Chapter 80: If the Ice Seal Ends, Jiang Huan, Your Tail Must Be Clean

After that, the two ate their meals with utmost care, striving not to let a single drop of soup spill on the floor or anything be left behind.

December arrived, and as it would have been before the apocalypse, even in the south, winter had officially begun.

Jiang Huan glanced at the calendar and, without further discussion, suspended Jiang Xi’s lessons for several days.

Back in their room, she filled the two upstairs rooms with cardboard boxes.

Inside were all sorts of long-lasting instant foods, dried goods, and staples.

Jiang Xi touched the boxes and remarked on how much there was. Jiang Huan forced a smile. Though she had managed to let go of her fears from her previous life, her revenge had been exacted, and she and her brother were finally living the days they’d dreamed of—well-fed and lacking nothing.

But as the anniversary of her death in her past life approached, new worries arose.

If it was resentment or some other force that had brought her back to this moment, then now that her resentment had dissipated, would she simply vanish as she had before, suddenly leaving this place for some other unknown destination?

She made extra preparations, filling two rooms with supplies, and even the two downstairs rooms, which had just been cleared for planting, were now piled high with survival goods.

These supplies would last Jiang Xi, at the very least, one or two years. She refused to believe that, with street patrols already underway and residents preparing to return, people wouldn’t be able to resume normal life within a year or two.

Jiang Xi listened to his sister’s repeated instructions, his innocent eyes taking on a new look.

He knelt beside her, clinging tightly to her hand.

So tightly. “Sister, let’s eat all this together. Don’t eat it alone.”

He sensed something he couldn’t describe, and could only express his sincerest wish in the simplest words.

Jiang Huan agreed.

Truth be told, she wasn’t sure if this life would truly belong to her completely.

She even began to wonder if she had been too extreme, hoarding so much from the start.

Her previous life had been so bitter that she’d overlooked the possibility of society being rebuilt, and with the farming instinct engraved in every person’s bones, there was no telling what new life-saving resources might emerge in the future.

She could imagine many beautiful prospects, but it didn’t change the fact that for the next week, she didn’t leave the house, didn’t go downstairs, and just stayed upstairs with her brother—training, reading, eating, drinking, and chatting.

If Liu Ling hadn’t received replies to her messages each time, she might have thought something had happened to Jiang Huan.

As Jiang Huan calculated, three days had already passed since the day she died in her previous life, and she was still standing, ready to gather herself.

Outside, the situation changed.

It wasn’t the climate improving, but the long-standing question about whether eating snowfield rats was harmful finally had an answer.

She learned this when she went to the base and asked Brother Meng if the vegetable seller had arrived. Brother Meng revealed the news.

Someone had been breeding snowfield rats outside. After two generations, the rats underwent new mutations—their claws grew stronger, their gnawing teeth rivaled saw blades, and all of them escaped. Worse yet, two people who ate these mutated rats suffered severe symptoms: their skin turned yellow, even the whites of their eyes became yellow, their urine became bloody, their bodies grew weak, dizzy, unable to walk unaided, and eventually fell into a state akin to full-body paralysis. One died within two days; the other was barely alive.

“There are street-sweeping logistics teams now. Even if the food isn’t good, a bowl is enough to fill your stomach. The city is on the verge of resettlement, but something like this happens—bad luck, really. The capital has already developed three or four new improved species and is mass breeding them, so they’ve issued orders for each province to manage grain distribution and coordinate other efforts to restore social order as soon as possible.”

He paused, then said, “Girl, I’m not doubting you, but the social order has been a mess lately. I can see you’re not someone who gets bullied, but if you’ve done anything questionable, it’s best to deal with it now. As soon as resettlement starts, the authorities will make examples out of some—so clean up your tracks.”

He implied that if Jiang Huan had done anything illegal before the apocalypse, she should handle it carefully and smooth over any grudges, lest she be the first target when the authorities move to set examples.

Whether in ancient times or modern, harsh punishments are the norm in chaotic times—that’s history’s lesson.

Now, as society rebuilds after the apocalypse, caution is no mistake.

“Thank you, Brother Meng.” If he didn’t truly see her as one of his own, he wouldn’t have bothered with such a warning, almost directly advising her that if society’s order returned, she had better clean up her tracks or trouble would find her.

Jiang Huan accepted his kindness and brought two bottles of liquor the next day to thank him for the advice.

She took his words to heart and reflected on them when she got home.

Aside from the Chen Lin snowfield rat incident—she was masked at the time, so they wouldn’t know it was her—she considered her own daily life, mostly spent in her residential complex over the past six months, interacting with many people.

Starting from the complex, if they needed to make examples of a few, Lin Lili would surely be the first to wish her ill, followed by Chunmei, then the girlfriend of Gao Qiang whom she’d turned down and who parted on bad terms. Thinking further, that girl named Xue’er was another, and the pharmacy couple whom she’d intimidated.

Counting those, and the few at the base who disliked her, like Lin Pingchuan and his ilk, she realized she might need both hands to count those she’d genuinely offended.

“As for the base, at most they’d say she hoarded supplies, but no one had seen exactly how much she had. Besides, during the frozen period, everyone had scavenged outside, so what’s the worst? Surrender the firearms to show she’s harmless.”

As for those in the complex: “Chunmei was struck by her, but Chunmei had gathered a crowd to harm others, and Jiang Huan hadn’t landed a fatal blow. Considering she’d contributed a ton of supplies to the base, she might get off lightly.”

The rest were just verbal spats—maybe a slap or two, but she hadn’t taken anything from them.

Thinking this through, she needed people at the base who would speak for her.

She wasn’t some war goddess who could raise her arm and unleash lasers upon anyone she pleased. She was merely a slightly less ordinary survivor, and real-life concerns couldn’t be ignored; pretending ignorance wouldn’t make problems disappear.

Jiang Huan waited until the weather was relatively mild before venturing out, heading to an industrial-style KTV she’d visited before.

It was semi-underground, and she remembered seeing several doors that wouldn’t open. Now, those doors were locked, and through the glass, there was nothing of value inside. But Jiang Huan wanted just such a place.

She took a sheet of glass paper, cut it to size, and covered the glass window on the door. Then she placed ten-odd bags of rice, ten-odd barrels of oil, ten-odd cases of drinks, two cases of cigarettes, hundreds of pre-made dishes, and several boxes of miscellaneous items that might be found in a KTV, distributing them among several rooms.

After finishing, Jiang Huan left, drove an ordinary sedan, and headed to the base to find Captain Guan.