“Are we heading back to test the mulberries?” Yan Ming asked his older brother, but his gaze kept flicking toward Huo Xiao.

Clearly, he figured his brother would end up asking Brother Huo anyway.

And sure enough—

As soon as Yan Ming finished speaking, Yan Hu turned to Huo Xiao and said, “Why don’t we look around nearby? We’ve still got the whole afternoon.”

Huo Xiao had originally planned to stay in the mulberry forest with Zhuang Xiao for the rest of the afternoon.

After all, a mutated collared dove had appeared in the forest today—who knew if there were other mutated creatures eyeing the area as well?

But seeing the hopeful expressions on the Yan brothers’ faces, it was hard to say no.

Besides, he’d left the house armed this morning. Just circling the mulberry forest shouldn’t pose too much of a problem. He nodded and said, “Let’s stay near the mulberry woods. There are patrol squads around—safer that way.”

Honestly, the forest itself was too crowded.

Everyone kept flocking to the center of the woods, thinking the fruits would be more abundant there and the chances of finding edible mulberries would be higher.

In truth, it was just a psychological effect.

“Let’s check over there,” Yan Ming said, raising a hand to point in a direction.

Zhuang Xiao followed the direction of his finger. It was a dense patch of shrubs, with a few mulberry trees scattered in between—though they looked rather malnourished.

Every now and then, a member of the patrol squad could be seen walking along the shrubs.

Everyone agreed with Yan Ming’s suggestion.

Once they reached the spot, the four of them immediately tested the two nearby mulberry trees.

Zhuang Xiao managed to collect two moderately irradiated mutated mulberries. Yan Ming found one as well. Huo Xiao and Yan Hu came up empty-handed.

It seemed this patch of forest was another treasure trove for her.

To Zhuang Xiao, anywhere she could find food was a treasure trove.

Afterward, they stopped limiting themselves to just mulberry trees and split up to find other targets to test. Huo Xiao, however, never let Zhuang Xiao out of a three-meter radius.

Just in case he lost sight of her.

Zhuang Xiao was currently focused on a flowering plant beneath the shrubs: pale purple blooms swaying in the breeze, with white little spines running along the edges of the leaves.

It looked a lot like a thistle.

Also known as Ci’er Cai (Spiny Vegetable), it’s often used as pig fodder, but it’s also a Chinese medicinal herb with properties to stop bleeding and reduce swelling.

She counted the leaves from top to bottom—twenty or thirty in total.

Looking at the fine silver hairs along the stem, Zhuang Xiao had no idea where to start.

Even small thistles could be pretty prickly—let alone one of this size.

She glanced around. There was only this one plant in sight. The harsh conditions of the wasteland must’ve severely lowered its survival rate.

Despite the risk of getting pricked, she decided to go for it. If even one leaf turned out edible, she’d dig the whole thing up and bring it home.

And her efforts paid off. After being pricked more than ten times, she finally collected one low-radiation mutated leaf and one moderately irradiated leaf.

Aside from the small cuts she made with her dagger, the leaves remained intact on the plant.

Zhuang Xiao let out a heavy breath and crouched down to start digging a hole. Digging was such a physically demanding task. She wasn’t sure if they had tools like hoes at home, but next time, she’d bring one if they did.

Using a dagger to dig was exhausting…

Her body wasn’t strong to begin with. Since coming to the wasteland, she was either working or starving. She could barely hold up.

Maybe she could get a day off tomorrow. She felt like she’d earned it today—surely that justified a short break.

The “three days of work, two days of rest” schedule seemed perfect for her.

Just as she was immersed in her digging, she wiped the sweat from her brow—and her eyes met a pair of large, rolling eyes peeking out from the shrubs.

Holy crap…

There was a mutated beast here…

Everything happened too fast. Zhuang Xiao couldn’t even stop herself—she let out a scream that pierced the sky.

The mutated collared dove, nesting in the shrubs to hatch its young, was startled by the sudden noise.

Who the hell was disturbing her baby time?!

After a brief shock, the bird flapped its huge wings and launched itself straight at Zhuang Xiao.

Maybe it was too close, or maybe Zhuang Xiao ducked too fast into the hole she was digging—in any case, the dove soared right over her back.

Huo Xiao, who had been keeping an eye on her the entire time, rushed over the moment he heard the scream.

And ran straight into the charging dove.

With lightning reflexes, he raised his hand and fired a hidden sleeve arrow directly at the dove’s eye.

The sudden stab of pain drove the already-agitated bird into a frenzy.

Despite the pain, it lifted off from the ground and lunged at Huo Xiao.

They were too close.

Huo Xiao rolled to the ground, blindly firing another arrow from his wrist.

The dove let out a screeching wail.

Bullseye.

By now, Zhuang Xiao had turned around in her dirt pit, just in time to see the arrow hit the bird in the belly. “Whoa—this guy actually has hidden weapons?”

Not far away, Yan Hu and Yan Ming had arrived. Both raised their crossbows and fired.

The injured dove, which had been wobbling to its feet, let out a few garbled “coo-coo-coos,” then collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Battle over.

“Big sis, are you okay?” Yan Ming quickly put away his crossbow and ran toward Zhuang Xiao.

Zhuang Xiao tried to stand and say she was fine—

Only to realize her legs were numb.

Was that considered “fine” or “not fine”?

Huo Xiao stood up, brushed off the grass on his clothes, and walked toward her.

Yan Hu, crossbow in one hand, picked up the dying dove with the other and came over as well.

Zhuang Xiao’s eyes were no longer on her thistle. Her gaze—and heart—were now fully focused on the massive mutated dove in Yan Hu’s hands.

Huo Xiao and Yan Ming both reached out to steady her when they saw her stumble trying to stand—but she coldly rejected their help.

She’d thought she and the mutated dove were destined for a near miss. Who would’ve thought fate brought them together right here?

When Yan Hu got close, he threw the dove unceremoniously to the ground. “Wanna test it?”

He was talking to Zhuang Xiao—he still remembered her string of lucky finds that morning with the mulberries.

Sure, let’s test it.

Please, let this meat be edible, Zhuang Xiao prayed silently, gripping her dagger with excitement. She crouched down, dabbed some of the dove’s blood onto her wristwatch.

Beep beep… High radiation mutation. Inedible.

Oh, come on!

There went her mental compensation for trauma.

Suddenly, a flash of white light passed before her eyes.

Zhuang Xiao reached out and plucked a feather from the spot where the white light had appeared. She turned it over in her hand. Hmm… nothing seemed special about it.

“What a shame. The meat’s not edible,” Yan Ming sighed. Then, as if remembering something, he added, “Let me extract the energy stone!”

This kind of bloody, gross task—how could he let his big sis handle it?

Yan Ming raised the knife and, with a few quick slices, opened up the mutated dove’s belly and reached inside.

Suddenly, a look of joy lit up his face.