[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-apocalypse-ground-zero-refusing-to-leave-home":3,"chapter-apocalypse-ground-zero-refusing-to-leave-home-apocalypse-ground-zero-refusing-to-leave-home-chapter-177":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Apocalypse Ground Zero: Refusing To Leave Home",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1615315,2078,"Chapter 177: Only A Cook","apocalypse-ground-zero-refusing-to-leave-home-chapter-177",177,"\u003Cp>The next morning somehow felt even stranger than the last one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which was impressive considering I woke up yesterday to find my dining room transformed into a military communications center overnight for no rhyme or reason. We had just managed to get rid of the military. I didn’t need two of my guys turning into them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I can’t say that I was impressed about that whole turn of events... but it seemed to be the least of my worries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today the mansion just felt...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And I hated it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I walked into the dining room expecting food and immediately stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chenghai had not moved once since yesterday, still sitting in front of the radio like it held all the answers. And there was still no food.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Okay, so that wasn’t strictly right. We had a lot of ingredients... but they weren’t being put together to form a meal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The radios crackled softly across the table while Chenghai continued to take notes with enough military equipment to overthrow a small country. Zhenlan stood near one of the windows checking inventory off on a clipboard he found somewhere while several open crates sat scattered around the floor beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nobody looked up when I walked in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That alone was disturbing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normally at least one of them would tell me to eat breakfast before I started surviving entirely off caffeine and spite.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Instead Chenghai adjusted one of the radio frequencies slightly while writing something else down beside one of the maps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...bridge access compromised due to vine overgrowth—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Static swallowed the rest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chenghai still wrote something down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Okay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now I was starting to feel mildly concerned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I looked between the two men slowly. \"Did both of you secretly join the military while I was sleeping? Is Li coming back?\" I gasped. \"Don’t tell me that Wei Guang is back!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But neither one answered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I narrowed my eyes, trying to figure out what could have happened two days ago to set them off that much, but I really couldn’t think of anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then I noticed what Chenghai was eating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I stared at the cold can sitting beside his notebook for several long seconds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just... cold beans straight out of the can like some kind of exhausted raccoon digging through garbage at three in the morning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What the hell?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pointed at it immediately. \"Why are you eating prison food?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That finally got Chenghai’s attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked down at the can in his hand like he forgot it existed in the first place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It has protein.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I blinked once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then twice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was possibly the worst thing anyone had ever said to me inside this house.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What do you mean it has protein?\" I demanded. \"That isn’t an answer. The meat in the fridge has protein. So does the protein power bars in the cupboards. There are like a hundred different sources of protein than cold beans eaten out of the can.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lingyun immediately started laughing from somewhere behind me while Yuche looked up from whatever he was doing on the iPad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For some reason, the other two still looked normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thank God.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At least I hadn’t completely lost my mind yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I pointed toward Chenghai dramatically. \"Why didn’t you cook?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Actual silence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man just stared at me like he genuinely didn’t understand the question.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was horrifying.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slowly, I narrowed my eyes, feeling a glimmer of hope. \"And since you aren’t making breakfast...Does this mean I can have snacks instead?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yuche answered so quickly that I almost felt insulted he expected me to make bad decisions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Almost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If he doesn’t want to cook, I’ll make something.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Much better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I walked farther into the room and leaned against the back of one of the chairs while eyeing Chenghai suspiciously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The longer I looked at him, the stranger he seemed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not physically.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing obvious like that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his entire posture had changed somehow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was more rigid, more alert. More like he was before the apocalypse came and mellowed him out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was like he was waiting for someone to kick the door open and start shooting at us.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which honestly felt dramatic considering how many times he had opened the door to intruders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The killer jungle outside already handled most of our security problems.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhenlan wasn’t much better.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He kept checking the windows every few minutes while reorganizing supplies inside the crates with enough focus to make me wonder if he was planning to invade another country later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this point I was genuinely starting to miss the previous version of both men.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lingyun wandered into the kitchen still grinning to himself while Yuche finally stood from the table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Neither seemed bothered by the weird atmosphere filling the dining room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Actually, now that I thought about it, both of them looked way too relaxed compared to the other two.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Almost normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Which somehow made Zhenlan and Chenghai seem even stranger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I frowned slightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Did you two get possessed? Transmigrated? Reborn?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That finally made Chenghai look up again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His eyes narrowed slightly. \"Possessed?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes. By angry military ghosts or something.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lingyun nearly choked laughing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even Yuche looked mildly amused as he walked into the kitchen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile neither Chenghai nor Zhenlan seemed to understand why that was funny.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Okay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was definitely concerning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One of the radios crackled suddenly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...northern shelter requesting emergency medical assistance immediately—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Static swallowed the voice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I didn’t understand why Chenghai was so concerned about what was going on outside. That was outside. It didn’t have anything to do with us.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yuche opened the fridge while Lingyun leaned against the counter beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Yuche glanced toward Chenghai before snorting softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If he doesn’t want to cook, I’ll make breakfast,\" he offered again, and I had the suspicious feeling that it wasn’t for my benefit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His gaze slid briefly toward the cold can still sitting beside Chenghai’s notebook.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But we all know how you feel about useful people. What is his new role going to be? It’s not like he really does anything except cook anyway.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1010,"2026-06-06T10:22:12.437Z",1,"novelbin.me","f30509a24b191b229d103d6e42bfb8b51a95f5b95bf1d435fd87abb20be25a53","apocalypse-ground-zero-refusing-to-leave-home-chapter-178","apocalypse-ground-zero-refusing-to-leave-home-chapter-176",205,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fapocalypse-ground-zero-refusing-to-leave-home-cover.jpg"]