Dinner was eaten inside the tent tunnel.
It had become the temporary living room.
The dining table, too, was a low makeshift one cobbled together. A big family like theirs wasn’t fussy, they just sat on the ground.
Because there were so many of them, Ye Qingyun had made generous portions, the highland barley even cooked dry, a big bowlful, and without even looking you could tell how much grain had gone into it.
Looking at the portion, Grandma Jiang felt a pang. “Qingyun, why’d you make so much?!”
Jiang Shan spoke up for his wife. “Mom, bringing you all back today is a great happy occasion. Let’s be extravagant just this once and eat well, consider it a celebration.”
Grandma Jiang, “Aiya, I’m not blaming Qingyun, it’s just… it’s just…”
Ye Qingyun had lived with the old woman for a long stretch and knew exactly what she meant.
The old woman meant no harm, she simply ached over the grain.
She smiled. “Mom, don’t worry, it’s just today. Starting tomorrow, our family will settle into living steadily and make a good life of it.”
Grandpa Jiang nodded, then said solemnly to everyone, “I’ll only say this once. The reason we can move back into the self-built district is all thanks to your third brother. Once we’ve got the means in the future, none of us can forget what happened today.”
Jiang Shan grew flustered. “Dad, we’re family, why say such—”
Grandpa Jiang cut him off. “Even close brothers keep clear accounts. Things have to be kept straight, or the family falls into disorder.”
The rest of the Jiang family quickly said, “Dad/Grandpa, we’ll definitely never forget.”
Grandpa Jiang nodded with satisfaction and said to Jiang Shan again, “I won’t waste more words on courtesies. Qingyun’s right, since we’re one family, from now on everyone should pull together. We Jiangs have plenty of hands. I refuse to believe that with this many arms and legs, we can’t make a thriving life of it!”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Grandpa Jiang had lived to this age, what storms hadn’t he weathered?
Cramped in that tiny fifty-square-meter room earlier hadn’t broken his spirit, and it certainly wouldn’t now.
Seeing the longing for a better future on everyone’s faces, Jiang Shu ladled out a bowl of fish-ball soup for each person. “Come, come, come, let’s toast with soup in place of wine. Here’s to all of us, from now on, eating our fill every day, and eating meat!”
Everyone laughed at once.
Ye Qingyun scolded with a smile, “The nerve!”
Jiang Zhi quietly stood up with her rice bowl, backing her brother with action. “Cheers.”
Everyone: “Cheers!”
＊
This meal was the most satisfying one everyone had eaten in years.
The two little ones ate until their bellies were round and still wanted more.
If Grandma Jiang hadn’t feared that suddenly eating rich food would upset their stomachs and forbidden them seconds, the two children probably would have eaten themselves sick.
After the meal, Wu Xiu and Yuan Ying handled the dishes and the stove.
The two elders took charge of the children and Jiang Hai and his son.
During this, Grandma Jiang fed Jiang Hai and his son another round of mush.
Ever since taking the powder, Jiang Jun had quickly drifted into a deep sleep. At first everyone was a bit worried, but seeing the father and son’s breathing was steady and nothing seemed amiss, everyone relaxed.
The curtains between the tent compartments were rolled up, making the space look quite roomy.
The others sat at the dining table, chatting about what had happened to each of them over the years.
Hearing that Jiang Shu’s family had spent those years out at a wilderness settlement, facing those mutated creatures every day, Grandpa Jiang’s face turned grim. “Dashu, why didn’t you come to the base sooner? It’s far too dangerous out there.”
Jiang Shu smiled bitterly. “Back then the roads got covered by mutated creatures overnight, we couldn’t have run if we’d wanted to. But those years out there weren’t for nothing. When it comes to dealing with some mutated animals, we’re no worse than the average Evolver. Going forward we plan to head out and gather every day.”
“If we’d just had a detector back then, our three years probably would’ve been a lot better.”
In fact, the base’s Reclamation Teams and Exploration Teams weren’t made up entirely of Evolvers, there were ordinary people too.
As long as your physical condition was up to standard and met the base’s requirements, you could sign up to join these vanguard teams.
That was why Jiang Shu said they were no worse than those Evolvers.
“All the dishes today were gathered by Ah Zhi and me from the collection zone.”
Hearing this, everyone was quite surprised, especially Jiang Wen. “You two are that efficient?”
He’d gone gathering with his wife Xu Na before, but a full day’s haul was never much. On good days they might run into a few dozen jin of edible mutated plants, but more often than not, they’d spend a whole day in the collection zone and still not find enough to feed the family.
Of course Jiang Shu wasn’t about to reveal that Jiang Zhi had a cheat ability.
“Of course. We’ve got plenty of wilderness experience, dodging some dangers is no problem at all.”
At this, Jiang Wen said, “Then tomorrow Xiao Na and I will go scavenging with you.”
Ye Qingyun objected. “Ah Wen, this job of yours is pretty good, fifty or so points a day, and it’s easy. If you quit it, where will you find another like it?”
Jiang Wen smiled wryly. “Auntie, easy it may be, but it’s too hard to support a family on.”
In fact Jiang Wen had already been mulling quitting before this. If not for the secondhand shop letting him buy things at cost, he’d have quit long ago.
Now that the family’s situation had improved, there was no sense in everyone else working hard while he took the easy road.
Ye Qingyun thought it over, then said, “Tell you what, since everyone’s here today, let’s make a plan.”
“I sorted through what the family has earlier. I don’t have many points left on my end, but Ah Zhi and the others found some low-toxin stuff today, selling it should fetch seven or eight hundred points. Adding the fifteen hundred points Mom just transferred me, the family has two thousand three hundred total.”
This was counting in the selling price of the low-toxin goods.
“Eldest Brother and Ah Jun will still need to go to the infirmary for checkups—500 points is needed for that.”
“And there’s the 500 points Second Brother and his wife have to repay each month, we need to set that aside too.”
Jiang He had gone to apply anti-radiation coating to cabinets for someone in District B. Anti-radiation materials had always been a rarity, not even sold at the base store.
It was just Jiang He and his wife’s bad luck, they’d worked only one day when, the next day, they were told the anti-radiation material had gone missing.
The employer reported it to the authorities. Since only the couple had come and gone, the other side insisted it was them who’d stolen it.
They were just ordinary folk, a hundred mouths couldn’t outweigh the other party’s connections with the officers.
There was nothing for it: if the case wasn’t closed, the couple couldn’t take on work. Even though they knew they’d been framed, they could only swallow it and accept the blame.
It was only after Grandpa Jiang went and made a scene over there that the other side agreed to let them repay just half the points.
Seven thousand five hundred points in all, paid in installments of 500 a month, it would take over a year.
Ye Qingyun went on, “There are sixteen of us in all, eating five jin of highland barley a day, which comes to a hundred points a day. By that count, the family’s points will last us a bit over ten more days.”
Grandma Jiang nodded. “Your dad does acupuncture for people every day, earns thirty to fifty points. Ah Xiu and I take in handicraft work, twenty points a day, plus Ah Wen and his wife’s wages. We can earn the day’s grain, at least.”
The reason they’d fallen into such dire poverty was the cost of keeping up Jiang Hai and his son’s medical care.
Now that there was hope for the two of them, their days were sure to get better and better.
Hearing this, Ye Qingyun told them about the job she’d found too.
That way, with these daily wages alone, they could bring in a hundred twenty or thirty a day, making ends meet was no problem.
At this, Grandma Jiang suggested, “Why don’t we have Ah Zhi and Dashu find jobs too?”
The old woman’s thinking was still rooted in the pre-catastrophe days, she felt stability was best.
Jiang Shu shook his head hard. “No, no. I like gathering. Now that I finally don’t have to work a job, I don’t want to be a corporate drone again.”
Jiang Zhi declared her position too. “I’m not willing either.”
Jiang Shan nodded. “The whole family relying on wages alone definitely won’t work. We still have to build a house, and stock up household goods, all that takes money.”
“Besides, we can’t eat highland barley every meal, can we? Our bodies couldn’t take it.”
Most importantly, they hadn’t even factored in the debt Second Brother’s family owed.
Put plainly, although gathering brought unstable returns, one lucky hit was enough to turn things around.
Jiang Shan’s words struck home with everyone.
But gathering carried risks.
Still, if even a girl like Jiang Zhi dared to go, how could they bear to hide behind her?
Yuan Ying gritted her teeth and said, “Third Brother, why don’t we send Ah He and his son along with Dashu to gather? They’ve got strength, if anything happens, they can look out for Dashu and the others.”
Jiang He’s family had the same number of laborers as Jiang Shan’s family, one way or another, their family needed to send out two as well.
But Jiang Shan shook his head. “Building the house is our top priority right now, and I’ll need Second Brother’s help on that.”
The clay Hu Yang had promised to bring back for them had already arrived for the day.
It was no small amount, over a hundred kilograms.
This clay had been mutated.
Each kilogram, diluted with water, could expand to four or five kilograms.
The hundred kilograms Hu Yang had brought them was enough to build an outhouse.
Now that the Jiang family was so numerous, having an outhouse meant they wouldn’t have to keep running over to the low-rent housing, a big convenience.
There was another important reason: their tent couldn’t hold up for long under the sixty-some-degree daytime heat.
When it had just been their family, the expenses weren’t so great, with some economizing, plus Jiang Zhi’s ability, they could have toughed it out for a while.
But now that the household’s expenses had grown, there was no telling when they’d save up enough building materials.
So Jiang Shan decided to throw the whole family’s strength into getting the house built first.
At this, Xu Na said to Yuan Ying, “Mom, why don’t you let me go with Ah Zhi and the others? Weaving work can always be picked up again later.”
Jiang Wen said too, “Yeah, it works out well for us young people to go together.”
Seeing that her son and daughter-in-law had both spoken up, Yuan Ying couldn’t say much more.
Grandpa Jiang sighed. “If I weren’t afraid I couldn’t keep up with you young people, I’d want to go myself. I hear a lot of medicinal herbs gained new properties after mutating, I want to gather some to run experiments. Look at that clinic at House 88 in the self-built district. They found one mutated medicinal herb, presented it to the base, and now they’re thriving.”
Grandma Jiang shot him a look. “Enough now. It’s not that easy. Have you forgotten what became of all those who copied them later?”
For a while back then, plenty of people had wanted to replicate that man’s path to success, swarming off to gather mutated medicinal herbs. The result: not a single mutated herb they found in the collection zone had developed any curative property, and several people died instead.
After that, everyone’s enthusiasm for hunting mutated medicinal herbs cooled.
Jiang Shan said with a smile, “Dad, the family still needs you here.”
At this, Grandpa Jiang perked up. “What can I do?”
“When you’ve got free time, make us all some cabinets, ideally one per room. There’s still some wood at home, and tomorrow when Dashu and the others go out, they’ll bring back more.”
Grandpa Jiang said happily, “Good, good, good. That’s simple enough, I can finish one in two or three days.”
At this, Grandma Jiang asked too, “Then what can us women do?”
Jiang Shan thought it over. “Mom, we don’t have enough baskets for storage. Weave more whenever you’ve got the time.”
Grandma Jiang agreed readily. “Good, good, good.”
Afraid Yuan Ying was worried, Jiang Shan added a few more words. “Second Sister-in-Law, don’t fret. Dashu and the others are reliable, and they know their limits, they won’t go anywhere dangerous.”
Yuan Ying smiled. “Little Brother, I understand. If all of you trust Dashu and the others, what have I got to worry about?”
And so it was settled.
Grandpa Jiang, Ye Qingyun, and Yuan Ying kept their jobs, Wu Xiu would go on caring for Jiang Hai and his son and the two children, Jiang Shan and his brother Jiang He would build the house at home.
The young people—Jiang Shu and the rest, would go scavenging in the collection zone.
By the time they’d finished discussing, it was time for the power to be cut.
Everyone got ready to return to the tents to rest.
Before heading in, Jiang Zhi asked Jiang Wen, “Brother Wen, back when you worked at the secondhand shop, did they sell batteries?”
Jiang Wen was a little surprised. “They did. What size do you need?”
“AA.” After a pause, Jiang Zhi added, “They don’t have to be new, the kind that can last a few minutes is fine.”
“Urgent?”
Jiang Zhi nodded. “I need them tomorrow.”
Jiang Wen didn’t ask further and just nodded. “All right, I’ll make a trip early tomorrow to buy them for you.”
Jiang Shu asked one more question. “Is this stuff expensive?”
Jiang Wen answered with a smile, “Don’t worry, it’s not pricey.”
After the great catastrophe, most of those old high-tech things had vanished.
Whatever still turned up in the base was either extremely scarce and costly, or about as good as scrap.
The kind of disposable battery Jiang Zhi wanted, the secondhand shop did have, but mostly the nearly used-up kind, so they weren’t expensive, a few points a piece.
＊
Back in their room, Jiang Shu spoke up. “Ah Zhi, what do you want batteries for?”
Jiang Zhi dug a flashlight-style anti-wolf baton [1] 防狼棒, lit. “anti-wolf stick”, a handheld stun baton sold for self-defense, where “wolves” means predatory men jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2742501_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2742501_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); out of her bag.
“Here, I want to use this tomorrow.”
Jiang Shu sucked in a breath and snatched it, turning it over lovingly. “Damn, Ah Zhi, you actually have one of these!! Why didn’t you bring it out sooner?”
Jiang Zhi shrugged. “It died on us ages ago, and I never found batteries that worked.”
This time she’d asked Jiang Wen just on the off chance, never expecting the base to actually have such things.
Jiang Shu’s eyes shone. “Ah Zhi, you’re not planning to…”
Thinking of the carp marked gold in the river that day, Jiang Shu felt a surge of excitement inside.
Jiang Zhi nodded. “Right.”
Jiang Shan and Ye Qingyun happened to walk in just then, having turned off the tunnel’s kerosene lamp. Hearing the two’s fragmentary exchange, they asked, “What riddle are you two playing at?”
The siblings answered in unison, “Nothing.”
Too much had happened today, and Jiang Shan didn’t have the heart to dig into it, he only asked Jiang Zhi about the powder.
Jiang Zhi lowered her voice and recounted the tusked-rabbit business once more.
After hearing it, Jiang Shan wasn’t overly excited. “Either way, apart from the few of us, no one can know about your ability for now. If Ah Wen and the others have questions later, we’ll all tell the same story, that it’s Dashu’s ability.”
Ye Qingyun nodded.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust the Jiang family, it was just that with a matter like this, the fewer who knew, the better.
The siblings still had to leave the city the next day, so Ye Qingyun hurried them to lie down early.
Jiang Zhi lay on her stomach on the bed and took out her notebook to record the mutated creatures she’d seen today.
It was a habit she’d formed over these years.
By now the notebook was nearly full.
—Mutated river shrimp, shoots water jets, duration unknown, weak power.
—Mutated hellbender, sonic attack, causes dizziness and disorientation in people.
Writing to here, Jiang Zhi thought for a moment, then added:
—Effect varies with the strength of one’s mental power.
Jiang Shu yawned. “Ah Zhi, if you turned this notebook in to the base, you’d definitely get a big pile of points.”
He’d flipped through it. Although what Jiang Zhi recorded wasn’t as detailed or accurate as the mutated-creature catalog the base issued, it covered far more kinds.
Especially the plants.
Jiang Zhi didn’t think much of it. “The base’s collection is surely more than what we know. The catalog’s just for ordinary people to read.”
Jiang Zhi believed that within the Evolver circles there absolutely existed records far more advanced than the mutated-creature catalog.
It was only that, given their current status, they couldn’t access them.
Jiang Shu curled his lip and said no more.
Once Jiang Zhi finished writing, she lay down too.
The kerosene lamp burned dim in the room. Ye Qingyun glanced at the two siblings gradually falling asleep, shook her head with a smile, and went on patching the trousers Jiang Shu had scraped through during the day.
Jiang Shan hadn’t slept either.
The siblings had pushed a heap of stuff back today, and the load-bearing boards had clearly been pressed somewhat out of shape. Worried they’d break tomorrow, Jiang Shan was outside under the moonlight, improving the flatbed cart.
The moonlight poured down, pure and flawless, gently caressing all things, everything steeped in peace and quiet.
Early the next morning.
When the siblings woke, Jiang Shan and his wife were no longer in the tent.
Jiang Zhi checked the time, a little past four.
She could already hear the voices of Jiang Sui and Jiang Si next door.
Jiang Shu lifted the sun-shade curtain and looked out. Good grief, everyone in the family was up except the two of them.
Jiang Hai and his son were still in a deep sleep, but their complexions had visibly improved a great deal.
Seeing nothing was wrong, Jiang Zhi finally set her mind at ease.
By the look of the two of them, they’d probably wake up before long.
To be safe, Jiang Zhi fed the two another round of tusked-rabbit powder.
For breakfast, Ye Qingyun had made only four portions, highland barley porridge soaked in the leftover snail-egg braising sauce from the night before.
No matter how soft it was cooked, that highland barley was terribly throat-scratching.
Jiang Shu finished it with a long face, then started gathering the things for the trip out.
Stepping out of the tent and seeing the brand-new flatbed cart, Jiang Shu was dumbstruck.
Was this still his beloved little cart from yesterday?
How had it transformed so completely in just one night?
If yesterday’s was a Wuling minivan, the one before him now had to be a Ferrari.
The whole frame had been joined together from the elm wood they’d picked up the day before, using mortise-and-tenon joinery into a sturdy rectangle. The car tire underneath had even been reinforced with iron banding. Not only was the cargo surface twice as large as yesterday’s, it had been thickened, and short side panels had been added to the frame too.
The whole structure looked solid and tough, with far better load capacity than yesterday’s.
Most importantly, the tire now had four washbasin-sized wooden wheels on either side, easing the burden on whoever pushed it.
Jiang Shu was utterly smitten with the new flatbed cart.
“Dad, you made this last night?”
Jiang Shan said with a smile, “I don’t have such fine craftsmanship. I just lent a hand, your Second Uncle did the work.”
Jiang He had seen Jiang Shan busy with something the night before and had come out to help.
Mutated wood was harder to work, and Jiang He had spent the whole night to get it done.
Jiang He had also made three spears.
Since Jiang Shu had the bone staff, the three spears went to Jiang Zhi and the others.
Jiang Shu gave the cart an experimental push. Sure enough, it was much easier, heavier though it was, pushing it was actually more convenient.
He happily said to Jiang He, “Thanks, Second Uncle! Your craftsmanship really is something.”
Jiang He chuckled. “As long as it helps you all.”
Xu Na was going out today too, and had changed into a long-sleeved outfit and long pants.
The Jiang family already had two baskets, so Xu Na put the sickle and rope into one.
Jiang Zhi, the same as yesterday, carried only a small pack.
The three of them were ready, they were just waiting on Jiang Wen.
He’d probably gone to buy Jiang Zhi’s batteries.
Jiang Zhi asked, “When did Brother Wen leave?”
Before Xu Na could answer, Jiang Wen came back with a bag of secondhand batteries.
“Ah Zhi, will these be enough?”
Jiang Zhi took out the anti-wolf baton, put the batteries in to test, and seeing the indicator light come on, smiled. “They work.”
Xu Na was curious. “Ah Zhi, how do you have something like this?”
Jiang Zhi just said, “Back when we were going camping in the mountains, I was afraid something might happen, so I kept it on hand.”
Jiang Wen said with a smile, “Then our safety index is pretty high today.”
Jiang Zhi smiled and said nothing.
This anti-wolf baton wasn’t for warding off people.
Once the four of them were ready, they prepared to set off.
Jiang Sui held Jiang Si by the hand, the two of them standing to the side gazing longingly after them.
Jiang Zhi stroked his head. “Wait, Auntie will bring you back something good.”
“Auntie, I want to go too.”
Jiang Shu rumpled his hair. “Don’t be silly. Kids stay home and behave.”
Jiang Zhi said, “When you grow up, Auntie will take you along.”
Jiang Sui felt let down, but still nodded sensibly.
Grandma Jiang gathered the two children to her. “All right, don’t hold them up. Go early, come back early.”
The four answered, “Okay.”
Worried as the two elders were, they could only keep the words bottled up.
Only after the four children were out of sight did the two elders return to the tent.
＊
This time Jiang Zhi again chose Collection Zone 3.
Today there were two more people, all young and strong, so far fewer people on the road eyed their cart covetously.
Sure enough, in this world, numbers gave you backbone.
After the four of them lined up and left the city gate, they sprinted all the way to Collection Zone 3. With good equipment this time and people to take turns, their pace was noticeably faster, they reached their destination in just half an hour.
The moment they arrived, Jiang Shu looked around and asked Jiang Zhi, “Ah Zhi, are we going to that spot from yesterday first?”
The siblings’ biggest goal today was to get their hands on that gold-marked carp they’d encountered the day before.
The two siblings led the other two toward the river.
Looking at the route, Jiang Wen quickly guessed their destination was the notorious Perilous River of the base, and his face changed at once. “Dashu, Ah Zhi, you’re going to the Perilous River—”
At this point, Jiang Wen thought of yesterday’s dishes, and his face turned even uglier. “Don’t tell me yesterday’s fish and shrimp were caught here?”
Jiang Zhi didn’t hide it. “Mm. We did pick up the goods here yesterday. Brother Wen, is there a problem?”
Xu Na’s face went a little pale too. Looking at the siblings’ clueless expressions, she chose her words carefully. “Ah Zhi, that river is very dangerous… When the base sent people to clear out Collection Zone 3, they paid a heavy price, and even now they still haven’t fully cleared this river. So… for now, this river is still off-limits to us.”
Jiang Zhi was surprised.
“This river doesn’t look big or deep. It’s that dangerous?”
In fact, Jiang Zhi had probed this river with her terrain radar too. Apart from scattered red dots, there’d been nothing special.
That clearly didn’t match what Xu Na was saying.
Jiang Wen nodded with a grave face. “Yes. The danger of this river lies in never knowing when some mutated creature will surface.”
“People used to think this river wasn’t dangerous too, and tried to fish for shrimp in it. Every single one of them ended up in trouble.”
“So now everyone gives this river a wide berth. It’s not openly forbidden to approach, but staying away from it unless absolutely necessary has become a kind of consensus in the base.”
Jiang Shu muttered in disbelief, “We didn’t run into any danger yesterday…”
Jiang Wen smiled bitterly. “Dashu, those who came to grief before said the same thing at first. Best not to count on luck.”
Seeing that Jiang Wen and Xu Na didn’t look like they were being alarmist, Jiang Zhi couldn’t help frowning.
She fell silent for a moment, then finally said, “Brother Wen, I still want to take a look. We won’t go near it, we’ll just look from the bank, from a distance.”
Jiang Wen and Xu Na exchanged a glance.
The two of them had no idea what Jiang Zhi was scheming, but in the end they agreed.
Jiang Wen said, “Just as long as you don’t go near it.”
The four of them came to the riverside.
Today Jiang Zhi and the others had taken a different route, and discovered the river was unexpectedly long.
Looking ahead from where they stood, they couldn’t even see its source.
“Brother Wen, do you know where this river starts?”
Jiang Wen shook his head. “I’m afraid even the head of the base Exploration Team couldn’t answer that.”
“This was originally Ancheng’s moat. After the great catastrophe it changed completely, and no one knows what happened here. All I know is that this river is very long, what we see in Collection Zone 3 is less than one percent of it.”
Jiang Shu sucked in a breath. “That long?!”
Collection Zone 3 was already considered large, yet the Perilous River ran all the way through it, and this stretch wasn’t even one percent of the whole river. No wonder some unpredictable, dangerous mutated creatures appeared.
Unless the base’s vanguard teams cleared the entire river, it would never be safe.
A trace of seriousness finally appeared on Jiang Shu’s face.
Jiang Zhi, on the other hand, showed no expression.
When the four of them reached yesterday’s spot, Jiang Zhi pulled up the terrain radar and took a look. The river was the same as yesterday, nothing special.
But on the riverbank she did see a dense cluster of red dots.
She frowned and frowned again.
She couldn’t make out what those red dots were. There’d been nothing unusual here yesterday.
Jiang Zhi hesitated over whether to keep trying today to catch the carp the terrain radar had marked gold the day before.
She was just about to step forward when Jiang Wen stopped her.
“Ah Zhi, you’re not thinking of getting in the river, are you?”
Jiang Zhi thought it over and decided to reveal a little to Jiang Wen and Xu Na. “Brother Wen, Sister-in-Law, there’s something I haven’t told you.”
“I can sense danger nearby.”
Jiang Wen blinked, thinking he’d misheard.
After it sank in, he asked again, “Ah Zhi, you mean…”
Jiang Zhi nodded. “That’s how our family got through those three years.”
Although there was some concealment in these words, it wasn’t quite a lie.
Jiang Zhi had thought it through: rather than dance around hiding the truth, it was better to tell them in advance, seven parts fake to three parts true.
Xu Na was greatly shocked. “Ah Zhi, are you an Evolver?”
Jiang Zhi shook her head. “My intuition’s just stronger than the average person’s, and so far it’s been pretty accurate.”
Jiang Wen and his wife weren’t fools. If it were only ordinary intuition, how could she have survived so many years in that man-eating wilderness…
But if she really were an Evolver… she’d have been detected upon entering the city.
So Jiang Zhi couldn’t be lying.
Seeing the two of them stunned for a good while, Jiang Zhi smiled. “Brother Wen, Sister-in-Law, don’t worry, we won’t gamble carelessly with our lives, otherwise who’d take care of Mom and Dad in their old age?”
Jiang Wen came to himself. “What do you want to do?”
Jiang Shu said, “We saw a carp in this river yesterday, it was clearly a good thing. We just want to check if that carp’s still around.”
Even after hearing Jiang Wen’s account of the river, the two of them now felt the odds of running into it again were low, but they couldn’t bear not to try.
Seeing they’d made up their minds, Jiang Wen had no choice but to say, “I still don’t approve of getting in the river. We can search along the bank, that way, if anything happens, we’ll have room to react.”
Jiang Zhi knew this was Jiang Wen and Xu Na’s bottom line, and nodded. “All right.”
Once it was settled, Jiang Zhi walked to the river’s edge, expanding the terrain radar until it covered the whole river surface, then began a carpet search, walking forward as she scanned.
After spotting those dense red dots, Jiang Zhi looked from afar and found they were toad eggs.
Jiang Zhi led the others around that area and continued forward.
After walking a few hundred meters, Jiang Zhi’s eyes lit up.
“Brother, there it is!”
Not far from them, a gold marker was slowly swimming toward the bank.
Jiang Shu got excited at once. “Where!?”
Jiang Zhi pointed.
It was close to them, yet not close enough. The net in her hands didn’t have a wide enough catch range, if she struck rashly, the target would very likely be spooked.
And as it happened, that fish seemed to know the bank was there, it would draw closer, then swim off again.
Back and forth it went a few times, until Jiang Shu was itching with frustration, wanting nothing more than to get in the water and herd the fish onto the bank. “Ah Zhi, what do we do now?”
Jiang Zhi gazed thoughtfully at the dense red dots along the bank.
She had the feeling the carp was trying to get close to those creatures.
But the bank was overgrown with Bermuda grass, which, though it hadn’t grown giant after mutating, grew extremely densely, blocking off any view of what was in the water.
If only she could get a glimpse of what was there.
Just then, the carp suddenly broke the surface.
This time, all four of them saw its slender body, the silver scales scattering fine silver light in the sunshine, its fins slicing powerfully through the water and throwing off strings of droplets that splashed in all directions.
The mutated carp’s eyes bulged from their sockets, about the size of ping-pong balls. After a brief glance toward the red warning dots, it nimbly flicked its tail and plunged back into the water with a “plop,” leaving only rings of ripples slowly spreading out.
The carp was about to swim toward the center of the river.
A flash of inspiration struck Jiang Zhi, and she swept the spear in her hand toward the red warning dots.
A whole patch of hornwort growing by the riverbank was instantly swept into the water.
A loud splashing of water suddenly rose up around the hornwort.
The moment the hornwort hit the water, its stems and leaves turned into nimble tentacles, swiftly entangling the prey around them.
The four of them couldn’t see what was happening underwater, but they knew a piglet-sized fish in the river was thrashing violently, churning the surface into a spray.
Jiang Wen’s face changed at the sight.
“This soft grass can actually attack!”
Soft grass was the local name for hornwort, which used to be everywhere by the village ponds.
Who’d have thought mutated hornwort would be this fierce.
Jiang Shu retreated a few steps. Seeing Jiang Zhi’s calm expression, he quickly asked, “Ah Zhi, what did you find?”
“Just watch.”
Sure enough, just as the hornwort was strangling its prey, preparing to feed, the carp not far off suddenly darted over at high speed. It opened its mouth and spat out a large bubble, and the great mass of hornwort instantly recoiled its stems and leaves as if it had met its bane, then, as if conscious, retreated toward the bank.
The transparent bubble drifted over and touched the hornwort, instantly enveloping it. Before long, the hornwort inside the bubble withered to a sickly yellow.
Seeing this, the carp leapt about in the water a few times, preparing to keep swimming toward the bank.
Jiang Zhi’s gaze sharpened. “Now’s the time!”
“Brother, cover me!”
No sooner said than done, a net was cast down, instantly blanketing the silver carp.
The hornwort on the bank, sensing a creature approaching, began thrashing its stems and leaves at Jiang Zhi, baring fangs and brandishing claws.
Jiang Shu swept his staff across, and a swath of hornwort fell, but very quickly the stems and leaves began coiling around the bone staff, then crawling up it toward Jiang Shu’s hand.
Jiang Shu’s face changed.
Fortunately, Jiang Wen beside him was quick-eyed and quick-handed, prying the hornwort loose with the spear in his hands.
Seeing Jiang Zhi being dragged several steps, Xu Na hurried forward to help.
But this carp’s strength was even greater than the hellbender they’d met before. Even with Xu Na putting in all her strength, they couldn’t hold steady, and the two of them lost their balance in an instant.
At this, the Jiang brothers couldn’t worry about the attacking hornwort anymore and ran over together to help.
The four of them gripped the rope tight, every muscle taut, bodies leaning back, inching toward the bank step by hard-won step.
Even with the four of them pulling together, they could only barely match the silver carp’s strength.
Every time the fish thrashed, it set the net trembling, groaning out “creak, creak” sounds.
Suddenly, with a crisp “snap,” the net gave way under the strain. A tear spread rapidly, and the mutated carp, seizing the moment as everyone tumbled backward, slipped into the deep river with a “splash,” carrying off scraps of the broken net.
The four of them sat sprawled on the ground, gasping, staring at the water.
After a moment, Jiang Zhi stood up and hauled the once-again-torn net out.
Inside, a few withered strands of hornwort were tangled forlornly, along with two fist-sized snails.
“Beep. Moderate toxin level. Suitable for limited consumption.”
“Beep. High toxin level. Not recommended for consumption.”
Expressionless, Jiang Zhi tossed the moderate-toxin snail into the bag.
Better than nothing.
Beside her, Jiang Shu finally snapped to.
He sprang up with a carp-kick leap:
“Damn it!! It got away again!?” He was beyond chagrined. “Such a great chance!! And it got away!!”
Who could understand the pain of getting something and then losing it?!
Jiang Shu could hardly breathe for the heartache.
It was a case of losing the wife and the soldiers both [2]“losing the wife and the soldiers both”, from a Three Kingdoms scheme that backfired: a plot to trap Liu Bei with a marriage offer failed, and the schemer lost both the bride and his … Continue reading jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2742501_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2742501_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.
Those two snails couldn’t fill the hole in his heart at all.
That had been a carp with a special function!!
A gold one!!
They had only two special items between them.
One was the bone staff in Jiang Shu’s hands, the other was the tooth powder on Jiang Zhi.
And now, a carp this huge, with who knew what heaven-defying function—
just got away!!
Jiang Wen shook out his scraped hand, he’d overexerted just now, and his hands were inevitably a bit hurt.
He consoled them, “It’s normal not to catch a mutated creature. If they were that easy to catch, we wouldn’t have to work so hard to find food.”
Xu Na had a good attitude too. She asked Jiang Zhi, “Ah Zhi, is this the thing you two had your eye on?”
Jiang Zhi nodded. “We saw it yesterday and came back today to try our luck again. Didn’t expect to fall just that little bit short.”
It seemed that when they got back, she’d have to buy a sturdier net.
Jiang Shu grumbled, “Next time we have to catch it for sure!”
Jiang Wen didn’t expect them to still be unwilling to give up.
He quickly advised, “Dashu, I think we should let it go. That fish isn’t easy to catch, who knows if we’ll even run into it again? And we got lucky, that hornwort’s attack power was weak. There’s no guarantee what we’ll run into next time.”
Jiang Shu was about to argue back, but the moment he heard the word “hornwort,” he suddenly remembered his bone staff was still tangled up, and quickly grabbed the machete to cut all the hornwort stems off.
“Phew, thank goodness. I can’t lose this treasure of mine, or I’d cry myself to death.”
Jiang Zhi answered Jiang Wen, “Brother Wen, don’t worry. Next time we come, I’ll scout the environment first.”
Jiang Wen: “…”
So all his advice had been for nothing.
Jiang Zhi put the net away and went on, “We failed this time, but it wasn’t a total loss. At least we learned that silver carp’s preferences and its mode of attack.”
Jiang Shu looked bewildered. “What preferences?”
Had they not been facing the same carp just now? Why hadn’t he seen anything.
Jiang Wen: “Is it this soft grass?”
“Right,” Jiang Zhi said. “Next time we can follow this soft grass to track that carp.”
“We still don’t know that carp’s exact attack method, but as long as we can dodge those bubbles, I’m sure it won’t be too big a problem.”
At the speed that carp spat bubbles, as long as they stayed alert, they wouldn’t get hurt.
Hearing this, Jiang Shu cheered up again. “In that case, next time we’ll prep even better. I refuse to believe we can’t catch it!”
Jiang Wen and Xu Na couldn’t understand why the siblings were so fixated on that carp.
Xu Na started to say something, then stopped, and seeing Jiang Wen say nothing, she didn’t speak up.
Seeing this, Jiang Zhi didn’t explain either.
Jiang Shu: “So where do we go now?”
Jiang Wen thought it over. “I’ve been to Collection Zone 3 once before. There’s the most wild vegetables here, but over on the other side of the valley there’s a sugarcane grove, we could go take a look.”
“Although the haul probably won’t be much. There was just a ripening wave half a year ago.”
Jiang Zhi was a plant-biology major and knew it wasn’t sugarcane’s growing season now, and with so many people at the base, there was no telling if there’d be any haul.
But the temptation of sugarcane was just too great.
It was sweet, after all…
Not only could it be made into brown sugar, it could be pressed into juice, and if you could add a bit of lemon juice and ice…
Just thinking about it, Jiang Shu could hardly stand it.
True, they didn’t have a single one of those things yet, but a person has to have dreams, otherwise what’s the difference between you and a salted fish?
“Ah Zhi, let’s go to the sugarcane grove!!”
As for catching the fish, doing it on the way back would work just as well.
Jiang Zhi didn’t hesitate and nodded in agreement. “Okay.”
Jiang Shu’s attitude left Jiang Wen and his wife exchanging glances.
They’d assumed Jiang Shu was the one calling the shots, now it seemed Jiang Zhi was.
The sugarcane grove was on the west side of the valley. Yesterday they’d only gone to the wild-vegetable woods on the east side and hadn’t known there was sugarcane just beyond the hundred-some mu of wild vegetables.
This time they went straight in from the edge of the valley and soon reached the sugarcane grove.
After mutating, the sugarcane plants came in all shapes. The stalks were abnormally thick, the skin a deep, gloomy purple covered in twisted, irregular patterns. The shorter sugarcane lay flat against the ground. The leaves, too, had broken from their usual form, the broad blades rustled in the wind, their serrated edges looking very sharp.
“Whoa, this is mutated sugarcane? Is it even edible?” Jiang Shu cracked. “Looks more like it’d eat me.”
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