Chapter 3: 3. Chapter 3 How is this possible

Chapter 3: How Is This Possible?

Seeing that Xia Qing remained silent, Feng Wen got out of bed and wandered over to the door. She reached out to rummage through the grain bag Xia Qing had brought back, but Xia Qing pressed her hand down on it.

Seeing the food, Feng Wen smiled with a shrewd look. "There are no conditions to store grain in the territories outside. If you can't finish all this food, it’ll just go bad—what a waste. Split half with me. Of course, I’m not taking it for free. I’ll have my brother run errands for you, taking the vegetables and grain you grow back to the Safe Zone to trade for supplies. Considering we’ve been roommates for years, I’ll only charge you a twenty percent commission. How about that?"

Feng Wen boasted triumphantly, "My brother is a Level 3 speed-type evolver."

The combat power of a Level 3 speed-type evolver was even higher than that of a Level 4 strength-type evolver. Although a Level 4 strength-type evolver had great strength, they couldn't catch or hit a Level 3 speed-type evolver during a fight.

Xia Qing said expressionlessly, "I can't afford it."

It was impossible for a scent-type evolver to forcibly seize supplies from a strength-type evolver. But Feng Wen couldn't bear to let the food slip through her fingers, so she viciously threatened Xia Qing, "You’re just a bit stronger than an ordinary person. Once you’re outside the Safe Zone without protection, you won't even know how you died."

Xia Qing, carrying the grain bag and a canvas bag, looked back. Her eyes, clear and distinct in her dirt-stained face, remained calm. "If Tang Zhengsu finds out your brother is secretly selling internal information about the Sufeng Team, how many days do you think you and your brother will have left to live?"

After saying this, Xia Qing stopped looking at Feng Wen, whose face had turned pale with fright, and walked out of the dormitory building with her backpack. She hadn't gone far when she heard acquaintances at a nearby street corner planning to rob her.

"Robbing her today will be enough to eat for two months. Be careful not to kill or cripple her; the four of us still need her to support us."

Listening to the disgusting, lecherous laughter, Xia Qing immediately identified the person—Zhao Jie, a small-time thug who had hooked up with the manager of this street, an ordinary person.

Xia Qing carried the bags in both hands, walked a few steps forward, and stopped at the street corner, facing the four ordinary men who intended to rob her.

Is this... a fat sheep delivering itself to my door?

Zhao Jie was stunned for a moment. After excitedly shouting "Get her," he took the lead and lunged at Xia Qing—or rather, at the bags in her hands.

In his view, although the strength of a Level 4 strength-type female evolver was equivalent to four young, strong ordinary men, women had poor psychological resilience and couldn't exert their full strength when facing danger. Never mind four men, she couldn't even beat three!

"Bang, bang, bang, bang!"

Before Zhao Jie’s trembling hands could even grab the grain bag, he was kicked away by Xia Qing, slamming into a wall before falling onto his "good brother."

No...

Zhao Jie looked at the thin, red-faced woman in front of him in terror. It’s impossible. How could this woman’s combat power have suddenly increased so much?!

The several groups of people who were emaciated to the point of being unrecognizable and lying in ambush on both sides of the road were all stunned by the ruthlessness with which Xia Qing easily kicked over four grown men, and they didn't dare to make a move.

Standing by the window on the third floor of the evolver dormitory, Feng Wen watched with her jaw dropped as Xia Qing carried her things and walked easily through the danger zone.

"Sister Xia Qing, come here, let me carry that for you!" Zhong Tao, who had been craning his neck waiting at the entrance of the Safe Zone, saw the person wearing the green tag with the words "Xia Qing" on her chest finally arrive. He trotted over to take the half-man-high canvas bag she was carrying, but he nearly fell over from its weight.

So heavy?!

Xia Qing steadied the canvas bag in her right hand and handed the grain bag in her left to the overly familiar Zhong Tao. "Why are you here, Brother Tao?"

Zhong Tao carried the sixty-plus-pound grain bag with ease. "Our team took on a mission to escort territory owners. Which area did you claim, sister? I’ll take you there."

People were coming and going at the entrance of the Safe Zone. Xia Qing didn't want to reveal the location of her territory, so she replied vaguely, "North of the city."

"Got it!" Zhong Tao led Xia Qing to a light truck, opened the door, greeted his brother in the driver's seat, and told Xia Qing to get in. "This one is going to the north of the city. Little sister, go up and chat with Brother Kui for a while; we’ll leave once it’s full."

"Many thanks." Xia Qing wouldn't refuse the chance to avoid sitting in the truck bed, bumping around and eating dust. After greeting the driver, Zheng Kui, she easily lifted her canvas bag and large backpack into the truck, stuffed them around the seats, and then sat in the passenger seat, hugging the grain bag while waiting for departure.

Once she was seated, Zheng Kui took out a small iron box containing tobacco, rolled a cigarette using a piece of yellowed, cut-up old book paper, and handed it to Xia Qing. "Evolved tobacco, good for a pick-me-up."

Humans who survived after the apocalypse didn't know whether tomorrow or disaster would come first, so most lived for the moment; smoking and sex were rampant.

Why no alcohol? In this day and age, people needed to eat grass just to survive—where would they get the grain to brew alcohol?

Xia Qing didn't say she didn't smoke; she just waved her hand to decline. "This kind of tobacco is too strong; I’m not used to it. You smoke it, Brother Kui."

Women liked tobacco that had evolved a fragrance. Zheng Kui didn't insist, took out a match to light the cigarette, and took a deep drag. "Which plot did you claim?"

"Plot No. 3." Xia Qing hadn't chatted with anyone for a long, long time. Seeing that Zheng Kui didn't respond and the conversation had stalled, she had to take the initiative to add, "It’s 120 kilometers north of the city, near the Longpan Reservoir. It’s a pretty small reservoir; Brother Kui might not have heard of it."

Zheng Kui exhaled a cloud of smoke out the window. "That’s a good place, not far from the old military headquarters."

"Yeah." Xia Qing’s voice revealed satisfaction she couldn't hide. Part of the reason she chose Plot No. 3 was because it was close to the military base, making it relatively safer.

After finishing the thin, hand-rolled cigarette, Zheng Kui asked, "Just you alone?"

Xia Qing nodded. "Yeah, it’s quiet being alone."

Having been squeezed in with two million people in the tiny Safe Zone for nearly ten years, Xia Qing would have gone crazy long ago if she hadn't been able to catch a breath outside while on missions.

"Of the eighteen billion people, only a little over one hundred million are left. There’s no one anywhere outside the Safe Zone, but there are things that eat people everywhere." Zheng Kui’s voice was heavy as he rolled another cigarette and put it in his mouth.

China, with only five percent of its total population remaining, already had the highest survival rate for disaster-stricken populations on Earth. Many small countries had already been wiped out in the disasters, and some had even sunk into the ground due to crustal movements and ceased to exist.

Xia Qing silently looked at the dark red bloodstains dried in large patches on the ten-meter-high reinforced concrete wall of the Safe Zone, as well as the scorch marks and cracks left by repeated battles between humans and beasts, and didn't speak again.

"Little girl, I finally found you!" The tall, thin man who had been standing behind Xia Qing in line at the territory office ran to the truck and greeted her enthusiastically. "My name is Zhao Ze. I claimed Plot No. 4. We’ll be neighbors from now on."

Plot No. 4 was to the east of No. 3, which had been Xia Qing’s second choice after No. 3. She glanced at the dozen or so men and women behind Zhao Ze and nodded slightly. "Xia Qing."

Xia Qing’s attitude was cold, but the fact that she was willing to acknowledge an ordinary person like him was already considered good among evolvers.

Just as Zhao Ze leaned against the window to try and strike up more conversation, Zhong Tao walked over with a large group of people carrying ragged luggage, urging those by the truck to get on. "Everyone get on! If we dawdle any longer, we won't reach the place before dark."

Zhao Ze took the lead and scrambled into the truck bed. After Zhong Tao got in and sat between Xia Qing and Zheng Kui, Zheng Kui stepped on the gas, and the truck surged forward.

The roads that had crisscrossed before the apocalypse had long been completely destroyed by crustal movements, heavy acid rain, and evolved plants. The road the truck was taking now was a dirt path that had been cleared in sections over the past few years. Because the truck bed was carrying quite a few people, the speed dropped once they left the flat sections near the Safe Zone. They set off from the Safe Zone at 11:00 AM, stopping and going along the way, and didn't stop under the road sign by Plot No. 3 until after 5:00 PM.

Xia Qing, the last passenger, got off the truck. After watching the light truck turn around and head back, she picked up her bags and ran wildly through her field. After being tripped by a tree root, she flipped over to lie on her back, looking up at the sky and giggling foolishly.

(End of chapter)