Chapter 263 - Work Work Work

Zou Yue happily walked back to his house. one the way he noticed that a lot of unknown faces were entering the settlement. Some of them looked very fearful and hostile, glancing around the surroundings.

'Survivors...'

There were a lot of men compared to women. It was given. It was not because women are weak. It was only because women had something called the monthly times. During those five days it was very hard for them to stay hidden from the zombies.

The female population was on the decline. If this went on, then in ten years there will be less than a hundred surviving women in this settlement.

Yue softly sighed. it was not something he could change for now. But what he could do was make sure that the women in this place were protected.

He reached home and knocked on the door.

His father's tired voice came from inside

"Dad it's me,"

He opened the door massaging his brows. "Come come," he pulled him into a tight hug. "my sweet child, you're not hurt right? Fan said you were sleeping so didn't want to disturb you. You're okay, right?"

"I was just tired, that's all,"

The familiar scent of his father comforted him immensely. "Where's mum? I don't see her."

"m-mum... she's tired and taking a nap."

"oh," Yue frowned slightly.

It was late in the morning by this time his mother was usually up and about cooking something. It was her routine and she never broke it once.

While his father went over to the kitchen to tend to the boiling pot, Yue silently walked over to his room.

His mum and Lui were sleeping peacefully. He gingerly sat down in the corner and held his mother's hand. Her temperature was normal but her complexion was pale.

The healthy flush from her cheeks was gone.

'Maybe mum is tired... fuck, I made her overwork. I should start cooking for the family and let her take rest.' He kissed the back of her hand.

Next to the bed, on the table, his cute little Trexa slept like a little gray fluff ball.

He gently pinched his fur playfully. "My cute little ball."

Trexa unrolled herself and glanced at him through her half opened eyes.

"Rise and shine baby,"

"Squeak....." she tiredly squeaked and rolled back into her sleeping posture.

"Is my baby tired? Aw sorry, you had to overwork." Yue leaned down and gently kissed her little head. Trexa rolled back onto her back, exposing his stomach.

He blew raspberries on her fluffy tummy. "Baba has work to do. Sleep now? I'll get you tasty food,"

Giving him a small nod, Trexa went back to sleep.

After which he went over to his parents' room. Juda was still unconscious and his sister was wiping her body down.

"How is she?"

Tian frowned. "Trexa healed her. but.... she hasn't woken up. Yue, tell me the truth. There were more people involved in that kidnapping right?"

"Yes, Juda was in a bad state then so I didn't get the time to tell you that,"

Tian gritted her teeth loudly. "Can you identify them?"

"No, I can't. Didn't get a good glance,"

Tian sighed. "How are you? Fan said you...."

"I'm fine, I just collapsed from overexertion," Yue sat down next to her and hugged her tightly. "How are you? Did you eat?"

"I'm not the one who is hurt."

Zou Yue peered at her unkempt hair. "do you want me to comb your hair?"

"It's bad?" she touched her head with a tired sigh.

"No, it's not that bad..."

Tian smirked. "Your bad at lying sometimes," she handed him a comb. "Please,"

Yue gently combed through her tangled hair and plaited her hair together cleanly. "Everything is going to be alright Tian. Sleep for a while. I'll take care of Juda,"

"It's okay. I'll take care.."

Yue cupped her mouth before she could refuse his offer. "I insist. Go take a shower first. You don't want your lover to see you drool-covered face right?"

Tian hurriedly wiped at the crusty drool from the side of her mouth. "Fuck, wait right here. I'll wash my face and run back,"

In just a minute Tian came running out of the bathroom. "I'm done," she cleaned her face and added a bit of lip tint. "Do I look good now?"

"Amazing."

"Great, now all I have to do is wait for sleeping beauty to wake up," Tian patted his back. "go help dad. He has been working all day and night," she whispered.

Yue's ears perked up at this sentence. He keenly noticed the word dad. 'He he, she finally called him dad.'

"What are you smirking about" she waved her hand in front of his face.

"Nothing," he ran out of the room straight to his dad. "Dad! Dad! Did you hear? Tian just called you dad,"

He smiled at him and nodded. "She called me dad yesterday kid. See I told you she will accept me as her father,"

"Of course, you are awesome,"

After helping his father with the cooking, they both had nothing much to do but to tend to the garden.

The once lush garden area was barren now with only the clean pond shimmering in between.

Yue walked around measuring the size of this place. The trees he got in his space can be planted close together but they were all chunky and thick boys. Their trunks along were so girthy that he would not be able to hug them.

He needed space…

'Will I be able to fit all five trees here? The persimmon tree is the smallest. I can maybe plant it a big pot... as for the other trees they need to be planted in soil.'

"We got eggs~" A sudden exclamation brought him out of his thoughts.

Yue glanced down. His father was holding a small olive-sized egg with a proud look on his face. "Which one of you girls laid this beauty huh? It's so pretty. Look Yue, it has red freckles on it."

He took it from him carefully. "They are mutated. I'm not sure if their eggs are safe to eat. Why don't we give this for food testing?"

"Huh? We have been eating Bakbak's egg for a long time. It was red."

"What!" Yue squatted down next to him. "Dad, are you serious? I didn't know. How could you eat it so carelessly? It could have been poisonous or something bad for health,"

His dad gave him a chill look. "It's fine. I tested it. Didn't kill me so I guess it's okay," he took out a blood-red egg from inside the coup.

Yue frowned deeply, taking it from him.

"Its fine, child. It's not poisonous. Wait, ill prove it to you," he took the egg and cracked it on the ground.

Bakbak and the quails came running and ate the egg yolk and the egg whites with gusto.

"See nothing happened to them... its fine. Stop frowning."

"I'm not frowning,"'

His father patted his forehead. "Yeah then these are wrinkles, right?"

Yue touched his forehead with a pout. "I don't want you risking your life like that. Any food we find has to be tested before consumption, remember that dad?"

"Got it,"

Blackie meows softly and moved closer to the broken egg, but Bakbak pecked her away to let the quails have a turn.

"Dad, I have a new ability," he said abruptly.

His father did not have any shocking reaction. Instead, he calmly smirked. "I figured so, or else why would you be wearing gloves? I'm not saying people don't wear it at all but I have never seen you wear one unless it's cold.,"

"hehe, come on you awkward man. It's okay. I understand what you are trying to say." He sat down next to him and removed his gloves. "'I'll show you magic," he held out his hand and a huge tree appeared out of nowhere.

The willow tree stood majestic in their small house. But the top branches hit the ceiling. Without any option, it bent down and stood there with his branches stretched all over the hallway.

"That's an issue that I didn't anticipate..."

Even though it was cramped, the willow tree somehow got the energy to find Blackie and started to pet her. Curiously it reached out its branched towards the quails.

Protective mama chicken did not let it. She pecked the branched and led her small cute quails away.

"Is this like space?"

"No, yes. It's different. I can copy others' abilities. It has its limitations though. For example if I copy Trexa's power I can't use it to heal because physical contact of my fingers is needed. But when I touch the person, I involuntarily copy their powers,"

"Oh...." his father nodded with an understanding look. "so... what are we going do with this situation? Maybe we can trim some branches off the top..."

Before he could even come up with an idea he heard a loud shattering noise. The willow's branches smashed the glass ceiling stretching itself out the roof.

"or it can break through the glass..." he nodded to himself. "We can fix it. This time maybe we can replace the glass with bulletproof glass if we can find......" he carefully walked over the glass-covered gourd and peered up at the wide-open gap. "Yeah, I don't think we can fix that,"