"Qian Shou's house is empty," Jiang Si said. "I'm going to go see. I'll get as much mint as I can."
Both Jiang Linhai and Jiang Chenghai wanted to go with her, but Jiang Si shook her head. "It's not safe to leave Mom and Grandma home alone. You all stay here. I'll be fine by myself."
Her mother said worriedly, "At least let your dad go with you."
Jiang Si raised her nail gun. "Don't worry. I'll be back soon. It won't take long." She offered them a reassuring smile. "I lived through ten years of the apocalypse. An ordinary person can't hurt me."
Since Jiang Si insisted, they had no choice but to relent.
The moment she stepped outside, Jiang Si felt the temperature was at least sixty-five degrees Celsius. The basketball court had been baked into a rubbery marsh, bubbling with tiny pockets of air. The village looked as if it had been ransacked by invaders, and from time to time, she could hear strange, shrill cries.
Suddenly, a woman came running out from up ahead, pursued by several men with lecherous looks in their eyes.
When the woman saw Jiang Si, it was as if she'd found her last lifeline. She sprinted over without a second thought and hid behind her. "Save me! Save me! Jiang Si, save me!"
Jiang Si recognized the woman. It was Jiang Liwen, a classmate of hers from elementary all the way through high school.
When the men spotted another woman—one with an even more striking figure and aura than Jiang Liwen—their eyes lit up. The burliest of them, a scar-faced man covered in tattoos who looked like a common street thug from before the apocalypse, pointed at Jiang Si. "This one's even prettier. I call dibs. You guys can have her after I've had my fun."
"Sure thing, Boss! You get the meat, we'll settle for the soup!"
The men's vile gazes roamed shamelessly over her and Jiang Liwen.
Jiang Liwen was trembling with fear, choking back sobs. "Please, let me go… I'm begging you…"
"Hahaha! Let you go? Not a chance! Even if it's the end of the world, we're going to seize every second of pleasure we can get!"
As the men roared with laughter, suddenly— "THWIP THWIP THWIP—"
Jiang Si moved in a flash, firing eight nails in quick succession from her nail gun. Almost simultaneously, the men clutched at their eyes and collapsed, screaming in agony.
Jiang Si fired another eight nails into their temples, permanently eliminating the threat.
With the tables turned so suddenly, Jiang Liwen cried tears of joy. She grabbed Jiang Si's hand and said, "Thank you, thank you so much, Jiang Si."
Jiang Si coldly shook her hand off. 'If I didn't have this nail gun, if I were just an ordinary person when Jiang Liwen ran to me for help… Jiang Liwen should know perfectly well what would have happened to me.'
Sensing Jiang Si's coldness, Jiang Liwen's expression shifted to one of fawning excitement. "Jiang Si, you're so amazing! I always knew it. Ever since we were kids, you were never like the other girls. You were always so cool."
Jiang Si couldn't be bothered to even look at her and simply walked straight ahead. A jolt of panic shot through Jiang Liwen. Swallowing her disgust, she leaped over the corpses on the ground and stuck to Jiang Si's side like glue. "Sisi, are you by yourself now? Why don't you come to my house? We can keep each other company. I'm sure my parents will treat you like their own daughter."
Jiang Si suddenly stopped and looked at her. "Don't follow me."
Her tone was the epitome of cold, without a single trace of warmth.
'She was utterly disgusted with her.'
Jiang Liwen's eyes immediately reddened. Ignoring the warning, she latched onto Jiang Si's arm and blurted out her true purpose in a panic. "Sisi, please come home with me! Save my parents! You're so skilled, and you have a nail gun. You can definitely rescue them! You'd be our family's savior! We'll give you the best of everything we have to eat! Please, I'm begging you. It would be so easy for you."
Saving her in passing was already more than enough. "Get lost!" Jiang Si barked.
Jiang Liwen's eyes widened in disbelief. "Sisi," she said, her voice full of grievance, "we grew up together. I'm just asking you to help my parents out. Do you have to be so cruel? Besides, isn't it dangerous for you to be out here alone? If you're scared, you could just lend me the nail gun. I can give it back after I save my parents."
'Jiang Liwen certainly had some nerve, daring to covet her nail gun.'
A smirk played on Jiang Si's lips. Jiang Liwen thought she was softening. SLAP— Before she could react, Jiang Si swung her hand and slapped her across the face.
It was a vicious slap, delivered with her full strength.
Jiang Liwen's cheek swelled at a visible rate, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
"No one is obligated to help you!"
Jiang Si was ten meters away before Jiang Liwen snapped out of her stupor. Staring at Jiang Si's back, she screamed with venomous hatred, "You obviously could have helped us! Why did you just watch us die? Jiang Si, you're so cold-blooded! Someone like you won't live much longer than us!"
'There were too many people with scrambled brains in the apocalypse.' Jiang Si turned around and raised her nail gun. "I'll give you three seconds to run."
Jiang Si's dark eyes glinted with the coldest light.
"One."
Jiang Liwen's heart skipped a beat. Her expression changed as she switched to a pleading, submissive tone. "Sisi, I was just angry. Please forgive me. Please, can you save my parents? They used to pick you up from school when we were little. Can you really bear to watch them die?"
'They weren't her parents. Why should she risk her neck to save them?'
'Just because Jiang Liwen had the audacity to ask?'
"Two."
Jiang Si's finger slowly tightened on the trigger, ready to fire. She clearly wasn't bluffing.
Jiang Liwen gritted her teeth. 'Live to fight another day,' she thought, then turned and ran for her life.
After the delay, by the time Jiang Si reached the mint patch behind Qian Shou's house, Qin Shen had already harvested it all. He had bundled it into two small mounds and looked like he was about to haul them away.
'He must have figured out what the mint is for, too.'
Jiang Si stared at the bundles of mint, trying to figure out how to ask Qin Shen to give her half.
To her surprise, Qin Shen greeted her first. "You want some mint?" he asked.
Jiang Si nodded, bracing herself for him to ask for an arm and a leg.
But she never expected him to be so straightforward. Pointing to one of the piles, he said, "I'll give you half. Can you give me a few sets of clothes and shoes in return?"
Jiang Si was stunned. It was such a simple request that she felt too embarrassed to even try to haggle. She nodded instinctively.
Qin Shen even offered, like a gentleman, "I can help you carry it back." His expression paused for a moment, and then he asked, "Do you also want a wild boar? I'm looking to trade for some grain."
The little he had stored up had been completely wiped out by the rat swarm.
Jiang Si looked at the simple, honest aura he exuded. He didn't seem like a cold-blooded killer in the slightest. The urge to bargain boldly resurfaced.
"How much grain do you want?"
Qin Shen asked tentatively, "One wild boar for a hundred pounds of grain?"
'Oh my god, is this some kind of meat-delivering angel?'
'If I didn't take this deal, people would think something was up.'
Jiang Si was about to agree on the spot, but she asked cautiously, "Why don't you trade with someone else?"
'A wild boar for a hundred pounds of grain? Plenty of people would take that deal. Could he have poisoned the boar, planning to sneak into our house and rob us later?'