Chapter 889: Rumors, Rivals, and Wolves

Last winter, Zheng Chen led a team to help defend the Hui Three Safe Zone. Of course, the Azure Dragon Squad had looked into his background.

Luo Pei assumed Xia Qing wanted to build a good relationship with Zheng Chen and protect Zhang San, so he gave her a detailed introduction. “Zheng Chen, 28, is a dual-type evolutionary with speed at level nine and vision at level six. He joined the army after awakening his powers early in the disaster. Now, he’s one of the top elite fighters at Red Eleven Base. Not only is he strong in combat, but he’s also an excellent commander. The amphibious combat team he leads is the pride of Red Eleven Base.”

After giving his introduction, Luo Pei added, “Ji Li’s squad is Army Special Forces, while Yan Long’s is Amphibious Special Forces. After Yan Long left, Red Eleven’s amphibious team was deployed to Section Seven to handle defense work. Their job is to keep Zhang San and the lab safe when sudden disasters strike.”

But according to the intel Xu Juan gathered, Zheng Chen was listed as level seven in speed and level five in vision. Clearly, top experts always keep part of their strength hidden. Xia Qing followed up. “Luo, do you know his relationship status?”

“His relationship status?” Luo Pei tried to read Xia Qing’s calm face to guess her motives. He felt a little nervous for his buddy, but answered honestly anyway. “Zheng Chen’s single. He’s got a lot going for him, so from what Xie Yu told me, he has just as many admirers as Yang Jin. Last winter, when he was stationed at the Hui Three Safe Zone, he didn’t have a girlfriend. I’m not sure if he’s dating anyone at Red Eleven now. Are you into guys like him?”

Xia Qing shook her head. “Actually, I think he might have accepted some secret mission that involves me.”

Luo Pei nodded. “That’s not out of the question—actually, it’s probably true. First, Zhang San, who always keeps people at arm’s length, made it public he’d brought you into his team and let you manage Hill Fifty and the Ninth Planting Center as his proxy. Anyone who wants to work with him or ask him for favors is going to start investigating you and looking for ways to approach through you.”

“Second, you’re a high-level dual-type sniper. Even though you’re my student and a territory lord, plenty of teams at our base want to recruit you.” Luo looked across the table at his beautiful, clear-eyed, and decisive student, a mix of pride and worry flashing in his eyes—a real “my girl’s all grown up” kind of moment. “And finally, the fact that you’re young, single, and female is going to attract a bunch of people, too.”

Xia Qing nodded. “True. The past few months, the number of people calling to bother me has skyrocketed. Everyone the Safe Zone sent to Territory Nine for work is an unmarried young guy. Thank goodness Captain Hu blocked a few of them for me.”

Hu Zifeng is Xia Qing’s so-called boyfriend. Not that she let him help for nothing, either. Whenever she gets Pure Spring Fish from the reservoir in Section Three or makes her freeze-dried meat, she gives some to Hu Zifeng so he can feed his cat.

Hu Zifeng is a total cat person. Making sure his cat’s got food makes him even happier than getting a meal himself.

“As long as you stay single, or even if you get married but don’t have kids, there will always be people hoping they have a shot with you.” Luo Pei asked, “Is Zheng Chen pursuing you?”

“He hasn’t come right out and said it, but he’s always trying to strike up random conversations when I’m around and keeps sneaking glances at me.” Whenever Xia Qing leaves her own territory, she stays fully alert—Zheng Chen’s little schemes never escape her notice.

Luo Pei considered this seriously. “Have you thought that maybe he really is interested in you? You are talented and attractive, after all.”

But as soon as Luo Pei mentioned her looks, the image that flashed through Xia Qing’s mind was Monkey’s totally clueless face.

She shook her head, regaining focus. “Zheng Chen’s stint at Section Seven lasts two years. Once he’s done, he’ll take his team back to Red Eleven. He won’t stay here, and I’m not leaving my territory, so there’s no chance for anything between us to happen.”

“Given all that, if an eleven-year military veteran, the ace of his team and a cool-headed captain, is acting that obvious about being attracted to me, then it boils down to two things: one, he took some mission that has him deliberately approaching me; two, he’s not thinking long-term and just wants to play around.”

Luo Pei raised a third possibility. “Well, there’s always option three: maybe he seriously likes you and wants to get married. I’ll find an opportunity to test him out. Just keep your guard up.”

“Don’t worry, he’s not going to tempt me.” Xia Qing had already survived the full force of Yang Jin’s charm, who’s better looking than Zheng Chen, and hadn’t fallen for it. There was no way Zheng Chen would succeed.

Since they’d gotten onto the subject, Luo Pei couldn’t resist giving his student one last bit of advice. “You can date or even get married now, but don’t have kids until you’re past thirty-five, if you can help it.”

For humans, the evolutionary threshold is thirty-five. If you take in enough energy before then, you might trigger evolution or raise your evolutionary level.

Research shows that the higher the parents’ evolutionary levels, the more potential the child has. So waiting until after thirty-five to have kids does both you and the child a favor.

“Luo, I’ve barely been eating my fill for a year, I have zero interest in marriage or having kids.” Xia Qing made her stance clear, then asked about her teacher in return. “What about you, Luo? You’re thirty-five now yourself, right?”

Luo Pei hardly ever talked about his personal life, but since he’d opened up first today, he answered honestly. “The person who promised to spend the future with me died in the second year of the disaster. Are you free tomorrow? I’ll take you out flying.”

He wanted to make use of the downtime these few days to teach Xia Qing how to fly a helicopter and practice aerial sniping.

A new skill to learn—Xia Qing immediately perked up. “I’m free anytime tomorrow.”

“Eight a.m. then. Get Hu Zifeng to pick you up.” Luo Pei stood, heading out, then asked, “Where’s that little monkey you brought back? When I flew in today, it was on your shoulder. Looked just like a kid at first glance.”

“It’s in the greenhouse with Old Goat and Wolfdog Number Two. Treatment isn’t over yet—it can’t protect itself for now, but I’ll grab it on my way through so you can meet it.” Xia Qing saw Luo Pei out of the village. As soon as they got outside, she spotted a silver wolf shape gliding above the northern buffer forest, eyes lighting up.

Of course, Luo Pei—being a top-tier vision evolutionary—spotted it too. “That huge wolf—is it part of the Northern Wolf Pack? The one that helped Yang Jin catch that Section Seven defector? Looks tough.”

“Yeah.” Tough is just the start—the wolf is also good-looking, generous, and has an incredible temper!

When the Handsome Huge Wolf saw Xia Qing with another strong fighter, it pretended not to see her, slunk along the eastern edge, and headed straight for Xia Qing’s abandoned village.

Xia Qing…

One more thing: this huge wolf is also a master at playing it cool.

Another visitor showed up for Xia Qing, so Luo Pei didn’t go looking for Monkey. Instead, he pulled out his phone and sent her a few pictures. “Three days ago, an eight-person task force from Liangqing Squad set out from the Safe Zone to clear out some aggressive devastation-evolved plants in the western evolved forest. Two hours ago, the squad lost contact with their team. Liangqing has posted a private bounty of 30,000 and asked the Squad Alliance to send out a rescuing party to find their whereabouts.”

Xia Qing checked the pictures Luo Pei sent, spotting two tall, skinny teens. “Wait… That’s Lu Fangchun and Wang Bo from Liangqing, right? You mentioned Liangqing hired experts from the Azure Dragon Squad to train and protect them.”

Lu Fangchun, age thirteen, is a dual-type endurance and speed evolutionary—the former team captain’s son. Wang Bo, age fourteen, is a vision evolutionary and the old vice captain’s son. These two boys are Liangqing’s last hope for a revival.

Luo Pei nodded. “Their contract with Azure Dragon Squad just ended last month. Both kids have solid personalities and real potential. If you get the chance, ask that wolf you know if it’s seen their team around.”