Chapter 264 - 230: The Pursuing Mammoth
Although Huang Lijuan and the others were afraid of the snow wolf, they couldn’t help but covet the snow fox meat it had brought over for Jiang Si.
Propping up her weak body, Jiang Si managed to stand. She divided the snow fox meat in two, giving the larger portion to the snow wolf and the smaller one to Huang Lijuan. "Thank you for taking care of me. You should have this snow fox meat."
Huang Lijuan hesitated, but seeing the longing in her daughter’s eyes, she ultimately refused. "You eat it. We still have a little food left."
The moment Huang Lijuan spoke, her daughter could no longer hold back and burst into tears, wailing in Chinese, "You’re a liar! You’re a liar! We’re going to starve to death!!!"
Not only were they starving, but they had also contracted a viral flu. If Jiang Si ate this meat, her body might have a chance to recover.
’With so many of us, what’s the point of struggling to live?’ Huang Lijuan thought grimly. But when she saw her daughter slumped weakly on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably, she couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.
Inhabiting Mei Na’s body, Jiang Si felt awful as well.
’I have to find a way to treat Mei Na’s illness.’
Besides medicine, food that provided ample nutrition was also essential.
Jiang Si looked at Huang Lijuan and suddenly asked, "Is there a lake nearby?"
Huang Lijuan froze for a moment, then suddenly remembered. "There’s a river, but it has terrifying crocodiles in it."
Crocodiles!
’Crocodiles are just meat.’
Seeing Jiang Si’s eyes light up, Huang Lijuan hastily added, "Those crocodiles are fast and their hides are tough. They guard the river to keep it from freezing over so they can catch fish. They won’t let anyone near their territory."
Crocodiles normally hibernate, but the prolonged cold had exhausted their energy reserves, forcing them to wake up and hunt for food.
Jiang Si asked again, "How many crocodiles are there?"
Huang Lijuan sighed. "Tons of them. The entire riverbed is crawling with them. We don’t dare go anywhere near it."
Huang Lijuan added, "And besides the crocodiles, there are a lot of zombies in that area."
While they were in that area, they frequently saw hordes of zombies swarming a crocodile and gnawing on it all day.
But it was as if the crocodiles had evolved too; the zombies couldn’t bite through their hides at all.
’So it really is pretty dangerous.’
After a moment’s thought, she asked, "Do you know where we are?"
Huang Lijuan replied, "This is Saido City, in the northern region. We’re on the outskirts."
Once she knew their exact location, Jiang Si immediately focused her mind, pulling up a map from her spatial storage. After confirming there were several farms near the outskirts of Saido City, she decided to try her luck and see if she could find one buried under the snow.
Jiang Si said, "There should be farms around here. Let’s go find something to eat."
Huang Lijuan frowned. "Even if there are farms, they’ll be buried under all this snow. It’s hard enough to dig for roots right now."
Jiang Si smiled. "We have to at least try."
She turned and whistled. The snow wolf came at her call. She climbed onto its back, leaving the snow fox meat behind.
Everyone looked at the piece of snow fox meat. Their situation was dire, but for a young woman like Jiang Si to dare ride a snow wolf by herself, she had to have something to rely on.
Huang Lijuan pulled her daughter to her feet and stumbled after them.
The rest of the group hurried to follow as well.
Who would choose to die if they had a chance to live?
Even if they were going to die, they wanted to do it on a full stomach.
Relying on the mental map in her head and the navigational skills from her past life in the wilderness, Jiang Si walked for a while before coming to a vast, open snowfield.
’This must be the farmer’s land.’
The depth of the snow here was staggering—at least three meters deep.
Without a solidly frozen surface, a single misstep would be like stepping into a snow-filled swamp.
The snow wolf was clearly better at sensing danger than Jiang Si.
It immediately halted, refusing to go in the direction Jiang Si indicated.
Jiang Si pointed to a sharp peak sticking out of the snow ahead. "Is there another way to get closer?"
The snow wolf seemed to consider it for a moment, then started off to the left, leaping onto a patch of solid snow.
Clearly, it could tell which parts of the snowfield were safe to walk on and which were not.
Seeing Jiang Si and the snow wolf getting farther and farther away, Huang Lijuan, who was trailing behind, quickly began to leap from one of the wolf’s footprints to the next.
’As long as we follow its tracks, we should be safe.’
The others quickly followed her example.
They followed Jiang Si across the vast snowfield for over an hour. Already sick, their bodies were completely drained of strength. As they stared at Jiang Si’s retreating back, their vision blurred, and they felt as if they were on their last legs.
Jiang Si felt terribly unwell herself, but she knew that with an illness like the flu, there was still a chance of pulling through if she just held on.