Chapter 7 Transcending the Apocalypse - 7 The two finished eating rabbit outside...
After finishing their rabbit meal outside, the two returned to the RV before darkness completely fell.
Kai turned on a small lamp for the two of them, and Tang Bufan rummaged through the shelves for a while before taking out a worn notebook and a pencil.
Lu Yi had already taken down the folding chair by the wall and sat down. Tang Bufan walked over and sat down opposite him, with the two separated by a small table.
“Chinese and the current common language are two completely different language systems. Tonight I will teach you to write your name and some basic characters. Tomorrow I will test you to see how well you can accept Chinese,” Tang Bufan said to Lu Yi.
Lu Yi sat opposite him and nodded seriously. Tang Bufan realized that it was not easy to teach the two of them to sit like this, so he pointed to the camping chair in the kitchen: "Take that chair and sit down. Let's sit on one side."
Lu Yi obediently got up, brought a chair, and sat down next to Tang Bufan.
The folding table nailed to the wall was too small, so Lu Yi had to squeeze next to Tang Bufan to get close to the table. After their arms touched, he couldn't help but glance at Tang Bufan with some concern. The man lowered his head and opened his notebook, not showing the same reaction as yesterday.
It seems their mutual honesty worked. Lu Yi felt relieved.
Tang Bufan picked up the pencil and tried to write Lu Yi's name on the notebook in the dim light, but his hand began to tremble uncontrollably after he gripped the pencil. Tang Bufan was stunned at first and then his face turned pale. He reluctantly put his strength into it, but no matter how hard he tried to grip it, the tip of the pencil kept trembling on the paper.
Upon seeing this, Lu Yi's expression changed slightly, realizing that he had overlooked the fact that Tang Bufan's hand was trembling.
The orc boy quickly looked up at the man beside him. Tang Bufan's face was covered by a black cloth, only his dark eyes were visible, but his expression was clearly wrong.
His eyes turned a little red.
The pen tip left many trembling marks on the yellowed paper, unable to write a single straight line.
Lu Yi tried to salvage the situation. After thinking for a moment, he reached out and grasped Tang Bufan's hand through the strip of cloth, helping him to steady his trembling.
"I'll help you."
Tang Bufan took a deep breath and tried to pull his hand away from his: "No need."
"I'll keep it steady for you. You only need to move slightly and I'll know what you're going to write..."
"I already said I don't need it!" Tang Bufan couldn't help but yell at him.
The orc boy's pupils trembled slightly, and facing the enraged man, he silently withdrew his hand.
After Tang Bufan finished yelling, he put down his pencil and breathed heavily, his chest heaving slightly.
The RV fell silent.
Tang Bufan gradually calmed down. He lowered his head and said softly, "It seems I still can't teach you. My hands can no longer write."
He paused for a moment after speaking, then apologized to the orc boy with remorse: "I'm sorry."
Lu Yi looked at the man sitting in the dim light with his shoulders slumped and his head down. He hesitated for a moment, but still insisted: "You don't need to teach me Chinese characters, just teach me spoken language, teacher."
He actually still wanted to call him teacher... Tang Bufan felt bitter inside. He knew that Lu Yi had already seen through him; he longed to be a teacher again.
"In your eyes... am I a weirdo?" Tang Bufan couldn't help but ask him in a low voice.
"No," Lu Yi shook his head in denial.
“I wasn’t like this before.” Tang Bufan’s throat tightened. The gentler Lu Yi was, the more he couldn’t accept his own impotent rage just now. “I’m very kind to children. I never get angry with my students, even if they make mistakes… I’ve always dreamed of teaching people as gently as my teacher… But what am I doing now?”
Tang Bufan looked at Lu Yi with red eyes: "I'm sorry, I yelled at you."
“It’s alright, teacher.” Lu Yi looked at him with mixed feelings: “If I lost my legs and couldn’t run, I would be just like you.”
After he finished speaking, he looked at Tang Bufan's hand. The man's thin, stick-like fingers were wrapped with black strips of cloth, but even with them holding them in place, they were still trembling slightly.
"Your hand will be fine after the antidote is injected," Lu Yi said earnestly to Tang Bufan, his voice gentle yet full of strength. "Didn't you just teach me this evening? Don't be discouraged, stay optimistic."
Tang Bufan stared at him blankly, feeling a touch of emotion in his heart.
I don't understand you.
"What do you mean?" Lu Yi asked him.
"Why are you so good to me?" Tang Bufan felt a heavy weight in his chest. Right now, he was just a despicable, sensitive, and selfish little man.
Lu Yi understood. He lowered his eyes slightly and thought for a while before raising his eyes to look at Tang Bufan again, and smiled slightly: "If you think I'm strange, just think of me as a weirdo who loves to help others."
Tang Bufan's eyes trembled. A strange person who enjoys helping others... This apocalypse actually linked the words "enjoying helping others" and "strange".
When did I lose trust in people?
Tang Bufan looked up with emotion, suppressing the tears that were about to fall. If it were four years ago when he saw a child in the wilderness, he would definitely have stopped the car to ask him about it.
Instead of trying to kick him off the bus again and again.
"I really..." Tang Bufan let out a long breath, his mindset was a little different. He said to himself with a self-deprecating smile, "As a teacher, I actually have to make a child comfort me instead."
"Uh, I'm not a child..." Lu Yi looked slightly embarrassed.
Tang Bufan slapped his face hard.
“You’re right, I can’t be discouraged.” Tang Bufan tried to suppress the soreness in his throat, and he looked at Lu Yi again with renewed enthusiasm: “If you can’t write, you can’t write. I’ll teach you spoken English.”
Lu Yi was somewhat surprised to see that he had recovered so quickly, and then nodded with pleasure.
"good."
The two started learning spoken Chinese, but Lu Yifa's pronunciation was off, and he would remember the later words but forget the earlier ones. Tang Bufan thought for a moment and decided to teach him to sing.
"Unity is strength!" Tang Bufan raised his arms in a power pose: "Unity is strength!"
“This power is iron!” He knocked on the iron wall of the RV.
"This power is steel!" He knocked on the steel latch on the window again.
"Harder than iron, stronger than steel!"
Looking at Tang Bufan singing and dancing, Lu Yi realized that he was teaching elementary school.
He curled the corners of his mouth, looking at the man who was as thin as a skeleton, yet exuded a strong vitality... It was truly unbelievable.
"What are you laughing at? Come and learn from me!"
"Sister Duan is just like Donkey Fish Liang~"
"good!"
"Sister Duan is just like Donkey Fish Liang~"
"Very good, you've remembered it!"
"This donkeyfish is so sweet!"
"Hahahaha..." Tang Bufan couldn't help but bend over and burst into laughter.
Seeing him laugh at his pronunciation, Lu Yi couldn't help but laugh too, her face turning slightly red with embarrassment.
The two went to bed a little late that night. Lu Yi took out his makeshift bed and laid it on, while Tang Bufan, still feeling lingering fear, slowly lay down on the iron-framed bed.
When he woke up, it was already dawn. Tang Bufan had another nightmare, but it was better than yesterday, and he couldn't remember the details.
Holding his aching head, Tang Bufan slowly walked to the driver's seat and sat down.
Kai Ge routinely projects the RV's wear and tear onto the glass, and finally, he shows Tang Bufan the RV's interior surveillance footage from the previous night.
In the video, one golden and one green beastly eye stared directly at Tang Bufan lying on the bed in the darkness.
Tang Bufan sighed and turned off the recording.
"Are you feeling unwell?" Lu Yi walked over carrying a plate of chopped rat meat and a small glass of water.
"Um... last night I used the glass bottle from the water purifier to store urine." Lu Yi stammered, her cheeks slightly flushed. "Yesterday your lips cracked and bled when you laughed, I think you need to drink more water..."
Tang Bufan understood, took the water glass, and decisively looked up to drink.
Lu Yi was surprised that he drank it so readily, and stared blankly at him, his cheeks turning even redder.
"Thank you." Tang Bufan put down his cup and looked at the embarrassed man. "You don't need to worry about it. Astronauts also drink this kind of purified water made from urine."
Lu Yi looked away, not daring to look him in the eye, and turned to sit in the passenger seat.
Tang Bufan started eating gerbil meat, and the pain in his head caused him to furrow his brow as he chewed.
"I'll drive today," Lu Yi said, looking at Tang Bufan, who was suffering from a headache. "You don't look well."
"No need, I can manage." Tang Bufan refused. Although the two had become much closer after yesterday, he was not planning to give him control of the RV.
Lu Yi did not insist, and Tang Bufan drove off after finishing the gerbil meat.
Lu Yi had initially estimated that it would take three days to reach the town of the poisonous people, but the RV's battery and solar panels were in worse condition than he had imagined. With only two or three hours of driving time per day, the journey to the town had been extended to five days.
Five days it is. Tang Bufan desperately needs the antidote. He has a terrible headache every morning when he wakes up.
The two drove forward, stopping frequently. The originally empty freezer was gradually filled with meat from various desert animals by Lu Yi, and Tang Bufan found that he no longer had to worry about food.
With food secured, water proved extremely difficult to find. On the fourth day, Lu Yi discovered a puddle under a wild tree.
He immediately returned to the RV to tell Tang Bufan the news. Tang Bufan excitedly drove over to take a look and found that it was indeed a puddle more than a meter wide.
The puddle was dirty, brownish-yellow, murky, and smelled foul, but Tang Bufan didn't care.
"Quick, you get the glass jar, I'll get the cup!" Tang Bufan excitedly went back to the car to get the tools.
Half a minute later, the two squatted down next to the puddle and scooped water with mugs.
"Isn't there a water pump in the car?" Lu asked, pouring the dirty water from the cup into the large glass jar.
“It used to be there, but it broke a year ago. Now all that’s left is the water pipe,” Tang Bufan said. If the water weren’t poisonous, he would have loved to drink it directly.
"Do you still keep it?"
"Throw it away, leaving it on the car will increase the load and make the car consume more electricity."
"Oh." Lu Yi said with some regret, "If I hadn't thrown it away, I could have tried to repair it."
Tang Bufan scooped up water and looked up: "You know how to fix it?"
“I can.” Lu nodded. Mechanical repair is a compulsory course in the Commander Academy. They must ensure that they have the ability to repair machines independently when they are alone.
Tang Bufan looked at him suspiciously: "You're only 17 years old. When I was 17, all I knew was how to change light bulbs."
"...Being able to change a light bulb is quite impressive." Lu Yi praised him against his conscience.
"Come on, you're praising me for that." Tang Bufan laughed. He was getting tired of squatting, so he simply plopped down next to the puddle and continued scooping water.
His loose trousers were pulled up, revealing a small section of his calves that were so thin they were practically skin and bones.
Lu Yi glanced at those pitiful, thin legs and felt a pang of sadness.
Tang Bufan was focused on scooping up the sewage with his head down, unaware of the pitying look in Tang Bufan's eyes.
That night, Tang Bufan finally got to drink some clean water to his heart's content, and even drank two large glasses. As a result, when he got up to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, he groggily stepped over Lu Yi's body.
Lu Yi lay silent on the ground.
Then I thought to myself, he is so light.
Tang Bufan returned, and Lu Yi lay on the ground, quietly watching him. Her intention was not to make a sound and scare him, but unexpectedly, Tang Bufan, still half asleep, kicked her again...
Lu Yi tensed up immediately.
After Tang Bufan lay back on the bed and took a deep breath, Lu Yi turned over with a flushed face, arched her body, and reached her hand under her abdomen where she had been stepped on.
When Tang Bufan woke up the next day, he obviously didn't remember what happened the night before and was still sitting in the driver's seat with a pained expression, holding his head.
When Lu Yi brought him breakfast, there was a subtle awkwardness in his expression. He was glad that Tang Bufan didn't remember it, otherwise it would have been too embarrassing.
By noon, the two had finally arrived at the town of poisoned people.
The town is small, all earthen yellow, shrouded in a misty sandstorm, appearing and disappearing in the blazing sun, twisting and turning like a mirage.
A note from the author:
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