Chapter 34

After they left, the first thing Shen Shian did was to take a bath in the spring. For more than half a month, there was no way to truly take a bath, and the unbearable stickiness was driving him crazy.

Shen Xun also wanted to bathe with him. Shen Shian was about to nod when he saw a drop of spring water on the side suddenly disappear, and his face turned cold.

As his thoughts moved, a half-meter-high children’s bathtub and a bucket came out from the second floor of the bamboo building. He carried two buckets of spring water to fill the bathtub, and put his changing clothes on a small bench. He pointed his hand at the bathtub. “Bath.”

Then he turned and went to the spring. The slender figure was soon hidden in the heavy mist.

As soon as his skin touched the spring water, he sighed comfortably. Shen Shian controlled the objects in the space to pull a set of toiletries and carefully rubbed himself three times from head to toe, until the foam and dirt disappeared under the automatic cleaning of the spring water. He then relaxed his whole body and soaked in the spring.

The spring water was dark green and hot steam was coming out of it. With the movement of his body, the water formed waves and every time a layer of waves formed, a continuous stream of spiritual power poured into Shen Shian’s body, warming every inch of his muscles and tendons. The resulting comfort was difficult to describe with pen and ink.

This automatic cleaning effect is really a good thing, Shen Shian thought. The spring water flowed from the highest point which he called the spring mouth and converged into the spring pool. It then flows from the spring pool to the streams surrounding the space for half a week. Before the spring mouth was sucked up by Xiaohei, the outflow of the spring water was not small, and it never stopped. Following common sense, the water volume should have flowed over the stream and flooded the space, but the water level of the stream has never changed. It seemed that the spring water had its own set of circular laws.

His hair was dripping with water, and he raised his hand to push his hair back which showed his forehead. His forehead was pale and white. His cheeks were steamed with a touch of soft redness because of the heat, and he was leaning his head against the wall of the spring.

After leaving the library, his journey with Shen Xun has just begun.

They stayed in the library for a total of 17 days. During this period, the rescue team did not show up, and since that call, he and Mr. Gu had completely lost contact.

There were two possibilities. One was that Mr. Gu is in trouble, and the other was that the information he had understood from the call was wrong. No rescue team would come. According to his knowledge of Gu family’s power and energy, it seemed to be leaning to the second possibility.

As long as Mr. Gu was not infected with the flu and had not become a zombie after the virus outbreak, he could rely on the foundation laid down by generations of the Gu family and definitely live the easiest and safest.

Shen Shian lifted his right wrist, and the jade buddha beads on his wrist were soaked with spring water, which became more transparent and moist.

As long as Mr. Gu is safe, then Fan Xintong who was following him would also be safe. Shen Shian’s two most important purposes for going to the capital were guaranteed. He could now take a sigh of relief and plan carefully with the calmest thinking.

For now, food was definitely enough. Not only were the various food collected were sufficient, but he also had the vast land in the space that could be planted. Even feeding a small army was not a problem.

Secondly, although medicine was indispensable for other survivors, it was not necessary for him and Shen Xun. Even if he was injured, as long as there was still a little breath, he could come into the space and take a bath. Of course, the premise was that he must find a way to restore the spring mouth as soon as possible, otherwise the spring water would run out sooner or later.

Gasoline was a must. If he wanted to drive to Beijing from here, he must have enough gasoline. According to the map, there were several container production plants outside of H city. He could collect a large number of containers such as oil drums and store enough gasoline when passing through various gas stations.

Before that, he had to expand the storage area in the space, which was almost filled with various materials.

The first floor of the bamboo building was mainly used to store things at home. The second floor of the bamboo building was stuffed before entering the library, and this time he has got detailed maps of the provinces, cities, and towns from the library. However, all kinds of professional books that might be used were also taken into the space. Under the circumstances that the Internet would not be recovered, these would be the most valuable and non-renewable information resources.

In addition, he also brought in the generators used to support the backup power system in the library, which were four meters long and two meters high. They were placed on the grass by the stream.

If he wanted to expand the area, he must plant seeds in the black soil. In summary, seeds, especially grass seeds, were what he needs most now.

After roughly clarifying his ideas and planning, Shen Shian brought in towels and clean clothes, dried the drops of water and changed into clean clothes.

Shen Xun had finished taking a bath long ago. He had dressed himself and was staring pitifully at the protective barrier. Seeing Shen Shian coming out, his eyes brightened and he complained, “An An, you didn’t take me into the spring.”

Shen Shian hit him with the truth, “You sucked the spring water. If you spit it out, I’ll let you come into the spring.”

Shen Xun looked around and started pretending to be silly.

Shen Shian ignored him and crossed the stream to the land. He hasn’t been here for half a month. The biggest change in the field was that the cherry pits that Shen Xun had planted into the soil had finally come to fruition.

The growth rate of the cherry pit was much slower than that of the tomato. It was planted by Shen Xun years ago. It grew into a small sapling after a year, and then continued to grow until the end of March. When the tree reached nearly eight meters, it finally stopped.

At this time, twenty-eight cherry trees were full of lush fruits. Shen Shian had just walked into the woods, and a thick sweet scent of cherry blossomed immediately. The growth period of the trees was long but slow. Now they grew very well. The clusters of red, purple and black cherries gathered into a large area. Each one was round and full, the size of an orange.

Shen Shian raised his hand and picked one. After washing it in the stream, he took a bite. The flesh was soft and sweet, and the fresh and sweet juice instantly overflowed. The taste was more than one or two grades better than the top cherries on the market. What’s even better was that the size of the fruit has grown but the seed was still the same size.

Shen Xun jumped anxiously, “An An, An An, I also want.”

Shen Shian also picked two for him. He saw the child eating the cherries quickly and still wanting more, “You eat so much, you don’t want to have a meal?”

Shen Xun’s eyes gleamed as he heard the word “Meal”

The two sat in the hall on the first floor of the bamboo house. With his mind, steaming delicious dishes appeared on the coffee table between the two.

Piping hot chicken soup, the meaty smell of sweet and sour pork chops, spicy and juicy stir-fried beef, fried silver pomfret fish with both sides golden, rich brisket curry, and crispy stir fried snow peas.

With the good smelling rice, the two did not say any nonsense and picked up the tableware and started eating.

After more than half an hour, Shen Xun drank the last bit of the chicken soup and spat out a chicken bone in his cheek. Shen Shian rarely let the plates and bowls on the table messy, but now he was leaning on the sofa, sighing in relief.

Ah, this is life.

After eating and drinking, they rested on the sofa for more than ten minutes. After that, Shen Shian pulled the child up and walked out of the bamboo building to pick up some fruits. He checked the condition of the tomato plantation, took some tomatoes that seemed to be going bad soon, and sent it to the second floor for preservation. He found another fruit pot, and stepped on the ladder to pick up cherries.

While squatting by the stream washing cherries, Shen Shian suddenly remembered something, saying to the child, “I’m going out, are you going to stay here or follow me?”

“I’m going too.” Shen Xun said immediately, with his cheeks bulging, “An An, where are we going?”

“Looking for zombies.” To be precise, looking for mutant zombies.

It’s just that the mutant zombies were not so easy to find, there were none among the scattered zombies. Shen Shian drove for nearly an hour and only found two on a square near the fifth ring road.

There were office buildings near the square, especially near service-oriented places such as banks, residential offices, and real estate management centers.

Shen Shian did not drive the car too close, and stopped far away from the road. He instructed the child to be obedient and not come out, and then took out the long sword on the weapon wall on the second floor from the space. He then got out of the car and closed the door, and rushed further silently.

Two minutes later, he returned to the car carrying a plastic bag with a zombie’s head. He drove the car along the same road, and re-driven the car next to the gas station.

Getting off from the driver’s seat, he turned to the front passenger seat and opened the door. There was no way to take the child out of the car. The chassis of the off-road vehicle was too high, and the little dwarf could barely touch the ground. {n1}

Note1: I don’t really get why the author said there was no way to take the child out, Shen Shian could just carry him. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Shen Xun pressed the horns, and his heart became more and more curious, “An An, what are you doing?”

“Cover your nose,” Shen Shian reminded him, and then poured the plastic bag on the concrete floor, and a half-rotten head grunted came out. “I want to prove one thing.”

When he escaped from the library, he had killed a mutant zombie who was fighting with rich man Miao in the North Square. At that time he had touched something hard that should have not been there.

Was that just an illusion or was there an unknown change in the brain of mutant zombies?

Shen Shian held his breath to isolate the stench. With the right hand holding the sheath and the left hand holding the handle, he sliced open the zombie’s skull.

Shen Shian returned the sword to the sheath, and found a wooden stick and stirred the semi-liquefied brain. After a while, he looked carefully, took out two tissues, wrapped his fingers, and picked up something from the ground

“What is it?”

It was a colorless transparent crystal nuclei. It was only about the size of a marble, the surface was not smooth, and it refracted countless rays of light under the sun. If he didn’t look closely, he might mistake it for a roughly cut diamond.

There was absolutely no such thing in the brain of a normal person.

After looking at it for a long time, Shen Shian couldn’t recognise the thing. He could only confirm that the texture was extremely hard. He found a stone and smashed it for several minutes but the crystal didn’t even show any traces.

Shen Xun seemed to know what it was. His dark green eyes flashed, and he took it from Shen Shian and held it in his palm. After ten minutes passed, there was no response.

Shen Xun’s little face was immediately wrinkled into a steamed stuffed bun.

“Forget it,” Shen Shian decided to give up after all kinds of speculation. “Wait for conditions to meet and then check it with professional equipment later.” What appeared in the mutant zombie’s brain should not be something simple.

He put the crystal in his pocket, and brought the child and the car back into the space.

They just entered the space when the original quiet and invisible protective barrier around the spring pool suddenly became golden, and a strong suction came from the spring mouth. Shen Shian was too late to react, and his pocket moved slightly. The crystal was like a metal that met a super magnet. It flew straight to the spring mouth.

In the next second, the spring mouth that had dripped a bit of water for a long time suddenly released out a very thin but continuous stream.