Chapter 112: Wild vegetables
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
The next morning, Ren Xiaosu woke up very early. He did not understand why, but since he became a supernatural being, he felt more energetic than ever. It was like there was a fire burning nonstop inside his body. He had only slept for four hours last night. But after waking up, he could feel himself back at his best.
Wang Fugui took out his food and handed it to everyone. They were now sharing their food. No one hid anything from the others.
Seeing how the thousands of escapees were all going hungry without food, the escapees who were beside Ren Xiaosu’s group swallowed hard when they saw them eating.
But they could only watch them eat. None of these people dared to approach Ren Xiaosu to ask for food. They were not dumb. They knew no one would possibly share their food at a time like this. Instead of being rejected, they might as well not ask.
Over at Wang Yiheng’s side, they had looted a lot of food. But the problem for them was that most of those refugees had not brought any food with them either. And the number of these refugees on Wang Yiheng’s side numbered over 600. In the end, only Wang Yiheng and a few dozen of his most trusted refugees managed to get anything to eat. The rest had to go hungry.
“We have to continue moving.” Wang Yiheng said with a sullen face, “Those of you who haven’t had anything to eat yet, don’t worry. I believe there’ll be food further ahead. From today onwards, we’ll all eat wild vegetables and tree bark if we have to!”
The refugees who didn’t have anything to eat yet were all complaining in their heads, ‘Yeah, right, you’re claiming you’ll pick wild vegetables with us after eating a full meal? Where were you earlier?’ However, they did not dare to speak out even if they were angry.
In reality, this group of refugees was not united. Just as Ren Xiaosu had described, they were just a mob.
Wang Yiheng led the refugees on a march. The thousands of stronghold residents making their escape followed them and started moving as well.
Ren Xiaosu was a little puzzled. If it were he who had been robbed, he wouldn’t follow Wang Yiheng and those refugees even if it meant death. But these escaping stronghold residents were different in that they still had to follow the refugees even if they were robbed by them.
“Let’s go.” Ren Xiaosu said to Xiaoyu and the others, “It’s still a long way from Stronghold 109. We can’t afford to relax.”
“Mhm.” Xiaoyu nodded. The majority of the townspeople were mentally stronger than those who lived in the stronghold. Whatever suffering they were going through, they experienced it long ago.
The students behind Ren Xiaosu stood up as well. Their teacher was groaning in pain and even fell back onto the ground. Ren Xiaosu turned around to look and saw some of the female students wanting to help their teacher up. In the end, the female teacher slowly got up by herself. She said to her students, “Your teacher is fine. You don’t have to worry about me. We must not lose sight of the main group.”
A student said softly, “Ms. Jiang Wu, I’m so hungry.”
They hadn’t eaten for a full day, and after making such a lengthy escape, how could they not be hungry? Some of the students were even experiencing dizziness.
The female teacher named Jiang Wu was put into a difficult situation. She consoled, “Let’s keep moving forward. Who knows if we might find some food along the way. And there might be people from Stronghold 109 sent over to rescue us. If none of that works out, your teacher will pick some wild vegetables for us to eat.”
“Teacher, what do wild vegetables look like?” a female student asked.
Ren Xiaosu glanced at that female student and saw she was still wearing a gold bracelet. If their group hadn’t been standing close to Ren Xiaosu last night, that gold bracelet would probably have been taken by the refugees.
These children had grown up in a world under the protection of the consortium all their lives. They did not even get the slightest whiff of the difficult environment the people living outside the stronghold had to go through, so of course they wouldn’t know what wild vegetables looked like.
But this question stumped Jiang Wu as well. She had only heard the people around them saying they could pick wild vegetables to eat, but she did not have the know-how to identify what wild vegetables were. This was not something they had learned in the stronghold before.
But Jiang Wu was not stupid. She surreptitiously pointed at Ren Xiaosu and his group, then whispered to her students, “See those people in front? You can see at a glance they’re more capable than the others. Whatever plants they pick, we’ll follow along and pick the same ones as them.”
Ren Xiaosu had yet not realized that this teacher named Jiang Wu had already identified him as the most capable person of the entire escaping crowd.
A student said, “Why don’t we just ask him to help us?”
Jiang Wu shook her head. “Now that the stronghold has been destroyed, you guys must understand something: No one owes us any help; we can only depend on ourselves.”
After setting off again, Xiaoyu, Wang Fugui, Yan Liuyuan, and Wang Dalong were clearly back to a better state of mind. Xiaoyu turned around to look at Jiang Wu and her students, then said softly to Ren Xiaosu in a happy voice, “There are quite a few pretty girls in that group of stronghold students, and they’re even around the same age as you. How about it? Who caught your eye? Wanna let Big Sis go and speak to them on your behalf? They would absolutely be willing to follow you if you can take care of their meals.”
Ren Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Big Sister Xiaoyu, you don’t have to worry about this. Getting to Stronghold 109 is our main priority.”
“Alright, alright.” Xiaoyu smirked. “But if you change your mind, you can let me know at any time. Big Sis will care for your future children.”
Suddenly, Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up when he noticed the plants growing beside the road. He walked over and pulled the entire root out of the ground.
When Jiang Wu saw this, she hurriedly whispered her students, “Go, go and search for the same plants he’s picked!”
The students who had been hungry for some time rushed over to the side of the road.
Right then, Ren Xiaosu told Wang Fugui, “These plants absolutely must not be eaten. After I had some of it two years ago, I had diarrhea for three straight days.”
When Jiang Wu and her students heard that, they were speechless. One by one, they threw away the plants they had just plucked out of the ground.
Now, Ren Xiaosu realized the students were learning from him. After some thought, he told Wang Fugui, “That small bunch of plants next to your feet is known as pillow grass, AKA shepard’s purse1 . It’s an edible plant that if eaten raw will taste bitter due to its alkaline nature. But compared to surviving, what’s a little bitterness?”
Wang Fugui was confused about why he was being schooled on something like this. ‘My family always makes shepard’s purse dumplings, so I know this.’
However, Ren Xiaosu did not say this for his sake. Jiang Wu gave Ren Xiaosu a look because she had been observing him all this time and knew why he had suddenly said this. He was saying it for her.
Jiang Wu glanced at Ren Xiaosu before turning back to her students and saying, “Everyone, go and pick the shepard’s purse.”
After she said that, she turned to look at Ren Xiaosu again and discovered he had already left with his group.
Laughing next to Ren Xiaosu, Yan Liuyuan said, “Bro, are you interested in that female teacher? She’s quite pretty.”
Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “I’m only hoping that teacher will survive a while more by doing that, that’s all.”
Jiang Wu must have suffered quite a bit after bringing her students out and escaping from the stronghold. In a time like this, who had the time to care about whether others lived or died?
Ren Xiaosu was a selfish person, but this didn’t prevent him from admiring Jiang Wu a bit.