Bad Luck!

The torch was thrust into the snow and went out instantly.

Meng Xi and Lei Xing looked at the motionless tree, the corners of their mouths twitching involuntarily.

He had actually been talking to a tree.

They had heard him say the name "A-Qing" several times just now and had assumed A-Qing was a person.

They never expected it to be a tree.

Meng Xi and Lei Xing exchanged a glance, both seeing the same bewildered expression in the other's eyes.

This red-haired hunk seemed to have something wrong with his brain...

The door opened, and Yan Chi instantly ran inside, taking off his padded coat and snow boots.

He plunged into the sofa and laughed happily. "Jiang Jiang, there really are people waiting outside the door!

Someone knocked on our little wooden door for the first time!"

He spoke excitedly.

Jiang You looked up at him. "What about the people you brought?"

"They're right..."

Yan Chi pointed toward the doorway, but when he saw the tightly closed door, the words caught in his throat.

Only then did he remember that several people were still behind him and had not come in.

Outside the door, four people stood in the biting wind, staring blankly at the closed door.

Lei Xing sniffed. "Meng Xi, do you feel like someone's watching us?"

Meng Xi said, "I have a similar feeling."

She abruptly turned around, but there was nothing around them except bushes swaying in the northern wind.

The two people behind them rubbed their hands and stamped their feet.

"Ha-ha~ Ha-ha~"

"It's so cold. I'm seriously going to freeze to death. My nose is about to fall off.

He went in, so why hasn't anything happened since? Why hasn't he opened the door?

Are we going to freeze to death?"

As they were speaking, the door opened.

A bright-red head poked out and waved to them.

"Hurry up and come in. It's warm inside!"

His cheerful smile was completely different from the man who had shouted about burning them to death earlier.

If not for his red hair, it would have been hard to connect the two men.

Meng Xi quickly stepped inside, and the others followed.

Lei Xing, who entered last, hurriedly closed the door behind him.

As soon as they entered the room, several of them felt that even their breathing had become much easier.

Lei Xing sneezed violently. Two trails of mucus ran from his nostrils, and he wiped them away with his sleeve.

Inside and outside the room were two completely different worlds.

The northern wind outside was bone-chilling, while the room was as warm as spring.

Steam rose from the multipurpose wood-burning stove in the middle of the living room. A wooden bucket was steaming inside the iron pot, and the white mist mixed with the fragrance of rice, drawing everyone's gaze toward it.

A pile of sunflower seeds, peanuts, and chestnuts was roasting on the stainless-steel stove as well.

They were steaming rice!

Meng Xi swallowed despite herself.

She forced her gaze away and finally saw the girl curled up on the sofa.

She hurriedly introduced herself. "You're Jiang You, right? My name is Meng Xi. I'm a Tier 2 ice ability user."

Jiang You stared at her, and the first thing she said was actually:

"Where's your big dog?"

Meng Xi froze. Why was everyone so interested in her wolf?

Besides, it was a wolf, not a dog.

After a pause, she said, "The snow wolf is outside. It's too big to come in. Besides, snow wolves aren't afraid of the cold. They like harsh winters."

She deliberately emphasized "snow wolf" twice.

She was afraid someone would mistake her snow wolf for a dog again.

Meanwhile, the snow wolf had just reached the area beneath the cannibal tree and was preparing to urinate.

The next second, a branch lashed over, wrapped around it, and flung it far away.

The cannibal tree trembled with rage.

What terrible luck!

Even a dog was bad luck!

What level was this?

It actually wanted to urinate beneath the tree!

Inside the house, Meng Xi heard a loud bang. "It sounds like something fell to the ground."

Jiang You said calmly, "The snow on the roof is thick. It probably slid off."

She was looking at the wanted notice Meng Xi had handed her.

A thousand Tier 2 crystal cores?

That was not even enough to fill the gaps between her teeth.

"I'm only worth a thousand Tier 2 crystal cores? White Dragon Base is so stingy.

And this artist isn't very skilled, either."

She looked lazy and did not seem particularly surprised that White Dragon Base had put a bounty on her.

Meng Xi nodded. "It really isn't very good. My wanted notice is ugly too. It doesn't do me justice."

Jiang You had Zhang Shuhui bring out several small stools.

The four people sat on the stools in front of the stove, shivering as they warmed themselves.

They warmed themselves while swallowing repeatedly.

Zhang Shuhui brought over several bowls of thick rice broth and distributed them.

"Drink something hot first. You're shaking like you have convulsions. Have something warm, and you'll be fine after a while."

Lei Xing hurriedly accepted the ceramic bowl and held it in his hands. He inhaled deeply, then impatiently took a sip.

His mouth twisted from the scalding heat, but his body instantly warmed up.

The others also held their bowls, blowing on the broth before drinking.

Though it was only rice broth, this was real white rice. Its plain fragrance seemed to have settled into their souls.

The moment they caught the scent, their taste buds seemed to come back to life.

For a while, the entire living room was filled with the slurping sounds of people drinking broth.

Jiang You was not in a hurry. Meng Xi had given her plenty of information, and it would take a while to finish reading it.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!

We stayed in An City for several days, filling our stomachs with nothing but insects and rats. Being able to drink this bowl of hot broth would make dying worthwhile!"

"It's so good. Why did I never realize rice broth could taste this good before?"

"We never imagined there would still be humans living in An City. We thought only zombies were left here!

You have no idea how terrifying those things are. We've encountered Tier 2 zombies before, but at most we'd run into one or two at a time.

After all, Tier 2 zombies are territorial and usually don't gather together.

But in An City, Tier 2 zombies came in whole nests!

And there were Tier 3 zombies too!

Damn it, this place is practically hell!"

While the others talked, Lei Xing kept his head down and drank his rice broth.

Sweat appeared on Lei Xing's nose as he gulped down the broth.

He did not care that it was hot. He even licked the bottom of the bowl clean before returning it to Zhang Shuhui.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!!"

"If you still want rice broth, serve yourselves from the basin." Jiang You spoke calmly while flipping through several documents.

The moment they heard this, everyone's eyes lit up.

Still, they licked their lips sheepishly and said, "Th-this is such a precious thing. One bowl is enough for us..."

Zhang Shuhui looked up. "We can't finish all the rice broth on normal days anyway. We only use it to water the trees. Drink as much as you want."

As soon as she finished speaking, the four people rushed toward the enamel basin of rice broth like a gust of wind.

"I'm the oldest, so let me serve a bowl first!"

"Don't talk about being old. Even if your tumor were bigger, it wouldn't help! I'm going first!"

"Cough, cough. Move to the back, all of you. Let me go first..."

"..."

They fought over it, the ladle clanging loudly.

In the end, the four people actually drank the entire basin of rice broth clean. They even scraped the bottom spotless.

Meng Xi wiped the corners of her mouth demurely with her filthy sleeve, clutching her round belly as she burped nonstop.

She had never dreamed that her aloof image would collapse so spectacularly in front of a bowl of rice broth.

At that moment, Jiang You had already taken out a metal sealed canister.

This was the canister Meng Xi had given her earlier.

When she saw Jiang You preparing to open it, Meng Xi hurriedly stopped her.

"This sealed canister is the reason White Dragon Base put a bounty on me!

You'd better not open it casually, because there might be something dangerous inside.

It could even be poisonous!

A few months ago, I received a mission to personally protect a scientist named Andeming. After accepting the mission, I led my team into the base's experimental center.

But only after we arrived did we discover that we weren't mission personnel. We were lab mice!

The ability users they hired at a high price under the pretense of protecting Andeming were actually there to continuously provide him with test subjects!

On our first day inside, aside from one work meal provided by the base, our abilities were suppressed and we couldn't use them.

There were quite a few ability users like us.

We originally had no chance of escaping.

Unfortunately, Andeming was a lecher. He loved beautiful women with hot figures, and I happened to fit his tastes perfectly.

The moment that lecher saw me, I knew his adrenaline was surging.

So I seduced him, then killed him when he was at his most excited.

After that, I opened the sealed box he carried with him and ran away with this canister."

Meng Xi spoke very frankly about how she had escaped. In her view, it was nothing shameful.

Anything one did to save oneself and survive was not a disgrace.

Besides, she had kept several handsome men by her side before, all of them skilled in bed and not clingy.

But now she had fallen, and those little beauties had probably thrown themselves into someone else's arms.

It was rather regrettable when she thought about it.

Jiang You looked Meng Xi up and down.

Apparently noticing her gaze, Meng Xi pretended to casually fan herself with her hand. "This stove is so warm. I'm actually feeling hot even in my padded coat."

She took off her outer coat, revealing the shirt beneath.

Her stunning figure instantly made the other two women in the room feel awkward.

Full where she should be full, slender where she should be slender—every inch of her had flesh that knew exactly what it was doing.

Jiang You withdrew her gaze and calmly pulled the blanket higher, silently covering her chest.

A figure like that was inconvenient too. It was not conducive to movement, made one's center of gravity unstable, and could interfere with strenuous exercise.

She would never understand the pleasure of sleeping on her stomach!

Zhang Shuhui coughed softly and turned her head, staring intently at the stove opening.

Yan Chi looked at Jiang You, then at Meng Xi's towering chest.

He wrinkled his nose disdainfully, leaned beside Jiang You, and whispered:

"Jiang Jiang, that sister has two really big bumps.

Was she hit by someone?"