Chapter 5

Song Xiaozhu turned to leave, only for Shang Bao to reach out and grab her. "Girl, Master Bai's getting old. He can't support you much longer. Why don't you come with me? I guarantee you... hey..."

Song Xiaozhu had been on guard. She nimbly dodged him and ran out of the recycling station without looking back, quickly turning into an alley and disappearing.

Shang Bao visibly froze for a moment, then scoffed. "Slippery little thing."

As he spoke, an itch stirred in his heart, and the corners of his mouth slowly curved upward. "Really slippery."

Shang Bao hadn't caught Song Xiaozhu's arm just now, but he had tugged at her clothes. Beneath her dust-covered neck, a hint of pale skin had shown through. It really was pale. Washed clean, it would be like the legendary milk tofu.

Thinking of Bai Jing, Shang Bao felt another surge of irritation. "Damn old man. Hogging the latrine without taking a shit."

Song Xiaozhu had spent all day toiling on the garbage mountain and was already exhausted. After running all that way, her heart pounded so hard she could barely catch her breath.

The red exclamation mark hovered silently in the upper right corner. Song Xiaozhu couldn't help wondering whether this "intruder" was Shang Bao.

Probably not...

Shang Bao was deeply wary of Bai Jing. As long as she stayed put in the shack, he wouldn't dare force his way in.

Song Xiaozhu steadied her breathing and slipped quietly into the shack.

To a modern person from the twenty-first century, the conditions in Bai Jing's shack were appalling.

The walls were pieced together from rusty sheet metal and wooden planks, with old strips of cloth stuffed into the gaps. Overhead was a single black tarpaulin, as worn as could be. A few bouts of acid rain had already eaten holes all over it.

The shack was tiny, no more than six or seven square meters, about half the size of an ordinary bedroom. Yet it served as a bedroom, dining room, kitchen, and even a bathroom.

Bai Jing had given Song Xiaozhu two wooden planks and told her to make her own bed. Song Xiaozhu had no idea how, so she had simply laid the larger one on the ground and stood the other between herself and Bai Jing's bed.

At the time, Bai Jing had sneered without saying anything.

Song Xiaozhu took in the entire shack at a glance and, unexpectedly, saw no sign of that hunched figure.

"Grandpa?"

She called out tentatively.

No one answered.

Bai Jing wasn't in the shack!

This was the first time Song Xiaozhu had encountered this situation.

She had been here for a week, and Bai Jing seemed never to have left the shack. Apart from eating, all he did each day was lounge outside in the sun.

In his words, he was an old bag of bones who ate little and used little, so he wasn't about to wear himself out on the garbage mountain. Then he had tossed Song Xiaozhu a large sack and told her to scavenge for money and support herself.

Back then, Song Xiaozhu's thinking had still been rooted in the peace and prosperity of the twenty-first century. She hadn't thought there was anything wrong with Bai Jing being an idle old man. Now that she thought about it, there was something very wrong.

The refugees on the garbage mountain weren't the sort to respect the elderly and care for the young. Bai Jing looked like he already had one foot in the grave, yet he occupied a shack. Why hadn't anyone come to take it from him?

Come to think of it, antibiotics weren't cheap.

Yet Bai Jing had handed over three bottles in one go.

An elderly man with some savings, living safely on his own in a shack near the garbage mountain...

There was more to him than met the eye.

But where had Bai Jing gone now?

As she watched the sky darken, Song Xiaozhu's heart grew heavy.

Chapter 5

"Grrr..."

Song Xiaozhu's stomach dragged her out of her thoughts.

Hungry...

So hungry...

She had expended an enormous amount of energy that day and had been on edge because of that "Growth Quest." After sprinting all the way back to the shack, she felt even more ravenous.

Having cooked wild vegetable gruel for so many days, Song Xiaozhu naturally knew where the ingredients were kept.

She had completed the task Bai Jing had assigned her, exchanging plastic bottles for half a yuan. She could have dinner now.

Song Xiaozhu didn't dare keep peering outside the shack. Afraid someone would discover Bai Jing wasn't home, she could only suppress her unease, light a wood fire, and scoop out a large spoonful of wild vegetable powder.

It was enough for two. Song Xiaozhu had deliberately scooped out that much.

If Bai Jing came back, she could serve him a bowl, and nothing would be held up.

If Bai Jing didn't come back, she would eat it all herself in one go and have more strength to face this "crisis state."

As Song Xiaozhu stirred with the spatula, she strained her ears for any sounds outside.

In this past week, she had never missed that hunched, sharp-tongued old man Bai as much as she did today. She hadn't thought much of his presence when he was around. Only now that he was gone did she realize this hard life could get even harder.

Where on earth had Bai Jing gone?

Nothing had happened to him, had it?

If he never came back...

Never mind holding on to this shack-Song Xiaozhu feared she might not even be able to preserve Li Siyuan's body.

The wild vegetable gruel was soon ready. Song Xiaozhu cradled the bowl and drank carefully. A raw, bitter taste filled her mouth, along with hard grains that felt as solid as pebbles when she swallowed, scraping painfully against her throat.

Worse still, the moment that mouthful reached her stomach, her gut, which had gone hungry all day, immediately twisted into knots. The pain brought Song Xiaozhu out in a cold sweat.

Li Siyuan's body was frail. Song Xiaozhu had barely survived the high fever, and it had left lingering illness behind. In this scavenger community in particular, both the air and water were heavily polluted, while the wild vegetable gruel she ate provided no nutrition and hurt her stomach.

Not yet recovered from a serious illness, malnourished, and still having to perform strenuous physical labor...

Song Xiaozhu was already lucky that abdominal pain was all she suffered.

Song Xiaozhu endured the worst wave of pain. After catching her breath a little, she continued drinking the wild vegetable gruel. This time, she drank even more slowly and carefully, trying to replenish her strength without placing any further burden on her stomach.

At last, she finished the wild vegetable gruel. Song Xiaozhu let out a soft breath and began arranging the shack.

There were two places Bai Jing liked to stay most.

When it was light and sunny, he stayed outside. At night, he sat by the window. There was little light in the shack, and the moonlight by the window was the brightest.

Song Xiaozhu moved Bai Jing's rattan chair to the window, then brought over the wooden plank that separated her from Bai Jing's bed. After carefully adjusting its angle, she draped one of Bai Jing's only two coats over it...

In the faint light of the setting sun, it looked quite convincing, as long as no one came close.