Hearing this, Jiang Shu immediately sidled up shamelessly. “Uncle, since my dad’s said so, I won’t ask for much, let’s start with a trident.”
Jiang Hai refused outright. “A trident doesn’t suit you. How about I make you a hammer?”
Jiang Shu was unhappy. “Why?”
Jiang Zhi quietly put in, “Because you’re like a hammer [1] “锤子”, Chinese internet slang for calling someone a blockhead or a good-for-nothing, here it also puns on the hammer weapon just mentioned jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2748334_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2748334_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });.”
Jiang Shu puffed up like a blowfish. “You’ve got some nerve, Ah Zhi, mocking your own brother, just watch how I deal with you—”
Jiang Zhi promptly ducked behind Jiang Jun. “Big Brother, look, my brother’s bullying me again!”
Before Jiang Jun could even speak, Jiang Sui had stepped up to block Jiang Zhi. “Xiao Uncle, shame on you, a grown man bullying a little girl! Daddy says a real man should yield to girls!”
Jiang Shu: …
The onlookers couldn’t help laughing.
In a world like this, moments this relaxed were precious beyond measure.
What could be more reassuring than having family by your side in the apocalypse?
At the very least, Jiang Shan’s family of four had no regrets about their choice.
Watching the warm, harmonious scene, Ye Qingyun felt at ease too.
Few people knew that her hobby was making all kinds of good food, she’d only set it aside in the past for the sake of making a living.
Now, with others fretting over the household chores and her only responsible for cooking, Ye Qingyun’s old devotion to fine food came alive again.
The harder the conditions, the more she wanted to make something delicious from the limited resources at hand.
Just as Ye Qingyun was pondering what to make for dinner, Jiang Zhi took out a dozen or so jin of low-toxin cotton aphids.
“Mom, let’s eat these tonight.”
“Hm?” Ye Qingyun, not understanding, assumed they were no different from before and chided, “There’s more? You child, why didn’t you bring them out together earlier?”
Jiang Zhi wheedled, “If I’d brought them out, would there still be any left to eat now?”
Ye Qingyun just took her for a little glutton who’d squirreled them away on purpose.
“Fine, fine, I’ll make them in a bit. I’ll cook them a different way for you today.”
Ye Qingyun wanted to give everyone some extra nutrition too.
Forget the rest of the Jiang family, her own family of four had long lived hand-to-mouth in the wild, hungry one meal, full the next. Now that they had points for the house and things were a little easier, Ye Qingyun was glad to improve the family’s meals.
Ye Qingyun took out the meat Grandpa Lin had given and trimmed the fat from between the skin and flesh.
The weather was hot, even mutated-beast meat would go bad if she didn’t cook it soon.
The fat met the scorching wall of the pot, a few faint, barely visible wisps of white smoke rose, and a “sizzle” sounded.
Soon the edges of the meat slices began to turn golden, then came an endless “crackle-pop” as the slices rapidly curled and warped, the fat of varying sizes swiftly bending into dainty little cracklings, layer upon layer, the golden hue growing richer.
The fragrance billowed out at once.
Jiang Shu couldn’t help leaning in. “Mom, what are you making today?”
“Didn’t you want to eat cotton aphids?”
Jiang Shu was suspicious. “Mom, how come you’re being so generous?”
“When have I ever not been generous?” Ye Qingyun pretended to swat him. “Stop being an eyesore here, or you’ll get no share later!”
Jiang Shu covered his head and scampered off at top speed.
If his mom found out the ones Ah Zhi gave her were low-toxin… Jiang Shu pictured the scene and couldn’t help sniggering.
Over on the other side, Ye Qingyun tipped in the low-toxin cotton aphids Jiang Zhi had given her.
The freshly drained cotton aphids had been rinsed again in clean water, the water hitting the oil set off an even louder crackle-pop.
But it also drew out the cotton aphids’ fragrance all at once.
When the cotton aphids were about seventy percent done, Ye Qingyun added the thinly sliced mutated-beast meat to stir-fry together.
That smell, it was downright intoxicating.
The aroma of the oil alone was irresistible.
That day Ye Qingyun made nothing else, just a big plate of mutated-beast meat stir-fried with cotton aphids.
Jiang Shu hurriedly delivered a portion to the Lin house, and on returning was relieved to see everyone hadn’t started eating yet.
Grandma Jiang said with a smile, “Don’t worry. We wouldn’t lift our chopsticks until you were back.”
Jiang Shu plopped down happily. “It’s still Grandma who loves me best.”
This time Jiang Hai and his son sat together too.
Only this meal could truly count as the whole family gathered as one.
A big, full plate, and everyone was so tired they skipped any fussy rituals. The dozen-odd of them sat right on the ground, each with a big bowl of highland barley.
Ye Qingyun ladled a good half-bowl of meat for everyone, smiling. “Everyone’s worn out today, eat your fill of barley.”
Jiang Shu and the two little ones cheered.
Soon the yard held nothing but the sounds of hearty eating.
That perfectly balanced, savory-mild sauce mixed into the rice was an absolute appetite-rouser.
“Qingyun, your cooking gets better and better. I’m only halfway through and I already feel a good deal lighter,” Grandma Jiang said.
Hearing that, Yuan Ying said too, “I have that feeling as well, I thought it was just my imagination.”
Xu Na swallowed a mouthful of rice. “Me too.”
Around the circle, everyone felt a kind of lightness, as though a great stone that had been pressing on them had been lifted away.
Ye Qingyun and Jiang Shan felt nothing in particular, just less fatigued.
Jiang Shu said, “How come I don’t feel that? More like I’ve got the illusion I’m really strong. Ah Zhi, do you feel it?”
Jiang Zhi nodded.
Ye Qingyun muttered, “I think you’ve all just gone too long without meat, that’s why you’re imagining things.”
Although the others had their doubts, they couldn’t pin down a cause and chalked it up to going so long without anything fishy or fatty.
Jiang Zhi, of course, knew the reason, and didn’t tell them the truth.
—The cotton aphids they’d eaten were all low-toxin.
Low-toxin food didn’t just help humans expel radiation toxin, it also strengthened the body.
The Jiang family had had a hard few years and accumulated a lot of radiation toxin in their bodies, so eating low-toxin food now produced such a marked reaction.
And this time, eating low-toxin food herself, Jiang Zhi felt that faint sensation of being filled to capacity rise up again.
Her body had been fine to begin with. When she’d first come to the base she’d eaten the tusked rabbit’s heart, by which point the radiation toxin in her body had already been diluted one round, back then she’d felt her strength grow, and even the terrain radar in her mind had become a good deal clearer.
This time the low-toxin cotton aphids made her all the more certain of one thing.
Low-toxin food could alter a human’s constitution.
Faint though it was, the body’s reaction didn’t lie.
“Brother Wen, when you were working at the secondhand shop, did they sell any low-toxin things?” Jiang Zhi asked Jiang Wen, who sat beside her.
Jiang Wen shook his head. “No, too few people are willing to part with that stuff.”
“Why? Is it because, besides neutralizing radiation toxin, it has other effects?”
The question caught Jiang Wen off guard. “I don’t really know. To be honest, I only ever saw low-toxin items at the base store. My old boss did do some business in that line, but he always handled it personally, we never got to touch it.”
Jiang Zhi frowned, it seemed the information barrier between ordinary people and Evolvers was thick. Ordinary people were forever scrambling for a livelihood and had no way at all of accessing information related to low-toxin items.
Jiang Wen: “Ah Zhi, is there something you’re wondering about?”
Jiang Zhi tamped down her guesses and finished the rest of her barley.
“No, just suddenly curious.”
“If you want to know, you could ask my childhood friend Tan Lei. He’s in the resale trade, he’s probably come across a fair bit.”
Jiang Zhi knew of Tan Lei too. As a kid she’d often seen him come to play with her second brother.
Her eyes lit up. “Sure, when can we go?”
Jiang Wen didn’t expect her to be so eager. “These next couple of days should work. He’s helping us sell cotton aphids right now anyway, so we can go ask how that’s coming along.”
Jiang Zhi nodded in agreement.
After dinner, everyone rested in place a while before getting ready to wash up.
During the day Jiang He had thrown together an open-air bathing stall, every household had to haul a round of water just to barely cover everyone’s baths.
Boiling water, Ye Qingyun sighed. “Looks like we still need to buy another water vat.”
Jiang Shan said, “We’ve got enough points on hand. We’ll just buy whatever we’re short on.”
While no one was paying attention, he gave Ye Qingyun’s hand a squeeze.
“It’s been hard on you these past days.”
Ye Qingyun smiled. “What’s hard about it? Cooking’s something I’m glad to do. Before, work kept me so busy I cooked for Dashu and Ah Zhi in a rush every time, I always felt guilty about it. Busying myself at home now actually gives me a sense of fulfillment.”
Deep down Ye Qingyun was a traditional woman, though she could navigate the workplace with ease, she always felt she’d let the two children down.
Fortunately the Jiang family had raised the siblings well, and they’d inherited the Jiangs’ kindhearted nature.
In their current situation, Ye Qingyun had no special wishes, she just wanted the whole family together, living on in peace.
Jiang Shan smiled, though his own guilt hadn’t lessened.
He said, “Tomorrow I’ll go look for word of Sis again.”
Now that the Jiang family had reunited, he wanted to help his wife find the Ye family too.
The “Sis” Jiang Shan meant was Ye Qingyun’s elder sister, Ye Qingyue.
Ye Qingyun nodded. Although the two sisters had been at odds before the catastrophe, there was still a thread of longing in her heart.
＊
Having eaten low-toxin cotton aphids, Jiang Zhi felt boundless energy coursing through her.
Back in her room, she had no desire to rest for the moment, so she took out her notebook and recorded the data on the mutated creatures she’d encountered the day before.
Jiang Shu sneaked over and patted the curtain by way of a knock. “Ah Zhi, why didn’t you say earlier that what we ate tonight was low-toxin?”
Jiang Zhi answered slowly, “Don’t you want to keep eating it tomorrow?”
Jiang Shu caught on and snickered. “Oho, I get what you mean. Don’t worry, Ah Zhi, I’ll keep this airtight!”
If his mom found out, the rest of the low-toxin cotton aphids would surely be confiscated.
Jiang Zhi glanced at her brother and smiled.
“Brother, you’re so good to me.”
She just hoped that when her brother took the fall for her in a couple of days, he could still smile this happily.
＊
The Lin house.
Lin Yuan came home from outside and caught the smell of stir-fried meat.
“Old man, you’ve been mooching food off people again?”
Grandpa Lin took the half-bowl of meat he’d saved for his grandson out of the cupboard and snorted. “If I waited for you to get home, I’d have starved to death.”
“That family’s a generous lot. This time what they brought over was low-toxin.”
Lin Yuan raised a brow.
He picked a piece up with his chopsticks and looked at it, recalling the girl he’d met at Collection Zone 3 the other day.
Those clear, bright eyes surfaced in his mind.
Lin Yuan said, “Counts as good stuff, then. You eat it.”
Grandpa Lin: “You’re not having any?”
“No need. These bugs are no use to me anymore.”
“Suit yourself.” Grandpa Lin happily took the bowl. “Just as well, I hadn’t had my fill.”
Eating, Grandpa Lin asked, “You bag anything good today?”
At that, Lin Yuan took an egg the size of an ostrich egg out of his pack.
“Moderate-toxin.”
Grandpa Lin was a little put off. “How’s it moderate-toxin?”
People sent over low-toxin stuff, and here he was with moderate-toxin, that wouldn’t do.
He’d be too ashamed to send it.
Lin Yuan: “You want to give it to the Jiang family?”
“What, you won’t?”
Lin Yuan was silent a moment. “Next time. Lately the Evolver team’s people have been getting hurt, they need a lot of low-toxin stuff.”
“What’s that to you?” Grandpa Lin was blunt. “Are you their daddy or their mama? You left the team long ago, let them fend for themselves.”
Lin Yuan looked at the slender mark of mental toxin on his hand.
Ever since he’d been struck by the mental toxin of that level-six mutated spider on a mission half a year ago, his ability had been constrained.
His mental strength too was teetering on the brink of collapse.
The base had no remedy for it. It was for this reason that Lin Yuan had withdrawn from the Evolver team, planning to seek a cure for the mental toxin on his own.
Seeing him like this set Grandpa Lin off. “Enough, enough. If there’s nothing wrong, go rest. The sight of you grates on me.”
＊
Over the next few days, the Jiang family devoted themselves wholeheartedly to building the house.
A set of four-room, two-hall mud houses was finally completed by the third afternoon.
Four rooms, it was called, but there were really eight.
Except for the two old folks’ room, the third household’s seventy-to-eighty-square-meter space was each partitioned into two.
Even the room for Jiang Shu and his sister, Jiang Shan put a wall through.
After all, propriety between the sexes mattered, the rooms were smaller, but at least the siblings could each have one.
Each room’s bed was built as a heated kang.
While building, Grandma Jiang fretted over all the extra clay and cement it cost.
What they didn’t know was that this was a special request from Jiang Zhi.
At first Jiang Shan thought it unnecessary too.
But Jiang Zhi insisted.
Jiang Shan: “Ah Zhi, can you tell me why you want heated kangs? Did you sense something?”
Jiang Zhi hesitated a moment, then said, “Just a hunch. I feel that… winter isn’t far off.”
Her words gave Jiang Shan and the others a start.
Ye Qingyun in particular couldn’t hold it in and asked again and again, “Ah Zhi, are you serious?”
Jiang Zhi nodded. “I can’t be a hundred percent sure, but Dad, Mom, we can’t afford to gamble.”
In fact, even before returning to the base, after that brief cold snap, Jiang Zhi had had this feeling.
Cold weather would come sooner or later.
And it might well last as long as the summer had.
Hearing Jiang Zhi’s thoughts, Jiang Shu’s scalp prickled. “You mean winter could last three or four years?”
Jiang Zhi: “It’s only my guess, better safe than sorry, in any case.”
Jiang Shan’s expression turned grave. “Ah Zhi’s right. Even if there’s only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, we’ve got to take it seriously.”
In the end it was Jiang Shan who overrode all objections and built a heated kang and a fire wall into every room and wall.
In the bitter cold days that followed, the Jiang family would marvel, time and again, at the foresight of Jiang Shan’s family.
But that’s getting ahead of the story.
Jiang Zhi and her brother’s rooms were on the west side, against the wall.
The two bathing stalls and the dry latrine were built behind the house, the kitchen was on the east side of the yard, where Jiang Shan had specially designed the underground draft.
Such a design wouldn’t normally have been feasible at their standard of living, but Jiang Jun knew how to modify equipment.
He made several palm-leaf fans, bound them together to form fan blades like an electric fan, then rigged up a few small electrical devices. As long as they were switched on while cooking, most of the kitchen’s smells couldn’t drift out.
The Jiang family was thoroughly pleased with the new house.
Most importantly, they no longer had to stay holed up in a tent like a furnace.
Gazing at the brand-new house, they felt as if they were in a dream.
Never in their dreams had they imagined that in the space of a few short days their lives could undergo such an upheaval.
They’d already despaired of life, and then the road had taken this sudden turn for the better…
Jiang Sui circled the house excitedly, murmuring, “We have a house again? Auntie, I’m not dreaming, am I?”
After a few days of low-toxin cotton aphids, he’d not only grown a little taller, even his face had begun to fill out, and he no longer wore that constant furrow of worry, at last there was the look of a child on his face.
Jiang Zhi stroked his head. “Don’t worry. We’re going to live even better from now on.”
Jiang Sui knew it was thanks to Auntie’s family that they had days like these.
He tilted his head up and said earnestly, “Auntie, when I grow up I’ll take care of you and Xiao Uncle in your old age!”
Jiang Si chimed in anxiously, “And me, and me, I want to take care of Auntie and Xiao Uncle in their old age too!”
Ye Qingyun teased them on purpose, “You’ll only take care of Xiao Uncle and Auntie? Not your great-aunt and your uncles?”
Jiang Sui grew all the more earnest. “I will. I’ll take care of Second Uncle and Second Auntie, and Great-Uncle and Great-Aunt, and…”
Jiang Sui named every elder in the family one by one, and everyone laughed.
Jiang Si added loudly, “And if Brother can’t manage it, there’s still me!”
The two children’s babble warmed the whole atmosphere at once.
Looking at the two transformed children, Yuan Ying sighed. “It’s strange, come to think of it. We’ve only been living with Dashan and the others a few days, and it’s like we’ve all become new people. Isn’t that right, Nana?”
Xu Na nodded, her expression a little stiff.
Having eaten low-toxin cotton aphids for several days running, the Jiang family had expelled a good deal of radiation toxin, those in better health to begin with, like Jiang Wen and his wife, could clearly feel the difference.
Their strength had grown, and their energy was far more abundant than before.
The two of them had guessed the reason.
At first they’d found it hard to believe.
That such precious low-toxin items had actually been eaten.
Jiang Wen and his wife had the dazed sense that these were probably the most extravagant few meals they’d eaten in their whole lives.
Xu Na hesitated a long while, then couldn’t help telling the truth. “Mom, it’s not strange at all. It’s because these past few days we’ve all been eating low-toxin cotton aphids.”
“What!?” The first to react was Grandma Jiang, her face full of shock. “Xiao Na! You’re saying what we’ve been eating these past days is—”
Xu Na shrank her neck. “…What we’ve been eating these days is low-toxin cotton aphids.”
Her voice grew smaller and smaller, a look of wasteful shame on her face. “Grandma, besides the moderate-toxin cotton aphids they caught, there were low-toxin ones too…”
This time Grandma Jiang didn’t just wince at the waste, at the thought that she’d been eating food more precious than gold these past days, her heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys all seemed to ache at once.
“You, you children, why didn’t you say a word to us? Trade this stuff for points and it’d buy a whole year’s rations for our family of a dozen-odd!”
Jiang Shu was about to say something when he heard his sister speak up. “Grandma, my brother said that all these years everyone’s had radiation toxin built up in their bodies, so the low-toxin cotton aphids we found this time are better fed to our own family.”
Seeing Jiang Zhi pin the credit all on himself, Jiang Shu snickered.
His little sister really did dote on him, handing him all the good roles.
He lifted his chin. “That’s right. Nothing beats good health.”
Hearing this, Grandma Jiang found her eldest grandson thoughtful, yet still couldn’t help the pang. “Even so, there was no need to eat this much. What we’ve had these few days has to be seven or eight jin, surely?”
Jiang Zhi said honestly, “About twelve jin.”
At that, not just Grandma Jiang, the whole family sucked in a breath.
Such a little spendthrift!
Even if it had gone into their own stomachs, everyone couldn’t help aching over it. At the very least, they should have been told beforehand, so they could properly savor what eating low-toxin food felt like!
Ye Qingyun smiled without any warmth in it. “Dashu, why didn’t you say a word to your mom about something this big?”
Jiang Shu: “Say what? If I’d told you, you definitely wouldn’t have allowed it. Look, we’re none the worse for having eaten it, look at Grandpa and Grandma, look at Sisi and Suisui, how healthy they are now. Even my strength has grown a fair bit.”
Ye Qingyun gave a hollow little laugh. “Who’s asking about that? Make another decision on your own again and watch your hide!”
If Jiang Shu still didn’t realize what his mom was actually angry about at this point, he’d have lived his twenty-one years for nothing.
“Mom, hold on, let me explain, actually it wasn’t me who decided, it was…”
Off to the side, Jiang Zhi quietly minimized her own presence and gathered her things into her new room.
As for how her brother would talk his way out of it, she wasn’t going to stay and listen.
Back in her room, looking at the solid mud walls, she felt the warmth of home keenly, even though there wasn’t a stick of furniture yet.
That night Jiang Zhi slept on the heated kang spread with dried wild grass.
After once again tucking the leaves she’d gotten from the mutated snake under her pillow, Jiang Zhi took out her notebook to record.
The room used the hanging lamp Jiang Jun had converted, the light was a warm yellow.
—Catastrophe Year 4, October 18. High of 67°C, low of 38°C.
After writing, she flipped back to the earlier entries.
She drew a temperature-fluctuation chart as well.
When she saw the chart show a clear downward trend, Jiang Zhi’s face grew grave.
Since early September the high temperatures had been steadily falling, only half a degree a day, but over this stretch they’d never once risen.
She wondered whether the base had noticed this point…
As far as she knew, the grain Ancheng Base grew on its own wasn’t enough to feed the entire base, which was why the base had gone to such lengths to clear so many collection zones for its residents.
If extreme cold really was coming…
Jiang Zhi didn’t let her thoughts go further.
She hoped this data was only temporary, if not… then all she could do was try her hardest to keep the people around her alive.
Jiang Zhi lay down in bed, from the pillow came the clean fragrance that the wild grass gave off after long days under the sun.
It was made by Yuan Ying from mutated wild grass, stacked five layers high, wonderfully comfortable to rest one’s head on.
She ran through the family’s situation once more.
Although they’d built the house now, their foundations were still very weak, the grain stored in the rice jar didn’t even amount to half a month’s worth.
If extreme cold weather really was coming, there was still a great deal to prepare.
Mulling it over, Jiang Zhi gradually drifted off to sleep.
She didn’t notice that beneath her pillow, the leaves, as her thoughts sank into the depths, gradually began to glow.
That night, everyone in the Jiang family slept exceptionally soundly.
Early the next morning, after rising, Jiang Zhi felt that something about her mental state was different, though she couldn’t say what.
She turned her attention inward for a moment and, finding nothing unusual, walked out of the room.
The instant she stepped out the door, she saw her brother wearing a long-suffering, aggrieved face.
“Ah Zhi, you made me take the fall again yesterday…”
Jiang Zhi went to the yard to wash up. “Brother, don’t you want to eat low-toxin cotton aphids?”
Jiang Shu: “Well, it’s not that I don’t…”
“Then there you go. You ate them either way, does it matter who suggested it?”
Jiang Shu: …It somehow sounds reasonable but also feels off.
Jiang Hai was in the yard training the family’s two little ones.
Jiang Sui and Jiang Si stood in horse stance facing the wall, looking quite the part, only their legs were trembling a bit.
Spotting the siblings, Jiang Hai smiled. “Dashu, your dad, your second uncle, and Ah Wen have gone to the collection zone to cut wood, they told me to let you know.”
Jiang Shu was surprised. “Why didn’t they call us?”
Jiang Hai said, “Your second uncle said the two of you wore yourselves out gathering these past days, so he wanted you to rest a few more.”
“Besides, Ah Zhi’s a girl, those sawing jobs are best left to us menfolk.”
The house had no furniture at all now, all bare, so the few of them had agreed to go to Collection Zone 8 to fell trees.
Collection Zone 8 had a large stretch of low scrub forest, stout trunks, but only a meter or so tall, perfect for making furniture.
Hearing this, Jiang Shu quickly asked Jiang Zhi beside him, “Ah Zhi, are we heading out today?”
Jiang Zhi nodded.
“Yes. The house is built, and there should be enough hands at home now. We’ve got to stockpile more food while the weather’s still hot.”
Jiang Shu said at once, “All right then. I’ll tell Grandma to pack us some lunch.”
Ye Qingyun had started “going to work” at the clinic the day before yesterday.
She arrived at six-thirty every morning, came home at eleven-thirty for midday, went back at three-thirty in the afternoon, and didn’t return until eight-thirty at night.
So the duty of preparing meals had been taken over by Grandma Jiang.
Having eaten low-toxin cotton aphids, Jiang Hai had recovered quite a bit. Seeing the siblings wanting to head out, he said, “I’ll go with you, it’ll do me good to stretch my limbs.”
But Jiang Zhi declined. “Uncle, your body hasn’t fully recovered, better to keep resting at home. And the house needs someone watching it too. We’ll bring Niu Dali along today. He’s strong, so we’ll have backup if anything comes up.”
If all the household’s young and strong went out, no one could hold the line should someone covet the home.
Jiang Zhi’s reasoning was airtight, and Jiang Hai could only agree.
“All right. Be sure to mind your safety.”
Jiang Sui looked at Jiang Zhi pleadingly. “Auntie, I want to go too.”
Jiang Zhi stroked his head. “Once you’ve trained your body strong, Auntie will take you.”
Seeing Jiang Zhi wouldn’t budge, Jiang Sui was a little crestfallen, but said sensibly all the same, “Okay! Once I get strong, Auntie, remember to bring me along.”
Jiang Zhi nodded in agreement.
After washing up, Jiang Zhi began packing for the trip out.
Once she’d finished, she walked into the main hall.
Yuan Ying and Xu Na, mother- and daughter-in-law, were working in the hall.
Xu Na hadn’t gone out with Jiang Wen today, she’d taken on some work from the textile shop where she used to be employed, drawing fiber from mutated lotus-leaf stalks to make thread.
It was delicate work, and Xu Na was naturally careful, deft-handed, and diligent, her success rate at drawing fiber ran higher than most.
When she’d quit before, the shop owner had thought it a pity, so when Xu Na came to take on private work, the owner was glad of it.
The wages weren’t high, though, drawing ten bundles of fiber thread earned only fifteen points.
Fortunately she was quick, over a day she could draw thirty-odd bundles.
Forty-five points a day was no small income, it couldn’t compare to the overnight-fortune kind of thing one might gather in a collection zone, but Xu Na was quite content.
After all, catching this many moderate-toxin cotton aphids was about as likely as hitting the jackpot.
To boost efficiency, Yuan Ying handled the prep work for the lotus-stalk fiber-drawing.
Tedious tasks like cleaning and cutting the lotus stalks were all done by Yuan Ying.
Seeing Jiang Zhi, Yuan Ying smiled.
“Ah Zhi, you’re up? There’s some thin congee in the kitchen, you and Dashu go eat.”
The family thought nothing of eating thin congee, if anything, they considered it normal.
The meaty meals of the past few days had been, for them, like a holiday, an indulgence taken while times were good.
Jiang Zhi glanced around and didn’t see anyone else. “Where’s Grandpa?”
Yuan Ying: “Your grandpa’s gone out to give someone acupuncture.”
Truth be told, Grandpa Jiang’s medical skills were decent. Ever since they’d moved, no shortage of people from the low-rent district had sought him out, hoping he’d treat their ailments.
Acupuncture cost nothing, a set of silver needles, repeatedly sterilized, could treat illness.
Jiang Zhi said “Oh,” then went to the kitchen to fill her stomach with some barley congee.
Knowing the siblings were heading out, Xu Na wanted to go with them, but Jiang Zhi declined.
She’d heard a lot of people had been going to the sugarcane grove to catch cotton aphids lately, even if Xu Na came along today, the haul would probably be slim.
Xu Na still had work to do and didn’t insist. She only took out a brand-new mutated spider-silk fishing net from her room.
“Ah Zhi, this is the spider silk Ah Wen bought at the secondhand shop the other day. I was afraid you’d be in a hurry to use it, so I rushed it a bit, not sure if it suits.”
Hearing this, Jiang Zhi took the spider-silk net with delight.
It was much bigger than the one her dad used to make from a hammock net, and the toughness of mutated spider silk was nothing a hammock net could match.
Xu Na had real craftsmanship, this net looked no different from the professional fishing nets she used to see online.
With this net, the odds of landing that silver carp went up considerably.
Jiang Zhi said happily, “Thank you, Second Sister-in-law! This is a huge help.”
Xu Na smiled. “As long as it helps you. Mind your safety out there, if that fish is too strong, don’t push it. It’s fine even if you lose the net.”
That last part Xu Na said in a low voice, away from Yuan Ying, none of them had dared mention the fishing business to the elders, for fear of being nagged.
Jiang Zhi nodded. “Got it, Second Sister-in-law.”
Once Jiang Shu was ready too, the siblings prepared to set out.
Grandma Jiang filled a flask of sugar water for each of them.
“Mind your safety, especially you, Dashu, don’t go acting on impulse, understand?”
Jiang Shu answered with a long face.
Did nobody in the whole family know that the impulsive one was somebody else? For all his loud bluster, he was actually quite timid and careful in what he did.
His sister, by contrast, steady and reliable as she looked, was forever doing things that scared the wits out of people.
The family’s wooden cart had been taken by Jiang Shan and the others to haul wood.
The siblings set out light.
Just as they were about to push the gate open, Jiang Jun wheeled himself out.
“Hold on, Ah Zhi.”
“I used some of the household’s spare appliances to rig up a launcher. If you run into danger, fire this. The colored mist it sprays works about the same as the base’s signal flares, it just can’t shoot very far.”
Jiang Shu was stunned. “Big Brother, your skills are insane. You can even build something like this?”
Jiang Jun smiled. “Nothing else to do these days, so I tinker with little gadgets.”
Jiang Shu thought his brother was being far too modest, this counted as a little gadget?
He remembered the base’s signal-flare gear was all rented, and a single flare cost fifty points.
Did his brother have any idea how many points this one move had saved them?
Looking at the thing in his hand, which resembled a bicycle pump, Jiang Shu was awestruck.
“Big Brother, how about next time you modify my weapon too?” Jiang Shu patted his bone staff.
Jiang Jun glanced at it and agreed with a smile.
Before they left, Wu Xiu gave each of them a straw hat. “Your second aunt and I rushed these out last night, don’t go getting sunburned.”
Jiang Zhi put hers on, the wide brim making her face look even smaller.
She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but Jiang Zhi felt noticeably cooler.
Everything ready, the siblings headed out, making straight for the west city gate.
The night before, Jiang Zhi had told Niu Dali to wait for them at the gate that morning.
Sure enough, the two soon spotted Niu Dali shouldering a hoe at the city gate.
Wanting to know about those extra red warning points near the perilous river earlier, Jiang Zhi asked Niu Dali again, “Brother Dali, we might run into danger at the collection zone this time. Are you sure you want to help us?”
Niu Dali grinned simply. “My wife said you helped us, so it’s only right we help you.”
Jiang Zhi nodded and said no more.
The siblings led Niu Dali straight to Collection Zone 3.
Maybe it was the low-toxin cotton aphids—Jiang Zhi felt her constitution getting better and better, her strength noticeably grown, she could even keep pace with Niu Dali.
What surprised Jiang Zhi was her brother. Once a weakling, Jiang Shu somehow managed to keep up with them this time too.
Jiang Zhi: “Brother, aren’t you tired?”
Jiang Shu scratched his head. “Not at all. It’s just walking, isn’t it?”
Jiang Zhi didn’t feel tired either, there was a sense of having strength to spare.
She fell into thought.
Could it really be the effect of low-toxin food?
Jiang Zhi didn’t dwell on it, the three of them soon arrived at Collection Zone 3 once more.
The moment they entered, they heard someone say, “Did you go to the sugarcane grove?”
“Yeah, everything I caught was moderate-toxin. Is what those people said even true? They’re not pulling our legs, are they?”
“Same here. Those people even said someone struck it rich catching bugs. I’ve been at it two or three days straight and only got a few moderate-toxin ones, what a waste of my time!”
“Aiya, we definitely got conned. Forget it, I’m not coming tomorrow. If we can’t find food, my whole family’s going to starve.”
The speakers didn’t notice Jiang Zhi and the others, their voices gradually faded into the distance.
Jiang Shu and Jiang Zhi exchanged a glance.
It seemed they hadn’t lost out by not coming back to catch more cotton aphids, from those people’s words, the odds of hitting the jackpot afterward had dropped sharply.
That they’d run into so many moderate-toxin cotton aphids that day really had been a stroke of dumb luck.
Jiang Shu asked, “So today we head straight for the fish?”
Jiang Zhi took out the map and looked.
They’d been to most of Collection Zone 3 already, apart from the depths of the cave she’d discovered before, there weren’t any spots left that might yield good things.
She turned to Niu Dali. “Brother Dali, have you been here before?”
Niu Dali nodded. “I came with my wife once, before.”
“Is there anywhere here that’s easier to gather moderate-toxin food?”
Niu Dali thought it over. “My wife used to say there wasn’t much good here, working yourself to the bone all day only turned up a meal or two’s worth of food.”
Jiang Zhi understood. She placed some trust in Liu Xu’s words.
Although she hadn’t had much contact with her, Jiang Zhi knew Liu Xu was a very shrewd woman.
Jiang Zhi made up her mind on the spot. “Brother, let’s go fish. If there’s still time after, we’ll gather some wild vegetables to bring home.”
Jiang Shu nodded.
The three headed for the upstream of the perilous river, planning to work their way down, sweeping the area bit by bit.
Few people came near the riverbank, in just a few days it could grow thick with a fresh crop of weeds.
Niu Dali volunteered to clear the way in front, Jiang Shu and Jiang Zhi followed behind.
Watching Niu Dali topple swaths of waist-high mutated wild grass with ease, Jiang Shu felt a stir of envy.
“Dali, were you born this strong?”
Sweeping aside weeds with his hoe, Niu Dali answered, “I had a lot of strength even as a kid, but I also ate a lot.”
Born with great strength, an ability so many dreamed of.
Seeing Jiang Shu’s envy, Jiang Zhi asked, “Brother, haven’t you felt your strength growing these past few days?”
Jiang Shu caught her meaning. “A little bit, I guess. Could the cotton aphids really have that effect?”
Jiang Zhi: “I don’t know, but my strength’s grown a bit compared to before.”
Jiang Shu pursed his lips. “Want to test it? Let’s compare.”
Jiang Zhi was actually intending to arm-wrestle him.
It was a no-test-no-know situation, one round in and Jiang Shu had actually lost to his sister.
To him, it felt like the sky was caving in.
“Ah Zhi, how’d your strength suddenly get this big?!”
Jiang Zhi clenched her fist with interest. “Maybe my body’s potential’s been unlocked.”
If she wasn’t mistaken, the reason Evolvers needed to take low-toxin food was precisely to unlock the body’s potential.
Jiang Shu didn’t take Jiang Zhi’s explanation seriously, talking himself round instead. “Forget it. Maybe after eating it I poured all my skill points into the luck stat.”
He could only brainwash himself, losing to his own little sister wasn’t shameful.
No sooner had he finished than a sharp, piercing alarm suddenly went off in Jiang Zhi’s mind.
Jiang Zhi jumped.
Once she realized only she could hear it, she understood, it was the terrain radar in her head sounding off.
Since when did this radar sound alarms on its own?
Suppressing her bewilderment, she tuned in and took a look, and saw a huge red warning point appear four or five hundred meters from where they stood.
It was in the middle of the river.
For some reason, looking at that big red dot filled Jiang Zhi with an inexplicable foreboding. She stepped forward and grabbed Niu Dali. “Brother Dali, let’s go around this spot.”
Niu Dali was about to ask why, but Jiang Zhi was already pulling him back at a run.
The three ran back a thousand meters before Jiang Zhi let go of the two of them.
Jiang Shu: “Ah Zhi?”
Jiang Zhi knew what he wanted to ask. She wanted to check the radar’s status but knew now wasn’t the time, so she just nodded at Jiang Shu. “It’s a big one.”
That sense of foreboding was the same as when they’d run into the rhino-horn ox herd.
The perilous river truly lived up to its name. If the radar hadn’t sounded that red alarm just now, the moment they stepped into that mutated creature’s detection range, something dreadful would likely have happened.
At that, Jiang Shu’s face paled. “So are we still fishing today or not?”
Jiang Zhi didn’t answer. “Let’s walk a bit further down and see.”
References[+]