Hearing this, Qiao Jiajin did not hesitate and handed over the cloth bag at his waist. Lin Qin closely followed suit. Tian Tian looked at the two of them, her expression a bit unnatural.
However, since she was in the weaker position after all, she thought about it again and again before also handing over her cloth bag. Qi Xia took all the cloth bags, sat to the side, and started tinkering with something.
It did not take long before he tossed aside an empty cloth bag, stood up, and said to the three of them, "We earned five people's shares this time, a total of ninety-five Dao.
This number cannot be divided equally among four people, so we can only add the one we had left over from the start to make it ninety-six. That makes twenty-four for each person." He handed the three cloth bags forward and said to the three of them, "I have packed them for you.
Make sure to count them right now to my face, because I will not acknowledge any discrepancies later." Tian Tian hurriedly reached out to take her cloth bag. She opened it and counted, and it was indeed exactly twenty-four Dao, not a single one missing.
Lin Qin and Qiao Jiajin simply hung their cloth bags back onto their waists.
"Are you two not going to count them?"
Qi Xia said.
"I am a con man, after all."
"It does not matter," Lin Qin shook her head and said.
"If I find out some are missing later, I will just rob them from you."
"Yeah, save that routine."
Qiao Jiajin also waved his hand.
"Where to next?"
Qi Xia looked at the bear arm in Qiao Jiajin's embrace. He thought for a moment and said, "Let us go get something to eat..." ... The thoughts of the few people were very simple.
If they could cook this bear arm, as long as it could fill their stomachs, they could swallow it no matter what it tasted like. But in this ruined city, finding the necessities for cooking was extremely difficult. Clean water sources, stoves, pots, lighters—they had none of these things.
The group wandered through the abandoned buildings in the city for over an hour, yet they still found absolutely nothing. When they walked into an abandoned restaurant, Qiao Jiajin finally could not take it anymore.
"This is not going to work."
He threw the bear arm onto the ground and stretched his aching wrists.
"If we keep wandering around carrying these dozens of pounds of meat, we will end up dying of exhaustion before we die of hunger."
"Thanks for the hard work," Lin Qin said to Qiao Jiajin with a smile.
"Do you want me to carry it for a while?"
"That will not be necessary."
"I feel like there is a lot of hope here."
Tian Tian looked around the restaurant and noticed that it was not severely damaged. Sure enough, after rummaging around a bit, the group found an aluminum pot under a table. The pot looked reasonably clean, just slightly deformed.
"As for firewood, it is everywhere in here."
Qi Xia looked at the damaged furniture on the ground.
"We are only missing water and fire."
"I will go check the kitchen," Tian Tian walked straight toward the back kitchen of the restaurant.
"Maybe there is water there."
Qi Xia nodded slightly and began searching the room for other useful items. A few seconds later, feeling that it was not quite safe, he said to Qiao Jiajin, "Qiao Jiajin, go with Tian Tian, and watch out for the natives."
"Makes sense."
Qiao Jiajin also nodded and walked in the direction of the back kitchen. But before he could take three steps, he heard the sound of Tian Tian talking from a distance.
"Huh? Why are you here?"
"Ah! Big sister, you are here too!"
The voice talking to Tian Tian belonged to a woman. Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin immediately ran toward the back kitchen. As soon as they opened the door, they found that slightly chubby girl standing there.
She reached out and affectionately hooked her arm around Tian Tian's, saying to the group, "Why are you all here? Is it a coincidence?" Qi Xia looked at this woman coldly, his expression a bit displeased.
"Are you following us?"
"Ah?"
The girl showed a face of disbelief.
"How is that possible?! I was the one who came here first."
Qiao Jiajin also had no idea what the situation in front of him was. Why would this girl specifically wait for them here?
"Are you looking for something?" the girl asked again.
"Yes, we are looking for water and fire," Tian Tian answered.
"Water and fire?"
The girl started laughing again.
"That is great, everything is right here."
Under Qi Xia's cautious gaze, the woman led Tian Tian to a cabinet. She stood on her tiptoes and opened the cabinet door. Inside, sure enough, there were several plastic buckets filled with clean water.
Then she took out a lighter from her pocket.
"Look."
Qi Xia only felt that all of this was simply too coincidental, as if it had been arranged by someone. Tian Tian was somewhat happy as she took the lighter the woman handed her and asked, "Little girl, are you really going to lend this to us?"
"Big sister, there is no need to be so polite."
The woman smiled harmlessly.
"We survivors are supposed to help each other anyway."
Tian Tian immediately felt a good impression of this woman and thanked her repeatedly.
"What do you want?"
Qi Xia asked from the side. The slightly chubby girl turned her head blankly upon hearing this and replied, "Want what? I do not want anything at all, I am just doing you a favor."
"It had better be like that."
Qi Xia stopped paying attention to her and turned around to collect things that could be used as firewood.
"That big brother is very strange," the girl blinked her large eyes.
"Why is he so on guard against me?"
"His personality is just like that, you will get used to it," Tian Tian also said with a smile.
"Little girl, what is your name?"
"Big sister, you can just call me Xiaoxiao."
Lin Qin looked at Xiaoxiao from the side, feeling that something was somewhat weird. This girl's body was slightly chubby and her shoulders were quite wide. She was wearing a very baggy T-shirt, but her cheeks were extremely thin, totally out of proportion with her figure.
"Xiaoxiao, stay and eat something with us," Tian Tian said.
"The four of us cannot finish that bear arm."
"Mhm."
Xiaoxiao nodded happily. Seeing that this girl named Xiaoxiao was intentionally hiding something, Qi Xia did not press the issue further. He only hoped that the other party would not try to play tricks and vainly attempt to deceive him here.
Qiao Jiajin found a few bricks, built a simple makeshift stove, tossed some discarded wood inside, and lit it up. With Xiaoxiao's help, Tian Tian washed the pot clean and boiled a pot of water. Meanwhile, Qi Xia handled the bear arm on the side.
He cooked often at home, but he had never cooked a bear arm before, so he could only treat it like a chicken for the time being. After briefly scalding it with hot water, he plucked the fur, peeled off the skin, and rinsed away the blood with clean water.
He insisted that Xiaoxiao was not allowed to touch the ingredients, and the group did not object. Qiao Jiajin brought out a rusted kitchen knife from the kitchen, quickly sharpened it, chopped the prepared bear arm into two pieces, and threw the whole segments directly into the pot. This was the most perfect cooking method they could manage.
Meat broth.
Watching the water in the pot slowly boil and listening to the bubbling sound, the group sat around together in a circle, quietly looking at the iron pot without saying a word. Not long after, Lin Qin spoke up and asked, "Will bear meat taste good?"
"It is delicious."
Qiao Jiajin immediately nodded and said, "Have you never eaten bear paw?"
"You have eaten it?"
Tian Tian turned her head and asked.
"I had the fortune of eating it once," Qiao Jiajin said.
"I will never forget that taste for the rest of my life. If we ever get out of here one day, I must eat it again."
Hearing this, Tian Tian shook her head helplessly.
"You really are an outlaw."
"An outlaw?"
Qiao Jiajin was amused.
"Tian Tian, are you silly? It is not like I went to kill the bear myself. Just go to a restaurant to eat it."
"Eating bear paw is illegal," Tian Tian added another sentence.
"So what if it tastes good? Do you want to go to jail over it?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Qiao Jiajin looked at Tian Tian with slight disdain.
"Since when is eating bear paw illegal?"
Tian Tian frowned. She always felt that she and Qiao Jiajin could get along well sometimes, but other times they were not on the same wavelength at all.
"You really should go online more," Tian Tian sighed.
"Do not show off your ignorance so naturally every time."
"The Net?"
Qiao Jiajin scratched his head.
"Are you talking about... that Internet that became popular a few years ago?"