Among the trees on the other side, Lin Wenbo held his arms and looked helplessly at Gong Xiangyi who was still sobbing.
"How long are you going to cry?" He wiped his face, took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it over, "Dry your eyes and let’s talk. What do you want?"
Wenbo’s habit of carrying handkerchiefs remained unchanged. After receiving his handkerchief that was always washed until it was white, Gong Xiangyi missed it very much. Wiping away her tears, she squeezed the handkerchief tightly in her hands, not willing to give it back and said with a soft voice, "Wenbo, I truly know that I was wrong. I can’t live without you."
"Why can’t you live without me? Didn’t you have a good time since we broke up?" Lin Wenbo pressed down his irritation and said lightly.
That’s because Gong Xiangyi had been using her previous life’s memory of him to hypnotize herself that she didn’t love him. Gong Xiangyi lowered her head, silently thinking things through. However, only a little bit of her previous life was the truth she knew, she realized how ridiculously wrong she was. Now, telling her to let go, she can’t do it at all.
"I haven’t had a good time, I’m going crazy! Wenbo, please, come back to me." Grabbing Lin Wenbo’s sleeve, Gong Xiangyi put down her pride for the first time as she begged.
"Gong Xiangyi, it’s you who broke up with me and it’s you who wants to make up." Lin Wenbo firmly lifted her hand off of him and spoke carefully, word by word. "You have to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around you. I am a person, not a toy you can throw and pick up if you want. I’ve already walked out, and you have to start moving forward too!"
"You are my lover, not a toy!" Gong Xiangyi replied weakly, but she had to admit that she didn’t manage their relationship seriously since she was reborn. She often took a careless attitude and always thought that she was on her own, that the prophet could firmly control Lin Wenbo’s emotions. But she had forgotten that the most difficult thing to control in the world is emotions.
"I’m not your lover anymore." Lin Wenbo shook his head. Thinking of the cute and straightforward young man, his indifferent expression overflowed with a touch of softness. "Don’t come to me again to say such things. I don’t want others to misunderstand." He glanced at Gong Xiangyi with a serious expression before he walked away.
"No, give me another chance!" Gong Xiangyi hurriedly hugged his waist from behind, preventing him from leaving.
"Wenbo, it’s time for dinner!" Cao Yanan appeared at the edge of the field of trees, calling on Lin Wenbo with a smile on her face.
"Coming." Lin Wenbo broke apart Gong Xiangyi’s hold on him and never looked back. When he got closer, Cao Yanan deliberately took Lin Wenbo’s arms, nodded towards Gong Xiangyi, who had suddenly turned white, and left. The image of the two clinging to each other stung Gong Xiangyi.
"Alright, you can let go." Near the camp, Lin Wenbo whispered to Cao Yanan.
"Alas, you want to dismantle the bridge after crossing the river." Cao Yanan pretended to sigh and ask worriedly, "Did you expose Young Master Gong?"
"No." Lin Wenbo shook his head.
"That’s good! That woman is crazy. I don’t know why she hates Young Master Gong in particular, but if she knew about you and Young Master Gong, she would be complaining to Chief Gong by now. You also know that Chief Gong is a very traditional man. He definitely doesn’t believe in such things except for a mandarin duck couple." Cao Yanan sighed and said with a sympathetic tone, "Ah~ threesomes are so difficult! I’m afraid Xiao Xue and Lejia will suffer because of me. How about the three of you and the three of us pretend to get together tonight? Cover their eyes and ears?" Her eyes widened in inquisition.
"Impossible." Lin Wenbo glanced at her coldly. "I’m not going to hide like this forever. Haven’t you said that yourself? If you want to love, love fiercely, don’t think too much about anything else. Didn’t you? My Xiaoxin is a very courageous person. If I’m timid, I will be thrown behind, not to mention left behind." After his words fell, he chuckled and walked towards the campsite with eyes shut, towards his young man.
"How did it go?" Snuggling into Lin Wenbo’s arms, the teenager looked indifferent, but his voice had a slightly tight tone which revealed his concern.
"It’s all clear. We’ll tell her about us sooner or later. When we settle down in Ningcheng, let’s confess to everyone, okay?" Lin Wenbo whispered while rubbing the youth’s round shoulder even as his golden eyes overflowed with gentleness.
"Alright." The teenager nodded, his frown looking lovely.
Lin Wenbo tightened his arms around his shoulder. He could hardly hold back from leaning over and kissing those colourful lips. Instead, he rubbed the other man’s soft ink hair with his chin.
Cao Yanan had been joking.She didn’t want to be in a fake relationship with Lin Wenbo. It’s better to be truthful, which meant that the man’s love for her boss was indeed true. Thinking of that, she smiled, quickly ran up to the two and inserted herself in between, holding each other’s shoulders like buddies. If everyone thought the same way, everyone’s relation to one another would naturally become close.
Gong Xiangyi stood on the spot and wept bitterly for a while. After walking out of the woods, she saw the intimate backs of the three people and paused. Her face constantly changed and, finally, she laughed at herself before walking away slowly. In this life, she was the first to push Wenbo away.
***
When going to Ningcheng, one must pass through Liaocheng. If you were to take a detour to pass around Liaocheng, then the journey would become twice as long. In the apocalyptic days, manpower, material resources and time could not be wasted. Therefore, Gong Yuanhang had to contact Song family’s base and obtain consent from them. Of course, the Song family base wouldn’t give way to them for free, they would charge a certain amount of materials as a toll. Furthermore, the bases that only had more than 400 ability users couldn’t even be ranked among the top survivor bases of Country C. The Song family would thus not pay too much attention.
The long convoy drove off the highway and traveled for more than half an hour before stopping at the guarded gate of Song family’s base. This was a farm on the outskirts of Liaocheng. It covered a wide area and was surrounded by a new high wall with machine guns and forts built into and around it. Because of the existence of metal, wood and earth ability users, it was only a matter of a day’s work to build several houses. Therefore, from the slightly open door, rows of houses on the farmland all looked new. Someone taking a walk around the neighbourhood was actually a long-lost state of leisure.
The Song family’s base was said to have cleared out Liaocheng and that their security zone was within a hundred miles from the suburbs. But as long as the base was stationed in a city, the city would be assigned to the base and people from other bases weren’t allowed to touch it. This was the custom made in these apocalyptic days and it was similar in nature to how it worked with princes from ancient times.
For this reason, Gong family’s base, who wanted to cross Liaocheng to go to Ningcheng was not seen as someone stopping by to say ’hello’ to Song family’s base, but rather an act to deliberately provoke war.
Upon receiving news of the arrival of the Gong family’s base’s people, Song Haoxuan took a group of powerful subordinates to the door to greet them. The other party had already paid the toll of four thousand jin of food anyway and one of them was once his elder, he could still afford to give face.
Song Haoxuan was 31 years old and had a very tall figure. His sharp facial features were similar to Song Haoran, but the uneven ravine in the middle of his brows and the cold deep red and deep purple eyes showed how deep and brutal his mind was. The speculation about his temperament not only came from his face, but also from the idea of ’optimizing the human race’ initiated by him and known throughout the whole Country C.
Because of his concept, many old people and children had been cruelly and mercilessly killed and many weak women had become tools to breed offspring. When the food crisis broke out a year ago, he killed more than 20000 civilians in his base in one breath. The news shocked the whole country. Some of the survivors hated him, some respected him and some feared him, but regardless of how others felt, his double-system abilities were enough to make him the leading figure in Country C.
In the face of such cruelty, people of extraordinary strength, whether ordinary people or ability users, would unconsciously be forced by his momentum showing a humble attitude towards him. However, Song Haoxuan’s charisma affected outsiders but was not worth a penny in the eyes of Long Snake Island’s people. If it weren’t for Long Snake Island’s exclusivity, xenophobia and their low-key behaviour, this Country C would never become a world for the Song family’s base. Compared to Young Master Gong, who was a four-system ability user with immeasurable strength, Song Haoxuan’s third-level high-grade fire ability and fourth-level mid-grade thunder ability were not even worth seeing.
Therefore, when Song Haoxuan greeted them at the door, he didn’t see a group of people who bowed to him and tried to please him. Father Gong and Grandfather Lin stepped forward to shake hands with him with a light smile on their faces. The elders were full of strength and hadn’t become haggard because of the difficulties of the apocalyptic days.
"Cousin, I haven’t seen you in a long time." The command team stopped and Song Haoran, Lin Wenbo and Gong Lixin arrived late and greeted Song Haoxuan.
"I haven’t seen you in a long time. It seems that you are doing well." Song Haoxuan slowly opened his mouth after seeing his cousin’s dark, blood-red, monster-like eyes, Song Haoxuan’s eyes changed slightly. He didn’t expect this younger brother to actually reach fourth-level low-grade, but it was only in one system, so no big deal. Stroking the corner of his dark violet eye, his thin lips showed a contemptuous arc.
But in the blink of an eye, he saw Lin Wenho, who had bright, golden eyes and the group of ability users from Long Snake Island who followed them had colourful, deep eye colours. His immovable expression finally broke and showed a crack as he fell silent. Around Gong Lixin, there was a pair of mysterious violet eyes belonging to Dou Heng. He finally couldn’t hide the consternation in his heart and asked, "Thunder system, fourth-level low-grade?"
Dou Heng saw Song Haoxuan’s eyes, but his dark violet eyes remained indifferent. He didn’t have any intention to greet the other party. All the subordinates behind Song Haoxuan, except for He Jin, showed shocked expressions. It’s okay to have a thunder ability user among the group. But what’s more exaggerated is that the lowest level among these people is a third-level mid-grade while the number of fourth-level low-grade is about seventeen people. The three people standing at the front had obviously reached the peak of fourth-level low-grade and would be promoted to fourth-level mid-grade at any time. Compared to them, the Song family’s base only had seven fourth-level ability users. The difference was too great.
Why was such a strong base unknown until now? Now that they are no longer dormant, can Country C still have a place for the Song family’s base? Song Haoxuan and his subordinates thought in their minds.