Chapter 28 Chu Mufan

　　In a slightly old villa at the center of the Lord’s Villa District. Liu Meimei — the seductive woman with full breasts and a slender waist — was entangled with a bald, muscular man.

　　The bald man wore an eyepatch over his right eye. His remaining left eye glinted with a sinister light, sending chills down anyone’s spine. Liu Meimei used every trick she had, kissing and licking the man all over. But the man seemed preoccupied. He pushed the flustered Liu Meimei away and asked, “How’s the job I gave you going?”

　　“Mmm… you’re no fun… I did exactly what you told me, said everything in front of everyone. Those words worked like a charm. Those fools turned right against that skin-and-bones freak the second I spoke!” Liu Meimei turned around, straddling the bald man’s thighs, and went on, “It’s weird though. Why are you and Star both so interested in that useless cripple who can barely walk?”

　　The bald man wrapped his arms around her slim waist, “Hmph, don’t get it wrong. I couldn’t care less about that waste! But he’s just asking for it. Star rarely cares about anyone. Since he values this guy so much, I want to see just what he’s really made of! Right now, Star’s going crazy looking for his past. I can’t let him grow strong enough to mess up my plans! I’ve already contacted people over there. Big moves are coming soon. This is the perfect time to stir up some trouble and distract the whole camp! I heard that waste was found in some lab. No clue what his deal is!

　　Hmph… if he’s got some power and can be useful to me, he can live. If not… heh heh!!!” The bald man made a throat-slitting gesture and grinned viciously, his single eye flashing with killing intent.

　　With that, the one-eyed brute lifted Liu Meimei and slammed her onto the bed, then lunged after her...

　　This bald man was none other than the captain of the Second Search Team — Gou Li — the second-strongest man in the entire camp, after Star. Before the apocalypse, he had been a notorious local thug—cunning, treacherous, and fond of stabbing people in the back. He had been violent and aggressive since childhood, fighting with utter disregard for family or friends. But when it came to actual combat skill, he was not even remotely on par with Star. It was just that Star, powerful as he was, was bad with people and cared little for camp politics.

　　So when it came to connections and influence in the camp, the two-faced Gou Li thrived, even surpassing Star...

　　……

　　Meanwhile, back in the combat zone. Supported by Youyou, Chu Mufan walked slowly toward their temporary quarters. Along the way through the main camp, they met nothing but cold, contemptuous stares...

　　It seemed Liu Meimei’s words had worked all too well. The lowest-ranking survivors in the camp had grown more and more resentful of this man, who was little better off than themselves.

　　People were strange that way. They worshipped those unreachably strong, yet envied the weak close to them—especially when someone even worse off than themselves was being treated better. And now, thanks to Liu Meimei’s provocation, that resentment was boiling over...

　　As they neared the exit of the main camp, a middle-aged man with a cane walked toward them. He glanced at Chu Mufan, supported by Youyou, with pure disdain. “Pah!” A glob of thick phlegm landed barely an inch from Chu Mufan’s foot!

　　Chu Mufan froze for a moment. He looked at the crippled man, who could barely walk himself, and saw the unprovoked hostility burning in his eyes.

　　He lowered his head, tugged Youyou gently, and kept walking...

　　Seeing Chu Mufan give no reaction, the man with the cane grew even angrier and shouted, “What the hell are you? I don’t know what the lord’s thinking, keeping a useless waste like you around—wasting good food!”

　　Chu Mufan ignored him and kept moving forward.

　　But Youyou could feel it: the withered arm she was holding had tensed up, hard as a rock!

　　“You useless piece of shit! Can’t you even talk?” the man with the cane jeered again. Youyou could not stand it any longer. She turned around, ready to speak up for Chu Mufan, but he grabbed her without even looking back. “Ignore him. Let’s go,” he whispered.

　　Helpless, Youyou shot the man a glare, then continued supporting Chu Mufan forward...

　　From behind them, the man with the cane and the other bystanders burst into mocking laughter…

　　……

　　Evening came...

　　Chu Mufan saw Youyou leaving, who had been taking such gentle care of him. He looked at the mushroom and broth soup she had left on his table, but he had no appetite at all...

　　He lay on the bed, staring blankly at the damp, moldy, peeling ceiling. Everything that was happening felt like a dream, as if he had returned to a world long gone...

　　The last date he could still remember in his memory was three years ago—April 4, 2023.

　　That was the year World War III began…

　　Back then, Chu Mufan had been an online novelist. But he had laid down his pen to join the army, driven by patriotism. Along with other young volunteers, he fought in the global war! Still young, he had witnessed the cruelty of war firsthand. Under the merciless crush of war machines, humans seemed so small and fragile…

　　His last clear memory was of April 4. His rocket artillery unit had just finished bombarding an enemy stronghold. As he watched the rockets explode like a storm over the enemy camp, before they could even cheer, enemy warplanes spotted them and counterattacked. The unit suffered heavy casualties…

　　He could still recall the horrific scene:

　　The battlefield blazed with fire, thick with smoke and wreckage. Human limbs flew everywhere; internal organs and body parts scattered across the ground...

　　Enemy warplanes filled the sky, pouring down bombs and missiles. Only a handful of anti-aircraft missile vehicles stood on their side. Against the swarm of enemy planes, they were nothing but a drop in the bucket, offering no real defense.

　　Chu Mufan remembered driving his rocket artillery vehicle, trying to evade the attack. Many of the vehicles around him were destroyed by enemy bombs. He watched his comrades crawl out from the burning chassis, their bodies engulfed in flames, screaming in agony! Besides fear of the war, what burned inside Chu Mufan was the desperate will to survive…

　　Just when he thought he might escape the bombing, a burning enemy fighter—shot down by friendly forces—plunged from the sky and crashed directly onto his artillery vehicle.

　　An explosion followed instantly...

　　Chu Mufan felt only a blinding white light and a deafening roar. Then the whole world spun violently…

　　Until everything fell silent, and darkness swallowed him whole...

　　In that darkness, his consciousness drifted, sometimes fading, sometimes wandering…

　　He felt as if he had been trapped in the dark for an eternity, like tens of thousands of years...

　　Then suddenly!

　　He saw a faint light ahead... He ran toward it with all his strength... As he moved closer, the tiny dot grew into a huge, milky-white halo.

　　He dashed fiercely into the halo—and woke up in 2026, in the Shen Nongjia Survivor Camp...

　　When he first regained consciousness, looking at the shabby houses around him and the survivors wearing clothes that were only washed once every dozen days, he thought he’d ended up in some poor mountain village. But one handsome man in the crowd left a lasting impression on Chu Mufan.

　　He was a tall man with a face so beautiful and bright that even women would feel ashamed beside him. His neat, soft hair was combed slantingly back without a single strand out of place, his temples and the back of his head trimmed clean and sharp! A pair of misty, deep eyes, fair skin, a straight nose, exquisite lips, and a slender jaw…

　　A face like polished jade, yet set atop a tall, strong physique. Chu Mufan, as a fellow man, couldn’t help but envy him.