Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 650 The Apocalyptic Old Lady 19

Just then, Yun Chu moved. Like a silhouette emerging from the shadows, she was silent yet possessed an undeniable presence, blocking the boy's only path to the shantytown. The afterglow of the setting sun outlined her gaunt figure wrapped in an old coat.

The boy stopped abruptly, his entire body tensing up almost instantly.

He raised his head, his grey-blue eyes filled with surprise and instinctive wariness, like a small animal sensing danger.

He recognized the old man—he had actually brought a mutated tiger to the base. He instinctively took a half step back, his thin shoulders hunching slightly involuntarily.

"Don't be afraid," Yun Chu said, her voice still hoarse and aged, as calm as if stating an insignificant fact. "I see you work very efficiently."

Her gaze swept calmly over the boy's dusty, chafed face and elbows, and his eyes, which were filled with vigilance yet couldn't hide their weariness and beauty.

"Want to change your way of life?" she asked directly, without any beating around the bush. "Come with me. There will be food, you can eat your fill, and at least it will be much safer than being on the construction site."

The boy's pupils visibly contracted, his eyes filled with disbelief and immense confusion.

The suggestion was too abrupt, like a spider's thread hanging down from the abyss of despair, so beautiful that he dared not touch it. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out; he simply pursed his thin lips unconsciously.

“You don’t have to give anything in return,” Yun Chu continued, her tone devoid of any condescension, as if she were simply making a fair statement. “I don’t need to do much work, just be quick and efficient. I can provide for your safety. I’ll make sure you’re well-fed.”

This is too tempting... and too bizarre.

The boy's gaze swept back and forth between Yun Chu's seemingly cloudy but unfathomable eyes and the gleaming metal can at her feet.

Is it really safe to follow her?

Or is it like jumping from one fire pit into another unknown abyss?

"Think about it carefully," Yun Chu seemed to see through his doubts and did not urge him, but instead gave him space. "There's no rush to answer."

She stepped aside to make way, pointing to a relatively secluded tool shed made from a damaged shipping container not far away: "If you've made up your mind, you can find me in that tool shed tonight or tomorrow."

She didn't say another word, as if she had just completed her ordinary observation for the day. She turned around and slowly walked towards the tool shed, leaving the boy standing alone in the afterglow of the setting sun. His small figure was stretched long, but his heart was filled with turbulent waves.

For him, struggling on the construction site and constantly on guard against those who might covet his property, the desire for food and safety was a heavy weight that could crush any rationality.

The next morning, as soon as the rusty iron door of the tool shed was pushed open a crack, a small, thin figure quickly slipped in.

It was that boy—Bi Ziqian.

Bi Ziqian had clearly spent the entire night in intense struggle and weighing his options; his gray-blue eyes were tinged with a distinct bluish shadow, and his face appeared even paler.

But the hesitation in his eyes had been replaced by a desperate determination.

Bi Ziqian saw Yun Chu sitting quietly beside a pile of clutter, polishing a short dagger. His lips moved, and his voice was dry but clear:

“I…I’ll come. I’ll follow you.”

Yun Chu's hands didn't stop moving; she merely glanced at him, a faint, knowing look flashing in her cloudy eyes. "Mm," she simply replied, as if it were something she had expected.

Bi Ziqian stood awkwardly in the doorway, his fingers nervously twisting the hem of his clothes. After a brief silence, Yun Chu seemed to remember something and spoke again, her hoarse voice remarkably clear in the quiet tool shed:

"In this base," she asked slowly, her gaze fixed on the short dagger in her hand, "are there... anyone as 'clean,' or rather, as pleasing to the eye as you?"

Bi Ziqian's body stiffened visibly for a moment, then he understood what she meant.

Although the word "good-looking" wasn't explicitly used in yesterday's brief recruitment remarks, he had already sensed the pure, slightly cold "appreciation" in the old man's eyes.

He thought of the disgusted looks those two powerful superhumans had given him yesterday, and then of the food and safety the old man had promised... A delicate balance was quickly formed in his mind.

Bi Ziqian nodded vigorously, giving his answer almost without hesitation. His voice was soft, but very certain: "Yes."

“A man… named Ling Yi,” Bi Ziqian recalled the vague rumors circulating in the base, “They said he was a very famous star before the apocalypse, and had acted in many plays.”

The name itself carries a certain radiance; even if the boy doesn't know anything about celebrities, he can imagine that it must represent some kind of extraordinary appearance.

“There’s another woman,” he added, “whose name is Xu Jingyan. She’s a singer, and she has a very beautiful voice. Her songs used to be played all the time on TV.” The girl’s name was soft and melodious, a natural fit for her identity as a singer.

After Bi Ziqian finished speaking, he fell silent, his grey-blue eyes subtly observing Yun Chu's reaction, awaiting her next instruction. He had already bound himself and the "information" she needed together.

As soon as the boy finished speaking, a faint hint of interest flashed in Yun Chu's cloudy eyes. "Celebrity..." she repeated softly, her voice hoarse like the rubbing of withered leaves, "...a nice-sounding name. Lead the way."

The tool shed was dimly lit. Bi Ziqian led the way, followed by Yun Chu, the old man and the young girl silently traversing the noisy and chaotic base.

They arrived at the edge of the base, near its core area, where a relatively "decent" place to live was made up of dilapidated tents and abandoned carriages.

Bi Ziqian stopped in front of a makeshift shack made of two huge, rusty steel plates leaning against each other. He gestured with his lip and subconsciously lowered his voice: "This is it... but he always has guards around him."

Yun Chu's gaze swept over. Outside the shack, two burly men stood guard, wearing relatively clean but stained combat uniforms, their faces showing impatient and fierce expressions. One of them was impatiently tapping a steel plate with his knuckles, producing a dull "thump-thump" sound.

"Ling Yi! Come out here! It's your turn to work at the water supply station today!" a burly man roared.

A moment later, a slight noise came from deep within the shack. A figure crouched down and emerged from the shadows.

Even though Yun Chu was used to the devastation of the post-apocalyptic world, when she saw Ling Yi, her interest in "planting him by her side for observation" was still slightly stirred.

The man was twenty-five years old, tall and slender, like a poplar tree that had been broken by a storm but had not fallen.

Despite wearing a faded gray cloth shirt with several patches, and even dried mud stains on the trouser legs, the carefully sculpted outline from before the apocalypse was still strikingly clear.

He had a near-perfect face, with deep-set eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin, tightly pursed lips.

However, at this moment, the brilliance that once belonged to the star has long since faded, leaving only a deep weariness and a sense of imprisoned exhaustion etched in his eyes.

What is most striking is the bruise on his pale forehead beneath his slightly messy black hair, which had just scabbed over, like a glaring crack on a delicate piece of porcelain.

His hands seemed to hang casually at his sides, but Yun Chu's cloudy yet sharp gaze caught that his fingertips were unconsciously twisting the edge of his clothes, and a tiny, almost imperceptible orange-red spark flashed there, carrying a scorching afterglow—it was the instinct that fire-type abilities could not completely suppress.