“Nothing, you’ll know in a bit.”
Shen Tangtang shook her head and didn’t say anything more.
As expected, the male lead was like a sticky plaster—once he attached himself, you couldn’t shake him off.
Just as she was thinking this, Bai Yanjun’s cheerful voice rang out from the front of the bus, “Oh, Daiyu, Tangtang, what a coincidence! We’re taking the same bus today.”
Hearing the voice, the surrounding passengers cast knowing, sideways glances in their direction.
Damn it, you piece of trash. Sooner or later, I’m going to put a sack over your head.
Shen Tangtang’s temples throbbed.
Hearing Bai Yanjun’s voice, Lin Daiyu looked over at him with a pleasantly surprised expression and said happily, “Jun-brother, what a coincidence! We’re together again today.”
Lin Daiyu felt that this sentence was inexplicably familiar, but upon seeing the handsome smile on Bai Yanjun’s face, her soul practically left her body.
She looked at him with bashful shyness.
A sudden wave of goosebumps broke out over Shen Tangtang, and she quietly distanced herself a bit from Lin Daiyu.
This action landed in Lu Che’s line of sight, a trace of amusement slipping into his eyes.
This girl was quite interesting.
Amidst the chatter between Lin Daiyu and Bai Yanjun, the bus slowly pulled away from the city gates and drove south all the way.
Arriving at the outer edges of their destination, after getting off the bus, Shen Tangtang used a random excuse to part ways with them.
There was no help for it; Bai Yanjun had that “wherever Lin Daiyu goes, I go” attitude, and Shen Tangtang didn’t want to get mixed up in it. She politely declined Lin Daiyu’s request, picked a direction, and left with the other scavengers.
Lin Daiyu stood by the main road, getting a face full of dust kicked up by the departing bus. She watched the direction in which Shen Tangtang had left, a trace of loneliness flashing in her eyes.
Taking in Lin Daiyu’s expression, Bai Yanjun looked toward the path Shen Tangtang had taken, a flash of sinister malice crossing his eyes as he spoke, “Daiyu, does Tangtang really dislike me? I feel like she’s never willing to look for food with us.”
Lin Daiyu’s gaze flickered, and then she said in a gentle tone, “Tangtang must just be in a bad mood these past few days! She doesn’t like crowds…”
Lin Daiyu trailed off. She could distinctly sense that Shen Tangtang had been distancing herself from her lately, and she wondered when exactly it had started.
As she thought about it, Lin Daiyu couldn’t help casting her gaze back toward Bai Yanjun, then shook her head. What was she even thinking? Jun-brother was such a good person.
“…”
Seeing Lin Daiyu turn her gaze back to him, Bai Yanjun quickly put on an impeccably bright and breezy smile. “Daiyu, did you think of something?”
“It’s nothing, let’s get going too!”
Lin Daiyu shook her head, then walked straight ahead.
Bai Yanjun touched his face, confirmed that his charm hadn’t decreased, and hurried up to catch her.
Shen Tangtang, walking along the small trail, couldn’t have known that perhaps because of her frequent warnings to Lin Daiyu to be on guard against Bai Yanjun, Lin Daiyu wasn’t like she was in the novel—letting the male lead snatch up all the good things she found, nor was she subsidizing the male lead with her own food.
Walking along with the crowd, because the bus couldn’t get deep into the peach orchard, everyone tacitly got off and walked the rest of the way.
Shen Tangtang occasionally glanced back and could still see Bai Yanjun and Lin Daiyu flirting.
Calmly turning back around, she continued on her way. Everyone shared the same destination, so walking the same path was inevitable.
“Wow, is this the peach orchard? It’s so pretty.”
“What good is pretty? I heard it’s all high radiation; the First Mercenary Corps already searched the whole place before opening it up.”
“This is still pretty good, at least we can always find something to eat.”
[Scan result: Radiation level 89%, inedible.]
[Scan result: Radiation level 86%, inedible.]
[Scan result: Radiation level 77%, inedible.]
…
The people around her began scanning one after another. Some hadn’t turned off their prompt sounds, so the audio alerts for “inedible” echoed back and forth.
Plenty of curses muttered under their breath floated through the air, though some people didn’t give up, quietly continuing to scan for edible leaves. As for the peaches, they had given up on those—any edible peaches here had probably already been stripped clean by the First Mercenary Corps; there was no way any would be left for them.
Shen Tangtang distanced herself from the crowd and headed deeper into the peach orchard.
Ten minutes later, Shen Tangtang suddenly noticed another group of people ahead. Judging by their clothes, they were also scavengers who had set out earlier than her.
She paused her steps and gave them a wide berth.
Finding a tall peach tree, she scrambled up it in a few quick movements.
The peach trees were massive, but humans surviving in the wasteland world were all expert tree-climbers. Ever since the apocalypse began, the flora and fauna of Blue Star had grown several times over, as if pumped full of expanding agents.
Right in front of her hung a peach about half the size of a soccer ball. Looking closely, she could still see a cut carved into its surface.
That was the mark left behind by others taking samples.
Shen Tangtang wasn’t discouraged. She took out the dagger she had traded for yesterday, gently sliced open a bit of the flesh, and pressed it against her scanner wristband.
[Scan result: Radiation level 88%, inedible.]
A vibrating sensation came from her wrist, and she saw the scan results at the same time.
Shen Tangtang had already anticipated such a result; if it had been edible, someone else would have long since picked it.
She was just running a little experiment now. She hollowed out the peach in front of her, dug out a piece of the innermost flesh, and placed it against her wristband.
[Scan result: Radiation level 85%, inedible.]
Alright, so she had just been wishful thinking.
Letting go of the peach in her hand, she bounced a branch to test it, but the peach remained firmly hanging from the twig. Fruit like this, without external interference, would only rot on the branch; picking it took a fair bit of effort.
Naturally, Shen Tangtang wasn’t about to do thankless, exhausting work. She glanced at the fine white fuzz stuck to her hands, which felt a bit itchy. Hopefully… she wasn’t allergic!
Shen Tangtang quickly brushed the fuzz off her hands, turned around, and went back to scanning other peaches.
After scanning an entire tree, not a single peach turned out to be edible.
Giving a glance to the twenty peaches still hanging on the tree, she lowered her head to scan the leaves and petals instead.
[Scan result: Radiation level 73%, inedible.]
[Scan result: Radiation level 69%, inedible.]
…
Shen Tangtang was already used to this kind of dry, monotonous scanning. Watching the endless stream of “inedible” prompts on her wristband, she actually felt a bit amazed.
A single peach tree could have completely different radiation levels across its fruits, leaves, and petals.
Adjusting the straw hat on her head, Shen Tangtang stepped onto a sturdy branch, stretched out her hand, and laboriously pulled off a pale green leaf. She sliced it open with her dagger, letting the sap inside flow out.
[Scan result: Radiation level 44%, edible.]
A look of delight crossed Shen Tangtang’s face. She could smell a faint, sweet fragrance. Looking at the leaf in her hand, it was as wide as both her palms spread out together, with a thickness of three fingers of fleshy pulp right down the middle.
She had struck it rich.
Happily giving it a peck of appreciation, she tucked it away into her spatial storage, placing it alongside the clivia leaves she had found a few days prior.
It seemed that the deeper the color, the higher the radiation level.
Shen Tangtang finished scanning most of the remaining leaves on the tree, netting only two more edible leaves and a single edible petal.
Checking the time on her wristband, it was 10:12 AM.