My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 43
by Little PandaFeeding Time
“Wolf meat? From those mutated wolves everyone dealt with this morning?” Mu Ning looked at Ren Chenxi, a little surprised. “When did you go dig out wolf meat?”
“While you were digging out crystal cores!” Ren Chenxi spouted nonsense without batting an eye.
“…” Liar. While I was digging out crystal cores, you were clearly smashing zombies even farther away from the mutated wolf corpses… Mu Ning stared at Ren Chenxi, realizing that this person truly held many secrets. But even if she were curious, Ren Chenxi would definitely never tell her. In fact, she probably didn’t even want Mu Ning to notice she had these secrets, right?
Sighing softly, Mu Ning neither exposed the lie nor pressed the matter. Instead, she answered Ren Chenxi’s question seriously. “Tantan has never had wolf meat before. When we hunt mutated wolves, we usually eat the meat ourselves. We hunt other common things like chicken meat specifically for Tantan.”
Seeing that Mu Ning didn’t pursue the origin of the wolf meat, Ren Chenxi surreptitiously breathed a sigh of relief. But soon, she began to worry about whether Tantan would even eat it. “Sigh… Tantan used to be a very picky eater… uh, according to my brother. So, when it comes to wolf meat it’s never had before…”
“Why don’t you try feeding it a small piece, Xi-jie? Tantan’s body has gotten much stronger since it mutated. It was fine after it secretly ate a piece of chocolate last time, though it scared us for a long while…”
“Tantan, you stole chocolate?” The moment she heard that, Ren Chenxi’s expression immediately darkened. She lifted Tantan up and scolded it sternly, “Why can’t you ever change this habit of stealing food?”
Back when Ren Chenxi kept Tantan in her apartment, although it was a picky eater when it came to cat food, it was exceptionally curious about human food. Sometimes when Ren Chenxi was eating, Tantan would always like to wait by her side, pawing at her in hopes of stealing a bite. A few times, she had also discovered that the packaging of the small snacks she hid in the cabinet had been bitten open. Every time that happened, no matter how much Ren Chenxi doted on Tantan, she would give it a very stern lecture.
When most cats are scolded by their owners, they either look aloof or innocent—in short, you can yell all you want, I’ll eat what I want. Tantan, on the other hand, would soften its little voice and start acting cute toward Ren Chenxi, its meows delicate, aggrieved, and one after another. It would cry so pitifully that in the end, Ren Chenxi’s heart would soften and she’d have to let it go.
Just like now.
“Meow meow meow meow meow—” Tantan started nuzzling its head against her again, letting out a series of delicate, coquettish meows. Nudged into a corner, Ren Chenxi had no choice but to put on a tiger face and warn, “No more stealing food next time!”
“Meow meow meow meow meow~~~”
However, Tantan was always like this. It would humbly admit its mistake now, but would absolutely dare to do it again next time.1 In the past, because of Tantan’s gluttony, Ren Chenxi always had to go to great lengths to hide all the things it couldn’t eat more securely. Now, well… it was a good thing Tantan had mutated. That way, if it accidentally ate something it shouldn’t, at least it wouldn’t cause a major problem.
“Honestly!” Ren Chenxi shook her head helplessly. In the end, she just gave Tantan’s little head a few hard pets and huffed, “This is for stealing food again. No big feast for you today, you’re getting wolf meat! You’ll eat it even if you can’t, or you’ll go hungry!”
“Meow meow meow meow meow~”
Ren Chenxi’s original intention in feeding Tantan wolf meat was to punish it a little, to make it learn its lesson. But because she spoiled it so much, she would have fed it other meat to fill its belly even if it really couldn’t stomach the wolf meat.
As it turned out, Ren Chenxi hadn’t expected that the mutated Tantan’s teeth and claws had become much sharper. Even though the wolf meat had less fat and more muscle, Tantan could still bite through it in one go. And… Tantan barely chewed its meat anyway. After grinding it just a couple of times, it would swallow it right down.
Watching Tantan effortlessly eat a mouthful of wolf meat, Ren Chenxi’s brow furrowed. The meat being tough and hard was clearly no issue for Tantan, but… she had heard that wolf meat tasted fishy and gamey! How could Tantan be eating it with such relish?
That’s right. Tantan showed no reluctance at all toward this bowl of supposedly tough, hard, fishy, and gamey wolf meat. It ate with its usual elegance, purring nonstop the entire time. In just a short while, the entire bowl of freshly cut wolf meat had been devoured.
Ren Chenxi knew Tantan well. It wouldn’t eat something it disliked so happily. Back when Ren Chenxi had just rescued it from a trash can, it had been riddled with health problems and needed to take medicine and have ointments applied. As a result, Tantan had despised medicine since it was a kitten. Later on, whenever it had another minor issue and needed medication, Tantan would throw a tantrum and roll on the ground, selling cute and acting miserable in an attempt to refuse. Ren Chenxi even tried hiding pills in its food, but Tantan would always spit them out.
Ren Chenxi doted on Tantan, to an almost excessive degree. But on the matter of taking medicine, she never compromised. So, after all its theatrics, Tantan could only hang its little head under Ren Chenxi’s stern gaze and reluctantly eat the medicine with whimpers and grumbles.
Later, when Ren Chenxi met Liang Bing’s girlfriend—the young lady she had entrusted Tantan to—and saw her forcibly feeding a kitten its medicine, she finally understood… this was how you were supposed to give medicine to a normal kitten, by prying its mouth open and stuffing it in!
When Tantan was small and sick, that was how the vet had given it medicine. But Ren Chenxi had been watching from the side that day and saw that after the vet finished with Tantan, he turned to give medicine to a big orange cat.2 He simply held out his palm with the pill on it, and the orange cat ate it in one gulp. This led the completely inexperienced cat owner Ren Chenxi to a major misunderstanding. She thought you had to force-feed small kittens, but big cats would take medicine on their own!
From then on, once Tantan was a little bigger, whenever it needed medicine, she would imitate the vet with the orange cat, holding out her palm with the pill in front of Tantan. Having been forced to take medicine since it was a kitten, Tantan of course knew it was supposed to eat this nasty-tasting thing. It knew it would have to eat it in the end, but it would habitually throw a tantrum first before reluctantly swallowing the pill.
Thus, Ren Chenxi knew exactly what Tantan looked like when faced with food it disliked.
“Meow meow meow meow~” Another series of soft meows pulled Ren Chenxi back from her memories. She glanced at Tantan’s empty food bowl, then at its satisfied little face, and smiled. Honestly, who am I, a human, to arbitrarily decide a little cat’s preferences! Wolf meat might be fishy and gamey to humans, but maybe little cats just like strong flavors? Besides, Tantan is a mutated cat now~ Since it’s mutated, its diet might have naturally changed too!
In any case, the mutated wolf meat in her inventory finally had a purpose.
While Ren Chenxi was feeding Tantan, the group of girls went to the bathroom in the new building next door. Mu Ning had already filled the water tower on the roof, but since there was no water heater, they had to boil water on an earthen stove and mix it with cold water to bathe.
It wasn’t as convenient as before, but for the girls, just being able to bathe was wonderful. They couldn’t care less that they didn’t have the shower heads, water heaters, or bathroom masters3 of the pre-apocalypse world.
After all the hardships on the road, the girls were covered in all sorts of smells. Seeing how clean and tidy Mu Ning’s group was—even the men’s hair was fresh and neat—made the girls, whose hair was greasy enough to clump together, all the more desperate to give themselves a thorough “head-washing and face-changing” makeover.4 The bathroom in the new building was the same size as the one in the old building; it was very spacious, large enough for four people to shower at once without any issue.
Tang Ying and Lu Ping from S University were already used to the public bathhouses of the north, and Jian Dan’s group of three were so close that they wouldn’t feel awkward showering together. Tang Ying and Lu Ping each had a clean change of clothes, while the new clothes for Jian Dan’s group were provided by Ren Chenxi. They had no choice; their old clothes and other supplies had been stolen by that gang. Even though the scumbags were dead now, they had no desire to wear their old clothes that had been mixed in with the scumbags’ laundry.
The girls showered in two batches and were quite fast, perhaps because a great meal was waiting, or perhaps because of the water-saving habits they’d developed on the road. No one took too long, and each group tried to keep their time under twenty minutes. Hmm… although for a southerner skilled at taking combat showers,5 twenty minutes was already a bit long. But what could they do? A ten-minute combat shower wasn’t nearly enough to wash away all the grime that had accumulated on their journey!
By the time the girls emerged from the bathroom, clean and fragrant, the aroma of cooking had drifted over from next door.
After feeding Tantan, Ren Chenxi wasn’t in a hurry to shower. For one, she wasn’t dirty; she had given herself a simple wipe-down before leaving the hotel. For another… the enticing smell from the kitchen was making her even hungrier. A certain expert once said that you can’t shower on an empty stomach! So, she’d better fill her belly first, then go have a nice, fragrant bath~
According to the layout of a typical rural self-built house, the dining room where the family gathered for meals should be right outside the kitchen. But outside the kitchen of this old building, there were no tables. Sun Jia, who couldn’t show off her skills due to her injured hand, stood to one side and explained to Ren Chenxi that they originally had a large round table, but they hardly ever used it.
Basically, every time they returned to the base after a mission or supply run, everyone would be dragging their exhausted bodies back. Who would have the energy to cook a big meal and gather around a table to eat? Usually, they would just boil a pot of water and have it with some bread or biscuits. When they got tired of dry rations, they would occasionally have instant noodles with some fresh vegetables to satisfy their cravings. Only on very rare occasions would they gather for hot pot.
Hearing Sun Jia’s explanation, Ren Chenxi couldn’t help but marvel that even the female lead, a 5th-order esper, lived such a simple and unadorned life! Of course, their simple and unadorned life was a luxury to the ordinary people in the base still living in the Tin Shacks.
While Ren Chenxi and Sun Jia were talking, Mu Ning dragged a folded round table out from a pile of clutter on the other side of the staircase. Seeing this, Sun Jia hurried forward to help. But… with Sun Jia’s arm so heavily injured, how could Ren Chenxi just stand there and let a patient help? Even though she didn’t want to help Mu Ning at all, she steeled herself and went forward.
However, Ren Chenxi had forgotten that she, too, was a patient now!
The author has something to say:
Tantan admitting its mistake: Meow meow meow meow meow~~~
Xixi: Alright, alright, you can’t do this next time~
Wooden-head admitting her mistake: I’m sorry I treated you like that before.
Xixi: (Turns her head and ignores her)
Wooden-head: Meow meow meow meow meow!
Xixi: Get lost!
ps: I don’t know who this “certain expert” is, but the author has heard many “experts” say you can’t drink water on an empty stomach, can’t drink milk on an empty stomach, can’t eat fruit on an empty stomach, can’t eat a meal on an empty stomach…
pps: Regarding some of the cute readers in the comments who have trouble taking medicine, especially capsules getting stuck in their throats, you can try the author’s method. Most people put the medicine in their mouth first, then drink water, right? The author does it the other way around. First, hold some water in your throat, then toss the medicine into your mouth, and then tilt your neck back. Done~
Footnotes
- A popular saying that translates to ‘humbly admit one’s mistake, but will definitely dare to do it again next time’. It describes a repeat offender who is good at apologizing but has no intention of changing.
- Big orange cats, or ‘da ju mao’, are a popular stereotype in Chinese internet culture. They are often depicted as being chubby, lazy, friendly, and extremely food-motivated.
- A ‘yuba’ or ‘bathroom master’ is a common Chinese appliance installed on the bathroom ceiling. It typically combines an overhead light, a heater (usually with heat lamps or a fan), and an exhaust fan into one unit.
- A play on the idiom 洗心革面 (xixingemian), which means to turn over a new leaf. Here, the characters are changed to mean ‘wash one’s head and change one’s face’, a literal and humorous way of saying to get completely clean.
- A ‘combat shower’ (zhandou zao) is a very quick shower, as if in a military setting where time is limited.
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