Chapter Fifty-Seven: Brothers

Qi An slept for less time this round than she had the last. She woke after only twelve hours, to broad daylight.

The sky was clear and blue, the sunlight bright and fresh. Lush grass covered the roadside, while flowers bloomed profusely along the highway, filling the air with fragrance and greenery.

This time, Qi An did not reach instinctively for her gun. She knew they were safe, and after squinting in the sunlight for a while, she finally sat up.

“We’ll be reaching Central Plains Base One soon, though we’ll only stop there for one night. The road ahead is easy. We’ll be home in two days at most.” Su Qingran handed Qi An a cup of water that had been kept warm and smiled.

Qi An was in the artillery truck. After it had been thoroughly cleaned and sprayed with disinfectant produced by New Life Base, it remained the roomiest and most comfortable vehicle, ideal for carrying the wounded.

Zhuang Xiao was driving. Yang Yuning, seated in the passenger seat, turned around and saw that Qi An’s cheeks were rosy and her eyes clear and bright. She had obviously recovered, and his face filled with smiles.

Su Qingran relayed the news over the public channel, and the channel instantly filled with cheers and greetings.

Qi An smiled as well. A wave of languor came over her, and she relaxed against the soft leather seat, replying to each greeting one by one.

Naturally, the first to respond was their captain, Yu Shuang. Once Qi An had confirmed that everyone on the team was safe, she felt even more at ease.

“All our fuel trucks are fine. The drivers locked them when they got out, and we’ve found every one of them. Four people died during the mutations: Li Yi, Liu Weiyun, Chang Jia from North Two, and one driver. One driver who ran up into the mountains suffered severe injuries,” Yu Shuang said. His tone was not particularly heavy.

Considering how difficult they had judged this mission to be, and how dangerous the situation had become the previous night, having suffered so few casualties was nothing short of miraculous.

Qi An, however, thought that if Li Yi had not failed them at the crucial moment, they would not have had to suffer even those losses.

“Our teachers at the base used to say that only people who fear weakness in their hearts bully those weaker than themselves,” Yang Yuning said calmly. “Li Yi had long since been scared witless by the Fallen Insects.”

Qi An thought about it and found herself in complete agreement.

There were all kinds of people in the world: Li Yi, Liu Weiyun, and You Zi among them.

You Zi’s greeting was utterly sincere, though she added that once they stopped to rest, she had a hundred personal belongings she wanted Qi An to autograph.

One other greeting took Qi An by surprise.

Xu Le’s lively, cheerful voice rang out over the radio. “It’s wonderful that Doctor Qi is awake! We brought some nourishing tonic for calming the spirit and invigorating the mind, as well as wonderfully fragrant dried venison. We’ll deliver them to Doctor Qi in a little while!”

“Their destination is the same as ours, so they’re traveling with us now. They’ve also joined the public channel,” Zhuang Xiao explained.

He was quite pleased, and so were the people in the convoy. With Chen Yuezhou and the purifier Xu Le accompanying them, everyone felt much safer.

“...I see.” Qi An replied to Xu Le, “Thank you. And thank you all for helping us fight the insects last night.”

“Nothing to it! Besides, we’re all comrades. Helping out is only right!” Xu Le’s reply was bright and polished, drawing a wave of gratitude and praise from the public channel.

Xu Le answered each message in turn, chatting and laughing with everyone.

But after switching off the radio, he became somewhat cautious.

He felt that something was wrong with their leader. Chen Yuezhou had not slept since the previous night, nor had he said much. He had merely sat there in a daze.

When the public channel announced that Doctor Qi had awakened, the leader had immediately straightened up. It was the strongest reaction he had shown to the outside world in more than ten hours.

Once the public channel fell silent, Chen Yuezhou leaned back into his seat again and gazed at the scenery sliding past outside the window, his eyes deep and unreadable.

Two hours later, the convoy entered Central Plains Base One.

The base had been built in the mountains. Surrounded on all four sides by peaks, it occupied a basin.

The surrounding land was exceptionally fertile, with vast forests and farms stretching across it.

Central Plains Base One was more welcoming than North Three. Perhaps it was because both belonged to the Central Plains faction; they were close to each other, traded frequently, and knew one another well.

They invited the convoy into the base, but everyone felt more at ease in the farms, so they continued to camp on the outskirts.

The weather had grown warmer. Young crops spread across the farmland in fresh green rows, forming a more even carpet than the one they had seen on the plains.

As the great hero who had once again saved the convoy, Qi An was ordered to rest and do nothing at all.

Thus she spent half the day sitting idly on a field ridge. Later, she soaked her feet in an irrigation channel and watched the brightly colored little fish swim by.

For a long while she sat lost in thought, gazing at her reflection on the water. Gradually, however, the serenity in her eyes gave way to sorrow.

Before long, another figure appeared in the reflection. Qi An turned and saw Chen Yuezhou standing against the light.

“...Are you unhappy?” Chen Yuezhou asked after several minutes. He did not seem accustomed to showing concern for others, and his tone was awkward.

“No.” Qi An smiled faintly and lowered her head again.

Then she suddenly remembered what had happened the day before. “What I said yesterday was only something I said in anger. You’re very strong.”

Chen Yuezhou had risked an enormous amount to help them fight the insects. Whatever disputes had arisen on the battlefield, she should not have repaid him with spiteful words.

Chen Yuezhou paused. He was very different now from when his contamination level had been surging. Faced with the subject, he did not grow angry. Instead, he smiled without quite smiling.

“Was that the truth, or were you comforting me?”

Seeing his attitude, Qi An answered honestly. “Your mental resistance seems to be lower than his. As for the rest of your performance on the battlefield, based on the few times I’ve seen you fight, you should be about evenly matched.”

“You and he are close?”

“More or less. Our missions are all very dangerous. If we carry them out together, then naturally we’ve been through life and death together.”

Qi An had noticed that Chen Yuezhou asked many questions but gave few answers. He always waited until she had revealed several pieces of information before offering a single reply.

She asked, “Are you really brothers? The way you speak of him doesn’t sound like the way someone would speak of his younger brother.”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Chen Yuezhou asked.

Qi An kicked up a spray of water.

There it was again. Whenever he encountered a question he did not wish to answer, he threw out a new one, always trying to control the rhythm of the conversation.

“Are you actually brothers? How many years older than him are you?” Qi An asked again.

Chen Yuezhou seemed to raise an eyebrow, a trace of amusement in his eyes.

“Yes. We have the same father but different mothers. I’m ten years older than him.”

Half-brothers, with a full ten years between them? Qi An was astonished.

“...How old are you this year?” she asked.

Chen Yuezhou sat down on a mound of earth beside her. “May I ask how old you are?”

“Twenty.”

“Were you born the year the apocalypse began?” Chen Yuezhou asked, sounding slightly surprised as well.

Still, plenty of children had been born in the year the apocalypse began. Few had survived, but it was not unheard of.

There was nothing particularly strange about Qi An’s age.

“I’m twenty-eight,” Chen Yuezhou said.

Qi An turned to look at him carefully once more.

Chen Yuezhou’s features were sculpted, and though his skin was not fair, it was not especially rough either. There was not a wrinkle on his face.

By any measure, he still looked very young—about the same age as Yang Yuning. He was actually twenty-eight?

Then Chen Xi must be eighteen, Qi An thought.