Seeing the envy written all over Yuan Tao’s face, Zhou Yunxi couldn’t help smiling. It was like ice and snow melting away. Everything around him seemed to brighten.
Yuan Tao stared, transfixed.
Her adorably dazed expression made him reach out and ruffle her hair, leaving it even messier than before.
Coming to her senses, she swatted his hand away.
“Yunxi-ge, you’re messing up my hair!”
He ignored her indignant complaint. She reminded him of an irritated kitten, utterly adorable. Even the gloom the apocalypse had brought him lifted in that moment.
It was already two in the morning. After another reminder from Zhou Yunxi, Yuan Tao finally went back to her room to rest.
Worried that she might develop a high fever with no one there to look after her, he stayed in the upstairs sitting room. He checked on her several times after she fell asleep. But despite keeping watch all night, her temperature remained only slightly elevated until dawn, with no sign of rising further.
Early the next morning, heavy rain began to fall beneath a dark, overcast sky. Instead of dropping, the temperature rose another few degrees, leaving the air muggy and oppressive.
When Yuan Tao woke, she instinctively checked how she felt. Nothing seemed different from usual. She touched her forehead and found that she still had a slight fever.
She was puzzled. Something seemed odd about the way her ability was awakening.
She entered the space, and Xiao Jiu leaped into her arms.
“Xiao Jiu, why do I still have this low fever?”
Is my ability awakening in slow motion? Does it come with a waiting period?
“Taozi, Xiao Jiu doesn’t know either.” It shook its head.
“Oh, Taozi! That dying peach tree in the courtyard has grown a new leaf!”
Xiao Jiu had only noticed it while inspecting the space that morning.
Yuan Tao promptly forgot about her ability and teleported to the tree.
It was enormous, but the tender green leaf stood out clearly against its bare branches. That single new leaf seemed to fill the withered tree with boundless life.
Looking at it, Yuan Tao felt a strange sense of familiarity. She couldn’t resist reaching out to touch its trunk.
An odd sensation flickered through her, too fleeting to grasp.
“Taozi, is something wrong?” Xiao Jiu couldn’t help asking.
There was something strange about this peach tree. Xiao Jiu was the space’s item spirit, yet it couldn’t discover a single thing about it.
Yuan Tao shook her head. She didn’t understand it either.
Never mind. I’ll let it grow at its own pace.
Her gaze shifted to the spirit spring beside it, and something clicked. The spring water was probably meant to nourish the tree.
She told Xiao Jiu to water it with spirit spring water once a day.
Xiao Jiu eagerly agreed, promising to carry out the task perfectly.
Then it asked enthusiastically, “Taozi, are you going to kill zombies today? Once you kill some, you can draw cards!”
The lottery system had been bound to her for so long without getting to serve its purpose. Xiao Jiu felt it was time to show what it could do. It suspected that if it weren’t also the space’s item spirit, helping its master manage the place, she would have forgotten it altogether.
The reminder finally jogged Yuan Tao’s memory. Xiao Jiu was a lottery system, too.
It wasn’t entirely her fault. Killing zombies was the only way to earn draws, and she had been rushed off her feet for the past two months. She really had forgotten.
“I’ll go out and see how things are first, then talk to Yunxi-ge.”
She was still afraid of facing zombies.
When Yuan Tao went downstairs, Zhou Yunxi was already making congee in the kitchen. He wore a simple white shirt with the sleeves casually rolled to his forearms, exposing his strong wrists. Holding a long-handled spoon, he stood with his head lowered, patiently stirring the congee in a clay pot.
Yuan Tao stopped and stared for a few seconds. As far as she remembered, Zhou Yunxi had never set foot in the kitchen.
As though sensing her gaze, he turned.
“You’re awake? How do you feel? Still running a fever?”
“I’m fine. I don’t feel sick. The fever just won’t go away.”
She sat at the dining table and propped her chin on her hand, watching him.
Zhou Yunxi frowned but kept stirring.
“All right. The congee will be ready in another ten minutes. I added red dates and Chinese yam. It’s gentle on the stomach.”
He sounded so matter-of-fact, as though he had done this a thousand times.
“Yunxi-ge, you… know how to cook?” she asked, surprise in her voice.
He raised an eyebrow, amusement flickering in his eyes as he lowered his gaze to the pot again.
“I can manage a pot of congee.”
Watching him cook, Yuan Tao felt that he no longer seemed quite so distant and unapproachable.
He ladled the congee into bowls and brought them to the table. Yuan Tao took some of her favorite steamed buns and fried dough sticks from the space to go with it.
After breakfast, she looked out at the pouring rain.
“Yunxi-ge, once the rain stops, shall we go out and kill some zombies?”
He frowned at her, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“You still have a fever. You’re staying in for now. I have something to take care of outside today, so I won’t be able to look after you. Be good and stay home.”
Yuan Tao agreed.
Fine. I’ll stay home.
She was worried that her fever might suddenly spike while she was out anyway. Without Zhou Yunxi beside her, she would be serving herself up to the zombies.
The downpour didn’t last long. After two hours, it gradually eased.
Yuan Tao watched Zhou Yunxi drive away, fully equipped. She wasn’t particularly worried about him. He was a skilled fighter with two powerful abilities, and he had firearms in his space. Practically no one could hurt him.
The zombies were even less of a threat. At this early stage, they moved slowly. Even ordinary people could kill them if they overcame their fear. Most, however, were so terrified that fighting back didn’t even occur to them.
After Zhou Yunxi left, Yuan Tao grew a little bored. She went into the kitchen, took out some flour, and decided to make steamed buns.
She didn’t know how to make many things, but buns were one of them. She had learned by helping her grandparents since she was little.
She knew that before long, the temperature would rise, water and electricity would be cut off, and disturbances in the magnetic field would bring down the internet completely. While they still had power, she could prepare extra food to store in the space.
The tap water, however, was already unusable. It had been contaminated. The contamination wasn’t severe yet, but with so much clean water in her space, there was no reason to use any from outside.
Yuan Tao poured some flour into a clean bowl and added yeast. With one hand, she slowly poured in warm water from the space. With the other, she stirred clockwise with a pair of chopsticks until the mixture formed shaggy clumps. Then she kneaded it until the dough was smooth and sealed the bowl with plastic wrap.
While the dough rose, she could prepare the filling. She had decided on fresh meat buns.
She took out a piece of meat, cut it into small chunks, and put it through the meat grinder. Then she added chopped scallions and poured a spoonful of hot oil over them, releasing their fragrance at once. Finally, she mixed in light and dark soy sauce, covered the filling with plastic wrap, and set it aside.