"How can that be? You've delayed for so long, what if they get impatient and refuse to sell us grain in the future?"
"That's right. Everyone is desperately searching for food every day, and some still can't get enough. Now we have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and we don't want to miss it."
Standing beside the burly man, a young girl with a baby face saw him sweating anxiously and made a difficult decision. She took off the ruby bracelet she wore on her wrist and placed it on the selling counter.
Then she said to the people, "Who says we have nothing? We'll pay now."
Seeing the ruby bracelet the baby-faced girl took off, her few companions cried out in unison, "Yang Xinjie."
The burly man also felt a pang of sympathy upon seeing the ruby bracelet. "Yang Xinjie, isn't that bracelet your only memento?"
Yang Xinjie, however, was more pragmatic than her companions. "Mementoes are not as important as everyone's lives."
Yang Xinjie's words cast a pall over her companions.
"It's all that vixen's fault. If she hadn't... Xin Ci..., we wouldn't be..."
Hearing Xiao Ai mention Xin Ci, all the companions' expressions turned sad, and their eyes reddened.
The tall man's face was also filled with melancholy. "If Xin Ci were still here, we would still have our supplies, and our mercenary team wouldn't have lost morale and be reduced to just us few."
He couldn't say how glorious the original Long Teng was, but it certainly had people and resources.
"What a pity."
Many people present knew the reason for Long Teng's decline, and some even felt that the Long Teng mercenary team was no longer what it used to be and had already found new affiliations.
Each with their own thoughts, they momentarily forgot that the vending machine was still in the process of a transaction.
Fu Xin Ci was surprised by the image of the ruby bracelet displayed on the notice board panel.
Wasn't that Yang Xinjie's bracelet? That cute girl with the baby face, also a level three wind ability user.
They used to go on missions together, and it was always Yang Xinjie who protected her.
Now, seeing this bracelet, she didn't know what to do.
She didn't want to accept the bracelet, but without it, she couldn't complete the transaction for one hundred catties of flour.
What should she do? If only she could see the person on the other side.
Fu Xin Ci's delay in confirming the transaction made everyone on the other side of the parallel world hold their breath, their hearts in their throats.
Finally, seeing the word "Deal" appear, everyone cheered together.
Prompt: Ding dong.
The owner has received the goods.
The burly man's heart felt heavy as he looked at the girl's bare wrist.
Yang Xinjie, however, acted unconcerned and called out to her captain and companions, "Let's go back and cook. This is pollution-free flour. We haven't eaten it since Xin Ci had her accident."
Mentioning Xin Ci, the companions once again united in their anger, cursing that detestable vixen from head to toe.
But in the end, their thoughts lingered most on the person they had spent their days and nights with.
"If only Xin Ci were still here, these two bags of flour would be ours. Let's go," Xiao Ai mumbled with her head drooping.
"If Xin Ci were here, we wouldn't have to fight for flour here at all," Xu Jiacan added bitterly.
The few companions, looking at the two large bags of flour, kept muttering, every word about Xin Ci, and they didn't even notice when they were pushed out of the crowd.
The burly man's broad arms not only protected the two bags of flour but also his companions.
In his heart, he missed the girl with the sunny smile just as much as they did. But tomorrow was another day, and he had to plan for their future.
The burly man effortlessly lifted the two bags of flour. Behind him, the people who had been afraid of not being able to buy food erupted in cheers again.
"The other side finally agreed to sell."
"It's still gold and jewelry."
"Oh no, Second Brother, hurry back and get some gold and silver ornaments. I don't have anything on me right now."
"Alright, I'll go back and get them now."
With the brothers' reminder, several others rushed out with them.
In an instant, gold and silver, once considered useless in the apocalypse, became hot commodities.
Following this, several jewelry stores in the city were looted.
Before, when fighting those monsters, people only collected the energy crystals from their brains. Now, a new task was added: collecting the gold and silver ornaments from the monsters, cleaning them, and saving them to exchange for food.
Of course, this was a story for later.
Only when the lights on all the selling counters below were extinguished did Fu Xin Ci move her stiff arms and numb legs.
"Squeak squeak." Xiaobai pointed at the shiny gold and silver jewelry and asked like a curious baby, "Humans like these things?"
"Of course, everyone likes them."
"Squeak squeak." Ben Bai knows a place with a lot of them.
"Where?" Fu Xin Ci carefully wrapped the ruby bracelet and placed it in a safe spot.
Then she put all the other gold and silver jewelry into a large box.
"Squeak squeak." Xiaobai spoke while gesturing with its two small paws.
Fu Xin Ci watched attentively at first. By the time she understood where Xiaobai was referring to, her face stretched as long as Changbai Mountain, possibly even its northern slope.
"Squeak squeak?"
"You're talking about the silver house. If I robbed the entire silver house, I'd probably be exiled. This time, I might be exiled to Lingnan."
"Squeak squeak?" You mean like tied into a long string, with people's necks choked by wooden boards?
"It seems Xiaobai has seen quite a lot."
"Squeak squeak." Yes, I always see it.
"Squeak... Squeak squeak?" This won't do. Then what about this? Xiaobai began to gesture again.
Fu Xin Ci: "Xiaobai, please accept my kowtow."
"Squeak?"
"Xiaobai, today, I finally discovered your uniqueness."
"...?"
"You want me to either steal from a silver house or rob a tomb."
"Squeak squeak."
"Xiaobai, remember this, I don't want to be a thief, nor a tomb raider."
"Squeak squeak." Xiaobai suddenly thought of a place.
"Alright, stop giving me bad ideas. I think you won't rest until you send me to jail."
"Squeak squeak, Ben Bai didn't."
"That's a lie, I need to go to sleep."
Perhaps I can think of a good idea in my dreams.
Xiaobai: What good ideas can a bear cub come up with.
However, before it could fully express its thoughts, it was taken out of the space by the human.
"Squeak squeak." Ben Bai wants to stay where it was.
Fu Xin Ci completely ignored Xiaobai's protest and took it directly into the bathroom.