When the hotpot was brought to the table, the rich aroma of numbing spice and fresh fragrance instantly filled the entire guesthouse hall.
Billowing steam and boiling broth—one side was a spicy red oil pot, and the other was a sweet and sour tomato pot, thoughtfully catering to everyone’s tastes.
Right after, plates of sliced meat, vegetables, and processed meat products for the hotpot were successively placed on the round table. In an apocalyptic world where even instant noodles had become a “luxury,” the sight of fresh leafy greens and freshly slaughtered, marinated beef… it was practically a five-star gourmet feast.
“These vegetables were all grown by the townspeople themselves. The beef, rabbit meat, and pork were all raised collectively. If the hospitality is lacking, I ask for your understanding!”
Although he said this, the mayor’s smile was full of confidence. He was certain that in this post-apocalyptic world, there were very few places that could provide such a feast to “guests” like he could.
Zhao Zhenyu was already drooling in anticipation.
“I haven’t had hotpot in over six months!” He was the first to sit down at the round table, impatiently picking up his chopsticks and grabbing a slice of beef to dip into the pot. “Si Zhe, Weiran, hurry up and sit down to eat!”
Lin Weiran felt a little embarrassed. She instinctively glanced at the mayor, worried that he might think their group was acting too much like starving wolves pouncing on food.
“Mayor, you’re the host. You should sit first.”
The mayor grinned and took a seat. “Alright, everyone, dig in!”
Once seated, the ability users all reached for the hotpot in unison, their actions revealing a trace of urgency.
Lin Weiran sighed several times in her heart and turned to meet Si Zhe’s gaze. A hint of helplessness flashed in both of their eyes.
Among them were three Tier 2 ability users and three Tier 1 ability users. At this stage, no matter where they went, they were like overlords. Even in an unfamiliar town, they should hold the initiative. At the very least, they couldn’t let the mayor and the others look down on them.
Yet now, just for a hotpot meal, they had let their guard slip, exposing their desperation to outsiders… Who knew if this would make the other party think that these outsiders were easy to manipulate, that a mere meal was enough to make them overjoyed?
“Ability User Si, Ability User Lin, do you not like hotpot?” the mayor suddenly asked.
“We all enjoy hotpot,” Lin Weiran snapped out of her thoughts. “It’s just that the instant hotpot meals we found at the service area convenience store before didn’t have ingredients as fresh as these, so it’s a bit surprising.”
With this, she subtly conveyed that their group was strong enough to seize the best supplies, even on the highways.
Hearing this, the mayor casually added a few more chopsticks of vegetables to his bowl. “Then eat as much as you can. Our town doesn’t have many advantages, but we do have an abundance of fresh vegetables and livestock.”
The simple probing ended, and no one spoke further. They all lowered their heads and ate heartily.
Gurgle, gurgle.
The sound of hungry stomachs growling rang out one after another. The ordinary people who had entered the town alongside them were either lying down or sitting in the corners of the hall, their gazes toward the hotpot practically glowing green.
But just smelling the food without being able to eat it was pure torture. One after another, people began leaving the guesthouse, hoping to find some way to get food elsewhere in town.
Soon, only a few people remained in the corners.
The mayor casually glanced around before suddenly saying, “Ability User Lin, I heard that your cousin is also here. Why didn’t you invite her to eat with us?”
As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere stiffened for a few seconds.
Lin Weiran was stunned and instinctively looked toward the hall’s corner—Su Su was nowhere to be seen.
She discreetly let out a breath of relief, her expression returning to normal.
“She’s not here—”
Before she could finish, Zhao Zhenyu rudely interrupted, “Even if she were here, she shouldn’t even think about getting a seat! She got Wu Zhi killed—letting her live is already merciful enough!”
Since he had said this, Lin Weiran could only smile helplessly. “Let’s not talk about this. We should focus on eating.”
As someone capable of leading an entire town, the mayor keenly noticed that there must be another story behind this. However, he tactfully chose not to ask and merely processed the information he had gathered in his mind, setting it aside for now.
“The mayor is quite impressive.” Si Zhe casually remarked, “It hasn’t been long, yet you’ve already figured us out.”
“Hahahahaha!” The mayor laughed heartily. “There’s no choice. In the apocalypse, the hardest thing to grasp is human nature. Since I let you in, I had to at least understand you a little. But let’s not talk about that anymore. Come, let’s have a drink!”
Amidst the cheerful laughter, Su Su, who had slipped away earlier, was anxiously searching around the guesthouse.
“Hei… Xiao Hei, where did you go?”
She didn’t know how to call that black snake, so she had temporarily given it a random name.
“Come out, okay? Xiao Hei?”
Her cautious, low whispers did not bring back the “missing snake mouth.”
Su Su clutched her backpack anxiously. Perhaps the breathing hole she had left behind had allowed the black snake hidden inside to unknowingly slip away.
Logically speaking, if it had abandoned her and left for a better place, that should be a great relief.
But Su Su had just made up her mind to endure her fear and keep it by her side, already prepared for the long-term task of raising a cold-blooded creature. Yet, before she could even turn around, it had disappeared without a trace…
“Xiao Hei, where are you?”
Su Su searched around the guesthouse, even rummaging through the grass in the backyard, but she couldn’t find any sign of the black snake.
She had no choice but to leave and retrace her path back into town, searching along the way.
“Get lost! Who has food to spare for you?!”
A loud, angry shout suddenly rang out from her right.
Su Su turned toward the sound and saw a woman from their group desperately pleading in front of a household in the town. The resident was clearly impatient and forcefully shoved her away before slamming the door shut with a loud “bang.”
The woman fell to the ground, her expression eerily numb. She sat there for only a few seconds before standing up, dusting herself off, and walking toward the next house.
Seeing this scene, Su Su unconsciously touched her backpack—there was no food left inside. The strips of beef jerky she had eaten in the morning had long been digested, and an unbearable hunger was burning through her insides.
The lingering aroma of hotpot still clung to her nose. Su Su licked her lips and lowered her head, continuing to search for traces of the black snake along the roadside.
Until she passed an old stone bridge and casually glanced underneath—just one glance! And she saw a certain black snake swallowing a live duck whole!
“!!!”
Su Su clutched her chest, her first reaction being to look around frantically. After confirming that no one was nearby, she leaned over the stone bridge railing and waved at the black snake with all her might.
“Xiao Hei! Get up here!”
The familiar human voice made the black snake glance over mid-meal.
It didn’t understand the name “Xiao Hei,” only that the human was calling it.
Gulp.
The entire duck disappeared into its belly.
The black snake coiled lazily in the grass near the bridge’s arch, basking in the sunlight and digesting its meal, looking very much unwilling to move.
Su Su was both anxious and afraid. The ducks under the bridge were obviously part of the town’s collectively raised livestock. If anyone happened to pass by and saw a black snake with a bulging belly, while the number of ducks in the river had mysteriously decreased… anyone with a shred of intelligence could guess that the snake had eaten it.
In her desperation, a familiar white glow emerged from her palm.
“Xiao Hei.”
Su Su stretched her body, trying to use her ability to lure a certain venomous snake. “Come up here!”
The black snake, which had just been indifferent to humans, instantly opened its eyes. Its vertical, ink-green pupils stared directly at her.
Very quickly, it honestly began to move, inching its way up toward the bridge.
Su Su had just started to breathe a sigh of relief when a loud rumbling sound came from her stomach.
Gurgle, gurgle!
At that moment, the wave of hunger made her entire body dizzy for a second, and the white glow in her hand dissipated.
The black snake stopped midway, as if it had lost interest now that the “sweet treat” was gone and was unwilling to move any further.
Su Su grew anxious, gritting her teeth as she released her ability again. However, the white glow was now so weak that it resembled the watery rice porridge served in cafeterias—barely more than rice soup.
The black snake remained in place, “thinking” for a long while before finally resuming its slow crawl up the bridge.
Su Su had already prepared her backpack, leaving it open and waiting for the snake to crawl inside. Five meters, four meters, three meters, two meters… When there was just one meter left, the black snake suddenly stopped and, without warning, spat out half of a dead duck.
It was covered in blood, with transparent mucus still clinging to it.
“Xiao Hei?”
Su Su stared at it in shock. While she was still in a daze, she suddenly saw a small cluster of blue flames spurt from the snake’s mouth, scorching the half-duck until it turned pitch black. The feathers burned into ashes.
Its appearance was definitely unappetizing, but the faint aroma of roasted meat had begun to spread.
After doing all this, the black snake lazily crawled into her backpack and curled up inside, refusing to move any further.
Su Su was left alone, staring in astonishment at the half-roasted duck on the ground.
“Why can you breathe fire?”
“Are you giving this to me?”
“……”
There was no response from inside the backpack.
Su Su took a deep breath, barely suppressing the shock in her heart. She quickly picked up the half-duck and left the “crime scene” as fast as she could.
She absolutely, absolutely could not let the townspeople find out! Otherwise, she would likely be dragged straight to the mayor. That man… She shuddered at the thought and quickened her pace.
Only when she turned into a secluded corner did she finally take out the half-“roasted duck.”
“Xiao Hei?”
The backpack rustled slightly.
“Are you really giving me your food?”
Silence.
Su Su stared at the “roasted duck” in her hand and couldn’t help but swallow.
She hesitated for only two seconds before biting into the duck meat without a second thought… It had a bit of a gamey taste, but it was tolerable. At the very least, it was far better than starving and being forced to chew on tree bark or wild vegetables.
Maybe adding some salt in the future would help… There should be a future, right?
The thought flashed through her mind, making Su Su pause for a moment. Forcing down the sour emotion welling up inside her, she devoured every last bit of the “roasted duck” in her hands.
After filling her stomach, Su Su opened her backpack once again.
“Thank you, Xiao Hei.”
The black snake was curled up inside, drowsy. Having realized that this weak human posed no threat to it, it didn’t even bother to lift its head.
Su Su didn’t care whether it could understand her or not and continued talking to herself, “I don’t know why you can breathe fire, but I will absolutely never tell anyone.”
After witnessing Xiao Hei’s fire-breathing ability, she suddenly recalled some rumors from her past life—some bases conducted experiments on animals, feeding them zombie crystals. Those that couldn’t withstand it would explode and die, but those that survived… could also gain abilities. However, the success rate was so minuscule—one in ten thousand—that even until her death, she had only heard that the northern base had a few high-level ability users who carried battle pets with similar powers.
The black snake flicked its tail slightly, completely uninterested in the human’s ramblings.
Perhaps it was the memories of her past life, or perhaps it was that half of a gamey-tasting “roast duck,” but Su Su, who had been trying to suppress her emotions, could no longer hold them back.
Plop.
Two drops of water fell onto the black snake’s tail.
“It’s been a long, long time since anyone has given me food.”
“Will you… become my companion in the future?”
Su Su’s voice was very soft, almost a whisper.
The heartless black snake didn’t grasp the human’s sentimentality at all. Annoyed, it flicked its tail, shaking off the teardrops completely.
Seeing this, Su Su felt a little embarrassed and quickly pulled out a tissue, carefully wiping it down.
“Sorry, Xiao Hei.”
“Let’s go back.”
The backpack was zipped up again. After composing herself, Su Su quickly returned to the guesthouse hall.
The hotpot had already been cleared away, leaving only the lingering, mouthwatering aroma in the air, making one’s cravings unbearable.
Lin Weiran and the others had disappeared, likely having gone up to the second or third floor. The other ordinary people had also gradually returned, but none of them were “lucky” enough to be assigned rooms and instead sat on the floor in the hall, at least securing a place to stay.
Su Su kept her head down, instinctively wanting to blend into the group in the corner.
The next second, a hand suddenly appeared in her field of vision… a hand holding a can of fruit.
“You’re Ability User Lin’s cousin, right?”
A deep male voice suddenly rang out.
The mayor, who had just come downstairs, was staring intently at the delicate and frail-looking girl before him. She seemed as thin as a piece of paper, as if she could be torn apart with the slightest force.
“You missed the hotpot earlier. Take this can of fruit for now.”
The mayor’s attitude was exceptionally gentle, and everyone who witnessed this scene had the same thought—he must have taken a liking to Su Su.
Even though he was in his thirties.
Even though he was divorced.
Even though his appearance was unremarkable…
But in the apocalypse, that can of fruit held an irresistible allure.
No one noticed that Su Su’s fingers were trembling slightly.