Chapter 3
If one could live, no one wanted to die.
Even if it meant eking out a miserable existence, a life worse than death.
On the first page of the notebook, Song Xun recorded all the natural disasters of those seven years, deliberately leaving a few blank pages. After all, she had only jotted down the general events she could recall for now.
If she remembered more later, she could add it in.
Only then did she start a new section, recording all the types of disasters she could find online, just in case.
By the time she had written everything down, half an hour had passed.
Song Xun shook her slightly sore hand and stroked the head of Ru Hai, who had rested his paws on the computer desk.
Of the two dogs, Ru Hai was the clingier one.
As for Shangtian, well, perhaps it was the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog genes, but he was independent and quite aloof.
Half an hour had passed, and Chang Fei, Chang Wan, and Shi Tou still hadn’t returned, but they should be back soon.
Her stomach suddenly rumbled. It was only then that Song Xun vaguely remembered that she had been busy with all sorts of things since waking up and hadn’t eaten yet.
Breakfast?
Food?
Suddenly, a red glint appeared in Song Xun’s eyes. How could it not?
When she had first woken up, she had been anxious to confirm her friends’ situations and then rushed to write things down, fearing she would forget. Now that she had relaxed slightly, she remembered she was hungry.
After all, in the apocalypse, a proper meal had long become a luxury. Even as a famous Level 6 Ability User in Xifeng Base, her daily diet consisted of nothing more than the meat of various mutated beasts and the fruits of mutated plants.
White rice?
You could still find it in the first few years of the apocalypse, good or bad, but in the later years, it had basically become extinct. Even if you found some, it was likely inedible.
It tasted worse than mutated beast meat.
Remembering this now, how could Song Xun not be eager?
She shot up and rushed out of the room, arriving in the kitchen in a few steps.
The kitchen had a massive, side-by-side refrigerator. Perhaps because of the trauma of starving in an orphanage as a child, Song Xun had a habit of hoarding food.
Of course, Chang Fei, Chang Wan, and Shi Tou were the same.
As she opened the refrigerator door, a blast of cold air hit her face, but Song Xun’s eyes were so wide she didn’t even feel the cold. All her attention was focused on the food inside.
In the fresh food compartment, there were sausages, milk, yogurt, cola, mineral water, and a huge pile of various fruits. Opening the freezer on the other side revealed frozen fish, frozen chicken, ribs, lamb, beef, corn, ice cream, and all kinds of meat and fish balls.
The sight almost made Song Xun drool.
But while the meat was tempting, it was frozen solid and couldn’t be eaten right away. Song Xun bent down and found the dumplings they had made before.
They had a habit of making extra whenever they made dumplings, freezing the rest so they could just boil them when they wanted to eat.
There should be some now.
She rummaged around and finally found a bag of frozen dumplings between some ribs and a pork knuckle.
Song Xun took them all out.
Normally, she could eat about thirty to forty dumplings in one meal. But Song Xun opened the bag and peered inside. There were quite a few dumplings, and although they weren’t large—they were boiled dumplings, after all—there seemed to be a lot, probably around seventy or eighty.
She didn’t bother counting them out and just poured them all into a bowl.
Walking into the kitchen, she looked around at the now-unfamiliar layout. After thinking for a long time, she followed a vague memory and turned on the gas valve.
She filled a pot with water, put it on to boil, and set the dumplings aside. Then she went back, opened the refrigerator’s fresh food compartment again, took out a bottle of cola, popped the tab, and chugged half of it in one go.
The familiar yet strange taste of the carbonated drink made Song Xun so emotional she was on the verge of tears.
In the first few years of the apocalypse, you could still find sodas like Coke and Meida. Unfortunately, after the second year, such things had disappeared.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t be found, but that finding them was useless. The shelf life wasn’t that long.
So, all in all, Song Xun hadn’t tasted this flavor in almost five or six years.
When the water in the pot was nearly boiling, Song Xun tilted her head back and downed the rest of the cola, tossed the can, and then turned back to the kitchen. She picked up the bowl of dumplings and poured them all in.
It was a good thing she had switched to a large pot, fearing they wouldn’t fit, otherwise it really might not have been enough.
After about ten minutes, the dumplings were basically cooked. Song Xun scooped one out, placed it in a bowl, and poked it open to check. Confirming it was cooked through, she turned off the heat and served all the dumplings.
She found a small bowl, poured in some seafood soy sauce, and added a bit of vinegar. Although there was no garlic, Song Xun still ate with great relish.
She devoured all seventy or eighty dumplings in one go. The feeling of a full stomach finally made Song Xun let out a comfortable, long sigh.
To have food, and to be able to eat until full, was wonderful.
After seven years of the apocalypse, what crops were left?
Only Wood-type Ability Users could use their powers to grow various plants and fruits, allowing high-level Ability Users to have things like fruit, corn, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. But even those were finite resources.
Seeds from plants grown with abilities could not be saved for replanting. Once they were gone, they were gone.
After the apocalypse began, not only was conventional food extremely scarce, but clean water was nonexistent.
Most of the surviving population drank water created by Water- and Ice-type Ability Users.
As for the taste of mutated beasts and plants, what could you say? It really wasn’t good.
But what could you do besides eat it? Even if it tasted bad, you couldn’t starve.
But now that she was back, Song Xun had no desire to live that kind of life again.
Stockpile supplies. She had to stockpile supplies!
But a problem immediately arose. Where would she put the stockpiled supplies?
In an apocalyptic world of natural disasters, there was no place that was absolutely safe. Song Xun thought for a long time but couldn’t come up with a solution, and could only sigh in the end.
In her past life, she had awakened the Thunder-type ability. If only it had been a spatial ability!
Sigh!
Song Xun sighed and ran a hand through her slightly messy hair. But as she raised her hand, she suddenly noticed an egg-sized, circular pattern in the palm of her right hand.
A… birthmark?
But she didn’t remember having any birthmarks.
Song Xun frowned slightly. What was this?
And its shape… why did it look so much like that White Light Stone?
The White Light Stone?!
Song Xun thought back. She remembered being knocked down, the White Light Stone falling out of her clothes, and then grabbing it with her hand.
She seemed to have used… her right hand?
Could this really be the White Light Stone?!
Song Xun found this explanation a bit hard to accept, but she also felt that there was no other.
So, was her rebirth related to this strange stone that had fallen from the sky and now looked like a birthmark?
Everyone said the White Light Stone held the secrets of the apocalypse. Who had started this rumor?
Song Xun hadn’t really believed it before. After all, she had possessed the stone for quite some time, and no matter how she studied it, she couldn’t figure anything out.
But if her guess was correct, if it really was this stone that had brought her back, then what did it signify?
Lost in thought, Song Xun gently stroked the birthmark-like pattern on her right palm with her left hand. She didn’t know if she had used too much force or what, and even Song Xun herself couldn’t explain it, but she had this… well, this strange, mystical feeling.
Suddenly, the pattern she was gently stroking emitted a murky white light.
At that moment, Song Xun’s mind went blank.
She felt as if something indescribable had been added to her mind. When she looked down again, she saw that the birthmark-like pattern on her palm was slowly fading before her very eyes.
Until it was no longer visible.
“This is…”
Song Xun shook her head. She wasn’t sure what had changed about her. Although she couldn’t see it with her naked eye, she could feel that the pattern was still there.
At that moment, did she really start to believe that this White Light Stone held the secrets of the apocalypse?
Perhaps it wasn’t just a rumor.
It was just that in her past life, she had never been able to unlock its secret.
Suddenly, a violent headache struck her. The sudden, intense pain was so severe that even with Song Xun’s tolerance, she couldn’t help but let out a muffled groan.
She felt top-heavy, and her vision began to blur. With a thud, she collapsed to the floor.
“Ugh!”
At that moment, it felt as if the entire world in her mind was boiling, and the murky, yellowish-white light became even denser.
It was illusory, unreal, yet distinctly clear and present.
It was a contradiction, yet it all fit together perfectly.
Song Xun gasped in pain, clenching her teeth so hard she bit her lip until it bled, refusing to let go because she was afraid that if she relaxed even a little, she would scream uncontrollably.
This continued, on and on. She didn’t know how much time had passed. In her hazy consciousness, Song Xun only felt a distant point of white light suddenly appear in a field of darkness.
It was very sudden, very distant, and approaching very slowly.
Bit by bit, it got closer and brighter.
What did that light represent? Song Xun didn’t know. All she knew was that now, all she could do was endure.
She endured until her body grew numb, her limbs stiff, her consciousness almost gone, and her eyes, bulging as if they would pop out of their sockets, were filled with a thick, terrifying crimson. Finally, she could no longer bear the repeated torment and screamed.
“Aaaah!”
“Ugh, aaaahhh—”
………
When Chang Fei, Chang Wan, and Shi Tou rushed back after receiving Song Xun’s call, the three of them met at the entrance of the residential complex.
They got out of their taxis and stood there, staring at each other, all of them completely bewildered.
“Wait, Big Sis called you back too?”
“You too?”
The three of them looked at each other, completely clueless as to why Song Xun had called them all back.
But they didn’t waste time guessing. They could just go in and ask Big Sis directly, right?
But as soon as the three of them entered the apartment, they heard urgent barking from the kitchen, mixed with Song Xun’s agonized screams.
The sound startled all three of them. Forgetting to even change their shoes, they all ran over to see Song Xun lying motionless in front of the dining table.
“Woof!”
“Woof, woof!”
The two dogs were pawing frantically at their owner, pacing anxiously.
“Big Sis…”
As they got closer, they saw that Song Xun’s face was contorted, as if she were enduring some immense pain. Patches of a black substance stained her exposed skin, emitting a foul odor.
It was getting more and more pungent.
Shi Tou quickly scooped Song Xun up. “Quick, to the hospital! Chang Fei, go get the car.”
“Okay.”
The two of them turned and ran outside.
It was at this moment that Song Xun managed to regain a sliver of consciousness.
She could vaguely hear Shi Tou and Chang Fei’s voices. Although the pain hadn’t lessened at all, at least it wasn’t getting worse.
For Song Xun, she could still endure this level of pain.
“Shi Tou… no hospital… you… you guys… take me to my room… I’ll explain… later…”
Hearing Song Xun’s low, barely audible voice, Shi Tou quickly looked down. Song Xun’s left eye was slightly cracked open.
His deep, booming voice sharpened with anxiety. “You’re like this and you’re not going to the hospital? You…”
“Shi Tou!”
Song Xun interrupted him, her voice hoarse but firm.
She didn’t know what was happening to her body, but Song Xun wasn’t stupid. She could guess that the change was most likely related to the White Light Stone.
And the existence of the White Light Stone could not be exposed, not even the slightest possibility.
So she couldn’t go to the hospital.
Seeing that Song Xun was unwilling, Shi Tou was at a loss. He was used to listening to Song Xun. In the end, he could only look up at Chang Fei.
Chang Fei was decisive and smart.
The siblings also looked at Song Xun. Chang Wan was extremely anxious. “Shi Tou, why did you stop?”
“Don’t listen to Big Sis, let’s hurry to the hospital.”
Shi Tou started to move again, but out of the blue, Chang Fei said, “Listen to Big Sis. Shi Tou, let’s go upstairs.”
“…Oh!” said Shi Tou.
“…” Chang Wan was stunned for a moment, then grew frantic. “Brother, what are you saying?”
But since Song Xun wouldn’t go, and Chang Fei had said so, Shi Tou and Chang Wan, though they felt it was wrong, had no choice but to carry Song Xun towards her room.
Chang Fei and Chang Wan quickly followed behind, and the two dogs were just as fast.
The door to Song Xun’s room was open. Shi Tou strode in and placed her on the bed. Before he could even start trying to persuade her to go to the hospital with his booming voice, Song Xun spoke first.
Her voice was still low and hoarse, strained with pain. “You guys go out first.”
Shi Tou’s eyes immediately widened.
“You guys… go out and wait for me.”
Shi Tou scratched the back of his head and was about to say something else, but Chang Fei came over and pulled both him and Chang Wan away.
Song Xun’s consciousness was already so blurry she couldn’t hold on any longer. She could vaguely hear Shi Tou’s loud voice, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying.
But she thought, Chang Fei really did understand her.
Finally, she lost consciousness completely.
