Chapter 5: Unexpected.

If there was a chance to live a better life, she would definitely seize it with everything she had.

With that thought in mind, Lin Yuxi lay down on the bed. Her eyelids could no longer stay open and slowly closed as she fell asleep.

……

“Ah ha~”

She yawned, stretched lazily, and rubbed her eyes. Another new day had begun. Lin Yuxi rolled over and flopped back onto the bed.

There was nothing important to do anyway. She decided to laze around a little longer.

This was her daily routine. Thanks to her ice-making ability, she normally didn’t need to go out collecting rainwater. All she had to do was create a few ice blocks, put them into bottles, wait for them to melt, then sprinkle in some dirt before trading them away.

Most people actually preferred trading with her, saying the water she made tasted better.

She had compared it herself. The water from the ice she created was exceptionally pure and refreshing. Even after adding mud and turning it murky like sewage, it still felt clean and crisp in the mouth. It didn’t have that sticky, slimy aftertaste that filtered sewage always carried.

Because of this, she didn’t have to rush out early every morning to find water or trading partners.

As long as the territory didn’t suddenly stop distributing food for long stretches like it had a few times before, she could be considered a winner among the bottom-tier survivors.

She had successfully become a salted fish. With no worries weighing on her mind, she rolled over again, planning to catch a bit more sleep.

“Knock knock…”

“Little Xi, are you awake?”

Little Mo? Didn’t we just meet yesterday? Why is she here so early?

Puzzled, Lin Yuxi got out of bed and opened the door.

“Little Mo, why did you come?”

“Because I missed little Xi. Is it wrong to come see you?”

Lan Mo spoke casually as she walked in on her own, sat down on the edge of Lin Yuxi’s bed, and smoothly pulled off her hood and black outer coat.

Lin Yuxi scratched her head awkwardly as she watched her.

“Didn’t we just see each other yesterday?”

“Yesterday didn’t really count as a proper meeting. After crying in my arms, little Xi just ran off by herself.”

Hearing this, Lin Yuxi felt even more embarrassed. The way she had acted yesterday… was really too humiliating.

Seeing her embarrassed expression, Lan Mo stopped teasing her.

“Little Xi, come here quickly. I brought something.”

As she spoke, she pulled out two steamed buns, a piece of compressed biscuit, and a can of meat from her coat.

“Isn’t this the can from yesterday? Why did you bring it back?”

“Of course I brought it back for the silly little Xi. You worked so hard to grab this food and even got injured because of it. Even though we’re friends, you should think more about yourself.”

“Then… let’s eat it together.”

After that, the two of them enjoyed what counted as a rather sumptuous breakfast in the apocalypse. Once they finished eating, they lay back on the bed and chatted.

“Little Xi, do you think the world will ever recover? Will we keep living like this forever?”

“I don’t know either… It probably will recover, right?”

“Will we survive until then?”

“…We probably will.”

As they talked, sleepiness crept over them again. Before they knew it, they had dozed off once more.

Time slipped by quietly. In the blink of an eye, it was already afternoon.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The violent knocking on the door startled both of them awake.

They exchanged a glance, both feeling nervous. Lin Yuxi got up and opened the door.

Standing outside was a woman wearing a military cap, accompanied by two soldiers holding rifles. The woman had a serious expression. Purple wavy hair peeked out from under the brim of her cap, and a silver badge was pinned to it. She wore a black coat over a purple sweater, paired with tight black leather pants.

The woman looked at Lin Yuxi, then at Lan Mo, as if confirming something, before nodding.

“Come with us.”

Without giving them any chance to react, the woman turned and walked away. The two armed soldiers stayed behind, clearly there to “escort” them.

Not knowing what was happening, the two felt uneasy but could only steel themselves and follow.

Once they caught up, they realized there was another armed soldier waiting outside, along with more than ten girls who looked about the same age as them.

Lin Yuxi and Lan Mo were placed into the group and waited together with the other girls.

Before long, a few more girls of similar age were brought over by soldiers.

“Captain Qin, we’ve basically brought all the girls under eighteen that we could find.”

The purple-haired woman nodded, and the soldier stepped aside.

A short while later, a vehicle carrying water barrels drove out.

Several soldiers unloaded two large basins from the back of the truck and began pouring clean water into them.

By now, many people had noticed the commotion. They stared at the buckets of clear water, swallowing hard, but no one dared approach. They could only watch from a distance.

Once the basins were full, the purple-haired woman walked over and said to them:

“Go wash your faces clean.”

Hearing her words, no one dared to move at first. Everyone wanted someone else to go first.

Lin Yuxi pulled Lan Mo forward with her. Since it looked like everyone would have to wash eventually, it was better to go early while the water was still clean.

With someone taking the lead, the other girls gradually followed. However, instead of washing their faces right away, they all first took big gulps of the water.

The moment Lin Yuxi finished washing her face and stood up, the woman’s voice came from behind her:

“That white-haired one, come here.”

Being called “white-haired” didn’t surprise Lin Yuxi at all. When washing her face, the hair in front would inevitably get wet and reveal its original color.

The purple-haired female captain first lifted a strand of Lin Yuxi’s silver-white hair to examine it, then pinched her cheek. Apparently still not satisfied, she reached out with her other hand and pinched the other cheek as well.

Not knowing the purpose of all this, Lin Yuxi felt extremely uneasy, worried that her identity as a mutated person might be discovered.

After pinching and observing for a while, the female captain finally let her step aside and began checking Lan Mo. She touched Lan Mo’s hair first, then held her chin and examined her face from side to side. After that, she had Lan Mo stand next to Lin Yuxi to wait while she continued with the next girl.

As soon as Lin Yuxi turned her head, she found Lan Mo staring at her intently, as if admiring a beautiful work of art. It made her feel incredibly awkward.

Although she had long known she looked good, being stared at like this—especially by Lan Mo, who had been with her for so long—still felt strange.

“Little Mo, stop staring at me.”

“Who told little Xi to always make herself look so dirty? I couldn’t even tell you were this pretty before.”

“What do you mean ‘make myself dirty’? This is called hiding, okay? I’m protecting myself. Besides, aren’t you doing the same thing?”

Their voices were very soft as they chatted. They didn’t notice that after the other girls finished being checked, none of them were sent to their side.

The girls had been divided into two groups. Lin Yuxi’s group had only six people. All the remaining girls were on the other side.

Once everything was done, the purple-haired woman nodded to the soldier beside her.

The soldier walked to the driver’s seat of the water truck, pulled out an iron bucket, and inside it were the same meat cans that had been distributed yesterday.

The soldier began handing out the cans to the girls on the other side—two cans each. The girls looked at the cans in their hands with uncontrollable excitement.

After finishing the distribution, the soldier carried the empty bucket back without any intention of giving anything to the six girls on Lin Yuxi’s side.

They could only watch with longing eyes as their unease grew stronger.

Afterward, the purple-haired woman had two soldiers escort the dozen or so delighted girls back.

The other soldiers began cleaning up the basins, preparing to drive the water truck away.

Lin Yuxi, Lan Mo, and the other four girls looked at each other in confusion, not understanding why they had been left behind.

The purple-haired woman walked up to them. A faint smile appeared on her previously stern face.