Li Xingye didn’t know much about orchids, and he was even less familiar with the name Chi Wan had just mentioned.

What mattered to him, as always, was Chi Wan’s mood. It sounded like she really liked this Qingyi Suhe.

Sure enough, the next second, Chi Wan started screaming her head off. "Brother Xingye!! It’s a Qingyi Suhe!! Aaaah!! And... wait, is that a Dragon Robe?! Who am I? Where am I? If I’m dreaming, please don’t wake me up! Is this heaven? No, even heaven couldn’t be better than this..."

Li Xingye stared, transfixed, at Chi Wan’s face, flushed from happiness, and the way she jumped up and down excitedly. A smile crept onto his lips. "Alright, alright. Since you love orchids so much, once I get the flowerbeds set up, I’ll find you more orchid seeds."

Previously, the seeds he had were for plants with higher combat potential. He didn’t even know when he’d gotten these orchid seeds, but thankfully, he hadn’t thrown them away.

"Hehe, it’s not just that I like orchids," Chi Wan said, scratching her head sheepishly. "The main thing is, every petal on these flowers has two words written all over them: ’Very Expensive.’"

Chi Wan’s candor about money only made her seem cuter to Li Xingye. He chuckled. "Then I’ll keep working hard to grow you some more very expensive orchids."

Hearing Li Xingye’s words, Chi Wan’s eyes lit up. "In that case, I can turn the flower room I was working on into a proper greenhouse, dedicated to raising these orchids. When we have visitors, it’ll blow their minds!"

With that, she excitedly left the dimension.

Li Xingye watched her go, always so full of fiery energy. He gave a resigned smile, tidied up the flowerbeds, and left as well.

He had been busy expanding the base recently, and the population had grown significantly.

Fortunately, resources weren’t scarce now. Plus, after Li Xingye took over the Frenzy Base, he made no secret of his ability to procure fresh food. His swift and decisive takedown of the old Frenzy leadership had also given everyone a new appreciation for his strength.

For a time, there were some who wanted to stir up trouble in the shadows, but not many. And after a few were caught and made an example of, those with ulterior motives quieted down. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Instead, numerous other bases wanting to cooperate with him, as well as some unaffiliated Superpower Teams looking to join a base, were lining up at his door.

However, Li Xingye didn’t blindly accept them all. After all, the output from his dimension wasn’t yet enough to support too many survivors.

But the instant food products that Chi Wan had stockpiled for him before came in very handy.

Li Xingye rode this momentum, using supplies like compressed biscuits to trade with surrounding bases and acquire Zombie Crystal Cores.

At the same time, he let out a piece of information: he did indeed have a special food source and would further expand the variety of tradable food items in the future. However, not all bases would qualify. Frenzy would prioritize trading with bases that had a larger number of ordinary survivors and treated them well.

Although it couldn’t completely solve the problem, it could at least temporarily alleviate the survival pressure on some ordinary survivors.

The acquired Crystal Cores were used, on one hand, to expand his dimension, and on the other, they were naturally supplied to Duan Qianyu for developing new Crystal Core-powered devices.

The new Crystal Core Superpower Gun that Duan Qianyu had developed was somewhat underwhelming for superpower users, but it was perfect for ordinary people who wanted to do something for the base or their families. With these weapons, they too could go out to fight zombies and earn Crystal Cores to exchange for points.

With more and more superpower users and ordinary people in the base, the lack of a comprehensive system for rewards, punishments, and compensation was detrimental to long-term development.

So, Li Xingye adopted the points system previously used by Frenzy, and the various departments were gradually becoming more established.

But what excited the ordinary people the most was that they could actually grow food in the Frenzy Base now! Even if it was just things like potatoes and sweet potatoes, it at least gave them a way to exchange labor for points and gave them more hope for the future.

The soil that could be used for farming was, of course, brought out from the dimension by Li Xingye. He had only been experimenting at first, but to his surprise, the soil from his dimension was actually unaffected by the post-apocalyptic environment!

Although the amount of soil he could bring out each day was limited, Li Xingye wasn’t worried. Even if he could bring out an infinite amount, he wouldn’t dare kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. This was good enough.

*

After leaving the dimension, Chi Wan had been waiting for Zhou Huaijin and his grandfather, but she received some uninvited guests first.

"Chi Family girl, look who’s come to find you!" Aunt Li, who had returned, said in a tone that was clearly fishing for credit. "They went to your family’s old homestead. I saw them wandering around and asked, and that’s how I found out they were your relatives..."

Chi Wan frowned and walked out of the house. Weren’t the people coming toward her none other than her own maternal grandfather, grandmother, and uncle?

The three of them were also staring at the house in front of them with astonishment. When their gazes landed on Chi Wan, they secretly exchanged a look.

Chi Wan’s unreliable uncle, Song Yangming, was the first to push open the bamboo gate in the fence and walk in. His sharp eyes caught a glimpse of a huge-screen television through the crack in Chi Wan’s partially closed door. His tone was dripping with sarcasm. "Well now, Mom and Dad and I were so worried you weren’t doing well, so we rushed over here to help improve your lives. But for a bankrupt family, you seem to be living even more comfortably than we are."

Chi Wan closed the door with a blank expression, having no intention of inviting them in.

She looked at Aunt Li, whose expression had stiffened. "Auntie, we have some family business to attend to. We won’t see you out."

How could Aunt Li not see that something was strange about this family’s relationship? ’Why did I have to be so nosy?’ she thought, kicking herself. She could only give an awkward laugh, turn, and head back down the mountain.

Meanwhile, Chi Wan’s grandmother, Qian Cuicui, curled her lip and tried to barge into the house. "Getting more and more impolite. Forgetting to greet us is one thing, but how can you leave your elders standing outside?"

Chi Wan blocked her, not even bothering to put on an act. "This house is built from branches. It’ll collapse if too many people go inside. You should all go to that other house over there."

Qian Cuicui froze. She subconsciously looked up at the house, which was indeed constructed from vines and branches. Suddenly worried it might actually collapse, she hesitated about whether to go in.

Song Yangming, however, acted as if he owned the place. He pulled Chi Wan aside and tried to push the door open. "Mom, don’t listen to her trying to scare you. If the three of them dare to live here, what’s there for us to be afraid of? We just won’t go to the second floor, that’s all.

"Besides," he added, "is the real reason she won’t let us in because she’s afraid we’ll find out that Chi Yuanshan, despite claiming to be bankrupt, has actually hidden a lot of valuables?"

"Yangming is right. If the Chi girl can live here, why can’t we go in?" Song Jianguo, who hadn’t spoken until now, glanced at Chi Wan with the air of a patriarch. "We’re all family. All this scheming will just make us a laughingstock."

Hearing Song Jianguo’s words, Chi Wan almost burst out laughing. "Speaking of scheming, who could possibly be more calculating than my dear uncle here? The moment our family went bankrupt, he wouldn’t even answer my mother’s calls, terrified she’d ask to borrow money. Who’d you hear what from this time that made you come shamelessly knocking on our door?"