My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 85

by Little Panda

The Fan Family’s Visit

When Mu Ning heard that the Fan family was trying to borrow an engine from Qi Sheng, she instinctively turned to glance at Ren Chenxi. Ren Chenxi met her gaze and immediately understood what she meant.

Since the Fan family had failed to borrow an engine from Qi Sheng, they would surely come back around to find the person who had sold them engines in the first place. In the Fan family’s view, if she could sell two engines, she probably had a third one somewhere.

Just as Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning had predicted, when they returned to the base around noon that day, they found a group of Fan family members blocking their villa’s entrance, while Chen Gu and the others stood confronting them. The moment Ren Chenxi and Mu Ning appeared, the Fan family members immediately ignored Chen Gu’s group and turned with eager smiles to greet Ren Chenxi.

“Miss Ren, you’re finally back! We’ve been waiting for so long, we—”

“There are no more engines. No matter how long you wait, it’s useless!”

Before the Fan family could launch into their insincere pleasantries, Ren Chenxi spoke up and shattered their illusions. But even with their fantasies crushed, these people still weren’t ready to give up.

“Miss Ren, don’t be so absolute about it! We’re willing to pay more crystal cores… 500,000… no… how about 1 million Level 1 crystal cores?”

When Fan Juntian had told them that this Ren woman had sold such precious Crystal Core Engines for only 400,000 Level 1 crystal cores, the Fan family had thought her foolish. At the same time, they figured someone like her could be easily tempted with just a few more crystal cores.

In reality, however, Ren Chenxi didn’t feel the slightest stir when she heard “1 million Level 1 crystal cores.” Perhaps before killing that 8th-order mutated octopus monster, she might have been mildly tempted. But now… Heh, you’ve got to be kidding. This mother was now a woman with over 5 million crystal cores! A measly 1 million Level 1 crystal cores meant absolutely nothing to her!

“Sorry, Uncle, but did you think… that those engines were cabbages¹? I had two of them already, and that wasn’t easy — I sold them both for crystal cores. Where would I find a third one to sell now? I think instead of looking for me, you should go find some professors in A City. Maybe they have plenty of engines!”

The balding man Ren Chenxi called “Uncle” looked a bit sour. He was only in his thirties, and here was a girl in her twenties calling him “Uncle”! Was this girl blind?! Sure, his hair was a bit thin, but his skin was still tight and elastic! This father didn’t even have crow’s feet yet!

This “Uncle” very much wanted to correct Ren Chenxi’s choice of address, but he knew that wasn’t the point of their conversation right now. So he swallowed his grievance and spoke to Ren Chenxi with poorly concealed annoyance: “Since you don’t have that… engine, how can you afford to run two vehicles at the same time these past two days? Do you have that much fuel?”

“That’s right! We do have lots of fuel!” Chen Gu finally found an opening to interject. “If you think there’s something wrong with our engines… well, we just got back from outside, and the vehicles are parked at the parking lot. Why don’t you go check them now and see if there’s any problem with the engines?”

Chen Gu’s retort made this “Uncle’s” expression sour, though inwardly he was wavering. More precisely, when he’d been sent to buy another Crystal Core Engine, he hadn’t felt very confident about it. Ren Chenxi was right — such precious Crystal Core Engines weren’t cabbages. And since everyone kept saying this woman loved crystal cores so much that she’d sold the engines for 200,000 and then 400,000 Level 1 crystal cores, the fact that she wouldn’t sell even for 1 million meant she probably really didn’t have any more Crystal Core Engines!

Of course, that was what he thought, but he still had to put on a proper show. After all, there were others behind him watching! So this Uncle immediately followed Chen Gu and Wei Yuze to the parking lot, where they carefully inspected the engines of both the bus and the minivan. Among the people who had come with this “Uncle” were two experts in related fields. When Fan Juntian had first brought a Crystal Core Engine back to the Fan family, they had studied it thoroughly as well, but their limited expertise meant they still couldn’t understand the principles behind it.

While they couldn’t understand how Crystal Core Engines worked, they were quite skilled at inspecting ordinary engines. The group carefully examined both vehicles’ engines, and once they confirmed that both ran on ordinary diesel and gasoline, they didn’t press further.

As the group prepared to leave, this “Uncle” casually asked one more question: “The whole base is short on fuel right now. Where did you get so much?”

“…” This was exactly why the Fan family was so annoying. Did they really have the nerve to openly pry into other people’s secrets? Chen Gu kept his face stony and gave a dismissive answer: “A month ago, our Boss emptied every gas station in a city two cities over from here, so we have plenty of reserve fuel.” Xi-jie’s spatial ability couldn’t be exposed. In any case, everyone at the base had seen them frequently traveling to other cities to search for medicine for Sun Jia’s injury, so most people already knew about it. There were so many dead cities and so many gas stations — surely there would be a few remote ones that survivors had missed.

Chen Gu’s explanation didn’t dispel the Fan family’s suspicions. Another person pointed at the bus with evident doubt and pressed less than politely: “That bus burns a lot of fuel, doesn’t it? You drive it out almost every day. Even if you drained an entire gas station, shouldn’t it be running low by now?”

“Use esper abilities! Can’t you use esper abilities?” Zhang Tongqi jumped in just in time to save the conversation. “We have Wind-system espers, and our Boss has Wood-system abilities. With so many abilities, you can put them to work while driving and save fuel! Sometimes you barely use any fuel at all!”

“I can understand Wind-system abilities, but how do you use Wood-system abilities?”

“Use your brain!” Zhang Tongqi rolled her eyes at these Fan family members, thinking quickly as she spoke. “Our Boss’s vines can stretch up to 30 meters long! And she can shoot out 10 vines at once! First, use one vine to wrap around a tree 30 meters away and pull the car forward, then have the other vines take turns one after another like a relay — isn’t that pulling the car along and saving fuel? And the vines can have Strength-system espers pulling them too!” Although after advancing in tier, the Boss could produce even more vines simultaneously, there was no need to tell these Fan family members that.

Hearing Zhang Tongqi’s nonsense, the Fan family members glanced at each other. It… actually sounded quite reasonable? Except… “Wouldn’t that use up a lot of esper energy?”

“Obviously! To save fuel, of course you have to spend esper energy! Did you think our Boss advanced in tier so fast for no reason?” Zhang Tongqi rolled her eyes again and started redirecting their attention: “Besides, if our Boss is willing to go to such trouble using her Wood-system abilities just to save fuel, why don’t you people modify an electric engine? Don’t you have a Lightning-system esper?”

“…” Zhang Tongqi’s question left these Fan family professionals looking rather awkward.

As if they hadn’t tried modifying electric engines! Right now, they still had two RVs with electric engines! But even if they could modify electric engines, so what? Their 4th-order Lightning-system esper simply couldn’t produce enough electricity! And that spoiled young master Fan Juntian insisted on living in luxury even in the apocalypse — he refused to travel any way other than by RV. That kind of power consumption was enormous! Fan Juntian would drain that Lightning-system esper dry just making a round trip within H City, and then they couldn’t use any other electrical devices at all! Sometimes, when the vehicle’s battery ran low, the Lightning-system esper had to charge it while driving — and the charging speed couldn’t even keep up with consumption!

These extremely energy-inefficient electric generators were barely usable for normal daily travel. If they wanted to drive to a neighboring province? Heh, dream on!

But the Fan family insisted on dreaming, constantly squeezing their few technical workers and forcing them to develop a more energy-efficient electric engine. Their knowledge was just that limited. Unless another expert with deeper expertise in this field came to guide them, how could they possibly develop an energy-efficient engine?!

Recalling the Fan family’s relentless pressure, these experts’ expressions darkened further. They glanced at each other, ignored Chen Gu and Zhang Tongqi’s group, and turned to leave silently. Once the experts left, the remaining Fan family members naturally had no reason to stay. They cast envious looks at Mu Ning, then discussed in low voices among themselves before following the others out.

Perhaps when they returned, besides continuing to squeeze the Lightning-system esper, they would find ways to squeeze other espers as well.

With the annoying Fan family finally gone, Ren Chenxi gave Chen Gu and Zhang Tongqi a thumbs up. Truly worthy of being Mu Ning’s two top followers — that quick thinking, that ability to handle the Fan family, absolutely brilliant.

The Fan family’s visit was just an interlude. By the next day, Ren Chenxi had already put the matter out of her mind. She continued following Mu Ning to the seaside, harvesting low-tier seafood from the beach. Though these low-tier seafood creatures weren’t high level, after so many consecutive days of harvesting, she had collected over 100,000 crystal stones. And besides the low-tier seafood, occasionally three or four mid-tier seafood creatures would wash up on the beach. Now Ren Chenxi’s inventory was packed full, with dozens of slots taken up by seafood alone. Some slots had stacked shellfish reaching quantities of 999!

After a rare week of continuous clear weather, the sky began pouring rain again as if venting its fury. During such heavy rainstorms, although they couldn’t go out hunting, many espers at the base were actually quite happy. For one thing, they could collect large amounts of rainwater — some for daily use, and some to filter and boil for drinking water. Moreover, after every heavy rain, the wilderness would sprout large quantities of wild mushrooms and various edible wild plants. All this abundant forage would become food stock for survivors to get through the winter.

This rain lasted only two days. Mu Ning, in a rare lazy mood, let everyone stay home an extra day to rest. Life in the apocalypse was actually quite boring most of the time. The men could take turns playing on the game console, but for the women, most ways to pass the time involved doing chores. Huo Keyu, for instance, enthusiastically researched various seasonings and spices every day. Tang Ying was always finding new ways to renovate her room. The other girls passed time by doing housework.

The later arrivals — Jian Dan’s group of three and the S University girls — finally understood why Zhang Tongqi, Wu Tong, and the others were so obsessed with cleanliness! Because whenever there was nothing to do, their idle time would be spent enthusiastically sweeping, mopping, washing clothes, and doing every possible household chore. Even cooking became something everyone fought over. Under everyone’s influence, Jian Dan and the other girls had become particularly fond of cleaning and doing housework.

Of course, among these housework-loving girls, Mu Ning and Ren Chenxi were definitely not included.

The author has something to say:

Hmm, speaking of the sea… some readers are envious, some don’t like it. I guess the envious ones are from inland cities? Actually, the seaside is pretty dangerous. Since I was little, I kept hearing about so-and-so who went to play at the beach and was never seen again. One summer vacation, there was even a typhoon! As the ringleader of the kids, I led a group of cousins to the beach — but when we saw the water had already risen to the seawall, we turned back. But our parents were terrified — when we got home, they were all down at the beach desperately searching for us…

Looking back now, the author really was clever, quick-witted, and fast-reacting, huh~~~

Also, eating too much seafood causes gout! Just among people I know — my dad, my cousin, several uncles — they all have gout!!!