Learn to swim, paint a picture, and take a photo.

After returning from Slave Town, Gu Xinzhi has changed a lot.

This change was seen by the onlookers.

One day, Sun Yan had a night ride and when he returned to the town in the morning, he met Ding Gu and his wife, who had come to jog in the morning.

He threw a pack of cigarettes to Gu Xinzhi and got an indifferent "thank you".

Sun Yan froze for a moment, "...... Lieutenant Valley, what did you say?"

Gu Xinzhi looked up, his voice a little flat: "Thank you."

Sun Yan: "......" Who is he thanking? Who's thanking me? For what?

While Sun Yan was making a mess of the code, Gu Xinzhi, with a white towel on his shoulder, ran away after Ding Qiuyun.

Gu Xinzhi listens to Ding Qiuyun and tries to make contact and talk to the children in the town, but almost always fails at first.

The only people willing to talk to him are He Wanwan, who is a new human, and Jing Yiming, who loves to play with Wanwan's sister.

"They are afraid of me, not of Qiuyun, not of his leopard." Gu Xinzhi asked He Wanwan and Jing Yiming, rather perplexed, "Why?"

Jing Yiming hid behind He Wanwan like a small rabbit, cautiously looking at Gu Xinzhi, not daring to speak.

He Wanwan had been brought up by Mr. and Mrs. Ding over the years, and spoke with the serious tone of an elder: "Well, I think maybe you're too serious. You don't like to smile, so smile, like Brother Ding."

Gu Xinzhi frowned slightly, "Is this important? No one smiled at me since I was a kid, it's not a big deal."

He Wanwan touched his shoulder in an old-fashioned way, "You're pathetic, then."

Gu Xinzhi was surprised to be comforted by the little girl and thought carefully about how to react at this moment, so he took out a cigarette from his pocket and gave one to He Wanwan.

Ding Qiuyun happened to see this dirty deal, and they were both sentenced to stand on the wall for five minutes.

Gu Xinzhi is not discouraged.

He was so mobile that he cut dozens of pieces of cardboard into circles and held them up to Chi Xiaochi, briefly explaining his idea.

After hearing his idea, Chi Xiaochi was a bit surprised, but still drew several different sets of cartoons for him, which took nearly a month. The drawings were not particularly detailed, but they were made with care.

Gu Xinzhi took the pictures and went to the little boys playing in the town, sat down next to them, handed out the cards, and succinctly got to the point: "Make pictures, for fun?"

The half-grown kids, mostly used to playing VR games and almost never playing old street games like slapstick or marbles, were quickly taken into the pit by Gu Xinzhi.

In less than half a week, the streets were filled with the snapping of little kids making pictures.

Someone on a bicycle rides through town, and the bell has to ring from east to west, accompanied by the drawn-out cry, "Move over, watch out!"

Chi Xiaochi thinks Gu Xinzhi is not a bad move.

But after two days, he realized something was wrong.

...... As the initiator of the game, Gu Xinzhi is seriously competing with the kids to win or lose.

When Chi Xiaochi took the boss to catch him in the pile of children, a stack of cards had accumulated beside him, and the children he was playing with were in tears, sobbing as they tried their best to play the cards, but they still could not compete with Gu Xinzhi's dexterity in casually lifting up their hands and pressing their wrists.

The scenes and atmosphere are simply poignant to see.

Ding Qiuyun's footsteps are familiar to Gu Xinzhi.

He turned back to him and raised his eyes.

The other man's eyes rolled, signaling him to come out.

Gu Xinzhi slipped the picture into his pocket, stood up, and approached in confusion, "I didn't smoke."

Since the last time Ding Qiuyun gave him an earful about not smoking in front of the kids, he hasn't done it again.

...... He has never cared what the world thinks, but if Ding Qiuyun does, he can learn to pretend to care.

Needless to say, Gu Xinzhi is a good student, loves his marks, and is seriously learning social niceties he never cared about before.

He'd been very disciplined since the last time he'd been angrily docked five points, so he didn't understand Ding Qiuyun's purpose in calling him out until he heard his opponent ask, "How much did you win?"

Gu Xinzhi vaguely understood something and said vaguely, "Not much."

Ding Qiuyun picked up on it directly, "You're a former soldier, and you're fighting with a child's hand strength?"

Gu Xinzhi calmly pleads, "That's because they can't, they don't know the tricks."

Ding Qiuyun didn't want to talk too much to him and spread his hands towards him.

Gu Xinzhi clutched his pants pocket tightly and veered away, "I won this."

At times Gu Xinzhi is frighteningly mature, but at other times he is stubborn and childlike, obsessed with his favorite things.

Ding Qiuyun gazed at him stoically, his flat hand raised upwards, "...... Lieutenant Valley."

Gu Xinzhi is still half inclined, his heart is already cold.

He has a lot of trophies marked Ding Qiuyun. Past, present, and all.

Ding Qiuyun's socks, which he had just bought and had not yet had time to wear; the potato chips that he had left over and forgotten in the corner of the drawer; and the camouflage army jacket that he had put on for his sleeping self. These are the only favors and rays of light in Gu Xinzhi's life that he doesn't want to throw away, so he collects them, takes them out once in a while, puts them in front of him, and just by looking at them, his heart is filled to overflowing.

Now, if he were to return the spoils of war to Ding Qiuyun, he would not be able to do so.

Gu Xinzhi's eyes were disconcertingly lowered for a moment before he held out a glimmer of hope and offered a wish that was simply impossible to fulfill, "I'll give these back to you, and you'll paint me a set."

Ding Qiuyun said, "Yeah."

Gu Xinzhi gave a self-deprecating laugh, and it took a few seconds before he realized what Ding Qiuyun meant.

His eyes widened slightly and he froze for a moment, and before he could even smile, he hurriedly made his request, fearing that Ding Qiuyun would back out: "I want The Little Prince."

"No." Ding Qiuyun's refusal was clear.

"Why?"

Ding Qiuyun smirked, "Lieutenant Gu, don't force me to say something difficult."

Gu Xinzhi then stopped talking, and without even much change in his expression, he obediently pulled out the pile of cards he had accumulated and handed them over to Ding Qiuyun.

But only Chi Xiaochi knew that his remorse value was going up a little bit, all the way from 60 to 65.

Every little ...... subtle difference from the past reminds Gu Xinzhi that they can never go back to the old Ding Qiuyun and Gu Xinzhi.

Chi Xiaochi took the cards, but did not leave or distribute them directly to the children. Instead, she came to the group of children, sat down cross-legged, and joined in the battle: "Whose turn is it?"

A little girl with a short haircut softly said, "It's Brother Valley's turn."

She pulled out a card and peeked at Gu Xinzhi again : "Brother Gu isn't coming to fight anymore?"

Chi Xiaochi said, "He gave me his card. I'm his captain and he's afraid of me."

The children exclaimed in awe, "Ah-"

With that, Chi Xiaochi drew a card with a flourish. The hand was loud enough, but it didn't jolt any of the cards over.

Kids: "......"

Chi Xiaochi: "......"

He responded with a look of embarrassment and the kids burst into laughter.

Chi Xiaochi scratched his scalp and said, slightly unconvinced, "Again."

After ten or so rounds, all the cards in his hand were sensibly lost.

The kids laughed at his weakness, and not only did he take it in stride, but he went along with it with a small expression of embarrassment and defiance, his earlobes reddening a bit.

There was the aroma of a cooked meal coming from within the adjoining house, and the children bounced off into the sunset, carrying their won cards.

Ding Qiuyun patted the cold ashes behind him, got up and walked back to Gu Xinzhi, and asked with a smile, "Do you see how you're going to lose?"

The soft daylight penetrates the fog and envelops Ding Qiuyun.

He asked Gu Xinzhi, who had never admitted defeat to anyone, and not expecting an answer from him, reached out and stroked the head of the black panther, who had been crouching obediently behind the children, and walked off with his boss in the direction of the motorcycle, leaving Gu Xinzhi with a backstory.

Gu Xinzhi was smart enough to understand what Ding Qiuyun meant.

With these kids, learn how to win as well as how to lose.

Even if he can't understand it, he'll learn it well in the coming days.

With that thought, he raised a hand to his chest.

...... He also has three decks hidden in his chest.

Those were a few of his favorites, so he deliberately picked them to keep with him, a rabbit, a carp, and a rose.

There was a rabbit with a rose in his mouth who wanted the fish under the water to accept his heart.

He didn't know how to tell his love, he didn't know how to make the fish accept him, he could only jump around anxiously, even pouncing into the water and making a mess, but the fish still refused to come near him, only swimming around not far away from him.

The rabbit had fretted and suffered, but he gradually realized that the pool seemed quite comfortable to swim in.

It gradually understood why the fish preferred to stay in the water and refused to come ashore with him.

So this rabbit resolved to try to learn to swim so that the fish would see him every day, until one day, he would be willing to take his rose.

In the meantime.

061, who had witnessed what had just happened, cried and laughed.

He can vouch for Chi Xiaochi on a personal level that he's not pretending, he's a real dish.

For the first time in his life, he had seen that a person could walk away with such vigor after losing miserably on the basis of his strength, and even his excuses were so beautifully made that it made him want to pinch Chi Xiaochi's face.

So after jumping on the motorcycle, the panther crouched on Chi Xiaochi's back, gently touching the side of his face with his paw, and discreetly retracting the tip of his paw for fear of hurting him.

The panther's meaty pads were so soft that Chi Xiaochi couldn't resist pulling them over and squeezing them several times, and jerking his spine a few more times.

After a few strokes of the "disobedient" panther, Chi Xiaochi's frustration with his repeated defeats subsided, he put on his helmet and started his motorcycle.

The panther remained crouched behind him, mimicking a human embrace, the force exerted by his arms slowly closing in to embrace the entirety of the man in front of him in a stealthy, yet unusually gentle, motion.

A few days later, Ding Qiuyun's team set out again, still aiming to gather supplies.

Within a strange city, they are surprised to encounter a long-lost man-eating creeper.

It's a good thing they've had experience with it for a long time.

Three well-stored gasoline guns spewed orange-red tongues of fire across the past, forming an extremely dense attack network, the burned creepers couldn't help but emit childish screams, leaving behind a section of charred stumps, fleeing away.

With the obstacles cleared, Chi Xiaochi and his team dared not slacken off and drove half a block to take a break at a 24-hour automated convenience store that had long since emptied.

The freezers in the supermarkets are full of melons and fruits that have lost all their moisture, and some sushi rice balls that have long since become inedible.

As with dealing with monsters, the crew had long since stopped collecting supplies without regard for good or bad as they had done early on.

They lifted the grill out of the truck, took out half a fan of fresh venison and some potatoes, cut it into small pieces with a military knife, sprinkled it with rosemary spice, brushed it with Jing Jie's handmade black pepper sauce, put it on the rack, and lit the grill with saltpeter.

The meat nuzzled and dripped gravy and sauce down the wire rack, gradually giving off a strangely rich flavor.

Before the meat was cooked, Yan Lanlan and a few of his teammates went off to scavenge the supermarket for any other supplies, leaving those left behind with nothing else to do, and began to discuss how to deal with the AIs and the neo-humans.

Chi Xiaochi, after gaining a firm foothold, took the first opportunity to pull out all the AI base stations within a two-hundred-mile radius of the town; otherwise, the AI wouldn't have regarded the town as a thorn in its side and sent new humans to harass it from time to time.

However, Chi Xiaochi established a post system that is extremely militarized, coupled with the sheltering of a group of AIs with goodwill towards humans, as well as the guidance of 061, they established their own AI base station, and the AI-supported new humans are in a situation of separation, and hard to open a piece of extra-legal territory in the post-apocalyptic world.

Even so, people don't dare to relax easily.

AIs may be incorporeal, but they have, after all, manipulated the entire human race at one time or another.

This small piece of town was still too small after all. Even if they now had Shu Wenqing as an ally, it was still not enough.

Chi Xiaochi tends to take Ding Qiuyun's team farther afield in search of other extrajudicial locations.

He knew that there were still a lot of old humans and new humans who wanted peace and quiet stationed in certain places, but because of the closed information, like Robinson on an island, they could only stay where they were, waiting apprehensively and uneasily for the signal of an ally from somewhere.

They are going to unite this group and gradually expand the territory belonging to mankind.

While Chi Xiaochi was mentally talking to himself and unilaterally communicating his vision to Ding Qiuyun, Gu Xinzhi suddenly spoke up, "I have a solution to those AIs."

Gu Xinzhi had never commented on tactical design before, but this time he suddenly spoke up and everyone, including Chi Xiaochi, turned to him.

Gu Xinzhi said, "AI had almost controlled the corners of the world before entering the global winter. However, they have not succeeded in controlling thermal weapons. By all accounts, that town of ours could have been leveled with just a single micro-missile. Team Ting, you know why that is."

Chi Xiaochi muted for a moment.

Ding Qiuyun had been a soldier, he naturally knew.

National and military level weapons are AI-assisted and human-controlled, and are set up with high-precision firewalls so that problems with the AI don't set off a serious chain of problems.

In the aftermath of the Calamity, the AI that had evolved intelligence had attempted to attack the weapons depot, but it was quickly detected by those at the Emergency Warning Agency, and those there immediately chose to cut off all network lines, isolating the possibility of an attack directly on a physical level.

Over the years, there have been neanderthals who have tried to reconnect the disconnected network, never quite making it.

At this point, Chi Xiaochi had already guessed what Gu Xinzhi wanted to say.

He wanted to stop him, but Gu Xinzhi had already continued, "Sun Bin knows a lot about this, so as long as we find a few more relevant technical talents, find a way to resume the use of heavy weapons, occupy the absolute high ground of firepower, and bombard a few Neo-humans' ghettos with heavy bombs or missiles, the Neo-humans will know who they should work with. At that time, it's only a matter of time before they lend them a hand to smash the base station."

There was silence around the room, and Sun Bin, who had been named, was dumbfounded.

After savoring the amount of information contained in this statement, Sun Yan took a breath of cold air, "...... What kind of approach is this?"

Chi Xiaochi rejected his proposal outright: "It's the way. But not the way one should think."

Gu Xinzhi shrugged as if the offer was just a joke he made in passing, "If you don't like it, forget it."

Gu Xinzhi's statement stirred everyone up a bit, until Yan Lanlan ran over holding something up, "Team Ding, look what I found!"

What Yan Lanlan found was indeed a gem.

It was an older style Polaroid and had a power cord, presumably an item left behind by the previous supermarket owner in his hasty escape.

Everyone swept away the stiff atmosphere from earlier and began to engage in idle talk, quickly leaving the matter of entering into a counterattack plan behind.

While they ate, they fully charged the Polaroid with the hand-cranked generator they carried.

After the meal, Yan Lanlan confirmed that there was still photo paper in the Polaroid and said, "Let's get together and take a picture."

Everyone ate and drank enough, and all are young people, naturally born of playfulness, gathered together, combing hair combing hair, and straightening clothes straightening clothes.

They didn't have a support stand, so they put the Polaroid on the table, and everyone chose a half-dozen angles before squatting down in unison.

Ding Qiuyun is naturally in the center.

Gu Xinzhi pushes past the others and crouches down beside him.

Yan Lanlan set a 10-second time-lapse on his camera and immediately rushed back to the group, shouting, "Laugh, everyone," and everyone smiled, but because it had been so long since he'd taken a picture, and because the time-lapse feature made it hard to catch the moment, everyone's laughter was a bit overdramatic.

Only Chi Xiaochi remained superbly camera-ready, with his left hand on his boss's back while his right hand rested on his right knee, using Ding Qiuyun's face with a broad smile.

But he didn't realize that the man to his right, and the Panther to his left, weren't looking at the camera.

Gu Xinzhi tilted his head, his gaze resting on Ding Qiuyun's perfectly curved jawline and the tip of his nose, the corners of his lips lifting uncontrollably.

And the panther opened his gray-blue eyes and gazed warmly at the face of the youth beneath that skin.