Chapter 29
The silver pointer spun rapidly across the prize wheel.
Wei Cheng held his breath.
Three seconds later, the pointer finally stopped.
[Congratulations! Little House Owner speaks golden words and gets exactly what he wishes for! You have drawn one Twisty Car Function Upgrade Gift Pack!]
Wei Cheng quickly opened Guanguan’s personal info page. Bright red numbers were floating above every one of the Twisty Car’s abilities.
Its driving speed had upgraded from 100 km/h to 120 km/h!
Its defense level had gone from 10 to 30 (can kill thirty zombies each time!)
Its indestructibility level was now +20 (unafraid of extreme heat, severe cold, and toxic gas, with a duration of 20 hours!)
Most importantly, the invisibility duration… had actually gone from a mere 10 minutes to 60 minutes!
An entire hour of invisibility brought him and Guanguan far too much peace of mind.
Take what happened last night, for example. If he and Guanguan had used up all their time in the cozy home, then if that group of bad people had been even a little smarter, the two of them probably would not have made it very far before being caught.
Guanguan craned his little neck over. “Did Brother’s wish come true?”
“It did!”
Wei Cheng picked Guanguan up and bounced him in his arms, laughing. “Guanguan is amazing!”
“Flying!”
Guanguan’s eyes sparkled. Like a little chubby bird, he flapped his wings and kicked his short little legs. “Again!”
“Okay!”
After bouncing him four or five times in a row, Wei Cheng’s arms were already starting to ache a little.
This really was one lucky baby—and also one very solid little gas canister Guanguan.
Guanguan was completely unaware of his own weight. His little face was flushed bright red from playing. “Brother, Brother, when Guanguan grows as big as you, will you still be able to carry Guanguan?”
Clearly, getting bounced around was too fun, and now he was already worrying for no reason.
“When you grow bigger, Brother will grow bigger too. Brother will still be able to carry you.”
Wei Cheng casually turned on the TV and sat down on the sofa holding Guanguan. “What cartoon do you want to watch? Ultraman?”
“Little Sheep Family!”
“What episode are you on?”
Guanguan quickly turned around. “The third one episode!”
Wei Cheng corrected him, “Episode three.”
Looks like in a couple of days, he would really need to properly teach Guanguan how to count.
Guanguan obediently repeated, “Episode three!”
On the TV, the little sheep family had already started a new day.
Wei Cheng had not watched cartoons in a long time, but after watching for a little while, he found it surprisingly entertaining. Soon, though, he heard the sound of someone swallowing spit.
He lowered his head and saw Guanguan leaning forward in a perfect little squatting pose, staring at the TV with complete concentration. His mouth hung slightly open, as if he were eating something incredibly delicious. His round cheeks kept chewing and chewing, and every now and then he even wiped at the corner of his mouth with the back of his fair little hand.
In the cartoon, several baby lambs were sharing a vanilla cake.
Wei Cheng suddenly understood. “Does Guanguan want vanilla cake too? Should Brother go get you some?”
There were dozens of boxes of vanilla ice cream cake stocked in the fridge just for Guanguan.
Guanguan bounced over in front of the TV and pointed at the two little lambs. “Brother, Guanguan has been watching them for a long time! Those two little sheep eat vanilla cake every day and sleep in late. If we skewered them both on one stick and roasted them, they’d smell really good!”
So that was it.
Wei Cheng laughed. “But don’t you think they’re cute?”
Guanguan came running back and climbed onto his brother’s lap, lifting his two little plump cheeks. “Brother, that’s not what you say when you eat lamb skewers!”
Sure enough—cuteness was worthless in the face of maturity.
Wei Cheng laughed and said, “Then how about grilled lamb chops for lunch? We’ll make curry shrimp tomorrow. We’re still too little, and eating both of those together too easily causes internal heat.”
Guanguan nodded frantically like a pecking chick. “Okay!”
While Guanguan and Little Apricot played with toys in the safehouse, Wei Cheng went to the old house to light the heating stove.
They had been away for two days and one night, and the coal in the house stove had long since burned out and gone cold.
Once he got the stove going again, the house gradually started warming up.
Wei Cheng bundled himself in a hat and down jacket and went outside to take a look around.
The sky was dark and overcast, and the north wind whistled harshly. It was a sign that heavy snow was on the way.
He carefully checked that the glass shards and knife points on top of the walls were still intact, and that both iron gates were still firm. Only then did he truly relax.
Everything at the old house was normal, so Wei Cheng brought Guanguan into the fresh foods section of Cloud Mall to pick out lamb chops.
Guanguan sat in the cart with a sweet-and-sour dried apricot puffing in one cheek. “Brother, can we drink cola today?”
Wei Cheng said gently, “Cola is a carbonated drink. It can make Guanguan’s and Brother’s teeth get sick. And now there’s no doctor uncle who can help us look at our teeth.”
Guanguan tilted his head and thought for a moment. “That sounds so scary. Then let’s drink orange juice instead!”
“All right. Then today we’ll squeeze orange juice ourselves.”
They picked out a box of eight French-style grilled lamb chops. This kind of lamb chop was already marinated in advance, so it only needed to be put straight into the oven.
Worried that Guanguan might find it too greasy, Wei Cheng also picked out a few glossy green cucumbers so he could make a refreshing smashed cucumber dish.
After picking out a few seasonings, Wei Cheng asked, “Guanguan, do you want to go buy toys?”
“No more! Guanguan still has lots of brand-new toys that haven’t even been opened!”
“Then let’s go pick out two new outfits. We’re not keeping the clothes we wore out on missions.”
Back then, the brothers had crawled under vehicles and stepped over zombies, so their clothes and shoes had gotten splattered with plenty of zombie blood and brain matter. When he lit the stove earlier, Wei Cheng had already burned all those clothes.
The clothing section in the mall was huge. From children’s clothes to adult clothes, it stretched so far that the end could not be seen.
Guanguan loved looking pretty, especially in bright colors. Wealthy and extravagant, he declared, “This one, this one, and this one—don’t want them. All the rest, yes!”
“The way you buy socks looks like you’re shopping for luxury brands.”
Laughing, Wei Cheng put that entire row of fluffy little socks into the cart.
Guanguan hugged his little hands to his chest and grinned. “Guanguan is rich!”
“That’s right. Right now, we really are rich!”
Wei Cheng picked out two designer down jackets and two pairs of down pants for himself and Guanguan, plus two sets of pure wool thermal underwear.
For shoes, they still chose thick, warm snow boots.
The children’s clothing area was very close to the toy area. Since they were already here, it would have been hard not to browse.
In the end, Guanguan still chose a little yellow bucket and a duck-shaped snowball clip.
“Anything else you want?”
Guanguan shook his head, now wearing the little yellow bucket over it. “Nope!”
Wei Cheng laughed and lightly tapped the bucket. “All right then, let’s go back and grill lamb chops!”
The cozy home’s kitchen was not big, but there was more than enough room for Guanguan and his brother together.
Guanguan volunteered to help hand-squeeze the orange juice, and Wei Cheng was happy to let him do as he pleased, so he adjusted the cuts on the oranges a little. “Don’t rush. However much you can squeeze is fine.”
“Guanguan can do it!”
Planting his feet in a tiny horse stance, Guanguan tightly gripped the orange with both little hands and squeezed hard.
Nothing happened.
Guanguan encouraged himself, gritting his tiny baby teeth. “Guanguan can still do it!”
His little face turned red from straining. He was already using all the strength he had, but not a single drop of orange juice fell into the cup.
A little lost, Guanguan looked down at his own chubby little hands. “Brother, are Guanguan’s soft little meats only for looking at and not useful at all?”
Wei Cheng laughed. “You’re still little. Those are all baby-fat cheeks and hands—where would the strength come from? Besides, oranges are hard to squeeze in the first place. Brother should have prepared mandarins for you.”
As it happened, there was a whole bag of sweet mandarins in the fridge. Wei Cheng encouraged him, “Come on, this time Guanguan will definitely be able to do it.”
The moment he saw the mandarin juice trickling into the cup, Guanguan’s eyes lit up instantly. “Brother, Guanguan did it!”
“Go on, squeeze slowly. In a bit, Brother will finish up with the juicer.”
Wei Cheng placed the marinated lamb chops onto a baking tray and added a few cloves of white garlic and some butter on top, then finished with just a tiny bit of rosemary.
After a while, the oven began releasing a rich lamb aroma.
Wearing gloves, Wei Cheng took the lamb chops out. Behind him, Guanguan carefully carried over two cups of orange juice.
The lamb chops were golden and glossy, dotted with white sesame seeds and cumin. When he cut into them with a knife, juices flowed out like a spring, and the aroma was irresistible.
Guanguan bit into the meat—crispy on the outside, tender on the inside—then took a gulp of the orange juice he had squeezed with his own little paws and said happily, “This is sooo delicious!”
“Brother, hurry and drink Guanguan’s orange juice!”
Wei Cheng took a big mouthful. His whole mouth filled with the fragrance of mandarins. The faint trace of bitterness did not matter at all. “It’s good! From now on, all the orange juice will be made by Guanguan!”
Guanguan’s eyes went wide. He bit down hard on the fragrant roasted meat, his cheeks puffed out like a little hamster’s, and declared, “Guaranteed mission accomplished!”
Guarding their own cozy home, the two brothers ate fresh, juicy grilled lamb chops, fragrant and completely satisfied.
—
That afternoon, Wei Cheng played with Guanguan and Little Apricot for a while, kicking a little rubber ball around the open space on the first floor of the old house.
Outside, the wind was howling fiercely, but inside the heating stove in the old house was blazing hot, and the cracks around the windows had all been tightly sealed. Apart from hearing the wind, they could not feel the biting cold at all.
Once Guanguan got tired from playing, he huffed and puffed as he pulled out his little snack backpack. “Brother, do you want some jelly?”
Wei Cheng was sitting stiff-backed and proper at the desk, reading a military-themed book. He shook his head. “Brother doesn’t want any.”
Guanguan bit open a jelly cup and slurped the sweet liquid inside. “Not even apple flavor?”
“Mm, not eating.” Wei Cheng turned a page.
Then Guanguan opened another bag of colorful yogurt cubes and crunched them loudly. “Do you want some yogurt?”
Wei Cheng turned to look at him.
A thick carpet covered the floor. Guanguan was sunk deep into a beanbag chair, carefree as he chewed on yogurt cubes, with the warm radiator right beside his little feet.
Little Apricot was curled up beside him, napping lazily.
Some people found a golden house in books and newspapers. Guanguan, meanwhile, looked like his belly could fit half a pig.
Looking at how happy and relaxed he was, Wei Cheng suddenly felt a little reluctant to tell Guanguan that tomorrow they might have to start learning Chinese characters again.
Wei Cheng smiled and said, “Brother doesn’t want any. You eat.”
Just then, the radio on the desk suddenly gave off a burst of crackling static.
Startled, Guanguan dropped yogurt cubes all over the floor and scampered over. “Brother, what was that sound!”
Little Apricot woke up too.
Wei Cheng’s expression tightened. He immediately grabbed the radio—the one he had studied a few days ago without getting any response from it.
After some time, a halting female voice finally came through:
“Emergency broadcast warning… world order has now completely collapsed… sorry… the nation can no longer provide rescue…”
“The Collectors have established major bases… the following areas are occupied by walking corpses… as long as you are alive, there is hope.”
Hearing that broadcast once again announcing the total collapse of the nation, Wei Cheng still felt his heart grow heavy.
“Brother, what’s wrong?”
Guanguan looked at his brother with innocent worry, seeing his eyes redden.
Wei Cheng pulled Guanguan tightly into his arms and said through clenched teeth, “This time, we have to live well.”
The nation had completely collapsed. Even among the Collector teams, good and bad were mixed together. All survivors could only rely on themselves now.
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