Chapter 224 - 191: Wu Yue’s Ex-Girlfriend

Chapter 224: Chapter 191: Wu Yue’s Ex-Girlfriend

Their conversation had delayed them for quite a while. By the time the bamboo shoots were sliced and blanched, it was already twelve-thirty.

In May, the weather was already scorching at noon. The roaring fire in the stove turned the tiny kitchen into a steaming sauna. Zhou Qian wiped the sweat from his forehead. Turning to see Huai Yu still wearing long sleeves, he couldn’t help but sigh. "Go wait outside. It’s too hot to cook in here."

Huai Yu nodded. "Then I’ll go check on the well again. Those biomaterial bricks feel so cool and comfortable!"

Thinking for a moment, Zhou Qian simmered the bamboo shoots with the meat and vegetables Huai Yu had hung in the well. Seeing that the rice in the next pot was just about done, he left it alone and offered, "Is it inconvenient for you to get water over there? I’ll bring two buckets over for you later. The well-digging craftsmanship here is pretty good, and the soil layer inside is very solid. The water is cool and refreshing right now. It’s really nice."

Although there was inevitably still some slight pollution, and the taste wasn’t as sweet and crisp as water from a few years ago, it really wasn’t bad at all.

Huai Yu shook her head. "I have water too, and it’s very clean. Brother Zhou Qian, you just need to help me set up the water vat later."

Zhou Qian couldn’t help but feel a bit curious. He hadn’t dared to get too close to observe carefully before, and with so much happening that morning to distract him, he hadn’t looked into it that deeply. Thinking it over, he remembered there was only a pond near Huai Yu’s place. It was quite large. He wondered if the water in the pond was very clean. Didn’t she say she was raising fish in it?

At this thought, his expression turned peculiar again. He realized that this girl, who was currently happily serving the rice, still had secrets she hadn’t completely spilled. However, judging by her previous candor, she probably wasn’t hiding things on purpose; she just had so many secrets that she forgot. But thinking about it this way made him even more conflicted. She really was just a bundle of secrets wrapped in human form. He wondered if her hometown was in a secret garden.

But no matter how many secrets there were, they weren’t worth mentioning in the face of delicious food.

To be honest, six years after the catastrophe, people’s lives had nothing to do with culinary delights anymore. What most people ate every day were Life-Sustaining Meals. Sometimes, because the ingredients tasted so awful, they preferred to choose nutrient solutions. This was despite the authorities repeatedly emphasizing that they couldn’t be consumed long-term as they would cause gastrointestinal atrophy. But as for other plants and animals, if the cooking skills were even slightly lacking, the resulting dish would be just as unpalatable.

Only those who dared to risk everything and fight to earn more Contribution Points could eat decent, swallowable food during these six years post-catastrophe.

The Defense Army’s meals were actually decent, but no matter how skilled the chefs were, the taste was still worlds apart from before. Zhou Qian was similarly used to drinking nutrient solutions and eating compressed rations. And now, Huai Yu, who felt she had already confessed all her secrets, made no attempt to hide anything. Using her Superpower, she cleanly eradicated the Mutant Value from the water to the rice and the dishes.

Because the rice was simply too old, it was currently only at the level of being edible. But the bullfrog, pheasant, and the eggplants, string beans, and bamboo shoots stewed inside were all fresh. After a bit of preparation, Zhou Qian was now eating so eagerly he didn’t even lift his head.

Only Huai Yu stared at the scorched rice—soft and sticky on top, burnt black on the bottom—and then looked at Zhou Qian, who was completely oblivious and eating with relish. She gained a whole new understanding of his lack of refinement.

HMPH. He had been jealous of Lin Xuefeng earlier, yet Lin Xuefeng, even when he was about to head to the Wilderness, had been attracted by her roasted beans and hadn’t even wanted to ruin their texture. The two of them simply didn’t share the same philosophy on life.

A large pot of rice was polished off completely by Zhou Qian. He didn’t even spare the burnt, blackened, and bitter crust at the bottom. As he ate, he remarked, "You picky little monster, it’s a good thing you lost your memory. Otherwise, if you remembered the things we had to eat during those years of the catastrophe, you probably wouldn’t even want to live."

Huai Yu thought of the tree cocoon she couldn’t find and kind of wanted to tell Zhou Qian about it, but then she remembered she had a terribly embarrassing ex-boyfriend. She decided to let it go. She realized that if Zhou Qian guessed she had lost her memory because of her ex-boyfriend, she would never be able to show her face again! She’d talk about it next time there was a chance.

But besides the tree cocoon, he basically knew everything else.

So, Huai Yu leaned closer and asked, "I told you about the boyfriend from my dreams when we were in the hospital, and you suddenly asked me what I thought of Wu Yue... Did you think he was my ex-boyfriend?

"I thought about it a lot. He’s the only one who could be so obnoxious before we even met. For a friendly person like me to hate him, it must have been his fault to begin with.

"Oh, I don’t mean his house. I mean, even seeing his mother made me completely disgusted."

Zhou Qian was somewhat surprised. "You even met his mother?"

"Of course!" Huai Yu put on a haughty, superior posture. "Call me Madam—tsk, reeking of some stuffy feudal matriarch vibe. It was a major turn-off."

Having gotten familiar with Zhou Qian, her words had clearly become much sharper. "Tell me, when I was in my twenties, was I really dating Wu Yue? What did I even see in him?"

Zhou Qian couldn’t even swallow the food in his mouth.

"Maybe..." He slowly chewed his final mouthful of rice, his expression gradually turning solemn. "Is it possible that you know how to do everything now because of your previous job requirements?"

Huai Yu instantly became depressed. "You mean a housewife?"

But Zhou Qian shook his head, then looked her up and down. "Could you have been a government official? Back in the day, government officials had to go down to the countryside for poverty alleviation."

Huai Yu was speechless. She swore that the label she had stuck on Zhou Qian was entirely one-sided. This guy was clearly a master of deadpan jokes!

But jokes aside, they still needed to analyze the situation properly.

"General Wu... fine, Wu Yue. He once described a woman’s appearance to me."

Zhou Qian had a good memory and could still vaguely recall the look of the photo. "She was in her twenties or thirties, wearing light makeup. My judgment might not be perfectly accurate, but she radiated a strong sense of exhaustion and gloom. It was completely different from your vibrant energy, Little Yu.

"Looking closely, the two of you do bear some resemblance—but, I remember she had distinct double eyelids."

As for the Huai Yu standing before him, her eyes were sharp and clear, vivid and moist, but they were unmistakably phoenix eyes.

For some unknown reason, hearing the term "double eyelids" caused a sudden wave of stifling frustration to well up in Huai Yu’s chest! She carefully calculated her age again. "The me in the dream was also in her twenties. If we dated for a few more years, I would’ve been nearly thirty.

"The name and appearance are both very similar... No way, right? How could I have ended up so miserable in the past? Haggard and gloomy—was there nothing happy in my life? What about my career? Did I not even have a career?"

She looked at Zhou Qian; she wondered if she didn’t even have a career, did that mean she definitely never had a luxury mansion and male servants either?

Zhou Qian couldn’t handle her pitiful gaze at all. Thinking about it, he could only offer, "Data used to be transmitted through the network. I’ll ask around later to see if there’s a local backup.

"However, General Wu... alright, alright, Wu Yue. After Wu Yue catalyzed the growth of the Rose Corridor, he shot to fame in a single battle. Everyone should be well-aware of his background.

"If he really had an ex-girlfriend, there’s no way not even a sliver of news would have leaked out, right?"