Chapter 2 Daily Settlent 4
The spear made from a clothes-drying rod in Qin Ziwen’s hand swept through the grass a few tis; the insects’ chirping stopped abruptly.
They stepped out the gate, and Qin Ziwu followed behind. “Bro, which way should we go?”
Qin Ziwen scanned the surroundings first. Although the riverside might have richer resources, to be cautious, he said, “Let’s look around nearby first. Don’t wander too far from the complex.”
Following behind, Qin Ziwu spotted sothing curious and pointed at a large bluish grasshopper crawling on a broad leaf not far off. “Is that a locust? It’s almost the size of my palm.”
Qin Ziwen looked in that direction. “That thing would probably be tasty roasted. Its protein is supposed to be sixteen tis that of beef.”
“Then I’ll catch one and try it.” Qin Ziwu tiptoed closer. He hadn’t gone two steps before the grasshopper leaped into the deeper grass. Qin Ziwu ran after it; the grasshopper made several jumps and vanished into the undergrowth.
To avoid snake bites, Qin Ziwen walked slowly, sweeping ahead with the clothes pole every two steps.
A rustling sounded underfoot as a small yellow-brown creature darted past his feet.
Qin Ziwen chased after it, but the shrubs and roots were too dense; after a few strides he lost the trail.
Qin Ziwu had seen a similar yellow-brown creature too, but it was so agile he couldn’t catch it. “These things move too fast.”
Qin Ziwen wiped sweat from his brow. “Looks like so kind of rat. We’ll need to set traps. Let’s first see if there are any fruit trees.”
The sun climbed higher; the surrounding vegetation exhaled a faint grassy scent as the air grew hotter.
Qin Ziwen and his brother had walked once around the complex. More and more families were searching the periter like them.
“Xiaowu, co look—are these mulberries?” Qin Ziwen pointed at the tree in front of them.
Qin Ziwu was certain. “Yeah, a mulberry tree. Didn’t we pick these on the mountain back ho?”
Qin Ziwen said, “Okay, climb up and pick. I’ll watch down here.”
Qin Ziwu didn’t say a word. Wearing his backpack, he obediently climbed the tree.
This mulberry tree was a little hidden, tucked among surrounding trees. At first no one noticed, and since it wasn’t far from the complex, they hadn’t been picking long when an old man walking by saw them and hurried back to call others.
“Great!” Qin Ziwu was enthusiastic, nimbly climbing like a monkey.
Qin Ziwen warned, “Be careful, don’t climb too high.”
The old man who had gone to fetch people returned with four or five others.
Among the newcors, a woman with perd hair glanced at Qin Ziwen and spoke with a sarcastic tone, “There are mulberries here. Those two young n are shaless—found sothing and didn’t call anyone, secretly picking here.”
Qin Ziwen replied without rcy, “You were just too slow finding it. What does that have to do with ?”
A thin old man beside the woman pointed at Qin Ziwen. “How does a young man speak like that!”
Impatience flickered briefly in Qin Ziwen’s eyes. He took a step forward with his spear raised, and the group’s arrogance shrank.
A younger man among them quickly softened his tone. “Hey bro, my family didn’t an anything by it. Mom, stuff from the wild is whoever finds it first.”
Perhaps cowed by the “weapon” in Qin Ziwen’s hand, the woman withdrew her gaze and turned to her daughter. “Zihan, you go pick.”
The high-school-aged girl’s eyes widened. ?
She glanced at Qin Ziwen’s spear nervously, clearly reluctant.
The woman urged, “You brat, what are you waiting for? Go when I tell you. That big brother over there isn’t unreasonable—he won’t bully you.”
The girl: “......”
The woman kept pushing her daughter. “These mulberries won’t last long. Pick them today or they’ll spoil tomorrow. How many can those two handso guys eat? Go on.”
The girl shuffled a few steps forward and timidly looked at Qin Ziwen.
Qin Ziwen ignored her.
Growing bolder, the girl in sweatpants hugged the trunk and climbed up slowly. The thin old man went over to give her a push.
By then two more families had arrived.
Qin Ziwu jumped down from the tree and handed his backpack to his brother. “The rest are hard to get.”
Qin Ziwen glanced inside; his brother’s pack was already about half full.
This mulberry tree hadn’t been picked much before. The fruits were plump and plentiful; the easy-to-reach spots had mostly been cleared by Qin Ziwu.
“Let’s go.”
They zipped up, slung on their backpacks, and headed back.
“Crocodile!”
“Soone got bitten by a crocodile!”
“There are crocodiles in this river?!”
Shouts ca from the riverbank; soone cried for help.
Qin Ziwen and his brother exchanged glances and both headed toward the river.
Even from dozens of ters away they could hear churning water.
On the surface, a giant crocodile rolled in the water, spraying waves everywhere.
On the bank, a teenage girl cried, “Dad! Please—soone save my dad!”
People onshore threw stones cautiously at the crocodile; others beat at it with gathered sticks.
After being struck, the crocodile dragged the man away from the shore toward deeper water. The surface in its wake was stained red with blood. The man being torn apart had stopped struggling; his two legs dangled limply.
Qin Ziwu sighed. “Huge crocodile. Maybe four or five ters long. Good thing we didn’t go near the river earlier. Everything here seems oversized.”
Qin Ziwen said in a low voice, “Rember that bat last night? Bats usually live in colonies.”
Hearing that made Qin Ziwu’s scalp go numb. He pictured caves on TV packed with bats—if all of them were that size... he couldn’t bear thinking any further.
“Waaa...”
The girl on the bank sobbed, kneeling while her mother held her tightly.
An old man carrying a bucket shook his head on the shore. “This family’s done for... their only man’s gone.”
Back ho, Qin Ziwen emptied the mulberries from his bag into an iron basin.
They had been off the tree for a while; so berries were already soft.
He slled them, then tasted a small one.
Compared to freshly picked fruit, the flavor had changed.
Qin Ziwen frowned. “They’ve gone bad so fast.”
He stepped outside and looked up at the scorching sun.
Two suns hung in the sky, one left, one right, close together—like two eyes watching from above.
He dabbed the berries dry with tissue, sorted out the fresh, plump ones, and laid them out evenly on cardboard on the balcony.
Qin Ziwu squatted nearby and watched. “Bro, will this work?”
“Try it first. If they dry into fruit leather, they’ll last longer. Consider it an experint.”
Picking up the plate with the remaining bruised, shriveled berries, Qin Ziwen carefully wiped off impurities with paper and popped one into his mouth.
The flesh was soft and juicy, with a slight grittiness, sweet with a balanced tartness.
They tasted good; he’d heard mulberries were rich in vitamins and could replenish many nutrients.
“Have so.” He handed the plate to his brother.
Qin Ziwu took the plate, brushed off the dust, and stuffed one into his mouth. “Mm, pretty sweet.”
It was too hot to go out at noon, so Qin Ziwen stayed ho. He grabbed a sheet of paper and sketched a map from his morning mory.
The complex was in the center. A little over a hundred ters to the south ran a river from east to west. The river was calm and shallow in places; exposed rocks showed. The river was roughly one to two hundred ters wide.
To the north, the terrain rose; mountains rose in the distance, surrounded by dense forest.
He paused, considered, and circled a spot northwest of where they’d found the mulberry tree.
He set down his pen, exhausted—he hadn’t slept much the night before and had been on the move all day.
Qin Ziwen yawned. “I’m going to rest for a bit. It’s too hot outside. Let’s not go out and risk heatstroke. We’ll go when it cools this afternoon.”
Qin Ziwu nodded. He’d always listened to his older brother; Qin Ziwen’s judgnt was rarely wrong.
The bed was too hot, so Qin Ziwen pulled off the sheet and lay on the floor to sleep; he fell asleep quickly.
When he woke, it was already 4:40 p.m.; the temperature had cooled. This place had large day-night temperature swings.
His phone battery was down to 24% and would probably shut off soon, so he turned it off.
After waking Qin Ziwu, Qin Ziwen went to the balcony. Looking down, he saw neighbors under the shade setting up stalls with items—impromptu street vending.
So people were putting unnecessary or surplus household items out to trade.
Qin Ziwen turned the mulberries on the balcony so they wouldn’t stick to the cardboard.
He wasn’t sure this thod would make fruit leather, but he’d seen people do this in videos before.
Qin Ziwu kept yawning at the railing. He watched the stalls below and grew more alert, stretching his neck out over the rail.
“Bro, I want to go down and check. Do you think I can find anything good?”
Qin Ziwen flipped the last berry. “All those things were put out by people themselves. They aren’t stupid—if you want to snag a bargain, wait a while. Chances are they’ll be giving stuff away later.”
Qin Ziwu grinned, understanding his brother.
After arranging the mulberries, Qin Ziwen stood and observed the busy crowd below. “Right now every household more or less has food to keep up appearances. But once the food runs out, it’ll be different.”
After the world shifted, electricity and the internet were cut.
Without the net, ti felt slower.
Qin Ziwen told his brother, “We need to prepare more weapons, food, and water. Our advantage is that we’re two adult males—don’t get sick if you can. If you need water, boil it first. Try to eat cooked food.”
“But you just gave mulberries to eat!”
“Don’t argue with !” Qin Ziwen spun around and rapped him on the head.
Qin Ziwu said, “Bro, do we have a lighter at ho?”
“I don’t smoke.”
“Neither do I! So where would fire co from?”
“You don’t know how to make a fire by rubbing sticks?”
“I don’t.”
“No worries. I’ll teach you.”
Leaving the building, Qin Ziwen noticed the mood in the complex had turned oppressive.
People clustered in small groups.
From their conversations he learned that this afternoon soone in Building 6 had been bitten by a venomous snake and was found blue-black; they’d carried him back dead.
Counting the man eaten by the crocodile at Building 4 this morning, two people had died in the complex in one day. The news had everyone on edge.
At a stall under a nearby tree, a man in a gray tank top asked the vendor, “How much for that lighter?”
The vendor replied, “Five liters of clean water, or enough food for one al.”
The older man was shocked. “You’re crazy! A one-yuan lighter for that much?”
The vendor sneered. “This is fire. Without fire how will you cook? Eat raw? Besides, it’s a new lighter—if you use it sparingly it’ll last you a long ti.”
“That’s too expensive. How about this—I still have half a bottle of mineral water at ho. Want to trade?” The old man squatted and reached for the lighter.
The vendor, a tall chubby man, grabbed the old man’s hand. “I haven’t agreed—are you trying to steal?”
The old man shouted, “He hit , he hit !” and collapsed theatrically.
The chubby man rolled his sleeves. “There are no cops here. You really want a beating?”
The old man scrambled up. “Young people talk so rough—no respect for elders.”
The chubby man mouthed sothing without sound, and Qin Ziwen recognized the three words.
The chubby man turned toward Qin Ziwen. “Brother, want to buy a lighter?”
Qin Ziwen waved him off with a smile.
He walked the complex with his brother. The neighbors were selling all sorts of things—luxuries, electronics, so gold jewelry. Items truly useful for survival were few. Most sellers demanded food in trade.
Qin Ziwen stopped suddenly. Ahead, a crowd had gathered around a stall.
He went closer and saw soone selling fishing rods.
Qin Ziwu whispered, “Bro, that’s a great item. There’s a river nearby—if we had a rod we could fish.”
Qin Ziwen listened and quietly shook his head. “Too expensive.”
Rare things command high prices. Several households were scrambling for the rod. Picking up a bargain was impossible.
Besides, the important thing for fishing isn’t the rod—it’s the bait.
Bait attracts fish; you can rig a line with a twig and thread and hook and still catch sothing.
“Co on, brother, let it go cheaper. I really need it. There are crocodiles in that river; fishing isn’t that safe. If the hook ends up in the croc’s mouth the rod’s ruined.”
“This is a Daiwa—brand na!”
A man in a suit beside them said, “Brother, I’ll trade five packs of biscuits for it. You won’t lose out; these biscuits have a long shelf life. In a few months you’ll find you can’t even trade them for two packs.”
“No way, too cheap. Add a few more packs.”
Qin Ziwen recognized the suited man as Huang Tao, the Building 7 resident who’d rallied people to cooperate earlier.
He left the crowd with his brother and searched the periter again.
They didn’t find more fruit trees like the mulberry one, but they did find a mouse-hole-like cave entrance near which lay a mousetrap—likely sothing a resident had hidden there.
Marking the location in his head, Qin Ziwen returned ho, drew all the curtains, and securely shut windows and doors.
That night they ate four small buns and half a bottle of water, but Qin Ziwen was still a little hungry. Lying flat on the bed, knowing they hadn’t found a stable food source, he resolved to conserve what they had.
Dusk fell outside.
Without the internet, it felt strange to fall asleep so early.
After a full day’s walking he was exhausted and soon dozed off.
In his dreams, he vaguely heard a voice:
“You have successfully survived the first day in the wilderness, collected a small amount of fresh fruit, and drawn a simple map. Overall score: 3 points.”
“You received rewards: Flint1, Simple Trap Blueprint (fragnt)1”
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