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Xiu Jin ignored the notification about the increased intimacy value and focused on the second message, seething with annoyance: “I’m playing my own game, and now I have to pick when to log in? Are you out of your mind?!”
After venting his frustration, Xiu Jin turned to check on his precious daughter, whom he hadn’t seen in days. Seeing the little one perfectly fine in the living room, clutching her baby bottle and drinking milk, he immediately felt an immense sense of relief.
With such a high intimacy value now… He entered the marketplace, opened the food section, and sure enough, as the intimacy value had surged, another row of icons had unlocked and lit up.
[Cheese Cream Bread][Wonderful Mixed Nuts][Refined Snow-Dried Meat][Boba Taro Milk Tea]
The four newly unlocked food items finally looked appetizing. Xiu Jin didn’t even bother checking the prices; aside from the milk powder his child still needed, he bought one of everything else.
In an instant, the once-empty table was piled high with seven items—
Red apples, popping sausages, organic mineral water, cheese cream bread… Arranged together on the table, they created a visual impact that was overwhelming for Bianbian.
Ignoring the system notification that their intimacy points had reset to zero again, Xiu Jin eagerly watched his precious daughter’s reaction.
The first thing Bianbian noticed was the enticing aroma of milk and cream. She stared blankly at the cheese cream bread resting on a paper napkin atop the table—it was roughly the size of her head, its surface gleaming golden brown, embedded with rich slices of creamy cheese along the edges and center, and dusted on top with colorful chocolate powder.
For Bianbian, who had never tasted bread resembling cake before, her gaze instantly stuck to the loaf, unable to look away.
The little girl instinctively approached the dining table and was just about to climb onto the chair when Xiu Jin, who had been watching the screen, immediately noticed his precious daughter staring longingly at the bread. An unwittingly silly, fatherly smile spread across his face—he had known all along that his beloved daughter would love the bread.
He swiped his finger across the screen, sliding the bread toward Bianbian.
Bianbian finally snapped back to reality. She hadn’t given a single thought to where these foods came from; she simply stared at the bread, feeling as though she were dreaming.
Yet even in her wildest dreams, she had never imagined bread so beautiful.
Because it looked and smelled so irresistible, Bianbian hesitated timidly, too shy to reach out and take it, which made Xiu Jin’s heart ache; he frowned and quickly pushed the bread a little closer toward her.
Finally, Bianbian raised her hand to accept the bread, her eyes gradually lighting up like the brightest star in the night sky, as she cheerfully exclaimed, “Thank you, Uncle!”
“Eat quickly,” Father Xiu urged, even though Bianbian couldn’t hear him.
Bianbian had eaten bread before, but the kind that seemed freshly baked was something she had only seen in picture books.
All the instant food she consumed was expired; yet under current circumstances, as long as the taste hadn’t changed, any edible food, even if past its expiration date, would be eaten.
For some unknown reason, although five years had passed since the apocalypse and all food supplies were technically expired, most items remained edible even long after their expiration dates.
Unless they are completely moldy.
Therefore, some packaged breads in Jin Xin Supermarket remain edible as long as they haven’t spoiled.
However, compared to the cheese cream bread before her, the difference is like that between heaven and earth.
Even though Bianbian had never eaten luxurious food from birth until now, she could still draw such a conclusion based solely on sight and smell.
Taking a gentle bite of the bread, the little girl’s eyes crinkled into happy crescents. Soon, her cheeks puffed out, smeared with cream, turning her into a little spotted cat.
“Eat slowly, don’t choke.” Xiu Jin moved the milk tea with its straw closer to Bianbian. The little girl glanced at it curiously, then lowered her head and took a big gulp.
This was Bianbian’s first-ever cup of milk tea. A strange expression crossed her face as her mouth moved rhythmically, chewing on the “pearls” she had sucked up.
She naturally didn’t know they were tapioca pearls, but chewing them released a fragrant taste that perfectly cut through the richness of the cream. Combined together, they created an entirely new kind of deliciousness.
Xiu Jin fed her with immense delight; if not for the inconvenience, he would have also given her the dried snow meat and mixed nuts.
System: [Don’t feed too much! Her body can’t absorb or handle excess energy!]
Startled, Xiu Jin looked at the screen just in time to see his precious daughter push away the milk tea. Though her eyes were filled with reluctance, she patted her little belly, which was already swollen full.
She hadn’t finished the bread; half remained. Bianbian climbed onto her chair, carefully set aside the leftover bread, then gazed at the abundant and delicious spread before her. Suddenly remembering something, she lifted her small face and asked, “Uncle, may I share these with Grandpa and Uncle Zhu Yuan?”
It didn’t matter which Xiu Jin his precious daughter was assigned to; he was just about to stir his milk tea in response to Bianbian when it suddenly struck him that she had mentioned Zhu Yuan.
Didn’t Zhu Yuan already leave?
At this moment, Xiu Jin, whose eyes had been fixed solely on his precious daughter, finally spotted a discordant shadow in the corner. He swiped the screen and zoomed in.
“…”
Could that stiff, swaying figure, with hands and feet bound behind its back and a coat draped over its head, be none other than Zhu Yuan?
Bianbian gave him his answer.
Taking the Invisible Uncle’s silence as consent, Bianbian scanned the food on the table one by one before finally choosing the bouncing sausage.
Holding the bouncing sausage, she slid off her chair and trotted over to the zombie, pulling away the coat draped over its head.
“Uncle Zhu Yuan!” A sudden roar echoed through the room. Perhaps knowing that the Invisible Uncle was present, Bianbian was surprisingly bold and not afraid at all; she hurriedly held the bouncing sausage up to the zombie’s grotesque face.
Xiu Jin’s pounding heart suddenly went still—in the blink of an eye, his precious daughter was holding a bouncing sausage up to Zhu Yuan; from the screen’s perspective, they appeared to be overlapping completely.
If that thing swallowed her whole in one bite, where would he ever find another exactly like her to raise again!
But it was already too late to stop it. Xiu Jin, nearly panicking, rushed to pull Bianbian away. Just as his fingers were about to touch her, the zombie instantly fell silent, making no move to attack.
Xiu Jin: “?”
Bianbian stepped aside, and only then did Xiu Jin see that the bouncing sausage in his precious daughter’s hand had ended up in Zhu Yuan’s mouth.
“You can’t eat that!” Seeing Zhu Yuan swallow the bouncing sausage without even chewing, and worse yet, attempting to eat the bamboo skewer along with it, Bianbian hastily reached out her small hand to grab the end of the skewer.
Sharp objects can get stuck in the throat.
—Once, Lu Yu had caught a fish from the river, and Bianbian had gotten a fish bone stuck in her throat; the memory of that sensation remained vivid.
To a zombie, a single bouncing sausage is like a mosquito leg to a human. Yet, whether it slightly sated his bloodthirsty hunger or the struggle with the bamboo skewer diverted his attention, the zombie who ate the sausage suddenly grew quiet.
The zombie insisted on swallowing the bamboo skewer whole, while Bianbian tried to stop him, resulting in a bizarre tug-of-war between them.
Then, the zombie stared straight at Bianbian, bared his mouth to reveal rows of fine, sharp teeth in a threatening grin, and bit down hard, snapping the bamboo skewer in two.
Bianbian plopped down onto the ground.
The zombie gobbled up the bamboo skewer, but it got stuck halfway down its throat.
After pausing for a few seconds, the zombie let out a muffled, growling whimper, shaking and banging its head in vain. Realizing this was useless, it began to struggle violently. The leather strap tightened into a taut line, emitting faint, fragile creaks.
Bianbian was startled, then immediately dashed to the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of vinegar, and ran back out—she remembered that when she once got a fish bone stuck in her throat, her grandfather had told her to drink vinegar.
But staring at Uncle Zhu Yuan’s sharp teeth, Bianbian helplessly clutched the vinegar bottle, unsure what to do next.
Xiu Jin: “Do zombies feel pain?”
System: [Never mind the pain, the belt is about to snap! Think of something quickly!]
Xiu Jin immediately understood. Without bothering to curse the trashy system for unleashing zombies to harm his precious daughter, he snatched the vinegar bottle from Bianbian’s hand and poured its entire contents directly into the zombie’s open mouth.
Worried there wasn’t enough vinegar, he slid the large apple on the table over and, seizing the right moment, stuffed it in as well.
The zombie abruptly fell silent.
The system flickered a few times before vanishing, seemingly holding back words it wished to say.
Only Bianbian kept her eyes fixed on Uncle Zhu Yuan’s neck. She watched as a bulge formed there, then slowly slid down until it disappeared completely. Her little face, pale from tension, instantly lit up with joy. Waving the remaining half of the bamboo skewer in her hand, she exclaimed happily, “Uncle Zhu Yuan swallowed it! We’re safe now.”
The zombie indeed stopped making noise; it merely jerked its stiffened neck twice.
He seemed somewhat melancholy.
“Thank you, Uncle!”
[Intimacy +20.]
Xiu Jin instantly felt a bit giddy.
Stop getting carried away! A group of ability users is rushing over to hunt down Lu Yu and Zhu Yuan; they’re expected to arrive in twenty minutes.
Xiu Jin’s first reaction: “This game has dungeon raids? Are we supposed to treat Lu Yu and Zhu Yuan as bosses to grind?”
Bianbian lifted her small face, gnawing on her finger while glancing left and right; she seemed to have heard System Daddy’s voice—
“…I must’ve been out of my mind to choose him as Number One.”
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First update is here; there will be three updates today. The remaining two will be posted as soon as Da Wanzi finishes writing them~
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