Chapter 8: Beneath the Thorns, Seeds of Hope

The sparse thorn fence around Hope Outpost swayed in the wind, its sharp barbs glinting faintly, lending this small stronghold a touch of grim, defensive air. The warning thorns Sister Ai Li had set up were crude, yet they stood like a silent declaration: this place has an owner, trespassers will be hurt.

Lin Mo's wounds, re-bandaged with anti-inflammatory powder and the relatively clean strips of cloth bartered from Old Karl, hurt far less, and the redness and swelling had clearly receded. That restored a good deal of his energy. The pressure of survival was temporarily eased (with a relatively stable water source), and the food crisis became a sword hanging over his head. Those few pieces of marauder jerky and black bread couldn't hold out for long at all.

His gaze fell on the precious bag of Radiation-Resistant Potato Seeds (Inferior) and the bottle of Basic Soil Improver in his system space. Farming! That was the most sustainable food source he could think of! It was also the instinctive call of his identity as a "Farm Owner"!

But the wasteland's soil… Lin Mo walked to the edge of the depression, crouched down, and grabbed a handful of scorched-black earth. The soil was dry, hard, and compacted, utterly devoid of fertility; he could even smell a faint chemical tang and the faint scent of radiation dust. The handbook warned plainly: planting ordinary crops in untreated wasteland soil would either yield nothing at all or grow toxic, mutated plants.

Hope lay in that bottle of amendment and those "radiation-resistant" seeds!

"Sister Ai Li, I want to try planting potatoes." Lin Mo told Sister Ai Li, who was sharpening her blade, his own thoughts.

Sister Ai Li stopped what she was doing, looked up at that barren stretch of depression, then at the seeds in Lin Mo's hand and that small bottle; a flicker of doubt crossed her icy gaze. "Wasteland soil, nothing grows." Her voice carried the ingrained conviction of a wasteland dweller.

"Have to try! These are 'radiation-resistant' seeds, and there's this!" Lin Mo shook the amendment. "The handbook says one small bottle can amend a small patch of land. If it works, we'll have a steady food source!"

Sister Ai Li was silent for a few seconds, as if weighing the risks against the possible gains. In the end, she nodded, pointing to a corner in the depression that was relatively sheltered from the wind and close to the shack. "There. Closer to the water." She said no more, but her actions showed support. She picked up her hand crossbow, walked to a slightly higher spot a little farther away, and stood watch for Lin Mo's "agricultural experiment."

A warm current welled up in Lin Mo's heart. He chose the patch of land Sister Ai Li had indicated, roughly two square meters. The soil was just as barren, but relatively flat, and a little closer to the water hole in the depression where they drew water.

He first used a relatively sharp piece of metal he had found to laboriously loosen the compacted soil. The work was more exhausting than he'd imagined; after only a few strokes he was gasping for breath, his arms aching. The wasteland soil was like hard stone, mixed through with gravel, metal shards, and unidentifiable plastic trash. He gritted his teeth, clearing and turning it bit by bit; sweat soon soaked through his back.

Once the soil was turned, he carefully unscrewed the bottle of Basic Soil Improver. Inside was a viscous, dark-green liquid that gave off a faint scent of fresh grass. Following the system instructions, he spread it evenly over the loosened soil. The dark-green liquid quickly seeped into the scorched earth, and something miraculous happened — wherever the amendment touched, the soil visibly deepened in color, its texture seemed less hard, and it even gave off an extremely faint, earthy, fishy smell!

"It works!" Lin Mo's spirits soared! He immediately took out the bag of potato seeds. The so-called seeds were actually some wrinkled-skinned tubers with sprout eyes. Drawing on agricultural science he'd seen before, he carefully cut the tubers into small pieces, making sure each one had one or two sprout eyes. Then he buried these precious "seeds" in the amended soil and covered them with a thin layer of earth.

After all this, he was nearly exhausted, but looking at this small "farm" before him that carried hope, his heart brimmed with anticipation. He fetched some filtered clean water and carefully poured it over. The clear water seeped into the soil, nourishing the seeds of life buried beneath.

"It'll take time." Sister Ai Li had come over at some point; she looked at the freshly watered patch, her voice still flat, but seemingly with a little less of that initial skepticism.

"I know." Lin Mo wiped the sweat from his face and grinned. "Hope they make it."

Over the next few days, the center of Lin Mo's life was guarding this small field of hope and keeping the water purifier running. He went to water it every day, carefully pulling out the few stubborn weeds that occasionally sprouted in the plot. Sister Ai Li was in charge of standing watch and going out to scout; she would occasionally bring back some edible succulent plant roots or a few unlucky small lizards with little radiation to supplement their meat.

Old Karl didn't show up again, and the area around the depression was unusually quiet — nothing but the wind and the occasional hiss of mutant insects. But that quiet only made Lin Mo and Sister Ai Li more wary. Before a storm, the silence is often the most oppressive.

That afternoon, Sister Ai Li went out on her usual reconnaissance. Lin Mo was in the shack, using those screws and nuts to try to reinforce the metal bucket, and wondering if he could make a lid. Suddenly, he heard a stifled, broken sobbing from outside.

The sound was faint, seeming to come from some ruined corner at the edge of the depression.

Lin Mo's heart tightened; he gripped his rusty blade and carefully poked his head out. In the shadow of an angle formed by several collapsed concrete slabs, a thin, small figure was curled up. It was a girl who looked only fifteen or sixteen, wearing a large, ragged gray smock filthy with grime, her hair yellowed and matted, her face dirty, with only a pair of terrified, large eyes especially striking. She clutched a small bundle wrapped in ragged cloth to her chest, her body trembling slightly from crying.

At the sight of Lin Mo, the girl shrank violently like a startled rabbit; her sobbing cut off abruptly, leaving only fear-filled hiccups.

"Don't be afraid… I mean no harm." Lin Mo kept his voice as gentle as he could, standing in place without approaching. "Why are you here alone? Where's your family?"

The girl just stared at him in terror, her lips trembling, unable to speak; tears streamed silently down, washing two pale streaks through the dirt on her face. Her gaze kept flicking toward the shack, and especially when she saw the bowl of clean water Lin Mo had set by the shack entrance, ready for watering the field, her throat visibly bobbed — the unmistakable sign of extreme thirst.

Lin Mo understood at once. Another poor soul struggling to survive on the wasteland. He hesitated, then finally turned back to the shack, carefully poured less than half a bowl of clean water, broke off a small piece of black bread so hard it hurt the teeth, and walked back out.

"Here, drink some water, eat something." Lin Mo set the bowl and bread on the ground a few meters from the girl, then stepped back several paces.

The girl looked at the water and food on the ground; an incredible, desperate longing and struggle flared in her eyes. She licked her cracked lips, then warily glanced at Lin Mo, as if confirming it wasn't a trap. In the end, hunger and thirst won out over fear. She lunged forward, snatched up the bowl, and gulped it down recklessly, making gulping sounds; then she grabbed the black bread and crammed it into her mouth desperately, choking until her eyes rolled back yet still unwilling to stop.

Watching her wolf it down, Lin Mo's heart was a tangle of feelings. On the wasteland, life was so fragile — a mouthful of clean water, a piece of moldy bread, was the hope of going on living.

The girl quickly finished the food and drank the water. Holding the empty bowl, she looked at Lin Mo a little at a loss; the fear in her eyes had lessened, replaced by a few parts of blankness and gratitude.

"I'm Lin Mo. This place… is my outpost, called 'Hope Outpost.'" Lin Mo said as gently as he could. "What's your name? How come you're alone?"

The girl hugged her knees, silent for a long while, before answering in a mosquito-thin voice: "Ling… Lingna… the village… gone… monsters… everyone died…" As she spoke, tears welled up again, and her arms tightened around the bundle.

Another poor soul whose home had been destroyed. Lin Mo sighed. "So what are you going to do from now on?"

Lingna shook her head blankly, her eyes hollow. She had nowhere to go.

Just then, Sister Ai Li's figure flashed out from behind a stretch of ruins like a ghost, her hand crossbow already raised, her icy gaze locked on Lingna. "Who is she?" Her voice carried an interrogating edge.

Lingna was so startled by Sister Ai Li's sudden appearance and cold killing intent that she let out a scream, shrank violently back into the corner, and trembled all over.

"Easy, Sister Ai Li!" Lin Mo hurriedly explained. "Her name is Lingna, she's a child who's fallen on hard times; her village was destroyed, and she escaped here alone." He briefly described what had just happened.

Sister Ai Li's crossbow bolt still wasn't lowered; her sharp gaze swept over Lingna, lingering for a moment especially on the bundle she was clutching tightly. She walked to where Lingna had just eaten, crouched down, picked up a few scattered breadcrumbs with her fingers, sniffed them at the tip of her nose, then looked at Lingna's mud-caked hands and feet and terrified expression.

"The bundle. Open it." Sister Ai Li ordered Lingna coldly.

Lingna flinched in fright, instinctively clutching the bundle tighter and shaking her head desperately.

"Sister Ai Li, she's just a child…" Lin Mo tried to intervene.

"On the wasteland, there are no children." Sister Ai Li's voice was utterly flat; the crossbow's bolt dipped slightly, aimed at Lingna. "Open it. Or I'll do it for you."

Under the pressure, Lingna, trembling, very slowly untied that ragged cloth bundle.

Inside the bundle, there were no weapons, no valuables. Only a few equally ragged small clothes, a dirty cloth doll, and… a small packet, carefully wrapped in oiled paper, of seeds in various colors?!

Lin Mo was stunned. A flicker of surprise also crossed Sister Ai Li's icy gaze.

Lingna clutched the cloth doll and the packet of seeds tightly; tears fell in big drops, and her voice took on a sobbing tone: "…Mama… Mama left them for me… she said… to farm well… to live on…"

Farm? Seeds? Lin Mo looked at that packet of variously colored, well-preserved seeds, then at his own small potato plot that had just sprouted a few faint green shoots; a thought flashed through his mind in an instant!

"Sister Ai Li!" Lin Mo looked at Sister Ai Li, hope shining in his eyes. "She knows farming! Maybe… she can help us!"

Sister Ai Li's gaze swept back and forth between Lingna's terrified face and Lin Mo's expectant eyes; finally, she slowly lowered the hand crossbow. But her words were still icy: "Stay. Work. No work, no food." She pointed at Lin Mo's small potato plot. "Watch them. One dies, you leave."

Lingna, as if seizing a lifeline, nodded desperately; for the first time, an expression other than fear appeared on her dirty little face — a tear-glinted hope of having found someone to lean on.

Hope Outpost welcomed its third member — a crybaby little farm girl. And Lin Mo's great farming enterprise seemed to have turned a corner? Yet Sister Ai Li, looking at that packet of seeds of unknown origin in Lingna's arms, still harbored a barely perceptible trace of doubt deep in her eyes. Were these seeds really just ordinary seeds?