novelbin Chapter 385 - 370: One’s Life is One’s Own
Chapter 385 - 370: One’s Life is One’s Own
It was no wonder Gu Xi would think that way.
She was a child Li Ming had found. He had even been the one to chew through her umbilical cord after she was born.
The beginning of the apocalypse had been a time of utter chaos, making it impossible to trace who Gu Xi’s biological parents were. If anything in this world could prove her identity, it was surely in Li Ming’s possession.
Now, for certain people to repeatedly make a big deal out of her origins, their most likely target was Li Ming.
Because everyone in the know understood that throughout Gu Xi’s entire upbringing, Li Ming had been a mentor, a father, and a brother to her. His influence over her was second to none.
Furthermore, due to her upbringing, Gu Xi was naturally a very emotionally detached person. It could be said that in her twenty-odd years of life, the only affection she had was tied to a small handful of friends, like Li Ming and Ye Xin.
It’s said that rarity creates value, and the same was true for emotions.
As a result, Li Ming’s importance in her heart grew even greater.
Back then, the higher-ups at the base had almost unanimously agreed that the most terrifying member of the Doomsday Squad wasn’t their captain, Gu Xi, but the vice-captain, Li Ming.
Li Ming himself was a peak Level 9 superpower user—immensely powerful, with a near-demonic intellect, and ruthless and decisive in his actions to a degree that outsiders could hardly imagine. The deadliest part was—Gu Xi listened to him.
So at that time, the most feared person in the entire Doomsday Squad was, in fact, Li Ming.
Of course, the same was true now.
Anyone with eyes could see that the reason Li Ming, despite holding no official position, could maintain control over the chaotic situation at the Central Base was twofold. First, he had the public support of Xiao Yu and the secret assistance of Qee Ran, giving him a grip on both the military and political spheres, making it easy to control the Central Base.
Second, it was because of Gu Xi’s existence.
Li Ming’s importance to Gu Xi went without saying. If anything were to happen to him, Gu Xi would undoubtedly throw caution to the wind, storm back to the Central Base, and unleash a frenzied revenge.
No one would ever doubt this.
And Gu Xi was the human weapon they themselves had personally trained. They knew better than anyone just how destructive she could be.
By the same token, they also knew that a calm, rational, peerless weapon wasn’t actually that terrifying. After all, there were still factors in this world that could restrain her.
Dealing with her wasn’t actually that difficult. That glass of wine from years ago was proof.
But once this peerless weapon completely lost control, consumed by hatred and hell-bent on bringing a storm of blood and slaughter, then everyone would tremble in fear!!
After all, you only get one life.
That was why, even though some people at the Central Base hated Li Ming to the bone, they didn’t dare make a move against him. They were afraid Gu Xi would return afterward, seeking bloody revenge without a second thought.
They definitely wouldn’t be able to stop her.
So, things had come full circle. To deal with Li Ming, they had to start with Gu Xi.
And the best way to do that, of course, was to shatter the relationship between Gu Xi and Li Ming, or even turn them into bitter enemies.
Someone wanted to drive a wedge between Gu Xi and Li Ming, so they decided to make a big issue out of her family background.
After all, wasn’t their relationship based on the fact that Li Ming had found her as a child from the very beginning?
...But what if there was a hidden story behind that beginning? What if the true culprit behind Gu Xi’s separation from her family right after birth was Li Ming himself?
Would Gu Xi still be so protective of him then?
Even if, in their eyes, Gu Xi was just an emotionally detached human weapon who might not care about her origins or who her family was.
But what if... Li Ming had been using her from the very beginning?
What’s more, Li Ming himself wasn’t necessarily innocent in this matter. Since the truth about the Superpower Seed came out, anyone paying attention could guess some of his original reasons for taking Gu Xi in.
Of course, this wasn’t to say that Li Ming had done anything wrong back then. After all, in the apocalypse, survival was what mattered most.
...In the face of life and death, nothing else was important.
But as one of the people involved, and the one who was used, how could Gu Xi not have some thoughts on the matter?
Judging others by their own standards, someone had cleverly thought they’d found a breakthrough to deal with Li Ming, and so Gu Xi had one "relative" after another showing up...
What Gu Xi could figure out, Shen Yue and Ye Junhan naturally could as well.
Although everything about the Blood-colored Asura had been deliberately erased back then, a few people still knew the truth.
And ever since Shen Yue had guessed Gu Xi’s identity, he had been trying all sorts of roundabout ways to get information about the past from his old man.
As for Ye Junhan... he still vaguely remembered some things from his childhood. On top of that, he had been by Li Ming’s side all these years. The things he knew would only be more than what Shen Yue knew, not less.
Shen Yue pulled a strip of jerky from his pocket. Turning to see Ye Junhan still standing by the car, he raised an eyebrow. "Want some?"
Ye Junhan drew the curved blade from his waist, his hand in a black tactical glove sliding slowly along the sharp edge. "No, I’m heading out."
"Now?" Shen Yue frowned, then reluctantly broke his piece of jerky in half and offered it to Ye Junhan.
Ye Junhan looked up, and then... calmly took it and popped it into his mouth.
Shen Yue’s face immediately twisted in pain. "You actually took it..." He had just been making a polite offer. After all, they were now comrades who ate from the same pot, and it wasn’t good to eat alone.
Besides, from what he knew of Ye Junhan, he was sure he wouldn’t have accepted it.
But he never expected...
Ye Junhan lowered his head, slowly wiping his curved blade while chewing the spicy jerky. ’This is obviously from her,’ he thought. ’Why shouldn’t I eat it?’
Shen Yue: ’Miscalculated. Never thought this thick-browed, big-eyed guy would be such an eager boy.’
Just then, someone came over to find Shen Yue. "Captain, those people are here to cause trouble again."
Many people in City A had been affected by the recent major earthquake, but not all of them were victims, and not all were eligible to receive relief supplies.
Initially, the distribution of relief supplies had been relatively stable. But ever since Shen Yue’s falling out with the Liu Family and the supplies were switched to grain and vegetables from Farm 0101, more and more people had started eyeing this batch of food.
After all, everyone knew that food coming from Gu Xi was top-quality stuff. In the apocalypse, such food was hard currency.
The disaster relief was distributed per person. Over the past few days, they had noticed a significant increase in the number of people coming for supplies. Some were even taking the opportunity to stir up trouble, trying to use the "safety in numbers" principle to openly loot the food...
Hearing that the troublemakers were back, a cold glint flashed in Shen Yue’s eyes. He shoved the rest of the jerky into his subordinate’s hands, his usually lazy and relaxed expression suddenly turning sharp and severe.
’Are some people really treating me, Shen Yue, like a pushover?’
After Shen Yue left, Ye Junhan stood there for a moment before finally opening a communication link to Wei Heng. Gu Xi’s mood had seemed off just now, and he wanted to know what exactly had happened last night.
Wei Heng wasn’t a man of many words, but Ye Junhan was not only his captain but also a brother-in-arms with whom he had fought side-by-side for years.
"Last night, Gu Xi took Qi Xiang and the others into the mountains for training. Later..." At this point, Wei Heng hesitated for a moment. "That person must have shown up. Gu Xi sent Qi Xiang and the others back first. She was the last one to return."
"Was she injured?" Ye Junhan asked.
"No," Wei Heng denied instinctively, then quickly added, "But nobody knows what exactly happened between that person and Gu Xi. After she came back, though, her mood was a bit off, and she had us all go to the medical bay for a checkup..."
After hearing this, Ye Junhan asked a few more questions and then ended the communication.
Wei Heng stared at the darkened screen, frowning slightly. He couldn’t help but feel that the focus of Mr. Ye’s call was a little strange.
On the other side, Ye Junhan cut the communication. He tightened his grip on his curved blade, his lowered eyelashes hiding the deep thought in his eyes. ’So, her emotional turmoil today... was it all because she saw that person?’