Meanwhile, in the container home next door, Wei Heng was thinking about the same thing.
A few days ago, before some of the camp's heavy equipment had arrived, Mr. Zhou organized everyone to go out scavenging and exploring since they had nothing to do.
The NX1984 ruin zone, they said, was once a small but bustling trade town before the apocalypse.
These days, pre-apocalypse items were rare, and anything brought back to the base could usually fetch a high price.
Since Wei Heng had nothing better to do, he went along as well.
Later, he stumbled upon the unconscious Gu Xi in a patch of overgrown weeds...
Until today, Wei Heng had always believed it was just a chance encounter.
But Gu Xi's reaction today... forced Wei Heng to wonder if there was more to the story.
Wei Heng was now regretting his actions. He shouldn't have gotten carried away and sent that person a message this afternoon.
But the fact that Gu Xi could grow sweet potatoes with such a low mutation coefficient had been a massive shock! If the mutation coefficient of those sweet potatoes could be stabilized and they could be distributed as seeds...
It could be the breakthrough needed to solve the post-apocalyptic food crisis.
Besides, it was probably impossible to keep it a secret... Given Gu Xi's financial situation, she would eventually have to sell some of those sweet potatoes.
So, after a moment's hesitation, he had sent the message to that person anyway.
What he hadn't expected was that Gu Xi's identity might be even more complicated than he had imagined—a potential bombshell.
After a long silence, Wei Heng opened his personal terminal. He wanted to ask that person...
But before sending the message, Wei Heng suddenly changed his mind. He found a contact number he had deliberately forgotten for a long time and composed a new message:
[Mr. Ye, I want to know what happened after... that incident.]
After the message sent successfully, Wei Heng closed his eyes.
Late that night, after dealing with yet another incident of a monster going berserk and injuring people, Ye Junhan pulled off his tactical gloves, splashed his face with cold water, and only then opened his personal terminal.
Seeing a sudden message from someone who hadn't contacted him in a long time, Ye Junhan frowned slightly.
After a moment, he replied: [Got it. Wait for word from me.]
...
The next morning, after another meal of sweet potatoes, Wei Heng climbed onto the cultivator. He planned to clear the entire patch of wasteland this morning and plant it all with sweet potatoes.
In the afternoon, he would head back to the camp to trade for a generator, seeds, and living supplies...
Gu Xi watched him for a while, then after some thought, decided to go to the forest to catch butterflies. 'I have to have those tomatoes.'
Just then, the two Qin sisters from across the way suddenly walked over.
Qin Yi pointed to the cool, aloof, short-haired girl beside her and introduced her to Gu Xi with a smile, "This is my older sister, Qin Shi."
Qin Shi gave her a cool nod. "Hello."
"Hello." Gu Xi wasn't bothered by Qin Shi's cold attitude. Back in her old post-apocalyptic squad, there had been a teammate even colder than this...
'Thinking of my old teammates... I wonder how they're all doing now?'
After getting her personal terminal that night, Gu Xi had wanted to check on her old teammates, but the model assigned to pioneers by the base was a basic one with limited functions and many restricted permissions.
Gu Xi hadn't found much useful information, only vaguely guessing that two of her former teammates were probably now at the Central Base...
Beyond that, there was nothing.
But Gu Xi wasn't in a hurry.
'Of course I'll find out what happened during my mysterious thirty-year disappearance!'
'Whether there was really something wrong with that drink, or whether something else happened after I got drunk, I will get to the bottom of it.'
'But what happens after I find out?'
Over thirty years ago, research had already shown that abilities could extend a person's lifespan, and high-level ability users were even predicted to live past 200!
So even counting the thirty years she had inexplicably lost, she was, at most, only 58 years old now.
'Life was still long, and a person had to eat.'
Besides, compared to her past days of fighting and killing, she much preferred this leisurely life of reclaiming land and farming.
Gazing at the large expanse of wasteland the nation had assigned her, Gu Xi felt an exceptional sense of peace.
"Gu Xi," Qin Yi said, glancing at Wei Heng, who was clearing the wasteland. She then asked Gu Xi, "Are you guys planning to clear all this land at once? Are you going to plant something?"
"Sweet potatoes," Gu Xi answered casually. Then, remembering the small bag of tomato seeds, she turned to ask Qin Yi, "I heard from Wei Heng that you came from another camp and brought a lot of seeds..."
"That's right." Qin Yi nodded with a smile, directly opening her personal terminal to show her. "Wei Heng said you left in a hurry and didn't bring much..."
"Take a look. If there's anything you can use, you can take it and plant it first. Just return it to us after you get a harvest."
Qin Yi was very open about it.
Gu Xi glanced at the long list of seeds and asked in surprise, "How do you have so many seeds...?" 'Didn't Wei Heng say the base has rules that limit the number of seeds each person can receive?'
Qin Yi gave a playful smile and said a bit sheepishly, "Well, it's my sister's and my first time farming, too. We didn't know what to plant, or what we'd even be able to grow, so we just bought a little bit of every kind of seed..."
'So rich.'
Gu Xi thought about her own account balance of zero and fell silent.
Qin Yi was a very generous, cheerful, enthusiastic, and talkative girl who also loved to laugh.
Upon learning that Gu Xi was going to the forest to catch butterflies to pollinate her tomatoes, she joined her without a second thought, leaving her own sister behind to help Wei Heng clear and till the land.
Along the way, the sweet Qin Yi even voluntarily shared details about her and her sister: her older sister was an Earth Ability user, while she was a Water and Wood Dual System ability user.
Hearing that she had a Water Ability, Gu Xi couldn't help but give her a second look. 'A Water and Wood Dual System? No wonder her affinity is so strong.'
'But... as far as I know, the country's current population is less than one hundred million, with fewer than one million registered ability users. Most of them have joined the military or other official organizations.'
'Independent ability users are extremely rare, and unaffiliated ones are almost never seen.'
'And yet, here I am, having just run into two of them, one of whom is even a dual-system user?'
Moreover, the sisters' ability levels weren't low either. The older sister was a level 8 beginner, and the younger was a dual-system level 7 intermediate.
It was a well-known fact that breaking through the barrier between level 6 and level 7 to become a high-level ability user was incredibly difficult. It required not just an opportunity, but also talent and insight.
Some people could never cross that threshold in their entire lives.
Therefore, these two sisters would be considered experts even in the military.
'And now they've appeared in the middle of nowhere, becoming my new neighbors in this farming venture?'
"Gu Xi, look!" Suddenly, Qin Yi pointed ahead excitedly. "There are big butterflies over there!"
She already knew Gu Xi was catching butterflies to pollinate tomatoes, and Qin Yi wanted to eat tomatoes too—tomatoes with a low mutation coefficient.
Before Gu Xi could even make a move, Qin Yi acted.
—Vines of roses shot out at incredible speed, wrapping around two large butterflies whose wings were too damp with moisture to fly, and delivered them right to Gu Xi.
The entire sequence of movements was fluid and clean, demonstrating exceptional combat proficiency.
"Gu Xi, will these do?" Perhaps at the thought of eating delicious tomatoes soon, the sweet Qin Yi was overjoyed. Her dimples deepened, and she looked at Gu Xi with sparkling eyes.
Gu Xi paused for a moment. "...They should work."
Qin Yi's eyes widened slightly as she stared at her blankly. "Huh?"
Gu Xi told the truth. "...I've never tried it before."
'In the past, I always grew fruit by directly forcing it with my ability. It was simple, crude, and highly effective. I could eat it within minutes, so why would I ever need to go through this much trouble?'
But now, with her situation unclear, Gu Xi didn't want to show anything too out of the ordinary.
Especially after learning that her ability could enhance a certain property of plants.
"Oh, I see..." Qin Yi hesitated for a moment, then said, "Whether it works or not, why don't we catch a few more and take them back to try?"
Gu Xi had no objection. After thinking for a moment, she added, "I saw in a video that insects like bees and butterflies can pollinate not just tomatoes, but also crops like pumpkins and watermelons..."
Qin Yi's eyes lit up. "I just so happen to have watermelon seeds!"
Gu Xi fell silent again.
These days, the mutation rate of plants was one hundred percent, and most of them had extremely high and unstable mutation coefficients.
It was common knowledge that fruits generally had long growth cycles, and many were even perennials.
And the longer the growth cycle, the greater the chance of a high mutation coefficient occurring.
In the current situation where just getting enough to eat was difficult, ordinary people, with the exception of Wood Element ability users, would generally not choose to grow fruit—it was an almost guaranteed total loss.
Yet even Wood Element ability users couldn't guarantee that the fruit they grew would be edible.
That was why fruit had become such a rarity these days.
Especially fruit with a low mutation coefficient.
It wasn't strange for Qin Yi, a Wood Element ability user, to have watermelon seeds.
But from the way she spoke, it seemed she hadn't eaten watermelon in a long time either and was showing an unusually strong craving for it.
That was a bit strange.