These new goods are quite enticing!
An Nuan smiled and said, "We'll tell you later, let's eat first. It won't be good if it gets cold."
An Nuan didn't plan to hide anything.
The core members of the community all knew about her and Fu Yunting, and many of the ordinary members did too.
An Nuan also feared that there would be traitors within the community, which was why Nan Menying's ten-person team held such a unique and sensitive position.
Lao Niao picked up the rice bucket, covered the food he wanted to eat, stirred it, and shoveled it into his mouth with a spoon.
"Boss, watch your table manners, the girls are watching!"
"I'm just letting the girls see what a real man looks like!"
"Boss, you're spilling."
"Don't talk nonsense, my kidneys are fine, I'm not spilling anything!"
"No, I mean you're spilling on your mouth, it's all over your clothes!"
Lao Niao looked down and saw that his chest was covered in food, including a small piece of truffle.
He picked it up and popped it into his mouth, paused for two seconds, and then continued to devour his meal.
With a gulp of wine and a bite of meat, he was content, leaning back on the swing with his legs spread, watching a group of children playing.
Lao Niao took a swig of beer and hummed an opera tune.
An Nuan spread a picnic mat on the lawn, peeled some oranges, and placed them on a small stove to roast.
"Little Nuan sister, I want to eat roasted bananas."
"You'll have to wait a bit longer, five minutes. Come back when they're ready!"
"Can I have oranges then?"
"Sure, you can have whatever you want! But the oranges will take ten minutes. Come find me after you finish playing hide-and-seek!"
The children scattered, happily going to play.
Lao Niao let out a long sigh, straightened his head, and said, "A man's wealth is his own ruin. Too much attention attracts trouble."
An Nuan turned her head and smiled, "I know. Wen Jing has been very busy lately, and I felt something was wrong."
"But we can't suffer if our own people are hurting."
"Our community's dispatched personnel are less about scavenging for supplies and more about giving them something to do, and training their adaptability and combat effectiveness."
"Most of the supplies are provided by Fu Yunting and me."
"If we were to compete with people outside the community for food, they wouldn't even be able to maintain their current living standards."
"Shang D has abandoned this place, so why should I care about the whole world?"
An Nuan flipped the banana, skewered it with a bamboo stick, and placed it on the mesh bag to heat it up further. She asked Lan Mi to help take it to the children.
An Nuan then cut a few more bananas and placed them on the stove.
Lao Niao said, "What you say is true, but people are greedy."
"Everyone is ordinary, why can you support others but not them?"
"Why do some second-tier survivors live comfortably in the community, while some fourth-tier survivors suffer outside?"
An Nuan admitted that Lao Niao had a point.
But was there fairness in the world?
They say that school is the fairest time in life, but some children can play the piano from the age of three, while others are still waiting at home for adults to feed them porridge.
There has never been fairness in the world.
Not in peaceful times, and certainly not in the apocalypse.
"Timing, location, and human harmony – they didn't apply at the best time, can they blame me?"
"You used to be in the arms dealing business and dealt with the wealthy circles a lot, didn't you? Business opportunities, timing, and luck – which one is dispensable?"
"They missed their chance, and that's that. I'm not their parent, so I have no reason to indulge them."
"If they have the ability, they should form their own base, grow stronger, and make others envious. Always staring at others, what kind of people are they?"
"In any case, my attitude is that if others don't provoke me, I won't provoke them. Even if we resent each other, as long as we mind our own business, it's fine to live quietly."
"If anyone is foolish enough to attack me, then I can only fight back."
An Nuan placed the roasted oranges in a small basket and had someone distribute them to the children.
She handed two to Lao Niao and Fu Yunting.
Fu Yunting ate sparingly, broke off two pieces and put them in his mouth, and fed the rest to Xiao Yu.
Lao Niao popped one in, his brow furrowed instinctively.
He didn't expect it to be so sweet, better than the ones grown in the mountains.
He ate two more and patted his belly with satisfaction.
"Daughter, I'm telling you this as Xiao Lei Lei's wife, and I'm kindly reminding you. People have lost their humanity now, and there are no legal restraints. Talking to them about morality is as futile as talking to a cow. What if they gather and attack you?"
Lao Niao said this to An Nuan.
But Fu Yunting lowered his eyes and fell silent.
An Nuan saw this but didn't say anything, smiling at Lao Niao, "Isn't there still you? If they attack me, will you stand by? You are my man's uncle, can you bear to abandon us?"
"You... Hahaha, well said! I am your uncle, if anyone dares to attack you, I'll blast them! Lao Wai, you all remember, if anyone has ill intentions towards my niece, blast them directly!"
Lao Wai, with his mouth full of fruit, couldn't speak clearly, and quickly gave him an okay sign.
An Nuan looked at the flames and said softly:
"Survival of the fittest. It's already good that I don't plunder them. They still dare to attack me..."
"Whoever dares to come, I will take their life. If a hundred come, I will kill a hundred. A thousand, ten thousand, a hundred thousand... Whoever touches my people, I will kill them, until they are too afraid to act rashly."
There was no talk of righteousness or sentiment, nor was it about profit, but simply about stance and survival.
Fu Yunting sighed softly.
The stone that had been weighing on his heart was finally lifted.
He had been afraid that An Nuan would find him too brutal.
Fu Yunting smiled and squeezed in beside her, "Do you want some cherries? I'll buy some and wash them for us to eat."
"Okay, I'll try roasting some cherries for you? I heard people online say it's fun to eat them like this!"
Emmm...
Fu Yunting reluctantly agreed.
After eating two, his eyes lit up.
"Hey, why do these taste like mangosteens!"
"No way?"
An Nuan ate one.
Damn, this didn't taste like mangosteens at all. It had the smell of a cardboard box that had been stored in a damp basement for a while.
"Xiao Lei Lei, how do you get the taste of mangosteens?"
Fu Yunting ate several more.
Not only did they taste like mangosteens, but also like tomatoes, cherries, and sugarcane.
Though it was absurd, Fu Yunting was happy.
It didn't matter if his taste buds were confused, as long as he could taste something!
He ate a small handful, and each bite was a different surprise.
An Nuan was happy to see him so pleased and quickly helped him roast a box of cherries.
"I noticed that the larger and plumper the fruit, the more you taste cherries and mangosteens. The less ideal ones taste like tomatoes, all sour and sweet. But the worst ones actually taste like pure sweet sugarcane. Why is that?"
Fu Yunting thought for a moment and smiled, "Perhaps sugarcane isn't worth much."