Chapter 71

Lin Tu returned in a hurry, her face dark and unreadable. David asked if she was all right and handed her a bottle of clean water. After she drank, the two resumed gathering supplies.

About forty minutes later, the patrol-change bell rang outside the scrapyard. Everyone tensed, quickly packed the supplies into the bags they'd prepared beforehand, and slipped out during the vulnerable transition period.

Only after regrouping with the others did they learn that Luo Te had used Pulusi's radio to lure the bridge patrol away.

The group, laden with bags of supplies, managed to leave that place of trouble without incident.

The next day.

The sun finally came out, but the post-nuclear sky was always thick with dust. The sunlight couldn't pierce the grimy air; it offered only a hazy, cold brightness with no warmth at all.

While everyone was still asleep, Lin Tu put on Little David's cotton trousers and jacket and headed out with David to trade supplies at the Rebel Army's quartermaster depot. David knew the ropes by now, and the two quickly exchanged for the shelter's weekly needs: two bags of flour, a small bottle of oil, and a bag of charcoal. They'd wanted to trade for more, but the war had hit the depot hard. Not just flour—almost everything else was either out of stock or pricier than before.

In the end, at Lin Tu's insistence, the two used the whiskey she'd found to trade for an extra bag of edible old rice and another bag of charcoal. At least that would stretch things for another week.

The bad news was that cotton clothes at the depot had also gone up. Sensing the scarcity, Lin Tu thought it over and decided to take the eleven identity tags from the Government Army and try her luck at the military merit exchange.

"I'll leave you enough cigarettes and liquor. Even if that place doesn't work out, you can still trade them at the depot when you get back," David said, setting aside a generous portion for her. He cracked his knuckles one by one until they popped, barely easing his anxiety. "I'll use the rest to grease some palms and see if I can dig up any news about Rui Si."

Lin Tu nodded, then reminded him, "If there's nothing on Rui Si, ask about Boluo. They got caught around the same time, so the reasons are probably similar. If Rui Si's case involves internal secrets, Boluo's might not be so restricted."

That was a good angle. David nodded, saying he'd do his best.

The two split up, agreeing to meet back in half an hour.

The Rebel Army wasn't like the Government Army, which had actual territory and centralized troop management. The Rebel Army had no housing for its soldiers and not nearly enough food to feed them, so calling it an institution that supported its people was a stretch. It was closer to a pure employer-employee relationship—the Rebel Army put out missions, the soldiers took them, earned military merit, and exchanged it for supplies.

Precisely because the Rebel Army's "wages and benefits" were so poor, they had to lure more people in with a "referral dividend system." The title that Carrot had been so fixated on came from this very mechanism. As Lin Tu's referrer, for every thirty military merit points she earned, Carrot would get one extra point.

This showed how loose the Rebel Army's management of its soldiers was. No daily check-ins, no need to be "colleagues" with the likes of Carrot, not even strict registration—unless you wanted to climb the ranks. They practically wished soldiers never asked them for anything, only charging into danger when battle came.

Armed with this knowledge, Lin Tu had no trouble signing up as a soldier in the Rebel Army and receiving her first mission—collecting a loan.

That work could wait, another day at least. The important thing was claiming her benefits first. Lin Tu got a free pistol—pitifully shabby, with just enough bullets for one magazine. Then, using her merit points, she swapped for two sets of women's cotton clothes, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a washcloth, some shampoo and soap, and finally a small bag of dried mutton.

The cigarettes and liquor she'd been allotted she used to trade for wooden planks.

When David spotted Lin Tu again, she was standing by the roadside, bent under a huge sack and lugging a bundle of timber taller and thicker than her.

"What are you doing?" David rushed over to help steady her load.

"The house is too run-down. I want to fix it up."

The hole in the shelter's wall opened straight onto the street, and Lin Tu couldn't sleep a wink at night. She had no idea how the others managed.

"Ah, I see," David said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Watching the girl's determined face as she shouldered the planks, something sour and moving stirred in his chest. "Did you get anything for yourself?"

Lin Tu glanced down at the cotton clothes she'd just put on. Her arms had been red with cold all morning in Little David's short jacket, and now they were finally warming up.

David noticed too. He nodded with a bitter ache. "It's us old folks who've failed. We used to rely on Boluo and Rui Si, and now one of them's dead and the other..." He couldn't finish. The man, nearly forty, bowed his head by the roadside and choked on a sob.

Lin Tu wanted to pat his shoulder, but her hands were full.

"What happened to Rui Si?" she asked instead.

"It's bad," David sniffled. "They say he leaked intelligence, and they gouged out his eyes. A week from now, in Andal Square, he's going to be publicly beheaded."

Lin Tu frowned.

"And worse," David went on, "Rui Si's execution date might be exactly when the Rebel Army declares war."

The Rebel Army's territory was more prosperous than other places. On the rebuilt streets, kids bounced and chased each other, laughing. But at David's words, a chill ran down Lin Tu's spine. She had no doubt he was telling the truth.

In two days, this place might choke with gunpowder and blood—and the shattered limbs of these children.

"Are they insane?" Lin Tu could understand Pulusi and his bunch of lunatics wanting war, but why would the Rebel Army, an army of the people, want to start one too? Couldn't they see their own countrymen would suffer? "Why, exactly?"

"I don't know," David said, lost. "Carrot never said, Rui Si never said either. I didn't expect the Rebel Army..."

As an ordinary man, he could only watch helplessly as the world that should have been theirs crushed them underfoot. He'd loved this world so much, and now he hated it just as fiercely.

As a player, Lin Tu had been told about the difference between locals and outsiders. But at this moment, she realized there was no difference at all. If every world was gradually turning into a disaster world, then she had to at least figure out why this one had shattered so badly.

"Boluo and Rui Si must have known something," Lin Tu murmured. "What intelligence did Rui Si steal?"

David shook his head. "Nobody knows. Maybe if we could see Rui Si... but..." He was about to continue when he noticed someone in the distance waving at them cheerfully.

He quickly wiped the tears from his eyes. "Hey! Luo Te, what a coincidence! You're here to trade supplies too?"

"I just found a house nearby, not far from yours. I'm planning to get some furniture and settle down for good. Son, come over," Luo Te said, beaming as he waved his son over. The boy was walking while reading an old book. "Come say hi to Uncle David and Sister Lin. We'll be relying on their kindness from now on."

Little Luo Te, however, didn't seem to like the two of them. Probably had something to do with how his father nearly died last night because of them. He looked up from his book, wariness in his eyes behind his large-rimmed glasses. Lin Tu didn't mind. She gave a casual greeting, and after a bit of small talk, she and David returned to the shelter.

Back at the shelter, Bu Daixi and her brother saw the two arriving loaded down and abandoned their work, swarming over excitedly. They chattered a mile a minute while trying to grab the bags.

"Help me return this cotton jacket to Little David, and give this one to Aunt Ju Yi," Lin Tu said, handing over two sweaters. But Bu Daixi didn't leave.

"And the wood, sis?"

Lin Tu pointed at the broken wall. "You want to keep living here?"

"We're fixing the house?!" Bu Daixi nearly jumped out of her skin, yelling loud enough to fetch the whole household. "I can help! Sis!" She tossed the sweater at her brother, Bu Jiefu, and ran to the hole in the wall, squatting down to pick up bricks.

"My clothes!" Little David shouted from upstairs in exasperation.

"Your clothes aren't even enough to patch the wall!" Bu Daixi kept hauling bricks while her brother dutifully carried the sweater upstairs.

"Thank you, little Lin Tu!" Ju Yi, whose clothes Lin Tu had dirtied, hadn't left her room all morning. "I'll give it back once mine are washed."

"No rush," Lin Tu replied.

"So much wood!" Abel walked in, clapping the dust off his hands, clearly impressed by the stack of planks on the floor. He crouched down and ran his just-cleaned hand over the wood. "Good stuff. Factory grade."

"Miss Lin traded her military merit for it!" David emerged from the room with Grandma Doro. Grandma's eyes were rimmed with tears she couldn't quite wipe away.

"Thank you, young miss," Grandma Doro said sincerely. She wiped her eyes and pulled herself together. "Now go borrow hammers and saws! Don't use old nails—take some wucai greens and grab some of my jewelry from the cabinet, then go next door and trade for new nails. Don't waste good wood like this."

Everyone scrambled into action—some borrowing hammers, some trading for nails, others clearing the wall. At the thought that the house was about to be repaired, people bustled about in cheerful disarray, smiles all around.

"You all keep busy! I'll start lunch!" Abel said with a hearty laugh, wiping his hands. "Little Nuo Nuo brought back some tangerines from the riverbank today. We're in for a treat!"

Nuo Nuo was the sixteen-year-old girl Lin Tu had first seen holding medicine, facing down the Rebel Army.

The crowd cheered, and even Lin Tu felt a spark of anticipation.

Hammers and nails came quickly. But before that, they had to measure the size of the hole and plan the arrangement of the planks so the entire break could be sealed tight. It was fine work. Fortunately, the neighbor who lent the hammers had an expert on the matter, and they promptly invited him over. The back-and-forth over "payment" is a story for another time. Lin Tu watched and learned, feeling she'd picked up a thing or two.

Working together, they sawed the planks to the right lengths, lined them up neatly, then stacked another set of shorter ones crosswise to form a sturdy new wall.

While they worked, Abel took a break from cooking to brew some hot herbal water in a coffee pot over the tripod for everyone to drink. He also gathered all the sawdust—he claimed it was great for starting fires or making potting soil.

After the two piles of planks were organized, it was finally time for lunch.

Lin Tu followed the others, wiped her hands clean, and walked toward the table in high spirits.

Her mood plummeted the moment she saw what was on the plate. She should never have gotten her hopes up for a "treat." What was this?

Tangerine-braised dried rat?