Chapter 47 The Local Tyrant
I slept soundly through the night, and was woken up by my cat, Chestnut, the next morning before dawn.
Zuo Shan yawned and glanced at the baby sleeping in the crib. The baby was lying on its back with its belly exposed, snoring softly, sleeping very soundly.
It seems that the mutated beasts are indeed tough and resilient. Even a cub has a strong enough stomach and intestines to change the structure of its food at will.
The bowl of pine nut and wild vegetable porridge it drank last night didn't cause any stomach upset, so she won't need to prepare special food for it anymore.
Unfortunately, this result did not bring any surprises to Zuo Shan, because Xiao Bao is still a cub and does not eat much, so she may be able to barely afford to raise him.
But when it grows a bit bigger, oh my god, just thinking about the enormous size of that big panda, you can imagine how astonishing its appetite will be.
If that time really comes, she might have no choice but to release it back into the wild.
Zuo Shan didn't like to wallow in sentimentality. After quickly washing up, she took Mao Li to do her morning exercise.
Today she chose the route with the most scavengers, because the extreme heat had arrived, and many people were setting off in the dark, disregarding the darkness before dawn.
After all, when the weather gets extremely hot, the temperature will rise rapidly as soon as the sun comes out, and it is easy to suffer from heatstroke even in the shade of trees in the wild.
So everyone wanted to take advantage of the cool weather before dawn to travel, so they could suffer less.
Zuo Shan ran forward, occasionally overtaking the scavengers walking on the road. Those people saw her wearing a heat-insulating suit, even though its color was dark and inconspicuous, and they all looked on with envy.
Some of them had been relatively wealthy in the past, had worn heat-insulating clothing, and knew how effective it was.
If it weren't for the large number of scavengers along the way, some people would have pounced on them and robbed them outright.
Mao Li sensed the greedy gazes of these people, and it even overheard a middle-aged woman muttering quietly:
"Hmph! She just used her youth and beauty to coax a man into buying her a heat-resistant suit. Back in my day, when I was young, men were willing to buy me those too."
Unfortunately, the heat-resistant suit eventually tore, and that heartless guy got tired of it and refused to even glance at me again.
Mao Li recorded the woman's words and played them for Zuo Shan. Zuo Shan didn't care and continued her morning run.
There are many scavengers passing by on this stretch of road, so it's impossible for any to slip through the net. Therefore, she didn't even bother to take out the cutting knife to examine the leaves.
Because she maintained the pace of her long-distance running training, she arrived at the largest scavenging area in District 50 before dawn, and there were very few people who had arrived earlier than her.
The moon was exceptionally bright tonight, so even though it was still dark, everything around me was generally visible.
Zuo Shan randomly chose a densely wooded area and decided to start the test.
Just then, a timid girl's voice came from behind her: "Sister Fan, you should go somewhere else. These mutated chrysanthemum plants here have owners. If you pick them, they'll cause you trouble later."
"How do you know my surname is Zuo? Do you know me?" Zuo Shan turned around and met a thin girl of about ten years old. She had an average appearance, and her clear eyes were filled with shyness. She looked a little timid.
"Yes, when I was six years old, I was scavenging and two big boys stole a water celery stalk that I had painstakingly tested positive for moderate radiation. They even beat me up."
You and that Qi Yang brother just happened to be passing by, saw what was happening, and helped me get the water celery back. You even beat up those two big boys.
That day I was beaten black and blue. Later, when I ran into you again while scavenging, neither of you recognized me. I was too embarrassed to follow you, so I never spoke to you again.
Following the little girl's words, Zuo Shan searched through his memories, but couldn't find this passage. Perhaps for the original owner, it was just an unimportant little thing, and it was normal to forget it.
"What's your name?" Zuo Shan asked casually.
“My name is Pan Duoyu. My mom says I’m a troublemaker and shouldn’t have been born, but she got pregnant, and the authorities won’t let her have an abortion,” said the young girl, Pan Duoyu.
Zuo Shan looked at her calm expression as she said this, indicating that she must have long accepted the fact that her mother did not like her.
“Pando… how about I change your name to Pandole? Do you think it sounds better?” Zuo Shan really couldn’t bear to do it.
It wasn't that she was a saint, but she felt that this mother was too cruel. No matter what the reason for giving birth to this child, since the child was born, she shouldn't treat her like this.
Living in a wasteland, it's normal to lack food and clothing, but giving a child such a name is a form of psychological torture for her.
"Pandora? That sounds nice, such a nice name! But my mom definitely won't agree to me changing my name. I've heard that changing a name costs five silver coins in fees."
"But you can call me 'Fan Sister,' I'll definitely agree. When I'm an adult and have saved enough money, I can go to the registry office to change my name myself, and then I can be called Pandora openly!" The little girl's face was full of surprise, her eyes sparkling.
“Very good, Pandora, nickname Lele, it makes people happy just hearing it.”
"By the way, Lele, this is everyone's scavenging area, so why do you say these mutated garland chrysanthemums have owners?" Zuo Shan asked, puzzled.
"You know the Tong family, the head of the western gang, right? His older brother, Tong the eldest, came back a while ago. Tong the eldest used to be in the Flying Tiger Mercenary Group, but I heard he made a mistake, had his arm broken, and was kicked out."
Although he's missing an arm, he's a first-tier metal-type ability user, capable of unleashing three golden spikes that can pierce right through a person's heart. No one in our 50th district can rival him.
Tong Laosan and his brother came to the wilderness to scavenge and discovered these mutated chrysanthemum plants.
Because its branches and leaves can grow back quickly after being cut, and these few garland chrysanthemum plants are quite strange, as they have more leaves with moderate radiation detected than other wild vegetables.
The two brothers monopolized these few garland chrysanthemum plants. Anyone who dared to pick a single leaf would be beaten up and their entire day's harvest would be stolen.
They even declared that anyone who secretly picked the leaves from here would be rewarded with half a prize if they reported it.
Think about it, there are so many people scavenging here, there are bound to be some sharp-eyed ones who can spot them, and they can even get free benefits by reporting them, so there are bound to be more people willing to do it.
Over time, no one dared to steal these mutated garland chrysanthemum leaves anymore.
"Sister Fan, you probably haven't been to this area for a long time, that's why you don't know."
Pan Duole explained the whole story, and Zuo Shan was dumbfounded. Everyone was already struggling so much, yet there were still people acting like local tyrants in this place, bullying poor scavengers. It was just too much!
However, as a woman and a pregnant woman, there was really no need for her to get into a conflict with someone over a few pieces of chrysanthemum greens.
"Thank you, Lele. I'll go over there then." Zuo Shan thanked her and ran for a while before finding a clump of bushes with relatively sparse branches and leaves.
This place doesn't look very good, so I don't think anyone will compete with her for it.
Looking around, she noticed that quite a few people had already arrived, but the spot she had chosen was clearly not to everyone's liking; there wasn't a single person within a radius of a dozen meters.
But this is exactly what I wanted. Scavenging should be done in a dispersed manner. You can't do this kind of thing in a group, otherwise if you happen to find a low-radiation leaf, it will definitely attract envy.
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