Lady Luck had smiled on her once again.

Thinking of Huo Xiao, thank goodness he hadn’t come along—otherwise, one of them would be on the truck while the other was stuck underneath it… Haha.

Zhuang Xiao, crammed in the corner of the truck, had that same older aunt and uncle on either side of her.

Separated by her, the two of them kept chatting across her.

“Um… Auntie, maybe you and I could switch seats?” Zhuang Xiao weakly raised her hand and voiced her suggestion.

The aunt waved it off. “No need, no need, this is just fine.”

It’s my fault! Zhuang Xiao screamed internally.

You two keep talking and your spit is flying all over my face!

She felt like the third wheel—wedged right between the two of them. Ugh.

She glanced around at the others in the truck. Everyone sat quietly, swaying with the movement of the vehicle. But their ears were all perked up—it was clear they were eavesdropping on the aunt and uncle’s ongoing conversation.

With so many people in the truck, the air was stuffy.

As the truck rocked back and forth, Zhuang Xiao felt herself getting sleepy.

The chatter in her ears became a lullaby.

Just as she was about to drift off to dreamland, the truck braked sharply, and everyone fell in the same direction. Wedged in the corner, Zhuang Xiao almost met an untimely end.

The vehicle stopped completely, and a loudspeaker outside barked for everyone to get off.

Zhuang Xiao wiped the nonexistent drool from her mouth, hugged her small bag tightly, and followed the aunt down from the truck.

The morning sun was rising, and under the rosy glow of dawn, the wheat fields looked like a boundless golden sea.

Wow—the wheat stalks were almost as tall as corn, their heavy heads bowing the stalks low. The kernels looked plump, nearly the size of jujubes.

The wheat collection area was divided by letters, and their group was assigned to Zone F—right next to the blind zone, which was part of the wasteland that hadn’t been artificially developed.

At the edge of the field, a row of temporary sheds had been set up for midday rest. After everyone got off the trucks, the guards kept order. Zhuang Xiao also noticed many heavily armed individuals—clearly from the mercenary corps.

Soon, Zhuang Xiao drew her assigned rows for collection: Row 126 in Zone F. Everyone got two rows, meaning one down and one back.

Each row of wheat had a sign at the start, clearly marking the zone and row number.

You couldn’t just pick wheat from anywhere you liked—this area was managed by the Safety Zone and rules had to be followed.

Zhuang Xiao looked at her number tag and then checked the nearby sign: Zone F, Row 13. Looking at the other signs on both sides, her target was still quite a distance away.

She had to walk from Row 13 to Row 126—a difference of nearly 300 rows.

With over a meter between each row, she’d have to walk at least another 200 meters.

People with closer numbers were already starting to inspect their wheat.

When she finally reached her assigned row, Zhuang Xiao took a deep breath and gave herself a silent pep talk.

Time to get started!

Every wheat kernel had to be tested for edibility—this was like picking seeds out of a dragon fruit.

The weight of the wheat heads had bent the stalks downward, which made it easier for Zhuang Xiao to cut them. Otherwise, with her height, she wouldn’t even be able to reach them!

Each head of wheat held about 30 to 50 grains.

Zhuang Xiao tested three in a row—more than a hundred seeds—and didn’t find a single one that was edible.

What grossed her out even more were the dense clusters of mutated aphids on some of the wheat heads. They couldn’t even be shaken off.

With their crispy-looking shells, they felt like black tapioca pearls from bubble tea. And if you pressed a little too hard—they popped.

Sticky, gooey bug juice all over her hands—utterly disgusting.

Beep beep. Moderate radiation mutation. Edible.

She found the first edible kernel—on a wheat head covered in mutated aphids. After testing the rest of the kernels on that same head, she actually found two more edible ones.

Suddenly, the aphids didn’t seem so terrifying.

Thinking back on the wheat she tested earlier—the ones without aphids—none had edible kernels. Could it be that wheat with aphids had a higher chance of being edible?

After all, animals tend to have better instincts about food than humans.

But this was just her theory. She still had to test each stalk one by one.

Zhuang Xiao looked to both sides—wait, weren’t those faces familiar?

Sure enough, the aunt and uncle were again on either side of her. The same two who’d been talking on the truck.

But now both were silent, completely focused on harvesting. She noticed the aunt cut off a wheat head, smeared its juice on her wrist device to test it, then dumped the whole thing into her sack.

What kind of technique was that?

She glanced at the uncle—he was doing the same thing.

Some people, though, were still testing each kernel one by one.

Zhuang Xiao didn’t fully understand their method, but that didn’t stop her from learning.

So for the next batch of wheat, she tested the stem first, then each grain.

After a dozen rounds, she finally got it.

If the stalk tested for low or moderate radiation, then the wheat grains inside were likely also low or moderate—and thus edible. If it tested high radiation, there was almost no chance of edible grain.

That meant she could collect the low/moderate-radiation wheat now, and test the seeds one by one later at home—saving time.

However, this approach required serious stamina. Since only 10% of wheat grains were edible, she’d be carrying around 90% useless weight.

Not exactly ideal for someone like her—a total weakling.

Still, it was worth collecting a bit. She could test them during the lunch break or bring the leftovers back home.

So—other people’s tips don’t always apply to your own situation.

Before long, the aunt and uncle left her in the dust, disappearing into the golden field.

She didn’t know why, but this row of wheat was crawling with mutated aphids. About one in every ten stalks was completely covered in them. Some of the husks were even empty—obviously eaten by someone.

Yet, so far, every stalk with aphids had at least one edible grain.

So now Zhuang Xiao had a love-hate relationship with the bugs.

After finishing her row, she emerged at the field’s edge and found more sheds there. Lots of people were squatting under them, testing the wheat grains in their sacks.

Suddenly, a figure popped out from two rows over. Their head was tightly wrapped up, with only a pair of big eyes showing.

Wait, you could do that?

Why didn’t she think of that?

She touched her face—it was burning, and itched like crazy.

The person took off the head wrap and walked over to a guard.

She overheard their conversation:

“How’s it going? Everything quiet on your end?”

“Yeah, yeah, no trouble at all.”

“You’re lucky. I ran into two people earlier trying to steal wheat from other plots… Can you believe it? They couldn’t even finish their own rows in a day, but still went to yank wheat from someone else’s…”

Zhuang Xiao sipped her water, ears perked up, eavesdropping on the two young men chatting.