novelraw Chapter 275 - 264: An Extra Flavor
Chapter 275 - 264: An Extra Flavor
"What?" 039’s grip on his chopsticks tightened slightly as he looked up at Gu Xi.
The dancing firelight reflected in his eyes, which held a perfectly crafted look of confusion.
Gu Xi slowly chewed the greens in her mouth. She tapped one end of her chopsticks toward the poster over there and repeated her earlier question, "Why did they choose you?"
"Miss Gu..."
Gu Xi had already looked away, her head slightly lowered as she sipped the chicken soup in her bowl. The firelight flickered, and he couldn’t make out the expression in her eyes.
The man took a quiet, deep breath, frowning slightly. "I don’t understand..."
"Then I’ll be more direct."
Gu Xi continued to sip her soup with her head lowered. A log in the fire suddenly popped, and as the flames flickered, half her face was plunged into shadow. Her tone, however, was surprisingly calm, even cold.
"I’m guessing you specifically chose the identity of a celebrity because of his fame..."
When the apocalypse suddenly broke out all those years ago, human civilization was destroyed and collapsed overnight.
The world was forced to reshuffle, and many people and things from the past were quickly annihilated by the zombie virus.
Even now that order has been re-established, many people and events from the past are untraceable.
The only exceptions were a few people and events that had enormous fame and influence before the apocalypse. A top celebrity from that time would clearly be one of them.
’Choosing such an identity was probably their "thoughtful" way of helping me investigate my own origins, reducing potential obstacles and providing more supporting evidence.’
After all, it had only been sixty years since the apocalypse. If any of the young fans from back then were still alive, they would only be in their eighties now. At that age, even an ordinary person might still remember a few things from those days.
The pre-apocalyptic world was, after all, something everyone longed for.
And if they were an ability user, it would be even less of an issue. For an ability user, eighty is just middle age.
But there were so many top celebrities back then. Why did they specifically choose the one on the poster?
Gu Xi set down her bowl and chopsticks, looking up at the man across from her. Her gaze was calm and deep.
"Can you tell me why?" she asked softly, her gaze shifting to the dancing flames nearby, her expression unreadable.
Things had reached this point; there was no need to play dumb anymore.
The man had been selected from numerous candidates. If nothing else, he had a unique talent for reading people and discerning their thoughts.
He was silent for a moment.
Then he picked up a piece of pickled pepper chicken gizzards with his chopsticks and savored it.
"Miss Gu." The man slowly savored the sour and spicy flavor. Given his current physical condition and the persona he was meant to project, he shouldn’t have been eating something so spicy. But since Gu Xi had already seen through him, there was no need to keep up the act.
’Besides, after so many years, he was finally tasting real food again. This might be his only chance, so of course he had to cherish it and indulge himself.’
The man narrowed his eyes slightly and let out a sigh of contentment.
After a moment, he looked up at Gu Xi. "Naturally, it’s because he had value worth choosing."
Gu Xi nodded calmly. "And that value is related to my origins?"
Li Ming once said that while many things can be faked to look real, some fakes are just fakes. Only the truth has value worth scheming over.
"Correct." The man picked up a piece of braised chicken. He appeared calm, but his eating pace had clearly quickened. "The man on the poster is named Huo Heng. He was a very famous idol back in the day. Miss Gu might want to look him up."
...Huo Heng.
Hearing that name, another one subconsciously surfaced in Gu Xi’s mind.
Huo Zhen.
Her mother’s name.
That year, when Li Ming told her about this, a sixteen-year-old Gu Xi had searched for that name on the base’s internal network but found no relevant information.
’At the time, Gu Xi had just assumed her mother was an ordinary person. She believed she had been chosen—for better or worse—simply because she was born on the day of the apocalypse, making her one of the "apocalypse babies" widely acknowledged to have the greatest combat potential.’
"Aren’t you going to look it up, Miss Gu?" The man’s gaze flickered to Gu Xi’s personal terminal as he once again reached for the pickled pepper chicken gizzards... only to come up empty.
"What is wrong with you?" Zhang Wen moved the large earthenware bowl of pickled pepper chicken gizzards to his side. "Have you no self-awareness?"
"My apologies." The man set down his chopsticks, not the least bit embarrassed. "It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten anything this delicious."
’Who hasn’t?’ Zhang Wen thought. ’Food this good can only be found with Miss Gu. If we weren’t trying to get information out of this guy, we would’ve already...’
In any case, the good stuff shouldn’t go to an outsider. Zhang Wen hugged his bowl and shoveled in a large mouthful of rice.
Just then, Qi Xiang took the large earthenware bowl from him and placed it back in front of the man. "Go on, eat."
The man was a little surprised and froze for a second.
’They’d already laid their cards on the table, yet Qi Xiang was still being so nice to him?’
Qi Xiang watched him with a grin, one eyebrow raised slightly. "If you like it, you can have the whole bowl."
The man looked at her, confused.
Qi Xiang propped her chin on one hand and stared at the pickled pepper chicken gizzards in the bowl, her voice tinged with regret. "Actually, I was about to tell you... I only rinsed those gizzards once. I hadn’t had a chance to clean them properly before you threw them in the pot..."
The man had been secretly salivating over the gizzards, still savoring the taste of the chicken intestines from a moment ago. Now, a different kind of taste suddenly filled his mouth. "..."
For a moment, his hand, holding the chopsticks, froze mid-air. He didn’t know whether to put them down or keep going.
Hearing this, Lin Jin and the others exchanged a look. They stopped looking at the posters and just silently sped up their eating, but without exception, they all avoided the bowl of pickled pepper chicken gizzards.
Wei Heng picked the clearest poster from the pile and walked over to Gu Xi.
He spread the poster open. As the firelight flickered, Gu Xi’s gaze fell on the face of the man in the poster.
No one knew what she was thinking.
After a long moment, she looked up at the man across from her and slowly asked, "Can you tell me about him?"
The sound of ravenous eating all around suddenly vanished, leaving only the CRACKLE of the burning fire.
For some reason, upon hearing her question, the man let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"I can." He pulled the poster away from Wei Heng and took the opportunity to set down his chopsticks. "According to publicly available data from before the apocalypse, Huo Heng’s parents died when he was young, but he had incredible resources after his debut..."
At this point, he looked up at Gu Xi.
There wasn’t the slightest flicker of emotion on Gu Xi’s face. The man froze for a second.
"You know what kind of person is the most annoying?" Qin Yi, sitting next to Gu Xi, suddenly piped up. "People who deliberately tell half a story just to be mysterious."
The man was left speechless.
Qi Xiang nodded in agreement, giving him a meaningful look before tapping her chopsticks toward the bowl of pickled pepper chicken gizzards in front of him.
’It was hard to tell just what she meant by that.’
’The man felt like he understood these people less and less.’
Just then, Gu Xi looked up at him.
In that instant, the man felt himself sinking into her calm, deep eyes, as if something was about to spiral out of his control.
He bit his tongue sharply and quickly lowered his gaze, avoiding her eyes. "Huo Heng was huge—a top-tier celebrity at the time. But not long before the apocalypse, a rumor spread online that he was being kept by a rich woman..."
"And the proof," the man said pointedly, "was a photo of him, smiling broadly, with his arm linked with a pregnant woman’s."
Hearing this, Zhao Li and Liou He subconsciously looked up at Gu Xi.
’That photo...’