Chapter 8: Can I Lean on You to Sleep?
Zhang Can’er looked helplessly at Wan Feng’s retreating figure, then turned to the others across from her and said gently, “Since we’re spending the night here, you should all get settled. Be a little more observant and help out where you can.”
Seeing them nod, Zhang Can’er went down as well, helping Wan Feng move the chopped wood to the base of the large tree.
The others on the platform also came down to help with the chores.
An hour later, the platform’s supports were finally finished.
Exhausted, the group lay down directly under the large tree.
According to Wan Feng, their current location was the mountaintop, and she had already cleared out all the nearby Mutants.
The mountaintop was some distance from both the main road and the village path, so they were temporarily safe for now.
At night, after a simple meal, Xiao Feng and the others huddled together and fell asleep. The platform wasn’t very large, and with seven people, it was a bit crowded. If it weren’t for the added guardrails, no one would probably dare to sleep.
Zhang Can’er turned her head to look at Wan Feng, who was still awake, and scooted a little closer. “Not sleeping?”
Wan Feng glanced at her and shook her head. “You go ahead and sleep. I’ll keep watch.”
“I can’t really fall asleep. Can I lean on you to sleep?”
Wan Feng turned to stare at her for a moment. Logic told her she should refuse, but her heart desperately didn’t want to. There was even a hint of secret delight.
In the end, she nodded and agreed.
Seeing her consent, Zhang Can’er moved even closer, resting her head on Wan Feng’s shoulder.
Zhang Can’er, who hadn’t been sleepy at all, gradually drifted off after smelling the reassuring cool fragrance.
In her dream, she came to a field of crops. The field was glowing with starlight. She walked over and reached out, trying to catch the starlight, but no matter how she tried, she couldn’t grasp it.
Zhang Can’er grew anxious and was about to lunge for it, but the dream came to an abrupt end. She had heard Xiao Feng calling her name.
When she opened her hazy eyes, she was met with a blinding white light. After a moment, her eyes fully opened. Her mind was still a bit foggy, and the first words out of her mouth were, “Where is this?”
Xiao Feng was stunned. After a few moments of thought, she looked at Zhang Can’er and asked, stuttering, “Can, Sister Can’er, do, do you still, still remember me?”
In fact, right after asking the question, Zhang Can’er’s consciousness returned, and her memories came flooding back. Seeing Xiao Feng’s worried expression, she smiled and said, “I remember. I just slept a bit too deeply. I was just a little disoriented when I woke up.”
Xiao Feng let out a huge sigh of relief and quickly patted her chest. “You scared me to death. I thought you’d woken up with amnesia.”
“Nothing like that,” Zhang Can’er said as she sat up. Seeing that only she and Xiao Feng were on the platform, she asked, “Where is everyone else?”
“Oh, they all went to the stream with Miss Wan. They said they were going to catch some fish to take with us.”
Zhang Can’er was taken aback for a moment, then she smiled. “I thought you didn’t trust her?”
“To be honest, we still don’t trust her completely, but since we’re all together now, we have to at least keep up appearances,” Xiao Feng said with some resignation.
Zhang Can’er said no more. She opened her backpack, drank some water, ate a little something, and then looked out into the distance from the platform.
The platform was quite high, so she could see a lot. From here, she could see the main road, but it was hard to make out the details of the situation.
However, Zhang Can’er’s eyesight had always been better than others’. She could clearly see the cars and Mutants on the main road.
The situation was more critical than Zhang Can’er had imagined. The main road was densely packed with abandoned cars. Although the number of Mutants didn’t look large, the ones hiding in the cars hadn’t come out yet. The number could only be estimated on the high side.
“Looks like we can’t go to the main road to find a car. Even if we find one that works, we won’t be able to get through. We can only take a detour to the residential area and see from there.”
Xiao Feng sat next to Zhang Can’er. Hearing her words, she looked up at her and nodded in agreement. “We definitely can’t go to the main road. After all, there are two Progenitors guarding it, and who knows how many Mutants are wandering around. Finding a car is just a dream.”
Zhang Can’er’s brow furrowed tightly, and she sat down in discouragement. “I originally thought those Mutants would follow the fleeing people into the residential areas, and the number of Mutants on the main road would decrease. At most, there would only be a few scattered ones wandering around. We could hide or take them out one by one. Then we could find a car and leave this place, heading to Starshine City. As expected, reality is reality, and imagination is just imagination.”
“Don’t be discouraged. We can find a way. Didn’t you say we could take a detour to the residential area?” Xiao Feng said with a smile, patting her shoulder to change the subject.
“To get to the residential area from here by detour, we have to cross a wide expanse of fields.” Zhang Can’er only said this much, but Xiao Feng knew what she meant without her having to say more.
Crossing a wide expanse of fields was basically telling the Mutants, “Here we are, come and eat us,” wasn’t it?
Besides, the ridges between the fields weren’t easy to walk on. Not only could you not run fast, but you could also easily fall. One misstep could land you in a paddy field.
The two of them fell silent for a moment, both lost in thought.
It was only when they heard movement below that they snapped back to reality. Zhang Can’er glanced down and saw Wan Feng and the others, each carrying fish in both hands. It seemed they had a bountiful harvest.
The two of them climbed down from the platform. Wan Feng glanced at her and handed her the fish.
Zhang Can’er took them with both hands. The fish were strung together with grass ropes. They varied in size; the large ones were several catties, while the small ones were only a few taels.
“Sister Can’er! Let’s have grilled fish later,” Xiao Hou said with a grin, walking over with his fish.
“Sure. I’ll start the fire,” Zhang Can’er said with a smile.
After placing all the fish on clean leaves, Zhang Can’er prepared the materials for a fire.
Wan Feng glanced at her and said softly, “Wait for me to dig a smokeless stove.”
Zhang Can’er was stunned for a moment, then nodded. She watched Wan Feng start digging a pit with a small shovel. After gathering the firewood, she went to help.
The others also came over to help, finding whatever tools they could to start digging. Wan Feng assigned them all a spot and roughly explained the shape of a smokeless stove.
It took about an hour to finish, but no one felt tired. On the contrary, they were full of energy, all incredibly excited.
After Zhang Can’er started the fire, the group began to skewer the fish on branches and grill them.
The fish had already been cleaned when they brought them back, so all they had to do was grill them.
Xiao Feng proudly took out some barbecue seasoning from her backpack. Seeing this, everyone else immediately started to flatter her, hoping she would give them some.
Zhang Can’er sat beside Wan Feng, watching them fool around. She smiled, turned her head to Wan Feng, and asked, “I have some chili dipping sauce here. Do you want some?”
Hearing this, Wan Feng nodded.
After eating the grilled fish, they cut the remaining fish into strips and placed them above the fire to slowly smoke.
This would probably be their food for the next period of time, so Xiao Feng and the others were extremely careful, afraid that even a single piece of fish would fall into the fire pit.
But Zhang Can’er was staring blankly at a panel that had suddenly appeared in front of her. On it were only two blue boxes, and inside the boxes was text.
