Seeing Xiaqing remain silent, Feng Wen got out of bed, ambled over to the door, and reached for the sack of grain Xiaqing had brought back, only for Xiaqing to press it down with her hand.
Feng Wen smiled at the sight of the food. "The conditions on the territories outside aren’t good for storing grain. You won’t be able to finish this much before it spoils. What a waste. Give me half, and of course, I won’t take it for free. I’ll have my brother do the legwork for you, taking the vegetables and grain you grow back to the Safe Zone to trade for supplies. Seeing as we’ve been roommates for years, I’ll only charge you a twenty percent runner’s fee. How about it?"
Feng Wen boasted smugly, "My brother is a Level 3 Speed Evolver."
The combat power of a Level 3 Speed Evolver was even higher than that of a Level 4 Strength Evolver. Xiaqing said expressionlessly, "I can’t afford it."
An Olfactory Evolutionary’s combat power was, of course, no match for a Strength Evolver’s. Unwilling to let the food slip through her fingers, Feng Wen said viciously, "You’re just a little stronger than a normal person. Once you’re outside the Safe Zone with no one to protect you, you won’t even know how you died."
Xiaqing, holding the grain sack and the canvas bag, looked back. On her filth-covered face, her starkly clear eyes were exceptionally bright. "If Tang Zhengsu found out your brother has been secretly selling internal information from the Su Feng Team, how many days do you think you two would have left to live?"
After saying this, Xiaqing didn’t spare another glance at Feng Wen, whose face had turned pale with fright, and walked out of the dormitory building with her backpack. She hadn’t gone far when she heard familiar voices at a nearby street corner, planning to rob her.
"This one score will be enough to feed us for two months. Careful not to kill or cripple her; the four of us will need her to keep us fed."
Hearing the nauseating, lewd laughter, Xiaqing, carrying a bag in each hand, took a few steps forward and stopped at the street corner, directly facing the four ordinary men who were about to rob her.
’This is... a fat sheep delivering itself to our door?’
Zhao Jie froze for a moment, then excitedly shouted, "Get her!" and led the charge toward Xiaqing—or rather, toward the bags in her hands.
The strength of a female Level 4 Strength Evolver might be equivalent to four strong, ordinary men, but women were mentally weak. When faced with danger, they couldn’t unleash their full power. Forget four men, she probably couldn’t even handle three!
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!
Zhao Jie’s hands were trembling with excitement, but before he could even grab the grain sack, Xiaqing sent him flying with a kick. He crashed into a wall and then landed on top of his good buddy.
’No...’
Zhao Jie stared in terror at the gaunt, red-faced woman before him. ’Impossible. How is this possible!’
The other groups of emaciated people lying in ambush on both sides of the road were all stunned by the ruthlessness with which Xiaqing had easily kicked down four grown men. None of them dared to make a move.
Feng Wen, standing by the window on the third floor of the Evolver dormitory, watched, dumbfounded, as Xiaqing carried her things and walked effortlessly through the dangerous area.
"Sister Xiaqing! Here, let your big bro carry that for you!" Zhong Tao, who had been craning his neck waiting at the Safe Zone gate, saw the person with the green tag bearing the name "Xiaqing" finally arrive. He jogged forward to take the half-man-sized canvas bag from her, but the weight of it nearly made him topple over.
’This heavy?!’
Xiaqing steadied the canvas bag in her right hand and passed the grain sack in her left to the overly familiar Zhong Tao. "Brother Tao, what are you doing here?"
The grain sack, weighing over 30kg, was easy for Zhong Tao to carry. "Our team got a mission to escort the new Lords. Which territory did you get, Sis? Your bro will give you a ride."
The entrance to the Safe Zone was bustling with people, and Xiaqing didn’t want to reveal the location of her territory, so she just answered vaguely, "North of the city."
"Alrighty!" Zhong Tao led Xiaqing to a light truck, opened the door, greeted his buddy in the driver’s seat, and then told Xiaqing to get in. "This one’s heading north of the city. Go on up, Sis, and chat with Brother Kui for a bit. We’ll leave once we’re full."
"Thanks." Not having to sit in the truck bed, bumping along and eating dust, was an offer Xiaqing certainly wouldn’t refuse. After greeting the driver, Zheng Kui, she effortlessly lifted her canvas bag and large backpack into the cab, stuffing them in front of and behind the seat. Then, she sat in the passenger seat, holding the grain sack, and waited for the truck to depart.
Once she was settled, Zheng Kui took out a small metal box of tobacco shreds, rolled a cigarette with a trimmed, yellowed piece of paper from an old book, and offered it to Xiaqing. "Evolutionary Smoke," he said. "It’ll wake you up."
The humans who survived the Natural Disaster didn’t know whether tomorrow or another catastrophe would come first. Most of them lived for the moment, and smoking and promiscuity were rampant.
Why no alcohol? In this day and age, people had to eat grass to survive. Where would they find the grain to brew alcohol!
Xiaqing didn’t say she didn’t smoke, only waved her hand in refusal. "That kind of tobacco is too strong. I’m not used to it. You go ahead, Brother Kui."
Women preferred the tobacco shreds that had evolved a fragrant aroma. Zheng Kui didn’t insist, taking out a match to light the cigarette and taking a deep drag. "Which plot did you get?"
"Number Three." It had been a long, long time since Xiaqing had made small talk with anyone. Seeing that Zheng Kui didn’t respond and the conversation fell flat, she took the initiative to add, "It’s the one one hundred and twenty kilometers north of the city, by Longpan Reservoir. It’s a pretty small reservoir; Brother Kui probably hasn’t heard of it."
Zheng Kui exhaled a cloud of smoke out the window. "That’s a good spot. Not far from the old regimental headquarters."
"Mhm." There was an unconcealable satisfaction in Xiaqing’s voice. Part of the reason she’d chosen Number Three was because it was close to the military garrison, making it relatively safer.
After finishing the long, thin cigarette, Zheng Kui asked again, "Just you?"
Xiaqing nodded. "Yeah. It’s peaceful alone."
She had been squeezed into the small Safe Zone with two million people for nearly ten years. If she hadn’t been able to get out for a breath of fresh air on missions, Xiaqing would have gone crazy from being cooped up long ago.
"1.8 billion people died, leaving just over 100 million survivors. There’s no one outside the Safe Zones, but there are man-eating things everywhere." Zheng Kui’s voice was heavy. He casually rolled another cigarette and stuck it in his mouth.
Hua Country, with only five percent of its total population remaining, already had the highest survival rate on Blue Star after the Natural Disaster. Many small countries had been wiped out, and some nations had even sunk beneath the ground due to tectonic shifts, ceasing to exist.
Xiaqing silently gazed at the ten-meter-high reinforced concrete walls of the Safe Zone. She looked at the large patches of dried, dark-red bloodstains and the scorch marks and cracks left behind from countless battles between humans and beasts, and did not speak again.
"Hey, young lady, I finally found you!" The tall, thin man who had been in line behind Xiaqing when claiming territories ran up to the side of the truck and greeted her enthusiastically. "My name is Zhao Ze. I got Number Four. We’re going to be neighbors!"
Number Four was east of Number Three and had been Xiaqing’s second choice. She glanced at the dozen or so men and women behind Zhao Ze and gave a slight nod. "Xiaqing."
Xiaqing’s attitude was cold, but her willingness to acknowledge an ordinary person like him already put her above many other Evolvers.
Just as Zhao Ze clung to the window, trying to get a few more words in to build rapport, Zhong Tao came over with a large group of people carrying tattered luggage. He urged the people by the truck to get on. "Everyone on board! If we dilly-dally any longer, we won’t make it before dark."
Zhao Ze led the way as they all scrambled into the truck bed. After Zhong Tao got in and sat between Xiaqing and Zheng Kui, Zheng Kui slammed on the gas, and the truck shot forward.
The highways that had crisscrossed the land before the Natural Disaster had long been destroyed by tectonic shifts, acid rain, and Evolved Plants. The truck now traveled on dirt roads that had been cleared out section by section over the past few years. Because the truck bed was carrying so many people, its speed dropped after leaving the flat roads near the Safe Zone. They had departed from the Safe Zone at eleven in the morning, and after a journey of stops and starts, they finally pulled over under the sign for Number Three a little after five in the afternoon.
The last passenger, Xiaqing, got out of the truck. After watching the light truck turn around and head back, she picked up her bags and sprinted wildly across her own land for a while. After tripping on a tree root, she flipped over onto her back, lay there, and grinned foolishly at the sky.