Another family outing!
Cen Wu truly loved this family.
She loved going out together with her family, helping one another, instead of being locked inside a cold room and forbidden from leaving.
“I can help Mom carry the meat back!”
She proudly gave herself a thumbs-up.
Just one ton of meat.
Wait… how many jin was one ton again?
Having never received nine years of compulsory education, Cen Wu asked uncertainly,
“Hypothetically, if one ton of meat is two thousand jin, do you think my frail little shoulders can carry our family’s future food supply, Mom?”
Cen Yi knew her daughter possessed a strength-type Innate Ability and had complete confidence in her.
“Of course! With your strength, you could throw your dad around like a shot put. When the time comes, I’ll kill one, and you throw each one onto the truck.”
Cen Wu’s confidence immediately soared.
“I guarantee I’ll complete the mission!”
The mother and her two children gathered in the living room to prepare their hunting equipment.
What they packed the most were knives.
Cen Yuxing methodically packed boning knives, cleavers, bayonets, and long blades.
Judging by his serious expression, he looked less like someone heading out to hunt and more like a butcher setting up a meat stall.
Meanwhile, Cen Yi stuffed the backpack with snacks Xie Yuanchuan had made.
As she packed, she ate.
Very soon, only half remained.
After thinking about it, she simply dumped everything back out and ate it all in one sitting.
With the backpack empty again, she wandered into the kitchen, looked around here and there, touched a few things, then decided there was nothing worth packing.
Bored, she flopped back onto the sofa.
Once they caught prey, they could just eat it directly.
Cen Yi never worried about going hungry.
She was carefree like that.
After observing one person and then another, Cen Wu’s sense of responsibility overflowed once again.
She filled three water bottles.
Then she planned to pack some first-aid supplies.
After searching the entire house, she could not even find a single piece of gauze.
Thinking about Xie Yuanchuan’s Innate Ability, she felt that was perfectly normal.
Just then, Xie Yuanchuan came downstairs and casually tossed two syringes to Cen Wu.
“I have to make a trip to Base No. 18. You three stay home and listen to Xiaoxing. I’ll leave the communicator with you. If anything happens, call the number on Speed Dial One.”
Listen to Older Brother?
However, her dad had not spoken to Mom or Older Brother first.
Instead, he had told her.
Keeping a straight face, Cen Wu nodded solemnly.
“Understood, Dad. While you’re away, I’ll protect this family!”
Xie Yuanchuan gave her a strange look.
He simply spoke to whoever happened to be closest.
Cen Wu had just happened to be standing in front of him.
But after seeing the determined look in his daughter’s eyes, he pursed his lips, chuckled softly, and walked out the door.
Only after the front door closed did Cen Wu withdraw her gaze.
She looked down at the syringes in her hands.
“Healing Factor.”
She recognized them.
They were medical injections developed by Base No. 9 for treating external injuries.
Rumor had it that one injection could instantly restore seventy percent of a person’s condition.
She placed one Healing Factor into Mom’s backpack and the other into Older Brother’s backpack.
Then she packed some extra food as well.
Before going to bed, Cen Wu relayed Xie Yuanchuan’s instructions to the other two.
Cen Yi merely looked as though she was used to it.
After kissing both children once, she leisurely went to bed.
Cen Yuxing, however, looked worried.
After tucking Cen Wu’s blanket around her, he silently left the room.
…
Before setting off, Cen Wu checked her backpack one more time.
When she discovered that two extra Healing Factors had appeared inside, she froze for a moment.
Once everything had been packed, Cen Yi loaded it onto the modified pickup truck.
As Cen Wu climbed aboard, she found Cen Yuxing sitting with his eyes closed, resting.
She confidently greeted him.
“Good morning, Older Brother.”
The only response she received was a deadly glare.
Cen Wu felt dizzy for a moment before finally regaining her senses.
“You’re Luke?”
Luke ignored her.
With his arms crossed, he wore an aloof expression.
Give me back my soft, sweet Older Brother!
Cen Wu screamed inwardly as she scooted closer to the window.
She had no desire whatsoever to sit next to Luke.
The mother and her two children drove deep into a dense forest.
After the apocalypse, radiation had caused many mutated plants to grow to enormous sizes.
Once the pickup entered the forest, it felt as though they had accidentally wandered into a land of giants.
Even a random blade of grass was taller than Cen Wu.
Leaning against the window, she watched all kinds of insects outside.
Every one of them was larger than a truck tire.
Cen Wu rubbed her arms and quietly moved farther away from the window.
“If you’re so scared of dying, why did you come?”
Luke still had his eyes closed, as though those sarcastic words had not come from his own mouth.
Cen Wu was annoyed at first.
Then she turned around and pinched his chubby cheeks.
“Who’s scared? Who’s scared?”
Luke abruptly opened his eyes.
Cen Wu immediately turned her head in the opposite direction, refusing to meet his gaze.
As long as she did not look into his eyes…
She would not be controlled.
Luke had not expected her reaction to be so fast.
He stared until his eyes began to ache, yet it accomplished absolutely nothing.
In the end, he could only shake his head violently to free himself from her grip.
Cen Wu smugly snorted twice.
Only after two obvious pinch marks appeared on his cheeks did she finally let go.
Cen Yi did not interfere with the children’s horseplay.
After parking the truck, she simply lifted both children out by their waists.
“We’ll split into two teams. I’ll head left, and you two go right. The detector has thermal imaging that shows where prey is, but you’ll have to get close before it can determine whether it’s contaminated and safe to eat. Don’t stray too far from the truck. Whether you catch anything or not, come back every hour.”
The moment Luke heard he would be teamed up with Cen Wu, he immediately objected.
He pointed decisively.
“You women form one team. I’ll operate independently.”
Bang!
…
With a bump swelling on his head, Luke walked behind Cen Wu with a sour expression.
The detector suddenly vibrated.
Cen Wu immediately discovered that prey was nearby.
However, they needed to get much closer before the detector could determine whether it was contaminated and edible.
“Bro… Luke, I’ll drive it toward you from the other side. Then you can use Mind Control on it.”
When Luke heard her refuse to call him “Older Brother,” he frowned slightly.
“Whatever.”
Hearing his unfriendly tone again, Cen Wu wondered what she had done to offend him this time.
The thoughts of a six-year-old boy really were impossible to understand.
Sneaking quietly toward the prey, Cen Wu finally saw what the thermal imaging had detected.
It was a wild deer.
Standing nearly two meters tall, it had razor-sharp antlers that spread like coral.
It looked capable of kicking her to death with a single strike.
Cen Wu fell silent.
Can I really drive this wild deer toward Luke?
No matter how she looked at it…
It certainly did not seem afraid of her.
Thinking was one thing.
Actually doing it was another.
Cen Wu still bravely charged forward.
Gripping a tree branch she had picked up along the way, she rushed over like a reckless brute.
The wild deer was startled at first.
Its four legs trembled in panic.
But after realizing the intruder was nothing more than a tiny child who was not even as tall as one of its legs, it stopped trying to flee.
Instead, it let out a series of snorting noises that sounded remarkably like laughter.
She had been looked down upon.
Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about it.
At her current height, even if she jumped with all her strength, she could only reach the deer’s knees.
Just then, Luke arrived.
The instant the wild deer turned to look at him, its mouth stopped chewing.
A blade of grass slipped from its lips and landed squarely on Cen Wu’s head.
Cen Wu glanced at Luke in surprise.
She took out the detector.
After confirming that the wild deer was uncontaminated, she quickly finished it off with a flurry of punches.
Dragging the several-hundred-jin wild deer behind her, she said,
“Thank you. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have been able to deal with it.”
Without immobilizing it first, even if she broke one of its legs with a punch, she would still have to endure the attacks from its remaining legs.
Luke merely pressed his lips into a cold line.
His eyes remained fixed on the detector in his hand.
On the palm-sized screen, the detector warned that numerous animals were rapidly converging on their location.