Chapter 11: The Neighbors Have Food

Chapter 11: Chapter 11: The Neighbors Have Food

There was a tiny hole right next to the base of the wall of roses. It was truly tiny. Covered by the dense green leaves, it was completely hidden from sight.

If Huai Yu hadn’t dropped to her knees so quickly and apologized so devoutly, she would never have noticed it.

The beady little eyes inside seemed startled, vanishing in a flash with a WHOOSH. But Huai Yu was faster! Before her brain could even process the command, her body moved on its own—she shoved a hand right into the hole!

My goodness! After a brief struggle, she narrowly managed to pinch the little critter by its tail and yank it out. Hmm, it was an ordinary field mouse. Gray fur, round eyes, long whiskers, and a long tail. It looked far too plain...

She quickly leaned her head back a little. But that was fine! Whether the field mouse was plain or not didn’t matter at all. What mattered was that they were experts at hoarding food!

"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" The field mouse struggled frantically.

Huai Yu didn’t make things difficult for it. Instead, she tilted her head slightly and smiled gently.

"You’re so cute, baby!

"It’s okay, don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you. You can go now."

At this moment, she practically radiated a saintly halo. The little field mouse was so dizzy when placed on the ground that it froze for a second before sprinting wildly away.

However, it hadn’t gotten far when it seemed to snap out of it. Those tiny eyes glanced back, and the mouse’s long whiskers practically exploded in shock! Because right then, Huai Yu had already stuck her arm in and started digging up its burrow!

"SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!"

In that instant, the little field mouse even forgot about the threat to its life. It doubled back, darting frantically around the entrance of the burrow, so anxious that sparks could practically fly from its paws!

But Huai Yu just smiled sweetly. "Thank you so much! I just happen to be out of clothes to wear!" Thanks to the little field mouse, she even remembered a clever trick for treasure hunting in the mountains: looking for the hoards left by squirrels who had forgotten where they buried their stash the previous year. With that thought in mind, her digging posture became incredibly eager and carefree!

Fortunately, perhaps because the roots of the Rose Corridor ran too deep, or because the Wilderness was simply too dangerous, the little field mouse’s burrow, though winding, wasn’t very deep in a straight line.

When Huai Yu dug out the thick branch she had used for digging when building her shelter to assist her, the field mouse’s squeaks grew increasingly desperate.

However, the joys and sorrows of humans and mice are not shared. The more despairing the little field mouse was, the happier Huai Yu became. Because the granary of this field mouse before her was truly bountiful.

There was a small pile of peanuts, each looking extremely plump. It took her two handfuls to scoop them all out. There were also some beans—dirty but intact mung beans. Two large handfuls! She didn’t know where it had stolen them from, but wow, it was amazing! In addition, there were some grains of wheat. But it probably wasn’t very good at stealing wheat, so many of the grains were shriveled and worthless.

Most importantly, in the last small storage chamber, Huai Yu found a handful of quail-egg-sized yam beans.

Wow! These could be planted! Moreover, the yield per acre should easily exceed a thousand catties, making them far more filling than her one catty of beans! With so many good things lying around, every moment she wasn’t out here in the wild was a failure on her part to work hard enough.

Huai Yu took off her jacket, gathered everything into it, and ended up with a bundle the size of a basketball. It just went to show how good this little field mouse was at hoarding food.

"You’re truly amazing," she sincerely praised the frantic field mouse, who was practically jumping out of its skin. She then thoughtfully made arrangements for it. "Look, although I took your food, it’s spring now, so you won’t lack things to eat. Don’t you really like the tender grass shoots around here? Eat more of them. Eat as much as you want.

"This is my land, so eat to your heart’s content!"

After saying that, she happily skipped away.

Back in the house, she spread her clothes out over the blue bricks and sorted through the pile of food one by one. She tossed the shriveled and rotten ones, then categorized the rest. The yam beans could be planted, and since their yield was high, she wouldn’t trade them for clothes. The peanuts could also be planted. If grown well, it seemed the yield per acre could also reach a thousand catties. Kept!

As for the remaining wheat ears, there were barely any good grains left—not even enough to make a small handful. They probably wouldn’t fetch much in a trade, so she could only wrap them in leaves, stuff them into her pocket, and ask around.

However, there were quite a lot of mung beans. She didn’t know which field they had been scavenged from, but there were two whole, large handfuls. But mung beans weren’t very filling... Huai Yu immediately decided that she would use them to trade for clothes!

She didn’t know much about prices, but since eleven pinecones could be traded for a waterproof tarp, then surely these two handfuls of mung beans could at least fetch a fresh set of underwear?

As for whether she should go to the trading market... She thought that since everything was waiting to be rebuilt, there were definitely far more pitiful people in the market than herself. Although mung beans could be planted, they couldn’t be eaten right away, so they probably weren’t worth much. Since that was the case...

Defense Army, I’m counting on you!

***

To show her respect, right before leaving the house, Huai Yu endured the bitterness and contorted her face as she brushed her teeth with a twig. Since she didn’t have clean water, it was the thought that counted. Thank goodness the nutrient solution portions were large, otherwise she wouldn’t have survived the past few days.

Next up, with the mung beans bundled in the hem of her clothes, it was time to set off for Zone 69!

This time, without carrying ten catties of pinecones, the mere three or four-kilometer walk was very easy for Huai Yu. She even glanced around along the way; if not for her tattered clothes, it truly would have felt like a spring outing.

Meanwhile, over at the Zone 69 base, the guard at the gate spotted her approaching from afar and hurriedly picked up his walkie-talkie! By the time Huai Yu reached the gate, she saw that Captain Zhou was already waiting there with a logistics officer. Seeing her arrive, he forced a stiff smile onto his face.

Huai Yu fell silent. But she was a polite person. Since she was asking for a favor, she absolutely wouldn’t say anything like asking if his face was cramping.

So she merely smiled softly. "Captain, I’m here to trade for some things. Is that okay?"

Zhou Qian tried his best to maintain the smile on his face to make himself look a bit more amiable, which made his tone sound both bizarre and gentle.

"That’s no problem. The pine nuts you brought last time were delicious. We all loved them."

They just hadn’t eaten many. Because the Mutant Value was so low, everyone had only laughingly cracked open a single one before the rest were requisitioned for research. Now that they heard she had arrived, everyone hurriedly gathered around, hoping she would have more good things with a low Mutant Value this time.

Huai Yu looked at him rather skeptically, then studied his weathered face and somewhat understood. Captain Zhou must have suffered a lot, which was why he didn’t find the pine nuts bitter, right? How truly touching. If she could trade for some clothes today, she would be even more touched.

Therefore, she smiled sweetly in return. "Thank you so much! I just wonder, are there any ladies here? I want to trade for some things that girls can use."

Things that girls can use...

Zhou Qian’s gaze swept over her messy, disheveled hair and her worn-out clothes before he replied. "No problem."

He pulled out his walkie-talkie and muttered a few words into it. Not long after, two valiant and heroic-looking young women walked out.

[Author’s Note: To clarify, the yam beans mentioned here are the bulbils of the iron stick yam, so please don’t misunderstand.]