Chapter 20: Spare Some Water, Boss

“Mom, you’re awake?”
Two hours later, Yu Yan opened her eyes and was greeted by Tang’s father’s radiant smile.
The cave was filled with the rich aroma of spirit beast meat, mouthwatering and irresistible. Yun Duo’er hugged a piece of sizzling, oily black tortoise meat, eating with an intoxicated expression. “Mom, come eat! Daddy Siqi’s roasted meat tastes amazing!”
Yu Yan pursed her lips into a smile, glancing at Tang Siqi and her father, who sat beside her with their heads lowered, silently stuffing Zhuyu grass into their mouths.
Tang’s father managed, being an adult who had known hardship.
At most, he found the Zhuyu grass in his mouth unpleasant and the smell of the roasted meat temptingly delicious. Tang Siqi, unable to restrain herself, swallowed hard, and the already bland Zhuyu grass seemed even more tasteless.
Despite her efforts, her gaze kept drifting toward the roasted meat above the fire.
“Gulp…”
A clearly audible swallow sounded, and Tang Siqi shamefully looked away.
Dad had told her, that meat was precious.
Yun Duo’er and her mother had rescued them, and they should be grateful. How could they shamelessly eat someone else’s treasure? One ought to have a sense of propriety… But it smelled so good! She hadn’t eaten meat in days.
Moreover, the meat in Yun Duo’er’s hands smelled a thousand times better than any she’d ever tasted!
And why wouldn’t it? It was fourth-grade spirit beast meat.
Yu Yan quietly laughed. “Duo’er, why not invite your little friends to share the meat? Eating alone isn’t a good habit.”
Yun Duo’er pouted, aggrieved. “I did invite them, but Siqi refused to eat with me. And Daddy Siqi, he carefully roasted the meat for me, but wouldn’t eat it himself. Strange—this meat is so fragrant and delicious…”
Why would they rather eat grass than share the meat with her?
Her little head was full of big question marks.
“Mom Duo’er, you eat. We’ll fill up with this grass.”
Without comparison, there is no harm.
To be fair, Zhuyu grass wasn’t that unpleasant; if you chewed carefully, you could even taste a hint of sweetness. Otherwise, these past days, the father and daughter wouldn’t have chosen grass over digging up insect eggs from tree hollows or catching stone silkworm moths by the creek.
Those were high in protein, after all.
Ugh… but eating raw bugs was truly unsettling.
He, as a grown man, could manage, but his daughter, pampered since childhood, would dry heave for ages after eating just one.
She nearly vomited everything in her stomach.
Watching her suffer made his heart ache, but there was no alternative. Only after finding Zhuyu grass did they escape the misery of eating insects—why not cook the bugs to at least make them less squirmy and disgusting?
In this perilous place, lighting a fire was courting death.
If it attracted something dangerous, he and his daughter would meet a grim end.
As for roasting meat for Yun Duo’er now… that was because Duo’er’s mother was here, giving him immense security. With just a sprinkle of powder, she could make those domineering, tormenting giant scorpions obedient.
Tang Yan knew his own condition well.
These days, he’d eaten poorly, slept poorly, his nerves stretched taut. Not to mention the scorpion stings and bites—he’d thought survival impossible. Yet, when Yun Duo’er and her mother intervened, he was suddenly robust and lively.
No more back pain, no more aching legs—he could run several hundred kilometers with his daughter now!
And the food Yun Duo’er casually produced, though he’d never seen it, carried a familiar aura. If it wasn’t from the dungeon, he’d let Duo’er’s mother use his head as a football.
In short, with Duo’er’s mother present, he and his precious daughter were safe.
Yun Duo’er said they had entered the dungeon specifically to rescue them, and Tang Yan felt boundless gratitude. Seeing Yun Duo’er about to eat the black tortoise meat raw, Tang Yan couldn’t bear it; of course he rushed to help roast it.
Duo’er’s mother possessed immense strength, far beyond his reach.
For today’s life-saving grace, he doubted he could ever repay her. But making sure Yun Duo’er ate well, that at least he could do. If the meat were roasted and he and his daughter feasted alongside them, what would that make him?
When Duo’er’s mother tried to persuade him further, Tang Yan waved his hand. “Mom Duo’er, don’t bother. I absolutely won’t freeload your meat.”
Yu Yan: “……”
If he wouldn’t eat, so be it; Yu Yan wouldn’t insist.
She’d only made the offer because he seemed decent, hadn’t tried to trick Yun Duo’er while she was refining Zhu fruit, and the meat in Yun Duo’er’s spatial pouch wasn’t of particularly high grade. Since he was principled, Yu Yan respected that.

She took a piece of roasted meat from the fire and ate happily.
Indeed, Tang’s father’s skills were excellent!
Yu Yan devoured the meat voraciously, quickly finishing all that was cooked. With a flicker of her consciousness, a thoroughly dead fifth-grade Vermilion Bird appeared in the cave. “Can you handle this? Roast it for me, I want bird meat.”
Tang Yan thought his eyes were deceiving him, rubbed them.
This enormous bird, about the size of the bald eagle he’d glimpsed from afar days ago, had appeared out of thin air in the cave? Where was the science in this? Well, with the dungeon world descending, who needed science anymore!
Tang Yan dreamily dragged the Vermilion Bird’s corpse. “Could you spare some water, boss? How am I supposed to process it without water?”
If she could produce a bird corpse this large out of nowhere, water should be a trivial matter.
Yu Yan didn’t disappoint him. A huge cistern of tap water was plonked down in front of him. She’d specifically cleaned the balcony cistern when she found the faucet still running while scavenging houses—why was there such a big cistern on the balcony?
Well, Yu Yan, whose every attempt at pet-keeping ended in disaster, had one day whimsically decided to raise a tank of fish.
The fish were beautiful—
Brightly colored, producing little fry… and then, that was the end of it.
The cistern was meant as a backup, in case she entered a dungeon with no water source and needed emergency supplies. Now, with her spatial pouch full of spiritual spring water, and over ten square meters of spring and thirty square meters of spiritual seawater in her Plant Spirit world,
there was plenty for drinking, even for bathing if used sparingly.
Tang Yan fell silent, obediently curling up to process the Vermilion Bird’s corpse. Don’t ask why he had to curl up—the cave was tiny, holding two adults, two children, and a fire in the middle.
With Yu Yan tossing in such a giant bird and a massive cistern!
He could only contort himself to handle the bird, thanks to his agility and the fact that he’d kept up with exercise since retiring. Enough said, more words would just bring tears… Tang Yan felt thoroughly defeated today.
Before the dungeon world descended, he’d always thought himself capable.
But with the arrival of this cursed world, he’d nearly failed to protect his own daughter. If not for Yu Yan and her daughter, he would have died in the cave, leaving his child alone in this dangerous place—how could she survive?