Breakfast was, as always, prepared by Xie Yuanchuan—a large pot of rich vegetable soup and a thick stack of chewy flatbreads.
Cen Wu cradled her bowl and sipped the soup carefully from the edge. It was so hot that she kept hissing between breaths, but it was simply too delicious.
She swore that, across both her lifetimes combined, she had never tasted such an incredible bowl of soup.
Like a little puppy panting from the heat, she reached for another flatbread. Her cheeks worked more than a dozen times before she finally managed to swallow it.
“Younger Sister, dip the bread into the soup and take small bites. It’ll be much easier to chew.”
Cen Yuxing looked every bit the little household expert as he demonstrated.
Cen Wu copied him.
The bread soaked up the broth and became much softer. The soup trapped inside had also cooled down enough that it no longer scalded her mouth.
She immediately gave him a thumbs-up.
“Older Brother, you’re truly a gourmet.”
Cen Yuxing scratched the back of his head, his delicate little face flushing with embarrassment.
“Not really…”
Once the two children had nearly finished eating, Xie Yuanchuan cleaned up the dishes as he said,
“We’re running low on ingredients. We’ll be heading out to gather supplies later. Xiaoxing, take Younger Sister upstairs and help her change into something suitable for going out.”
Cen Yi rubbed her full stomach and slouched lazily against the chair without the slightest concern for appearances.
“Family Day! Family Day! Family Day!”
She rhythmically pounded the table in excitement.
Cen Wu looked surprised.
She had never experienced a Family Day before.
A whole family going out gathering supplies together…
She had only ever seen that kind of scene among the close-knit groups inside the Base.
Holding his younger sister’s hand, Cen Yuxing led her upstairs.
He searched through his wardrobe and picked out a clean, though slightly worn, outfit.
“Younger Sister, Dad said wealth shouldn’t be flaunted. We have to keep a low profile when we go out.”
After saying that, he also changed into an old set of clothes.
Judging from the size, they looked more like Xie Yuanchuan’s discarded clothes.
Cen Yuxing rolled up his pant legs, while Cen Wu helped roll up his sleeves.
For some reason, it looked exactly like children sneaking into oversized adult clothes.
After they came downstairs, they discovered the vehicle had already been parked outside the courtyard.
Cen Yi had a pair of sunglasses resting on the bridge of her nose.
Her already dazzling face now carried an extra touch of cool confidence.
With effortless swagger, she declared,
“Alright, kiddos. Get in the car!”
“Yes, Officer!”
Cen Yuxing immediately saluted in perfect cooperation.
Not wanting to lose, Cen Wu quickly followed.
“Yes, Sir!”
In her previous life, after Scumbag Dad had taken her back only to ignore her completely, she had never been allowed to participate in any social activities.
Her only pastime had been watching the police-and-gangster films Scumbag Brother collected, and she knew nearly every line by heart.
They were supposedly relics from before the apocalypse.
Cen Wu wasn’t entirely sure, though.
After all, the very day she had been born was also the day the apocalypse had begun.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Xie Yuanchuan gave Cen Wu a long look.
Only after both children had climbed into the vehicle did he ask,
“Xiao Wu, have you watched Hong Kong movies before?”
Cen Wu nodded.
She didn’t think there was any reason to hide it.
Xie Yuanchuan chuckled softly and asked no further questions.
Retracting his gaze from the rearview mirror, he said,
“Wife, let’s go.”
Cen Yi held the steering wheel with one hand while casually resting the other arm on the open window.
She slammed the accelerator.
What an irresistibly exhilarating push against the back of the seat.
…
The rugged off-road vehicle stopped in an open clearing.
Xie Yuanchuan pulled a tent from the trunk and had it set up in no time.
Cen Yi gathered a pile of branches.
With nothing more than a snap of her fingers, flames sprang to life.
“Mom, do we still need a fire during the day?”
Cen Wu had wanted to ask this ever since last time.
It was already bright outside.
They didn’t need lighting.
And… weren’t they hot?
Cen Yi raised one finger and gently wagged it.
“Baby, it’s called atmosphere.”
Xie Yuanchuan was the first to crawl into the tent.
His lazy voice drifted out from inside.
“Otherwise, why do you think we were sitting inside a tent back then?”
That actually made so much sense that Cen Wu was almost convinced.
Once Cen Yi also climbed into the tent, Xie Yuanchuan’s voice rang out again.
“The Navigation Device is in Xiaoxing’s backpack. Gathering ingredients is such an important mission, so we’ll leave it to you two.”
“Dad and Mom will always be your strongest support.”
It was the first time Cen Wu had ever seen someone describe slacking off in such a refined and refreshing way.
She had no objections.
In fact, she felt a little excited.
It almost felt like going on a spring picnic.
Seeing Younger Sister so happy made Cen Yuxing even happier.
He held Cen Wu’s hand with one hand while carrying the Navigation Device with the other.
“Younger Sister, let’s go this way. If you can’t carry everything later, you can put the ingredients into Older Brother’s basket.”
Cen Wu—the owner of absolute strength—obediently nodded and squeezed his warm, chubby little hand.
“Older Brother, what if we gather heavily contaminated ingredients?”
The Base did sell Detectors.
Unfortunately, Cen Wu couldn’t afford one.
She didn’t want to spend all that effort gathering a huge pile of food, only to discover later that none of it could be used.
Wouldn’t that be a complete waste?
Cen Yuxing tucked the Navigation Device into the small pouch at his waist before pulling out another device.
“This is a Detector that Dad improved.”
“It vibrates whenever there’s an edible ingredient nearby.”
“It can also inspect items in batches, so it’s both convenient and practical.”
Cen Wu accepted it in surprise and examined it over and over in her hands.
The Detectors sold at the Base could only perform batch inspections.
Every gathering trip required people to constantly stop and test what they collected, making the process extremely inconvenient.
She hadn’t expected Dad to be this capable.
If he entered the Base, he could probably overthrow Scumbag Dad from his position in no time.
The two little ones marched forward on their short legs.
Before long, they arrived where the gathering crowd had assembled.
The moment she spotted the familiar Base military vehicles and public buses, Cen Wu instinctively tightened her grip on Cen Yuxing’s hand.
“Older Brother, are we gathering together with the people from the Base?”
Cen Yuxing knew Younger Sister was strong.
He just hadn’t realized she was this strong.
The hand she was holding felt like it was about to be crushed.
“Younger Sister, let’s talk things through. Ease up a little first.”
The Base’s scanners always located gathering sites with edible resources, few Mutated Beasts, and relatively low danger.
As for the Navigation Device at home…
It was essentially nothing more than a tracker for the Base’s military vehicles.
By simply following them, they could freely take advantage of the Base’s already-surveyed gathering sites.
Simple.
Convenient.
And effortless.
Cen Wu had assumed Xie Yuanchuan resorted to this strategy because he couldn’t build a scanner himself.
Instead, Cen Yuxing casually told her that the real reason was much simpler.
Dad was too lazy to make one.
…
The two children blended into the gathering area.
They circled along the outermost edge for quite some time before the Detector finally vibrated.
They immediately stopped, eager to show off their skills.
After the apocalypse, both plants and animals had been contaminated and mutated to varying degrees.
Even edible ingredients were worlds apart from their pre-apocalypse counterparts.
Eating too much of them wasn’t good for the human body and required regular doses of treatment serum.
But with Xie Yuanchuan around, Cen Wu wasn’t worried in the slightest.
A large patch of malantou grew across the ground.
Neither child knew what kind of vegetable it was.
Since the Detector identified it as edible, they bent over with their backsides in the air and harvested enthusiastically.
It didn’t take long before more than half the patch had been stripped bare.
Not far away, three children crouched inside a clump of grass, staring intently at them.
“Tsk, they’re so lucky.”
“We’ve been searching for half an hour and still haven’t found any edible ingredients.”
“Their baskets are almost full already.”
“I don’t want to keep looking.”
The child in the lead glanced around, his eyes gleaming.
“There aren’t any adults with them.”
“Let’s go rob them of their food!”