CHAPTER 18

"Can't I really go in?" Li Haohao stood at the top of the stairs, peering down. I blocked her with my body and refused her entry.

I entered the cold storage room alone. Zhao Xinyan and Lin Buxiu had switched positions and were still playing a game of chase inside the cold storage. I bypassed the two bodies and took out two packets of expired braised beef instant noodles, sandwiching them under my arm, and grabbed the remaining bit of curry beef.

These actions were like before the war - raising my hand and crouching low, preparing the food in the kitchen.

Li Haohao was inpatient at the doorway. After successfully discarding her protective suit in the wilderness, she was determined to confront me and instill a new sense of normality in me. She hung up the protective suit, making it look like someone was inside each suit. The walls were filled with the swaying protective suits of a whole outpost, and a pant leg covered our notice board.

What I took out exceeded her understanding, and she peeked and peered.

I said I was going to boil water and took the kettle with me.

Li Haohao asked where the kettle was.

I had never taken Li Haohao out properly before. There were special rules for eating and drinking outside the outpost, but later I had less time to go out.

I put down the things and handed them to Li Haohao. I went upstairs alone and opened the door to the storage room.

The kettle had been left there for a long time and had gathered a bit of harmless dust. Its two-layered structure made it look bulky, almost like a small bucket, and it had a handle.

I filled it with hot water and put the curry beef inside to simmer.

Li Haohao looked at the packaging of the braised beef instant noodles happily and said, "Are we having this?"

On the packaging, a pair of chopsticks picked up the noodles from a bowl filled with beef.

I pointed downstairs and said, "For reference only."

Li Haohao asked, "What do you mean?"

"It means the contents inside are not what's shown on the package."

Li Haohao widened her eyes, but at that time, she hadn't yet realized the relationship between the packaging and the food inside. I thought she was confused, so I explained proactively, "It's deception."

I confessed to deceiving her so honestly, and Li Haohao stared at me.

But the instant noodles were not produced by me, it was the manufacturer who was deceiving. Facing that gaze, Li Haohao started to understand, "The supply officer deceived you."

But it wasn't the suppliers who produced them.

I didn't know how to describe the pre-war food industry to Li Haohao, including the curry-flavored roasted chicken she ate, which was similar... But my knowledge was limited, and I wasn't good at expressing myself.

All I could say was, "It's not the supply officer's fault either."

"It's their fault." Li Haohao remained calm, took the kettle from my hand, held a corner of the two packets in her mouth, and ran to the kitchen. She ran back out with four chopsticks hooked by her pinky finger.

"It's not the supply officer's fault." I thought she didn't hear clearly.

Li Haohao turned back at the doorway, enunciating each word seriously, "It. Is. Their. Fault."

From her gaze, I knew she wasn't referring to the supply officer.

"Who are they?"

But Li Haohao had already kicked off her shoes and ran outside. I picked up the shoes and placed them by the door, looking back at the two doors of the outpost. After thinking for a moment, I decided to close them and neatly arrange Li Haohao's soft-soled slippers.

She stood in the yard—if we could call the distance from the outpost to the entrance a yard—holding things in her hands, running around, and then she went into the garage.

When she came out again, she was carrying our car cover. Last time, she hung clothes on it, but this time she spread it out and arranged the items with great respect. She placed the heavy hot water bucket in the corner of the waterproof car cover and knelt down to look at the two packets, making a gesture of "please."

Without wearing protective suit and without looking around through goggles, I paused for a moment, took an iron shovel from the car, and walked around the wire fence, shoveling away some burnt animal corpses that had penetrated but got charred. Then I returned, and Li Haohao was on the waterproof cover, using her fingers to scrape her teeth.

"Are they fighting again?"

"Yeah, it'll start soon if we don't pay attention. I don't know what they're fighting for."

I asked Li Haohao to wash her hands inside before coming out. I tore open the packaging and suddenly remembered that I forgot to tell her to bring a bowl.

Oh well, I broke the noodles into two pieces, opened the lid of the kettle, and put the packaging inside as well.

I sequentially put the instant noodles, sauce packet, and dehydrated vegetable packet from the plastic bag into the kettle, poured hot water over it, and sealed the plastic bag with my hand. Li Haohao rushed out.

She smelled the aroma and insisted that I move my hand so she could see. But I intentionally didn't let her see. Li Haohao stared at the steam rising from the kettle and noticed there was another packet. She immediately furrowed her brow and said, "You're only giving it to yourself."

I remained silent, accepting the accusation of eating alone. Li Haohao started examining the packaging, tearing it open and peering inside. She broke off a piece and pretended to throw it into her mouth.

I watched her.

She put that piece in her mouth and said, "Stingy."

The time was almost up. I let go, and the aroma rushed out. Li Haohao stared at my hand, and I let her pick up the chopsticks.

The transformation of the hard pancake into noodles made Li Haohao's eating gesture much gentler. She picked up a strand, lifted her lips to catch the end of the noodle, savored it slowly, and smiled with her eyes curved. She scooped up several more strands and filled her mouth.

I took the other packet, took the small pieces she had broken off, and chewed them in my mouth.

Crunching sounds echoed, but they had been stored for too long and had somewhat deteriorated. They weren't particularly fragrant.

Li Haohao wished she could watch the noodles with one eye and watch me with the other. She grew anxious when she saw me eating and immediately concluded that the noodles in my hand must be tastier. However, she couldn't bear to part with her own noodles, so she hastily stuffed the instant noodles into her mouth.

I handed her the other packet, and Li Haohao paused with her chopsticks, chewing slowly while looking skeptical.

Perhaps feeling guilty for initially suspecting that I was eating alone, she picked up another pair of chopsticks and pushed the noodles she was eating towards me.

I waved my hand, but Li Haohao insisted, closing her eyes with a determined expression.

So I picked up a strand and tasted it. It wasn't particularly delicious, and I felt a bit disappointed for a moment.

At that moment, I remembered the beef in the pot. I took it out and picked a few pieces to add to the beef noodles.

Li Haohao became happy and pointed to the image on the packaging, saying, "It's not a deception."

I was glad she thought that way. I recalled the vague mention of "they" and hesitated for a moment. Since today I had told her many things about myself as if in exchange, I decided to ask.

"Who are 'they'?"

Li Haohao was clever and understood what I meant.

"The people camping."

Adjusting her sitting position, Li Haohao continued eating noodles and kept pulling out bits of meat from between her teeth. I turned my head away.

"Is it Daomiao City?" I guessed.

Li Haohao smiled with a strand of noodles in her chopsticks. "Huh?"

"Never mind."

"I didn't hear you. What did you ask?" Li Haohao looked at the noodles, leaned toward me, and pulled me into her confusing statement. I still said it was nothing. Some questions are better left unasked once the right moment has passed.

"People who go camping get to eat barbecue." Li Haohao talked about her own matters.

I couldn't resist taking advantage of this, so I tore open a seasoning packet and sprinkled a bit on the noodles. Then I broke off a piece and handed it to Li Haohao. Stimulated by the pepper flavor, she sneezed, causing the lid of her water cup to shake vigorously and spill hot soup.

Li Haohao was so heartbroken that she almost immediately bent over to lick it up. I grabbed her before she could and made a promise out of thin air, "Next time."

"What?" she asked.

"Barbecue."

"There's meat?" She looked me up and down, hummed, and glanced at the instant noodle soup with a slightly worried expression. Then she took a forceful bite of the dry pancake.

Li Haohao spent some time researching the seasoning packet that had made her choke. She asked if she could use it to cook, and I said no. Immediately, she grabbed the half bag of seasoning packets and started pondering. She asked if we had any more noodles to eat, and I said no.

She sprinkled a pinch of seasoning on the oatmeal porridge but found it unappetizing.

Later, she did some research and poured the seasoning packet into her palm, creating a thin layer, and showed it to me.

I nodded, and Li Haohao stuck out her tongue to lick it clean, showing me her palm.

"That's unsanitary, Li Haohao."

"It's delicious." She carefully poured a handful, just enough to cover her palm, and extended her tongue to lick it clean. Then she smacked her lips, savoring the taste.

I'll just let her be.

I assessed our inventory and decided to treat her to barbecue in mid-month, but we didn't have a barbecue grill. If we used a frying pan, we would need another rack to set a fire outside.

Fuel was also an issue... I was still contemplating when Li Haohao suddenly mentioned that her teeth were not making any noise.

That's when I realized that even though Li Haohao brushed her teeth, she couldn't control the proliferation of those things in her tooth gaps, which would make her tooth roots ache even without fighting.

It's just cavities, I thought to myself.

I told her to brush her teeth more often, and Li Haohao went off in frustration. Just as she was about to take the first sip of water, she gargled it and spat out a clot of crimson blood.

I closed the circulation valve, letting it stay in the sink.

Using a magnifying glass to observe, I could hardly see any remnants of people in that pool of blood.

It hadn't even been a week, and these people in her teeth had melted into the blood? I pried open her teeth and saw that the city walls were still there, the decorations were still intact, but the people and weapons on them had disappeared. It was as if her gums were bleeding, constantly oozing out row after row, entering the saliva and turning into strands of blood.

She suddenly lowered her head and spat, then grabbed my arm. "Like Zhan Yicheng's worms."

Upon hearing her words, my eyes started to itch. 

"It's different. Zhan Yicheng is farming, but you're not brushing your teeth properly."

"I do brush them properly!" Li Haohao argued, seemingly trying to prove it to me. She opened the circulation valve herself, took a large cup of water, and poured it into her mouth. Then she vigorously rubbed her teeth with her arm.

I'm not a very reasonable parent. I simply said she wasn't brushing her teeth properly. Thinking about what she had eaten these past few days, I couldn't figure out what was in her teeth. I shouldn't dwell on it too much. I shook my head and went upstairs.

The next day, Li Haohao said those people seemed to still exist. After she finished speaking, she opened her mouth wide to show me the full view of her teeth.

Her choice of words made me close my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them and focused, the upper and lower teeth were no longer at odds. The decorations seemed to have changed. In the instant she opened her mouth, I saw a cluster of tiny things floating from the upper teeth to the lower teeth. Using a magnifying glass, I saw several individuals using the saliva threads created by her mouth opening as bridges, jumping into the saliva and falling down.

Want to fight? I held onto Li Haohao's chin and asked her not to move. I observed carefully, and those people, after entering the lower teeth, remained calm without any spikes poking towards me, nor any flags.

Li Haohao couldn't resist and took a sip of saliva. She extended the tip of her tongue to lick her painful tooth. I leaned in and used the magnifying glass, pressing the frame against her tongue. "Don't move."

"It hurts!" Li Haohao protested.

The team that traveled from the upper teeth to the lower teeth drilled into the tooth gaps and then moved towards other teeth.

in the evening, Li Haohao knocked on my door with a slightly tearful voice. "My tooth hurts."

Even if I opened the door, I didn't allow her to enter the room. I pulled her downstairs, reminiscing about her practical light bulb, and took out a flashlight to shine deep inside her mouth.

I saw these little people multiplying in greater numbers than I had seen before. This time, there was no fighting between the upper and lower teeth, but they followed the tooth gaps and ran towards the gums. However, the gums didn't seem to be a place where they could survive.

The magnifying glass's precision wasn't sufficient, so I could only see them poking something into the gums.

"What about rinsing your mouth?"

"Can't reach." Li Haohao pointed to her throat.

It turned out that some of the little people had drilled into her tonsils and were poking around, causing discomfort when she licked them.

I fetched a toothbrush and carefully considered the situation. I also took the unfinished instant noodle seasoning packet in my hand.

"We ate this that day. Did they turn into blood?"

Let's give it a try first. I pinched a handful onto the toothbrush and reached it into Li Haohao's mouth.

She suddenly bit the handle of the toothbrush. "What a waste! It's delicious!"

"I have more." I persuaded her and started brushing with the toothbrush. Li Haohao forcefully grabbed my arm. "It hurts!"

I let go, as if those little people really rooted themselves inside. It felt like stirring a thorn that had pierced into the flesh when I brushed over them.

But luckily, when it touched the seasoning packet, those little people melted into blood.

My guess was correct. I pulled out the bloody toothbrush.

Li Haohao hugged the seasoning packet and refused to give it to me. Only a small amount was left, and my promise seemed distant while the packet was right in front of me to lick.

I tried using salt. I grabbed a salt shaker and pinched a bit onto the toothbrush. Li Haohao frowned fiercely, tightly sealing her mouth shut.

"Okay."

I moistened my fingertip with a bit of salt, and Li Haohao reluctantly opened her mouth, allowing me to insert my finger deep into her teeth and apply pressure.

It felt like I crushed something, yet it also resembled the disgusting, sticky sensation when I first touched her teeth.

Were those living beings under my fingertips? Did they have consciousness?

A sudden shock ran through my mind, but I dismissed those thoughts and focused on dipping my finger in salt and scrubbing her teeth.

After a while, she went to spit out blood. "Much better."

"I'll get you a paper to wrap some salt, and from now on, use salt for brushing your teeth."

With her mouth wide open like a begging fledgling bird, Li Haohao pointed at herself, both hands behind her back, too lazy to argue.

"Li Haohao."

She closed her mouth, grabbed the salt packet, and walked away.

BACK | TABLE OF CONTENTS | NEXT