Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 478 Warning

The crowd around him automatically parted a few meters, revealing the scene behind him.

A woman was squatting on the ground, holding a five- or six-year-old child in her arms.

The child's face was sallow, his lips were chapped, his eyes were half-open, and his little hands hung limply at his sides.

The woman lowered her head, pressing her forehead against the child's, her shoulders trembling slightly, but she made no sound.

The expressions of those around him began to become complicated.

The pure anger I felt earlier was replaced by an even more indescribable emotion: sympathy and helplessness.

Some people turned their heads away, some sighed, and some touched the zipper of their backpacks, hesitated for a moment, and then withdrew their hands.

Captain Gu stood in front of the man, looked down at him, then sighed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few compressed biscuits.

When they gathered in the morning, Xu Xiaoyan saw Captain Gu taking things out of his backpack and distributing them to several elderly people who couldn't walk.

He stuffed the remaining pieces into his shirt pocket, clearly keeping them for himself.

He handed over the cookies.

"Take it," Captain Gu said in a low voice, so low that only the man and those closest to him could hear it.

"Remember, this is the last time. If you steal again, we will not tolerate it, no matter what your reason is."

The middle-aged man was stunned.

He looked up at the biscuits in Captain Gu's hand, then at Captain Gu's face, and then at the angry and complicated gazes of the people around him.

His lips trembled violently as he slowly reached out and took the cookies. His fingers visibly trembled when they touched Captain Gu's palm.

"Thank you... thank you, sir..." His voice was hoarse and weak, as if it were squeezed out from the bottom of his throat.

"I'm not an officer," Captain Gu said. "I just don't want to see anyone starve to death. Take this, go, take good care of your child, and make sure it doesn't happen again."

The middle-aged man, holding the child, stepped back to the side of the road, squatted down, broke the biscuit into small pieces, and fed it to the child little by little.

The child's lips moved, and he slowly began to chew, finally regaining a sliver of color on his sallow face.

The woman looked up at her husband and child's faces, her lips moved as if she wanted to say something.

In the end, she didn't say anything, but simply hugged the child's head even tighter in her arms.

The commotion subsided, but the atmosphere within the group became even more oppressive.

Xu Xiaoyan looked at Lan Yue and said in a low voice, "Be careful and guard your food."

Lan Yue didn't speak, but nodded vigorously, her hand never leaving the zipper of her backpack.

The two of them walked even more carefully from there.

It wasn't the mud on my feet that I was afraid of, but the people around me.

Before that middle-aged man snatched the rations, Xu Xiaoyan had never really worried about the safety of the team.

In her view, everyone is on the same path, with the same goal and direction. Even if they can't help each other, at least they won't hurt each other.

But now she knows that hunger can turn any good person into a bad one in an instant.

It's not because they are inherently bad, but because hunger itself is so terrible that it can overwhelm all reason and morality.

She doesn't blame the man, but she won't let herself become the next one to be robbed.

It was already noon when we passed through the first mudslide area.

The sunlight finally pierced through the thick fog and clouds, warming my body, but it couldn't dispel the chill in my heart.

The migration of tens of thousands of people stretched out in a long gray line in the valley.

People in the group kept breaking down, leaning against the roadside stones, panting and pale.

The soldiers ran back and forth, supporting the elderly, carrying children, and helping the wounded. Their voices became hoarse from shouting, but their steps never stopped.

Xu Xiaoyan saw an old man who seemed unable to walk and was sitting in the mud with his back against a large rock.

His face was covered in a mixture of mud and sweat, obscuring his original skin color.

Only those eyes remained open, cloudy, tired, with a look that was hard to tell whether it was stubbornness or resignation.

"I'm not leaving," the old man waved his hand, his voice not loud but firm. "You all go, don't worry about me."

The soldier who was helping him squatted down beside him, his eyes red-rimmed, his young face covered in mud and sweat, and his lips chapped in several places.

"Sir, no! You can't stop here! Once we get to Qing City, there will be food and lodging. Please hang in there!"

The old man shook his head, waved his hand, lowered his head, and refused to get up again.

The soldier said a lot more, but the old man never looked up.

As Xu Xiaoyan walked past them, she paused, wanting to stop and do something, but she knew there was nothing she could do.

As evening approached, the group finally reached a relatively open valley.

The valley is flanked by steep cliffs, leaving only a narrow passage in the middle.

The mountainside was bare, with little vegetation, exposing grayish-white rocks.

The ground was much better than before; there wasn't as much mud, the ground was relatively dry, and it felt solid underfoot without sinking. This was probably the best road I had walked on today.

Captain Gu stood at the entrance of the valley, observed the terrain, and then decisively ordered that they camp there and rest for the night.

When the order was passed down, a sigh of relief rippled through the ranks.

Some people plopped down on the ground, not even having time to take off their backpacks, and lay down on their backs, closing their eyes and remaining motionless.

Some people leaned against the mountain wall, slowly slid down to the ground, lowered their heads, and breathed heavily, their shoulders heaving.

Some people were almost asleep while standing. They swayed and nearly fell over, but were pulled back by the person next to them and barely managed to open their eyes.

After a day of trekking, everyone was exhausted.

Xu Xiaoyan and Lan Yue found a relatively flat spot and sat down against the mountain wall.

Neither of them spoke; they were both too exhausted to even open their mouths.

They sat back to back. After a while, Xu Xiaoyan took out a compressed biscuit from the side pocket of her backpack, broke it in half, and handed one half to Lan Yue.

Lan Yue took it, but didn't eat it right away.

She held the half-eaten cookie, looked at it, and suddenly said softly, "Thank you for today."

Xu Xiaoyan paused for a moment, then shook her head. "Why thank me again? It's just mutual help."

Blue Moon didn't say anything more.

As night fell, the light in the valley gradually dimmed.

In the distance, the campsite of tens of thousands of people was dotted with the lights of flashlights and cell phones.