The Eerie Little Prince Just Wants to Lie Low in the Apocalypse - Chapter 3

His parched, cracked lips were gently moistened by a water-soaked cotton swab. The wounds on his body had been carefully cleaned and treated with medicine, leaving him completely free of pain. His clothes felt soft and dry against his skin, and the bedding was plush and comfortable. He felt so at ease, as if he had returned to the days before the apocalypse.

Lu Xihe drowsily turned over, a thought drifting through his mind: Being dead is wonderful; lying flat is so comfortable.

If only I had died sooner, this feels too good, wuwu…

Moved to tears, Lu Xihe couldn’t help but roll around a few more times on the bed, grinning so widely it felt like his mouth might split open.

Just as he was reveling in his joy, the sound of someone rising and the rustle of clothing reached his ears. Lu Xihe froze mid-roll, a chill creeping down his spine.

Oh no, it seems I’m not completely dead. Could that be a monster behind me?

His heart pounding, Lu Xihe silently slid his hand out from under the thin blanket, ready to flip over and throw a punch. But then, he heard the voice he knew best and had missed the most in his life.

“Xihe, are you awake?” The man stopped by the bedside and reached out to pull the kicked-off blanket back over him.

At the sound, Lu Xihe whipped his head around. Standing before him was the person he had been longing for, the one who had been missing without a trace for half a year.

“Cheng Yuchuan!”

Ignoring his injuries and the blanket tangled around his limbs, Lu Xihe practically scrambled and tumbled into the man’s arms, holding him tightly.

Cheng Yuchuan, his boyfriend who had gone missing after the apocalypse began, stranded thousands of miles away.

“You’re alive…” Lu Xihe’s voice trembled with tears. His arms around Cheng Yuchuan tightened, then loosened, then tightened again. His lips quivered with emotion, leaving him speechless, only able to repeat, “It’s so good, it’s so good.”

He wanted to let go and look at Cheng Yuchuan’s face, but he was afraid this was all a dream, that if he loosened his grip, Cheng Yuchuan would vanish before his eyes.

Since the apocalypse began, Cheng Yuchuan, who was far away in Q City, had been the first to lose contact. Q City was also the first to fall when the monsters emerged. Lu Xihe had thought he would never see Cheng Yuchuan again in this lifetime. Yet now, after closing and opening his eyes, Cheng Yuchuan had appeared before him as if descending from the heavens.

Overwhelmed with joy, Lu Xihe wept, his tears soaking Cheng Yuchuan’s shoulder. Amidst the elation, he couldn’t help but ask curiously, “How did you find me?”

The world was vast. He wasn’t in the village or any safe zone, and he didn’t even have a communication device on him. Yet Cheng Yuchuan had arrived so perfectly, so timely.

At the question, Cheng Yuchuan’s expression shifted instantly to one of horror, followed by relief. Finally, gazing at the living, breathing Lu Xihe, he smiled, a smile that spoke of hardships endured and sweetness finally attained.

Cheng Yuchuan hugged Lu Xihe back tightly, his voice hoarse as if telling him, yet also comforting himself. “In my previous life, you died right here. I could never forget it. Thankfully… thankfully I made it this time.”

Lu Xihe froze at these words, staring at Cheng Yuchuan in disbelief. Seeing the sincerity in his expression, a sharp pain pierced his heart.

Trembling, he ventured to ask, “Did you… come back through rebirth?”

Monsters descending, abilities awakening, systems binding, nothing seemed too bizarre or unbelievable anymore. This world had long gone mad.

Cheng Yuchuan nodded heavily. In his previous life, he had bound some wretched system that demanded he help the protagonist establish the largest safe zone in the apocalypse.

Only after completing the initial mission could he break away to attend to his own matters. Cheng Yuchuan rushed back to find Lu Xihe as soon as possible, but he arrived a step too late. Lu Xihe had already been bitten by an aberrant, and Cheng Yuchuan could only watch helplessly as Lu Xihe mutated, ultimately dying in despair.

But this time, thankfully, he had made it in time. Lu Xihe hadn’t been bitten; he was still alive and well.

Cheng Yuchuan wished he could press Lu Xihe into his very bones and blood, protecting him forever, safely, and completely, never letting him suffer the slightest harm again.

Seeing Cheng Yuchuan’s fragile, shaken expression of having regained what was lost, Lu Xihe felt his heart ache so intensely he could hardly breathe. He couldn’t imagine how Cheng Yuchuan had managed to carry on alone in his previous life after Lu Xihe’s death.

After losing his mother, brother, and sister, Lu Xihe had thought of giving up countless times. Fortunately, he had met the three siblings of the Zhong family, which gave him a glimmer of faith to keep going.

“It’s alright now, it’s all in the past. This time, I’m alive and well, aren’t I?” Lu Xihe wiped away his tears and rallied himself. “Everything will be fine from now on. With me here, you don’t have to be afraid of anything.”

Cheng Yuchuan buried his face in the crook of Lu Xihe’s neck and murmured a low “Mm.”

Yes, it was all in the past. The ten long, lonely, and agonizing years were over. This was a new life, a life with Lu Xihe.

“By the way, you saved me, but what about the others? There were other people in the vehicle behind me.” Lu Xihe asked urgently, remembering the villagers who had been traveling with him.

“They’re all in the vehicle. I brought everyone back.” Cheng Yuchuan replied.

“That’s good.” Relieved, Lu Xihe finally had a moment to take in their surroundings.

The RV was bright, clean, spacious, and comfortable, a stark contrast to the collapsed buildings and broken order of the post-apocalyptic world.

Listening to the howling wind outside the window, Lu Xihe asked, “Where are we headed now?”

“H City, not far from here. None of them have abilities or systems. R City has regulations, if we ability users don’t stay, they can’t stay either. H City accepts ordinary people, so we have to take them there.” Cheng Yuchuan explained in detail.

Although their RV was large and sturdy, they would need to travel extensively later. Carrying so many survivors would eventually become inconvenient, so they had to find a safe zone to temporarily settle them.

“After we reach H City, let’s go back to Anshan Village and see if there are any other survivors,” Lu Xihe suggested. Even though he had witnessed his mother, brother, and sister being swallowed by the aberrant tide when he left, he still wanted to return and check if they might still be alive.

“Alright.”

After half a day’s drive, the RV arrived at H City. There were 21 survivors left. Cheng Yuchuan handed over 21 low-tier crystal cores to the government and replenished their supplies before the group set off on the journey back to the village.

Apart from Lu Xihe, Cheng Yuchuan, Zhong Hao, and Zhong Yue, two others Lu Xihe didn’t know remained: Qi Jin, a third-tier ocular ability user, and Ning Wanli, a fourth-tier natural ability user.

After settling Zhong Hao and Zhong Yue in a room to rest, Cheng Yuchuan formally introduced the three to each other.

Cheng Yuchuan had met the two on his way back from Q City. However, according to Qi Jin, he and Ning Wanli were following system instructions to help the protagonist complete the post-apocalyptic base-building mission.

Lu Xihe had a rough idea of what this meant. Earlier, when Cheng Yuchuan spoke about his previous life, he mentioned that he had been bound to a system tasked with helping the protagonist build a safe zone. But now, it seemed the protagonist the system referred to had become Cheng Yuchuan.

Did that mean Cheng Yuchuan had known Qi Jin and Ning Wanli in his previous life?

Lu Xihe didn’t ask this question in front of everyone. The fact that Cheng Yuchuan had been reborn was currently known only to him. As for any other information obtained before the rebirth, Cheng Yuchuan had publicly attributed it all to the system’s notifications.

After all, it was the protagonist’s system, knowing things others didn’t was normal. So, Qi Jin had never raised any doubts about it.

Perhaps it was also because the system had clearly stated that his task was to assist the protagonist, Cheng Yuchuan. Many things were simply executed unconditionally by Qi Jin upon Cheng Yuchuan’s orders.

It felt a bit like the dynamic between a prince and his guard in ancient times. Could it be that the era these systems originated from was several centuries behind their current time?

Lu Xihe couldn’t figure it out. He didn’t have a system and could only speculate based on their descriptions.

However, when he and Cheng Yuchuan were alone together that evening, Cheng Yuchuan cleared up the confusion from earlier in the day.

In his previous life, Cheng Yuchuan had never encountered Qi Jin or Ning Wanli. Perhaps the rebirth had altered the original trajectory of this small world’s development, as many things were different in this life.

The most obvious change was that this time, Cheng Yuchuan had saved him in time.

When Lu Xihe heard Cheng Yuchuan say he was a Level 5 all-round ability user, envy surged through him like a river of tears.

Having the protagonist’s system, being a Level 5 ability user, and an all-rounder at that, wasn’t this stacking all the buffs to the max?

How could the gap between people be so vast?

Lu Xihe felt utterly defeated. Emotionally, he was just a cannon fodder, a hindrance to the protagonist’s path to glory and godhood.

Wait, no, he had been pure cannon fodder in his previous life. It was only because Cheng Yuchuan arrived in time this time that he hadn’t died. Otherwise, he would have been game over long ago.

He was numb. Lu Xihe was so jealous it made his teeth itch. Right now, he just wanted to bite Cheng Yuchuan. It was so unfair, this world was just too unfair.

Thinking this, Lu Xihe acted on it. He grabbed Cheng Yuchuan’s arm and took a bite, leaving a bright red tooth mark.

So what if he was the darling of the heavens? He was still at Lu Xihe’s mercy, doing whatever Lu Xihe told him to do. Lu Xihe was the ancestor of this world’s protagonist!

Hahahahaha…

“I’m tired, Xiao Chuan. Come over and give me a back rub.” Lu Xihe flipped over and lay face down, ordering Cheng Yuchuan to serve him with an air of entitlement.

Watching the person in front of him act spoiled like the young master he always was, Cheng Yuchuan’s heart rippled with countless waves of emotion.

This was his Xihe, the Lu Xihe he had cherished and indulged since childhood.

Enjoying his boyfriend’s attentive massage, Lu Xihe felt so comfortable that his entire body seemed to melt.

With Cheng Yuchuan as his powerful boyfriend, wouldn’t he be able to strut through this apocalypse?

Good heavens, this was what it truly meant to live a life of ease.

Among the six people in the vehicle, three were high-level ability users. Even if they encountered high-level aberrant, they had nothing to fear. There was no need to find a place to stop and hide from aberrant at night.

Cheng Yuchuan’s RV was a new model specifically developed during the apocalypse to defend against aberrant. It was fully self-driving and even had a survivor detection function.

The only drawback was that it couldn’t withstand attacks from mid-level or higher aberrant. So, Cheng Yuchuan, Qi Jin, and Ning Wanli took turns on watch. If they spotted mid- or high-level aberrant, they had to deal with them in advance.

However, mid- and high-level aberrant usually appeared leading hordes of lower-level ones and rarely acted alone. They just needed to eliminate the mid- and high-level aberrant before the horde arrived, and then they could simply drive through the rest.

After traveling nonstop for two days, aside from two stops for refueling, this was the first time the RV had stopped because it detected survivors.

Cheng Yuchuan had Lu Xihe and the two little ones hide safely in the room while he, Qi Jin, and Ning Wanli went down to rescue the survivors. Lu Xihe had initially intended to obediently stay in the car, but that changed when he looked through the window and recognized the faces of the survivors outside.

They were unmistakably the same group from the driver’s compartment earlier.

Now, they looked far more pitiful than the arrogant and domineering figures they had been in the driver’s compartment.

“I’m going down too. These bastards bullied me earlier and threw me into the tide of aberrant.” Lu Xihe said, rolling up his sleeves and cracking his knuckles with a ferocious, almost predatory expression.

“They threw you into the tide of aberrant?” Cheng Yuchuan’s expression instantly turned serious, his voice tinged with anger.

“Ahem… yes.” Lu Xihe replied with a straight face.

Even though he had jumped in himself, it was only because these people had tried to devour him, forcing him to take the leap. So, in a way, wasn’t it as good as them throwing him in?

A murderous glint flashed in Cheng Yuchuan’s eyes as he gathered a sphere of purple lightning energy in his hand, raising it to strike the group. Lu Xihe quickly stopped him.

“They all bear bite marks from aberrant. It wouldn’t count as killing humans,” Cheng Yuchuan said coldly.

“It’s not that I’m stopping you from killing them,” Lu Xihe said, a wicked smile curling at the corner of his mouth. He grabbed a fruit knife from the table and leaped toward the group. “I just want to deal with them myself.”