Not long after Luo Ning got out of the car, An Xiaoruo also woke up. Seeing that she was sitting with Lu Xinghe and Luo Ning was not there, she immediately panicked: "Uncle, where is Mom?"

Seeing how clingy the little girl was to Luo Ning, yet how afraid she was of him, her own kind, Lu Xinghe lazily leaned back in his chair and said, "She was carried away by a different species."

An Xiaoru pouted; she didn't believe it at all: "Uncle, even if you were taken away, Mom wouldn't be taken away."

The girl was quick-witted and sharp-tongued. Lu Xinghe felt that her personality was like Luo Ning's. She seemed timid and harmless, and usually spoke softly. But once she displeased them, she was sharp as a thorn in her hair.

Taking advantage of Luo Ning's absence, Lu Xinghe asked the question that had been lingering in his mind: "Why do you call me uncle?"

“Mom’s younger brother is my uncle,” An Xiaoruo replied.

Lu Xinghe understood. This was Luo Ning's doing. A different species treating its own food as a younger brother—could it be that she has some kind of psychological problem?

"Don't call me uncle from now on, call me brother." Lu Xinghe felt that his seniority was not that high as uncle; he was only eight or nine years older than this little girl.

An Xiaoruo asked, "Why?"

Lu Xinghe looked at the abandoned airport in front of him: "It's nothing, just call me brother."

An Xiaoru tilted her head and thought for a moment, then said firmly, "I understand, Uncle, you don't want to be Mom's brother, you want to be Mom's son."

Lu Xinghe: ...

In the end, he let An Xiaoruo call him uncle; it was just a title, nothing to fuss about.

Luo Ning didn't return for a while, so he opened the car door and got out for some fresh air. They were now in the desert, with coarse sand under their feet and low, thorny shrubs growing everywhere. Further ahead, they would probably be in the desert area.

He recalled the map in his mind. According to the old map, this place should still be an oasis. In just two years, the landscape has changed, and this change is not caused by human activity, but is obviously a climate problem. He wondered what the world would become if things continued like this.

A few minutes later, Luo Ning finally returned, but her walking posture was a bit strange. As soon as she got into the car, she closed the door and drew the curtain, acting mysteriously.

"You...you go away a bit." Luo Ning pulled the carriage curtain open again, looking somewhat uneasy, because when she went to the toilet earlier, her tail had accidentally gotten some sticky grass seeds on it and she couldn't clean them off, so she had to ask An Xiaoruo for help.

Under the rising sun, her face flushed with shyness. Although Lu Xinghe didn't know she had a rabbit tail, she still felt embarrassed.

Lu Xinghe thought she was still angry, so he kicked small stones all the way into the airport.

The airport was desolate, with wrecked planes and human bones scattered everywhere. Looking at everything before him, he vaguely felt that this place was familiar, as if he had been here before. After entering the hangar, there were burnt airplane seats, leaving only the skeletons, and a piece of relatively new aircraft wreckage on the ground.

He recognized the piece of wreckage; it was from the plane that brought them here. When the plane was flying over this area, it collided with the Winged Xenomorphs. The powerful airflow tore the fuselage apart, and he fell down with it, but luckily he survived.

Then Luo Ning found him. As for what happened next, looking at the plane wreckage and the fire in front of him, he had some images in his mind. It was Luo Ning who pulled out the fragment from his chest and used the wreckage to drag him here, and then carried him back on the plane seat.

"Who knows what she's up to?" He snorted, then walked to an airplane and climbed up to see if he could find anything useful, but the airplanes had been abandoned for too long and were just a pile of scrap metal.

When he returned to the RV, the doors and windows were already open. Luo Ning was hanging the fish he had killed yesterday outside the window to dry, and An Xiaoruo was helping him. When the little girl saw him return, she whispered something in Luo Ning's ear. Luo Ning looked at her with a mischievous smile on his face. He knew without a doubt that An Xiaoruo had tattled on him. The idea of ​​turning his brother into a son was something that had benefited her.

He awkwardly walked toward the car door when suddenly a gust of wind blew up and a clump of white fluff landed on his clothes. He picked it off and saw that it was animal fur with grass seeds stuck to it.

It couldn't be...hers, could it...?

So she chased him away just now because his tail had grass seeds stuck to it?

Luo Ning then saw him examining a tuft of her rabbit tail fur, and her heart jumped into her throat. Had he discovered something?

Fortunately, he only glanced at it, then released his fingers, and the tuft of white rabbit fur drifted away with the wind.

Lu Xinghe opened the water tank to add water to the car. After hanging the fish up, Luo Ning walked to his side and said, "Xiao Ru just told me that you want to be her brother? I wouldn't mind getting a son for free."

Lu Xinghe didn't say anything, but just kept pouring water into the tank, and because he was doing it so fast, some water spilled out.

Seeing this, Luo Ning grabbed his hand and pointed the water bottle at the opening of the box, saying with concern, "Slow down, the water will spill. Do you know how hard it is to find water here?"

She still smelled faintly of fish, like a kitten that had just stolen a bite of fish.

Lu Xinghe paused for a moment, then took his hand away and handed the kettle to her: "Then you can add it."

"I'll do it, it's not like I can't." Luo Ning carefully poured the water in, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Lu Xinghe rubbing his hand, which she had just touched, on his clothes again and again, as if he was disgusted by her touch.

She realized that she had just lost her composure. To him, she was still an alien and an enemy, while she had always considered herself human and neglected his feelings.

We should still maintain a sense of boundaries between different species and humans.

After adding water, the vehicle continued on its way, still driven by Lu Xinghe. The closer they got to the abandoned city, the greater the danger became, and he became even more cautious.

Luo Ning and An Xiaoruo were making breakfast on a small stove. The breakfast was very simple, consisting of only fish and meat and previously pickled wild vegetables. Luo Ning filled a bowl and asked An Xiaoruo to serve it to Lu Xinghe.

An Xiaoruo carried the food over, hesitating whether to call Lu Xinghe "uncle" or "brother".

After taking the bowl, Lu Xinghe noticed she was still staring and asked, "What's wrong?"

An Xiaoruo leaned on his chair, blinking at him, "From now on, I'll call you brother..."

“Call him uncle,” Lu Xinghe interrupted her.

“Okay, Uncle.” An Xiaoruo happily ran to Luo Ning’s side and whispered, “Mom, Uncle still wants me to call him Uncle.”

Luo Ning smiled and said, "Okay, let's call you that."

Lu Xinghe and An Xiaoruo were eating, while Luo Ning was tidying up the car. There was nothing for her to eat here, but fortunately she had eaten a mutant yesterday, which would sustain her for a few more days.

When the car passed the spot where Lu Xinghe had fallen, he stopped briefly to check the situation before returning to the car to ask Luo Ning about the rest of the story. However, Luo Ning was already asleep.

She drove all night without closing her eyes. Even as a mutant, she wasn't made of iron and got tired too.

He continued driving forward, the outline of the ruined city already in sight. He would make plans once he got there.

When Luo Ning woke up, the car was already parked near the ruined city. An Xiaoru was writing and drawing at the table, but Lu Xinghe was nowhere to be seen.

"Xiao Ruo, where is your uncle?" she asked.

“It’s up there,” An Xiaoruo pointed to the roof of the car.

Luo Ning got out of the car and looked at the roof. Sure enough, she saw him sitting on the roof. The sun was already setting in the west, and the sunlight cast a thin halo on his face. His amber eyes were as bright as gemstones.

She wanted to go up and see what he was looking at, but remembering his actions that morning, she stayed where she was: "Why aren't you moving?"

Upon hearing her voice, Lu Xinghe jumped off the car roof, landing steadily in front of her: "The car is out of gas, we have to walk."

"Oh, let's go now." She turned to get back to the car, but heard him ask behind her, "Do you want to drink blood?"

She stopped, somewhat puzzled: "What...do you mean?"

Lu Xinghe walked to her side: "There might be large alien species ahead, which will consume a lot of your strength. I can provide you with blood."

Luo Ning thought to herself that he was starting to have some team spirit now. Thinking of his sweet and delicious blood, she couldn't help but swallow hard: "Then... then have some."

He gave it to her willingly; she didn't force him.

However, Lu Xinghe took a step back: "What I mean is that when you run out of energy later, I can give you blood, so you don't have to be distracted by food."

Luo Ning was a little disappointed. It turned out that she had to work to get paid. She thought he would give her the money right away.

Ten minutes later, Lu Xinghe, carrying a backpack, and Luo Ning, carrying An Xiaoruo, walked towards the city.

Once in the city, Luo Ning first smeared her blood on An Xiaoruo, then held out her hand to Lu Xinghe: "Would you like some?"

Without hesitation, Lu Xinghe dipped his finger in her blood and smeared it on his forehead, neck, and arms. Seeing that he did not reject her blood, Luo Ning became even more certain that he rejected her as a person.

Oh well, since they were going to part ways eventually anyway, why should she worry about whether he agreed with her?

However, after wiping away the blood, Lu Xinghe pressed a clean cloth against her wound, and she looked at him with some surprise.

Lu Xinghe also looked up, and their eyes met unexpectedly, causing the air to fall silent.

He was finally moved by her? Luo Ning was secretly delighted.

"Do you think I can stop the bleeding?" Lu Xinghe coldly let go of her hand, thinking she was a bit stupid. Didn't she feel pain from bleeding like this?

Luo Ning chuckled inwardly. It turned out she had been overthinking things. His mouth was quite handsome, so why did he speak so coldly?

Lu Xinghe looked around at the dilapidated buildings. This city was called Tacheng, a former oil city. After the apocalypse, it resisted the aliens for thirty years with its rich resource reserves and heavy machinery. During those thirty years, everyone in the city, from centenarians to three-year-old children, joined the fight against the aliens, but in the end, the entire city fell and no one survived.

Although the city is now deserted, the tragic scene of that time can still be seen from the single holes in the walls and the various weapons scattered around.

Now, forty years later, even if there were any supplies, they would have all rotted away. His only hope was that the radio on the plane that crashed in the city was still intact.

"Do you know the exact location where the plane crashed?" Luo Ning asked.

Lu Xinghe shook his head, then looked at a tall building in the city and said, "Let's go to that building first; we should be able to see the whole city from there."

"Okay, it's getting late, we need to hurry." Luo Ning said, quickening her pace, with Lu Xinghe following closely behind.

The city streets were piled with all kinds of vehicles and garbage, and the yellow sand was up to their calves. The two of them walked forward in the sand, sometimes sinking deep and sometimes sinking, and sand kept getting into their shoes, making it very uncomfortable to walk.

Luo Ning took off her shoes and stepped barefoot onto the yellow sand. Her feet were smooth and white, and when she stepped into the sand, it was as if a piece of white jade had fallen into the sand.

Lu Xinghe couldn't take off his shoes; there were many fragments here, and it would be bad if he got injured. He could only endure it and keep walking forward.

As evening fell, they finally arrived at the foot of the tall building. Luo Ning sensed the presence of the alien species but did not detect any. "It's safe here. Let's go up."

The building was over fifty stories high. An Xiaoruo didn't want Luo Ning to get tired and offered to walk down, but Luo Ning insisted on carrying her up. The building was too tall and many parts of the stairs were broken. She was worried about something happening, so she even took one of Lu Xinghe's bags and carried it on her back.

There were many human bones on the stairs, and large patches of blackened bloodstains on the walls, showing the devastation the city suffered when the aliens invaded. The three walked carefully, and after twenty minutes they finally reached the top of the building. The sun was about to set, and looking down at the earth from the top, it was a magnificent sight, like the setting sun over a long river.

Lu Xinghe closed the door to the stairs, then put down his backpack and searched for traces of the plane crash. He soon saw the wreckage. Although the plane was broken into pieces, the fuselage was not severely charred, which meant that the plane had not exploded violently, so some of the gasoline and supplies should have been preserved.

But thinking of Du Ming's miserable state and the possibility that his other teammates might have also suffered misfortune, he felt very sad.

There were twelve people on this mission, and he was the youngest and least experienced one, but in the end he survived, and was even saved by the alien species.

"Xiao Ruo, give the water to your uncle," Luo Ning said softly.

"Okay." An Xiaoruo picked up the water bottle and walked to Lu Xinghe's side: "Uncle, have some water."

Lu Xinghe looked down at the little girl, who was thin and small, and whose clothes were patched one after another. He had always been rude to her, but she never seemed to be angry with him. He took the water from her hand and whispered a thank you.

An Xiaoruo's eyes lit up, and she immediately ran to Luo Ning's side and happily whispered in her ear, "Mom, Uncle just thanked me."

Luo Ning hugged her and asked, "Did you say you didn't need to thank me?"

"No." An Xiaoruo was a little embarrassed, but she still mustered up her courage and returned to Lu Xinghe's side: "You're welcome."

Looking at her curved eyebrows and eyes, Lu Xinghe felt his sadness dissipate slightly.

After resting for a while, they went downstairs again and found a room that wasn't too badly damaged to rest for the night. Although they had found the location of the plane crash, it would be very dangerous to operate at night, so they could only retrieve the supplies after dawn.

Luo Ning took out the solar lamp and placed it on the table. Then she tidied up a clean spot and looked for any usable supplies. This building used to be an office building, so there were plenty of paper and pens. Although most of the paper was yellowed or even torn, some of it was still usable. She picked out the good ones and made them into notebooks for An Xiaoruo to practice calligraphy.

Lu Xinghe also found a piece of curtain fabric. There was only one sleeping bag, and it was cold at night, so they needed to keep warm.

A rustling sound came from downstairs. Luo Ning stood by the broken window and looked down. She saw many pale blue lights flashing. Sure enough, the mutants came out to move around at night. Fortunately, they were all animal-type mutants here, and she did not see any humanoid mutants.

"Xiao Ruo, quickly get into your sleeping bag. Lu Xinghe, you also wrap the curtains up. You two go to sleep first, I'll keep watch." Luo Ning gave the instructions methodically. She had spent several nights in this city and was quite experienced.

However, just as she finished speaking, she suddenly noticed that lights had also come on in a building in the distance, and they were flashing rhythmically.

She and Lu Xinghe exchanged a glance; there were still people in this abandoned city.