The car did not have an easy journey. The road was bumpy and difficult to navigate. Besides wandering zombies, they frequently encountered abandoned vehicles blocking the way.
Fortunately, Quan Xiaoyu had altered his body’s physical functions, so pushing the obstructing vehicles aside was effortless for him.
When he met Li Nan’s curious eyes, he merely said lightly, “Just like you. The only difference is that our directions are different.” He was referring to Li Nan’s healing-type ability.
Although he also suspected that his own ability probably did not come from a mutation caused by the apocalypse, but was inseparably connected to that so-called “recognition as master” and “marrow cleansing,” he had no intention of revealing it.
Everyone had their own secrets. And the reason secrets were called “secrets” was precisely because they were private and could not be shared.
The car continued forward.
Li Nan pondered Quan Xiaoyu’s words. After a long while, he finally asked, “What is my ability?”
Speaking of this, Quan Xiaoyu felt that he needed to give Li Nan a proper warning. After thinking for a moment, he said, “A healing-type ability. At that time…” He was referring to when Li Nan had treated Li Shunwei. “White light came from your hands, and then your dad’s wounds began to heal. It’s just a pity…”
It was simply too late. Too much blood had been lost, and too much of Li Shunwei’s life had already slipped away.
“So, I can save people?”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded. “Maybe this ability can even level up in the future.”
“But I couldn’t save Dad.” Li Nan gave a bitter smile and lowered his head. What use was an ability that could not save his father? What use was an ability that could not kill bad people and protect his family?
Quan Xiaoyu was silent for a while before saying, “But perhaps one day in the future, your ability might save my life.”
That’s right. He still had Brother Xiaoyu!
Dad had desperately wanted both of them to survive! From now on, he and Brother Xiaoyu would have to depend on each other.
When Dad was alive, he often said that Brother Xiaoyu had no parents and did not know how to take care of himself. He told Li Nan to grow up quickly so that he could take better care of Brother Xiaoyu.
Dad was gone, but he still had Brother Xiaoyu. And Brother Xiaoyu had said that he had an ability that could save his life.
After thinking things through, the knot in his chest gradually loosened. When a person had a goal in life, things would not seem quite so desperate.
“I understand, Brother Xiaoyu. I’ll work hard. I absolutely won’t let you get hurt.” Li Nan spoke as though making a solemn vow.
Quan Xiaoyu rarely smiled. He reached out and rubbed Li Nan’s head, saying, “Good.”
After a pause, he added, “Your ability is a secret between the two of us for now. Try not to use it in front of other people, and try not to let anyone discover it, okay?”
A healing-type ability was too easy to make others covet it. Moreover, Li Nan was still a child. It was safer to keep it hidden for now.
“I understand, Brother Xiaoyu.” He had already witnessed the ugliness of human nature. Other than Brother Xiaoyu, he would never easily trust anyone else again.
Li Nan did not ask why Quan Xiaoyu knew so many things that he did not.
When Quan Xiaoyu had knocked those two bad people down like a heavenly god descending to earth; when Quan Xiaoyu had smashed zombie heads one after another like crushing watermelons; when Quan Xiaoyu had pushed cars aside as easily as pushing cotton…
His image in Li Nan’s heart had already become one of someone who could do anything.
Since he could do anything, what was so strange about him knowing more than Li Nan?
At last, they arrived at the entrance to the villa community, and Quan Xiaoyu slightly slowed the car.
This was an upscale villa community. To display its luxury and status, an enormous eight-meter-tall bronze gate had been installed behind the security booth, probably to convey the idea that this was a prestigious residence of a wealthy family.
Normally, security guards took turns standing watch here around the clock, with four guards generally on duty at the same time.
But now, the entrance was deathly quiet.
A corpse lay beside the security booth, half of its head hacked away.
Quan Xiaoyu observed it for a moment. It was the corpse of a zombie, which meant it had been killed only after mutating.
The barrier blocking vehicles at the entrance had been smashed apart, and the enormous bronze gate stood wide open.
It looked as though someone had entered from outside.
The only question was whether the people who had gone in were residents returning to their own villas like them, or outsiders.
If they were outsiders, anyone bold enough to force their way into someone else’s villa was probably not a good person.
Quan Xiaoyu became increasingly cautious.
He did not want trouble, but that did not mean others would necessarily leave him alone.
Therefore, he quietly warned Li Nan, “If something happens later that I can’t control, run. Run back to the villa and wait for me, understand?”
Li Nan became nervous. “What might happen?”
“It’s only an if.”
As he spoke, Quan Xiaoyu suddenly stepped hard on the accelerator and sped into the villa community.
Right now, arriving at the villa one step earlier meant gaining another measure of safety.
Things were not as frightening as Quan Xiaoyu had imagined.
They arrived smoothly in front of their own villa.
The villa community was sparsely populated. Most of the properties here were places where high-ranking officials and wealthy people kept their mistresses, or places they occasionally came to for vacations. Very few people lived here long-term.
Each building was also completely independent, with flowers, plants, and trees planted around them to separate every villa into its own private space while still maintaining a picturesque atmosphere.
Before the apocalypse, this really would have been an excellent place for a vacation.
The Li family’s villa looked completely intact. The surroundings were also clean, with no zombies in sight.
In fact, after entering the villa community, Quan Xiaoyu had only seen two mutated security guards along the way. He had not seen another person.
Quan Xiaoyu parked the car and carried Li Shunwei’s body out.
Together with Li Nan, he entered the house without difficulty.
After closing the door, Quan Xiaoyu let out a long breath. Only then did his nerves, which had been taut all day, finally relax.
At that moment, he finally felt the hunger and exhaustion.
He was only an ordinary person, at most someone stronger than ordinary people and someone who knew what would happen three years in advance.
He was not a god.
He had emotions. He could get nervous too.
After a whole day of rushing around and dealing with one event after another, his nerves had remained in a state of constant tension and vigilance.
Only after entering the house and closing the thick security door did he finally gain a sense of safety and allow his body to relax.
Li Nan seemed to notice his exhaustion. Like a little adult, he said, “Brother Xiaoyu, are you hungry? I can cook noodles. Wait for me a moment.”
With that, he headed toward the kitchen.
This was his other home, so naturally he was not unfamiliar with it.
Quan Xiaoyu did not stop him.
Li Nan had always been a very independent and well-behaved child. Unlike him.
In the past, he had needed others to take care of everything for him. It was only after his parents died, after Jia Lunxu moved into his house, that he learned how to cook so that Jia Lunxu would not have to work so hard.
Why was he thinking about that person again?
Quan Xiaoyu gave a bitter smile and shook his head.
When one had invested too much emotionally, it really was not that easy to take everything back all at once.
But Jia Lunxu, do you know?
Perhaps what you’ve given cannot be taken back, but whatever you owe someone must eventually be repaid.
It’s only a matter of time.
Quan Xiaoyu lowered his eyes and thought silently.
Quan Xiaoyu had actually noticed the changes in Li Nan as well.
He had already been independent, but now he seemed even stronger.
He had always called him “Brother Xiaoyu,” but now he had changed it to “Xiaoyu-ge.”
It was a sign that a boy was growing up.
In the end, it was not a bad thing.
Quan Xiaoyu collapsed onto the sofa, relaxing his body as he quietly surveyed everything in the house.
How long had it been since he had last come here?
Two years? Three years?
He could no longer remember.
The place was basically still the same as before.
Uncle Li really was a nostalgic person.
This was a small three-story villa.
The first floor consisted of a spacious living room, an upscale kitchen, a small hidden storage room, a dedicated dining room, and a bathroom.
The second floor had three large rooms: a master bedroom, Li Nan’s room, and a guest room.
In the past, when Quan Xiaoyu’s family came here, his parents would sleep in the guest room while he went to Li Nan’s room to sleep.
There was also a study where Uncle Li sometimes worked.
The third floor had two spare rooms and an enormous display room containing Uncle Li’s antiques.
But his most precious possessions were still kept in the safe room in the basement.
Above that, the fourth level was half rooftop and half a glass-enclosed small terrace.
Quite a few flowers and plants were grown there, along with an exquisite little table and chairs.
At the boundary between the balcony and the interior was what appeared to be an ordinary yet elegant glass door.
But Quan Xiaoyu knew that all the glass in this house was bulletproof.
Uncle Li seemed to have an inexplicable obsession with the villa’s defenses.
Behind that ordinary-looking glass door, a steel plate could actually be lowered at any time.
Once an outside object invaded, or the power went out, the sturdy steel plate would descend.
Every windowed area of the house had the same design.
The main entrance on the first floor was even more outrageous. It seemed to be some kind of German military-grade blast-proof door.
All of this was something Quan Xiaoyu’s father had once told him as stories.
His father often teased Li Shunwei, saying that Uncle Li had built himself a fortress, possessed mountains of gold, yet lived in a shabby little house every day pretending to be poor.
Every time Quan Xiaoyu’s father teased him like that, Li Shunwei would simply smile without saying anything.
And then there was the basement.
Its security could rival that of a bank vault, so there was not much else to say.
The most impressive feature was another one: after a power outage, none of the security measures would fail.
Instead, they would activate mechanically.
All the steel doors would descend, and special methods would be required to open them.
Quan Xiaoyu suspected that Li Shunwei had probably poured his entire life’s savings into this house.
He really had no idea why.
Li Shunwei actually came here quite often, but rarely stayed here.
His status as an invisible wealthy man was truly invisible.
He mainly came here to work and organize his collection.
Once things were more or less finished, he would still return to his little shabby house.
Quan Xiaoyu could imagine that in his previous life, he had not returned to the residence of the Li father and son.
The fate of the father and son could easily be imagined.
He wondered whether Li Shunwei had ever regretted his choice.
Before long, Li Nan came out of the kitchen carrying two bowls of noodles on a plate.
“Brother Xiaoyu, come eat!”
Quan Xiaoyu nodded and jumped up from the sofa.
The two sat at the dining table and silently wolfed down their noodles.
After a while, when they had nearly finished eating, Quan Xiaoyu said, “Xiaonan, let’s find a place later and bury Uncle Li.”
Li Nan’s hand holding the noodles paused.
Then, without lifting his head, he gave a quiet “Mm.”
A tear slipped into his noodle soup.
Quan Xiaoyu reached out and rubbed his head.
After dinner, the two of them got to work.
They had no suitable container, so they brutally dismantled one of the cabinets in the house. They found a toolbox and cobbled together a box, assembling it just large enough for Li Shunwei to lie down inside.
Then they cleared a section of the flowerbed in front of the house and began digging.
Because the house had a complete set of tools, combined with Quan Xiaoyu’s extraordinary strength, the deep pit was dug very quickly.
The two buried Li Shunwei.
They did not erect a tombstone.
In times like these, there was no need for one.
They simply replanted the flowers and plants they had pulled out earlier, making the place look more like a newly renovated little garden.
Li Nan knelt before the flowerbed and bowed deeply three times.
The two silently returned to the house.
Only then did Quan Xiaoyu remember the supplies.
He briefly told Li Nan about what he had asked Li Shunwei to arrange before the apocalypse, as well as the contents of Li Shunwei’s text message.
Li Nan said that when the apocalypse broke out, Li Shunwei had sensed that something was wrong.
Only then had he realized how important the things Quan Xiaoyu had asked him to arrange were.
Fortunately, when it came to Quan Xiaoyu’s matters, Li Shunwei had always been conscientious and thorough.
This time, although he did not understand why, it was no exception.
Quan Xiaoyu inspected the entire house.
In the kitchen, every place where food could be stored had been neatly filled with food and drinking water.
In terms of quantity, there was enough for him and Li Nan to eat for an entire month without any problem.
The problem was that the water and electricity had not yet been cut off.
There were still a lot of fresh foods in the kitchen, most of them stuffed inside the refrigerator.
But within a week at most, the city’s power supply would gradually shut down.
What were they supposed to do then?
He opened the small storage room on the first floor.
That room had also been packed full of supplies.
No wonder some of the original toolboxes had been moved into a corner of the living room.
Most of the supplies inside consisted of ready-to-eat foods and seasonings.
Soy sauce, MSG, vinegar, instant noodles, ham sausages, pickled mustard greens, and so on.
After searching the entire first floor, Quan Xiaoyu rushed upstairs to the second floor.
Aside from the master bedroom, the other three rooms had all been stuffed full of supplies.
The things upstairs were even more varied.
It was practically the warehouse of a small supermarket.
Clothes, shoes, hats—nothing was missing.
There were even various knives: kitchen knives, machetes, fruit knives.
In short, every type of legal knife that could be purchased on the market could be found here.
Quan Xiaoyu was both amused and speechless when he saw the knives.
Thinking about the villa’s defensive measures and the gun Li Shunwei had hidden in the safe, he increasingly felt that Li Shunwei had some kind of obsession with defense.
Could it be that while ordering supplies, he saw the knives and simply couldn’t stop buying them?
Quan Xiaoyu rushed to the third floor again.
Every room had been filled, and even the collection room had not been spared.
The original display shelves had been emptied. Quan Xiaoyu had no idea where Li Shunwei had put them.
The antiques that had once been displayed on the shelves had been packed into boxes and occupied only one corner of the room.
The remaining space was still filled with all kinds of supplies.
He even found several bottles of gasoline.
That was something he had never expected.
Faced with enough supplies for him and Li Nan to use for several years, Quan Xiaoyu felt both relieved and troubled.
He was relieved that they would have enough food and clothing and would not have to starve.
But he was also worried because most of the food had expiration dates, and he did not know when it would spoil.
Another concern was that possessing so many supplies would likely attract greedy eyes.
No matter how sturdy the defenses were, they could not withstand someone determined to destroy them again and again.
If only he or Li Nan possessed a spatial ability.
Space?
Quan Xiaoyu touched the tattoo on his neck and suddenly remembered something.
That “Immortal Dust Abode”!
If everything had not been a dream but had truly existed, then that “Immortal Dust Abode” might actually be a space.
And not just an ordinary space like those possessed by other ability users—it could be a gigantic space.
Quan Xiaoyu felt that it was now necessary to figure this out.
He patted Li Nan, who was standing there with his mouth wide open in shock at the handiwork of his own father, and said, “Xiaonan, we’re too tired today. Let’s rest. Go turn on the defense system. We’ll sort through these things tomorrow.”
The supplies were actually already arranged quite well and did not need to be sorted.
By “sort through,” Quan Xiaoyu simply meant taking the boxes out one by one with Li Nan and checking what was inside.
“There is still the basement,” Li Nan said.
“Forget it. I’m too tired. We’ll look tomorrow.”
At this point, he really could not be bothered to inspect the basement.
For one thing, he was genuinely exhausted.
For another, he was eager to figure out the truth in his heart and had no interest in continuing to inspect the place.
Li Nan nodded and turned around, heading to the master bedroom on the second floor.
The switch controlling the house’s defense system was located there.
By the time the two of them had finished everything, it was already completely dark outside.
There was no moon and no stars.
Now, only the master bedroom could be used for sleeping.
The two looked at each other, somewhat awkwardly staring at one another.
Although Quan Xiaoyu had slept in Li Nan’s room whenever he stayed here overnight in the past, there were several differences.
First, the two of them had been younger then.
Second, they had hardly ever stayed here.
Third, Quan Xiaoyu now had a secret in his heart that he urgently needed to uncover, so it was inconvenient for him to sleep together with Li Nan.
Therefore, he patted Li Nan’s head and said, “You sleep here. I’ll sleep in the living room.”
Li Nan had grown up now as well.
He felt that there was a strange awkwardness about the two of them sleeping together.
He had been too embarrassed to say anything earlier, but now that Quan Xiaoyu had brought it up, he quickly said, “Brother Xiaoyu should sleep here. I’ll go sleep in the living room.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Quan Xiaoyu laughed. “What kind of older brother kicks his younger brother out into the living room while he sleeps in the bedroom? Besides, I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving you downstairs alone.”
Li Nan, who was usually obedient, stubbornly insisted this time.
The deeply ingrained habit of “the best things must always be given to Brother Xiaoyu” made it impossible for him to agree to letting Quan Xiaoyu sleep in the living room.
Neither of them was willing to give in on this matter.
In the end, Quan Xiaoyu suggested that they clear out part of Li Nan’s original room so that, at the very least, there would be somewhere to sleep.
Only then did Li Nan agree.
The two of them went through another round of exhausting work.
Some of the things were moved into the master bedroom, while others were moved into the living room.
They finally cleared enough space for a bed.
Fortunately, all the necessary things were already there.
After taking a shower and changing his clothes, Li Nan obediently wished Quan Xiaoyu good night, closed the door, and went to sleep.
Quan Xiaoyu breathed a sigh of relief.
Although he was so exhausted that his bones felt like they were about to fall apart, he still insisted on taking a shower.
Once again, he stood naked in front of the mirror.
His hand gently stroked the tattoo on his neck as he tried to uncover its mystery.
He closed his eyes and began recalling everything from the bleeding incident in the park, attempting to find the answer hidden within every single detail.
Author’s Note:
We’re finally going to get into the details of the spatial ability!