Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 191: Chapter 188: Now This Feels Right

”We’re going to the Lu Family and demanding they hand him over!” Song Yiguo made his decision instantly.

Chen Xing was right.

The Song Family Army might belong to the Song Family, but a large portion of it was loyal to his father.

Without his father, those men could easily be swayed by the Lu and Li Families.

Regardless of whether the Lu Family or the Li Family was behind this attack on the Song Family, they both wanted General Song dead.

He felt a surge of retroactive fear, sensing his father was in grave danger.

A chill rose from deep within him, leaving him feeling lost.

According to Chen Xing, Yan Junxi had been at the Lu Family Research Institute. That meant the Lu Family was most likely the one who had gone after his father.

However, when they arrived at the Lu Family estate, Lu Bingtian was nowhere to be seen. Only Lu Haoran was present.

”What unfortunate timing. Something came up with my sister’s family, so my father went to Minyang City,” Lu Haoran said, startled by Song Yiguo’s aggressive arrival.

Song Yiguo’s face was as frigid as winter ice as he scrutinized Lu Haoran’s expression. ”Minyang City is at the southernmost tip of the country. When did Lu Yanran run off to someplace so far away?”

He had just seen Lu Yanran half a month ago. ’She left, and I didn’t hear a single word about it? This was definitely premeditated.’

”My sister had a bit of a conflict with Li Sirong not long ago. My father was worried the relationship between our two families would deteriorate, so he sent my sister and her husband’s family to settle in the Minyang City safe zone.” Seeing Song Yiguo radiating hostility and seemingly holding a grudge against the Lu Family, Lu Haoran asked cautiously, ”Is there something you need my father for?”

”You know my father is missing, don’t you?”

Lu Haoran was speechless. ’I did hear something about that.’

”General Song is really missing?” He had thought it was just a rumor.

’But from the look of Song Yiguo, this doesn’t seem to be fake.’

”He disappeared suddenly just over an hour ago. We pulled all the surveillance footage, but the recordings from that time were all corrupted. We can’t find a single clue!”

Lu Haoran frowned. ”But... my father left the safe zone hours ago. This shouldn’t have anything to do with the Lu Family!”

Just then, Chen Xing, who had been standing in the back, stepped forward. ”There’s a passage under the bed in Cao Guangrong’s spare bedroom that leads to an underground Research Institute. I went inside and saw Yan Junxi imprisoned there. We happened to find and rescue him while he was being transferred. Are you telling me that Research Institute doesn’t belong to your Lu Family?”

Lu Haoran started to panic. ”The Research Institute is ours, yes, but...” ’How did I not know the missing Yan Junxi was being held there? And... you can get in and out through Cao Guangrong’s house?’

”If the Lu Family has nothing to hide, will you let us into the Research Institute to take a look?” ’That Research Institute must have another entrance,’ Chen Xing thought.

After she returned to Cao Guangrong’s house, she had checked the passage to the underground Research Institute; it was still sealed shut.

There had to be another way in and out.

Song Yiguo had clearly lost his patience. He said forcefully, ”If you won’t let us look, don’t blame me for what happens next!”

With that, he ignored Lu Haoran and started leading his men toward the Lu Family Research Institute on his own.

He felt helpless and afraid; only a show of force could make him feel fearless.

Lu Haoran immediately ordered someone to lead the way, lest Song Yiguo do something reckless.

He himself stayed behind to contact Lu Bingtian.

Song Yiguo and his group were led into the Research Institute. The entrance was located inside a side chamber off the Lu Family’s banquet hall.

Instead of stairs, an elevator took them down from there.

When they reached the bottom and stepped out of the elevator, they were met with pitch darkness.

The guide, his face a mask of terror, refused to go any further. ”The power is out down here. If Young Master Song still wants to proceed, you’re on your own!”

He didn’t dare to enter.

After the power went out, several groups had gone in to investigate, but none had come back out.

Seeing the guide was too terrified to go on, Song Yiguo had no choice but to leave one man behind to guard the elevator.

He then led Chen Xing and the rest of his men into the darkness.

Vice General Du and a few others had flashlights, warily scanning their surroundings.

Chen Xing thought of the mutated octopus-like monsters from before.

’Seeing how terrified the guide was, could this place have been overrun by them?’

After passing through two small corridors, they reached the room that had been filled with hallucinations.

The room was now pitch-black and so empty they could see straight to the door on the opposite side.

They opened it and went inside. It was also empty, containing only a few broken beds.

After searching in a wide loop and returning to the elevator, they hadn’t seen a single person or monster.

Disappointed, Song Yiguo could only step back into the elevator.

’If I can’t find my father, what will happen to the Song Family?’

Chen Xing felt something was wrong.

’The rooms just now seemed similar to the ones I was in before, but some parts were definitely different.’

’Especially those glass-walled rooms...’

’I remember there was a vent in the corner of the room where I encountered the zombie dogs, but I didn’t see it on our sweep just now.’

’That means there’s another area we haven’t reached!’

She stopped Song Yiguo. ”Wait! There must be an area we missed!”

Without waiting for his reaction, she turned and went back into the Research Institute.

This time, she searched meticulously, not overlooking any possibility.

Sure enough, in a corner of the third room, she found a hidden door.

The door was the same color as the wall; it was impossible to spot without a close inspection.

The group entered through the hidden doorway.

’This feels right!’

”There should be monsters past this section. Be careful,” Chen Xing warned.

Vice General Du was the first to go. The instant he opened the door, the sight nearly scared the breath out of him.

Inside a series of glass-walled rooms, countless tentacles were writhing.

At the sound, the tentacles all swiveled in unison toward the doorway.

Vice General Du slammed the door shut almost the same instant he opened it.

Even though the door was only open for a second, Chen Xing still saw General Song’s contorted face on a bed amidst the mass of tentacles.

”General Song is in there!” Chen Xing’s tone was grim.

’With so many monsters in there, General Song is probably either dead or has turned into one of them by now.’

Hearing that General Song was inside, Vice General Du threw the door open again and was the first to attack.

When Song Yiguo heard his father was in that den of monsters, his heart twisted in agony.

”Stay away from the monsters’ heads! They spit a corrosive liquid!” Chen Xing shouted, following close behind.

’I have some experience dealing with these things.’

She directed her electrical currents into areas clear of the Song Family Army’s soldiers, and soon, what looked like withered branches began to fall.

Seeing how effective the electricity was against the monsters, Vice General Du immediately ordered the Superpower Users with the Thunder Ability to come forward and start clearing them out.

Song Yiguo rushed straight for the glass room where General Song was trapped.

Inside the glass room, long tentacles thrashed about, seemingly feeding on something with frenzied energy.

As he got closer, he saw that General Song looked like a withered husk, a dried-up corpse.

Song Yiguo’s heart sank. In a rage, he smashed the door open.

He fired a shot at the monster sitting cross-legged on the floor.

The bullet pierced the monster’s face but failed to slow it down in the slightest.

The long tentacles tossed General Song aside and shot out in unison toward Song Yiguo.