Chen Wan was covered in blood, and since they still needed to butcher the cow later, it wasn't convenient for her to step inside just yet.
Qin Ke, who had just assisted her, was also splattered with blood and stood beside Chen Wan.
However, unlike Chen Wan—whose face, hair, and entire right arm were drenched as if soaked in blood—Qin Ke only had it on her clothes and hands, a stark contrast that made the scene feel even more unsettling.
Chen Wan quickly summoned a bottle of mineral water with a thought, opened it, and handed it to Qin Ke, signaling for her to pour some over her.
Qin Ke immediately understood and slowly poured water into Chen Wan's cupped hands.
Chen Wan used the water to wash the blood from her face repeatedly. After four or five rinses, her face was finally somewhat clean.
Noticing Yang Yang still crying inside the RV, Chen Wan quickly turned to comfort her. "Yang Yang, don't cry. Look at Mammy—I'm not hurt at all.
The blood on me is from the cow, and the blood on your aunt's clothes is also from the cow. We're all fine."
"Do you want to come and see the cow?"
Yang Yang tilted her head, looking between her Mammy and Auntie.
She noticed that most of the blood on Mammy's face had been washed away, though faint streaks of diluted red water still trailed down her neck.
At least now she looked more human again, and Yang Yang's sobs gradually quieted.
Seeing her aunt smiling gently at her, Yang Yang finally felt a bit more at ease.
She wiped her tears with her chubby hands, then buried her face in Jiang Yanxin's arms. In a soft, slightly hoarse voice, she said to her Mommy, still with a hint of a sob, "Mom, let's see the cow~."
Seeing that Chen Wan and Qin Ke were both safe, Jiang Yanxin let out a quiet breath of relief. She carried Yang Yang to the door and gently bounced her while comforting her, "Yang Yang is so brave. Let's go see if the cow is cute, okay?"
Yang Yang had never seen a real cow before.
Her hands grabbed her hair curiously, wanting to be held by her Mommy and aunt, but seeing them covered in blood made her a bit scared, so she just lay in Jiang Yanxin's arms.
Chen Wan smiled and pointed to the mutated cow lying on the ground, looking at Yang Yang, "Yang Yang, that's the cow lying on the ground."
Yang Yang followed her Mammy's direction and looked over, her hands tangled in her hair.
She looked for a long time, her small mouth opening and closing, but she couldn't speak for a while, staring blankly at the mutated cow for a long time before furrowing her brows and asking, "Is the cow really this big?"
The cows in the cartoons Yang Yang had been watching recently weren't this big, so she was very skeptical, staring at the cow on the ground.
Seeing Yang Yang seriously looking at the mutated cow, Chen Wan found her adorable and gently coaxed, "Yes, cows are this big now.
You be good and go back to the RV to play.
Mammy will put away the beef, and we'll have delicious meat to eat tomorrow."
Yang Yang licked her lips, and her wide eyes—still slightly moist with tears—lit up with a hint of excitement.
No longer intimidated by the cow's massive size, she looked at Chen Wan with genuine curiosity and asked, "Is it tasty?"
Before the apocalypse, the child was a meat lover, feeling as though something was missing from every meal if there was no meat.
After the apocalypse, she was simply grateful to have enough to fill her stomach. At that time, Mammy didn't seem to like her, so she never dared say she was hungry, afraid that Mammy would think she ate too much and abandon her.
Later, Mammy became nice, treated her well, gave her plenty to eat, played with her, and even tucked her in at night.
She thought Mammy was the best in the world!
In the RV, they often ate ham and luncheon meat, but those were no match for fresh meat.
Yang Yang hadn't expected that she would get to taste real meat again.
Chen Wan looked at the little glutton and chuckled, coaxing her, "It's delicious. Mammy will make it for you tomorrow. Go back to the RV and play for now. I need to start processing the cow—if we leave it too long, it won't taste as good."
"Okay, okay."
Yang Yang nodded eagerly and turned to urge Jiang Yanxin, "Mom, I'll go play in the RV."
Jiang Yanxin found Yang Yang endearing, but she still hadn't fully recovered from the earlier shock.
She carried Yang Yang back into the RV, took out the learning machine for her, and coaxed gently, "Yang Yang, be good and watch some cartoons by yourself, okay? Mom will go help."
The cow is too big, and your Mammy and aunt can't handle it all."
Yang Yang thought for a moment, nodded her head, "Okay, or else the cow won't taste good."
Hearing her little glutton say this, Jiang Yanxin kissed Yang Yang's face and turned on the learning machine for her, letting Yang Yang choose a cartoon to watch.
Yang Yang swiped her hand across the learning machine's screen.
She had watched a cow cartoon before and recognized the word "cow," so she quickly found it, tapped on it, and started watching.
She planned to review the cute appearance of cows since Mammy said they were delicious!
Jiang Yanxin didn't know what her little glutton was thinking.
Seeing Yang Yang already watching, she asked Chen Wan to open the car door for her to get out, then closed the door.
As soon as Jiang Yanxin got out of the car, she saw the two Alphas wielding machetes, working on the massive mutated cow.
Jiang Yanxin walked over, looked at Chen Wan, and ultimately suppressed the rest of her words, "Give me a knife, I'll help you guys."
"Okay."
Chen Wan straightened up, a machete appearing in her hand, which she handed to Jiang Yanxin.
Because they were within 20 meters of the RV, Chen Wan could issue any command to the RV, so getting a knife was just a matter of thought.
Jiang Yanxin crouched down, looking at the massive mutated cow, unsure where to start cutting, so she simply followed Chen Wan and Qin Ke, starting by skinning one side of the cow.
The cow was too large to flip over, so the three of them skinned one side, then opened the cow's belly, removing all the internal organs.
Due to the cow's large size, the organs were also quite large.
Chen Wan removed all the organs, and the three of them began cutting the meat into pieces.
Chen Wan placed the skinned cowhide on the ground to hold the cut beef.
They cut each piece of beef into similarly sized chunks and placed them on the cowhide.
Whenever the pile of meat on the cowhide grew into a small mountain, Chen Wan would use her mind to store the meat in the compressed space.
They continued cutting and storing the meat, and by the time they finished one side of the cow, they were already drenched in sweat.
The three of them stood up to rest for a while.
Chen Wan had the mechanical arm lift the mutated cow and flip it over, exposing the side with the cowhide still on.
The three of them resumed the process, skinning the cow again.
After another half hour, they finished skinning this side and began cutting the mutated beef again.
By the time they finished cutting all the beef from this mutated cow, three hours had passed, and they hadn't even dealt with the massive cow head yet.
Jiang Yanxin glanced at the large mutated cow head and asked, "Are we going to deal with the cow head too?"
Chen Wan thought for a moment and said, "Let's leave it for now.
There are still two more mutated cows.
Let's try to take all the beef with us, and we'll see about the cow head later."
"Okay, then let's move on to the next cow," Jiang Yanxin said.
The three of them moved to the front of the RV, where two more massive mutated cows lay.
After three hours of cutting beef, Chen Wan had come down from the joy of obtaining the mutated cow and was now a bit numb.
The mutated cows were just too big, and cutting them was really tiring and time-consuming.
But for the sake of food, the three of them obediently crouched down and started skinning the cow again.
Chen Wan picked up the machete and slowly peeled the skin off the beef.
The three of them were covered in mutant cow blood, and by the time they finished cutting up the second mutant cow, it was already past three in the morning, with the sky faintly turning white.
Chen Wan and the others were so exhausted that they couldn't even straighten their backs.
Jiang Yanxin had gone back to the RV midway, washed her hands, and carried the sleeping Yang Yang from the sofa to the bedroom, tucking her in with a small blanket before heading back out to help.
Qin Ke continued to peel the cowhide while laughing, "I think we're the only ones brave enough to eat these mutant animals.
Anyone else would have run away scared."
"Yeah, but in the apocalypse, ordinary animals are hard to come by.
It's been ages since I've had fresh meat," Chen Wan said, straightening her back and giving her waist a rub.
She felt that the hard work was definitely worth it.
A single mutant cow weighed five tons, and after removing the head, organs, and skin, there were still four tons of meat.
With three cows, that made 12 tons of meat.
They also kept the ribs, spine, and other parts to stew later.
Chen Wan noticed that Jiang Yanxin and Qin Ke were also exhausted.
Jiang Yanxin wiped her sweat with her hand, smearing cow blood on her face, which looked a bit funny.
Qin Ke wasn't much better off, with blood all over her clothes and pants.
Chen Wan smiled and encouraged them, "Come on, let's finish this cow, and we'll have 12 tons of beef.
Tomorrow at noon, we'll have steak."
"Alright, next time we go scavenging, we need to get more machetes and clothes.
The three of us go through clothes too quickly, with all this blood, these clothes are done for," Qin Ke said with a laugh.
They basically ended up with blood on them every time they went out, making their clothes almost disposable.
"Yeah, we'll grab more next time.
But the RV almost got wrecked by that mutant cow.
We need to find a place to fix it tomorrow, cause if it happens again, we're doomed," Chen Wan said thoughtfully.
The three of them had started around nine in the evening, and by the time they finished cutting up the last mutant cow and stored it in the compressed space, the sky was already bright, and the sun had risen.
The highway where Chen Wan and the others were was covered in blood, along with the discarded mutant cow organs and heads.
They were too tired to deal with the large cow heads, and since there wasn't much meat on them, they decided to leave them and went back to the RV to shower and change clothes.
Jiang Yanxin opened the door to the inner room and saw Yang Yang sleeping soundly.
She washed her hands and grabbed a change of clothes, seeing Chen Wan standing not far away.
She walked over with the clothes and said to Chen Wan, "You've got so much blood on you, you should shower first.
I'm not in a hurry."
Chen Wan shook her head and looked at Jiang Yanxin, "No need, you go first.
After I shower, I still have to drive to find a place with more cars to fix the RV."