The middle luxury car carried three bodyguards and ability users, including Jiang Xiaoshu. The last car held two soldiers and four bodyguards.
The seating arrangement was agreed upon by everyone. The food was from the Zhu family’s factory, found by Zhu Yujue. He needed to protect his own family, and the others couldn't find a reason to object, so they agreed.
However, because Zhu Ran and Chong Yan were unwilling to move, the Zhu family members had to deign to ride in this special vehicle.
The window was still broken.
Zhu Ran reached out and felt the wind outside, deliberately trying to scare him: "Be careful, something might suddenly snatch your hand away."
Zhu Xuewei, who had been sticking her head out because the car smelled bad, immediately recoiled and moved closer to Zhu Ran.
Chong Yan dismissively pouted: "You always try to scare me."
"Then don't pull it back?"
Chong Yan naturally dared not. He burrowed into Zhu Ran’s arms and mumbled in a muffled voice: "I'm sleepy. When can we go back?"
"A few hours if everything goes smoothly."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Then we won't be able to go back."
Chong Yan choked for a moment, then after a brief silence, suddenly had a thought: "I'm hungry."
"Didn't you say you were sleepy?"
"But now I'm hungry."
"There's food in the space."
"I don't want it." His voice was spoiled: "That thing from earlier, can we cook it and eat it?"
"We'll eat it when we get back."
"I want to eat it now."
He was being unreasonable, but in the end, Zhu Ran made Zhu Yujue stop. Honestly, after the day's ordeal, Zhu Yujue had lost most of his patience and was about to get angry when he heard Zhu Ran say: "You can go ahead. Follow the HC highway, and you'll catch up to the main group soon. We'll be back by morning."
The people behind also stopped their cars. The two soldiers looked around and felt it wasn't a good place to set up camp; it was too unsafe.
But without these two people, they would be even less safe.
"Then everyone should rest for a bit. Traveling at night is also unsafe."
They ate a little something and were about to rest. However, Chong Yan stubbornly dragged Zhu Ran to gather firewood, start a fire, set up a pot, and ordered people to help him skin the little monster. Half of it was for roasting, and the other half was to be boiled for soup.
"Why is this so tough? Like jerky."
"The moisture has dried out, so it's hard."
Chong Yan playfully punched her. He took down the meat that had already been skewered, put it in the pot, and took out a meter-long snake from his space: "I want to eat roast meat. Help me with it."
Zhu Ran was about to hit him: "There are parasites. We'll eat it when we get back."
"It'll be fine if it's cooked. You just don't want to make it for me."
"Yes, I don't want to." Zhu Ran pulled him down. Chong Yan fell directly onto her, and she helped him sit to the side. They sat side by side in front of the campfire. Most of the others were in their cars. The two soldiers sat in front of their car, and another girl had gathered some firewood and was boiling porridge nearby.
"Are you still my girlfriend?"
"Kiddo," Zhu Xingchen's voice came from not far away, with a teasing tone: "Girlfriends are meant to be pampered. This isn't good. If Miss Zhao ever meets a gentle and considerate guy, she might leave you."
Chong Yan glared at him: "Boyfriends are also meant to be pampered, aren't they?"
"Yes."
Chong Yan smiled proudly at him.
"Then if I want roast meat, will you let me have it?"
"No."
Chong Yan's expression immediately changed. He reached out and pushed her: "I want to eat it, I want to eat it, hurry up and make it for me."
Zhu Ran leaned close to his ear and whispered: "Snake meat, it seems to have aphrodisiac properties. You want to eat it so badly, could it be..."
"Ah!" Chong Yan blushed, pushed her away, and stood up. He stomped on the ground a few times, his voice spoiled and temperamental: "How can you be so dirty?"
"Didn't you keep pestering me for food?"
"I just want to eat meat. I wasn't thinking about... that." His eyes flickered, looking everywhere but down at Zhu Ran, which was incredibly endearing.
Zhu Xingchen, hearing their conversation not far away, felt a sense of defeat and a strange feeling for the first time.
He had seen couples with a strong woman and a weak man before, but that was usually in their careers. In all his experience with men and women, this was the first time he had encountered a man who could be so… spoiled in front of a woman.
And so naturally spoiled at that.
"Then we won't eat it. Add some more firewood, the fire is dying down."
Chong Yan said "Oh" and quickly lowered his head to add firewood.
Cooking in the wild was slow. After more than an hour, the stiff jerky finally had a hint of flavor. The girl's porridge was already cooked. She gently asked Chong Yan for a few bowls, gave them two bowls of porridge, and then called out to the others to eat.
The people with the weakest constitutions here were the Zhu family members. Although the ability users weren't much better, they had at least been living outdoors for over half a month and were now accustomed to it.
Zhu Xuewei was called out of the car by her parents. She was extremely reluctant at first, but seeing Zhu Ran and Chong Yan sitting there, she immediately perked up. Without needing help, she went over to get porridge and sat down to eat.
"It smells so good."
The meat soup was much more flavorful than the bland rice porridge. Many people's mouths watered. Chong Yan, like a little puppy, stared at the pot, wishing he could just strip off his clothes and dive in to get the meat.
Zhu Ran grabbed him from behind: "It's not ready yet. Don't move around."
"Why isn't it ready? It smells so good, it must be edible."
Seeing Chong Yan's impatience, Zhu Ran helped out a bit. The soup in the pot boiled even more vigorously. After another ten minutes or so, she let go, allowing Chong Yan to get the meat.
He first put two pieces into his own bowl, then two pieces for Zhu Ran, and then shouted to the girl who had given him porridge: "Hey, since you cooked the porridge, you should have some too."
The girl walked over slowly, thanked him, and then carefully scooped out a piece of meat from the pot. While she was doing this, she kept an eye on Zhu Ran's expression. Once successful, she immediately took her bowl and ran off.
The meat soup continued to simmer in the pot, and Chong Yan ate with immense satisfaction.
"It's really delicious."
This thing looked ugly, but it had plenty of meat. Moreover, probably due to its high activity level, the meat was firm and chewy. After being dried and rehydrated, it was simply perfect.
The aroma made everyone else swallow their saliva.
Zhu Xingchen also looked over. The girl who had been so attentive to him didn't share her food, which somewhat frustrated him.
Meanwhile, Zhu Yujue was inquiring about the main group from the two soldiers.
"Family members of ability users can ride in vehicles and receive two portions of food daily. Ordinary people get one portion per day. We were given packaged food before, but the food is running out these past few days, which is why we came out to search."
Zhu Yujue was now an ability user, though not yet powerful. He had intended to keep it a secret, but it seemed that was no longer possible.
He didn't want to make his elderly grandparents and parents suffer for his own pride.
Seeing that Chong Yan had eaten his fill, he stood up and walked in front of them.
Chong Yan looked up at him: "What are you doing?"