Chapter 15
As a long-haired calico cat, Meimei’s beauty naturally went without saying.
But after rolling around in the desert like that, she had naturally brought Jiang Qingyu a little “local specialty” back with her too.
Jiang Qingyu carefully shook all the sand hidden in her fur clean, then wiped her little face, ears, and paws. Her pink paw pads rested on his hand, and Meimei gave a soft meow.
Jiang Qingyu lowered his head and touched foreheads with her. “It’s more comfortable when you’re wiped clean, okay? You still have to sleep on the bed tonight.”
Meimei meowed again.
Jiang Qingyu took out cat-specific wet wipes and wiped her fur down, then dried her with a hair dryer. Once he once again had a fragrant, beautiful little cat, he held her in his arms and took several fierce sniffs.
Probably because the salmon and beef rice bowl she had eaten earlier had been very satisfying, this time Meimei did not even use her paws to push his face away. She only meowed lazily, her tail swaying left and right.
After the warm parent-child time ended, seeing that the night outside was growing deeper, Jiang Qingyu also cleaned himself up. He was not very hungry at the moment, so he did not make anything to eat. He changed clothes, took a hot shower, and after coming out, continued his great shopping undertaking.
Unfortunately, he had not previously gone to any coastal cities. The seafood he had bought earlier from local vegetable markets and seafood markets looked like a lot, but when averaged across the days to come, it did not seem that abundant.
Not only did Jiang Qingyu love eating it, Meimei also liked it very much. Unfortunately, conditions did not allow it, so he could only buy online and have it air-shipped over.
Fortunately, as long as he spent some money on shipping and paid a slightly higher price, he could still eat fresh, high-quality seafood.
As long as he could exchange points, money did not count for much to Jiang Qingyu. He carefully read through the reviews, then shopped with abandon.
It was not until the system’s prompt woke him up that Jiang Qingyu realized he had already been immersed in shopping for over an hour. He put down his phone, got up, and moved his slightly sore shoulders and neck while listening to the system give him the random upgrade options.
System: “Congratulations on leveling up! Please choose your reward: custom RV module / automatic driving.”
This was the first time Jiang Qingyu had refreshed the “custom module” function. Out of curiosity, he asked the system to explain exactly what it meant.
The system said that this custom function was a little like changing the vehicle’s skin. The difference was that one decorated the exterior, while the other decorated the interior.
For example, if he wanted an ocean-view swimming pool, the custom module would simulate the scene of an ocean-view villa for him. If he wanted a little wooden cabin, the interior environment would also change accordingly. Sofas, fireplaces, whatever he wanted—everything was possible. Its main focus was an immersive experience, improving the player’s comfort.
After all, anyone would feel tired of living in a vehicle all the time.
Jiang Qingyu was stunned as he listened. Was it this humane? It even considered psychological needs?
Then why not simply stop the apocalypse from coming, hey!
System: “Try to think of it more positively. You can understand it as Earth detoxifying itself. After the great cleansing, everything will improve.”
Why did that sound even stranger?
However, after thinking it over again and again, Jiang Qingyu felt that right now did not seem to be the time to choose the custom module and enjoy life. Next, he would spend a lot of time on the road every day. No matter how he looked at it, automatic driving was the most suitable upgrade.
So he did not hesitate and immediately chose to upgrade the automatic driving function, then tested it on the spot.
The vehicle drove very steadily, and he could also take over manually midway. The holographic projection had reached the point where it could pass for real. Forget looking from outside; even if someone stood right beside it, they would not be able to detect anything wrong.
Jiang Qingyu was very satisfied with this.
The events of today should have more or less ended here. Jiang Qingyu ought to nestle into his comfortable blankets and sleep properly.
But when he actually lay down on the very secure bed, he faintly felt a little uneasy. The image of that RV driving past kept flashing through his mind. For some reason, it bothered him a lot.
There was no signal on this road. There was no way to make calls or access the internet. One could only drive straight down the road to the end. Farther ahead, there were not even streetlights. Once the headlights went out, there would be darkness in every direction.
If the vehicle broke down, one would truly be left with no response from heaven or earth. There was really no need to take that risk.
Could it have been someone he had met at the campsite yesterday?
Young people did not care much about these things and always carried a bit of wishful luck in their hearts, feeling that their luck could not possibly be that bad. It was just driving at night. With friends beside them, music playing in the car, and everyone chatting and laughing together, it would actually feel more atmospheric.
But as the old saying went, it was not the ten thousand possibilities one feared, but the one-in-ten-thousand chance. Many things could not be predicted. Jiang Qingyu kept having a rather bad premonition, though he could not say exactly what it was.
He hesitated a little. Should he follow and take a look at the situation?
Only, ever since he bought this vehicle, he had never driven at night before, let alone through an uninhabited area. The more it was a moment like this, the more all those horror stories he had seen online started madly surfacing in his mind, each one more exciting than the last.
Surely he would not be driving along when a wild beast suddenly appeared from some unknown corner and pounced onto his vehicle. Or perhaps a person would stand by the roadside waving at his car, trying to make him stop… right?
But if he did not go… he tossed and turned, completely unable to fall asleep. He had seen many vehicles along the way, but this was the first time he had felt this way. There was really no way for him to pretend he had seen nothing.
Forget it. Instead of continuing to toss and turn in bed, he might as well go and find out. He would treat it as buying himself peace of mind.
Thinking this, Jiang Qingyu rolled out of bed and got up. As he put on his clothes, he asked the system, “Um, let me confirm this. This vehicle won’t have any problems, right?”
The system was very confident about this. “Of course. Whether human, wild beast, or what you people call ghosts and monsters, as long as the system does not allow it, no one can force their way inside.”
“All right.” Jiang Qingyu bent down and stroked the head of the little cat that was curiously looking up at him.
In that case, he would make the trip.
It also happened to be good timing. His RV had just upgraded its automatic driving function, so it could avoid the risk of Jiang Qingyu making some wrong move out of fright if they encountered any special circumstances. With the system taking over, he only needed to care about the whereabouts of that RV.
Once he had made up his mind, he no longer hesitated. He hurriedly started the vehicle and set off, wearing a mask as he sat in the passenger seat, resolutely advancing at full speed toward the uninhabited area.
It was no exaggeration to say that Jiang Qingyu’s heart was beating very fast the whole way. Probably because he had no way of knowing what would happen next, he could not help being nervous.
What was strange was that, logically speaking, he had not moved slowly. The other party was driving an RV, so they would not have been going too fast. At his speed, he should have been able to catch up.
But by the time he was almost through the uninhabited area, and the night gradually brightened from pitch-black as a streak of golden light slowly climbed up the horizon, he still had not seen any trace of that RV.
This made the uneasiness in his heart grow even stronger. Suddenly, he had a guess, and a slight chill crept up his back.
He stared blankly at the map for more than ten seconds, then said somewhat uncertainly, “How about… we go back and take another look?”
System: “All right.”
Then, something even stranger happened. After Jiang Qingyu decided to turn around and go back, and after driving for more than another hour, he unexpectedly ran straight into the white RV that had once brushed past him head-on.
Although, at this hour, Jiang Qingyu’s eyelids were already fighting each other, because he was afraid something bad might happen, he had not dared to doze off in the passenger seat even for a moment.
At the time, there had only been this one vehicle, and it had been driving straight toward the uninhabited area, so his impression of it was very deep. He would absolutely not mistake it.
Could someone tell him why this vehicle was coming from the direction he had come from???
They couldn’t have gone deep into the uninhabited area, right?
Jiang Qingyu stopped the vehicle, parking at the side of the road beside an abandoned work station. Somewhat at a loss, he got out and looked around.
Afraid that he might have missed something, he even specially found a sand dune and climbed up it. But all around him, aside from sand, there was still only sand. Forget a person’s shadow—there was not even any trash.
No one had set foot here.
The sky was already completely bright, and the temperature rose very quickly. The blazing sun shone on his back, even bringing a faint burning sensation. Jiang Qingyu narrowed his eyes and glanced in the direction of the desert, thinking forget it. Maybe he had just been overthinking.
He tried his best to make a rational judgment. Perhaps the people in that RV really were people he had met at the RV campsite. For a short while, their emotions had run high, and they wanted to learn from the protagonists in those adventure stories and try venturing deep into the uninhabited area.
But perhaps there had been someone relatively rational in the group who stopped their impulsive teammates. They had only lingered at the edge and made some slight adjustments before setting off again after daybreak.
That was why the vehicle that had originally been in front of Jiang Qingyu would come from the opposite direction. Everything was reasonable.
Maybe he had just been too suspicious. Even if not, after running around all night, he had at least done everything his conscience asked of him.
Thinking this, Jiang Qingyu tugged at the hood of his shell jacket and planned to return to the vehicle first, find a safer place, and properly catch up on sleep. After sleeping until he woke up naturally, he would have a fragrant, filling meal, and this matter would be over.
However, just as he was about to go down from the sand dune, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly caught sight of something in the sand not far away that seemed to move.
He was startled badly, almost losing his footing and tumbling down. With one hand, he tightened the collar of his jacket, his heart pounding. His throat moved as he swallowed, and he nervously looked in that direction.
It was not his imagination.
There really was a person.
A person.
Thank goodness, thank goodness. In broad daylight, no ghost would dare come out in the desert under the blazing sun. But logically speaking, there should not be a person here either, right?
The distance was a little far, so he could not see clearly. He took out his phone, opened the camera, zoomed in, then zoomed in again.
Jiang Qingyu’s pupils suddenly contracted.
At that moment, he had no time to think or observe any further. He hurriedly ran down from the sand dune and rushed toward that unsteady figure.
He was not used to running in the desert, and several times, he almost tripped over himself. Because of that, the person also saw this fish struggling hard through the desert and came toward Jiang Qingyu’s direction.
Jiang Qingyu’s mind was full of only one thought: What exactly happened?
Just now, through his phone camera, he had seen that there were many mottled bloodstains on the other person’s white T-shirt. They looked exceptionally shocking. On top of that, the person’s condition was extremely poor, his face deathly pale. Jiang Qingyu had indeed been frightened.
His first reaction was to save him, and his mind had no room to think of anything else. But just as he was about to reach the person, a thought suddenly popped into Jiang Qingyu’s head:
Was the blood on this person his own?
…If it belonged to someone else, wasn’t he charging straight to his death?
