Radio

Lu Xi'an indeed felt quite lucky.

This radio, without a battery, was sometimes better than one with a battery installed.

After all, batteries could leak. If this radio had a battery inside and it leaked, wouldn't it contaminate and ruin the radio?

Now, regardless of whether the radio was broken or not, at least the possibility of it being ruined by a leaking battery was eliminated.

With the experience of finding the radio, Lu Xi'an tried tapping on the round wooden walls, the ceiling, and the small tiled floor.

He found nothing.

However, he didn't feel discouraged. Coming here and managing to retrieve the radio was already a great success.

After all, Yao Wei's car didn't even have a radio.

And if he hadn't come, how would he have seen this cliffside cave dug out from the former world?

It was good to be able to see such a novel place.

After putting the radio away, he left the cave and used the same method as before, using his axe to chisel upwards along the cliff face.

However, climbing up required an extra action and much more effort than climbing down—

As he ascended, he had to tuck his body in, then forcefully push off with his legs to gain momentum, leap up, and swing his axe again.

He continued this way all the way to the top, where Yao Wei reached out and pulled him up.

Having survived in the apocalypse for a long time, Yao Wei's hands were a bit rough, just like his.

But even though they were rough, they were also soft and warm, feeling quite comfortable to the touch.

Lu Xi'an felt that Yao Wei's hands were much warmer than his own, but seeing how energetic she looked, she didn't seem to have a fever.

New Humans didn't get fevers easily.

This woman must have been born this way.

"How is it? Are you okay?"

After Lu Xi'an climbed up, he let go of Yao Wei's hand and asked.

"I'm fine, no one came."

Yao Wei replied.

She was much better now than before. If it were when they first met, Yao Wei definitely wouldn't have said more than a word.

For a sentence like "I'm fine, no one came," she would have only said the first two words, not the last four.

But now it was different.

And after saying those six words, Yao Wei even asked, "What about you? How was it down there?"

Lu Xi'an said, "There wasn't much inside, just a table, a beanbag chair, a kettle, and a cup. Everything was moldy and unusable."

Yao Wei asked with some curiosity, "Beanbag chair?"

Lu Xi'an explained, "It's a soft, squishy sofa without a backrest. Sitting on it for too long is bad for your back."

"I see..."

Yao Wei nodded, indicating she understood.

Of course, she didn't understand what a beanbag chair looked like, but after hearing Lu Xi'an say it was bad for her back if she sat too long, she knew it was useless and lost interest.

Lu Xi'an took out the radio and said, "There was a fireplace inside, and I found the radio on top of it. It was probably hidden there by Fang Shuxin before his last departure.

"However, there was no battery inside, so I haven't tried it yet. I don't know if it works."

Yao Wei, just like Lu Xi'an, immediately thought of something and said, "We have batteries in the car."

Lu Xi'an smiled, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking too."

The two of them got into the car. Lu Xi'an handed the radio to Yao Wei, letting her fiddle with it, while he started the car and drove away.

The mountain road was narrow, so he couldn't turn around. He simply put the car in reverse and backed out.

As an experienced driver, this wasn't difficult for him. He just needed to drive a bit slower and pay more attention to the rearview mirror.

Yao Wei sat in the passenger seat, found the batteries, and installed them in the radio.

She carefully removed two batteries from the new pack, making sure not to damage the packaging too much, so the plastic wrap could still tightly enclose the other two new batteries.

Yao Wei's habit of saving things for a long time had never left her. Even when unpacking batteries, she was meticulous, avoiding any details that could cause problems later.

While Yao Wei was installing the batteries, Lu Xi'an deliberately turned his head to look at her a couple of times, ensuring she hadn't put the batteries in backward.

Fortunately, Yao Wei's knowledge in this area was sufficient. He wasn't sure if she had experience with these things before.

With the batteries installed and the cover snapped shut, under Lu Xi'an's guidance, she pressed the power button on top of the radio. A "zzzzzt" sound came from the speaker.

—It was the sound of static electricity coming from the speaker.

The radio had no signal.

Lu Xi'an suddenly braked and said, "Fang Shuxin said his place had no signal, but there used to be one here. Let's wait here for a bit and try to tune the channels?"

"Okay."

Yao Wei nodded and asked, "How do I tune it?"

She knew how to install the battery, but wasn't quite sure how to operate the radio, so she had to ask Lu Xi'an.

"Next to the buttons on top, there's a knob. Turn it."

As Lu Xi'an guided her, he asked Yao Wei, "Do you think we should drive the car back to its original position?"

Yao Wei looked out the car window and said, "We haven't gone very far yet."

"True."

Lu Xi'an nodded, then turned off the car and pulled up the handbrake.

He and Yao Wei got out of the car and he simply took the radio from Yao Wei's hands to operate it himself.

Yao Wei pursed her lips, wanting to operate it herself but knowing this was serious business, not playtime.

The expression on her face flashed by, but Lu Xi'an noticed it and said, "I'll try first, and you can play with it later."

"I'm not playing..."

Yao Wei mumbled a little displeasedly, feeling like Lu Xi'an was treating her like a child.

Only her mother had spoken to her like that, with that tone, when she was little.

"Okay, okay, it's not playing. You can have it later."

Lu Xi'an said perfunctorily, fiddling with the knob on top of the radio.

Yao Wei: "..."

It was still that tone!

Why was this guy a little annoying?!

However, Lu Xi'an's attention was now completely focused on the radio in his hands, and he didn't notice Yao Wei's slightly resentful expression.

He fiddled with the radio's knob, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes moving forward, sometimes backward, sometimes raising it high, lowering it, even climbing higher with an axe, or jumping back into the cliff cave.

Lu Xi'an made many attempts, but the radio only emitted static, with no other sound.

After trying for a long time, Lu Xi'an finally gave up: "Forget it, the Reconstruction Faction might be gone, or maybe no one plays with this stuff anymore. Let's go."

"Okay."

Yao Wei had no objections and got back into the car with Lu Xi'an.

Lu Xi'an tossed the radio to Yao Wei and then reversed out of the mountain road.

Yao Wei held the thing and, imitating Lu Xi'an, tried it herself.

Even though she knew it was useless, she still wanted to try.

I'll just try it once, then I'll take the battery out.

She thought to herself.

One or two tries shouldn't be a waste, right?

But as she fiddled with it, turning the knob, she suddenly found that the static had changed.

"Zzzt zzzt-- zzzt zzzt-- All-- zzzt zzzt-- Command-- zzzt zzzt--"

Third year of junior high, still asking for your support!

Thanks for your support!