Stirring Things Up in the Wasteland 4

Chapter 4

She didn’t know how much time had passed, but suddenly, Song Xun felt a chill.

It was a sticky, clammy coldness that was very uncomfortable.

She awoke in a daze, and it took a long moment after opening her eyes to belatedly realize that she no longer felt any pain. It was just… well, her body felt sticky and extremely unpleasant.

She shifted and sat up in bed. Only then did Song Xun discover that her clothes had been soaked through with cold sweat at some point, and a dark, grimy filth, accompanied by a foul odor, wafted into her nostrils.

Song Xun’s brow furrowed in discomfort.

The black grime wasn’t just all over her; it was even on the bedsheets beneath her. She couldn’t stand it anymore and instinctively jumped up and rushed towards the bathroom.

No, this smell was too pungent.

But after taking two steps, she suddenly sensed something and stopped, frozen in place, her eyes widening in disbelief.

She was an Alpha. An Alpha’s physical constitution was inherently strong, and she had always been an avid fitness enthusiast. Later, she had learned Sanda and freestyle fighting, so her skills were quite good. This was the fundamental reason she had survived the early days of the apocalypse before awakening her abilities.

But the set of movements she had just performed, jumping off the bed, was undoubtedly much smoother and more fluid.

And that wasn’t all. Song Xun could feel that her body, at this moment, seemed to have been injected with a strengthening agent. All five of her senses had undergone some kind of change.

Her slightly nearsighted vision was clearer, and the sounds in her ears were more distinct. This was…

For some reason, Song Xun suddenly thought of a term that often appeared in the fantasy dramas she watched with Chang Wan when she was bored.

Marrow cleansing!

Looking down at the unknown black grime on her body, Song Xun felt she had guessed the truth.

There was no other explanation, was there?

Although the thought of the process made her shudder, she had to admit that the feeling of lightness after expelling these impurities was truly wonderful.

Song Xun sighed. If she had known, well, a little more pain just now would have been fine!

As long as she could become stronger…

In the seventh year of the apocalypse, although she was ranked among the top in Xifeng Base, she was only a Level 6 Ability User. Though she had never seen one, she had heard that the top-ranking bases already had Level 7 Ability Users.

Especially the capital’s No. 1 Jingbei Base, which was rumored to even have a Level 8 Ability User!

That was the kind of powerhouse Song Xun had dreamed of becoming.

She entered the bathroom, turned on the hot water, and stripped off her clothes, throwing them directly into the trash. They were ruined.

Standing under the showerhead, letting the hot water wash away the grime, Song Xun’s mind was still racing with what she needed to do next.

One month was too short, and there was so much to do. She couldn’t waste a single moment.

Stockpiling supplies was a must, but the old problem remained: where to put them?

The moment this thought arose, Song Xun suddenly felt a familiar, murky, yellowish-white light flash before her eyes.

When her vision cleared, she was stunned to find that she could clearly ‘see’ in her mind a faintly glowing, fractured… stone?!

What… what was going on?!

This was clearly the White Light Stone. Of course Song Xun recognized it. But why was it in her mind?

Before Song Xun could think further, her vision blurred again. The next moment, the White Light Stone was gone, replaced by a vast expanse of black earth.

The sun hung high in the sky, casting a warm but not glaring light that illuminated every corner of the black land.

As far as the eye could see, this place was truly vast, at least a hundred square meters, maybe… half the size of a basketball court?

In the distance, the edge of her vision was obscured by a thick, murky fog. And right in the center of this black land, a stone tablet stood abruptly.

It was covered by a white mist. Although the mist was thin, for some reason, it shrouded the tablet so completely that she couldn’t make out what was written on it.

Could this be a spatial dimension?

A space given to her by the White Light Stone?!

Although it wasn’t very large, it was safe. Song Xun’s eyes lit up completely.

The excitement of this moment made her want to howl. And in her excitement, her vision momentarily blurred, and when it cleared, she was back in the bathroom.

Was it her consciousness that had traveled, or her body?

Song Xun couldn’t be bothered to continue showering. She quickly washed off the remaining grime, dried herself, and threw on some clothes before heading out.

The moment she stepped out, she saw the three people and two dogs sitting in the bedroom, some on chairs, some on the sofa.

The two dogs were lying right in front of the bathroom door. The moment she came out, they pounced on her, whining with worry.

They only quieted down after Song Xun patted each of their heads.

“Big Sis…”

The three of them had also been waiting for her to come out.

Song Xun turned her head and saw that the notebook where she had recorded the disasters was still spread open on the desk. Chang Fei was sitting in the chair in front of it. She didn’t know if he had seen it.

But it didn’t matter if he had, because she had never intended to hide it from them.

They had grown up together and had all died because of her. If she couldn’t even trust these three, then Song Xun didn’t know who she could trust.

Seeing her emerge and looking fine, Chang Wan and Shi Tou breathed a sigh of relief. Even the usually reserved Chang Fei smiled and pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose.

Looking at the three people before her—the cute and innocent Chang Wan, the refined and scholarly Chang Fei, and the sturdy Shi Tou—Song Xun suddenly smiled. An impulse born from her heart, a mix of guilt, excitement, and warmth, made her want to rush forward and hug them.

Of course, that’s exactly what she did.

“…” Chang Wan, who was hugged first.

“…” Shi Tou, who was hugged next.

“…” And finally, Chang Fei.

Whatever the three of them had been about to say was now completely stuck in their throats. They looked at each other with three blank, bewildered faces, completely unsure what had brought on their Big Sis’s sudden burst of passion and excitement.

But seeing their owner hugging three people and not them, the dogs were not having it. They all pounced on Song Xun.

Song Xun couldn’t help but laugh and hugged each dog in turn.

They were them.

They had grown up together. They were each other’s most important and trusted people, the eternal warmth in each other’s hearts.

But in the end, they had all met such a fate because of her.

Seeing these familiar faces again now, Song Xun was filled with a mix of emotions.

But as she reminisced, Chang Fei and the others grew uneasy. After all, Song Xun was acting far too abnormally today, crying one moment and laughing the next.

Chang Wan cautiously edged closer. “Big Sis, are you okay?”

“Yeah, Big Sis, if something’s wrong, just tell us.”

“Whatever it is, don’t carry it alone. You still have us.”

Crouching down to hug her two dogs, Song Xun couldn’t help but feel her eyes redden again.

They had grown up together, first meeting in an orphanage. Song Xun had parents and a family, but at the age of five, during a playful mishap, she was abducted by a passing human trafficker and taken to Dongyang City.

Song Xun had been a clever child from a young age and knew she had to escape. But she was just a child, and no matter how smart, she couldn’t outrun the traffickers. She was beaten on the head until her face was covered in blood, and she was barely breathing.

But it was because of this that the traffickers thought she was beyond saving and threw her into a trash can to die.

Fortunately, it wasn’t Song Xun’s fate to die.

She struggled and made a noise, which was accidentally heard by the passing orphanage director, Ji Changguo. She was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.

Although she was saved and her life was no longer in danger, the blow had caused her to forget everything.

After recovering and being discharged from the hospital, she was taken to the orphanage of the man who had saved her. Ji Changguo named her Ji Xia, because it was summer at the time.

It was there that she met Shi Tou, Chang Fei, and Chang Wan. They were all orphans.

Chang Fei and Chang Wan’s parents had died, and none of their relatives were willing to raise them. After ganging up to take their inheritance, they sent the siblings to the orphanage.

Shi Tou’s situation was largely the same. His father had died, his mother had remarried, and he had lived with his grandfather. After his grandfather passed away, he had nowhere to go and ended up in the same orphanage.

Dongyang was just a third-tier city, and the orphanage’s resources were not abundant, so their living conditions were not great. They were fed, clothed, and kept alive, but that was about it.

Of course, even among the children, there were cliques, and it was clear that the few of them were one such group. Their bond went without saying.

It was also in this orphanage that Song Xun met Ji Tang.

Ji Tang was Ji Changguo’s younger cousin. Although there was an age gap, the seniority was there. At the time, Ji Tang was only in her teens, not yet an adult who had differentiated, and was in high school.

When she was on vacation, she would come home and volunteer at her cousin’s orphanage, which is how she met the young Song Xun.

Song Xun adored Ji Tang. The moment she arrived, she would stick to her and follow her everywhere.

After all, Ji Tang was beautiful and had a good personality—gentle and kind. She would bring them candy and fruit. To this day, Song Xun still remembered that the first candy Ji Tang gave her was a White Rabbit milk candy.

It was milky, sweet, and delicious.

But Ji Tang still had to go to school and would only return to Dongyang City during vacations, and she came to the orphanage even less frequently.

Song Xun loved to cling to Ji Tang, and Ji Tang also liked this cool, quiet little girl, so she often came over when she had time. The two of them, one big and one small, had a good relationship.

Five years later, when Song Xun was ten, her parents finally found her.

She was brought back to the Song family. After learning about everything that had happened over the years, her parents even adopted Shi Tou, Chang Fei, and Chang Wan.

After being brought back to Xifeng City, Song Xun never saw Ji Tang again.

It was also around that time that, for Song Xun’s safety, her parents decided to get her a wolfdog.

However, purebred Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs were extremely rare, and her parents went to great lengths, only finding a suitable puppy for Song Xun a few years later.

The Song family was relatively well-off. Though not fabulously wealthy, they had some savings.

Her father, Song Chengjiang, had an older brother, Song Chenghe, who had only one daughter, Song Xun’s cousin, Song Ye.

Because Song Xun had been lost and suffered for so many years, her parents, uncle, and cousin doted on her. But perhaps due to her experiences, Song Xun didn’t develop any bad habits. If one had to name a bad habit, the only ones would be her love for hoarding things, being rather frugal, and, well, being somewhat combative.

However, her parents were happy to see this. They even had Song Xun and Shi Tou learn Sanda and freestyle fighting.

The next time Song Xun saw Ji Tang was in her second year of high school, at Xifeng City’s First Hospital. Song Xun’s parents had been in a car accident and, despite rescue efforts, both passed away.

Ji Tang happened to be working as an intern there, and it was she who stayed by Song Xun’s side through that painful time.

Later, in her third year of high school, Song Xun came of age, differentiated into an Alpha, and lost control. According to Su Qingyu’s version of the truth, it was Ji Tang who had saved her.

To prevent Song Xun from feeling guilty or conflicted, Ji Tang had handed her over to the passing Su Qingyu and left Xifeng City.

After that, her whereabouts were unknown.

But Ji Tang didn’t know that Song Xun actually had feelings for her; she had liked her since she was a child.

Even after the apocalypse, even while she was in a relationship with Su Qingyu under her deception, she had never stopped looking for Ji Tang.

Though she didn’t know what had truly happened that night.

Nor did she know that Ji Tang had become pregnant from that incident and had given birth to two children for her.

This was probably what Su Qingyu had been worried about all along. After all, her own abilities were lacking, and it was only because of Song Xun that she was able to survive and live a decent life.

So when Ji Chao appeared with the two children, she had panicked. Even after she had plotted to kill Ji Chao and the children, she lived in constant fear.

A secret can’t be kept forever. She knew that sooner or later, Song Xun would find out. So she plotted again, killing Chang Fei, the only one who had seen Ji Chao. Then, not stopping there, she decided to throw in her lot with Chen Fang, which led to everything that followed.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

After Ji Tang left, Song Xun’s uncle, Song Chenghe, also passed away in an accident. Song Ye joined the army, and before leaving, she gave the dog she had bought, Ru Hai, to Song Xun.

After joining the army, she rarely returned. She entrusted all her family’s assets and property deeds to Song Xun for safekeeping.

After all, Song Xun was her only sister. Who else would she give them to?

And if anything happened to her on a mission, at least these things would be left for Song Xun.

Of course, Song Ye never said this, so Song Xun didn’t know. But looking back now, it was for the best.

Her thoughts returned to the present. Song Xun wiped the corners of her eyes. She didn’t want to dwell on the past anymore. Now, only the future was what she could consider.

She let go of the dogs and sat down directly on the floor. The bed she had been lying on was stained, and Chang Wan had changed the sheets while she was in the shower.

Chang Wan was an Omega, while Shi Tou and Chang Fei were both Alphas.

This was the high-end residential complex where the Song family lived. They had lived here since they were young, and they still did.

Seeing her, the other three also sat down, forming a circle. The floor wasn’t cold, and they weren’t ones for ceremony.

“Big Sis, just say it. No matter what happened, tell us, and we’ll face it together.”

Song Xun smiled and pointed to the open notebook on the computer desk. Chang Fei glanced at it. “I accidentally saw it just now. Big Sis, what is all this you’ve written?”

He got up and brought it over. “July 1st, tornado, torrential rain, extreme cold, extreme heat… Big Sis, have you been watching too many disaster movies?”

Song Xun didn’t refute him. She licked her lips and looked seriously at the three of them. “What if I told you that, well, this is the future, and it’s all real?”

The three of them exchanged glances.

Only Chang Fei, who had been sitting at the desk, had seen the notebook. Shi Tou and Chang Wan hadn’t, so they quickly took it and huddled together to read.

“What is all this? The future? July 1st? It’s only June.”

“Big Sis, are you still groggy from sleep? Did you have a nightmare?”

Predicting the future? This was the age of science, wasn’t it?

Something like that was impossible.

Shi Tou was stunned. Chang Wan even reached out to touch Song Xun’s forehead. “Big Sis, are you sick?”

Song Xun tilted her head to avoid her hand. She knew this would happen.

It was normal for no one to believe her. It was all too fantastical. If it were her, she probably wouldn’t believe it either.

But Song Xun was prepared. She turned, reached back, and grabbed the fruit platter from the beanbag chair. She placed an apple in her hand, then held it up in front of the three of them.

“Watch carefully. Look closely, and don’t blink.”

Then, without a sound, the apple just… vanished.

The three of them stared.

The two dogs stared.

They were all so shocked they were instantly dumbfounded—