Bang—!
A gunshot's sound startled Jing Shu, the sharp crack echoing off the cold stone of the canyon walls. "What is happening down there? Why is there gunfire?" she muttered. She paced back and forth near the cliff's edge, her boots crunching on the frozen grit. From what she could tell through her faint mental connection with Xiao Dou, the shot hadn't hit the hen, but her companion was terrified. Everyone around her wanted to eat her.
"No, this won't do. It's too dangerous to leave her down there alone," Jing Shu said. She looked out over the churning earth below, the plates grinding with a low, rhythmic thrum. "Besides, I have to check on the seeds myself."
If it were her past life and a chicken suddenly appeared in front of her after days of hunger, she wouldn't have even left the feathers behind. She wouldn't have even left the feathers behind. Now, with both the ship's crew and the starving villagers who had been swept into this area, things were even worse. In their state, no one cared what they were eating anymore.
"Got the rescue plan ready?" Jing Shu asked, turning to the others.
Yang Yang rubbed his frostbitten nose and sighed, his breath a thick white cloud in the freezing air. "We got two plans. Let's start with Plan A. The framework will take about two or three days to set up. Damn this mountain range; it's freezing here." He was trembling all over, his teeth chattering. The temperature had already dropped below minus twenty degrees, and a thin layer of frost was beginning to coat the minibus's metal frame.
Jing Shu chuckled. She was wrapped tight in her heavy coat, the thick lining keeping the biting wind at bay. "Serves you right for dressing like it's autumn. Who is to blame if you freeze?"
Thankfully, the underground plates were still shifting, releasing a bit of heat from the friction. Otherwise, this whole place would have been an icy wasteland by now.
"Alright," she said, her expression turning serious. "You handle the rescue plan. I'm heading down. There are only two bone umbrellas, so stay up here. Things look bad down there. My chicken might not have been washed away, but she is about to be eaten instead."
Xiao Dou had already served as a test subject for the bone umbrella, and the flight test had gone perfectly. Jing Shu wasn't worried about the mechanics anymore.
Jun Bao, covered in grime and dust, pulled an energy bar from his pocket. "If you are going down, at least trade me for some of your food. I can't eat anything else."
"Fine," Jing Shu said. "You guys paid your share, so I will make sure you have got enough to eat for the next two days."
She reached into her supplies and left behind some cooked food she didn't like much, plus a few packs of beef jerky and spicy rabbit jerky. Since no one else had the tools to start a fire in this wind, the others could only gnaw on cold, rock-hard rations while she was gone. Even so, in the apocalypse, this was already luxury food. But after the last few days of good eating, everyone had grown picky.
Hao Yunlai looked disappointed. "Wait for me, Jing Shu. I will find a way down soon. You won't be in danger with me there." He stared at the cold food left behind, frowning at the containers. "What is so good about these twisted breadsticks and dry veggies? These emotionless, ice-cold things..." He missed his morning cup of milk tea, a sunny-side-up egg, and maybe a warm pancake stuffed with egg and ham. His favorite ham had been taken, so life had lost its flavor.
Lǚ Liu spoke up, her eyes on the canyon. "Then send down some extra compressed biscuits. We don't know when we will be able to deliver supplies again."
"Got it." Jing Shu nodded and packed her big case, adding her tent and personal supplies too. Soon, she was fully geared up, the straps of her pack digging into her shoulders.
"That is so heavy. Can you even carry it?"
"Is it safe? It's a long way down, you know."
Jing Shu patted the bone umbrella's handle and grinned. "Grandpa made it from the special materials Wu You'ai sent. I have practiced a few times. Don't worry."
Amid a chorus of reluctant goodbyes—mostly aimed at the food—Jing Shu spread the bone umbrella and jumped off the cliff. The umbrella snapped open with a resonant crack of fabric, working just like a parachute. It was designed to bounce upward like a spring if it hit support, which made it perfect for the unpredictable terrain below.
A huge floodlight followed her descent, the beam cutting through the gloom and making dust motes dance in the air. She didn't need it, though. She maneuvered easily, twisting midair to avoid the jagged spurs of rock. She landed with a perfect roll... right through a brick house's roof.
Thud!
Boom—!
The impact was heavy. The house's structure cracked open, and smoke and ancient dust billowed everywhere. Coughing hard, Jing Shu clutched her big case while her backpack spilled open from the force of the fall. Several compressed biscuits rolled out across the debris and landed near a stunned man's feet.
He bent down, his hand trembling as he sniffed one. His eyes lit up with a terrifying intensity. "Food! It's food!" He tore the wrapper with his teeth and stuffed the biscuit into his mouth. Crumbs covered his face, but he didn't care. A single biscuit was enough for a whole meal, yet he was trying to swallow it in one go.
The noise drew others over from the shadows of the ruins.
"Er Gazi, did the rescue team drop food again? Damn it, they hogged that old hen last time. This time we are not letting them—Er Gazi? Holy shit, it really is food!"
"Mmph... mmph!"
"What is it? What kind of food?"
A mob of starving, crazed people surged in, their eyes glowing with a predatory, green light in the darkness. Most were men, with only a few women among them. Jing Shu glanced around quickly; she saw no children at all.
"Er Gazi, give me some! You can't eat it all yourself!"
The crowd lunged, tackling Er Gazi to the dirt and tearing at him for the biscuits. More people rushed in when they heard the commotion, their feet scrambling over the broken masonry. No one could tell who was grabbing what anymore. Pinned under the mob, Er Gazi shouted desperately, "The rescue team dropped food! Someone fell down too! She has got food on her!"
That single cry turned the crowd's frenzy toward a new target.
"Where is the person?!"
"Find her! Don't let her escape!"
"She have food—lots of it!"
The whole valley went mad again. Those who had managed to grab a few crumbs were even worse, their hunger reignited by the sweet, milky biscuits' taste. Instead of calming them, the flavor made them even hungrier.
"She must have gone to Wang Dan!"
"Let's go! The supplies came from above, and we are starving to death! We can't let those bastards hog everything again!"
"Wait, think before you rush in! If they don't know who we are, they won't give us anything. I have got a plan—two, actually!"
Everyone in the valley now knew that another person had come from above, bringing plenty of food. No one could sit still anymore. They began plotting how to seize it.
Meanwhile, Jing Shu slipped through the chaos. She used the darkness and the ruins to hide, moving with silent efficiency until she finally found Xiao Dou. She knew exactly where her chicken would be. To her surprise, Xiao Dou was lounging comfortably on a soft cushion. Someone had even poured her muddy water and offered her a plate of wet dirt as food. Another person was giving her a massage, their fingers careful on her feathers.
A voice said, "Captain, do we really have to follow what the loudspeaker said? Take good care of the chicken, let her lay eggs for us? But... it's just a chicken. How many eggs can it even lay?"