3. Dog woman
Fu Yunong handed over the water, "Here you go..."
Before she could finish speaking, the scene before her suddenly distorted, and when she entered the space, an expression of disbelief still lingered on her face.
Holy crap!
Shi Dong actually attacked her!
Fu Yunong's illusions shattered in an instant. She had considered the risks of the system being exposed, but a sliver of hope remained in her heart.
Who would have thought that Shi Dong, that bastard, was so naive!
Shi Dong's fierce attack missed its mark, and she quickly shifted into a defensive stance.
That woman vanished into thin air...
She saw it clearly: Fu Yunong had been muttering and fiddling with things in the corner for a while, and suddenly two bottles of water appeared on the floor.
This is too eerie... Is she a human or a ghost?
Suddenly, a figure appeared without warning.
“Let’s talk…” Fu Yunong had barely finished speaking when Shi Dong flipped his wrist and slashed a sharp dagger toward her neck.
Fu Yunong's figure disappeared again.
Shi Dong's expression turned solemn. This woman had dodged her attacks twice in a row; it was unbelievable.
Meanwhile, Fu Yunong was furious, cursing and swearing in her tiny 20-square-meter space. If it weren't for the divine sense's compensation of three daily periods of immunity from death and injury, she probably would have already met her maker.
She took a deep breath and silently vowed that this was the last time; if things really didn't work out, they would simply go their separate ways. She refused to believe that she couldn't survive with this system!
The scene shifts, and she shouts urgently, "I'll give you supplies!"
Shi Dong suddenly stopped moving.
Fu Yunong quickly chimed in, "We can cooperate!"
Shi Dong slowly sheathed his sword, his eyes probing, "Tell me about it?"
Fu Yunong had been prepared to flash back to the space, but seeing that she finally stopped, she couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief.
The two sat facing each other, and Fu Yunong handed them water.
Shi Dong didn't move.
Fu Yunong pinched her hard with the corner of her eye, unscrewed the bottle cap, took two sips herself, and then handed it back to her.
Shi Dong calmly accepted it and said lightly, "Thank you."
Fu Yunong spent another 3 points to buy a [High-calorie energy bar 100g/bar (3000kJ) chocolate flavor], broke it in half and gave it to Shi Dong. Together with the leftover compressed biscuits from yesterday, the two ate and chatted.
Shi Dong was no longer particularly moved by Fu Yunong's ability to conjure up supplies out of thin air.
After they had almost finished eating, Fu Yunong spoke up, "Let's cooperate, Shi Dong. I'll feed you and you teach me how to survive here, how about it?"
Shi Dong didn't answer her, but instead asked, "You want to exchange your supplies for crystal cores?"
Fu Yunong pursed her lips and nodded; it wasn't hard to guess.
Shi Dong smiled enigmatically, "If that's the case, why can't I just change it?"
Fu Yunong instantly became alert and moved her body to the side.
Shi Dong's fingers twitched slightly, the dagger flying nimbly between his fingers. "I can just ask you to hand over the method. Why should I go through you?"
“It’s bound to me, you can’t take it away!” Fu Yunong retorted stubbornly.
Shi Dong said calmly, "You can try it. I have plenty of ways to make you submit."
At this point, Fu Yunong got angry, "How could you repay kindness with enmity? I even saved your life!"
Shi Dong snorted coldly, "I never said I was a good person."
Fu Yunong said defiantly, "Fine, I won't come out!"
Shi Dong raised an eyebrow. "You think you can hide in there forever?"
Fu Yunong choked. There was no food or water in the space, and it wasn't warm. She could hide there for a while, but not forever. Besides, she still needed to accumulate points to go home.
Even so, she couldn't back down. She glared back, her face tense. "If you really could control me, why are you sitting here talking to me? Instead of trying to scheme against me, why don't you cooperate with me? I happen to have what you need, don't I?"
Shi Dong is very thin and eats very carefully, not even letting go of the crumbs that fall into her hands.
She discovered it long ago.
Shi Dong fell silent. Fu Yunong didn't understand the value of the resources she possessed, but Shi Dong knew all too well. Let alone a bottle of clean water, even dog food mixed with sand could spark a bloody battle.
She lives alone here, even afraid to sleep soundly, and occasionally she feels lonely. However, she doesn't trust those who are strong, and she fears those who are weak will become a burden.
Now, someone is offering to cooperate with her. She's naive and simple, capable of protecting herself. Most importantly, she has resources.
Shi Dong had been fighting with someone for a bite to eat and was about to succeed when she inexplicably appeared here. If she hadn't been here before, she would have thought she had traveled through time.
Now it seems that this matter is mostly related to Fu Yunong. It seems that the two have a strange fate.
Thinking of this, Shi Dong said seriously, "Cooperation is fine, but I don't deal with people I don't trust. Tell me about your background, I want to hear it."
Fu Yunong frowned. Her background was too bizarre, and her intuition told her that she shouldn't say it.
Shi Dong stared into her clear, bright eyes and said, word by word, "Is it so hard for you to tell me your origins? From another world, an extraterrestrial visitor?"
Fu Yunong's pupils dilated, her expression shifting several times before she finally sighed, "Didn't you already guess?"
So she briefly explained how she had unexpectedly arrived here, and only briefly mentioned the system.
Shi Dong pondered for a moment, "So, you only acquired this...system later." Before she could answer, Shi Dong muttered to herself, "It's more like a form of compensation."
Fu Yunong's heart tightened.
This woman is frighteningly perceptive!
That wasn't all. Shi Dong continued, "You can return to your own world, but there are conditions, right?"
Fu Yunong gave a dejected "hmm".
Shi Dong didn't press further, but instead breathed a sigh of relief. "Then it's settled. You feed me well, and I'll do my best to protect you until you leave. On the condition that you don't do anything stupid."
Fu Yunong quickly corrected, "It teaches me how to survive!"
Shi Dong remained noncommittal, stood up, patted her pants, and before leaving, she asked in a low voice, "Is it peaceful where you are?" Before Fu Yunong could answer, she had already walked out of the warehouse, as if it were just a casual question.
Fu Yunong was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized, "Hey! What about you?!"
...
A short while later, Shi Dong brought back an old, yellowed map and called Fu Yunong over to look at it together.
Fu Yunong took a closer look and saw that it was an administrative division map of Zhongzhou. The outline of the entire Zhongzhou was roughly octagonal, or rather, it resembled a Bagua (eight trigrams).
Where are we?
Shi Dong's fingertip pointed to the lower left of the "Bagua" symbol, "Here."
Fu Yunong remembered that the background information said the survivors were gathered in several highland cities in Zhongzhou, but the map didn't show the terrain, so she asked directly.
Shi Dong moved his fingertip to the top of the "Bagua" symbol. "This whole area is a plateau." He glanced at her after saying that and said with certainty, "You know about highlands."
Fu Yunong did not deny it, "I know some of it."
She knew in her heart that she needed to accumulate enough points to go home as soon as possible. The more people she went to, the more room there would be for maneuver. She knew that she would never be able to accumulate enough points by herself in her entire life.
The original names of those plateau cities are no longer important; survivors habitually refer to them as the highlands, while the rest of the area is called the wasteland.
The wilderness is fraught with danger and sparsely populated.
Fu Yunong couldn't contain her curiosity, "Then why aren't you on the high ground?"
Shi Dong glanced at her and thought, "Ha!"
Fu Yunong: "?"
Shi Dong said that the straight-line distance from their place to the highlands is 2,000 kilometers.
Fu Yunong gasped, "How long will it take to get there?"
Shi Dong scoffed, "You'll never get there on just two legs."
Fu Yunong was puzzled.
Shi Dong drew a horizontal line on the waist of the "Bagua" symbol with his fingertip, "This area has long been a vast expanse of water."
Fu Yunong felt as if a stone was pressing on her heart; it was so difficult.
Shi Dong looked out the window at the gloomy sky and said in a serious tone, "We need to find a place to stay quickly, winter is coming."
That's exactly what Fu Yunong was thinking: whether or not to go home, survival comes first.
Before nightfall, Shi Dong went out to search for timber, and Fu Yunong went with him.
The view outside was dim, and the air smelled unpleasant. The two searched for quite a while before finding some dry, rotten wood and a crumpled aluminum pot. Fu Yunong put them all into her spatial storage, saving time and effort.
Shi Dong didn't ask any further questions about her magical space. After all, she had just offended someone during the day, and digging deeper might only provoke them.
Back in the warehouse, she closed the deformed, broken door, making the room even darker. Shi Dong scraped off some sawdust with her military knife, touched the knife to a flint, and sparks flew. She gently blew on them, and the sawdust ignited.
Fu Yunong's eyes sparkled, "So amazing!"
Shi Dong smiled and added firewood, asking, "Are you hungry? What do you want to eat tonight?"
Fu Yunong opened the system, her gaze slowly tearing away from the luncheon meat and self-heating rice, and finally bought [Compressed Dry Food Bag (100g)]*1, [Mixed Dried Vegetables (50g)]*1, [Nongfu Spring Purified Water (550ml)]*3, leaving her with only 2 points.
Looking at her pitifully low points, Fu Yunong sighed silently. It wasn't that she spent too much money; it was that she didn't have enough.
Fortunately, compressed rations can be used for two meals if you save some money.
Buying dried vegetables was a last resort; she hadn't had a bowel movement for two days and desperately needed to replenish her dietary fiber...
Patting the supplies beside her, she smiled and said, "Let's have something hot tonight!"
Without Fu Yunong lifting a finger, Shi Dong had already built a makeshift stove out of stones. Fu Yunong placed the aluminum pot on the fire, poured in a bottle and a half of water, and after the water boiled, she threw in half of the dry food, then added the vegetable packet, stirred it all together, and a pot of vegetable porridge was ready.
It didn't look very appealing, but it had a fragrance similar to rice and vegetable porridge.
When the meal was ready, Shi Dong moved the burning firewood aside and sprinkled a layer of ash on the glowing embers. This way, they could save firewood, keep warm, and avoid revealing their location through the firelight.
With no extra containers, the two had to take turns eating from the pot.
Fu Yunong told Shi Dong to eat first, and she didn't refuse. She blew on the food and slurped it up, her cool eyes filled with laughter.
Fu Yunong watched from the side, and for some reason, she suddenly felt a little sad.
After Shi Dong finished eating, he handed the pot over.
Fu Yunong took a bite and couldn't help but wrinkle her nose.
It doesn't taste good!
She managed to swallow the remaining mouthfuls and then unscrewed the water bottle, gulping down several mouthfuls of water to suppress the taste.
After they had eaten their fill, it was completely dark outside. Only the red glow of the fire remained in the warehouse. The two men sat in silence.
In the dim light, Fu Yunong saw Shi Dong leaning against the corner of the wall, wiping something with his head down, which looked like a sign.
She lowered her voice and asked softly, "Shi Dong, why don't you tell me about yourself?"
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