Seeing Xia Qing remain silent, Feng Wen got out of bed and wandered to the door, reaching for the sack of food Xia Qing had brought back, but Xia Qing quickly stopped her.
Feng Wen held onto the sack tightly, refusing to let go. "So much food, you can't finish it all, it'll spoil, what a waste! Give me half, I won't take it for free. How about this, if you actually survive and manage to grow something, give me 30%, and I'll have my brother run errands for you, how about that?"
Feng Wen gripped the sack tightly, looking smugly at the disheveled woman in front of her, "My brother is a triple-speed evolved human."
Xia Qing coldly raised her eyes. "Can't afford it, let go."
An evolved human with a sense of smell can't beat an evolved human with strength. Unwilling to let go, Feng Wen greedily stared at the sack, threatening, "Xia Qing, don't be ungrateful. My brother is from the Su Feng team; he has plenty of ways to kill someone outside the safe zone. You really think a quadruple-speed evolved human is something special? Three ordinary men could kill you!" Carrying sacks of grain and a canvas bag, Xia Qing turned around, her bright, clear eyes shining through her filthy face. "If Tang Lu knew you liked Yang Jin, and that your brother was secretly selling insider information about the Su Feng team, how many days would you and your sister live?"
Having said that, Xia Qing ignored the pale-faced Feng Wen and walked briskly out of the suffocating dormitory building. She hadn't gone far when she heard acquaintances at the street corner trying to rob her.
"This robbery today is enough for two months. Be careful not to kill or maim her; the four of us brothers depend on her for survival."
Hearing the nauseating, lewd laughter, Xia Qing stopped a few steps forward at the street corner, facing the four ordinary people who were about to rob her.
This was… a fat sheep delivering itself to her doorstep?
Zhao Jie hesitated for a moment, then excitedly shouted "Go!" and pounced on Xia Qing.
The four-times-powered evolved woman's strength was equivalent to that of three ordinary young men. The four of them had done this dozens of times in the past five years, a piece of cake…
"Bang, bang, bang, bang!"
Zhao Jie, trembling with excitement, hadn't even had time to grab the grain bag when Xia Qing kicked him, sending him flying against the wall, landing on his buddy.
No…
Zhao Jie stared in terror at the thin, dark-skinned woman before him. Impossible, how could this be?!
The groups of emaciated men lying in ambush on both sides of the road were stunned by Xia Qing's effortless kicking of four large men and dared not make a move.
Feng Wen, standing by the window on the third floor of the evolved human dormitory, stared dumbfounded as Xia Qing easily carried the load across the danger zone.
"Xia Qing, here, let me carry it for you!" Zhong Tao, who had been waiting at the entrance to the safe zone, saw the person with the green badge bearing the name "Xia Qing" finally arrive and ran forward to take the half-person-high canvas bag from her right hand, but narrowly avoided being pulled to the ground by its weight.
"So heavy?!"
Xia Qing steadied the canvas bag and handed the grain bag in her left hand to the outgoing Zhong Tao. "What are you doing here, Brother Tao?"
Zhong Tao carried the 60-plus-pound grain bag with ease. "Our team got a mission to escort the locals. Which place did you get assigned, little sister? I'll take you there."
People were coming and going at the entrance to the safe zone. Xia Qing only vaguely replied, "North of the city."
"Alright!" Zhong Tao led Xia Qing to a light truck, opened the door, greeted the brother in the driver's seat, and then let Xia Qing get in. "This one's going to the north of the city. Little sister, go up and chat with your brother Kui for a while. We'll leave when it's full."
"Thanks." Not having to sit in the truck bed and endure the dust, Xia Qing naturally didn't refuse. She greeted the driver, Zheng Kui, and easily lifted her canvas bag onto the truck, stuffed it in front of the passenger seat, and then sat in the passenger seat with her grain bag, waiting for departure.
Once she was seated, Zheng Kui took out a small tin box containing tobacco, rolled a cigarette with a piece of old, cut paper, and handed it to Xia Qing. "Hey little sister, have one. This is triple-evolved tobacco, super invigorating."
Most survivors of natural disasters tend to enjoy life to the fullest, with rampant smoking, drinking, and sex. Xia Qing didn't say she didn't smoke, only waving her hand in refusal, "This kind of tobacco is too strong, I'm not used to it, Brother Kui, you smoke it."
Women like tobacco that has evolved to have a pleasant aroma. Zheng Kui took out a match, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag. "Which plot did you take?"
"Plot Three." Xia Qing hadn't chatted with anyone in a long, long time. Seeing that Zheng Kui didn't respond, she added, "It's about 120 kilometers north of the city, near Longpan Reservoir. It's a rather small reservoir, Brother Kui might not have heard of it."
Zheng Kui exhaled a puff of smoke out the car window. "That's a good place, not far from the regimental headquarters."
"Mm." Xia Qing's voice couldn't hide her joy. Part of the reason she chose Plot Three was because it was close to the military base; in case of danger, she could easily call for reinforcements.
After finishing his long, thin cigarette, Zheng Kui asked again, "Just you alone?"
Xia Qing nodded. "Yeah, it's nice and quiet by myself."
Having been crammed into the tiny safe zone with two million people for almost ten years, Xia Qing would have gone crazy long ago if it weren't for the chance to get some fresh air during missions.
"Of the 1.8 billion people, only a little over 100 million are left. Outside the safe zone, there's nobody, just beasts everywhere." Zheng Kui's voice was heavy as he casually rolled another cigarette and put it in his mouth.
China already had the highest survival rate against natural disasters on Earth; many smaller countries had already been wiped out by them. Xia Qing silently stared at the large patches of dried, dark red bloodstains on the ten-meter-high reinforced concrete wall of the safe zone, along with the scorch marks and cracks left from countless battles between humans and beasts, and said nothing more.
"Little girl, I've finally found you!" The man who had been behind Xia Qing in line when they claimed their plots ran to the truck and greeted her warmly. "My name is Zhao Ze. I got plot number four. We'll be neighbors from now on."
Plot number four was east of plot number three, and it was Xia Qing's second choice after plot number three. She glanced at the dozen or so people behind Zhao Ze who were staring intently at their grain bags, and nodded slightly. "Xia Qing."
Xia Qing's attitude was indifferent, but it was considered mild among evolved humans. Just as Zhao Ze was about to try and strike up a conversation through the window, Zhong Tao and his group came over, urging them to get in the truck. "Get in, everyone. If you dawdle any longer, we won't reach our destination before dark."
Zhao Ze and the others rushed to the truck bed. After Zhong Tao got in and sat between Xia Qing and Zheng Kui, Zheng Kui floored the accelerator, and the truck shot off.
The once extensive highway network was completely destroyed by acid rain and the "evolved plants" (a type of vegetation). The trucks were now traveling on dirt roads cleared in recent years, and with many people in the cargo bed, their speed decreased after leaving the flat sections near the safe zone. They departed from the safe zone at 10:00 AM and didn't stop until after 5:00 PM at the road sign near plot number three.
The last passenger, Xia Qing, watched the light truck return, then picked up a bag and ran wildly through her field for a while. She tripped over a tree root, rolled onto her back, stared at the sky, and grinned foolishly for a moment before getting up and running towards her lodgings.