Chapter 40 Poisonous Taro

Zhao Xuan knew a long time ago that Lu An killed the eldest son of the Yu family to avenge her.

Actually, she didn't think it was a big deal. That day, her face was covered in blood, which looked scary. In reality, her face was swollen for a few days and then it healed. However, for a long time, her vision was blurry, and she couldn't even hear. But she didn't tell Lu An about it. She knew that Lu An was having a hard time at that time. She had seen the large bruise on Lu An's waist where someone had kicked him.

That day, on her way to collect grain, Sister Lu overheard the three Yu brothers talking about finding a woman to have a treat. At that time, Zhao Xuan lay motionless in the shed all day, leading many in the camp to believe that Lu An's wife was paralyzed. The three brothers said that a paralyzed woman was the best, as she wouldn't resist and couldn't even speak.

Sister Lu was so frightened that she quickly searched the entire camp for Lu An. When she found him, he was carrying a small bag of rations with Lao Dao. The three of them then rushed back and rescued Zhao Xuan.

Sister Lu actually quite liked Zhao Xuan, and with her as a neighbor, Sister Lu would often greet her when she went out and ask her to help watch over her shack—although what she meant by "watching over" was that Zhao Xuan would lie motionless on that bed made of broken wooden planks.

So Sister Lu hoped she could live longer. After rescuing Zhao Xuan from the three Yu brothers, she brought Zhao Xuan some herbs she had picked. While helping her apply the herbs to her face, which was swollen like a pig's head, she loudly comforted her: "What are you still resisting at a time like this? Don't you care about your life? Those men could kill you on the spot with one punch to your face, you know that?"

"Disgusting," Zhao Xuan uttered softly.

"Sigh..." Sister Lu sighed again. "If you want to resist, don't use brute force. Your strength is no match for those men—when you're taking a dump, take a dump and pee when they're pulling down your pants. Most people would run away at that moment, and that's when you can escape..."

"How are you going to escape? Running with a bag of poop in your mouth? You'll be dropping it as you run..." Zhao Xuan found this funny, but she also felt that she shouldn't laugh at this moment. She glanced at Sister Lu, and the two women burst into laughter together.

Every now and then, an animal or two would be slaughtered in the camp. Sometimes it was a pig, and sometimes it was a cow or sheep that came from who-knows-where. Usually, Lu An and Zhao Xuan didn't get a share, but on one rare occasion, Lao Dao asked Lu An to slaughter a pig and then took the opportunity to give him a small piece of meat.

Lu An shared a small piece with Sister Lu, then made lean meat stew for them. They ate carefully, even licking the steaming pot clean. Later, Zhao Xuan and Sister Lu discussed taking turns going out to collect herbs, while the other person could help watch over the two families' sheds.

By then, Sister Lu's illness was quite severe. She emitted a foul odor, the smell of a living person slowly rotting away. Many people avoided her, including men seeking amusement. But Sister Lu didn't complain. She kept trying to save herself. She found herbs outside the camp and brewed them herself. The herbs were bitter and hard to swallow, but she could drink them down in one gulp like a cow drinking water. Sometimes Zhao Xuan could see a fleeting look of panic in her eyes; she was afraid.

Zhao Xuan felt sorry for her and would put his arm around her shoulder and gently pat her back to comfort her.

Sister Lu was the first person Zhao Xuan met after the apocalypse and treated as family.

Lu An didn't allow Zhao Xuan to spend the night outside the camp, so she always went and returned on the same day. In the third year of the apocalypse, some energy vehicles were still usable, and Zhao Xuan would sometimes hitch a ride with others to go to more distant places, using some herbs as payment. No matter how late it was, she always made sure to get home, because Lu An wouldn't go to sleep until he saw her.

Besides some herbs, she also learned to recognize some wild vegetables, which she would bring home and share with her sister Lu.

When it was Sister Lu's turn to go out, she would often be gone for many days and bring back a lot of things. Whenever this happened, her eyes would light up, and she would lay out the things she had picked and explain to Zhao Xuan what each one was, where it was picked, and what its effects were.

The camp was located in a remote suburb, next to a river. As long as you were willing to walk a little further, you could find some wild vegetables and herbs. Sister Lu would dry the herbs, most of which would be collected by the camp as protection money, and she could exchange the rest for some food.

They lived like this for half a year. Later, Lu Jie's complexion got worse and worse. Sometimes she would be out of breath after saying just a few words, and she spent more and more time in bed.

After Zhao Xuan had learned a lot from Sister Lu's experience, she was basically the one who went out.

Lu Jie's dog, named Huangdou, is exceptionally well-behaved. It knows it needs to guard two sheds, so it often sleeps at the boundary between them.

Sister Lu always laments that she regrets not meeting Zhao Xuan sooner. If she had met him earlier, she wouldn't have needed to sell her body for a living, and she could have confidently ventured out and supported herself in a way she preferred. But there are no "what ifs" now.

This camp is a cage. At the beginning of the apocalypse, all etiquette and law have disappeared. In order to survive, weak women, children and the elderly need such protection. But the camp itself also continuously draws nourishment from these weak humans. They are at the bottom of the structure and can be abandoned at any time.

As long as there are people, there will never be a utopia in the world.

Zhao Xuan never knew that Lu An was a vengeful person.

Just when she thought everyone had forgotten the harm done to her by the three Yu brothers, news came that the eldest Yu brother had died.

Then came the news that Lu An had been beaten bloody by the other two brothers of the Yu family.

There was a rule in the camp that killing was forbidden, and any grudges had to be settled outside the camp. Therefore, when the Yu brothers were entangled with Lu An wielding machetes, the camp manager intervened in time to save Lu An's life because he was still useful, but that was all he did.

Upon hearing the news, Zhao Xuan was overwhelmed by fear. She was surprised that her fear wasn't about being left without anyone to protect or care for her, but rather the very fact that she was about to lose Lu An.

The Yu brothers, unable to avenge their family, left in anger, leaving Lu An dejected on the ground.

She carried Lu An, who was covered in blood, towards her shed. Lu An was so big that even though he was already so thin, she could still feel her bones creaking as she lifted him.

Zhao Xuan had never done any physical labor since she was a child. She was even a little weaker than women her age. But for some reason, she was able to carry the unconscious Lu An on her back and walk all the way back to her residence.

No one dared to help her. The two surviving brothers of the Yu family were already blinded by greed. Whoever helped her at this time would not survive after leaving the camp tomorrow.

It wasn't until she carried Lu An home without breaking a sweat and placed him on that incredibly hard wooden board that she felt an intense pain in her chest, followed by coughing up several mouthfuls of bloody saliva.

When Sister Lu saw this, she was terrified. She checked all of Lu An's bones, and then seemed to put down a huge weight: "His bones aren't broken... his bones aren't broken." Then she glanced at Zhao Xuan and saw that her expression was as terrifying as a ghost.

With a ferocious expression, she cut open Lu An's clothes and wiped the blood from his body. Lu An was covered in blood, but his face was pale, and his body temperature was very low, a sign of excessive blood loss. He had been slashed in the head and had several knife wounds on his body, but fortunately, none of them had penetrated his flesh.

"You can live, you can live..." Zhao Xuan murmured something as she began to boil water—she needed to clean Lu An's wounds and then stitch them up. These tasks required disinfection, but she didn't have any disinfectant alcohol, so she could only boil water.

"Use fire to sterilize the needles and scissors." Sister Lu was more experienced than her. She set up a charcoal fire, both to keep Lu An warm and to sterilize the metal instruments that needed to be sewn. There were still some herbs to stop the bleeding, which Sister Lu brought and applied to Lu An's wounds one by one.

Zhao Xuan had never stitched anyone before; in fact, she rarely even touched a needle. She began clumsily stitching up Lu An's wound, using her limited knowledge of mending.

"You can live, you can definitely live..." she whispered in prayer. With each needle inserted, Lu An, who was unconscious, would twitch in pain. Sister Lu held down his hands and feet, and even she couldn't bear to watch, so she turned her head away.

Zhao Xuan's stitched wound looked ugly, but her hands were very steady.

She was never one to remain calm under pressure, but today she carried Lu An all the way home, and even with such an excessive load, she could still steadily perform the stitching. She was afraid of blood, but her rationality had transcended her body, no longer swayed by any emotions, calmly directing her body from a third-person perspective.

"You can live, you definitely can live..."

—Later, Lu An really did survive.

Zhao Xuan rarely recalls that period of time. The brain protects itself by forgetting overly painful memories. In short, Lu An was bedridden for a long time, so Zhao Xuan took on the responsibility of supporting the family. Meanwhile, another idea gradually sprouted in her heart.

They probably can't stay in this camp any longer.

Rumors circulated that the camp built around the warehouse was running out of food after three years of consumption. Many people were quietly planning to leave, including Zhao Xuan.

Private individuals entering and exiting the camp must use the main gate. Exiting is not subject to inspection, but entering requires the confiscation of 30% of the goods. Ignoring Lu An's objections, Zhao Xuan often stayed out for two or three days at a time, allowing him to search for supplies in more distant areas.

When she goes out, she pushes a small cart with the supplies she needs for food and lodging, as well as her belongings that she needs to transport out.

She would move some of her already meager belongings out of the shed each time, hide them in a secluded spot outside the camp, and repeat this process several times without leaving a trace until she had moved almost all of her belongings.

Each time she went out, she avoided the Yu brothers' itinerary or went with the main group searching for supplies. The Yu brothers kept a close eye on Lu An, waiting for him to recover from his injuries and leave the camp to kill him, but they showed much more mercy to Zhao Xuan.

Because Zhao Xuan knows how to gather herbs.

Every time Zhao Xuan returned, besides the 30% of goods she handed over, the two Yu brothers would openly plunder most of her herbs and wild vegetables. Fortunately, Zhao Xuan always traveled with others, and apart from looting, they didn't do anything too outrageous.

Every time Zhao Xuan was robbed, she would cry her heart out, sitting on the ground with her hair disheveled, covered in mud, her face snot and tears, looking like a not-so-bright madwoman.

The Yu brothers would laugh when they saw her looking aggrieved, and when they got impatient, they would slap her a few times, making her face red, swollen and bleeding.

She would cry for a long time, and no one could persuade her. Later, everyone gradually got used to it: people in the camp would not dare to help her because of the Yu brothers' tyranny, but they would still feel sorry for this little madwoman who was not very smart. Anyone who knew the whereabouts of the Yu brothers would tell her to avoid them as soon as possible.

For the next six months, the same routine repeated itself: Zhao Xuan would have his medicine stolen, lie on the ground crying, and then have it stolen again.

Everyone seemed to have gotten used to it. They knew that although Zhao Xuan wasn't very bright, the things he gathered were quite good: mushrooms, wild vegetables, herbs... Many people living in the city didn't know the types of these things. When they asked Zhao Xuan how he gathered them, he would chuckle and give a long, nonsensical explanation.

After each robbery, Zhao Xuan would cry, then get up from the ground and slowly walk home covered in injuries. She would wipe the dust off her face, straighten her clothes, and pretend that nothing had happened.

She couldn't let Lu An know what she was going through.

She had to endure it, until Lu An was fully healed and could leave the camp with her.

Sister Lu said that wild taro is poisonous; even a tiny amount can be fatal if eaten.

In the days leading up to his departure, Zhao Xuan was in a particularly good mood. The outskirts of the camp were a lush, deserted area. Walking along the river into the mountains, there would be plenty of food to fill one's stomach. Unfortunately, most of the people in the camp didn't know this. They mostly just caught fish in the river. As for the wild vegetables, they didn't know which ones needed to be boiled and which ones could be eaten plain. Some wild vegetables were poisonous, and only Zhao Xuan knew how to prepare them.

The poisonous taro plant looks exactly like a taro, and only Zhao Xuan knows this.

This plant is also called taro, and gardening enthusiasts may know that it is sometimes used as an ornamental plant. Zhao Xuan collected all the roots that looked exactly like taro, steamed them, added white sugar and stirred them to make taro paste. He then put the paste into a jar and placed it in a corner of his small cart, covering it with layers of other wild vegetables.

The sugar was collected by her and the rest of the group from nearby villages; she didn't bring these precious sugars back to camp. In fact, she hadn't eaten sugar in a long time. Looking at the glistening, sweet-smelling sugar, she swallowed hard, but still mixed it into the poison.

She hummed a song as she mashed the taro.

It was already night when she and the main force returned to camp that day. The Yu brothers were incredibly patient; for Zhao Xuan's meager supplies, they actually waited for her on the road she was bound to take. The jar of poison, which appeared to be carefully hidden, was discovered. Zhao Xuan rushed forward like a madwoman to grab it, and knowing that there was no hope of getting it back, she even reached out to scoop out the sweet taro paste from the jar to eat, and unsurprisingly, she was slapped several times.

Zhao Xuan sat on the ground and wailed loudly.

He burst into tears of joy.

That night, she left with Lu An. She couldn't take Lu Jie with her, as Lu Jie was already terminally ill. So she put the only surviving puppy into her backpack, and hand in hand with Lu An, they resolutely left.

The guards at the entrance had been replaced, and they were unaware that Zhao Xuan had just entered an hour earlier.

She and Lu An found the hidden supplies and the small cart. They settled the puppy in a warm little corner on the cart, Lu An pulled the cart while she pushed from behind. The world was vast, and they were heading towards freedom.

Neither she nor Lu An inquired about the fate of the Yu brothers. The poisonous taro would cause a severe reaction upon contact with the skin, and eating just a few bites would be fatal. The Yu brothers hadn't come looking for the jar of poisonous taro paste after Zhao Xuan snatched it from him and left the camp, which meant they had already been poisoned.

In this world, even a minor injury or mild poisoning can be fatal, even if it doesn't kill you immediately, it can take several days to finish.

Thinking of this, Zhao Xuan burst into laughter. Lu An didn't know why she was laughing, assuming she was laughing because she wanted to escape the camp.

The two of them grew up quickly after the apocalypse. Zhao Xuan didn't ask Lu An how the eldest son of the Yu family died, and Lu An didn't ask why Zhao Xuan kept bringing back poisonous wild plants. Instead, he asked Sister Lu in detail about something.

They were both protecting each other in their own way, resolutely and fiercely.