Chapter 269: Chapter 269
"Really?"
Shen Que felt a bit giddy, his mind swirling with the fact that Meng Ci found him attractive.
After all, they had been together for so long, and Meng Ci had never been so direct in praising his looks.
Shen Que felt incredibly happy, unable to stop himself from grinning silly.
Meng Ci rolled his eyes at Shen Que's dopey grin, shaking his head.
He couldn't figure out why a simple compliment had made Shen Que so excited.
Half a month passed, and finally, the officials brought good news. They had found the plant that Shen Que mentioned in his letter.
Tests showed that the plant helped lab mice develop antibodies against the zombie virus, offering effective protection!
The news made everyone ecstatic, filling them with hope for the future.
But just as they were celebrating, the third zombie wave was looming on the horizon.
Each day, Shen Que grew more anxious.
In his past life, it was during the third zombie wave when his team members had ruthlessly pushed him into a horde of zombies...
"Don't worry."
Meng Ci knew what Shen Que was worried about, so he kept comforting him.
"Look at this body of mine; I was supposed to die in the early days of the apocalypse, but I've lived for so long."
"And Zhou Ning, her situation is different from her past life."
Despite Meng Ci's reassurances, Shen Que remained anxious.
Seeing this, Meng Ci decided that when the third zombie wave came, he would take everyone into the space.
Running away felt cowardly, but it was practical.
Previously, they had stockpiled time, fearing that without powers, they wouldn't be able to confront zombies head-on, so they could hide in the space when needed.
Now, with the zombies and the vaccine to resist the zombie virus about to be developed, there was no need to conserve time anymore.
Entering the space could reduce Shen Que's worries, so it was worth a try.
The third zombie wave would last for five days, with only a large number of zombies and not much danger.
Meng Ci thought it best to let Shen Que relax and get through the time when he was killed in his past life.
During these five days, the two of them turned the soil in the space and began planting vegetables and crops.
Although the zombie threat had ended, most of the Earth's land and water resources had been destroyed, so it would take a long time to return to normalcy.
Thus, planting in the space was essential.
The space was big enough that even with Eggplant and Eagle running around, it never felt dull.
In the blink of an eye, five days passed, and Meng Ci and Shen Que left the space to find the outside world eerily quiet.
"Shen Que, how are you feeling now?"
After coming out of the dimensional space, Meng Ci immediately grabbed Shen Que's wrist, wanting to check if his pulse was abnormal.
Shen Que shook his head.
"Don't worry, I'm fine now."
As the moment of his past-life death drew closer, Shen Que's mindset grew increasingly calm, his breathing smooth and his heart at peace.
"Good to hear," Meng Ci relaxed, thinking that the deadline of Shen Que's death from his previous life had passed, so there was no need to fear it anymore.
Although the zombie wave had passed, a few zombies still wandered in every day, and as soon as they spotted humans, they began to chase them frantically.
Moreover, these zombies moved faster and became more cunning.
When they realized they couldn't win, they would flee without hesitation, making battles with them increasingly difficult.
In the meantime, the officials continued to send out personnel daily to eliminate zombies, but their focus had gradually shifted to the reconstruction of the city.
Especially when addressing the problem of soil losing its fertility, experts in soil science and agronomy were needed to work together to find solutions.
Though the initial supply of herbs was limited, the vaccine developed from them showed promise in combating the zombie virus. The government immediately increased its investment in cultivating these herbs.
They hoped that through large-scale planting of the herbs, a vaccine could be developed soon to protect people's lives.
After the first batch of herbs was cultivated, the relevant leaders of the West Mountain Wilderness Base sent several teams composed of soldiers to transport a few plants to them via a constant temperature box.
The future was full of hope.
With most of the zombies gone, Meng Ci and Shen Que felt more at ease.
The only downside was the overwhelming smell of feces throughout the base.
As for Qiezi, it probably had some dog instincts, because as soon as it smelled the poop, it couldn't wait to rush over and roll around in the experts' vegetable fields.
Not to mention the value of the medicinal herbs, Qiezi's white fur would get filthy, giving Meng Ci and the others a lot of cleaning to do.
Meng Ci firmly refused Qiezi's request to play, then followed Shen Que outside, hoping Qiezi would tire itself out and behave.
Once outside, Qiezi darted around like a wild horse, and before they knew it, it had run up to a test field.
Just as Qiezi was about to run into the field, Meng Ci hurried over, grabbing its ear directly.
"Qiezi, are you asking for a beating?"
Saying that, Meng Ci slapped Qiezi's butt twice.
"Howl, howl!"
Qiezi howled, indicating it didn't know what it had done wrong.
Seeing Qiezi's shameless attitude, Meng Ci was furious and gave it two more smacks.
These two hits were with force, so Qiezi felt the pain and let out a yell.
Nearby, in the test field, a group of experts in their thirties watched. Two of the women saw Meng Ci hitting Qiezi and came over to try to reason with him.
"There's nothing planted in our field yet, so it can come in and play if it wants, and it might help loosen the soil for us."
"Don't scold it anymore!"
When the women spoke up for him, Eggplant's face showed a look like he was saying, 'You've got it all wrong, and you should apologize to me.'
Meng Ci gently pushed Eggplant's head down, as if to say he wasn't in the wrong and didn't need to apologize.
Besides, Eggplant had been getting a bit too full of himself lately, and needed to be brought back down to earth.
But Meng Ci didn't plan on telling the two women that.
"No worries, Eggplant's pretty tough. He just likes to sound dramatic, but it doesn't really hurt him."
"If we don't set some boundaries now, he might go wild once the field is planted."
The women thought he made sense, and since the dog was his, they figured it wasn't their place to comment on how he handled it.
But seeing how adorable Eggplant was, they couldn't help but want to give him some love.
"Uh..."
One of the women nervously played with her hair.
"Can I give him a pet?"
The other woman also gave Meng Ci an eager look.
"Sure!"
"But that depends if he's willing."
Meng Ci, knowing Eggplant could understand, let him decide.