Niu Xiaolu rushed over at once. “Mommy! You’re awake!?”
“Xiao Lu… I, I’m not dead?”
Liu Xu was a little dazed herself.
She turned her attention inward for a moment and found that the pain from her organs was gone, and even her head felt perfectly clear.
Most importantly, she was now brimming with strength all over, even the scar from a wound she’d taken in the wilderness two years ago had vanished!
Niu Dali said excitedly, “Ah Xu, how do you feel?”
Liu Xu hesitated a moment, then said, “Dali, I feel like my body’s back to the way it was before the great catastrophe. Did you go and pay some price to treat me again?”
Now even an old scar had disappeared. How ridiculously potent would a detox medicine have to be to manage that? That scar on her hand used to itch unbearably every single day.
With the base’s current antitoxins, achieving anything like this was flat-out impossible.
Niu Dali’s eyes went wide. “Ah Xu, are you serious?!”
“No, we should still go to the infirmary and get you checked!”
And he made to pull Liu Xu out of bed.
Liu Xu irritably batted his hand away. “We can’t go now. Earlier, when you were trying to get me treated, you made it so the whole world knew. If we go get tested now and the result shows there’s nothing wrong with me, we’ll become the target everyone turns against!”
At his wife’s words, Niu Dali calmed down too.
Still half-disbelieving, he asked, “You’re really all right now?”
Liu Xu got up and walked a circle to show him. “Not just all right, I feel like even my old chronic ailments are gone.”
Watching her, Niu Dali couldn’t help murmuring in a daze, “Could that thirty grams of powder really have been this effective?”
After all, ordinary low-toxin food took at least a full jin in a single dose to meaningfully relieve toxin symptoms, and even then, the relief lasted only about half a year.
Seeing him like this, Liu Xu’s heart leapt. “What thirty grams of powder? Did you give something away again?”
Seeing his wife getting upset, Niu Dali hurriedly told her about Jiang Zhi giving him the powder.
Niu Dali said, “I never expected what she gave me to work this well. And it seems to do more than just relieve toxin symptoms.”
Liu Xu’s expression turned serious. “However you look at it, she saved my life. We owe her for this, and we have to repay it. Also, no one else can know about this.”
Niu Dali nodded, then heard his wife go on:
“From what you said, that family just arrived and settled into our base, so they’re bound to need help. We’ve still got over a month’s worth of food at home. Tomorrow let’s go over and see if there’s anything they need, however many points they ask, we’ll pay.”
Niu Dali nodded. “Whatever you say. And if it’s too dear to ever pay back, then at worst I’ll spend this whole life working it off like an ox and a horse for them.”
A powder this potent surely couldn’t be plentiful, it was their good fortune to have met someone willing to give it to them.
With the situation taking such a dramatic turn for the better, the family was filled with lingering fear, and, even more, with gratitude toward Jiang Zhi.
＊
The next day, before dawn, Jiang Zhi woke.
She got up, changed, and bundled herself up tightly before stepping out into the tent’s main room.
To her surprise, Jiang Shan and his wife were up even earlier than she was.
From the look of Ye Qingyun, she clearly hadn’t slept well.
No need to ask, it was surely from worrying about the two of them.
Seeing Jiang Zhi up, Ye Qingyun couldn’t help repeating her instructions. “Your dad worked through the night to finish the flatbed cart. When you two are out there, be careful, not just keeping clear of the mutated beasts, but watching out for people too.”
Just then Jiang Shu came over yawning. One look at him and Ye Qingyun’s temper flared.
“You little brat, don’t go dragging your sister down out there!”
Jiang Shu took a knuckle-rap to the head and woke up fully, thoroughly aggrieved. “Mom! You’re going to knock your son’s clever head broken sooner or later!”
Jiang Shan said, “All right, all right, stop fooling around. Get going.”
Under the couple’s worried eyes, the siblings set off.
Only once the two had merged into the crowd streaming out the city gate and vanished from sight did Jiang Shan comfort Ye Qingyun. “There now. They’re not children anymore, and they’ve got more wilderness-survival experience than most people. Besides, Ah Zhi has… well, in any case, they’ll be fine.”
That said, the truth was that early that morning Jiang Shan had felt the same urge to go out with them.
But in the end he had held himself back.
There were only four of them.
If the siblings didn’t go now, they would have to go eventually.
Ye Qingyun’s eyes reddened. She glared at her husband. “What do you know! What mother doesn’t worry? Not like you, cold-blooded and heartless!”
In the years since the catastrophe, the family had always moved as one, holding to the idea that if they died, they would die together, so that even if the worst happened, there would be no regrets.
This was the first time the siblings had acted on their own.
Jiang Shan begged for mercy. “I misspoke. How about I take on all the housework today?”
On the other end, however much the couple worried, the siblings had already gone out the city gate with the main crowd.
Jiang Shu pushed the rebuilt cart, drawing plenty of sidelong stares along the way.
The looks made him thoroughly uncomfortable. “Ah Zhi, what’s with them? Do they think I’m too handsome?”
Jiang Zhi said flatly, “They probably think you’re a walking charity drive, a living Bodhisattva [1] “活菩萨”, a living saint, someone boundlessly kind and giving jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2742493_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2742493_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); here to create job openings for the unemployed.”
Jiang Shu blinked, baffled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jiang Zhi said nothing more. She drew the machete tucked at her waist and cast a cold look at the people eyeing their cart.
Over the years Jiang Zhi had killed no small number of mutated beasts, when she turned serious, her gaze carried a definite menace.
Seeing that, those people withdrew their stares one after another.
When Jiang Shu finally worked out what she had meant, he leapt up. “Ah Zhi, were you just insulting me?!”
Jiang Zhi rolled her eyes.
Her brother only had to look around: every one of these people heading out of the city was dressed in rags and lugging a basket on their back.
There were some pushing carts like them, true, but those were all big families, clearly not to be trifled with.
In these people’s eyes, what were the two siblings if not easy pickings?
The only reason they hadn’t made a move was the base soldiers on patrol.
The moment they found an opening, given how rare a cart like theirs was, they would surely strike.
Once Jiang Shu caught on, he too noticed the ill-meaning looks around them. He glared fiercely in a full circle. “I’d like to see which blind fool dares set his sights on us!”
Jiang Shu was tall and big-framed. Lean as he looked now, at one meter eighty-five, just planting himself there was enough to give people pause.
Sure enough, the moment he spoke, however bold those people were, they no longer dared to tail them so openly.
About two kilometers from the city gate was a stop set aside for the base buses.
“Base buses” was a generous term, really they were converted sightseeing shuttles.
Most people meant to walk to the Collection Zones, only a few chose to take base transport.
Once the crowd had mostly dispersed, Jiang Shu spoke up. “Ah Zhi, which Collection Zone are we headed to?”
The base had opened up fourteen Collection Zones so far, each scanned by Exploration Team personnel with special instruments.
No large mutated creatures would appear inside them. Of course, small mutated beasts like fire voles and tusked rabbits were unavoidable, running into one was just personal bad luck.
The saving grace was that every Collection Zone had an Evolver stationed to guard it. Base residents could buy base-made signal flares.
If they ran into a mutated beast, they had only to fire a flare, and the Evolver would rush over in time.
What’s that?
You say you can’t afford one?
Then sorry, you’ll just have to chalk it up to bad luck.
Jiang Zhi thought it over. “Collection Zone 3 is a stretch of wild-vegetable woods. I hear there’s a river there that flows into the Inner Sea, I want to take a look. It’s not far from the base either.”
Most importantly, it took in a large pre-catastrophe wholesale market, even if they couldn’t gather much food, they could scavenge nearby.
At present, the base fed most of its ordinary people off just seven Collection Zones.
But “fed” meant only that, in the most literal sense, keeping people alive.
For most people, eating their fill was still something they could only imagine, most lived meal to meal, hungry one time and full the next.
Jiang Zhi had a cheat-tier ability, so naturally she wasn’t satisfied with merely eating her fill.
She wanted her whole family to live well.
Jiang Shu didn’t argue. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get moving!”
They didn’t take the base bus.
Jiang Zhi had no wish to hand the base twenty percent of the good things she found with the terrain map in her head.
The two had eaten purslane porridge and instant noodles that morning, so they weren’t hungry now and had decent energy.
Along the way they occasionally met other base residents heading out to gather, like them.
Only, everyone was cautious, each of them walking briskly.
Besides the one tire, Jiang Shan’s rebuilt cart had small wheels at the front, salvaged from a camping trolley, so it was inevitably a bit unbalanced to push.
Fortunately, the base had cleared the roads leading to each Collection Zone.
Hurrying along, the siblings finally reached their destination an hour later.
From a distance, Collection Zone 3 lay in a fairly flat valley, with a river about four meters wide running through it.
On both banks, great swaths of plants grew thick. Near the water’s edge, foxtail grass sprawled everywhere, its fuzzy spikes plump and round.
Here and there one could spot the enormous white pom-poms of mutated dandelions.
Each was as big as a person’s head.
As the siblings walked over, the bone staff Jiang Shu carried did its work.
With every step forward, a swarm of flying insects scattered up ahead.
Jiang Shu was delighted.
“Ah Zhi, this thing’s so handy. I wonder if it works on all insects.”
“If it works on snakes too, we’ll have struck it rich.”
Jiang Zhi studied the insects flying off ahead, silently noted their kinds, and said, “Maybe it really does work.”
Jiang Shu didn’t dare indulge in such a sweet dream.
Quite a few people had come to Collection Zone 3, but once they scattered across the area, hardly anyone was in sight.
Farther on was a small grove of sea buckthorn, there was no telling how many of those berries were actually edible.
Looking at the two-meter-tall white pom-poms swaying in the wind, Jiang Shu couldn’t help saying, “Ah Zhi, didn’t someone give our family dandelions yesterday too?”
Jiang Zhi knew what her brother was thinking. She had just swept the surrounding area with her sense.
“Those dandelions attack people.”
Jiang Shu was about to say something when, not far off, someone moved to test one of the shorter dandelions. The instant his hand touched a leaf, the white pom-pom lifted into the air and settled onto him.
The next moment, the man began shaking all over as though having a seizure.
“Aaaaahhh!!”
The man’s companion tried to help, but the instant he touched him, he too began convulsing without stop.
Those standing nearby, terrified of getting caught up in it, hurried away.
At the sight, Jiang Shu shrank his neck.
“Such cute little dandelions, how come they shoot electricity?”
Only after the dandelion’s down had fully scattered did the two men collapse completely.
By the look of it, they weren’t dead, but not much better off, either.
Someone seized the chance to make off with the food in the two men’s baskets.
Jiang Zhi looked away. “Come on, Brother.”
“Righto!” Jiang Shu answered, and trotted off after her eagerly.
It wasn’t as if the two of them were bleeding-heart saints [2] “圣母”, internet slang for a sanctimonious do-gooder who expects everyone to sacrifice themselves for strangers jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2742493_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2742493_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });, they had more than enough troubles of their own, with no energy to spare for helping others.
The siblings followed the river upstream. Along the bank grew clumps of mutated calamus, two or three times bigger than before the catastrophe, their leaves greener, faintly catching the sunlight.
Before the great catastrophe, Jiang Zhi had studied botany, so she knew a fair amount about plants.
This riverside mutated calamus, for one, was a mutant strain of the old sweet flag.
Its rhizomes were edible, just sharp and pungent. Picky as their ancestors had been, they’d never thought to eat the stuff, but it had medicinal value, and once processed it could be eaten.
There was no telling what the mutated sweet flag’s rhizomes looked like now.
The terrain map in her mind showed nothing special, and there was hardly anyone around, a perfect spot.
Reassured, Jiang Zhi decided to start here.
Jiang Shu set the flatbed cart aside, even taking care to lock its wheels with a chain.
“Ah Zhi, you’ve got your eye on this stuff? Is it edible?”
“Not sure. I saw in the mutated-creature catalog that sweet-flag rhizomes can be sifted for starch.”
Jiang Shu’s eyes lit up.
Starch was good, starch could fill a stomach.
References[+]