Year 608 of the Wasteland Era.
Dawn City, a medium-tier safe zone.
Inside the girls’ dormitory of the orphanage concentration camp.
“Tangtang, if you don’t get up soon, there won’t be any food left today!”
No food?
That simply wouldn’t do. Even though nutrient paste didn’t taste like much besides filling your stomach, skipping a meal left you starving—especially since she was still growing.
Shen Tangtang sprang up in a single carp leap, startling the young girl who had woken her up.
“You don’t have to rush quite that much; there’s still plenty of time before roll call.” The young girl blinked her big eyes, worriedly felt Shen Tangtang’s forehead, and let out a breath. “Good thing you’re alright. You usually wake up pretty early, so why did you sleep so deeply today?”
“I’m fine. Daiyu-jie really dotes on me. I don’t know why, but I had a nightmare, which is why I didn’t wake up.”
Shen Tangtang comfortably rubbed against Lin Daiyu’s hand. It was cool to the touch, pushing down the confusion lingering in her heart.
Daiyu wasn’t the legendary Lin Daiyu from classic literature, and Shen Tangtang wasn’t the original Shen Tangtang either.
Shen Tangtang had transmigrated into this body when it was five years old. By the time she arrived, the original owner had already passed away from a high fever.
Almost the exact second the original owner stopped breathing, Shen Tangtang—who had died of sudden cardiac arrest from staying up all night reading web novels—transmigrated into the body of the original owner who shared her exact name.
And as luck would have it, the novel she had stayed up all night reading was a wasteland web novel.
Talk about coincidences opening the door for coincidences; it was a coincidence through and through.
Last night, she had dreamed of her little best friend being emotionally and physically tortured by the male protagonist. In the end, the “white moonlight” couldn’t compare to the “red cinnabar mole,” and the male protagonist was drawn to a female lead who had escaped from another lower-tier safe zone, kicking off a whole series of toxic, tear-jerking romance tropes.
Damn, her hands were starting to itch.
Shen Tangtang looked at Lin Daiyu with a complex gaze. This was a case of the white moonlight turning into plain white rice, only to get sick of eating it.
Ptui, ptui, ptui. What was she even thinking? In this wasteland world, finding a single grain of rice was difficult enough; nobody ever got tired of eating white rice. It was just a scumbag cheating on his partner while acting like she was no longer good enough for him.
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere?”
Shen Tangtang’s weird expression startled Lin Daiyu. Just how terrifying must that nightmare have been to scare the fearless Tangtang like this?
“I’m fine, Daiyu-jie. Let’s get ready and head out!”
Shen Tangtang grabbed Lin Daiyu and ran all the way, taking a spot at the back of the line under the orphanage director’s glare, which looked as though he were gazing at dead people.
It was only four in the morning. Because of solar radiation, everyone had long since formed the habit of early to bed and early to rise.
Fortunately, the moon in the wasteland world was very bright. Though it lacked the illumination of daylight, the paths were still clearly visible.
Up near the front of the line, Bai Yanjun waved at them. “Daiyu, Tangtang, over here!”
“Tangtang, Xiao Bai is up front.”
Lin Daiyu excitedly shook Shen Tangtang’s hand and waved back at Bai Yanjun.
Shen Tangtang glanced at Bai Yanjun, who was grinning ear-to-ear with a foolish expression. She couldn’t fathom how anyone could look at him and think he’d turn out to be a scumbag later on.
“Yeah, well, being at the front won’t do him any good.”
“Tangtang, you’re so cold and unfeeling! Don’t worry, I still love you the most!”
A maiden’s shy blush was hard to hide on Lin Daiyu’s face.
It wasn’t just a young girl’s romantic awakening; it was a classic tale of a hero saving a damsel in distress.
Last week, the director of the orphanage concentration camp had organized everyone to forage for food in the wilderness. Lin Daiyu had been lured away by a man-eating flower and was just a step away from walking right into its territory when Bai Yanjun happened to walk past and yanked her back. From that moment on, a young girl’s heart had been lost.
Shen Tangtang shook her head. Cliché. Absolute cliché.
And yet this foolish girl had actually fallen for it.
With her heart entirely wrapped up in her crush, Lin Daiyu failed to notice the look of deep, loving pity her best friend was giving her; otherwise, she would have landed a couple of quick punches right then and there to express her dissatisfaction.
The battered old bus rattled its way out of the safe zone, heading east toward a gathering site newly cleared by the reclamation team last month.
Actually, this gathering site had already been heavily picked over by numerous scavengers since it opened, leaving very little edible food behind. But there was no choice. As the concentration camp for Dawn City’s orphans, the orphanage housed a massive number of kids. If they couldn’t find food, the children even younger than Shen Tangtang and her peers would be abandoned or left to starve.
Shen Tangtang had arrived at the orphanage concentration camp when she was five. When she was younger, she had benefited from the hard work of the older boys and girls, so when she turned thirteen and started scavenging, she had zero objections to the rule that all food found had to be turned over to the camp.
Some wise person once said: Children are the hope of the future.
Otherwise, there truly wouldn’t be any orphanage concentration camps, and Tangtang didn’t think she could have survived the wasteland world at five years old.
Next year, she and Lin Daiyu would turn eighteen. Starting this month, any food they found no longer needed to be handed over. Whether they could avoid sleeping on the streets next year depended entirely on their efforts over this coming year.
The bus rattled and swayed until it finally reached its destination.
Fortunately, Shen Tangtang didn’t get motion sickness, though she still felt like she was being squeezed flat, prompting her to cautiously glance down at her own flat chest.
Phew, flat chests had their perks too.
Stealing a quick peek at Lin Daiyu, who was massaging her own chest, she clicked her tongue in silent, unachievable envy.
Why was it that they both ate the same nutrient paste, yet other people got to have curves while she didn’t?
“Tangtang, do you want to look for food together?”
Shen Tangtang noticed that Lin Daiyu kept glancing in Bai Yanjun’s direction, looking as though she didn’t want anyone tagging along at all and was merely asking out of polite habit. Realizing she had her own things to do anyway, Shen Tangtang replied, “Let’s search separately! We’ll meet up at that tree over there at 10 AM.”
Shen Tangtang pointed to a large tree not far away. The midday sun couldn’t reach that spot, making it the perfect resting place.
“Alright, then be careful!”
Lin Daiyu glanced at the tree across the way, nodded, and parted ways with Shen Tangtang.
Watching Lin Daiyu skip away happily toward Bai Yanjun, Shen Tangtang’s gaze darkened.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to stop Lin Daiyu; it was simply that everyone had their own choices to make. The moment she laid eyes on Bai Yanjun yesterday, she had remembered the plot and dropped plenty of hints, both subtle and direct, but the girl just liked him anyway.
Sigh. To each their own destiny.
In this wasteland world, sticking your nose too deeply into other people’s business would only get you killed.
Shen Tangtang walked off in the opposite direction. Fewer people went this way, so there was a chance she might actually find something edible.
Every now and then, the sound of scanning alerts echoed along the path. Some scavengers liked keeping their notification sounds turned on because they had enough strength to protect whatever food they found.
Shen Tangtang quietly turned off the sound on her wristband. Better safe than sorry; I prefer making a fortune in silence.
If a plant’s scanned radiation level was below 50%, it was edible; anything above 50% was a high-radiation plant and strictly off-limits.
The wristband had been issued by the orphanage concentration camp; once she turned eighteen and left the camp, she would have to go to the exchange lobby to claim one of her own.
Suddenly, her wristband buzzed. Shen Tangtang glanced around.
Nobody was paying attention to her side.
Trying her best to calm her nerves, she lowered her head to check.
[Scan result: Radiation level 43%, edible.]
Awesome. After half an hour of searching, she finally scored an opening win.
Her stone knife was sharp. After grinding away for two minutes, Shen Tangtang finally managed to slice off a palm-sized leaf.
The leaf was thick and broad; if she were eating alone, it would last her two days.
She paused to think. Well, she was alone now—starting today, she no longer had to hand over all her food.
With a flick of her hand, the leaf vanished straight into her spatial storage space.