Su Yue turned slightly and took a step backward.
Instantly, she widened the distance between herself and the newcomer.
Lifting her gaze, she saw a girl around thirteen or fourteen years old.
The girl had a round face and was nowhere near as thin as Su Yue. Her clothes were neat, with very few patches, making it obvious that her family was much better off.
Searching through her memories, Su Yue remembered who she was.
Zhao Qing.
The two had grown up together.
But despite being childhood friends, Zhao Qing had always been crafty. When they were younger, she constantly tricked Su Yue into sharing food and supplies. After Su Yue’s parents died, Zhao Qing not only failed to help—she kicked her while she was down, mocking her whenever she got the chance.
“Oh, I accidentally cut myself yesterday. Do you have any ointment? Could you lend me some?”
This was one of Su Yue’s favorite tricks.
When you didn’t want someone asking too many questions, you simply threw out a request.
Zhao Qing frowned and looked Su Yue up and down.
Of course her family had ointment.
But lend it to Su Yue?
Not a chance.
“No. What’s in your sack?”
As she spoke, Zhao Qing reached toward the burlap sack.
“Reed fluff. Unlike you, I don’t have cotton-padded clothes to wear in winter.”
As she answered, Su Yue deliberately grabbed Zhao Qing’s clothing with her dirty little hand.
A grimy handprint instantly appeared on the fabric.
“Qing’er, could you ask your uncle to let me come pick some cotton too? We’re best friends, aren’t we~?”
The moment Zhao Qing saw the dirt mark, she forgot all about the sack.
“Ah!”
She slapped Su Yue’s hand away.
“Your hands are filthy! Don’t touch me!”
“Huh? Qing’er, how can you treat me like this?”
Su Yue put on a pitiful expression and reached toward Zhao Qing’s clean clothes again.
Startled, Zhao Qing quickly retreated two steps.
“I didn’t mean anything by it. But it’s getting late, and isn’t Xingxing waiting for you at home? You should hurry back.”
While brushing at the dirty handprint, Zhao Qing hurriedly tried to send Su Yue away.
“Oh. Then don’t forget to ask your uncle for me, Qing’er. I’ll be waiting for good news~”
Su Yue said with a smile before hoisting her sack and leaving.
“Hmph. She’s getting more and more disgusting. Asking my uncle for help? As if!”
Zhao Qing muttered under her breath as she turned and headed home.
The two girls had once truly been friends.
But after Su Yue’s parents died, Zhao Qing frequently took advantage of her, tricking her out of whatever possessions she had left.
Nowadays, however, Su Yue couldn’t be bothered with her.
Her goals were simple:
Survive the winter.
Grow stronger.
Kill the murderer who had killed the original Su Yue.
Then move into the Safe City and give Xingxing a better life.
Petty squabbles with little girls weren’t worth her energy.
After returning home and locking the door, Su Xing immediately came running over.
“Sister, have some water.”
She handed Su Yue a cup.
After taking a sip, Su Yue rubbed the top of Su Xing’s fluffy little head and set down the burlap sack.
Su Xing immediately let out a small gasp.
“Such a big bag! Sister is amazing!”
Su Yue untied the sack.
Then she pulled out the chicks.
Su Xing began hopping excitedly in place, covering her mouth with both hands.
Being sensible, she didn’t make a sound.
Su Yue took out her detector and scanned them one by one.
Of the four chicks, only one had a radiation level of 952 and was edible.
The other three couldn’t be eaten.
After some consideration, Su Yue decided to sell the low-radiation chick in exchange for supplies.
The remaining three she would raise for eggs.
Younger animals tended to have lower radiation levels.
That meant eggs had a much better chance of being edible.
Once these chicks grew up, she and Xingxing could occasionally enjoy eggs during the winter and improve their nutrition.
Mutated Reed Blossom Chickens were easy to raise.
They could survive on gathered grass.
Better yet, they usually matured and began laying eggs within a month.
A very worthwhile investment.
Next, Su Yue took out the beak, claws, and feathers from the mother chicken.
“Wow! They’re so pretty! Sister, what are these?”
Su Xing had never seen feathers with such brilliant colors before.
She loved them instantly and couldn’t stop admiring them.
There were nearly a hundred feathers altogether.
Only twenty or so shimmered with dazzling blue-purple iridescence.
Su Yue wondered whether wealthy people in the Safe City would be interested in buying them.
“These are Reed Blossom Chicken feathers. That one is yours. We’ll ask Aunt Wang to make it into a hair clip later.”
When Su Xing heard that the beautiful feather belonged to her, she happily hugged Su Yue and planted a loud kiss on her cheek.
She didn’t care one bit about the dirt still covering Su Yue’s face.
After gathering everything she intended to sell, Su Yue took Su Xing by the hand and headed for Huiyou Store.
Jingle—
A crisp bell rang as the door opened.
Aunt Wang looked up and smiled when she saw the sisters.
“Xiaoyue, Xingxing.”
“Aunt Wang, could we talk in the back room?”
Aunt Wang’s full name was Wang Churan.
People occasionally brought valuable finds to her shop.
Seeing Su Yue’s serious expression, she nodded and led her inside.
“Wang Liuning! Come watch the shop!”
Wang Liuning was Aunt Wang’s eldest son.
At fifteen years old, years of hauling merchandise had made him tall and sturdy.
Back when Su Yue’s mother was alive, Aunt Wang often joked about having Wang Liuning marry Su Yue someday.
Wang Liuning nodded politely at Su Yue before heading to the front room.
Once inside the back room, Su Yue began taking items out of her bag.
Aunt Wang’s eyes widened more and more.
When Su Yue finally produced the chick, Aunt Wang’s mouth practically dropped open wide enough to fit an egg.
“Xiaoyue, y-you… did you hunt this yourself?”
Su Yue scratched her head shyly.
“No. I picked it up. I happened to see a mutated cat catch some chickens. While it carried off another chick, I grabbed this one.”
The explanation didn’t really stand up to scrutiny.
But in the wasteland, everyone understood boundaries.
Not prying into other people’s secrets was basic courtesy.
“Aunt Wang, how much do you think these are worth? This chick is edible.”
Wang Churan checked the chick’s radiation level.
Although it was still fairly high, edible meat was extremely rare.
“Not bad, Xiaoyue! Your luck is incredible!”
“Hehe. Could you see if someone can turn this beak into a weapon for me? I’d like to sell the rest.”
Aunt Wang nodded.
“It can be done, but there’ll be a processing fee.”
“That’s fine.”
“The claws are excellent material too. These colorful feathers are popular with wealthy people in the city for making accessories. And this chick’s meat should be especially tender, so it’ll fetch a good price. The plain white feathers, though, aren’t worth much.”
“Oh, right. Leave one feather for Xingxing. I want a hair clip made from it.”
Aunt Wang picked up a calculator and started punching in numbers.
“The colorful feathers are 100 credits each. Twenty-three feathers makes 2,300.”
“The six claw tips are 300 each. That’s 1,800.”
“The chick weighs one jin and two liang. Two hundred per liang comes to 2,400.”
“That totals 6,500. I’ll round it up to 7,000 including the white feathers.”
Seven thousand credits.
Su Yue had heard that housing in City C cost around seven thousand credits per square meter.
After risking her life fighting the mother chicken, all she’d earned was roughly the value of a single square meter of city housing.
“We’ll settle the processing fee after the weapon and hair clip are finished.”
Money and goods changed hands.
Soon, the massive sum of 7,000 credits appeared in Su Yue’s detector account.
Edible animals were incredibly rare.
As a result, meat was extraordinarily expensive.
Even city residents rarely got to eat meat.
Most people relied on nutritional biscuits, nutritional canned food, and nutritional capsules.
Nutritional capsules contained the basic nutrients the human body required.
However, they didn’t provide any feeling of fullness, tasted terrible, and were relatively cheap.
They were popular among refugee residents and city dwellers trying to lose weight.
Nutritional biscuits and canned foods, on the other hand, came in many flavors.
They were made from highly irradiated plants and animals after some of the radiation had been removed.
They were much more expensive and far more popular among city residents.
Now that she had 7,000 credits, Su Yue could finally start buying winter supplies.
Looking at the balance displayed on her detector—
7,079.5 credits.
Su Yue couldn’t help smiling.
Hehe. Having money feels wonderful.