Chapter 197: She—She is Too Precious

Of course, there were also some who did not care about these things and were eager to show themselves off.

"Greetings, Chief! Chief, you've worked hard!"

The group of children rushing out from the passageway took Liu Mu by surprise; judging by their height, the oldest was no more than eleven or twelve years old.

"Hello, everyone," Liu Mu patted the head of the boy in the lead; his hair had been buzzed into a crew cut and felt a bit prickly. This was one of the requirements of the Barrier, mainly out of fear that lice would grow in the dense living environment.

"What are you doing?"

"We're going to pick tree roots. Grandma Xiuchun says that if you drink them, you won't catch a cold."

"What kind of tree roots? Can you show me?"

The little boy fished a small section of orange-yellow tree root from the pocket of his somewhat patched clothes. Liu Mu noticed that although his hands were thin, they were not dirty, and even his fingernails were cut very short—but not the kind of short that was due to malnutrition and digging into the flesh; it was just the right length for use.

Liu Mu picked up the tree roots, snapped off a piece, put it in her mouth, and chewed it, then her features scrunched up fiercely. "So bitter!"

"Hahahaha..."

Her expression immediately made the children laugh. Fortunately, in the eyes of these children, there was no concept of hierarchy as strong as that of the adults.

"Bitter Root can only be boiled in water to drink. You're so silly, Chief."

A younger little girl covered her mouth and giggled, her bright eyes filled with a sense of pride.

"Yes, yes, yes, you are all smarter than me." Liu Mu returned the tree roots to the boy, bent down to pick up the little girl, and amidst the astonished gazes of the children and those around them, gently tossed the little girl up and caught her.

This little surprise made the little girl let out a laugh like silver bells. The irritability that had piled up on Liu Mu's brow because of the meeting seemed to be melted away by the laughter, and she followed suit, laughing along.

If nothing else, these children were living much better than the poor little things in her past life who huddled in corners, never had enough to eat, and could be killed at any moment.

Seeing her so approachable and not at all angry at the children's offense, the undisguised wariness or fear on the adults' faces gradually disappeared.

Since she had to look into the situation anyway, Liu Mu simply followed the children to find the Grandma Xiuchun they spoke of.

According to the children's description, this Grandma Xiuchun used to work at a traditional Chinese medicine clinic and understood a lot of knowledge about medicinal herbs. In a situation where the Barrier's medical resources were severely insufficient, people who came down with minor illnesses would go to her for treatment, and she could always cure them using various flowers and plants.

But Liu Mu was still doubtful. More than ninety percent of the plants that survived the Burning had mutated, and with the screening of the Black Rain, could one still find plants with accurate medicinal properties now?

"I tested them myself first, and I also asked the Barrier hospital to perform pharmacological identification on some. Although most of what we can use now is what our ancestors accumulated, it can still treat some minor illnesses to an extent."

She had expected Grandma Lin Xiuchun to be short and aged like other elderly people, or even weak due to the harsh environment.

But the 'Grandma' chatting with Liu Mu now claimed to be fifty-eight, yet she had a head of thick, black, short hair, a figure that wasn't fat but looked exceptionally sturdy, slightly rosy cheeks, and not even a few wrinkles; she looked full of vitality.

Coupled with her height of one meter seven, she was even more agile in her movements than young office workers before the disaster. Liu Mu even felt that if she were given an iron rod, she could take on a mutated beast single-handedly.

Not to mention now, if it were the Liu Mu of the past, she doubted she would have lived to this age, let alone be in such a state of full vitality. After all, she used to neglect her body too much to save money, and that was while doing heavy work like collecting scrap metal every day; she figured she basically relied on her youth to avoid getting sick.

Perhaps because the old woman had seen too many people, she was not reserved in the face of Liu Mu; she was polite and even took the initiative to offer to take Liu Mu's pulse.

Liu Mu did not reach out immediately. After all, her current body was different from that of an ordinary human, and she was truly afraid that the mysterious and ancient Eastern technique might reveal some flaws.

But she didn't know if this old traditional Chinese medicine practitioner had an obsession with treating patients; she actually went straight for it, while the children who looked so cute just now were 'persuading' her from the side.

"Grandma Xiuchun's medical skills are exceptionally good. Big Sister Chief, you should just try it. You go out to fight monsters every day, your body must be in bad shape."

Fight monsters?

"Xiaoxiao, you dummy, Big Sister Chief doesn't go out to fight monsters; she is clearly building an empire for us. My brother said so, they all admire Big Sister Chief very much and say she is the Queen!"

An empire? The Queen?

Liu Mu felt helpless, but at this moment, she felt a warm breath flow from her wrist into her body.

This was certainly not just simple body heat. Realizing this, Liu Mu flipped her wrist and grabbed Lin Xiuchun's hand fiercely, her killing intent rising instantly.

"What are you doing?!"

The aura and the questioning scared the surrounding children into silence immediately, and they all opened their big eyes to look at the two of them.

"You really are... I was just," Lin Xiuchun actually hadn't detected anything abnormal about Liu Mu, she had only inferred it based on her reaction, "just checking the condition of your body. Since this makes you uncomfortable, then forget it."

"Big Sister Chief..."

The little girl held in Liu Mu's arms looked at her timidly, and a layer of mist soon filled her clear, black-and-white eyes.

"Be good," Liu Mu withdrew her killing intent and simultaneously pulled back her hand, putting on the same smile as before. "Big Sister Mu wants to talk to Grandma Xiuchun for a while. Are you all still going to pick tree roots?"

As she spoke, she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled a handful of candies from her space.

Seeing the candies, the children immediately forgot the atmosphere they didn't understand just now and stared longingly at Liu Mu's hand.

Their relatives all worked in the Barrier, and those without relatives were raised collectively by the Barrier; the times they went hungry were becoming fewer and fewer.

But that was only enough to be full; as for snacks like candy, they were rare items.

Yet these children were all born before the apocalypse, and most of them had eaten snacks, so they often missed the rich and varied snacks of the past.

After distributing the snacks to them, Lin Xiuchun sent them off to pick Bitter Root, still promising to trade them for biscuits.

Once the children had all left, the old woman also stood up to tidy the medicinal herbs she had been drying near her sleeping mat.

"You..."

Liu Mu was a bit unsure of how to start, because she wasn't sure if Lin Xiuchun was a Mutation or... an Awakening of an ability.

"I seem to be different from you all," Lin Xiuchun said, her back to Liu Mu as she shook a basket of dried grass, shaking the dry soil off the roots. "The announcement issued by the Barrier says that inhaling Red Mist will cause Mutation, and the mortality rate is extremely high and unstable. But I have lived inside the Barrier since the disaster, so logically I haven't inhaled any Red Mist..."

Lin Xiuchun usually didn't dare to confide in anyone about the changes in her body, and she worried about whether she would turn into a monster or die as the Barrier's announcement stated, so she could only bury the matter deep in her heart. While worrying, she also associated it with many things, such as whether it was contagious, or whether it would harm those around her...

After all, there had been an incident inside the Barrier where a black lizard ate people, and although it ate bad people, it was still enough to make people afraid.

Today, the children had unexpectedly brought Liu Mu, who was publicly acknowledged by the Barrier as a mutated person, and was also the Chief with the highest authority.

This meant that Liu Mu's Mutation was benign, controllable, and beneficial to everyone... Without knowing the specific manifestations of Liu Mu's Mutation, Lin Xiuchun wanted to test the waters.

Whether it could be seen through medical skills, or whether it would be discovered and confessed by the other party like this, was fine.

"So you were afraid that you would become uncontrollable one day, which is why you said you needed a place to store medicinal herbs and moved to the end of this passageway?"

Liu Mu already understood in her heart; Lin Xiuchun was not mutated due to the stimulation of the Red Mist, but had undergone an Awakening of an ability, just like her.

In her past life, large-scale human Awakening occurred nine years later. Liu Mu thought that perhaps some people had already awakened before that; perhaps they were afraid of being ostracized if they spoke out, or perhaps their awakened abilities were not obvious and were overlooked. The timeline should be able to be pushed forward.

"Yes, that is part of the reason," Lin Xiuchun's statement was very simple and clear, as if she had rehearsed it thousands of times in her mind, just for the day she could confide in someone.

"At first I didn't notice it either, but there were too many sick and injured people around me, so I wanted to pick some herbs to see if I could treat them. You also know that the plants have all mutated; I could barely recognize some, but I wasn't sure of their medicinal properties, so I tasted them myself."

"Several times I tasted it myself and was fine, but people around me tried it and got poisoned. Plus, when I examine patients, it's as if threads appear from my hands, entering their bodies to locate the source of the illness and identify the cause. Of course, they aren't real threads; it's just a metaphor."

Liu Mu nodded slowly, not telling her the truth immediately, "Perhaps it is because those Mutated Plants came into contact with the Red Mist, but your level is very mild, and your ability is useful, so it should be benign; there is no need to worry too much."

"I think so too," Lin Xiuchun seemed to feel relieved at once after receiving Liu Mu's confirmation, "It doesn't harm anyone, and it hasn't spread or worsened in several months..."

"If you are truly worried, in a few days when Doctor returns, I will take you for a check-up." Liu Mu stood up and patted her shoulder, using very little force, "Rest assured, elder, not all those who undergo Mutation have problems; look at me, I am perfectly fine."

Being able to get a check-up with high-tech equipment made Lin Xiuchun happy; after all, there is a saying in traditional Chinese medicine that a healer cannot heal themselves, meaning one might introduce subjective thoughts, misread the pulse, and misdiagnose.

Liu Mu put the hair she had obtained while patting the other person's shoulder into her space, let Heitao A analyze it, and ended the conversation before taking her leave.

After only a few minutes, Heitao A provided the answer.

Just as Liu Mu expected, it was an Awakening of an ability.

"A good thing," Liu Mu breathed a silent sigh of relief in her heart, "This way, even if some virus breaks out, Grandma Lin can help with treatment. It's just that she might not yet understand how to use a healing ability; I need to find an opportunity to let her try healing others directly."

The kind that doesn't rely on medicine; healing-type ability users are medicine themselves, which is different from mutated medical practitioners—they have no side effects and consume their own energy to heal others.

Furthermore, there is usually no limit to what they can heal; they can treat illnesses, internal and external injuries, and even provide a certain degree of detoxification...

This is another reason why Liu Mu did not tell her the truth for the time being and wanted her to keep her ability a secret.

She—is too precious!