Chapter 44: Fate’s Favor
After a few days apart, Zhou Qian looked a bit tired. However, when he saw Huai Yu, a smile broke across his usually stern face:
“Xiao Yu, what brings you here?”
He glanced at her old-style bicycle and exclaimed in surprise, “Whoa! You bought a bike?”
“Mm,” Huai Yu replied, smiling brightly. “I had some relatives help me.”
Zhou Qian didn’t ask which relatives. Just by looking at her, he could tell — a child this well-behaved wouldn’t have survived without some reliable family.
He then realized something and frowned a little, sounding annoyed: “The jujubes you gave me last time, they definitely weren’t just bought with a few points, were they? You’re living on your own — you can’t be so generous anymore.”
But soon, he smiled again. “Come on, tell me what you want. I’ll get it for you.”
Huai Yu shook her head, “Captain Brother, you already take such good care of me!”
She took off her basket and pulled out the flashlight inside. “I forgot to return this. It still has battery left.”
Zhou Qian had actually forgotten about the flashlight too. For a second, he thought about just giving it to her, but then remembered she lived in the Rose Corridor, where charging it would be impossible. So he silently took it back.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, “Do you want a solar lamp? It’s not very useful on rainy days like now, but it’s really convenient in the long run.”
Huai Yu’s eyes widened in surprise: “Yes, yes, yes!”
Seeing her reaction, Zhou Qian laughed too. “Alright. What else do you need? It’s too far to go to the trade market, and it’s not safe for you to buy too much alone. Just tell me.”
If she didn’t have so many purified goods, Huai Yu would’ve loved to keep bartering here forever. But unfortunately…
Still, visiting every few days was fine!
She happily started counting on her fingers: “Paper, pens, a lighter, a shoe brush, a stainless steel basin, a water bucket, an umbrella, a clothes rack, some rope…”
After thinking a bit more, she added, “And a cutting board.”
She was too weak to chop her own cutting board out of wood. And cutting vegetables directly on brick was just too damaging to her knife.
This… should cost around 200 points, right?
But remembering the solar lamp too, she quickly added, “If it’s too much, I can come back next time.”
Zhou Qian laughed again, his gaze softening as he looked at Huai Yu. He could just imagine her, like a little ant, slowly and carefully building her home bit by bit…
Such a good kid.
For a moment, he felt a rush of fatherly affection. His heart softened completely as he wrote down the list and quickly got someone to trade for the items.
Meanwhile, Huai Yu casually glanced around and asked, “Captain Brother, why does this place look different?”
Zhou Qian hesitated for a second. Looking at her, so defenseless, he lowered his voice and warned:
“You’ve been listening to the morning reports, right? A little while ago, a prisoner escaped from Prison No. 3. We’ve been setting up defenses to capture him, but the day after the heavy rain, his corpse suddenly appeared at the camp gate.”
“We’ve increased security because of that.”
“Xiao Yu, don’t get careless just because you live at the Rose Corridor. The prisoner was killed by someone — maybe an explorer, maybe someone else. Either way, it proves he was hiding nearby.”
“We’re lucky he was killed. Otherwise, with all the disturbances in the surrounding forests that day, everyone’s attention was scattered. You being alone at the Rose Corridor would’ve been really dangerous.”
“Remember, the Rose Corridor doesn’t like conflict or bloodshed. If it gets angry, it will attack everyone indiscriminately. If you sense danger, run immediately!”
Zhou Qian spoke very seriously, worry clear in his eyes. Seeing Huai Yu’s puzzled look, he sighed:
“If it gets too dangerous, you should go back to the city and stay with your relatives. They seem to treat you well.”
After all, how many relatives would gift her a bike and jujubes with such a low mutation rate?
Huai Yu shook her head, then hesitated and said:
“Captain Brother, don’t worry. My… family said I have a very weak wood-type ability, and plants are pretty friendly to me. So if there’s danger, if I stay near the Rose Corridor, it probably won’t hurt me.”
Zhou Qian froze. He didn’t have any abilities himself, only enhanced physical strength like many defense soldiers. Hearing this, he felt a bit more at ease:
“That’s good.”
Sigh, the young girl’s family situation still sounded complicated.
Still, Huai Yu couldn’t help but think of Lin Xuefeng — remembering the casual way he had once crushed a death row prisoner’s skull — and she sighed silently.
But quickly, she pulled a plastic bag out of her basket:
“Captain Brother, I made some fried noodles yesterday. I brought you a bowl!”
“No need!” Zhou Qian said, laughing and crying at the same time. “Flour is expensive right now. You should eat it yourself. Our rations are fine…”
But Huai Yu was already pressing her hands together in a pleading gesture, looking at him pitifully: “But I want to thank you…”
Zhou Qian: …
Cough.
That look — impossible to resist!
He suddenly felt another wave of old-fatherly emotion. He glanced at the little bag of noodles — probably barely two taels?
Alright then. Flour at the market was about 30 points per jin these days. And she even had a bike now. He accepted it.
At that moment, the logistics team enthusiastically brought out the goods. The shiny silver solar lamp caught Huai Yu’s eye immediately!
She was so happy she couldn’t look away.
This kind of pure, childlike excitement was infectious. Zhou Qian’s mood lifted too as he called out:
“Solar lamp, shoe brush, notebook, two pens, one bundle of 30-meter plastic rope, two 50L water buckets with lids.”
“And this — I swapped the heavy wooden cutting board for a resin one so it’s easier for you to use.”
“Five lighters, two of them windproof.”
“Three stainless steel basins — they’ll make cooking easier.”
“The umbrella is a bit heavy but sturdy — it’ll hold up even in strong winds.”
“One set of five clothes hangers.”
He paused, then added:
“And since you gave me so much, I’ll throw in a thermos bottle for you. Don’t worry, it’s a slightly defective one, so it didn’t cost many points. Take it.”
The buckets were stacked, the basins nested inside each other, and everything was neatly packed into her large basket, tidy and comfortable.
Huai Yu let out a small “Ah!” and said, “I might not have enough points…”
Zhou Qian said calmly, “It’s fine. Altogether, it’s about 200 points. You take it first. If you’re short, I’ll cover it. You can pay me back slowly when you have more.”
Huai Yu clutched the big basket in her arms. It was so large that her slender arms, wrapped in her wide sleeves, couldn’t even fully circle it.
She lowered her head to look at the basket, then at Zhou Qian. Her heart was warm, and her eyes grew hot too.
Life was so hard, and yet fate still favored her, sending such sincere, kind people her way.
She no longer resented the world at all — because fate had already treated her with enough kindness.
Facing Zhou Qian’s questioning look, she quietly took out her wristband and softly said:
“Thank you, Brother.”
