Doing It Too Often Wrecks Your Memory

Running through tunnels was easy; digging them was hard.

Shen Jin marked the company's location on the map and returned the way he had come.

On the way, he stopped by Room Ten of the "Xuan" section to store the supplies.

Mooncakes were nothing special. He could turn over any household and find a whole pile of them.

But vacuum-packed cooked meat was hard to come by. With the entire city's power having been out for three months, almost all fresh meat had already rotted.

Most of Q City had been occupied by zombies. With no farming or livestock breeding, meat would become scarcer and scarcer until it vanished completely.

"This is way better than the frozen meat from that cold storage warehouse last time."

At least this was cooked and flavorful!

Shen Jin couldn't exactly eat an entire warehouse of chilled raw meat by itself, could he?

"If I get the chance later, keeping a chef wouldn't be a bad idea."

Time passed unnoticed underground. Shen Jin checked his watch. It was already six in the evening.

After walking such a long distance that afternoon, plus the weight training in full iron armor, Shen Jin was exhausted.

After putting everything away, he smashed through the wall and returned to the Secret Room in the basement.

Seeing that nothing inside had been moved, Shen Jin cautiously crossed through the open space in the middle.

Click, click.

After leaving the Secret Room, Shen Jin suddenly felt that something was off.

Li Moxiao was squatting sadly amid ten unopened packs of Bottled Water.

And they were all the large barrels.

"Ah, haha. You're awake," Shen Jin said with an awkward laugh.

Li Moxiao raised her little face, still not fully washed clean, and looked at him pitifully. "Uncle, I found so many Springs of Life, but... I'm so sad."

The moment she mentioned the words "Springs of Life," Li Moxiao wanted to cry.

She had been crying tears of gratitude that afternoon, only to wake up and find water all over beneath the sofa!

Thinking of how solemnly she had washed her face in that basin of water, Li Moxiao felt her blood pressure rising.

She had turned the last half-bottle of Bottled Water into muddy sludge while washing her face.

It had nearly clogged the toilet when she poured it in!

She had to add a little extra water before it finally went down.

This was outrageous!

Aaaah!

The devastated Li Moxiao burst into tears on the spot. Even now, she didn't dare touch the water, afraid of making Shen Jin unhappy.

She could only cling pitifully to the ten barrels and wait for Shen Jin to come back.

If he let her use a little more water to clean herself up, she felt her look could still be saved.

Seeing this poor little soot-faced kitten, Shen Jin felt he had been a little too cautious and stingy. After all, he had already opened up an underground well and was not short on clean water at all.

As if performing a magic trick, he pulled two packets of instant noodles from behind his back.

Li Moxiao's expression went from sadness—

(¬_¬)

—to surprise—

(⊙x⊙;)

—and finally... obedient.jpg.

(°_°)

"I'll make you noodles for dinner."

Shen Jin had already planned to give his little niece some instant noodles that night, but he had not expected the effect to be so immediate.

Her tear-stained face instantly became utterly adorable. Shen Jin felt that all his charm rested on food.

Li Moxiao rested her hands obediently on her knees. Her eyes curved like crescents, her cheeks were round, and she looked adorable.

In an especially cutesy voice, she said, "Uncle is so nice. Uncle is the best! Love you~"

Ah, that felt good. Shen Jin grinned smugly.

He walked to the kitchen area in the basement, where there was only a gas canister and a small pot with a steamer insert.

Before Shen Jin could pour in the water, Li Moxiao sweetly asked, "But... if there are only two packs of noodles, what will Uncle eat?"

The large bottle of mineral water in Shen Jin's hand slipped, and he nearly fell.

"Li Moxiao, you're pushing it! It's already good enough that I'm letting you eat. If it weren't for my uncle's cousin's... cousin's..."

Shen Jin's mind turned to mush. Who the hell could remember that?

"The daughter of your niece's older brother's sworn brother," Li Moxiao hurriedly supplied.

"Oh, right. My niece's older brother's... uncle?"

Li Moxiao corrected him again, "Sworn brother's daughter."

"Oh, right, a sworn brother's daughter. Thanks."

"You're welcome. The doctor said doing that too often is bad for your memory. I understand~"

Shen Jin stared at her in shock. "Really? I did feel that lately, I've been—"

Seeing the gossip blazing in Li Moxiao's eyes—

Shen Jin roared, "Get out of here! Is memorizing this the only thing you're good at? If you're so capable, why can't you find food yourself? Why are you mooching off me?"

Li Moxiao looked aggrieved. "I came out to look for food. That's how I ended up here."

Shen Jin was speechless for a moment. He actually had no comeback.

This was someone who had not even feared zombies in her search for food.

With a dark face, he cooked the two packets of noodles. Then, under Li Moxiao's pitiful gaze, he divided them into two bowls.

"Here!"

He pushed a bowl in front of Li Moxiao and sat down as well.

"Ooh~~"

Li Moxiao dragged out the sound and stared resentfully at the noodles in Shen Jin's bowl, as though he had stolen her family's rice.

Shen Jin had originally planned to give both packets to Li Moxiao. The girl's face was waxy yellow; she must have been starving and malnourished.

But seeing how haughty she was, acting as though she were perfectly at home here, Shen Jin felt annoyed.

So he decided that instant noodles would be dinner tonight. To hell with hotpot and everything else!

This bowl of noodles concerned the sovereignty and status of his home!

After taking a few bites, Li Moxiao suddenly stopped.

Shen Jin gave her a puzzled look. "What's wrong? Are my noodles not good?"

Li Moxiao's voice instantly turned sickeningly sweet. "I remember there's a packet of pickled mustard greens in your right pocket."

Shen Jin was speechless, then immediately snapped:

"Instant noodles are salty enough!"

"I want pickled mustard greens, Uncle~"

"Too much salt can cause cardiovascular disease!"

"Mmm~~ I want it, I want it!"

"Save it for when we eat rice. Won't that be nicer?"

"Sure enough, I'm just an insignificant little girl."

Shen Jin covered his face. "Unbelievable! You've really reached the pinnacle, little sister. The moment you open your mouth, you're all tsundere!"

In the end, the pickled mustard greens were still placed on the table.

The two bickered while eating instant noodles with pickled mustard greens. Led by Li Moxiao, Shen Jin followed suit and licked his bowl clean.

Great, now they would save water.

After Li Moxiao finished eating, Shen Jin handed her a romance novel and told her to read it by candlelight.

After sending off his bargain little niece, Shen Jin returned to the Secret Room.

"Instant noodles with pickled mustard greens are actually pretty good."

Shen Jin felt they tasted even better than the steak he had eaten at noon. There was an inexplicable deliciousness to them.

That flavor felt a little warm.

"Youth is wonderful. Too bad you ran into the apocalypse."

What had he been doing when he was sixteen? Right, that was the year his parents had both disappeared, and Shen Jin's life had changed completely.

From that day on, Shen Jin seemed to rarely leave home, becoming the shut-in loser his classmates talked about.

Even though his college entrance exam score had not been low, he had still applied to a local university. There was no other reason—he wanted to stay close to home and return every day to the house his parents had left him.

It was not until he finished four years of university that Shen Jin finally opened his heart again.

After graduating from university, he joined Wanyu Group and worked there for two years.

He had thought that a weak-current engineer position at a real estate company would let him put his university knowledge and skills to good use.

Instead—

Aside from fixing computers, he changed printer cartridges.

Oh, right, and he had to fiddle with that damned projector every single day!

Even now, Shen Jin did not understand why nobody in the company could learn to use a projector remote with only six buttons???

Were they all seriously idiots?

Over those two years, thanks to the real estate industry, Shen Jin earned a respectable salary and lived a stable life. Many of his classmates envied him for finding a job that paid well, required little work, and was close to home.

But Shen Jin was not satisfied.

He proposed route optimization plans for the company, promoted it through multimedia channels, built an online livestreaming platform, and even created its own portal website.

The results were genuinely excellent and brought the company considerable profits.

Whenever anyone mentioned Shen Jin, they had to give him a thumbs-up.

The kid had solid technical skills and got things done!

Then, when they selected a department manager, the chairman's niece, who had only graduated middle school, was successfully chosen!

The next day, Shen Jin resigned.

The past flowed through Shen Jin's eyes like a river of stars. In the blink of an eye, it disappeared again.

Shen Jin wondered what would have happened if Li Moxiao had not met him today.

Now, for a sixteen-year-old girl, being tall and beautiful was instead a crime.

Fortunately, those people had not done anything to her, so Shen Jin was willing to give people who still possessed a conscience a chance.

So long as they could pass this test.

Lights flickered inside the three underground pits, and a projector cast images onto the walls.

The three people, who had been groggy, instantly sobered up.

The image flickered for a moment before stopping at an angle. A doll wearing an eerie smile slowly turned its head.

"Hello, I want to play a game."

The contract has been signed, so invest while you can. First come, first served.