Apocalypse: Last Traveler

Upon hearing Lu Xi'an's words, Yao Wei felt a warm sensation in her heart.

She suddenly felt as if she had returned to the past.

When she was little, her mother was the same, always prioritizing her care by any means possible, even considering stopping while traveling.

She unintentionally glanced at Lu Xi'an, and then saw Lu Xi'an curling the corners of his mouth into a smile, saying, "What, feeling touched?"

"What dare move?"

Yao Wei didn't quite understand this term; when she was young, her mother didn't use this term, and as she grew older, walking and living alone, she never encountered it.

So she replied, "I've always dared to move, no matter how much it hurts."

She seemed to understand Lu Xi'an's meaning and continued, "Then let's go, I'm fine. I've been walking like this all along. Just endure the pain when it comes; I'm used to it."

But for some reason, as she said these words, she felt a slight discomfort in her heart.

After all, Lu Xi'an wasn't her mother...

Her mother never considered her a burden...

"..."

Lu Xi'an couldn't help but roll his eyes, saying, "What are you talking about? I'm not talking about that kind of 'dare to move.'

"It's 'gan', meaning to feel, and 'dong,' meaning to move. Let me think about how to explain it..."

He wasn't a Chinese dictionary or Baidu Baike, so he couldn't give an accurate and detailed explanation. He could only think seriously, and let Yao Wei understand according to his interpretation:

"This 'gan dong'... means to ask whether, after hearing me speak, you feel warm and comfortable inside, and want to kiss me?"

Yao Wei instantly thought of Luo Ping's comic book.

Her mother did kiss her when she was young, but that was so long ago.

Moreover, Lu Xi'an wasn't her mother. Yao Wei didn't know why she did this, but when she heard Lu Xi'an mention "kiss," the first thing she equated Lu Xi'an with was the male in the comic.

What was even more puzzling was why the word "kiss" made her think of the images in the comic...

The kiss Lu Xi'an mentioned, could it not be that kind of kiss?

She suddenly stiffened: "No... no..."

"Oh."

Lu Xi'an didn't mind; he had just said it casually.

But some words, even if left unsaid, once spoken make him feel a strange regret after hearing Yao Wei's response.

Yao Wei felt she spoke wrongly and quickly added, "No... I mean I didn't think about kissing, but my heart indeed feels warm."

After saying that, she continued, "Actually, there's no need to stop. We can't stop for a period of time every month."

But Lu Xi'an laughed, saying, "What's the harm in that? Are you in a hurry?"

Yao Wei shook her head: "No. I just feel that the time has come, and I'm ready to head south now, so I've been on the road."

Lu Xi'an said, "Then there's no issue. We aren't rushing. If conditions are suitable, we can pause every month and wait; it's perfectly fine."

Yao Wei contemplated for a moment and finally agreed to Lu Xi'an's suggestion, nodding, "Okay."

Then they found a place and settled down.

They didn't stay right here in Xiaogang Village, as it was a bit far from Xijian River; it made more sense to gather some corn and find a place closer to Xijian River with suitable conditions for chopping firewood.

Here in Jianshan City, concealment wasn't the most important thing.

They stayed here for a few days, but had walked back and forth between Xiaogang Village and East Mountain County three times. Adding the time spent lingering in East Mountain County, along with what Chai Xin said, they were sure that this place truly had few visitors nowadays.

Moreover, last night when they sat down with Shu and Chai Xin to explain the map, they also casually chatted with Shu.

Shu said that people used to come here in the past, but since he didn't know what happened, after waking from a coma, no one came here anymore, and it remained quite safe.

For this reason, Shu gradually lost his vigilance and carelessly forgot how he used to handle dangers. Chai Xin stepped on him once he spoke.

Had it been in the past, he wouldn't have spoken no matter what.

At most, he'd get stepped on a few times, or have his legs and feet run over by a wheel, it wasn't a big deal.

No pain could be worse than skinning pain!

The old man couldn't help but sigh, saying, "Getting old! Ah, really getting old! My mind's becoming more and more muddled, can't remember things! How can I find my wife when I'm like this!"

Lu Xi'an couldn't help but laugh, saying, "Why can't you find her? I think Master Shu has quite a good memory. When it comes to finding your wife, you seem to remember very clearly."

Chai Xin snickered, making Shu feel somewhat embarrassed and bashful, causing his roots to shake twice.

The ideal place was quickly found; it was between Xiaogang Village and Xijian River, a patch of forest.

The forest is lush enough to obscure the view, and to the east of the forest is a mountain; the mountain to the forest edge has a more than three-meter high vertical slope, resembling a small cliff, which is no problem.

Thus there's screening front and back, cars can drive in, an ample supply of firewood, not far from a water source, and convenient to replenish corn from Xiaogang Village — simply a perfect temporary residence.

They arrived here in the afternoon, and soon it would be dark.

Lu Xi'an took advantage of this time to build a fire, boil water, thinking of heating it up for Yao Wei to drink, and then cooking the corn.

Being Neo-Humans has one advantage, they can last a long time after replenishing water and food, so Lu Xi'an figured to let Yao Wei replenish as much as possible now.

In case something goes wrong, like a change in the weather, they wouldn't have to worry, just rest and wait until the bad weather passed.

— Actually, they had another way to deal with it: when Yao Wei had her period, they could let her endure hunger and thirst through this period, which would be fine.

But Yao Wei preferred not to do that compared to enduring a bit of pain.

With a long-term lack of food supplementation, her physical condition might be affected. She could endure pain, but when on the road, encountering an enemy and lacking strength would be the worst.

They weren't truly short on food.

So it's better to stop, and when conditions allowed, eat and drink to ensure they were well-fed and hydrated. If the temperature suddenly dropped, requiring some endurance, they had found a suitable place to hide, not having to worry about running into enemies.

When Lu Xi'an had the water boiled, Yao Wei added another suggestion, saying, "Let me do it, let's boil the corn together. Once the corn is cooked, the water will be just right for drinking."

Lu Xi'an said, "Why use clean water?"

Yao Wei said, "What's clean or unclean? Didn't the old Shu eat corn raw? Corn tasted so good; this water shouldn't taste bad either, right?"

She still instinctively wanted to save, even though now food and water were plentiful and could be replenished anytime.

Lu Xi'an didn't refute Yao Wei. Upon careful thought, Yao Wei made sense too; now that they were Neo-Humans, they didn't need to worry so much, weren't as fragile as before.

At worst, they could let Gou check the water after cooking the corn, and determine if there's any issue.

So, next, Yao Wei took over the task, leaving Lu Xi'an with nothing much to do, so he looked around.

He looked outside the forest toward a steep, nearly ninety-degree slope, and suddenly thought of something.

He suddenly wanted to do something seemingly meaningless.