After an entire day of target practice, Huo Zaiyuan is pleased to note that his accuracy has improved quite a bit.
When dinnertime approaches, he takes out a carp, onions, coriander, shallots and a handful of soybeans. First removing the head and tail, then put them in the pressure cooker before adding the soybeans into the soup to stew. As for the body of the carp, after scaling it, he adds some rice wine and soy sauce to marinate it before chopping it up into bite-size pieces to pan-fry. Finally, the onions and shallots are stir-fried with shiitake mushrooms, sliced beef and soybean paste.
"Smells really fragrant. Little Yuan's culinary skills are truly becoming more and more amazing." Long Zhanye's mouth waters as he walks into the canteen and is met with the delicious aroma of hot food. Mouth curving into a small smile, he directly heads towards Huo Zaiyuan.
Seeing Long Zhanye sidle up to him, bright eyes lock onto the pieces of fish still frying in the pan, Huo Zaiyuan grins faintly. "Cooking is a skill I am gifted with." Nimbly lifting the pan and flipping the meat within, he reaches out with his unoccupied hand and pushes Long Zhanye away gently. "I still need a moment to finish cooking. Older brother Long, why don't you go take a bath first?"
For the whole day, Long Zhanye finished the repairs for his Hummer, overhauling the engine to ensure absolutely nothing is wrong before allowing Huo Zaiyuan to store it back in the interdimensional space. After that, he taught Huo Zaiyuan how to use a gun properly, then as the younger man continues practising, he decides to kill some time by checking each room on the second and third floor over once more. This time, he discovers a small drawer containing several camouflage uniforms, military attires and bullet-proof vests hidden in a corner of the armoury.
Long Zhanye is not mysophobic, as during his special training regime a few years ago, he was left on an uninhabited island for an entire month. In this period, he didn't have the luxury of bathing often or have a clean change of clothes on hand, thus, he is used to it. But currently, although it is the apocalypse, he is not on an uninhabited island. These past couple of days scaling walls, fighting zombies and retrieving his car are perspire-inducing activities. The sticky feeling over his entire body is one that he finds a little unbearable.
Calling Huo Zaiyuan over to select a change of clothes from the stack he found, he heads to the lavatory on the second floor to bathe and change, finally feeling refreshed.
~~~
When Long Zhanye returns from the bath, Huo Zaiyuan has already placed all the dishes on the table as well as the bowls and cutlery. Turning his head, he catches an eyeful of naked flesh. Honey-coloured skin, toned, muscled body similar to a sculpture, eight-pack abs that are the jealousy of every man on earth. A raised eyebrow immediately changes to a small frown as he sees water droplets falling from dark spiky hair down onto the floor. With a wave of his hand, he produces a white bath towel.
"Dry your hair, lest you catch a cold."
"Don't worry, ever since I was a baby, I rarely fall sick." Although he says this, Long Zhanye still accepts the towel and dries his hair.
As the two begins to eat dinner, Huo Zaiyuan eyes the man opposite him and slowly asks. "Older brother Long, do you have any fruits and vegetables you like to eat?"
"Fruits and vegetables? I don't have anything I like more than the others. I'm easy to feed. Not a picky eater."
"I can tell."
"What's up?" Long Zhanye inquires curiously, feeling that this youth has a lot of secrets, but since he doesn't want to share, he wouldn't pry.
"There's a field in my space which can be used as a plantation. Before the apocalypse, I collected quite a bit of fruit and vegetable seeds. Now that we are staying here for the time being, I have a bit of free time, so I was thinking to plant some crops." Huo Zaiyuan admits directly.
Even though Long Zhanye is aware that Huo Zaiyuan's space is capable of storing vast quantities of items, he never imagined there is even a plantation within. That space truly defies natural order ah!
"Little Yuan, if you are able to grow crops within, then what about rearing livestock? Like chicken, ducks, etc..." Eyes shining bright, Long Zhanye's little heart starts calculating again. Obviously, if Huo Zaiyuan says it is possible, he will think of ways to acquire a flock of chicks and ducklings to rear in the space so they wouldn't need to worry about lacking chicken or duck meat in the future.
Only it's a pity...
"That's impossible. I've experimented before. Besides me, any other living beings cannot exist within the space." Regarding this matter, he also feels it is such a pity.