Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 66: Chapter 66: Should I Believe Her, or Not?

”Don’t take my sister! Can’t you take someone else? Look, that one over there is prettier than my sister, and she’s got more meat on her bones. Take her first! I’m begging you, please let my sister go...”

The girl who was pointed out shrank back in terror. ”No, please, no...”

”Sis, I’m scared! Sis... please save me! You always dote on me the most, can’t you go in my place? I don’t want to die... No one who gets taken from here ever comes back alive, Sis...” Seeing that begging her sister was useless, she turned to the man who had come to grab them. ”Big brother... look, my sister is prettier than me, and her figure is better too. Take her first...”

The older sister: ”...”

She couldn’t believe her own sister would say such a thing. Her worry vanished in an instant, and her tone turned ice-cold. ”I don’t have a sister like you!”

”Sis, save me... Mom...”

Her cries grew louder as the younger sister was forcibly dragged away.

The moment the main door slammed shut, the sound of an argument broke out.

It was the girl who had been pointed out by the sister, her voice full of grievance. ”And you call yourself a PhD? You’re just full of wicked ideas! All those years of studying were a complete waste. Why didn’t you go in your sister’s place instead of trying to throw me under the bus?”

”Who are you calling wicked?”

”I’m talking about you, what about it? Selling someone else out just to save your sister? Who doesn’t know that the people taken out of here never come back? Everyone, listen up! You all better watch out for her. She’ll sell me out today, and she’ll sell you out tomorrow.”

”Don’t talk nonsense, I was just desperate for a moment...”

But clearly, no one believed her words anymore. They all kept their distance from her.

It was the apocalypse. There was no shortage of people who would harm others for their own benefit.

Chen Xing wasn’t surprised to hear it.

But for these people who had only just started experiencing the apocalypse, it was all a bit much to take in.

’Was the bond between sisters really that fragile?’

Back in Chen Xing’s room, the faces of those who hadn’t originally planned to run had turned incredibly grim.

They had originally thought that at least they’d get food here. They never imagined staying behind meant losing their lives.

”None of us can have any second thoughts. We have to get out of here!” Everyone gathered around Sister Feng.

Sister Feng had already become their pillar of support.

But Sister Feng, in turn, looked to Chen Xing as *her* pillar of support. ”What do you think we should do?”

Now, they were all of one mind, ready to advance or retreat together.

Chen Xing glanced up at the window. ”First, we sleep.”

Everyone: ”...” ’Who could possibly sleep right now?’

”If we run out now in broad daylight, we’ll be too obvious.”

Sister Feng heard this and agreed, telling everyone to disperse. ”Go to your spots and sleep. We’ll need our strength to run!”

Everyone had no choice but to spread out.

But who could possibly fall asleep?

Only Chen Xing leaned against a wall and fell into a deep sleep.

Around noon, someone threw in a few hard, dry steamed buns.

Chen Xing didn’t eat one. Instead, she took out a pork floss bun from her pocket and ate it.

The others just assumed she had hidden it away and didn’t think much of it, though they all swallowed hard, their mouths watering with envy.

It had been many days since the apocalypse began; bread was basically impossible to find.

”That pork floss bun of yours must be expired, right?” Someone couldn’t resist any longer, smacking her lips as she sidled up, hoping to get a sniff.

Chen Xing ate quickly. By the time the girl reached her side, it was all in her mouth.

The girl glanced at her empty hand in disappointment, then pouted and went back to her spot.

Chen Xing had a large appetite, so one bun was nowhere near enough.

But she couldn’t take out any more food in front of so many people, so she could only endure her hunger.

In the afternoon, everyone finally managed to fall asleep one by one.

At five o’clock, with some time still left before dark, Chen Xing got up and walked to the door.

She could kick a door like this open with one blow, but it would make too much noise.

The lock could be opened from both the inside and the outside, but if it was locked from the outside, the inside mechanism was disabled.

Just as she was about to squat down and pick the lock, Qiao Qiao darted to her side and whispered, ”Are you going out?”

She was an orphan. At first, her life in the orphanage had been decent enough, but then she was adopted by a couple. They seemed kind, but they were monsters in human skin. Not only did they often starve her, but they also beat and cursed her. Over time, the abuse escalated, and they began to use various instruments of torture.

By the time she was ten, she knew that these two people would never give her any warmth, so she took the opportunity to run away while they were out of the house.

After starving on the streets for two days, she had no choice but to steal food from supermarkets.

Starting as a petty thief, she slowly became a master thief. Picking locks and the like was a piece of cake for her.

She had been in and out of juvenile detention several times, but she always went back to her old ways after getting out. However, she had never done anything to hurt people.

”I’m going out to scout the situation first!” Chen Xing didn’t elaborate.

If they rushed out together before she had a clear grasp of the situation, none of them would be able to escape.

Qiao Qiao: ”...”

’Should I trust her, or not?’

’After all, they had just met. She had no idea what kind of person Chen Xing even was.’

”Let her go,” Sister Feng said to Qiao Qiao, having approached them at some point without them noticing.

’All we can do now is trust her.’

’It’s not even dark yet. If we all go out together now, it’s no different from suicide.’

Qiao Qiao was willing to trust Sister Feng, so she immediately squatted down and started working on the door.

With just a few prods, the lock opened with a soft CLICK.

They stepped out of the room and went to the main gate.

This one was a bit trickier than the one inside, but after just two minutes, that lock was open too.

”Be careful,” Sister Feng said. Having decided to trust Chen Xing, she would see it through to the end.

Chen Xing nodded. Seeing Qiao Qiao and Sister Feng go back inside the room, she slowly pushed the main gate open just a crack and slipped out of the building in a flash.

Her hearing was sharp, and she knew there was no one outside.

Her movements were so slight when opening the gate that, naturally, no one noticed her.

Dressed all in black, she moved with incredible speed, circling the entire row of houses above them without anyone taking notice.

On her circuit, Chen Xing discovered that besides two empty houses, the remaining rooms all had people locked inside.

’At first, they probably captured so many people just for the thrill of killing. But later, as food became scarce, it must have turned into cannibalism.’

Meanwhile, back with Sister Feng’s group, unrest began to brew after Chen Xing left.

Most of the women felt they shouldn’t have trusted Chen Xing enough to let her go out first.

If she found a chance to escape on her own, it would be much harder for the rest of them to get away.

”Sister Feng, we trust you, but we don’t trust her. I don’t believe for a second that she’ll be kind enough to come back and save us after she escapes.”

”Yeah! It’s too dangerous to come back. Nobody in their right mind would do it!”

”It would be one thing if she failed to escape—at worst, we’d just get a scolding. But if she gets away, we’re done for! They’ll think we let her go...”

”Right, right! Then they’ll watch us like hawks, and we’ll have no chance of escaping at all!”

”...”

”Sister Feng, maybe we should report her right now! We can just say she escaped while we were sleeping!”

”I think that’s a good idea. That way, we’ll get a lighter punishment!”

”...”

Sister Feng frowned.

She trusted Chen Xing.

’She didn’t know why. Maybe it was because of her eyes, which held not a trace of fear and shone like stars?’

”Do you really think reporting her now will keep us out of trouble?” Although Qiao Qiao wasn’t entirely convinced by Chen Xing either, she knew that snitching now would be a disaster. ”I believe she’ll come back to save us!”

’What if Chen Xing isn’t selfish and is actually planning to come back for them, only to lose her chance to escape because they wrongly reported her?’

”I don’t think that girl is a selfish person!” Gu Xinyan said, trusting her own judgment.

From start to finish, Chen Xing had remained calm. Even when they were captured and everyone else was crying, she had just covered her face and hadn’t shed a single tear.

’Someone that calm and composed couldn’t be an ordinary person.’

”Not selfish?” Wu Jiran, the one who had seen Chen Xing eating by herself earlier, couldn’t hold back. ”Didn’t you see her eating that bun all by herself?”