“My car!”
Ruan Zhe closed her eyes and opened them again—and they were already inside the farm space.
The RV hadn’t crashed into anything outside, but once inside, she saw logs rushing toward the vehicle one after another.
Fu Yinli had already reacted quickly and turned the steering wheel hard, but they had been caught off guard.
There was no time to avoid it. Bang. The sound wasn’t loud, but it carried a sharp cracking break.
The RV came to a stop. The two of them quickly got out to check.
In front of the windshield, a pile of large logs had wedged into the front bumper, pushing it deep into the woodpile. The left headlight was shattered, glass fragments scattered everywhere. The edge of the hood was bent upward. The left bumper clip had snapped, leaving the whole bumper skewed to one side.
No wonder apocalypse novels always had protagonists either staying hidden and never going out, or heavily modifying their vehicles in advance—one random encounter like this, and a normal vehicle simply couldn’t hold up.
“The water tank didn’t leak. The engine is fine,” Fu Yinli said. Even he hadn’t expected the vehicle to still be unable to brake properly after entering the farm space.
“It’s fine,” Ruan Zhe said, though clearly helpless. “I don’t know how long it can last anyway. I’m not good at repairing cars.”
The broken logs and thick tree trunks she had previously stored were now piled messily together—some horizontal, some vertical.
“I can find a spare headlight, bumper clips, and maybe try bodywork tools. I’ll fix the hood later. I’ll secure the bumper with zip ties,” Fu Yinli said after inspecting it.
What mattered most was whether the car could still maintain its connection to the farm space.
“We can only do that,” Ruan Zhe said. “You handle it. I have another idea, but we’ll test it next time.”
She climbed back into the RV. “I’ll park it over there.”
Fu Yinli nodded and went to find tools. She drove the car to the other side of the pond, parking it next to the excavator, then glanced at the navigation display.
“Fu Yinli—it’s 72 hours!”
Strictly speaking, only ten minutes had passed, but the timer had doubled again, increasing to three full days.
“This time we brought back a lot of things,” Fu Yinli said, already working on the repairs.
The depression from the damaged RV was quickly replaced by the mountain of supplies piled beside the farm’s field.
“I’ll sort them first. You can move them later,” Ruan Zhe said. “It’s a pity—we don’t have enough space.”
The only structure in the farm was the broken old granary, and all the grain, dried meat, preserved goods, and weapons could only be placed outside.
Thankfully, the farm space itself was clean and grassy, but things should ideally be stored indoors.
For now, there was no choice—they had to organize everything first so they could still plant crops. Otherwise, the small plots they had cleared earlier would be buried underneath.
She sorted carefully, writing everything down as she went. After Fu Yinli finished repairing the vehicle, he joined her, placing items neatly beside the granary.
“Rice ×3 bags, corn ×2 bags, flour ×2 bags, compressed biscuits ×8 packs, instant noodles ×16 bowls, oats ×1 bag…”
Ruan Zhe read aloud as she recorded everything. These were the items reserved for the RV. After three days, they would still need to go out again, and they needed food inside the vehicle. The previous estimate of seven days’ rations had only barely been enough even in the forest—what about the next place?
So she always separated supplies into the RV first. She had a feeling their next stop wouldn’t be short.
“Main staples are about these. Next is forest supplies,” she said, a little emotional. She wondered how the old man and woman were doing after that heavy rain…
“Cured meat ×37 strips, cured wild boar ×4 large cuts, dried rabbit ×12, dried deer ×2, smoked fish ×20 pieces ×1 string, pheasants ×2, wild rabbit ×1—don’t put this rabbit on the ground!”
She kept writing while growing more alarmed. In the apocalypse, these things could last a very long time.
Fu Yinli held the rabbit awkwardly. “Why? It smells bad. I’ll put it in the car.”
“No, it’ll dig holes everywhere if you put it on the ground here,” Ruan Zhe said immediately. “Ever heard of ‘a cunning rabbit has three burrows’? Keep it in a cage. We’ll build a proper rabbit hutch later.”
Fu Yinli carefully placed the slightly dazed rabbit back into the wooden cage.
Just then, a series of clucking sounds came from behind him. Three chickens were running wildly around the unfamiliar space, and one suddenly flapped up into the air, flying right over his head—dropping feathers as it passed.
“HAHAHA!” Ruan Zhe couldn’t help laughing out loud.
Fu Yinli’s mouth twitched as he pulled feathers off his head and shoulder. “I’ll roast these chickens for you later.”
“Hey, no way,” Ruan Zhe said quickly, still smiling. “You can’t just kill them. We should keep them for eggs—and hatch more chicks.”
He had never been treated so casually in his life, let alone by chickens landing on his head.
But hearing her call him “husband” again, his expression softened slightly. “If they don’t lay eggs, I’ll stew them.”
“Alright, but we need to build a rabbit hutch and a chicken coop. Otherwise they’ll run everywhere and the place will be full of mess.”
“Your call,” Fu Yinli said. “I’ll build them.”
“Mm.” Ruan Zhe continued writing:
“Potatoes ×2 sacks (about 100 jin)…”
She continued listing mushrooms, dried vegetables, and supplies in detail.
Fu Yinli frowned slightly as he packed things. “Our seasonings are getting low. Including the old man’s firewood and bricks, we don’t have much left.”
Sugar and salt were also critical supplies, and even combined with earlier stockpiles, it still wasn’t enough.
Ruan Zhe was worried too, but there was nothing they could do right now except find more later.
“Don’t worry. We’ll use things sparingly for now. Why the long face? Smile more~”
She thought he had strong survival awareness.
Just as she finished speaking, Fu Yinli suddenly stopped and looked at something behind her.