Chapter 109: Snake Chaos

Laifu was placed by the water and immediately sidled up to Fugui.

Fugui drank while eyeing it warily from the corner of his eye.

Laifu wobbled a bit, and seeing that Fugui didn’t come over to bite him, took a few steps and lingered by the spring for a while before finally dipping his head in to drink.

Laifu drank with an elegant air—unhurried, taking two sips, then raising his neck to swallow, before lowering his head to drink again.

Unlike Fugui, who stuck out his tongue and gulped down mouthfuls, splashing water everywhere.

An Nan waited patiently by the side, carefully observing Laifu’s reaction.

After a long while, Laifu was still drinking nonstop, just like Fugui had done the first time he saw the spring—drinking endlessly, even starting to look a bit tipsy.

When An Nan saw Laifu finally stagger and collapse to the ground, she thought to herself, This spring water really does have some kind of strange magic.

Next came the long-term observation—to see if Laifu would grow beyond his normal size, just like Fugui had.

She scooped up Laifu with one hand, rested the other on Fugui, and took them both out of the space.

The little rooster was still woozy, eyes closed.

An Nan thought for a moment, then made a little nest for him out of a cardboard box and put him inside to sleep it off.

Fugui, seeing Laifu lying there unresponsive, flashed a mischievous grin and kept poking at him with his paw.

Seeing the dog about to bite again, An Nan quickly stopped him:

“Fugui! Don’t hurt Laifu. He’s going to be part of our family from now on, understand?”

Seeing the dog still looking reluctant, she asked, “Are you still afraid of those big cockroaches?”

At the mention of cockroaches, Fugui immediately lifted his little head, face full of disgust.

“Laifu can help us get rid of all the bugs in the house and give us a nice living environment.”

Fugui grunted as if he half-understood, but at least he stopped trying to bite the chicken and obediently lay down next to An Nan.

Satisfied, An Nan cuddled the dog on the sofa and put on a movie.

Unlike the cozy atmosphere in 1402, the outside world was in utter chaos.

People now fell into two main groups.

One group still had enough food, but were tormented by mutant rats and swarms of giant cockroaches.

The other group lacked supplies and, out of desperation, started eating cockroaches and rats.

Many died of bacterial infections within a day.

But people discovered that, although cockroaches carried plenty of bacteria, at worst eating them just caused vomiting and diarrhea. Some with stronger constitutions didn’t have any adverse reactions at all.

But the mutant rats were absolutely untouchable.

Anyone who ate them died without exception. Even a single bite from one could infect you with deadly bacteria.

So, for a while, a strange trend of catching and eating cockroaches swept through.

Cockroaches have lived on Blue Star for hundreds of millions of years, surviving even before the age of dinosaurs. Their ability to reproduce and survive is unmatched.

They’ve outlasted countless waves of extinction, witnessing one new era after another.

But this time, the cockroaches faced an unprecedented survival crisis...

An Nan watched two movies in a row before Laifu finally woke up.

As soon as he woke, he ran straight to An Nan’s side.

She raised her eyebrows—this little rooster was suddenly acting affectionate?

He hadn’t been like this before. He used to strut around with his head held high, looking down on everyone.

She was just about to pick Laifu up for a closer look when he suddenly squeezed out two little droppings.

An Nan: ...

She’d almost forgotten about that.

Roosters probably can’t be trained to poop in a designated spot like dogs, right?

She was about to grab him for a lesson when he suddenly ran to the entryway and snatched up a little cockroach that had somehow slipped inside.

...Well, he is the great bug-catcher, after all.

With such heroic achievements, what’s a little poop?

Pinching her nose, An Nan cleaned up the chicken droppings.

Thinking for a moment, she fashioned a poop pouch out of a face mask and fitted it to his rear. That way, she wouldn’t have to worry about random droppings anymore.

She was mentally congratulating herself on her cleverness when a sudden scream came from outside.

“A snake! There’s a snake!!”

An Nan frowned and walked to the window. Before she could even look down, she saw a jet-black snake slithering along her windowsill, flicking its tongue at her.

The snake chaos had arrived.

An Nan remembered that the day after the snakes appeared, the temperature would soar to 60°C, with ground temperatures reaching nearly 90°C.

Outside was a mess, with snakes slithering everywhere.

Those who had just breathed a sigh of relief from not having to go hungry after catching cockroaches were now scared out of their wits by swarms of snakes climbing up the building.

Screams echoed through the stairwell.

An Nan checked all the doors and windows, making sure they were tightly shut, then turned up the TV volume and cuddled her dog to continue watching her movie.

It wasn’t until dawn, when she heard the stairwell door open, that she opened her own door to take a look.

It was Chu Peipei.

As soon as Chu Peipei saw the door to 1402 open, she greeted An Nan enthusiastically.

“Nannan, you’re so farsighted! There are so many snakes outside! Luckily, we spread realgar powder in advance.”

An Nan looked at her. “How are you? Are you alright?”

Chu Peipei nodded. “I’m fine. Zhao Ping’an carried realgar powder with him, and we mixed it with alcohol and rubbed it on our clothes. Not a single snake came near us.”

An Nan said, “Make sure to keep your windows closed too. I just saw a snake on my windowsill.”

Chu Peipei shuddered.

“There are all kinds of snakes outside! Who knows which are poisonous and which aren’t—they’re all crawling into the building. On the stairs, on the railings, everywhere! I was so scared my legs went weak coming upstairs!”

An Nan had seen this scene in her previous life too—it really was terrifying.

But this time, things were better. She had plenty of supplies and didn’t have to risk going out for food.

She reassured Chu Peipei, “At least we have enough food and water for now. We can just stay home for a while.”

Chu Peipei patted the big metal drum filled with gasoline.

“Yeah! I only managed to find this one drum of fuel all night—there’s no more to be found. I won’t be going out again any time soon. Who knows how long this snake chaos will last... Is the world going to be taken over by snakes?!”

An Nan laughed and shook her head. “Don’t let your imagination run wild!”

In fact, the snake chaos wouldn’t last long.

Snakes can’t coexist in large groups. The venomous ones, though dangerous, were soon eaten up by the non-venomous king snakes.

King snakes aren’t venomous, but they’re fierce and aggressive, and they love eating venomous snakes.

Once the king snakes wiped out the poisonous ones, humans finally had nothing to fear and started catching snakes for food.

You could say, if it weren’t for these snakes, most people would have starved to death in this disaster."