on the ground, shamelessly clinging on, feeling discouraged. After so many regressions, why was his life so miserable? If he wasn’t murdered, he got bitten to death. Was dying naturally really this hard? The more he thought about it, the more pessimistic this introverted shut-in became. Since he couldn’t get anything good, no one else should have it easy either. He wrapped his arms around the front bumper and refused to let go no matter how they pulled.
Seeing the young man pull out a walkie-talkie, Qi Yue felt ecstatic! This team was loaded! Look at these cars! These people! Those clothes! And walkie-talkies! Exactly the kind of team he dreamed of joining. So lost in fantasy, he didn’t even hear what the young man said into the walkie-talkie, just saw him wave and call two more people out of the car.
What the hell… Were they going to kill him?
Two burly men stepped out, charging straight toward him. One grabbed his upper body, the other grabbed his legs, lifting him like cargo and carrying him toward the back vehicle. Qi Yue panicked, shouting: “Don’t kill me! I’m useful! I’m really useful!”
“Then tell me, what use are you?” Han Fei frowned, asking, “Or rather, where are you useful?” He had seen plenty of people wanting to join them along the way, though few were as shameless as this one. Raising an eyebrow, he sized Qi Yue up and down. Young, maybe sixteen or seventeen. Pretty good looks, with misty eyes that looked on the verge of tears, honestly quite seductive. Was he trying to seduce him? Not that Han Fei was into that. Sure, he had played around with pretty young mBs before, but that was just for novelty.
Qi Yue looked up at the young man questioning him. He saw a very young man, the collar of his white shirt slightly open, sleeves rolled to his forearms, revealing wheat-colored skin. Deep, striking eyes, a straight nose, sensual lips, put together, it was like a masterpiece crafted by God. His aura was exceptionally outstanding.
“I—I know the roads. I know the route, no matter where you’re going!” Qi Yue said with anticipation. After all, he’d survived many years in the apocalypse.
“My car has GPS.” Han Fei dismissed him. “See the people in the car? At least three or four of them know every region well.”
Reason rejected.
“I—I can cook!” Qi Yue lowered his voice, embarrassed even himself.
“Everyone here can cook.”
Rejected.
“But I cook well! Really!” Qi Yue raised his voice, hopeful. “My food is really delicious!”
“Still no!”
What a joke, who had time now for fancy meals? Total waste. Maybe the kid was a chef or an apprentice at best. Wanting to get in the car? Hmph. When they ran into zombies, he’d be dead weight. Just another person trying to hide behind them for protection. Why should his brothers risk their lives for strangers? Sure, the kid was good-looking, but good looks weren’t food! There were tons of pretty faces in the world.
“I can kill zombies!” Qi Yue persisted.
“Heh. Hehehe.” Han Fei laughed. “Who here can’t kill zombies?”
That didn’t work either. Just look at the two burly men beside him—strong as oxen. The others in the car were definitely no worse. Qi Yue truly couldn’t compare. What should he do?
“I—I can sense where there are lots of zombies and where there are fewer zombies!” At least he understood zombie distribution after so many years. Even if the timing didn’t match perfectly, it shouldn’t be that different… right? He tried to reassure himself. Why weren’t they agreeing?!
Han Fei grew suspicious. He couldn’t sense any spiritual power from the kid so he probably wasn’t an ability user. Sense the number of zombies? Trying to fool him? Did he have that kind of courage?
Seeing Han Fei hesitate, Qi Yue immediately flattered him like a bootlicker: “I also have an ability!” They looked so strong, he had to sell himself hard.
“What ability?” Han Fei was surprised, why couldn’t he sense anything?
Qi Yue tried to escape the grip of the two men restraining him, wanting to whisper to Han Fei. Han Fei saw what he wanted and signaled the men to release him.
Qi Yue approached the car, hunched down, cupped his hand over his mouth, and whispered into Han Fei’s ear mysteriously: “I have a spatial ability.”
He had decided to convince the boss first. Everything else could be handled after getting on the car. He wasn’t lying anyway, he did have spatial ability. It was kitchen space… just a different type.
Oh? Unexpected. Spatial ability. Even though Han Fei had it too, spatial users were extremely rare. He hadn’t heard of any besides himself. He nodded and agreed to let Qi Yue get on.
Seeing Han Fei agree, Qi Yue’s mouth stretched into a grin he couldn’t suppress. “Thank you! O- Older Brother!” He honestly had trouble saying it out loud. The man didn’t even look older than him! “I’ll go get my bag.” His all-purpose bag had fallen during the struggle, he couldn’t leave it behind. It was heavy, but everything inside had saved his life multiple times.
Hugging his bag, he got onto Han Fei’s car. Han Fei also signaled the young man who earlier tried to chase Qi Yue away to get in as well.
The car continued forward. Han Fei motioned for Qi Yue to sit beside him. He opened a cigarette box, took one out, held it to his lips, and leaned forward so someone in the front could light it. Taking a drag, he narrowed his eyes, studying Qi Yue.
The more Qi Yue looked, the more satisfied he became. This was exactly the kind of boss he had imagined! Look at that aura! That presence!
“What’s your name?”
“Qi Yue.”
Han Fei snorted, then said to the young man in the passenger seat, the one who had chased Qi Yue away: “Chu Yi, turn around. Tell me if this is the younger brother your mom secretly had outside.”
That young man laughed. “Brother Fei, don’t joke. You know my mom died a few months after giving birth to me.”
His name was Chu Yi. Orphaned early, his relatives sent him to an orphanage. Later he ran away and drifted on the streets, where Han Fei found him and brought him into the Triad. He had followed Han Fei for many years and was one of his most loyal men.
He looked clean and young, adaptable in all directions, someone clearly good at dealing with people.
Qi Yue finished observing him and explained, “It’s the Qi from ‘Qi Tian Da Sheng’ and the Yue from ‘feeling joyful.’ Not July.”
Hearing that, Han Fei laughed even harder. Qi Tian Da Sheng! Letting him on the car was absolutely worth it, at least the kid could amuse them. Chu Yi snickered, and even the driver was holding back laughter.
“How old are you?” Han Fei guessed he was underage.
“Twenty-five.” Qi Yue straightened his back.
Smack! A flick landed on his head.
“How old are you really?” Han Fei had hit him. What was this kid pretending for? Just look at him, daring to say twenty-five.
“I really am twenty-five.” Qi Yue felt wronged. Why wouldn’t anyone believe him? He just looked young. Counting all his lifetimes, he must be at least sixty. Seeing Han Fei glare, looking like he was about to get angry, he hurriedly changed his answer: “Seventeen. I’m seventeen.”
Han Fei nodded. That he believed. Good, kids shouldn’t lie about nothing.
