Chapter 393: Appetite
Chapter 393: Appetite
Although the residential area near the national highway is close to the highway and the road is smooth, it’s still a desolate place in the end times. Since there are no zombies around, Luo Feifan builds a blazing fire in the yard and carries a table outside with several men to prepare for a meal.
Because the large army has just passed through, there are naturally no supplies left in this house. Even the quilts have been taken by survivors from the army. Fortunately, Zhan Lian’s truck is full of supplies. Yun Tao has collected many items from other survivors’ cars along the way, including a large box of cooked food.
Liang Ziyu carries Zhao Qianrong’s body and goes with Zhao Ru to handle it. But the world is too chaotic, and there are many insects underground. Zhao Ru doesn’t want her aunt to be buried and become food for mice or wild cats, so she asks Luo Feifan to lend fire again and plans to cremate Zhao Qianrong.
There’s some noise in the yard. Several men gather around the table, and the air fills with the aroma of bacon. Luo Feifan chats with Yun Tao. Doll is hungry and wants to breastfeed, so An Ran stays inside to feed her. Zhan Lian takes the initiative to go out and bring some food to An Ran.
The unlit room has two transparent windows, and the firelight from the yard shines in. An Ran holds Doll, who has just finished breastfeeding, and walks back and forth to burp her.
Zhan Lian brings in a bowl of rice and a bowl of fried bacon. Yes—one bowl of each! He whispers to An Ran, “Is Doll asleep? I’ll hold her for a while. You eat something.”
“No, I’m not hungry.” An Ran looks at the bowls of rice and bacon in Zhan Lian’s hands. Each bowl is large enough to be a small basin. She feels full just looking at them. She shakes her head and says, “I’m a wood-type mutant. We don’t need to eat. We just absorb crystal cores.”
She really hasn’t eaten in a long time.
“How can a crystal core compare to food?” Zhan Lian puts down the bowl of rice, reaches out to take Doll from An Ran’s shoulder, and patiently explains, “You’re not cultivating immortality. Taking ‘fasting pills’ alone won’t do! People still need to have some appetite.”
“What’s ‘fasting pills’?” An Ran doesn’t understand. She never reads books and gets a headache when she tries. Seeing that Zhan Lian doesn’t answer, she thinks about it and assumes ‘fasting pills’ are the same as crystal cores. So she says again, “If you can be full absorbing crystal cores, why waste food? Isn’t it better to leave the food to Liang Ziyu and the others?”
“Eat it. If you’re not full, there’s more outside. I saved plenty for you!”
“This...” An Ran stares at the basin of rice and the basin of cured meat on the bedside table. The aroma of cured meat is indeed tempting and awakens her appetite, but isn’t this too much? Is Zhan Lian skimping on Yun Tao’s and Luo Feifan’s rations? “I—I’ll take it out to eat!”
To avoid being forced to eat so much rice and bacon under Zhan Lian’s gaze, An Ran asks him to hold Doll and coax her to sleep while she goes outside with the two washbasins.
Outside, she sees that the total amount of rice and bacon Luo Feifan and the others have is less than hers. An Ran is upset. She puts the two washbasins on the table, goes to the kitchen, and finds two normal-sized bowls and two pairs of chopsticks.
Thankfully, these items haven’t been taken by passing survivors. An Ran even feels a little lucky.