Chapter 23
"Quick, let me see what good stuff this kid brought out."
Chen Yunliang seemed to have long been accustomed to this kind of scene, and looked expectantly at the pile of things in Yan Hong's arms.
"Dried vegetables, wafers, fruit candies, and, oh, chocolate," Yan Hong unpacked a bar of chocolate without hesitation, broke off half and put it in her mouth, and handed the other half to Lu Shiyu.
"These snacks aren't cheap at the base," Lu Shiyu said, taking a bite of the chocolate. The sweetness melted in his mouth. "Shaoxing Yang actually bought so many."
"He spends all his money on food. Every time he goes out, he buys a lot to take with him," Chen Yunliang said as he picked out some dried sweet potatoes. "Sometimes when we can't finish our compressed biscuits, we'll ask him for some."
"You call that taking? That's clearly robbery!" Shaoxing Yang accused with tears in his eyes.
Lu Shiyu looked at the backpack that was obviously deflated and asked curiously, "Is this all in his bag?"
"It probably takes up a quarter," Yan Hong said as she opened a package of wafers. "Apart from some essential items for going out, I can pack as many snacks as I want. Just take whatever you want."
Lu Shiyu held a piece of chocolate in her mouth, slowly waiting for the sweet chocolate to melt on her tongue. She usually didn't want to buy these expensive snacks. It wasn't that she didn't have money; she'd saved most of it to buy a shop later, so she wouldn't have to pay rent every month. However, the prices at the base weren't cheap, and Lu Shiyu's savings were still a long way from even covering the cost of buying the shop she currently rented.
Shaoxing Yang finally let go of his backpack, walked over and sat down, tore open a bag of candy and threw the candy beans into his mouth.
"That's too much! I couldn't bear to eat much this time, for fear that I would run out of food."
"Just finish the snacks and eat. Why make so much trouble?" Yan Hong was tempted by the salty taste of the snacks, so she picked up the bowl and drank some pumpkin soup.
The pumpkin soup was soon gone, leaving only the bottom of the pot. Shaoxing Yang touched his stomach and said, "It tastes good, but I don't feel full just by drinking the soup."
"Isn't there still some pumpkin left?" Lu Shiyu directly broke off a piece of pumpkin from the pot and handed it to Shao Xingyang, saying, "Try it."
Shaoxing Yang took the pumpkin. The skin of the pumpkin had been wrinkled by the fire, but the inner part remained moist and soft because of the pumpkin soup.
Shaoxing Yang took a bite of the pumpkin. The pumpkin seemed to taste sweeter after being roasted. The skin was roasted crispy, and the flesh inside was sweet and soft, forming a subtle contrast. There was also a layer of slightly condensed pumpkin soup inside, like a layer of not very sweet syrup poured on a pastry. The pumpkin also had a faint milky aroma, which made the taste richer and tasted like a dessert.
"The pumpkin, used as a container, can be eaten as a dessert after the soup is finished. It's quite creative," said Chen Yunliang, breaking off a piece of pumpkin and tasting it. "It's a bit like a moist cake, but this one is much more substantial than a dessert cake."
Several people took pieces of the pumpkin pot and started eating it. The remaining soup at the bottom of the pot was also used as a dipping sauce for the pumpkin pot. Soon the whole pumpkin was eaten up by several people.
"I'm so full," Shaoxing Yang touched his rounded belly, "I ate too much without realizing it."
"A little bloated..." Yan Hong lay on her side on the ground, and her stomach felt a little better.
Tang Zeyu glanced at the two of them and issued a notice: "If you eat like this again next time, you won't have to eat your fill in the future."
"Ah..." Shao Xingyang dragged out the last word and began to plead with Tang Zeyu: "Captain, I won't do it again. Please don't stop me from eating."
Yan Hong also sat up: "Yes, Captain, we promise that this was just an accident and it won't happen next time."
Lu Shiyu looked at the scene in front of him with some confusion, and only got the answer after asking Chen Yunliang beside him.
"They've eaten so much now that they'll vomit if they move too much. What if a mutant creature suddenly attacks or a natural disaster strikes and they need to escape?" Chen Yunliang sighed as he looked at the two people trying to act coquettishly. "They've had it so easy these past few days that they've completely lost their vigilance. No wonder the captain is angry."
Angry? Lu Shiyu curiously leaned over to take a look. Tang Zeyu had been so calm throughout the entire journey that Lu Shiyu couldn't even imagine him getting angry, even over something as trivial as a teammate eating too much.
Tang Zeyu frowned slightly, and no matter what the two people in front of him said, he showed no intention of giving in.
"You've been living too comfortably lately. You've lost all sense of crisis. You've even forgotten the exploration team's most basic requirement of maintaining operational capabilities at all times," Tang Zeyu said calmly, not sounding like a reprimand or criticism. He simply stated a fact without any emotion. "When you get back, you two will practice with the newcomers for another round."
"No!" Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang wailed at the same time, as if they had already foreseen the miserable life after returning home.
"Is this how he looks when he's angry?" Lu Shiyu looked at Chen Yunliang suspiciously. "It doesn't seem serious."
"The captain wants them to go through rookie training again," Chen Yunliang said, throwing a piece of wood into the fire. "The instructors in charge of rookie training are a bunch of perverts. These two are regular team members who were sent back to train again. They will probably be treated specially. If they don't die, they will be severely punished."
"This is so serious." Lu Shiyu suddenly began to worry about what the two would experience when they returned: "Will they have been punished too much?"
"You think their situation isn't a big deal?" Chen Yunliang raised an eyebrow and said, "Unfortunately, their current condition is considered semi-incapacitated, which is a big taboo in an exploration team. They've pushed themselves half to death, so they deserve the punishment. I've never seen such greed."
But Chen Yunliang was actually quite puzzled. Logically, Tang Zeyu should have "educated" the two on the spot, so why was he so docile now? Could it be because outsiders were around and it was difficult to take action? Chen Yunliang glanced at Lu Shiyu deeply. Lu Shiyu still didn't realize that he had completely unknowingly spared Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang from a personal, practical training session from the captain.
Under the quiet night, several people fell into a deep sleep wrapped in sleeping bags, and only two people had nightmares all night.
Early the next morning, the group continued on their journey. The further they went into the forest, the denser the vegetation became.
Although most of these plants do not actively attack people, they look really scary.
Lu Shiyu lowered his head to avoid a bunch of plants that looked like eyeballs, and waved his hand to drive away a plant whose petals were like many silk threads. He basically walked like this all the way. At the beginning, Lu Shiyu was shocked by the appearance of these plants, but after walking for half a day, he was basically immune to it and drove away all the plants that surrounded him like insects.
As the only moving creatures nearby, these few people were undoubtedly extremely conspicuous living targets. The plants, out of curiosity or simply wanting to join in the fun, squeezed in towards them.
"I always feel like this scene is familiar..."
Lu Shiyu recalled that in the princess cartoons he watched as a child, the princess was surrounded by all kinds of cute animals as soon as she entered the forest. Lu Shiyu glanced at the plants surrounding her and deeply felt the gap between ideal and reality.
While Lu Shiyu was distracted, he felt something kicked at his feet. When he looked down, he found it was an "egg".
This egg is as big as an ostrich egg, and its surface has uneven patterns like lychee skin. Such a big egg just stands quietly on the ground.
"What kind of creature's egg is this?" Lu Shiyu looked at the huge egg and was curious about what size animal could lay it.
"Did something happen?" Shaoxing Yang came over from the side. The others stopped when they heard the voice. Lu Shiyu saw everyone suddenly stop and waved their hands hurriedly.
"Nothing, just found a big egg."
"Egg? What egg?" Shaoxing Yang came over curiously. When he saw such a big egg, he couldn't recognize it and exclaimed "Wow".
"Wouldn't a creature that lays eggs like that be a pain in the ass?"
"What a disgusting question, but I think it would."
Just as Tang Zeyu was about to urge the others to hurry on their way, the egg suddenly began to crack, evenly dividing into three petals, which slowly unfolded until they were completely open, revealing dense, slender tentacles inside. The inner wall of each petal was covered with dense tentacles, which sensed the approach of living creatures and squirmed wildly.
"It turns out it's not an egg but a plant. I thought it was edible." Shaoxing Yang felt a little regretful.
Yan Hong said with disgust: "It looks even more disgusting."
The small bud in the center of the plant suddenly exploded, spewing out countless dust. Several people noticed it instantly, but the powder spread too quickly and they were too close. Even though they quickly covered their mouths and noses, they inevitably inhaled a few breaths.
"Why is this a surprise attack!" Shaoxing Yanggang finished speaking, and Lu Shiyu felt the figures of several people began to flash, and then disappeared out of thin air!
"What's going on?"
Lu Shiyu closed and opened his eyes, and suddenly found that the scene he was in had changed. Lu Shiyu looked down at his hands, his chubby little hands opened and clenched into fists. Lu Shiyu was now a child.
Lu Shiyu smelled a long-lost fragrance, followed the smell to the kitchen, and peeked inside from the kitchen door.
"Huh? Yubao's back." The woman busy in the kitchen quickly spotted Lu Shiyu and walked over, squatting down to wipe the dirt off her cheeks. "Did you have fun today?"
"Happy!" Xiaolu Shiyu grinned, revealing his baby teeth that had not yet grown in fully.
"Oh, I'm exhausted today," a man walked out of the aisle, holding his newly taken-off coat. "To get first place, I fought tooth and nail for our precious fish."
"Hehe, thank you, Dad." Xiaolu Shiyu's sweet smile instantly relieved the man's fatigue.
"Forget it, it's worth it no matter how tired I am for my little baby." The man patted his back and said to Xiaolu Shiyu, "Hurry up and show your mother the certificate you won."
"Award...certificate?"
Xiaolu Shiyu recalled that she had just returned from a parent-child activity in kindergarten. She won first place, so the teacher gave her a beautiful certificate, but other children seemed to have the same certificate.
Xiaolu Shiyu ran to look through his schoolbag and really found a brand new certificate in it, with ink that had just dried on it.
"Look, Mom! The certificate!"
Xiaolu Shiyu showed the certificate to the woman as if to seek credit, but the woman didn't even look at it carefully before kissing Xiaolu Shiyu on the face.
"Our baby is so great! Mommy is going to make a delicious meal to reward the hard-working Yubao."
"Delicious! Hello, Mom!" Xiao Lu Shiyu was so happy that he jumped around in circles, making both the man and the woman laugh.
Little Lu Shiyu, holding the certificate in his hand, was carried by the man to sit on the small dining table, waiting for the woman to prepare the meal. Smelling the familiar fragrance, little Lu Shiyu felt as if he had forgotten something.
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