Chapter 418

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

Faced with Shen Yao's request, Cheng Qi's opposition had no effect whatsoever.

Saying absorb and absorbing, Shen Yao worried that Cheng Qi would have an accident and leave her to raise the child alone; then they would be an orphan and a widow, and on the surface they might suffer many losses.

Cheng Qi:...

"It's not that serious," not to mention Dawn Base, even Base No. 25 had many people with gene collapse; Cheng Qi's body was far from being that bad.

But Shen Yao's concern still benefited Cheng Qi, after all no one is an island; living in such a harsh and cruel world, sincere care from family could to a large extent resist the 'wind, frost, snow, and rain' from the outside world.

In just one night, Cheng Qi absorbed the energy stone with the lowest energy value in his hand completely.

After absorbing the energy stone, Cheng Qi was noticeably more focused mentally, including daily exercise and heavy physical labor; previously he would feel tired and need rest, but now from start to finish he didn't need to pant heavily.

Shen Yao widened her eyes, "Is this the effect of absorbing an energy stone?"

It was almost too good; she had seen Cheng Qi's appearance when he took the gene stabilizer before, and it was nowhere near as shocking as what was before her eyes.

Cheng Qi pinched the protruding muscle on his arm, indicating that from the outside it indeed looked so; actually, his body's potential had also been discovered and improved to different degrees.

"Energy stones are useful for gene awakeners; they are not simply used to stabilize genes, but can also stimulate the body's potential and break through theoretical limits."

Cheng Qi learned from the Qian Family Mercenary Team that the strongest force in the entire base was undoubtedly the Official Patrol Team; several famous squad leaders among them could each match ten thousand troops by themselves.

At the same time, the base also launched gene enhancement agents to raise the upper limit of the body's potential; the raw materials inside must contain energy stones with not low content.

"If the Official Patrol Team is hiring, should we go try?" Private work was never as reliable as official work; Shen Yao touched her chin with one hand.

"No, although the official side has good benefits and treatment, it has considerable restrictions on the individual," placing it in some bases with weak constraints, Cheng Qi would go if he went, at worst directly pull off a golden cicada shedding its shell, no one could do anything about it (for example Dawn Base).

But Base No. 25 couldn't; the order here operated well, once Cheng Qi went in it would be hard to get out; if he encountered some accident in the future, he couldn't accompany Shen Yao and her daughter, then it would be dangerous.

Shen Yao also thought of this possibility; the mutated world had everything that could happen; maybe today they were happy and high-spirited, tomorrow they might die in the mouth of a mutated beast; their family of three had come here from afar just to live better, there was no need to jump into a cage.

"Then let's give it up; the Qian Family Mercenary Team is not bad, Qian Eldest Sister-in-law is also easy to get along with;" as long as both sides had no irreconcilable direct conflict, staying in the Qian Family Mercenary Team all along was also a good thing.

It was just a pity that without an official background as backing, the two of them wanting to buy gene enhancement agents would still have to save up a large amount of base contribution points.

"We have energy stones in our hands; besides, the potions sold by the base are not just these few; there are many other things beneficial to the body;" even the base had launched potions beneficial to children's good growth; as long as they lived in the Inner District, the purchase permission for these potions would be opened to them.

After listening, Shen Yao was even more motivated to strive; energy stones were definitely their last trump card; unless absolutely necessary, they absolutely could not take them out.

"So the previous Rabbit Hole can't be visited for now; coincidentally I'm off tomorrow; let's go to the riverside;" while catching fish they could also dig some lotus roots to relieve the greasiness; Cheng Qi opened his wristwatch and sent Shen Yao several photos he had taken before, all were excellent collection points.

…………

The sugarcane forest was temporarily concluded; Cheng Qi's family of three moved to the small pond beside the base.

Approaching the cold season, the pond only had a few withered lotus leaves left, and few people dared to go down and dig lotus roots.

Cheng Qi considered his body strong; especially not long after absorbing the energy stone, he simply wore connected rain boots and went into the water; in just a few strokes he dug out a lotus root as long as an arm.

Boom—

Thrown on the riverbank, Shen Yao picked it up to test, and was directly overjoyed; it was a moderately mutated plant.

Shaking off the water droplets on the lotus root, turning around she threw it into the back basket she brought; Shen Yao took out the fishing net she specially brought, spread it open and cast it toward the pond.

Manman wore thick clothes standing beside Shen Yao, clapping her palms noisily, muttering fish fish fish in her mouth.

There really were fish, and they were not small in size; when scooped up by the fishing net they had the strength to roll and struggle.

"Manman, come over."

Shen Yao waved to her daughter, and also didn't forget to throw two palm-sized fish fry, placing them in front of Manman for her to poke and play with.

Manman showed a cute smile, hugging Shen Yao's face and kissing it again and again; finally she used a small wooden stick to start poking the fish fry.

When Shen Yao had organized the other edible fish in the fishing net, Manman had already poked the two small fish onto the line; the fish bodies were full of pits and bumps up and down; but this little person herself was not afraid at all.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao, as usual, warned Manman not to be too mischievous; however, at such a young age, her own strength was already this great; later on that wouldn't do.

"Mommy, mommy."

Manman clung to Shen Yao and acted coquettishly without stopping, completely softening Shen Yao's heart; however, her bad habit was also brought under control; in the next several net castings, she didn't do the thing of poking fish fry with a small wooden stick again.

Soon, relying on the fishing net she brought, Shen Yao scooped up more than a hemp sack of river fish, big and small; the largest was no more than arm length.

No wonder not many people came here recently; the yield rate was not high and it wasted time.

After scooping the last net of fish onto the shore, Shen Yao wiped the water on her hands, turned around and ran back into the car to take out clean clothes to change into.

The weather was getting colder; relying on the body to tough it out would cost more if entering the hospital.

Taking out the food prepared early, setting up the small dining table on the empty space beside the car.

Shen Yao waved to call Manman over; first she prepared food the child could eat; then she stood up to call Cheng Qi in the water to come back quickly; otherwise the food taken out would get cold and not taste good.

Cheng Qi silently put the lotus roots by the pond into a hemp sack and dragged it to a place several meters away from them.

"There are clean clothes in the car; change into a set quickly;" even with a strong constitution one couldn't not pay attention; Shen Yao scooped a spoonful of rice and sent it into her mouth; today she specially made egg meat sauce; spreading a little bit made fragrance drift several meters.

Cheng Qi shook his somewhat damp hair; when he came over his complexion was still somewhat flushed; "I just dug up a river mussel; let's open it and take a look in a while."

River mussel?

Shen Yao swallowed the rice in her mouth, raised her head to look at the huge long fan-shaped mussel shell beside the hemp sack, grayish-brown in color.

Good fellow; Shen Yao estimated by eye; it was at least the size of a washbasin.

"Dug up from the pond?" Then this river mussel itself was good at hiding.

"Accidentally stepped on it and got bitten; fortunately I had absorbed an energy stone before;" Cheng Qi slowly moved his foot ankle that still hurt a little; the connected rain boots were bitten through; if it were an ordinary person, they might directly break a leg.

Hearing it was so serious, Shen Yao stopped eating; put down bowl and chopsticks to check the wound on Cheng Qi's ankle.

"It's fine; no broken skin; luckily I stepped on it; otherwise I couldn't have caught it."

Cheng Qi defended himself, but seeing Shen Yao's unpleasant expression, he wisely stopped saying anything more.

Manman pointed at the grayish-brown mussel shell not far away and loudly chanted "bad, bad, bad," the little girl's cheeks plump and puffed, utterly adorable.

Cheng Qi didn't get a good look from his wife, so he turned to seek his daughter's concern.

Although Manman didn't understand many words yet, she was smart and eager to learn, usually picking up a phrase whenever adults said one; now she used them all on her biological father, directly praising him into a daze.

Shen Yao curled her lip and shook her head, picked up her bowl and chopsticks to continue eating, the delicious egg and meat sauce mixed over the soft rice, one bite bringing full satisfaction.

After filling her belly and washing the bowls and chopsticks clean, Cheng Qi moved the mussel playing dead to the front of the vehicle.

To block out any strange gazes that might appear around them, Shen Yao took a piece of protective cloth and draped it over the front and back of the vehicle, directly propping up a small concealed space.

"Right here, quick and decisive," handing the machete to Cheng Qi, Shen Yao held Manman and rapidly retreated two steps, to prevent the mussel from spraying juice outward when it opened; the mutated mussel's destructive power was astonishing, and Shen Yao didn't want to experience it again.

Her hand unconsciously touched the pink pearl hanging around her neck, this was still back at Dawn Base, a treasure the Shen family of three found in the small pond.

Later when Shen Yao married out, Song Ling and Shen Jiancheng gave her some to keep at the bottom of her trunk.

These past few years Shen Yao sold a few here and there, and the ones remaining were all kept as mementos.

If this mussel before them could produce pearls, then the matter of them moving into the Inner District wouldn't need to spend the energy stones on hand.

The possibility Shen Yao thought of was also the result Cheng Qi hoped for in his heart.

After all, the probability of a mutated mussel producing pearls was extremely high, and some pearls even contained energy, a kind of tonic favored by some upper and middle management.

Gripping the machete tight, with a bang it smashed onto the shell, directly knocking out a white mark.

Cheng Qi rubbed his numb wrist, not expecting the shell to be so hard; it seemed there was quite a lot of goods inside.

Signaling Shen Yao and Manman to hide farther away, "This mussel has lived at least several years; if it truly attacks, I can't protect you here."

Mutated creatures generally had thick skin and tough flesh and were hard to kill; Cheng Qi had spent quite some effort dealing with crabs before, and the mutated mussel's shell was harder than a crab's.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao said nothing, turned around and took Manman out from the space.

Carrying the fishing net and continuing to run to the pond's edge to gather fish, Shen Yao didn't forget to remind Cheng Qi through the wristwatch to be careful, absolutely not to injure the vehicle beside him.

Cheng Qi:...

Cheng Qi was somewhat amused but also understood his wife's worry; as a means of transportation, the vehicle was more important than a person; their family could live so leisurely entirely thanks to driving for work and taking odd jobs.

Taking out a relatively thick piece of cloth from the space to completely cover the mussel, swapping the machete in his hand for a sharper axe, Cheng Qi tensed the muscles all over his body and fiercely brought the axe's back down hard on the mussel.

Bang—

Shen Yao pulled up the frightened Manman who had fallen, pointing at the fishing net thrown into the pond, vividly describing the harvest they were about to get.

"Wow"

Manman clapped her palms and exclaimed in surprise, also throwing the grievance from just falling out of her mind.

Shen Yao let out a long breath, alternately pulling wild grass and digging wild vegetables, finally shifting her daughter's attention from behind to in front.

Throwing the fishing net into the water and waiting a while before pulling it up, Shen Yao repeated the same action twice, finally harvesting five carp of varying sizes.

On the wristwatch, Cheng Qi had already sent a message, telling her to take her daughter back.

Was the mussel knocked open?

Not just knocked open, Cheng Qi smashed the mussel to pieces and scattered it, along with the cloth taken out, all scrapped.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao watched Cheng Qi change into a fresh set of clothes; just about to scold him, she then saw Cheng Qi smiling broadly as he held out a handful of round, lustrous pearls of various colors.

Jade white, pink, deep purple, ink black... one could truly say they were multicolored.

"So many?"

Shen Yao unconsciously lowered her voice, her head still not forgetting to look back.

Manman bit her finger, looking curiously at the pearls in her biological father's hand, even eager to try picking one up and putting it in her mouth to taste, but Cheng Qi hurriedly stopped her; this absolutely could not be eaten randomly.

"There's still more than half a box in the space, not as good as the ones before my eyes," Cheng Qi felt lucky to have been bitten this time, not expecting the mussel to produce dozens or hundreds of pearls of varying sizes; calling it the Pearl King was no exaggeration.

"This one, this one, and this one," Cheng Qi personally picked out several large and round pearls and stuffed them into Shen Yao's hand, "I feel energy fluctuations; we can verify with a machine when we get back."

Shen Yao's expression grew increasingly excited, "Really?"

Pearls containing energy were more precious than energy stones, because this kind of pearl could be used on ordinary people, improving constitution and strengthening the body, with no adverse side effects whatsoever.

Cheng Qi suppressed the smile at the corner of his mouth, pursed his lips and nodded, "If there's energy, you and Manman can carry them with you daily." Even if he wasn't by the two of them, they wouldn't need to worry like before.

Because this kind of energy-bearing pearl could not only gradually improve a person's constitution over time, but also quickly heal wounds, it could be called an indispensable life-saving medicine.

It's just that the difficulty of encountering this kind of pearl was great; Cheng Qi having such luck today could be said to be the Heavenly Dao Consciousness opening a back door for him.

'The Heavenly Dao Consciousness here won't do that; it only coldly observes from the sidelines!'

The system completely could not accept this description, going crazy and making a ruckus with Shen Yao.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao unilaterally blocked the system's childish antics, then got into the car and returned to the base.

A box of pearls was tested one by one on the machine; among them, ten contained energy. Excluding the few Cheng Qi picked out and specially mentioned, the rest remained in that box of relatively misshapen pearls.

"Just right, taking them out to sell I won't feel heartache," Shen Yao picked and chose, handing Cheng Qi four truly ugly and useless ones; the rest she all put away, waiting to be made into necklaces or hand-strung beads to wear on her person in the future.

Cheng Qi obediently packed away the four energy-bearing pearls, along with more than half a box of mediocre ordinary pearls; since they wanted to sell, they might as well sell them together. Ordinary pearls also had many uses, like pearl powder and pearl jewelry, very popular among the women of the base's upper and middle management.

The days passed just like that; with a frost quietly arriving in the early hours, the long-mentioned Cold Season revealed its true form.

The base inside and out, originally still somewhat lively, suddenly became quiet. In contrast, every household had their doors tightly shut and air conditioners running, relying on various heating methods to resist the spreading cold.