Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 109: Chapter 106: Something’s Fishy

Chen Xing merely glanced at Old Mrs. Cao before returning to her room without a word.

She had heard every word of the conversation inside the room from where she stood outside.

The hallway was silent, and she hadn’t been speaking with Cao Guangrong. It was the middle of the night, yet Old Mrs. Cao’s voice had been shrill.

Cao Guangrong’s hearing was poor, so he couldn’t make it out, but Chen Xing had heard every single word.

Especially the part about "that woman"... That was hardly the term she’d expect from the "amiable grandma" who called her "Xuexue" to her face.

She left a baffled Old Mrs. Cao standing there, looking awkwardly at the others.

"Xuexue must be scared. Mom, Dad, don’t worry!" Cao Guangrong maintained his image as a doting father.

Seeing that Cao Guangrong hadn’t heard what their grandmother said, Li Hongfei and Cao Nan relaxed.

’If Dad couldn’t hear it, there’s no way Chen Xing could have.’

Chen Xing didn’t dwell on it. She just took a shower and went to bed.

Conditions in the safety zone weren’t too bad. There was a supply of hot water. It wasn’t scorching, but it was enough to get clean.

At eight in the morning, Song Yiguo’s men came to pick Chen Xing up.

Cao Guangrong tried to go with her but was stopped by one of Song Yiguo’s men. "Young Master Song instructed me to escort only Miss Chen Xing."

Seeing he couldn’t tag along, Cao Guangrong gave Chen Xing a long-winded, worried lecture.

The situation outside was even worse than she had imagined.

The rain had stopped, but a heavy blanket of black clouds still suffocated the sky.

The cotton-like clumps on the ground were spread as thick as a layer of snow.

And the once-towering skyscrapers, aside from a few landmark buildings, had been almost completely leveled.

At a glance, it looked like the aftermath of a massive explosion.

Song Yiguo had come out to survey the situation before she did. When he saw her, he gave a wry smile. "I’m surprised any buildings are left standing at all."

A few buildings remained, yes, but not a single window was intact, and their roofs had been torn wide open.

Still, with some repairs, they could be made barely habitable.

’But with so few buildings, how could they possibly house all the people crammed into the subway station?’

Chen Xing had to admire the construction of the few buildings that remained.

’They really didn’t cut corners on the construction, or these would have collapsed long ago.’

"Looking at this weather, it seems we’ll have to stay in the subway station a while longer." Chen Xing felt that coming out had been a bit of a risk.

Song Yiguo was restless. "The meteorologists are predicting it will clear up by this evening."

’Clear skies would be great, but what about all the people in the subway station?’

"Junxi said he wants to treat you to breakfast."

Chen Xing had no reason to refuse.

She certainly didn’t want to go back and eat cafeteria food with Cao Guangrong and his family.

「By evening, the weather suddenly cleared.」

The sky was a deep, cloudless blue, as if the previous night’s disaster had never happened.

Song Yiguo’s men escorted Chen Xing back to the surface.

To maintain order, the general populace was still being kept in the subway station.

The leaders of the Capital City had organized a meal distribution—one steamed bun per person.

Even this had exhausted a huge portion of the Capital City’s resources, as there were over a million people to feed.

Song Yiguo didn’t bother hiding his plans from Chen Xing, giving orders directly to Vice General Du. "Contact all the surrounding safety zones and see how many people they can take. If they can, begin evacuating people from the subway station."

The Capital City truly couldn’t house this many people.

Supplies were limited, and there was no housing. The only option was to offload the pressure onto the other safety zones.

Vice General Du set off to carry out the order.

Captain Lu found a moment to speak with Chen Xing. "I’m planning to leave. What about you?" He’d heard she had found her family, so he figured it was unlikely she would be going anywhere.

"I’m not leaving just yet. How about this... I’ll give Brother Xiao a call, and you can go meet up with him and the others directly." Chen Xing decided it was time to start selling the Crystal Cores.

Any later, and someone else would beat her to the punch.

She had more than enough Crystal Cores on hand to keep them busy for a while.

She turned to Song Yiguo. "Do you have a plane that can take Captain Lu and his men to Hualai City?"

"Yes," Song Yiguo replied without wasting words.

Captain Lu’s team had been a great help this time. Arranging a flight for them was the least he could do.

"In that case, I’ll take them to the airport and bring your things back on my way. It might take two or three days." Chen Xing couldn’t just produce the items out of thin air; that would be too suspicious.

’It’s best to build in a bit of a delay.’

"Alright." Song Yiguo wasn’t worried about Chen Xing running off; he had at least that much trust in her. "By the way, did you get that paternity test done?"

’He couldn’t believe someone as smart as Chen Xing would just accept Cao Guangrong as her relative without proof.’

Chen Xing nodded. "I brought it up this afternoon. They were cooperative and got it done."

Song Yiguo’s eyes narrowed.

’Why do I get the feeling there’s something shady about Cao Guangrong?’

"Should I send someone to inform Cao Guangrong that you’ll be back in two days?"

Chen Xing nodded.

A short while later, a bus and a cargo truck emerged from the underground levels.

This was what Chen Xing had requested.

Once they were outside the National Capital Safety Zone, Chen Xing told Captain Lu and his men to go on ahead to the airport and wait for her.

She drove around aimlessly for a couple of laps, killing an hour or two before finally heading to the airport.

The airport had also been damaged, but thankfully, there was a usable stretch of runway.

As for how the plane was perfectly fine, that was Song Yiguo’s business. They clearly had a way of dealing with severe weather, and she didn’t need to know the details.

Captain Lu stared at the truck full of Crystal Cores. He was stunned, but he didn’t press for details.

He knew Chen Xing would tell him what she wanted to tell him; asking about what she didn’t would be pointless. "Are all of these for Brother Xiao?"

"Mhm, he’ll know what to do." On the way over, Chen Xing had called Brother Xiao again to tell him that Captain Lu would be escorting the Crystal Cores and that he should prepare to start selling them immediately.

After parting ways with Captain Lu, she drove north, away from the Capital City.

She had two days, so she decided to head north and see what the situation was like there.

In her past life, she had spent nearly all her time in the south and had hardly ever set foot in the north.

Since she had nothing else to do, she figured she’d take a look around.

The weather didn’t change much as she left the Capital City behind.

It was probably because of the summer season; the heat felt about the same everywhere.

Even now that it was night, the air hadn’t cooled down.

’Five hundred chickens and ducks would fit in one vehicle, no problem, but one hundred pigs...’

Chen Xing wasn’t driving fast, and it was already approaching ten o’clock.

Gazing at the endless mountain road ahead, Chen Xing decided not to travel any further for the night.

In her past life, she had camped in the mountains before, even without any gear.

Now, she had equipment in her storage space and Meng Hu by her side. She wasn’t worried in the slightest.

After finding a flat spot to park, she let Meng Hu out.

Meng Hu was the king of the forests. Being in the mountains was like coming home for him; he bounded off to hunt for prey in the surrounding area.

Chen Xing took out a gas canister and a portable stove, followed by cookware, food...

There, deep in the mountains, she began to cook herself a gourmet meal.

In her spare time, she often browsed various recipes and cooking videos, learning a lot of new dishes.

But she had always been too busy to find the time to actually make them.

Now that she was alone and had plenty of time, she could cook and eat at her leisure. ’Hmm... I’ll make whatever takes the most time!’