With a cute pink apron around her waist and dressed in a pair of white rabbit slippers, Yao Yao brought out some steamy hotpot in excitement and walked in front of the table with hasty steps.
Yao Yao had always been the meticulous one.
On the contrary, Lin Lin was the complete opposite.
With a pair of chopsticks in her hands, Lin Lin stared at the fresh vegetables and meat with a delicate tongue half hidden between her lips.
"WOAH! We have hotpot! Delicious hotpot~""Don't just wait to eat - help Yao Yao out."
Jiang Chen took apart the packaged food "magically" and lay the beef strips, still with ice shards present, onto the plate. Jiang Chen mocked Lin Lin, who was staring eagerly at the food.
The preservation function of the storage dimension was extremely powerful.
"No, it's okay." Yao Yao's face quickly turned red when Jiang Chen showed care for her. Her lips murmured, "It doesn't take a lot of people to prepare hotpot; having Sister Xiaorou to help is more than enough."
"Did you hear that? Yao Yao said it's okay." Lin Lin proudly lifted her chin.
Jiang Chen looked at her, speechless.
He didn't understand she had to be proud of.Just as Yao Yao said, preparing hotpot didn't require a complicated procedure.
The family gathered around the dinner table. It didn't take long before the soup began to boil.
Lin Lin's actions were swift as she put vegetables into the hotpot. It gave her satisfaction to see the food she put into the hotpot turn into deliciousness as someone who didn't know how to cook.
This was the joy of eating hotpot.
Of course, the most fulfilling part about eating hotpot was the family gathering together to talk while sitting together.
Jiang Chen was glad he chose to reveal the secret to Sun Jiao and Yao Yao and stopped weaving a "beautiful lie."
One lie would lead to ten more lies to keep up the lie.
The moment the lie is exposed, the rift created with the people one cared about isn't something that could be fixed with mere apologies.
Unlike now?
Jiang Chen was able to sit in front of the dinner table and use a casual tone to freely discuss what happened in that world. He looked at their envious expressions and listened to their opinions about this other world. Jiang Chen spoke about Future Group, MLL Island, and finally, Kurofune.
"Kurofune? How could someone be so dumb? If they want to become bugs, just do it themselves." Sun Jiao popped out her tongue and tossed a spicy beef strip into her already reddened mouth before she chewed with joy.
Compared to the herbivore, Yao Yao, Sun Jiao was the definition of a carnivore.
Of course, because of the effects of the genetic vaccine on metabolism, she would never get fat from eating.
"Well, that's not entirely accurate." Compared to her sister, Sun Xiaorou's opinion was more compassionate. "I heard that before the war, NATO used democracy to launch a propaganda attack against PAC and successfully caused a riot in South East Asia. Sister Junhua lead a mechanized infantry to suppress the riot there?"
"A riot… is different from Kurofune." Jiang Chen let out a sigh.
"It's the same." Lin Lin put down her chopsticks. With a casual tone, she said, "Humans have always had unrealistic fantasies about the outside world. Conquering foreign provinces, foreign countries, and now, escalating to extraterrestrial civilizations on a cosmic scale… it's the same thing. How could they live? How could they solve the problem we're facing? That's something to long for… That's basically the idea. Distance creates beauty, and any fascination with beauty is almost always blind."
Jiang Chen looked at Lin Lin with surprise.
"Why... why are you looking at me?" Lin Lin began to feel embarrassed under Jiang Chen's direct stare; her face began to heat up as she responded with a hard stare.
"I didn't think Lin Lin would say something so deep." A smile appeared on Sun Jiao's face as she joked.
Yao Yao also nodded with agreement and looked at Yao Yao in disbelief.
"That's enough! I'm a scientist at least! Don't look at me like that - I'm older than all of you guys added together! And I'm not the type that slept for twenty years!" Lin Lin, covered in a red hue, spoke while tossing about her tiny fists.
Everyone began to laugh. Sun Xiaorou, who was sitting beside Lin Lin, gently caressed her head. "For a girl, being old isn't something to brag about."
Lin Lin's mouth pouted while she relished Sun Xiaorou's caress. She didn't say anything else.
Sun Jiao took a swig of the coke and said nonchalantly, "The world beyond the stars seems to be far away."
"Yes… it's hard to imagine," Yao Yao agreed in a meager voice.
"Compared to distances in space, distances in time is even more fascinating… I don't even know if I'll be able to see the final showdown in a hundred years," Jiang Chen joked.
"That might not be true." Lin Lin's ears wiggled and she raised her head. "There are plenty of ways to increase your lifespan…"
She turned her head out of shyness and said with textbook tsundere, "Since… if you die too early, I… I'll get bored."
The life of digitalized humans was much longer than humans. The more sophisticated the modifications, the longer the lifespan.
Jiang Chen took a moment to process that before he chuckled.
"Why-why are you laughing?!" Lin Lin was slightly angry.
"Lin Lin is a very honest girl," Xiaorou said with a smile. Her eyes radiated an intrigued light.
"Yao Yao will also be lonely!" Yao Yao raised her hand with courage without backing down.
Because of her delayed growth, Yao Yao, who was supposed to be undergoing puberty, hadn't grown at all. Based on what Lin Lin said, with her current growth speed, she would still be a little loli in ten years.
In theory, her life would also be long.
Sun Jiao sighed and said with her usual straightforwardness, "Then everyone will live forever together."
"Sister, from a different perspective, eternal life is also a curse." Xiaorou's words had a more profound meaning.
"Is that so? Living eternally is considered a curse?" Sun Jiao said without feeling bothered.
"But to be with someone interesting, even for an eternity, it wouldn't be boring. Right?" Xiaorou peeked at Jiang Chen before letting out a sigh.
Eternal life…
For people with power, it was indeed attractive.
Jiang Chen suddenly remembered the secret about eternal life from Bo Yu at the Dusk Church. He suddenly looked at Sun Jiao and asked, "Sun Jiao, where is your home… Fallout Shelter 071?"
"Fallout Shelter 071? Oh, well... it should be near Hucheng. Why?" Sun Jiao chewed while tilting her head to think.
"I made up my mind!" Jiang Chen suddenly stood up. "The destination we'll conquer will be Hucheng!"
Sun Jiao looked at Jiang Chen peculiarly as she swallowed down her food.
"Are you sure? Hucheng is 500 kilometers from here!"
The path was filled with zombies, mutants, raiders, mutated humans, and cannibals… Powerful lone travelers or a merchant fleet protected by mercenaries might purposely traverse such a long distance while barely managing to survive, but in order for a large unit like an army to travel such a long distance, it created an immense logistical pressure.
But Jiang Chen responded with a smile.
"Don't forget, we have a steel airship!"
