Shen Shian grabbed the woman’s wrist and took it off his shoulder——fortunately, he moved fast, otherwise this hand would have been bitten off by Shen Xun.

“No need.” He turned around and said sternly, his brows furrowed, and his tone was very cold.

She was a woman in her early twenties, with long hair over her shoulders. Her beautiful face was smeared with rich makeup that did not match her age. She only wore a thin short skirt and most of her skin was exposed.

She seemed to be frightened by Shen Shian’s aura, and she staggered back two steps while covering her wrists, a flash of obvious fear on her face. She soon adjusted her expression and bit her lips before saying softly, “Don’t worry sir, this is a surprise specially prepared by the hotel for these gentlemen. Welcome to Noah’s Ark, Golden Phoenix Hotel is committed to meeting all the needs of our guests.”

While she was speaking, three more women walked to the table, one of whom had already bent down and slid his hand to Chen Nan’s chest.

Chen Nan had never experienced anything like this, his face flushed red, and he stood up from the chair to escape.

Liu Fangzhou, who was sitting across was worse than him. He didn’t know what he saw accidentally, but his face was red and it seemed like smoke was going to come out from his eyes.

Even Tao Yuan, the oldest of the five, couldn’t stay calm. He was fully prepared as if he was facing an enemy, and he was a bit more nervous than going on the battlefield.

It was just that even if they were full of resistance to this sudden “surprise”, it didn’t mean that others were the same. The vast majority of the people sitting in the restaurant were adult men. Aside from normal physiological needs and their own desires, death in the apocalypse was unpredictable. No one knew whether they would survive tomorrow. After a full meal, there was nothing better than this “surprise” as a way to have fun.

Since the other party took the initiative, it was equal to giving signs, and even the trio beside them each took one into their arms.

For a moment, the image that his eyes saw was ridiculous.

Shen Shian furrowed his brows, quickly covered Shen Xun’s eyes and hugged him, and once again refused the woman’s approach. “I said, we don’t need it.” Then he said to Chen Nan and others, “Go, go back.”

“Yes!” Liu Fangzhou looked like a death row prisoner whose sentence had been lifted. He immediately jumped up and followed Shen Shian and walked towards the restaurant’s doors.

The group of people swiftly walked like avoiding a scourge, but the woman actually chased him and grabbed Shen Shian’s hand, “What did we do wrong? Gentlemen, please don’t be angry. If what we did was not good enough, we will definitely correct it.”

Shen Shian calmed the irritated dog spirit. He was about to speak with a cold tone when his expression turned weird as he pulled back his palm. He took a deep look at the other party and eased his tone, “It isn’t because of you. We will only stay one night, so we need to go to bed and get up early.”

When they took the elevator back to the fourth floor, Liu Fangzhou suddenly murmured, “No wonder Manager Yang advised us not to share a room.”

Shen Shian’s eyes flashed but he didn’t speak, and after a “ding”, he walked out of the elevator first.

Tao Yuan was in charge with the room card. He didn’t rush to open the door, but checked the crack of the door first: the hair caught in the crack before leaving was still there.

After entering the room, Shen Xun sniffed along the entrance, nodded in agreement with his conclusion: “No one has come in.”

The door was locked, all windows were closed and the curtains were closed fully. It was checked once before, but for safety reasons Tao Yuan checked inside and out again, and finally walked to the round sofa in the living room and sat opposite Shen Shian. “Relax, there is no surveillance equipment inside, we can speak normally.”

As soon as the voice fell, two voices rang at the same time:

Liu Fangzhou, “There is a problem with this base!”

Chen Nan, “I don’t think those girls did that voluntarily!”

Shen Shian raised his eyebrows. He opened his palms and leaned forward to put something on the coffee table. “You are all right.”

It was a small piece of napkin, as if torn from somewhere in a hurry, and three small characters{n1} in lipstick was written:

Help me.

Note1: Help me is three characters in Chinese.

Tao Yuan looked at it closely, and immediately reacted, “That girl stuffed this to you when we left the restaurant?” He passed it to Chen Nan.

“Yeah.” Shen Shian nodded, and signaled Liu Fangzhou who wanted to say something to not worry. “Don’t worry, let’s summarize the information we can confirm now: After we entered the base through the city gate, you said that all the people we met were an ability user?”

“Yes, the street where we first walked through was almost full of ability users, but later we encountered more ordinary people. The waiters and cleaning staff in this hotel, including the women in the restaurant, were all ordinary people. Among the staff we met, only the lobby manager had an ability, and his light was blue.” Intuitively, Liu Fangzhou started to explain more in detail. He found a paper and a pen and drew a cross on the paper with the pen. Then he drew a circle on the part where the two lines intersect, “Aren’t there two intersecting main roads in this county town? The circle represents the hotel, which means that the hotel is the center and the four roads extend in four directions. Almost all the people living on the four streets are ability users, and most of the people living in the areas sandwiched by the streets are ordinary people.”

“Four streets meant that there are four gates,” Tao Yuan quickly understood the purpose of this arrangement. “It is equivalent to a public advertisement, showing the good life in Noah’s Ark to outsiders who have just entered the base.”

Chen Nan asked, “So they want to attract outsiders to stay here?” No wonder there was another surprise after the stage performance. And when they wanted to book a room, Manager Yang repeatedly emphasized that “As long as you become a resident of Noah’s Ark, you will be free of charge.”

“Not ‘outsiders’,” Shen Shian said, “More precisely, it should be ‘extremely capable people’. The stage play and so-called surprise are aimed at people who can enter the restaurant, but you can only enter the restaurant if you spend a lot of crystal nuclei.” The people in the base couldn’t directly distinguish between ability users and ordinary people, so the level of consumption was the first screening criterion: most ordinary people in the apocalypse had difficulty maintaining food and clothing, and I’m afraid they had no conditions to spend a lot of crystal nuclei for accomodation.

Liu Fangzhou nodded immediately, “Yes, more than 90% of the lights of the people eating in the restaurant were colored, and everyone living on this floor are all ability users{n2}.” After a pause, he added, “But there are also many ability users at lower floors.”

Note2: Tao Yuan????

“So there should be other filtering conditions.”

Combining these pieces of information, the conclusion was obvious: There was a hierarchy in this base, and the status of ability users was much higher than that of ordinary people. They could even force ordinary people to do things against their own wishes.

The topic returned to the napkin with “Help me” written on it.

After the apocalypse, the unequal status between ability users and ordinary people was a foreseeable inevitable result. If ordinary people actively chose to sell labor or other forms of stuff, it was normal, but since someone asked for help, it meant that there was something hidden, the women were not voluntary. Forcing women to provide special services, no matter what the background was, is extremely cruel.

The laughter of men and women sounded outside the door, and the tall, short and chubby trio across them returned with their female companions.

Because the conversation outside the door was rather explicit, everyone’s expressions were a bit embarrassed for a while, Shen Xun looked at this and that, as if he wanted to ask, but Shen Shian raised his hand and covered his mouth.

Chen Nan was the first to speak, “We, should we save them or not?”

Shen Shian looked at Tao Yuan, “What do you think?”

“No.” Tao Yuan didn’t hesitate at all. The doll-like face was cold, “Liu Fangzhou said that there are more than two thousand ability users in this base. Whether we can save them is one. Even if they are saved, the other party will not be 100% grateful, they would perhaps bite back.” They had experienced it once in the tobacco factory base. Thinking about Luo Wei taken into the space by Shen Shian, he became more determined and unshakable.

Liu Fangzhou thought for a moment before hesitating and said, “Don’t save them, brother Tao Yuan is right. There are thousands of people on the other side, we are only five people. Don’t go in if we are not even sure if we are able to save one person. This base is also too deep, and I always felt that there were still many secrets that we don’t know.” According to his experience from film and television dramas: whenever it is related to religion, there is no such thing as things being simple.

Chen Nan, “I agree with what Fangzhou and brother Tao Yuan said, the less trouble the better. We only plan to come in and stay for one night and leave. There is no need to take the initiative to walk in muddy water. Besides, even if we could rescue them, what should we do afterwards? We can’t take them on the road together.” It was not that they were cold-blooded, but even if it was saving others, they could only do what was within their grasp. In this situation, ensuring the safety of themselves and their teammates was the most important thing.

“Brother Shen, your opinion?” The three of them looked at Shen Shian at the same time.

Shen Shian picked up the napkin and kneaded it into a small ball, before speaking with an indifferent expression, “I told them in the restaurant that we are only staying one night and we need to hurry tomorrow morning. It’s not too early, everyone is going to rest.”

The three secretly breathed a sigh of relief: In any case, it is always good to be able to reach an agreement on this matter.

There were two bedrooms in the suite. Tao Yuan voluntarily proposed, “I will sleep on the sofa in the living room. Anyway, there is a bathroom outside, and if something happens, I can give early warning.”

Shen Shian thought for a while and nodded, “Thanks for your hard work.”

Liu Fangzhou stood up from the sofa and was about to go to the bedroom when he suddenly remembered something, “By the way, what’s the matter with that mosquito? Why do people here seem to have no idea that there are mutant mosquitoes?”

“This place should not have been attacked by mutant mosquitoes.” Shen Shian said. At first, he suspected that it was related to the ability users here, but the tall, short, and fat trio didn’t know the existence of mutant mosquitoes too. “Mosquitoes have not mutated for a long time and they have not been seen in many places, and not all mosquitoes will mutate.”

“Just like people, some are affected by the virus and others are not?”

“Yes.” Shen Shian said again, “We encountered mutant mosquitoes three days ago. The off-road vehicle was slightly faster than the mosquitoes, but it was not much faster. Therefore, the mutant mosquitoes will attack here sooner or later. Please be alert.”

Everyone returned to their room after saying goodnight.

The benefits of the suite were obvious. All kinds of toiletries were available, the bathroom not only had shower facilities, but also a long large bathtub that was connected to the hot spring outside.

Standing under the shower head, Shen Shian took a good warm bath, dried his hair, and wrapped a bath towel around his waist. He opened the glass door and walked out, looking at the child in the bathtub, “Did you soak enough?”

Shen Xun swam around in the full tub of warm spring water, sinking for a while and then floating up, like a white and tender little frog. Hearing this, he leaned on the edge of the bathtub, his dark jade eyes staring and his hair wet and dripping. “An An, you don’t need other people to accompany you, it is enough to have just me with you, right?”

This question came without warning and Shen Shian didn’t know how he got this.

Shen Shian only thought that he was thinking of his sense of existence, and recalled the “what to do when a child seeks approval” in the parenting guide. He bent over and kissed him in the forehead, “Yes, it’s enough to have just you. Did you wash carefully? Didn’t you say you want to eat watermelon? After bath, we will grow it.”

There were a lot of melon and fruit seeds hoarded in the space. In addition to watermelon, there were chestnut pumpkin and various melons such as honeydew melon, longevity melon, and other muskmelons. Since they wanted to plant, they would simply plant a mu{n3} of everything.

Note3: 1 mu = 1 fifteenth of a hectare, approximately 666.67squarem.

Picking up a few small plots on the black soil, Shen Shian dug through the soil to dig pits to plant the seeds, and Shen Xun carried a kettle behind him to pour the spring water one by one. After all the plants were planted, Shen Shian carried the child to the creek. “Go to sleep first? You can eat it tomorrow morning.”

How could Shen Xun wait, he was staring at the sprouting watermelon seedlings and gulping hard. “Can I go to bed after eating?”

Shen Shian remembered: He picked up the dog spirit in the winter, which meant that this was the first time for the child to taste the taste of watermelon. Everyone in the restaurant only got a small piece, no wonder he was so greedy.

With a smile in his eyes, he raised his hand and rubbed a handful on his head, “Okay, go to bed after eating.” According to the growth rate of tomatoes and strawberries, the watermelons should mature in three or four hours at most. He would just take advantage of this time to practice his cultivation.

The space was full of spiritual energy, and the results of two or three hours of cultivation were more significant than those of the outside world in two or three weeks. Shen Shian, who was immersed in his cultivation, only felt that only a moment had passed, when Shen Xun’s cheers came from his ear. “An An, the watermelon is ripe!”

The watermelons watered with the spring water were not very different from the normal watermelons from its size. Each was about 10 kilograms, but the taste has increased by more than one level: the skin was thin and the fruit was rich, the sweetness was high and the water was just enough. With just one bite, the juice overflowed with sweetness, and there was almost no residue.

Shen Shian cut half of the watermelon to eight slices in total, he ate three slices, and the rest went into Shen Xun’s stomach. The child gnawed all over the watermelon juice. After eating, he wanted to eat the other half but Shen Shian stopped him. “You will wet the bed tonight. Put this half in the refrigerator and we will eat it tomorrow.”

His eyes swept over the round but not particularly bulging belly of the dog spirit: where do the 4 kilograms of watermelons go?

Coming out of the space and returning to the bathroom, Shen Shian was about to take another shower. Suddenly, his expression changed drastically. He put Shen Xun down and walked out in large strides.

The light in the living room was not turned off, Tao Yuan was lying on the sofa soundly asleep, and Shen Shian’s rushing footsteps did not wake him up.

“Tao Yuan!” Shen Shian yelled, without receiving any response. He felt more uneasy, but he couldn’t care about him right now, and rushed directly into the other bedroom before seeing: Chen Nan was lying on the bed and breathing smoothly, and he was asleep, but Liu Fangzhou, who was supposed to be with him, was nowhere to be seen.

Shen Shian held the door frame, his expression extremely solemn:

In the whole suite, including himself, he could only feel four heartbeats.