The electronic voice rang out clearly.
The four of them fell silent for a moment before exchanging bewildered looks.
Jiang Shu’s eyes widened. “What the heck!? These teeth are edible!?”
Jiang Zhi grinned.
They definitely weren’t edible, but since they were low-toxin items, they might prove useful somehow. There was no harm in keeping them.
She bent down, dug out the two palm-sized teeth, washed them clean with water from her canteen, and tucked them into the small pouch at her waist.
Jiang Shu leaned over to take a look. “Ah Zhi, you can’t even eat those things. Why are you keeping them?”
Jiang Zhi replied, “It’s rare to come across something with low toxin levels. I’ll keep them as souvenirs.”
Jiang Shu said, “Then give me one.”
“No. I found them.”
Jiang Shu immediately protested. “Jiang Zhi, you’ve really got some nerve! Don’t think you’re so amazing just because you’ve got a watch. Once we get to the base, I’ll get one too. When I find low-toxin stuff, don’t come begging me for it!”
Jiang Zhi stuck out her tongue at him. “As if I’d beg you.”
Seeing the siblings bickering again, Jiang Shan shook his head. After filling the pit back in with soil, he said, “That’s enough. Let’s get moving, or it’ll really be dark soon.”
Hearing this, Jiang Shu couldn’t help letting out a mournful groan.
Just then, Ye Qingyun suddenly spoke up. “Ah Zhi, if these rabbit teeth have low toxin levels, could its internal organs be low-toxin too?”
Jiang Zhi blinked. She exchanged a glance with Jiang Shu, then immediately gutted the tusked rabbit with lightning speed.
Beneath the bloody rabbit meat was a bright red heart. Jiang Zhi brought her watch close to it—
“Beep. Low toxin level. Safe for consumption.”
Jiang Shu’s heart started pounding.
“It’s low-toxin too!!!”
The heart alone weighed at least a pound. It was enough for a decent meal.
He subconsciously swallowed, then quickly removed all of the tusked rabbit’s internal organs and urged, “Ah Zhi, hurry! Keep testing them!”
Jiang Zhi tested the two kidneys.
“Beep. Moderate toxin level. Recommended for limited consumption.”
The moment the electronic voice finished speaking, everyone’s eyes lit up.
—The two kidneys were edible too!
Jiang Shu weighed them in his hands. Together, the two kidneys had to weigh at least three pounds.
That was all meat!
Although they contained a moderate level of toxins, low-toxin plants and animals were incredibly rare.
If people wanted to fill their stomachs, they still had to rely on moderately toxic food. The broadcasts had said that long-term consumption of moderately toxic food could shorten one’s lifespan, but in times like these, being able to survive at all was already fortunate. What did a shorter lifespan matter?
Ye Qingyun took an insulated food-delivery bag out of her backpack and carefully placed the tested heart and kidneys inside.
The bag was lined with aluminum foil. Not only did it retain heat, but when sealed properly, it could also block most odors.
If time weren’t so tight, Jiang Shu would have loved to roast the meat and eat it on the spot.
“Mom, let’s have a meat feast tonight when we get to the base. We can treat it as a celebration for moving.”
Ye Qingyun had been in a fairly good mood, but the moment she heard her son’s suggestion, she immediately scolded him.
“Eat, eat, eat, that’s all you think about! Do you have any idea how valuable this stuff is? Our vehicle is gone, and we don’t have many valuables left on us. We might not even have enough points to rent a place in the base. Do you want to spend the night sleeping outside the gates?”
Jiang Shu looked aggrieved.
“It’s only a little bit of meat. How much could it possibly sell for…?”
“Anyway, stop thinking about eating it. I have plans for it.”
Hearing that, Jiang Shu instantly looked as though all hope had left him.
He completely lost the motivation to continue testing anything. Even if they found more edible parts, he probably wouldn’t get to eat them.
Ye Qingyun couldn’t be bothered with him and turned to Jiang Zhi.
“Ah Zhi, finish testing the rest in one go. Hurry up.”
Jiang Zhi didn’t waste any time. She picked up the intestines and continued scanning.
Unfortunately, it seemed their good luck had run out. Nearly every part they tested afterward turned out to be highly toxic.
Jiang Zhi felt a little disappointed. Thinking about the mutated animals they had killed in the past, she said regretfully, “If we’d found this detector earlier, we might have been eating meat a long time ago.”
Jiang Shan smiled.
“Alright, alright. We’ll have plenty of chances to eat meat in the future. It’s not like this one opportunity matters that much.”
“It’s getting late. Pack everything up and let’s go.”
Reluctantly, Jiang Zhi cleaned up and packed away the tusked rabbit’s remains.
The family of four set off once more.
Without the wild grass blocking their path, they moved quickly. After hurrying along the entire way, they finally arrived at the city gates before darkness completely fell.
Even from up close, the base’s outer walls were an awe-inspiring sight.
Watchtowers were built along the top of the city wall, and the silhouettes of patrolling soldiers could be seen faintly. With the distant mountain ranges as a backdrop, the entire base looked imposing and dignified.
Mounted along the wall, at intervals of every ten meters, were giant high-powered floodlights more than a meter wide, illuminating everything within a two-kilometer radius of the base.
The base’s main gate stood eight meters high and ten meters wide, forged from heavy steel. At a glance, it looked incredibly sturdy.
Its surface was covered with reinforced rivets and protective patterns. Directly above the gate was a searchlight whose powerful beam stood out sharply in the night. Advanced electronic identification systems and surveillance cameras were installed on both sides of the entrance.
More than a dozen armed soldiers were even stationed in front of the enormous gate.
The family felt a surge of excitement.
Living in a base like this meant they would no longer have to take turns standing watch every night or constantly worry about their safety.
Most importantly, the base had electricity!!
They could finally stop living like primitive people!
Jiang Shu was so moved that he nearly cried.
“Holy crap, if I’d known Ancheng Base was like this, we shouldn’t have hesitated for so long back then. Just look at this place, it feels so safe!”
Ye Qingyun wished she could grab her foolish son and give him a good beating.
“You’re the one with the most nonsense to say!”
Couldn’t he see that everyone around them was staring at them as if they were watching a monkey show?
Jiang Zhi rolled her eyes at him as well.
“Brother, you should just keep your mouth shut.”
Noticing the looks from the people around him, Jiang Shu immediately rubbed his nose guiltily.
The family of four lined up behind the base residents who were returning from the wilderness.
After observing for a while, Jiang Zhi realized that these people did not seem to be living much better than they were.
Most were dressed in worn-out clothes, some even patched in several places.
After craning his neck to look around for a while, Jiang Shu lowered his voice and said to the others, “Living in the base doesn’t seem as great as I imagined. These people are pretty much the same as us, skin and bones.”
The one thing that reassured them was that, although the residents looked thin and weak, their expressions were not numb or lifeless.
That meant the people running the base were not the kind to exploit ordinary citizens.
It simply showed how difficult it was to find food in this day and age.
Jiang Shan said, “There are people who live well too.”
The brother and sister followed his gaze and saw that the group near the front of the neighboring line was clearly in better condition. Even the baskets on their backs contained more items than those of the others.
The group was obviously a family.
After looking around some more, they noticed that the larger groups generally seemed to be living better.
It appeared that in the base, people needed to stick together to survive.
Ye Qingyun sighed. “It would be great if we could find your eldest and second uncles.”
The Jiang family had three brothers in total. As the youngest, Jiang Shan had always been the one looked after by the others. The extended family had always gotten along harmoniously, with hardly any conflicts. If Jiang Shan hadn’t moved to the city for work so the children could get a better education, the whole family could have been supporting one another through these difficult times.
Jiang Shan comforted her. “It’s alright. Didn’t the broadcast mention it? The base has an information hall. We can post a missing-person notice there. If my eldest and second brothers are here, we’ll definitely find them.”
“While we’re at it, we can also look for your sister.”
A trace of awkwardness flashed across Ye Qingyun’s face.
“…We’ll see when the time comes.”
The line moved quickly, but there were simply too many people. It would probably take another twenty minutes before it was their turn.
Growing impatient, Jiang Shu slipped away toward the front of the line to gather information.
Seeing this, Ye Qingyun immediately called out anxiously, “Hey! Jiang Dashu! Get back here!”
They still had no idea what the situation inside the base was like. How could the family split up at a time like this?
Jiang Shan reassured her. “Don’t worry. I’ll go with him and check things out up front. You and Ah Zhi stay here and wait for us.”
Ye Qingyun could only nod.
“Be careful. If… things don’t work out, we can always find somewhere else to stay.”
Jiang Shan naturally understood what his wife meant. He nodded.
“Don’t worry.”
After the father and son left, Jiang Zhi turned her attention to the baskets carried by the residents.
Most of them were filled with mutated plants. Quite a few people had brought back nothing more than wild grass and tree branches.
After scanning the crowd, Jiang Zhi couldn’t help frowning.
It seemed that even in a large base, obtaining food was no easy task.
A middle-aged woman standing behind them noticed their fully equipped appearance and couldn’t help asking, “Miss, did you come from Qingshan Base too?”
Ye Qingyun happened to want to gather some information herself, so she replied, “Auntie, how did you know?”
The woman looked thin and sallow, but she was neatly dressed and carried herself energetically.
Pleased that her guess had been correct, she smiled and said, “It’s obvious you’re not from our base. And if you’re not from our base, then you must be from Qingshan Base. In times like these, nobody can survive out in the wilderness.”
Ye Qingyun and the others felt somewhat awkward after hearing that.
They really had come from the wilderness. Being able to survive for several years in a mutated world was due not only to their abilities, but also, to some extent, to luck.
Still, Ye Qingyun had no intention of explaining. Even if she did, no one would believe her.
Jiang Zhi asked curiously, “Then how do you know we’re from Qingshan Base, Auntie? We could be from some other base.”
The woman looked at her as if the answer were obvious.
“Isn’t that self-evident? Qingshan Base is connected to our base now. Recently, quite a few people have moved here from over there.”
Then she added, “What? Did I guess wrong? You’re not from Qingshan Base?”
Of course Jiang Zhi knew about Qingshan Base. According to the broadcasts, its scale was no smaller than Ancheng Base’s. However, because it was located by the sea, it frequently faced threats from mutated beasts coming from both the ocean and coastal routes. It was also extremely far from their former settlement, so their family had never considered going there.
She didn’t expect the authorities to be so capable. They had actually managed to establish a route connecting the two major bases in such a short time.
After all, even an ordinary cockroach was now dozens of times larger than before the catastrophe, not to mention the mutated plants that had developed all sorts of bizarre attack methods.
The authorities must have invested enormous effort into exploring and securing that transportation route.
Just as Jiang Zhi was about to speak, she noticed Ye Qingyun giving her a meaningful look and immediately shut her mouth.
Ye Qingyun smiled and said, “As expected, nothing gets past you, Auntie. We were originally from Ancheng before the catastrophe. Now that the route is open, we came back hoping to find some relatives.”
“We’re just not sure what the situation here is like.”
“Oh, you’ve come to the right person for that,” the woman said proudly. “My son works in the logistics department.”
Ye Qingyun tactfully slipped a fruit candy into her hand.
The woman looked down and, upon seeing that it was a pre-catastrophe treat, her eyes nearly popped out. Even so, she repeatedly tried to refuse.
“No, no, I can’t take this. Something this rare should be kept for yourselves. One piece can sell for several points!”