-Seven days later.
During the previous seven days, not much happened in Bai Zemin’s life. In fact, most of his time was wisely spent with his family as he fervently refused to start any kind of mission that would take him away from them until he could at least recover some of the time that fate stole from them.
However, seven days after Bai Zemin was reunited with his family again, Meng Qi took him to a corner of the house and said with folded arms:
“Big brother, I think it’s time for you to get to work. Of course, the same applies to me.”
At that time, Bai Zemin was really puzzled as he did not understand what his little sister meant by her last sentence. But during the afternoon he finally understood when to his surprise Meng Qi appeared at the Black Turtle guild building as a member of the 15th team led by himself; a team which did not even have 100 members yet so it was actually considered an unofficial team by most.
During the previous seven days, apart from spending 80% of his time with his family, Bai Zemin spent the rest of the time getting to know the members of the Black Turtle guild. After all, as the leader of one of the fifteen teams that made up the entire Black Turtle guild, Bai Zemin had the obligation to make his face known to the members of the base and he also needed to get to know his subordinates and be known by them.
At first, there were some people who had their doubts about Bai Zemin leading in place of Bai Delan. However, Bai Zemin easily defeated all those who had complaints in fair fights, and thanks to those overwhelming victories, everyone was convinced that at least when it came to strength he seemed to be capable. Although the leadership aspect remained to be seen, with Bai Delan as vice leader none of them was really too worried either.
Since Bai Zemin had not left his house at all during those seven days as he had received permission from Wu Keqian to spend time with his loved ones and ignore everything related to work, he also had no idea what the situation at the base was like. This was because except for Nangong Lingxin and Zhong De who were part of his official team, Shangguan Bing Xue and the rest had two scouting missions with the different guilds that practically consumed all the time they had; therefore, none of them had time to go around inside the base and study the situation there.
Basically, Bai Zemin knew little about the structure and division of the base despite having been there for a total of eight days. However, he had no regrets whatsoever as in his eyes, every second of that time was more well spent than ever.
He, who had fought so hard to be able to reach his family, was abolishing all that longing that held him back and was pulling him down. The current him was confident that he would be able to manifest much more power on the battlefield under a much stronger motivation than before.
The previous Bai Zemin was searching for his loved ones, the current Bai Zemin was protecting them!
…
Because the Earth had just recently increased in size, the Chinese Renaissance also needed to explore the areas to get a better understanding of the kind of situation they were in. It took them no more than two days to understand approximately how many times the Earth had expanded; three and a half times was the actual number.
It was confirmed that during the expansion of the world every object under the ground was not damaged but consequently moved from its place next to that specific point. On the other hand, objects above ground did collapse because the separation movement between point X and point S caused tremors at levels that no normal human structure would be able to withstand.
Another important event that occurred during this same time period was that the electric current had finally stopped working in its entirety. Mankind had been using the reserved energy for almost three months, and today, almost three months after the world entered its evolutional stage, the electric current of the past finally left their lives, probably never to return.
“So, you’re telling me that the entire base is being sustained by coal?” Bai Zemin asked his father in amazement during dinner on the seventh day.
“That is correct.” Bai Delan nodded as he put a piece of meat in his mouth. “Our faction managed to capture two coal factories not long ago and fortunately there were large quantities of coal waiting to be used. In addition to moving the coal, we also moved the machines needed to produce more so at least the survivors will not die of cold.”
“But how will the coal be distributed? I doubt it will be free, will it?” Meng Qi asked curiously from the side.
“Princess, right now coal is an important resource even though it can be created in large quantities. Of course, it’s not free.” Bai Delan shook his head and pointed out, “Well, although technically it’s not like anyone has to pay to have it either. All workers regardless of status or employment that work seven days will receive a bag of charcoal large enough to keep a family warm for seven nights. If you work six days, then six days of coal. And so on.”
“That’s a really fabulous idea.” Bai Zemin’s eyes flashed with genuine praise and he analyzed, “By doing this, the survivors will have to work unless they want to die of cold and handing out a bag of charcoal corresponding to the number of days worked once every week will also wipe out the lazy ones as time goes by. Therefore, unless a person is brave enough to leave the base and powerful enough to carry piles of wood, the leeches will be completely wiped out in a short time.”
“…Indeed, that’s a brilliant idea.” Bai Delan paused and looked at Bai Zemin with weird eyes as he said these words.
“Em? What’s going on with those eyes?” Bai Zemin looked at him puzzled, subconsciously stopping his chewing motion.
“…Actually, this idea was thought up by young miss Wu Yijun.”
“Yijun?” Bai Zemin blinked before nodding calmly, “Oh. If it’s her then no wonder.”
In Bai Zemin’s eyes, Wu Yijun was far from an ordinary girl or spoiled little princess just because of her background. She was a woman who worked very hard and often spent hours staying up late to devise new ways to improve the lives of everyone or to prevent future problems for the human race. With her capacity, Bai Zemin didn’t doubt for a second that the person who came up with such an idea was Wu Yijun.
“Hehehehe…” Ye Linger laughed playfully and said with mischievous eyes, “Looks like our baby has become such a heartthrob. Even the princess of the Wu Family couldn’t possibly escape from his charms.”
“Cough! Cough!… What- What do you mean with that, mom?” Bai Zemin suffered a coughing fit that almost sent him to the other world as he looked at his mother with wide eyes.
His mother did not respond and instead looked at his father as if she was passing him the honors.
Bai Delan continued to look at Bai Zemin with weird eyes as he slowly said, “It turns out that several days ago I went to the Wu villa to settle some matters. At the time, Mayor Wu was not present so I discussed the matter with his wife, Sun Ling. Honestly, I expected to be ignored but little did I expect to be called the following day. Sun Ling herself told me that she would find a way to help me with this matter and from her expression she seemed very serious about it.”
Bai Delan raised a hand to ask Bai Zemin not to interrupt him just before the latter said something and continued, “Sun Ling’s daughter happened to appear as I was about to leave so I naturally greeted her with respect. However, that girl practically jumped like a scared rabbit when I addressed her as ‘young miss Yijun’ and practically begged me in tears to just call her Yijun.”
“Oh…” Bai Zemin noticed several curious and peculiar stares on his body so he quickly came up with an excuse, “Oh, well. I was her leader all this time so it’s probably partially due to that.”
“… Partially my ass.” Bai Delan sighed before pointing his chopstick at Bai Zemin and saying in a serious voice, “I’m telling you, brat. You’d better make things clear with that Yijun girl. Regardless of the problems it might involve because of her background, I, Bai Delan, did not raise my son to become a scumbag who hurts the heart of such a nice young lady. If you dare to play with that girl’s feelings I will personally see to it that I break your legs.”
This time, Ye Linger did not say anything and simply looked at Bai Zemin with confidence as she did not believe that the son she raised would be that kind of man.
But Bai Zemin really wanted to cry without having tears to shed!
When had he ever played with someone’s heart? For God’s sake! He, Bai Zemin, had even made everything 100% clear when Wu Yijun openly expressed her affection for him!
But what right did Bai Zemin have to forbid Wu Yijun from fighting for her heart? None! He had no right to do that as it would surely hurt her terribly and considering how stubborn Wu Yijun was it would definitely have no effect!
In the end, Bai Zemin could only nod and obediently say, “Don’t worry, father, mother. I know what to do.”
“Em,” Bai Delan nodded without saying much about it since he knew what kind of son he had.
Ye Linger, on the other hand, helped him with another piece of meat as she saw that he had almost eaten everything on his plate.
Feeling aggrieved, Bai Zemin took a large piece of meat to his mouth and began to eat as he grumbled to himself, causing Lilith to burst out laughing as she hovered near him. She had been there all this time and had actually laughed like there was no tomorrow with all the new facets she had seen of the usually indifferent Bai Zemin.
“Big brother.”
“Mm? What’s wrong?” Bai Zemin gave Meng Qi a sidelong glance as he continued to eat as if he were a hungry ghost.
“I want to meet your friends.” Meng Qi said casually as she looked at him calmly.
“Eh?” Bai Zemin froze for a moment as he didn’t expect that kind of request.
Meng Qi nimbly caught the last piece of meat on his plate and before tossing it into her mouth she said with a smile, “Oh, it’s about time you introduced me. I’m very curious to meet all of them. Especially this woman named Shangguan Bing Xue whom you have named at least five times throughout the whole week.”
Bai Zemin watched as his meat was stolen from under his own nose and as he observed Meng Qi’s lips moving and tasting the tender mutant deer meat his brain processed the words he had just heard.
“My meat…”
That was all he could say, causing Lilith to burst out laughing again.
In the end, Bai Zemin naturally agreed to his younger sister’s request.
During these seven days, Meng Qi had learned about most of Bai Zemin’s lived experiences. He simply left out things that happened in Oblon World nor did he give gory details; he even left out the times when his body was almost cut into pieces. Even with all of the above left out of the equation, Meng Qi learned very clearly how strong her big brother was and, of course, how powerful his subordinates were.
But, in fact, the person who most piqued her curiosity was none other than the woman known by many as ‘Ice Princess”.
