Two people, striking in appearance and dressed neatly, quickly drew the attention of passersby while accompanied by a child.
Some comments naturally reached the ears of the trio.
"So young and they have a child already?"
"Even in the apocalypse, the child is raised so well."
"You should see how good-looking the couple is."
Of course, there were also looks of jealousy and envy.
Su Mo stood on a street that Lu Chen said was the only one connecting the Second Ring and the Outer Ring, where all items were traded for Crystal Stones or equivalent items.
She found it quite novel. There was a variety of things being sold along the way, with jewelry and gold discarded on the stalls as if they were worthless trinkets, and the sign in front read one Level 1 Crystal Stone... per kilogram.
Su Mo couldn’t help but remark, "That’s really a bargain."
She looked away and quickly spotted a poorly dressed woman selling children’s clothing. She led the two over to the stall.
The woman, clearly not expecting to actually make a sale on her first day of setting up a stall and seeing how clean the couple was dressed, immediately realized they were no ordinary people.
She appeared somewhat uneasy as Su Mo squatted down at a small stall made of patched-up rags, picking through the clothes: "These clothes are all new, never worn. I saved them from a children’s clothing store I used to run in B City. Feel free to look around," she said nervously.
Su Mo nodded, tucking a stray hair behind her ear, picked up a long sleeve shirt with Mickey Mouse on it and held it up to Ling Ye, "It seems to suit you quite well."
Ling Ye shook his head repeatedly and whispered, "Ugly."
"..." Alright, the child has grown big enough to have a choice. Su Mo put down the clothes, "Then pick something yourself."
Ling Ye then squatted down and started rummaging through the clothes.
Su Mo looked up to meet the woman’s anxious face and softened her expression, smiling, "How are you selling these? I see you don’t have a sign."
"If possible...just one anti-inflammatory pill would be enough," the woman glanced at her then lowered her head, stammering, "half... half would also do."
Su Mo was somewhat troubled; she didn’t have any medicine.
Seeing the young girl frown, the woman became even more frightened, but she mustered the courage to say, "My child... is very badly hurt, I’m asking you, if possible, you can take all these clothes."
"Where is your child? What injury did they sustain?" Su Mo asked.
"Outer... Outer Ring, a leg injury, it’s not good," her spot for the day had been bought with three steamed buns, but still couldn’t get her an anti-inflammatory pill, making the woman somewhat heartbroken.
Su Mo thought for a moment with her head lowered. In the woman’s frightened gaze, she looked up, smoothing over her gentle expression, "I can’t just take so much from you for nothing. I have some medical knowledge, I can come with you."
Of course, her claim of having some medical knowledge was made up on the spot, and the specific situation would dictate whether she might use the Biluochun Tea.
"Thank you, thank you so much," the woman never expected her to be so amiable and almost knelt down in excitement immediately.
Su Mo quickly helped her stand up, and as she stood up and turned back, she saw Lu Chen at a stall not far across from her. She glanced at the ground, and without moving, her face broke into a broad smile.
"You wait for me here, I’ll go find my man."
"Okay.. okay," the woman hurriedly squatted down and started to pack up her stall, thinking to herself that there was hope for her son now.
Ling Ye didn’t need to choose anymore; with one sentence from Su Mo, he had clothes for all seasons.
Lu Chen was squatting there picking a hair tie for Su Mo when a voluptuous woman snatched one up before he could grab it. He frowned, his expression turning cold.
The gorgeous woman didn’t seem to notice Lu Chen’s displeasure and continued squatting next to him, holding the cherry-adorned hair tie while her leather jacket did little to conceal her curves. "Handsome, what’s your name?"
Lu Chen stood up, looking down at her, and extended his hand, "Give it to me."
The beautiful woman glanced at his large hand, long-fingered and well-defined, and was about to place hers on it, swayed by sudden infatuation.
Lu Chen’s gaze grew colder, and the aura around him became terrifying; he grasped the woman’s neck with one hand, lifting her into the air, "Give it to me."
He repeated himself. The woman’s eyes bulged white as she was throttled, and the hair tie fell into Lu Chen’s hand. Disgusted, he flung her to the ground, wiping his hands on his pants.
He left a Level 1 Crystal Stone at the stall, and the owner, grateful, quickly pocketed it.
Having watched enough, Su Mo walked over to him, "For me?"
"Yeah, turn around," he replied.
She happily turned, her hair indeed had grown longer, something the man had noticed too.
Lu Chen awkwardly combed her hair back, settling for a simple ponytail. When he turned her around, he noticed some wisps of hair still escaped, but it looked rather nice.
Catching his self-satisfied look, Su Mo touched the ends of her hair that fell down the back and flashed a smile:
"You did a pretty good job."
The woman on the ground regained her strength and cried out, "You’ll wait and see!"
The pair did not even turn their heads. Su Mo tugged at Lu Chen’s sleeve and pointed to an anxious woman still waiting nearby: "Let’s go to the Outer Ring and have a look."
When the three returned to the stall, the woman took one look at Su Mo’s lopsided ponytail, said nothing, and just lowered her head submissively.
"Let’s go, you lead the way," Su Mo told her.
"Yes, yes, yes," the woman handed over some neatly packed clothes, which Lu Chen casually tossed into Space.
The trio, hand in hand, followed the woman as they walked away, leaving the woman on the ground to get up and disappear into the crowd, clutching her neck.
Having had a previous glimpse of the Outer Ring from the car yesterday, Su Mo still furrowed her brow when standing there today; the air was even fouler than the rotting flesh of zombies outside.
The arrival of three cleanly dressed people in the grimy Outer Ring caused a small stir, but the formidable aura that Lu Chen naturally emitted deterred anyone from approaching them.
Not far to one side was the high wall protecting Base B’s outermost perimeter. She looked up; on the wall’s interior, workers shuffled back and forth on a scaffold several dozen meters high, without any safety measures.
"What are they doing up there?" Su Mo inquired.
The woman looked up at the high wall with a shadowed, bitter expression, "The superpower users are building the top of the wall. Those of us who want extra food have to help reinforce it. My son broke his leg doing just that."
Su Mo pursed her lips, staying silent. In these times, it was hard to blame them, though the lack of even a simple rope made her suspect it was also a way to reduce the weaker population.
As they went further in, more tents appeared, resembling a group living in a dilapidated landfill.
"We’re here," the woman stopped in front of a fairly large, half-drooping tent, pulled back the curtain, looked back at them, and walked in.