Wen Xian fell asleep just like that. At some point, someone seemed to have knocked on the door, but after Da Bai let out two low warning growls, no one disturbed them again.
When she woke up, it was completely dark outside. Seeing Da Bai looking at her worriedly, Wen Xian reached out and stroked its head, whispering softly, “It’s a good thing I still have you.”
Da Bai blinked its gray eyes, its large head gently resting against her leg.
Wen Xian took out a lamp for lighting, found a pair of tweezers, removed her clothes, and extracted the bullets lodged in her shoulder and thigh.
As she worked, she couldn’t help recalling the bullet Ba Hai had shot into her forehead. Under the cover of the wooden shield, she had formed a wooden needle and dug it out directly. In that life-or-death moment, speed had been her only concern, which caused secondary damage. It was just that her body’s recovery ability left no trace behind.
But that pain…
The pain of being struck by a bullet, the pain of tearing open flesh to remove it…
Even the briefest recollection made Wen Xian’s face grow paler and paler.
She blinked, hiding the moisture in her eyes, and expressionlessly removed the two bullets. Watching the wounds rapidly heal as if nothing had happened, she thought coldly that she was still too weak. If she had deployed her wooden shield faster, or made it larger, she wouldn’t have had to endure that pain.
“Grrr… grrrr…”
Wen Xian looked at Da Bai. It stared back innocently, as if nothing had happened.
She couldn’t help but smile. After putting everything away, she said, “Let’s go. We’ll find something to eat.”
Outside the door was a corridor. At the far end glowed a dim yellow light. It was very quiet at this hour, with only the footsteps of one person and one wolf echoing.
“Wooo…”
Da Bai let out a low warning growl. Wen Xian stopped. A man hurried over, stopping five or six meters away. He glanced fearfully at Da Bai while forcing an enthusiastic tone through his trembling voice. “M-Miss Wen, I’m Kaizi. We met before at the building materials factory. I-I don’t know if you remember?”
Wen Xian nodded. Kaizi let out a breath of relief, not daring to move as he continued, “It’s like this, Boss Wen told me to stand guard here. He said if you have any instructions, just let us know. As long as the base can do it, we’ll definitely satisfy you.”
Wen Xian was silent for a moment before asking, “Where around here are there more mutated animals?”
Kaizi was taken aback. “What do you need mutated animals for at this hour?”
“Da Bai is hungry. I’m going to find it something to eat.”
Da Bai, seeing that Wen Xian had no hostility, had already relaxed, lazily wagging its tail and playing around. Hearing Wen Xian’s words, it nuzzled her arm affectionately.
Kaizi looked on enviously and hurriedly said, “At this hour, it might be hard for you to find anything outside. There’s still plenty of meat in the base, though it’s all frozen. I don’t know if your wolf eats that?”
Wen Xian was surprised, then refused, “Forget it. Leave that for the humans to eat. Da Bai hunts quickly.” She added, “I’ll be back soon.”
Kaizi was a little shocked. He didn’t expect that Miss Wen, whose reputation was even more fearsome than Boss Ba’s, would show such kindness.
He hurriedly added, “Please don’t refuse. We’re not short on meat. Almost all the meat that can be obtained in Lishi is here. We even raise chickens, ducks, cows, and sheep, more than enough.”
Scratching his head, he smiled awkwardly. “It’s just that the farm is a bit far. At this hour, going there is dangerous; otherwise, we would have delivered live animals to you. But if your wolf only eats live prey, I can send someone right away to get some.”
At this point, Wen Xian could hardly refuse. She had Kaizi fetch a hundred pounds of meat and asked about the location of the kitchen. Kaizi first ran to have the meat brought, then personally guided her to the kitchen.
When they reached the hall, two people, one tall and one short, were already waiting there. With Da Bai present, they didn’t dare come closer. About six or seven meters away, they fell to their knees before her. The adult’s voice was weak but trembling with emotion: “Miss Wen… thank you for saving our lives.”
It was the landlady and Xiao Tong.
Even from that distance, Wen Xian could smell the blood on the landlady. She had lost a lot of weight and looked very haggard; it was clear that these past days had been extremely difficult.
Wen Xian didn’t step forward, glancing at Xiao Tong, who didn’t dare raise his head. “He saved you himself,” she said.
From the moment she saw Xiao Tong, she knew he was lying. This otherworldly life over the past half-month had obviously changed him, but fortunately, he still held goodwill and had confessed to her midway.
That was why Wen Xian had later specifically instructed Xiang Yuyang to release his mother.
“No, if it weren’t for you, they definitely wouldn’t have spared us!”
The landlady looked at her earnestly. “Miss Wen, please, what can we do for you?”
Kaizi quickly said, “Miss Wen, weren’t you going to cook something for your wolf? Maybe she can help?”
The landlady hurriedly asked, “Miss Wen, would that be alright? I can cook. If you don’t mind, I can take care of your meals from now on.”
Wen Xian refused. “No need. You should rest. I can manage myself.”
She didn’t look at them again, signaling Kaizi to lead the way.
At that moment, Xiao Tong lifted his head and quietly asked his mother while watching her retreating back, “Mom… is she angry?”
He still remembered back at the inn, this older sister didn’t speak much, but every time she saw him, she would smile and greet him. Once, when she went to pick up a delivery, she happened to see him practicing on the drum set and marveled at how good he was.
But now, the smile that used to make his heart leap was gone from her face.
No, actually, it wasn’t just her. Many people had lost it.
The landlady held her son tightly, her body trembling uncontrollably from pain. These past days had brought her the deepest despair and shown her countless hearts turned cold. What was once terrifying might have been the mutated plants and animals, but though she hadn’t died in the beast tide at the old town, she had almost been fed to a Tibetan mastiff by human hands.
So Wen Xian’s small act of kindness was like a light bursting out in the depths of despair, immensely precious.
The kitchen at the Jinpan Grand Hotel was still operating. Wen Xian borrowed it, lighting two stoves, and used half-human-high stainless steel soup pots to boil water to defrost the frozen meat.
The last time Da Bai had eaten her beef, it had wanted more. So after one pot thawed, she gave it directly to Da Bai, and the other pot she seasoned with spices and braised. Half an hour later, the entire kitchen smelled of braised meat. Da Bai, who had been waiting outside, now entered the kitchen and snuffled eagerly at Wen Xian.
The braising wasn’t long. Once she took the meat out to cool a bit, Da Bai impatiently bit into a few chicken legs, eating with relish.
The meat she brought included chicken, pork, lamb, and beef. Kaizi had said to see which Da Bai preferred and to bring that next time, but Da Bai wasn’t picky.
Her cooking skills weren’t great, yet the taste turned out surprisingly good. She ate a little herself and also made a bowl of instant noodles, enough to satisfy her hunger.
All the while, Kaizi waited outside attentively, but Wen Xian didn’t interact with him much.
After eating, she returned to her room. Kaizi showed her where the bathroom was and left at the right moment.
It was nearly midnight. After Da Bai returned, it lay down. Wen Xian washed up and entered her pocket dimension.
It had only been two or three days since her last visit, but inside, the changes were dramatic.
She first checked all the plants, finding them full of life. What surprised her most was that the small willow branch and cactus she had thrown in each occupied a corner. The plants around them leaned outward, with the ones closest nearly crawling along the ground.
Wen Xian realized it was likely because the willow branch and the small cactus had mutated to a higher level. She tidied up the planting area, moving some of the surrounding plants aside. Almost immediately, she was enveloped by waves of joy; whether the willow branch, the cactus, or other plants, they were all expressing thanks.
A faint smile touched Wen Xian’s lips as she patted their leaves, then turned to organize the other half of the space, which was stacked almost like a mountain with supplies.
Bedding had already been set aside during collection, so she just needed to move the shelves slightly. After clearing some space, she repositioned the medicine cabinet, placed two racks nearby, and stocked them with herbs she had gathered from the old town pharmacy warehouse, along with other Western medicines.
The storage racks she had found in the department store were industrial shelving: orange horizontal beams, blue vertical supports, bright in color, tall and sturdy, with a large capacity.
She counted nearly twenty of them. Many already had goods, mostly daily necessities, with a few long-shelf-life snacks.
Estimating the radius of the space, she arranged the racks in a 4-5-5-4 layout, sorting all the supplies into four categories: food, clothing, daily necessities, and miscellaneous items, placing them on the shelves accordingly.
Of all the supplies, food took up the most space, nearly nine racks, while clothing and daily necessities filled seven racks, and the remaining racks held miscellaneous items.
Once everything was arranged, the space instantly looked much more orderly.
Next came the building materials and sand.
These weren’t suitable for shelves, but fortunately, the wooden planks she had torn down earlier weren’t thrown away. She stood them upright next to the planting area, dividing the space into two sections: one for building materials, the other for sand.
When the building materials were moved in, the enormous, withered corpse of the black snake suddenly appeared. Wen Xian had forgotten about it and was startled at first, but when she saw that it was reduced to skin and bones, her expression grew serious.
She instinctively glanced at the green crystal core and the white tube in the center. They hovered motionless in the air, shrouded in mist, adding an air of mystery.
Yet Wen Xian felt a chill.
Without lingering, she found several large boxes and began packing the black snake’s corpse. She had worried about separating the body, but as soon as she touched the snake bones, they instantly fell to the ground, and the skin easily peeled off.
Both were extremely hard, and although her strength had grown, they caused her no harm at all.
In the end, she packed six full boxes.
Even though she had already upgraded two levels of her powers, completing all this left her feeling fatigued. But she now understood this kind of exhaustion, it was far from depleting her abilities, and a day or two of rest should be enough to recover.
Finally, she packed all the unwanted miscellaneous items into a cardboard box to take out and discard. Before leaving, she looked around the space, now clean, organized, and clearly divided into sections, and a sense of satisfaction welled up inside her.
At the same time, the shadow that had loomed over her head finally lifted considerably.
She picked up the cardboard box, intending to go out, when a gentle, mechanical voice of a young man suddenly sounded:
“Awakening sequence detected. Basic construction ability acquired. Enable construction function?”