The line continued to crawl in an suffocating silence.

Xiao Tao walked mechanically, the vicious curses of the Zhou family elders, the villagers' accusations, and the image of Jiang Chan coldly overturning the car... all swirled wildly in her young mind like a revolving lantern. A huge sense of grievance, fear, confusion, and an absurd feeling of being betrayed by the world overwhelmed her like a tide.

Her physical exhaustion reached its peak at this moment. Pushing the cart had exhausted her last bit of strength, and her hands and feet were already as weak as noodles. At this moment, she was only supported by her will and Jiang Chan's pulling. As she walked, her vision went black, her legs went weak, and she collapsed straight to the ground!

A strong hand, like an iron clamp, instantly grabbed the back of her collar and pulled her body back from falling!

Xiao Tao was lifted up and barely opened her eyes. Her unfocused gaze met Jiang Chan's cold stare, and a huge sense of grievance and fear instantly erupted within her.

"Waaaaah... Waaaah... Sister Jiang..."

Xiao Tao could no longer hold back and cried incoherently, "Why...why...Grandpa Zhou and Grandma Zhou...they scolded me...they said such awful things...I clearly helped them...sob...and those other people, why did they scold you too...sob..."

She cried her heart out, gasping for breath.

Jiang Chan silently watched Xiao Tao, who was crying her eyes out. Something extremely complex seemed to flash across her cold eyes. She released her grip on Xiao Tao's collar and said in a voice that was still cold, "Get in the car."

Xiao Tao was still sobbing, looking at her blankly.

“I said, get on the cart,” Jiang Chan repeated, emphasizing her words, and pointed to the cart.

Xiao Tao finally realized what was happening. Overwhelmed by exhaustion and lingering fear, she couldn't muster any resistance. She practically scrambled onto the cart floor, curled up in the center, and continued to sob uncontrollably, tears streaming silently down her face.

Jiang Chan pulled the handle of the cart again. This time, there was a small, crying figure on the cart. She arched her back, braced her feet on the hot yellow earth, and used her waist and abdomen to push the cart forward again with a creaking sound.

The cart moved forward in silence for a while, and Xiao Tao's sobs gradually subsided, leaving only a few suppressed chokes. She huddled on the cart, hugging her knees, her red and swollen eyes staring blankly at the cracked, seemingly endless dirt road.

Jiang Chan's voice suddenly broke the silence, still calm, yet like a warning bell ringing in this desolate wasteland:

"Listen."

Xiao Tao trembled, subconsciously raised her head, and looked at Jiang Chan through teary eyes.

“In these times,” Jiang Chan’s voice wasn’t loud, but every word was clear, carrying a chilling sense of reality that seeped into her bones, “being able to take care of your own life is already a blessing from heaven. Take care of others?” She paused, then let out a short, cold sneer, “That’s because they want to die even faster!”

Xiao Tao stared blankly at her.

"Help others?" Jiang Chan continued, as if stating the most basic truth, "First, you have to weigh your own capabilities! Do you have the strength? Do you have enough extra food? If he borrows your car today and you lend it to him out of pity, that car won't be yours tomorrow! If he borrows food today and you give it to him, tomorrow all the food left in your pocket will be his! Human hearts can never be satisfied!!"

She pushed the cart, her gaze fixed on the desolate horizon, as if telling someone else's story, her tone flat and even:

“There was once a person, a fool… who also encountered something similar.” The “once a person” she was referring to was naturally that unrecognizable post-apocalyptic world. “An old man on the roadside, who was starving to death, pitifully said that he hadn’t eaten for three days. The fool was soft-hearted and broke off half a pancake for him.”

She paused, her voice still calm, "And then? The old man took advantage of the fool turning around, trying to snatch all the remaining food from the fool's bundle, and even tried to throw stones at the fool..."

Xiao Tao stared wide-eyed in horror.

"Another time, during a heavy snowfall, a woman holding a child begged the fool, saying her child was freezing to death and she wanted to go into the sheltered cellar the fool had found to warm up." Jiang Chan's voice was as cold as ice. "The fool let her in, but in the middle of the night, her husband led a group of people in, stole all of the fool's belongings, and almost beat him to death, leaving him in the snow..."

She turned her head, her cold gaze falling on Xiao Tao's shocked and frightened face.

"This is what happens to 'fools'! Xiaotao, remember, in places where you can't survive, being soft-hearted and kind is the most useless thing. It will make you die the fastest and most pathetic! Protecting yourself and not harming others is already the best kind of kindness!!"

The cart continued its journey in silence.

Xiao Tao huddled in the car, her swollen, red eyes filled with immense shock and confusion.

Jiang Chan's words were like the sharpest carving knife, leaving a bloody wound on her naive worldview.

Those beautiful imaginings about kindness, gratitude, and warm mutual assistance between people are shattered in the face of cruel reality.

Tears fell silently again, but this time, they were no longer tears of grievance and confusion, but rather tears of bewilderment, coldness, and a stinging pain of rediscovering the world. She silently raised her dirty sleeve and forcefully wiped away the tear stains on her face.

The crunching sound of wheels rolling over the loess soil became the only accompaniment to this cruel lesson in survival.

The cart glided gently down the slope, the axles making a soft creaking sound. Xiao Tao curled up on the cart, her small body swaying slightly with the bumps.

The ground beneath her feet was quietly sloping downwards, forming a long but not steep downhill road. The wheels seemed to be pulled forward by an invisible force, gliding forward with inertia. Jiang Chan could even feel the slight pull of the cart carrying her forward. With only Xiao Tao sitting on the cart—a light and almost weightless child—it was even easier than when the cart was empty.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!