RIACMET chapter 144

 

“Mm…”

In the bathroom, Zhao Lei pressed Liao Yu against the wall. Usually calm and confident, he now looked as if he wanted to tear his boyfriend apart and devour him whole.

Liao Yu tilted his head back, forming a graceful curve with his long neck.

Kisses came one after another, and the emotions pent up over the past few days flooded out, nearly overwhelming him.

There was the warmth of having survived life and death together and the deep realization of how precious it was to still be alive after the disaster.

They were lovers and teammates. They had reached a point where their unspoken understanding meant they didn’t need to pretend anymore—they could read each other’s desires from a single glance or movement.

“…”

“Young Master, are you okay?”

Zhao Lei lowered his head to look at the man in his arms. His eyes were red and his body was trembling slightly. A sense of satisfaction from getting what he wanted swelled in Zhao Lei’s chest.

Even now, he still felt a bit out of it, worried that his young master had only been toying with him and might one day grow tired of him.

It only felt real when Liao Yu was crying and acting like he was bullying someone else.

Liao Yu leaned obediently against him, catching his breath. His face was still flushed, and his voice was hoarse.

“If this young master can’t get out of bed tomorrow, I’ll choke you to death!”

He hadn’t resisted, but there was always an air of aggression and dominance when Zhao Lei approached him. What a terrible habit!

Zhao Lei chuckled and hugged him tighter.

“It’s not a good idea to kill your husband. Sleep well—you’re gonna need the rest. Holding water and draining energy like that isn’t easy.”

“Mm.”

Liao Yu yawned, rubbed his chest, and slowly drifted off.

…

The next day, the entire team slept in until noon and missed their scheduled physical checkups.

Yang Kai had no choice but to reschedule them for the end of their break—basically a routine group physical when they returned to duty.

With the team’s growing trust, everyone knew that Jiang Nian’s superpower was purification.

With him around, the team no longer had to worry about bringing viruses back. In a way, no one was cleaner than them.

After a simple lunch, Jiang Nian headed to the store to restock the shelves.

Meanwhile, Cheng Jing called Zhao Lei and Huang Qian over, had them sort through the crystal cores and medicines acquired during the trip, and told them to trade the rest in for points. The others were free to relax.

In addition to the crystal cores and medicines, they had several rare materials that could also be exchanged.

Some medications weren’t practical for personal use, so it made more sense to swap them for basic drugs and add them to the hospital pharmacy.

As for the rare materials, these were post-apocalyptic supplies that they couldn’t use directly, but that held decent value.

These included the core components of large machinery, engineering diagrams, research and development materials for industrial products, design blueprints, and data storage discs.

After the apocalypse, most survivors wouldn’t think to keep this kind of stuff. Jiang Nian had reminded them to start collecting it early on.

Thanks to him, they had gathered quite a bit from Qingyun City up until that point.

Initially, these materials weren’t valuable—small or private bases didn’t want them. Only after larger bases stabilized did these materials’ value rise alongside the bases’ development.

This was also why they hadn’t exchanged them until now.

Nowadays, people don’t need to go to several places to cash in their items. The command center’s central exchange area could handle it all at once.

After totaling everything, the command center gave them 60,000 points.

Additionally, Cheng Jing updated Zhou Li on the situation in Xihe City and requested that he dispatch an exploration team there, which also earned them a reward.

Based on the exploration team’s harvest report, the base awarded them 100,000 points. In the future, the team will also receive a 50% discount when exchanging points for supplies.

They earned a total of 160,000 points, a sum that ordinary people couldn’t dream of.

Regarding the mid-tier crystal cores, Cheng Jing planned to visit Minister Wang with Jiang Nian the next day to report on that matter separately.

Jiang Nian planned to present the situation with the mid-tier crystal cores to Minister Wang and the base as soon as possible, along with a few suggestions.

Based on what they had “seen and heard” and some logical guesses, they could offer the researchers a few helpful leads. These ideas could be tested through experiments, and if successful, good news would soon follow.

Besides the crystal cores, the wolf tissue samples they collected also needed to be submitted for research. Xiaoqi would have to cooperate as well.

Figuring out why these animals hadn’t been infected by the zombie virus would be a major breakthrough.

Once these matters were wrapped up, they could finally shift their focus to the farming project and other day-to-day operations.

“…”

Once the point exchange was complete, Huang Qian and Zhao Lei returned to the dorm.

Cheng Jing went to find Jiang Nian. The two of them moved all the items from their car into the small warehouse and organized the items stored in the ring space.

To ensure the team had enough supplies, they stored everything they’d gathered pre-apocalypse in the ring space first.

They filled both rings as much as possible, leaving just enough room for daily use.

From then on, they would avoid using the ring supplies unless absolutely necessary.

Any additional gear would be taken from the underground storage. They would simply hand out gear to teammates and friends as needed and adjust based on the situation when going on trips.

Truthfully, since they arrived at the Nancheng base, their overall supply consumption has dropped significantly, mostly because everyone can now work and eat at the base cafeteria.

Currently, their total supply stock could fill four spatial rings, most of which were packed with food.

They still had seeds, too.

As long as they continued on this path and didn’t waste anything, surviving the apocalypse would no longer be a problem.

By the time Cheng Jing and Jiang Nian left the warehouse, it was late.

After earning several hundred thousand points, the whole team would regroup. Although Jiang Nian was the default keeper of the points, maintaining transparency was still important.

When everyone gathered for dinner, Jiang Nian shared the current point balance:

“We had 280,000 points previously. Add in the shop’s surplus and today’s earnings, and our total point assets are now 493,026. This is thanks to everyone’s hard work.”

Although it sounded like a lot, split across the entire team, it averaged just over 50,000 points per person—not bad at all. They still had upcoming farm renovation expenses to deal with, though.

“Can we buy a house now?”

Liao Yu’s eyes lit up. Those who lacked a sense of security really wanted to live under the same roof as their teammates.

Jiang Nian smiled and nodded.

“You could pay the down payment now, but I don’t think there’s any rush. The collective villa area isn’t finished yet. Once it is finished, not many people will be able to afford one at those prices. Don’t worry about missing out. Besides, if you pay now, you won’t be able to move in anyway. It’s better to wait until the extreme heat passes.”

“That makes sense.”

Liao Yu nodded.

“I’ll listen to my godfather and revisit this after the heat wave ends.”

The others agreed. Indeed, if you paid now but couldn’t move in, it would be better to hold onto the points.

The situation out there was still unstable. What if something happened after the extreme heat?

While discussing the idea of buying a team house together, Tang Yi suddenly remembered something and said,

“By the way, during the previous training camp, Brother Kai came to me personally and said he wanted to join our team. Did he mention that to you guys?”

“Yes.”

Everyone except Jiang Nian and Cheng Jing answered in unison, then turned to look at the two eldest brothers.