My lord, spare his life!

"Xie Ruxin already suspects you."

Xie Shu was a very busy person. As the strategist relied upon by the rebel leader, she also needed to deal with the impact of Puyang Kui being kidnapped in the chaos, so she naturally couldn't take care of Zhang Yang and the other two. After she left, Shen Zhi secretly relaxed his tense muscles and breathed a sigh of relief.

Fan You's single sentence put him on the edge of his seat.

Shen Zhi: "She suspects us?"

Zhang Yang: "If you had doubts, why did you come to my rescue?"

In her eyes, Xie Shu was a strange person.

Shen Zhi and Fan You would change the color of their names above their heads depending on their mood, switching between green, yellow, and even red. Xie Shu was different; he had only broken his guard once since their first meeting. Even when they were just testing out the new clothes, the color never changed.

It's stable, like a catalyst.

Fan You wasn't familiar with Zhang Yang, so he wouldn't say things too clearly: "People aren't simply black and white. Helping you out of a predicament doesn't necessarily mean she's friendly; it just means that helping you out is in her interest. If she pretends to be deaf, we'll pretend to be dumb too."

There's no need to expose that secret; let's just pretend we don't know.

Zhang Yang seemed to understand, but not quite, and had the system logs record it all.

This minor incident did not affect the three's actions today.

Zhang Yang and Fan You prepared enough dry rations to last for ten to fifteen days. Due to the war, these rations were not cheap, and Shen Zhi kept saying they were too expensive when the shopkeeper quoted a price. Zhang Yang knew nothing about the prices in this area and couldn't understand why they were so expensive after listening for a long time.

"You gave us such a big pile, was it expensive?"

"More than ten times the market price, and you still say this isn't expensive? What kind of noble person are you who doesn't know the hardships of the world?" Shen Zhi couldn't help but think of his previous suspicion that Zhang Yang was a princess, and thought to himself that even if this person wasn't a princess, she must have been raised in a life of luxury!

Even the princess couldn't bring herself to say it wasn't expensive.

Because this was the biggest sale of the day, the shopkeeper's smile was as bright as a blooming flower. He took the silver coin Shen Zhi tossed to him with both hands, took out a pair of scissors, cut off a piece, weighed it repeatedly on a scale, and gave him change after confirming it was correct. Zhang Yang wanted to tell him to stop bothering and just keep the rest as a tip.

Hearing Shen Zhi say that, she had no choice but to swallow her words.

Shopkeeper: "There's a war going on outside. Don't be fooled by the fact that we're selling old stock; the quality is good, and there are no fakes. This price is already fair. If you're a customer, go look around other shops; the cheaper ones aren't as good, and the good ones aren't this cheap."

When war breaks out, ordinary people are the first to be affected.

The procurement process has been affected, and price increases of more than ten times are normal.

"Do you have any dried meat or meat floss in the shop?" Fan You didn't believe the shopkeeper was telling the truth, so he deliberately asked, "I want normal beef, don't try to fool me with those of unknown origin."

The shopkeeper's expression was subtle: "Sir, you can rest assured."

Zhang Yang: "Of dubious origin? You're selling sick cattle?"

Shop owner: "..."

"If a sick cow is considered a good cow, then I'm afraid it's not even beef," Shen Zhi said, looking at the pile of stuff. "The weather has been unpredictable lately, with more rain and muggy weather. If you bring dried meat on the road, it'll probably mold and rot in just a few days."

The key issue is that meat products are expensive.

Zhang Yang and Fan You both seemed to be people who didn't care about business. Shen Zhi suspected that if she separated from them, they would squander their remaining money within days and starve to death. Buying so much at once—it wouldn't keep well and they couldn't finish it all—wasn't that a waste?

"My lord practices martial arts, so meat is indispensable."

Zhang Yang pointed to himself: "Was this prepared for me?"

"Um."

She shook her head: "I won't eat."

Fan You reminded Shen Zhicai of this, because Zhang Yang's physique was too deceptive: "There's no need to be frugal."

Zhang Laoshi Yang said with disdain, "It tastes awful, I won't eat it."

I don't want to touch either dry food or dried meat.

She added insult to injury: "I'm not guilty of that!"

Fan and You: "..."

I did buy some dried meat, but not a large quantity.

Besides staple foods, Fan You also bought some vinegar cloths that are durable and enhance flavor, and a small bamboo tube of fine salt. The salt looked somewhat yellow and the grains were rather coarse, leading Zhang Yang to suspect that the shopkeeper's child might have secretly urinated in it to make it look like that.

"Pah, why is it both bitter and astringent?"

This is different from the salt Zhang Yang used to eat.

It can't be that it's gone bad.

Shen Zhi leaned over and took a bite.

He confirmed, "There's no problem."

"Still no problem? I think there's something wrong with your tongue." Zhang Yang pulled a palm-sized, round-bellied jar from his game backpack, filled with fine, snow-white refined salt. "That's more like it..."

Shen Zhi knew exactly what was going on at a glance.

"My lord, this is outside, not your home." It's already good enough that there is salt of this quality. What are you complaining about? Even in some small vassal states, this jar of salt is reserved for the royal family. Where can ordinary people buy such high-quality goods?

Zhang Yang: "..."

She felt that something was off.

It took me a long time to figure out where the problem was.

The game world is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where humanity's once-developed industrial chains have been destroyed, production has stagnated, and resources are so scarce that venturing deep into zombie-infested, beast-infested territories is necessary to search for supplies. The survivors at the base don't even have the means to produce salt.

Let alone a jar of salt, even a bag of salt can sell for a high price.

Here comes the problem-

Players who specialize in cooking can easily buy countless jars of seasonings from ingredient NPC merchants. They can buy all sorts of precious vegetables and meats, and the ingredients are guaranteed to be fresh and not spoiled.

Players can buy it by finding NPC merchants. If she goes to find them, she will be told that the base's transportation to the outside world has been cut off by zombie beasts, and resources are scarce. Where can he/she sell such a good thing as refined salt?

Zhang Yang: [...]

They just sold over a hundred cans a few seconds ago, and now they're turning their backs on them?

To avoid giving herself away, she would steal any materials she needed from other players' in-game inventory—in fact, she still didn't understand why a simple dish like bok choy required a whole jar of salt, and wasn't afraid of being overly salty.

In comparison, the NPCs' tastes are quite normal.

Life is just a bit tough.

She put the salt back into her game backpack, while Fan You had the shopkeeper pack it up and handed it to her. Zhang Yang habitually stuffed it in as well. Shen Zhi remarked, "This ability is so convenient."

Zhang Yang froze.

"Can you see it?"

How could he notice her stuffing things into her backpack?

"You didn't hide it from us, so why are you blaming us for seeing it?" Shen Zhi comforted herself, telling herself not to argue with someone who was mentally unstable.

Zhang Yang: "..."

The NPCs outside never pay attention to this.

Shen Zhiyou said, "It's very rare to see someone who can hold so much stuff. You didn't even seem to care about the cost before stuffing it in."

This ability is extremely rare and carries a huge burden, consuming a large amount of star power anytime and anywhere. Once the star power in the meridians is exhausted, the items will fall out, making it a rather unreliable method.

Fan You: "Bring some more water."

Getting water in the wild is not easy.

Since the lord still has the capacity, let's bring some more.

Shen Zhi also made several trips to the brokerage firm and bought two guards.

Xie Shu did not come to see him off, but only conveyed a message to the city gate guards not to make things difficult—after the commotion at the market that morning, the city gates of the administrative center were under martial law, with entry and exit strictly prohibited, and they were determined to capture the Puyang prefect and his former subordinates.

Zhang Yang and his two companions successfully left the city using the warrant.

Outside the city, on the official road.

Shen Zhichong and the other man clasped their hands in a fist salute: "I want to go to Dog County first to inquire about the whereabouts of my brother and family. We'll take our leave now."

Shen Zhi and Zhang Yang were on different routes. Regardless of whether the news of the princess's murder had leaked out, Shen Zhi was going to the capital, as most of his relatives were there. The royal family was escorting the king through Dog County to Dog Kingdom County, and the nobles of the capital would definitely be taken away.

If his brother is safe, he will definitely go to fetch the clansmen.

After speaking, Shen Zhi turned his gaze from Zhang Yang to Fan You: "Mr. Fan, Bo Yuan... she is just different from ordinary people in temperament, she has no bad intentions, on the contrary, she has a chivalrous heart."

Fan You did not answer.

Shen Zhi sighed, "Time will tell."

Having said that, he said no more.

He left from one side of the fork in the road with two guards.

"The green hills remain unchanged, the clear waters flow on forever; may we meet again someday."

Zhang Yang looked conflicted as he watched Shen Zhi disappear.

Fan You turned his wheelchair: "Even a thousand-mile journey must come to an end, my lord. Let's go too. The place he's going to is a dangerous place. If we go, we won't gain anything..."

Zhang Yang asked, "Why did he just leave?"

What about her mission?

However, seeing Fan You beside her, she felt slightly relieved. Shen Zhi appeared in the recruitment, and Fan You also appeared in the recruitment, and his intelligence was much higher than Shen Zhi's. The key was Fan You's detailed character model; he clearly had a storyline and questline.

If you take him with you on missions, you're guaranteed not to go astray on the main storyline.

"Uncle Yan, where are we going?"

"Let's go see an old friend first."

"The hidden gem you mentioned last time?"

"It's someone else."

The Prime Minister of Puyang was saved; shouldn't he thank them?