Fear of food

Chapter 107 Father's Whereabouts

Chen Qi needed time to digest the candied hawthorn in his body, and the coffee revival also required waiting.

Before that, there really wasn't much he could do.

Why not go out for a walk and see if we can lure out a high-level parasite?

"Get the cookies ready, we'll set off in the next couple of days."

Peanut looked at Chasing Wind and the others and said, "As for you guys, you should stay in Jinghai City and keep farming for high-end food."

After hesitating for a moment, Zhui Feng and the others could only nod in agreement.

Their strength is currently too weak; they can't be of much help and might even hold us back.

"What about me?" Big Pancake asked expectantly. "It's fine if I stay, why don't you take me with you?"

"You?" Peanut shook his head. "You should stay in Jinghai City and see if you can get the fourth high-level food item."

Zhui Feng said mercilessly, "When you don't have your ultimate move, you're no different from a dog. I'd rather bring a police dog than bring you."

"I..." Dabing opened his mouth to refute, but found that he didn't know what to say.

"Captain, have you decided where you want to go?" Chen Qi asked.

Peanut nodded: "It doesn't matter where we go, the main thing is to ensure your safety. I will apply to my superiors to arrange for manpower to escort us all the way. However, if you don't have any other plans, I plan to take Lin Ning to her parents' place along the way."

Chen Qi asked in confusion, "Should we send her away? But won't more parasites come looking for her later?"

“She’s still a child. She should be in school, not fighting alongside us,” Peanut explained. “I will send her to Lukang City. The government will build a safe zone in Lukang City to specifically accommodate disaster victims like Lin Ning, where her safety will be guaranteed.”

“We have already helped her parents find jobs in Lukang City, and the three of them will live there afterward.”

Baozi added from the side, "In addition, the source of pollution in Lin Ning's body has been extracted and is in a small dilapidated house on the back mountain of the village. We have sealed off that place. Biscuit, you can go and eat after you are ready."

"That will probably have to wait until I get back from this trip." Chen Qi paused. "Actually, I'd really like to visit my dad."

Chen Qi felt that something was definitely wrong with his father. So many days had passed, and his father hadn't sent him even a single message, which was obviously abnormal.

He doesn't know when it started, but his father switched to "human-machine mode".

Whenever he messages his father, his father replies, and everything seems normal.

But if Chen Qi doesn't contact him, he will never take the initiative to contact Chen Qi.

However, Chen Qi had confirmed with Baozi that his father's business trip was not in the contaminated area.

So he wanted to go and see for himself to find out about his father's condition.

Peanut nodded: "That's fine, then we can go there after we drop Lin Ning off."

He then instructed Baozi, "Go and locate the location of Biscuit's father's phone, and send someone over to check the situation."
-
That evening, Chen Qi took the initiative to chat with his father for a while.

There was still nothing unusual about the chat content.

Chen Qi also confirmed his father's location again. He said he was still on a business trip in Liangzhou City and that his answer to the question of when he would return home was still just two words: as soon as possible.

Chen Qi's intuition grew stronger, and he became increasingly certain that something must have happened to his father!
The news that Baozi gave the next day further confirmed Chen Qi's guess.

"We couldn't track your father's phone. We checked his identity information usage, and the most recent time was more than 20 days ago, when he checked into a hotel in Liangzhou City, but he checked out after two days."

"His phone's last location data showed that after checking out of his hotel in Liangzhou, he went to Changle City, hundreds of kilometers away, the next day."

"We are currently reviewing surveillance footage from various locations to confirm your father's final whereabouts, but it may take a while before we have any results."

At this point, Baozi's tone turned serious: "You need to be mentally prepared. Half of Changle City is now shrouded in dream pollution."

Chen Qi took a deep breath. Since he was somewhat prepared for this result, it wasn't too hard to accept.

"Chang Le City isn't far from Lu Kang City. Shall we go check it out?"

Chen Qi pondered that if he still couldn't determine his father's whereabouts after arriving in Lukang City, he planned to go to Changle City.

I'll arrange to meet my father beforehand to see if I can bring him back.

Baozi warned, "The Nightmare Clan has a strong sense of territory. If you enter the dream pollution range of Chang Le City, it may deter the parasites that are tracking you."

Chen Qi nodded: "I will pay attention. It seems that the Nightmare Clan is not a monolithic group, and there is obvious competition among them."

Chen Qi had previously heard that the Nightmare Clan was unwilling to upgrade their pollution levels in order to seize territory, and the existence of territorial consciousness further confirmed his guess.

"By the way," Baozi sent a route map to Chen Qi's phone, "the captain has decided to set off tomorrow. This is the route I've planned for you."

Chen Qi opened the package and took a look. This time, he would be traveling by car with Peanut, Mirror, and Lin Ning from Jinghai City to Lugang City. The journey would take a day and a night, with no exits from the highway, only resting at service areas.

Although they had the intention of luring the enemy out of the house, they still wanted to get Lin Ning safely to her destination first, and then slowly lure the enemy in later.
-
9 month 14 day.

Chen Qi got up early in the morning and was ready to go.

Mirror had already parked the car at the entrance of the base and was waiting for them.

Chen Qi arrived at the car, and soon Peanut and Baozi came out, both looking pale.

The two looked as if they had been drained of all their energy; they were listless and could barely open their eyelids.

"What's going on here..." Chen Qi asked with a puzzled expression.

But then they saw fried food vendors walking out from behind the two of them.

The fried food vendor was already injured and in the recovery period. After two days of rest, her complexion did not improve; instead, she looked even weaker.

"No, what did you three do last night?"

"It's all because of you," the fried skewers said irritably. "Processing your wild food is such a hassle, it's drained me dry!"

Baozi handed the plastic bag she was carrying to Chen Qi: "This is some wild food that we processed a second time yesterday. There's not much, so take it with you for now."

Chen Qi suddenly realized that the three of them had been drained of their energy by processing wild food.

He opened the plastic bag and saw two strings of fried mushrooms, two large meat buns, and two peanuts inside.

These are all wild foods that the three of them processed.

Chen Qi already had some understanding of the three people's abilities, so he also had a general idea of ​​the effects of these three foods.

However… Chen Qi asked with some concern, “I wonder if this food will dissipate after we leave the contaminated area?”

He had previously taken wild food out of Jinghai City, but it eventually disappeared.

I wonder if there's any difference between these processed wild foods.

The fried skewers vendor said, "Let's try it first. If we can't take it out, we'll leave it in Jinghai City for now. We can't waste it. The three of us worked so hard to make these things!"

Baozi seemed to remember something and asked, "Do you want to eat along the way? I can change the route so you can stop by another food-contaminated area to eat something."

Unlike other pica eaters, Chen Qi and his companions can eat normal food after leaving the contaminated area, and they can also bring their own special food to eat on the road.

But Chen Qi was the only one who couldn't eat normal food anymore, and he couldn't take wild food with him.

Chen Qi shook his head: "I don't think so. I haven't felt hungry these past two days."

Since eating the candied hawthorn, he has never eaten wild food and has never felt hungry.

This is like being overeaten; he doesn't need to eat any more wild food until he has completely digested the candied hawthorn.

After saying goodbye to Zhui Feng and the others who came to see them off, Chen Qi and his group officially set off. After getting on the highway, they drove away from Jinghai City and out of the food pollution area.

Seeing that the processed wild food in his hand had not dissipated, Chen Qi was delighted. It seemed that the secondary processing had changed the energy properties of the wild food.

Not only him, but Peanut, who was standing next to him, also breathed a sigh of relief and closed his eyes to get a good night's sleep.

Chen Qi asked with some concern, "Captain, do you think the Nightmare Clan will find out if we leave so quietly?"

"They couldn't track us when we were in Jinghai City, so how will they find us now that we're outside of Jinghai City?"

"You're even worried about the Nightmare Clan?" Peanut found it somewhat amusing. "Don't think of the Nightmare Clan as so old-fashioned. They also try to use our advanced technology, such as location tracking, surveillance, and checking your identity information..."

"It's just that we have higher-level permissions, which allows us to impose some restrictions on them. Of course, it's impossible to completely block their access. Give them some more time, and they'll eventually track us down... phew."

As Peanut spoke, he closed his eyes and began to snore softly.

The car was traveling at high speed, and after passing several service areas, Chen Qi suddenly received several messages from Baozi.

Baozi sent several screenshots of the surveillance footage.

On August 25, Chen Qi's father was spotted on the streets of Changle City.

On September 7th, the father was accompanied by a teenager, and the two appeared together in... Jinghai City!

Chen Qi's eyes widened. His father had returned to Jinghai City on September 7th?

"September 7th was the day I ate the jianbing guozi, and it was also the night I escaped from the hospital."

(End of this chapter)