My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 32

by Little Panda

Fan Juntian

While everyone was “processing” the corpses, only two waves of zombies came staggering over, and Ren Chenxi took care of all of them. She gave all the newly harvested crystal cores from her inventory to Tang Ying. Although it pained her heart and she was reluctant to part with them, Ren Chenxi hadn’t forgotten that with Tang Ying’s esper ability, it was very difficult for her to obtain crystal cores on her own. Besides, without the convenient hidden weapons Tang Ying provided, she wouldn’t have had enough suitable projectiles to deal with these zombies.

After the two waves of zombies, the bodies of the zombies and mutated beasts in front of the house were more or less dealt with. All the harvestable crystal cores had been dug out, and some choice cuts of meat from the mutated beasts had been carved off to be taken with them. In the past, they would have packed the mutated beast meat in clean bags and carried it all the way back, but this time, they had a spatial esper like Ren Chenxi…

“Xi-jie, can we store this meat in your space? We’re worried the smell will attract other mutated beasts with a keen sense of smell if we carry it all the way back.” Chen Gu came over to negotiate with Ren Chenxi, shamelessly putting on a thick face.¹ “Of course, as a token of our gratitude, you can take a portion of the meat for yourself, Xi-jie~” On one hand, they were in a hurry to get back to the base and didn’t want any more delays on the road, truly fearing that such a large bag of meat would attract unnecessary trouble. On the other hand, the spaces of most spatial espers came with a preservation function, so they hoped that by storing the fresh meat in Ren Chenxi’s space, it would still be fresh when they took it out.

Ren Chenxi didn’t refuse Chen Gu’s request. Her backpack had plenty of slots anyway, so storing two large bags of meat was no problem at all. Besides, their minivan was already in her backpack, so why fuss over two bags of meat? Thinking of their minivan, Ren Chenxi planned to take it out after stowing Chen Gu’s two bags of meat in her backpack.

But as if he had seen through her intentions, Chen Gu spoke up first again. “Xi-jie, how about we discuss something else… Um… you see, since we’re all going to Nanhai Base, and your bus is so big, why don’t we all just ride in one vehicle?”

“Chen-ge, just say you don’t have enough gas and want to save fuel by bumming a ride with us!” Yang Xiangrui, who had overheard Chen Gu complaining about their low fuel last night, immediately exposed him without ceremony.

Having his little scheme laid bare, Chen Gu didn’t show the slightest bit of embarrassment. Instead, he said brazenly,² “Can’t be helped! We were already low on fuel, and we even made a special detour to save you guys, so we used up a lot more!”

“But we’ve been driving this whole way, so we don’t know how much fuel we have left either. We don’t even know if that half-barrel of oil we siphoned from the gas station is enough!” Jian Dan was even more worried about the bus’s fuel level than Chen Gu was.

“Hey, you guys at least have half a barrel~ Use it, use it, huh?”

“But our vehicle obviously uses more fuel!”

Watching Chen Gu and Jian Dan start to “haggle” with each other like they were at a vegetable market,³ Ren Chenxi shook her head, speechless. “Jian Dan, forget it. Let’s just take our bus.”

“Ah, but Xi-jie…”

“Don’t worry, we have enough fuel.” As she spoke, Ren Chenxi took out the gasoline dropped by the monster that had been hit with the greasy card. Including the seven bottles used on the mutated wolves, she had a total of twelve 6L bottles of gasoline.

“Eh, Xi-jie, you actually have so much gasoline… Wait, gasoline? Doesn’t the bus use diesel?”

“It doesn’t matter.” Ren Chenxi had checked the detailed information for this system-produced gasoline; it stated that it was universally compatible with all fuel-consuming vehicles. Not just vehicles, but also generators and the like could use this system-produced gasoline. Whatever the principle behind it was, as long as it worked, that was all that mattered. “It’s just that the bottle says gasoline. What’s inside could be diesel.”

“…” How casual. If they used it so carelessly, were they sure their bus wouldn’t break down halfway there?

Although everyone was worried, they still added the twelve bottles of gasoline to the bus at Ren Chenxi’s insistence. And, to their relief, the bus drove smoothly all the way to the county town Chen Gu’s group had originally been heading for without any issues.

“See that? That tall building is the hotel where we usually stop to rest.” Having bummed a ride, borrowed her backpack, and needing her medicine, Chen Gu now treated Ren Chenxi and her group as his own people. As the bus passed a large hotel, Chen Gu made a point of showing it to them.

“Oh, oh! Got it, Chen-ge. We’ll remember this hotel.” How could they not understand Chen Gu’s intention? Jian Dan and the others immediately expressed their thanks.

Although they were all going to Nanhai Base, it was still a question mark whether they would travel together afterward. Besides, judging by Xi-jie’s attitude toward that iceberg beauty, it was very likely that they would just treat each other as strangers at the base. In that case, if they were to act on their own in the future, the other party’s willingness to share their temporary resting spot with them could be considered having done their utmost.⁴

After passing the hotel, the bus continued toward Nanhai Base. As they passed through another small town, Tang Ying, who had been staring at the scenery along the road, suddenly cried out in excitement, “Everyone, look! Over there, isn’t that a supermarket? Do you think there’s any food left inside?”

Seeing the half-standing, half-toppled supermarket sign Tang Ying was pointing at, Chen Gu and his group were very calm.

“Little sister, don’t get excited. You only see the supermarket sign, but did you see the blackened, dilapidated building behind it? That’s the supermarket. A huge explosion probably happened here during the apocalypse, and all the supplies inside were burned up. We’ve come to this supermarket before to scavenge for leftovers,⁵ but there was nothing inside.”

“Aww…”

Just as Tang Ying was feeling disappointed, Ren Chenxi suddenly interjected, “Did you check the underground warehouse?” According to Ren Chenxi’s mini-map, this supermarket did indeed have a warehouse underground.

“Eh? This supermarket has a warehouse underneath?” Chen Gu looked at Ren Chenxi, his face full of shock. “How did Xi-jie know there’s a warehouse under here?”

“…” I don’t know, I saw it on the map. Ren Chenxi twitched her lips and casually made something up. “In the city I used to be in, a large supermarket had an underground warehouse. I found a lot of useful supplies there, which helped me survive these past two years. So whenever I pass through other cities and see supermarkets, I instinctively wonder if they have underground warehouses.”

“That’s right!” Spurred on by Ren Chenxi’s words, Chen Gu turned to look at Mu Ning, eager to give it a try. “Boss, should we go check if that supermarket has an underground warehouse?”

Facing everyone’s eager gazes, Mu Ning just said faintly, “Back to the base first. Sun Jia still needs medicine. We can come back to check this supermarket next time.”

“Right, Xiao Jia is still waiting for our medicine!”

As Chen Gu’s group turned their thoughts back to their injured companion, a cold smile tugged at Ren Chenxi’s lips. Hmph, I won’t give you a chance to come back next time. I’ll come here first and have a look. If the goods in this underground warehouse are all there, I’ll clean them all out, leaving nothing behind~

Of course, this wasn’t her being selfish. In Ren Chenxi’s view, her relationship with Mu Ning was already terrible. Only by stockpiling as many supplies as possible could she continue to trade with Mu Ning for water resources in the future, or perhaps, trade with other water-system espers.

After leaving the supermarket far behind, the bus continued on its way. A strength esper from Mu Ning’s team took over the driving. Whenever they encountered zombies on the road, he would just ram straight through them. After each collision, he would let out a satisfied “Ha!”

Chen Gu and the other guys watched with envy and admiration. “Tsk, tsk, a big vehicle is so convenient. You can just run over these zombies blocking the road. Now look at our crappy minivan… Hey, Boss, let’s get a bus in the future, too! If not a bus, a public bus would work~”

Mu Ning couldn’t be bothered to respond to Chen Gu, but Zhang Tongqi at the side mocked him unceremoniously, “You’ll have the vehicle, but will you have the fuel?”

“…” They were having trouble fueling even their minivan!

It was already 11 a.m. when the bus arrived at Nanhai Base. Ren Chenxi remembered that it was around 8 or almost 9 in the morning, game time, when they left the suburbs. Along the way, they had encountered other vehicles, and Chen Gu would even stick his head out the window to greet a few of them. According to Chen Gu, these vehicles belonged to espers from the base who were out either looking for supplies or on missions.

Just as the bus pulled up to the main gate of Nanhai Base and everyone got out, a huge RV drove out. It was a beautiful and luxurious RV. Although it didn’t look as tough and sturdy as the off-road RV in Ren Chenxi’s apocalypse mall, it was… still enough to make Ren Chenxi envious for a good while.

“Mu Ning, you didn’t come back to the base all night. Where’d you go?” The RV’s window was rolled down, and someone inside greeted Mu Ning with an overly familiar air.

The person’s voice was a bit familiar. When Ren Chenxi got a clear look at his face, her expression instantly turned cold. Fan Juntian!

Although he had changed quite a bit, those disgusting, lust-filled eyes allowed Ren Chenxi to recognize Fan Juntian at a glance.

“Huh?” As if sensing he was being watched, Fan Juntian turned his head and looked at Ren Chenxi. “You… you… Ren Muhui! You’re still alive?”

From Fan Juntian’s voice, Ren Chenxi could hear a seething, teeth-grinding hatred.

Quickly adjusting her facial expression, Ren Chenxi feigned confusion and asked, “Excuse me… are you also a friend of my brother’s? I’m Ren Muhui’s younger sister, Ren Chenxi.” Although she had never liked Fan Juntian, Ren Chenxi had always been smart enough not to confront a petty person who used dirty tricks.⁶ Especially since it had been two years into the apocalypse and this man could still drive such a luxurious RV, his influence in Nanhai Base must be considerable. She also knew from the S University students that his family had relocated to this base. So, for the time being, she couldn’t afford to offend Fan Juntian.

At least, not on the surface.

“Younger sister?” Fan Juntian stared hard at Ren Chenxi for a long while before letting out a sneer. “Heh, who’s friends with Ren Muhui? But… you, his younger sister, are a lot easier on the eyes than your brother~”

“…” We have the exact same face, so how do you find the current me easier on the eyes than the old me! Ren Chenxi’s smile froze on her face as she frantically cursed him in her mind.

Fan Juntian sized up Ren Chenxi for a good while. After confirming that the person before him was indeed a woman, he carefully scanned the group that had gotten off the bus. Not seeing the person he detested, he gave Ren Chenxi a malicious smile. “Meimei, where’s your brother? How could he just leave you all alone? But honestly, instead of following that piece of trash, why don’t you follow me? I guarantee you’ll eat well and live well every day…”⁷

“She’s with me now!” Before Fan Juntian could finish, Mu Ning cut him off with a cold expression and pulled Ren Chenxi behind her.

The author has something to say:

Wooden Goddess (sour and aggrieved): Why are you so polite to Fan Juntian but so fierce to me!

Xixi: You’re different from him.

Wooden Goddess: How am I different!

Xixi: He’s a rotten person! You’re…

Wooden Goddess (////▽////): I’m your lover~

Also, everyone in the comment section, have you all started showing off your finger lengths? But long fingers⁸ don’t really mean anything ╮(╯▽╰)╭

And, the New Year is tomorrow! The author is super busy! It’s been super cold in the south this year! I can’t type with gloves on, but my fingers are frozen stiff without them, so you can’t blame the author for being short. You have to blame this damn weather!

Alright… worst case, I’ll give everyone a double chapter for New Year’s Eve tomorrow, and send out some small red packets the day after~~~

Footnotes

The original phrase is 觍着脸 (tiǎn zhe liǎn), which literally means “licking one’s face.” It’s an idiom for acting shamelessly or having the gall to ask for something.
The original phrase is 大喇喇 (dà lǎ lǎ), which describes someone acting in a carefree, unconcerned, or brazen manner.
The term 菜市场 (cài shì chǎng), or vegetable market, is often used metaphorically to describe a noisy place full of bargaining and haggling.
The idiom used is 仁至义尽 (rén zhì yì jìn), which means to have done everything that benevolence and righteousness require; to have fulfilled one’s duty completely and shown the utmost kindness.
The term 捡漏 (jiǎn lòu) literally means “to pick up a leak.” It’s a colloquialism for finding a bargain or something valuable that others have overlooked.
The phrase is 使阴招 (shǐ yīn zhāo), which literally means “to use dark moves.” It refers to using underhanded or treacherous methods against someone.
The original phrase is 吃香的喝辣的 (chī xiāng de hē là de), which literally means “to eat fragrant things and drink spicy things.” It’s an idiom for living a prosperous and enjoyable life.
In this context, “long fingers” is a playful innuendo referring to sexual skill between women.

Footnotes

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