Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 257: Chapter 254: Two Become One

She used the electricity from her body to instantly heat the water in the tank, then took a long, comfortable hot shower.

Only then did she realize that her RV and the little dinosaur monster were still outside.

So, she put on a long down jacket, went outside to store the RV and the little dinosaur monster, then re-entered her space to continue tidying up the small house.

Now, only the kitchen remained. As before, she discarded everything inside it.

The stove hood, refrigerator, microwave, oven... pots, pans, bowls, ladles, the dining table and chairs...

It was just perfect!

The best part was, the temperature here was a constant eighteen degrees Celsius.

Burying herself in the warm goose-down comforter, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

As she lay there, she remembered that she still hadn’t tried out the bracelet’s ability.

However, she could already sense what it was.

When she woke the next day, she lay in bed and looked outside her space.

The heavy snow hadn’t stopped, threatening to bury everything.

’Looks like I’ll have to stay here for a while longer.’

Chen Xing felt there was nothing better than this.

Lying perfectly still, she could perceive everything happening outside.

When she drew her gaze back from the outside world, she realized the house space had apparently upgraded.

The original single-story house had become a two-story building, and its footprint had expanded from over fifty square meters to more than a hundred.

She was so happy she almost danced on the spot.

She wasn’t worried about the house being too big.

’How much stuff did I have stored away? I have enough to fill dozens more houses.’

Best of all, the house could be reconfigured according to her whims.

She demolished the interior walls on the first floor, turning the entire level into one large living room with an open-plan kitchen.

The living room had a floor-to-ceiling window that took up an entire wall, but unfortunately, it still looked out into a black void.

Chen Xing decorated the living room in a minimalist style.

A sofa so comfortable you wouldn’t want to get up once you sat down was placed in the center.

Behind it, a luxurious dining set separated it from the state-of-the-art kitchen.

It was absolutely gorgeous.

She turned the second floor into a large master suite, complete with a spacious walk-in closet and a large bathroom with a tub.

In the walk-in closet, her clothes were arranged by season: spring, summer, fall, and winter.

She then went to the adjacent earring space.

After the upgrade, the courtyard was now fifty to sixty square meters.

The once-bare dirt patch was now sprouting lush green grass, and off to one side, a pale pink cherry blossom tree had appeared.

It was an incredibly beautiful sight.

The cats seemed to like this kind of place and were much more active than before.

’From now on, I should try to collect cat trees and houses wherever I go,’ Chen Xing thought.

Chen Xing had experienced the black cat’s power firsthand—it had been strong enough to force her to retreat into her space.

To further boost their power, she moved half of her cats to the space with the spring.

The cats that had previously spent time in that space were already the alphas of the group here.

’If these cats can become my enforcers, I’ll have another layer of security in the future.’

After returning to the house, she went to the kitchen.

She started by stocking the kitchen’s refrigerator, freezer, and cabinets until they were overflowing.

Then, she went into her space and picked some eggplants and green beans, and dug up a few potatoes.

She diced pork and potatoes, adding scallions, garlic, green beans, and wide glass noodles to make an upgraded version of her braised potatoes and green beans.

She pan-fried some hairtail fish until it was golden and crispy.

She also made oil-braised eggplant, a cucumber and liangpi noodle salad, and a beef and radish soup, all served with fragrant, multigrain rice.

After eating every last bite, she brewed a cup of a latte and carried it to the cats’ playroom next door.

She sat on the grass, admiring the cherry blossoms.

’If life could always be like this, what more could I ask for?’

She thought, ’Maybe I should just stay here and live in my space forever?’

’On second thought, better not.’

’If I always hide in here, I’ll get used to the easy life. Then if I’m ever forced out, I’ll get insta-killed.’

And so, she spent three days in her comfortable space.

She spent her days in leisure: farming, harvesting, and cuddling her cats.

The weather finally took a sudden turn, shifting from frigid to warm.

The accumulated snow melted quickly, making the whole world feel damp and soggy.

Chen Xing drove a sedan toward Buddha City.

After a journey of nearly a day, she arrived at Buddha City.

As she had guessed, Ran Gaoyang and Ding Yiyu were people who kept their word.

They hadn’t considered leaving, even in the terrible weather. And when the weather improved, they continued to wait.

Of course, they weren’t foolish enough to have everyone wait.

Some of their people had taken the goods to rendezvous with their companions, leaving Ran Gaoyang and a few others to stand guard here.

Chen Xing felt gratified that she had judged them correctly.

She simply gave the entire truckload of cattle to Ran Gaoyang. ”You guys can have these. Consider it a thank-you gift!”

”A th-thank you gift?”

Ran Gaoyang refused to accept it.

She was the one who provided cover, allowing them to leave Green City smoothly.

Waiting for her was simply a matter of honoring their agreement.

”I came here because I was worried you guys would be too honest and just keep waiting without leaving. Anyway, I don’t want this stuff, so I’m just leaving it here!” Chen Xing said, driving away.

She left a dumbfounded Ran Gaoyang in her wake.

’Does this woman have any idea how dangerous the world is?’

’Do you know how many groups would fight to the death over a truckload of cattle like this?’

”Thank you!” Ran Gaoyang could only shout after her receding car.

Chen Xing, of course, was simply in a good mood.

Besides, her space was becoming overrun with livestock and poultry.

Ever since the four pieces of jewelry were united, the upgrades had been coming at a breakneck pace.

Especially after she placed three of the jewelry pieces into a small groove by the space’s spring—it started upgrading once every day.

The single-story house had upgraded into a three-story villa, its floor space much larger than before.

What pleased her most was that the bracelet’s house and the earring’s meadow had actually merged into one.

Granted, the cats couldn’t enter the house, and she still had to exit and re-enter to move between the two spaces. However, when Chen Xing stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, she no longer saw a black void. Instead, her view was of a meadow over two hundred square meters large, complete with a few pale pink cherry blossom trees.

She had no idea how the cherry blossom trees grew, but somehow they were in full, tender pink bloom every single day.

The Jiezhi Space, on the other hand, hadn’t changed much. Its capacity was the same, but the number of square grids at the top—whose purpose she still didn’t know—had increased to twenty.

The only one that didn’t upgrade much was her original space.

’It probably doesn’t need to upgrade anymore, anyway.’

There wasn’t much left to collect in the outside world, and her original space was already big enough for her needs.

After parting ways with Ran Gaoyang, Chen Xing planned to continue her previous journey east to find a suitable house to live in.

After a day and a night of travel, she had reverted to her original appearance and arrived safely in the eastern region.

She reached a coastal city called Tail City.

It was at the easternmost edge of the region, an entire city built right on the coast.

Many villas stood by the sea, the kind where you could step right out onto the beach.

There weren’t many high-rises; most buildings were five or six-story residential blocks.

Best of all, the city had pitifully few zombies.

After Chen Xing killed the few scattered ones she found, she wandered for the better part of a day without encountering a single other one.

Among a cluster of buildings, Chen Xing set her sights on a hotel right on the coast.