Doomsday Stewed Salted Fish C32.1

Hey, first of all, thanks for reading my lousy Machine Translation. To be honest, I’d really like it if you guys corrected the mistakes I made. But please speak nicely and politely. My heart is not strong enough to read your too-harsh comments. Have a nice day. 🙂

Chapter 32. (1/2)

After discussing the plan to pretend to be a couple, Lu Ya suggested a tour of Gu Fan’s herb fields.

Gu Fan took him on a tour.

Each patch of herbs was thriving, with no weeds or signs of pest damage.

“Can you manage all these herbs by yourself?” Lu Ya asked, standing on the snow mountain and looking around at the herb fields, imagining her busying herself among them.

Concerned that Lu Ya might be probing her secrets, Gu Fan responded calmly, “I have wood-based abilities, so tending the herb fields is easy for me.”

Sensing her guardedness, Lu Ya didn’t press further.

They returned to the villa.

Lu Ya pointed out that if they wanted the Sheng family to misunderstand their relationship, it wouldn’t make sense for him to leave immediately after arriving.

“Go ahead with your work. I’ll stay in the living room until noon before I leave.”

With Lu Ya there, Gu Fan didn’t dare to refine pills. Lu Ya’s keen eyes and mental power could be used to detect her activities.

Thinking Lu Ya was at least an Earthling, Gu Fan asked, “Can you cook?”

Before Xinghe and the others left, they had prepared enough boxed meals for her. However, Meng Lianying had mentioned that boxed meals weren’t as tasty as freshly made food.

After eating Bigu Pills for several days, Gu Fan craved real food.

It’s easy to go from frugality to luxury but difficult to return to frugality once you’ve enjoyed luxury. Once you start enjoying it, you don’t want to go back to asceticism.

Lu Ya apparently didn’t get her hint and said, “I have boxed meals in my space.”

Gu Fan pursed her lips.

Lu Ya finally understood, “You want freshly made food.”

Gu Fan looked at him expectantly, “Can you cook?”

Lu Ya: “I can, but we’ll need to go to the supermarket to buy ingredients unless you have them in your refrigerator?”

Gu Fan never cooked, and the refrigerator was just for show.

Lu Ya stood up from the sofa, “Let’s go buy some together.”

Gu Fan happily agreed.

“Your car is too conspicuous. Let’s take mine.” As they left the courtyard, Gu Fan glanced at Lu Ya’s military off-road vehicle and headed towards her small green car.

“You drive. I’ll think about what to make for lunch.”

Lu Ya automatically sat in the back seat.

Gu Fan didn’t think much of it, buckled her seatbelt, and used the navigation to find a supermarket within the second ring road, then started driving.

Lu Ya took out a tablet and plugged in his earphones.

Gu Fan glanced back a few times and saw him focused on the tablet, not thinking about food but watching a show.

This was good, indicating he was confident about today’s lunch.

Over forty minutes later, the small green car parked in a large supermarket’s lot.

It was a weekday, around nine in the morning, so few people were buying groceries in the supermarket.

Ignoring the curious glances of others, Gu Fan followed Lu Ya and looked around. This was her first time buying groceries in a supermarket.

“Three dishes, is that enough?” Lu Ya filled a shopping cart and asked Gu Fan.

Gu Fan nodded. Seeing that he was wrapping up the shopping, she asked, “Where can I find chocolate here?”

When she asked, an elderly woman buying vegetables nearby looked over, filled with disbelief.

Lu Ya pushed the cart closer to Gu Fan and whispered near her head, “Chocolate comes from cocoa beans. Cocoa trees grow in tropical regions. Before the Great Radiation, only Hainan and a few coastal areas in the country’s south grew them. After the Great Radiation, monsters infested the seas, making Hainan inaccessible and the southern coastal areas too far from the base. Even for an S-level powerhouse, traveling between the two places is extremely dangerous. So, the existing Chocolate in the base was collected during the Great Radiation and is a non-renewable resource for the foreseeable future, unavailable to ordinary people.”

Gu Fan finally understood the rarity of Chocolate.

“So the chocolate you gave me last time…”

“That was a thank-you gift for joining the rear medical team,” Lu Ya explained before she could finish.

Gu Fan, who loved Chocolate, followed him to the checkout area and asked in a low voice, “Do you still have Chocolate? I can buy it from you. How many contribution points are needed per box?”

Lu Ya: “If you agree to be my girlfriend, according to our country’s dating customs, I’ll give you a box for each holiday, free of charge.”

Gu Fan: “Even if I agree, it’s just a pretense. How can I accept such an expensive gift? It’s better if you sell it to me.”

Lu Ya: “I proposed this deal, so even though the relationship is fake, I will still fulfill the duties and rituals of a real boyfriend. Of course, aside from superficial events, you don’t have to do anything for me.”

Gu Fan, who had never had a Dao companion on the Cultivation Continent, had watched a few TV dramas on Earth, including some romantic idol dramas mocked by Fenghuo. To be fair, the male leads in those shows treated their girlfriends very well. In contrast, male characters who mistreated their girlfriends were typically cannon fodder or villains deserving of scorn.

Lu Ya’s pride wouldn’t allow him to fall into the cannon fodder or villain category.

By the time they got into the car, Gu Fan had decided. She said to Lu Ya, “Alright, I agree. You can use me to fend off suitors, and I’ll use you to fend off unscrupulous merchants. As for the Chocolate, you don’t need to give it to me on holiday. Give me a box as a thank-you whenever you need me to accompany you to events. Simple and fair.”

Lu Ya: “Deal.”