From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!-Chapter 144 - 135: Qi Xiang’s Candor

Qi Xiang faltered over to Gu Xi’s side, making aimless small talk.

Gu Xi glanced at her, but Qi Xiang instinctively avoided her gaze.

Gu Xi: ?

Thinking of what happened that morning, she turned her attention back to the Light Screen.

But Qin Yi still hadn’t replied. Gu Xi glanced at the time—it was 1:30 in the morning. ’He’s probably asleep,’ she thought.

Nearby, Shen Yue saw the situation and let out a lazy yawn. "Alright, then. Let’s all wash up and go to sleep. Anything that needs to be said can wait until tomorrow."

With that, he glanced at Qi Xiang and began pulling Wei Heng back to their room.

Wei Heng had been about to say something, but when he followed Shen Yue’s gaze, he saw Qi Xiang. It was obvious from her expression that she wanted to speak to Gu Xi in private.

He shot Gu Xi a hesitant glance, but ultimately allowed Shen Yue to pull him upstairs.

After the two of them left, Gu Xi sighed and looked up at Qi Xiang. "The moon is beautiful tonight. How about we go for a walk?"

Qi Xiang glanced out the window at the inky black sky. Heavy clouds blotted out the stars and moon; it was so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. ’What beautiful moon?’

She fell silent for a moment. For some reason, she was inexplicably reminded of that famous player’s line from the forums...

Any emotion she had felt vanished in an instant. Qi Xiang gave Gu Xi a reproachful look. "Are you *sure* the moon is beautiful tonight?"

Gu Xi: "..." ’Isn’t that just a normal conversation starter?’

The two of them left the Shen Family’s small courtyard and followed a gravel path through the residential area, arriving at a small grove by a lake.

At two in the morning, aside from the occasional soldier patrolling in the distance, the woods were silent—the perfect place for a late-night heart-to-heart.

Just then, a night breeze swept past. Qi Xiang shivered instinctively and pulled her clothes tighter around her.

On some impulse, she looked up at the pitch-black sky, and a line inexplicably popped into her head—’A dark and windy night, a time for murder and arson.’

Qi Xiang quickly shook her head, casting all those chaotic and terrifying thoughts out of her mind!

Just then, Gu Xi, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped and turned to look at her.

The night was thick and dark, but the young woman’s eyes glittered brightly.

Qi Xiang suddenly felt... the atmosphere had become a little too creepy.

It was downright eerie and terrifying.

A shiver ran down Qi Xiang’s spine for no apparent reason.

"Gu Xi..." she began tentatively. "Why did you stop walking?"

"This spot is fine." Gu Xi cut straight to the chase. "Qi Xiang, is there something you want to tell me?" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Qi Xiang hesitated for a moment, but having come this far, she wouldn’t let herself back down now.

"Gu Xi, I do have something I want to tell you..." Qi Xiang took a deep breath, as if to give herself some courage.

Gu Xi watched her quietly, not rushing her.

After a long moment, Qi Xiang began to speak. "I’m an orphan. I was adopted by Dr. Qi when I was five..."

She looked out at the surface of the nearby lake, tucking away a few strands of hair that the night wind had ruffled. She continued slowly,

"My adoptive father was very concerned about my health. He said I had a weak constitution and that the level of ’X’ in my body was a little too high, so I needed to recuperate. He found an old traditional Chinese medicine doctor to prescribe something to regulate my system..."

"I ended up taking those medicines for years..."

"At first, I was very grateful to him. But later, I accidentally discovered that my adoptive father seemed to be secretly hatching a plan, and I, because of my special ability, was a link in that plan."

"And his means of controlling me, it seemed, was the very medicine I had been taking all this time."

At this, she turned back to Gu Xi. "I was fifteen that year. After I guessed the truth, I was terrified. I didn’t want to be used and thrown away like a pawn. So, when no one was looking, I secretly threw out the medicine."

She sighed bitterly. "But I was too naive. That drug... I couldn’t quit."

Qi Xiang closed her eyes, hiding the fierce glint within them. In a deceptively light tone, she said, "Even when I deliberately reduced the dosage, stretching the time between doses as long as I could..."

"But it was useless," she said, opening her eyes and looking calmly into the darkness ahead. "I only lasted for a year before I took the drug of my own volition."

"But I refused to accept it." She looked up at Gu Xi, her eyes shining with an astonishing brightness. "I refused to let my entire life be spent as a pawn in someone else’s hands."

"But I didn’t dare have a complete falling-out with my adoptive father, Dr. Qi..."

Qi Xiang knew that Dr. Qi probably suspected she’d found out. But for their own separate reasons, they both tacitly maintained the facade of a loving father and daughter.

"During that time, I lived every day in terror." Qi Xiang looked up. "Then, I finally thought of a way..."

Gu Xi raised an eyebrow in understanding. "Ye Junhan?"

"Yes," Qi Xiang admitted without hesitation. "He’s famous, powerful, and is recognized as the strongest human of the younger generation. His future is limitless. If I tied myself to him, my adoptive father would have to think twice before trying to do anything to me..."

Gu Xi: "..." ’So that’s how he ended up being used.’

Qi Xiang suddenly looked up and asked Gu Xi, "Xiaoxi, do you think I’m selfish? Dragging an innocent man into this mess just to escape my own fate."

Gu Xi shook her head and answered decisively, "No."

In the darkest years at the beginning of the apocalypse, what sort of filthy, dark, insidious, twisted, and inhuman things *hadn’t* Gu Xi seen?

In this fucked-up age, perversions of human nature were commonplace. There was nothing wrong with a beautiful young woman being a little selfish in order to survive.

It was all for the sake of survival. There’s no shame in that.

’Besides... with a face like Qi Xiang’s, even if something *had* happened with Ye Junhan, it’s not like he would have been the one losing out, right?’

But Qi Xiang only gave a bitter laugh.

She raised a hand to gently stroke her own face. "I thought with a face like this, there wasn’t a man alive I couldn’t win over. But I never imagined..." Her beauty, which had always worked wonders on men, meant nothing to him!

For years, she tried every trick in the book to pester and seduce him, but she never even managed to touch the hem of his clothes.

Gu Xi pictured his cold, impossibly handsome face and fell silent.

But Qi Xiang suddenly said, "Actually, my staying at South City Base back then wasn’t without my adoptive father’s secret encouragement. And that includes coming back this time..."

She looked at Gu Xi, hiding nothing. "Because it’s been almost a year since I last took the drug."

Her body couldn’t hold out any longer. So, on her adoptive father’s instructions, she had to secretly cooperate and persuade Gu Xi to come to the Central Base.

As Qi Xiang said all this, she kept a close eye on Gu Xi, but Gu Xi’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.

She suddenly smiled. "But after I came back this time, I made a new discovery..."

Her expression turned serious. "Yesterday, the moment I got home, I discovered the tonic soup the housekeeper brought had been laced with that drug. I resisted the urge to drink it, but my body has been a wreck... The craving is like an unbearable itch, enough to drive a person mad."

At this, Qi Xiang clenched her fists. She was silent for a moment before continuing:

"But this morning, I don’t know if I ate something bad... but afterwards, I realized that after a bad bout of diarrhea, my body didn’t seem to crave the drug as urgently anymore."

She stared at Gu Xi, her gaze burning with a hidden expectation. ’Gu Xiaoxi, just admit it. It was you, wasn’t it?’

She remembered it clearly. That morning, after her stomach trouble, Gu Xi’s little green sprout had circled her wrist more than once... It clearly knew something.

But she found that the look Gu Xi was giving her was... odd.

Qi Xiang: "...?"