From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!

Chapter 421 - 406: Heredity is Truly a Magical Thing

Gu Xi didn’t actually care about her origins—that sort of thing was utterly useless in the apocalypse.

In the apocalypse, strength reigned supreme.

Everything was about survival.

How many times had she personally witnessed people push their own kin into the jaws of zombies just to survive?

But now, after piecing together her origins from Gu Shen’s words and the information she and Li Ming had previously uncovered, she couldn’t help but marvel—

Genetics really was a strange thing.

But Gu Xi’s marveling was brief. In truth, she had no interest in how that couple had plotted against and used one another all those years ago.

Even if she herself was just a tool in their scheming and manipulation.

After all, they didn’t owe her anything. In fact, they had given her life.

’From that perspective, didn’t I come out ahead?’

And as for that couple, what had they really done wrong?

To put it bluntly, they were just trying to make a better life for themselves.

Her father came from a great, prestigious clan like the Gu Family—vastly wealthy and influential. Although the family patriarch openly doted on him, he was still the youngest son. By the time he joined the company, his older brothers had already long-since solidified their positions.

As the youngest son, born so many years later, if he wanted to inherit the family’s assets, emerge victorious in the dynastic struggle, and become the family’s ultimate leader, he would have to carve his own path to win the patriarch’s unconditional support.

But it’s hard to choose between your own children. They were all his sons. Even if the patriarch favored him for his youth, how much could that favor truly be worth?

What’s more, one could easily imagine that in a great clan like the Gu Family, picking an heir was probably no different from a struggle in a viper’s nest.

So, if her biological father wanted to get ahead, didn’t he have to offer something that would truly move the patriarch?

The Gu Family lacked neither money nor power, so what could possibly move the patriarch the most?

Or, to be more precise, what could possibly give one leverage over an old man who had held a high position of immense power for many years, but was now entering his twilight years?

Health and longevity. The mystical, supernatural powers from legends that humanity has always coveted.

It was no surprise, then, that her biological father set his sights on her biological mother.

As for how he knew her biological mother was in possession of such a wondrous treasure?

It was hard for outsiders to imagine what a prestigious clan with roots as deep as the Gu Family’s might have in its possession.

Li Ming had even suspected that the Gu Family’s long-standing global sponsorship of underprivileged children wasn’t as simple as burnishing their reputation and cultivating loyal talent for the clan.

There was likely more to it than that.

’The more you thought about it... the more terrifying it became.’

Gu Xi sighed.

Her birth may have been the result of a couple’s mutual scheming. The Gu Family may have done many terrible things to her afterward, and they might still be plotting against her now. But to be honest, she couldn’t really say she hated any of them.

At most, she just found them... distasteful.

But that didn’t mean she would tolerate anyone from the Gu Family flaunting themselves in her face.

She wasn’t that patient.

At some point, a fog had begun to form in the forest. It swirled, barely visible, in the night wind, adding an inexplicable chill to the air.

He didn’t know how much time had passed. It could have been a few long minutes or just a few short seconds, but Gu Shen suddenly felt time was stretching on endlessly.

So long, in fact, that he was beginning to find it difficult to breathe.

And yet, in his peripheral vision, he could see that the vine draped around his neck was still hanging there loosely, not choking him in the slightest. Still, he felt his breath catching in his throat.

In that moment, Gu Shen knew with perfect clarity: if he wanted to live, he had to do something.

But it was obvious that his younger cousin, now lost in thought, had no desire to hear any more of his nonsense.

Without absolute certainty of success, he didn’t dare speak rashly—he feared that the moment he opened his mouth, the vine on his neck would effortlessly snuff out his life.

In this moment, time stretched on.

Just before the mountain mist completely enveloped them, the person across from him finally, slowly, looked up.

"Yan Xun. Do you know him?" Gu Xi asked.

The unexpected name made Gu Shen frown slightly. He hadn’t thought Gu Xi would suddenly ask about this person.

But he also knew this might be his only chance.

After quickly running through all the information he had on Yan Xun in his mind, Gu Shen slowly began to speak. "I do know of him."

"He’s part of the Gu Family, but he doesn’t work for me."

Seeing Gu Xi raise an eyebrow, Gu Shen quickly gave her a brief rundown of the power struggles between the various branches of the Gu Family’s main line.

Gu Xi could tell he wasn’t lying, but he was definitely cherry-picking his words.

For example, the "Second Uncle" and "Third Uncle" he’d mentioned...

Gu Xi was growing tired of these machinations and cut him off. "Are you telling me this because you’re hoping I’ll do your dirty work for you?"

Gu Shen fell silent for a moment. Even if he hadn’t been consciously thinking it, he had done so subconsciously.

All one could say was that growing up in such an environment, some things become ingrained in your very bones...

Gu Xi’s gaze fell back to the machete in her hand. Across from her, Gu Shen’s eyes were involuntarily drawn to it as well.

Perhaps in the next moment, that blade would be embedded in his neck.

Yes, *in* his neck, not *at* it.

"So, it was you who funded Mr. Ye’s Starfire Plan back then?" Gu Xi asked another question. "And that batch of Hibernation Chambers was your bait?"

If the Gu Family had known about the Superpower Seed all along, then perhaps their funding of the scientific experiments conducted by Mr. Ye—Ye Junhan’s father—was only nominally about "preserving the spark of humanity for the future."

She and Li Ming had analyzed it before. After the apocalypse began, the Abnormal Ability Research Institute had appeared far too quickly.

It was as if someone had already prepared everything in secret.

The Chen sisters were undoubtedly the pawns the Gu Family pushed into the open. As for Mr. Ye... thinking about it now, he was likely another of the Gu Family’s hidden pieces.

Whether it was an open feint or a secret maneuver, the goal was one and the same—

To obtain some kind of incomparably powerful supernatural force!

But this time, Gu Shen froze.

But he quickly answered honestly, "I really don’t know anything about that." ’When the apocalypse broke out, I was only about ten years old. How could I have been privy to the family’s core secrets?’

「Meanwhile, dozens of miles away」

Yang Chi expanded the Light Screen in front of him to its maximum size and turned it toward the others. "This Gu Shen is interesting."

"He’s managed to make a story that’s seventy percent truth and thirty percent lies sound completely sincere. If we hadn’t already looked into a few things, we’d have a hard time not falling for it."

Qi Xiang lazily raised an eyebrow. Her gaze drifted over to Shen Yue, who was looking down and checking messages on his personal terminal. She noticed his fingers tapping an irregular rhythm against his thigh.

’Heh, I wonder what scheme he’s cooking up now.’

Just then, Shen Yue, who had been leaning lazily against a tree, suddenly looked up. "The old man says that this Gu Shen carries significant weight in the Gu Family, not to be underestimated," he said. "But he’s not someone who can’t be discarded, either..."

Got it.

Yang Chi nodded, then turned and tapped a few times on the Light Screen. "Alright, I’ll let Gu Xi know..."