The Post-Apocalyptic Big Farm Owner

Chapter 3: The Mysterious Bracelet

He hadn’t slept a wink last night, and he’d even given the half-bun he’d saved for a late-night snack to the little girl. Exhausted from lack of sleep and tormented by hunger, Li Ba was already at the end of his rope. Carrying the bamboo basket filled with bricks and stones, every step felt incredibly heavy, and his trembling thighs felt as if they no longer belonged to him. “Hang in there, I have to keep going… Dinner will be served soon.” The construction site provided only two meals a day: two bran buns for lunch and one more at the end of the workday. Thinking of those fragrant bran buns, Li Ba kept telling himself he had to hang in there. With that hearty midday meal, he was confident he could get through the afternoon’s work. Clearly, Li Ba had overestimated himself. Before the apocalypse, he’d partied day and night without a care, neglecting exercise; his body had long been drained, and his physical condition was abysmal. In pre-apocalyptic terms, he’d been in a state of sub-health—he’d survived by sheer luck, but after all these days of hardship in the post-apocalyptic world, his physical condition hadn’t improved; if anything, it had grown worse. The scorching sun hung high overhead, spewing out life-threatening, blistering rays. Li Ba’s throat was so parched it felt like it was on fire; beads of sweat the size of soybeans poured down like rain, and his chubby face had turned deathly pale. “If only I had some water to drink!” He licked his parched, chapped lips. Since the apocalypse struck and the unknown virus spread, most rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water had become contaminated. If consumed directly, those with even slightly weaker constitutions would almost certainly contract the virus and turn into zombies. As a result, water sources for survivors were extremely scarce—sometimes even scarcer than food. Most of the drinking water in the Xibu settlement came from underground sources. Surrounded on three sides by mountains and situated in a volcanic belt—though the volcanoes were dormant and posed no risk of eruption—Xibu boasted abundant underground hot springs. After simple filtration, the hot spring water was safe to drink. The survivors living here relied on these hot springs for their water supply. However, the hot spring water is not freely available; there are strict limits on its use. Nearly all the springs are controlled by Xibu’s high-ranking officials. While residents within the inner city have sufficient water for daily living, those in the refugee camps outside the city are allotted only one liter of water per person per day—barely enough to meet basic physiological needs. As for bathing or washing one’s face, that’s out of the question. Normally, Li Ba would prepare a bottle of water to quench his thirst before heading to work each day. But since he’d been busy half the night and had given all his food to the little girl, he woke up this morning with an unbearable hunger and couldn’t resist drinking the water to stave off his hunger—better than nothing. Now, he regretted it; the unbearable pangs of hunger and thirst made him wish he were dead. His thighs grew heavier and heavier, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier, his head spun, and the world around him began to blur. Finally, Li Ba could hold on no longer; he collapsed onto the ground, motionless. News of the situation at the construction site quickly reached Li Chao. He was in the workers’ quarters; squinting, he saw that the man lying on the ground was Li Ba. He gave a sinister grin, turned to a burly man with a scar on his face standing beside him, and nodded toward him: “Xue Lin, this fat pig is trying to slack off. Go teach him a lesson—but go easy on him. It wouldn’t be any fun if you killed him!” “Got it!” The burly man named Xue Lin flashed a cruel grin, turned to grab the leather whip hanging on the wall, and strode over. Just then, the little girl who had been cowering motionless in the corner quietly raised her head. Her wide eyes fixed on Li Ba, revealing a look of deep anxiety. Xue Lin wasn’t an Evolver; he’d managed to worm his way into the city’s garrison by leveraging a distant family connection to a high-ranking official in the settlement. He and Li Chao were cut from the same cloth, and now, having received Li Chao’s orders, he strode quickly up to Li Ba and snarled, “Get up! Don’t even think about slacking off, or I’ll whip you to death!” Before he’d even finished speaking, he raised the leather whip and lashed out. This guy had taken Li Chao’s instructions to heart and struck with precise control, aiming for Li Ba’s left wrist. Even so, the blow was powerful enough to tear the skin on the back of Li Ba’s hand and wrist open, causing blood to gush out. The intense, stinging pain snapped Li Ba back to his senses. He saw his left hand covered in blood and heard the shouts ringing in his ears—he didn’t even have to think to know what had happened. Get up! I have to get up quickly! Otherwise, that bastard Li Chao will use this as an excuse to come up with new ways to torture me. Li Ba kept reminding himself, mustering all his strength as he braced himself with both hands against the ground, trying to stand up. But just then, his pupils contracted, and a look of horror spread across his face. The blood flowing from the wound on his left hand had been completely absorbed by the bracelet given to him by the old man last night—not a single drop remained. Boom— Just as Li Ba was reeling from the shock, a massive roar echoed in his mind. The next moment, he found that the scenery around him had vanished, and he had been transported to an unfamiliar place. “Where am I?” After a brief moment of shock and panic, Li Ba took a few deep breaths, forced himself to suppress his fear, and began to survey his surroundings. The air was thick with mist. Aside from a square structure resembling a Tower and a patch of land in front of it, nothing else was visible. He was currently standing on that patch of land in front of the Tower. This patch of land was peculiar—the soil was dark brown, and its area was no more than a dozen or so square units, about the size of a single room. “There’s water!” In the center of the patch of land was a small stone trough, half-filled with a crystal-clear liquid that looked like spring water. As soon as Li Ba spotted it, he immediately ran over, dropped to his knees, and stuck his head straight into the trough, intending to drink his fill. His earlier unbearable hunger and thirst had made him forget the mysterious place he was in; all he wanted was to drink his fill. But something strange happened: just as he was about to gulp it down, he found he couldn’t drink a single drop—he could only smell the refreshing, heart-soothing fragrance emanating from the spring water inside the trough. Even so, it gave him a tremendous boost of energy. “How strange!” He tried several times in a row, but couldn’t get even a drop of water. It felt as if his body were as insubstantial as air—he could see the spring water inside the stone trough, but he couldn’t touch it, let alone drink it. “Could it be…” Li Ba suddenly stood up and ran his right hand over his body. To his shock, his palm passed right through him, as if he were touching air—it didn’t grasp a single thing. “Could it be that I’m already dead, turned into a ghost…” Li Ba felt like crying but had no tears left. Just then, he thought he heard someone cursing loudly right next to his ear. Immediately afterward, a wave of excruciating pain washed over him, and he couldn’t help but scream. “Aaah—” As Li Ba screamed in agony, the scene before his eyes shifted. The scorching heat, the filthy, fishy stench—all of it came flooding back in that instant. He was still propped up on his hands, facing a pair of military boots. Their owner, brandishing a leather whip, was hurling insults at him. “You fat pig! If you don’t get up right now, your lunch will be cut in half!” His shoulder burned with searing pain, and crimson blood seeped through his torn Armani suit. Just a moment ago, upon seeing this good-for-nothing feigning death and refusing to get up, Xue Lin had lashed him viciously once more. Li Ba scrambled to his feet in an instant. Though he was in excruciating pain, his spirits had recovered considerably. His expression froze for a moment, but he immediately snapped out of it, bowing and scraping before Xue Lin: “I just slipped, sir. I wasn’t trying to slack off on purpose. Please forgive me, Master Xue… please forgive me…” Xue Lin glared at him viciously. “Don’t let this happen again, or I’ll kill you on the spot and toss your body outside the city to feed the zombies!” Only after issuing this warning did the thug strut off. Li Ba waited until the lackey had walked far enough away, then lowered his head to look at his left wrist and felt a sudden jolt of shock. The bracelet given to him by the elderly man who had tragically passed away last night had vanished, and in its place, a strange tattoo had appeared on his wrist—circling it like a bracelet. Even stranger was that his palm and wrist—which had been whipped until the skin split open just moments ago—were now smooth and unblemished, without a single scar. Li Ba was startled. He glanced around, then slipped his left hand discreetly under his shoulder, felt a handful of fresh blood, and only then pulled it back out. “Don’t just stand there—get to work, or they’ll give you trouble again!” Two survivors, shouldering heavy loads, whispered this warning as they passed by Li Ba. “Da Fang, Xiao Fang, thanks a lot!” Li Ba shot them a grateful glance. These two survivors were brothers. When the apocalypse struck, they had fled from Wucheng to this place alongside Li Ba’s group of refugees, and they got along quite well. Like Li Ba, they had no special talents, let alone any awakened abilities, and lived in the refugee camp outside the city, making a living as manual laborers. Dafang and Xiaofang nodded. Xiaofang even quietly tossed him a roll of gauze, gesturing for Li Ba to bandage his wound. Li Ba wrapped his left hand up in no time at all, making it look like a rice dumpling, and just as he finished, he smeared a bit of blood over it. Afterward, he went back to work. Strangely enough, ever since emerging from that mysterious place, his energy and spirit had recovered considerably; though he felt exhausted, he managed to keep going. While working, Li Ba kept glancing at his left hand, replaying the scene he’d just experienced in his mind. It felt like a dream—he couldn’t believe it had really happened. One thing he was certain of: the bracelet the old man had given him had turned into a tattoo and was now gone. “What on earth is going on?” “Could it be… that my consciousness just left my body?” Li Ba was a meticulous thinker; as he worked, he pieced together the sequence of events. Using logic that defied common sense, he deduced that the bracelet the old man had given him last night must have been a treasure—much like those seen in the fantasy TV dramas. After absorbing his blood, the artifact had undergone a transformation to recognize its master, turning into a tattoo hidden within his body and containing a mysterious space. These were all just Li Ba’s speculations. To find out for sure, he’d have to enter that mysterious space again. But he still had work to do, and with everyone watching, it wouldn’t be appropriate to act now. If his consciousness slipped inside and he fainted, he’d suffer physical pain all over again. He’d better wait until lunchtime. Suppressing the urge of curiosity in his heart, Li Ba set to work. Finally, after a whistle blew, all the laborers on the construction site put down their tools and, with excitement written all over their faces, gathered from all directions toward the workers’ quarters. Lunch: two bran buns and a half-hour break. For the survivors living outside the city, this was already the happiest moment of the day. Over by the work barracks, dozens of large bamboo baskets were set out, filled to the brim with steaming bran buns. The aroma wafting from them made the laborers’ eyes bloodshot with hunger. If it weren’t for the fully armed Armed Police officers guarding the area, they would have long since surged forward and started scrambling for the food. “Line up and step forward one by one to collect your rations. If anyone takes even half a bun more, I’ll shoot him on the spot!” Foreman Li Chao stood on a table inside the work shed, shouting with unbridled arrogance. He seemed to relish the feeling of looking down from on high and bestowing food upon these lowly people. In a particularly good mood at that moment, he happened to catch sight of Li Ba’s head crouched in the crowd, glaring viciously at the young man in the corner of the work shed. Li Chao gave a cold smile and ordered his men to grab six or seven bran buns and toss them onto the floor in the corner. “You fat pig—whoever you’re trying to take down, I’ll make sure you don’t get your way!” Seeing the look of utter astonishment on Li Ba’s face, he couldn’t help but burst into wild laughter. Meanwhile, Li Ba’s gaze inadvertently met Yan'er’s, and they both exchanged knowing smiles.