RHWHEG – Chapter 55 Exchange

“Doctor Li!”

One of the injured shouted anxiously, only to tug at his own wound and grimace in pain. Being injured outside the shelter was extremely dangerous—if they couldn’t make it back in time and the wound became infected, death was very likely. Although he was an ability user and his self-healing was far stronger than that of ordinary people, major injuries like penetrating wounds still required medication to assist recovery.

Doctors were a precious profession in the apocalypse. For Li Yuebai to say this was already a considerable show of sincerity. He raised his head to look at the six people and realized that they were all looking toward the person in the middle—and that middle one, the wanted criminal Yu Qunqing… was spacing out?

Li Yuebai thought to himself that the people from the city-center residential complex were indeed unfathomable, and he quietly clenched his fist.

Yu Qunqing had a headache.

In his previous life, the shelter always stuffed some extremely troublesome members into his team.

The team had started with only three people, including him and She Lulang. By then, Sun Min was already nothing but bones. 060 had become a lackey of the shelter’s research center and stood on the overseers’ side. Lin Luyi was someone they had picked up—his mind wasn’t very sharp. Dong Changxin, as a criminal involved in a major malicious incident, had been shoved into their team to serve out her sentence; she was gloomy and taciturn.

Leading such a team was naturally exhausting. And an action squad always needed a field doctor—yet the shelter had recommended the doctor with the lowest medical rating: Li Yuebai.

To encourage contributions, the shelter updated ability ratings weekly. Li Yuebai’s medical rating was the lowest, which meant that teams he accompanied had a relatively high mission mortality rate. Members of action teams even joked about it—either Li Yuebai had bad luck, so every outing ran into formidable enemies, or Li Yuebai had previously focused on theory, and was naturally worse at clinical work. In short, everyone believed that either Li Yuebai himself or the teams he followed were always a bit unlucky.

Li Yuebai knew these evaluations too, but never denied them, silently becoming the accompanying doctor of Yu Qunqing’s team.

Only after a period of working together did Li Yuebai finally reveal his true talent—treating wounds eroded by natural disasters. He had studied the habits of many types of disasters, and with his extensive theoretical knowledge, had already learned how to preserve an injured person’s life on the operating table to the greatest extent possible.

“The reason the mortality rate of the teams I follow is so high…”
Behind his lenses, Li Yuebai’s eyes revealed a trace of cruelty. “Of course it’s because I simply stand by and do nothing.”

That time, Yu Qunqing punched him on the spot, and the two parted on bad terms.

Later, however, Yu Qunqing learned the shelter’s true nature, and his memories of that period grew somewhat hazy. In any case, the two reconciled and traveled together again—until Yu Qunqing’s death.

In his memories, Li Yuebai was frighteningly intelligent. When they weren’t familiar with each other, it was better to be cautious and avoid getting tricked.

So Yu Qunqing said:

“Trying to trade just one doctor for water—don’t you think that’s wishful thinking? There are nine of you in total. I want the shelter passes on you.”

Lin Luyi asked in a low voice, “What’s that supposed to be?”

Sun Min explained, “It’s related to the shelter’s economic system—basically an ID and a wallet. I’ve heard our neighbors talk about it.”

She Lulang swept a glance at them, then looked at Yu Qunqing, feeling a mix of emotions. He thought that this really wasn’t a loophole.

One of the injured shouted, “Don’t go too far!”

“Without passes, how do we get back…” The injured group murmured among themselves. “What if they impersonate us and get inside? We can’t let the shelter be put in danger.”

Li Yuebai still stood in the open space, thinking of a countermeasure.

Yu Qunqing looked at Dong Changxin. Dong Changxin understood immediately, raised her modified firearm, and aimed it at Li Yuebai in the clearing. Li Yuebai held his breath, his expression still calm.

Under the setting sun, everyone could clearly see Dong Changxin’s movement, and suddenly no one spoke. Hot weapons still carried deterrent power in the apocalypse.

“I’m not negotiating with you,” Yu Qunqing said.

The shelter team’s hearts sank. How had they forgotten? The other side came from the infamous city-center residential complex—and was a wanted criminal!

“But if you behave,” Yu Qunqing said, well versed in the psychology of push and pull, “as long as the doctor joins our team, we’re willing to give water. At the very least, you’ll survive tonight, won’t you?”

The shelter team looked at one another, seeing the ashen color on each other’s faces.

“No problem.” Li Yuebai stopped the injured group from objecting. He took a deep breath. “We’ll do as you say—as long as you keep your promise. It’s just…”

Dong Changxin raised the gun a little higher. She had only been bluffing earlier—now this man still wanted to set conditions? She had already fully mastered the villain’s conversational technique: sheer arrogance.

Li Yuebai lowered his head. “After that, I’d like to treat the people on our side…”

Dong Changxin looked at Yu Qunqing. Yu Qunqing said that was fine, and only then did she put the gun away.

Yu Qunqing marked out activity areas for them. The first floor of the ancestral hall belonged to the shelter team; the second floor and the rooftop belonged to Yu Qunqing’s group.

Someone had once lived in this ancestral hall. Aside from the heavy dust, there wasn’t much clutter. Li Yuebai moved all the injured inside, spreading shelter uniforms to make simple bedding so he could handle their wounds.

“Your clothes are really good quality.” Lin Luyi appeared like a ghost, startling everyone. He lifted the fruit in his hand and said, “I’m here to deliver water.”

“Water comes from this?” Li Yuebei looked at the unknown fruit in his hand in confusion. It was only about the size of two fists.

The injured man lying on the ground steadied his breath and said, “The quality of our clothes was carefully developed by the shelter. They’re not only breathable, but also very good at retaining heat. Even in weather this hot, we can still go out on missions. The shelter’s technology isn’t something just any small force can compare to.”

Lin Luyi nodded slightly, finally getting a sense of the shelter’s technological level. Their residential complex still didn’t have the capability to make clothes from scratch—there was quite a gap they still had to catch up on.

Seeing how young Lin Luyi looked, like a college student, the injured man unconsciously softened his tone. “Our shelter has always been people-oriented and strictly follows the principle of mutual human aid. Even if there are major problems, they can be resolved through labor in exchange for freedom… Most importantly, everyone gets food to eat, clothes to wear, and a place to live.”

He probed carefully, “Our shelter is humanity’s future.”

“Oh.” Lin Luyi was getting impatient. “Do you have a container for water?”

The other injured people quickly unfolded a collapsible filtered water tank, saying it would be fine to put the water in there. The injured man lying down stared fixedly at Lin Luyi, trying to see awe at the shelter’s technology on his face—if he could entice the other party, that would be even better.

But while there was some envy on Lin Luyi’s face, it was more of a ‘wow, this thing is pretty cool’ kind of reaction. In reality, he didn’t care all that much.

The injured man felt a bit frustrated. In his heart, he thought this residential complex must be no good—otherwise even young people’s judgment wouldn’t be so corrupted. Li Yuebei, on the other hand, curiously watched the fruit in Lin Luyi’s hand.

The fruit had a thick outer skin. When cut open with a knife, it revealed several mulberry-like fruits inside. Lin Luyi placed it on the shelter’s water purifier, then went outside to find a piece of heated steel and brought it close to the fruit. As soon as it encountered heat, the fruit shriveled and melted into water. This fruit came from Penguin Farm’s Flame Farm, and everyone in the complex loved buying it.

“It’s a bit slow. Wait a moment,” Lin Luyi said boredly as he held the hot steel. He was most afraid of heat, so he’d wrapped his hand in a thick layer of cloth.

The people from the shelter stared at Lin Luyi in dumbfounded silence.

First came a few scattered drips, then they gathered into a small stream that flowed into the purification device. Clean water quickly filled a one-liter container. Seeing this, Lin Luyi tossed the steel bar aside and said the remaining mulberries were for them— they could drink them directly.

“Your water… comes from this fruit?” the injured man asked in disbelief. “Such a small fruit, and it has this much water?”

Li Yuebei picked up the water container and tested it. He found that it contained no radiation at all and that the water quality was extremely clean. He couldn’t help licking his dry lips. When they went out on missions, the hardest thing to carry was always water. In this kind of extreme heat, every drop had to be carefully rationed. And yet the other party casually produced a whole liter?

“Do you have a lot of this kind of fruit?” Li Yuebei asked calmly.

If this was also a scarce resource for them, he would reassess these people’s character… Perhaps there were good people in the complex after all?

“Otherwise?” Lin Luyi shot him a sideways glance. “We need water for daily cleaning, obviously. Otherwise we’d grow fleas. Water also cools you down. And we all have to drink a lot of water.” Especially Lin Luyi—being a plant, he had to take in plenty of water every day to stay energetic.

Li Yuebei was momentarily dazed.

“We have plenty, but they’re not for you,” Lin Luyi kindly reminded them. “If you waste them, they’ll be gone.”

The injured people looked at the remaining mulberries—five left, which meant five liters of water.

Realizing what that meant, their hearts burned with excitement, their mouths growing even drier.

“Wait.” One of the more lightly injured people stopped Lin Luyi, who was about to leave. He took out some seasonings from his bag and said, “We have salt. Could we trade for one more? Just one, okay? Little brother, you look young and capable…”

“Salt?” Lin Luyi was instantly interested. Vines sprouted from him and reached toward a backpack upstairs. One of his arms completely transformed into vines, making the shelter people shudder—so the young man who looked like a college student actually had such a powerful ability.

“Ah! Who stepped on me?!” Lin Luyi suddenly shouted.

“It was me! Why are you rummaging through my bag?” Sun Min’s voice came from upstairs. Lin Luyi withdrew his vines and muttered softly, “I can’t see, you know.”

Sun Min came down from the stairwell, holding two large fruits that emitted a rich bean aroma. The fresh, tempting scent reminded people of pan-fried tofu from before the apocalypse, and the people on the first floor couldn’t help their throats bobbing.

Li Yuebei stared at the two fruits in shock. That was the complex’s food? An unheard-of kind of fruit! A strong urge to study it welled up inside him.

And—and—it smelled so good. He was so hungry…

Seeing Sun Min, Lin Luyi hurriedly said, “They have salt and want to trade for some water. I think that’s fine. I want to eat something salty.” He liked savory tofu pudding.

Sun Min swept his gaze over everyone present. He’d learned to read situations and quickly judged that the atmosphere wasn’t tense, so he agreed. He also took out another mulberry fruit, hoping to trade for some sugar—he liked sweet tofu pudding.

The injured people treasured the two mulberries they’d obtained, carefully putting them away. Water was the source of life. Even in the shelter, they couldn’t drink water freely—everyone had a daily quota.

“Does your complex really have a lot of mulberries?” Li Yuebei murmured.

“Huh? Just one farm, I guess,” Lin Luyi replied casually. “Depends on the farm’s mood. Sometimes they don’t plant mulberries—sometimes it’s jackfruit, jelly fruit, vegetarian-meat fruit, stuff like that…”

“Your complex has a farm?!” The injured people immediately picked up on this key information.

Sun Min covered Lin Luyi’s mouth and dragged him upstairs, gritting his teeth. “Upstairs. Eat!”

The two of them left, but the fragrance of the thick-skinned soybean fruits lingered behind.

The people on the first floor inhaled deeply—but didn’t dare inhale too much, afraid they’d lose their rationality from hunger.

“Eat… let’s eat too…”

Someone pulled out the shelter’s rationed food from their bag—a piece of biscuit crumbs so hard it couldn’t be bitten into. It had to be soaked in water until soft before it could barely be swallowed.

They had always treasured food. So why did it suddenly feel so hard to eat today?

“At least there’s more water now. We can soak it a bit softer…”

The injured man who’d earlier tried to persuade Lin Luyi using the shelter’s advantages looked rather awkward.

Everyone lowered their heads and went back to their own business. To survive in the apocalypse, they still had this much self-control.

But in the next second, an overwhelming aroma of meat swept across the first floor like a devastating force!

“Gurgle—”

Before their brains could react, the hunger in their stomachs had already been triggered.

Meat!

It was meat!!

Saliva flooded their mouths instantly. They swallowed hard, even feeling unsteady on their feet. They felt as though their wounds themselves were crying out in hunger. Meat—how long had it been since they’d eaten food with the aroma of meat? The texture of tearing meat apart along its fibers, the warmth spreading through the body with fullness, the happiness of burping after a satisfying meal… Just thinking about it was enough to drive them crazy!

“They… they…” one injured person said with pale lips, “They wouldn’t be… boiling a crocodile, would they?”

Everyone sobered up a little, recalling that there really had been a terrifying creature holding a crocodile earlier.

“I remember that kind of crocodile is a protected animal,” someone whispered. “Although now… there aren’t really any protected animals left. Sigh…”

They slowly pulled themselves free from hunger, not because their morals were so strong that they believed protected animals couldn’t be eaten, but because they felt a faint sorrow for the pre-apocalypse life that was gone forever.

In fact, on the second floor of the ancestral hall—

The little crocodile let out a soft “ying,” which 060 translated.

“Want meat.”

“Want meat!”

“Want meat!!”

Yu Qunqing: “It’s cooking—stop making noise!”