Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 484 Item Exchange

The first person to walk over was a young man, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, wearing a sweatshirt so dirty that its original color was unrecognizable.

He stopped about three steps away from Xu Xiaoyan and Lan Yue.

Xu Xiaoyan stared intently at the pot of bubbling mushroom soup, glanced at him, and said nothing.

The young man swallowed hard, then asked, "Um... would you like to exchange your dried mushrooms?"

"What will you use to exchange it for?" Xu Xiaoyan asked without looking up.

The young man pulled a compressed biscuit out of his backpack.

Xu Xiaoyan glanced at it and thought it was feasible. Dried mushrooms have relatively poor circulation; they are not like compressed biscuits, which are a form of hard currency.

Dried mushrooms require water, a pot, fire, and someone to spend time watching over the pot and waiting for them to slowly boil. Not everyone has these conditions.

Moreover, dried mushrooms don't keep for long, even though they've been dried and sealed, they're still susceptible to moisture.

Rather than waiting for it to become moldy and spoiled, it's better to replace it now while there's still someone willing to do so.

"A handful of dried mushrooms for a compressed biscuit," she said.

The young man hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Xu Xiaoyan reached into the bag and grabbed a handful of dried mushrooms.

Her hands weren't big, but she grabbed a large handful, with a few mushroom stems peeking out between her fingers. She caught them with her other hand and handed them over.

The young man quickly turned and left.

After the first transaction was completed, the subsequent transactions went much more smoothly.

The second person to arrive was a woman in her forties, with a round face and short hair. She was clutching two compressed biscuits in her hand, her knuckles white.

"Hey girl, I'd like to exchange for two pieces," the older woman said, squatting down. Her gaze lingered on the bag of dried mushrooms.

She then moved her gaze to the pot of soup that was still bubbling, and swallowed almost imperceptibly. "Could you give me a little more?"

Xu Xiaoyan did not reply.

"My child is still young and hasn't had anything hot to eat in a long time," the older woman began to complain. "He eats biscuits every day, and his lips are sore from chewing them. It hurts me to see him in pain."

He just wanted something hot, anything would do, even just a bowl of mushroom soup boiled in hot water.

Xu Xiaoyan followed her gaze and saw the boy, who was about five or six years old, very thin, and wearing a gray sweatshirt that was obviously several sizes too big.

The hem of the hoodie reached down to her knees, and even though the sleeves were rolled up several times, they still covered her fingers.

He squatted on the ground, propped his face up with his hands, and stared straight at them.

Xu Xiaoyan reached into the bag, grabbed two handfuls of dried mushrooms, added a small pinch, and then handed the pile of dried mushrooms to her older sister.

When the older sister took it, her lips trembled several times.

She ran to the boy in a few steps, squatted down, and held up the pile of dried mushrooms in front of him: "Son, look! It's delicious! Mom got you something good to eat!"

Lan Yue stared at the older woman's retreating figure in silence for a long time.

"You're making a losing deal, aren't you?" Lan Yue said with a smile.

"Hmm," Xu Xiaoyan responded without saying anything else.

The aroma of mushroom soup wafted further and further, attracting more and more people to exchange it for dried mushrooms, each clutching something they could use in the trade.

More than twenty transactions were completed within half an hour, and Xu Xiaoyan's bag of dried mushrooms was soon empty.

As the night deepened, the people in the camp gradually quieted down. Most of them crawled into their sleeping bags or wrapped themselves tightly in their coats, curling up to rest in their chosen spots.

Xu Xiaoyan leaned against her backpack when the person next to her suddenly moved.

Lan Yue took out her dried mushrooms from her backpack and then poured half of them into Xu Xiaoyan's bag.

Xu Xiaoyan was stunned.

She looked down at her bag, which had been almost empty, but was now bulging again.

Xu Xiaoyan opened her mouth, as if to say, "You don't have to do this."

Lan Yue didn't give her a chance. She retied the drawstring at the top of the bag, made a knot, and then stuffed it back into her backpack.

"If you're gone, you can eat mine. Why should we distinguish between yours and mine?"

When she said this, her tone was deliberately relaxed with a hint of impatience, as if it were just some trivial matter.

But Xu Xiaoyan had known her for a long time, and she knew that she was grateful for her care along the way.

She reached out and pulled out the pile of things she had traded for that day from the other side of her backpack.

Compressed biscuits, potato chips, dried sweet potatoes, peanuts, and dried plums were laid out one by one on the ground between the two people.

She divided the things in front of her into two equal parts, and then pushed one of them in front of Blue Moon.

"What are you doing?" Lan Yue looked down at the pile of things in front of her, her brows furrowing. "Why are you making such a fuss about dividing things up with me?"

"Even close brothers keep clear accounts," she replied with a smile. "If accounts are settled clearly, there won't be any misunderstandings in your future interactions."

Lan Yue's brows furrowed even more; she clearly hadn't thought that far ahead.

In her mind, if you are good to me, then I will naturally be good to you in return; it's a very simple thing.

Seeing Xu Xiaoyan's insistence, he could only nod helplessly and sweep the pile of things into his backpack.

"I wouldn't be that petty," she replied sullenly.

Xu Xiaoyan chuckled as she looked at her defiant expression.

She couldn't possibly tell Lan Yue why she was so brazenly trading supplies with others.

On the one hand, she disliked the dried mushrooms for taking up too much space, and on the other hand, she had the advantage of having a lot of space.

One more bag or one less bag doesn't matter to her.

But she couldn't tell Lan Yue about this.

"I guess it's just my personality," she put it another way. "I like to keep everything in mind so I don't have to worry about it."

"Alright," Lan Yue's voice was still muffled, but a little better than before. "Fine, but don't calculate it too precisely. That's enough."

"Okay," Xu Xiaoyan replied with a smile.

In the middle of the night, the wind suddenly picked up.

Xu Xiaoyan opened her eyes to a sharp gust of wind; sand stung her face.

She instinctively closed her eyes, but a few grains of sand still got into them, making her want to rub them.

Blue Moon was also awakened by the wind. She shielded her eyes with one hand, trying to filter the sand and dust in the wind through her fingers, but to little avail.

"Why is the wind so strong? What happened?" Lan Yue's voice was broken by the wind, and when it reached Xu Xiaoyan's ears, only a few intermittent words remained.

Xu Xiaoyan did not answer.

She stood up, shielded her eyes with both hands, and squinted to observe her surroundings.