Su Yue tore a strip of cloth from her own clothes.
She wrapped it tightly around one end of the metal shard.
Then she walked over to the only iron object in the house—a cooking pot—and pressed the unwrapped end of the shard against it, grinding away.
The piece of metal was very thin, less than a millimeter thick, making it easy to sharpen.
Before long, it had a keen edge.
Su Yue tested it in her hand. It would do.
Now that I have a knife, if any troublemaker tries anything, I’ll send him straight into his next life with one stab. Heh heh.
After that, she woke Su Xing and told her she was going out to find something to eat.
At first, Su Xing clung to her desperately and refused to let her leave. But when she saw that Su Yue’s wound had completely disappeared, she finally loosened her grip.
“That’s great! Mom and Dad must be watching over Sister and Xingxing!”
A pang of sadness struck Su Yue’s heart. She nodded and gently patted Su Xing’s hair.
Putting on her hat and mask, pulling her clothes tightly around herself, and picking up her old cloth bag, she prepared to leave.
“Xingxing, remember—”
“I know! Keep the door locked tight. Don’t open it for anyone except Sister.”
Su Xing was very obedient. She ran down to see Su Yue off.
She had no shoes. Her little bare feet stepped on the cold ground, covered in chilblains.
Su Yue wasn’t much better off. For scavenging, she only had a pair of straw sandals. There was no choice—going scavenging barefoot was practically asking to die—so the family’s only pair of shoes was worn only when someone went out.
After leaving home, Su Yue saw the outside world of this world for the first time.
Not far away stood a city surrounded by towering walls. Above the copper-and-iron fortifications shimmered a faint semicircular energy shield.
That was City C’s anti-radiation barrier.
Her home, meanwhile, was located in the refugee settlement attached to City C.
Their shack was barely twenty square meters in size, shabby and dilapidated. The neighboring homes weren’t much better.
Most at least managed to keep out the wind and rain, though a few better-off families lived in wooden or brick houses.
People walked along the streets in twos and threes, apparently all heading out to scavenge.
Su Yue adjusted her mask and lowered her cap until only her eyes were visible.
Clutching the metal knife tightly, she followed the stream of scavengers.
Before long, they left the refugee district and arrived at the gathering grounds outside the city.
The vegetation here was lush and extraordinarily large. A single dandelion puff was as big as Su Yue’s fist.
People spread out and claimed their own patches of land, taking out detectors to begin scanning plants.
After years of radiation exposure, the plants in this world had long since mutated. Many carried dangerously high radiation levels and were inedible. Eating them would worsen radiation sickness and effectively shorten one’s lifespan.
Plants with somewhat lower radiation levels, however, could still be eaten.
Anything below a radiation value of 1000 was considered edible, and the lower the better.
She had heard that someone in a Safe City had cultivated a plant with a radiation value of only 136, causing a sensation even among the upper ranks of District A.
As for the detector everyone used, it was the equivalent of a smartphone before the apocalypse, serving many of the functions of daily life.
Most people in the refugee district used old-fashioned detectors. They looked like mobile phones. By placing a leaf against the scanning area, the device would display its radiation level.
The one in Su Yue’s hand was exactly that type of outdated detector—the only precious inheritance left to her by her parents.
She had heard that more advanced versions existed, including wristwatch-style detectors, and that District A had even developed detector glasses.
But those things had nothing to do with her for now.
All she hoped for was not to go hungry tonight.
The area around her was covered with weeds and wild grasses reaching waist or thigh height. Towering trees blocked out the sun, making the place even colder.
Su Yue shivered, her teeth chattering.
The temperature outside was below freezing, and there wasn’t a single cotton-padded coat in her home. She only had a few worn leather and cloth garments.
Most scavengers didn’t stay in this weed-filled area. They preferred the gathering sites farther ahead.
As a result, despite being closest to the refugee settlement, this patch of weeds had relatively few people. Only a handful were collecting here.
And this was exactly where Su Yue intended to search.
The gathering sites farther ahead might contain better and more abundant resources, but they also had more people. In her current frail condition, even if she found something valuable, she might not be able to bring it home. Worse, it could attract unwanted attention.
With that thought, Su Yue chose a patch that looked promising, took out her detector, and began scanning.
There was plenty of foxtail grass, plantain weed, kochia, and other edible-looking plants here. They might not taste good, but something was better than nothing.
[Target plant radiation value: 1369. Consumption not recommended.]
[Target plant radiation value: 2358. Consumption not recommended.]
…
After scanning nearly three square meters of grassland, Su Yue still hadn’t found a single edible leaf.
Sighing at how difficult scavenging was, she suddenly thought of trying her special ability.
Closing her eyes, she attempted to use her wood-element power to stimulate the growth of the plants.
It didn’t work.
But she wasn’t completely without gains.
When she activated her ability, she could sense the strength of the life force within nearby plants.
Based on what she sensed, she made a discovery:
The stronger a plant’s life force, the higher its radiation level tended to be.
Conversely, the weaker its life force, the lower its radiation level.
Unfortunately, she could only sense a small area around herself.
Even so, it greatly improved her efficiency.
Closing her eyes, she focused on detecting only the plants with weaker life forces.
[Target plant radiation value: 1103. Consumption not recommended.]
[Target plant radiation value: 1037. Consumption not recommended.]
[Target plant radiation value: 821. Edible.]
!
At last, she had found an edible plantain leaf!
Because of mutation, the leaf was two or three millimeters thick and nearly half a meter long.
Overjoyed, Su Yue opened her cloth bag, used her improvised metal knife to cut the leaf in half, and placed the pieces inside.
Then she reconsidered.
That didn’t seem safe enough.
She took the leaves back out, wrapped them around her waist beneath her clothes, secured them with strips of cloth, and tucked the lower ends into her pants to make sure they wouldn’t fall out.
Only then did she gather a small bundle of dried grass and branches, tie it with hemp rope, and start walking home with it on her back.
It was already six in the evening, and darkness was approaching.
After nightfall, not only would the temperature drop further, but the chances of encountering mutated animals would also increase.
As a result, people generally worked from sunrise to sunset. By dusk, most were already hurrying home.
Some passersby had bulging bags and were escorted by one or two companions.
Others walked in small groups, sighing in disappointment.
There were also those whose eyes gleamed as they sized up the bags of people around them.
Su Yue carried her bundle of firewood while her cloth bag hung completely empty.
A few people looked her over from time to time, but after seeing her flat, empty bag, they quickly lost interest.
Following the flow of people at an unhurried pace, she eventually returned home.
She knocked on the door and entered, setting down the firewood.
Su Xing took the cloth bag and felt around inside. Finding nothing, disappointment appeared on her little face.
“Sister, it’s okay. Xingxing isn’t hungry.”
Even with an empty stomach, Su Xing’s first thought was to comfort Su Yue.
Su Yue shut the doors and windows tightly, then led Su Xing to sit on the bed.
“Shh. Look what this is.”
She opened her clothes.
Two thick halves of the plantain leaf were tied around her slender waist.
“Wow!”
Su Xing almost cried out in surprise, but quickly covered her own mouth.