My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 105
by Little PandaMutated Birds
Although Ren Chenxi felt that she personally had no expectations for sleeping in a communal sleeping bunk1, she reluctantly agreed to help the girls move things to the second floor just so she wouldn’t let them down. And it was only a superficial agreement; she planned to find a random excuse to go back to her own room to sleep when night fell. She deliberately didn’t bring her room’s electric blanket downstairs, just so she could return to her room to sleep at any time.
But in the end, when Ren Chenxi actually sat comfortably with the girls at night on the mattresses covered with electric blankets, leaning back against soft, comfortable large cushions, holding Tantan in her arms, squeezing next to her close friends, and covered by a thick quilt while discussing the upcoming plot of the movie from time to time—it was actually really warm and cozy. Of course, it would have been even better if Mu Ning hadn’t insisted on squeezing into the same quilt with her on the other side.
As everyone knows, having many girls living together in a dormitory tends to cause a lot of friction, but the prerequisite for such friction is that there are always a few weirdos2 in the dorm. The girls Ren Chenxi hung out with all had great personalities. Even someone as highly cautious as Huo Keyu ended up happily blending in with them.
Therefore, the experience of sleeping in a communal sleeping bunk with these girls was quite nice. At least it was much better than the roommates she had lived with in college. So much so that after everyone finished watching two movies and someone suggested it was time to sleep, Ren Chenxi actually felt lazy, too sluggish to leave the already warm covers and go upstairs.
Forget it, sleeping here together in the communal sleeping bunk was pretty nice~ Outside, the cold wind could howl all it wanted, but inside, it was toasty and warm, as beautiful as a spring day. On this warm communal sleeping bunk, the group of girls soon drifted off into sweet dreams. This was the case for Mu Ning. Taking advantage of the fact that Ren Chenxi and Tantan were fast asleep, she secretly pushed Tantan to the head of the bed, then snuggled tightly against Ren Chenxi and fell into the sweetest dream she had had since the apocalypse began.
The heavy rain fell continuously for a week. On the eighth day, the rain finally stopped. However, dark clouds still thickly blanketed the sky, making it feel like it could start raining again at any moment. For safety’s sake, in such weather, the survivors in the base sensibly chose to stay in the base and rest. In any case, with the arrival of the bitter winter, the base had already started providing free seafood congee and seafood soup for the elderly and children.
Upon learning of Qi Sheng’s charitable act, Ren Chenxi and the others deliberately took out a large amount of seafood—more than they could finish over the entire winter. They dismembered the giant 6th-order mutated fish, cut it into small pieces, and had Mu Ning freeze them into ice blocks to deliver to Qi Sheng. This way, not only would Qi Sheng be unable to tell the original volume of the fish meat, but they could also take the opportunity to explain that their seafood had been preserved for so long thanks to Mu Ning’s newly mutated ice-system esper ability.
Knowing that Mu Ning’s water-system ability had mutated into an ice-system esper ability, Qi Sheng felt much more at peace. He simply expressed his deep gratitude to Chen Gu and the others who delivered the seafood. Before winter arrived, Qi Sheng had also taken the opportunity to catch a lot of seafood, and other relatively strong survivor squads had delivered quite a bit as well. Coupled with this batch sent by Chen Gu, they should be able to supply three meals a day for the old, weak, sick, and disabled in the base this winter.
During the continuous heavy rain of the past few days, the number of survivors going to the cafeteria for meals had drastically decreased. It was rare for the rain to stop today. Although the sky was still gloomy, at least they no longer had to brave the cold, damp air while letting freezing rainwater cling to their clothes and skin. Moreover, after being cooped up indoors for so long, it was about time to come out for some fresh air.
Ren Chenxi and her group didn’t need to go to the cafeteria for lunch. In fact, they found it somewhat difficult to even go down to the first floor to cook and eat. The weather was getting colder and colder. Although it hadn’t snowed, the temperature had already dropped to five or six degrees. Coupled with the magic attack3 of the damp, cold air, the real-feel temperature was even lower. Therefore, compared to the warm and comfortable second floor, asking the girls to go to the first floor to cook and eat had actually become a very torturous chore.
The once hardworking girls, thoroughly reformed by the heaters and electric blankets, had actually become lazy. For instance, it was rare for the rain to stop today, but the girls still felt too lazy to go downstairs to cook.
Tang Ying, this little lazyhead, brought up a very clever little question despite being extremely reluctant to leave the warm covers: “Xi-jie, your inventory can preserve freshness, but can it preserve temperature?”
“It should… be able to, right?” After all, the frozen seafood that had been frozen solid by Mu Ning, when stored in her inventory and taken out again, showed no trace of the ice melting.
“If it can preserve freshness and preserve temperature, we might as well just cook a ton of food in one go today, and then store it all in Xi-jie’s inventory. Then whenever it’s mealtime, we won’t have to go downstairs to eat at all~”
As soon as Tang Ying’s suggestion came out, the girls instantly got excited. They too had had enough of getting out of their warm beds every time, only to go down to the freezing first floor to cook and eat.
“We might as well make lots and lots of snacks and pastries too! That way, we can eat while watching movies~”
“We can make a few small bed tables too~ We can eat right here on our communal sleeping bunk~”
“That’s enough!” Seeing the girls getting more and more excited, looking as if they could keep talking for another half an hour, Ren Chenxi had no choice but to exasperatedly interrupt. “Why don’t you guys just move the bathroom to the second floor while you’re at it! That way, you’d even save yourselves the trouble of going downstairs to brush your teeth, wash your faces, and use the toilet~”
“Yeah… it would be great if we could move the bathroom to the second floor…” Tang Ying, who was already climbing two fewer flights of stairs, was starting to get greedy again.
“…” Looking at the regretful expressions on the girls’ faces, Ren Chenxi felt a twinge of worry. If this kept up, by the time winter passed, all these girls would be raised into lazy bugs!
Meeting Ren Chenxi’s speechless gaze, Tang Ying seemed to realize her demands had gone a bit overboard. She stuck her tongue out sheepishly and pleaded with Ren Chenxi again, “Xi-jie, since we can’t move the bathroom up, let’s just make a lot of food and snacks in one go, okay? Since the fire will already be lit and the pots heated, to conserve firewood and water resources, let’s cook a lot at once~”
“…” Good heavens, was this what she called conserving resources!
Ren Chenxi wasn’t lacking in all sorts of tableware, considering she had harvested several large boxes of it back in the underground warehouse. It was just… “With so much tableware, won’t you guys be tired washing it all when it piles up?”
“Not tired, not tired, not tired! We can boil a big pot of water and wash them all at once! It’s much easier than having to cook every day!!!” The girls’ response was completely unified. “Don’t worry, Xi-jie, we’ll wash all the tableware ourselves from now on~”
“So… you’re about to turn into the guys you despise. Letting tableware pile up for days before washing it all at once—isn’t that what you find the most disgusting!”
“But we aren’t letting it pile up in the room~ Since your inventory preserves freshness, Xi-jie, if we put the tableware in right after eating, when we take it out later, it’ll still be in a ‘just eaten’ state, right~ So technically, we are washing the dishes right after we eat them~”
“…” They made so much sense that she actually couldn’t refute it.
In the very end, Ren Chenxi had no choice but to agree to the girls’ request. However, she added one condition: absolutely no dropping food crumbs onto the bed. The girls were still quite clever about this and had a very good countermeasure ready.
“Don’t worry, Xi-jie, before every meal, we’ll lay down a waterproof table mat first~~~”
“…” Alright then, you clever little things. She really hoped that after this winter passed, they would go back to being as hardworking as before.
Having obtained Ren Chenxi’s consent, the girls got out of bed much more briskly. After they excitedly hurried downstairs, Ren Chenxi looked out the window and noticed that the sky outside was even gloomier than it had been in the morning.
“It’s not going to pour again, is it? And looking at those dark clouds, it might be a really, really heavy downpour?” Zhang Tongqi muttered with some concern.
“Ah, so what if there’s a heavy downpour? It won’t affect our cooking anyway~ Come on, come on, everyone, hurry up! Keyu, barbecue some more skewers too! These will be our snacks while watching movies~” On the other side, Wu Tong waved her hand dismissively.
As soon as Wu Tong’s voice fell, the girls enthusiastically busied themselves. Ren Chenxi, however, stood by the window, frowning at the gloomy sky outside. Mu Ning walked up next to her, noticed her solemn expression, and also looked up at the sky. But after staring for a long time, it was just a patch of dark clouds.
“What’s wrong? Is there something off about these clouds?”
Ren Chenxi couldn’t answer Mu Ning’s question. Looking at the mini-map, there were only green dots and yellow dots wandering around in her current area. It seemed as if nothing was wrong. But, it was also possible that the dark clouds in the sky were too far from the ground, so the mini-map couldn’t warn her of the danger above them.
Ren Chenxi’s intuition told her that there had to be something above those pitch-black clouds. Unfortunately, it was truly hard to make anything out in the gloomy sky. No matter how superior her eyesight was, no matter how hard she looked, all she saw was a mass of dark clouds. Watching those clouds grow darker and darker, thicker and thicker, and even feeling like they were getting closer, Ren Chenxi finally spotted a clue.
“Something is very wrong. This patch of dark clouds seems to be made up of mutated birds!”
Accompanying Ren Chenxi’s words, that massive expanse of dark clouds in the sky finally bore down fiercely! At the same time, Ren Chenxi’s mini-map turned entirely into a blinding expanse of red.
“Mutated birds! Mutated birds are attacking the base!”
The speed of this massive, oppressive swarm of mutated birds was incredibly fast. In just a moment’s time, the screams of other survivors rang out from outside the building.
“Let’s go, we’re heading to the rooftop to check the situation!”
Outside, the various screams and the flap flap, thwack thwack sounds of something attacking the building were heard by the girls who were cooking. As Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning ran upstairs, they hurriedly extinguished the stove fire and followed their pace.
“Attention, everyone! Attention, everyone! Mutated birds are attacking the base. Please take shelter inside buildings immediately! Please take shelter inside buildings immediately.”
Faced with such a massive surprise attack from the mutated birds, Qi Sheng’s reaction was also very fast. Almost at the very first moment, he used the base’s broadcast system to notify all the survivors to take cover.
When Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning reached the top floor and were just preparing to open the iron door to the rooftop, they heard a flurry of flap flap flap sounds of beating wings from outside, along with a clang clang clang clang sound, like sharp objects striking the iron door.
“What do we do? A lot of mutated birds have gathered outside the door as well. As soon as this iron door opens, they’ll definitely attack us, right?”
Listening to the continuous crackle and clatter outside the door, the girls’ expressions were rather grim. Everyone knew that their current situation was only temporarily safe. The mutated birds’ attacks outside were so ferocious, and their numbers were so vast. It was only a matter of time before they broke through this iron door and collapsed the building. Rather than waiting passively to fall into an even more dangerous situation, it would be better to take the initiative and attack.
The author has something to say:
Regarding this issue of washing dishes, I have to complain a bit. I super, super, super hate washing dishes! But sometimes when my mom is in a rush to head out, the dishes left in the sink fall to me to wash. (Don’t ask about my dad, he doesn’t even wash his own bowl.) To get rid of the hassle of washing dishes, I told my mom I’d pay for a dishwasher. Part of it was also wanting to make things easier for her, but what did my mom say? She said she’d rather wash the dishes herself than have a dishwasher. People in the past all got through it this way; how could I be so pretentious4 about it.
I argued back, “What about the washing machine? People in the past washed their own clothes too! Why do you use a washing machine? Isn’t a dishwasher pretty much the same thing as a washing machine!”
She couldn’t out-argue me, so she could only remain incredibly stubborn, saying that she just liked washing dishes anyway. Most of the time she washed them, so what was I so anxious about?
So I stopped arguing with her. Normally, I only wash my own bowl and won’t even touch the other dishes in the sink. Today my mom was in a rush to go up to the rooftop to bring in the laundry, and she asked me to help her wash the dishes. I got all sarcastic: “Heh, don’t you like washing dishes? Didn’t you say you wash them all yourself? You didn’t want a dishwasher when I offered to buy one, so why are you calling me now!”
It’s not that your author is unfilial; it’s that the money I saved to buy the dishwasher was eventually scammed away by my mom to buy clothes! In her view, if she didn’t want the dishwasher, using that money to buy clothes was the same thing. I’m just so mad!!!
So I really don’t understand the old-fashioned thinking of the previous generation. She didn’t want me to buy a dishwasher and blamed me for being lazy. She didn’t want me to buy a robot vacuum and blamed me for refusing to help with housework. Can’t I just spend money to buy myself some relaxation!!!
Footnotes
- Dà tōngpù (大通铺): A large sleeping area created by arranging many beds or mattresses together, often on the floor, for a group of people to sleep in the same room.
- Qípā (奇葩): A Chinese internet slang term literally meaning 'exotic flower', used to describe an eccentric, unreasonable, or exceptionally bizarre person.
- Mófǎ gōngjī (魔法攻击): Chinese internet slang mapping a gaming concept to reality, describing the wet, biting cold typical of southern China winters that seems to magically penetrate clothing.
- Jiǎoqíng (矫情): A Chinese internet slang term describing someone who acts unreasonably delicate, overly dramatic, fussy, or hypocritically demanding about a given situation.
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