Chapter 16: The Appearance of Strange Corpses

“Don’t worry, Father will definitely be safe, and there will surely come a day when our family will be reunited,” Xiao Ling’er softly comforted Xiao Yuhao as she looked at him.

“Mm!” Xiao Yuhao looked into her eyes, nodded firmly, and then buried his head into his meal.

“Eat up!” Xiao Ling’er picked up a chopstick full of cabbage and placed it into Xiao Yuhao’s bowl.

“Thank you, Big Sis!” Xiao Yuhao’s voice was a little choked with emotion.

Xiao Ling’er pretended not to notice and gave another helping of cabbage to Mu Xiya, who was happily eating, unaffected.

Does she still remember her husband, Xiao Changhe? A complicated sorrow suddenly welled up in Xiao Ling’er’s heart.

After the meal, the mother and children once again smeared mud on their faces. This was something they had to do every morning after breakfast, to avoid standing out as different.

Once everything was ready, the three of them set off on their journey for the day.

Today, they were taking the main road—or rather, Xiao Ling’er had decided that from now on, they would always take the main road.

From what happened yesterday, it was clear: no road was truly safe.

Hiding was not a long-term solution. Taking the mountain paths was not only exhausting but also time-consuming.

Since that was the case, they might as well take the main road. At least it was kinder to their feet.

For the next five days, the trio continued their journey. Luckily, they encountered no trouble along the way.

No—actually, what was strange was that they didn’t see a single refugee on the road in those five days.

This made Xiao Ling’er feel uneasy. Something is definitely wrong. There’s no way the refugee road would be completely empty.

“Big Sis?” Xiao Yuhao had also sensed that something was off and called to her nervously.

“Lingling, Lingling.” Mu Xiya tugged on the hem of her clothes, also sensing the tension.

“Don’t be scared, I’m here.” Xiao Ling’er comforted them out loud while staying alert and scanning their surroundings.

Aside from the eerily unsettling silence, there was nothing unusual.

The trio walked for another half day. Not long after passing a fork in the road, a stench of rot so foul it seemed to pierce the sky assaulted their senses.

The smell nearly made them vomit on the spot. Xiao Ling’er quickly spent 3 Wealth Points in the system store to exchange for three masks. Only after putting them on did they feel somewhat better.

They slowed down and cautiously continued forward for a while until they finally found the source of the smell.

Several rotting corpses, already infested with maggots, were lying by the roadside. Even with masks on, the foul stench coming off the bodies was unbearable.

“Big Sis, let me grab you and Mom and run past this place!” Xiao Yuhao wanted to get them away from this horrific scene as quickly as possible.

“No. These bodies must be burned.”

Xiao Ling’er realized that if they left the corpses there, it could lead to terrifying consequences.

Rotting bodies release bacteria and viruses, and these microbes could spread through the air and trigger a deadly epidemic.

That thought horrified Xiao Ling’er. She quickly opened the system store and looked at her measly 5 Wealth Points with a sinking heart.

In the end, she gritted her teeth and, keeping only 4 sweet potatoes, exchanged all the remaining vegetables at half price.

42 potatoes exchanged for 21 Wealth Points

36 tomatoes exchanged for 18 Wealth Points

28 cabbages exchanged for 14 Wealth Points

12 sweet potatoes exchanged for 6 Wealth Points

In total, she got 59 Wealth Points. Adding her previous 5, Xiao Ling’er now had 64 Wealth Points.

She opened the system store and browsed the “Life” category, finally exchanging:

 barrel of diesel for 35 Wealth Points

1 lighter for 1 Wealth Point

1 pair of heat-resistant gloves for 5 Wealth Points

1 large bottle of disinfectant for 12 Wealth Points

In just a short while, 53 Wealth Points were spent, leaving Xiao Ling’er with only 11.

But she had no time to feel heartache over it. After everything was ready, she turned to Xiao Yuhao and instructed, “Haohao, take Mother back to the fork in the road.”

Although Xiao Yuhao didn’t know what his sister planned to do, he obeyed without hesitation. Holding Mu Xiya’s hand, he rushed several hundred meters back to the intersection.

Xiao Ling’er didn’t waste any time either. She quickly doused the corpses in diesel and lit them on fire.

As she continued forward, she found more corpses lying by the roadside every few meters. She kept pouring fuel and burning them one by one.

Along a stretch of 500 meters, she burned a total of 38 corpses. Xiao Ling’er noticed that almost all of them were elderly.

“Haohao, Mom, let’s go!” After confirming there were no bodies left behind, Xiao Ling’er called out loudly to them.

The three of them regrouped and didn’t slow down again. Xiao Yuhao grabbed Xiao Ling’er and Mu Xiya and sprinted for another thousand meters before stopping.

Xiao Ling’er then pulled out the disinfectant and sprayed Xiao Yuhao and Mu Xiya from head to toe, as if trying to kill every germ on them.

Then she did the same to herself, washing her hands at least ten times until they turned pale before she stopped.

After this intense cleanup, the trio resumed their journey. About an hour later, they finally saw some living people ahead on the road.

“Wait, don’t go forward just yet.” Xiao Ling’er stopped in her tracks and held Xiao Yuhao and Mu Xiya back, her eyes full of caution as she looked ahead.

A carriage was parked in the middle of the road. On the side, there was a table with a large wooden barrel and a stack of bowls and chopsticks.

Behind the table stood three burly men and an older woman, all watching the road intently in both directions.

Xiao Ling’er didn’t miss it—when she and her family appeared in their line of sight, their faces lit up with visible delight.

“Oh my, little miss! Quickly, bring your children over. You’re in luck! Master Huang is celebrating his sixtieth birthday and is generously giving out porridge for three days!”

“Every refugee passing through here in these three days gets a bowl of white porridge.”

The old woman noticed that Xiao Ling’er’s group had stopped and anxiously waved toward Mu Xiya, her voice full of temptation.

Of course, that temptation worked only on other refugees, not on Xiao Ling’er and her family.

Xiao Ling’er sneered inwardly. What a crude trick. Even a child in the modern world wouldn’t fall for this.

But here, judging by the corpses strewn along the road earlier, few could resist the lure of a hot bowl of porridge.

So what was their real goal, using this setup just to lure refugees?

To be precise, what did they want to gain from these refugees?

It couldn’t be robbery—people with spare food wouldn’t care about one bowl of porridge.

Those who would fall for this trap were precisely the kind of refugees who had no food left and were starving.

Just like Xiao Ling’er and her family at this very moment—with only a small bundle, they looked clearly like they had no supplies.

Xiao Ling’er hadn’t forgotten the look in those people’s eyes when they first appeared—a greedy flash of joy.

That meant these people saw something on them that they wanted.

But what?

Their waist tokens or silver notes?

Impossible!

This wasn’t a trap set specifically for Xiao Ling’er’s family, but one aimed at every refugee who passed through.