Chapter 2, Phoenix!
Tang Fei was carrying his "prey" home when the old man and Little Fatty were smashing stones.
More precisely, the old man was lying on a worn rattan chair, soaking several large tree roots in a big iron pot he was holding, directing Little Fatty to use a sledgehammer to shape the large stone Little Fatty himself had transported down from the mountain into neat square blocks....
Shameless old thing!
The square stones were for building houses, which were sturdy and very well sealed, able to withstand the assault of monsters and block solar storms and acid rain erosion.
After the great catastrophe, only a tenth of humanity remained. Those with the means migrated to New Star, namely the Red Moon Base, which the scientists and financial tycoons had been developing long before.
Those without the means, like Tang Fei, became orphans on the ruins.
To ward off terrifying animals or even more terrifying fellow humans, people naturally gathered together, creating one human gathering area after another.
Band together for warmth is human nature, of course, while being wary of hugging a poison snake or hedgehog.
People died every day in the gathering areas, and new wanderers arrived from somewhere. Thus, a large number of stones were needed to build houses.
The stone mason profession, which was nearly obsolete before the catastrophe, was now in short supply and had become a top choice for young people seeking employment...
"Bro, you're back?" Little Fatty stopped hammering, wiped the sweat from his forehead with a simple-hearted greeting to Tang Fei.
With that wipe, it didn't matter much, as the dust on his palm mixed with the sweat on his face, leaving several finger marks, making him instantly appear as a patchy-faced figure.
The old man pointed at Little Fatty and cursed vehemently, angrily bellowing, "How many times have I told you? Don't wipe your face while working... With your face looking like a ghost, where am I supposed to find water to wash it?"
"When have you ever let someone use water to wash their face?" Tang Fei stood up for Little Fatty with a sneer, saying, "You just have us wipe with our sleeves, don't you? We've forgotten when we last washed our faces."
"I wash my face when you wash yours," the old man retorted curtly.
For Tang Fei and Little Fatty washed their faces using the water the old man had used first, with the old man going first, Tang Fei being half a year older than Little Fatty, coming second, and Little Fatty third...
Though there were only two in front of him, due to the long-standing practice of not washing faces, by the time it was Little Fatty's turn, it was almost a bucket of mud.
Whether it cleansed well was uncertain, but it certainly was moisturizing....
Otherwise, how could one maintain a pale and chubby complexion like a painted bun while living and working under harsh conditions of wind and sun every day?
After the catastrophe, the planet's surface water resources were largely contaminated, even groundwater, due to acid rain backflow and toxic gases, had become highly corrosive.
That was no longer water; it was sulfuric acid. Finding clean, usable water had become as difficult as reaching the heavens.
"That's called washing your face? Have you no shame speaking such words?"
"You have the nerve to talk about me? When you went hunting... what in the world is that you've got slung over your back?"
"A person," said Tang Fei.
The old man shook his head, looked at Tang Fei with grave concern, and spoke sternly, "How many times have I said we don't eat that. It was not acceptable before, and it certainly isn't now."
"The flesh is sour," Little Fatty grinned stupidly.
"..."
Seeing the horrified looks Tang Fei and the old man gave him, Little Fatty hurriedly explained, "I've never eaten it, I heard it from Granny Wang at the village entrance... I wouldn't eat it, I'd rather starve."
"This isn't for you to eat; I picked her up from outside..." Tang Fei gave the woman's plump buttocks a slap, hollering, "Hey, wake up."
He had carried the woman like a sheep, with her abdomen on his shoulder and her upper body swung carelessly behind his back.
With his left hand holding a two-headed sheep, he used his right to slap her back to consciousness.
Well, slapping like this was indeed handy...
After locking eyes with this woman who had fallen from the sky, she fainted, closing her eyes.
This gave Tang Fei a profound sense of defeat. For a moment, he even doubted his own looks.
Of course, thinking of his own name, he instantly dismissed such an absurd thought.
"Picked her up? From where?" asked the old man.
"Mount Hate," Tang Fei replied.
"How did you find her?"
"I was carrying a two-headed sheep back home... when unexpectedly, a white light shone in the sky, and then a big tin box fell... She climbed out from inside the tin box..."
The old man climbed out of his rattan chair, stepped forward to examine the woman's attire and appearance closely, and said with a grave expression, "She must have come from New Star, but who knows what disaster she met... We can't keep such a person around, send her away quickly."
"Alright." Although Tang Fei thought the old man's character was not good, he trusted his survival wisdom. Otherwise, a trio like them, an elder and two young ones, would have been cleaned out long ago, with nothing left but bone scraps.
Tang Fei slung the woman over his shoulder again and headed for the door, then called out, "Where shall I send her?"
The old man then bore the signature expression of someone constipated, after wrestling with his conscience, he waved his hand and said, "Since she's a present from heaven to you, consider her your private property... Whether to discard or keep her, it's up to you."
Saying so, the old man took his big tea jar and walked back into his house.
"...."
Tang Fei was flabbergasted.
Had the old coot really resorted to the despicable tactic of looking out only for himself?
"Bro, let's keep her," Little Fatty suggested with a sniffle, reminding from the side, "Keep her to help us chip stones."
"..."
－－－－－
When the girl opened her eyes, she saw Tang Fei scooping a clump of deep green, sticky substance from his mouth and spreading it accurately on her exposed lower leg.
Smack!
Perfect aim!
That unknown object was perfectly covering the wound on her calf, she felt an intense coolness that greatly reduced the original burning sensation. It wasn't until then that she caught a whiff of the medicinal herb's refreshing scent.
"What are you doing?" the girl asked.
Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn't drunk water for a long time.
"Treating you," Tang Fei said. "You're injured. You have eleven cuts on your body, three big ones, nine... oh, eight small ones..."
"...Don't have any tools to grind the medicine?"
"I do," Tang Fei said. "Outside, but I'm too lazy to get them... and even if I did, there's no water to clean them..."
"..."
"Besides, I've been having some inflammation in my mouth lately... The juice of the Snake Skin Tree leaves is anti-inflammatory and antibacterial, I don't want to waste it."
Makes sense!
"...Thank you," the girl said.
At a life-or-death moment, all details can be overlooked.
If you're starving to death and you're still complaining about someone serving you food in an unwashed bowl, you're either stupid or acting.
Thinking this, the girl glanced at Tang Fei's bruised mouth and thought, thank goodness it's not the bowl serving food...
"Who are you? Where is this place?" the girl asked.
Tang Fei looked at the woman and said, "Shouldn't I be the one asking you that first? I've taken in a woman of unknown origin, I'm under a lot of pressure too..."
Old man doesn't care, Little Fatty can't handle it, I have to take responsibility for my own life safety.
He had already dedicated his daily negligible share of clean water and even used the long-stored Snake Skin Tree leaves, and he might have to sacrifice even more...
So, he had to figure out the identity and background of this woman.
"I come from New Star," the girl said, looking at Tang Fei.
This made her seem more sincere.
"I can tell," Tang Fei nodded. From her clothing and the pile of metal scraps she had arrived in, it was obvious where she came from...
There were no such high-tech products on the ruins.
Besides, her face was so pale...
On the ruins where acid rain and sun magnetic storms were rampant, with scarce food and water, and a harsh survival environment, who could have such skin?
Except for Little Fatty!
"We came to Blue Star to explore, but the spacecraft had an accident, and in a critical moment, I escaped in an escape pod..." the woman said.
"What's your name?"
"Phoenix," the woman said.
"Phoenix?"
"Phoenix."
"Liar," Tang Fei said with a curl of his lip.
"..."
"I've said that you have eleven wounds, two from swords, one from a bullet wound... the others are scrapes from falling... If it was a spacecraft accident, how did you get the sword wounds and bullet wound?"
"Besides, I know there's a Phoenix Empire on New Star... you're from the Phoenix Empire, aren't you? You've just woken up, probably didn't have time to make up a fake name... so when I asked your name, you just blurted out Phoenix."
Phoenix looked at Tang Fei somewhat surprised, thinking that this guy who couldn't even do simple arithmetic a moment ago actually had such fine and sharp thoughts?
Suddenly, she felt a chill down her spine: what if he was deliberately showing flaws?
He pretended to be a mediocre young man, just to put her off guard, and then fish out more useful information from her mouth.
Too scary!
Phoenix sighed lightly and said, "My name indeed is Phoenix; there are many girls named Phoenix in the Phoenix Empire. I'm just one of them."
Tang Fei nodded and said, "I can accept that reasoning."
Acceptance is one thing, belief is another.
"As for the sword and gunshot wounds on my body... I didn't want to mention it... I'm a student at the Phoenix Empire's Royal First Military Academy. We were led here by our instructor to explore Blue Star and search for legendary ancient relics..."
"Everything was going smoothly at first. But it was only until we found a Great Tomb... there was a group of people who wanted to take it for themselves, and that's when the conflict broke out... I was lucky to escape by getting into the spaceship and entering the escape pod..."
"What about the others?" Tang Fei asked.
"Most of them are dead..."
"And those who aren't dead... are those who wanted to claim the Great Tomb for themselves. They might track you down to kill the witnesses, right?"
"Yes," Phoenix nodded.
This, she couldn't hide, nor could she be unprepared...
"Don't worry though, once my wounds heal a bit, I will leave immediately on the escape pod... I won't cause you any trouble."
"When will your wounds heal?" Tang Fei asked eagerly. "Can it be tonight?"
Phoenix glanced outside and asked, "What time is it now?"
"9:35 p.m.," Tang Fei said, glancing at the 'found' digital watch on his wrist. "Could be 9:45 p.m.... the watch is off by no more than ten minutes... You don't have much time left."
"..."