Zhang Qiu collapsed onto the bed at the back of the vehicle, half a foot hanging off, still wearing his shoes.

Yu Xifeng yawned and took a thermos cup from the cabinet.

With his back to Zhang Qiu, he poured milk tea from the space pocket into the cup.

Actually, there was milk tea powder in the car too.

But milk tea made from the powder didn’t taste as good as the previous takeout.

This cup of milk tea was breakfast.

Yu Xifeng tilted his head slightly, his expression not very good.

His head still hurt.

It was the aftereffect of moving several hundred pounds of stones inside the space with his consciousness back in the underground shelter.

When nerves were tense or mood bad, the pain wasn’t obvious.

But after waking up from a sleep, it felt like a backlash — his brain throbbed painfully.

Yu Xifeng took some ibuprofen.

The ibuprofen took a while to kick in.

He felt so painful he wanted to hit someone.

He had never suffered like this in this life before.

He remembered the calming tea Zhang Qiu had brewed earlier, which seemed to help a bit.

He glanced at Zhang Qiu, who was fast asleep on the bed.

He should have made him some tea before letting him sleep just now.

Zhang Qiu didn’t have any herbs with him now.

No, he had to get the recipe.

Yu Xifeng, with a messy mind, sat on the sofa for a while. When the ibuprofen began working, he went to the driver’s seat.

On the car’s tablet, Zhang Qiu had marked a route.

It looked like he was planning to bypass a cliff, adding many waypoints along the way.

Yu Xifeng scanned it roughly — all were gas stations, commercial streets, and the like.

Zhang Qiu was probably thinking about getting supplies for the RV.

He was quite thoughtful.

Yu Xifeng looked at the closest spot — only a dozen kilometers away.

Then let’s go.

Yu Xifeng fastened his seatbelt, pulled the handbrake.

When pressing the accelerator, he felt like he forgot something.

But never mind.

He gave the gas pedal a strong push. The RV shook in place, then surged forward like a wild horse unleashed.

With a sliding sound, Zhang Qiu rolled off the back of the bed.

Yu Xifeng suddenly remembered Zhang Qiu was at the back.

She quickly slammed on the emergency brake.

Zhang Qiu rolled from one side of the bed to the other.

Yu Xifeng gasped, unsure whether to feel sorry for her car or for Zhang Qiu.

“Sorry, are you okay?”

Zhang Qiu grunted and got up from the bed: “…I’m fine.”

He grimaced, went to the passenger seat, reclined it flat, and fastened his seatbelt.

Seeing he was settled, Yu Xifeng felt reassured and restarted the car.

Zhang Qiu was obviously very tired too — he stayed up all night keeping watch yesterday.

He half-reclined in the passenger seat and quickly fell asleep.

With the seatbelt on, he didn’t fall off but felt like he’d been roughed up by the chair.

When he woke, the RV had already stopped.

Yu Xifeng leaned against the sofa with eyes closed, resting.

The ibuprofen made her a little drowsy.

Hearing Zhang Qiu get up, she opened her eyes to see his worn-out, obsessed look again.

Zhang Qiu: “…”

“Is this meditation really something I have to practice?”

“Yes, you have to.”

“Then today let’s go to Qitian Village to get the medicine, and make something to help your brain.”

Yu Xifeng asked, “Lunch will be instant noodles?”

Instant noodles are tasty but a bit oily.

“What did you have for breakfast?”

Yu Xifeng said, “Milk tea.”

“Cook some rice. Grains help calm the mind and soothe nerves.”

Zhang Qiu cooked bean rice. Yu Xifeng didn’t like the texture of whole soybeans, so she replaced them with sweet peas.

He also fried some potato slices, half a rib, cooking half as soup and half as braised ribs.

The apron came with the RV kitchen set.

It was pink.

It only reached Zhang Qiu’s thigh.

The exhaust fan was built into the cabinet; Zhang Qiu even opened a window.

The cooking fumes with their smell hit Yu Xifeng’s nose.

Zhang Qiu said, “Since this stove works, and there seems to be an extension platform outside the RV, maybe next time we cook outside. Running the exhaust fan uses a lot of power.”

“It’s too cold now, wait a bit. When the temperature rises, the RV roof can be lifted.”

Now the temperature was above zero.

With a bit thicker clothing, they could move about outdoors normally.

The snow on the ground was starting to melt.

Zhang Qiu cooked the ribs perfectly. Yu Xifeng kept picking at them. Only when the bones piled up did she notice Zhang Qiu didn’t have a single bone left in front of him.

That shy attitude of his returned.

Yu Xifeng didn’t know how to respond.

She wasn’t one for polite formalities; before the apocalypse, Xu Qingrou would always say she had no sense of etiquette at the table.

The potato slices were very soft, melting in the mouth.

Zhang Qiu served Yu Xifeng a bowl of soup; most of the ribs ended up in the bowl.

Yu Xifeng looked at him: “You don’t like boiled meat, you eat it.”

“I’ll fry some for you tonight.” Zhang Qiu put the bowl aside.

“You just eat. I don’t like eating together at the same table like this.”

Zhang Qiu stayed silent for a while before saying, “That’s all in the fridge; after this, there’s no more.”

The pigs in her space pocket weighed almost 100 pounds now. If they grew longer and had a litter, by the time the piglets grew up, she wouldn’t be short of pork.

And she wasn’t short of pork now.

She had stocked a lot before the apocalypse. Afterward, using grain from Zheng Weiyang’s factory, she exchanged for some more.

Yu Xifeng said, “I don’t eat leftovers.”

She poured the clear soup left in the pot into her bowl and drank it clean.

The soup had radish chunks, a bit sweet, very tasty.

Zhang Qiu picked some ribs into his bowl, looking worried.

Grain was precious, and meat even more so.

The RV’s electricity supply partly relied on the power generated by the vehicle in front.

But energy was scarce.

Zhang Qiu looked gloomily at the fuel gauge.

Maybe there was still some on Yu Xifeng’s second floor space, but in any case, it had limits.

In the afternoon, Zhang Qiu took the wheel, Yu Xifeng sat in the passenger seat.

Under the armrest was a storage box where Yu Xifeng stashed some snacks.

She was a bit dizzy anyway, so it wasn’t good to look at her phone or tablet while driving.

When bored, she’d snack on some sunflower seeds or chew beef jerky.

She even had the mind to look out the window.

But there wasn’t much to see.

Fallen trees, broken roads, potholes.

From time to time, corpses appeared.

Most were not intact, with many bite marks.

Because of the cold, decomposition was slow, and many corpses were still recognizable.

It sent chills down the spine.

Yu Xifeng had seen many like this in her past life and walked past them without flinching.

She even went close sometimes, looking for anything usable.

But now, thinking of Old Man Cai and maybe Yun Jie among them, Yu Xifeng felt uneasy.

Zhang Qiu looked even more grim.

He stared ahead, focusing his vision, avoiding looking at anything else.

Zhang Qiu drove steadily.

Unlike Yu Xifeng, who was reckless and fast, almost lifting the chassis off the ground but driving without batting an eye.

The feeling of being pushed back in the seat was intense.