I Have a Post Apocalyptic Online Friend C16.1

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. 🙂

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

Chapter 16. Part 1

Zhou An’an looked at him, surrounded by flowers, and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Lu Yuan leaned back comfortably against the pillows and started ordering her around.

“Go cook. I want meat—sweet meat.”

“Sweet meat?”

“Haven’t you seen it in movies? It’s cut into cubes, reddish-brown, rich but not greasy. It’s called Hong… something…”

“Hong Shao Rou¹?”

Lu Yuan snapped his fingers. “That’s it! I want Hong Shao Rou.”

He really knows how to order, she thought wryly. The apocalypse is here, and he’s still demanding Hong Shao Rou.

The thought made Zhou An’an’s temper flare. “I told you we should install a kitchen, but you refused, not even leaving an induction cooker. Now you’re demanding roast duck and Hong Shao Rou. What am I supposed to cook them with?”

Lu Yuan hadn’t considered this back then. In his worldview, food was just fuel—something to fill your stomach and keep you from starving.

Who could have imagined it could be this delicious?

If he had known, he would have gladly sacrificed the wheels for a kitchen.

Lu Yuan cleared his throat awkwardly. “An’an, I believe in you. You can do it! Go for it!”

Startled by his sudden encouragement, Zhou An’an pouted and headed to the rear compartment.

There was meat in the fridge and sugar on the shelves, so it wasn’t entirely impossible.

She started by filling the rice cooker’s inner pot halfway with water, then blanched the meat. After rinsing it clean, she cut it into cubes.

She had bought an old-fashioned rice cooker. It could heat up even without the lid, but its functions were basic—just “Keep Warm” and “Cook.” Making anything else required pure improvisation.

She pressed the “Cook” button, and the inner pot began to heat up.

Zhou An’an added oil and white sugar, using a wooden rice paddle as a spatula. She successfully caramelized the sugar.

Next, she tossed in the cubed pork, stir-frying until evenly coated. Then she added soy sauce, salt, and water before letting it simmer slowly.

She vaguely recalled that she should add spices like star anise and bay leaves, along with ginger and garlic.

She had none of those. All she could find in the fridge was a carton of eggs, so she added two to cook along with the pork.

Half an hour later, the Hong Shao Rou was ready. It looked reddish-brown and glossy, tender, sticky, and fragrant.

Since the rice cooker was occupied, she couldn’t make rice. The main course would be the leftover croissants.

Lu Yuan never spoke while eating; he just shoveled food into his mouth.

Zhou An’an had to pull out all the stops, snatching food from the tiger’s mouth, just to rescue half a small bowl of meat and one croissant from under his chopsticks.

“Hey!” she snapped, clearly annoyed.

Lu Yuan gestured for her to wait until they were done eating.

Zhou An’an ate with puffed cheeks. Five minutes later, Lu Yuan let out a satisfied burp and asked, “What’s up?”

“I cook for two people! You can’t just eat it all yourself.”

Once or twice was fine, but if this happened every meal, even a rabbit would lose its temper.

Lu Yuan looked surprised. “You wanted to eat too? You were eating so slowly, I thought you didn’t have an appetite.”

Zhou An’an was speechless. “…It’s not that I eat slowly, it’s that you eat too fast, okay?”

“Alright, alright, my mistake. I’ll be more mindful next time. I’m sorry.”

He reached out and ruffled her hair. Zhou An’an’s cheeks instantly flushed, and her breathing quickened.

She pushed his hand away and picked up her chopsticks again. “Don’t just say nice things. You seem to have plenty of strength when you eat, so your injuries can’t be that serious, right? Since I’m in charge of cooking, you’re in charge of washing the dishes from now on.”

“Every single meal?” Lu Yuan suggested earnestly. “Why don’t we go out and scavenge a few boxes of bowls instead?”

Eating was wonderful, but if it meant washing dishes afterward, the joy was cut in half.

Zhou An’an rolled her eyes, grabbed her bowl, and retreated to her bed to finish her meal.

Lu Yuan also returned to his bed, admiring the collection of flowers beside him. He stroked a flower on his left, then another on his right, looking for all the world like an emperor surrounded by his three thousand concubines.

After she finished eating, she tossed her bowl and chopsticks into the rice cooker. She decided that if he hadn’t washed them by the next meal, she wouldn’t cook.

Fortunately, Lu Yuan kept his word. A short while later, he dutifully went to wash the dishes.

Watching his tall frame crouched on the floor, washing two bowls smaller than his palm, Zhou An’an found the sight so ridiculous she couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Hey, that’s just mean!” he protested, turning his head.

Zhou An’an scoffed. “Isn’t it only right to wash the dishes after eating? We’re teammates, not a married couple. You also have to wash your own clothes and clean your own space.”

Lu Yuan tapped his forehead with the back of his hand in mock agony.

Satisfied, she skipped happily to the bathroom to wash the clothes she’d changed out of the previous night.

After hanging them on the protective mesh of the car window, she leaned against the windowsill, playing her favorite songs on her phone. The gentle breeze felt wonderful, and she was utterly content.

Getting a car was definitely a better idea than hoarding supplies. It lets them reach beautiful, safe places like this.

If she had stuck to her original plan—renting a house in the city and stockpiling supplies—she’d probably still be besieged by a zombie horde right now.

Lu Yuan walked over and tapped the back of her head. “Stop slacking off. Time to get to work.”

Zhou An’an turned around. “What work do we have to do?”

Their goal was to survive the apocalypse, and she was currently surviving quite comfortably.

“Safety is always temporary in the apocalypse. If you want to maintain it, you have to improve yourself.”

Lu Yuan had a point. The forest was an open area, after all. There were no zombies now, but one could wander in at any moment and catch them completely off guard.

But how could she improve?

Lu Yuan said, “We have a gun now, but you still don’t know how to use it. Our bullets are limited, so we can’t use them for training. You can start with this instead.”

As he spoke, he pulled a slingshot from behind his back and handed it to her.

Zhou An’an was astonished. “When did you make this?”

The knife marks on the slingshot were still fresh, and the wood even felt slightly damp to the touch.

“While you were cooking lunch.”

Zhou An’an couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt.

He was still injured, yet he was being so considerate of her. Meanwhile, she had complained that he ate too fast and too much.

I’ll never say that again, she vowed. He can eat as much as he wants. It’s just a bit of food, after all.

Zhou An’an clenched her fists, picked up the slingshot, and went outside to gather some small stones.

Lu Yuan had her stand by the window and aim at a distant tree.

She closed one eye, imagining herself as a legendary sharpshooter who could hit a willow leaf from a hundred paces. With all her might, she pulled back the slingshot.

Whoosh!

The stone flew out, landing seven or eight meters away from the target.

Lu Yuan remarked dryly, “If you aimed any further off, you might have launched it out of Earth’s orbit.”

Zhou An’an retorted, “…Again!”

She fired five more stones. Her best shot only grazed the side of the tree trunk.

The massive tree was two or three meters in diameter and not even that far away. Why couldn’t she hit it?!

Growing increasingly frustrated, Zhou An’an fired another stone. This one went so wide it might as well have landed at her grandmother’s house.

Just then, Lu Yuan gently took her hand, his voice coming from just above her head.

“The secret to shooting is a calm mind. Whether you’re using a gun, a bow, or even a small slingshot, this is the most crucial thing to remember. The more anxious you are, the more desperate you are to hit the target, the more you must keep your mind from becoming chaotic. No matter what you hear or see, remember that your world consists only of the projectile in your hand and the target ahead.”

His voice was incredibly steady, like the deep resonance of a cello, and it unknowingly calmed her.

“Good. Now.”

As he spoke, she released her fingers.

The stone struck the tree trunk dead center.

“I finally hit it!”

Zhou An’an leaped up in excitement, her head slamming into Lu Yuan’s chin. She was fine, but Lu Yuan staggered back, clutching his jaw in pain, tears nearly welling in his eyes.

“Is your head made of iron?”

“Sorry, sorry…”

She rushed over to check on him. Thankfully, his jaw wasn’t dislocated.

“That thick beard of yours is actually pretty useful,” she praised, giving him a thumbs-up. “It makes a great cushion.”

Lu Yuan rolled his eyes. “Did you remember what I just told you? Don’t just forget it the moment you’re done.”

“I remembered,” Zhou An’an replied, a little curious. “How do you know so much about shooting?”

“My mentor taught me back then.”

“Mentor?”

“Every survivor who grows up at the Base is assigned a mentor before their first mission outside. Under their guidance and assistance, we master the skills needed to survive beyond the Base.”

“Your Base sounds pretty complex. What kind of missions do you usually carry out?” Zhou An’an felt like she was reading a novel, her curiosity piqued.

But Lu Yuan seemed reluctant to say more. “You keep practicing. I’m going to lie down for a bit.”

“Okay… Wait, I have something for you.”

Since Lu Yuan had given her the slingshot, Zhou An’an wanted to give him a gift in return.

Footnote:

1. Red Braised Pork Belly or Hong Shao Rou, is a classic pork dish from China, red-cooked using pork belly and a combination of ginger, garlic, aromatic spices, chilis, sugar, star anise, light and dark soy sauce, and rice wine. ↩︎

Hai guys, it will be nice if you support our website~ so we can extend the term of web hosting + domain next year. 🙂