“Uncle Song, if you treat us to beef jerky, we’ll help you drive away that annoying woman!” Mo Tiancheng leaned over to Xu Song’s other side and said something that made Xu Song almost spit out blood.
“No, I can’t. There’s only one bag left, and we can’t eat it today!” Besides, he knows that Yue Zheng is talking to that woman to get closer to her. There shouldn’t be any other meaning… there shouldn’t be, right?
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Suddenly, the sound of knocking on the door made Xu Song breathe a sigh of relief. He stood up and walked towards the front door, asking, “Who is it?”
“It’s me, have you guys woken up?” Luo Wen’an’s voice comes in.
“Hey, where were you guys yesterday? We knocked on the door twice, but no one was inside.” Xu Song opened the door and asked.
“Hehe, we were so tired. We slept from yesterday until this morning!” Luo Wen’an proudly walked into the room.
“We were planning to go out for a stroll today. Did you guys go out yesterday?… Ah, there’s a guest?” Su Daji looked into the room and saw Qian Yu sitting by the window.
“Ah, she is… a friend brother Yue knew before.”
“Ah? Oh? Oh~” The two heads lean together, smiling mischievously at Xu Song. One of them nudged him with his arm and whispered, lowering his voice, “Love rival, huh? Do you want us to help drive her away?”
“That’s right, we don’t charge much for appearances, just a meal will do.”
Xu Song ignored them and rolled his eyes. “Where’s Liu Shishi?”
“She went to take a shower first. Are there any plans for the day?”
Seeing that there’s an outsider here with Yue Zheng, Qian Yu didn’t want to stay any longer, especially since she has work to do today and needs to return to the research institute soon.
She got up and smiled at Yue Zheng, “I’ll be heading back now. My phone number is in your phone. Let’s contact each other later.”
Yue Zheng walked her to the door, passing by Luo Wen’an and Su Daji. Qian Yu nodded politely to them.
After seeing her off, Yue Zheng returned.
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.
Luo Wen’an and Su Daji immediately positioned themselves on either side, and Su Daji said, “Yue Zheng, you can’t just abandon the old for the new. Don’t forget about your old flame when you have a new person.”
“Ktja’r gluta, atja’r gluta. Qtja’r kgbcu klat yflcu tfafgbrfzeji? Obbx ja We Vbcu. Lf’r gjlrfv mtlivgfc jii ys tlwrfio. Prc’a atja vloolmeia? Tbe mjc’a jyjcvbc sbeg biv klof jcv ifa atf wlragfrr ajxf bnfg!” Ve Gjpl mifcmtfr tlr olra.
“Lfs, tfs, ktb rjlv yflcu tfafgbrfzeji lr yjv? Tbe’gf pera rlcuif!”
“I’m temporarily single, but I’ll definitely have someone in the future!”
As they continue talking, they start arguing again. Yue Zheng chuckled and shook his head, walking towards the room. “No, no.”
“Hmm? No? What do you mean no?” The two of them don’t immediately catch on.
“Where are you guys planning to go later?”
“We? We’re going to take a shower first.”
“We went yesterday.” The public baths here are not cheap, and not everyone can afford to go every day.
Xu Song looked at Yue Zheng. “What are you planning to do today?”
“I’m going to the market. I heard that some mutated plants have been confirmed to be edible. I’ll bring some things that might come in handy.” Yue Zheng took a backpack and emptied it of its contents, filling it with things that might be useful.
Professor Qian is currently working at the research institute and should have more detailed information, but it’s not convenient to ask her right now.
Another point is what that woman is thinking, and he can naturally see that. If yesterday could still be considered her being overly excited to see an old friend after a long time, then today her behavior is very obvious.
He’s not interested in her, but she hasn’t made it explicit, so he can’t directly refuse her. Besides, he also wants to go to the northern district, and for now, he can only ask her for help with that. Of course, if it doesn’t work out, he won’t force it. He only plans to stay here for a week, and if he can’t get in, then so be it. He has no intention of using his looks to deceive anyone.
After hearing Xu Song’s and Yue Zheng’s arrangements, Luo Wen’an and Su Daji decide to go their separate ways. They will go to the public baths, and they can discuss things later in the evening.
With the backpack on his back, Xu Song took out Xiao Shu and transformed it back to its original form. Although the room is not spacious enough, this peculiar tree can bend, so it can barely fit inside.
Indeed, after Xiao Shu consumed the purple mushrooms, its size increased significantly. The remaining luggage and packages can all be stuffed into the tree hollow. After everything is packed, there still seems to be some room left in the hollow.
After Xiao Shu shrank again, the group set out, locked the door and left behind an empty room, not worried about someone breaking in to steal.
Passing by the room of Luo Wen’an and Su Daji on the third floor, it’s silent inside, and they must have already left.
The two adults, accompanied by their two children, wandered around the shelter once again.
Some shops in the city were still open, selling various pre-mutation items such as rice, noodles, vacuum-sealed food, snacks, and biscuits. Some of these items were purchased at a low price by the shop owners, while others were collected by people who ventured outside the city and sold them here.
Other shops sold fruits and meat from mutated plants and animals that people gathered outside.
The pre-mutation food items were not scrutinized, but any post-mutation animals or plants for sale had to undergo inspection and testing by the authorities to ensure their safety before they could be consumed.
Most of the items being sold now had gone through the inspection process. There were also untested items available, which were cheaper. These were secretly brought in by people who went hunting outside the city.
Curiously, Xu Song examined the fruits and tubers of these mutated plants. Although their original appearances couldn’t be seen now, some of them seemed familiar: “What do these have to do with potatoes from before?”
The shop owner yawned, “They are indeed potatoes from before, mutated potatoes.”
“What about the taste? Any difference?”
“Why don’t you buy them and try for yourself?”
The market for these mutated food items was not thriving. The ones that looked similar to before, just larger in size, were easier to accept. However, the majority of plants had strange appearances, and even if the researchers claimed they were harmless, people were reluctant to try them when they could still find pre-mutation food.
Only those who couldn’t bear their hunger would resort to eating them.
“It’s a pity that we can’t see the original form of these plants…” Xu Song sighed. If he couldn’t see the leaves and branches of the tuberous plants buried in the soil, he couldn’t identify them. However, some plants with visible fruits were easy to recognize.
“It’s alright. The journey up north is long, and we can study them along the way.” Surviving on meat from hunting alone was not sustainable for humans. They still needed starch and various vitamins. Yue Zheng’s backpack carried some biscuits and compressed food for bartering, intending to exchange them for vegetables and seasonings.
Although the hollow in Xiao Shu contained VC tablets and vacuum-sealed vegetables, they were far from sufficient. Especially now that the two adults were accompanied by two growing children.
As Qian Yu once said, the children were still growing and couldn’t be neglected. Although her intention was for Yue Zheng to take the children to live in the northern district, where living conditions would be better, in Yue Zheng’s understanding, it meant that the children needed nutrition, so he had to work harder to create a better living environment for the twins and Xu Song.
Life was indeed tough now, but after more than a month of running around, Yue Zheng vaguely felt that with his and Xu Song’s abilities, along with the potential within their bodies, they could adapt to this changed world by tapping into their hidden potential.
The reason they felt the outside world was dangerous was mainly due to their lack of understanding of the mutated creatures, which made it difficult to avoid risks.
They spent the whole day exploring outside, and it wasn’t until nightfall that they returned to their living quarters. They found a restaurant at noon and used a few pieces of collected clothing to pay for a meal. The food was made from mutated animals and plants, combined with pre-mutation seasonings, and the taste was surprisingly good.
As they passed the third floor, they casually knocked on Luo Wen’an’s room door.
“They’re not here again?” Xu Song chuckled and looked back at Yue Zheng. “They’re probably still eating out, right?”
“Yeah, let’s go back first.” Yue Zheng rubbed his head and nodded. Mo Tiancheng, who had fallen asleep long ago, was the first to walk up the stairs.
The two returned to their room, prepared the beds, and put the twins down. Xiao Shu, who had secretly “eaten” on the dirt outside, grew bigger again and stood by the bed. Just as Yue Zheng and Xu Song lay down on the other bed, they heard hurried footsteps outside the door, followed by urgent knocking.
Xu Song had just leaned against Yue Zheng, feigning innocence, when the knocking made him break out in a cold sweat, he was feeling guilty.
“Who is it?” Yue Zheng, who was sleeping on the outer side, got up and put on his shoes.
“It’s me! Open the door!” Su Tanji’s anxious voice came through.
“What’s wrong? Is something the matter?”
The door hadn’t been opened yet, but Su Tanji urgently asked, “Have you seen Shishi today?!”
“Liu Shishi? No?” Xu Song also sat up. The room was dark, and they couldn’t see Su Tanji’s face, but they could tell he was extremely anxious from his voice.
“What’s going on? Is she missing?” Yue Zheng supported him as he almost collapsed. In the room, Xu Song turned on the flashlight and also got off the bed.
“She’s gone! I don’t know where she went!” Su Tanji almost slumped to the ground, his voice filled with disappointment.
“What happened? Sit down and tell us slowly.” Yue Zheng let him inside, and the quick-witted Xiao Shu shrank and hid under the bed before someone knocked on the door. The twins, who had been awakened by Su Tanji’s commotion, rubbed their eyes, saw that nothing was wrong, and cuddled together to continue sleeping.
Sitting on the bed of Yue Zheng and Xu Song, Su Tanji rubbed his face and let out a sigh. “After we left your place in the morning, Luo Wen’an and I went straight to the public bathhouse. When we finished bathing and came out, Shishi wasn’t waiting at the entrance as we had agreed, we had decided to meet at the stone bench near the bathhouse entrance after we finished bathing.”
“We thought maybe she was taking a long time to wash up, so we waited for over half an hour, but she still didn’t show up. We asked the bathhouse staff if they had seen her, but they couldn’t remember if anyone wearing Liu Shishi’s clothes had come in the morning. We asked them to search the women’s bathhouse, but they didn’t find her either. Luo Wen’an is still outside, looking around!”
Not good… Thanks for the update ❤️❤️❤️
Hoping she was not captured by that crazy scientist.
They should hurry and find her
Thanks for the chapter
The author made us drop our guard before hitting us with the angst!! That’s vicious 😂 I thought all three of them would disappear at once, or none of them would…
Thank you for the update!
Hope it’s not that weird doctor and it’s team’s doing! 🤞😓