Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

The blood-stained blade, coupled with Chen Yong's completely reckless and insane demeanor, utterly shocked everyone.

The thugs turned pale. Looking at the deadly weapon in the other person's hand and then at the glaring bloodstains on the ground, their momentum immediately vanished.

"Mad...madman..."

"Let's go, let's go... It's not worth it for a meal..."

Some people muttered and began to back away. The crowd that had been frantically surrounding them quickly became timid after a brief standoff.

They all avoided the direction Chen Yong's blade was pointing, and eventually scattered in all directions, disappearing quickly into the forest, leaving behind only a mess of chestnut balls and eight people still in shock.

Chen Yong still gripped the knife tightly, his chest heaving violently, puffs of white breath coming out. He looked in the direction where the bag had been snatched, his eyes filled with anger and regret.

Xu Xiaoyan slowly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling her back soaked in cold sweat.

Looking at the still-dripping blood knife in Chen Yong's hand and the glaring red spot on the snow, she knew that some things had completely changed.

The group of eight, exhausted, returned to the mountain cave area where they lived. Their return inevitably caused a commotion.

The people in the nearby caves had already been awakened by the commotion and the earlier noise from below, and now they were all peeking out of their caves.

Eyes, whether open or hidden, clung to their bulging snakeskin bags like hungry wolves, whispers spreading through the cold air.

Suppressed sobs could be heard coming from some of the caves, and several figures seemed to be stirring and trying to get closer.

Just then, Chen Yong suddenly stopped and deliberately raised the watermelon knife in his hand, which was still stained with dark red blood.

The faint morning light clearly illuminated the cold metal and the glaring marks on it.

His gaze swept fiercely and unabashedly across the prying eyes.

The effect was immediate. Those greedy and restless eyes instantly withdrew when they met the lingering ferocity on Daofeng and Chen Yong's faces.

The head that had poked out quickly disappeared into the shadows of the cave, and even the whispers stopped abruptly.

Without delay, the group quickly dragged their loot back into the cave. Afterward, they all tacitly gathered at Chen Yong's cave entrance, using the cave walls as cover to hold an urgent discussion in hushed tones.

"Now we're easy targets," Wang Qingsong spat, looking at the seemingly quiet caves around him with a grim expression.

"With so many eyes watching, it's hard to say whether we can even keep what we have," Wang Qingshan said with a furrowed brow and a heavy tone. "It's impossible to go up the mountain during the day."

Xu Xiaoyan wrapped her clothes tighter. "Unless... it's the middle of the night." Her words surprised everyone.

"Midnight?" Chen Yong narrowed his eyes. "In this awful weather, going up the mountain at midnight would freeze you to death!"

"But that's precisely why no one will go!" Xu Xiaoyan said in a low voice, her eyes unusually clear.

"It's still just before the cold wave. Once it gets really cold, it'll be hard to even go out. It's freezing cold at night now, but we don't run into that many people. Even if we do run into a few clueless people..."

She paused, glanced at the knife in Chen Yong's hand, and said, "With so many of us together, it's not certain who will rob whom."

This proposal was bold, but it was the only feasible solution at the moment. After a moment of silence, everyone quickly weighed the pros and cons.

"Damn it!" Chen Yong gritted his teeth and shouted, "We have to stock up on more! Tonight!"

"But our belongings..." someone looked worriedly at the bags piled up at the entrance of the cave. "Someone has to stay and watch over them."

Wang Qingshan was going to lead the way, so they definitely had to go. Xu Xiaoyan was a girl, and although she had performed amazingly just now, her physical strength was ultimately not as good as a man's. Moreover, it would be too dangerous for a girl like her to stay behind in the middle of the night.

There was also a young boy nicknamed "Eyeglasses" in the group, who was thin and could not be relied on. The remaining five men exchanged glances.

"I'll stay," a young man named Wu Song, who looked quite capable, volunteered. "I feel light and quick-witted."

He patted a military entrenching tool leaning against the cave wall. "With this, guarding a few cave entrances shouldn't be a problem. If something really happens, I can shout, and the military camp down the mountain should be able to hear the commotion. If it gets out of hand, they won't just stand by and do nothing."

The entrenching tool's blade is sharpened to a fine point, making it a formidable weapon when necessary.

"Alright! It's settled then!" Chen Yong made the final decision. "Everyone, don't think about anything now. Go back and get some sleep! Get plenty of rest so you'll be ready to fight tonight! Meet at the cave entrance at 11 p.m."

Without another word, the group quickly dispersed, each dragging their weary bodies back into the cave.

Back in her cave, Xu Xiaoyan locked the door behind her and used a heavy wooden bar to firmly prop it shut.

Despite his body screaming with exhaustion, his mind was unusually excited by the dangerous experience he had just had, and he couldn't fall asleep for a while.

She decided to stop forcing herself and her gaze fell on the two bags of chestnuts hidden in the corner.

"I can't waste time," she muttered to herself.

With a thought, six bulging snakeskin bags appeared out of thin air on the originally empty cave floor, just like a magic trick. These were the ones she had secretly hidden in her space before.

Next came a tedious and time-consuming task. She found a relatively flat large stone to use as a cutting board, picked up a pair of scissors, and began to painstakingly process the spiky chestnuts.

She used the tips of scissors to pinch the chestnuts, carefully stepped on them with her feet, and used her fingers as nimbly as possible to peel away the hard, prickly shells and take out the smooth, brown chestnuts inside. The process was slow, and the sharp thorns would occasionally pierce her gloves.

But Xu Xiaoyan was very patient. She didn't throw away the thorny shells that she peeled off. She carefully kicked them aside and piled them up. After drying, these would be excellent kindling.

She was determined not to waste a single bit, and it took her nearly three hours to finish processing all eight bags of chestnut balls.

The spiky shells piled up into a small mountain, and the chestnuts they obtained filled three sturdy sacks.

She had to risk going up the mountain again that night, and she estimated that she needed to leave enough space to hold at least eight to ten bags.

She moved the dry branches and firewood out of the space, and in their place, she quickly put in the three bags of chestnuts she had just harvested.

In this way, there is enough space left to handle the night's operations.

After doing all this, she felt extremely tired. She practically dragged herself into the makeshift tent and fell asleep instantly.

It seemed like she had just closed her eyes when a very slight, rhythmic tapping sound startled her from her deep sleep.

That was their agreed-upon code. Xu Xiaoyan sat up abruptly, took out her phone, and glanced at it. It was already 11 p.m.

Without the slightest delay, she quickly put on warm clothes, gently moved the wooden bar at the cave entrance, and silently slid out.

Several dark figures stood silently in the wind and snow outside the cave.

Wang Qingshan made a hand gesture, turned around first, and led the way. The seven of them quietly left the cave area and headed back into the mountains and forests.