There's no forever friends in this world, no forever enemies, only forever interests. As long as we tie our interests together, we are forever friends. You don't have to worry about your identities being exposed, because if you get exposed, I lose out too," Jing Shu said, her teeth flashing white in a quick smile. "See? Simple, isn't it?"
"But… do we even have the same interests?" Wen Jun asked. He thought carefully, his brow furrowed, but the common ground between mountain survivors and city dwellers didn't seem to exist.
"Of course we do. Think about it. What do you need most right now? Daily necessities, salt, vitamins, bedding, warm clothes? And if you could occasionally get vegetables, white rice, maybe some milk or eggs, wouldn't that be perfect?" Jing Shu asked, her eyes narrowing as she listed the luxuries.
Xiao Wei nodded, her gaze fixed on the empty space where the biscuit had been. "I want to eat. It's been a long time since I had anything. In the village, aside from bugs, there's nothing else to eat." A tiny bit of biscuit crumb still clung to her lower lip.
"What? You don't eat?" Jing Shu's voice rose in surprise.
"Yeah. The gastropod queen feeds herself, eating the soil. I share nutrients with her as one body, so I don't need food. But if there's actual food, I would like to eat too."
Wen Jun raised an eyebrow, his protective stance softening just a fraction. "Of course we want those things, but what do you want in exchange?" He was starting to guess the direction of the conversation.
Jun Bao remained silent, thinking it was a shame he had been a step too slow. He squinted, the corners of his mouth curling slightly, but he knew the result would be the same. Eventually, the supplies would make it back to Wu City, and more people would be fed.
"Obviously, I want a lot of gastropods. You said they mature in batches every month, and the queen is always eating, always laying eggs. There must be plenty by now, right? With just a few people in your village, how much could you possibly consume? Isn't it a waste? Why not trade all that tough bug meat for real food? Want some eggs? Want rice?"
Xiao Wei swallowed hard, nodding her head firmly. Ever since she had become part of the bug, she had felt an insatiable, phantom craving for the taste of human food.
"Then it's settled. We trade, help each other, and we have no reason to expose you, right? Otherwise, we would just be hurting our own interests," Jing Shu said. She felt the weight of Duoduo's financial burden ease slightly. If the Tyrant came to her starving later, he couldn't justify exploiting people with a food source like this secured.
"Wait, Tyrant…" Jing Shu thought. "Could there really be a connection? No way. Jun Bao is so weak and gentle, talkative, meddling, kind, and optimistic. How could he possibly be that cruel Tyrant, cold and merciless, who killed hundreds of thousands of people? Age, personality, family background; none of it matches. In the previous life, the Tyrant would have assumed power by now, after Jin Tianci died. In this life, due to my butterfly effect, the Tyrant probably won't rise. But… it just doesn't fit."
Jing Shu had not dug too deep into the thought before she was interrupted.
"Wait!" Wen Jun said, his voice anxious. "Who knows if you say yes now, then go back and send people to destroy us, take Xiao Wei, and make her endlessly lay eggs to breed the gastropods? You could get everything without paying a price." The more he thought about the vulnerability of their position, the more cautious he became.
Jing Shu rolled her eyes. "Are you stupid? If we really did that and wiped you out, wouldn't Xiao Wei just commit suicide? If she kills herself, there are no more eggs and no more bugs. Then what would we gain?" She was already planning for the future. If the Tyrant tried to exploit her later, she would simply use Xiao Wei as her leverage.
"Right." Wen Jun smiled, looking relieved as if he had finally found a plan that truly benefited everyone. "But how many gastropods do you need? We never wanted to breed too many, so every day's eggs go into the incubation room and are frozen. We only hatch a small fraction for our daily use."
"Can you take us to the tunnels and the incubation room? That way I can figure out how much bug meat you can provide and how many supplies we can give you. Oh, and I want to see that black pool Xiao Wei mentioned. Is that okay?" Jing Shu asked. She glanced at Xiao Wei's massive lower body. The sheer bulk of the abdomen made movement look difficult. It was likely that, like a queen ant, the girl was mostly immobile.
"Sure, sure. I will take you to see the tunnels. Even the villagers don't dare to go down there," Xiao Wei said. She snapped her fingers, a sharp sound in the quiet room. Four huge gastropods with massive, jagged pincers crawled from the shadows and lifted her up from four sides.
Her upper body stayed steady during the transition. It was clear she was already used to the movement. Here, in the darkness of the mountain, Xiao Wei was the real queen.
Wen Jun followed with a flashlight, its beam cutting through the thick dust of the air. Jing Shu and Jun Bao stayed close behind. Before leaving, Jing Shu laid Yang Yang gently on the ground and covered him with a warm blanket.
The tunnels were filled with different types of gastropods. Some were built for fighting to protect the queen, while others were responsible for feeding her. If food ran out, these bugs would feed themselves and then transmit nutrients and sperm while feeding the queen. Others were foragers or specialized diggers. Each caste looked distinct.
The fighters had huge pincers and immense physical strength, their shells looking like polished obsidian. The transmitters had specialized, delicate mouthparts. The diggers possessed massive, shovel-like jaws and great endurance for moving earth.
The tunnels were a giant maze. Bugs ran back and forth with clicking steps, each one focused on their role, all serving the queen at the center.
Wen Jun pointed the light at a group of skittering creatures. "Right now we have 30 fighters, over 80 transmitters, 300 foragers, around 30 diggers, and 50 immature ones. The short-lived ones last only a couple of months; the longer-lived ones haven't died yet."
He glanced at Xiao Wei, his eyes full of worry. "I'm not sure how long the queen will live."
She waved a hand, turning her upper body to comfort him. "A queen ant can live twenty years." Then she began counting on her pale fingers. "As for the bug meat, it's tender, it grows fast, and there's a lot of it. All 36 legs can be eaten. Without the shell, one bug weighs around 400 kilograms. Oh, do you want the meat shelled?"
"No need, we want them alive," Jing Shu said. The shells could be eaten too; in this world, food was too precious to waste. One could simply smash the shell and meat together, mix it with a bit of salt and flour, and make meatballs. It would be another full meal.
She watched the bugs shuttling through the underground passages. In the context of survival, they actually seemed almost cute.
"By the way, if you let them breed freely, how many can you raise in a month?"
Xiao Wei first took them to the incubation room, which was connected to the village pavilion through a narrow, reinforced passage. The air here was noticeably colder.
"Normally, we produce 450 per month, but now we have 2,500 eggs in the room. The bugs eat a lot, and the mud pits are limited. So at most, we can raise 1,000 mature ones per month."
Jing Shu quickly calculated the numbers in her head. That capacity exceeded her expectations. It was perfect.