Chapter 466: Building An Underground City
The earth element ability users worked day and night to excavate the underground and build houses and streets.
With everyone’s contribution, the city was completed in five days.
Luckily, there was Uncle Li’s food and snacks to help everyone replenish their energy once it was depleted. This allowed them to work round the clock, otherwise, no matter how hard they worked, they wouldn’t have been able to complete building a whole underground city in less than a week.
Uncle Li on the other hand was either in the kitchen or at the lab helping those researchers to create the perfect recovery snack.
They had been working round the clock but the ratio was always off.
They found that the strong regenerative ability of that alien was caused by a mutation in its immunity enzymes.
However, since the alien DNA is different from humans, it was challenging to determine how much the human body could take at a time.
Uncle Li knew that they could use Lu Hao to test this but he was now his nephew and he would never use him for experiments.
Besides, they had told everyone that Lu Hao was a member of the Lu family raised outside.
How would they explain him having alien DNA?
So, even though he had this idea, he never mentioned it. But just because he said nothing didn’t mean that no one else thought about it.
One day during dinner, Lu Hao volunteered to experiment on the drug.
"Absolutely not."
Six voices said in unison as soon as he finished talking.
Everyone on that table, including Lu Zhen who usually looked like he didn’t care for much except his wife opposed his suggestion.
Lu Hao was surprised by their reaction.
In fact, even though they gave him a name and took him as family, he always thought that if he ever became something they could use for their benefit, they wouldn’t hesitate since it could guarantee their survival and he was just a half-breed.
However, seeing their reaction, he knew that he had been wrong. These people truly treated him as family and wouldn’t use him or put him in danger for their own benefit.
"Don’t even think about it. You are my son and no son of mine will be turned into a lab rat. If those great minds can’t think of a solution, then let it be." Li Yunjia was very assertive this time.
Even Leng Pan had never seen her so resolute about something before.
"It won’t hurt me. Even if something goes wrong, I have the healing ability, I can heal myself." Lu Hao explained.
"No." This time, it was Lu Zhen who said it.
It was just one word, but it was said with such finality that Lu Hao didn’t know what to say anymore.
"Little Hao, don’t try to be a hero. We will figure something out. Even without you, we will find a way." Uncle Li reassured him when he saw the young man looking like he wanted to argue some more.
"And you cannot let anyone else know about your situation. You are human through and through. Never let your other DNA become common knowledge." Leng Pan added while looking at her brother-in-law seriously.
"I am not saying this because your DNA is shameful or anything, but because you are unique and if some people with I’ll intentions found out, you wouldn’t even know how you die. Don’t underestimate human malice and their thirst for profit. If your existence could profit them, they wouldn’t hesitate to cross swords with us just to capture you. So never, ever say that again." Leng Pan added.
Lu Hao was still adapting to the human world and didn’t know much about the greed of humans.
So, it was paramount to educate him. Otherwise, she was worried that he would do something that could lead to trouble in the future.
The fact that he was willing to volunteer as a lab rat just to help the research for the healing drug succeed showed how naive he still was.
Lu Hao just lacked more knowledge, he wasn’t stupid. So, after getting reprimanded and advised by everyone, he understood the importance of keeping his origin a secret.
He also understood that if he got into trouble, the Lu family would similarly suffer.
Yet, they didn’t seem to care about their situation and only worried about him.
He had to protect this family. He had to protect this warmth he was feeling flowing into his heart at that moment.
"Alright, I won’t do it and I will be careful from now on." Lu Hao finally said.
"That’s good. That’s good." Li Yunjia said with a warm smile.
"Alright, go on and eat." Auntie Li said with a smile as she added a dumbling into Lu Hao’s bowl.
Even though she didn’t speak earlier, this was her way of showing that she cared.
Everyone was surprised by how quiet Lu Tao was. Why was he not jumping around and stopping his second brother from selling himself out?
When they all turned to him, they found him looking straight ahead while frowning.
They realized that he had been listening to gossip outside, which was why he didn’t participate in the pep talk earlier.
"What’s wrong with him now? Why is he frowning so much?" Li Yunjia asked with a frown of her own.
"Let him finish, he will tell us once he is done." Uncle Li said as the family continued to eat.
The last few days, they had been eating the food he cooked recently where eating two dumplings would fill their stomach.
So, today they decided to eat to their heart’s content. Hence, the cooks today were auntie Li and Mother Lu.
Even though their cooking isn’t as delicious as Uncle Li, it was better than many five star chefs before the apocalypse.
So, today everyone ate as if they had been starving for days.
Once Lu Tao came back to his senses, he looked incensed.
"What’s wrong?" Leng Pan was the first to ask.