Abnormal survival in the end times

Chapter 253 Liu Ying's Investigation

The management office didn't send anyone to pick up Xiao Lan again, and they didn't even ask her a question afterward, as if the matter had nothing to do with them anymore and had become Liu Ying's own.

Although she had kept the baby for two days, she was reluctant to give it away again. The baby was just too well-behaved. Except for pooping and peeing, it was unusually quiet.

However, this does not mean that the management office can ignore this matter.

Liu Ying squinted and thought for a moment. Xiao Lan was not an ordinary baby in their area. Although it was the apocalypse, foreigners and Chinese people were all human beings, and there was not much difference between them.

There are no major differences, but there must be some minor ones. In other words, even if she had picked up an ordinary baby from outside the city, she would still have asked about his current situation and future plans.

Are you so sure she'll adopt him?
What if she's irresponsible and just dumps him?
Thinking about it like that made me feel even more uncomfortable.

The people in the management office are incompetent.

If you can't solve it, just say so. Why stay silent and not say a word?

As for whether He Ningzhu interfered, that's impossible. What kind of trouble could a lowly employee like her possibly cause?

Moreover, Xiao Lan's matter was not handled by her in the first place, so it's not that Liu Ying looks down on her, it's just that she doesn't have that ability.

Three days later, Liu Ying took Xiao Lan to Yunxi Village to ask Old Huo to give her a check-up.

Ever since he heard that Xiao Lan's mother had been tortured by those people in the laboratory, and that Xiao Lan had been in her womb during that time, Old Huo told Bai Li that if there was any problem with Xiao Lan, Liu Ying could bring her to him.

Although he had been imprisoned since his capture, Old Huo was perceptive and had subtly investigated several times, so he could roughly guess what kinds of drugs were used to target people with superpowers.

In the past six months, he has been studying medicinal herbs and conducting experiments with Xi Shuang, and has made great progress.

Moreover, he was also eager to see if the child was truly alright.

The reason Liu Ying brought Xiao Lan here this time wasn't because he had any problems; it was purely to have Old Master Huo take a look. Also, to get some more goat milk.

Bai Li was still at the clinic. When she saw Liu Ying arrive, she nodded at her, which made Liu Ying feel flattered.

She reached into her bag and pinched a piece of paper inside, but didn't pull it out immediately.

Only after Xia Min walked over and took Xiao Lan away did she hesitantly take out the paper, walk over to Bai Li, and place it on the table next to her.

"what?"

Bai Li was puzzled. She unfolded the paper and scanned it roughly from top to bottom, and couldn't help but frown slightly.

Liu Ying coughed lightly and whispered, "This is a rough count I had someone do. Not to mention last year, just starting from the second half of this year, there are thirty orphans under one year old. Half of them were taken to the management office, but the management office didn't accept them. A few were properly adopted, but most of them were abandoned because no one cared for them. So when I first took Xiao Lan to the management office, it wasn't like they said, that she had never been in contact with babies. It wasn't that she had never been in contact with them, it was that she refused to be in contact with them."

After saying all that in one breath, Liu Ying immediately straightened her back and sat up properly, just like a primary school student.

Bai Li didn't notice her actions, but only glanced at her with a slightly complicated expression.

Unexpectedly, this guy who initially seemed like a villain would one day adopt an orphan out of kindness, and then investigate how many similar children there were in the whole city because of that orphan.

Although it is a rough count, it is based on facts: which neighborhood and village, why the parents died, who took the child to the management office, and who ultimately adopted the child.
The most pitiful are those children who were not adopted and have since disappeared.

If someone isn't registered, they're considered an unregistered person. Who would care if a child without parents, a name, or a household registration is still alive?

"Who received Xiao Lan when you took her to the management office?"

"Secretary Chen."

"Didn't you see Director Wang?"

"No, they said they were in a meeting. To be honest, I think Director Wang is avoiding the issue; he doesn't want to take it on at all. Don't you think he's just sitting on the job without doing his job? I remember the base commander saying that the orphanage in Pengcheng is going to be officially established. If they're going to establish an orphanage, there's no reason why they shouldn't accept babies, right?"

That doesn't make sense.

Seeing Bai Li nod, Liu Ying seemed encouraged and boldly said what she hadn't dared to say before, "I know you don't like to get involved, and I shouldn't bother you, but I'm really angry and feel that the management office staff need to be dealt with."

Before he could finish speaking, he was abruptly stopped in his tracks by Bai Li's gaze.

She raised her hand and scratched the short hair on her head, asking softly, "Will this cause you trouble?"

Bai Li chuckled and tapped the table lightly with her hand. "It's not a big deal, but I didn't expect you to bring this up."

Liu Ying thought to herself, "I'm not actually that kind-hearted; I just don't want to let those people in the management office off the hook. But that Director Wang is a confidant of Base Chief Ouyang. In Pengcheng, if we really want to touch him, apart from Jiang Minglang and Bai Li, not even Li Nan can do it."

She didn't know how much Wang Zhicheng knew about this, but he was certainly not innocent.

"Didn't I tell you? You can have someone come and pick up the goat milk for Xiaolan every day. You don't need to change it."

The main reason is that she had given Qiqi so many things before that it was more than enough to offset the cost of goat milk.

But today she brought another box.

"Puzzle, didn't he say he liked it last time?"

It was a jigsaw puzzle that Liu Xu found, with hundreds of pieces. When he gave it to Liu Ying, he muttered to himself, wondering why a little kid would like this. It's so complicated and boring.

Liu Ying ignored him and packed it up and brought it over.

"Oh, right, did I tell you that Xiao Lan is a water-type?"

Last time I came over, I went on and on about Little Blue's origins and his biological mother, Ankar, and even described the black cat in the process.

Because I talked so much and was a little excited at the time, I didn't notice whether I had mentioned Xiao Lan's water-based superpowers as well.

"You didn't say."

Bai Li glanced at her, stood up with her hand on her waist, walked to the window of the inner room, and gently knocked. After a while, the window opened, revealing Xia Min's baby face.

After taking care of Xiao Lan for a few days, Liu Ying realized that, probably because he was too small, he couldn't release water, so she could only see water coming out of his hand when he sucked on her fingers.

The most obvious benefit of this is that Liu Ying doesn't need to feed him water, because he only needs to suck his fingers a couple of times when he's thirsty, truly making the most of self-sufficiency.

When Old Huo examined Xiao Lan, he noticed that Xiao Lan urinated a lot, and from this he guessed that Xiao Lan might awaken his water element in the future.

I didn't expect it to have already awakened.

After staying in Yunxi Village for about two hours, Liu Ying came out of the village with Yang Nai, Xiao Lan, and the black cat.

As soon as I stepped out the door, I heard a slightly familiar voice coming from a distance beside me—
“I heard that your brother-in-law is in charge of the military academy.”

"Hmm, what's up?"

“My brother wants to go.” “If he wants to go, then he should sign up. You work at the management office, you must know where to get a medical check-up and tests, right?”

"He reported it, but he failed the test. My brother doesn't have any superpowers; he's just an ordinary person."

"Ordinary people have their own testing methods. Don't tell me your brother, an ordinary person, went to a person with superpowers for testing?"

"No, the tests were conducted among ordinary people."

"Ordinary people are tested on basic strength and physical fitness, and they still failed that?"

"His health is not very good."

Bai Yang found it unbelievable, "Why would you let him register if he's not in good health?"

Two military academies opened simultaneously, one admitting only people with superpowers, and the other admitting ordinary young people.

However, regardless of the specific military academy, there are always physical requirements for admission, and only those who pass these tests are accepted. After all, they are training talent for the future of Shenzhen, and graduates will be provided with job opportunities, so those who are not physically fit will definitely not be accepted.

He Ningzhu's younger brother is seventeen years old this year. He was raised at home by his parents and her because of his young age. Even during the months of wandering outside in the apocalypse, he did not suffer much except for occasional hunger, and he did not do any work.

What he usually likes to do is lie in bed and sleep.

When Pengcheng posted a notice for military academy recruitment, his parents felt it was a good opportunity—a job that could guarantee their son's safety and provide him with a secure job.

So he urged He Ningzhu to sign him up.

He had registered his name, but during the physical fitness test, he couldn't even finish the 1,000 meters before collapsing to the ground, panting heavily.

The young soldier in charge of the test was utterly shocked. In the apocalypse, who among those who had survived to this day couldn't have run away?

Ordinary people, in particular, can sometimes run faster than those with superpowers, because if they're slow, they'll die.

There was a fifteen-year-old boy who was less than 1.6 meters tall, dark and thin, but he ran incredibly fast. He was supposed to run 5,000 kilometers, but he ran 8,000 kilometers in one go, leading the others in the test to run an extra 2,000 kilometers.

But this person was different. He was seventeen years old, almost 1.8 meters tall, fair-skinned, but incredibly frail.

Therefore, He Ningzhu's younger brother failed the first physical fitness test.

But her parents wouldn't give up and wanted her to use her connections to get her brother admitted.

What connections could He Ningzhu possibly have? Her biggest connection is the director of their management office, but the military academy isn't under Director Wang's jurisdiction, so going to him is useless.

After much deliberation, He Ningzhu had no choice but to swallow her pride and approach Bai Yang to plead her case. After all, Jiang Minglang was her brother-in-law; if he were willing to recommend her brother for just one spot, surely her brother-in-law wouldn't refuse him that favor.

"Bai Yang, I haven't asked you for anything since I came to Shenzhen. As an old classmate, can you help me this time? I promise you, my brother will train hard once he gets into military academy."

"Stop!"

Bai Yang stopped her from continuing, his dark eyes coldly fixed on He Ningzhu, and said, "You think I haven't helped you? Fine, then let's say I haven't. After all, even when we were classmates, we weren't close. If we weren't close, why did you come to me for help?"

He Ningzhu froze, realizing that she might have said something she shouldn't have.

Didn't Bai Yang help her?
On the day the apocalypse broke out, if she hadn't stayed close to Bai Yang, she would have been bitten by a zombie long ago.

He was able to leave the school safely because his brother-in-law picked him up and helped them deal with the zombies at the gate.

During her trip to Shenzhen, she pretended to have an intimate relationship with Bai Yang, which made the people in her temporary team look at her with more respect. During that time, her family's life was better than before.

If these don't count as helping, then what does?

However, Bai Yang didn't care. He genuinely felt that he wasn't familiar with her, so if those acts of kindness didn't count in her eyes, he didn't care either.

But none of that has anything to do with today's events.

He took two steps back and said calmly, "Military academies are not only places to train future talents, but also places where soldiers emerge who will fight for Pengcheng and for everyone's safety. So He Ningzhu, if your brother is not brave enough and not physically fit, are you sure you still want him to go in?"

What are you doing? Do you think this is for retirement?

He Ningzhu stared at Bai Yang with her mouth slightly open, unable to utter a single word.

She's been living in Shenzhen for too long, too comfortably, and forgotten that this is still the apocalypse.

Even if she agrees in this situation, her parents will not.

Although she also disagreed with her parents always treating her younger brother like a child, he was seventeen years old, and in the apocalypse, he was no longer a child.

But she was unwilling to let him risk his life in battle.

Bai Yang sneered and turned to go back to the village.

Then he saw a woman sitting on a bicycle at the gate not far away, with one foot on the ground and the other on the pedal. A child was tied to her chest with a green vine, and a cat was squatting on the back seat, looking at him with a puzzled expression.

What is that look?
Bai Yang said irritably, "Once you've finished your business, hurry up and leave. What are you looking at?"

Liu Ying rolled her eyes, glared at He Ningzhu, and pushed off with her foot on the pedal.

She'll have to make fun of her brother when she gets back; the woman he had his eye on was actually Bai Yang's ex-girlfriend.

No, that's not right. She probably wouldn't even qualify as an ex-girlfriend. It was probably just He Ningzhu's unrequited love, and Bai Yang didn't reciprocate.

Damn it, what kind of nonsense is this?

Meanwhile, after Liu Ying left, He Ningzhu, in a panic, quickly called out to Bai Yang, asking, "How did Liu Ying end up in your village? Is she here with you?"

"Does it have anything to do with you?"

Bai Yang gave her a cold glance, then turned and entered the village, thinking to himself, "When He Ningzhu first came to Pengcheng, she seemed full of hope for life and quite methodical in her actions. How come now..."
Never mind, it has nothing to do with him.

He and Xi Shuang are getting married soon. The date was decided by his parents and Xi Yu, and it will be a month from now, just after New Year's Day.

The wedding room has been chosen to be the room he currently lives in, and his parents are getting ready.

His sister is due to give birth in three months, and the thought of having a lovely niece in the family fills him with joy.

I wonder what he and Xiaoshuang's child will look like in the future.

Ideally, it would be a daughter, so she could keep her niece company and the two sisters could grow up happily together.

What Bai Yang didn't know was that his wish was destined to fail in the end, because what awaited him was not a sweet little girl, but two unruly children who were even more mischievous than his nephew.

good night!