RLDRFH Chapter 45

“Tuanzi?!” He Zizhong was dumbfounded as he watched their family’s small white ball rush towards the other crystal core and quickly ‘swallow’ it, not knowing how to react.

The plant obviously didn’t understand the situation. After the first crystal nucleus was swallowed, it still continued its action of “rolling up” the crystal nucleus and bringing it back. But when the second one disappeared, the mutant plant became furious. Since it mutated, whether it was a human, mutated animal, zombie, or zombie animal, no one had the guts to snatch its food! No one has ever succeeded!!

Countless branches shot out like a group of snakes, tangled and twisted together, trying to poke at the strange white ball. Fang Hao was shocked and shouted to Tuanzi: “Enter the space! Quickly, retreat into the space!”

It seemed that the two people and the white ball failed to develop the kind of tacit understanding of one’s heart with a glance through one’s eyes. Tuanzi only floated in place, tilted its head, and blinked its pair of big watery eyes. At the same time, countless tentacle-like vines jabbed straight at it!

“Puff, puff, puff…” The soft, smooth, round body has a slippery feel that makes people love it. Normally, it deliberately stays in Fang Hao’s or He Zizhong’s arms, otherwise even its two “parents” would be unable to touch it.

Nowadays, with its outstanding appearance… wait, there seems to be wrong with this description?¹Yes, the author kinda broke the 4th wall here In short, Tuanzi’s talent ensured its safety. No matter how the weird tentacles tried to grab, poke, or stab it, it reacted like a water ball that one can’t touch. It could not be caught, poke, or punctured!

The two were worried at first, and grew shocked at the “interactions” between it and the mutant plant. Finally, as if watching a silent comedy, they could only stand aside and watch the vines…

“Zi, Zizhong, what should we do?”

In mid-air, the gray-black tentacles intertwined into a large net, but Tuanzi was like a bouncy ball, “piu, piu, piu” flying wildly around, its speed increasing with each additional collision. Eventually their eyes were unable to follow as it turned into a shadowy streak.

The corners of He Zizhong’s mouth twitched. “Retreat a certain distance and enter the space.” He said, pulling Fang Hao’s hand back as they moved back. After confirming that the plant could not attack them, he yelled loudly to the other side, “We are going back. If you don’t go, you are not allowed to enter the bedroom at night!” After speaking, He Zizhong flashed into the space with his wife.

Sure enough, after it discovered that its parents disappeared, the unstoppable Tuanzi stopped, and followed its parents back into the space.

The bunch of vines had originally planned to capture the white weird ball in its finely woven “net”, and then it would slowly figure how to extract the two crystal nuclei that should belong to it. But suddenly the center of the “net” was gone! The vines that could not be withdrawn still moved to the center and tangled around desperately. After discovering that its prey escaped the “net”, it realized an unfavorable fact – the vines were tangled. Tightly tangled into a ball could not be untied!!!

He Zizhong and Fang Hao didn’t know that the vines outside were damaged by Tuanzi. They only knew that when they came back, they saw the white guy enter the space. But because of its speed outside, it couldn’t be stop immediately…

“Ding, bang, pong, bang, bang…” The corners of their mouths twitched as they watched the white ball hit a cup, overturn plates, knock into the cabinet, and finally bounce off the back of the sofa and slam into Fang Hao.

The starry eyed dumpling with pitifully rubbed in Fang Hao embrace, and it took a long time to come back. First, it blinked its eyes aggrievedly, waiting for Fang Hao to touch its head. Then it regained its spirit, shaking like water. The soft flesh floated into the air with a puff, and its body shook again.

The white ball gradually began to glow, and the white, transparent translucent brilliance spread back and forth on its body from top to bottom, bottom to top. Finally, the brilliance spread from its body to all directions.

This strange reaction took place twice in total, and it seemed to have something to do with the two crystal nuclei that it swallowed.

He Zizhong frowned and poked the ball that squinted its eyes from swallowing the delicious ‘food’, and looked behind the bamboo house. “Did you see where the white light flew?”

Fang Hao pointed at the rear: “Over there… maybe it entered the well…?”

“Possibly.”

The two of them gathered plenty of first-level crystal nuclei these days, but Tuanzi turned a blind eye to them. These things did not attract the least interest. But the crystal nucleus of the mutant bear last time and the second-level zombie this time attracted it to swallow it immediately every time. It can be seen that it needs some kind of energy or nutrition contained in such things.

“Doesn’t eat first-class crystal nuclei, only high-end…” He Zizhong once again poked the dumpling that was done “digesting” in Fang Hao’s arms. It’s a pity that it could not speak human words, otherwise they could ask questions about crystal nuclei and the space.

“Maybe the first-level crystal nucleus are not nutritious enough?” Fang Hao touched the “belly” of the ball, “How does it eat? There isn’t even a seam underneath.”

“Who knows, but isn’t afraid of indigestion…” He Zizhong turned the white ball over. Tuanzi whose eyes were narrowed in joy opened its eyes wide, shaking its soft body.

“It must be good for it. Anyway, the remaining energy seems to have entered the space, and can’t be a waste.” Fang Hao carefully rescued the “kicking” dumpling from He Zizhong’s hands, and hugged it again, stroking gently. Tuanzi rubbed his arms and squinted comfortably – this was why he likes the beautiful “mama” and hates violent “papa”!²The author used omnomatopeia for mama and papa – aka words with similar sounds but different meanings.

The dumpling robbed crystal nuclei from others… No, it should be said that Tuanzi rescued their stolen second-level nuclei. The two waited for a while before they quietly emerged from the space, holding it in their arms. Using a telescope to look back, the corners of He Zizhong’s mouth couldn’t help pull up again – What the f*ck that was that curled up ball that was struggling hard?

“Withdraw.” He was taken aback first, but after realizing the cause and effect of how the tangled mass came about, he decisively gestured. The two quietly took a small road to left the place. Their ‘child’ was too unruly, look at how it provoked others? Alas, if it weren’t for their lack of weapons now, they might have taken the opportunity to quietly go over and clean up the mutant plant.

After several days of smashing and hitting things, the SUV was contorted into quite an interesting shape. The regrettable appearance of leaking “air” and “meat” made them consider changing cars.³Again, coated in zombie guts..

Before the apocalypse, He Zizhong rented an 80% new Hummer and threw it into the space. It was perfect for now. But the problem was more than just changing cars.

“There are no backup vehicles.” When they came out this time, they originally planned to take the opportunity to store a few cars into the space, but the cars they encountered either had no keys or were too broken. Further, most ordinary cars have a low chassis, and they have not even seen a more crash-worthy SUV yet. They can’t simply trade it for a weak and crispy car, right?

At this moment, both of them regretted they had not gone to the nearby auto show center to find some suitable cars early on.

“Shall we visit the city?” For safety reasons, most of the places they went this time were small towns around the city. Although there were fewer zombies, it was also harder to find good cars or a car shop.

He Zizhong pondered for a while and shook his head: “Go back to city A, and see if we can team up with someone in a few days before trying to figure something else.” During the apocalypse, it’s best to team up with others when collecting supplies. Among them, the safest is to act together with the military – the military cleans up the zombies in front, and the small teams follow to collect materials. After an operation, they return 70 or 80% of the materials to the base. It can be said both sides mutually benefit.

When two people like himself and Fang Hao go out, at most they can go to small villages and county towns around the city to collect things. This is already considered amazing. Don’t even think about going deep into the city. Even if they have a convenient space to escape into, the process may not be so beautiful.

Fang Hao still adhered to the central idea of ​​’as long as He Zizhong makes a decision, he must be right, and even if he is not right, I must stand by his side.‘ He nodded obediently holding the white ball. Although he was satisfied with his current lifestyle of going out with his husband to collect supplies, beat zombies, and hug Tuanzi, since He Zizhong wanted to work with other teams, he would never drag him down and continue to work hard by his side. It does not matter if he wants to team up with others or something else.

The two took out the 80% new Hummer and went on the road again. This car really was better than the previous one in terms of performance and collision ability. It was a pity that it consumes too much gas though. Even if they have collected more than enough for now, it will probably cause headaches in the future.

The road back to the city A base was more difficult than on the way out. There was more garbage, ruined cars, and zombies blocking the road than before. Not to mention that there were countless people looting, blocking, and digging along the way. Fortunately, He Zizhong was cautious and his observation skills from his previous life allowed them to avoid time-consuming and troublesome  obstacles time and time again.

They drove until they nearly reached the embankment of the besieged city A, where there was another traffic jam.

The traffic jam this time was caused by the fact that many vehicles were not aware that the bridge just east of the base was blocked, and did not allow entry or exiting. They can only use the north gate to cross the river. Some cars tried to drive past and then turned back, which happened to block the cars behind, preventing anyone from leaving.

On the contrary, most cars that rushed out from the urban area also brought many zombies behind.

The roaring highway was full of shouts, curses, and roars of zombies.

Seeing the black paint on the road in front of him at a distance,He Zizhong immediately turned to another road and drove north on the small road along the river. When several cars in the long line saw the situation was turning worse, they also turned around and drove north.