HLLY Chapter 9

There’s no way to escape getting a shot; he can only accept it obediently. However, when it comes to taking medicine, Shen Shanwu only needs to use a little sleight of hand to hide all the pills in the palm of his hand, then pretend to take a sip of water and swallow air, presenting himself as a well-behaved and compliant person.

XiaoWen, satisfied, handed over a toothbrush with toothpaste already squeezed onto it, showcasing the thoughtful care of an older sister. By the time everything was tidied up and they reached the hall, everyone else had already finished breakfast and started packing.

Shen Shanwu had no luggage to carry, so he sat at the table, picking at a bowl of corn porridge with disdain. Just then, he happened to catch sight of Yao Wuque returning from a workout, covered in sweat. The latter had a hearty appetite and finished the porridge in just three seconds. Shen Shanwu quickly pushed his own bowl over and said in a lowered voice, “Here, drink up.”

“?!” Yao Wuque widened his eyes and quietly asked, like a thief, “There’s no poison in this, right?”

“What’s with all the nonsense?”

Just as Yao Wuque was about to reach for it, a hand suddenly appeared from the side, firmly blocking him. He immediately changed his hand motion to tousle his hair and took the empty bowl into the kitchen.

Shen Shanwu sighed and looked up, seeing the serious face of the lieutenant . He had heard that this man was only in his early thirties, but with his unkempt beard, he looked over forty. Shen Shanwu felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him, as if he were back in high school, facing his homeroom teacher.

“Why do you always skip meals? How much have you eaten since yesterday?”

“I can’t find anything to eat in the outer district. Over time, my stomach has shrunk, so now I can’t eat even if you tell me to,” Shen Shanwu quickly fabricated a reason, but afterward, he suddenly felt that he might have exaggerated his situation a bit too much.

Sure enough, the lieutenant stared at him for a moment, but then he slammed his hand on the table and said, “Then you need to eat even more! Come on, eat up. I’ll keep an eye on you until you finish.”

“…” Shen Shanwu pouted and had no choice but to lift the bowl under the watchful gaze of his ‘homeroom teacher,’ finishing the bowl of corn porridge that didn’t even have pickled vegetables in it.

After finally getting through the bowl of porridge, Xiaowen walked over with a tailored military combat uniform. She explained the locations of the various pockets and the emergency supplies inside them. Finally, she secured a metal chain buckle at his waist and hung a half-meter-long black umbrella on it.

“It’s designed for heat insulation and radiation protection. The handle contains a knife; by pressing this switch, you can extend the blade, but don’t mess around with it normally.”

Shen Shanwu wasn’t really a child; in fact, he found it quite fun. With a press of the ring buckle, the umbrella detached easily, and when opened, it looked like an ordinary sunshade—very lightweight. However, hidden beneath was a sharp military knife capable of slicing through hair. The blood groove on the blade seemed eager for the sweet, metallic scent of fresh blood.

“Do we really have to give Jiang Tong a knife?” Xiaowen said worriedly. “What if he hurts himself?”

The lieutenant couldn’t stand Xiaowen’s overprotectiveness. “So when we encounter zombies, are you going to let him scratch at them with his nails?”

“…like I said, let’s give him a knife.”

At exactly seven o’clock, all the team members gathered promptly in front of the villa’s main entrance. Two imposing modified armored off-road vehicles were parked grandly outside the garden, standing as tall as two Shen Shanwus. Their rugged and wild appearance resembled two gigantic black beasts, making Shen Shanwu, who was used to walking on two legs, drool with envy.

He stood in front of the car door, carefully observing the vehicle’s structure. As he did so, one of the team members behind him mistakenly thought he couldn’t reach the door due to his short legs, and with great enthusiasm, the young man lifted Shen Shanwu under his armpits and hoisted him up.

Shen Shanwu: “…”

Shen Shanwu: “Thank you.”

The Central Alliance is approximately 1,300 kilometers from the Coastal Base. In peacetime, a flight would only take about four hours, and even driving on the highway would take no more than fifteen hours to reach.

However, with the magnetic field in disarray, flying is out of the question, and the highways are almost completely destroyed, littered with abandoned vehicles covered in moss, which might even contain a few zombies inside.

Within the straight-line distance between the two locations lies a heavily irradiated area covering 100,000 square kilometers. They must detour north, and with dangers lurking at night, they must stop to rest. All these factors combined extend the journey back to a full week.

Fortunately, the interior of the off-road vehicle was very comfortable. The Shanhai Battle Unit truly lived up to its reputation as the top team of the base, with leather captain’s chairs equipped inside. There was no hint of the post-apocalyptic military’s hardiness; instead, it radiated opulence and indulgence, which made Shen Shanwu feel sleepy as soon as he sat down.

After dozing off, he woke up just in time for lunch. The two off-road vehicles were parked one in front of the other in an open area. If zombies were to appear, they would make for very conspicuous targets.

Given the surrounding radiation, there was no such thing as fresh air. Even though Shen Shanwu really wanted to go out for a stroll, looking at the breathing mask, helmet, and protective suit that he had to wear to get out of the vehicle made him silently sit back and sigh.

It was only then that he realized Jiang Huan had been sitting directly across from him, with a table between them. Beside him was Xiaowen, while Jiang Huan had… no one beside him, and no one dared to sit next to him.

Xiaowen went to the back row of the vehicle to prepare lunch, while Jiang Huan rested his chin on one hand, quietly staring out the window in a daze. From the moment Shen Shanwu woke up until the lunch tray was brought to the table, he maintained this posture, seemingly lost in thought.

Shen Shanwu braced himself for another plate of green vegetables, but to his surprise, Xiaowen brought over a stack of block-shaped white pastries and a cup of milky white beverage. The drink resembled milk, while the bowl contained something that looked like coconut milk cubes.

Curiously, he picked up his chopsticks. The white cake didn’t have the typical fragrance of dessert. He picked up a piece and, upon looking up, saw Jiang Huan lowering his gaze and placing the contents of his bowl into his mouth, chewing slowly. From the almost expressionless look on his face, it was impossible to tell whether it tasted good or bad. Shen Shanwu could only cautiously take a bite himself…

“Ugh.” He quickly covered his mouth, nearly vomiting directly onto the table. Xiaowen was in front, distributing food to the team members in the driver and co-driver seats, and hurried back to ask, “What’s wrong?”

Shen Shanwu quickly picked up the drink, hoping to wash down the salty, bitter, and extremely dry powder in his mouth. However, as soon as the ‘milk’ hit his tongue… he trembled in agony in his seat.

If it weren’t for the rational part of him insisting that he absolutely could not waste food in front of other humans, he would have definitely been violently throwing up in front of the trash can right now.

“What is this stuff?” Shen Shanwu asked, tears nearly streaming down his face. Xiaowen responded, “It’s compressed biscuits.”

“Compressed biscuits—” Shen Shanwu was about to say, “Don’t mess with me; it’s not like I haven’t eaten compressed biscuits before in the pre-apocalypse,” but before he could finish, he remembered that with Jiang Tong’s age, he probably hadn’t eaten compressed biscuits. Moreover, this compressed biscuits was clearly different from the ones he had had before. So he abruptly changed his wording, “—Is this what it tastes like?”

Xiao Wen picked up a piece and ate it, nodding. “It’s not a problem… It’s not very tasty, but it’s long-lasting and filling, making it the standard rations for all major battle teams at the moment. This also contains various vitamins, amino acids, proteins, minerals, and more—over a dozen functional components. Aside from not tasting great and being quite expensive, it has no drawbacks.”

To be honest, if Shen Shanwu were an ordinary person, he could eat anything when there was no food available—even worms would be acceptable, let alone the compressed food block and functional drink in front of him. But he was clearly a mutant who didn’t need to eat, yet he still had to endure this torment…

Why should he have to?!

No way, absolutely not! If the price of having fun at the coastal base was to eat this stuff for seven consecutive days, and then have to endure more of it regularly afterward, then someone as picky as Shen Shanwu would rather jump out of the vehicle and escape right now.

The key to sneaking away food was a little trick that Shen Shanwu had taught Jiang Huan hand-in-hand back in the day. Now that Jiang Huan was sitting directly across from him, Shen Shanwu couldn’t guarantee that he could hide it from him.

“I’m full.” He simply put down his chopsticks, jumped out of his seat, and dove into the back row to escape the nutritional meal. After all, with his teenage appearance, throwing a tantrum or acting irritable was entirely reasonable.

If the others were annoyed with his antics and planned to let him go hungry to teach him a lesson, that would be perfect for Shen Shanwu, as it meant he could skip this meal. On the other hand, if someone kindly came over to persuade him to eat a bit, he would just let them be and later secretly hide the food, pretending that he was so hungry in the afternoon that he had to eat it.

After finishing his portion of lunch, Jiang Huan put down his chopsticks and noticed Xiao Wen looking at him helplessly. Her left hand was pointing at the compressed food block that Shen Shanwu had barely touched and the functional drink that was practically untouched.

“Go to the second vehicle and get him a can of food,” Jiang Huan said calmly. “Pour a cup of warm water, and take a vitamin from my box.”

Holding back his surprise at what he heard, the man in the passenger seat nearly dropped his plate, but he was experienced and weathered enough to keep quiet.

However, when Xiaowen returned with the can, Yao Wuque, who had followed closely behind, had no such composure. Although he was wearing a mask, his startled personality and distinctive voice made him easily recognizable.

“Whoa, Captain?! I heard you’re giving Jiang Tong a can of food?”

Jiang Huan had a book spread across his lap and didn’t even raise his head upon hearing Yao Wuque enter, clearly not wanting to engage with him. Yao Wuque didn’t dare act out against Jiang Huan, so he turned around in frustration, just in time to see Xiaowen opening the can and neatly slicing the large pink pieces of ham inside.

Yao Wuque resembled a lemon balloon at that moment—both angry and sour.

“You’d better go back to the second vehicle,” Xiaowen sincerely advised. Yao Wuque, drawn in by the aroma of the canned food, widened his eyes and retorted, “What, is it not allowed to come to the first vehicle for a visit?”

Xiaowen gave him a look of affectionate exasperation, then bent down to rummage through the bottom cabinet. She found a bottle of orange-flavored effervescent tablets, placed one in the warm water, and set it alongside the can on the tray in front of Shen Shanwu’s seat.

“Jiang Tong, it’s time to eat.”

“Damn! Captain, you’re even giving him your vitamins?!” Yao Wuque was really exploding with jealousy. As the youngest member of the team, he had always been told that everyone should save a portion of the good stuff for him. He thought he had already received enough favoritism, but after seeing Jiang Tong’s treatment today, he realized what it truly meant to be in a league of your own, to be on a different level. Jiang Huan was practically showering Jiang Tong with affection.

He wouldn’t eat his meal, so you give him a can? There were only a few cans for the entire team, and they only opened one on special occasions, sharing it among several people… But Jiang Tong actually got to eat an entire can by himself!

Since Jiang Huan had gone this far, Shen Shanwu felt he couldn’t refuse to give face any longer. He slowly returned to his seat from the back row under Yao Wuque’s glaring, bloodthirsty gaze and took a cautious bite of the ham. The meat flavor was minimal; most of it tasted like flour, and it was a bit sticky, not to mention that it was worse than the low-quality ham sausages sold for fifty cents at the elementary school gate. Shen Shanwu had grown up eating premium meat sausages, so the comparison was stark.

However, at that moment, Shen Shanwu didn’t dare complain. He quickly swallowed the ham and finished the vitamin drink in one go. To be honest, the orange drink was quite good. He licked his lips, then cleared his plate and handed it back to Xiaowen.

 

 

 

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The author has something to say: 

Yao Wuque: His treatment is so good, wuwuwu.

Shen Shanwu: What kind of broken treatment is this, wuwuwu?