In the morning, Luo Ning and the others collected stones, caught fish, and picked wild vegetables. After returning home, An Xiaoru helped pick and wash the vegetables, Lu Xinghe processed the fish, and Luo Ning started a fire. Everything was in an orderly manner.
The oil was rendered from animal fat, making the stir-fried dishes especially fragrant. Lu Xinghe skillfully flipped the spatula, while Luo Ning sat far away watching longingly. She still couldn't eat human food.
After the meal was prepared, Lu Xinghe and An Xiaoruo sat in the sunlight and ate, while Luo Ning rested her chin on her hand and watched pitifully from the side.
Seeing her gluttonous look, Lu Xinghe asked, "Are you hungry?"
Luo Ning nodded and then immediately shook her head: "No, no, I just miss the days when I was a human."
Lu Xinghe thought that she must have loved to eat when she was alive.
After dinner, Luo Ning first gave An Xiaoruo a straight fringe, and then asked Lu Xinghe to sit down and give him a haircut.
Lu Xinghe was quite well-behaved, sitting motionless in the chair. Luo Ning stood behind him, carefully cutting his hair. She had been doing this for two years. In the beginning, her skills were terrible, and her haircuts looked like they were chewed by a dog. Sometimes she would even accidentally hurt him. Now, she was much more skilled and could not only avoid hurting him but also cut his hair to the level of a professional hairdresser.
Lu Xinghe looked at Luo Ning, who was completely focused in the mirror. Her fair and delicate face was full of warmth in the sunlight. When Luo Ning looked at him, he quickly looked away and pretended that nothing had happened.
He didn't know what was wrong with him; lately, he couldn't help but want to look at her, yet he was afraid of being discovered by her.
"I'm done cutting. Don't move. Let me brush off the stray hairs on your body." Luo Ning was completely unaware of Lu Xinghe's actions just now. She took a brush made of rabbit hair and brushed off the stray hairs that had fallen on his neck. The hair was very soft, which made Lu Xinghe's body tremble slightly.
"Alright." After finishing all this, Luo Ning looked at Lu Xinghe with satisfaction. In her world, this boy's appearance would have been the dream of countless girls.
"How is it?" Lu Xinghe stood up and asked.
Luo Ning tilted her head and admired it for a moment: "My skills are beyond question, of course they are very good."
Although Lu Xinghe remained outwardly calm, he was secretly delighted. If she said it looked good, it must mean he looked good: "Oh, I was worried you'd cut it like a dog chewed it before."
An Xiaoruo said from the side, "So what if it's chewed by a dog? There are only the three of us here, no one else will see, and Mom and I won't look down on you."
“That’s right, we won’t look down on you,” Luo Ning chimed in.
But that's not what Lu Xinghe wanted to hear. He wanted to hear Luo Ning say more things to praise him; An Xiaoruo was such a talkative girl.
After cutting his hair, Luo Ning took out his clothes and altered them to be a bit bigger, since he had grown taller and his legs had grown longer, so she had to add a section of pant leg.
An Xiaoruo was playing with pebbles on the side, while Lu Xinghe was tending to the gun he had found! The old thing from decades ago had regained its original texture under his care these past few days.
Although he was wiping his gun, his eyes couldn't help but look at Luo Ning, watching her sew a piece of cloth tightly onto his trouser leg. A strand of her hair slipped down and swayed gently in the wind as she casually tucked it behind her ear.
He suddenly felt that the wind was very gentle today, and the sunshine was just right.
"What's so interesting about Mom mending clothes? Uncle, why are you staring?" An Xiaoruo suddenly appeared beside him, almost making him drop his gun.
Lu Xinghe avoided eye contact: "I was lost in thought."
"Oh, what are you thinking about? I'll help you think about it." An Xiaoruo easily believed him, so Lu Xinghe could only make up an excuse. The two of them, one big and one small, started chatting casually.
At 1 p.m., Lu Xinghe and An Xiaoruo began their training. They had been training every day for the past two years, from physical fitness to strength to skills, and had killed many alien species, so their combat experience was quite rich.
In the past six months, Luo Ning has become Lu Xinghe's opponent. At first, she was able to subdue Lu Xinghe time and time again with her speed advantage, but now, six months later, Lu Xinghe can fight her for a while. He has a strong ability to analyze and solve problems, which makes Luo Ning both happy and afraid.
She was pleased that he was growing up so quickly, but she was also worried that he might turn on her and become ruthless, which would put her in great danger.
This reminded her of the security officers in the base in the novel, elites selected from thousands, death gods emerging from the battlefield, fighting against evolved aliens with the flesh and blood of mortals. Each one was worth ten, and even mindless aliens would instinctively retreat when they encountered them.
When she first met him, she thought he was very powerful, able to stab a mutant's palm from so far away. She initially thought it was just luck, but now it seems he has something special about him.
Luo Ning pressed Lu Xinghe to the ground once again. The boy's face turned red and his breathing became rapid. The rosy clouds and her figure fell into his eyes together, and he turned his head away in embarrassment.
She got up from the ground and patted the grass leaves off her body: "Let's stop training here for today. Don't be embarrassed. After all, I've evolved. It's normal that you can't beat me in strength."
Lu Xinghe remained silent. He got up, sat on the grass, and picked up his notebook to write and draw, noting down Luo Ning's actions and changes. He had searched the whole town for this notebook and had already used up several of them.
He draws very well, capturing Luo Ning and himself vividly with just a few simple strokes. His handwriting is also excellent, just like him—clean and powerful.
He was determined to win against her; one day he would be the one to pin her down.
Luo Ning sighed, thinking that someone as earnest as her could do anything very well.
As the sun was about to set, the three of them went back together. An Xiaoruo skipped ahead, holding a cricket she had caught, while Luo Ning and Lu Xinghe walked side by side behind her. The warm sunset cast long shadows of them.
"Let's leave here in two days," Luo Ning suggested. The three of them had recovered well enough to continue their search for the base.
For the past two years, because the radio has been unusable, Luo Ning came up with a plan to tie many strips of cloth covered with information to the legs of the winged aliens and then release them. As long as a human kills them, they will know that Lu Xinghe is still alive and will come looking for them.
But two years have passed, and no humans have appeared.
"Hmm," Lu Xinghe responded softly.
Seeing that he didn't seem very happy, Luo Ning asked, "Did you hurt yourself when you fell just now?"
Seeing her concerned look, Lu Xinghe perked up and said, "No, it doesn't hurt."
Luo Ning patted his shoulder with satisfaction: "Well done."
After returning, Luo Ning put all the clothes in the basement to tidy up. Lu Xinghe and An Xiaoruo also came down after finishing their meal. The three of them sealed the door with a steel plate, leaving only an oil lamp made from animal fat burning quietly. For the past two years, they had spent every night in this basement peacefully.
The basement wasn't large, so Luo Ning used a cloth to separate the beds. She and An Xiaoru slept on one side, while Lu Xinghe slept on the other.
Luo Ning and An Xiaoruo fell asleep quickly, but Lu Xinghe remained wide awake. Lately, he had found it increasingly difficult to fall asleep, and he couldn't help but peek at the soft figure behind the curtain.
Just like now, Luo Ning is facing him sideways. Through the gap in the curtain, under the dim light, she is as quiet as a little rabbit. Her soft hair is piled up on her fair neck, and her small lips are slightly parted as she breathes softly.
His throat felt like it was swallowing a green fruit, slowly sliding down, his heart pounding, his body experiencing a fluttering sensation that left him bewildered yet unable to resist.
He prepared to close his eyes and force himself to fall asleep, but Luo Ning shifted her body. She seemed to feel a little hot, so she lifted the blanket, and her hand unknowingly reached across the curtain to his side.
Her arms were delicate and white, her fingers slender and smooth. Her hand rested against his arm, making him almost stop breathing.
Time ticked by, and she still hadn't pulled her hand away. He looked at her sleeping face, and carefully reached out to gently touch her fingers, from her fingertips to her palm and finally to her wrist. He could feel the pulse of the veins under her thin skin. He gently caressed her with his fingertips, with a mixture of piety and greed, like a believer blaspheming his god.
Luo Ning finally sensed something. She opened her eyes and saw the boy opposite her sleeping soundly, his forehead and neck covered in sweat. She thought he was too hot, so she pulled his blanket back a little and wiped the sweat off his face with a towel before lying back down to sleep.
Unbeknownst to her, just a second before she woke up, the boy's clean, slender fingers were still covering her hand.
Feeling that Luo Ning had fallen asleep again, Lu Xinghe opened his eyes. He knew that what he was doing was wrong, but his heart was completely out of control. He kept his eyes open all night until dawn.
The next day was another day of the same routine: eating, finding food, training—everything was the same as usual, except that Luo Ning felt Lu Xinghe was somewhat distracted during training.
"What's wrong? You have no energy at all today. Are you too tired?" Luo Ning asked with concern.
Lu Xinghe got up from the ground, his face flushed: "It's nothing."
"Let's skip practice today and go back to rest," Luo Ning said considerately. She felt that he must be tired, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to pin him to the ground every time today. In the past, he could always resist her to some extent.
The three walked back together. Lu Xinghe remained silent the whole way, while Luo Ning and An Xiaoruo chatted and laughed. When they were almost home, Luo Ning suddenly became alert. She sensed the presence of humans, and not just humans, but also other species. Xiaoruo was already far ahead of them.
She and Lu Xinghe ran forward quickly, and soon saw An Xiaoruo standing blankly on the road. Ten meters in front of her were two mutants, a man and a woman, and behind them was a thin young human male, emaciated, with fear and despair in his eyes.
"Look, there really is someone here. I told you I wasn't mistaken," the woman said sweetly. She had a pretty oval face and a shapely figure, and showed no animalistic characteristics whatsoever.
“Not only are there people, but there are also beings just like us. That’s quite rare.” The man looked Luo Ning up and down with ill intent. He was muscular and showed no animalistic characteristics.
Lu Xinghe didn't know if they, like Luo Ning, had hidden their animal characteristics in their clothes, or if they were humanoid mutants without animal gene interaction.
But Luo Ning knew that this was a real humanoid mutant; she could sense it.
Luo Ning wasn't afraid of any mutant, but she didn't know how much of a chance she had of winning against two at the same time.
The woman walked towards them with great charm, her eyes sweeping over Lu Xinghe, and said with great satisfaction, "This child is mine today."
The man also looked at Luo Ning greedily: "This soft, white little rabbit is mine."
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