Father Leng still had that cheerful look, bowing and scraping to Liu Zhuzi and his daughter before leaving.
Fortunately, Liu Zhuzi didn’t press the issue. Everyone was in a hurry to go scavenging, to fight for their lives. Unless it was something monumental, they really didn’t have time to argue.
Leng Yi immediately deflated and didn’t pester his sister for candy for the rest of the way.
The group soon arrived at the riverbank. It wasn’t far from the Shantytown, so the wild vegetables here had long been checked countless times by people. Normal scavengers wouldn’t deign to come here, especially since there was also a Mutated Ant Nest.
So, people stayed away even more. The trio of Leng Xuan and her father and brother arrived, pushing aside the tall, frozen-solid grass to walk deeper in.
As he walked, Father Leng reminded them, “You two each grab a stick. There are a lot of snakes by the river.”
At the mention of snakes, Leng Xuan shivered in fear. The creature she feared most in her life was the snake. She hurriedly picked up a stick, tapping the ground as she walked, following closely behind her father and younger brother.
After a few steps, it suddenly dawned on Leng Xuan. It was early in the morning, and the temperature was minus 25 degrees Celsius. Snakes were cold-blooded animals; how could they possibly be active in this temperature?
Slightly relieved, she felt that Father Leng’s brain really wasn’t very reliable. She could only hope that the mutated ant nest he mentioned was a bit more plausible.
After about half an hour, the group finally arrived at the location of the ant nest along the riverbank.
Pushing aside the frozen grass, they saw a sizable earthen mound. Leng Xuan searched the area around the ant nest and, sure enough, found two frozen mutated ants.
After stomping them both to death, a pleasant voice sounded in her mind: Ding! Two mutated ants killed. 4 Points credited.
Leng Xuan gloated inwardly.
Since there was still a long time before things would thaw, Leng Xuan quickly got to work making bait.
Last night, she had ground a bag of High-Radiation Wheat into flour. She poured in some water and added white sugar.
Then, she took out the bag of acid-corrosion snail corpses from her back basket, crushed the snails with a rock, and added a small amount of their juice to the flour. The flour quickly began to show signs of melting under the acid’s effect.
Leng Xuan wasted no time and stirred it.
The corrosive liquid integrated into the dough, and after slowly neutralizing, it formed a stable ball. She had no idea if this thing could still poison the mutated ants.
Leng Xuan used a wooden stick to place a small dollop of dough at the entrance of the ant nest, then began to tap on the nest itself.
Mutated ants were naturally aggressive and extremely hostile. Sensing someone tapping on their nest, several of them immediately crawled out.
As soon as they reached the entrance, they were attracted by the sweet-smelling dough. Without a second thought, the mutated ants surrounded the dough and began to chow down.
Perhaps sensing the frigid temperature outside, a few of the ants tore off a piece of the dough and carried it back into the ant nest.
Leng Xuan squatted beside the ant nest, waiting quietly.
Before long, the pleasant voice sounded in her mind, “Ding! Successfully killed 3 mutated ants. 6 Points credited to the system.”
“Ding! Successfully killed 2 mutated ants. 4 Points credited to the system.”
“Ding! Successfully killed 4 mutated ants. 8 Points credited to the system.”
Leng Xuan listened quietly, the corners of her mouth unable to stop from turning up.
Father Leng and Leng Yi didn’t know what was happening. Seeing Leng Xuan squatting there and grinning, they squatted down and grinned along with her.
After a good while, the announcements in Leng Xuan’s mind stopped. She had gained a total of 36 Points. She waited for a long time, but the voice did not sound again.
She didn’t know if the dough inside had been eaten or if the ants had discovered it was poisonous and refused to eat any more.
Leng Xuan picked up her wooden stick and tapped the ant nest again. Soon, a few more ants ran out. They walked to the entrance and discovered the sweet-smelling dough. The ants approached, sniffed it, and then all walked away in disgust. None of them touched the dough again.
It seemed these things had some intelligence after all.
This nest of mutated ants had learned its lesson, so this trick wouldn’t work here anymore. She carefully wrapped the piece of dough in a burdock leaf, saving it to deal with that nest of mutated cockroaches.
To deal with the ant nest before them, she could only resort to physical attacks.
Leng Xuan used strips of cloth to wrap the ankles of all three of them tightly, ensuring the mutated ants had no chance to crawl into their pant legs. Then, she took her stick and began to beat the ant nest.
Just as they were getting into the swing of things, a small team of scavengers passed by. The few of them looked at the Leng family trio by the river, puzzled.
They were all neighbors who lived nearby. One of them shouted loudly, “Leng Lao Er, what are you guys doing? Are there wild vegetables by the river?”
Father Leng replied cheerfully, “No wild vegetables, we’re killing ants!”
The faces of the few people immediately showed an indescribable expression.
Leng Yi looked up. Wasn’t that Wang Hong’s dad?
His face instantly lit up with joy. Having just offended Liu Erya’s parent in the morning, it seemed he needed to make a good impression on Wang Hong’s parent. He stood up and patted his chest, “Uncle Wang, we’re carrying out justice for heaven, wiping out this group of harmful mutated ants!”
Wang Hong’s dad burst out laughing and gave Leng Yi a thumbs-up. “Good kid, well done!”
Leng Yi’s spirits soared in an instant, his face flushing with excitement. He said, somewhat at a loss, “Sis, what’s next? Let me carry out justice for heaven and bring glory to my Huashan Sect.”
As he spoke, he even struck a “White Crane Spreads its Wings” pose.
Leng Xuan glanced at her oafish younger brother with a look of pity and silently tapped the ant nest twice.
More mutated ants trickled out from inside.
“Quick, the mutated ants are out! Stomp them!”
The three of them were quick-eyed and swift-handed, rushing forward to stomp.
“Ding, ding, ding! 6 Points credited to the system, 4 Points credited to the system…”
Hearing the spirited shouts of the Leng family trio, the scavenger team couldn’t help but shake their heads. “Tsk, tsk, the heavens won’t let a blind sparrow starve. How on earth has this family survived!”
Just as the three were stomping with gusto, Leng Yi, in his overexcitement, lost control of his aim and kicked violently at the very center of the ant nest.
Countless mutated ants swarmed out frantically.
In an instant, two of them had crawled onto Leng Xuan’s leg.
Leng Xuan’s face turned pale with shock. “Run!”
The three of them scrambled away from the range of the Mutated Ant Nest, swatting the ants off their pant legs as they ran.
Just as they were about to stomp them, they turned to see the main force of mutated ants chasing after them.
Forgetting about stomping them, the group could only run forward frantically.
They soon caught up to the scavenger team from before. The members of the team looked back, understood what had happened, and also began to run wildly, cursing as they fled.
“Fuck! I didn’t check the almanac before leaving home! How did we run into these halfwits!”
“Run west, run west!”
“Cross the river, cross the river!”
“Be careful, the river isn’t frozen solid!”
Splash!
“Holy shit! Brother Wang, Brother Wang, are you okay!”
Wang Hong’s dad had fallen into the river, smashing a large hole in the thin ice.
Leng Yi had pushed him.
Wang Tiejun emerged from the water, cursing, “Leng the Second Moron, you son of a bitch, why did you push me?”
Leng Yi was so scared he didn’t dare to move, mumbling, “I was afraid you’d get bitten by the mutated ants, I wanted you to run faster!”
“Then you fucking shouldn’t have pushed me when I was on the log bridge!”
The group scrambled to pull Wang Tiejun out. With an ashen face, Wang Tiejun cursed loudly, “Fuck! What rotten luck to run into a moron like you first thing in the morning.”
He quickly took off his soaked overcoat, pulled a thin, small jacket from his bag, and put it on, shivering from the cold.
Someone next to him said, “Brother Wang, hurry home, take a bath, and change your clothes. The radiation in this river water exceeds standards. Be careful you don’t get a rash. If you wait too long, you could get Dermal Cancer.”
Wang Tiejun glared at Leng Yi. “If I get Dermal Cancer, the first thing I’ll do is skin you alive.”