Chapter 980: Protective Charm

Inside the staff dormitory of Territory Fifteen, Ye Shiyi, lying in her blankets, watched Uncle Ye in his wheelchair leave the room, gently close the door behind her, then silently pry out the faceplate of a phone-watch from inside her protective mask.

She curled up in the brand-new thin blanket that still carried the scent of sunshine, turned it on, and sent two little stars to her mother. After that, little Shiyi closed her eyes and quietly used her magnetic sense to perceive the humans around her.

Her mother had brought her to lie on top of Hill Fifty and carefully observe this territory, so Little Eleven knew very well that she was in one room among rows of dormitories. She could sense with her magnetic sense that there were sixteen humans within a radius of ten meters.

Among them, eleven people's magnetic fields were very calm—they should be sleeping; three were very happy; two were very negative.

Number of hostile/aggressive magnetic fields: 0.

The people here were different from the seriously wounded in the Hidden Valley who were always full of sorrow; different from the civilians in Lanwu Safe Zone who were full of despair, anger, and hostility; and even more different from Zheng Jialin and his lot, who smiled happily on the surface but released magnetic fields that stabbed her head with pain.

Mother said this was already the best living environment they had found so far. She wondered what the magnetic fields of those human children at the school were like…

Little Shiyi rounded her small mouth and let out a big yawn, struggling to keep her eyes open as she stared at the phone-watch, waiting for her mother's reply.

With no hostile magnetic fields here, Little Shiyi, who had been on edge for over ten days, felt relatively safe; sleepiness and exhaustion were about to swallow her whole.

After her eyes closed on their own five times, the faceplate finally lit up. The little one happily tucked up her legs against the wall, squatted in the blanket, and tapped open the message. Seeing the three little stars her mother had sent her, the little one smiled soundlessly in delight for a few seconds, then pressed her little mouth tight and silently shed tears.

She had never been separated from her mother before. She missed her mother.

Inside a small tent within a two-meter-thick evolved tree in the Evolution Forest a hundred li southeast of Lanwu Safe Zone, Zhang Shi, her face weary, replied to Xia Qing's message, then stared with eyes full of tenderness at the little stars her daughter had sent, and slowly let tears flow down as well.

"Ye Yang, I'm sorry… I truly had no other choice… that's why I went against my conscience and tricked you into taking Shiyi in. There's a fifty-thousand-point card in the hidden pocket of her protective suit—it's my entire fortune. Please, for her being innocent's sake, for her also sharing the surname Ye's sake, give her something to eat…"

In the blurry, trembling video, the man's face was bruised and ulcerated, his voice weak, weeping as he tearfully implored Ye Yang to take in his daughter.

Yue Haiying set down the other phone-watch that Ye Shiyi had hidden in a secret compartment in the sole of her shoe and brought along, and looked at Ye Yang.

Ye Yang explained, "His name is Ye Yuliang, he's a fellow townsman of mine. During the eighth year of the Calamity, I learned he was in Lanwu, contacted him, and asked him if he knew my brother's whereabouts."

What Ye Yuliang had done was indeed underhanded, but Yue Haiying could also understand his desire to find a way to survive for his daughter. "What do you plan to do?"

Ye Yang didn't want to deceive his friend either, but Little Eleven's identity was simply too sensitive—he had no choice but to do so. "He and I are from the same hometown, and we both share the surname Ye. His child is a younger member of my clan, and I want to raise her."

Yue Haiying nodded. "Since that's the case, don't tell anyone else about her identity. Tomorrow I'll have you move into the room on the east side where…"

"Brother Yue," Ye Yang interrupted Yue Haiying, "I want to use the points Ye Yuliang left for Shiyi to build two rooms here. The property rights will of course belong to Sister Qiqi, and Shiyi will have the right of residence. That way, even if something happens to me, the child will still have a place to shelter from the wind and rain."

"This matter needs to be discussed with Junjie and Sister Qiqi. I don't think there'll be much of a problem." Yue Haiying, very experienced, began arranging the house-building matters for his subordinate and friend. "If they all agree, have Shiyi live close to Sister Qiqi, so the two children can go to and from school together."

Yue Haiying and Ye Yang moved quickly. At nine the next morning, Ye Yang called Xia Qing and asked her to come over when she had time to help see how the house should be built. He wanted to finish the house before the third Killing Rain, and move in with his niece.

There were no time-pressured farm tasks in the territory these few days. After hanging up, Xia Qing drove Qi Fu and Zhao Ze with her into Territory Fifteen.

Surveying the terrain, choosing the site, drawing the house design plans, and calculating the work schedule and materials—Zhao Ze was the professional; leading people to build the house according to the design plans was Qi Fu and Xia Qing's old trade.

In less than two hours, the two-story small building for Uncle Ye Yang and his niece Ye Shiyi was designed.

The general structure was the same as the house Tan Qi and Xia Qing currently lived in: two floors, with a spacious living room in the middle of each floor, and the rooms on the left and right sides of the living room each divided into a north and south room. The kitchen was built on the first floor, and there was a bathroom on each of the upper and lower floors.

Ye Shiyi lived upstairs; Ye Yang lived downstairs.

This two-story small building was located a hundred meters east of Tan Qi's house, and over six hundred meters from the veterans' dormitory within Territory Fifteen. The terrain here was high and would not be flooded.

Zhao Ze's suggestion was to use a bulldozer to pile up the land east of Tan Qi's house, so that Ye Yang's small building would be closer to Tan Qi and Jiang Ying's houses, but Ye Yang refused on the grounds that the workload would be too great. He felt that keeping some distance would make Little Shiyi's identity less likely to be exposed.

Xia Qing also agreed that the new house should be a bit farther from Tan Qi's.

Because for Little Shiyi, who possessed Class-C magnetic sense, having no one within a hundred meters of her residence was what allowed her to completely relax. On the other hand, Tan Qi was the lord of this place, and her emotional state should not be under constant surveillance by others.

Once the site was chosen, it was time to dig the foundation and build the house. Ye Yang's budget was ample, so the new house was also to be cast from reinforced concrete, then fitted with sturdy plastic-steel doors and windows.

The rebar and cement were both purchased from the Safe Zone. Once the cement arrived, the cement insect-repellent powder and corrosion-resistant materials produced by Territory Eight's fungal powder factory would be added in and mixed into the high-quality cement used for building houses after the Calamity.

Only when the allies needed them would Territory Eight's fungal powder factory produce these two cement additives. In other words, these two additives were welfare products of the territory alliance and were not sold externally.

While the adults were discussing how to build the house, Little Shiyi, who had changed her face, used her little arms to grip her uncle's wheelchair tightly, trying to keep it from rolling about.

Ye Yang's wheelchair had a locking device. He picked up his little niece and placed her on his nearly numb legs, then pointed at the blueprints and explained to her what their house was going to look like.

The two of them looked just like a real uncle and niece.

Qi Fu and Zhao Ze looked at this well-behaved child, their hearts full of affection. Xia Qing's attention, however, was on a scar on the left forehead of Ye Shiyi.

Yesterday Little Shiyi had been wearing her dirty protective mask the whole time, so Xia Qing hadn't noticed the scar on her face. Now, being this close to the little one, Xia Qing, who possessed a level-nine-and-a-half visual evolution ability, could not tell at all that this scar was fake.

Why was she certain this scar was fake? Because Ye Shiyi was a recovery-type evolver; it was impossible for her to have a scar.

This scar was a protective charm that Zhang Shi had carved for her daughter.