Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 649 The Apocalyptic Old Lady 18

There is a huge construction site near the western section of the defensive wall.

An expansion is underway here, using the remains of large, collapsed buildings and transported boulders to construct a second line of defense.

Amidst the noise and dust of heavy physical labor, she spotted a figure at a glance.

He was a boy who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen years old, and was exceptionally handsome.

Even with dust and mud on his cheeks, his well-defined features were still visible: long, thick eyelashes, a small, straight nose, thin lips with clear lines, and a chin that hadn't fully developed yet still retained a childlike roundness, but also a stubbornness.

What is particularly striking are his grey-blue eyes, like dusty gemstones—they hold a wariness beyond his years and a deep weariness.

He was excessively thin, wearing ill-fitting, faded old work pants and a badly worn gray pullover with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

He clearly works here.

The boy's supernatural ability was clearly at work: his hands were pressed against a huge block of cement that needed to be moved to a designated location.

The yellowish-brown glow enveloped the lower half of the cement block, making the fragments seem lighter, or rather, making the soil at the bottom more "flowable".

Two sturdy adult workers struggled to push it, and it was clear that his earth-based ability (likely reducing the coefficient of friction or slightly "softening" the soil at the contact surface) greatly reduced the difficulty of moving it.

However, not far from the boy, several superhumans who were clearly hired by the base were not doing heavy physical labor; they were only responsible for guarding and supervising.

One of them was burly and wore a relatively clean combat vest, revealing a pair of muscular arms.

He leaned against a huge rubble of broken wall, a half-smoked homemade cigarette dangling from his mouth, his narrowed eyes brazenly fixed on the boy.

That look was not one of kindness or admiration, but rather an undisguised, savage greed and an insatiable desire for control.

His companion, dressed similarly, let out a low, unpleasant sneer, his gaze frequently lingering on the boy's slender neck and the thin shoulders and back outlined by his sweat-soaked hoodie.

The boy clearly felt the menacing gaze upon him.

After pushing a rock, he quickly withdrew his hand, and the supernatural light disappeared.

He subconsciously pulled up the worn collar of his sweater, trying to cover up more.

He turned his body slightly to avoid the piercing gaze, his movements stiff and wary. His gray-blue eyes were lowered, his long eyelashes casting small shadows beneath them, and his fingers gripped the hem of his clothes tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.

Sweat soaked a few strands of his dark hair at the temples, clinging tightly to his fair but smudged forehead, revealing a vulnerability and silent resistance in the dusty air, as if he had been cornered.

Just then, a commotion broke out at the other end of the construction site!

A homemade handcart (used to transport gravel) tipped over, possibly because the wheels rolled over a pothole or the person pushing it slipped!

Heavy and sharp pieces of gravel crashed to the ground. A thin woman and a little girl of seven or eight years old, who were closest to the car, were caught off guard and engulfed by the falling stones and the dust that rose up!

The woman instinctively tried to pull the girl behind her, but it was too late!

Everything happened so fast!

Most people on the construction site were too busy working to react. The burly superhuman who was lecherously staring at the boy merely frowned, seemingly too lazy to bother with such a trivial matter.

The rubble was about to hit the mother and daughter!

A blurry figure, carrying the distinctive stench of churning earth, moved almost simultaneously with the toppled stones.

call--!

The boy suddenly ducked and lunged forward!

His slender body burst forth with astonishing agility, like an arrow released from a bow, instantly blocking the panicked mother and daughter!

His hands, glowing with a visible yellowish-brown light, slammed heavily onto the ground directly in front of the torrent of rubble about to crash down!

**puff!**

It wasn't a violent explosion, but a dull yet powerful surge!

It was as if the ground had instantly turned into soft mud!

Centered on the point where he struck with both palms, the ground collapsed downwards, forming a fan-shaped "pit" nearly one meter wide. Most of the large pieces of rubble that were most dangerous and hit the mother's head and shoulders were "sunk" into the ground, more than half a foot deep, as if they had been thrown into sticky butter!

The dust he stirred up, like murky yellow smoke, instantly engulfed his thin figure.

The remaining flying debris, having lost its initial kinetic energy, mostly just clattered and crackled as it hit him and the ground, its force greatly reduced. The mother and daughter were stunned by this sudden turn of events; they only staggered back a step but were not seriously injured.

A huge cloud of dust billowed out.

The boy coughed and waved the back of his hand in front of his eyes, trying to disperse the smoke and dust.

Two thin bloody scratches were left on his cheeks by a few small stones, and his work pants were also chafed at the knees.

But after the smoke cleared, those grey-blue eyes looked at the still-shaken mother and daughter, revealing a sense of relief as if they had accomplished their duty, before quickly lowering their gaze again, as if unwilling to attract any more attention.

His conspicuousness, his wariness of the hostile stares around him, and his subconscious retreat to the edge of the crowd after the dust had settled, were like a delicate dagger with a damaged sheath, its sharpness still undeniable.

Yun Chu's cloudy but sharp eyes never left the boy.

From the initial amazement captured, to the suppressed trembling when subjected to the greasy, greedy gaze, and then to the dazzling focus and understated composure that followed the burst of power as he disregarded his own safety and activated his supernatural abilities…

This stark contrast gave this "good-looking" appearance a more interesting and practical luster in Yun Chu's eyes, one that suited her taste better.

A thought re-emerged, as pure and direct as when I saw Jiang Xingyu and Lin Xiaoran's faces, carrying a cold assessment and an indescribable interest:

This... can also be planted nearby.

Yun Chu's cloudy yet sharp gaze, like that of a hawk locking onto its prey, never left the boy with gray-blue eyes.

She watched his arm tremble slightly from overusing his powers, watched him cautiously scan his surroundings during work breaks—especially in the direction of that burly superhuman—and saw the restraint and alertness flashing in his eyes. She also saw the instinctive urge he quickly lowered his eyes after the dust settled, trying to reintegrate himself into the drab crowd.

This "beauty" of struggling between survival pressures and extraordinary abilities, this strange blend of fragility and resilience, is like the only wildflower that hasn't been broken in the ruins, possessing a stubborn vitality. It's more to Yun Chu's liking than a delicate flower in a greenhouse. That pure, purely aesthetic desire to collect it rekindles and spreads in her heart.

Finally, the shrill ringing of the base's alarm bell, signaling the end of the workday, pierced the dusty dusk. The crowd on the construction site surged forth like a receding tide, dispersing wearily toward the temporary shantytown.

The boy also prepared to leave, his small figure blending into the crowd, trying his best to minimize his presence.