Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 343 An Inconvenient Matter
Fish bladder?

Yao Wei looked at Lu Xi'an with a puzzled expression.

She originally thought that fish bladders were for eating, since they had the word "fish" in them. But then she noticed Lu Xi'an's eye twitch and realized that she was wrong. Fish bladders must have other uses, but she didn't know what they were for.

Fish bladder...

Lu Xi'an's eye twitched. How could he not understand what a fish bladder was used for?

"No need for that, we don't require it."

Lu Xian said.

How can it be? !
Hu Xiaodong found it unbelievable. How could such a handsome man and a beautiful woman have no needs at all?!
Is it because the new humans are incompetent?

He felt something was amiss; these two new humans seemed perfectly normal, even more so than the people on their island.

Perhaps they have their own methods; after all, they're new humans, so strong, who knows if they can hold it in?

This fellow had all sorts of wild thoughts, but he only kept them to himself and didn't dare to say them out loud.

Lu Xi'an asked, "What other good things are there?"

Hu Xiaodong racked his brains but couldn't come up with an answer for the time being. He said dejectedly, "Then I can only go and ask, or ask somewhere else."

"I didn't expect this at first glance. I don't play poker, I don't interact with those people much, and I don't know much about this kind of thing."

Lu Xi'an nodded, and could only follow along to see what would happen.

It was getting dark, and the people who had been working in the fields had all gone home.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei followed Hu Xiaodong along the country path, following the seashell trails trodden by the islanders. However, no one popped up to greet Hu Xiaodong or curiously looked at Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei.

A gentle breeze rustled the wheat ears, creating waves of golden light. The setting sun cast its orange-gold glow across the field ridges. Shoes crunched over the bare earth. Though there were no roads, the atmosphere seemed to exude a sense of civilization.

Smoke rose from the distant high places, and the crackling flames, though seemingly from an unknown distance, reached the ears of the two Type A new humans.

Lu Xi'an felt a unique tranquility and peace on this small island. In his previous life, such a place was a place people longed to escape from the steel jungle, but the beautiful scenery in front of him now was a contrast to the wild and desolate mainland.

"My house is just up ahead, would you like to come to my place and get something to eat first?"

Hu Xiaodong suddenly asked.

Lu Xi'an asked, "Do you still have any of those dry food biscuits? If so, could you give us two? One small coin should be enough, right?"

"Enough! Enough! That's enough."

Hu Xiaodong nodded.

A single-story house, made of brick and wood, appeared under the trees ahead. In the dim light of the setting sun, a child squatted outside, drawing and writing on the ground; it was Hu Xiaodong, Hu Xiaodong's grandson.

As soon as Hu Xiaodong saw his grandson, he grinned and said, "My grandson, doing your homework. The children on our island all go to work in the morning and go to school in the afternoon."

“When I was a child, we had paper and pens, but now we don’t have enough. So they do their homework on the ground.”

“Back in our day, we had to show our homework to the teacher after we finished it. Now, it all depends on self-discipline. Many kids don’t do their homework. My grandson is different; he’s very self-disciplined.”

He spoke with great arrogance and invited Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei to his home for a while. Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei declined.

So Hu Xiaodong went there alone.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei watched from afar as the grandson, Hu Xiaodong, stood up and rushed towards his grandfather, Hu Xiaodong. The grandfather picked him up, said a few words affectionately, and then put him down.

At this moment, the people inside the room seemed to have heard the noise and came out to greet them.

Hu Xiaodong went over and said a few words, then went inside. A little while later, he came back with four pancakes made of cornmeal, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

"Is this enough for you two? If not, I'll go get more."

Hu Xiaodong said.

Lu Xi'an took the cake from Hu Xiaodong, gave two to Yao Wei, and asked Hu Xiaodong, "That's enough. How many coins do you need for this?"

Hu Xiaodong waved his hands repeatedly and said, "No need, no need. You've already earned me enough money. Since you two have come to the island, our family should take good care of you."

"Why don't you two come to our house for a visit and have some pancakes? We would never ask you for money."

He was making long-term plans and didn't want to ruin his business over such a trivial matter.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei didn't say anything more after hearing what he said, and each took a pancake and ate it as they walked.

This pancake is crispy and slightly sweet. The shredded potatoes inside add a unique texture to the pancake, which is quite nice.

The dry rations were just too dry, and chewing them for so long inevitably made our mouths feel parched. Luckily, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had brought cups with them. They unscrewed the lids and took turns drinking the rations with the biscuits, which felt wonderful.

"Actually, adding some barley would be good too, it could enrich the flavor."

After Lu Xi'an finished eating, he made the following suggestion to Hu Xiaodong.

Hu Xiaodong laughed and said, "We used to have this much, but the kids didn't like it, so we added barley later."

Lu Xi'an then remembered another question and asked, "Oh, by the way, do you people here usually use fish bladders and only give birth to one fish?"

Hu Xiaodong said, "No."

Lu Xi'an asked, "So what if you keep calling each other Hu Dong and Hu Xiaodong like this, what will you do when you have a second child?"

Hu Xiaodong laughed and said, "That's what the eldest brother calls me, the second brother doesn't care. I also have a brother named Hu Erdong and a sister named Hu Nannan, they've already moved out. But I only have one son and one grandson."

"That's it..."

Lu Xian nodded.

Yao Wei understood what the fish bladder was used for. So when she followed Hu Xiaodong to the place he had mentioned, she entered the courtyard and couldn't help but glance at the wooden frame by the courtyard wall several times.

— Fish maws are drying on the wooden rack.

"Please wait a moment, I'll go in and see if Old Liu is here."

Hu Xiaodong told Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei what he was doing and then went into the room first. Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei could actually hear the noises coming from inside the room, but the noises sounded like they were coming from one person, and the two of them were not sure if it was "Old Liu" that Hu Xiaodong had mentioned.

After Hu Xiaodong entered the room, he spoke to Lao Liu in a low voice, but Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei could still hear him easily:
"Old Liu, Old Liu, do you want some playing cards?"

The person in the house looked like Old Liu. Old Liu seemed to be middle-aged; his voice sounded somewhat dejected: "I don't want playing cards, I want a wife..."

Lu Xian: "..."

Yao Wei: “…”

Hu Xiaodong was silent for a moment before saying, "Where's your wife? What wife are you asking me for?"

"Ran……"

Old Liu's voice grew increasingly dejected, and then he started sobbing, "I played cards so badly I lost everything, I lost so much, it happened so many times, my wife didn't want to be with me anymore and ran away, sob sob sob..."

Hu Xiaodong had no choice but to comfort Lao Liu, and it took him a long time to calm him down.

Old Liu stopped crying and sighed, "Alas, no one can be blamed for this; I can only blame myself."

“Look at you, Da Hu, you never play cards. If I were like you, how could I have ended up like this?”

"I have to learn from you from now on, and I absolutely can't touch playing cards anymore..."

He stopped there, but Hu Xiaodong suddenly interrupted him: "Actually... I have something here..."

Hu Xiaodong was interrupted by Lu Xi'an before he could finish speaking.

"Hu Xiaodong".

Lu Xi'an called out, his voice slightly serious.

Hu Xiaodong's heart skipped a beat. Without delay, he quickly came out of the room.

Old Liu then realized there were other people in the courtyard, so he followed them out of the house and was slightly surprised to see Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei.

Two out-of-towners?! And so good-looking at that, could they be the legendary new humans?!

He was startled and dared not speak, but his eyes kept glancing at Hu Xiaodong.

Why did this guy bring two out-of-towners to my door out of the blue?! Are they trying to cause me trouble?!
Lu Xi'an didn't seem inclined to say anything to Lao Liu. He simply glanced at Lao Liu before turning to Hu Xiaodong and saying:
"Alright, they've already quit drugs, why are you still selling them playing cards? Aren't you just harming them?"
"Don't ask him anymore, let's go."

Hu Xiaodong was stunned for a moment, then nodded with an "Ah", glanced back at Lao Liu, smiled apologetically at Lao Liu, and was about to follow Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei turned and walked out of the courtyard. Hu Xiaodong followed behind and said, "Then you two, shall we walk up a bit more?"

"Let me see if anyone else wants playing cards..."

Lu Xi'an shook his head and said, "Let's forget it, there's no need. Let's go to the morning market tomorrow and exchange other things for supplies."

"These playing cards aren't anything good for your East Island, so I won't take them out."

He knew, of course, that even if he sold the so-called "playing tickets" to someone, it wouldn't bring about much change here.

Based on what Hu Xiaodong said, it was clear that poker had been popular and deeply rooted on this island for a long time. Unless he used violence to wipe it all out, he wouldn't be able to bring any change to the place.

Therefore, whether or not the cash on hand is available has absolutely no impact on Dongdao.

But he still refused to get involved in these harmful things.

He is mortal with gambling and drugs.

Besides, he still has so much cigarettes and alcohol that he can exchange them for supplies on the island, so it doesn't matter if he doesn't take out the cash.

Save it; it might come in handy later.

Hu Xiaodong was somewhat disappointed.

Old Liu understood what was going on and called out, "Wait a minute!"

Lu Xi'an, Yao Wei, and Hu Xiaodong stopped at the same time and turned around, only to see Old Liu staring wide-eyed at Hu Xiaodong, saying, "You mean...you mean...they have playing cards?!"

Before Hu Xiaodong could speak, Old Liu continued, his face contorted with rage and his teeth clenched, "Good! Good! Good! You, Hu Xiaodong!"
"You know perfectly well that I can't resist temptation, and I've already said I'd change, yet you still intend to bring up playing cards with me?!"

"Hu Xiaodong, you bastard, you're no good!"

After saying that, he suddenly turned to Lu Xi'an and said, "Thank you for stopping him. I don't know how to address you..."

Lu Xi'an said, "Just call me Mr. Lu."

Old Liu said, "Oh, Mr. Lu. Thank you so much, Mr. Lu. I know my own character."

"I've tried to quit playing cards several times already, but I can manage if I don't get involved. But as soon as I hear about it or someone tempts me to play, I can't help but want to play."

"If it weren't for this, my wife wouldn't have been so disappointed in me and run away."

"I was just thinking of staying home and not going out, trying to quit this stuff. But I never expected that Hu Xiaodong, who doesn't even gamble, would come to my door and try to ruin me!"
"Thanks to Mr. Lu for stopping him, otherwise I would have been finished too! Mr. Lu, you are a good person."

Another "friend zone" card...

After giving out the "good guy" card, Old Liu glared at Hu Xiaodong and said, "Hu Xiaodong, you bastard! You're not human! May your son be born without an anus!"

"How could I possibly know someone like you?! I must have been shitting in my past life to know you! Get the hell out of here!"

Hu Xiaodong slunk away, turning back to try and explain that he hadn't meant to, but seeing that Lao Liu had picked up a brick to hit him, he quickly dodged.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei were about to follow when Old Liu suddenly called out to them, "Mr. Lu, and this gentleman..."

He realized that Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei were together.

Lu Xi'an said, "Mr. Yao."

"Mr. Yao."

Old Liu said, "You two are good people. You have done me a great favor, and I must thank you."

(End of this chapter)