Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 110: Chapter 107: The Convoy is Besieged

Pickled cabbage with pork belly, iron pot stewed fish, braised pork belly, a special-recipe lamb spine hot pot, braised prawns, American ginseng chicken soup, braised eggplant, tiger skin peppers, mapo tofu, and two small cold side dishes. She managed to eat the lavish dinner all before midnight.

To eat as quickly as possible, she had fired up several stoves at once.

Her movements were practiced and efficient as she skillfully washed, chopped, and cooked.

The moment the delicious food touched her tongue, a deep sense of satisfaction welled up inside Chen Xing.

’Even if I can’t remember anything, even if I have no family or friends... what does it matter?’

She had good food for company and was perfectly happy and carefree.

She finished with a bowl of Capital City-style noodles with soybean paste, bringing the meal to a perfect end.

It was the best meal she’d had for as long as she could remember.

All the dishes were exactly to her taste.

After putting away the cooking gear, she took a sleeping bag out of her space, spread it out thickly in the truck’s cargo bed, and lay down fully clothed.

It wasn’t cold, so she didn’t need a blanket. There were mosquitoes, however, so she pulled out a mosquito net.

Meng Hu stood guard a short distance away. Feeling completely safe, she quickly fell asleep.

In the early morning, the sound of engines carried from a distance.

Meng Hu was the first to stir, and Chen Xing’s eyes snapped open.

After sending Meng Hu off into the distance, she quickly packed up her sleeping bag just as several vehicles came into view.

Although she was on a mountain road, this particular stretch was straight for several hundred meters.

The convoy hadn’t intended to stop, but upon seeing a lone young woman in the mountain woods, they slowly pulled over. A man in his early thirties, Ran Gaoyang, got out and asked, ”Do you need help?”

The convoy consisted of an SUV in the lead, followed by three RVs, a bus, two cargo trucks, and several smaller cars bringing up the rear.

She could see men and women, young and old, inside the vehicles. Most of them looked kind.

They assumed Chen Xing’s truck had broken down and kindly wanted to offer assistance.

If she wanted to join them, she would be welcome too.

After so long in the apocalypse, they knew it was incredibly difficult for a single person to survive. There was strength in numbers.

Chen Xing shook her head.

Seeing her wariness, they could only sigh. ”Well, since you’re okay, we’ll get back on the road. We’ll be stopping in Lianyun Town up ahead for two days. If you need help, you can find us there!”

Chen Xing nodded again.

She wasn’t put off by their warmth.

After all this time, she could tell good people from bad at a glance, unless they were exceptionally cunning and skilled at hiding their true nature.

She was actually more curious about where they had sheltered from yesterday’s storm to have escaped completely unscathed.

As the convoy was about to pass, an oval-faced little girl on the bus smiled sweetly at her, breathed onto the window, and quickly drew a heart.

Chen Xing wasn’t a sentimental person, but the little girl’s cuteness instantly melted her heart.

Long after the convoy had passed, Chen Xing still felt a warmth in her heart.

Seeing that it was still early, she took out the mosquito net again.

This time, she slept until noon.

It seemed this was the longest she’d slept since her rebirth.

When she woke up, she was hungry again.

She took out her cooking utensils and began preparing a new feast.

Chicken and mushroom stew, double-cooked sweet and sour pork, sliced beef and offal in chili sauce, steamed abalone, honey-glazed char siu, bamboo shoot and pork rib soup, scrambled eggs with tomato, dry-fried green beans...

After these two meals, Chen Xing felt that the sky was more beautiful and the scenery even more stunning.

’Maybe I shouldn’t travel with other people in the future. Isn’t being on my own great?’

’I can eat whatever I want, however I want.’

’In the future, when I have time, I’ll get a good RV, install an oven, and I can even make Western pastries, pizza, and stuff. Life would be just too good.’

After eating and drinking her fill, Chen Xing finally started her truck.

She estimated she could reach the Capital City by tomorrow night at the earliest.

So... she had to keep moving forward.

She drove on for about half an hour and emerged from the mountain forest.

Rows of houses appeared ahead, all identical two-story buildings.

It looked like this area had been a planned development before the apocalypse.

After driving a little farther, she saw a large sign on the side of the road that read, ”Welcome to Lianyun Town.”

She remembered the convoy from before; they must have settled somewhere in this area.

But the town wasn’t small. If they had settled deep inside, the chances of running into them were slim.

Chen Xing slowed down, driving slowly through one settlement after another.

Chen Xing drove all the way through Lianyun Town without ever spotting the convoy.

However, not long after leaving Lianyun Town, she saw white pieces of paper scattered on the roadside ahead.

The paper was very clean; it didn’t look like it had been discarded long ago.

Curious, Chen Xing got out of her truck to check.

On each piece of paper was a single word: ”Help!”

Chen Xing looked down the road ahead.

The papers asking for help had been dropped recently. They were most likely from that convoy.

They had said they would be staying in Lianyun Town for two days.

She had nothing better to do, so she followed the road and drove on.

She hadn’t driven far when she saw a convoy moving slowly ahead. It was the same one from before, only now with a few extra vehicles at the front and back.

In the apocalypse, robberies and ambushes were common.

Even with a large group, if your equipment was poor and your Combat Power was insufficient, you were just lambs to the slaughter.

Chen Xing hesitated, wondering if she should help.

She could save them, but... if they weren’t strong enough, they’d just get killed sooner or later anyway. Her intervention would be pointless.

Just as she was hesitating, the convoy rounded a bend and disappeared from sight.

Two motorcycles burst out from the bushes by the roadside, heading straight for her.

Chen Xing stopped the truck.

There were four people on the two motorcycles. One of them was Ran Gaoyang, the man who had spoken to her earlier.

This time, it was their turn to be wary.

After all, they had been ambushed right after meeting Chen Xing.

If the four of them hadn’t seen things were going bad and escaped quickly, their entire group would have been wiped out.

They were normally a cautious group and had practiced escape drills many times. The two motorcycles were always kept on standby.

”Why are you following us?” Ran Gaoyang, who was in the lead, didn’t want to assume the worst of her. Life was hard for everyone in the apocalypse, and his philosophy was to help when possible.

This attitude sometimes brought them trouble, but a situation where their entire group was captured was rare.

They had a large group, so most other teams wouldn’t dare to target them.

Chen Xing handed him the papers she’d picked up. ”Found these on the road. Came to take a look.”

She realized she had underestimated them.

They weren’t entirely helpless after all.

”This is Qiu Min’s handwriting!” Ran Gaoyang clenched the papers in his fist.

Qiu Min was only seven, and he had been teaching her studies recently, which naturally included her handwriting.

”Qiu Min must have dropped these for us, to let us know where they were taken!” said Xu Biao, a burly man in his forties. He looked tough, but he had a childlike heart and was stomping his feet in anxiety.

He loved playing with children and absolutely doted on Qiu Min.

Ran Gaoyang nodded.

Fearing discovery, the few of them had been taking hidden routes and had completely missed the papers Qiu Min had dropped.

He looked at Chen Xing. ”Are you offering to help us?”

Although young women were generally weaker, he still held to the idea that an extra person meant an extra bit of security.

Chen Xing nodded and snapped her fingers. Suddenly, a gigantic tiger shot out of the mountain woods.

Its claws were incredibly sharp as it leaped, and it landed majestically beside Chen Xing with its fangs bared.

The men, who had been terrified at first, saw the tiger go to Chen Xing’s side, and their initial thought that they were dead meat instantly vanished.

This wasn’t a fierce tiger at all; it was an adorable kitten!

It leaned against Chen Xing’s side, begging to be petted and pampered.

”My pet can lend a hand, too.”