"Actually, there's another way to make egg fried rice, which might be the authentic one."

"Back in the day, we weren't that particular, so we called this egg fried rice too. In some places, it's just eggs fried with rice."

"For egg fried rice, you should drizzle the egg liquid over the rice and stir-fry it. Let's try that next time."

After finishing the meal, Lu Xi'an said this to Yao Wei.

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Hmm, we can use fewer eggs to save some."

Lu Xi'an replied, "You should always taste it well the first time. Next time when we make it, we'll start with two eggs. After we've tried it once, we'll save some in the future and use only one."

Yao Wei said, "Hmm."

After the meal, Lu Xi'an continued driving. They still didn't plan to pass through Tunshan Village, opting to take the south route instead.

The southern route is much farther than the northern one, taking more time, but that's okay. Their car doesn't need refueling, freeing them from the constraints of gas stations and allowing them to travel as they please.

If Luo Ping hadn't clearly stated that a county to the south had been occupied starting over a year ago, retreating from the south, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei would have directly headed south and detoured to Coastal City from there.

There's a river at the junction of Lianghe County and Henan County to the south, a tributary of the Liang River. The river is very narrow with little water, barely qualifying as a stream.

Lu Xi'an even doubted if there would be water here without the previous rain.

However, after reaching here, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei took advantage of the water availability to fill up their water tank and buckets, and washed the car.

The road was muddy from the rain during their previous fast journey, covering the car with mud, making it hard to look at.

Lu Xi'an directly took a bucket to scoop up water, splashing it onto the car bucket by bucket, then wiped it down with a cloth—primarily the windows, ensuring they were clean enough not to obstruct views.

Afterward, they did some cleaning inside the car as well.

When they encountered a landslide under Qin Mountain, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei had to get out and manually turn around, inevitably bringing mud from their shoes into the car. Moreover, during their journey north and south, lots of dust accumulated on the car that needed to be cleaned.

After wiping all the necessary areas, they cleaned the floor and their shoes, making the camper van look refreshed, and both felt an inexplicable comfort.

"Honestly, when we drove your previous car, we never thought about tidying up. But now that this car's much bigger, we're getting all proactive."

Lu Xi'an chuckled, washing the cloth clean.

Yao Wei was washing another cloth, saying, "That was the old car."

Lu Xi'an replied, "Makes sense."

That car was one Yao Wei picked up along the way, sufficient for her if it was drivable and didn't break down, unlike this new one, fresh out of the factory, treated entirely differently. How could the two be equivalent?

A new car with even a small scrape can cause heartache for three days, whereas, with an old car, a bumper falling off isn't a big deal. It was like that in the previous life; who would've thought it would be the same in this current world?

Lu Xi'an wondered when the first scrape on this car would happen in this world. Would he and Yao Wei care as much afterward?

No matter what happens then, the clean car at least brings a considerable amount of comfort when looking back from a distance.

Not bad.

"In the future, let's clean the car whenever we stop by a river."

Yao Wei suddenly spoke.

Lu Xi'an nodded with a smile, saying, "Okay, whatever you say." Anyway, for them, it only costs a bit of time, not much effort.

Keeping the car a little cleaner certainly helps with maintaining good spirits, doesn't it?

A breeze blew through, with the door open, letting the wind fill and exit freely.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei waited outside the car, meanwhile cleaning their shoes, avoiding dirty shoes soiling the cleaned car again.

The car interior dried quickly, and they boarded. Yao Wei took the driver's seat, so Lu Xi'an had to sit in the passenger seat, picking up "World Map One."

They started the car and kept moving, as Yao Wei glanced at the small creek outside, saying, "Will there be more water going south? Back north, I hadn't seen water for a long time. The rivers were all dry."

She was a bit worried about the aridity ahead, unable to wash the car.

Lu Xi'an recalled traveling from north to south, where water sources were indeed scant. It was not bad when there was snow; breaking the ice meant you could drink it once melted, but in dry weather with slight warmth, patience was the only option.

That's why he stocked up on so many bottled waters before.

However, ever since getting on Yao Wei's car, they hardly used those bottles. This was partly due to encountering more river water and partly because traveling by car was quicker.

Indeed, the north was relatively arid. Yao Wei's route wasn't the same as his; perhaps her path was even drier than his.

Lu Xi'an remembered when he first saw Yao Wei, her lips were cracked, looking as if she hadn't drunk for ages. Later, heading south, she gradually improved.

He glanced at Yao Wei; her lips were much smoother now, not only visible to him but also noticeable earlier.

"What's up?"

Yao Wei sensed Lu Xi'an's gaze, feeling a bit uneasy, as if she couldn't drive well.

Lu Xi'an laughed and said, "Just looking at your lips, they're so much smoother than before. I remember when I first met you, your lips were so dry."

"Is it because I've drunk too much water, or because I kissed you?"

Yao Wei was a bit flustered and hurriedly said, "Don't talk! I need to drive!"

Lu Xi'an had to keep quiet.

After crossing the river, it wasn't long before they could turn east. After driving a bit further, they saw a road running north to south cutting across their east-west path, forming a T-junction.

Yao Wei turned the steering wheel north, looping back towards Tunshan Village, but now they had reached the east of Tunshan Village.

Lu Xi'an turned his body, looking back, and could see the Resonant Gene Scanner map on the table behind, with a distant red dot indicating the presence of a Neo-Human far away from the red dots representing him, Yao Wei, and the Fungus Stone.

Lu Xi'an checked against "World Map One" to confirm that it was indeed Henan County, which Luo Ping mentioned was occupied by someone.

Unexpectedly, the occupant there turned out to be a Neo-Human.

Who could be further south that could drive a Neo-Human up here?

In any case, avoiding that road was undoubtedly the right choice.

"There's a Neo-Human in Henan County, but Luo Ping didn't mention what type of Neo-Human it is..."

After looking at "World Map One," Lu Xi'an said to Yao Wei.

Yao Wei replied, "It's fine; we're not going there anyway."

Lu Xi'an smiled, "True, we're not going there anyway."

Driving straight north, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei planned to bypass Tunshan Village from the north and then head east. However, halfway through, they unexpectedly noticed a forked dirt road extending to the side of the road.

At the end of the dirt road, there was a courtyard with collapsed houses and walls.

The layout resembled the orchard they had encountered in Jianshan City. The difference was that the orchard was still intact, and they managed to find quite a few things in the rooms upstairs after entering it, but here, everything had collapsed.

Moreover, in the ruins of that orchard, rows and rows of trees were growing. Though some places were sparse and each tree grew differently, some good and some bad, the ground was overgrown with weeds, making the grove look chaotic. Yet, Lu Xi'an could barely tell the rows were orderly, hinting at manual planting.

Who would plant trees in the open after a calamity?

If these trees were planted by humans, it could only have been before the disaster.

"Stop for a moment."

Lu Xi'an said to Yao Wei, who stepped on the brakes to stop the car, following Lu Xi'an's gaze into the ruined orchard, and asked, "Want to take a look?"

"There might be something in the ruins. If we have Gou around, maybe we could find something."

"Yes, let's take a look."

Lu Xi'an said, "I also want to see these trees. They look like apple trees. This might have been an apple orchard back then. If there are still apples on the trees, that would be great."

Perhaps because the weather had been good recently and not too cold, the orchard was lush and verdant. Just from the shape of the leaves, Lu Xi'an could tell that the abandoned grove consisted of apple trees.

However, he hadn't actually seen any apples.

Is it because, after the apocalypse and the Type D-1 X-17 strain, the apple trees mutated and no longer bore fruit?

Lu Xi'an wasn't sure, but he was still a bit unwilling to give up and wanted to take a look.

What if some trees still have apples?

"What are apples?"

Yao Wei asked.

Lu Xi'an replied, "A kind of fruit that you can eat."

"Hmm."

Yao Wei's eyes lit up when she heard it was edible. She quickly turned the steering wheel to take the bumpy small road into the orchard.

Meanwhile, Lu Xi'an had already lowered the car window, allowing Gou to control the drone to take off so they could respond immediately if the situation changed.

So far, the two gun barrels on the drone hadn't been used in combat yet, and they didn't know what the effect would be after firing?

The orchard's ruins didn't even have a visible entrance. In the collapsed ruins, there was a large open space and a place left with only some wood chips.

Lu Xi'an looked over there, guessing it might have been a pavilion, but the pavilion had collapsed, and the construction materials had been taken away.

Maybe it was Luo Ping who took away the materials.

Thinking randomly, he jumped out of the car.

Gou didn't give any alert, and Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei didn't perceive any danger, so the place should be safe.

Yao Wei also got out.

They walked together to the edge of the grove, took a quick look, and saw only green leaves with no hint of red.

Could there be apples among them?

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