The Ger's Contract Marriage [BL]
Chapter 529: The Wild West

Chapter 529: The Wild West

Had Xu Feng tried to make it to Xu Zeng’s agricultural school turned base alone, he wasn’t sure he would have made it out of Aran Base before the zombie tide hit.

The odds hadn’t been in his favor, and he knew it. Yujie, for all her wildness, was the reason they were making any progress at all. Despite her chaotic driving, she had the instincts of a seasoned survivor.

The day they escaped Ling Ling’s clutches, she had made a beeline for the base-managed trading area, telling Xu Feng to handle his business quickly.

He had done just that.

No careful plotting this time—just a mad scramble to gather as many crystal nuclei as possible. Gasoline had been the most expensive commodity, more valuable than even food. Xu Feng had seen the way Yujie’s eyes kept darting to it on the barter list, knowing that every liter of gas was worth its weight in gold.

He had sprouted a few more vegetables for trade, but the bulk of his focus had been on crystal cores and items with energy. He was turning into a power hog, and the thought made him chuckle to himself, despite the constant queasiness in his stomach as the van bounced along the rough terrain.

The gasoline they had managed to secure had served them well, but as Yujie sped over another bump, Xu Feng couldn’t help but wish they had traded with an ability user for more water. It wasn’t like he could create clean water out of thin air.

From their conversations, it was clear that Yujie preferred water purified by an ability user, rather than the 80-step purification process that others relied on. One small mistake in purification could lead to infection, and new infections curable in this world.

"Get some sleep," Yujie called back from the front of the van.

Under normal circumstances, falling asleep during a wild ride like this would have been impossible. But oddly enough, Xu Feng had gotten used to it over the last few days.

Somehow, despite the constant jolts and swerves, sleep came easily when his life was in constant danger. He might have liked to think of himself as made of sterner stuff, but his inability to keep food down said otherwise.

Yet, the moment his very precious life was on the line, his body seemed to think it was time for a nap. They had settled into a routine—if it could even be called that.

Mingjun and Mingyue had their own schedules for napping during the day, and when they weren’t making stops or detours, Xu Feng kept Yujie company as she drove. They didn’t talk much, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable.

It was a companionship born of necessity, but it worked for them. He often took naps in the early morning or later in the afternoon, depending on their stops for the day.

When they camped out for the night, whether in the van or some secured abandoned building, Xu Feng took the night watch, letting Yujie get some much-needed rest.

He had offered to drive once or twice, but Yujie had brushed him off with a smirk and a shake of her head. Xu Feng had a sneaking suspicion that Yujie was either territorial about her van or that something traumatic had happened to her in the last two years, something related to a car and a getaway.

Whatever the case, she wasn’t ready to hand over the keys, and Xu Feng was okay with that.

He hadn’t even gotten his driver’s license before he’d ended up in Dongzhou. All he had was a permit, and his driving skills were severely out of practice. Not that he was eager to drive in this apocalyptic hellscape anyway.

The fact that Yujie trusted him enough to take the night watch meant something.

Xu Feng had noticed that she didn’t seem like the trusting type, but their arrangement had worked so far. He had never been on driving duty, and Yujie never questioned his ability to handle the night shifts. It was a balance that kept them moving forward safely.

It was still relatively early in the afternoon according to the van’s clock, and Xu Feng was riding the high of adrenaline from the previous night’s watch.

He would usually wait another hour or two before trying to sleep, but the bumpy ride and the sound of Yujie’s voice lulled him into a strange sense of security.

"When you wake up, we’ll either be near your ’safe haven,’ or we’ll be getting ready to stop for the night," Yujie teased, her voice carrying a bit of humor as she glanced at him in the rearview mirror.

It hadn’t taken much convincing to get Yujie to agree to take him to Xu Zeng’s little base at the agricultural school. Xu Feng had been ready to barter for supplies or make a deal, but she seemed oddly content to spend a few extra days with him.

He wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t going to question it.

"If you insist," Xu Feng replied with a small smile, settling into his seat.

It was strange—if he were sent back to Dongzhou today, he wouldn’t exactly be eager to return, but he knew he’d miss Yujie and her boys. They had become friends, even if their bond had formed under less-than-ideal circumstances.

After everything they’d been through in the past week, Xu Feng knew he’d be willing to take more than one bullet for any of the three sitting in this van with him.

He closed his eyes, thinking about how far he had come.

There was no way he could have made it this far by himself. He didn’t know how to hot-wire a car, and apparently, he was too trusting for his own good.

His reflexes had improved, thanks to his recent awakening, but in those first few days in this world, he hadn’t fully adapted.

Hell, he wasn’t fully adapted even now, and he didn’t want to be.

The Feng trio had done more than transport him and feed him. They had made it possible for him to survive without suffering the harshest learning curves.

It was almost like being in the ’luxury mode’ of the apocalypse, and Xu Feng found that thought amusing. They had given him time to adjust, to figure things out, and for that, he was grateful.

He smiled, thinking back to one of their recent stops. Yujie and the boys had accompanied him to ransack a children’s store on the side of a not-too-busy street.

Like the bookstore he had looted earlier, this was one of the places most people left untouched. In an apocalypse, children’s items weren’t exactly high on anyone’s list.

The boys loved the trip, especially when Xu Feng managed to snag a few items that still had some use. He’d been so excited that he’d nearly forgotten to be cautious, tossing entire shelves worth of supplies into his space.

That first store had been a little too much, and he’d learned to pace himself after that. Throwing entire inventories into his space was exhausting, and even with crystal cores to ease his fatigue, there was still a limit to how much he could handle.

Now, as he let himself drift off to sleep in the back of the van, he felt oddly at peace.

They still had a long way to go, but for the first time in days, Xu Feng felt like he was exactly where he needed to be.