Crossdressing To Survive An Apocalypse

"beep... beep... beep..." his hand watch rang softly, reminding him that it was five in the morning.

Fan Xui took a deep breath and opened his eyes. The sight before him almost took his breath away. Yue was sleeping next to him with his mouth slightly agape. His lashes were trembling softly as well.

He swiftly switched off the alarm.

Yue's lashes went back to its peaceful state.

It had been three days now.... three days since he had been forced to take a bed rest by Qian. Yue tagged along every day, sleeping in with him. Surprisingly his family was not opposed to this new change. They seemed to have come to terms with their relationship.

Zou Yue rolled closer to him, moaning softly.

Fan Xui took him in his arms, hugging him close. The feeling of his soft body on his awakened the fire he had hidden deep inside.

'It's getting difficult to control myself,' he gently kissed his forehead and turned to the small makeshift bedside table. On it was a half-empty water bottle. He simply gulped the water cooling his overheated body.

His eyes focused solely on the bottle with a small frown.

Yesterday he had received a ration of three small bottles but today it had decreased to one per person. This small half a little bottle is likely not enough for a grown man's daily needs.

'The water contamination and soil contamination...' he glanced at Yue who snuggled closer to his body, hugging his waist. 'Looks like my vacation time is over. Let me take look at what this world has come to.'

He removed Yue's arms as gently as possible and got out of bed.

Yue groaned and rolled into the spot he had abandoned, snuggling his face into the dent.

"Gosh... why are you so cute.." he kissed his lips softly. "agh... I have to work now. I can't believe I'm leaving such an inviting lover,"

Fan Xui stood there just looking at Yue for a while before leaving the room. He made sure to leave a note and lock the door from the outside. Yue can, of course, open it from inside but no other intruders can enter from the outside.

'Let's get this over with' with the bottle in hand he went seeking the only person who can help solve this issue.

He did not even have to search for long. The person he was searching for just walked past him with a small plastic bag full of packed food.

"You are up and about so soon," Hary said handing him the bag. "Breakfast, go take some rest. You need it,"

"No, we have even more urgent issues at hand," he shook the empty water bottle. "The water contamination....

"Yue told you huh?" Hary gestured for him to follow. "Things have been tight after the second meteor. Not only are we running low on water, we are also running low on food."

"Yue said that the soil contamination only pertains to the top layer. You can scrape it off, and plant the vegetables and greens,"

Hary just raised a brow. "We did. We have planted the crops. The only problem, the crops usually take a while to mature. Rice six months, wheat, five months... we can grow vegetables but that won't be able to sustain the population in the settlement,"

Fan Xui frowned slightly. They had unknowingly walked over to a room.

Hary opened the door and gestured for him to come inside. Inside was just a simple room with a shelf full of folders and stuff.

"Can I see the report off our food stocks and how much a person is rationed?" Fan Xui walked in and sat on the chair that was offered.

"Sure," he handed him a full file.

Reading through it Fan Xui's frown became even more apparent. "This won't do, if this went on we would not have anything in just about two months. Who has been dealing with the rationing and distribution? The stock of rice is also faulty. See here, it looks like there is corruption in the distribution channels,"

Hary glanced at the report and sighed. "Yeah we caught them. and they have been punished. The rice stock of 2 tons has been reclaimed by the barracks."

"It's still not enough Hary... we have almost 7000 people.... it won't last long.." he lightly tapped the table thinking of a solution.

Hary peculiarly looked at him.

"What is it? Why are you looking at me weirdly?"

"Nothing.... just, you are different." Hary said with a small smile. "so... do you have a way to solve this issue? Because I don't have a fucking clue what to do. I'm running on fumes. I think I'm balding!" he worriedly touched his blond hair.

"oh-kay...." Fan Xui silently thought of it.

Something Yue said a few days ago was still stuck in his mind.

Ability users. Humans developed weird abilities due to the virus. Those abilities vary from destructive to even a space ability user. It sounded magical at first but this was the new reality. He got used to it quickly.

"Is there any way to test for abilities?"

"Yes your friend developed a way to identify abilities. It will take some time but a drop of blood can help determine the ability users," Hary whispered softly.

"Then we should start testing for ability users as soon as we can. I want you to test and segregate the abilities into two classes. The normal and the vital class."

"Normal class will have the defense ability users like fire earth, metal'¦ sort them out so that jobs can be assigned accordingly. Metal users can be of great use on the walls. Earth users too. They can help raise the wall faster and work the fields.

"The vital class will hold all the ability uses that are very useful for our sustainability. Water ability users, plant manipulators... sort them into vital classes,"

Hary frowned at his suggestion. "It would cause panic. The ones with discovered powers might also be in danger."

"Make it seem like you are testing for the virus. As for the ability list, keep it a secret. The ones on the vital ability list should be kept confidential. Hary, arrange for a special force for this. we need to do this as soon as we can. Soon we will run out of water. Before that, we need to find at least a few water ability users and employ them."

Fan Xui closed the file with a small sigh. "This will give Qian and the other researchers to search for a way to purify water,"

A sudden knock on the door brought their conversation to a pause. The door opened and Yue poked his head in. "you are here~"

"Come in," Hary happily welcomed him in. "had your breakfast?"

"No, just woke up." he naturally walked over to Fan Xui and sat on the chair's armrest. "You guys working so early in the morning?"

"hmm..." Fan Xui smiled up at him. "did I wake you up?"

"No, I woke up to pee," he whispered back with a shy smile. "Hary is Tian here? Or did she go back home?"

"Oh, you didn't know? Tian and the other girls are moving to their own house. Your uncle prepared a small house nearby."

"Ah, Tian mentioned it. I forgot it was today. Maybe ill go help them move," he kissed Fan Xui's cheeks. "You guys work okay."

"Wait," Fan Xui held his hand and pulled him onto his lap. "You haven't had your breakfast yet,"

"I'll have it at Tian's place," Yue shyly nuzzled into his embrace.

Looking at them both Hary slightly grimaced. "You both get out of here. This single dog is feeling sad,"

"aw, poor Hary, I'll see if I can match you with someone,"

"Ah no, don't even think about it," Hary just exclaimed with a defeated look. "You go along Fan. Send your boyfriend off and come back. We have much to discuss,"

Fan Xui stood up straight and held out a hand for him.

Yue happily took it; hand in hand they walked out of the room.

"Your sister... she looks like you," he had only met her once. After that, the girl was too busy taking care of the new input of patients. She would drop by now and then but she would not come to his wardroom.

Yue smirked widely. "Right? She looks exactly like me. I was super surprised when I first saw her. Back then she used to frown all the time. I could make out three lasting lines on her forehead all the time. Now she has learned to laugh,"

"Mum's sad though. She wanted time to bond with Tian. But she is moving out so soon. She was whining to dad secretly when they came here,"

"Your dad is not sad?" Fan Xui pulled Yue to the side, avoiding the soldiers walking in the hallway.

"He is sad. He never shows it. But weirdly uncle Wen seemed more saddened that she was leaving our house.... it's super weird you know,"

Fan Xui raised a brow. As far as he knew, Qian's father has not shown much care for anyone. But every time would make time to visit Yue. He would even bring some rare fruits for him to eat.

"It really is weird.. It's like you both are his kids," he casually remarked.

Yue froze. "T-that's not possible... right?"

"Right, that's not possible,"