After dinner, Jiang Yanxin insisted that Chen Wan shouldn’t wash the dishes, taking on the task herself. In the apocalypse, the biggest fear is becoming useless. Once you’re deemed worthless, you could be abandoned at any moment. Jiang Yanxin had learned this lesson well over the past few months.
Chen Wan couldn’t argue with Jiang Yanxin, so she went over to Yang Yang, wanting to play with her. With this thought, Chen Wan picked up Yang Yang, letting her lean in her arms to play.
Yang Yang found Chen Wan’s embrace novel and tentatively rubbed her little face against Chen Wan’s arm, acting cute. Chen Wan had no resistance to such a soft and adorable child. She immediately kissed Yang Yang, saying, “Yang Yang is so good. Let mommy see if you’re all clean.”
As she spoke, Chen Wan leaned in, sniffing Yang Yang while teasing her. Yang Yang giggled happily in Chen Wan’s arms. Seeing Yang Yang so joyful, Chen Wan continued to play with her, “Hmm, mommy smells it. Our Yang Yang is a fragrant baby now.”
“Fragrant~” Yang Yang cooed in her baby voice, rubbing her little head against Chen Wan. Chen Wan’s eyes were filled with tenderness as she played with Yang Yang.
Jiang Yanxin heard the soft voices and turned to see the two of them. She saw Yang Yang happily playing in Chen Wan’s arms and Chen Wan’s gentle gaze. Even Jiang Yanxin’s lips curled into a slight smile. She thought to herself that it would be wonderful if Chen Wan could always be like this. But she feared things wouldn’t be so simple. What if Chen Wan was only being nice to Yang Yang because she was in a good mood? What if her mood soured tomorrow? Would she still be kind to Yang Yang?
Jiang Yanxin took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm. Their current situation was already much better than yesterday. Yesterday, she was on the brink of life and death, but now she and Yang Yang had a place to stay and warm food to eat.
After Jiang Yanxin finished washing the dishes, Chen Wan handed Yang Yang to her and pointed to the bunk beds in the RV. “You and Yang Yang sleep on the bottom double bed. I’ll take the top. Let’s rest for a while and then drive out in the afternoon to see if we can find anything useful.”
“Okay,” Jiang Yanxin nodded, giving Chen Wan a complicated look before taking Yang Yang to bed. After playing with Chen Wan, Yang Yang was no longer as afraid of her. She bravely waved her little hand at Chen Wan, “Mommy, good afternoon~”
Chen Wan smiled at Yang Yang and gently coaxed, “Good afternoon, Yang Yang. Sleep well.” Yang Yang, seeing her mommy smile, happily snuggled into Jiang Yanxin’s arms. After Chen Wan climbed to the top bunk, Yang Yang whispered to Jiang Yanxin, “Mommy, I kind of like this mommy now.”
Jiang Yanxin gently patted Yang Yang’s back, soothing her, “It’s good that you like her.” At the same time, her brown eyes deepened. If it was for her daughter, she didn’t mind sacrificing a few things.
Chen Wan hadn’t slept all night. When she woke up, it was already past four in the afternoon. Climbing down from the top bunk, she saw that Jiang Yanxin and Yang Yang were still asleep. She grabbed a bottle of water to drink, planning to drive out and search for food before it got dark.
Jiang Yanxin seemed to hear the noise and opened her eyes. This was the most peaceful sleep she had had since the apocalypse began, and for a moment, it felt almost unreal.
Chen Wan saw her wake up, smiled at her, and handed over a bottle of water. “Drink some water. I’m about to drive around the area.”
Jiang Yanxin took the bottled water from Chen Wan’s hand, glanced at her, and whispered, “Thank you.”
“No need. I’m going to start the car.” Chen Wan said as she placed the empty water bottle aside, moved the steel plate blocking the front windshield, and turned off the lights in the RV.
It was already bright outside. Chen Wan sat in the driver’s seat and gave instructions to the system, “Scan the nearby shops for any supplies and check for any dangers.”
“Understood, host. Scanning function activated.” The mechanical voice of the system sounded again.
As the RV started, the previously quiet neighborhood was like a stone thrown into a lake, causing ripples. Zombies, hearing the noise, slowly moved towards the RV.
Chen Wan wasn’t afraid of these zombies. They were just delivering crystal cores to her doorstep. It would be a waste not to collect them.
Instead of turning the car towards a zombie-free area, she drove straight into the horde. Zombies were either sent flying or crushed into pieces by the RV, and the system continuously updated the increasing number of crystal cores.
After collecting over two hundred crystal cores, Chen Wan ignored the remaining zombies and drove the RV towards a street lined with shops, using the wipers to clean the blood off the windshield.
Jiang Yanxin, sitting on the bed, was horrified by Chen Wan’s actions. She couldn’t understand why Chen Wan chose to drive through the zombies instead of avoiding them. Fortunately, the RV seemed special and remained unscathed.
After driving a short distance, the system’s mechanical voice sounded in Chen Wan’s mind, “Detected a convenience store with many supplies left unscavenged to the left front. Ten meters to the right, a restaurant has some supplies left unscavenged.”
“Got it.” Chen Wan stopped the car, got up from the driver’s seat, and prepared to take a narrow knife to get off the RV.
Yang Yang rubbed her eyes and woke up with difficulty. Sleeping in the RV was so comfortable that Yang Yang felt like she was dreaming.
Chen Wan saw Yang Yang wake up, walked to the bed, and touched Yang Yang’s little face. “Awake? Mommy is going to find dinner for tonight. Be good and stay in the car with mom, okay?” Yang Yang nodded obediently, as long as mommy didn’t abandon her.
Jiang Yanxin saw Chen Wan about to leave and quickly called out, “Wait a minute, are you sure the car is absolutely safe?” Chen Wan nodded, thinking Jiang Yanxin was worried. “Don’t worry, this car has been specially modified. It’s very safe. No zombies can get in.”
Jiang Yanxin nodded at her words. “I’ll go with you. It’s dangerous to find supplies alone. The two of us can bring back more things.”
Chen Wan didn’t expect Jiang Yanxin to want to go too, but she nodded.
In the apocalypse, learning basic survival skills could sometimes save lives. Chen Wan couldn’t guarantee she would be with them every second, so having the ability to protect themselves was essential for survival.
Jiang Yanxin, seeing her agree, kissed Yang Yang’s little face and instructed, “Yang Yang, mommy and mom are going down to find things. Stay here and don’t move. Just play on the bed. We’ll be back soon, okay?” Yang Yang nodded. She would be scared alone, but mommy and mom were doing important things, and she had to be good so mommy would like her.
“Okay, stay here. I’ll be back soon.” Jiang Yanxin kissed Yang Yang’s little face again, then got up, picked up the rusty axe on the ground, and followed Chen Wan out of the RV.
The small shop was just on the curb to the left, and the system detected a male zombie inside, but no other dangers.
Chen Wan said to Jiang Yanxin behind her, “I’ll go in first, stay close to me.”
“Okay.” Jiang Yanxin had killed a zombie before, so she had some experience.
Chen Wan pushed the door open and went in. The smell inside wasn’t too bad, probably because there was only one zombie.
She walked further in and saw a male zombie with half of his face rotted away staring intently at her. Without hesitation, Chen Wan grabbed a chair by the window and smashed it at the zombie. She forgot about her increased strength, and after three hits, the zombie’s head was completely smashed.
Jiang Yanxin watched in shock from behind. Chen Wan coughed lightly, “I didn’t control my strength well. Let’s not worry about him and start packing things.”
Each of them had a large backpack on their back and a luggage bag in hand. They began scavenging supplies from the small shop. The shelves were still full, and Chen Wan threw all the canned food and instant noodles into her backpack, filling it up. The luggage bag was packed with various snacks like chips.
Jiang Yanxin also kept stuffing instant biscuits into her backpack. The bread and similar items had already gone bad, so they could only take non-perishable food.
Chen Wan and Jiang Yanxin carried their luggage bags and backpacks towards the RV.
Chen Wan reminded Jiang Yanxin, “Come to the RV’s trunk.”
Jiang Yanxin nodded and followed Chen Wan. As soon as Chen Wan stood by the car, a door at the back of the RV opened. The trunk was about two cubic meters in size. Chen Wan piled all the items from her two bags into the trunk.
Jiang Yanxin wondered if her stuff would fit, but the next moment, she was amazed. Everything in the trunk shrank down, taking up very little space.
Seeing Jiang Yanxin’s surprise, Chen Wan explained, “This is a compressed space. It looks like it’s only two cubic meters, but it’s actually ten cubic meters inside. We can store a lot of things. Let’s take everything useful from the shop; you never know when it might come in handy.”
Jiang Yanxin handed her bag to Chen Wan and said, “Okay.”
She then gave Chen Wan a complicated look, realizing that her talk about having special abilities was true. The two of them went back and forth between the small shop and the trunk about a dozen times. When there was almost nothing left on the shelves, Chen Wan even threw the cigarettes and gum from the cashier’s counter into her bag.
There was still a lot of alcohol left in the shop, so Jiang Yanxin packed those into bags as well. When Chen Wan came over, she explained, “We don’t like to drink, but we can trade these for other supplies. In the apocalypse, it will be a long time before anyone has the mood to make alcohol.”
Chen Wan nodded, “True, let’s take them all.”
She took off her backpack and started packing the alcohol. The packaging boxes took up too much space, so they threw them away and only kept the bottles.
After they had cleaned out the small shop, Chen Wan led Jiang Yanxin to a small restaurant not far to the right. There were no zombies or other dangers inside.
