Internet

Qiao Jiajin handed over the cloth pouch at his waist without hesitation, and Lin Qin followed suit.

Tiantian looked at the two of them, her expression slightly uneasy. But she was at a disadvantage, after all, and after much deliberation, she handed over her own pouch.

Qi Xia took all the pouches and sat down to fiddle with something. Before long, he tossed aside an empty pouch, stood up, and told the three of them, "We earned five people's worth this time, ninety-five 'Dao' in total. That doesn't divide evenly among four people, so we'll have to add the one we had left at the start. That makes ninety-six, twenty-four each."

He held out three pouches. "I've packed yours for you. Count them in front of me. I won't acknowledge any claims afterward."

Tiantian hurriedly took her pouch and opened it to count. There were indeed twenty-four "Dao," not a single one missing.

Lin Qin and Qiao Jiajin simply hung their pouches back at their waists.

"Aren't you going to count them?" Qi Xia asked. "I'm a con man, you know."

"It's fine." Lin Qin shook her head. "If I find any missing later, I'll just steal them from you."

"Exactly. Cut that out." Qiao Jiajin waved a hand as well. "Where to next?"

Qi Xia looked at the bear's arm in Qiao Jiajin's arms, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's get something to eat..."

Their thinking was simple. If they could cook the bear's arm, they could swallow it no matter how it tasted, as long as it filled their stomachs.

But finding the essentials for cooking in this dilapidated city was extremely difficult.

Clean water, a stove, a pot, a lighter-they had none of them.

They wandered through the city's abandoned buildings for over an hour without finding anything.

When they reached an abandoned restaurant, Qiao Jiajin finally lost patience.

"This isn't getting us anywhere." He dropped the bear's arm on the ground and flexed his aching wrists. "We're lugging dozens of pounds of meat around. Even if we don't starve to death, we'll die of exhaustion."

"Thanks for carrying it." Lin Qin smiled at Qiao Jiajin. "Want me to take it for a while?"

"No need for that."

"This place looks promising." Tiantian surveyed the restaurant and found that it hadn't suffered much damage.

Sure enough, after a little searching, they found an aluminum pot beneath a table.

The pot looked fairly clean, though it was slightly misshapen.

"There's firewood everywhere." Qi Xia looked at the broken furniture on the floor. "All we're missing is water and fire."

"I'll check the kitchen." Tiantian headed straight toward the restaurant's kitchen. "There might be water in there."

Qi Xia gave a slight nod and began searching the room for other useful things. A few seconds later, he reconsidered and said to Qiao Jiajin, "Qiao Jiajin, go with Tiantian. Watch out for the 'natives.'"

"Good point." Qiao Jiajin nodded and headed toward the kitchen, but before he had taken three steps, he heard Tiantian speaking in the distance.

"Huh? What are you doing here?"

"Oh! You're here too!"

The person talking to Tiantian was a woman.

Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin immediately ran toward the kitchen. When they opened the door, they found the slightly chubby young woman standing inside.

She reached out and affectionately linked arms with Tiantian, then said to everyone, "What are you all doing here? What a coincidence!"

Qi Xia regarded her coldly, looking displeased.

"Are you following us?"

"Huh?" The young woman looked incredulous. "How could I be?! I got here first."

Qiao Jiajin couldn't make sense of the situation either. Why would this young woman deliberately wait here for them?

"Are you looking for something?" she asked.

"Yes, we're looking for water and fire," Tiantian replied.

"Water and fire?" The young woman smiled again. "That's perfect. There's both here."

Under Qi Xia's wary gaze, the woman led Tiantian to a cupboard. She stood on tiptoe and opened its doors, revealing several plastic containers filled with clean water.

Then she pulled a lighter from her pocket. "Look."

Qi Xia felt that all of this was far too coincidental, as if someone had arranged it.

Tiantian happily accepted the lighter the woman offered her and asked, "Are you really going to lend this to us?"

"Please, don't be so formal." The woman smiled innocently. "We survivors should be helping one another."

Tiantian immediately warmed to her and thanked her repeatedly.

"What do you want?" Qi Xia asked from the side.

The slightly chubby young woman turned toward him in confusion. "What do I want? I don't want anything. I'm just helping you out."

"That had better be true." Qi Xia stopped paying attention to her and turned away to gather things they could use as firewood.

"That guy is strange." The girl blinked her large eyes. "Why is he so wary of me?"

"That's just how he is. You'll get used to it," Tiantian said with a smile. "What's your name?"

"Just call me Xiaoxiao."

Lin Qin studied Xiaoxiao from the side, feeling that something was off.

The young woman was slightly chubby, with broad shoulders and an extremely baggy T-shirt, yet her cheeks were thin, out of proportion with her figure.

"Xiaoxiao, stay and have something to eat with us," Tiantian said. "The four of us can't finish that bear's arm."

"Okay." Xiaoxiao nodded happily.

Seeing that the young woman named Xiaoxiao was deliberately hiding something, Qi Xia stopped pressing her. He only hoped she wouldn't try to play tricks in front of an expert and attempt to deceive him.

Qiao Jiajin found a few bricks and built a makeshift stove, then tossed some scrap wood inside and lit it.

With Xiaoxiao's help, Tiantian scrubbed the pot clean and brought a pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, Qi Xia prepared the bear's arm.

He often cooked at home, but he had never cooked a bear's arm before, so for now, he could only treat it like a chicken.

After briefly scalding it with hot water, he plucked out the fur, stripped off the skin, and rinsed away the blood with clean water. He insisted that Xiaoxiao not touch the ingredients, and no one objected.

Qiao Jiajin brought a rusty cleaver out of the kitchen, gave it a quick sharpening, and chopped the prepared bear's arm in two, dropping both pieces straight into the pot.

This was the best cooking method they could manage.

Meat soup.

As the water in the pot slowly came to a bubbling boil, they sat around it, silently watching without saying a word.

Before long, Lin Qin asked, "Will bear meat taste good?"

"It will," Qiao Jiajin said, nodding immediately. "Haven't you ever eaten bear paw?"

"You have?" Tiantian turned to ask him.

"I was lucky enough to try it once," Qiao Jiajin said. "I'll never forget that taste. If I ever get out of here, I'm definitely going to have it again."

Tiantian shook her head helplessly. "You really are an outlaw."

"An outlaw?" Qiao Jiajin laughed. "Tiantian, are you being silly? It's not like I'm going to kill a bear myself. I can just eat it at a restaurant."

"Eating bear paw is illegal," Tiantian added. "So what if it tastes good? Do you want to go to jail for it?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Qiao Jiajin gave Tiantian a slightly disdainful look. "Since when was eating bear paw illegal?"

Tiantian frowned. Sometimes she felt she and Qiao Jiajin got along very well, but at other times, they seemed to be on completely different wavelengths.

"You really should spend more time online." Tiantian sighed. "Stop flaunting your ignorance like it's perfectly natural."

"'Online'?" Qiao Jiajin scratched his head. "You mean... that 'Internet' thing that caught on a few years back?"