Chapter 92 - Ninety-Two: A Different Kind of Journey
Defeating the Mutated Cat didn’t take much time, and Su Jin and the others decided to continue on their way.
The villagers warmly invited them to stay for lunch, but they declined, knowing that the villagers’ food was hard to come by.
About the carcass of the Mutated Cat, Su Jin told the villagers it could be eaten. Although it was terribly burnt by Lu Hao’s fire, only the outer skin was likely destroyed, and the meat inside should still be edible.
Only, the flesh of mutant animals is rather tough, so it might not taste very good.
Even so, the villagers were delighted. After all, they were short on food, and a little more was better than none.
…
In the vehicle, Nie Qing and Lu Guanhai were sitting in the backseat, complaining grumpily.
Lu Guanhai: “Did I just, like, wave my fan a bit?”
Nie Qing: “Give me a break, at least you got to flap your fan. I didn’t even get a chance to show up.”
The very thought of this made him unhappy. Being of the Wind Element as well, why did the girl not let him take the stage, preferring that Big Beard instead?
Hearing this, Lu Guanhai curled his lip and said, “My daughter-in-law is just being protective of you, afraid you’ll get hurt. And besides, Big Beard is so robust, you…”
Nie Qing couldn’t take it anymore. He flashed into the Space in a foul mood, intending to watch TV shows there to relieve his troubles.
Lu Guanhai, watching Nie Qing disappear, knew he had taken refuge in the Space again. He shook his head and continued chatting with the family of three in the front, the Lin Xiuyuans.
Throughout the journey, the family didn’t feel tired at all. When there was no danger, they would stay in the Space for a few hours, taking the opportunity to do some farming and spend time with the two elders.
The grandparents weren’t lonely in the Space at all, especially Lin Xiuyuan, who would pop in from time to time to share interesting stories from the road with them.
They knew they were on their way to S City. Although they were a bit reluctant to leave their old home, Su Jin had moved nearly everything from their old house into the Space, including the old wooden chest that came with Li Xiuying’s dowry. So now, though they were living in one of the rooms at the Lu Residence, the interior was set up just like it was back home.
Su Jin had also collected lots of operas that elderly people enjoyed. But now, they spent most of their time watching TV dramas with Nie Qing, and the remainder tending to the farm and making delicious foods.
Lin Yunguo liked to sit by the creek fishing, while Li Xiuying enjoyed going to the chicken coop and livestock area to fuss over the chickens, ducks, and herds of pigs, cows, and sheep.
In the Space, there were also vegetables that Lu Guanhai had planted: lettuce, water spinach, bok choy, green beans, cucumbers, eggplants, chili peppers, tomatoes… He had planted a bit of every seed that Su Jin had bought, and all the vegetables were growing lush and bug-free without the need for pesticides and had an amazingly fast production rate.
Now, their diet consisted entirely of produce and grains from the Space, and the family never imagined that, despite being in the Apocalypse, they were actually eating healthier than ever before.
Guo Yang and the others had their suspicions, but they sensibly chose to keep quiet. Since Lu Hao and Su Jin had accepted them as their own people, there was no need to ask too many questions.
The teammates’ rule was simple: just trust each other. Plus, Su Jin’s Space was so vast that it made sense to carry more food. Everyone tacitly came to believe this explanation.
Like now, when they took a break midway because they were about to enter the main road. Considering that everyone had not yet eaten lunch, Lin Cheng suggested finding a secluded spot to rest for a bit and have a simple meal.
Guo Yang stepped out of the car, stretching lazily. The car’s spacious interior and shock absorption made it way too easy to sleep.
Su Jin, meanwhile, had taken a folding table out of the car and placed one box after another on it… lunch boxes?
Though they were lunch boxes, the containers were made of glass, clearly not disposable items. Each glass lunch box had the name of a person stuck to it, which was Huang Yunxiang’s idea. They were in a hurry these days, so it wasn’t practical to eat instant noodles and biscuits for every meal or to set out a banquet as at home. Using these lunch boxes, which Su Jin had previously collected into the Space and label each with the person’s name, was sanitary, healthy, and convenient.
Su Jin gave her aunt a thumbs up. Eating this way was really convenient. Lin Yunguo even packed each lunch box full of vegetables and meat, pressing down hard to make sure it was packed, anxious that someone might not have enough to eat.
Xue Wanyi ate with oil dripping from his mouth, declaring this the best lunchbox meal he’d ever had in his life. He didn’t know how Su Jin and the others were preserving it, but the food was still warm.
Mao Qiqi looked at her cartoon pig-shaped lunch box, the only one of its kind, and silently criticized it in her mind.
“Wow, Qiqi, your lunch box is so cute and adorable,” Liao Yifan said, glaring at Qiqi’s lunch box with sparkling eyes.
“Sister Yifan, how about we swap?” Mao Qiqi asked earnestly. Such a childish lunch box was something her heart rejected.
“That doesn’t feel right, there are names on them already.”
Liao Yifan felt she couldn’t possibly compete with a child over a lunch box, but Mao Qiqi had already torn the name label off the cartoon lunch box and stuck it on Liao Yifan’s.
…
When Lin Yunguo was preparing the next meal in the Space, he saw the sloppily stuck name label on the cartoon lunch box: Liao Yifan.
Which little friend was this now? Had the team taken in a new member?