Apocalypse: Last Traveler

"What is this?"

Yao Wei noticed the commotion and came over to ask, "Why has that sea turtle come back?"

"Maybe it's repaying a favor."

Lu Xi'an replied.

But he also didn't fully trust the sea turtle. Before picking up the handbag on the ground, he said to Gou: "Gou, check this thing on the ground, any issues?"

Gou's eyes flickered twice, indicating no issue.

Only then did Lu Xi'an pick up the handbag.

The handbag wasn't waterproof and was thrown on the ground, bulging with contents. As he lifted it, water "whooshed" out from the corners, suggesting there was quite a lot inside.

The originally leather bag, soaked for a long time, was limp, and Lu Xi'an always felt it might break at any moment while he was holding it.

The bag was secured with a zipper, but after years of being submerged, the zipper was broken and wouldn't open. The leather was easier to deal with; a gentle tug and it opened up.

The contents saw daylight—it was a bunch of medals, some whole, some cut up, possibly the ones Hu Xiaodong mentioned, where big coins were cut into small ones.

Lu Xi'an carefully counted. The intact medals included two from Fish Mouth District, one from Rainbow District, and there were half medals from Fish Mouth District, Celestial City District, and Wangdao District. Then there were the so-called small coins, with their original appearance unrecognizable, amounting to twenty-three.

Altogether, these medals equaled three and a half large coins and twenty-three whole small coins.

For the people on East Island, this was indeed a significant fortune.

Judging by some of these being cut, it seemed they'd circulated on East Island before, but for unknown reasons ended up sunk on the seabed until discovered by the sea turtle.

If these items were brought to East Island, they could possibly bring prosperity to a family.

But the problem was, these things were of no use to him.

Lu Xi'an sighed, temporarily keeping them.

Might as well hold onto them; if not to use as money, they could at least serve as hidden weapons.

After collecting all the medals, Lu Xi'an turned to look, seeing Yao Wei holding Gou in one hand and a bucket in the other. The bucket had already accumulated quite a bit.

"That's quite a lot already."

Lu Xi'an was slightly surprised, saying.

"Yeah."

Yao Wei nodded, "I've been picking up stuff just now."

Lu Xi'an took the bucket, scooping some seawater into it to soak what Yao Wei had gathered from the sea.

While doing this, he said: "Sorry, I was lost in thought earlier and left you to do all the work."

But Yao Wei shook her head and said: "This is interesting, not just work."

Picking things piece by piece into the bucket and seeing the gradual collection was indeed quite fun.

Especially for Yao Wei.

Seeing Yao Wei say this, Lu Xi'an smiled and said: "Alright, let's continue."

"Yeah."

Yao Wei nodded.

The two of them continued, much like snatching food from the seabirds.

Wherever they went, the seabirds dared not compete, quickly flying away to watch them from a distance.

From the birds' heads and eyes, no emotion could be discerned, but being stared at by these seabirds, Lu Xi'an felt they looked at them like enemies or like some plague.

After contesting with the seabirds for a while, they really reaped quite a bit, even finding an octopus under a rock by the shore.

—Of course, no matter how much they harvested, it was still only half a bucket. Even though there were lots of things here, it was only relative to elsewhere. Nowadays, even in the vast ocean, the abundance had greatly lessened.

To fill this bucket, they'd have to either take out turtle eggs or wait for the turtles to hatch and catch them all.

And even then, after collecting so much, Yao Wei couldn't help but remark: "Life by the sea is really easy."

If you don't consider the risks of the tides, living by the sea is indeed easier than inland.

"If only we had a fishing rod, we could try fishing."

After collecting for a while, confirming there were no more gains, Lu Xi'an remarked.

Of course, he could make a simple fishing rod, but in a place like this, a simple rod wouldn't do much. He had already fulfilled his DIY craving with the boat sails and didn't plan on wasting time making a fishing rod. He said to Yao Wei, "How about I go into the sea and see if I can catch some fish?"

Yao Wei hastily stopped him, saying: "No need, this is enough already. The sea is dangerous."

Her concern was evident, warming Lu Xi'an's heart. To avoid worrying Yao Wei, he said: "Alright, I'll listen to you."

With that, he and Yao Wei ended the beachcombing activity, heading to the car to wash all the collected seafood with clean water, removing guts and scales where needed.

Finally, the fish, shellfish, and octopus were boiled, and the crabs were placed on top of the fire to be steamed by the steam.

Gou once again served as the tester, placed to the side by Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei to monitor and ensure the seafood was cooked.

"Just to say beforehand, I've never cooked seafood before. I heard as long as you treat it simply, it's fine; the crucial part is the sauce.

"But we only have oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, so I'll just wing it.

"If it doesn't taste good, don't blame me. Blame Gou for not watching the heat properly."

When everything was put on the stove, Lu Xi'an said to Yao Wei.

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Hmm, as long as we have enough to eat, it's fine. Don't blame yourself, and don't blame Gou."

Lu Xi'an: "..."

Gou sat quietly by the side, watching the fire. Lu Xi'an wasn't sure if this thing would complain if it was integrated with the motorhome, so he added, "I'm just joking, I didn't really mean for you to blame Gou."

Yao Wei: "Hmm, I was joking too."

Lu Xi'an: "..."

This woman has learned to be sly!

He turned to glance at Yao Wei, who wore a calm and indifferent expression, without a hint of joking around.

Lu Xi'an used what they had to mix a little sauce, then waited for the seafood to cook, eating it with Yao Wei, dipping it in the sauce.

The seafood was fresh, but he couldn't really taste how delicious it was. The hardest flavor for him to appreciate was freshness.

Yao Wei, however, seemed to enjoy it, eating with relish.

Lu Xi'an asked her, "Is it good?" She nodded repeatedly, too preoccupied to speak.

So Lu Xi'an just sampled it a little, giving most of the seafood they collected to Yao Wei.

"Aren't you eating?"

Yao Wei noticed that Lu Xi'an didn't eat much and asked.

Lu Xi'an said, "I'm not really a big fan of this."

Nowadays, saying something like this sounds pretentious. These days, having food to eat is enough; who cares about whether it's tasty?

Only because he's been living well lately does he have the luxury to be picky. If it were before, he'd dare not be choosy.

But hearing Lu Xi'an's words, Yao Wei didn't think he was wrong. Suddenly, she thought of something and directly headed to the beach.

She returned quickly, and before Lu Xi'an could see what she was doing, she came back with three seabirds in her hand.

"Then eat this."

Yao Wei said and then asked Gou, "Gou, can we eat these?"

Once Gou's eyes lit up, indicating they were edible, she swiftly plucked and gutted one of the birds, roasting it over the fire.

She planned to roast the other two as well but was stopped by Lu Xi'an, who suggested saving them for the next meal. So, she simply tied them up and secured them to the car.

The birds, having their food snatched earlier, didn't expect this to not be the end, eventually becoming food themselves.

Lu Xi'an couldn't help but smile and say, "Thank you."

"No need to thank me."

Yao Wei said with a slightly frustrated tone, "I wanted to catch a few more, but these birds scattered and flew away, making them hard to catch.

"Next time, don't try to catch them by hand. Use short needles, and they won't get away."

Lu Xi'an laughed and said, "It's okay, these are enough for now. We can look again when we're done eating, there are more on the shore, just catch some then."

"Mm."

Yao Wei nodded, and then continued eating her seafood.

Once the meal was finished, the two of them glanced towards the sea but didn't see any more birds, so they drove back to the mountaintop.

They planned to wait one more day, maybe two. If they didn't see that Hu father and son return, they would leave without waiting, drive the car to the middle of the mountain, and wait for the tide to go out before leaving.

Unexpectedly, around noon the next day, they saw Hu Xiaodong and his son wobbling over in their little boat.

The sail and mast on the boat were still there, but the sail had been replaced, not with animal hide, but with a piece of sturdy-looking fabric of unknown material.

It seemed that the tiger hide wasn't reliable after all. Even though Lu Xi'an had specially treated it for waterproofing, it couldn't aid the father and son on their round-trip journey.

The current sail looked much better than the tiger hide, billowing with the wind, with its toughness visibly stretched, allowing the boat to zig-zag against the wind, seemingly faster than their previous windward journey.

Standing there, they could see four large barrels on the boat, full. Two barrels contained potatoes, one with sweet potatoes, and the last with grain.

"Is that the food they mentioned?"

Yao Wei asked.

Their vision was excellent, allowing them to clearly see the contents of the boat from the mountaintop.

Lu Xi'an picked up a sniper rifle, checked through the scope, and confirmed, "Yes."

More food had arrived, what a pleasant surprise!

He put down the rifle and told Yao Wei, "They're here, let's go down."

"Mm."

Yao Wei nodded.

So they got back in the car and drove down the mountain.

Once they reached the East Coast, they parked a bit farther away, and then the two of them got out, turning the car around, and after securing it, walked to the shore.

It seemed like they'd timed it perfectly, as when they reached the shore, the small boat had just landed.

Upon seeing them, Hu Xiaodong exclaimed, "Thank goodness, it's great to see you two again! You wouldn't believe it, we encountered a man-eating old turtle at sea, it was terrifying!

"That old turtle used to come to our island to eat people, so whenever we came here, we had to avoid it. It later got covered in barnacles and couldn't swim, thus couldn't come ashore,

"But now, somehow, all the barnacles are gone! It scared us to death! We almost couldn't bring the supplies to you two!"