Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 303 Another Farewell, Follow-up Handling
Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei stayed here for another seven days.

Dao, this child, has mastered various methods of obtaining food in less than seven days, but Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei need to spend more time observing and confirming whether he has fully mastered this ability.

Lu Xi'an not only taught the knife how to find food, but also how to process the food to make it easier to eat and digest.

He even gave the kid a lighter, and a small knife as well.

Dao said that they used to have knives when they were in Jiangnan County. But they were later expelled from Jiangnan County, and their knives were confiscated.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had extra knives, so they gave one to them.

Also, how to be aware of potential dangers nearby, how to hide when in danger, and where to hide are all things that need to be discussed with Dao.

Otherwise, if someone came, and Dao was hiding in such an obvious place as the return capsule, the only result would be an encounter with the visitor.

Lu Xi'an kept telling Yao Wei that if they didn't teach the kid all the way, they wouldn't have truly done their job.

Fortunately, Dao is quite smart. As a Type A new human, he can do many physically demanding jobs with ease. Therefore, he quickly mastered everything Lu Xi'an taught him.

Lu Xi'an spent seven days confirming that Dao had mastered what he had taught him.

They were certain they could leave.

That day, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei took a knife to the riverbank in the distance to fill the car with water. Then they caught three fish in the river, set up a fire to grill them, and had a farewell feast.

The river was quite far from the return capsule, but that wasn't a problem for a Type A new human.

Even though the knife is small, it can quickly reach the riverbank and make the round trip every day without putting much strain on its body.

Moreover, the fact that the river is far from where Dao lives is actually a good thing.

Whether it's humans or wild animals, the key to survival in this world is water.

If someone comes to this area, they'll most likely be looking for water. If the return capsule is by a river, the chances of the knife colliding with someone will increase significantly.

With the return capsule far from the river, the safety of the knife during rest was greatly enhanced.

……

The fish was prepared with a knife, which was considered a test of his abilities by Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei.

While the knife was removing the gills, scaling, and gutting the fish, Yao Wei would occasionally offer a few words of guidance and correct the boy.

However, this kid was doing quite well on his own, and rarely needed Yao Wei to remind him. So Yao Wei rarely spoke up.

When the fish was finally grilled, she reminded her, "It's done."

When the knife divided the fish meat between her and Lu Xi'an, she tasted it and, unusually, commented, "It's pretty good."

This compliment made Dao so happy he wanted to jump for joy. The boy finished gnawing on his fish, spat out the fish bones, and said, "Hmm, I think it's pretty good too."

But Yao Wei was just lying to comfort him. Having gotten used to Lu Xi'an's cooking and eaten too much seasoning, it was impossible for Yao Wei to still think that other people's cooking was delicious.

She was simply engrossed in making the knife and couldn't bear to disturb the child she had insisted on rescuing.

After finishing the meal, she planned to tell Dao how to obtain daily salt to maintain her body's strength.

Salt is an essential component of the human body. Even for people like Yao Wei, who are born with type A blood, salt is still a necessity in their daily lives.

Therefore, before table salt was available, Yao Wei would obtain salt from many other sources, such as animal blood, iron, and components in certain minerals...

She didn't reveal that there was salt in the car. Lu Xi'an once said that it's easy to go from frugality to extravagance but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality. She wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing for Dao to have tasted real salt now, but never be able to eat any more in the future.

But when she was about to teach Dao how to do it, Dao said, "I know how to do this. In Jiangnan County, this is how people find salt."

It seems that there is a salt shortage in Jiangnan County as well.

In that case, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei wouldn't need to teach them these skills.

They shared the grilled fish with Dao, returned to the side of the return capsule, rested for a night, and set off the next day.

The scene of parting and departure was very ordinary. They simply said goodbye to the knife, then got into the car, turned out of the area, returned to the road, and headed south.

Dao stood at the door of the return capsule, but did not come to see him off.

When Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei looked at him through the rearview mirror, they felt that the boy looked like an abandoned puppy.

As their car drove away, the dappled shadows of the trees obscured their view, but they could still barely make out that the kid had somehow climbed onto the top of the return capsule and was standing there watching them.

This made them reluctant to look back through the rearview mirror any longer, so they turned their gaze away.

"Dog, contact Institute 923 again."

After turning his gaze away, Lu Xi'an talked to the dog while driving.

During these seven days, Lu Xi'an had actually tried to contact Institute 923 many times, but succeeded once. However, that successful call was answered by Lao Shu, before Luo Ping and the others had returned from their trip.

Old Tree talked on and on, his words filled with concern for the people who had gone out. He would ask Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei if they had seen Luo Ping and the others, and when they had separated and where Luo Ping and the others had gone.

The old man kept saying things like, "Please don't let anything happen," so Lu Xi'an had to say, "You'd better stop saying that, or you'll jinx it."

Old Tree quickly shut his mouth.

Then the connection was lost, and nothing was said during that call.

—That was when they had just settled in the return capsule. Later, Lu Xi'an would have the dog try to connect every day, but it never succeeded.

Lu Xi'an didn't have high hopes for this connection, but it actually went through.

Moreover, he didn't expect Luo Ping to be the one answering the phone, since Luo Ping and his group had previously said they were going to Yangcai County.

If they went to Yangcai County, they would have to wait for the tide to come in order to meet with Hu Xiaodong and his son.

With the tide coming in, they would have to stay on Caiyang Mountain for at least ten days. In such a short time, there was absolutely no way they could return to Shanyang County in Pingchuan City.

Unexpectedly, when the broadcast connection was established, it was Luo Ping who spoke.

"Hey, hey, hey? Big brother, big sister, where are you now?"

Luo Ping's voice came through the RV's speakers.

Then came Chai Xin's voice. The girl was excited to see the broadcast signal connected: "Big brother and sister, you called as soon as we got back! That's so nice!"

Lu Xi'an asked, "Didn't you go to Caiyang Mountain? Why did you go back so soon?"

Luo Ping said, "Oh! Don't mention it! Brother and sister, we were walking a bit slowly, and we didn't have much stuff in the car. When we got to Yangcai County, we hesitated and didn't dare to go into the city."

"Don't laugh at us, but we're all pretty timid. Just looking at the city, we were afraid that if we went in, the sea would come crashing down on us and we wouldn't have time to escape. We'd all be swept away by the sea."

"Moreover, we were also worried that if we reached the top of the mountain, we wouldn't have enough supplies and would go hungry for ten days or so. We didn't know what would happen."

"So we discussed it and decided to come back first, and then we'll prepare again before going back."

Lu Xi'an said, "What's so funny about this? It's better to be careful than to make a big mistake. You did nothing wrong."

"To be honest, Yao Wei and I almost drowned at the sea. In the end, we had no choice but to get out of the car and carry it up the mountain to escape the sea."

Luo Ping said, "Big brother and big sister, you guys are amazing! We could never do something so awesome!" As he spoke, Chai Xin echoed him with "uh-huh" sounds.

This guy hadn't said "awesome" in a long time, but he finally couldn't help but say it again. When Lu Xi'an heard him say those two words, he felt a strange sense of nostalgia.

We met in Fengcheng County, Taipei City, and several months have passed in the blink of an eye. Our circumstances are very different now, and it really feels like a lifetime ago.

Lu Xi'an said, "Alright, enough with the nonsense. Let's get down to business."

Luo Ping's voice immediately turned serious: "Brother, please speak."

Lu Xi'an said, "We parted ways with you and headed south. When we reached Liangshan Village, we encountered a Type A new human."

"That Type A new human was still a child. He originally lived in Jiangnan County, but was kicked out of Jiangnan County because he contracted an infectious disease."

"We saved his life, and then left him in an abandoned compartment a little further south..."

He told Luo Ping the exact location of the return capsule, and then added, "The child's infectious disease has been cured by us using fungal stones."

"We saw that he treated the two ordinary people with him very well and was protecting them, so we stepped in to save him."

"Now those two ordinary people have both died of illness, and the fungal stone can't be used on them, so we couldn't save them. That's why the knife is all alone."

"From what we've observed, he's not bad, but whether he's truly good or bad is for you to judge for yourselves—if you're willing to go and find him."

“We didn’t tell him about your situation, nor did we teach him anything from the booklet. If you go to him and find him to be alright, then you can teach him later.”

"And then there's Liangshan Village to the south, which is now home to many sick ordinary people and has been called the 'sick village' by the locals."

“There is a new human being downstream of the Guanhai River south of the sick village. When we left, he went to the sick village. We didn’t meet him and don’t know what he does or what his abilities are.”

"These are the issues you need to consider if you're going to go there. Take notes."

After listening to Lu Xi'an's words, Luo Ping nodded heavily.

He let out a soft breath and said, "It's all thanks to you guys, big brother and big sister. You can run into anything when you go out, but we can't."

"We definitely need to see that knife. After all, if you think it's good, it could enhance the base's combat strength, which would be perfect!"

(End of this chapter)