This was Su Yue’s first time experiencing a weakness period.
Back in the zombie apocalypse, she had never used this method before.
One day of weakness in exchange for a temporary power boost.
It was like forcing a seedling to grow by pulling it upward.
But for Su Xing’s sake, she had no choice.
This was the best way to ensure her little sister’s safety.
That night, Su Yue remained in a near-comatose sleep, not waking until eight o’clock the next morning.
When she finally opened her eyes, Su Xing had already prepared breakfast.
It consisted of a nutritional capsule dissolved in hot water, with a chopped jujube leaf boiled into it.
There weren’t many near-expiration capsules left in the house.
Only two remained.
The forced upgrade had consumed a large number of crystal cores.
She only had eighty-six small cores left—not enough to raise her wood-element ability to Level Three.
So Su Yue changed her plans.
Instead of saving them, she decided to sell them for food and later look for isolated mutated beasts to hunt.
She went to Aunt Wang’s shop and exchanged the eighty-six crystal cores for 9,000 credits.
Among refugee families, that was already a substantial sum.
Overnight, Su Yue’s household had become one of the better-off families in the district.
Then she bought:
The shop also had mango-flavored biscuits now.
Naturally, Su Yue bought another twenty near-expiration mango biscuits.
After all those purchases, she still had 6,470 credits left.
The store had cotton mattresses and quilts available.
A complete set cost 200 credits.
Pretty affordable.
So she bought two sets.
The family bed was too small now.
Su Xing was growing up and deserved a bed of her own.
Besides, her recent fever had been caused by the rapidly dropping temperatures.
Children simply couldn’t withstand the cold as well as adults.
The reed-fluff blanket could become an extra cover for her feet.
With the food she’d bought, they now had enough supplies to last roughly a month.
But perhaps Su Yue had been a squirrel in her previous life.
No matter how much she stored, she never felt secure unless she had more.
Wang Liuning helped carry everything home.
Meanwhile, Su Yue hauled some discarded wood from the backyard and decided to build Su Xing a small bed herself.
She had never done carpentry before.
But she had studied mortise-and-tenon construction in college.
And there was already a bed in the house she could copy.
Worst case, she’d simply imitate what already existed.
After an entire day of experimentation, she finally produced a new bed.
It wasn’t particularly sturdy.
Only a child could sleep on it safely.
“Wooow!! Sister, you actually did it!”
Su Xing served as an enthusiastic cheerleader.
“Of course. This bed is for you.”
Su Yue felt immensely satisfied.
First she laid down a layer of grass stalks and the old mattress.
Then she spread the new cotton mattress and quilt over it.
Just like that, a soft, comfortable little bed was complete.
Su Xing immediately threw herself onto it.
No amount of persuasion could get her off.
She declared that she intended to sleep forever.
Su Yue couldn’t help laughing.
So she deployed her ultimate weapon:
Mango biscuits.
To celebrate their newfound wealth and stockpile of supplies, she opened two mango biscuits and spread homemade ground-berry jam on top.
She also boiled some rock-sugar water.
Each sister received a jam-covered biscuit.
The rich tropical fragrance of mango combined with the sweet-and-tart berry jam.
The flavors exploded across their taste buds.
Su Xing narrowed her eyes in bliss.
Her tiny pink mouth was stuffed full.
Her cheeks puffed out like a little squirrel.
“Don’t choke.”
With her mouth completely full, Su Xing mumbled,
“Si-sis, it’d be great if you stayed home every day!”
That simple sentence made Su Yue realize something.
Su Xing needed companionship.
She needed friends.
No matter how mature she acted, she was still only six years old.
The realization left Su Yue troubled.
In times like these, she trusted almost no one.
Whenever she wasn’t home, she didn’t dare let Su Xing go out alone.
Yet she herself spent most of her time scavenging and struggling to survive.
So this is what being a parent feels like.
It’s hard.
At that moment, her detector beeped.
It was a message from Song Zhizhi.
[Su Yue! Are you okay? You didn’t get hurt yesterday, right?]
[I’m fine.]
[That’s good, that’s good. Are you going scavenging tomorrow? I heard tons of people went to the sour jujube forest today trying to find leftover crystal cores. But they got sick from all the corpses lying around. I went to take a look too. More people died again.]
[The bodies still haven’t been cleared away?]
[Nope. It’s not summer, so disease isn’t a concern. In a few days, animals that aren’t afraid of insect toxins will eat them anyway.]
[I see.]
[I’m going scavenging tomorrow. Want to come?]
Song Zhizhi was delighted that Su Yue had invited her first.
[Sure! Someone discovered a new sweet-potato field yesterday. Not sure how the news leaked, but there’ll probably be a lot of people tomorrow. Want to go?]
[Definitely. Let’s get there early.]
[Okay! Four in the morning. Meet by the well in the refugee district.]
After closing the detector, Su Yue found herself surprised.
After all these years, people could still discover new sweet-potato fields?
That meant the location had to be unusual.
Otherwise someone would have found it long ago.
By tomorrow, her powers would have recovered as well.
It was worth checking out.
Maybe she’d bring home another pile of sweet potatoes.
That night, the two sisters enjoyed a wonderful sleep beneath their warm blankets.
The next morning, the bed was so comfortable that Su Yue almost overslept.
There wasn’t enough time to cook breakfast.
She grabbed a nutritional capsule and headed out, reminding Su Xing to soak some biscuits for herself later.
This time she brought more than her usual cloth bag.
She also packed her digging tools and the large burlap sack she had once used for collecting reed fluff.
Hehe.
What if I find a whole mountain of sweet potatoes?
At four in the morning, the sky was still dark.
Only the faintest hint of dawn colored the distant horizon.
Yet plenty of people were already hurrying along with sacks slung over their shoulders.
Normally there weren’t nearly this many scavengers out at four.
Most of them were clearly heading to the newly discovered sweet-potato field.
Sweet potatoes were one of the refugee district’s favorite foods.
They were filling, delicious, and rich in carbohydrates.
When Su Yue arrived at the well, Song Zhizhi was already waiting.
“Sorry. I’m a few minutes late.”
“Oh, don’t worry! We’re not late at all. I heard the field is huge. Let’s go!”
Song Zhizhi naturally looped her arm through Su Yue’s.
At first, Su Yue instinctively wanted to pull away.
But being close was surprisingly warm.
So she let it happen.
The journey lasted about an hour.
Some wealthier families rode bicycles.
Both girls watched enviously.
The mountain roads were rough.
After an hour of fast walking, their feet felt ready to fall off.
If WeChat still existed, they probably would’ve already logged tens of thousands of steps.
By the time daylight arrived, they had followed the crowd to the sweet-potato field.
“Wow! It’s huge! And look at all those people digging! Look at that guy—he already filled a whole sack!”
Song Zhizhi immediately grabbed Su Yue and hurried deeper into the field to claim a spot.
The field lay far from the refugee district, hidden within a flat area surrounded by three mountains.
Because almost nobody scavenged this far away, it had escaped discovery until now.
The farther one traveled from the refugee district, the more dangerous things became.
But the temptation of sweet potatoes was simply too strong.
And when enough people gathered together, courage followed.
“We’re gonna get rich!”
Song Zhizhi pulled Su Yue along.
Meanwhile, Su Yue quietly used her ability to scan beneath the soil.
One area in particular contained an astonishing number of sweet potatoes.
She immediately stopped.
“Let’s dig here. Nobody’s competing for it. Hurry.”
She shook out the burlap sack and started digging.
Her ability had already revealed the truth.
Beneath this patch alone were thirty to forty sweet potatoes waiting to be unearthed.