“How is it, Dashan? Can the car still be fixed?” Ye Qingyun looked at the sun that was about to set and asked anxiously.
In just a few hours, it would be dark.
Traveling at night after the great catastrophe was a matter of life and death.
Three years ago, Blue Planet underwent drastic changes due to a sudden meteor strike.
First, animals and plants began to mutate. Not only did they all grow gigantic, but they also evolved in many unknown directions.
Humans fell from the top of the food chain to the bottom.
The meteorites caused global radiation. Most food became not only inedible but also full of various dangers.
Survival became a major problem.
Especially at night, when mutated animals and plants became even more active.
Jiang Shan crawled out from under the car.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to his anxious wife, “I can barely patch up the damaged parts of the chassis, but…”
Before Jiang Shan could finish speaking, Jiang Zhi and Jiang Shu, who had been standing guard not far away, walked over after hearing him.
Jiang Zhi’s face was full of seriousness as she said, “Dad, we can’t wait any longer. Just now, my older brother and I saw wild boar droppings in several places nearby—they looked fresh.”
Jiang Shan’s expression darkened upon hearing this.
He quickly walked to the spot Jiang Zhi mentioned to take a look. After a moment, his face grew even grimmer.
The largest pile of droppings was thirty-four centimeters wide. Based on their years of survival experience, the wild boar that had passed through must weigh at least over a ton.
If they really ran into it, a family of four like theirs wouldn’t even be enough to serve as a snack.
Seeing her father’s grim expression and that he still had no intention of leaving immediately, Jiang Zhi’s heart sank as well.
“Dad… are we out of fuel?”
The youngest daughter had always been clever. Jiang Shan knew he couldn’t hide it from her, so he stopped trying. “What we stocked up before has mostly been used up along the way.”
With the fuel tank damaged this time, the last bit of fuel had completely leaked out.
But they were still sixty to seventy kilometers away from the base. Walking, there was no way they could reach the safe zone of Ancheng Base before nightfall.
Jiang Zhi said, “I heard the base sometimes sends people to patrol the surrounding area…”
Jiang Shan knew what his daughter was going to say. Before she could finish, he shook his head. “We can’t afford to gamble.”
There was nothing around here—no villages, no settlements—just barren land. No one would pass by. Even if there were patrol soldiers from the base, there was no guarantee they would encounter them.
The reason they had survived so long in this mutated world was precisely because they were cautious and never gambled on low-probability chances.
Ye Qingyun, standing to the side, appeared very calm. She looked at Jiang Shan and said, “Dashan, you’re the head of the family. Make the call.”
Jiang Shan looked at his eldest son, Jiang Shu, then at his daughter Jiang Zhi. Finally, he took a deep breath and made his decision. “Abandon the car. If we pick up the pace, as long as we reach the base’s perimeter, we might still have a chance.”
According to the information they had obtained,
it was said that with the base as the center, cleared zones spread outward in a radial pattern. Once they entered the base’s security perimeter, with their abilities, they could still try to push through even after nightfall.
Although they had expected this outcome, hearing Jiang Shan say it out loud still made them fall silent.
After a moment, Jiang Shu ran a hand through his hair and let out a dismissive “tsk,” trying to break the heavy atmosphere. “Hey, can you guys not look so serious? Anyone would think we’re doomed. Once we get to the base, we can just get another vehicle.”
Ye Qingyun slapped him. “You spendthrift brat! Do you even know how much this car would be worth at the base?”
Jiang Shu stiffened his neck stubbornly. “Worst case, we just come back tomorrow and get it! I refuse to believe a single night will be enough for mutated animals to take over!”
In today’s world, anything left out in the wild overnight would, by the next day, either be overrun by mutated plants, occupied by mutated animals, or worse—infested by parasites.
Being able to retrieve it intact depended entirely on luck.
Jiang Zhi quickly tried to smooth things over. “Mom, my brother’s right. Maybe the base has some kind of decontamination methods. When the time comes, we can hire someone to help bring it back.”
Hearing this, the pained look on Ye Qingyun’s face eased a little. “I suppose that’s the only way.”
She knew her husband had the same idea; otherwise, he wouldn’t have wasted precious time earlier trying to repair it.
On the eve of the great catastrophe, their family of four had happened to be on a self-driving trip to a tourist spot in the central region.
During a rest stop back then, Jiang Shan, worried they might not find gas stations when heading into the Tibetan region, had bought several small canisters of fuel nearby.
Over the past few years, they had relied on this off-road vehicle to search for food and to escape countless dangers.
It could be said that this vehicle had already become their companion. To abandon it now without any feeling was simply impossible.
Jiang Shu cast a resentful look at his mother. “Mom, you play favorites. You speak so gently to A-Zhi, but you’re always barking orders at me!”
Ye Qingyun laughed in exasperation and snorted. “If you were as worry-free as A-Zhi, I could speak gently to you too.”
Jiang Shu imagined that scene and shuddered.
“Forget it. When you act gentle, Mom, it’s even scarier…”
Now that the decision had been made, the family of four stopped hesitating. They packed up their belongings from the car and began heading toward the base.
If not for the increasingly dangerous mutations of the plants and animals around the scenic area, their family might never have made up their minds to leave and head for the nearby base.
Along the way, there was nothing but wildly overgrown weeds. Their leaves were broad and thick, swaying in the fierce winds as night approached, occasionally letting out whooshing sounds.
The trees towered into the clouds. Their massive trunks required dozens of people to encircle them, and their branches and leaves intertwined into a dense green canopy that blocked out the sky, even surpassing the height of former skyscrapers.
Their roots sprawled across the ground like giant pythons, heaving the earth into uneven mounds.
Over the past three years, the supplies they had managed to accumulate were not much. Aside from that off-road vehicle, the only truly valuable thing they possessed was the survival experience they had gained from living in the wilderness.
If not for the increasingly uncontrollable mutated creatures in the wild, they would not have considered moving to the base.
The family of four carefully avoided one dangerous area after another. After an unknown amount of time, they finally reached the outskirts of Ancheng Base before nightfall.
Through the layers of towering trees, they could still see the city wall rising to a height of a hundred meters. From afar, it stood like a giant, its thick walls at least five meters wide, built from enormous gray stone blocks—solid and unyielding, like a fortress hidden within the hazy gray mist.
The group stared at the base walls in shock, unable to speak for a long time.
Jiang Shu couldn’t hold out any longer and plopped down on the ground. “Oh man, finally—we can see it before it gets dark.”
Jiang Shan smacked the back of his head. “Get up. Don’t think that just because we’re within the base’s territory you can let your guard down.”
Jiang Shu covered his head and muttered, “We’re already on the main road. There shouldn’t be any danger now, right?”
They had long heard from broadcasts that Ancheng Base had cleared the area within a radius of thirty kilometers. Now that they saw it in person, it was even more astonishing than they had imagined.
From the city walls radiating outward, the tallest weeds nearby only reached calf height. The view was wide open, and in the distance, several gravel roads seven to eight meters wide stretched in all directions, leading to the base’s various gates.
Jiang Shan frowned at his son. “Have you forgotten how Uncle Qiao and the others died?”
The “Uncle Qiao” Jiang Shan referred to had once lived together with them. Later, he lost his life due to carelessness. In the wilderness, no amount of caution was excessive—especially after nightfall.
When Jiang Shu heard this, he pouted and rolled his narrow phoenix eyes toward his younger sister, Jiang Zhi, hoping she’d say a few words for him so he could rest for a while.
It couldn’t be helped—his family of four had been rushing nonstop and hadn’t rested properly for three days and nights. Out in the wilderness earlier, their nerves had been constantly on edge. Now that they had entered the base’s territory and finally saw a familiar human roadway again, the tension he’d been holding snapped loose, and all he wanted was to rest.
Jiang Zhi didn’t notice his look. Her attention was fixed on a low hill not far away.
The terrain indicator in her mind showed a red warning point beneath that hill.
Red meant hostile—something that would attack.
Ye Qingyun noticed her abnormal reaction and immediately grew tense. “A-Zhi, what’s wrong? Is something there?”
Jiang Zhi nodded. Before Ye Qingyun could ask more, she swiftly drew the dagger from her waist and dashed forward in a single stride, thrusting it toward a tusked rabbit about the size of a piglet that suddenly appeared beneath the hill.
Jiang Shan had already prepared himself when Ye Qingyun spoke. As his daughter rushed forward, he followed right behind and swung a heavy blow at the leaping tusked rabbit.
The red-eyed creature let out a sharp “squeak” as it was knocked to the ground. Jiang Shu seized the moment before it could react and, without hesitation, brought down the shovel in his hands hard toward the rabbit’s neck.
He didn’t hold back—the shovel nearly pierced straight through the rabbit’s neck.
After a brief squeal, the tusked rabbit went completely still.
The three of them worked together flawlessly, leaving the creature almost no chance to counterattack.
This was the tacit understanding they had built over the past few years.
Once they confirmed the tusked rabbit was truly dead, the three relaxed. As they exchanged glances, each could see a trace of lingering fear in the others’ eyes.
The reason it was called a tusked rabbit was that after mutating, its front teeth had become extremely sharp and deadly, and its jumping speed was astonishingly fast. A single moment of carelessness could cost a person their life.
Even a single bite would be enough—the toxins carried by mutated beasts were more than enough to spell serious trouble for them.
If it weren’t for Jiang Zhi’s special ability allowing her to detect something unusual just now, the few of them might have ended up as a snack for that tusked rabbit.
Ye Qingyun didn’t stand idle either. She walked over and quickly cleaned up the scene, skillfully digging a hole with the shovel she carried and tossing the tusked rabbit inside.
This was to prevent the smell of blood from attracting even more dangerous creatures.
While helping, Jiang Shu stared at it eagerly, practically drooling. “A-Zhi, can’t we eat this tusked rabbit?”
“Probably not.”
Jiang Shu said, “You haven’t even tested it yet. Test it first, then say.”
Seeing he wouldn’t give up, Jiang Zhi brought her wristwatch close to the rabbit’s corpse.
—“Beep. High radiation detected. Not edible.”
“See? Can’t eat it.”
Jiang Shu’s face instantly fell.
After all this time, the only edible thing they had encountered was a single ant back in the beginning. Even though it was as big as a rat, it only had a few ounces of meat—not even enough for the four of them to get a proper bite. Jiang Shu felt like his mouth had gone completely bland from the lack of real food.
Seeing her son like this, Ye Qingyun felt both heartache and amusement.
“Alright, wipe your drool. We’re almost at the base. In a place that big, there’s bound to be meat we can eat.”
She glanced at the electronic watch on Jiang Zhi’s wrist. Although it wasn’t her first time seeing it, she still found this new invention from the base fascinating. “Do you think the technology in the base has developed really fast? They’ve even created something like this. If we’d known, we should’ve gone there earlier.”
The wristwatch Jiang Zhi wore had been taken not long ago from the body of another human they found in the wilderness.
It displayed personal information, along with stored points and various convenient functions to assist with survival in the wild.
Among its most practical functions was the ability to detect the radiation level in plants and animals.
After the great catastrophe, most mutated flora and fauna affected by radiation became inedible.
At first, they didn’t know these mutated organisms couldn’t be eaten. It was only after they saw neighbors one after another collapse and die from eating them that they realized these creatures were filled with radiation—and that consuming them meant death.
Over the past few years, they had survived entirely by searching abandoned cities for vacuum-sealed food.
Jiang Shan comforted his wife, saying, “Our original settlement was too far from the base. Given our condition back then, we might not have been able to reach it.”
Even now, after going through countless hardships and trials, they had only managed to make it this far.
Hearing this, Ye Qingyun stopped dwelling on it. “That’s true.”
Just as the couple was about to bury the tusked rabbit, Jiang Zhi looked at its two gleaming white teeth and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. She placed her wristwatch against those rabbit fangs.
—“Beep. Low toxin level. Edible.”