The livestock were all handed over to Li Jingjing. Xu Lin and Zhou Pin set off on time, driving the same container truck they had used before. After leaving the base, they switched to an off-road vehicle from the space and continued on their journey.

To be honest, these professional off-road vehicles are much more comfortable to drive. Their shock absorption and performance are far superior to that truck, but they're too conspicuous in the apocalypse. They were in a hurry to find Zheng Ming and didn't care about anything else.

They drove eastward, and there wasn't a soul on the road. They were traveling on the pre-apocalyptic highway. The sections that hadn't been damaged by the earthquake were still easy to drive on, but in some places the earthquake had cracked the road, so they had to get out of the car and switch to motorcycles. The two of them took turns driving, and the one who wasn't driving would rest or eat. Three days later, they arrived in Hunan Province.

Judging from the road conditions, Hunan Province has likely experienced severe acid rain. The ground is barren, and the air is filled with the strong smell of sulfuric acid. Acid rain causes serious damage to the environment, especially polluting groundwater.

The two parked their car and rested in a partially collapsed house. According to Dr. Dai, she might have seen Zheng Ming in the capital of Hunan Province. The two studied the map and estimated that they would arrive in half a day. They would rest in their space that night and set off early the next morning, arriving in the capital by noon.

The two ate hot pot in the space. Since it was still early, Xu Lin suggested doing some exercise after dinner to aid digestion. Xu Lin's space could now be controlled by thought to plant and harvest, but both of them felt that doing it themselves would allow them to better experience the joy of a bountiful harvest.

Xu Lin collected all the chicken, duck, and goose eggs from the livestock shed, and picked all the leeks, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, peppers, and other vegetables from the vegetable garden. She fed the cattle and sheep with fresh grass. In the past two years, new species have been added to the space, but their numbers have always been controlled. Anyway, the space can support living things, as long as it is enough for them to consume. When they need to reproduce in large numbers, they can reproduce temporarily.

Zhou Pin drove the combine harvester to harvest the wheat in the field, conservatively estimating it to be 3,000 jin. He then drove to harvest the corn and rice, piling them in a small warehouse to be threshed and ground into flour when he was less busy.

After they finished their work, it was already late. They washed up and rested, and the night passed without incident.

The next morning, the two ate some xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and set off. Before that, Xu Lin could occasionally see greenery on the road, but once they entered Hunan Province, all she could see was desolation. The damage caused by acid rain was too great.

Although Hunan Province is greatly affected by acid rain, it suffers less from earthquake damage, and most roads remain intact. They arrived at the provincial capital before noon.

The provincial capital may have received government relief before, and you can still occasionally see people on the street, but their lips are chapped, they are dirty, and their hair is tangled, clearly indicating severe dehydration.

Dr. Dai said that when he met Zheng Ming, he was near a landmark building in the provincial capital. He had long hair and a stubble beard. Many people in the post-apocalyptic world looked like that. Asking around wouldn't make him stand out, so the only way to find out was by looking at a landmark building.

The two first found a secluded spot, put the SUV into their storage space, switched to the truck, and then, referring to the map, headed to the vicinity of the provincial capital's landmark building.

Perhaps it was fate that brought me to Zheng Ming. As soon as I drove up to the location, I saw a homeless man sitting next to a dilapidated building who looked a bit like Zheng Ming.

"Zheng Ming?" Xu Lin called out uncertainly.

The other person slowly raised their head with numb eyes, then lowered it again as if nothing had happened.

“If you hadn’t looked up, I wouldn’t have been sure, but now I’m certain you are Zheng Ming,” Xu Lin said definitively.