The Invasion Day – Chapter 56

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 56

Tang Xuhai’s attention had been piqued. Now that he thought about it, the two of them had been neighbours for two years, but they just came to know each other properly in the last two months. He only knew that Fu Shiwu lived alone in Heavenly Gardens but was absolutely clueless as to what was going on with the guy’s family.

Fu Shiwu himself wasn’t a person who liked to gossip, so he basically didn’t have any knowledge of Tang Xuhai’s background either.

Tang Xuhai pulled Fu Shiwu to sit down on the grass. Of course, he made sure to check whether the grass had mutated.

As the two settled on the grass, the temperature around them was dropping sharply and thick clouds were floating in the sky.

Fu Shiwu went on to say: “We can chat on the computer every Lunar New Year.” 

Tang Xuhai felt strange: “There’s no video but just text chat?”

Fu Shiwu: “There’ve been video chats, but very few of them.”

Tang Xuhai couldn’t help but wonder: “If you don’t mind, can I ask what is it that your parents are researching? Even if they’re building a nuclear bomb, it couldn’t be this confidential right? They aren’t even allowed to go home?”

Fu Shiwu was dazed for a second. After so many years, he had stopped waiting for that to happen, or, it should be said that he had grown completely used to it

He said: “I can’t remember very clearly either. That place is very far and entirely surrounded by desert, without any settlement nearby. I remember that when I was a kid, some dust storms often came by, and once, we were nearly swept away.”

At that time, he was too young, and things that a child could retain in his memories weren’t very reliable. He mostly only remembered the events that gave him the deepest impressions.

What he could recall now was that the organisation’s compound was enormous. With his two tiny legs, he often ran around the place, but he was never alone. Beside his parents and the aunties and uncles who also worked in the research institute, there were other children who played with him.

In retrospect, they should be children of other researchers. They were roughly the same age as him, but after he left the compound to go to primary school, he never met them again.

Thinking of this, Fu Shiwu frowned subconsciously.

He looked up at Tang Xuhai, who was looking back at him with a serious expression. Fu Shiwu smiled. Somehow, all this doesn’t seem to matter anymore. Wasn’t he making new friends who were the closest he ever had?

“What about you, who do you have in your family?” Fu Shiwu asked back.

“My family…” Tang Xuhai breathed in deeply, then he lay flat on the grass with his arms supporting his head: “I’m the only one left now. Both my parents are gone.”

“Both your parents are gone?” Fu Shiwu was startled. Looking at Tang Xuhai’s incredibly bold and outgoing personality, Fu Shiwu really didn’t figure that his parents had passed on: “I’m very sorry.”

Tang Xuhai glanced at him: “I no longer care about it since long ago.”

Seeing Tang Xuhai being so carefree on the grass at the moment, Fu Shiwu couldn’t help but feel eager to try. Testing the waters, he slowly lowered his upper body and raised his eyes to look at the sky full of clouds. Gazing at the horizon from this angle simply gave him a different kind of relaxed, contented feeling.

Quietly, Fu Shiwu breathed out with relief and stretched his limbs to relax. Next to Fu Shiwu, Tang Xuhai continued to speak, as though he hadn’t noticed Fu Shiwu’s subtle movements at all: “My father was a soldier, so my mother and I are considered the next-of-kin of a KIA1Short for ‘Killed In Action’, which is often used to refer to soldiers who sacrificed during wartime..”

“Your father was also a soldier? “Fu Shiwu turned his head to cast a curious look at Tang Xuhai, but with the long grasses standing between the two of them, he couldn’t clearly see Tang Xuhai’s expression.

“Uhm.” Tang Xuhai lightly grunted as he picked up a thick piece of grass and started chewing on it. The grass trembled along with each word he spoke, making Fu Shiwu unable to turn his gaze away. “My dad… how can I put it? I basically have no impression of him. He belonged to the border troops and died during a border conflict. He passed on early so I couldn’t remember much back then.”

As he said so, Tang Xuhai raised one leg and placed it on the other knee. That posture just seemed so badass that Fu Shiwu couldn’t help but feel a tad inferior sitting beside the guy. Why don’t I have that aura of manliness too?

“But my life with mom was pretty good. My mom was a very strong, very motivated woman, but she couldn’t keep me in control all the time. Back in school, I skipped classes and took part in lots of fights. You can say that I was rather wild growing up.” Probably because the grass didn’t taste very great, Tang Xuhai frowned and flicked it away. The grass was quickly tossed onto the patch of grasses below that almost seemed like they were bowing down to welcome a new member. “When I was 16, my mom had a car accident and left me alone. By then, my family had long been out of contact with my dad’s relatives, and my mom’s relatives were unwilling to take me in, so I just joined the army.”

“Oh…” Fu Shiwu blinked. He wasn’t the type who chatted with people often, so at this moment, he wasn’t sure how he should respond to Tang Xuhai’s words. He decided to simply sit up and rummage through his trouser pocket, then he handed Tang Xuhai a lollipop: “This is for you.”

“What?” Tang Xuhai turned his head to look back, his eyebrows raising so high they almost flew up: “You’re giving me a lollipop? Keep this stuff for yourself, it’s a kid’s food!”

Hearing Tang Xuhai say this, Fu Shiwu responded unhappily: “Isn’t it because you always look so restless without cigarettes? That’s why I give it to you!” 

Tang Xuhai’s expression twisted with displeasure and he said disdainfully: “Do you think that I’m like you, who could never have enough sweets? I don’t eat such childish stuff!”

Letting out a snort, Fu Shiwu tore open the package and decisively bit on the lollipop: “Then I’ll eat the sweets, you can have the stick! In any case, you just want to bite on something, a stick should be enough.”

Tang Xuhai stared at Fu Shiwu in disbelief. This brat has picked up some horrible tricks! He could even come up with such a cruel idea! Who did he learn this from? He used to be so innocent, so silly just a while back.

The culprit who totally didn’t feel that he himself was the bad example sighed at the realisation that people could change so easily.

He wickedly stretched out his hand at Fu Shiwu: “I want the sweets, not the stick!”

You’ve bitten on it already. Let me see what you’re going to do about this? 

Fu Shiwu smiled thoughtfully at him, then he flipped his hand and took out another one.

“…” Tang Xuhai could only silently take the lollipop, tear it open and stuff it into his mouth.

Fruit flavour. So very sweet.

“Eat it, I’ve prepared a whole box for you.” Fu Shiwu said carefreely.

Tang Xuhai immediately felt that he could choke to death with the sweetness in his mouth.

The atmosphere between them was good again. Tang Xuhai said nonchalantly: “Do you remember how you got that psychological trigger?”

Fu Shiwu bit the lollipop and one side of his cheek bulged up, but his eyebrows furrowed slightly: “I can’t remember anymore.”

“Since your parents didn’t mention it, maybe it happened after you left them.” Tang Xuhai strugglingly crushed the ball of sugar in his mouth and fiercely chewed on it.

Fu Shiwu tried to think very hard, but he really didn’t have any impression. When he was young, he was often isolated and bullied by his male classmates; perhaps it was when he started having this phobia. Sometimes people’s memories were very strange, for they might forget the things they didn’t want to remember, leaving only a vague subconscious feeling behind.

“I really can’t remember.” Fu Shiwu shook his head.

“Don’t think about it if you can’t remember. It’s definitely not a good thing anyway.” Tang Xuhai sat up and patted him on the shoulder.

“Uhm.” Fu Shiwu nodded. He thought the same thing.

At this moment, there was a faint scream from the other side of the highway. The two’s expressions changed at once and they both hurriedly stood up.

Without wasting a word, Tang Xuhai spit out the lollipop that was only left with the stick: “Let’s go take a look!” He immediately sprinted away with his long legs.

With the lollipop still in his hand, Fu Shiwu found it very inconvenient to run back, so he firmly tossed it away and ran over.

They had checked this place before deciding to stop here. Nothing was found to be unusual, so what could go wrong?

As they came close, they realised that the commotion wasn’t from panic, but from immense surprise.

“What’s the matter?” Tang Xuhai halted.

Fu Shiwu followed closely behind. He gasped hard for air and pushed down his glasses. He still felt embarrassed from his fainting incident earlier, so he straightened his expression and indifferently glared at the other people: “What happened?”

He desperately wanted to erase the bad memory he had brought to them, for what he should be giving out was a perfectly respectable image. This unconscious urge magnified his tense emotions, which even spread to the rest.

The others hadn’t seen him like this before, and for a moment, they only sensed an aura of oppression exuding from Fu Shiwu’s direction and felt themselves almost unable to breathe.

Those who let their guard down because of Fu Shiwu’s display of weakness just now immediately felt all their hair stand up.

No one uttered a word.

Puzzled, Fu Shiwu had to ask again: “What’s going on? Why did you scream?”

Seeing the newly joined members all stunned and that some were even quivering, Tang Xuhai struggled to stifle a laugh.

Wen Zhaoming secretly stroked his forehead, then coughed lightly.

The frightened team members looked at him simultaneously, then Wen Zhaoming explained with a calm tone: “A special ability plant was found nearby.”

“A special ability plant?!” Tang Xuhai’s eyes opened wide.

Fu Shiwu eyebrows furrowed as he solemnly said: “I didn’t perceive any obvious danger before, how come there’s a plant with special ability here?”

Wen Zhaoming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Perhaps because this plant doesn’t have any sense of attack, it’s just that…” Wen Zhaoming’s expression became a bit difficult to read: “Its sense of territory is a little too strong.”

Miao Jia looked at Tang Xuhai and Fu Shiwu’s faces: both of them were carrying a stern expression. He didn’t dare to laugh and muttered softly: “After Fu ge left, we packed up the cooking utensils and found a ripe cornfield nearby. Wang Dan and Liu Peiqi wanted to pick some corn to cook at night.”

At this time, Liu Peiqi also said seriously: “Yes, we just took two ears of corn, then it attacked us.”

The special ability plant turned out to be… corn.

This was something that no one here would’ve thought of.

This corn grew right in the middle of the field. After it mutated and developed a special ability, it seemed to regard this cornfield as its own kingdom. Since Wang Dan and Liu Peiqi had the nerve to touch its harem, the corn king got furious and launched an ‘attack’ at once!

It sprayed out like a rain of bullets made of — corn kernels.

This had Wang Dan and Liu Peiqi truly taken aback, feeling both scared and hilarious at the same time. Wasn’t this directly sending more food their way?!

Overjoyed, Wang Dan and Liu Peiqi immediately ran over while yelling, wanting to let the others see this novel scene.

Just when the two were describing the majestic appearance of the corn king to the rest, Tang Xuhai and Fu Shiwu came back.

Tang Xuhai also found this remarkably interesting. He didn’t expect that the first special ability plant they met would be corn. He turned back, wrapped his arm around Fu Shiwu’s shoulders and said: “Let’s go, we go take a look.”

Fu Shiwu paused a second, then with a soft “Uhm”, the two of them walked towards the cornfield.

As soon as those two left, the others finally let out a sigh of relief.

Ma Dongxin said, his voice still dabbed with a bit of fear: “Mr. Fu’s super stern expression just now was really scary.”

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The translator has something to say: Like… like that corn plant from Plants VS Zombies? ∑(￣□￣)