In a snap, three days passed. This was the first day of the military-civilian joint operation. Every Peak member woke up early and showed up in the dining room fully spirited. Contrary to the liveliness in the normal time, everybody seemed taciturn, especially Yun Yao. Hesitant to speak, she looked back and forth between Xing Feng and Yun Che. As if the sharp senses of the two men dysfunctioned, they acted like everything was perfectly normal. They took their time on the table, putting food in each other's bowl every now and then in a natural and spontaneous way like they usually did.
"Che!"
Such weird atmosphere lasted until Yun Che got into the coach to head to the base gate. At last, Yun Yao called Yun Che to stop.
"You get into the coach first."
After making contact with Xing Feng, Yun Yao took his sister to a corner. "Sis, I know that it's too hard for you to process it at the moment but look at us three, I'm the only one that has a greater chance to be genuinely happy. But I want the happiness that I'm after instead of the kind given by others. Xing Feng is the happiness that I'm after. I know you're worried about the lineage of our family but don't we already have Chenchen? Does it matter if I don't have children? In the doomsday, raising a kid can't be easy and I don't want my child to be born in a world like this. I hope you can understand and accept our relationship."
After reflection, Yun Che decided to tell Yun Yao about the relationship between him and Xing Feng while everybody was out for the morning exercise. This was the reason why Yun Yao hadn't been acting normal the whole morning.
"I get what you say, but why do you tell me now all of a sudden? You could have kept it as a secret forever."
Yun Yao would be the dumbest person in the world for not having an inkling about what was going on between them. She just always felt that there were chances her brother might come around since he chose to keep quiet about it. She never expected that he'd confess at this time. It really had caught her off guard. She wasn't against it but it just happened too sudden that she didn't know how to cope with it.
"Because I'm leaving home today and it'd probably take me days to come back. You'll have enough time and space to think about it."
Yun Che barely bullshitted his sister because he cared about her feelings. That was why he calculated meticulously so that she was given enough time to process it.
"Do you like him that much?"
After looking back at Xing Feng who was looking at them by the window in the coach, Yun Yao held her brother's hand and asked the question. Her head was a mess right now, her question was blurted out without thinking.
"Yes, I do. Perhaps I was already in love with him in my previous life. I just met too late. God put us together in this life."
Looking over his sister's shoulder, Yun Che smiled when he and Xing Feng made eye contact from a distance. He wasn't making it up. During the four years in his previous life, he traveled from base to base and met a lot of people, but how come only Xing Feng made a strong impression on him? The only possible reason was, maybe he was already into Xing Feng in the previous life. At the time, he was with Han Mingzhe, so he intentionally kept a distance from Xing Feng, forbidding himself from falling in love with another man.
"Ay."
Yun Yao sighed after hearing it. She wasn't sure what to say. Yun Che cut off the eye contact with Xing Feng, put two hands on both of her shoulders, bent over to look her in the eyes. "Take it easy. You have several days to think about it. Sister, I don't want to lie to you, the reality is, even if I wasn't with Xing Feng, you wouldn't have a sister-in-law anyway because I never like women. Actually, you should be happy for me because had I not met him, I'd be living the rest of my life on my own. Does it make you feel better?"
"What else can I say to what you said?"
Yun Yao didn't know how to reply but glare at him. She felt like Yun Che was threatening her.
"Because you love me."
Yun Che didn't deny that he took advantage of her love. Yun Yao slapped his hand away in exasperation. "Alright, get lost! The more I see you, the more upset I am. You just keep upsetting me until the day I die!"
"Heehee!"
With a naughty grin, Yun Che walked past her to the coach at his door.
"Han!"
Under the window, Yun Cheng held Leng Yehan's hand tightly with an I-don't-want-you-to-go expression on his pretty face. His red lips pursed into a big pout. He'd been throwing a tantrum ever since he heard that Leng Yehan and his brother needed to be away for several days and he'd been shouting about tagging along with them.
"Be good. We'll be right back."
Sticking half of his body out of the window, Leng Yehan hugged and kissed Yun Cheng. He didn't want to part with him, either. Cheng had become pretty clingy to Leng Yehan now. And ever since he ingested the tree heart, he wasn't supposed to feel nothing about Leng's kisses anymore. Yun Cheng was making progress and in no time, he'd truly "grow up".
"You're lying. Che said you'd come back several days later."
Yun Cheng retorted. Right before Leng Yehan tried to say something, Yun Che walked up to his brother and coaxed him, "Alright, Cheng, we're just going to earn food for you. You don't wanna starve, do you?"
This brother of his was more difficult to coax than Chenchen was sometimes. But if you just mentioned the key word, he'd listen.
"I don't wanna starve, but I don't want you to leave, either."
Now that his brother was here, Yun Cheng shook off Leng Yehan and turned around and held onto Yun Che's arm with the same pout on the face. Yun Che touched his head as if he was a giant pet. "We're not leaving. We're going to work and when the work is over, we come back with the food that we earn for you. Just be a good boy at home, OK? Have you forgotten that you promised me you'd protect our sister and nephew? When we're away from home, you'll be the big man in the family. You gotta be brave and strong!"
"This is what you say to coax a child!" Everybody inside the coach couldn't help but roll their eyes at Yun Che.
"Yes. I'm tough. I'll protect Yao and Chenchen."
But Yun Cheng was tackled just like that. He got off of Yun Che and gave him a nod of resolution. Yun Yao came over and threw a glower at Yun Che. "You just keep treating him like a kid. You wait and see how he gets back at you when he's back to normal."
Before the doomsday, Yun Cheng would always outsmart his brother. Don't ever underestimate the brain of a top student.
"Come on, sis, I'm just assigning homework to him." Replied Yun Che with a sly grin.
He then slipped into the coach before Yun Yao drove him away. Yun Yao shook her head, held our poor Yun Cheng's hand and enjoined, "The provincial city isn't like the outside of the base. You must be vigilant. Come home as early as you can."
She tried not to get herself involved but she wasn't an idiot, she was very clear about the difficulty of the quest.
"Don't worry, Yao."
"Yao, take care of Cheng, please."
"Cook for us when we're home."
The coach left in everyone's cheerful goodbyes. Yun Yao took Yun Cheng back into the house until she saw nothing in the distance. The people who stayed at home with her and her brother were Zhan Yafei's parents, Lu Haixuan's grandpa and mom, as well as Gu Mingxuan.
At the base gate, 20 military trucks parked in line. The three hundred spirited superfunction soldiers from the three armies held guns and stood by in three formations. Well-disciplined and uniform, the soldiers showed grandeur. Contrary to the three solemn troops, the superfunction possessors were lax and diversified. Some were tall, some were short; some were fat, some were thin. And they were wearing all kinds of outfits. Some formed small groups, some stood there on their own. The throng showed no sign of reliability at all. No wonder only the bases built and controlled by the armies could survive in the doomsday.
"Captain Xing and his people are coming."
Someone yelled and all the superfunction possessors turned their heads. A 20-people limited coach approached slowly. The superfunction possessors fervidly went to welcome them before the coach even stopped.
"You're all here! Are we late again?"
The door opened, Yun Che and Xing Feng were the first to step out of the coach, followed by others. Some wore a smile, some kept silent. Yun Che also had a black puppy in his arms. You wanna know why Heiyu was here? He sent a message to Yun Che through spiritual power saying he wanted to come out when they were close to the base gate, Yun Che had no choice but to let him out.
"No, no. We're early. We're working with the military, so we'd better get serious, right?"
"Haha, right! Captain Yun, Captain Xing, you know what? I woke up before dawn this morning. I just couldn't sleep tight."
"Silly you."
"Haha!"
People joked and chatted around them. The tension dispersed after they arrived. Yun Che kept a light smell on the face all along but he knew these people weren't sincerely greeting them, they were after something else. And they would be enlightened soon after they left the base but not for now.
"Shiiiiit! It's so much fun here, master! Are those superfunction soldiers over there? Wow, so cool! But of course, less cool than me. Hey, soldier boys, look here, look here! I, a god beast, am here to see you!"
"What?"
No one noticed the puppy in Yun Che's arms when they made the small-talk until he swooshed to the top of Yun Che's head, sitting on it and waving its forepaw at the three formations near the crowd. Everybody's jaw dropped, you could even put an egg in one of those agape mouths.
Yun Che and his gang also froze in embarrassment.
"Huh? What's happening to you? Come on, keep chatting, why do you stop? No? OK, then, I'll introduce myself. My name is Heiyu, my master's most loyal, reliable, perfect, beloved… What? Here we go again? Whoa! It feels great!"
Yun Che couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed his leg and threw him away. Heiyu wasn't pissed off, though, he'd become addicted to it. His scream sounded disturbingly excited.
"Ahem! Uh, Captain Yun, is-is that your dog?"
Lei Dashan regained his senses after quite a while. The fact that he just saw a speaking dog still reverberated in his mind.
"What? A talking dog?"
"I thought I was crazy! A dog was actually speaking?"
"Where did you find this freaking… speaking dog?"
"Is that a mastiff? A tiny mastiff maybe?"
"What mastiff? The point is, the dog speaks! It speaks!"
The questions and wonders from all those superfunction possessors overwhelmed Yun Che. To their knowledge, no dog could speak. The fact that the dog just spoke and spoke in such a rowdy manner just freaked them out!
"It is my dog. It's a mutant beast. Sorry."
Yun Che grimaced in shock as well. He apologized to everybody. He knew that wherever Heiyu went, he'd slaughter the place. He bet that this asshole must have waited to come out after the coach left the house. "This is just perfect. The quest will be a lot of 'fun'!"