Chapter 4 Crossing the Apocalypse - 4 The two returned to...

The two returned to the cactus patch. Tang Bufan was thirsty and hungry. He parked the car and was about to open the door and jump out, but he was stopped by the orc boy next to him as soon as he got up.

“It’s very hot outside, and your body is extremely dehydrated. Let me take over,” Lu Yi said to Tang Bufan, glancing at the windshield in front of him. It was covered with a lot of data, and the temperature was marked 53°C. At this temperature, a human would quickly suffer from heatstroke.

Tang Bufan hesitated for a moment, then nodded; his body had indeed reached its limit.

"Do you have a knife?" Lu Yi asked him.

"Yes." Tang Bufan had just answered when he was taken aback to see the orc boy bow down to him.

Lu Yi was very tall. Just sitting there, he was a head taller than Tang Bufan. Now, when he leaned over and pressed down on Tang Bufan, Tang Bufan was completely covered by him.

Tang Bufan tensed up immediately, clenching his fists. Many thoughts flashed through his mind, but after a few seconds, he sighed silently and chose to wait and see.

We can't beat them, we really can't beat them.

Lu Yi pinned Tang Bufan down, his hand reaching behind Tang Bufan's waist, where Tang Bufan's dagger was tucked.

Tang Bufan caught his scent—a faint smell of sweat, and a peculiar odor… the smell of cat fur after sunbathing? Not unpleasant, it must be the smell of his hair, Tang Bufan thought.

He was undoubtedly very smelly; Tang Bufan calculated that he hadn't taken a bath for two months.

The orc boy on top of him suddenly buried his head slightly in the crook of his neck. Tang Bufan opened his eyes wide and was about to reach out to push him away when the orc boy seemed to sense something and got off him.

He now held a gleaming dagger in his hand.

"Found it." Lu Yi smiled at Tang Bufan, looking harmless.

Tang Bufan, seething with anger, asked him, "Didn't you say you wouldn't touch me?"

"Sorry... I forgot for a moment." Lu Yi quickly apologized to him, looking a little embarrassed.

Tang Bufan, his face covered by a black cloth, stared at him with a gloomy expression. Lu Yi's gaze was somewhat wandering as he pushed open the car door on his side and got out.

After the car door closed again, Tang Bufan's heart pounded as he touched his neck.

The thyroid gland, located in the human neck, is the largest endocrine gland that affects hormones and metabolism. The human carotid artery is also located here, which is why orcs mark humans by biting their necks.

Little Tang...

In a daze, Tang Bufan seemed to hear a middle-aged man calling out. He grinned in disgust, and immediately felt a burning sensation on the back of his neck. He got up with a gloomy expression and strode into the RV's rear compartment.

When Lu Yi finished harvesting the cacti and returned to the RV, he saw that Tang Bufan had a shiny silver collar around his neck.

The collar is made of some kind of alloy, about two fingers wide, and has a three-digit serial number on the front; it is very delicate.

Lu Yi narrowed his cat-like eyes.

It's not surprising that humans wear metal collars. There have been incidents in the past where criminals being escorted by orcs in dungeons were stolen en route by premeditated orcs. As a result, iron collars were uniformly provided to human criminals, so that unless their necks were bitten, they could be saved with potions.

However, the collar Tang Bufan wore was not the style used by criminals.

Due to limited resources, the collars worn by the criminals were crude and old-fashioned padlocks, with a heavy small padlock hanging in front of their necks. The key was with the officer, while Tang Bufan's roller combination collar was clearly for his own protection.

"I'm sorry... I just scared you." Lu Yi was holding a stack of prickly cacti with the thorns removed, blinking his eyes. "But I really won't mark you."

"I just want peace of mind." Tang Bufan's dark eyes were indifferent: "If you really want to bite me, it doesn't matter where you bite."

Unable to refute, the orc boy could only sit there awkwardly, hugging the cactus for a while before changing the subject: "Could you open the door over there in the RV? I'd like to put these cacti in the kitchen."

"Just put it in the front," Tang Bufan said, pointing to the spacious front desk of the driver's cab, not wanting him to get into the passenger compartment yet.

"Okay." Lu Yi obediently placed the cactus in his arms on the front desk, got out of the car, and continued harvesting cacti.

Tang Bufan was already seething with anger, but seeing his soft attitude, he felt like he was punching a pillow, with nowhere to vent his anger.

Lu Yi worked swiftly, and in two trips he loaded all the cacti onto the truck. The dark green cacti were piled up in front of the driver's cab.

"Okay." He got into the car and closed the passenger door.

Tang Bufan glanced at the electronic information on the windshield. It was already past 3 p.m., and the RV's battery was only charged to 27%. So he decided not to drive anymore and to let the battery charge up first.

"We'll spend the night here," Tang Bufan said casually to Lu Yi, looking at the cacti.

Lu Yi immediately understood. "Is it for dinner? I'll peel it for you."

After he finished speaking, he immediately picked out a round cactus and began to carefully peel it with a dagger.

Tang Bufan gradually calmed down.

Looking at the boy's youthful face, Tang Bufan calmed down and thought for a moment before deciding to tell him the truth.

“It’s true that I killed the original car owner, but you can tell from my body that I didn’t use brute force. I gave him sleeping pills.”

The orc boy, who was peeling skin, paused slightly.

“I am a member of the resistance,” Tang Bufan said calmly, but with a hint of madness in his voice, his dark eyes staring straight at him. “If you don’t want to be drugged and killed by me, you can still leave now.”

Lu Yi listened quietly, his youthful face showing no fear. After a while, he asked the man in return, "Aren't you afraid of being killed by me?"

Tang Bufan gave a self-deprecating laugh and then asked him, "How much longer do you think I have to live?"

Lu Yi looked at Tang Bufan's thin body, which was completely wrapped in black cloth, and said nothing more.

Tang Bufan had become so thin that he was just a skeleton.

"I won't live more than six months," Tang Bufan said calmly, then reached out to the boy: "Give it to me."

Lu Yi slowly handed over the peeled cactus in his hand.

Tang Bufan took the red fruit, slightly pulled down the black cloth around his mouth, and took a big bite.

It was bitter and astringent, but he was so hungry that he didn't care about the taste anymore.

Seeing Tang Bufan eating the fruit with his head down, Lu Yi slowly smiled again.

“I’m not leaving,” he said, picking out another beautiful cactus to continue peeling for Tang Bufan. “I know you’re trying to scare me into leaving, but if I leave, it will be harder for you to survive alone.”

Tang Bufan looked up at him helplessly.

“And you say you’re from the resistance faction, but I don’t think so.” Lu Yi’s voice lowered: “I’ve seen real resistance members, and I know very well the look in their eyes when they truly loathe orcs.”

I know it better than anyone else.

After he finished speaking, he smiled and handed over the peeled cactus in his hand, saying, "Although I don't know your past, I think you are a good person."

"..." Tang Bufan frowned, finding him too strange.

Even at 17, one shouldn't be this kind of kind, especially in this difficult apocalyptic world.

Faced with Tang Bufan's suspicious gaze, Lu Yi simply smiled. Tang Bufan couldn't kick him out of the car now, so he could only take the fruit from Lu Yi's hand again and eat it heartily.

Normally, Tang Bufan would eat sparingly, but now that there's a stranger here, he has to fight for food.

Lu Yi had no intention of competing with Tang Bufan. He looked at Tang Bufan's dark purple lips peeking out from under the black cloth, his expression slightly solemn.

"When I came here, I passed through a town of poison people, where the poison people were making antidotes."

Tang Bufan, who was eating cactus, suddenly perked up.

"An antidote?" His eyes lit up.

"Yes." Lu Yi looked at him seriously and said, "Your poisoning is too severe, you need medication."

Tang Bufan knew, of course, that he needed treatment, but medicine wasn't something that was easy to find.

And he had a question.

"Are you sure it really exists there?" Tang Bufan asked skeptically. "The Poison Man lost his mind a thousand years ago, how could he possibly create an antidote?"

“It really is.” Lu Yi assured him. He did a quick calculation and said to him, “If we set off tomorrow, it will probably take three days to reach that town of poisoners.”

Three days, huh? Tang Bufan pondered, then looked down at his trembling hands before making up his mind.

"Okay, let's set off tomorrow."

Although the news is questionable, it's worth taking a gamble.

The two filled their stomachs in the driver's seat. Tang Bufan ate four cacti, while Lu only tried a small one and was so astringent that his face twisted in pain when he took the first bite.

He seemed to want to throw it away, but seeing Tang Bufan eating with relish, he forced himself to finish it.

Tang Bufan thought to himself that he must be the young master of some orc family, he looked quite spoiled.

The sun slowly set, and the clouds began to spread across the horizon like blood. Only then did Tang Bufan get up from the driver's seat and lead Lu Yi to the huge carriage at the back.

Tang Bufan was afraid of the nights in the apocalypse, so he would draw all the curtains in his RV after nightfall. He kept drawing them as he walked, making the RV even darker. When Tang Bufan turned around, he saw a huge figure standing in the darkness.

Lu Yi is 2.23 meters tall, while Tang Bufan is only 1.78 meters tall. The difference wasn't too noticeable when they were sitting, but when they stood up, Tang Bufan realized that he only reached Lu Yi's chest, with his face directly facing Lu Yi's abdomen.

Lu Yi looked down at him, his beastly eyes, one gold and one green, gleaming eerily, making Tang Bufan feel a little uneasy.

"Brother Kai, turn on the lights," Tang Bufan immediately commanded the RV's AI.

A short light tube lit up at the front of the carriage.

Lights also have a lifespan, and Tang Bufan currently doesn't have any replacement bulbs, so he's being extra careful with how he uses them. It would be terrible if he encountered an emergency at night without any lights.

Lu Yi was still looking down at him with her head down, a slight smile on her lips, seemingly amused by his height.

Tang Bufan knew that the average height of human men had now reached 1.9 meters, which annoyed him.

His height was not considered short 1200 years ago.

"I'll get you some bedding." With a calm demeanor, Tang Bufan walked to the shelf.

Lu Yi then shifted her gaze from him and began to examine the RV.

A note from the author:

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