Chapter 468: New Purpose
"Since we were going to a better place, such things weren’t as important as preparing to leave. I thought it was odd since that pressure cooker was something her mother bought her after our wedding and she cherished it more than anything since it was the most useful thing her mother left for her after her death. Even when she lent it to the neighbor, she had done so unwillingly. It was only because the neighbor had kids and she understood the difficult of raising kids in the apocalypse that she agreed to lend it since it would help save energy and fuel. However, since my wife said she wouldn’t take it anymore, I just thought that it might have been ruined and she didn’t want to take it back. But now that I think about it, even if it had been ruined and a scrap metal remained, with how much my wife cherished it, she would still have taken it back." By their time, the man was crying like a child blaming himself for not noticing earlier that something was wrong with his wife.
If he had noticed, maybe he could have saved her.
"So, that alien has been with you for two days." Lu Tao suddenly spoke.
Everyone in the room turned to look at him and he felt as if he said something wrong but couldn’t tell what.
Seeing that he was only a teenage boy, no one bothered with him anymore.
"You don’t have to beat yourself up. Aliens have the ability to disguise themselves and mimic the people they imitate. It is not your fault." Ouyang Jin tried to comfort the man but that made it worse.
What kind of husband was he if he couldn’t even tell his wife apart from a stranger?
Just as he was wallowing in self-pity, two small heads peeked from the door.
It was his nine-year-old and eight-year-old son and daughter.
"Daddy, it’s not your fault. Mommy wouldn’t want you to be sad." The girl said as she walked in to talk to her father.
They had also noticed that something was different about their mother, but they assumed that it was the stress of moving getting to her.
So, no one said anything. They never expected that she had been replaced.
However, they knew that what was done was done and couldn’t be changed.
All they could do was live well to honor their mother.
The man stiffened when he heard his children speak and he hurriedly wiped away the tears on his s face.
Then he turned and smiled at them, a smile that was uglier than crying yet no one said a thing about it.
"Yes, mommy would want us to live well. Daddy will make sure you live well even in the apocalypse." He said to his children seemingly trying to convince himself.
"Why did you come?" Ouyang Jin suddenly turned to look at Lu Tao, who had been standing at the side.
"Oh! I heard the commotion hear and came to check. It’s the only thing I can do right now anyway." Lu Tao replied melancholicly.
Ouyang Jin couldn’t understand why he looked so dejected when everyone in the Lu family treated him so well.
"Why do you look so dispondent?" He decided to just ask because he hated guessing.
"Oh, nothing much. It’s just that the healing chocolate the researchers and uncle have been researching seems to have hit a wall. I was kind of looking forward to the taste and effect." Lu Tao had seemed as if he was solely focused on listening to gossip during breakfast, but the truth was that he heard everything.
But since he couldn’t help, he refrained from commenting and even pretended not to know.
He knew that his family tried everything to protect him. Even Lu Hao, who had joined the family not long ago was the same. Yet, he didn’t seem to be able to help with anything significant.
The small devices he usually made may seem ingenuine, but he knew that even without them, his brother and sister-in-law could still survive and live well.
He wasn’t even as useful as his second brother.
"So, you are in a bad mood because you won’t be able to taste chocolate with healing ability? How strange." Ouyang Jin didn’t understand how the two formidable commanders ended up with a carefree younger brother.
However, he would also spoil him if he was his little brother.
"Isn’t it a pity? If they manage to make it, don’t you think it would be incredible to have a snack when injured and heal your injuries at the same time?" He thought the idea was quite novel.
"Excuse me, does what you are talking about involve biology?" The man who had finally stopped crying and comforting his children suddenly spoke.
Both Ouyang Jin and Lu Tao seemed to come back to their senses and looked at him in unison.
Seeing how they were scrutinizing him, the man hurried to say, "My wife has had a weak constitution since young and it became worse after giving birth. She also didn’t like to take medicine, so I studied many ways to get her to take medicine without consciously thinking it was medication. So, I came up with different kinds of candy that included the drugs she needed to take without affecting its potency. So, maybe I can help." The man said softly.
If what he learned for his wife could be useful in the base, he would be able to carry on his wife’s legacy and he wouldn’t feel the emptiness of the loss as much.
"Come with me." Without another word, Ouyang Jin took the man and his children and headed towards the building used as an office building.
He knew that they were racing against the clock. If those healing snacks could be made before the locusts arrive, it would be of great help.
They didn’t know how long the disaster would last or whether they would have to leave the underground city and come to the surface to fight zombies or aliens.