Chapter 49: Looking for Someone, and Another Photo

Sunlight bathed the earth, and the wind carried faint traces of blood and decay. In front of the shabby, makeshift huts, bodies lay sprawled on the ground, blood pooling around them.

Bian Changxi’s face was as pale as gold paper. She bent over, gasping for breath.

Everyone was dead.

After the young man collapsed, she hadn’t even decided whether to save him when those who had been bitten to death by the “young man’s father” zombie started getting up again. She had no choice but to cut them down one by one all over again. Then, the “young man’s father” zombie crawled out of the “cocoon” once more.

Chaos! She fought from beginning to end, and by the time nothing else was attacking her, the young man was long dead.

She stood there in a daze for a while. Once her breathing calmed, she wiped the blood from her face, used water from the farm’s stream to wash the blood off her axe and knife, and put them away.

Every household here had its own vegetable patch and chicken coop, but when she looked at the chickens and ducks frantically crowding into the corners, clucking and quacking in panic, she suddenly lost all interest.

It wasn’t because she’d killed again, nor because she’d witnessed so many deaths. It was... a sense of powerlessness.

Even after being reborn, even after starting over, in this dangerous and ruthless world, there was still no escaping the endless fighting and killing.

But she’d already been fighting and killing for seven years.

At the start of her rebirth, she’d been excited, passionate, full of drive. There were a few people she wanted to save, a few grudges she wanted to settle. But beyond that, she had no grand ambitions. She had a basketful of tangled grudges, most of which weren’t worth mentioning. Now, at this moment, all she could see was the road beneath her feet—a path she’d already walked once before, calm on the surface but full of hidden dangers. Pale, dull, cold, cruel... and she had to walk it alone, all over again.

Bian Changxi’s eyes were silent. She let out a breath and patted her forehead. “What am I thinking? Isn’t living again a good thing? Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

There were plenty of vegetables in the garden, but she no longer felt like picking any. Who knew if there were still fish or shrimp in the distant lotus pond—she didn’t have the energy to catch them. There was probably some grain in the shed-like house, but she didn’t want to scavenge for it. She just sent out a few slender vines, caught a lively rooster and two hens; as for the ducks, she couldn’t tell the males from the females, so she just grabbed all she could see. She’d sort them out after the first generation of ducklings hatched from their eggs.

The “young man’s father” zombie dropped a white core, while “Aunt Wu” the zombie dropped a faint, first-tier green core, which made Bian Changxi quite happy. It was probably because she’d been killed right after fully turning into a zombie, so the green core was of poor quality, but it solved her immediate problem.

She piled all the bodies together, planning to burn them before leaving. But first, she entered the farm.

She hadn’t been inside since she’d tossed over a hundred white cores into the farm for absorption two days ago. This time, as soon as she entered, she felt the air was even fresher. The area hadn’t changed, but the whole place felt more comfortable.

Her gloomy mood lifted. She stripped off her filthy, bloodstained clothes and stepped into the stream. The icy water made her shiver. She fetched shampoo and body wash from the warehouse, cleaned herself up quickly, changed into clean clothes, and checked the time. Four minutes had passed inside the farm; outside, over six minutes had gone by.

That was an improvement compared to two days ago.

Seizing the moment, she brought in lots of branches from outside, fenced off two areas at the edge of the black soil, and put the chickens and ducks inside. She’d always thought the pasture should be used for cattle and sheep, but who knew if she’d ever find any unmutated livestock again, so she left it unplanned for now.

She’d also gotten two tubs of fish and shrimp from the supermarket before. They were still alive, though she didn’t know what species they were. She just dumped them into the stream to raise them.

Before the apocalypse, she’d bought all sorts of seeds. Now, in high spirits, she picked out some bok choy, sweet corn, cucumbers, tomatoes, and edamame—representing leafy greens, berries, legumes, and so on—and planted a bit of each in the soil to see how they’d do. Although the farm’s black soil was supposed to be all-purpose, that was in her previous life, and after it had leveled up. She still didn’t know if this black soil was picky about crops.

Then she picked out some fruit—apples, oranges, crystal pears, kiwis, even bananas—and planted them along the stream, spacing them apart.

Once she finished in the fields, it was like a weight off her shoulders. She washed her hands and face, rummaged through the warehouse for a bucket or container but couldn’t find any, so she went to the old folks’ house and borrowed two buckets. She filled them with diesel from the tanker outside and poured it over the dozen or so corpses.

She lit a dry branch and tossed it on. Flames roared up instantly. She watched in silence for a while, then climbed over the dirt wall by the bridge, took out her motorcycle, and sped away.

As she neared the new district, she hesitated, parked in a hidden spot, put away the bike, and carried two ducks in a burlap sack back to her place.

In front of the four-story building, the rolling shutter was half-lowered, and the inner door was tightly shut. Bian Changxi knocked, and a woman’s low voice called out, “Who is it?”

It was Aunt Chen. Bian Changxi gave her name, and the door quickly opened. Aunt Chen smiled and welcomed her in. “Miss Bian, you’re back! Captain Gu and the others were asking about you when they returned earlier. Everyone’s been worried.”

Bian Changxi glanced around. Only Aunt Chen and Old Chen were on the first floor, cleaning up the kitchen and fiddling with something.

“Where is everyone else?”

“Xiao Wu and Shadow are upstairs. The others went out with Captain Gu. They brought back some supplies at noon, and we’re hooking up the gas now.”

When the previous owner of this small restaurant moved out, they took almost everything of value. Gu Xu and the others had managed to bring back gas tanks, stoves, knives, pots, bowls, rice, dried goods, drinking water, and so on, which were piled up on the floor. Bian Changxi set the burlap sack down. “If we can cook, that’s great. Here are two ducks—could you handle them for dinner?”

Aunt Chen was delighted. “They’re still alive? That’s wonderful. Captain Gu said fresh meat and vegetables are the hardest things to come by now.” But then she frowned, “But cleaning ducks takes a lot of water...”

Water was precious as gold. Cooking, washing, cleaning—everything needed water. With twelve people, daily water use was no joke, and right now, they only had a bucket and a half of drinking water left.

Bian Changxi thought for a moment. “Let me do it.”

She took a bowl to the back door, used a kitchen knife to bleed the ducks, then skinned them whole, gutted them, and stuffed the innards into a bag, tying it tightly. With just a little water, she rinsed the duck meat clean. The whole process took less than five minutes—quick and efficient.

Old Chen chuckled, “I’ve never seen ducks cleaned like this—skinned instead of plucked.” And the skinning was so clean, not a scrap of meat wasted; the ducks were left smooth and bare. He clicked his tongue in amazement.

Bian Changxi smiled. In her previous life, she’d killed plenty of mutant beasts. Some were tasty and valuable, others had tough, waterproof hides that could be made into protective gear. As a wood-type ability user, she wasn’t suited for frontline combat, but she’d done plenty of logistics work. Skinning was basically her job, and with so much practice, her skills were top-notch.

She dug a pit in the little flowerbed by the back door, buried the bag of innards and skins, and covered it with dirt—otherwise, the smell of blood might attract trouble.

After dusting off her hands and coming back inside, she saw Aunt Chen at the door, talking to someone. Aunt Chen waved her over. “Miss Bian, this person is looking for someone. Take a look—do you recognize anyone in this photo?”

**Author’s Note:**

Sorry for the late update—self-criticism first.

Yesterday or the day before, I saw a reader comment about how there are so many reborn characters. I didn’t get it at first, but after going back and rereading earlier chapters today, I realized they were talking about Boss Zhang. Let me clarify: there’s no way such a great benefit as rebirth would be given to a side character like that! So, Boss Zhang is NOT a reborn.

Also, I don’t like stories crowded with reborn or transmigrated characters. In this novel, aside from the female lead, there are very, very few other reborn people, and they’re too busy to show up right now.

As for why Boss Zhang is targeting the female lead, that’ll be explained later.

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