Chapter 107 A Tragedy Caused by a Fish (Part 1, Third Update)

After enjoying the fragrant steamed egg custard, Zuo Shan felt as if he had returned to the days on Earth when he didn't have to worry about food. He squinted his eyes contentedly and leaned back in his bamboo chair.

Then Pandora said something that spoiled the mood: "Sister, we've eaten such expensive food, we should gather more wild vegetables today."

Zuo Shan instantly returned to reality. This was a wasteland. One could indulge in luxury occasionally, but not make it the norm.

"Grab your tools and let's go!" Zuo Shan waved his hand and said.

Because she hadn't done her homework beforehand, she opened the map and randomly chose a gathering point that wasn't too far away.

According to the map, this collection point borders District 49, separated by a river more than 50 meters wide. So she had Pan Duole bring two fish baskets that she had woven in her spare time. She also brought some high-radiation bamboo rat jerky that she had left behind, which could not be eaten, to use as bait.

She didn't know if she would catch any fish, but she was determined to try her luck and maybe she would catch one.

When they stepped out of their house, the sun had already risen above the distant mountains. This time, their departure time was relatively normal, and they encountered many scavengers from District 49.

Some of them were in groups of three or five, while others were lone wolves, but they did not communicate with each other, each going their own way, and intentionally or unintentionally keeping a distance of three to five meters between them.

Zuo Shan noticed that they were not like the scavengers in District 50 who would stare at anyone they saw. To them, everyone else seemed to be invisible. Only when they encountered someone particularly tall and strong would they look at them warily and then keep their distance.

Zuo Shan had no intention of developing friendships with these people, so he led Pan Duole on a slow jog and soon overtook many of them.

She didn't notice that after they calmly ran past, the way those people looked at them changed from indifference to fear.

The nearest collection points are all seven or eight kilometers away. The fact that a pregnant woman and a child could run all the way to the collection point shows that they are in good physical condition and are not pushovers.

Zuo Shan naturally didn't care about their thoughts; she just didn't want to miss her daily training, and running there would save a lot of time.

After running for about two and a half hours, we finally arrived at the collection point, which was 25 kilometers away from the residential area.

Zuo Shan noticed that there were already dozens of scavengers around, scattered in a vast, seemingly endless thicket a hundred meters away from the riverbank.

When we arrived, we found that there were several kinds of edible wild vegetables. Although they were not growing very well, there were enough for hundreds of people to collect them here.

This is just one of the many collection points in District 48. Zuo Shan doesn't know the specific considerations for choosing a collection point; at least for now, she's doing it randomly.

Zuo Shan and Pan Duole went to the riverbank first and stared at the river for a long time. They saw that the river was swift and the only shallow water near the bank was where a few small fish, about ten centimeters long, occasionally swam by. They couldn't see a single big fish at all.

But Zuo Shan still found a relatively calm spot in the water, secured the two fish baskets with large stones, and then took Pandora to collect them.

Today, because there were many people in this area, Zuo Shan did not ask everyone to disperse.

The chestnut used a stealth feature. After being detected by a robotic arm, the edible leaves were marked, and Pandora would pick them when she had time.

While no one was paying attention, Xiao Bao found a tall tree, over a hundred meters high, and climbed up to play.

After all, the field of vision of ordinary scavengers is usually no more than thirty meters high, and higher places are beyond their reach, so they will not waste their energy paying attention to them.

Zuo Shan and Pan Duole selected two adjacent shrubs to begin testing. Pan Duole's shrub was a mutated lamb's quarters, one of the most common edible wild vegetables. Although there were obvious signs that it had been picked, there were also quite a few new tender leaves.

The plant on the left is sow thistle, which grows particularly lushly. Its stem is not thick, only about the thickness of a calf, and appears slender and flexible relative to its height of over five meters.

This flexibility allows it to withstand the onslaught of storms, even though it is thin and fragile.

The long, thin leaves that grow around the stem of the sow thistle are deeply lobed and somewhat feather-like in shape.

The edges of the leaves have irregular serrations, but the surface of the leaves is smooth and glossy, as if coated with a layer of wax, which can reflect sunlight and makes it relatively more resistant to radiation.

The leaves are arranged alternately, with each leaf extending outward to form a beautiful fan shape. The reason why the left fan didn't mind its bitter taste was because it liked its flower-like shape.

The entire plant of sow thistle showed no signs of being picked, because many people dislike it for being too bitter. It is only when the weather is approaching extreme cold and there are no other wild vegetables that are less unpalatable that people will pick it.

However, Zuo Shan knew that after boiling the sow thistle, soaking it in clean water for a while would remove most of the bitterness, making it taste good whether used in a cold salad or as a wild vegetable porridge.

Zuo Shan calmly selected relatively tender leaves that were not exposed to sunlight. This was her experience in scavenging. Such leaves had a relatively low radiation level, but that only meant a higher proportion of them were edible, not that they were 100% edible.

Zuo Shan was lucky today; out of more than ten samples tested, only one showed moderate radiation. She was very happy; a good start is a great omen.

This mutated sow thistle plant can reach a height of over five meters. Of course, the leaves on such a plant are very old and the radiation is also high. The left side is selected from low side branches and tender shoots that grow close to the ground.

After testing thousands of leaves, 45 leaves with moderate radiation and 3 leaves with low radiation were collected from the left side. If other scavengers knew about this probability, they would probably be extremely envious.

After all, each leaf of this sow thistle is thirty or forty centimeters long and twenty centimeters wide, and two leaves are enough to make a dish!

Zuo Shan glanced at her watch; in another hour it would be the peak radiation period at noon. She decided to go to the river to check on the fish baskets first.

She walked toward Pandole, who was a few dozen meters away. By this time, Pandole had already finished testing the gray amaranth and was harvesting the leaves of the mutated dandelion that Mao Li had marked, following Mao Li's instructions.

Because it had been tested in advance, the harvesting was extremely fast. When Zuo Shan came to find her, she had just finished harvesting the last leaf and slid down from the dandelion stem, which was more than two meters high.

Xiao Bao was still taking a nap on the big tree he had chosen, while Zuo Shan left Mao Li to watch over it so that it wouldn't run around after waking up.

Upon reaching the riverbank, Zuo Shan discovered that one of the two fish baskets had been gnawed through a large hole, and the bait inside was nowhere to be found.

Pan Duole said with heartache, "What a pity! If we had stayed by our side, we might have caught this big fish!"

Fortunately, in the other fish basket, there was a fish that was over 40 centimeters long struggling. It had finished eating the bait and couldn't find an exit, so it was running around in circles in a panic.

Zuo Shan and Pan Duole worked together to yank the fish basket up and slam it onto the riverbank beside them.

The fish seemed quite energetic, hopping around for a full three minutes before slowly becoming breathless with its mouth open.

Pandora quickly took a scalpel and made a small incision at its tail fin. The test results showed that the moderate radiation was non-toxic and edible.

The two looked at each other and burst into laughter.

Although this fish only looks like it weighs two or three pounds, it's still meat!

There was a large expanse of white pebbles on this side of the riverbank, which was completely unsuitable for plant growth. As a result, the view was completely unobstructed, and some sharp-eyed scavengers who were climbing high up in the distance to collect leaves spotted this scene.

They had considered fishing in the river before, but most of the scavengers had no experience living by the river or the sea, so they didn't know how to weave fish baskets or bait the fish, so basically no one could catch any fish in this river.

Now, seeing someone catch a fish here, I'm so envious and jealous that my eyes are practically red.

After all, in this place where people eat wild vegetables most of the time, unless they have mercenaries at home, they can only occasionally get a little bit of mutated beast meat. Moreover, ordinary people of the second rank or above will explode if they eat it. Therefore, ordinary scavengers have basically never eaten meat.

In no time, some of the stronger men were already itching to get started.