Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

"Never mind," she shook her head gently, shaking off the fleeting thought of greed. "It's not worth losing more than you gain."

The most urgent task at present is to head to Linchuan City, following the directions given by Squad Leader Wang.

"Keep your eyes open along the way," she told herself. "If you come across anything usable or edible, just bring it in."

Xu Xiaoyan looked up at the sky. The sun had just risen, and the air still carried the chill of the night, but it was still within a tolerable range.

"Looks like I need to hurry," she thought to herself, knowing that daytime was the best time to travel.

Without further delay, Xu Xiaoyan followed the path she remembered and hurried down the mountain. When she returned to the main road, she adjusted her backpack straps and then began to head northwest without stopping.

Along the way, all that could be seen was desolation and barrenness, with only bare branches or muddy piles of soil on both sides of the road.

She looked closely, but found almost nothing that looked decent or was edible.

Fortunately, she had her own space, and the thought of the abundant supplies stored inside gave her a sense of security, allowing her to focus all her energy on getting there.

"Only two days have passed, the main group shouldn't have gone far yet," she estimated the time and quickened her pace.

She knew very well that she could never catch up with those well-trained soldiers.

However, the sheer size and formidable military force of the road they traversed undoubtedly served as a powerful deterrent to potential raiders along the way.

"As long as we follow this road, those scoundrels shouldn't dare to approach easily in the short term, and the probability of being ambushed or robbed will be greatly reduced," she calmly analyzed.

This idea gave Xu Xiaoyan enough confidence, and she stopped looking around and focused her attention on getting on the road.

As darkness began to fall, Xu Xiaoyan reached a fork in the road and had to stop.

Before me stretched a wide, straight road, its surface riddled with cracks and dotted with abandoned vehicles, extending to the horizon and exuding a desolate sense of abandonment.

The other was a narrow, winding dirt road that meandered into a sparse woodland, looking even more desolate.

She was caught in a dilemma. The main road seemed to fit the characteristics of a main road and was theoretically more likely to lead to her destination, while the side road was hidden but might be a shortcut to her destination.

After hesitating for a moment, she still took out the watch that Wang Yuming had given her from her spatial storage.

The screen lit up, and she tried to locate herself, but unfortunately there was no network signal, so she couldn't determine her exact location.

She then searched the vicinity for possible landmarks, whether intersection names or obvious buildings, but to no avail.

This area appears too ordinary on the map, or rather, the changes after the disaster have rendered the offline map somewhat unreliable.

"Sigh..." She sighed softly. The convenience of technology was ultimately diminished after the collapse of the basic order.

Fortunately, the watch's basic compass function was still reliable, with the magnetic needle pointing steadily north and south. She raised her wrist and carefully compared the directions.

The straight road stretches eastward, while the winding path, though circuitous, is generally oriented towards the northwest.

With no better option, she put her watch back into her storage space, took a deep breath, and turned her gaze to the secluded path.

"I have no choice but to bite the bullet and try this way," she muttered to herself, as if trying to encourage herself.

The soil beneath her feet was soft, and the branches on either side occasionally brushed against her arms. The surroundings were so quiet that she could only hear her own footsteps and breathing.

She clenched her fists, her nails digging slightly into her palms, and could only silently pray in her heart, "I hope my luck is good enough."

Xu Xiaoyan took out the watermelon knife from her backpack. The cool handle brought a sense of unreal security to her hand.

She dared not be careless in the slightest, her sharp eyes scanning the sides of the path and ahead for any movement.

The moonlight illuminated the winding dirt road quite brightly. Thanks to her two-day, two-night deep sleep, she was unusually clear-headed and not sleepy at all.

"I'll take advantage of the good moonlight and travel as far as I can," she thought to herself, her feet never stopping.

The path was flanked by mostly abandoned farmland, and going down into the fields to search for any remaining food was inefficient and uncertain.

She glanced at it briefly, then dismissed the idea and focused on continuing her journey.

She walked for an unknown amount of time, and the surrounding scenery seemed to become increasingly desolate. She suddenly stopped and belatedly realized that something was wrong.

The road beneath my feet had, without me noticing, narrowed from a width that could barely allow a car to pass to a narrow path that could only accommodate one person.

A clear realization dawned on her: she might have chosen the wrong path.

This doesn't look like a path leading to any region or main road at all; judging by its direction, it looks more like an old road leading to some remote mountain village.

A wave of frustration washed over Xu Xiaoyan. "Should I turn back now?" She glanced back at the path she had come from; she had been walking for several hours.

Turning back now means all the previous efforts and time have been wasted, and the physical exertion will become a sunk cost.

After a brief struggle, she gritted her teeth, a resolute glint in her eyes.

"Forget it, going back would be too much of a loss! I might as well go all the way and see it through!" she told herself, with a reckless, "what's the use" attitude.

"Whether it's a dead end or not, I need to see the end with my own eyes to completely give up this idea and let go of this thought!"

Xu Xiaoyan carefully made her way forward along the path that was almost completely overgrown with weeds.

The end of the road finally appeared under her cautious steps: a cluster of half-collapsed mud houses built against the hillside, about twelve or thirteen households.

Most of the earthen walls of the house had collapsed, revealing broken wooden beams and an empty interior.

At the entrance of the village, there was a small pond with dark, murky water that gleamed with an unsettling, oily sheen under the moonlight.

What's even more unsettling is that there are twenty or thirty dead fish floating densely on the surface of the water.

The fish's belly turned white, and the swollen corpse emitted a strong stench of decay, almost solidified, making Xu Xiaoyan's stomach churn. She immediately covered her mouth and nose and quickly moved away from the small pond.

Approaching those dilapidated mud houses, I chose one that was relatively intact and went inside.

The room was filled with the smell of dust and mildew. By the moonlight filtering through the broken roof, a crooked wooden bed could be seen in the corner.

It was covered with some rotten, crumbly debris, and a wooden table with cracks and stains on its surface.

She walked to the table and tentatively opened a drawer, inside which were scattered some small, oddly shaped items:

A few old buttons of different colors, a few old banknotes with the portrait of a great man printed on them, long since obsolete, and a small round mirror with rusted edges, the mirror surface blurring her wary and pale face.