Chapter 22

Wu Peng was caught off guard when Elsa suddenly requested to stay.

They were a young man and a woman who were neither relatives nor lovers. It was inappropriate for a man and a woman to live alone together.

Would there be a misunderstanding if Ye Wei knew about this?

Elsa noticed Wu Peng’s hesitation when she saw his head lowered in silence.

Her tears fell once again, “I know that taking care of an extra person in this post-apocalyptic world is a burden, but I will not live here for free. I’ll help you make meals and tidy the house. I can even do needlework and mend your clothes.

Wu Peng felt a chill when he saw Elsa’s red eyes cry. What he feared most were a woman’s tears.

He felt that Elsa was right the more he thought about it. As the facilities in the shelter get more and more complete, he would have to spend an increasing amount of time on the shelter.

Just to clean the entire shelter took him a large amount of time.

The production station could produce a cleaning robot, but it was expensive and required a lot of power.

Making meals was also a large problem. He did not know anything else except to process the wheat he grew into flour and make them into buns.

It made his head hurt whenever he saw a bun.

More importantly, humans are social creatures. It was not enough that he had food and water, he needed to communicate with someone.

A huge reason why Wu Peng would run over to where Ye Wei was once every couple of days was to find someone to talk to.

His mental state might develop problems if he did not interact with anyone for a long time.

There were no psychologists in this post-apocalyptic world to help tenderly adjust his mental state.

After he considered the various aspects, Wu Peng extended his right hand toward Elsa, “If you do not mind, let us survive together in this post-apocalyptic world.”

Elsa opened her eyes wide in surprise. She wiped the tears off her face and held tightly onto Wu Peng’s hand. “Wu Peng!”

“Elsa!”

Both of them had faint smiles on their faces.

Since there was now a new member in the shelter, Wu Peng had to help Elsa familiarize herself with the surroundings.

Wu Peng walked in front and led the way while Elsa followed closely behind.

All Elsa had done when she came here was talk about her bitter past. She had not had the chance to explore the shelter.

She swept the shelter with her gaze, noticing that Wu Peng’s shelter was a little smaller than the shelter at her house. After all, Elsa’s father had built the shelter to house three people.

The next thing she noticed was that Wu Peng’s shelter was much messier than hers.

Since Wu Peng was a crass man, he was not as meticulous in his day to day life as Elsa and her mother would be.

He would not bother to sweep the floor as long as there was no thick layer of dust. He had never wiped the tables and chairs in his shelter either.

“It’s so dirty. Don’t you ever clean this place?” Elsa could not help but complain.

Wu Peng let out two awkward dry coughs, “I have been very busy recently. I always kept the place clean in the past.”

Elsa knew that Wu Peng was boasting but she did not expose him. She had already come up with a cleaning plan in her mind.

He saw that the young lady dared to complain about him and decided to impose a little threat to scare her just in case he would not be able to control her in the future. “Elsa, you have to listen carefully. This is the production station. You are not allowed to touch it, understand?”

Elsa saw his stern expression and quickly nodded to signify that she had committed his instructions to memory.

Wu Peng secretly felt good when he saw how obedient Elsa was. He brought her over to the nursery and said, “This is the place where I grow crops. You must not touch this without my permission. Otherwise, we would all go hungry.”

“Understood,” Elsa said.

Wu Peng nodded with satisfaction. He brought Elsa over to the gym and said, “This is the gym. You can come and train your body if you have nothing to do. Having a good body and spirit is very important. I will not care about you if you become weak and frail in the future!”

“I’ll remember that,” Elsa said while she looked at the equipment.

Wu Peng introduced Elsa to all the other facilities and equipment in the shelter.

Elsa became increasingly shocked after the more she saw. Wu Peng looked like he was just over 20 years old, but the facilities in his shelter were rather complete.

It could be said that he thought of everything. This shelter was more impressive than the shelter her father built.

She estimated the value of the facilities in her mind and guessed that Wu Peng was a rich man before the apocalypse.

“Brother Peng, what did you do before the apocalypse? The price of these facilities is not cheap. You must have bought and built them before the apocalypse, right?” Elsa asked after her curiosity peaked.

When Wu Peng heard Elsa call him “Brother Peng”, he suddenly realized that he could claim Elsa as his sister if Ye Wei knew about her existence in the future.

“Since you are calling me Brother Peng, I’ll call you Little Sister in the future. Tell any other people we encounter from now that you are my cousin,” Wu Peng said.

Elsa obediently called him Brother Peng again in a hurry.

Wu Peng chose to pretend to not hear Elsa’s question. He could have lied to her but lies often required more lies to cover up, and he did not have the energy to come up with new lies all day long.

After he explained all of the facilities in the shelter to Elsa, she said that she wanted to take a shower. After all, girls liked to be clean. Wu Peng had to accede to her request.

However, there was a new problem. Elsa had no other clothes to change into. The original outfit she wore was a simple set of pajamas that were severely damaged when she ran away earlier.

It was easy for things to go wrong between man and woman. Wu Peng did not want to give this pitiful girl a new trauma.

He took advantage of time while Elsa showered and ran to the production station. He accessed the operating pod and started to search for the clothing selection. “Sss, why are there only things like bulletproof protective gear. Are there no ordinary clothes?”

Wu Peng scratched his head in his anxiety. He knew that Elsa was about to be done showering soon.

Water was a precious resource in the post-apocalyptic world. Everyone, male or female, young or old, would shower very quickly as they were afraid to waste water.

Wu Peng heard the door of the bathroom open, and Elsa’s voice rang out, “Brother Peng? Where are you?”

“Uhh… I have some matters to finish up,” Wu Peng said anxiously.

“Oh.” Wu Peng heard Elsa give him a reply before becoming quiet.

He heaved a long sigh and quickly flipped through the catalog only to finally find lifestyle wear in the daily necessities section.

Even though the style of the clothes was average, it was nothing to complain about in this post-apocalyptic world.

He quickly made a shirt and a pair of trousers, carried the set of clothes, and carefully opened the door of the room. He headed to the main hall and looked around. “Where’s she?”

The main hall was empty. He did not know where Elsa had gone.

“Elsa, I’m coming out!” Wu Peng loudly voiced his intentions before he came to the main hall. He suddenly smelled a fragrant scene waft from the kitchen.

He quickly opened the door of the kitchen and saw that Elsa was cooking. When he looked closely, he could tell that she made the dress from bedsheets. “You made that just now?”

Elsa saw Wu Peng stand by the door and smiled, “Brother Peng, lunch is almost ready. Just wait a little longer.”