Chapter 44: The child she gave birth to with half her life on the line

"A dog?" The two soldiers ridiculed with disdain. "What use is a dog in this day and age? It's lucky you have a vehicle to run fast, otherwise you'd be just like those refugees."

Liu Mu naturally wouldn't explain to them what kind of dog it was. Just then, three survivors happened to pass by her stall on their way back from outside. She hurriedly waved to greet them, "Hey, big brother, big sister, come take a look. Trade your scrap for raincoats, tarps, and rain boots. Don't let the plastic fool you; they block the sun by day and keep out the cold at night—practical and durable. You can take them home for just a bit of scrap iron or junk. You won't lose out, and you won't be cheated."

Her greeting did attract some attention, but as soon as the three saw the two soldiers, they acted like mice seeing a cat and immediately quickened their pace.

"Tsk!" Liu Mu moved her hands in dissatisfaction, as if she wanted to rush over and grab them.

The two soldiers, keeping in mind that Liu Mu had a connection to Yang Shuo and had just been brought here by the leader of their own Base, immediately wanted to show off.

"103, 108, 110, all of you, come over here! What are you running for? Didn't you hear Boss Liu asking you to trade for things?"

Although this shout carried a threat, the effect was significant. The three people, who had already walked more than ten meters away, stopped one after another. They looked over with faces full of fear, then reluctantly dragged the items they had scavenged over.

Their spirits were listless, their muscles atrophied, their eyeballs were exceptionally prominent, and their lips were cracked to the point of scabbing. The apocalypse had only just begun, yet the shadow of death had already been branded upon them.

On the left chest of each of their clothes, a number was written in black ink—the very numbers the two soldiers had just shouted.

Liu Mu pulled a smile onto her face and went to meet them. "You three, out working today too? You've worked hard. Come, come, come, come over to my side and trade for some good things, how about it?"

"We..." The leader of the three was a frail fat man—at least, he should have been a fat man half a month ago. After this period of time, his once plump physique was reduced to nothing but sagging skin. "We don't have anything good, Boss. How about... how about you just take whatever you like? No need to trade, no need to trade."

This man was over forty. Although his attitude was humble while speaking, he had carefully sized up the goods Liu Mu brought. The disappointment in his eyes might have fooled others, but it was crystal clear to Liu Mu.

He had pegged her as a small-time boss who bullied others by relying on her connections. Liu Mu's smile didn't diminish in the slightest. "Uncle, what are you saying? I'm a person who values fairness in business. If you give me your items, I will certainly give you items of equal value in return. Come, shall we take a look first?"

Liu Mu extended a warm invitation, and with the two soldiers staring, the thinned-out fat man had no choice but to step forward. He rubbed his hands nervously, his small eyes darting back and forth between the three of them, as if weighing how to resolve this matter in a way that would satisfy both the soldiers and Liu Mu.

That's right, weighing—not worrying or simply feeling afraid.

"My name is Liu Mu. What is your surname, Uncle?" Liu Mu asked proactively, while simultaneously stopping him from opening the umbrella he had picked up. "Why don't you look at the raincoats? Look at this thick material; it has a coating on the surface and fleece inside. Wearing it during the day blocks the rain, and wrapping it around yourself at night is warmer than a quilt..."

She pushed her sales pitch incessantly, leaving the middle-aged man no way to ignore her. He smiled apologetically, "My surname is Liu, I'm number 103, Liu Fugui. Boss Liu, you can just call me Little Liu."

To be addressed this way by someone more than a dozen years younger than himself was, in itself, a compromise—a compromise made by those facing the powerful.

"Oh my, we're even from the same family (sharing the same surname). Uncle Fugui, then you really can't be so formal with me." Liu Mu suddenly leaned closer to the three and lowered her voice. "You three might not know, but it's going to rain very soon. It's better to trade with me now than to wait until after it rains and the prices go up. Think about it, yeah?"

Liu Fugui glanced at the gray, overcast sky; it didn't look much different from the past few days. He was skeptical of Liu Mu's words but didn't dare to say so directly. "Is, is that so? Hahaha, then Boss Liu, do you think we can trade these things for a raincoat?"

Except for the first day when they were rescued and provided with water and food for free, the Base had since required them to go out and scavenge for supplies to trade for necessities. If they couldn't find any, they went hungry.

Everyone had lived in an era of peace and was accustomed to disaster relief personnel providing supplies for free. When they were told of this condition, most people didn't take it seriously and even argued with the soldiers at the Base.

But in the two days that followed, those who didn't produce supplies didn't receive a single drop of water. When they got hungry enough, some rioted. Thirty-seven people all died under the muzzles of guns.

The moment the gunshots rang out, Liu Fugui knew that the world had truly changed.

He had come to Haicheng to do business, while his wife and child were in the mountains thousands of miles away. He had originally planned to return to his hometown county at the end of the year to buy an apartment for his son to get married, but who would have thought such a thing would happen.

He couldn't leave, he couldn't die, and he couldn't live well. He could only worry about his family day after day, anxious for nothing.

Seeing the tall girl, who wore only tight jeans and no extra protection, rummaging through their scrap, he slightly blocked number 110, who was about to step forward. The latter was a middle-aged woman who had become so thin she was almost unrecognizable; she was also one of the employees from his shop.

After the disaster occurred, he found several of the employees he had previously hired at the Base, but only two were willing to continue following him—these were 108 and 110.

One was a delivery driver, and the other was the woman who did the cleaning.

Today, they had found half a bag of potatoes in the basement of a villa. Number 110, thinking of her child at the Base, had secretly hidden two of them among the scrap, and it was about to be uncovered by Liu Mu.

Liu Mu did indeed find them, but she skipped right over them, as if these things couldn't catch her attention.

"Hmm, not bad." Liu Mu looked through them in a perfunctory manner, then pointed to some discolored stainless steel chair frames. "I can take this scrap iron, but I don't really need the rest. Uncle Fugui, how about I trade you three raincoats for these?"

"Trade for three..." Liu Fugui sold hardware himself, so he naturally knew that steel would have value at any time, it was just that the Base wasn't accepting it now.

He scavenged these thinking that if the Base ever needed them, he could trade them for survival supplies or something more valuable.

Even before the disaster, this scrap iron wouldn't have traded for three raincoats. Liu Fugui's gray-black face pulled into an awkward smile. "Boss Liu, you aren't joking, are you?"

"No." Liu Mu clapped the dust off her hands. "I buy scrap steel in large quantities long-term. As long as you have it, I'll trade for it all. I came in a hurry this time and only brought rain gear. If you want other things, you can tell me, and I'll try my best to bring them next time."

Seeing that she hadn't taken the potatoes out, number 110 felt relieved. Unlike her boss, Liu Fugui, she didn't think scrap iron could be of any use. "Trade, let's trade. We should head back."

Her sick child had been hungry for most of the day. The potatoes were cooked over a fire, and the longer they kept them, the easier it would be for someone to discover them.

Number 108 was a sturdy young man with a face that looked somewhat aged; he also indicated he would listen to Liu Fugui.

"Then let's trade!" Seeing that the two soldiers didn't say anything, Liu Fugui gritted his teeth. "You decide the trade."

Liu Mu took their scrap chair frames and handed three dark green raincoats of different sizes to the three of them. "If anyone asks, I'd appreciate it if you three could help me advertise, just say that I trade for rain gear here."

The three nodded in agreement and had already turned to leave, but they noticed Liu Fugui hesitating on the spot.

"Boss Liu," he deliberated for a long time before pulling up the heavily worn sleeve of his jacket, revealing a golden Rolex. "This watch, can you help me trade for some medicine? We have a child who is sick and has been running a fever. Just a little bit of anti-inflammatory medicine will do!"

"Old Liu, that wasn't that a wedding gift you bought for your son?" Number 110 urged him to stop. "Little Mao is fine, I'll just trade for more water for her to drink. Why take that out?"

She knew it was already too late to stop him. Once others saw that Liu Fugui had such a good item, there was no guarantee they wouldn't find a way to snatch it away.

"What a coincidence," Liu Mu looked at the watch; it was in excellent condition, clearly something that had been protected. "I actually do have some medicine in my vehicle. How old is the child?"

"Eight," number 110 answered immediately. Even though she felt it was wrong, a mother's heart couldn't help itself. "I'll trade you something else. I'll go scavenge for scrap iron, I'll scavenge for more."

"Big sister, don't be foolish. Where can you trade scrap iron for medicine now?" Liu Fugui immediately slid the watch off and handed it over with extreme reluctance. "Boss Liu, what do you think?"

"Don't be in a rush, wait for me to go look for it," Liu Mu replied with a smile, then said to the two soldiers, "I'll trouble you two brothers to watch the stall for me."

The two naturally agreed, but seeing Liu Fugui take out a Rolex, they were very dissatisfied. These refugees had good things but didn't trade with the Base, instead trusting an outside merchant.

When Liu Mu returned, she saw the three standing in place with faces full of fear. The two soldiers were gone, and the watch in Liu Fugui's hand was gone too.

"This is..."

"I, I'm sorry, Boss Liu. It's our fault. Just pretend we never asked you for medicine." Besides fear, there was some hatred in Liu Fugui's eyes, which he was currently suppressing and not daring to show.

Liu Mu immediately guessed what had happened. After thinking for a moment, she still handed the few boxes of medicine in her hand to number 110. "Auntie, take this. Give the child one anti-inflammatory pill a day, don't skimp on the fever-reducing patches, and there's a small bottle of Vitamin C—use it all for the child. By the way, hide these bottles of water among the scrap and take them with you. Don't let anyone see them when you go back."

"This, no, we... we don't have anything to trade." Number 110 clutched the medicine, her dry eyes full of sorrow. She wanted to refuse, but she couldn't let go. That was the life of her daughter, the child she had given birth to with half her life on the line...

When she was pregnant back then, the neighbors and friends and family all advised her to think clearly. A geriatric pregnancy wasn't easy; by the time the child was twenty, the two of them would be over sixty, and even if they gave birth, they wouldn't have the ability to raise her well.

Even her husband didn't support it, and behind her back, countless people mocked her, but she refused to have an abortion. At the beginning of the previous year, her only daughter, who had just graduated, encountered a landslide while working and was gone, leaving not even a body behind.

She hadn't originally believed in gods or Buddhas, but she just felt that this unexpected child was her eldest daughter reincarnated into her womb, wanting to continue being mother and daughter with her.

Sure enough, she gave birth to a fair and chubby baby girl. She became even more convinced that this was her eldest daughter returning, and even her husband cried bitterly the first time he saw the child.

No matter what others said, they raised her like a pearl, like a treasure. Those people... who could understand the pain of a family that had lost their only child.