Given Feng Jun's enthusiastic performance in 'paying his dues,' Li Lu reverted to her usual demure self.
Unlike before, Li Lu had recently become obsessed with barbecuing, so today's dinner was a two-person barbecue in the courtyard.
Feng Jun's original intention was for them to barbecue together, but Li Lu insisted that Feng Jun try her cooking.
After more than an hour of busy work, Feng Jun finally got to eat a few skewers of lamb that were roasted until they were shiny black.
Feng Jun bravely took a bite; with a gentle squeeze of his upper and lower teeth, the black meat clump turned into powder.
The rest of the skewers were either burnt or had half-raw fatty meat hanging on them.
Li Lu leaned her face close to Feng Jun, asking with concern, "How is it? Is it delicious?"
Feng Jun directly spat out the powder in his mouth, and Li Lu, unable to dodge, was sprayed with a face full of ash by him.
"The meat is a bit dry, it looks good, but don't barbecue again next time."
Li Lu knew her cooking wasn't good, and even though she was sprayed with ash, she didn't say anything more.
After making a mischievous face, she said, "If you can do better, you do it!"
"If I can, I will!" Feng Jun rolled up his sleeves and walked to the grill.
First, he picked up the cleaver from the cutting board and skillfully cut the lamb into appropriately sized pieces.
Then, he poured salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, honey, olive oil, and other seasonings into a basin, mixed them well, and then added the cut meat pieces to stir.
After stirring evenly, he took out the meat pieces and skewered them, combining fat and lean meat in a certain proportion.
He then adjusted the charcoal fire appropriately, placed the skewers on the rack, constantly flipped them, and continuously brushed them with oil.
After more than two hours of busy work, he took off the skewers and sprinkled them with the salt and pepper, cumin, and other seasonings he brought from the modern world.
A plate of tender, juicy, and delicious barbecued meat was prepared by Feng Jun.
Feng Jun wiped the sweat from his forehead and waved to Li Lu, who was lying idly by.
"It's done, come quickly and taste my craftsmanship."
Li Lu had already smelled the aroma of the barbecue, and after hearing Feng Jun say it was ready, she immediately sprang up like a carp and walked to the barbecue, her mouth watering uncontrollably.
The aroma of the barbecue kept drilling into her nostrils, greatly increasing Li Lu's appetite.
She picked up a skewer and put it directly into her mouth.
"Mmm~ Mmm~ Delicious."
Li Lu was immediately conquered by Feng Jun's secret grilled skewers.
Although she had eaten lamb skewers and similar items that Feng Jun brought back from the modern world before, the tender texture completely surpassed those dry, shriveled skewers.
The moment she ate it, Li Lu felt all the muscles in her body relax.
Her taste buds continuously sent pleasant signals to her brain, and Li Lu didn't even have time to communicate with Feng Jun, continuously picking up skewers and stuffing them into her mouth.
"Look at the way you're eating, don't rush, there's more," Feng Jun said.
Li Lu no longer cared about her image or her newly changed clothes; her face and chest were covered in grease.
After devouring more than ten skewers of barbecue, Li Lu finally slowed down her eating speed.
Feng Jun, meanwhile, hummed a tune as he cut a large piece of lamb into chunks and put it into the seasoning to mix, preparing to barbecue another batch of skewers for Li Lu.
Li Lu also moved closer, offering to help Feng Jun.
The two chatted back and forth, and their relationship deepened imperceptibly.
Soon, another batch of skewers was marinated and skewered.
Li Lu actively took over the grilling and oil-brushing, carefully flipping the skewers on the rack.
Suddenly, she heard Feng Jun humming a tune, and only then did she notice that Feng Jun seemed to be in a very good mood today.
So Li Lu asked, "You're in a good mood today, is there something good happening?"
"Of course, it's because of you!" Feng Jun said while skewering barbecue.
Hearing Feng Jun's praise, Li Lu was naturally overjoyed, but she still asked, "Is there nothing else?
You went out early today, is there anything else going on in the town? Tell me about it?"
"There's quite a bit," Feng Jun said as he started chatting with Li Lu.
He began to tell Li Lu about the things his subordinates reported to him: the trade between Longmen Town and Huaicheng District, the garrisons of the Blackwater Merchant Guild and the Zhu Hong Business Association, Yan Xin's research on Ape-men, and of course, the most important thing was the invention of Anti-corpse liquid.
With this secret weapon, it would be much easier to deal with zombies and Mutants in the future.
"However, there's one thing that's bothering me right now, and that is that cultivating Anti-corpse liquid requires a large number of zombies, and they must be live zombies, which means we need to find a way to capture zombies.
There are too few zombies in the wasteland; to capture a large number of them, we need to go to the ruins, but killing zombies is easy, while capturing live zombies is even harder.
We also need to figure out how to transport the zombies back.
Moreover, there are Mutants in the ruins, and if we encounter Mutants, we might not even catch any zombies and could suffer casualties," Feng Jun said.
Li Lu nodded and said, "Although we have the Anti-corpse liquid to deal with zombies, to produce it, we must have zombies.
Oh! I just remembered a place; there are a large number of ordinary zombies there, and it's far from the Shangqing City Wasteland, so there's no need to worry about the threat of Mutants."
"What place?" Feng Jun's spirits immediately lifted when he heard there was such a place.
Li Lu proudly opened the virtual map on her IEM, marked a location on it, and sent it to Feng Jun.
"This is something I accidentally discovered during an exploration: an industrial zone south of Shangqing City, considered a Satellite City of Shangqing City, but the location is a bit remote."
After receiving the address, Feng Jun quickly opened it to check.
The location was about four hundred kilometers south of Shangqing City, marked on the map as a place called Yanqing Industrial Park, not too far from Longmen Town.
Yanqing Industrial Park, before the war, was a Satellite City near Shangqing City, mainly responsible for producing aviation industrial parts.
During the war, it was naturally a key target of attack by the United States of America.
After paralyzing Shangqing City's air defense system, the low-earth orbit strike cruisers in space directly bombed Yanqing Industrial Park, also using radiation bombs and various other radiation weapons, virtually destroying the entire industrial park.
Because the Ming Empire government did not evacuate the residents of the industrial park when the airstrike occurred, more than 100,000 people in the industrial park were all killed directly in the bombing.
And because the post-war world was in chaos, the later established World Government only went to retrieve all useful machinery and then abandoned the place, not even disposing of the bodies.
Due to the radiation bombs, the radiation levels in Yanqing Industrial Park could rival those in nuclear bomb craters.
Coupled with the large number of bodies piled up inside, a small Blood Nest formed there.
However, due to an insufficient number of bodies, this Blood Nest did not develop into the scale of the large Blood Nests in Shangqing City, merely covering a few workshops and factories with flesh and blood, and it also did not have the ability to breed high-level Mutants, only being able to produce some low-level ordinary zombies.
Li Lu thoroughly introduced the situation there to Feng Jun, as well as the scale of the Blood Nest and the number of zombies.
"This year's Zombie Tide has passed, so now is a good time to set out and occupy that place.
Normally, some small groups of survivors go there to farm zombies for helium crystals.
Although they only produce low-level zombies, as long as enough are killed, some helium crystals can still be obtained," Li Lu said.
Once this place is occupied, it can be transformed into a cultivation base for Anti-corpse liquid, and then enough Anti-corpse liquid can be produced.
Feng Jun was very happy after hearing Li Lu's introduction; this was a huge help to him.
He happily hugged Li Lu and kissed her on the cheek.
"You truly are my lucky star; how is it that whatever I lack, you always think of it?"
Li Lu proudly raised her head and said, "Who told me I accidentally fell for you?
I guess I'll have to follow you wherever you go, and try my best to help you solve your problems~."
"Hehe~" Feng Jun said, "Who knew I'd be so lucky to meet you as soon as I arrived?"
"You scoundrel! I think you've had enough to eat, but you weren't satisfied just now, let's go for another round."
Li Lu pushed Feng Jun down beneath her and was about to kiss him.
Feng Jun was naturally eager to show off a bit, but he suddenly exerted force, flipped Li Lu over, and pinned her beneath him.
Recalling the past few times, he was always pinned down by Li Lu, losing the sense of conquest and achievement from the first time.
He always felt like he was the one being conquered, and that simply wouldn't do.
"My dear wife, how can you always pin your husband down?
You must learn to yield to your father; have you forgotten what you cried out the first time?"
Then, under the cover of night, the two engaged in another exhilarating battle 【Omitted...】
Once the objective was clear, it was time to act.
Feng Jun called Song Peng and Song Zhan together for a meeting to formulate the plan for occupying Yanqing Industrial Park.
Considering the current strength and weaponry of Longmen Town, and the intention to occupy it long-term and establish an Anti-corpse liquid production base there, it was decided to directly dispatch a thousand soldiers, led by Feng Jun himself, to occupy Yanqing Industrial Park.
Longmen Town was now flourishing, and the method of conscription had long since moved beyond purchasing slaves from Huai City.
The town's population had reached 20,000, with a standing army of 8,000.
Furthermore, with sufficient equipment production lines, the number of vehicles and power armor also began to increase.
In warfare, it's said that provisions must go before troops.
Since this time Feng Jun was preparing to lead a thousand men to war, he naturally couldn't make plans one day and then ride out with Li Lu on a dog the next, as he did last time.
Due to the lack of professional military officers and commanders, Feng Jun took a total of five days to prepare for the expedition.
Originally, Feng Jun intended to directly lead his men to occupy Yanqing Industrial Park, but because the soldiers going out needed to carry ample supplies, and given the massive consumption of grain in Longmen Town due to the expanded grain trade, Feng Jun had no choice but to frequently travel between the Doomsday and the modern world these past few days to replenish Longmen Town's grain supply.
Feng Jun couldn't help but lament that his storage space was still too small; if it were larger, he could transport enough rations for tens of thousands of people for several days at once.
However, to upgrade his storage space, he had to complete tasks, and the thought of having to turn in six gene seeds at once next time gave Feng Jun a headache.