My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 81
by Little PandaConfirmation
For people like Li Jie and Liao Lan, who remained lazy and gluttonous even in the apocalypse, wanting only to cling to a thick thigh1 and leech off them relentlessly, the fact that they were finally forced to follow the crowd to the beach to scavenge seafood showed just how difficult their situation had become.
Ever since Mu Ning refused to give Liao Lan’s group free water, these people naturally turned around and sought out Fan Juntian. But among the espers the Fan family had recruited, there were no water-system espers. Sometimes, to save crystal cores on buying water, Fan Juntian would frequently find Liao Lan and his group to mooch off Mu Ning’s water resources for free. But now that Mu Ning had completely broken ties with Liao Lan and Li Jie, Li Jie’s group could no longer mooch free water. Seeing that these bloodsucking insects2 had no more use, Fan Juntian naturally kicked them aside with one shove.
Of course, with Li Jie and Liao Lan’s thick-skinned3 personalities, Fan Juntian couldn’t easily kick them aside that simply. Inside the base, when there were many people around, Fan Juntian still cared about saving face. And in the eyes of other survivors, weren’t Li Jie and Liao Lan just Fan Juntian’s lackeys4? If Fan Juntian could so easily kick aside the lackeys who followed him around every day calling him ‘brother,’ then later, when the Fan family wanted to continue recruiting and deceiving other espers, it probably wouldn’t be so easy.
So Fan Juntian wanted to kick Li Jie’s group aside, but didn’t dare do it too obviously. He just slowly, bit by bit, grew cold toward them, directly ignoring their various requests for help. But for Li Jie and these thick-skinned bloodsucking insects, they could endure Chen Gu and Zhang Tongqi’s disgusted looks and unfriendly attitudes, begging Mu Ning for water every single day without any shame. Naturally, they didn’t care about Fan Juntian’s cold attitude either.
Because privately seeking supplies from Fan Juntian didn’t work, Li Jie’s group dared to block Fan Juntian’s path in broad daylight, completely thick-skinned, playing the victim to force Fan Juntian to hand over some crystal cores. This extremely shameless behavior had actually managed to scrounge a few crystal cores before. But starting two days ago, they couldn’t find Fan Juntian anymore.
Li Jie and the others, unwilling to give up and determined to keep leeching off Fan Juntian, naturally tried every method to find out where he had gone. From a survivor team that had returned from scavenging for supplies, they learned that two days ago, Fan Juntian had left the base—apparently planning to go to a neighboring province to find more useful supplies. When Li Jie’s group heard that Fan Juntian was going to a neighboring province, they didn’t believe it at first. Even if the Fan family had great power within the base, with gasoline becoming increasingly scarce in H City, even if the Fan family had plenty of crystal cores, it would be very difficult to find enough gasoline to fuel that gas-guzzling RV all the way to a neighboring province.
But even though Li Jie and the others didn’t believe it, after failing to find Fan Juntian in the base for two consecutive days, they had to accept the fact that Fan Juntian had probably left. In these two days of failing to find Fan Juntian, they at least still had some dry rations to fill their stomachs. But… because the number of survivors going to the beach to scavenge seafood had increased these past two days, many survivors in the base had earned large amounts of low-level crystal cores. So the other three water-system espers in the base had taken the opportunity to raise their prices. Li Jie’s group normally used a lot of water, and before, they had Mu Ning, that Mobile Reservoir5, providing free water. Their team wasted water more than anyone. In just these two short days, they had completely fallen into a water shortage.
Leaving aside the terrible personal hygiene of Li Jie’s group and the filthy condition of their rented room due to lack of water, the prolonged torture of hunger and thirst alone was enough to force these bloodsucking insects to finally bow to reality. So, on the third day, when even more people went to the beach to scavenge seafood, Li Jie’s group went too. Then, the mid-tier mutated beasts lurking in the sea, attracted by the large number of humans on the beach, suddenly charged onto the shore and attacked the survivors scavenging for seafood.
Many espers with low ability levels, as well as ordinary people without abilities, liked to move in groups. Unlike Mu Ning or Qi Sheng, who preferred to find deserted beaches, the survivors who came later often joined beaches that already had survivors, fighting over the seemingly limited seafood on the shore.
Li Jie’s group did the same. But when danger suddenly descended on that beach, most survivors helped each other, relying on one another to work together and attack those mid-tier mutated seafood creatures. Some pulled each other to safety and escaped; others weren’t fast enough and tragically died. For example, that one team that was completely wiped out—when they saw their companions in danger, they refused to leave, struggling to fight the mid-tier mutated seafood. But because they weren’t strong enough, they were killed by the seafood instead.
But Li Jie’s group, in that critical moment, used their own teammates as stepping stones and human shields. As soon as a seafood creature attacked, they ruthlessly shoved their companions out in front, then trampled over their companions’ bloody corpses to escape that dangerous beach.
Of course, Li Jie and the others wouldn’t tell anyone the truth about what happened. They had gone to the beach this time thinking they could get something for nothing, but instead they lost half their companions. Perhaps for these people, losing a few companions wasn’t a big deal—some might even secretly rejoice that having fewer mouths to share food with was actually better. What truly pained them was that all the various seafood they had spent the entire day collecting, so much seafood, had been completely abandoned in the chaos when everyone was shoving each other to flee!
After a whole day, not only had they lost companions and abandoned their seafood, but they were also exhausted, hungry, and thirsty. And in their extremely parched state, they couldn’t even eat their dry rations. Fan Juntian wasn’t around, and the Fan family wouldn’t kindly let them mooch food and drink—they couldn’t even enter the Fan family’s territory. After discussing among themselves, these thick-skinned people could only come back to mooch off Mu Ning again. Yes, this time they came to find Mu Ning not just wanting some water, but also wanting food!
Facing these thick-skinned bloodsucking insects who had come before her playing the victim to beg for food and water, Mu Ning was almost amused by anger. But compared to these bloodsucking insects’ shameless begging behavior, Chen Gu and the others’ main concern was… Fan Juntian had left for a neighboring province to find supplies?
The group exchanged glances and quickly suppressed the joy at others’ misfortune6 on their faces, then pressed Li Jie and the others for more information about Fan Juntian. Listening to these people complain about how they couldn’t find Fan Juntian these past few days, they also found it strange where Fan Juntian had gotten enough gasoline to fuel his RV to a neighboring province.
The news that Fan Juntian had bought an engine from Ren Chenxi seemed to have been kept secret by the Fan family. No wonder these people insisted that perhaps Fan Juntian hadn’t actually gone to another province, but was just trying to avoid them.
But you’re just a bunch of incompetent and cowardly bloodsucking insects. Even if Fan Juntian was truly tired of dealing with you, the Fan family had plenty of ways to get rid of you completely. Chen Gu found Li Jie’s group’s baffling confidence ridiculous, but at the same time, he became even more certain that Fan Juntian had indeed installed the crystal core engine Ren Chenxi sold him onto his RV and driven to another province. After all, in these past few days at the base, they hadn’t seen Fan Juntian either, and he was usually someone who acted very ostentatiously.
Heh. Xi-jie said she sold Fan Juntian a problematic crystal core engine. Who knows—after that Fan Juntian group gets to the neighboring city, if that engine suddenly explodes, how will they come back? Hmm, best if that disgusting scum doesn’t come back at all—just stays in the neighboring province and gets eaten clean by the mutated beasts and zombies there!
Compared to Chen Gu and the others’ focus, Mu Ning’s initial reaction to Liao Lan thick-skinnedly showing up at her door was naturally disgust, wanting only to turn and leave. But… remembering that she still had questions for this disgusting man who kept playing the victim to beg for food, Mu Ning had to force herself to swallow her revulsion.
Ever since killing the mutated octopus last time, Mu Ning felt she had cleared things up with Ren Chenxi. But Ren Chenxi insisted on being stubborn, claiming she was her and Ren Muhui was Ren Muhui, even telling Mu Ning to find Liao Lan to confirm Ren Muhui’s true gender! But had Ren Chenxi considered that with someone like Liao Lan’s character, would she believe anything he said? Even if Liao Lan told her that Ren Muhui was indeed a man, Mu Ning would only think that Liao Lan had definitely been bribed by Ren Chenxi.
So after returning to the base last time, Mu Ning didn’t rush to find Liao Lan first. Given those bloodsucking insects’ personalities, showing up again to beg for water was inevitable. Rather than seeking out Liao Lan herself, she might as well keep watching Ren Chenxi first, preventing Ren Chenxi from having the chance to contact Liao Lan and coordinate their stories.
And sure enough, these bloodsucking insects had automatically shown up at her door. And Mu Ning was very certain that in these past few days, Ren Chenxi definitely hadn’t had contact with Liao Lan. Right now Ren Chenxi was still on the third floor. She could take this opportunity to question Liao Lan clearly, and then see how Ren Chenxi continued to make excuses!
“Mu-xuejie, I’m begging you, just give us a little water? We’ve been thirsty for days, hungry for days…”
After finishing their back-and-forth with Chen Gu and the others, and seeing that Chen Gu wasn’t responding at all, Li Jie and Liao Lan could only swallow their anger even though they were furious inside. They turned to find the person in this group whose words carried the most weight, but who was also the most cold and indifferent—Mu Ning—to beg for mercy.
Begging Mu Ning for mercy, Liao Lan had already prepared himself for Mu Ning not responding. He was thinking of how to phrase his words to bring up some small details about his past interactions with Ren Muhui, to try to win this person’s sympathy, when suddenly, Mu Ning’s ice-cold voice rang out.
“You used to share a dorm with Ren Muhui. Did you ever see him change clothes?”
“…” What kind of question was this? How was he supposed to answer? It felt like the moment he answered, he’d be treated like some kind of pervert. Liao Lan froze. He couldn’t figure out Mu Ning’s intention, but facing Mu Ning’s gaze that seemed cold enough to freeze someone to death, he could only force himself to answer, “We all shared the same dorm, so… even if I wasn’t doing it on purpose, it was inevitable that we’d accidentally see each other changing, right? Besides, we’re all guys…”
“So you did see him change clothes?”
“…” This tone… why did it sound like she was interrogating a pervert? Was Mu-xuejie’s love for Ren Muhui so strong that she wouldn’t allow anyone else to see Ren Muhui change clothes? So just because he’d seen Ren Muhui change clothes, Mu-xuejie was angry? And now she wouldn’t give him water? That wouldn’t do!!! The moment he thought he wouldn’t be able to get water, Liao Lan immediately panicked and hurriedly explained to Mu Ning, “Mu-xuejie, don’t misunderstand! I barely ever saw Ren Muhui change clothes! In the dorm, Ren Muhui basically never wore clothes!”
“…” This explanation… why was it exactly the same as what Ren Chenxi had said? Could it be that when she wasn’t paying attention, Ren Chenxi had secretly found Liao Lan to coordinate their stories? Mu Ning glared coldly at Liao Lan, trying to find any trace of lying on his face. Hmm, no matter how she looked, this person’s face was full of panic—clearly he was feeling guilty! He was definitely lying!
Under Mu Ning’s increasingly cold gaze, Liao Lan was so nervous that sweat was dripping down. No way, no way! Mu-xuejie was actually so jealous that she’d get jealous even about him having seen Ren Muhui without clothes???
The author has something to say:
Wood: You’ve seen Ren Muhui change clothes?
Bloodsucker: I haven’t!
Wood: You shared a dorm and you never saw him change clothes? Liar! Just die of thirst then!
Bloodsucker: No, no, no! I have, I have!
Wood: You actually dared to peek at Ren Muhui changing clothes! Just die of thirst then!
I saw the recommendations from you little cuties~ I’ve tried the Haidilao! The hot and sour assorted noodles—spicy! Especially spicy! The author can’t really handle spicy food! Also, I haven’t tried the non-spicy tomato one; I don’t really like tomato noodles or tomato pasta. I’ve also tried Tangdaren—the Japanese tonkotsu noodles I don’t like, they’re a bit greasy. The hot and sour one, whatever that was, I’ve had that too, and it’s pretty good and acceptable~ And the miso noodles, right? I don’t like those either. I feel like eating the small cup is fine, but eating the big cup still gets greasy. Maybe the essence of all instant noodles is that they smell good, but by the end you get sick of them.
Finally, the author clearly wanted to find a substitute for sauerkraut noodles and sauerkraut fish noodles, so how did so many other flavors suddenly appear~~~ But still, thank you little cuties~
Footnotes
- A Chinese metaphor ('cū dàtuǐ') referring to a powerful, influential person one can rely on for protection and resources. 'Hugging a thick thigh' means attaching oneself to a powerful patron.
- A Chinese term ('xīxuèchóng') literally meaning 'bloodsucking insect' but used metaphorically to describe parasites—people who leech off others without giving anything back.
- A Chinese phrase describing someone completely shameless, without any sense of dignity or self-respect.
- A Chinese slang term ('gǒutuǐzi') for a lackey or henchman—someone who follows and serves a more powerful person.
- A nickname for Mu Ning referring to her water-system esper abilities—she can produce large amounts of water like a mobile reservoir.
- A Chinese idiom (xìng zāi lè huò) meaning to take pleasure in someone else's misfortune or misfortune.
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