Despite his massive size, Luo Shuang had a delicate and sensitive heart, and now, Xiao Hei and her piglets were his lifeblood. When he heard Old Zhang say he wanted to eat the little pig, Luo Shuang's eyes widened in shock! His lips quivered for a moment, and he softly murmured, "No, no way, it's not allowed."
Perplexed by Luo Shuang's reaction, Old Zhang asked, "But aren't pigs meant to be eaten? What do you mean by that?"
Old Zhang was known in the town for his fierceness, and Luo Shuang couldn't help but shiver in fear. With a pitiful look, he replied, "But it's still a baby."
Coming from a cute girl, such words would be adorable, but when they came from a towering man like Luo Shuang, they seemed more terrifying than endearing. Old Zhang's face instantly turned green, and he looked tangled but then threatened Luo Shuang, "Do you believe I'll hit you if you keep talking like that again?"
Frightened by Old Zhang's threat, Luo Shuang trembled with fear. Tao Ran couldn't stand by and watch the bullying. "What's going on here? No one is allowed to bully Luo Shuang. I'll take care of dinner, and your opinion is not needed."
Old Zhang was known to blabber a lot, even in front of Kui Qingqing. However, he dared not talk back to Tao Ran, the person who had thrown him into the lake. He looked at Tao Ran, his eyes twitching, and then sought help from Kui Qingqing. Kui Qingqing met his gaze for a few seconds, then casually looked away as if nothing had happened.
Crap, you can't treat your brother like this...
Ignoring Old Zhang's resentful gaze, Kui Qingqing took the people with her to clean up. It was already late at night, and they had been poisoned, fought, and tirelessly run away for so long. Everyone was famished. Tao Ran looked around and saw that everyone was on the verge of collapse.
Tao Ran instructed the people following him, "Go clean the stove and prepare the bowls for everyone's meal."
Those people asked, "What about the food?"
"I'll handle it," Tao Ran replied confidently.
"Don't you need any help?"
"I already have help," Tao Ran said, trying to blow out a loud whistle but only managed to spit. Nonetheless, Tao Ran maintained a calm and serious expression, before reaching out to clap his hands loudly.
A sense of danger enveloped the hearts of the group of superpowers. Some of them sensed it immediately and warned, "There's danger!"
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept through the bushes, and a gorgeous striped tiger leaped out. Everyone was startled, "A mutated tiger is coming!"
"Hold on, don't do anything!" Tao Ran stopped them, "Don't act rashly! This is my own tiger, it's the cat I adopted last night..."
Everyone: "Huh?!"
Tao Ran: "...it belongs to the same family."
Tao Ran walked over and gently caressed the tiger's beautiful fur, saying, "No need to worry, it's harmless. Don't be afraid."
As a fire-type superpower, Kui Qingqing was least afraid of furry creatures like this. She approached the tiger and asked, "Can it understand human language?"
Tao Ran pondered for a moment and replied, "I think… it's much smarter than some people."
Though she knew Tao Ran wasn't talking about her, Kui Qingqing still had a feeling of being shot. What was that feeling?
Tao Ran hopped on the tiger's back, "We won't be short on meat for dinner. Do we need some wild vegetables?"
"In that case, let's get some wild vegetables," Kui Qingqing said as she watched Tao Ran who was about to leave. She felt a strange feeling in her heart and called out to him, "Chao Ge."
Tao Ran turned, "Huh?"
As the words were about to leave her mouth, suddenly she didn't know how to say them. Kui Qingqing hurriedly changed the topic and asked, "What's the tiger's name?"
"Oh, it's called Fluffy."
Tao Ran rode Fluffy up the mountain. Once he entered the mountain, Fluffy felt like a fish in water. It dashed through the forest, chasing after sheep and playing with birds. Hunting was left to Fluffy while Tao Ran followed Xiao Mei's guidance to pick wild vegetables.
With the sudden drop in population, many places became desolate and devoid of human presence. In these uninhabited areas, plants and animals thrived, growing in a wild frenzy. Tao Ran picked a bunch of wild vegetables in no time.
He had tried some of these wild vegetables before and had seen them at the market. They were collected and sold at a high price. In reality, their nutritional value was not higher than regular vegetables, nor were they tastier. However, some people seemed enchanted by these wild vegetables and couldn't resist buying them, as if they were under a magical spell.
Actually, Tao Ran didn't quite understand this kind of mindset. Fluffy, with a mountain goat in its jaws, pranced over and dropped the goat's lifeless body at Tao Ran's feet. Astonishment flickered in Tao Ran's eyes as he exclaimed, "Wow, that's impressive! You're so amazing!"
So, Fluffy, as if it had taken some sort of exhilarating stimulant, excitedly darted back into the woods, continuing to wreak havoc on other innocent animals. But as soon as the tiger left, Tao Ran's expression turned blank. Xiaomei Mei praised, "Your acting skills are getting better, Host."
Tao Ran responded, "If I can deceive a supporting character, then a mere cat is no challenge."
Little Mei's panda face suddenly looked complicated. "Actually... the supporting character isn't any harder to deceive than Fluffy."
Tao Ran: "..."
"Achoo!" Kui Qingqing sneezed, holding a makeshift broom and said strangely. "I feel like someone is talking behind my back."
Inside a lakeside cabin, Qin Ke lay unconscious, and Zhen Ling felt his pulse. Although she didn't know Chinese medicine, she could feel that Qin Ke's pulse was weak. The wooden house was right by the lake, and the ground was damp; Zhen Ling was worried about the possibility of rising tides at night.
Zhen Ling was an ordinary woman without any superpowers, while Qin Ke was a tall and robust man. Carrying or piggybacking him to the villa seemed unrealistic. After some thought, Zhen Ling decided to drag him there.
She found a particularly dirty piece of canvas, but its sturdiness mattered more than if it's dirty or not. She carefully placed Qin Ke on the canvas and started dragging him toward the villa on the small hill.
Given the weight and the uphill path, Zhen Ling quickly exhausted her strength. She dragged a little, then rested a bit, repeating this pattern for over an hour to cover the not-so-far distance to the villa. When she finally reached there, she collapsed on the ground, utterly drained.
After a brief rest, she approached the villa's entrance. The doorknob was covered with dust, indicating that no one had lived here for a long time. From the outside, the villa's appearance seemed well-maintained, albeit dirty. Zhen Ling tried pushing the door, but it was locked.
She circled around the villa, then smashed a window with a stone and climbed through it. The floor on the windowsill was covered in dust, and Zhen Ling coughed a few times, her body covered in itchy dust.
She managed to open the door to the living room, but the electricity was out and it couldn't be lit anymore. Mu Huanhuan tore a piece of curtain down and made a torch out of it. Though the villa appeared eerie, messy, and unwelcoming, the basic facilities were intact, and there were no animals' nests. With some cleaning, it would be habitable.
She opened the door from the inside, and there were already a few birds settled on Qin Ke lying outside. Zhen Ling shooed the birds away, dragged Qin Ke inside, and then fetched water from the lake with a bucket to clean up a room.
The day was utterly exhausting. Too exhausted to clean the entire villa, Zhen Ling focused on one room. After tidying it up, she went downstairs to fix the broken window she had used to enter. Her arms felt numb and sore, as if they didn't belong to her.
Qin Ke was still lying quietly without any movement, and Zhen Ling grew restless and fearful. She dreaded the possibility of Qin Ke slipping into a coma, never to wake up again.
Feeling weary enough to lie on the ground and sleep, Zhen Ling couldn't allow herself that luxury. She couldn't leave Qin Ke unattended. Zhen Ling left the house, there was a forest outside. She found several mushrooms there. She has studied almost all mutated animals and plants in the laboratory before, so she knows a lot about the mushrooms. After picking a lot of non-toxic mushrooms back home, Zhen Ling boiled them in a metal pot.
Normally if they were together, she would have taken great pleasure in making a creamy sautéed mushroom dish or something similar, but now, as she sipped the fragrant yet flavorless without any seasoning mushroom soup, she felt like crying. Crying was not something she was afraid of, nor was she afraid of being tired, but she feared feeling utterly hopeless and being alone.
Not only was she desperate, but she also felt guilty. It was her fault that Qin Ke ended up like this, and yet, she had been contemplating leaving him behind. The mushroom soup was ready. Zhen Ling scooped a bowlful into a chipped bowl, took a sip, and inhaled its fragrant aroma. Yet, when she tasted it, there was almost no flavor.
She supported Qin Ke and was about to start feeding him the soup.
Suddenly, Qin Ke choked in his stupor and woke up from his unconscious state. He saw a disheveled, dirty woman staring at him with wide eyes, and he was startled, "I... I..."
Zhen Ling leaned closer to hear what he wanted to say. Qin Ke said, "I don't want to improve the genes for the savages ah... I can't have children..."
Zhen Ling: "..."
In that moment, a mix of joy and sorrow overwhelmed Zhen Ling. She was so delighted she felt like flying, but also exasperated to the point of almost fainting. Finally, she said, "You're finally awake, woowoo..."
"Zhen Ling?" Qin Ke reached out to touch her face, but felt something black and sticky. "What happened to you?"
Tears started flowing from Zhen Ling's eyes, leaving two clear white trails washed out of the stain on her dirty face. She sobbed, "You're finally awake. If you hadn't, I'd just die alongside you."
Qin Ke's heart ached, "Don't say such silly things. I'm perfectly fine."
Qin Ke was a supernatural being, and his recovery ability was better than ordinary people. He barely managed to sit up despite the difficulty, and asked, "Where are we?"
Zhen Ling recounted everything that had happened after he lost consciousness. Then she asked, "Do you want to go find Chao Ge and the others?"
"I wish I could," Qin Ke smiled wryly, "but who knows where they've gone."
Zhen Ling fell silent. If Qin Ke joined another faction, she wouldn't be able to follow him. She wanted to return to the city for ordinary people, where Qin Ke couldn't accompany her either. Here, in these wild mountains, they were free and together, but once they decided to leave, they would have to make a choice.
Qin Ke seemed to have thought about the same dilemma. He forced a smile and said, "The mushroom soup you made tastes great. Your cooking skills are really good."
"What's so delicious about plain boiled mushrooms?" Zhen Ling said, "It would be great if there was some salt and oil."