Zhuang Xiao had probably stirred up a crab nest, because from beneath a rock beside her foot, crabs began to emerge in a steady stream.

Seeing her miserable expression, Huo Xiao didn’t hesitate for a second. Ignoring the risk of getting pinched himself, he crouched down and, with a swift motion, chopped off the giant claw clamped onto Zhuang Xiao’s foot.

Freed from the crab’s grip, Zhuang Xiao quickly took off her shoe to check her aching foot.

Luckily—just a deep, bluish-purple bruise.
If that one-legged crab had been any stronger, her instep might’ve been torn open and bleeding.

Seeing that she was alright, Huo Xiao swiftly tied up the crab, which was already trying to escape. Then he smeared some liquid from his blade onto his wristwatch.

“Beep beep. Moderate radiation mutation. Edible.”

Zhuang Xiao: ……

Alright then. That pain wasn’t in vain.

She casually picked up the two severed crab claws from the ground and weighed them in her hand.

These claws were massive—there had to be a good amount of meat inside. No way she was letting them go to waste.

In the time the two of them spent dealing with this one crab, the whole crab-catching frenzy had expanded.

No one had proper tools, and bare hands were too risky, so… people resorted to using their feet.

The younger Yan Ming was especially relentless, operating on a “rather crush it than miss it” policy. He stomped down on them one after another with sharp eyes and quick reflexes.

Even with the group working together to corner and catch them, most of the crabs still managed to escape.

Zhuang Xiao, because of her injured foot, didn’t catch a single one.

Huo Xiao did manage to catch one—but unfortunately, it had a high radiation mutation and was inedible.

Yan Ming crushed five, and one of them was edible. His brother, Yan Hu, caught three—but none were safe to eat.

As for the two younger kids, they lucked out: they each caught only one crab, but it turned out to be a moderately mutated, edible one.

After all that chaos, it was already time to head back.

Everyone went to pack up their tools and picked more houttuynia to help cover the scent.

When they returned to the main road, Zhuang Xiao could smell it—everyone coming out of the creek area reeked of fish and shrimp.

Once they got home, the first thing Zhuang Xiao did was take inventory of their spoils.

—Four moderately mutated water celery leaves
—One low-radiation river mussel
—One unpolluted, two low-radiation, and four moderately mutated river shrimp
—One low-radiation and two moderately mutated crabs

Today’s haul was really something to celebrate.

They kept the river mussel, shrimp, and crabs in separate buckets to prevent the shrimp from becoming crab food.

Meanwhile, Huo Xiao was in the courtyard testing every single leaf of the collected houttuynia. You never knew—some might be edible.

Zhuang Xiao had originally planned to bathe as soon as they got back. But upon seeing the mountain of fishy-smelling houttuynia, she decided to help Huo Xiao sort through them first. Otherwise, it would feel like washing up was pointless.

In the end, thanks to their joint efforts, they found more than ten edible leaves among the pile.

Huo Xiao selected two plants with relatively intact root systems and planted them in the courtyard to help repel mosquitoes during summer.

Thinking about bathing again made Zhuang Xiao frown.

First of all, they were short on water. On the Wasteland, usable water was incredibly precious. Natural water sources were full of microbes and bacteria and couldn’t be drunk as-is. All the water they used had been purified with special treatment agents—and those cost points to buy.

There were designated drinking water stations in the shantytown, but you had to fetch it yourself. That made bathing an extravagant luxury in the Wasteland.

Second, they had no designated bathing area. With her suddenly joining the household, the lack of privacy became even more noticeable.

Sigh… I’m really messing up Huo Xiao’s peaceful single life, she thought.

Realizing this, Zhuang Xiao knew that food and shelter weren’t the only things she needed to solve. There were many more challenges ahead.

Bathing was clearly off the table for now. And maybe because she’d been around the houttuynia for so long, she could no longer smell the stench anymore.

Maybe she’d been assimilated—everyone smelled like fishy houttuynia now.

No one could complain about anyone else.

Enough thinking about it, she told herself. Might as well focus on something productive—like dinner.

While Zhuang Xiao was busy overthinking, Huo Xiao was already outside starting a fire for dinner.

She had originally wanted to eat a shrimp, but in the end, she just picked up the severed crab claw and asked Huo Xiao to throw it in with his meal.

Can’t bathe? Fine, then let me treat myself to two crab claws instead.

They would definitely sell the rest of the river seafood. She barely had any points left. Last time she browsed Old Yu’s shop, this “former rich girl” had already gone bankrupt.

Shopping burns through points fast.

Points meant power.

Today’s bath fiasco had only strengthened her resolve to save up more points.

Watching her carefully pick out only two crab claws from the buckets, Huo Xiao felt deeply relieved.

He had been worried she was going to prepare an entire seafood feast.

Dinner that night was simple: they added some crab meat into their nutrient soup—no green leaves this time. Zhuang Xiao was very satisfied with the seafood porridge.

After the meal, Zhuang Xiao went to check on her big river mussel. She wondered—could there be pearls inside?

If there were, she wasn’t sure if pearls were valuable around here…

If pearls were worth a lot, then selling the mussel just for its meat would have been a terrible waste!

Maybe… I should open it and take a look!

Even if there weren’t any pearls, they could still keep the meat and make more river seafood porridge!

Zhuang Xiao’s mental calculations crackled away like an abacus, and she chuckled to herself a bit mischievously.

While Huo Xiao was fiddling with his busted electric fan inside the house, Zhuang Xiao decided to give it a shot and see if a miracle awaited her.

The river mussel shell was slippery and hard to grip. Nearby, there were some dry leaves—she grabbed a large one to wrap around the shell for a better grip.

Then, she slid her dagger into the gap between the two shells and pressed down hard.

The shell popped open.

A flash of white light—

Zhuang Xiao’s heart skipped a beat. Was it another energy stone?

Last time, when the mutated turtledove gave off a white glow, they’d found two energy stones inside it.

The soft, tender mussel meat revealed itself, but it wasn’t what drew her attention the most.

Inside the mussel shell, along both inner walls, were rows of pearls—some pink, some white—and the closer to the center, the larger the pearls became.

At the very center, one pink pearl the size of a glass marble gleamed with dazzling brilliance.

Zhuang Xiao, holding both halves of the mussel shell, ran excitedly into the house.
“Huo Xiao, look—!”

When the pearl-laden shells appeared between Huo Xiao and the fan, even his usually impassive expression flickered with delight.

So there were pearl mussels in this little creek after all?

And judging from the size of those pearls, this mussel had to be at least five years old—any younger and it wouldn’t have produced pearls this big.

“How is it? Do you think these pearls could sell for a good price?”

She pointed at the biggest one.
“And this one—I bet it’s an energy stone!”