TFRLTOP Chapter 76 Part 1

Due to project commitment, this title will be published every 2 days till the end of November 2525. Thank you.

 

Chapter 76 – The Captain’s Little Widow 

Ming Ming: I really… I don’t even dare to think about it.

The two of them stood in silence, locking eyes. The air between them was heavy and still.

That thunderous line from Guan Yi—“Can’t you just ask me to forgive you this time and promise not to do it again? Then I’d have a reason to let you stay!”—still echoed faintly in her ears.

“What was that supposed to mean? Was he joking just now?” Ming Ming honestly couldn’t figure out what Guan Yi was trying to do.

Seeing the disbelief in her eyes, Guan Yi clicked his tongue and asked, “Even though you’re an ability user, your power has no combat strength. Do you have any idea what’ll happen to you if you wander off on your own?”

Well, duh, she thought. Of course I know.

“If you really leave here, with no one to rely on and no means to defend yourself, what are you going to do? Have you thought that far ahead?”

Ming Ming nodded unconsciously.

Guan Yi’s voice rose sharply. “Oh, you’ve thought about it? Really? What’s the plan—sleep under bridges, live off the food you took from the base? And when it’s gone, then what?”

Ming Ming muttered, barely above a whisper, “I was planning to head to a safe zone. If things didn’t work out there, I’d look for another ability-user group… maybe someone would be willing to take me in.”

Guan Yi narrowed his eyes, grudgingly admitting she wasn’t completely clueless. But irritation still burned in his chest. “You were even planning to join another group? Why didn’t you just think about staying here instead?”

Ming Ming looked aggrieved. “You’re being unreasonable! You were the one who said the base only takes in disciplined ability users. Isn’t that basically your polite way of telling me to get lost?”

Honestly, her situation was like… if this were the workplace, she’d just been caught red-handed cracking open the boss’s safe. In a normal society, she’d be handed straight over to the cops. Given this was the apocalypse, getting off with just being told to leave was already a blessing—what more could she expect? Just pack up and go!

“I even said, ‘If people don’t look out for themselves, they’ll be doomed,’ and that I understood your selfishness! Why didn’t you take that seriously?” Guan Yi nearly shouted. “When I said the base only takes in rule-abiding ability users, you could’ve just promised to follow the rules!”

Ming Ming gave him a look of pure disdain. “You said that before the ‘but’! No one ever takes what comes before the ‘but’ seriously.” Then she mumbled, “How was I supposed to know that’s what you meant?”

Guan Yi almost choked on his own breath.

He muttered, “Fine, fine, fine—it’s my fault. I didn’t explain it clearly enough.”

Ming Ming whispered to her system, I think this male lead’s brain isn’t screwed on right.

The system replied dryly, As long as you’re happy.

Then she suddenly had an idea. “Wait—you just wanted me to beg you, didn’t you?” What a strange hobby.

Guan Yi looked genuinely stunned by her logic. “What the hell is wrong with me…”

“Please!” Ming Ming said quickly.

Guan Yi: “…”

Her eyes darted as another thought struck her. “You guys are short on space-type ability users, aren’t you?”

Guan Yi gritted his teeth. “Yeah. We’re really short on them.”

Ah, Ming Ming thought, finally understanding his real reason for all this back-and-forth.

Since he was willing to take her in and overlook the past, this was clearly a good deal. Besides, being close to the male and female leads was helpful for her mission anyway.

“Captain,” Ming Ming said earnestly, “I promise I’ll follow the rules from now on. Please, let me stay.”

Guan Yi waved her off. “Enough. Let’s just end it here.”

He clearly didn’t want to keep arguing about this pointless topic. Turning around, he continued tidying up the room. Everything was done except for the bed in the spare room—it couldn’t be moved as a piece. He’d originally gotten help bringing it in disassembled and reassembled inside, and he wasn’t sure he could take it apart and put it back together correctly on his own.

Hands on his hips, he stared at the bed, wondering who he could ask for help. Ming Ming came over, offering to lend a hand, but Guan Yi—being the picture of stubborn masculinity—immediately refused. No way was he letting his (future) woman do heavy lifting.

“No need, I’ll handle it myself.”

But Ming Ming had already moved. With a flick of her hand, the bed vanished into her storage space. She walked to the spare room and released it again in one smooth motion. Then she turned back to him. “Done.”

Guan Yi stared in shock at her seamless display. After a long moment, he muttered, “That’s… pretty convenient.”

“Right? I think so too.” Ming Ming nodded seriously.

Guan Yi: “…”

After a while, Ming Ming glanced at him carefully. “You… don’t mind that I hid my ability?”

Guan Yi paused before saying, “Everyone here has secrets. You have your reasons—I won’t pry. But since you’re officially part of the base now, I’ll let the past go. From now on, you follow the rules.”

Ming Ming nodded quickly.

In truth, Guan Yi was just relieved she hadn’t said her ability came from her ex-husband.

Even though that explanation would’ve been stupid beyond belief.

He thought grimly to himself: Sooner or later, I’ll make her forget that idiot.

After hearing that her ability could preserve food, Guan Yi had her store the leftover dishes in her space. From then on, they agreed not to get new rations from the cafeteria until they finished what was left. No wasting food.

After dinner, Guan Yi left for a meeting. Ming Ming, alone in the room, decided she should find something to do—whether it was advancing the plot or simply being useful. She couldn’t just sit around.

So, she went to find the female lead.

After asking An Yue for directions, she found An Ning in her lab, frowning at her computer screen. When An Ning saw her, she immediately stood and smiled warmly. “Hey, Bai He! What brings you here?”

“Oh, I was just wandering around. Hope I’m not disturbing you?”

“Not at all! I was just about to take a break.”

“What are you working on?”

An Ning sighed and pointed at the computer. “My power can generate electricity, but it can’t fix computers. At this rate, humanity’s going to drift further and further from modern technology.”

Ming Ming leaned over for a look. “Doesn’t seem too bad. I can just reinstall your system. Mind if I back up your desktop files to the E drive first? So nothing gets lost.”

An Ning’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s fine, that’s fine! Everything’s backed up already. I know not to store stuff on C or D drives! Oh my god, Bai He, I could kiss you—you actually know how to fix computers!”

Ming Ming blushed at the praise. As she worked, she asked casually, “So, no one else in the base used to work in IT or computer science?”

“Nope.” An Ning waved her hand. “You have no idea—programmers are fragile creatures. Most of them didn’t survive the apocalypse.”

“…Huh?” Ming Ming blinked. “Why not?”

An Ning shrugged. “Well, they were already overworked, sleep-deprived, and on the verge of burnout. When the zombie waves hit, they couldn’t run fast enough. And even if one did awaken an ability, it usually wasn’t combat-based. Without protection, they didn’t last long.”

Ming Ming: “…”

Well, that stung a little.

Girls always found it easier to talk to each other, and before long, Ming Ming, feeling a bit guilty, confessed to An Ning that she had a spatial ability—and that she was the one who’d stolen the supplies from the base.

“What? It was you?”

An Ning didn’t even know what to be more shocked about—that Ming Ming’s ability had fooled their detection system, or that she’d been scavenging around the base and had almost emptied Guan Yi’s house.

Ming Ming, curious, asked, “But logically, if sanitary pads were missing, shouldn’t your first suspicion have been the women in the base? Why did Captain Guan say his first thought was that it was one of the clueless men?”

At that, An Ning explained, “After the apocalypse, surviving women became very rare. Most of them died in the early zombie waves before they could even awaken their powers. Take our base, for example—female ability users make up only about one-tenth of the population.

“When we were out scavenging, we managed to stockpile quite a few sanitary pads. But since space on supply runs is always limited, some men complained that pads were taking up valuable room. A few even used them as bandages—or shoe inserts.”

Ming Ming was furious. “They’re for absorbing blood, not stopping it! How did those idiots not get drained dry?”