Su Yue’s heart skipped a beat.
When the beautiful woman noticed Su Yue looking at her, she lowered her head casually, as if nothing had happened.
But Su Yue knew.
She had noticed.
Still, the scar-faced man and the beautiful woman didn’t seem to be together, nor did they appear to be the same kind of people.
Since the woman hadn’t exposed her, Su Yue decided not to alert her either. She would simply wait and see.
For now, she focused on dealing with the caterpillars.
Many people had been stung by the poisonous hairs and fled the grove, unable to endure the pain.
Several had even died.
Only half the original crowd remained.
Su Yue stepped on a caterpillar and used her knife to pry open its head.
Inside, just as she expected, was a crystal core the size of a grain of rice.
No matter how small, a crystal core was still valuable.
Even one this tiny could sell for around a hundred credits.
Immediately energized, Su Yue devoted herself wholeheartedly to hunting caterpillars and harvesting crystal cores.
Before long, a poisonous hair slipped through a gap in her glove and stung her left hand.
A burst of excruciating pain shot through her instantly.
Cold sweat beaded across her forehead.
Oh my god, this hurts! It’s a hundred times worse than the slug caterpillars before the apocalypse!
Clutching her hand, she activated her healing ability and directed it toward the sting.
Under the soothing effect of her power, the pain gradually subsided.
No wonder everyone who got stung had run away.
This kind of agony was unbearable.
I should’ve thrown a few caterpillars at that scar-faced man earlier. Why did I bother killing him myself?
About ten minutes later, the pain in her hand disappeared.
She didn’t even dare wipe the sweat from her forehead, afraid the poisonous hairs still clinging to her gloves would sting her again.
After that, she became much more cautious while collecting crystal cores.
There were fewer and fewer living caterpillars left in the grove.
There were fewer people, too.
But the number of crystal cores in Su Yue’s pocket kept growing.
Each one was only the size of a grain of rice, but they added up quickly.
As for the caterpillar corpses, she didn’t bother testing them.
Although they could be eaten after burning off the poisonous hairs, they were inconvenient to carry home and difficult to process.
Besides, if Su Xing accidentally got stung, it would be a disaster.
By four in the afternoon, the caterpillars had been mostly cleared out, and the security team organized the remaining people to head back.
Su Yue kept one hand firmly over the crystal cores hidden in her pocket.
She had collected more than a hundred today.
Everyone else had gathered some as well.
Aside from a few lucky people who hadn’t been stung at all, everyone else had been injured.
They would have to rush home and buy ointment.
For many, the value of the crystal cores they collected wouldn’t even cover their medical expenses.
Su Yue wasn’t the person who earned the most.
After all, killing the scar-faced man had cost her some time.
The truly lucky ones—the people who hadn’t been stung at all—had made a fortune.
Their smiles were impossible to hide.
If they weren’t afraid of being beaten up out of jealousy, they would have laughed openly.
After all, each crystal core was worth around a hundred credits.
A hundred crystal cores meant ten thousand credits.
Used carefully, ten thousand credits was enough to support a family through the winter.
Where some people rejoiced, others mourned.
For every lucky person, there was someone else with terrible luck.
Including the scar-faced man, more than a dozen people had died.
The bodies were difficult to deal with, so they were left behind in the sour jujube grove.
Thus, the group returned to the refugee district with mixed emotions.
Before entering the district, the security team took out several bottles of spray and treated everyone.
The spray could neutralize the toxins on the poisonous hairs, but because it was expensive, only a small amount was used on each person.
“Brother, I got stung earlier. Could you spray me a little more? I’ll give you a crystal core.”
One man stepped forward to ask.
A security guard immediately shoved him back into the line with the barrel of a gun.
“Back in line! This won’t help your wounds!”
Hearing that, the injured people gave up.
After removing the poisonous hairs from her clothing, Su Yue took off the outermost layer of her raincoat, shook it vigorously, folded it up, and peeled the tape from the outside of her shoes.
Only then did she feel safe enough to go home.
When she arrived, Su Xing had fallen asleep on the bed.
Su Yue didn’t wake her.
Instead, she took out the handful of crystal cores hidden in her clothes and counted them carefully.
One hundred and twenty-six.
She was rich.
Now she had to decide whether to sell them or use them to upgrade her abilities.
If she sold them, she could earn around 12,600 credits—more than enough to buy canned food, biscuits, and nutrient capsules for the winter.
But the beast tides were dangerous.
During winter, not only did people struggle to find food, but mutated beasts did as well.
As a result, large groups of mutated beasts sometimes attacked the refugee districts.
It might not happen.
But what if it did?
After thinking it over, Su Yue decided to upgrade her abilities first.
Her wood-element ability was still at a low level.
For now, she could only summon vines and sense life force.
At higher levels, however, she would be able to extract and infuse plant life energy.
She might even be able to control how plants absorbed or rejected radiation.
If she could do that, growing crops would become easy.
Once she reached level three, she could sell any remaining crystal cores.
After making her decision, Su Yue gathered up the crystal cores, hid them away, and planned to absorb them before sleeping.
Su Xing still hadn’t woken up.
Strange.
She rarely slept during the day.
Su Yue walked over and touched her forehead.
It was burning hot.
Alarmed, she quickly picked the little girl up.
“Xingxing? Wake up! Come on, wake up!”
No response.
Panic surged through Su Yue.
There was no thermometer at home, but judging from the heat radiating from Su Xing’s forehead, her fever was probably over 39 degrees Celsius.
Without wasting another second, Su Yue scooped her up and ran toward the clinic, even though it was already getting dark.
There was only one clinic in the refugee district, run by a husband and wife.
Unfortunately, because so many people had been injured during the caterpillar outbreak, the doctors were overwhelmed.
The clinic was packed so tightly that she couldn’t even get inside.
With no other choice, Su Yue carried Su Xing home and decided to try using her healing ability.
Her healing ability was only level one and couldn’t normally heal other people.
However, by holding crystal cores in her hand, she could temporarily convert their energy into her own, forcibly boosting her healing ability by one level for a short period.
The downside was enormous crystal consumption and temporary inability to use her abilities afterward.
Under normal circumstances, she could simply spend time upgrading her healing ability properly.
But doing that would take three hours.
She didn’t know whether Su Xing could survive another three hours with such a high fever.
In this unfamiliar world, Su Xing was all she had.
She couldn’t risk her sister’s life.
Without hesitation, she grabbed a handful of crystal cores and forced her healing ability to advance.
Energy flowed continuously from the crystal cores into her body like a rushing river.
Her ability level rose.
One by one, the crystal cores in her hand crumbled into dust.
She placed her hand against Su Xing’s forehead and began healing her.
After about ten minutes, the fever broke.
Color returned to Su Xing’s cheeks.
Su Yue’s hand trembled slightly.
Forcing her ability beyond its limits had left her completely exhausted.
Of the thirty or forty crystal cores she had been holding, only five or six remained.
But Su Xing was safe.
For the next twenty-four hours, Su Yue would be unable to use her abilities.
Su Xing slowly opened her eyes.
“Big Sister…”
“Xingxing, you’re awake.”
Su Yue handed her a cup of water and took a long drink herself.
“Do you still feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Su Xing shook her head.
“I felt really awful earlier, but after sleeping, I don’t feel bad anymore.”
“That’s good.”
Relieved, Su Yue forced herself to make a simple soup using a nutrient capsule and jujube leaves.
After they finished eating, the sisters went to bed.
Without her abilities tomorrow, Su Yue would need to be especially careful.