Qin Ke sluggishly went to take a shower before heading out for breakfast. Chen Wan had already prepared breakfast by this time—steamed dumplings with beef filling. A few dumplings had been placed in the little one's bowl, and she was currently taking giant bites, munching away happily.
Seeing Qin Ke come out, Chen Wan greeted her, standing up to take out the steamed dumplings she had set aside for Qin Ke from the pot: "I was just saying I'd save some for you. Now that you're awake, come over quickly and eat together."
"Oh." Qin Ke sat down listlessly. Seeing that she lacked energy and that faint dark circles could be spotted under her eyes, Chen Wan assumed their battle last night had been intense, so she even winked at Qin Ke.
Qin Ke pursed her lips and hurriedly lowered her head to eat. What a joke—something like falling asleep from exhaustion absolutely could not be let known to Chen Wan and the others. She was a fierce Top!
Seeing that she didn't react, Chen Wan assumed Qin Ke was just thin-skinned and embarrassed, so she simply smiled and didn't press further.
Shen Mingyan didn't need to eat, so she simply went to find Yiyi. After the two had chatted yesterday, Shen Mingyan knew that Yiyi was naturally very talkative. Sure enough, the moment she walked over, Yiyi started chatting with Shen Mingyan about all sorts of random things.
Qin Ke looked over toward Shen Mingyan's direction with a bit of pouty longing. Alright, it was just friends having a chat; she didn't need to be jealous.
Seeing that the little one had already eaten her fill, Jiang Wanning simply lifted the cub off the sofa: "Yangyang, your little belly is bulging again. Go walk around on the floor to digest. Little Aunt will take you to the sunroom to play with soil in a bit, okay?"
The moment the cub heard about playing with soil, her eyes immediately lit up, and she responded fiercely: "Okay!"
The cub got down to the floor and strolled around with her short little legs. Seeing Yiyi talking with a pretty auntie, the cub also trotted over with her short little legs to join the fun.
The cub extended her little meaty hands to hug Yiyi's leg. "Auntie, hug~."
"Baby, didn't we tell you to digest your food? And you already want a hug again?" Yiyi asked the little one with amusement as she looked down, and the cub took it as a matter of course as she nodded.
Yiyi lifted the little one; in any case, her strength was immense, and she didn't find it heavy at all—holding the cub felt no different from holding a single egg in her hand.
The cub held onto Yiyi, but her large eyes were sizing up Shen Mingyan, pursing her little mouth to cozy up to Shen Mingyan: "Hello Auntie, my name is Yangyang."
Shen Mingyan had noticed this milky-white little dumpling yesterday, but yesterday had passed too hectically, leaving her no time to speak with the child. Right now was the perfect opportunity to chat with the little one.
"Your name is Yangyang? So well-behaved. Do you want to come, let Auntie hold you?" Shen Mingyan smiled at the cub, clapping her hands to signal the cub to come to her.
The cub pursed her little mouth, acting a bit shy as she nuzzled against Yiyi to act spoiled, yet she couldn't resist looking over at Shen Mingyan. This new auntie looked so pretty when she smiled. Ultimately, the little traitor failed to resist Shen Mingyan's gentle smile, extending her little meaty hands to throw herself into Shen Mingyan's embrace.
Yiyi let out a lost laugh and patted the cub's little bottom. "Happy again, aren't you? An entire RV full of aunties all pampering you, a single child."
Holding onto Shen Mingyan, the cub smiled and acted spoiled: "Happy, aunties are accompanying me to play~."
"You're so cute, let me feel your little hand, okay?" Shen Mingyan bounced the cub in her arms while teasing her.
"Okay~" The cub responded sweetly in her toddler voice. She had always lacked resistance against aunties who were pretty and gentle, extending her little meaty hand right away to let Shen Mingyan feel it.
Shen Mingyan squeezed the cub's little meaty hand, finding that the texture felt exactly like a kitten's paw pads—bouncing back whenever she squeezed it in her hand, the texture was truly comfortable. "The little meaty hand is so cute."
Hearing the auntie praise her, the cub buried her little face into Shen Mingyan's embrace to act spoiled.
Having finished her breakfast, Chen Wan looked up and saw the cub acting spoiled in Yanyan's embrace. She teased the cub with a light laugh: "Baby, you really don't let a single auntie off, every one of them has to play with you?"
"Yes! Play with me." The cub spoke with a babyish yet entirely confident tone.
Seeing how cute the little one was, Shen Mingyan held the cub and rubbed her little head. "Okay, I'll play with you."
After breakfast, Ye Lan and Jiang Wanning cleared up the small dining area and kitchen. Chen Wan wanted everyone to discuss where they should head next. Dodging from place to place day by day like this in the apocalypse wasn't a long-term solution. Furthermore, their personnel were completely whole now, and they had the simulated sunroom, which meant they essentially possessed a closed-loop mini-ecosystem. Finding a safe place to live for a period of time would be a much better choice.
"Places like bases are definitely out of the question for us. Does anyone have recommendations for a suitable place to live?" Chen Wan's gaze swept across, wanting to ask for everyone's opinions.
"How about going to the small village where my ancestral home is? The population there isn't large, so I assume there aren't many zombies either. It's also some distance away from Funan City, so it should be relatively safe. Plus, there's a river at the entrance of the village, so the water supply is quite sufficient." Shen Mingyan thought about it and said.
The house there had been left behind by her grandfather and grandmother. After the two elderly people passed away, the house had remained vacant, and Shen Mingyan and her family would only stay there for a few days during the summer occasionally to relax.
Chen Wan nodded. In any case, they currently lacked a specific objective, and with the world turned into this state, anywhere was the same. "Sure, then we'll head to that small village. However, before going, we still need to restock our goods. The RV's gasoline is running low; although it can run on electricity, it's still better to fill the gasoline to the brim. There's also food and daily necessities—if we can find a place to restock, it would be much more convenient."
"The small village of my ancestral home is called Heshang Village. Roughly a 40-minute drive from the village, there's a county town. We can drive there and stop by the county town to sweep for goods along the way; there are gas stations there too." Shen Mingyan recalled and said.
"That's perfect. Yanyan, then you direct the way for Yiyi, and we'll first head to the small county town you mentioned to sweep for goods." Chen Wan thought it over and said.
"Okay." Shen Mingyan nodded in response.
None of the remaining people had any objections either. In any case, going anywhere in the apocalypse was the same, because no single place was absolutely safe.
Yiyi immediately took her seat over at the driver's side, while Shen Mingyan sat by the passenger's side to give Yiyi directions.
Chen Wan held the cub—who was sleeping soundly after being well-fed and watered—thinking about their matters for the future. She cast her eyes down at the cub whose little belly was facing skyward, letting out a lost laugh as she shook her head. It really was best to be a cub; every day consisted only of eating, sleeping, and playing, without needing to consider so many things like them adults.
Yiyi drove the RV for three hours, finally arriving at the small county town Shen Mingyan had mentioned. The area of the county town wasn't large, with only two main road segments in total, and things like shopping malls couldn't compare to the city center at all. However, the supplies in the city center had long been swept clean by the military, so they could only pin their hopes on this small county town.
"Turning left on this road leads to the main road segment of the county town. There are two large shopping malls over there, we can go check them out." Shen Mingyan gave Yiyi directions from the front.
Yiyi smoothly drove the vehicle onto the main road, slowly driving toward the main road segment of the county town. The scale of zombies in the small county town wasn't large, and the ones scattered here and there were all thrown far away by the two mechanical arms installed on the front of the RV. Chen Wan also controlled the mechanical arms along the way to absorb the small cars parked around them; after all, they could be used for future RV upgrades, and Chen Wan wouldn't naively assume that they could remain safe forever just because they found a place to stay—the RV still had to continue upgrading.
Yiyi parked the vehicle on the road in front of one of the large shopping malls. Although called large, it was actually only five stories high, and its scale couldn't compare to the malls in Funan City at all, but it was already the largest in scale within this small county town.
Yiyi sounded the horn, preparing to follow their usual routine of drawing the zombies inside the mall out first. In any case, when she resurrected Yanyan, she had used up most of Chen Wan's crystal nuclei, so now she could clear out the danger and harvest a wave of crystal nuclei along the way.
As this piercing horn blast rang out, ripples gradually formed on the originally quiet street. Very quickly, dozens of zombies surged out from an unknown entrance, and zombies from all directions also began flooding toward the RV one after another.
Yet for some unknown reason, these zombies strangely ground to a halt when they were still a dozen meters away from the RV. Not only did they stop advancing, but they actually began retreating backward in a slight panic.
Chen Wan was somewhat puzzled by the situation outside; after all, none of them had officially activated their abilities yet. "What's going on here?"
Yiyi glanced at Shen Mingyan beside her and explained, "It's because Yanyan exerts a level suppression over these zombies. These things are wary of Yanyan, so they don't dare approach the RV."
However, Yiyi's purpose of drawing the zombies had already been achieved. The zombies didn't dare come look for her, but she could go look for the zombies. Yiyi stepped on the accelerator, and the RV crashed right into the dense horde of zombies ahead. A dozen zombies were sent flying by the RV's sudden burst of acceleration, and afterward, the RV acted like a bulldozer, either throwing the zombies ahead flying or running them flat.
Chen Wan controlled the mechanical arms to grab a few of the surrounding zombies and hurl them far away.
Roughly fifteen minutes later, the zombies on the street were basically cleared out completely. There were a few who hadn't dared come over and had fled halfway through; because some alleys were too narrow, Yiyi didn't drive the RV to chase them down. She started up the vehicle once more, driving the car up onto the curb and parking it directly in front of the mall's main entrance.
Chen Wan brought out some equipment like firearms and machetes, letting everyone make their own selections.
Jiang Wanning looked at everyone with some envy, shifting her gaze toward Chen Wan: "Sister Chen Wan, I want to go with you all too."
Chen Wan thought it over and nodded, "Sure, a lot of us are heading out this time. You stay by Yiyi's side, let her protect you, and she can teach you how to use a handgun along the way."
As Chen Wan spoke, she handed a handgun to Jiang Wanning. It was Jiang Wanning's first time touching a gun, and she found it very novel, tugging at Yiyi's wrist as she smiled at Yiyi, "I can go along too."
"Mm, follow me closely in a bit, I'll teach you how to operate it." Yiyi nodded in response.
For convenience this time, Chen Wan only took a single handgun; when fighting zombies, she still preferred machetes. Jiang Yanxin selected two handguns to carry; her strength wasn't as immense as Chen Wan and the others', but her marksmanship was quite precise, allowing her to ensure long-range output. As for close combat, she would rather just pull out her sketchbook directly.
Very quickly, everyone selected their respective weapons. Aside from Jiang Zhaoyuan and Ye Lan staying behind to accompany the cub, the remaining six people all stepped off the RV.
Previously, when there were only the family of three inside the RV, Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin would always worry about the cub every time they went out. Now things were great; everyone had a clear division of labor, with some staying inside the RV to do chores and accompany the cub, and others heading out to sweep for goods.
Chapter 117
Ye Lan looked at the six children who were about to step off the vehicle, giving them a few more reminders before watching them dismount.
Through these past few days of observation, Jiang Zhaoyuan already had a good grasp of Chen Wan and the others' combat strength, so he comforted: "No need to worry, the kids all have capabilities. We just need to manage the home well for them. Let's go, take Yangyang to the sunroom to water the plants. I see the vegetables we planted have already grown quite a bit."
"Okay, then after we finish watering, we'll prepare the meal. Let's make pan-fried buns, and we'll mix two kinds of fillings in a bit to make a separate kind for Wanning." Hearing her partner's comfort, Ye Lan figured it made sense too; the children's capabilities seemed far greater than she had imagined.
Previously, when Ye Lan was at the base, she hadn't seen zombies very often, so she had been terrified out of her wits whenever she encountered them. Later on, seeing Yiyi, Chen Wan, and the others treat encountering zombies with the same casualness as seeing cabbages—not only lacking fear but even intentionally blowing the horn to draw the zombies out so they could drive the car to run them down—Ye Lan had grown accustomed to it by now. Watching the children act like that, she herself wasn't all that afraid of zombies anymore.
On the other side, Chen Wan held her machete and took the lead into the shopping mall. Within this place, Jiang Wanning and Shen Mingyan were the ones who found everything novel; it was the first time the two of them had come out to act together with Chen Wan and the others, while the remaining few were all seasoned veterans.
Chen Wan took a look around. This mall's supermarket was built on the first floor, so their line of sight was relatively open. It was currently morning with abundant sunlight, so Chen Wan and the others didn't feel it was dark upon entering the mall, which saved them a lot of trouble.
There were only a scattering of a few zombies inside the mall at this moment. Seeing people at the entrance, they all rushed toward Chen Wan and the others one after another, yet they still ground to a halt a dozen paces away. The gazes of those zombies were all looking at Shen Mingyan, and one of the zombies actually had its body trembling slightly after being glanced at by Shen Mingyan.
"You can try using the power of the crystal nucleus to establish contact with them," Yiyi said beside Shen Mingyan. This was also meant as a way to practice Shen Mingyan's combat capabilities.
Shen Mingyan concentrated her mental strength and activated the power of her level 4 crystal nucleus. Sure enough, she discovered that even without speaking, she had established a certain connection with the surrounding zombies. She could even issue specific commands to them by relying on her pressure.
For example, right now, Shen Mingyan willed these zombies to retreat further away, and the five or six zombies actually listened obediently and backed off to a distance.
Shen Mingyan spoke with some surprise, "They really seem to be listening to my commands?"
"Of course they are. It's level suppression. The highest level among them is only level 2, and there are even level 1s. They definitely wouldn't dare mess with you," Yiyi said with a smile.
"Alright then, let's sweep the first-floor supermarket first. Since it's still early, let's try to empty out all the useful things here before it gets dark this afternoon," Chen Wan said with a smile. For some reason, Chen Wan was always happy every time she went sweeping for goods. Perhaps filling a small warehouse gave people a unique sense of satisfaction and security.
"You guys go ahead. I'll take Wanning to deal with these few zombies," Yiyi waved her hand at Chen Wan and the others, signaling them to go first.
She herself took out a gun and began giving Jiang Wanning a detailed explanation. "This is the magazine. When changing bullets, you can take it out like this, and then put it back in after changing them. This is the safety; you have to turn off the safety before firing. For safety's sake, turn the safety back on after you're done. Your line of sight can align with this front sight to aim at what you want to shoot. Now I'll take you through a shot so you can get a feel for it."
Jiang Wanning nodded. Yiyi was only unreliable when she was usually in the RV; at times like this, she was still very dependable.
Yiyi stood behind Jiang Wanning, reaching out to grasp the hand Jiang Wanning used to hold the gun, aiming at a zombie not far ahead. Yiyi pulled the trigger, and with a loud bang, the bullet hit the zombie square in the forehead, and it fell to the ground at the sound.
Yiyi released her grip on Jiang Wanning's hand and looked at her. "You try."
"Okay." Although Jiang Wanning was already used to seeing zombies being killed, this was the first time she was actively taking action herself, so she was inevitably a bit nervous.
Jiang Wanning held the gun with both hands, took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. But she was too nervous and her hands were somewhat unsteady; the first shot hit a metal shelf next to the zombie. With a loud clack of metal friction, the six zombies from earlier heard the commotion and suddenly surged out toward Yiyi and her partner.
Unflustered, Yiyi took the gun back from Jiang Wanning's hands. Bang bang bang—she fired five consecutive shots, and five zombies fell to the ground. Only one remained, but it didn't dare run over anymore. This zombie clearly possessed some intelligence and was likely a level 2 zombie.
Yiyi reloaded the bullets to full and quickly handed the gun to Jiang Wanning. "You handle the remaining one yourself."
Jiang Wanning took the gun and took a deep breath, holding the gun with both hands and aiming at that zombie before firing. This time, a shot hit the zombie in the shoulder, and a spray of foul-smelling, purplish-black blood erupted. Jiang Wanning gritted her teeth and gave it her all. Everyone else was so capable; even if she didn't have a special ability or great combat skills, she at least needed to be able to protect herself and not hold everyone back. In the apocalypse, fear was the least useful emotion.
Thinking of this, Jiang Wanning fired several more shots in succession, finally knocking the zombie to the ground on the fourth shot.
Yiyi could see Jiang Wanning's nervousness and patted her shoulder in comfort. "It's always like this the first time. It's normal to be nervous. It'll be much better next time. Turn the safety back on, and let's go help carry things."
Sweat had already formed on Jiang Wanning's brow. She turned the safety back on just as Yiyi said and put the handgun away before following Yiyi into the supermarket.
Yiyi reached out to hold Jiang Wanning's wrist, meeting a patch of icy skin. Yiyi comforted her, "Once you get past this hurdle, you won't be so nervous the next time you shoot. Don't be afraid, you still have me."
She held Jiang Wanning's hand in her own to warm it up.
"Mm, I know. It's just a bit hard to adjust to, but I will work hard and won't hold everyone back," Jiang Wanning looked at Yiyi.
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Yiyi leaned over and kissed the side of Jiang Wanning's face. "You're not holding anyone back at all. You've already done very well, don't be unhappy."
Being kissed like this by Yiyi, the tips of Jiang Wanning's ears turned completely red. She reached out to push the person holding her. "We're still outside, you're annoying."
"Okay, then after we finish our work today and go back to the RV, I'll kiss you again," Yiyi smiled, wanting to make Jiang Wanning happy.
With red-tipped ears, Jiang Wanning broke free from Yiyi and ran off to find Jiang Yanxin and the others.
The shopping mall in this small county town had barely sustained any damage, and many supplies were completely intact, especially package goods.
The first area they raided was the food section. Chen Wan and the others packed things into large bags in pairs, and Jiang Wanning and Yiyi also came over to help.
Chen Wan threw bagged items like wood ear mushrooms, silver ear mushrooms, and vermicelli noodles from a row of shelves into her bag, and she even found several large bags of seaweed, packing them all in as well. These things were dishes that could be eaten after a quick soak upon returning, which could provide some vitamin supplements and were much more nutritious than them eating hanging noodles all day long.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yanxin was sweeping for goods in the sauce packet area. A row of shelves on the wall was hung with all kinds of seasonings, barbecue rubs, curry, pickled fish seasoning, hot pot base, spicy hot pot seasoning, and a whole series of sauce packets you could think of, all packed into her bag. It was highly likely that these things would be hard to come by a few years from now. Thinking of this, Jiang Yanxin also packed common salt, sea salt, and all those things from the shelves into her large bag.
Yiyi and Jiang Wanning started moving flour and rice together. Although it was currently August and the weather was very hot, fortunately, a large portion of these grains and flours were vacuum-sealed, making them less prone to bugs. Yiyi felt that moving them like this wasn't satisfying enough, so she found some large freight handcarts from the warehouse. She pulled out two carts by herself, while Jiang Wanning pulled out one, making it much more convenient for Chen Wan and the others to move these things.
Chen Wan and the others first moved the heavy boxed items, and afterward, they placed the loose bagged items on top of the boxes so they could move more things at once.
Qin Ke and Shen Mingyan moved all the corn oil, peanut oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil, and olive oil onto the freight carts one barrel after another.
Yiyi and Jiang Wanning moved the rice and flour together, and before long, the rice and flour on the handcart were stacked neatly like a small hill. Yiyi and Jiang Wanning had already started pulling the carts toward the RV.
Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin moved miscellaneous grains and boxed condiments. A few years from now, soy sauce and vinegar would likely become luxuries in the apocalypse.
The group did a thorough sweep in the grains and oils section, making seven or eight consecutive trips before they moved all the packaged items away. Chen Wan didn't dare take some loose rice, flour, and white sugar; after all, several months had already passed, and if these things had been contaminated by the zombie virus, the loss would outweigh the gain.
When putting those steel components away for Yanyan earlier, quite a bit of space had been left in the compression space, and plus, after upgrading once, there was an even larger area to store things.
After Chen Wan and the others raided the grains and oils section, they turned and went to the daily necessities section. Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin were responsible for moving toilet paper, sanitary pads, and facial tissues; Qin Ke and Shen Mingyan placed all the toiletries onto the handcart; while Yiyi and Jiang Wanning moved laundry detergent and toothpaste. There weren't actually many of these things displayed on the shelves, and the few of them emptied this area after coming and going for a few trips.
Next was the snack, milk, and beverage section. There were quite a few biscuits and bagged potato chips with long shelf lives that were still edible, and Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin put them onto the handcart whenever they saw intact packaging.
Yiyi and her group went to the other side to move yogurt and milk with longer shelf lives, and they also found quite a few cans of milk powder, instant milk tea, and lotus root starch, taking them all away as well.
Qin Ke and Shen Mingyan moved bottled mineral water onto the handcart case by case, and they also moved some juice. In the apocalypse, it might be difficult to look for these carbonated drinks and juices in the future.
Chen Wan and her group didn't have many things over on their end, so once they finished moving, they went to help out on Qin Ke's side to move beverages together. However, there were simply too many beverages for them to move completely, and they still had to leave space for clothes and quilts, so they ultimately just selected some of their favorite beverages to move.
After another five or six trips of transporting, Chen Wan and the others began their final sweep. Yiyi and her group threw all the women's and men's underwear in the supermarket onto the cart, and they also threw on any other clothes they saw. There were also consumables like face towels and small square towels, which they put onto the handcart whenever they saw them.
Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin took five or six electric kettles, and they took a few of each item like brand new cutting boards, basins, water cups, chopsticks, and bowl sets.
Qin Ke and her group gathered quite a few pajamas from the supermarket's clothing section, and along the way, they also grabbed quite a few plush toys for the cub.
The few of them spent over four hours just moving goods from the supermarket, lacking even the time to eat lunch. In the end, it was Ye Lan who prepared the meal and called them to eat first that drew Chen Wan and the others back.
Looking at how the few of them looked, Ye Lan hurriedly poured water for Chen Wan and the others. "Sit down and eat to rest first. The supplies are inside and won't run away, you kids don't need to push yourselves so hard either, lest you exhaust yourselves. Every single one of you is drenched in sweat."
Chen Wan smiled and said, "It's fine, Mom, we're not tired. As long as there are things inside to move, we're happy. We'll continue after eating."
The few of them went to the bathroom to briefly clean up before coming out to eat. The juice they had just brought back was also placed on the dining table, and a full cup was set in front of the cub as well. The little one took a bite of beef pan-fried bun and a sip of juice, eating with immense relish, her little face turned up happily.
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