The three mammoth carcasses were pressed tightly together, their massive tusks embedded in the ground.
The two shriveled corpses outside were almost the size of a room, while the one in the middle was small, like the elephant that Xia Chuhe had seen in modern times.
Mammoths have an extremely strong ability to withstand the cold, so they... probably starved to death.
Xia Chuhe grabbed a handful of soil, then released it, and the wind carried the soil to the mammoth.
"Let's go, we'll be out soon," Xia Chuhe said.
“Ivory…” Lu Dangui hesitated.
"If you want, I can wait for you."
Xia Chuhe could not personally extract the ivory, even though that would mean huge profits.
She has been spoiled too much by modern society and has an excessively strong obsession with cleanliness.
Xia Chuhe could hunt beavers for food and necessities for survival.
But she would never hunt beavers for the sake of perfume glands.
Lu Dangui paused, then, like a child imitating Xia Chuhe, scattered a handful of soil and said, "Let's go."
After passing through the SOS, an open space appeared in front of us.
There is a snow house in the open space.
A meat drying rack was set up in front of the snow house, with large chunks of dried meat on it.
Xia Chuhe tore off a piece and tasted it.
It's salty and has a pleasant aroma.
Xia Chuhe squatted down in front of the snow house and found the doorway, which was a wooden plank.
She knocked three times politely, and after a while, knocked three more times.
The wooden plank was lifted up, revealing a pair of wary, animal-like eyes.
The people inside the snow hut saw Xia Chuhe's face and their eyes lit up. They immediately opened the doorway and let Xia Chuhe and Lu Danggui into the snow hut.
An oil lamp burned inside the snow hut, its cotton thread occasionally flickering softly. A thinly clothed little girl lay fast asleep on the ice bed.
The person who let them into the house was, by a fair measure, a woman.
The woman was gaunt, with only her breasts showing a slight sagging. Her hair was matted, her facial skin loose, and her clothes were tattered and patched.
The woman spoke: "You..."
His voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time.
"Where are you from?" the woman asked.
Xia Chuhe replied, "From another world."
The woman sensed Xia Chuhe's gentle and refined demeanor, and upon hearing her incredible reply, her eyes lit up with a bright light.
She walked to the ice bed and touched the girl. The girl opened her eyes, her gaze clear and innocent.
She was well cared for; she was clean, had fair skin, chubby cheeks, and dimples on the back of her hands.
The woman led the girl to Xia Chuhe, knelt down without hesitation, pressed her forehead to the ground, and pleaded, "Please take her away."
The girl also knelt down, imitating the woman.
Xia Chuhe hurriedly reached out to help him up: "Get up quickly."
How could she possibly take care of a child when she was constantly on the verge of death in the wasteland?
The responsibility of caring for a life is too heavy; once you begin, you must be responsible to the very end.
Xia Chuhe could not bear the responsibility, nor dared he.
The woman took a sachet off her neck and held it at Xia Chuhe's feet: "This world is dying. Please save my child. You can take everything I have."
Xia Chuhe wanted to refuse, but the moment she saw the sachet, all her words were cut off.
A strange snowflake was embroidered on the sachet.
Most snowflakes have straight hexagons, but this snowflake has curved hexagons. If you look at one corner alone, its shape is somewhat like a seedling.
Xia Chuhe was very familiar with this pattern.
This is the logo of her family's farm brand.
The logo was designed by Xia Chuhe's mother, Xia Qingxue.
When Xia Chuhe was a child, he asked his mother why she drew snowflakes like that.
Xia Qingxue said, "Because snowflakes are like mothers, and seedlings are like you."
Xia Chuhe shook his head: "No, no, I'm not a seedling, I'm a hoe, I weed and loosen the soil for the seedlings."
Xia Qingxue hugged her daughter and smiled: "Before you were born, your father and I named you He because you were as precious as a rice seedling, full of the hope of a bountiful harvest. But after you were born, your mother didn't want you to just be a rice seedling that was being cared for. Your mother hoped that you would become a brave farmer, capable of protecting the rice seedling that belongs to you."
Xia Qingxue gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek: "Baby, no matter what you are, in Mommy's eyes, you will always be Mommy's little seedling."
...
Xia Chuhe picked up the sachet, his teeth chattering with excitement, and he stammered, "Where...where did you get this sachet?"
The woman didn't look up: "It's passed down from person to person, from the dying to the living. It contains seeds, but we have no land left for life."
Xia Chuhe asked her one last question: "In what year did this sachet appear?"
"I can't remember, it's been many years, maybe hundreds of years."
Xia Chuhe felt his blood run cold from those words.
Several hundred years? Why several hundred years?
Her parents are just over fifty years old. What is the connection between this sachet and her parents?
After a moment's thought, Xia Chuhe put away the sachet and said solemnly, "I promise you, I will take her away. As long as I have something to eat, I will never let her go hungry."
The woman finally stood up, smiled with relief, and a strange, gentle beauty emanated from her bark-like face.
She placed the girl's hand in Xia Chuhe's hand, then her legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground.
"Mom!" The girl knelt beside the woman, at a loss for what to do.
Lu Dangui touched the woman's arm; it was stiff and dry.
Perhaps the woman died the moment she saw Xia Chuhe.
The ground suddenly shook.
Lu Dangui glared at Xia Chuhe: "You got the dungeon core. The dungeon is about to collapse. Pack your things, quick."
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