Chapter 34

"Not really," Lin Tantan said.
"We had a brief encounter," the man replied. Looking at Lin Tantan he added, "After that day I took your advice and stayed put to rest, and I gained a lot. I was going to look for you afterward, if I'd known you were here, I would have come sooner."
Ye Xiao watched silently; some inner antennae perked up. He squinted, assessing the man, under thirty, good-looking, with a fine bearing; compared to those college kids, though a bit older, he was clearly more appealing, and an ability-user besides... So this guy is flirting with the girl right in front of him?
Then the man said, "Oh, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Zhou Li. What's your name?"
Ye Xiao saw the girl widen her eyes slightly, looking at Zhou Li with some surprise and staring for several seconds. "Zhou Li? Which 'Li'?"
Zhou Li smiled. "The 'li' from 'etiquette.' You know me? That's not surprising, I graduated from XX University. You went there too, right? Which school are you from? You might even be my junior."
In the blink of an eye they'd gone from strangers to senior and junior... Ye Xiao held back for two seconds, his gaze sweeping over the hands that had been clasped together for too long. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of golden-orange... loquats.
Lin Tantan's eyes were immediately drawn: "Ah, loquats."
A couple of days ago they'd eaten a plate of loquats that were especially good; Lin Tantan was still craving them. Unfortunately, Bai Cheng didn't have any, those fruits had come from the underground supermarket, and because they took up space, Bai Cheng hadn't stored them. So whatever couldn't be kept was handed out as perks and as daily extra snacks for the elderly and children.
Loquats were one of those items, and there hadn't been many to begin with. Lin Tantan had felt a twinge of regret when she saw the empty fruit tray.
Ye Xiao smiled as he offered the loquats to her; she reached out naturally. "For me?"
"Yeah, I passed a fruit stall today and found two good ones, so I grabbed them."
Lin Tantan looked pleased. She didn't know the variety, round, about the size of an egg, their deep color made them look delicious. And of course, what pleased her most was that her crush had remembered her at a fruit stall.
Suddenly she remembered something and asked, "Does Brother Bai have any?"
Ye Xiao didn't quite understand what she meant. What did this have to do with Bai Cheng?
Lin Tantan could tell at once that she hadn't reserved any for Bai Cheng and silently complained, only two loquats, not much, but to not think of saving one for Bai Cheng first was almost unforgivable. She winced and said, "I saw him really liked these the other day. You should save them for him."
Ye Xiao: "???
If he deliberately pulled two loquats from his pocket to give to Bai Cheng... it was hard to picture that scene.
Seeing the loquats handed back, he didn't take them at once. Lin Tantan, worried by his bewildered look, sighed and said, "Never mind, I'll put them away for now."
She was about to tuck them into her pocket, but her coat pocket had a zipper and with only one hand holding the two loquats she couldn't open it. Ye Xiao bent down to unzip it for her, and after she put them in, he zipped it back up.
Zhou Li and his followers, caught off guard by such a public display, were left speechless: "..."
What's going on?
Zhou Li's men glanced at Lin Tantan with different eyes. This Ye Xiao seemed to be some kind of boss here, having the boss personally unzip her pocket clearly signaled a relationship that wasn't ordinary.
Zhou Li's gaze turned a shade more meaningful, and then he noticed something off about Lin Tantan's left hand.
These days Lin Tantan had been wearing a baggy, puffy down jacket, the kind that could easily hide an arm tucked inside, so most people hadn't realized she only had one hand left. But Zhou Li saw it at once: "Your hand..."
Lin Tantan gave a small smile. "Had a little accident. Oh, I'm Lin Tantan." She glanced at Zhou Li again; his name sounded strangely familiar, but she couldn't place it.
Ye Xiao had meant to say more to Zhou Li, but he changed his mind. After a few curt words, telling him to keep his people in check and to pick someone for guard duty, he left with Lin Tantan.
After they left, one of Zhou Li's cronies came up to him and asked in a low voice, "Brother Zhou, what's your read on that person?"
Zhou Li watched them walk away with a calm expression before saying, "Compared to the last time we met, he gave me a stronger sense of pressure."
The follower was surprised: "How? He's just a wind type!"
It had been over ten days since the end began; the national internet was down, though some radio channels still worked. The government had broadcast basic information on ability-users and crystal cores, so those with powers could now fairly clearly identify their type, and the abilities had even been ranked from strongest to weakest.
Wind types didn't make the top ranks. In Zhou Li's group there were two wind users, basically gusts and a few not-very-sharp wind blades. The explosive fire types, the piercing metal types, the hard-edged ice types, any of them outmatched wind in lethality. Not to mention Zhou Li himself was a lightning type, the most deadly of all.
So when they met Ye Xiao's group in the city a few days ago and saw that the leader, Ye Xiao, was only a wind type, with just one space-type among them and the rest seemingly without powers, Zhou Li didn't take them too seriously, even though they were soldiers with an impressive presence.
No, he had actually been thinking of bringing those people under his command.
But he also knew it wouldn't work. The moment he saw Ye Xiao he knew he couldn't control him, and Zhou Li wasn't willing to bow to anyone, so he refused to come to Yang City.
This time they came because the city had become unbearable, and they'd heard that tens of thousands were gathered over in Yang City and it had been very safe, with no incidents.
He hadn't expected that in just a few days the gap between him and Ye Xiao would not narrow but widen.
Zhou Li narrowed his eyes and then smiled. "So what if they're wind types? Wind can be powerful too. Look at those two wood types in our crew, they can only deal with minor scratches. But that Lin Tantan, do you know how strong her power is?"
At the mention of this, the man beside him drew in a breath, his expression a little sour. "Watching her that day, she looked like a reckless little girl, and in the blink of an eye... I should've gotten in good with her back then."
That man was the one driving the SUV that day. He'd seen how Lin Tantan leapt onto the car and used whatever she could to smash the zombies off. He'd thought she was just quick and bold, but he hadn't expected such a turn of events.
They'd actually come because they'd heard Yang City had an exceptionally strong ability-user, supposedly a dual-type. She was deadly against zombies, excellent at healing people, and skilled at leading other ability users. The ability-users in Yang City were either trained by her from the start or, if they joined later, would report to her; once under her guidance, they improved very quickly.
The man felt a sting of annoyance and regret; Zhou Li was a little disappointed too. Deep down he had come hoping to poach, otherwise why would he have said so much earlier, but watching those two interact made the prospect seem faint.
But no matter how slim, you have to try. A powerful healing ability user and a dual-type ability user, anyone with sense knows how valuable they are.
Zhou Li understood that, and Ye Xiao, of course, did too.
He'd thought about having Lin Tantan downplay herself, to hide her existence, at least to avoid striding out so boldly and displaying such conspicuous powers, to reduce her visibility and protect her. But he rejected those ideas.
Lin Tantan was someone who gladly helped others (Lin Tantan: ?). He couldn't, merely because she had befriended and aided him, forbid her from helping others. She had the ability and the goodwill, and there were countless people around who needed her help, he neither could nor wanted to stop her.
All he could do was provide her with as safe and peaceful an environment as possible; someone like Zhou Li, who clearly had an agenda today, needed to be watched and vetted.
He looked at Lin Tantan walking beside him with a pensive expression and asked, "What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about that Zhou Li."
Ye Xiao: "..."
Lin Tantan said, "I keep feeling this name is familiar, I've seen it somewhere."
She was sensitive to the surname Zhou, she harbored a deep resentment toward Zhou Yan and his line, but Zhou Li's name didn't seem to be on any of those lists of detested people.
So where did that familiarity come from?
Suddenly she remembered. She stopped, grabbed Ye Xiao's arm, and lowered her voice. "Ah, I've got it. It's him! Zhou Yan's brother. Zhou Yan is his younger brother!"
Ye Xiao nearly lost his footing, startled by her sudden burst of strength, and asked, "Who is Zhou Yan?"
"Zhou Yan, Zhou Yan is just..." Lin Tantan's face twisted; she clenched her hands into a clawing motion, looking furious enough that if Zhou Yan appeared she'd pounce and tear him apart in an instant.
But in the end, she couldn't force the word out. She wrestled with it for a long time, lowered her head and said, "Never mind. It's nothing."
Ye Xiao frowned and looked at her. "Is it someone you know? Someone you're not on good terms with? Or someone who bullied you? Tell me and I'll deal with it."
Lin Tantan wanted to say, but she really couldn't, keeping it in was killing her. She sighed and shook her head wearily.
She wouldn't say, and Ye Xiao was helpless; he remembered how last night she'd deliberately sent him aside to whisper with Bai Cheng and ask for help.
Ye Xiao frowned more deeply. Did he simply come off as untrustworthy? Or was he always the sort of person young women found hard to confide in?
After parting ways with Lin Tantan, he decided to go find Mei Baisheng.
Mei Baisheng had largely recovered by now; at least outwardly he looked no different from anyone else. Lately he'd been saying his ability was about to manifest, when asked why he felt that way, he'd just shrug and call it a hunch.
Ye Xiao thought the kid terribly unreliable, but he couldn't argue with the fact that Lin Tantan got along with him.
He found Mei Baisheng, said a few words, and Mei, upon hearing them, snapped to attention. "I'll see to it!" he declared, and then trotted off to find Lin Tantan.
Mei Baisheng and Lin Tantan shot the breeze, and their chatter soon wandered to Zhou Li's convoy.
"…They don't have regular meals there, if you want anything you have to fight for it with your life. They don't coddle the useless, so the overall standard is high; everyone's got a hard glint in their eyes and carries the smell of blood," Mei said. "But if you can't kill zombies, you're stuck doing logistics, heavy, dirty work like laundry and cooking, and you eat leftovers like a slave from the old days. Tsk tsk. That Zhou Li had ideas, too. Once the class divide widened like that, the strong enjoyed perks and high status, and it made them oddly cohesive."
Lin Tantan said offhand, "Well of course he's formidable." In the first year after the apocalypse, Zhou Li had built a base, he was a lightning-type ability user, his power was considerable and he was clever, so he ran the place well. Zhou Yan lived under his brother's wing and enjoyed a comfortable life. Spoiled by that comfort, he took to scheming, forming cliques and the like, and later he even conspired to bring Zhou Li down.
There was no concrete proof, but scholars, poring over records unearthed later, speculated that Zhou Li had been undone by Zhou Yan.
Mei said, "You seem to know this Zhou Li pretty well, huh?"
Lin Tantan looked at Mei Baisheng with his blissfully carefree expression and leaned in. "Meimei, can you do me a favor and ask around?"
"What's up?" Mei Baisheng perked up at once.
"Go ask around whether there's someone called Zhou Yan in Zhou Li's convoy."
That name rang a bell. Mei Baisheng rubbed his chin. "No problem, but you gotta tell me why you're asking about him."
Ye Xiao waited less than half an hour when Mei came bounding back. "Boss, I got the answers," he announced.
Ye Xiao paused. "You got everything?"
"Yeah, that Zhou Yan is really something else. Tantan calls him a total con artist, a scavenger who snatches opportunities, a schemer full of black-hearted tricks, rotten to the core. He steals others' credit and is unbearably hypocritical. I mean, don't you think she must've been duped by him?"
Ye Xiao: "..." He didn't feel like talking. Mei Baisheng had pried it out of her, yet in front of him she clammed up like an oyster.
He felt a queer unease in his stomach, a discomfort that made him start to take a dislike to Mei Baisheng's garrulousness.
“If we find him, we’ll pick a chance to bag him and beat him senseless, won’t stop until he can’t even take care of himself!”
Mei Baisheng didn’t even notice his leader’s suddenly dangerous look. When he finished he asked again, “Boss, do you think I should go all out?”
Ye Xiao asked coolly, “You still thinking of going easy?”
“No, no, isn’t it just that Lin Tantan was angry in the moment?” He stalled a bit, looked left and right, leaned close to Ye Xiao and whispered, “Well, before, Lin Tantan told me she has someone she likes, and she sounded so certain. I thought it was that Chen Zhihao, but that boy is really not up to snuff, Lin Tantan wouldn’t be that off with her taste, right? And when she mentioned Zhou Yan just now she was practically gnashing her teeth. I figured, maybe she was actually talking about him? Zhou Li looks decent, his brother should be handsome too; they’d match Lin Tantan. So if a young couple bickers, can I butt in?”
Before he finished, his boss suddenly stood up, then stopped, and after a moment gave him a long, hollow look: “She really tells you everything.”
Mei Baisheng, that idiot, chuckled proudly, “Of course. We hang out together. Boss, you’re just too serious, talking business is fine, but when it comes to heart-to-heart stuff, don’t even get me started. Don’t say it’s just little Lin Tantan, I wouldn’t dare tell you. Besides, you two already have a generation gap.”
Already a generation gap…
Already a generation gap…
Generation gap…
Ye Xiao was silent for a moment, then slowly gave Mei Baisheng a smile. Mei Baisheng hunched his shoulders; belatedly he felt a chill at the back of his neck.