Drunken Frenzy-Did They Really Take Him for an Animal?

Su Nian studied Tang Zhou's eyes for a moment. "Wash your face, then come back."

Her gaze was clear, with nothing unusual about it. Even with the Wraith Travel Token's restrictions, he still wanted someone he could trust. Relying on an external object to keep someone in check was never truly secure.

The Wraith Travel Token had a time limit. What would happen after those six hours?

"You're all about looks, huh! So if I'm ugly, you won't want me?" Tang Zhou's eyes widened.

"It's perfectly normal for an interview to have several stages. I don't want anyone ugly," Su Nian said flatly.

He was an Awakened and the convoy's captain. No man liked ugly women, and there was nothing wrong with admitting it.

Even before the apocalypse, people cared about matching flowers with the right vase.

"I'm decent-looking. I'll definitely pass," Tang Zhou said.

"I'll be the judge of whether you're good-looking. And..." Su Nian looked at her seriously. "If you get into my vehicle, you'll have to sleep with me when I have physical needs. Think it over before you come back."

With that, Su Nian headed toward the Raptor.

Tang Zhou visibly stiffened. She hadn't expected Su Nian to be so direct.

There seemed to be no more reliable way for a man and a woman to bind themselves together than becoming intimate.

She turned and headed briskly toward her own vehicle, her heart pounding.

"What were you talking to Captain Su about?" Tang Chen asked.

After finishing his work, he had noticed Tang Zhou chatting with Su Nian.

Tang Zhou collected herself. "He asked why my roasted corn tasted so terrible."

Tang Chen: "???"

"Okay, enough joking. He asked me to drive for him so he can get more rest," Tang Zhou said.

"And you agreed!"

"I couldn't refuse. Wouldn't that offend him? You're the one who told me to think before I act." Tang Zhou smiled. "Exceptional people shine wherever they go."

"Can't help it, big brother. I've outdone you again." Tang Zhou patted her brother's shoulder.

She couldn't tell Tang Chen what Su Nian had actually said.

"You could've refused, actually. I suspect..." Tang Chen trailed off.

He couldn't exactly discuss what men wanted from women with his little sister.

Forget it, forget it. She's already agreed. Besides, with her face smeared that black, she's hardly tempting anyone.

"Suspect what?" Tang Zhou blinked, her long lashes fluttering like butterfly wings.

"Let's eat. The porridge's ready." Tang Chen started walking.

Around forty survivors lined up for porridge.

A middle-aged man approached carrying a basin larger than his face, beaming with delight.

His smile vanished almost immediately. With a flick of Chen Tai's wrist, less than half a ladle of purple broth splashed into his basin.

That amount wouldn't even fill a baby a few months old.

"Next!" Chen Tai wore a warm smile. Building a good relationship with the Tang siblings really had been an "angel investment."

Serving food used to be a job for Zhang Ping's trusted men. Now it was his turn, and whatever remained afterward belonged to him.

There was more than he could possibly eat.

"Isn't this a little too little, brother? Give me some more." The middle-aged man didn't dare get angry and spoke with a smile instead.

"Brother, you're from the other convoy, right? Never had the good stuff before? One mouthful will fill you up. This is supernatural food," a helpful older man behind him said cheerfully.

Dubious, the middle-aged man swirled the broth and drank it in one gulp. It was sweet and fragrant. The rice husks scratched his throat a little, but a feeling of fullness followed immediately.

He had been here for four months, and this was the first time he'd eaten his fill. These rice husks really packed a punch. He licked the husks clinging to the basin clean.

It was supernatural food. Perhaps eating enough of it could awaken him.

"I'm full!" Jiang Ying excitedly gave Xiao Shengge a thumbs-up.

After finishing her portion, Xiao Shengge stared at her bowl in silence for a moment, then licked the remnants clean.

"So they took away the unhealthy food and replaced it with healthy food for us. What wonderful people." A bodyguard's mouth twitched.

It sounded a little far-fetched, but that did seem to be the truth. Even eating all the supplies they'd confiscated wouldn't have left them this full.

If it was poisoned, the Awakened were eating the same thing, except theirs was solid rice.

Theirs was watered down and mixed with rice husks, but as long as it filled their stomachs, that was enough.

Xiao Shengge looked toward Su Nian and the others. Honestly, she couldn't figure out how this convoy operated.

Sometimes they seemed good, sometimes bad. Just when you decided they were bad, they immediately tossed you a treat.

Everyone had a bowl of Purple-Gold Rice and sat on the road's central green strip, digging in. Su Yue had to stand because her swollen belly made sitting down impossible.

Beside them sat a basin of beef blood stir-fried with scallions and ginger. Wen Keyi had grown the scallions and ginger too.

Chewing his golden rice, Su Nian looked back along the highway. A tricycle came into view, drawing quite a few people's attention.

Pedaling it was a tall, thin elderly woman with short hair, around sixty or seventy, wearing blue-green trousers and a floral padded jacket. A deep scar ran from the corner of her mouth across her weathered cheek.

A bulging woven-plastic sack sat in the tricycle's rear bed, with a man and a woman seated on either side.

It was already impressive that someone in her sixties or seventies could make it out here on a tricycle, let alone with such a heavy load.

More importantly, she was the first person to reach this place on a human-powered vehicle.

Su Nian activated Blood Eye for a look. She wasn't a supernatural entity. Curious, he used the system to appraise her.

[Xia Lingling]

[Constitution: 10 (A composite value representing health, damage resistance, stamina, self-healing, carrying capacity, and physical toughness. Reaching zero causes immediate unconsciousness/death. Can recover naturally through eating and resting. The limit for normal humans is 9.)]

[Spirit: 6 (Used to resist mental corruption and illusions, and for cognitive processing. An excessively low value causes self-doubt. Reaching 1 results in complete insanity. The limit for normal humans is 9.)]

[Talent: drunken frenzy (Sequence 9)]

"Drinker (Sequence 9): Drinking alcohol slightly increases constitution. Intoxication numbs pain, allowing the user to ignore some superficial injuries, and grants slight resistance to ordinary toxins and corruption from low-level supernatural entities. Benefits gained through drinking return to normal levels when the user stops drinking."

Sure enough, she was an Awakened.

"Well? Is she an Awakened?" Hao Ren asked casually as he shoveled rice into his mouth.

"She is. Sequence 9," Su Nian said. "She wasn't with our convoy before, was she?"

"Nope!" Hao Ren shook his head.

"Seriously, you're even checking out an old granny's body? That's going too far..." Wen Kele chimed in.

Su Nian's expression darkened instantly, without any transition.

"I told you, my eyes can't see through things. They can't! How many times do I have to say it?"

However tasteless he might be, he wouldn't ogle an old granny's body. What did they take him for, an animal?

"I don't believe you! I'm going to look at yours later to make us even. Heh heh heh... Cough, cough... This chili's so spicy!"

Wen Kele's little face flushed red. She coughed a few grains of rice onto the ground, then immediately picked them up and stuffed them into her mouth.

She always made sure to eat every last grain of rice. That was what her idol, the great general Yuwen Chengdu, had told her.

"That's what you get for cackling like that. Serves you right!" Gong Qing rubbed it in.

"Damn it! None of you show me any respect anymore. How dare you undermine your captain! I demand a duel! Whoever's stronger gets the final say!"

A bubbling growl rolled from Wen Kele's throat, like a little dog baring its teeth.