Xu Song felt like he had slept deeply, and when he opened his eyes, his stomach was growling with hunger.
Yue Zheng was also awakened by the restless person in his arms. After opening his eyes, both of them were momentarily stunned before they reacted. They had returned to the base early in the morning, processed some mutated rat skins, and then went straight to bed.
“What time is it?” Yue Zheng’s voice was hoarse and low.
“Let me check… Oh, it’s three o’clock… Is it 3 a.m.?” It seemed like they had slept for a long time.
“Gurgle…”
The person in his arms emitted a rumbling sound from their stomach, making Yue Zheng, who hadn’t fully awakened yet, laugh, “Hungry?”
“Yeah…” Xu Song buried his head in Yue Zheng’s chest, feeling a bit embarrassed.
“I’m hungry too. Let’s go downstairs and find something to eat. Mom should have left us some food.”
The two of them quietly crept down the stairs. The living room was silent, with a faint white light outside the window shining on the curtains.
“Why is it so cold? It’s so bright outside…” Xu Song knelt on the sofa and reached out to pull the curtains, making a swishing sound. Some dazzling white light entered the window. “Is it snowing?!”
Yue Zheng also came over, wrapping his arms around Xu Song’s waist from behind. The temperature inside the room was a bit low.
“Yes, the outside temperature is too low, and even the heating inside the RV isn’t very effective.”
“Ah, I hope Abu won’t freeze!”
“It’s okay, look, he’s wrapped in that big wolf skin.” Yue Zheng pointed outside, and sure enough, in the icy world, Abu was lying comfortably under a large piece of wolf skin, sound asleep.
Xu Song finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Unfortunately, we were a bit late with our rat skins…”
“It’s not too late. Let’s see how the situation is tomorrow. If the temperature drops too much, we can ask the people at the base to help process them into blankets. And we need to process that cotton as soon as possible. This winter is probably going to be much colder than we imagine, so we need to be prepared. If the temperature gets too low, we’ll have to use quilts to insulate the RV and the courtyard.” Yue Zheng frowned.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Do you think, what if we just rented a house?” Xu Song looked at the snow outside, falling like goose feathers all around.
“Yeg rlaejalbc lr ecldef, jcv fnfc lo kf gfca j tberf, P’w jogjlv atf lcreijalbc kbc’a yf ugfja, jcv la klii ralii gfdelgf rfmbcvjgs qgbmfrrlcu. Uier, atf mbra bo gfcalcu j tberf lr tlut, jcv la wjs cba yf qgjmalmji obg er.”
“Qf mjc qgbnlvf beg bkc kjafg, fifmaglmlas, jcv oefi, yea atf qlqfilcfr lc atbrf qgf-yelia tberfr jgf jii rajcvjgvlhfv, ktlmt wjs cba yf ojnbgjyif obg er. Dea lo kf kjca ab gfwbvfi la ab rela beg cffvr, atf mbra kbeiv yf abb tlut jcv cba mbra-foofmalnf.”
Since learning that the S City base had been breached by mutated marine creatures, Yue Zheng had been worried about the security of the base. He was afraid that even if they were willing to spend a lot of money on it, once the base had problems, everything would be lost. It was better to focus their efforts on the RV, which was more practical.
Xu Song nodded, about to say something when his stomach growled again.
“Let’s eat. I’ll check the fridge.”
One of them went to the bathroom for a quick wash while the other heated up the food Mother Xu had prepared in advance. Their movements eventually woke up Mother Xu, who opened the curtain beside the bed. “Up already?”
“Yeah, you can go back to sleep. We’ll eat something and then continue sleeping.”
“Okay, everything’s in the fridge… Why is it so cold outside?”
“It’s snowing.”
“Oh… The road tomorrow is going to be treacherous…” Mother Xu yawned, then went back to sleep.
A mixed stew with rice was just perfect for the winter, packed with high calories. The two of them devoured all the food Mother Xu had left for them without hesitation. Considering the time, they decided it wasn’t suitable to go out just yet. Instead, they opted to return to their bedroom and rest a bit more, waiting for daylight.
“We’ll head to the mission hall later and pick up a meat submission mission directly… Let’s forget about the cotton and stuff, for now, we’ll need them ourselves.”
Yue Zheng nodded absentmindedly, holding Xu Song tightly in his arms.
“When we went yesterday, those people had just decided to start collecting cotton. I’m sure they didn’t finish it yesterday, and they’re probably all still out in the fields. They haven’t returned yet because of the heavy snow,” Xu Song said.
As he spoke, he felt a certain someone’s hand sliding under his clothes along his waistline, moving ambiguously up and down. Xu Song didn’t pay much attention since they were used to being affectionate while sleeping together, and his vigilance was low.
But after a while, that hand became more and more mischievous, following the contours of his waist, moving up and down suggestively.
The rest of Xu Song’s words were blocked by Yue Zheng’s mouth. Their bodies gradually heated up, and Xu Song vaguely realized that they hadn’t had the time or opportunity to be intimate for quite a few days. Today, since they woke up early, maybe…
Xu Song initially thought it was just another healthy and mutually beneficial activity between lovers. However, he didn’t expect that someone with a premeditated plan would take this opportunity to eat him up!
In the early morning, lying in bed with resentment, Xu Song glared at the condom that had been hidden under the pillow by that guy at some point, wondering when it had been placed there. He listened to the voice below shamelessly telling his own mother, “Xiao Song is tired today, so let him rest. I’ll go alone today”
Xu Song was so angry that he almost threw the solar-powered flashlight placed on the bedside down to smash him to death! Damn it! Who was responsible for this?!
With a look of understanding, Mother Xu nodded and patted her son-in-law’s shoulder. “I’ll go with you. On the way back, I’ll take you to find someone who can help us process the cotton and rat skins. Their prices are much more reasonable than the base’s.”
With the two kids’ help, they packed the items quickly. When he tried to sit up, he felt pain in his waist, back, and buttocks… Ouch! He felt like he had been trampled by an elephant!
Lowering his head to look at his shoulders, collarbone, and arms… The bruises were dark blue and purple. If his mother and the two kids saw them, he really wouldn’t want to live anymore!
He pulled the thick quilt over himself and lay down. Forget it, let’s just sleep… Next time, he must not let that person have their way. He had to find a way to counterattack!
Yue Zheng emptied the oil from inside the container truck and added it to the fuel tank of the pickup truck. Xu Song couldn’t get up today… Ahem, he went a little too far this morning, but there was no helping it. After enduring for so long, if he kept enduring, well he couldn’t anymore. Anyway, Xu Song couldn’t get up today, so the car couldn’t be modified for the time being. They had to continue using regular gasoline.
This pickup had a good carrying capacity. Each of those rats weighed almost as much as a pre-apocalyptic pig. Now they were stacked layer by layer at the back of the car, looking quite spectacular.
“Leave two rats behind. When we go to negotiate the price with them later, we can use these as currency,” Mother Xu said to Yue Zheng as she looked at the towering vehicle.
Yue Zheng nodded. He was also worried about carrying so much stuff. What if the car couldn’t handle the weight? Moreover, it was still snowing, and there was already a thick layer on the ground. It would be ridiculous if the car couldn’t move.
“Be good, stay home, and watch the house. Don’t open the door for anyone who comes later. Grandma and Dad both have keys, so you don’t need to open the door, okay?”
Mo Tiancheng and Mo Tianyou both nodded in agreement, indicating their understanding.
While the pickup truck left, the two little ones played in the snow around Abu, having a snowball fight and building snowmen. Xiao Shu swayed with its still-green crown as it frolicked around the yard, creating chaos.
Driving the car out of their own gate, Yue Zheng noticed that the snow outside had already been cleared once, but now, due to the ongoing snowfall, a new layer had accumulated.
“This much snow, we haven’t seen it in many years before the apocalypse,” Mother Xu sighed. “It’s a good thing you both came back early yesterday; otherwise, how would you come back today?”
Yue Zheng smiled and said, “When we went to the cotton fields yesterday, those people had just reached an agreement on distribution and had just started picking cotton. They’re probably still stuck there now because of the snow.”
Mother Xu sighed, “People, they’re all just greedy. At the beginning of the apocalypse, everyone looked out for themselves. Even if a few people encountered each other, they still took care of their own. It was rare to hear about conflicts. Everyone was in a hurry, afraid to stay outside for long. But now, those people have weapons and abilities, and their greed has grown. It’s human nature!”
Yue Zheng silently nodded. Wasn’t it just like that? With this heavy snowfall, they might not even be able to travel, and they had collected so much stuff. How would they get back?
He drove to the entrance of the mission hall, and Yue Zheng got out to pick up the mission. Due to the heavy snow, there were very few people coming here to pick up missions today, but there were more people distributing missions.
After picking up the mission, he headed to the back hall to submit it. When he lifted the waterproof curtain and saw the stacks of rat meat piled together, the staff shivered.
“Quick! Get a few strong people here!”
The supervisor commanded the workers to call the physically enhanced people to help with the heavy lifting. Looking at Yue Zheng, he suddenly realized, “Oh! It’s your team! Look at all this rat meat on your car. Hasn’t it only been two days?”
Yue Zheng smiled and explained, “We went out again the day before yesterday. We turned back midway because of bad weather, but we were blocked by a group of mutant rats on the way back. We had no choice but to fight.”
He didn’t want to tell them that they had specifically gone out for these rats.
The supervisor nodded thoughtfully. “Your firepower is really strong… By the way, with this mission and the rats you brought, you already have enough for three E-rank missions. We’ll record it as three E-rank missions for you, and then you can go to the information hall later to directly upgrade your squad to D-rank.”
He looked at the pile of rats and couldn’t help but smile. “Has it only been two days? You guys are doing great!”
Yue Zheng blinked. Oh, he had forgotten about that? Well, the missions were done too quickly… But he couldn’t blame him. They wanted to earn more points to exchange for weapons and ammunition, not just to upgrade their squad. As for this rat meat… they only took it out because they didn’t want to eat it themselves.
They weighed the rat meat and calculated the points. This time, the points were not as generous as the emergency mission they had taken earlier. When converted, one pound of rat meat was only worth one point.
However, overall, it was still a substantial income.
Afterward, they went to the information hall to upgrade the squad’s rank again. Yue Zheng returned to the car, relieved, under the astonished gaze of the staff.
Ranking up again…hahahaha…. Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦮🦗🦔🐝
Thank you for the chapter!❤️♥️❤️♥️❤️♥️❤️