Chapter 28: Eating Filth

"Try to bear with it a little," Liu Chang sighed.

The pain of salt poured on a wound now tormented the little girl's injured foot soaking in saline. The soles of the feet, dense with nerve endings, multiplied her agony far beyond that of a simple salted wound.

Within moments, her face had turned pale with pain, but Liu Chang paid no attention to her expression, focusing only on her foot. In the saltwater, the socks that had hardened into a scab began to soften, gradually loosening their bond with the wound. After a while, Liu Chang lifted the girl's feet and carefully peeled the socks away, bit by bit.

"Apply alcohol. No need for gauze. Let her foot air out," Li Qingshui instructed from behind as he saw her socks come off.

"Alright." Liu Chang nodded and, following his teacher's guidance, tended the girl’s wound, propping her leg on the bed rail. He then rummaged in his bag for antibiotics, took one himself, and gave the girl another.

With everything settled, Liu Chang collapsed onto the bed with exhaustion.

"How did things go today?" Li Qingshui returned to his pile of plants, beginning to sort them.

"It's hard. Hunting is hard," Liu Chang said, staring up at the bunk above. "The prey is too alert. They notice us before we can even get close."

"If hunting weren't hard, ancient hunters wouldn't have starved so often," Li Qingshui chuckled. "In the old days, a large animal's pelt and meat could support a hunter for a month or more, sometimes several months. If they caught prey every day, wouldn't they all be rich? But in reality, hunting has always been a feast-or-famine profession, and even the best hunters often starved to death."

He continued sorting the plants as he spoke. "It's not just hunters. Even the top predators in nature have a tough time catching prey. Take mammals, for instance—among all terrestrial mammals, the cheetah has the highest hunting success rate, but even that is less than one in seven. And after every hunt, whether successful or not, the cheetah’s body is so exhausted from sprinting that it can't eat for a while."

"So even though it’s the most successful hunter, it's often robbed of its food," Li Qingshui said, pulling out a strange stalk from the pile and sniffing it. "So whether you’re a skilled hunter or a top predator, finding food in nature is fraught with danger and difficulty. Prey without the ability to escape or survive was eliminated long ago in the course of evolution. Finding something to eat isn’t easy. Tomorrow, I’ll join you on the hunt. These plants are enough to last us for a while anyway."

"Alright," Liu Chang replied, rolling over in bed. He happened to catch Li Qingshui sniffing a plant and asked, "Teacher, are these edible?"

"I'm not sure. They should be," Li Qingshui said, his eyes clouded with doubt. "Before the red mist descended, these wild herbs and vegetables were definitely edible—they belong to the edible plant category. But now, it seems they've developed their own unique abilities."

"What kind of abilities?" Liu Chang frowned.

"Abilities to prevent themselves from being eaten," Li Qingshui approached, squeezing juice from the plant in his hand and smiling. "Smell this."

"Ugh!" The plant’s juice splashed onto Liu Chang’s face, making him retch. "What is that smell? Worse than feces. Is it really edible?"

"It should be!" Li Qingshui, coughing from the stench, sneezed several times. "The composition hasn’t changed—just smells worse. Boil it enough and it’ll be edible. Better than starving!"

With that, he grabbed a bundle of plants and stood up. "I’m headed to the army kitchen to cook these. Anyone coming?"

Silence reigned below; nobody answered.

"If no one’s coming, I’ll go alone." Li Qingshui laughed and left the room.

An hour later.

He returned carrying a pot of vegetable soup reeking with an abominable stench.

"Oh, I smell the sewer," someone exclaimed as the pot was brought in, and everyone in the room—including two other families—pinched their noses.

"The sewer actually smells better than this soup," the fat man said, covering his nose as he walked up to Li Qingshui. "Teacher, are you sure this stuff's edible?"

"Haha, it is! If you don’t believe me, I’ll test it first," Li Qingshui placed the pot on a stool, picked up a piece of vegetable from the pot, and popped it into his mouth. He chewed once, swallowed it whole, and a bitter smile appeared on his face. "Authentic flavor!"

"Is that so?" Liu Chang climbed out of bed, picked up a spoon, and tasted the soup. As the warm broth entered his mouth, the flavor of cooked feces instantly filled his entire palate, overwhelming every taste bud. The pungent stimulus sent waves through his stomach, and only when he felt acid rising in his throat did he muster the strength to pinch his nose and swallow the soup. With the "fecal soup" in his belly, Liu Chang was hit so hard that his tears and snot flowed together.

"Genuine sewer flavor—crispy!" Liu Chang, eyes streaming, gave a thumbs-up to the fat man.

"Eat up, everyone. Don't be squeamish. Eating this is better than starving. The smell is bad, the taste is worse, but at its core, it's still vegetables—edible." Li Qingshui handed out pre-prepared bowls, giving everyone a portion of the soup.

"Eat it all; don't leave anything behind. How many days has it been since we ate properly? If we don’t eat, in less than three days, someone here will die!"

"Is it really that serious?" Liu Chang, nose pinched, gulped another mouthful of soup and asked, his breath foul, "People won’t starve to death in three days, right? Even half a biscuit a day, lying in bed, we could hold out for ten days or more!"

"Death isn’t from hunger alone, it’s from complications caused by hunger," Li Qingshui swallowed another mouthful of vegetables, barely chewing before gulping it down. "Outside is a world where all life is evolving madly. For millions of years, microbes and human immunity have been evenly matched. Now, microbes are evolving crazily, while we, if we don’t evolve—and our immunity drops sharply due to hunger—the result is a wave of illnesses. Even a simple breath could lead to a severe respiratory infection."

"So, according to you, teacher, some people here will die soon?" Liu Chang took another bite of "feces," glancing around, as if he could already see corpses strewn about in a few days.

"Not just some—many will die!" Li Qingshui sighed and handed a bowl to Zhu Lin. "Eat quickly. These plants are evolving. Today, they taste like feces. In a few days, we won’t even have feces to eat."

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