After breakfast, Yue Zeng and Xu Song set off for Central Street to assess the situation and decide whether to register a team. They also planned to find out where they could buy solar panels and batteries.
Mother Xu stayed at home, cooking and packing their belongings.
“I checked the rabbit fur, and after another day of drying, we can use it. We can make several large fur cushions and cover them with sheets. It will be warm and cozy in winter. We can also make a rabbit fur coat for each of you, how about that?” Mother Xu suggested.
“Great!” The two children enthusiastically agreed, jumping and running around the car.
“Abu can catch other animals too!” one of the children exclaimed.
“Yes, Abu usually catches big roosters to eat,” as the two little heads leaned in close, their bright eyes fixed on her.
“The fur of big roosters is also useful. The feathers on their chests and under their wings are soft. We can keep them, wash them, and use them as stuffing for pillows. They can also be used to make down jackets.” Mother Xu patted the children’s heads and took out the thawed rabbit meat from the refrigerator.
“Okay! We’ll let Abu bring back more prey next time before we eat!” The two little heads nodded vigorously. Even the small tree nearby shook its leaves in response, and Abu, outside the RV, heard the commotion and gave a proud “woof.”
“Do you want dumplings filled with Chinese cabbage or cabbage?” Mother Xu asked.
The children couldn’t remember what these two types of dumplings tasted like, so they randomly shouted, “Cabbage!”
Within the green leaves, wrapped around an equally substantial green sphere three times the size of a regular cabbage, Mother Xu chuckled, “Can we finish all this in one meal? Never mind, let’s just make half for now.” She realized it had been a while since the four of them had eaten dumplings. They might end up eating a little more today, but they could always freeze the leftovers for later.
As Mother Xu chopped the meat and vegetables, she casually asked the little brothers about their journey. The two children eagerly shared their experiences, recounting everything like exciting adventures.
They were smart, but they couldn’t always discern which details were dangerous and which were safe to share. They told Mother Xu about things that sounded very dangerous to adults, but they presented them as thrilling experiences.
As she listened, Mother Xu sighed. It was a good thing that her chil had supernatural abilities, but as a mother, how could she not worry?
Suddenly, the conversation turned to their sleeping arrangements at night before they had the RV. The four of them used to huddle together for warmth, and Mother Xu’s chopping paused for a moment. “Does Uncle Yue and Uncle Xu Song have a close relationship?”
“Yes,” Mo Tianyou said, then quickly covered his mouth and blinked his big eyes.
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.
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After inquiring at the entrance, they confirmed that only registered teams within the base were eligible to exchange their vehicles for electric or new fuel sources at designated locations, as well as enjoy discounted prices for modifications and the ability to rent or purchase various types of thermal weapons. They also had access to internal information.
After discussing, they decided to register their team first and then assess the situation at the place where they could change the fuel tank and modify the car.
In search of a team name, the two men furrowed their brows and thought for a long time, but in the end, lacking any creative ideas, they simply used their team number, “0246.”
They firmly denied that it was because the number rolled off the tongue easily, or that all the names they came up with had already been taken.
With the registration completed, they held a stack of scattered documents about three centimeters thick and rushed to another window to design their team logo. The logo had various forms, including badges worn on the members’ chests, armbands, vehicle emblems, and dog tags for mutated pets, among others. There was a wide range of options.
Since they had chosen such a “creative” team name, the two men decided to design a logo with a simple and clear design. It would feature a plain tree leaf as the background, with a silver 3D “0246” on the leaf, straightforward and easily recognizable.
After finalizing the emblem design, they were informed that the finished products would be ready for collection the next afternoon.
With their team matters settled, they carefully stored the documents and headed toward the vehicle modification location.
Unlike other places, the vehicle modification area was particularly bustling. Cars lined up outside the large factory, and the two men went inside to inquire. The information counter was close to the modification area, so they asked about the prices and the differences in modification costs between newly formed teams like theirs and teams of different ranks. Afterward, they stood aside and observed the vehicle modifications for a while before leaving the factory.
“Well, how did it go?” Yue Zheng asked in a low voice once they were outside the factory gate.
Xu Song frowned slightly. “Converting to a pure electric system is a bit troublesome. It requires additional equipment to replace the original fuel tank. Switching to the new fuel type is less complicated, with just a few modifications in certain areas that can be easily done with the tools we currently have. But the problem now is, what exactly is this new fuel?”
Yue Zheng also furrowed his brows. “I checked it earlier. It doesn’t have the pungent smell of gasoline, and the color is somewhat different… it reminds me a bit of the cooking oil we used before.”
“Cooking oil? Can cooking oil be used as fuel? That doesn’t seem right. Besides, we can barely grow crops now, so how could we extract oil?”
“What if there are mutated plants that produce it?”
Yue Zheng’s words lit up Xu Song’s eyes. “It’s a pity we can’t see where this new fuel comes from right now…”
“No rush. We won’t be leaving the city until the day after tomorrow. Let’s gather some information first.”
The two men looked at the base map, preparing to study the places they would visit next. Suddenly, Yue Zheng felt something in his pocket move a couple of times. He quickly grabbed it and held it to his ear.
“Daddy, come home for dinner!”
“Grandma made lots of dumplings!”
“They smell so good!”
The voices of the two children came from the small, delicate white bells, bringing a smile to Yue Zheng’s face.
“What’s wrong?” Xu Song asked as Yue Zheng put away the little bell.
“Dinner is ready. They’re calling us home.”
The invitation to come home for dinner was something they hadn’t experienced in a long time. Xu Song couldn’t help but smile, and Yue Zheng’s expression softened as well.
When the two returned home, Mother Xu had just finished cooking the first pot of dumplings. It had been a while since they had eaten such a meal together. Even Abu, sticking his head out of the car window, sniffed the air filled with the delicious aroma.
Seeing the huge dog head, Mother Xu’s eyes glistened with curiosity and anticipation. She smiled and set aside a plate of dumplings to cool down before feeding them to Abu later.
While turning around, Xiao Shu twisted its slender trunk, with two branches holding up its crown, blocking Yue Zheng’s path.
“What… What is it doing?” It’s no wonder Mother Xu couldn’t understand the body language of Xiao Shu. Communicating with different species was quite challenging, especially since the small tree didn’t have eyes like Abu, so it couldn’t look at her with longing eyes.
“Xiao Shu says it wants to eat too!” Mo Tiancheng said, chewing on the dumplings in his mouth while acting as the translator for the tree.
“It… Where does it want to eat?” Mother Xu was astonished. She had seen carnivorous plants, but she had never seen a plant that wanted to eat dumplings! Although she had spent the morning understanding that this tree had the intelligence of a six-year-old child, eating dumplings… that was really testing Mother Xu’s acceptance.
“Mom, save some leftover dumplings for it in that small clay pot over there. It will eat by itself,” Xu Song pointed to a pot placed nearby.
Mother Xu had always thought that the pot, just like the one Mo Tiancheng had used before to grow cherries and vegetables, was used for planting things. But she hadn’t seen him use it before. Now she understood, “This… is its bowl?”
“Brush, brush, brush,” one tree and four people nodded in unison.
Who would have thought that this was a tree with an insatiable curiosity? It always tried to taste new things when humans were eating. Digging a hole and burying food was too troublesome, so Xu Song and the others simply got a plastic pot for it to use as a food bowl.
While shaking her head, Mother Xu turned around and continued cooking dumplings. Five people were going to eat, and two of them were growing boys. The first batch of dumplings that came out of the pot had already dwindled down to just a few.
After lunch, everyone was lying on the sofa, unwilling to move due to feeling too full.
Xu Song, while digesting, slowly turned his brain, which was moving slowly due to being overly full. “Buying solar panels in the city is not cost-effective. We can only get a small piece for a complete mutant beast… Should we go to the city and take a look?”
Yue Zheng pondered for a moment and nodded. “The shops near the outskirts of the city have probably been ransacked by now. We should consider going to relatively deeper markets… In the afternoon, we can go to the information hall and use the computer terminal to search for the renovation city in City B. They should have it there.”
“Yes… and that oil… I wonder if it comes from mutant plants.”
The only one with energy left, Mother Xu, was washing the dishes. Just as she turned off the faucet, she heard the conversation and asked, “What oil?”
“The new energy oil.”
“Oh, that… I know about it.” Mother Xu waved her hand and turned around, only to see her son and Yue Zheng looking at her in unison, full of anticipation. She couldn’t help but laugh.
“That thing is grown in the base’s cultivation field. It’s called oil fruit. They use it for cooking oil and as fuel for new energy sources in the base.”
“Ah?! The same oil for cooking and cars?!” Compared to the fact that his own mother knew this information, it was more surprising to learn about the versatility of this oil fruit.
Trying to cover it up but looks like Mama Xu is aware of their relationship..😁
It’s so peaceful that it scares me🥺 thank you for the chapter!♥️❤️♥️❤️♥️❤️♥️
Oh that’s a good oil 🛢️
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🌳🦔🦗🦮