Chapter 95
This wild beef was especially fragrant.
Besides several plates of boiled sliced beef, there was also a huge basin of clear-braised marrow bones, each bone wrapped in meat so tender it nearly fell off. The chunks of meat were thick and marbled, with glossy, savory bone marrow glistening at both ends. Paired with a bowl of broth sprinkled with chopped scallions, it was rich without being greasy, and satisfying without being heavy.
Usually, the farm was full of men, and men were loud. The place was always noisy.
But today, it was strangely quiet. The only sounds in the room were everyone lowering their heads to gnaw on bones and slurp up the savory juices.
Guanguan wore a sky-blue puppy bib. With both chubby hands, he held a marrow bone bigger than his face and gnawed away at it. In no time, his pink little face was shining with oil.
Baby thought the bone was just too delicious!
He had to share it with his brother!
With his little steamed-bun hand gripping the slippery marrow bone, he pushed it toward Wei Cheng’s mouth. “Brother, I’ll lend you one bite!”
Wei Cheng put down his chopsticks, lowered his head, and took a bite. After swallowing, he smiled. “So good.” Then he picked up a slice of meat and held it out to Guanguan. “Here, one bite back.”
Guanguan rocked in his chair expectantly and took a big bite. The moment the fragrant meat hit his mouth, his grape-like eyes lit up with delight. “It’s the same yummy flavor!”
Yi Qi laughed. “Of course it’s the same flavor. It all came from the same pot of beef.”
Guanguan covered his mouth with his oily little hand and grinned, showing his tiny white teeth. “It’s Guanguan who’s silly!”
Everyone at the table laughed, and even Sun Dali was amused by Guanguan’s childish logic.
Still smiling, Wei Cheng used a napkin to wipe the little one’s face. “We’re not silly. We’re very smart.”
The room was lively with chatter and laughter when light tapping suddenly sounded against the window outside.
Lin Xiangfeng happened to be sitting by the window. He turned and looked. “Ah, it’s raining!”
It had been bright and sunny that morning. No one had expected the weather to change so fast.
“The corn’s still drying in the yard.” Director Wang pushed on the table and started to get up.
The younger men all sprang up at once. Shen Zheng wiped his mouth and said, “Sit down, Grandpa. We’ll bring the corn in, and we’ll collect the wires and shovels from the traps while we’re at it.”
The moment he finished speaking, thunder rumbled in the distance, and heavy rain came crashing down.
Shen Zheng and the others did not even bother with raincoats or umbrellas. They hurried straight into the curtain of rain.
The dried corn lay spread over white plastic sheets. A few of them grabbed the corners of the sheets and folded them inward, while Ying Hui and Zhao Bin bundled up dozens of pounds of corn and carried it away.
Meanwhile, Shen Zheng and Yi Qi worked together to pull the unused wires and shovels out of the trap trenches and put them away, so they would not rust from the rain and damp.
By the time the two of them ran back, both were soaked through.
When they dashed into the cabin, they realized it had suddenly grown dark outside.
Yi Qi shook out his drenched hoodie and said between breaths, “What the hell, it went from sunny to pitch-black in no time?”
“Don’t stand by the window. There’s wind coming in. Come change your clothes.”
Shen Zheng rummaged through the cabinet. “Want pajamas or shorts?”
He got no answer. The next second, his back pressed against a broad, burning-hot chest.
The room was so dark, and the two of them were breathing so close together.
The moment Shen Zheng moved, the man behind him held him tighter.
A strong arm crossed over his chest, and at his ear came a low laugh. “Tonight it’s Ying Hui and Zhao Bin’s turn to stand watch in the lookout tower.”
Shen Zheng’s body trembled faintly. Very quickly, he reacted.
He cleared his throat and tightened his grip on the clothes in his hand. “Didn’t you say you didn’t have any…?”
“I do now.” Yi Qi laughed under his breath. “Got it from Brother Dali.”
Shen Zheng’s face flushed red all at once. He turned around. “You really are unbelievable. Brother Dali’s in that condition, and you still asked him for…!”
“The more it’s like this, the less we should treat Dali like he’s disabled. I asked him for it, and it actually made him laugh!”
Shen Zheng was both amused and embarrassed. “He wasn’t amused. He was speechless!”
Though the cabin was dark, Shen Zheng’s long, beautiful eyes still seemed bright.
Yi Qi could not resist lowering his head and kissing him once. In a husky voice, half teasing, he said, “And I told him that once he gets better, I’ll find him two better, more… specialized boxes to pay him back.”
The cabins in the core zone stood far apart. Unless someone was right outside the door, no one could hear anything.
Not to mention that thunder was rolling constantly overhead, and the grass outside was white with rain spray.
Su Min came back in wearing a raincoat. “This rain came way too suddenly.”
Sun Dali was patting Xiaoyue, who was lying under the covers. “I made you a hot coffee. Drink it and warm yourself up.”
Su Min spotted the steaming mug on the table and smiled even wider. She hung her raincoat at the door, picked up the mug, and took a sip. Sitting down in the beanbag chair, she sighed, “This is so nice. Even in the apocalypse, we can sit here peacefully, listen to the rain, and drink coffee. Director Wang said that once Elizabeth starts producing milk in a few days, the children will even get to drink sheep milk tea.”
Sun Dali glanced at Xiaoyue’s little head on the bed, then came over and sat beside her, his expression tender. “Wife, you’ve worked hard lately.”
Su Min set down the coffee cup. Looking at her husband, who had lost more than twenty pounds, she sighed. “As long as you stay alive and well, I’m not suffering at all.”
“I’ll live well,” Sun Dali said, his eyes steady and gentle. “For you, for Xiaoyue, and for the people on the farm.”
He went on, “You shouldn’t keep such a tight hold on Xiaoyue anymore. In times like these, only people with experience can survive. We should let Xiaoyue go out with the adults more often and learn.”
He looked at their sleeping daughter and continued, “Take Guanguan, for example. He’s so little, but Chengcheng brings him everywhere. I heard that during the negotiations with the Rose Garden, it was actually Guanguan who fired the crucial shot. Back in the old world, a four-year-old knowing how to shoot would’ve sounded ridiculous. But now it makes sense. Chengcheng must have been teaching Guanguan every day, all for a moment like that.”
Su Min fell silent for a while.
She looked at their daughter’s sleeping face, then slowly closed her eyes and nodded. “I’ll try to let go.”
Then she turned back to her husband. “Enough about that. You just focus on recovering now. Don’t skimp on the nutritional supplements I make for you every day.”
Sun Dali looked at the dozens of boxes of nutritional products on the cabinet. Rose Garden had been generous. These were the kind of good things that even before the apocalypse, they could never have afforded.
A single box cost several thousand yuan. What ordinary family would buy those every day?
“You and Xiaoyue should eat more too. Yi Qi even brought us a box of bird’s nest yesterday.”
Su Min looked surprised. “They already gave us so many good things because you were hurt. Why did they bring bird’s nest too?”
There were so many people on the farm that everyone only got one or two boxes of each thing.
Sun Dali coughed lightly. “Well, he traded me for something.”
“Cigarettes?” Su Min shook her head. “But I’ve never seen Yi Qi or Shen Zheng smoke.”
“It wasn’t cigarettes. It was… that…” Sun Dali lowered his voice and whispered three words into his wife’s ear.
Su Min pursed her lips, then burst out laughing. “Oh my God. So which one’s on top?”
“Obviously Yi Qi.”
Sun Dali’s right hand slid to his wife’s soft waist as he murmured, “But he said when he finds two better, more special boxes later, he’ll return them to us.”
Su Min’s face reddened as she smacked his wandering hand. “You two perverts!”
Sun Dali immediately put on a pained expression. “Wife, I’m still an injured man!”
Su Min snorted. “Stop pretending. Your right hand isn’t broken.”
.
The adult world was far too complicated.
Little Guanguan’s world only consisted of eating, drinking, playing, and sleeping.
Outside, rain and thunder came together in full force, making the whole cabin feel unsettled.
So Wei Cheng locked the doors and windows and brought Guanguan and the two dogs into the safe house.
Little Apricot had already grown into a powerfully built, black-furred dog with a cold, handsome look. Gray Cub was also gradually growing out of his puppy stage.
The dog bed and little fenced corner in the cozy house had started to feel cramped for them.
So Wei Cheng and Guanguan bought a new dog bed and some wooden boards, and rebuilt a new doggy house for them.
The TV played cartoons. Little Apricot and Gray Cub lounged on the cloud couch, watching with full concentration. Whether they could actually understand it was another matter.
Meanwhile, Guanguan diligently handed wooden boards and a little hammer to his brother.
“Brother, are you thirsty?”
Guanguan pointed at himself with a tiny finger and answered his own question, “Oh, Guanguan’s brother is definitely thirsty!”
Then he hugged his little hands and ran pattering to the tea table, picked up his brother’s blue cup, and ran back. He was in such a hurry that he nearly tripped over his own feet.
Wei Cheng finished nailing the last board into place. As he packed away the toolbox, he smiled. “Go on, tell me. What snack do you want?”
The soft, milky little chubster threw himself into Wei Cheng’s arms and lifted his rosy face. “Want ice cream!”
Wei Cheng picked him up and placed the toolbox into the wall cabinet. “What flavor do you want?”
Guanguan looked a little surprised. “You’re really giving baby some?”
Wei Cheng laughed. “You haven’t had ice cream in a long time.”
Guanguan’s eyes sparkled. He made a very modest request. “Baby wants two little scoops.”
“Sure. No problem.” Wei Cheng carried his brother into the kitchen and opened the fridge. It was packed to the brim with food and fruit.
Then he opened another fridge, this one filled with ice cream and cakes and little desserts.
“What flavor?” Wei Cheng took a little bowl down from the cabinet.
Guanguan folded his hands behind his back and said, “Blueberry and yummy-smell.”
By “yummy-smell,” he meant cookies-and-cream vanilla.
Wei Cheng opened the tub and scooped out two neat little balls. “All right. Go eat.”
Guanguan gleefully balanced the bowl on his head and ran off. “Eating ice cream now!”
Wei Cheng pulled back the kitchen curtain and looked outside. The rain showed no sign of stopping.
It seemed they would be cooped up inside all day.
Wei Cheng wanted to go organize the supplies in the warehouse and count the remaining fuel.
He called after Guanguan, “After you finish your ice cream, don’t drink water right away. Wait a while before you drink, okay?”
Guanguan had a spoon in his mouth and nodded. “Got it!”
After one episode of the cartoon ended, Guanguan had polished off both scoops of ice cream.
He set down the bowl he had licked clean. “Gray Cub, we need a tissue here!”
Gray Cub immediately leapt down from the couch and came back carrying a box of tissues in his mouth.
“Gray Cub, baby and you are the best in the whole world!” Guanguan pulled out a tissue and wiped his sticky little hands, but the tissue stuck to his fingers.
The little baby frowned. “Hands grew paper!”
Gray Cub leaned in, about to lick him, but Little Apricot clamped his teeth around Gray Cub’s scruff from behind.
Guanguan shook his head. “No licking. If you eat paper, your dog tummy will grow paper too!”
Then he slapped his little slippers against the floor as he ran upstairs.
By that time, Wei Cheng had come back from the warehouse too.
There was enough food, medicine, and fuel in storage to support them for a while. What they needed most right now was to buy more weapons and keep doing missions to earn more money.
He carried a red velvet box upstairs and, as soon as he did, heard Guanguan humming to himself.
“Brother!”
Guanguan came pattering out and launched himself at his brother’s leg. Both his hands were still wet, and they dampened Wei Cheng’s black sweatshirt at once. “You’re back!”
“I’m back.” Wei Cheng lifted the red box in his hand. “Do you still remember what this is?”
Guanguan tilted his head and thought for a moment, then gave up. “What is it?”
“Gold.” Wei Cheng set the child down on the bed. Smiling, he said, “Brother wants to use these little gold peanuts to make you two new bracelets. Come on, hold out your hands.”
Guanguan obediently stretched them out. His arms were like two little fat lotus roots.
Wei Cheng compared the size, then touched the bridge of his nose. “Looks like I didn’t bring enough.”
Guanguan suddenly remembered a little. “Brother, these are little peanuts from the field!”
“That’s right. They were left to brother by Grandma and Mom.”
Guanguan squeezed into his brother’s arms and rubbed his sleepy eyes. “Does brother have some?”
Wei Cheng touched the cute little gold peanuts and smiled. “If you have them, then brother has them too.”
He spent the whole evening tapping and shaping, and even bought a few extra tools. By the next morning, Guanguan had two little gold bracelets on his wrists.
The child was so fair and plump that with those tiny golden bracelets on, he looked unbelievably stylish.
The moment Guanguan woke up and saw them, he was thrilled. He did not even bother putting on his green-apple face cream. He rushed straight out of the cabin to show everyone.
As Su Min set breakfast on the table, she reached out and adjusted one of the bracelets. “Guanguan, this is so pretty.”
Guanguan slightly lifted his little chin, stretched out his round arm proudly, and declared in all seriousness, “Yes, this really suits baby.”
“This smug little thing.” Zhao Bin and the others all laughed.
That morning, the rain had finally stopped. After breakfast, the whole family had more farm repairs to do.
Once everyone had sat down, Wei Cheng looked around curiously. “How come Uncle Shen and Uncle Yi aren’t here?”
The author has something to say:
Uncle Shen: Let’s not talk about it, let’s not talk about it.
I’m not sure whether everyone likes the Uncle Shen and Uncle Yi parts. If you do, we can even write some adult scenes [dog holding a rose in its mouth]. If not, that’s okay too, we can just wait until the babies grow up [kiss].
Sorry for being late, 50 red envelopes.
