Chapter 304 | Chapter 305 | Chapter 306
Chapter 304: Strange Creatures and Plants
Caught completely off guard, a sharp impact suddenly struck the car window!
A piercing crack rang out as fine fractures spread across the glass. Huai Yu stared blankly at the small hole in the windshield.
“What was that?”
“Brother Zhou Qian, did you hit a rock?”
Zhou Qian glanced at it, his expression unchanged. He stepped on the accelerator and said calmly:
“Little Yu, crumple that foil into a ball and throw it out.”
Huai Yu: ???
Though confused, her movements were quick. She stuffed the jerky into her mouth in a few bites, cheeks puffed full, then used both hands to knead and twist the foil into a large, lightweight ball.
Silvery white, gleaming under the sunlight.
Zhou Qian lowered the window. “Be quick. Throw it out—but don’t stick your hand outside.”
Huai Yu did as told. The moment the foil ball left the window, a gray-blue blur flashed through the air like lightning. Sharp claws snatched the shining ball midair—and vanished instantly.
Huai Yu: …
If she hadn’t made that ball herself, she might have thought she’d just thrown out a piece of silver.
“What was that?” she mumbled, mouth full of jerky.
As the window rolled back up, she suddenly clutched her chest in distress.
“Our window! It’s broken! Ugh!”
“It’s fine.” Zhou Qian sounded used to it. “Just paying a toll. I didn’t expect them to demand it so urgently this time—my oversight. Don’t worry about the window. In the wasteland, as long as people are safe, everything else doesn’t matter.”
Once inside the wasteland, Zhou Qian’s attitude became much more easygoing. Even though Huai Yu still felt heartache, she took a deep breath and accepted it.
So what exactly was that?
He explained, “There are gray magpies and crows in the outer zones. They cooperate to survive, and their preferences are similar—they like shiny things.”
“When large teams pass through, they bring small reflective items. As long as it shines, they’ll take it. Otherwise, why do you think even cheap plastic ornaments are hard to find now? They all get collected and used in the wasteland.”
“There are quite a few animals like them. Normally they don’t show up here, but maybe fewer expeditions came this summer, so they’re a bit impatient now.”
Huai Yu: …
She suddenly opened the box beside her.
“So you put a whole box of zircon here…”
It wasn’t cheap either—she only realized that when they checked supplies.
Zhou Qian nodded. “Yeah. Didn’t expect them to be this undiscerning after all this time. If I’d known, I would’ve told you earlier. Then maybe the window wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
Diamonds or zircon, industrial glass or foil—they liked them all.
In a way… they were very consistent.
Meanwhile, Huai Yu’s cheeks were sore from chewing the jerky, and she still hadn’t finished. Swallowing with difficulty, she gave up complaining and started inspecting the supplies instead.
“One box of zircon… a packet of salt… a box of soybeans… and this white granule stuff…”
“What’s this?” she asked.
Zhou Qian glanced over. “There’s a wintersweet tree near Zone 7. It loves blooming, but for some reason it never blooms well, so it’s always in a bad mood.”
“But it’s quite proud, so it doesn’t kill people. Over time, everyone figured it out—when passing by, they bring fertilizer.”
“That box is slow-release flowering fertilizer I got from an old gardening company. It’s clumped up after all these years—I don’t know if it still works.”
Huai Yu carefully put the fertilizer back, impressed.
“What about this salt?”
“Closer to the inner zones, there’s a group of weasels. When agitated, they release yellow toxic gas around the forest edges. It corrodes metal—even the car can’t withstand it.”
“If you don’t appease them, you can’t go deeper.”
“The salt is for them. Chickens, ducks, or mice would also work—but I figured you wouldn’t be willing.”
Of course she wouldn’t! If she’d known earlier, she could’ve provided at least two of those options—but she’d never give them up. Compared to that, salt was cheap and practical.
“And these soybeans? For some mutated animal? Not field mice again, right?”
The car moved steadily along the winding road. Zhou Qian’s voice remained calm.
“Not for animals—for a plant.”
“There’s a mutated dandelion that loves having ‘children’ and raising them strong. But the wasteland soil is competitive. It’s small and grows slowly, so it often loses to other weeds.”
“So it needs richer soil.”
Huai Yu understood immediately.
Soybeans.
They could absorb pollution and release nitrogen into the soil. Even if the effect was minimal now, it was still better than nothing.
And when they matured, the dried beans would fall and grow again next year. Endless reproduction—surely the dandelion would be satisfied?
“Endless reproduction?” Zhou Qian laughed. “In this environment? Even your sunflower seeds would get eaten instantly, let alone soybeans.”
“Whether they grow at all is another question. That’s why the dandelion keeps collecting and planting them batch after batch.”
In a way… it was a hardworking farmer.
And because many benefited from it, it formed a symbiotic relationship with stronger mutated plants. So even though it wasn’t particularly powerful, people avoided attacking it.
Just these small boxes corresponded to several strange species. Huai Yu listened in amazement.
Then she frowned slightly.
“But all of these sound pretty mild and easy to deal with. It doesn’t seem that dangerous… Brother Zhou Qian, why did you describe the wasteland as so scary before?”
Zhou Qian sighed. “Was it me exaggerating?”
“These are all shortcuts discovered after repeated clearing operations by the Defense and Garrison forces.”
“And…”
“The wasteland really is that dangerous. Little Yu, don’t forget—these species are well understood because they’re in already explored outer zones.”
“The ones that couldn’t be negotiated with were wiped out long ago. What remains are the ones that can be dealt with.”
Of course, “negotiable” didn’t mean obedient. The more intelligent they were, the more cautious one had to be.
“Understand?” Zhou Qian’s expression turned serious. “If you encounter them, be careful.”
Huai Yu nodded, obedient and earnest.
Chapter 305: Rest Stop Camp
The scenery outside the window swept past in a blur, the trees on both sides gradually retreating in the rearview mirror.
Huai Yu checked the time and finally couldn’t help but say, “Brother Zhou Qian, it’s been more than five hours. Do you want to take a break?”
Zhou Qian nodded. “Soon. I’ll stop at the rest camp ahead.”
As he spoke, he slightly increased speed and pointed toward a flat clearing up ahead.
“Places like that are usually rest camps in the wasteland. Whether it’s explorers or the Garrison Army, people deliberately choose these spots to rest and resupply.”
Generally, any area used as a camp had already been cleared with heavy firepower. Most mutated creatures—good-tempered or bad—were gone, making it one of the few places where people could relax a little.
Zhou Qian explained everything in detail, afraid that if Huai Yu ever got separated, she might run into trouble. Truth be told, Wu Yue’s arrival had made him somewhat uneasy.
Huai Yu listened quietly, her attitude serious.
She could already see the open clearing ahead, but she frowned slightly.
“There’s no one here? I thought we’d run into other people.”
If, as Zhou Qian said, everyone nearby used the same rest area, then even if it wasn’t crowded, there should at least be one or two people around.
Zhou Qian slowly parked the car and explained carefully:
“Everyone has their own sources of information. Since Marshal Wu has come to Flower City and will personally lead an expedition, the scale of troops and firepower will definitely be greater than usual.”
“At a time like this, most exploration teams will choose to conserve energy and rest. Aside from those already deep in signal-dead zones, the rest are probably rushing back.”
Waiting and following behind the main force later—that’s how they maximize gains.
Huai Yu perked up immediately.
She asked curiously, “There are so many zones… are there really that many? How long will it take us to leave the outer area?”
Zhou Qian thought for a moment. “If we don’t stop for combat, about six days.”
Six days?!
Huai Yu was horrified. “Why so long?”
Driving was exhausting, but even sitting in the car all day was tiring.
Zhou Qian, however, was used to it. “That estimate already factors in your abilities. Without your powers, it could easily take twice as long.”
Only then did Huai Yu recall what Chen Xing had said about exploration teams.
No wonder every trip lasted at least ten days to half a month. If the time wasn’t enough, they wouldn’t even reach deeper areas, let alone make any profit. And moving a convoy cost resources—without high returns, there was no point going in.
While thinking, her hands were already busy. She gathered dry leaves, then found half-burnt firewood from an old fire pit and set it up again.
Zhou Qian quickly dragged over a metal stand someone had left behind and hung a kettle over the fire.
Flames rose, gradually driving away the chill around them.
In the quiet noon of winter, with rugged trees surrounding them and a clear blue sky above, Huai Yu stared for a while before sighing softly:
“This feels just like the scene in my dream.”
Not the place—but the feeling.
Like the vastness of the world, and how small humans were within it.
Huai Yu laughed at her own poetic thought. Then she glanced at the back of the car.
“Brother Zhou Qian, since the camp is safe, can we let Da Zai and Er Zai come down and walk around?”
Zhou Qian nodded, then smiled.
“This is the advantage of avoiding the main force. If not for Marshal Wu drawing everyone’s attention, this camp would probably be full of people, and you’d have to sneak around just to feed them.”
As he spoke, he opened the rear gate and first carried down the light-bodied Ke Tai Lang.
Huai Yu immediately crouched beside it, pointing at the surroundings.
“There are so many colors here we don’t have at home. You can collect them first. I’ll store them later, and you can chew on your pellets in the car so you won’t be bored.”
It was a very considerate arrangement—though truthfully, Huai Yu herself had plenty of free time sitting in the passenger seat.
Ke Tai Lang obediently moved toward the edge of the camp, eyeing the plants around, its cheeks beginning to twitch again.
Meanwhile, Da Zai and Er Zai, though a bit dizzy from the ride, quickly regained their sense of purpose after walking a few steps.
[Protectors of Family Property]
That’s right—their mission was to protect the four chickens!
Raising them to the point where they could lay eggs wasn’t easy. How could that not count as valuable family property?
The chickens had been well-trained at home. With Da Zai and Er Zai nearby, they weren’t nervous at all. As they hopped down from the truck one by one, Huai Yu was half-afraid they’d lay eggs midair.
Thankfully, the truck bed stayed clean.
The chickens wandered around, then chose an old fire pit—half-burnt logs around it, with a thick layer of ash in the middle.
They settled in, held their breath—
And within two minutes, proud clucking rang out:
“Cluck-cluck-da!”
“Cluck-da!”
Even on a long journey, they hadn’t delayed laying eggs! Pride! Heads high!
With one leading, the other two hens got competitive, each finding their own nesting spot nearby.
Amid the overlapping clucks, Huai Yu soon collected three freshly laid eggs.
She happily brought them back, still warm in her hands.
“Brother Zhou Qian, do you want fried eggs or poached eggs for lunch?”
Zhou Qian had opinions about food—but not many. Huai Yu asked out of habit, but quickly made the decision herself.
Soup would mean more bathroom breaks—not convenient. And in the wasteland, some plants had strange temperaments. If you chose the wrong place, you might get smacked mid-squat.
After thinking it through, she grabbed a fresh radish from the sand storage in the truck, washed, peeled, and shredded it, then stir-fried it with the dry wild boar meat.
As for the three eggs, she decided to save them for breakfast tomorrow.
When she skimmed off the rice broth into a separate bowl, the rich aroma filled the air, and Huai Yu couldn’t help but smile again.
Being in the wasteland with Zhou Qian…
felt so, so safe.
Chapter 306: Protecting Innocence
The rest camp truly lived up to its name.
While waiting for the food to cook, Huai Yu wandered around and found that everything nearby was indeed orderly—plants stood quietly, obediently, without any emotion.
Some had mutated into strange shapes, growing unevenly and wildly, but none of them possessed intelligence. They simply stood there, forming a thick natural barrier around the camp.
It was said that in this place, no disputes or conflicts were allowed—all to ensure safety.
Huai Yu looked around, then couldn’t help pulling out a sunflower seed from her bag.
“Brother Zhou Qian, can I plant a sunflower here?”
She had tested Xiao Kui’s seeds at home. The sunflowers that grew were tall and dazzling, but unlike Xiao Kui itself, they had no awareness—just mindless blooming machines, even reluctant to produce seeds.
In short, Xiao Kui’s “family” produced seeds reliably, but any seeds from Xiao Kui itself grew into these emotionless versions.
Zhou Qian thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Plant it deeper in the woods. Don’t put it near the edge of the camp—someone might come by in a few days.”
Even though it would still be noticeable, whether it looked intentional or naturally grown could at least confuse people a little.
Huai Yu nodded and quickly slipped into the sparse forest, picking an even more secluded spot.
With a small shovel, she casually dug a shallow hole. Under the push of her ability, the tiny seed cracked open almost instantly, a tender green sprout emerging.
Then everything accelerated.
The sprout shot upward, leaves unfurling symmetrically on both sides. Fine prickly hairs covered the surface densely. Zhou Qian, who had been checking the fuel tank on the truck, paused to watch.
Abilities were truly miraculous.
What would normally take months or years unfolded in moments before his eyes.
The seed shell disappeared beneath soil and roots. Thin roots burrowed deep, drawing nutrients and moisture.
Above ground, the stem thickened… and thickened…
Until it was as thick as an adult’s arm.
At the top, towering above nearby trees, it faced the unobstructed winter sun—its strange yellow bloom reflecting light like metal, dazzling and sharp.
Zhou Qian looked twice, feeling like his eyes might start tearing up.
He scanned the surroundings, confirming the reflection was diffuse. As long as it wasn’t Xiao Kui itself, it wouldn’t concentrate sunlight enough to burn holes into the ground.
Otherwise, starting a fire in the wasteland would be disastrous.
Still… it was really bright.
If someone were driving through the forest, it might even affect visibility.
He opened his mouth, about to suggest trimming it slightly—but then he saw Huai Yu standing beneath it, gazing up like a girl from a fairy tale.
The words stuck in his throat.
“I’ve decided.”
Noticing his gaze, Huai Yu ran back happily and announced:
“From now on, every zone we pass, I’ll plant one of these sunflowers! When we reach the center, I’ll plant them densely. That way, even if we lose our way, we won’t get lost.”
Zhou Qian couldn’t refute that at all.
He glanced at his communicator—no signal at all. The forest’s mutated magnetic fields disrupted everything. A reliable marker was indeed necessary.
He only asked, “Do you have enough seeds?”
“I do!”
Huai Yu patted her bag. “I brought everything.”
A bag of ordinary sunflower seeds, a large bag of roasted seeds, and from Xiao Kui—she left twenty at home and brought the rest.
Zhou Qian nodded, silently agreeing.
After using her ability, Huai Yu quickly got hungry. The food was ready soon after, and the two of them sat facing each other, eating heartily—without any sign of tension or vigilance despite being in the wasteland.
Zhou Qian reminded himself that this wasn’t appropriate, yet still listened as Huai Yu asked curiously:
“They said Wu Yue will enter from C9—how are these zones divided?”
Zhou Qian picked up a stick and drew a simple map on the ground.
“The wasteland is a vast, flat region that was completely overtaken by vegetation. It covers about one-third of the current national territory—and it’s right in the center.”
In other words, most of the former agricultural land was gone.
“The edges connect to more than a dozen cities, each with its own sector divisions.”
“C9 is one of the zones Flower City has been pushing into. Starting from C1 at the outermost edge, the divisions were based on the mutated plants encountered during expansion.”
“You know how strong mutated plants claim territory. Clearing one zone means eliminating the dominant species there. That’s how the earliest divisions were formed.”
So the zones weren’t based on distance or area—but on progress.
And the deeper you went, the stronger the creatures became.
Interference in the forest also grew worse.
With fire-based abilities restricted, heavy firepower limited, and supply lines difficult to maintain, even after six years, about one-third of the wasteland remained completely unexplored.
After a pause, Zhou Qian added:
“Flower City had the Rose Corridor as a starting point, so early exploration was actually easier.”
Huai Yu listened quietly.
She loved hearing Zhou Qian explain these things. Without firsthand experience of the dangers, it felt almost like a fairy tale.
Wasn’t this how adventure stories worked?
Except here, the mutated creatures were even more fascinating than fiction—
Weasels that released toxic gas, dandelions that farmed tirelessly, magpies and crows obsessed with shiny things…
Her expression was completely undisguised. Zhou Qian only needed one glance to understand what she was thinking.
In truth, deeper into C9, there had once been a group of magpies that built nests from bones—pulling apart limbs to construct sturdy structures.
Fortunately, those had been cleared out not long after his encounter with the spider.
But overall, the route through already-cleared zones like C9 wasn’t particularly dangerous.
So Zhou Qian chose not to dwell on the hardships.
Because when he had fought on the front lines as part of the Defense Army, wasn’t this—this kind of innocence—exactly what he had wanted to protect?
