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Without any hesitation, Qiao Jiajin handed over the cloth bag from his waist, and Lin Song followed suit.

Tiantian looked at the two men, her expression a bit unnatural, but knowing she was in a weaker position, she thought it over and finally handed over her own cloth bag as well.

Qi Xia took all the cloth bags, sat aside, and started fiddling with something. In no time, he discarded an empty cloth bag, stood up, and said to the three, "We made a profit this time, a total of ninety-five 'Dao'. This number can't be evenly divided among the four of us, so we can only add the one we had left at the beginning to make ninety-six, and each of us gets twenty-four."

He pushed three cloth bags forward and said to the three, "I've packed them for you. Remember to count them in front of me; I won't take responsibility afterward."

Tiantian quickly reached out, took the cloth bag, opened it, and counted, confirming that there were indeed twenty-four 'Dao', not a single one missing.

Lin and Qiao Jiajin, on the other hand, hung the cloth bags back on their waists.

"Aren't you going to count them?" Qi Xia said, "I am a swindler, after all."

"It's fine," Lin Qin shook his head and said, "If I find there are fewer later, I'll just take them from you."

"That's right, don't try that with us," Qiao Jiajin also waved his hand and said, "What's next?"

Qi Xia glanced at the bear arm in Qiao Jiajin's arms, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's go get something to eat..."

The group's idea was simple; if they could cook the bear arm, as long as it could satisfy their hunger, no matter the taste, they could swallow it.

But in this dilapidated city, finding the necessities for cooking was very difficult.

Clean water, a stove, a pot, a lighter – they had none of these.

After searching through abandoned buildings in the city for over an hour, they still found nothing.

When they arrived at an abandoned restaurant, Qiao Jiajin finally couldn't take it anymore.

"This isn't working," he said, throwing the bear arm on the ground and flexing his sore wrists, "We're carrying around this several tens of jin of meat, and we'll end up exhausted to death before we starve."

"Thanks for your hard work," Lin Qin said with a smile to Qiao Jiajin, "Would you like me to take it for a while?"

"That's not necessary."

"It seems like there's a lot of hope here," Tiantian looked around the restaurant and noticed that it wasn't heavily damaged.

Sure enough, after a brief search, they found an aluminum pot under a table.

The pot looked relatively clean, albeit a bit deformed.

"Firewood is everywhere here," Qi Xia observed the broken furniture on the ground, "The only things we lack are water and fire."

"I'll go check the kitchen," Tiantian said as she walked directly towards the back of the restaurant, "Maybe there's water there."

Qi Xia nodded slightly and began to look for other useful items in the room. After a few seconds, he felt it wasn't quite right and said to Qiao Jiajin, "Qiao Jiajin, go with Tiantian and watch out for 'natives.'"

"Makes sense," Qiao Jiajin nodded and walked towards the kitchen, but before he could take three steps, he heard Tiantian's voice from afar.

"? Why are you here?"

"Ah! Sister, you're here too!"

The one talking to Tiantian was a female voice.

Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin immediately ran to the back kitchen. As soon as they opened the door, they saw the slightly plump girl standing there.

She reached out, affectionately holding Tiantian's arm, and said to everyone, "Why are you all here? What a coincidence, right?"

Qi Xia looked coldly at the woman, his expression somewhat displeased.

"Have you been following us?"

"Ah?" The girl put on an incredulous face, "How is that possible?! I was here first."

Qiao Jiajin didn't know what was going on either, why would this girl be waiting for them here on purpose?

"What are you looking for?" the girl asked again.

"We're looking for water and fire," Tiantian replied.

"Water and fire?" the girl laughed again, "That's great, we have both here."

Under Qi Xia's cautious gaze, the woman led Tiantian to a cupboard, stood on her tiptoes, and opened the door. Inside were indeed several plastic barrels filled with clear water.

Then she took out a lighter from her pocket and said, "Look."

Qi Xia could only feel that everything was just too coincidental, as if it had been arranged.

Tiantian happily took the lighter offered by the woman and asked, "Little girl, are you really lending this to us?"

"Don't be so polite, sister," the woman said with an innocent smile, "We survivors should help each other."

Tiantian immediately took a liking to the woman and expressed her gratitude repeatedly.

"What do you want?" Qi Xia asked from the side.

The plump girl turned her head blankly after hearing this and replied, "What do I want? I don't want anything, I'm just helping you out."

"I hope that's the case," Qi Xia said no more and turned to collect things that could be used as firewood.

"That brother is so strange," the girl said with big eyes, "Why is he so defensive towards me?"

"It's just his personality, you'll get used to it," Tiantian also said with a smile, "Little girl, what's your name?"

"Xiao Xiao."

Lin Qin, on the side, looked at Xiao Xiao and felt that something was off.

The girl was slightly plump with broad shoulders, wearing a very oversized T-shirt, but her cheeks were very thin, not proportional to her body shape.

"Xiao Xiao, why don't you stay and have something to eat with us?" Tiantian said, "The four of us can't finish that bear arm."

"Sure," Xiao Xiao nodded happily.

Qi Xia saw that the girl named Xiao Xiao was intentionally concealing something and decided not to press further, hoping that she wouldn't try to deceive them here.

Qiao Jiajin found a few bricks and built a simple stove, into which he threw some discarded wood and ignited it.

With Xiao Xiao's help, Tiantian washed the pot clean and boiled a pot of water.

Qi Xia, on the other hand, dealt with the bear arm on the side.

He often cooked at home but had never cooked a bear arm before, so he could only treat it as a chicken for the time being.

After briefly scalding it with hot water, he plucked the hair, peeled off the skin, and rinsed away the blood with clean water. He insisted that Xiao Xiao should not touch the ingredients, and no one objected.

Qiao Jiajin took out a rusty kitchen knife from the kitchen, honed it briefly, and chopped the prepared bear arm into two sections, throwing them directly into the pot whole.

This was the most perfect cooking method they could manage.

Meat soup.

Watching the water in the pot slowly come to a boil and hearing the 'gurgling' sound, everyone sat around quietly, not saying a word.

In no time, Lin asked, "Will bear meat be good to eat?"

"Delicious," Qiao Jiajin immediately nodded and said, "Haven't you eaten bear paw?"

"Have you eaten it?" Tiantian turned her head and asked.

"I had the honor of eating it once," Qiao Jiajin said, "That taste is unforgettable. If I ever get out of here one day, I must eat it again."

Tiantian shook her head helplessly after hearing this: "You really are a daredevil."

"Daredevil?" Qiao Jiajin was amused, "Tiantian, are you silly? I'm not going to kill a bear myself; I'll just eat it at a restaurant."

"Eating bear paw is illegal," Tiantian added, "No matter how delicious it is, what's the point? Do you want to go to jail for it?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Qiao Jiajin looked at Tiantian with a bit of disdain, "When did eating bear paw become illegal?"

Tiantian frowned, always feeling that sometimes she and Qiao Jiajin could talk very well together, but sometimes they were not on the same wavelength.

"You really should go online more," Tiantian sighed, "Don't always display your ignorance so matter-of-factly."

"The 'Net'?" Qiao Jiajin scratched his head, "Are you talking about... that 'Internet' that became popular a few years ago?"