Upon seeing the beam of light, Luo Ning and Lu Xinghe reached for the solar energy lamp almost simultaneously.
Luo Ning wanted to turn off the light, worried that the other side might be a mutant. Lu Xinghe wanted to respond, because his first instinct was that his teammates were making contact with the outside world, and that someone might still be alive. But Luo Ning was quicker and turned off the light, and the light on the other side also disappeared.
"It might be a variant," Luo Ning whispered.
“I’ll go check it out; maybe it’s my teammate.” Lu Xinghe stood up. If it really was his teammate still alive, he absolutely couldn’t abandon him.
“You stay here, I’ll go. If it’s an alien, I have a better chance of surviving than you. If it’s your teammate, I’ll bring him back too.” She didn’t think that anyone could still be alive after more than ten days. There were more aliens in this city than she thought.
In the hazy moonlight, Lu Xinghe looked at her with a somewhat complicated expression. She was clearly an enemy, yet she seemed like a good person.
Luo Ning went to the rooftop to survey the area. She decided not to go down from below but to go directly from the rooftop, as this would be simple, quick, and wouldn't attract the attention of the alien species.
"If I don't come back in half an hour, you will leave with Xiao Ruo. And please promise me that you will take good care of Xiao Ruo as long as you live, okay?" Luo Ning said to Lu Xinghe earnestly.
The boy nodded subconsciously. Of course he wouldn't refuse such a request. Even if none of these things had happened, he would still have protected An Xiaoruo.
Luo Ning was very satisfied. She was confident that she could come back. She just wanted to take the opportunity to get a promise from him to take care of An Xiaoruo.
"Mom, you have to come back!" An Xiaoruo hugged Luo Ning tightly.
"Don't worry, Mom will definitely come back," Luo Ning said reassuringly.
After a running start, she landed easily on the rooftop opposite, and after a few more leaps, she disappeared from Lu Xinghe's sight.
Lu Xinghe looked in the direction she disappeared, and for the first time in his life, he hoped that a mutant wouldn't die like that.
Luo Ning quickly reached the rooftop where the lights had flashed earlier, but she didn't sense any living beings or even any alien creatures. Just then, the lights suddenly came on again, rhythmically. She held her breath and carefully approached the room. After pushing the door open, she saw a person curled up on the floor, but had been dead for several days. Near the window were a powerful flashlight and a backpack with a notebook lying on the floor.
The person's clothes were the same as what Lu Xinghe was wearing at the time. Lu Xinghe's feeling was right; it was indeed his teammate. He just didn't know why the flashlight suddenly lit up. Could it be... a ghost?
"Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, rule of law..." Luo Ning recited aloud as she packed her flashlight and notebook into her backpack, then returned the way she came.
When Lu Xinghe saw her figure moving back through the buildings, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
A moment later, Luo Ning landed in front of him, covered in sweat. She handed him the things she had brought back, and Lu Xinghe recognized her as a teammate the moment he saw the backpack: "Is he still alive?"
Luo Ning shook her head: "He's been dead for several days. Let's bury him tomorrow."
Lu Xinghe walked downstairs in silence. He felt no sadness or other emotions, for death would be his destiny as well.
Back in the room, Lu Xinghe looked at his teammates' notes, while Luo Ning comforted An Xiaoruo to sleep, and she herself also felt a little sleepy.
"The flashlight is on because he has set a signal mode," Lu Xinghe suddenly said.
Luo Ning was startled awake: "What?"
Lu Xinghe looked at the contents of his notebook: "He escaped to that building and waited for rescue, but without a radio, he could only use lights as a signal, but the people from the base never showed up."
"Oh, I see. I thought there was something fishy going on." Luo Ning finally relaxed, then asked, "Why didn't anyone from the base show up?"
"They probably thought we were all dead." Lu Xinghe wasn't sure if everyone's chips were broken or if something had happened at the base that prevented them from taking care of them.
Luo Ning sensed that Lu Xinghe was starting to open up, so she took the opportunity to ask, "Are you a soldier? You seem to be quite skilled."
Lu Xinghe paused for a moment, then nodded. There was no need for him to hide it anymore.
Luo Ning perked up: "Do you know a boy named Song Pei? He should be twelve years old this year."
Song Pei is the male protagonist of the novel and An Xiaoruo's official love interest. He is five years older than An Xiaoruo and is the strongest security officer in the Red Gate. He is capable of fighting mutants one-on-one and is also An Xiaoruo's instructor. He is handsome but cold and indifferent, with only hatred and killing intent towards aliens in his heart.
When An Xiaoruo was fifteen, she was trained under Song Pei. Song Pei was very strict with her, a girl who did not grow up in the base, and even prejudiced against her. So at first, An Xiaoruo was terrified of Song Pei.
Later, the two were arranged to marry by the base and live under the same roof. Song Pei performed his duties as a husband every night in a professional manner, while An Xiaoruo silently endured it. But in the end, the two fell in love and joined hands to fight for the fate of humanity.
Luo Ning is most into stories like "Big Bad Wolf and Little White Rabbit," especially those about romance after marriage. The author's descriptions of their relationship are full of tension, so Luo Ning was screaming and laughing for her lover while reading the novel. That's why she can't remember some plot points besides the main couple's relationship.
Take Lu Xinghe, for example. She felt more and more that she had heard the name before, but she just couldn't remember it.
Although she found the scenes of the big bad wolf bullying the little white rabbit in the novel very endearing, she calmed down when it came to reality. Because An Xiaoruo didn't have an omniscient perspective, she didn't know that Song Pei's strictness towards her was actually for her own good, nor did she know that Song Pei's tormenting of her on those nights after their marriage stemmed from his growing affection for her and his resulting loss of control. Furthermore, due to Song Pei's cold attitude towards An Xiaoruo, the orphan An Xiaoruo also suffered a lot of bullying from others…
Luo Ning felt that although she was not An Xiaoruo's real mother, she had given her sincere feelings over the past two years. She did not want An Xiaoruo to live in fear like in the novel. So, on the one hand, she taught An Xiaoruo to be strong, and on the other hand, she hoped that Lu Xinghe could treat An Xiaoruo well and become An Xiaoruo's support after returning to the base.
Lu Xinghe thought for a moment and didn't remember anyone named Song Pei: "Never heard of him, what's wrong?"
Luo Ning didn't think he was lying, so she guessed that Song Pei was probably still young and not that famous, or that Lu Xinghe was just an ordinary soldier who couldn't get in touch with a genius like Song Pei.
"It's nothing, just asking. Go to sleep, we have a lot to do tomorrow." After saying that, Luo Ning also crawled into her sleeping bag and hugged An Xiaoruo to sleep.
Lu Xinghe couldn't sleep for a long time, and even when he did fall asleep, he kept having nightmares. He dreamed of his mother who died because of him, his father who was hysterical towards him, and Luo Ning opening her bloody maw at him...
He woke up from his dream in a cold sweat. Luo Ning was still lying there quietly, but she smacked her lips a couple of times, as if she was eating something delicious in her dream. He was just imagining things.
The next morning, Luo Ning woke up refreshed because she finally dreamed of eating hot pot. In the two years since she transmigrated, the dream she most wanted to have was about eating, but the Dream God never heard her prayers and only allowed her to dream about it occasionally. So last night she ate her fill in her dream and felt satisfied even after waking up.
However, she noticed that Lu Xinghe's complexion was not good, and he looked listless. He probably hadn't slept well because of the death of his companion.
After packing her things, Luo Ning stood at the window and looked down. There were no more aliens on the road. She smeared the blood on Lu Xinghe and An Xiaoruo again. They went to the building where Lu Xinghe's teammate had died. After confirming the location, Lu Xinghe set fire to the body of his teammate and then headed towards the crash site.
Upon arriving at their destination, Lu Xinghe went forward to inspect the plane and confirmed that it had glided there before crashing at low altitude, which was why the plane was not severely damaged and some team members were able to survive, but ultimately they perished in the mouths of the alien species.
Luo Ning also searched through the wreckage and found food and drinking water, as well as some clothing and weapons. Lu Xinghe immediately looked for the radio and finally found the damaged radio among a pile of fragments.
"How is it? Does it work?" Luo Ning knelt down beside him. If they could contact humans now, tonight might be the last night she, him, and An Xiaoruo could spend together.
Lu Xinghe tried several times, and finally shook his head: "It's broken."
Luo Ning felt both happy and unhappy. She was reluctant to part with An Xiaoruo, but she also knew that they couldn't let them wander outside for long.
"I see there's gasoline here, why don't we go find the base ourselves?" Luo Ning suggested.
Seeing the situation before them, Lu Xinghe had no choice but to do this. They moved the remaining usable supplies to the vehicle in several trips. Although food and drink were not a problem at the moment, gasoline was still in short supply. It was estimated that the RV could only travel about a thousand miles, but the Lava Valley was more than five thousand miles away.
He pieced together the tattered paper map. To reach the lava valley, he had to cross the desert first, but the desert was more dangerous than the oasis. So before setting off, he carefully inspected the vehicle, and Luo Ning also threw away some unnecessary items to lighten the load.
Night fell quickly, and Lu Xinghe drove as usual, while Luo Ning and An Xiaoruo rested first.
Luo Ning opened a can of beef for An Xiaoruo. It was the first time the little girl had ever tasted such delicious meat, and she almost cried from the deliciousness.
"Mom, have a bite too, it's delicious." An Xiaoruo picked out the biggest piece of meat from the can and fed it to Luo Ning.
Luo Ning happily ate it. She hadn't eaten beef for two years, but after only two bites, she ran to the window and vomited painfully, feeling extremely uncomfortable.
"What's wrong?" Lu Xinghe stopped the car and looked in her direction.
Luo Ning couldn't speak, feeling nauseous. An Xiaoru patted Luo Ning's back and said to Lu Xinghe, "Mom ate beef and then threw up."
Lu Xinghe looked at Luo Ning and saw that her face was pale and her body was trembling slightly: "The alien species cannot eat these cooked foods."
"What should we do?" An Xiaoruo asked anxiously.
"He'll be fine in a bit," Lu Xinghe said, continuing to drive. There was nothing he could do to help with this.
It took Luo Ning a while to recover. The novel also mentioned that alien species couldn't eat human food. She had forgotten that. Did she have to eat raw food for the rest of her life?
At one o'clock in the morning, Luo Ning came weakly to relieve Lu Xinghe so he could rest. Lu Xinghe stopped the car and said, "I'm not driving anymore, let's rest first."
Luo Ning looked around. The bright moon cast a silvery light on the desert, and it looked very peaceful.
"Okay, you go to sleep, I'll keep watch." She sat down by the window.
Lu Xinghe didn't sleep. He took a compressed biscuit, ate a small piece, and then took out a knife and a bowl, preparing to bleed Luo Ning, as he had promised.
Luo Ning blocked the knife, saying, "No need, I'm afraid I'll get addicted."
She had been longing to drink his blood, but after vomiting like that, she realized how severely her body rejected ordinary food. If she became addicted to his blood, it would be a terrible thing.
"So you've never eaten a human?" the boy asked, looking at her with a puzzled expression.
Luo Ning nodded: "If I said it never happened, you definitely wouldn't believe me."
Lu Xinghe truly didn't believe that seventy years after the apocalypse, there were still alien species that didn't eat people.
"Do you remember when you became a mutant?" Lu Xinghe asked again.
"I don't remember. I only regained my memories in the last two years." Luo Ning didn't tell him the truth, otherwise it would be difficult to explain that she was a time traveler.
Lu Xinghe now has a bold hypothesis: he thinks she is a human who came out of the base and then became infected with the virus and turned into a mutant. An Xiaoruo is not someone she picked up but her own child, but she just forgot. Only in this way can it be explained why she, as a mutant, did not eat An Xiaoruo, because she subconsciously knew that she was her child.
Moreover, she said that she was 22 years old and An Xiaoruo was 7 years old, which also met the base's requirement of getting married and having children at the age of 15.
He put away the knife and bowl. Regardless of whether what she said was true or false, once she became interested in flesh and blood, it would indeed put him and An Xiaoruo in extreme danger.
After Lu Xinghe fell asleep, Luo Ning was also a little hungry. She got out of the car and wandered around, looking for some exotic species or small animals, but there was nothing except a rattlesnake. Moreover, the rattlesnake was eventually snatched away by a desert cat. She had no choice but to sit on the roof of the car again, looking at the moon and counting the stars, until the sun rose again.
Two days later, the car finally drove out of the desert and arrived at the oasis. Luo Ning caught a rabbit and started eating it, while Lu Xinghe was not far away, munching on compressed biscuits, thinking to himself: Ha, rabbit eating rabbit.
After eating her fill, Luo Ning finally regained some of her energy, but she still clearly felt that her body was not as strong as when she drank Lu Xinghe's blood, even though that blood was dissolved in hot water from the gauze used to bandage his wound.
She wanted to drink blood, she wanted to eat meat, but she forcibly suppressed this dangerous thought.
The oasis was experiencing heavy rainfall, with torrential rain falling for four or five days in a row, causing flooding everywhere. The car could only be driven to higher ground and parked there, where the three of them waited.
Lu Xinghe was trying to repair the radio, while Luo Ning was teaching An Xiaoruo to write and do some addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division at the table next to her. An Xiaoruo was very smart and learned quickly, which inevitably made Luo Ning think of Song Pei again. How could he bear to tell such a beautiful girl like An Xiaoruo that she was stupid time and time again?
"Xiao Ruo, if someone says you're stupid in the future, what will you say?" she asked.
An Xiaoruo looked up at her blankly: "Mom, do you think I'm stupid?"
Luo Ning quickly explained, "That's not what Mom meant. Mom meant, what if someone bullies you? How should you fight back?"
An Xiaoruo looked at Lu Xinghe and then at Luo Ning: "But there are only the three of us here, no one is bullying me."
Luo Ning: ...
Forget it, An Xiaoruo has been out of touch with society for too long. She has no idea how treacherous people can be. After thinking it over, Luo Ning decided that the safest thing to do was to teach An Xiaoruo how to fight. At least when she was bullied, she could fight back instead of being timid and weak like in novels. So she started to teach An Xiaoruo her experience of fighting against aliens over the past two years.
But the little girl didn't seem to be good at fighting. She bumped her hand and sprained her ankle. In the novel, An Xiaoruo's character wasn't supposed to be good at fighting. She inherited her parents' intelligence and made a decisive contribution to the research on drugs to deal with alien species.
"Mom, can I stop practicing? My legs hurt so much," An Xiaoruo asked, rubbing her legs.
"No, the pain you endured today is for a more dignified life in the future. Keep training." Luo Ning hardened her heart. Parents who love their children will always plan for their long-term future. Although she wasn't her biological mother, she still had to consider her child's future.
"Uncle," An Xiaoruo pleaded with Lu Xinghe for help.
Lu Xinghe stood on Luo Ning's side: "Your mother is right. Only when you are strong will you not be bullied."
An Xiaoruo looked at Lu Xinghe and then at Luo Ning. She felt that her mother had become much stricter with her since Lu Xinghe came to visit.
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