Chapter 59: The Second Journey into Exile (Part 1)

The wind howled, a sea of yellow stretched before her eyes, and the flying sand and gravel rattled against her goggles. Her hair was whipped into a chaotic mess by the gale. Shi Xianyu realized she couldn’t have arrived at a worse moment—a sandstorm was raging, and her visibility barely extended ten meters in any direction.

Yet, there was a bright side. The harsh weather had driven all the mutant beasts in the vicinity into hiding.

Shi Xianyu raised her hand and attempted to open the Mustard Seed Space. Before her palm, a rift appeared in midair, as if space itself had been torn open. The gap widened until it was large enough for a car to pass through, at which point she lowered her hand.

She jogged into her Mustard Seed Space, brushed the sand from her clothes, and sighed inwardly: If only the Divine Attendant’s positioning was a bit more precise—it would be best if people could be sent straight into the apartment building.

But that was difficult.

Each time she entered a world, the Divine Attendant would tear open a rift in each world and forcibly connect them. Imagine two hollow paper spheres, each pierced with a hole; then press the holes together so their interiors connect. No matter how tightly they’re pressed, the openings can never perfectly align, and a margin of error is inevitable.

And even the slightest error by the Divine Attendant could translate into a difference of several hundred or thousand meters in her landing point.

Shi Xianyu cleaned the sand from herself, opened the car door, and climbed in—

What was the next step again?

She recalled the driving mnemonic.

“Turn the key and press the gas, hands and feet must move in harmony…” Shi Xianyu started the engine and slowly drove out of the Mustard Seed Space. “First gear, eyes ahead, start smoothly, don’t rush. As the car moves, accelerate and shift to second gear, shift up gradually and smoothly…”

She knew how to drive and had a license. However, she’d gotten her license two years ago and hadn’t touched a steering wheel since.

“It doesn’t matter, this is the apocalypse. The roads are so wide, I can drive boldly without worrying about traffic accidents.” Shi Xianyu comforted herself.

She was always so optimistic, always able to find hope in the midst of hardship.

Bang!

Shi Xianyu: “???”

Did she just hit something?

She didn’t dare open the window, but pressed her face to the glass and peered down. She could vaguely see a fat lizard tail under the wheel.

“…………”

She quietly sat back, thinking seriously for a moment.

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“It definitely wasn’t alive when I hit it. If it were, it would have fled long ago—how could it stay motionless and let me run it over? So it must be a dead lizard, and I just happened to drive over it.”

Shi Xianyu adjusted her mood and continued driving.

With a remarkably steady speed, she arrived in front of the apartment where the child lived, parked her RV, donned her goggles and mask—this time adding a wide-brimmed denim hat—and only then cautiously opened the door and stepped outside.

Outside, the sandstorm still raged.

Shi Xianyu entered the apartment building; the elevator was broken, and there were no lights, so she had to take the stairs.

She switched on her flashlight. The dust on the steps was fine and evenly spread, and the walls bore no strange claw marks. She relaxed—good, this meant there were no mutant creatures in the stairwell.

Even so, she didn’t dare let her guard down and climbed the stairs as quietly as possible. Just because the stairwell was safe didn’t mean the apartments and corridors were.

Shi Xianyu was not particularly brave, so she was extra cautious in everything. On each floor, she checked the fire door in the safe stairwell to see if it was properly closed.

Any door left open, she closed and tied securely with several loops of rope before moving on.

When she closed the fire door on the ninth floor, the door suddenly banged!

Shi Xianyu jumped. Then, a thin black hooked claw squeezed out from under the door, like a twisted, withered branch, nearly grabbing her boot!

She took a sharp breath and, without thinking, tightened the rope around the door handle.

But the fire doors in the stairwell were too old, and the cement floor was chewed up like by a dog; no matter how hard she pulled, there was always a gap left!

One by one, black claws squeezed out from under the safety door! Accompanied by the screeching sound of claws scraping against the door, and a frantic squeaking like rats, they clawed desperately at anything they could reach, trying to break through the barrier for a feast!

The sound of claws scratching on iron made her scalp tingle. She quickly finished tying the knot, wasting not a single moment, grabbed the portable spray bottle from her belt, and unleashed a wild spray at the gap below the door!

The black claws instantly withdrew!

On the other side, the mutant beasts shrieked and scuttled away. The chaotic sounds lasted two or three seconds, then faded into silence. All was quiet.

It seemed that even mutant creatures could not withstand the power of chili extract.

Shi Xianyu hadn’t bought ordinary chili extract.

Most restaurants used Spicy No. 5, but she had purchased the Extreme Spicy No. 10. Even diluted with water, it burned painfully when it touched skin, not to mention if inhaled through mouth or nose.

“Ah, such a wonderful thing—what a shame it can’t be used outside,” Shi Xianyu hung the spray bottle back on her belt and muttered to herself. “The wind outside is too strong. A single spray would scatter it everywhere, and it might even blow back onto me.”

She lamented for a few seconds, then turned to continue upstairs, when she suddenly noticed a child standing at the top of the staircase.

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Shi Xianyu: “!!!”

Completely caught off guard—it startled her!

The child silently watched her, still wearing those tattered clothes, exposing two thin legs, feet shod in filthy slippers, holding a metal rat trap in his hand.

Shi Xianyu’s gaze fell on the trap.

Could it be…

She hesitantly asked the child, “Are you… planning to use that to catch mice?”

The child said nothing and slowly nodded.

Shi Xianyu glanced at the chili extract residue in the door’s gap, estimating that the mutant rats wouldn’t be back all day.

There was bait in the trap—could it be that the child often came downstairs to catch mice? Was it the reason the mutant rats grew so frenzied, thinking someone was feeding them?

But why would a child catch mice every day?

Reflecting on the child’s current circumstances, Shi Xianyu’s mind conjured a rather unpleasant possibility. She cautiously observed the child and asked, “Are you catching mice… to eat?”

The child slowly nodded again.

Shi Xianyu’s feelings were complicated…

A bit horrified, a bit disgusted, and… a bit sorry for the child.

She took off her mask and goggles, and offered the child a friendly smile. “Little one, I happened to pass by and accidentally scared away your mice. But I have an orange here. Would you like it?”

She pulled out the orange she’d prepared from her pocket and handed it to the child, striving to make her gaze sincere so she wouldn’t be mistaken for a villain.

But the child’s eyes widened, filled not only with surprise but mostly with puzzlement—as if he had no idea what the thing in Shi Xianyu’s hand was.

Shi Xianyu suddenly felt uncertain.

No way… Had this child never seen an orange before?

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