Chapter 53 Something Happened: The Child Is Lost!

Most people eat extra wild vegetable rice balls or dry biscuits prepared in the morning, and drink spring water collected from the waterfall.

Su Ying was the only one who was particular. Her staple food was a warm and soft coarse steamed bun placed in her space. The side dishes were several refreshing cold dishes that she had specially made in the morning. Even the water was flower tea made from dried flowers that had been dried before the catastrophe. It left a lingering fragrance on her lips and teeth and was full of ritual.

While eating, she subtly observed the other people's lunches, and felt quite pleased with herself when she discovered that Aunt Jin Feng and Wu Yinyin were eating nothing more than cold, ordinary egg pancakes.

His expression suddenly froze when he inadvertently glanced at the food in Lu Qing's hand.

What is that?

The steamed buns made from refined flour had a slit cut open in the middle and were stuffed with a lot of things: thick slices of cured pork, fried eggs, cabbage slices, and apparently cucumber slices. They were even sprinkled with sesame seeds and chopped green onions and spread with sauce!

Just by looking at them, you can tell that these stuffed buns will taste amazing!

A gentle breeze wafted by, bringing a sweet fragrance. Su Ying's nose twitched involuntarily, and her gaze unconsciously fell on the water bottle that Lu Qing had placed beside her lap.

Just then, Lu Qing picked up the kettle and poured a glass for Miao Jinfeng and Wu Yinyin, and the sweet aroma in the air immediately became even stronger.

"Aunt Jin Feng, Yin Yin, you two have a drink too. I don't know if it suits your taste."

The two were immediately impressed, exclaiming, "What is this? It's so delicious!"

Wu Yinyin licked her lips. "I think I taste honey?"

Lu Qing smiled and said, "Ah Xuan said this is called honey mint tea. It contains mint leaves and honey, which quenches thirst and cools you down. It's very refreshing to drink."

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law nodded in unison, "It really does taste very refreshing and sweet." When they spoke after drinking it, their breath was cool and refreshing, which was very comfortable, and the sweetness was unforgettable.

Su Ying, who was eavesdropping, exclaimed: "!!!"

Is she here for a spring outing? She's eating so well!

She looked down at her fragrant but bitter flower tea, smelled sweet aromas wafting from next door, and a hint of annoyance flashed in her eyes.

I was careless.

She only thought that Lu Xuan wouldn't let anything happen to Lu Qing, and that joining Lu Qing's collection team would be safer. She forgot that Lu Qing had much more supplies than her, and that in every aspect, besides safety, Lu Qing might steal her thunder.

"I thought they said yesterday that we could still pick a lot because they were afraid we would be disappointed, but I didn't expect that we would pick so much in just one morning," Miao Jinfeng said with emotion.

Aunt Chen sighed, "Back in the village, where could we find so much? We were lucky if we could gather enough for a plate of cold salad after wandering around the foot of the mountain." When we couldn't even gather enough for a plate of vegetables, we could only make a wild vegetable soup to tide us over.

Unlike now, in just one morning, most of them have picked two baskets.

Sun looked at her son Li Miao and shook her head, saying, "My son is no match for us. Boys are just not as nimble as girls."

Thirteen-year-old Li Miao, with a chubby face, swallowed the wild vegetable dumpling in his mouth, wiped his mouth, and said, "I'll try my best this afternoon!"

The other young men and women, around his age, looked at their nearly full first baskets and secretly resolved to work faster in the afternoon so as not to let their wives and aunts down.

After eating, the group rested for a short while before continuing their afternoon collection.

The soil and water near the waterfall were plentiful, and wild vegetables and mushrooms grew much better and in greater quantities than in other places. There were also plenty of other resources, and the group soon had another harvest.

For example, wild ginger, houttuynia cordata, and some lucky people found some wild raspberries and wild yams. However, since they are wild, the wild raspberries are sour, and the wild yams are small and there are only a dozen or so of them.

Nevertheless, the empty baskets placed in Lu Qing's space were filled up at an extremely fast pace.

·

At the same time, hunting teams from two other directions were also busy at work.

With yesterday's experience, both Wu Cheng and Lu Xuan explored much faster today. After spotting prey, the team members with their new weapons quickly got into position and competed to hunt.

The team members who came out for the first time kept urging Lu Xuan to show them his stone hunting technique from yesterday.

Lu Xuan picked up some small stones again and shot them out. With a few 'plop plop plop' sounds, the prey hidden among them fell to the ground, including a bird that was about to fly away from the tree branch.

The others gasped in amazement: "He can even hit a bird? That's incredible!"

Li Tuo's face was full of barely concealed excitement: "Brother, can you teach me this move too?"

The other boys, around Li Tuo's age, also had their eyes shining: "I want to learn too!"

Lu Xuan casually placed the remaining pebbles in his hand and asked in surprise, "Teach? Isn't that something anyone can do?"

Others: "..."

[Pfft, what kind of Versailles-esque comment is this from the streamer?]

"Anyone with hands can do it? Is that even human language? I hate those who claim to be naturally gifted!!!"

[Tsk, the hard-working type putting in 99% of their talent can't compare to the talented type putting in just 1% of their effort.]

[This is so true!]

But if you're not even willing to try, things are even worse.

[...Speaking the absolute truth! I don't want to hear it, take it back immediately!!]

Xiong Mao asked suspiciously, "There must be some techniques involved, such as the posture when shooting, the timing of aiming, and so on?"

Lu Xuan thought for a moment, "Based on intuition?"

As he spoke, to prove he wasn't lying, he casually shot the pebbles in his hand around in all directions. Unsurprisingly, there were four more sounds of things falling to the ground.

Zhang Chengming and another young man searched through the bushes and found three wild rabbits and a pheasant.

Zhang Chengming looked on in surprise: "How did you find the wild rabbit hiding in the grass? I didn't notice it at all."

Lu Xuan said casually, "I heard it." Whenever a living thing passes by, it will always make a sound.

The others looked at each other in bewilderment.

They didn't hear anything; the only sound they heard was the rustling of the grass in the wind.

"Really no skill at all?" Li Tuo asked, unwilling to give up.

Lu Xuan pondered for a moment, "If I had to say, it would be that practice makes perfect."

He had been playing with guns and bows and arrows before the apocalypse, and then struggled to survive for ten years in the apocalypse. Throwing stones had long become an instinct, and even if you asked him to teach him, he couldn't teach him anything.

With enough practice and training, even a fool can become a sharpshooter.

Lu Xuan: "Alright, enough talk, focus on hunting. The more you hunt, the better your aim will become."

Others: "...That's true. Today's prey can't be too much worse than yesterday's." Otherwise, it would be too embarrassing.

Their luck wasn't as good as yesterday; they searched for a long time without encountering any more wild boars. However, they had more time today, and in the afternoon they spotted three deer. By sunset, their harvest was quite substantial.

On their way back, they encountered the same gathering team and Wu Cheng's group, who were also heading back. After learning that both sides had made a considerable haul, the group was in high spirits.

This good mood lasted until the anxious faces of those remaining in the square.

Everyone's eyelids twitched.

Thinking of their parents, wives, and children left behind in the cave, everyone's expression changed slightly. "Has something happened?"

"Could it be that some wild animal broke into the square after we left?"

"Is anyone injured?"

"No! It's a child! A child is missing!"

Zhang Yangshi rushed over and shouted to Lu Xuan and Lu Qing, "Xuan boy, Qing girl, your Lu Chen and Xiong Mao's Xiong Dabao have disappeared somewhere!"

"What!?" Xiong Mao and Su Ying in the crowd exclaimed in shock.

Lu Qing's legs went weak, and she almost fell over.

"Watch out!" Lei Yan quickly steadied her.

Su Ying grabbed Zhang Yangshi's arm and asked urgently, "Where is my son? How could he be lost!"

Xiong Mao angrily said, "Why is my son missing? Why didn't you keep an eye on him?!"

Lu Qing gripped Lei Yan's arm tightly, her delicate face drained of color, and her voice trembled as she said, "Chenchen is such a good boy, he wouldn't run away, how could he disappear?"

The viewers in the live stream were also shocked to learn that Lu Chen had gone missing.

The streamer's younger brother doesn't seem like the mischievous person who would run around everywhere.

[That's right, I promised the anchor yesterday that I would keep an eye on the other children.]

Is it possible that she got lost along with Xiong Da Bao because she promised the streamer?

Whatever the reason, the most important thing now is to find the child as soon as possible!

"Don't panic." Lu Xuan patted Lu Qing's shoulder reassuringly and calmly asked the others, "What exactly happened?"

Li Tie called Zhang Dafu over and had him recount the events.

With tears in his eyes, Zhang Dafu said, "We were playing with the new toy car that Brother Lu Xuan gave us, but halfway through, Chenchen saw Xiong Dabao doing something alone by the square and went to look for him. When we came to our senses, both of them were gone."

Li Tie sighed, "We went to the spot where the two children were and found that the fence had been torn open. We guess they crawled out through that opening."

Lu Xuan swept his gaze across the others, his sharp eyes scrutinizing them: "It's one thing if we didn't pay attention to the other children, but where are the people watching them?"

Ye Jing, who was in charge of looking after the children, stepped forward and said with remorse, "I wasn't feeling well at the time, and Grandma Lin and my sister helped me back to the cave to rest. I didn't notice for a moment..." When she came out again, the two children were gone.

Lu Xuan glanced at Ye Jing but said nothing.

Su Ying couldn't help but yell angrily, "If you knew you weren't feeling well, you shouldn't have taken on the job of looking after the child! Now look what's happened, you've lost my son! If something happens to my son, can you afford to compensate me!"

Ye Jing looked ashamed. "I'm sorry."

Carpenter Ye and Ye Lin stayed with the pale-faced Ye Jing, knowing that the Xiong and Lu families were very anxious and unable to defend Ye Jing.

If anything were to happen to their two children, they would never have peace of mind for the rest of their lives.

Grandma Lin slapped her thigh in frustration: "It's all my and Ye Ping's fault for being careless. We should have left one of us to watch the children."

Ye Ping's eyes were red, and she felt equally guilty.

They thought the children had been very well-behaved these past few days and nothing would happen for a while, but you can't take chances when it comes to taking care of children.

Su Ying said angrily, "If anything happens to my Da Bao, I'll never forgive you!"

Li Tie sighed, "Alright, the most important thing now is to find the child as soon as possible."

The others nodded. "That's right."

"The guards who stayed behind have all gone out to search, but there is still no news."

"It will get dark soon, we must find it before dark, or it will be dangerous."

"The two children are so young, they have no ability to protect themselves at all. What if they encounter a wild animal..."

Someone snapped at the person who was talking nonsense, "Stop talking." Didn't you see how ugly Xiong Mao and his wife, as well as Lu Qing and Lei Yan, all looked?

Su Ying suddenly turned to look at Lu Xuan as if she had remembered something, and said urgently, "Lu Xuan! You are so capable, you must have a way to find my son, right? Can you please beg the gods? I can't live without my son! I will do anything as long as my child can be found."

Xiong Mao even said, "I'd give my life if it meant finding my son!"

Lu Xuan glanced at him. "What would I do with your life? Don't worry, since Chenchen is with them, unless they encounter wolves and tigers as soon as they go out, they won't be in any trouble."

That being said, it is indeed unsafe to leave two children in the wild all the time.

He quickly took out a palm-sized electronic screen from his spatial storage, clicked the switch, and three small green dots immediately appeared on the screen.

Two of the green dots are at the middle coordinates, and the other is a little further to the northeast.

Lu Xuan zoomed in on the screen, carefully confirmed the exact distance of the green dot, and said to the others, "We've found it. Let's go and bring the child back now."

Everyone: "!??"

How did you find it?

Where is it?

Lu Xuan didn't say anything more, and turned around to walk back into the forest. Xiong Mao immediately followed.

Seeing this, the others had no choice but to follow.