Chapter 72: Saved!

"Alright." Su Miao glanced at the large snakeskin sack filled with beautiful mushrooms—enough for her to brew another batch of potent, hallucinogenic poison. Her answer was brief, tense; she simply stared at Chang Jieming.

Chang Jieming felt uneasy under her gaze, terrified she might raise her gun and fire a volley at him. In truth, he had come with a purpose. The cabin in the mountains was no longer safe; besides the lynx that had disrupted them today, they had also encountered a mutated five-step snake.

That snake was over ten meters long and had devoured all their stored rat meat. Thankfully, there was enough rat meat; otherwise, the snake might have eaten them instead.

"Miss Su Miao, may we stay in the villa ahead?" Chang Jieming pressed down his fear as he spoke. "We probably can't return to the mountain for now."

"Alright." Su Miao looked at the pumpkin before her as she answered.

"Thank you, Miss Su Miao." Chang Jieming quickly left to share the good news with his companions. Now they had somewhere to stay, and living here meant some measure of Su Miao's protection.

Watching him leave, Su Miao felt relieved; she truly wasn't skilled at conversing with strangers, even though Chang Jieming had come several times before.

Hmm?

Just as she was about to collect the mushrooms and barricade the door again, a young boy stumbled toward her. In his hands was a mutated herb, twin-leafed, looking like some kind of medicinal plant.

"Witch... Sister, wait!" the boy called loudly. "Do you accept medicinal herbs? My father is a traditional doctor and we found many herbs in the mountains."

"Sister, look at this mutated hemostatic herb—apply it to a wound and it heals in no time."

Su Miao regarded the boy with icy eyes, and he stepped back, nearly falling. Calling her "witch" felt somehow strange, but that was unimportant. What mattered were the herbs.

According to the contents of "Magical Potion Studies," herbs could be used to brew magical potions.

"What do you want in exchange?" Su Miao asked, looking at the small pumpkin before her.

"Food—anything edible," the boy replied immediately.

"Alright, bring the herbs," Su Miao said.

"I'll be right back." The boy fled as if escaping.

It was clear the boy had summoned great courage to follow Chang Jieming here; he was utterly terrified. In fact, Su Miao was scared herself—she was close to breaking.

Because food was involved, Xia Xiao'an immediately came down. Su Miao placed one sack of rice, two sacks of potatoes, and a sack of sweet potatoes—about twenty pounds of food—in the next room. These would be carried later by Xia Xiao'an.

Su Miao was not suited for direct exchanges with strangers; just maintaining her cold demeanor and speaking was already a great effort.

About five minutes later, the boy and a middle-aged man each arrived at the door with a sack of herbs.

"Stop there; leave them at the entrance," Su Miao instructed as they moved to come in.

The boy and the man immediately halted and carefully placed the sacks by the door, their eyes full of fear, worried Su Miao wouldn't give them the food.

At this moment, Xia Xiao'an brought out the rice.

The boy quickly took it; seeing it was rice, his face lit up with wild joy.

They had originally come here for a holiday. The boy used to dislike the food in tourist areas—rice with bugs, not properly cleaned, and so on. But after more than a month of disaster, the boy now said he could eat anything, even roots and bark he gathered.

Now, seeing rice, tears streamed down his face.

"Thank you! Thank you!" the middle-aged man kept repeating as he saw the rice.

He seemed to forget the value of the herbs; for him, getting rice was already a huge gain.

The father and son prepared to leave with the rice.

"Wait," Xia Xiao'an called after them.

The boy and the man stopped, looking at Xia Xiao'an and the murderous witch Su Miao with disbelief.

Seconds later, they watched in astonishment as Xia Xiao'an brought out potatoes.

Soon after, they watched in shock as she brought out sweet potatoes.

"Thank you! Thank you!" If not for the damp ground, they might have knelt in gratitude.

With twenty pounds of food, the pair ran off, quickly leaving Villa 36.

Nearby survivors watched them leave, but none dared to rob them—no one risked stealing from the murderous witch.

When the trade was done, Su Miao collected the herbs and barricaded the door again, breathing a sigh of relief.

Thinking differently, had she not taken a big step forward in overcoming her social anxiety? Su Miao quickly extinguished that thought.

This was the apocalypse.

...

Day turned to night.

Covered in mud, the two waited for hours, watching as a giant rat nest was finally devoured and the creature moved on. Only then did they dare come out.

"Zhao Xue says the snake is gone; we can keep moving," Xiong Hui whispered.

Lu Xuechuan nodded, numb. He no longer knew how he'd survived the last day and night.

He could not fathom what had possessed him to follow Xiong Hui in search of the army that "Zhao Xue" mentioned.

On their journey, they had seen three-meter-long caterpillars strangling early birds and slowly eating them.

They had seen fist-sized ants in the rain, dismantling a five-hundred-pound wild boar in waves.

They had witnessed a massive centipede, over ten meters long, locked in battle with a red-eyed gray rabbit; every time the centipede attacked, the rabbit would kick it away, finally devouring the crunchy centipede.

They had encountered a two-meter-tall snail that crushed a two-hundred-pound rat, turning it into a ripe kiwi in the blink of an eye, which the snail then sucked dry, leaving only wrinkled fur and bones.

It was truly horrifying.

Any normal person would have died from any of these dangers.

Yet, every time, Xiong Hui would predictably say, "Zhao Xue says there's danger ahead; we need to hide here."

At first, Lu Xuechuan would respond, but now he was silent, afraid Xiong Hui might say, "Zhao Xue says stay quiet, don't let them notice us."

Lu Xuechuan felt his sanity teetering between collapse and numbness.

He was close to breaking.

He didn't know when, but Xiong Hui shook his shoulder, saying, "Lu Xuechuan, wake up—we've found them!"

Lu Xuechuan opened his eyes, barely making out several soldiers in uniform, armed, approaching.

Tears streamed down his face.

They were saved!