From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!

Chapter 415 - 400: At Least an Ability User

Qi Xiang followed behind Gu Xi, wanting to speak but holding back the entire way.

But she had always been a sharp and perceptive girl. Seeing Gu Xi in this state, it was clear she didn’t want to talk, so Qi Xiang didn’t press her.

When they returned to the surface, the small courtyard was completely empty. Not a soul was in sight—not even Ye Nan. Qi Xiang guessed that Mr. Ye must have had his reasons for not daring to face Gu Xi just yet and had probably already left.

Qi Xiang sighed silently. Just as the two of them walked out of the alley, they saw Wei Heng rushing over.

Wei Heng’s worried gaze fell on Gu Xi. He was just about to speak when he saw Qi Xiang give him a slow shake of her head.

However, this didn’t make Wei Heng feel relieved. Instead, his heart tightened.

The reason he had rushed over, fraught with worry, wasn’t that he feared for Gu Xi’s safety. It was that... whenever something related to people from her past came up, Gu Xi’s emotions would become unstable.

The wounds inflicted on Gu Xi thirty years ago were not something time could heal.

He didn’t even dare bring these things up in front of her, afraid of tearing open her bloody scars all over again.

Wei Heng’s gaze was so cautious that Gu Xi forcibly suppressed the negative emotions and surging hostility that had been stirred up again by seeing some of Chen’s memory fragments.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her tone calm. But the little green sprout continuously spinning around her fingertip, faster and faster, made the other two watch in terror.

But Wei Heng pushed down his fear and spoke as if everything were normal. "It’s nothing. Shen Yue just said he found someone who claims to be a pre-apocalypse three-star Mi-X-lin chef. He’s asking if we want to go over for a meal."

Qi Xiang played along, doing her best to lighten the atmosphere.

’At least, we can’t let Gu Xi keep drowning in the pain of her past.’

She stepped forward, linked her arm with Gu Xi’s, and raised an eyebrow. With the exasperated air of someone who had seen through it all, she said, "So if he’s treating us to dinner, does that mean we have to bring our own ingredients?"

Wei Heng rubbed his nose. "No need to call me out like that." He cleared his throat. "Shen Yue’s been having a rough time lately." He’d heard the man had been surviving on sweet potatoes for days.

Qi Xiang pouted but didn’t say anything, turning to look at Gu Xi.

Gu Xi knew what they were worried about, so she went along with them, saying lightly, "Alright. Let’s go have a taste of the prosperous world before the apocalypse."

Once, those flavors had only existed in the food videos she’d binged as a child. She had thought she would never get the chance to experience them, but now... that terrible era had to end.

’A person has to look forward.’

Gu Xi looked up at the sky. Her calm gaze settled on the distance, where the eastern horizon was already showing the pale light of dawn. Farther out, a faint golden glow was about to break through the clouds.

Soon, the sun would rise.

A new day was coming, and the darkness... would finally pass.

"Let’s go, Gu Xi," Wei Heng said after following her gaze for a moment. He turned and opened the car door behind him. "Shen Yue says the guy is really skilled..." ’He was actually quite eager to see for himself.’

After all, while he loved to cook, he was self-taught and had never been formally trained. If that person really was a master chef, he couldn’t miss this opportunity.

Qi Xiang got into the car behind Gu Xi. Seeing Wei Heng starting to ramble, she joined in to liven things up. "True. With an appetite like Shen Yue’s, an ordinary person could never fill him up..."

Wei Heng slammed his foot on the accelerator. Qi Xiang bounced in her seat, then suddenly grabbed the back of the front seat and looked up to ask, "Is that guy really a pre-apocalypse Mi-X-lin chef? You don’t think Shen Yue got scammed, do you?"

She muttered under her breath, "If he’s really a pre-apocalypse Mi-X-lin chef, wouldn’t he be at least eighty or ninety by now? It’d be fine if he’s an ability user, but if he’s a normal person, can he even lift a spatula at that age?"

Wei Heng: "..."

He thought for a moment and said, "It should be fine, right?" ’Shen Yue isn’t that unreliable.’

That was debatable.

The two of them exchanged a look through the rearview mirror.

By the time Gu Xi’s group arrived, Shen Yue was still busy, but Qin Shi was already waiting for them at the entrance.

"Over here!" Behind Qin Shi, a simple stove had been set up. On it were pots, bowls, and pans freshly forged by ability users of various elements. There was also a row of cleavers that glinted menacingly in the faint morning light.

’The setup looks impressive enough.’

Qi Xiang raised an eyebrow and scanned the area. "Where’s the master chef?" she asked.

"Coming now." In the distance, Qin Yi approached with a stooped, white-haired old man. She gave the group a simple greeting and then ceremoniously introduced the old master chef beside her.

After learning that the chef had developed a post-apocalypse ability of heightened taste—something quite useless for most people but a godsend for a cook—Qi Xiang relaxed considerably.

’...At least he’s an ability user. Lifting a spatula won’t be a problem.’

"What happened to you...?" Qi Xiang asked, looking at the dirt and grass clippings all over Qin Yi.

Two sweet dimples appeared on Qin Yi’s face. "I just took the old master to get some fresh ingredients."

As she spoke, she brandished the oversized cloth bag in her hand.

Qi Xiang leaned in for a closer look. "What’s this?"

Qin Yi said smugly, "Banana pith. I grew it myself."

She paused, then added with feigned calmness, "The original plant was discovered by Lin Jin in a ruined courtyard over there. It took me two days, under Mr. Chen’s guidance, to reverse-evolve it..."

"Mr. Chen? Shen Yue really brought them over?" Qi Xiang asked as she bent down and pulled a piece of something that looked like a pale white bamboo shoot from the bag. She examined it from all sides. "How do you eat this thing?"

"You stir-fry it with cured meat." Qin Yi casually handed the cloth bag to the old master chef behind her, then turned to Wei Heng. "I remember before we left South City, didn’t you cure a batch of meat, Mr. Wei?"

For a while, Wei Heng had been obsessed with culinary research. He’d once seen someone on a forum mention cured meat and had been eager to try and recreate the pre-apocalypse delicacy ever since.

But he had always been frustrated by the lack of suitable ingredients—after the second great mutation, no kind of meat was edible.

Later, when Gu Xi saw him looking miserable for several days and found out why, she gave him some mutated beast meat from her space to support his culinary pursuits, telling him to experiment as he pleased.

But as everyone knows, something like cured meat needs time to age.

Not long after Wei Heng finished making the cured meat, they left South City for the Central Base. With one thing and another, the whole cured meat affair got put on the back burner.

It wasn’t until a couple of days ago, while inspecting a disaster zone, that Shen Yue overheard an old man bragging about his specialty—stir-fried banana pith with cured meat. The man claimed it was so unforgettable that it used to make all the kids on the street cry with longing. Only then did Shen Yue remember Wei Heng’s batch of cured meat.

Hearing this, Qi Xiang felt it was a bit iffy. It wasn’t that she doubted the master chef’s skills—the chef was already off to the side, prepping the banana pith, and from his fancy knife work alone, you could tell his cooking couldn’t be bad.

What she was worried about was Wei Heng’s cured meat. She’d heard that curing meat required a certain technique, but Wei Heng... was he a self-taught amateur with no experience?

"So, is your cured meat worthy of a master chef’s skills?" Qi Xiang asked Wei Heng, phrasing the question delicately.

Wei Heng: "..."