Chapter 40: Chapter 40: So After All That Fuss, It’s Unrequited Love?

Li Xingye glanced sullenly at Qiangzi. He wanted to say something but didn’t know where to start, so he just turned his head away and went back to staring at the sky.

Qiangzi found Li Xingye’s rare, childish act of playing dumb amusing, yet it also made him want to sigh for some reason.

Only at moments like this could you faintly see that the man who had protected the entire base by himself was, in fact, only twenty years old.

Before, when they were exhausted just trying to survive and couldn’t even get a proper meal, anything else was a luxury.

But now, with a steady food supply, the base was gradually getting back on track, and everyone’s minds were at ease.

Naturally, they had the energy to think about other things.

’What would a twenty-year-old worry about?’ Qiangzi smiled. He had a pretty good idea.

He grinned teasingly. "Brother Xiao Li, what’s wrong? Did you try to offer yourself to the Space God and get rejected?"

Li Xingye hadn’t wanted to deal with Qiangzi, but the man’s words struck a nerve.

"Offer myself? Don’t be ridiculous..." Even Li Xingye’s rebuttal was weak. "She... she lives in a bright, clean place. She has her own friends and family. In the future... she’ll naturally find someone suitable to spend her life with..."

As he spoke, a lump formed in Li Xingye’s throat, and he couldn’t continue.

’Oh, no,’ Qiangzi thought, his smile fading. ’Looking at him now... don’t tell me he’s actually fallen for her?’

But thinking back on what Li Xingye had said before, he could understand why.

After all, for people like them—struggling to survive in the apocalypse, forced to become stained with filth—how could they possibly refuse a girl like the Space God, who seemed to radiate a sense of salvation?

Especially their Brother Xiao Li, a young man who, in his twenty years of life, had never had a normal friendship with a normal girl.

Qiangzi didn’t know the full story between Li Xingye and the Space God, and he didn’t dare make any more jokes. He could only ask cautiously, "So the Space God... what kind of girl is she, really?"

At this, Li Xingye instantly became more talkative. His expression grew hazy with recollection, but a closer look revealed traces of sweetness. "She... has a beautiful voice. It’s very sweet, and she always sounds so full of life, like the sun.

"She just... she likes to act cute. Whenever she does, her voice gets all soft, and it’s impossible to refuse any request she makes. But she never asks for anything unreasonable, even though she knows I could do more for her.

"And even when bad things happen, she’s incredibly strong. I’ve never met a girl like her. It’s like... you could put all the most beautiful things in the world in front of her, but with just one smile from her, they would all pale in comparison..."

Li Xingye was lost in his happy recounting, but the more Qiangzi listened, the more his heart sank. ’It’s over. This time, it’s really over.’

He hadn’t said a single word about the help the Space God provided them; every word was about her as a person. This was much deeper than he’d thought...

Qiangzi looked at Li Xingye, lost in his memories, and felt a pang of pity. The words of caution he’d been about to say suddenly got stuck in his throat.

As if sensing something, Li Xingye turned his head and saw the conflicted expression Qiangzi hadn’t managed to hide in time.

He was abruptly pulled from those beautiful moments and gave a bitter smile. "Don’t worry, Brother Qiang. I get it. I just..."

He just couldn’t help but keep sinking.

’How can someone who has seen the light be content to stay in the darkness?’

At first, he couldn’t quite distinguish where his gratitude and his concern came from. But when he realized how much the mere thought of "Chi Wan getting a boyfriend" upset him, Li Xingye understood with unprecedented clarity.

He stood up and patted Qiangzi’s shoulder. "Don’t worry, I know what’s most important. I’m heading out tomorrow. I’ll go a bit farther this time and clear out the surrounding cities. You guys guard the base. Contact me anytime if something comes up."

Qiangzi stood up too, sighing softly. "Well, about your situation... it’s complicated, but it’s not hopeless. Since her space can connect the two of you, maybe there’s a way for you to cross through it completely one day?"

Unexpectedly, these words filled Li Xingye’s mouth with a bitter taste. "She only sees me as a friend. She has a brighter life ahead of her, and she’ll naturally meet someone who will love and cherish her with all their heart."

’Even if I could cross through the space, would I just have to stand there and watch her run toward her happiness?’

Qiangzi was finally at a loss for words. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

He looked at Li Xingye’s suddenly world-weary back, wanting to say something but holding back. ’After all that, you’re telling me this is just one-sided love?!’

But then he suddenly remembered something Duan Qianyu had said.

He had previously seen that Duan Qianyu seemed to have a deep understanding of various machines, equipment, and even superpowers. So, he had indirectly asked her if it was possible for a spatial passage to appear and connect two different worlds.

To his surprise, Duan Qianyu had said that an extremely strong fluctuation between superpowers could potentially create a spatial rift, thereby connecting two spacetimes.

Qiangzi felt that the root of Li Xingye’s depression, to put it bluntly, was the fact that he and the Space God were not in the same world.

But what if, one day, he really could go over to the Space God’s side?

For so many years, even though Qiangzi had practically watched Li Xingye grow up, and despite being so much older, he had always been the one protected by Li Xingye.

More than anyone, Qiangzi wanted Li Xingye to find happiness.

Even if the path to that happiness was incredibly winding, he and the other guys had to do something to help.

At the very least, they couldn’t let their boss, who was experiencing his first love, lose at the starting line.

*

The next morning, Zhuo Yu rushed off to get the firsthand story for an interview.

When Chi Wan got up, she heard that the village chief had already been taken away.

Pulling out one weed revealed the whole patch. Over the years, besides taking advantage of the gullible Chi Yuanshan, the village chief had done plenty of shady things, both openly and secretly. Some of these involved under-the-table dealings related to Liu Dali and his group.

No wonder he was so determined to protect Liu Dali.

This time, Chi Wan had ripped away his facade. The villagers were in an uproar, but more importantly, Liu Dali’s family and the others who had always been looking to stir up trouble had finally quieted down completely.

After all, their only protector in the village was gone, Liu Dali’s fate of going to jail was sealed, and even the villagers who had originally sided with them were now pointing fingers.

Meanwhile, Chi Wan had quietly established connections in the city.

With one side’s power waning and the other’s growing, Xu Cuifen and the others naturally didn’t dare get on the Chi family’s bad side again.

A few days passed like this. As the villagers considered themselves "reconciled" with the Chi family, some gradually began to tentatively ask Chi Wan and Song Yinghe if their orchard needed any help.

After all, in previous years when the fruit ripened, Liu Dali would hire people from the village to work, and he paid generously.

It was a matter of keeping the wealth within the village, after all.

But to their surprise, Chi Wan flatly refused.