It wasn’t until the door closed and was locked from the inside that Wen Xian finally let out a full sigh of relief.
She first did a quick check of the room and found nothing different from before she went out, apparently no one had come in.
She then found a set of clothes and quickly took a shower.
While showering, she examined her body and found not a single scar. Even old injuries had been healed, and her skin had become even fairer and more delicate. When she lightly pinched it, a patch of redness appeared instantly.
She felt a brief moment of joy, but soon sobered up, sensing vaguely that this sudden delicacy of her skin might not be the right timing.
Later, when she looked in the mirror, she noticed her eyes had become exceptionally clear and bright. Her long hair was incredibly smooth, slipping through her hands like flowing water, irresistible to touch. Her facial features had subtly changed too, small adjustments, but enough to make her previously slightly imperfect face look like refined porcelain, polished into a delicate work of art.
Seeing herself like that…
Wen Xian shivered and grabbed a pair of scissors. In a few snips, she chopped her long hair into a jagged short cut and added thick bangs to cover her delicate eyebrows and eyes.
Now, she looked like a doll, still eye-catching, with an added hint of youthfulness.
She pressed her lips together, took out her makeup kit, and covered her face, neck, and even hands, dulling most of the glow. Looking again, she now appeared merely as a woman with decent looks.
She sat down on the sofa, feeling both anxious and confused about her current situation. After a while, she took out her phone to check again, still no signal, and she still couldn’t make a call.
What should she do next?
Keep waiting for rescue?
What about her family in Hanshi? Were they safe? Or had they also experienced mutations? If things were like this there too, could her elderly parents survive? Although her younger brother was with them, he had to care for her nephew as well, could he protect the whole family?
Was this mutation local, or had it spread nationwide?
The more Wen Xian thought, the bleaker the future seemed. She felt a surge of tears, but she knew clearly that crying now would be useless, wasting energy and solving nothing.
She forced herself to swallow back her tears and calm down.
First, she needed to figure out the current situation; second, if the mutations were regional, she had to find a way out to get help; third, if the mutations were nationwide, she had to leave even more urgently, she had to find her family.
In short, she had to get out.
Good. Now that her goal was clear, she could start planning how to escape.
From what she understood, both plants and animals had mutated and would attack humans, something she had already experienced firsthand. Fortunately, she had survived, and as the man had said, her body had likely mutated as well. She could command some plants, and even certain parts of her body could transform into plant matter.
Thinking this through, she focused her mind and extended her hands, silently commanding, “Tree Shield.”
The next moment, the tree shield she had once glimpsed indeed appeared.
Wen Xian’s heart skipped a beat. Seeing her own body partially transform into a part of a tree was not exactly a pleasant feeling, but she pushed the strangeness aside and forced herself to accept it, after all, this could be a life-saving skill.
She then silently commanded, “Branches.” Instantly, both her hands transformed into two tree branches about as thick as her thumbs, roughly half a meter long. Smaller offshoots sprouted from them, even leaves, identical to those she had seen on the massive tree before.
So… was she now part of that giant tree?
The thought made her face change immediately. Alongside the instinctive fear, she couldn’t hide her disgust. She had no fondness for the tree that had nearly devoured her.
Yet, as before, even if she disliked it, she had to accept it.
After a few more attempts, she discovered that as long as she could issue a command, her hands could transform into corresponding tree-like forms. Vines, tree nets, and other structures appeared too, though all were relatively weak.
The repeated experiments soon left her feeling fatigued and hungry.
She had to pause. She grabbed two pieces of bread and planned to boil water for coffee, but after a while, the kettle showed no sign of heating. Pressing the room’s switch, she realized the power was out. She had to settle for cold water with the bread to satisfy her hunger.
Fortunately, the hotel offered water delivery. The bottled water she had drunk before cost ten yuan per bucket, and she had ordered a new one a few days ago, more than half of it remained.
While eating, her thoughts drifted to the mushrooms that had vanished.
She hesitated. To this day, she didn’t know where those mushrooms had gone, whether some creature she hadn’t noticed had taken them, or…
She silently commanded, “Mushrooms, come out.”
In the next instant, a small pile of porcini mushrooms appeared on the floor before her.
Wen Xian immediately shrank back into the sofa, cautiously scanning her surroundings. Seeing no unusual movement, she turned her attention to the mushrooms.
She quickly noticed they had grown significantly. When she first collected them, none had opened their caps, the largest barely fitting in her palm. Now, several had fully opened, and even the previously thumb-sized ones had grown to the size of her hand.
Wen Xian was astonished and couldn’t help asking silently, 「Where were you hiding before?」
The mushrooms remained completely still.
Could they not communicate? Or was the question simply too difficult?
She commanded again: 「Shake.」
Still, the mushrooms didn’t move.
Wen Xian gradually concluded that they probably couldn’t communicate either.
But where had they been before? Wen Xian couldn’t make sense of it.
She recalled the moment when the mushrooms had disappeared and felt a faint idea forming. Silently, she commanded, “Put away.” Sure enough, in the next instant, the mushrooms vanished.
It was truly miraculous. Excited, she tried a few more times and found that as long as she expressed the idea of “taking the mushrooms away, storing them, carrying them with me,” the mushrooms would disappear.
Did this mean she had gained another ability to carry things with her?
Wen Xian eagerly experimented with other items next, starting with food.
It had rained earlier, and she had been too lazy to go out, so she often bought in bulk. She still had three strawberry-filled buns, a large pack of Daliyuan bread, three boxes of “Three Plus Two” biscuits, eight packs of Wula Mama spicy strips, two cans of cucumber-flavored and barbecue-flavored chips, two self-heating rice packs, and two self-heating hotpots.
She also had a bag of fruit: three apples, three bananas, two pears, about half a jin of locally grown sour jujubes, two oranges, and half a jin of tangerines.
The inn offered a small kitchen where guests could cook. Wen Xian wasn’t skilled at cooking, but occasionally wanted something hot. She also had two packs of Chen Kepeng noodles, two packs of buckwheat noodles, half a large cabbage, three large potatoes, two big sweet potatoes, two ears of corn, and three carrots. The room didn’t have a refrigerator, and she hadn’t bought any meat.
This was all her food. For drinks, besides the remaining half-bucket of water, she also had two bottles of mineral water from delivery, one 300ml bottle each of Coke and Sprite, and a case of 24 bottles of sour jujube juice she liked, each less than 200ml, with 18 remaining.
Amazingly, all of these items disappeared just like the mushrooms. Whenever she wanted something, she only needed to think of it, and it reappeared.
Wen Xian was overjoyed.
Although she still didn’t know the situation outside, from what Shouzi had said, all the food and drink in the inn had been gathered and distributed by them. While he had promised that anyone who followed their rules would have food and drink and wouldn’t be bullied, Wen Xian, despite her gentle appearance, detested any form of oppression or control from others.
Now, with this ability to store things, she no longer had to fear hunger or thirst and didn’t need to be coerced or threatened.
The only drawback was that she didn’t know where these items actually went, or how much she could store.
In high spirits, she continued experimenting, storing all her clothes, hangers, tissues, her laptop, various miscellaneous items, the multifunctional cooking pot she had bought, a set of bowls, plates, and chopsticks, oil and seasoning, and eventually even her blankets and pillows.
By the time she came to her senses, the room contained only the original furniture: bed, sofa, table and chairs, TV.
Knowing she couldn’t explain this if anyone saw it, she laid out some of the non-essential items she had stored aside from food.
No sooner had she finished tidying when a knock sounded at the door.
Instinctively, Wen Xian lowered her voice, went to the door, and looked through the peephole. Outside stood a slender girl.
She seemed vaguely familiar, one of the previous travelers at the youth hostel, the same group that had been with Shouzi.
Glancing around and seeing no one else, Wen Xian opened the door. “Do you need something?”
The girl was delicate-looking but appeared weary. She glanced at Wen Xian and said, “Brother Lian told me to call you downstairs to eat.” Without waiting for a reply, she turned and walked away.
Wen Xian had only eaten two buns not long ago, so she wasn’t hungry, but she didn’t refuse. After locking the door behind her, she went downstairs, following the girl into the room where the burly man had been staying before.
Wen Xian remembered that this had been the innkeeper’s workspace. There had been a row of office desks and a few chairs, and to the right of the entrance was where parcels were handled.
Now, the room looked completely different. Several desks had been pushed together to form a long rectangular dining table, around which many people were seated.
At the head of the table sat the burly man, presumably Brother Lian. To his left was a short-haired, heavily made-up woman, who met Wen Xian’s gaze with cold disdain. To his right was Shouzi, and then two men sat further along, followed by the innkeeper and her son.
Next to the short-haired woman sat a young woman with long hair dyed with two streaks of blue. Beside her were two young men, and next to them was the girl who had called for Wen Xian earlier. An empty chair was left beside her, and Wen Xian took that spot, placing herself next to the innkeeper’s son.
“All here now. You’re new, so introduce yourself first,” Brother Lian said to Wen Xian, holding a cigarette between his fingers.
Everyone at the table turned to look at her. Shouzi grinned and blew out a smoke ring, partially masking the wolfish gleam in his eyes.
Wen Xian lowered her eyelids. “My name is Wen Xian. I’m from Hu Province.”
Brother Lian didn’t mind the simplicity of her introduction and was about to speak when Shouzi interrupted: “So your name is Wen Xian? It really suits your temperament.”
The short-haired woman snorted, openly mocking her.
Wen Xian didn’t react. Brother Lian glanced at Shouzi, then said, “I’m Chen Lian from Bei Province. This is Shouzi; beside him are Zhang Jun and Cai Xin. You know the innkeeper, right?”
Seeing Wen Xian nod, he continued introducing the short-haired woman: “She’s my girlfriend, Ding Wei. Next to her is Shao Qingqing. These two brothers are Qi Hao and Fan Yaohui; you should have seen them around the inn. Beside you is Cai Cai, our fellow traveler.”
As Brother Lian introduced each person, Wen Xian nodded politely. Only Qi Hao and Fan Yaohui smiled back; the others remained indifferent.
Wen Xian paid them no mind, only glancing at the silent innkeeper and her eight-year-old son, who kept their heads down and shoulders hunched, showing no reaction.
She didn’t ask further. When she first came here, the innkeeper’s husband and parents-in-law had been around; the five of them had seemed happy. Now, she only saw the mother and son, and the inn no longer seemed under her control.
Once introductions were done, Brother Lian didn’t say more. He called for everyone to eat, and they all picked up their chopsticks.
Wen Xian glanced at the table. There was meat, vegetables, and soup, all served with rice. She also looked at the innkeeper, who was only serving food to her son and didn’t glance up, silently eating a bowl of rice.
When she put down her chopsticks, Brother Lian said, “Consider this meal a welcome for you. But the situation is unusual, we don’t know when rescue will arrive, and it’s too dangerous outside. Food is becoming scarce. Power has already gone out, and water may stop soon. So until help arrives, each of us has to contribute as best we can.”
He gestured to a few men, as well as Ding Wei and Shao Qingqing. “We split into two groups. Each day, some of us go out to find food and check on things. The innkeeper handles two meals a day. Cai Cai takes care of logistics. What can you do?”
Wen Xian had already thought about it and was about to answer when Shouzi suddenly stood up. “Hey, Brother Lian, I said she doesn’t need to do anything. I’ll take care of her. As long as I have food, she’ll never go hungry.”
He said this with a boastful air, looking at Wen Xian as if showing off.
Ding Wei sneered again. The others shot her looks of surprise or disdain, and Wen Xian felt a flush of anger rise from her head to her feet, her cheeks burning bright red.