Jiang Fanxing took the children to a new village. Too exhausted to check if the area was deserted, he ushered the sobbing children into a small, one-story house. After locking the heavy door, he returned to the room to find the four children trembling and hiccupping with fear on the heated kang. He sighed, feeling a familiar headache coming on.
“Stop crying. Are you hungry? Brother has something good for you.”
He placed the bag of snacks Lin Zihan had given him onto the bed, along with several thermal mugs. “Everything in here is edible. Just remember to tighten the lids after drinking, or the water will disappear. People will come to pick you up in a couple of days, so do not be afraid. I am leaving now. If you run out of water or need to use the restroom, just call for me.”
With that, he stepped out of the room and thoughtfully closed the door. Among the four children, only one was a girl. She appeared to be the oldest, perhaps five or six, and possessed a quiet demeanor; she was the only one who had not been screaming for her parents. Jiang Fanxing suspected she understood more than she let on. Children this young should be growing up carefree, yet they had been met with natural disasters and human atrocities. He wondered if they would ever recover from such trauma. Seeing them reminded him of Li Zhenyang, who had left with the rescue team, and he hoped the boy was doing well.
Xie Yunqing and his team rested at the base for only a few hours before heading out again. On the road, they received a communication from the base that provided a much clearer route. “Go to Reservoir Village first, then Jinji Village.”
Two days later, they arrived at Reservoir Village. Knowing that the residents here had access to water and had engaged in cannibalism, the team was on high alert, with every member carrying a sidearm. However, upon entering the village, they found no trace of life. After a thorough search of the entire area, they eventually reached the dilapidated ancestral hall.
Lin Zihan could barely look at the scene before her, and Zhou Peng let out a string of curses, nauseated by the sight. Xie Yunqing surveyed the wreckage in silence before ordering, “Search the premises.” There might still be survivors.
As the team combed through the ruins, struggling to suppress their revulsion, Jiang Fanxing bid farewell to the children and quietly slipped into Reservoir Village.
“Finally here.” He let out a breath of relief upon seeing the two familiar supply trucks. For the past two days, he had been plagued by the faint, incessant wailing of the children from the house where he was staying. Now that he could finally hand them over, he felt an immense sense of relief. Afraid that the rescue team might leave if they could not find anyone, he hurried back to the village where he was hiding the children.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
Jiang Fanxing gave a warning signal before entering the room. The four children recoiled at his presence, and Xiao Long began to wail again. “Waaah, Mommy!”
Xiao Long did not know Jiang Fanxing was the one who had stopped the villagers, but being forcibly taken from his mother’s arms had left him terrified. Jiang Fanxing assessed their condition—they were doing well—and said, “The people who are going to save you are here. I am taking you to them.” He added a stern warning: “Do not scream or shout on the way, or the monsters will catch you and eat you.”
The threat worked. He bundled them one by one onto the tricycle. Since it was nearing noon and the sun was scorching, he draped a cotton quilt over them to prevent heatstroke and dehydration. He pedaled with all his might, reaching Reservoir Village in just ten minutes.
He did not get too close. Stopping at a small temple outside the village, he carried the terrified children inside. “Do not be afraid,” he comforted them. “I am leaving now. Once I am gone, cry as loudly as you want, and the aunts and uncles will come to get you. Do you understand?”
Once the children nodded, Jiang Fanxing rode away. Once he was at a safe distance, the oldest girl nudged the others and whispered, “Cry.” She then let out a piercing wail, pouring out all the grievances she had been holding back. The other children followed suit, their cries echoing through the air until they reached both Jiang Fanxing and the rescue team walking out of the ancestral hall.
Jiang Fanxing watched from afar as Xie Yunqing and the others rushed toward the temple in a panic. “My god, how did these children get here?” Lin Zihan exclaimed, her voice filled with delight. Regardless of how they had arrived, the fact that they were alive was enough.
Xie Yunqing scanned the surroundings with caution. He quickly spotted the familiar tire tracks and realized who had been responsible. He walked a few paces in search of Jiang Fanxing, but the man had already vanished the moment he saw the rescue team appear.
Over the next three days, Jiang Fanxing passed through three more villages, but tragically, there were no survivors to be found. Realizing there were no more exchange coins to be earned in this direction, he turned eastward.
That afternoon, he did not encounter another village, but rather a desolate small town. Unlike the self-sufficient farming villages, residents of this town relied on local markets, meaning they had run out of food and water much faster when the apocalypse hit. Violence had erupted quickly.
Jiang Fanxing walked through the town, carefully avoiding cameras that might still be functioning. He was not surprised to find several mummified corpses on the streets; in this climate, bacteria had stopped multiplying, so the bodies had not decomposed, and he did not need to worry about an outbreak.
The town was small. In an hour, he had scouted the entire area. Not wanting to search every house, he employed his usual tactic: he placed a freshly found oil drum and a megaphone in an empty house. He did not leave a map, as the Ice and Snow World was too far away for these people to reach without dying of heatstroke first. He planned to observe their behavior before deciding whether to contact the base for them.
“Water! Fresh, free water! If you want a drink, come to the house next to the XX Store. I will only be here for two hours, so do not be late!”
While the megaphone broadcasted, Jiang Fanxing found a hidden spot in a small house on the edge of town, far from any cameras. To his delight, the room was filled with hardware tools. He had been lacking a weapon, and he found a high-quality electric saw that could withstand temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius. It was the perfect weapon!
He already knew from the explosion at the ancestral hall that electric scooter batteries were stable enough for his needs. If he found a sealed battery with the same voltage and an inverter, he would never have to worry about the saw running out of power. As luck would have it, he found an inverter in the same room. His heart filled with joy.
He cleared a wooden chair, set his new gear down, and prepared to rest. But less than thirty minutes later, he heard voices outside. Peering through a small window, he saw three factions locked in a fierce dispute over the oil drum.
He yawned. The people in this world were incredibly tenacious; even in this heat, they had such vitality. Perhaps this is how the strong adapt to the environment? He chuckled and shook his head, keeping the electric saw close at hand just in case.
“Zhao Qiang, you have already seized enough supplies to feed your group. You should let us have this drum of water,” said a man in glasses. He looked refined, but Jiang Fanxing knew better than to underestimate him.
Zhao Qiang, a burly fitness coach, glared at him. “Impossible. We are short on water, too. We are not giving it up.”
A man with dyed yellow hair curled his lip. “Hey, are you ignoring me? If you want the water, you have to see if I am willing to let you have it!”
The coach and the man in glasses exchanged a look and decided to take down the troublemaker first. As they advanced with their respective groups, the yellow-haired man shrieked, “Damn it, I am being nice to you, and you still dare to target me! Boys, get them!”
A brawl broke out. Jiang Fanxing twitched. The three leaders were giving an Oscar-worthy performance. As a cosplayer who studied character behavior, he could see right through their act. Their subordinates were fighting to the death, but the three leaders were just throwing weak punches and kicks at each other; all for show.
He shook his head, unwilling to watch any longer. He turned away to rest, intending to leave the area by nightfall. However, he failed to notice the man in glasses glancing in his direction and spotting a trace Jiang Fanxing had inadvertently left behind.