Chapter 184 On the Road
Lin Qi and the four children were sleeping, and Xu Hexiao and Brother Tan took turns driving.
"You're a pretty good driver." Brother Tan was a little surprised.
Xu Hexiao's lips curled up slightly, his eyes full of tenderness, "Qiqi taught me last year."
Brother Tan sighed twice, amazed, "You two are really good, you can do it right away, your skills are not much different from us who have been driving for a few years."
Xu Hexiao's smile got even bigger. "Give me the map and take a nap."
"Can you read a map? Is there any problem?" Brother Tan was not very reassured.
"I saw you driving just now, I think it should be possible." Xu Hexiao didn't say it definitely.
"I'll draw it for you, and you drive along the line I draw." Brother Tan said, taking out a map, and then taking out a pen from his chest pocket and starting to draw on the map.
Brother Tan chose the main road, but even though it was a main road, the road conditions were not very good. The yellow mud road was paved with pebbles, and there were many potholes, both large and small.
The car was bumpy all the way and the people in the car were shaking. Lin Qi didn't know if the children were carsick. From morning till ten o'clock in the morning, the children showed no signs of waking up.
Lin Qi gave superpowers to the four children and five deer, and took the opportunity to create some grass for them.
The car didn't stop until eleven o'clock in the morning.
"There is a river here and water is conveniently available. Let's have lunch here and rest for a while." Xu Hexiao said.
Brother Tan opened his eyes dazedly and saw Xu Hexiao getting out of the car with his long legs. His energetic look made him, his older brother, extremely envious.
Sure enough, being young is different.
Xu Hexiao got out of the car, looked around, skillfully built two simple stoves with stones, lit a fire, and then walked towards the truck.
"Are the children awake?" Xu Hexiao asked.
Lin Qi hummed, "Put their cradles on the ground and let them get out of the car to relax. I don't know if anyone is carsick."
Upon hearing this, Xu Hexiao became a little worried. He held an oval cradle in his hands and placed it on the ground, then came over to hold the child.
Lin Qi didn't get out of the car. She took a small wooden bucket and started to squeeze deer milk. There were five deer, three females and two males. Lin Qi squeezed a full bucket of deer milk.
She was worried that the doe would be frightened and her milk supply would decrease due to the haste of traveling. Now it is the first day and so far, the problem she was worried about has not occurred.
Xu Hexiao had already cleaned the pot, and Lin Qi poured the deer milk into the pot.
"After boiling, let it cool for a while, then put some of it in a thermos. When the children are hungry, you can pour it out for them to drink in the car." Xu Hexiao said.
There are two thermos bottles, one for deer milk and one for boiling water, which is just right.
Lin Qi had no objection. She looked at the four children lying in the cradles, looking around with their eyes wide open, and seemed quite energetic.
"They are so well behaved. They didn't cry the whole way." Brother Tan said in amazement.
"They generally don't cry very often. They just groan a few times when they poop or pee, and they'll be fine after they're changed. If there's no time to change them, they'll feel uncomfortable and then they'll cry loudly." Xu Hexiao said. The children are well-behaved, which saves him and Qiqi a lot of trouble.
"That really saves us a lot of worries. Those two kids in our family used to cry a lot." Brother Tan got closer and looked at the four children. He looked at the children and the children looked at him, their round and bright eyes full of curiosity, as if silently asking "Who is this?"
"This is the first time I've seen a child like this, so smart!"
Looking at Brother Tan's surprised expression, Lin Qi and Xu Hexiao just smiled, feeling a sense of pride.
Xu Hexiao cooked noodles, added six eggs, about two pounds of bacon and a handful of greens. The three of them used enamel basins, one for each person, and it was just enough to hold the noodles.
"This is the first time I've seen such a rich bowl of noodles." Brother Tan said with a smile.
"It's hard to travel, so we have to eat something hearty." Xu Hexiao took a bite of half a boiled egg. "When we get to the city tonight, we'll go to the state-owned restaurant for a big meal."
Brother Tan raised his eyebrows, "Okay, I'll order some braised pork first."
"No problem." Xu Hexiao agreed immediately, and then went to see Lin Qi, "What do you want to eat?"
"We eat whatever we have," Lin Qi said, and then expressed her concerns, "Are these deer in our car really safe once we get into the city?"
After these words were spoken, Xu Hexiao and Brother Tan fell silent.
After a long while, Brother Tan said, "That may not work. It's like a sheep entering a wolf's den." Even if there was no problem with their letters of introduction and other documents, as long as those people found five deer in the car, these five deer would definitely be left behind.
Those people can find a hundred reasons for them to keep the deer!
"It's okay. We take turns driving. One of us drives while the other rests. We can reach the capital earlier and feel less relaxed." Brother Tan said, and went to see the children. "Can they hold on?"
"You can sleep in the car, so it should be fine. But my suggestion is that at night, you should stop and rest in the first and second half of the night. Take a nap in the car. Driving for three or four days in a row is too tiring." Lin Qi said. She and Xu Hexiao could still hold on, but Brother Tan is almost forty years old this year and is too tired. He is afraid that he will ruin his health.
"Okay, then I'll listen to my sister-in-law." Brother Tan agreed readily. As for whether it was unsafe to sleep in the wild, he didn't even consider it. With these two around, he wouldn't be afraid of bandits or even wolves.
In the evening, the car stopped again, still in a place with water.
This time, Xu Hexiao cooked rice and the dish was braised chicken with potatoes.
"What kind of soup would you like?" Xu Hexiao asked Lin Qi, "We brought some spareribs."
"No hurry, I'll go to the river to wash the children's diapers." Lin Qi walked towards the river with a wooden basin and soap.
Brother Tan looked puzzled. "What do you mean, sister-in-law? Are you not in a hurry to eat, or are you not in a hurry to cook the soup? Doesn't it take longer to cook the soup? Why not in a hurry?"
"You'll know in a moment." Xu Hexiao said.
Brother Tan looked at Lin Qi's back and muttered, "What kind of riddle are you talking about?"
Xu Hexiao just smiled and said nothing. He was afraid that if he told Brother Tan, he would follow her and be frightened by the way Qiqi caught fish.
Xu Hexiao did not answer, and Brother Tan, who felt that he was boring, found himself a job - cleaning the feces of the deer. He did this job very seriously, not only cleaning up the deer feces, but also wiping the carriage with a wet rag.
"I can't let this smell get to my lovely nephews and nieces."
After Brother Tan finished cleaning up the deer's feces, he saw Lin Qi coming back with two big fish. The fish had been scaled and gilled, and had been gutted, so they could be put directly into the pot.
"The river water is dark blue and looks very deep. How did you catch the fish?" Brother Tan was very curious about this.
"I was washing the children's diapers, and they swam over to me and I just reached out and grabbed them." Lin Qi said lightly, handed the fish to Xu Hexiao, and went back to washing the diapers.
Brother Tan: “….”
Don't think he'll believe it.
While the three of them were eating, Xu Hexiao filled a large aluminum pot with water and continued to boil it on the fire. By the time they finished their meal, the water was also boiled.
"I'll use canvas to make a temporary bathroom, and we'll give the child a bath together. After that, we'll also shower ourselves." Xu Hexiao said.
Winter is windy, and the car creates even more dust. Children change diapers several times a day, and they sweat from being wrapped up in the heat, so they definitely need to be washed, or else they might get a rash.
"I want to take a shower, too?" It was Brother Tan's first long-distance trip, and he heard from his colleagues that it was normal to not take a shower for five or six days while away from home. So why did this family have to take a shower on the first day?
"Go ahead and wash. The fire is still burning. Just add more water if there is not enough water." Xu Hexiao said.
Xu Hexiao and Lin Qi were very quick. In less than ten minutes, they had finished bathing all four children.
"Not bad, no wrinkles on their faces." Lin Qi applied lotion to the four children from head to toe.
"There is a carport, so the children won't be exposed to the wind much. I'll play with them for a while, you go take a shower." Xu Hexiao said to Lin Qi.
Lin Qi hummed, took a quick shower, and changed her outer clothes.
Xu Hexiao was the next to wash. After he finished washing, he also washed Lin Qi and the children's clothes.
Finally, it’s Brother Tan.
"Taking a shower is quite troublesome, but it is really comfortable after taking it. I was covered in dust just now, but after taking a shower I feel much refreshed." Brother Tan said with a smile.
"It's a lot more comfortable." Lin Qi agreed with him, but if she didn't have to take the children to bed, she wouldn't bother to take a shower. In the end times, not to mention a few days, it's normal to not take a shower for ten days or half a month.
After Xu Hexiao finished washing the clothes, the car continued on the road. The washed clothes were not in a hurry to dry, so they were placed in a basin on the truck bed.
It is not safe for ordinary people to drive at night, so Lin Qi asked Xu Hexiao to accompany the children to sleep and she sat in the driving seat.
"Sister-in-law, take a look at the map first and familiarize yourself with the route." Seeing that Lin Qi wanted to drive, Brother Tan did not stop her, but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had driven at night many times, it was only in the town and the county, and it was a familiar road. Now that he was out of Yao County, he was not very confident.
There were all kinds of traps and tricks to rob trucks outside, and he was not sure he could see through them all and avoid them safely. Once the truck had problems, endless troubles awaited them.
"If I have the chance, I should learn how to repair cars. If I don't know how to repair cars, my company will never assign me any long-distance purchasing tasks." Brother Tan said.
Lin Qi agreed with Brother Tan's words, "It's time to learn. I'll drive now, you take a nap first, otherwise you might not have enough energy tomorrow."
Brother Tan nodded, "Okay, I'll go to sleep first, call me if you need anything."
Lin Qi didn't expect the first "secret plan" to come so soon. Looking at the several wooden boards on the ground not far away and the long iron nails on the boards, her face darkened.
She neither slowed down nor accelerated, and drove past as if she didn't see it.
However, before the wheels could run over the iron nails, two vines rolled up the wooden board with the nails and rolled it over the top of the cart shed.
"It drove over and ran over it!"
"Did you get a flat tire?"
"I didn't hear any sound."
"I guess they haven't discovered the problem with the wheel yet. Wait a little longer."
"Hey, the car is getting farther and farther away!"
Several men with machetes frowned as they watched the truck driving away.
The next second, several vines suddenly sprang out from the darkness like snakes and lashed at the men.
In the truck bed, Xu Hexiao suddenly opened his eyes and looked towards the bushes on the roadside behind the truck. There, several figures were running away with their heads in their hands, wailing miserably.
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