novelRaising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (27.1)
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Chapter Chapter 148.1 - Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (27. 1) translator: xiin
Since this was a request from Ding Qiuyun, he did as he was asked.
Although Gu Xinzhi was wanted by the new humans, there were very few people who'd seen his appearance and lived.
Besides, this team of new humans didn't belong to the same group as the ones who'd wanted him before, so there was no need to worry that someone would recognize him.
He'd successfully mixed in with them, but life here really wasn't very pleasant.
He hadn't even finished smoking a single cigarette when trouble came to find him.
Someone held out a box of cigarettes in front of Gu Xinzhi. Just from smelling the aroma of cut tobacco, an experienced smoker could easily judge that it would be considered a rare, good quality cigarette even prior to the apocalypse.
He opened his mouth and pulled one out, inserting it into his mouth.
A match was lit up, hissing as it lit up the cut tobacco. The smoke curled up along his lips.
Gu Xinzhi spat out a beautiful smoke ring.
The youth's sense of coldness was really the most deadly weapon. Even if his behavior didn't hold any emotional or provocative intentions, it was easily able to make people's bodies heat up.
The bearded man sat down beside him, staring at Gu Xinzhi with burning eyes, "You've worked hard."
Gu Xinzhi replied lightly, "Mm."
The bearded man attempted to wrap an arm around Gu Xinzhi's shoulder, "Look at you. You seem a bit thinner than you were when you first came here."
The expression on Gu Xinzhi's face didn't change, but he almost bit off the cigarette filter in his mouth.
This bearded man was surnamed Qiu, and he was the leader fo this new human team. This team was the largest amongst all the new human teams that were after the arsenal.
Previously, Gu Xinzhi had observed them for a long time, weighing all the pros and cons, and then confirmed that this was the most suitable place for him to infiltrate. He'd then led his team here.
He'd thought that he'd calculated everything, but when he sent a letter to Ding Qiuyun and told him about the new human camp he'd chosen, Ding Qiuyun had only replied to him with one word, "Ha."
Gu Xinzhi: "... What did that mean?"
Ding Qiuyun said, "It's no big deal, you'll know when you go."
Although Ding Qiuyun didn't interfere with thew new team that Gu Xinzhi had put together, he knew a lot about any new human group that held even a little bit of power.
... Shu Wenqing's commercial town was now a large information trading center. Any information could be obtained there.
Ding Qiuyun had been absolutely right: This wasn't a big deal, and Gu Xinzhi had really known when he went.
This bearded new human captain really liked beautiful young men. Gu Xinzhi's appearance and temperament just happened to check all his aesthetic boxes.
Gu Xinzhi was very annoyed. The man was still happy approaching him even when he remained alienated and indifferent, which gave Gu Xinzhi a headache.
He wrote back and asked, "Ding Qiuyun, did you deliberately not tell me?"
A letter from the town arrived soon after.
Ding Qiuyun's answer consisted of only one word, "Yes."
Gu Xinzhi held a one word letter and looked at it for a long time from his sleeping bag. His heart felt sour and soft as he bit down on a flashlight, writing out a reply word by word with the stub of a pencil.
He wanted to say, "Will this assuage your anger?", and he wanted to ask, "Do I need to do more?" He erased the words, changed them, then erased them again. Finally, he only sent out a short single word.
He said, "Okay."
... Okay, as long as you're happy. I'll just listen to what you say.
Gu Xinzhi didn't immediately break the bearded man's neck. He just looked at him coldly, and that look made the bearded man's heart quake. He didn't dare to make any more extra moves, and the corners of his mouth moved stiffly into a flattering smile, "Little Gu..."
Gu Xinzhi stood up and dusted off the shoulder he'd just touched, "Thank you for the cigarette, Captain Qiu."
If others did this, the bearded man would definitely be angry, but when Gu Xinzhi did it, it left him simply unable to find any trace of anger at all.
Even the two faint sounds of cloth rubbing against his fingertips over his shoulder when he stood up made him feel like he'd gained something charming.
After Gu Xinzhi got up and left, the bearded man felt that things suddenly turned dull. He was in the midst of taking a cigarette out of his cigarette box when he shifted his gaze and discovered that Gu Xinzhi was secretly looking back at him after taking a few dozen steps away.
The bearded man didn't feel angry at being peeked at like this. Instead, he like he'd been touched by his gaze and returned his look with a smile.
Gu Xinzhi's body trembled slightly. He turned his head back and walked away quickly.
The bearded man smiled.
No matter what kind of act he put on, he was still a baby in his twenties, and still tender.
Although he'd brought a good quality team with him when he came, when it came to quantity, Gu Xinzhi still had to obediently tie himself to their side no matter how unwilling he was.
The more unwilling and resistant he was, the happier the bearded man would be when he obtained him.
However, there was no trace of the shame, tension, and uneasiness that he'd imagined in Gu Xinzhi's eyes as he walked away with his back facing him.
He looked like a hunting wolf, cunning, and cruel, with a subtle shrewd light.
As he walked, he wiped his hands, lips, and all the places touched by the bearded man clean with a snow-white linen handkerchief. Then, when he arrived at his tent, he tossed the handkerchief into a campfire and watched the snow color turn into black char before walking away.
Gu Xinzhi had taken his tiny team with him to mingle in with the new humans who wanted to encircle and annihilate the arsenal base. No one perceived his identity as an old human because he seemed unafraid of cold and death.
When it came to death, Gu Xinzhi had seen it a lot. Firstly, he killed, and secondly, he'd seen Ding Qiuyun die in front of him again and again in his dreams.
At the end of the day, he didn't really have a strong sense of 'death', because the death of others was nothing worth worrying about for him.
And Ding Qiuyun's death was something that had been repeated in his dreams. As long as he could endure until he opened his eyes again, he could convince himself that it hadn't happened. Even if it had happened, it was only something from the past. As long as he opened his eyes, he would still be able to see the living Qiuyun, and that was enough.
Until one day, one of his team members was shot in the head while fighting over a head of elk with other new humans near the station.
The firepower of that gun was very powerful, and the man had lost half of his head the moment it was fired.
Since they'd already torn down the relationship, the other party didn't hold back and directly cut off the team member's head, preventing any chance of him going back with his injury and bringing them endless misfortune.
Gu Xinzhi, who'd split up with him to look for prey, had heard the gunfire and followed the sound. He'd recognized him due to his name card.
He sat beside the body for a long time, looking at the cold, headless body as he smoked through a whole pack of cigarettes.
When he was alive, this man had hated seeing Gu Xinzhi smoking the most. He'd always tried to persuade him, saying that he would get lung cancer, but it was often in vain. Therefore, when the other team members saw this scene, they felt sad, and then they didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Gu Xinzhi held a cigarette between the fingers of his right hand, and his left hand touched a pocket in his clothing.
He'd installed a small video recorder in each team member's coat pocket.
This was something he'd picked up from Shu Wenqing, which made it convenient for them to steal some video data when communicating with other new humans, allowing them to bring the data back for analysis.
As he smoked, he plugged the recorder into a prepared terminal to watch the causes and effects of the incident.
After he finished watching it, he stood up and said, "I'm leaving for a while."
The players thought that he was depressed and wanted to go smoke a cigarette. They said, "Captain Gu, Little Li, he..."
Gu Xinzhi didn't make a sound. He put his hand in his pocket and slowly headed out.
His team members looked at each other. They were already used to Gu Xinzhi's coldness and were preparing to bury their companion.
They'd chosen to take this risk with Gu Xinzhi, so they were conscious of the need for sacrifice. Moreover, compared with old humans, they were people who'd already died once, and their feelings towards 'death' was much lighter. Even if they were sad, they wouldn't be completely torn up over it.
However, even if the definition of 'death' had changed several times, the idea of 'burying into the earth for peace' was still a custom that was rooted deeply in the hearts of 'humans'.
They took their companion's body back to their camp and borrowed a shovel to begin digging a hole.
The frozen, hard soil wasn't easy to dig. Fortunately, the new humans were far stronger than normal people and they soon finished digging a deep pit.
Before they could move the body that they'd wrapped up in a sleeping bag into the pit, Gu Xinzhi came back.
He had a dead elk in his right hand, and a head in his left hand. One of his hands was coated in bloody ice, and he had a fresh cigarette in his mouth, giving off the scent of nicotine.
This head belonged to the murderer he'd seen in the camera recording just now.
He ignored the shocked looks from his team members and tossed the head into the tomb like tossing a grapefruit. The head made a dull sound when it landed.
He said, "Bury them together. Settling accounts."
With that, he didn't wait for his teammates' reactions and returned to his tent.
The bearded man, who'd watched all the proceedings, looked admiringly at Gu Xinzhi, who persisted in doing things his own way. Both his eyes and heart heated.
One of his team members hurried up and said to the bearded man, "Boss, there's been a bit of trouble. Go and have a look."
The bearded man focused, "What's the matter?"
"It's Old Leng, he's angry and said that the people from our side ran over to their base in broad daylight, cutting down one of his men. He's asking us to give him an explanation."
"What's there to explain?" The bearded man shrugged, "Their people attacked first. It's already good that I don't go looking for him. Tell him this: His man was already near his base, yet he was still killed. Isn't that shameful?"
The tea member heard this and felt that this was a little difficult to do, "Say it word for word?"
"Are you the boss, or am I the boss?" The bearded man had been influenced by Gu Xinzhi. He lit up another cigarette, then pointed it at Gu Xinzhi's tent, "That man is righteous. He's useful to keep around."
The team member couldn't help complaining internally, like hell was he useful, he was clearly someone the boss had taken a fancy was. However, he would be asking to be beaten up if he said these words, so he stopped himself and ran off to deliver the message.
The bearded man looked at the tent in fascination.
Inside the tent, Gu Xinzhi rubbed off the bloody ice that was caked on his palm, moved his stiff fingers and wrists, and then drilled into his sleeping bag. He bit the flashlight again, taking out a cigarette box and wrote to Ding Qiuyun.
This time, he'd written a lot of words. Even he felt that there was too many words, and he wanted to erase some of them after writing. However, after reading and re-reading his letter, he felt that writing so many words wasn't so bad. He folded up the cigarette box again and glued it back together, filling it up one by one with cigarettes he'd hidden away. He then called over a female team member after confirming that everything looked as it should, "Tell Li Mingyuan's family that he's dead. The body can't be transported back and was buried here instead. They can come over and take a look when they have time."
The dead Li Mingyuan had long been separated from his family. This was a secret signal for this female team member to send letters back to the town.
After speaking, he handed over the box of women's cigarettes to the female team member.
The female team member smoked as well, so the others wouldn't think too much of it. They just thought that this was her reward for running an errand.
The female team member understood what he wanted and accepted the cigarette box. She was about to leave when she was stopped by the bearded man.
The female team member's heart leapt wildly. Thinking that their secret had been revealed, she instinctively turned her head back to look at Gu Xinzhi.
Gu Xinzhi's expression was the same as usual, "Captain Qiu, what's the matter?"
"Where do you need to go? I'll send someone to accompany her." The bearded man gave a flattering smile.
Gu Xinzhi refused him coldly, "We have a car. There's no need to bother."
After being rejected again by Gu Xinzhi, the bearded man then watched as the female team member left with a sigh of relief. Even though the bearded man was patient, he couldn't help himself any more.
His tone was joking as he said, "Captain Gu, you're really a deadly man." His thoughts couldn't be guessed at, he couldn't be seen through, yet he had that inexplicable attraction.
Gu Xinzhi replied flatly, "I don't want to die."
The bearded man was amused by his serious and unjoking appearance and felt that he'd picked up a huge treasure.
He really wanted to get along with Gu Xinzhi like this for a few more days and share a few more jokes, but the situation in the arsenal changed faster than they'd expected.
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