While Zhao Xiaoxiu and the Meng brothers were searching inside the temple.

As Zhao Gang burned the corpse in front of the bonfire, he secretly extended a tiny tentacle, ignoring the burning flames, and touched Shan Yuan's brain.

Memories of good karma flooded in instantly; his entire life, along with those long-forgotten fragments of memory, were all 'seen' by Zhao Gang.

The little boy was born in a small, unknown northern town and grew up slowly under the love and encouragement of his parents and family.

He successfully entered university at the age of eighteen, becoming a mechanical engineering student. After graduation, he worked for a state-owned agricultural machinery manufacturing company in the provincial capital and became the chief engineer after ten years of hard work.

During this time, he married a girl who also worked at the factory, and they had a child together. The couple eagerly awaited the birth of their love.

The birth of their daughter brought both joy and worries to this small family.

The mother had better career prospects, so the man gave up the opportunity for promotion and stayed at home.

The new dad didn't know how to take care of his child, so he learned everything from scratch. Gradually, he took care of everything for the child, including meals, studies, hobbies, and crafts.

The summer when our daughter was six, the family of three traveled to Huangshan so that she could enjoy one last bit of freedom before starting elementary school.

The virus broke out quickly, and the mother was suffocated to death by being pushed, trampled, and killed in the chaotic crowd.

The father and daughter watched helplessly as their mother struggled to rise from the ashes, becoming a heartless ghost. In utter despair, they had no choice but to abandon their mother and continue their escape.

The man fled with his daughter to a temple where all the monks had left. There, they found a small monkey that the abbot had locked in a small hut and rescued it.

In the early stages of the disaster, the vegetable garden cultivated by the monks of the temple provided food for the father and daughter, allowing them to survive.

But one unexpected night, the mutated pine suddenly attacked, and her six-year-old daughter died on the spot.

The man, in anguish and rage, contemplated suicide when the evolved macaque brought back his daughter's battered body.

A man who has already lost his wife cannot afford to lose his daughter, so he is somewhat relieved to know that his daughter will become a ghost.

From then on, a man, a monkey, and a ghost lived in this temple.

The daughter needed flesh and blood, so the man fed her with his own flesh.

But the little devil wasn't satisfied and nearly broke free from his restraints and escaped from that dark room several times.

After the initial catastrophe, the survivors finally got a moment's respite, and from time to time, some would go up the mountain to find food or hunt mutated plants and animals.

Left with no other choice, the man reached out to his fellow countrymen, hoping to repay their kindness by having a clever little monkey lure them up the mountain.

To avoid feeling guilty about killing, he would take out the evolved food each time, inducing their greed and malice.

That way he could kill them with a clear conscience and satisfy his daughter's carnal desires.

The last remaining scraps, or the 'food' that the daughter couldn't finish eating, were thrown under the pine tree by the door, and it would clean up all traces.

This strategy has never failed in the past thirteen years.

Until this time—he met someone who could still hold onto their principles even in the apocalypse.

Zhao Gang read the man's memories before his death, and he felt relieved, as the family of three could finally be reunited.

Zhao Gang couldn't understand this self-deceptive 'reunion'. He found that humans always try to deceive their own brains, making futile struggles.

However, this person's memories allowed him to learn a lot.

For example, the correct way to raise a little girl.

It turns out that not only do you need to feed the cub well, but you also need to take care of her mental state.

Tell her stories, dress her in pretty clothes, let her play with fun toys, and let her interact and play with other children her age so that she can grow into a well-rounded person under her father's care.

Zhao Gang nodded to himself, having learned something!

"dad!"

The cub's excited voice rang out from behind.

Zhao Gang looked back and saw that the search team had found all of Shan Yuan's belongings that they had hidden.

There were clothes and toys, a bottle of expired candy, a satellite phone, two solar-powered flashlights, a packet of sleeping pills, a tent, and some bed sheets, blankets, pots and pans.

These things piled up into a small hill behind Zhao Xiaoxiu.

But she wasn't interested in these things. Holding a large ceramic jar, she laughed and said, "Dad, look! We've found so many seeds of evolved fruits and vegetables!"

Meng the eldest then said that all the spoils belonged to him and his daughter, and that he and the second eldest only wanted a solar-powered flashlight.

After all, if Gangzi and Xiaoxiu hadn't arrived in time, they would both be dead.

Prior to today, Zhao Gang had no particular interest in these supplies.

Because he had no clothes or bedding, he could keep the cubs warm and comfortable inside his body.

He didn't think that candies, vegetables, or seeds could provide much energy for the cubs; they were less effective than his tentacles.

But Zhao Gang, who has now read the memories of good karma, doesn't think so anymore.

He walked over, patted his daughter's head, and praised her: "Xiaoxiu, you're amazing to have found so many evolution seeds."

Zhao Xiaoxiu's eyes widened in surprise. "Dad, are you slick with honey? You're so good at talking, are you out of your mind?!"

But who doesn't like to hear compliments?

Zhao Xiaoxiu's surprised eyes slowly curved into a smile. "Hehe," she chuckled, "It wasn't that amazing. It was mainly thanks to Uncle Meng."

Meng Lao Er shook his head modestly, "No, no, Xiao Xiu has sharp eyes. She spotted the jar tied to the kitchen roof first. I just climbed up a ladder to get it down."

Zhao Gang selected the bed sheets, quilts, children's clothes, toys, satellite phone, and a solar-powered flashlight from his spoils and put them into Shanyuan's mountaineering backpack.

Then I moved all the things from my old, worn-out backpack over there.

The seed container was too bulky, so Zhao Gang found a cloth bag and gestured to Zhao Xiaoxiu to pour the seeds in and stuff them into her backpack.

With one hand carrying a bulging hiking backpack and the other holding the hand of a happy little cub, she returned to the duty room.

It's late, the cubs should go to sleep, otherwise they won't grow tall.

The Meng brothers looked at the remaining items, then simultaneously looked up and nodded heavily at the backs of the father and daughter, selecting what they could use.

Tomorrow, I still have two mutated hyenas to carry down the mountain. I'm also injured, though not fatally, but my condition is definitely not good.

So even though they knew their mother really liked those complete ceramic pots and pans, the Meng brothers had no choice but to give them up.

The two brothers each chose a new set of clothes to replace their tattered outfits, which were covered in bloodstains.

Then they packed another solar-powered flashlight, a tent, and three clean sheets.

After hesitating for a moment, he packed up the packet of sleeping pills and the expired candy as well.

The candy was in a glass jar, and the expiration date was ten years ago, but it's highly likely that it won't cause any problems if you eat it. You should still be able to exchange it for some points.

After watching the fire in the backyard die down, the Meng brothers returned to the Buddhist temple and, wrapped in the quilts they had found earlier, drifted off to sleep.