Chapter 26 Discovery

"Is this the crystal? Why is it growing on the heart?"

The light from the mining lamp above his head just happened to shine on the silver blade in the boy's hand, reflecting the light and illuminating the boy's dirty face.

Jiang Qian felt that the person looked familiar. She looked carefully for a long time before she recognized who it was.

He was a famous problem teenager in their village. He had just been ordered by the school to go home and reflect before the rainstorm. He had come to the canteen to buy a drink before, so Jiang Qian had some impression of him.

"Jiang Yan? What are you doing here?"

The boy obviously recognized who she was. He threw the body in front of him down and found another one nearby. "I'm looking for something."

Jiang Qian watched the boy's actions and silently moved away from him.

"What are you looking for among the corpses? What if you get infected? Go back quickly."

"I've got several layers of plastic bags on my hands, so they won't get infected," the boy said, not stopping his movements. "Novels say zombies have crystal cores inside their bodies. I'm going to check and see if I have any. If I wait until they burn, I won't be able to find anything."

Although most people were unwilling to believe what he said, the boy thought about the disaster he might face in the future and did not want to hide it even if they did not believe him.

"Crystal core?" Jiang Qian didn't expect that he was looking for this.

"Right." The young man plunged the knife into a corpse's skull, his eyes gleaming in the light. "Isn't that often described in novels? There are also superpowers. Crystal cores can be absorbed to stimulate and increase superpowers. They're also the currency of the apocalypse. Of course, we should look for more now, otherwise they'll all be wasted."

Although Jiang Qian had read the novel, she had never thought about these things before. After hearing what he said, she was also very curious, "Did you find it?"

"No." The boy's voice dropped. "I've already looked for three zombies, but I still can't find any..."

"Neither do we have this."

The young man swiftly pulled out the knife in his hand and casually stabbed it into the zombie, but he let out a "Huh" sound the next second.

Jiang Qian was about to ask what was going on when she saw the young man excitedly cut open the zombie's chest with a fruit knife, then reached in. After more than ten seconds, he found a small round ball from a pile of bloody organs.

He wiped it with the clothes of the zombie next to him, and the ball revealed its original appearance.

The transparent ball looks like it is glowing when illuminated by light.

"Is this the crystal? Why is it growing on the heart?" The boy was a little confused. He put the small ball aside, found a corpse nearby, and continued to cut it open.

Perhaps because of the previous experience, the second time was obviously much faster.

“We have this one, too.”

The bloody ball was taken out and wiped dry again. Except for the slight difference in size, it was almost identical.

"How do I use this? Can it absorb it by placing it on my hand? Why is there no change? Is it because I don't have superpowers?"

The young man looked at the two small balls carefully, his face full of confusion. "The crystals mentioned in the novel are all transparent, and there are various types corresponding to superpowers. Why is there something inside this?"

Jiang Qian also looked at it carefully.

This small ball does not look like the crystal in the novel. Not only is it not transparent, but there is a black mass inside it, which makes people feel ominous.

The boy wanted to continue digging when he heard shouting not far away.

"Isn't that stuff finished yet? Do you need help?"

Jiang Qian was startled, realizing that she had stayed here for too long, and replied loudly, "No need, I'm done, I'll be back soon."

After saying that, she looked at the young man in front of her, whose body was already splattered with blood, and urged him in a low voice, "Alright, we don't know if this thing is useful yet, so don't look for it anymore. There will be plenty of opportunities to find it later. Hurry back."

He was alone in the dark wilderness. If something happened, no one would even notice. It would be fine if Jiang Qian didn't know, but if she knew, she couldn't leave him, a child, in such a dangerous place.

The boy was also afraid of being discovered.

When he told his parents about it before, they didn't believe him at all and didn't let him come. They said that although the bodies here were to be burned, the villagers would have a bad impression of him if he destroyed the remains. So this time he came secretly while his parents were out collecting firewood.

Looking at the two beads in his hand, whose purpose he didn't know, he stuffed one into Jiang Qian's hand.

"Meet once, and I'll give you half. In return, you can't tell my parents about what happened today."

Jiang Qian looked at the beads in her hand and the boy's back as he left stealthily, feeling a little confused and laughing.

"I had no intention of telling your parents."

After Jiang Qian returned, she carried several buckets of sewage before she finally cleaned the backyard.

At this time, Jiang's father Jiang Dong and his group who had gone out to look for firewood also came back.

The dry firewood they collected was piled directly on the pile of corpses outside the temple. Jiang Hongbing led his men to the outermost area and used shovels to dig out a fire-proof isolation zone on the wasteland. In order to make it easier to ignite, they poured a bucket of peanut oil on it.

The candles in the temple were lit with lighters and thrown far away onto the pile of dry firewood.

The oiled wood quickly caught fire, igniting the corpse below. The aroma of burning meat gradually filled the air.

The smell of burnt food mixed with the smell of blood and decay was indescribable.

But looking at the blazing fire, the faces of the onlookers were full of tears.

The fire burned for a whole night before it was extinguished.

At dawn the next day, only black-gray charcoal and scattered blackened bones remained on the land that was originally covered with weeds.

As one of the only three cadres left in the village, Jiang Weimin asked someone to pull a cart of soil from the nearby area and buried the remaining ashes on the spot.

A high mound of earth was piled up and a circle of stones was placed around it to prevent the earth from being washed away to other places during heavy rain. The remaining people returned to the temple.

The temple was quieter than before, and the villagers' faces became even more numb after what they had experienced yesterday.

Yesterday, they learned about the situation outside from the armed police responsible for the rescue. It was not as safe as they thought, and the situation in some densely populated areas was even worse than theirs.

The world is in chaos, completely in chaos.

In the past, they could still comfort themselves by thinking that once the water receded, everything would be fine. There would be food, and their family members could get medical treatment.

But now…

Everyone was confused.

Jiang Hongbing also frowned, not only because of the serious situation in various places, but also because of those people whose remaining fighting spirit seemed to have been exhausted and who had no hope for the future.

He found a gong from the temple's warehouse and started beating it.

The clear sound of the gong attracted everyone's attention.

"What are you all doing with those sullen faces? Is the sky falling? Are you all like this? You all have such sullen faces. What do those dead people think? They've lost their lives, so shouldn't they be crying even more?"

Someone lowered his head again and said, "If this is the only way to live, then I might as well die!"

With a bang, the gong rang again.

"I just don't like hearing that. You'd rather die? Then why didn't you tell the armed police yesterday not to rescue you? Someone else saved you, and you're still saying this. What do you think of their rescue?"

"The rescue force is so limited, but we are lucky, we waited. Others are working hard to save you, why would you give up?"

Jiang Hongbing roared, "You're living much better than the people outside. At least you've survived until now. At least you're in the temple now, and someone has helped you clear out the zombies. The surroundings are safe, and you don't have to worry about zombies suddenly appearing and biting you. At least now you have rescue supplies, and you don't have to worry about what to eat and drink tomorrow. Compared to others, what else do you have to be dissatisfied with?"

"Yes, everyone's heart aches when their loved ones die, but who hasn't lost a family member these days? Aren't there any relatives or friends among those burned bodies? Even before the rainstorm, did the death of someone in your family mean your life would be over?"

"If you want to give up now, fine, then give up. The chef will go cook soon. Those who want to die should stop eating. You're going to die anyway, so eating is a waste. It's better to leave it for those who want to live. Consider it a good deed before you die."

Jiang Hongbing beat them several times before he started distributing dates to everyone.

"I asked the rescue workers yesterday, and the situation in the city is even more severe than ours. Your children and grandchildren might still be struggling to survive in the city right now. You are much more comfortable than they are."

Jiang Hongbing's tone softened, and his voice choked with sobs as he thought of his own children. "We can die, but who knows what will become of our children in the city? If we don't save them, what will become of them?"

A few sobs suddenly sounded in the silent air, and then the sobs became more and more frequent, and the crying became louder and louder.

"My three children are all in the city. How come the ones in the city are not our two old friends?" Tears fell from the eyes of a white-haired old man.

"My daughter was still in school when the rainstorm hit. Yesterday, rescue workers said that students from various schools were the first to be evacuated, but now I don't know where they were taken to. She's only sixteen!"

"My parents went to the city a while ago to take care of my sister after she gave birth. They're a family of five, two elderly people, a pregnant woman, and a baby who's not even a month old. My brother-in-law is the only one who can help..."

“…”

Someone suddenly stood up, wiped away tears and said, "We can't stay like this forever. There are disasters all over the country right now, but the government only has so many troops. We still have to rescue our loved ones ourselves."

"That's right. I have to live well. Even if I die, my family must die together."

"I gave birth to my children, so I have to be responsible for them. No matter where they are, I have to find them."

"I also want to go to the city to find my parents. They raised me for half my life, and I can't ignore them for the rest of my life."

"I can't die either. I still have my daughter. I don't know where the school has transferred her to. Is she safe now?"

…

Thinking of their relatives who were still in the city and whose lives or deaths were unknown, the villagers cheered up again.

"If you want to find someone, you can't just talk about it."

Jiang Hongbing watched the villagers cheer up and said, "We must make sufficient preparations while we are in the mountains. Otherwise, we might be stranded halfway before we find anyone."

…

With a common goal, from that day on, the people stranded on the top of the mountain never felt depressed again.

The water at the foot of the mountain has not receded yet, so they can't go down, but that doesn't mean they can't do anything on the mountain.

They listened to Jiang Hongbing and prepared weapons in advance for use after going down the mountain.

【Author’s words】

I wrote four thousand words last night, but felt it was not good enough, so I deleted it. I was back to the time before liberation.

So today's update is not much, I wanted to update a chapter tomorrow, but my period suddenly came and now my stomach hurts a lot, I will try my best to update a chapter tomorrow, but don't get too much hope. [Tears]

I finally understand what it means when it rains it pours.

Thank you for your support. I will continue to work hard.