Chapter 40: 40, I want to be with my cookies!

The road to Jingshan is not easy to traverse, mostly dirt paths.

Sometimes, even while sitting in the truck bed, Ren Xiaosu would spot the occasional cement road beneath his feet, but those roads had long since shattered into fragments, reduced to a pitiful state of disrepair.

In the past, Ren Xiaosu had heard Master Zhang from the academy mention that these cement roads were relics of the pre-catastrophe era, and now, after countless years, the foundations had crumbled, with most of the surface buried beneath layers of earth.

Today, all the so-called "great roads" connecting the barriers were much the same—only the frequent passage of vehicles made the dirt paths slightly smoother.

In truth, the traffic between barriers was not abundant; during their year in the settlement, Ren Xiaosu had witnessed fewer than ten external vehicles arriving at Barrier 113, which was considered quite a lot.

The wilderness was not desolate; on the contrary, after departing from the settlement, within just a few dozen kilometers, the landscape stretched endlessly with lush greenery, and in recent years, the vegetation had grown even more vigorously.

Yet Ren Xiaosu thought this might not be a bad thing—after all, food was always scarce in the settlement, and if meat was unavailable, they might as well eat more vegetables. He had noticed that even the cabbage grown by Zhang Jinglin had grown taller than before.

Ren Xiaosu had specifically inquired whether Zhang Jinglin had fertilized the crops, only to be told that he had not.

This was a good omen; perhaps one day, a single potato could feed a family of three...

Liu Bu had no idea what Ren Xiaosu might do when he instructed him to sit in the pickup truck bed.

The truck bed held the food and water they had brought from the barrier, and there was no need to lock it—just covered with a cloth.

Driven by curiosity, Ren Xiaosu lifted the cloth and glimpsed the word "biscuit," then lifted another piece of cloth to find bottled water...

Due to the jolting ride, the vehicle moved slowly along the road. In truth, the band’s greatest fear was not encountering beasts, for they were accompanied by twelve armed private soldiers, fully loaded with live ammunition, rendering such concerns negligible.

They had indeed faced wolf packs before, but those wolves had long since fled to a mountain hundreds of kilometers away, posing no threat of sudden return.

According to the experience of the refuge barriers, if the wolves returned to this region, they would not do so until at least a year later, after recuperating.

Thus, at this moment, the convoy’s greatest worry was the vehicle breaking down.

Half of the private soldiers had studied mechanics, but they could not possibly carry a full set of spare parts on the road.

The journey might be slow, but it was better than walking.

Along the way, Ren Xiaosu insisted on stopping the entire convoy to relieve himself, further souring the mood of those in the convoy, though Ren Xiaosu remained indifferent, facing their complaints as if nothing had happened.

As the convoy continued, noon arrived. When they halted, Liu Bu was the first to leap out of the vehicle, laughing joyfully: "Having spent so long cooped up in the barrier, it’s a relief to behold this vast scenery!"

A private soldier chuckled: "Indeed! Being stuck inside the barrier all the time is suffocating."

In truth, at the journey’s outset, everyone had been in high spirits—eager to admire the landscape, eager to chat and laugh. But in a few days, that would change.

In the past, when Ren Xiaosu ventured out hunting, he too had found the first day quite pleasant...

Liu Bu called out to everyone to disembark: "Let’s eat something. After that, we’ll press on and try to reach Yunling before dark. We’ve been there before—there’s a clearing suitable for camping."

The off-road vehicle occupants descended with laughter and chatter, while several private soldiers gathered to smoke, their faces radiant with satisfaction.

Liu Bu beckoned the staff to approach the pickup truck, for he could not command these soldiers—this expedition had enlisted twelve private soldiers not for his or Luo Xinyu’s vanity, but because the band’s original purpose was to escort these soldiers on their mission!

Under such circumstances, others might assume Liu Bu and Luo Xinyu had great influence, but they themselves understood the stakes.

As Liu Bu walked toward the pickup, he spoke to the nearby band staff: "Later, distribute some of the tobacco we brought to these officers."

"How much should we give them?" the staff asked.

"Start with one bundle. We brought ten, didn’t we? There’s no rush—take it slow." Liu Bu smiled: "With a new face among us, in a few days, everyone will grow accustomed to each other."

At that moment, Liu Bu reached the back of the pickup truck, only to be stunned: "What the hell are you doing, Ren Xiaosu!"

Ren Xiaosu looked at Liu Bu: "Stop your shouting—I didn’t do anything! Belch!"

Having eaten too much, Ren Xiaosu stood to stretch, brushing biscuit crumbs from his clothes...

Liu Bu peered into the truck bed, his heart aching: "Are you a pig? How can you eat so much—one person devouring five packets of biscuits in a single morning!?"

To be honest, Ren Xiaosu had not eaten so heartily in ages. In his poorest days, he had barely scraped by with Yan Liuyuan’s portions; only in recent days had he enjoyed such luxury...

Moreover, the biscuits they carried were delicious—some sweet, some savory.

Salt and sugar were luxuries in the settlement, where they usually subsisted on boiled potatoes and the like. How could they resist such flavorful food, and with so much water to drink aboard...

"You’ve bloated your stomach—what, four months along? Don’t you feel uncomfortable?" Liu Bu roared.

Ren Xiaosu retorted irritably: "Didn’t you tell me to sit in this truck bed? But now that you mention it, I do feel a bit queasy."

With that, Ren Xiaosu climbed down and walked off into the distance: "You all eat. I need to take a dump."

When Ren Xiaosu had gone far enough, only Liu Bu and the others remained, flustered by the wilderness wind.

One of the band staff hesitated before speaking: "Perhaps we should let him ride in the vehicle?"

Liu Bu glared: "Why should we let him ride? As a refugee, what right does he have to sit with us, huh?"

The staff’s momentum faltered, but he muttered: "Let him stay in the pickup bed for another two days—we might not make it to Barrier 112 at this rate..."

Upon hearing this, Liu Bu roughly calculated Ren Xiaosu’s appetite and sighed: "Indeed, we can’t endure it..."

In the end, they reached a consensus to let Ren Xiaosu ride in the vehicle.

Yet when Ren Xiaosu returned and heard the decision, he balked: "I won’t ride in the vehicle. Why should I sit with you? I’m a refugee!"

"Let me go—I want to stay with my biscuits!"

"Are you even human?"

In the end, it took everyone’s combined effort to shove him into the vehicle...