Chapter 19: Capture 2
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Lu Li no longer dared entertain the idea of taking a branch from the pine, but she set her sights on a withered, yellowing twig drooping overhead.
After obtaining the cedar’s consent, she rose and reached upward. The half of a plum she had carefully tucked away slipped from her pocket and fell to the ground.
Lu Li hurriedly bent down, but the plum still dropped, rolling through the dirt several times and picking up a bug along the way.
She had never intended to eat it, yet seeing the only delicious food she possessed fall to the ground still made her heart ache so badly she could hardly breathe.
When the porcupine saw the fruit, its beady eyes went wide, and even its flamboyant punk-like appearance seemed to collapse for a moment.
Lu Li lay on the tree, watching the porcupine poised to spring and the bug preparing to take a bite. Forgetting all about the willow branch wrapped around her wrist, she hurriedly climbed down to retrieve it.
Her movements startled the porcupine awake. It rubbed its little black claws together, its quills standing stiffly on end. Then it accelerated to its limit and charged recklessly toward the half plum.
The moment its front toes entered the cedar’s shadow, there came a sharp crack. The porcupine dodged in time, and a pinecone exploded against its claws.
Lu Li, halfway down the tree, froze. One leg remained suspended in midair as she struggled to decide whether to go up or down. If that pinecone had struck her, it absolutely would have sent her kicking the bucket. She had no speed mutation.
After becoming perhaps the last remaining zombie in the world and spending a day adapting to it, Lu Li felt that she might have mutated only in strength. She had also become stupider and grown into a grotesque shape!
The porcupine retreated from the shadow. Its beady eyes met the foxlike eyes enhanced by colored contacts, and sparks seemed to fly between them. Both sides feared the cedar, and neither made a move.
The bug bit into the plum. Its mouthparts paused for a moment, then it chewed with satisfaction and took another large bite.
Lu Li burned with frustration, but she did not dare climb down. She had already overstepped once and been threatened with quills. There was no guarantee that the next time she overstepped, it would not crack her skull open.
Hanging from the tree, she exerted force through her wrist until the tendons stood out. The willow branch twisted uncomfortably and crawled into view before Lu Li.
Seeing the swaying willow branch, Lu Li stared blankly for a moment.
She had said so: ever since becoming a zombie, her brain was prone to shutting down!
“Sister Willow, could you bring that half plum back to me? I’m sure we can negotiate the terms!”
The willow branch impatiently lashed out and reached toward the fruit.
Just as the plum was about to be snatched away by Lu Li, the porcupine grew frantic. It no longer cared that this was the cedar’s territory. Curling itself into a ball, it charged straight over.
The clanging and banging continued without end. Pinecones bombarded the ground, and Lu Li was struck on the buttocks by a splinter of one that had been sent flying.
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She had no time to check herself. Bracing her feet against the trunk, she swiftly scrambled upward, then retreated onto the branch where she had been sitting. Facing the pine needles all aimed directly at her, she gave an awkward laugh.
“Brother Pine, I was only getting some exercise! I absolutely wasn’t trying to run away!”
The pine needles trembled and returned to their original positions.
Rubbing her aching backside, Lu Li fretted. It was easy to climb up, but getting down was another matter!
Below, the clanging and banging continued like a downpour of dense hail. A porcupine was no hedgehog. The instant its quills touched a pinecone, they shot out, piercing the cone and sending it flying in the opposite direction. Yet in that brief instant, before the porcupine could grow a new quill, another round of pinecones came hurtling down at terrifying speed.
The porcupine could not deploy its quills fast enough to keep pace with the falling pinecones. It was battered by the hard objects, crying out in agony. It tried to retract the few quills it had left, but even those could not withstand the pinecones hurtling down like cannonballs.
When a pinecone struck the porcupine, its flesh sank inward by a couple of inches. Then the pine nuts scattered, driven by tremendous momentum, and embedded themselves in its flesh.
Lu Li rubbed her head, feeling a buzzing in her skull. She could almost feel its pain herself.
The porcupine that had looked so magnificent moments ago, as if it were the greatest creature under heaven, now lay limp and curled into a ball, its quills all shot away. It had been beaten so badly by the pinecones that it could not move at all.
The pinecones continued to fall. Seeing that her hundred thousand contribution points were about to breathe their last and become a pool of ground meat, Lu Li ignored the danger and waved as she climbed down.
“That’s enough, enough, Brother Pine! If you keep pounding it, it won’t be worth anything anymore!”
She tumbled and crawled her way to the ground. The moment she finished speaking, the sound of falling pinecones stopped. The final cone rolled and bumped to a halt beside her feet.
Lu Li, with a whole mouthful of words ready, choked and forgot what she had meant to say.
She cautiously took one step. Nothing happened. Then she tentatively walked a few more paces. The cedar still stood upright and unmoving. If not for the terrifying devastation covering the ground, Lu Li might have thought everything that had just happened was an illusion.
After confirming that the cedar would not attack her, Lu Li hurried over to the quill-less porcupine.
She placed a finger beneath its nose. Its breathing was faint, but it was still alive.
Lifting it by the scruff of its neck, Lu Li looked at the creature, now resembling a black-and-gray capybara without its quills, and smiled.
The willow branch also returned the half plum, complete with the bug clinging to it.
After catching the fruit, now coated in dirt, black-gray, and sticky, Lu Li had completely lost her appetite.
She held it up in front of the porcupine. Its limp paw immediately shot straight out. Its long claws hooked around Lu Li’s hand and dragged the plum into its grasp.
Still dangling from Lu Li’s hand, it hugged the plum and began gnawing. The bug on it was bitten open and sucked directly into the porcupine’s mouth.
After all that, it had still managed to eat the entire half plum—and even gotten an extra course besides.
Its cheeks bulged, and its beady eyes became bright and clear.
Lu Li tapped its snout.
“You’ve been caught, and you’re still eating!”
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She summoned the panel back and hauled the Chinese alligator and the child out of the bottom of the pit.
She placed the porcupine into the wicker basket prepared for it. The willow branch wound itself around the basket, ready at every moment to pull out any quills that grew—one quill, one removal—to make absolutely certain the creature remained bald.
The Chinese alligator stood guard nearby, preventing the porcupine from chewing on the willow branch or the wicker basket.
Looking at the creature that no longer resembled a pig in the slightest, Lu Li broke into a cold sweat over her hundred thousand contribution points.
After a moment’s thought, Lu Li decided to gather up all the quills that had been shot out. She had heard that they could be used medicinally. Although she was unsure whether anyone still wanted them after the apocalypse, carrying them along would at least prove that the creature still had some connection to a pig.
Most of the quills had joined together and pierced through the pinecones. Lu Li picked one up and held it before the cedar.
“Brother Pine! Do you still want these pinecones that fell to the ground? If not, I’ll take them!”
With power as formidable as the cedar’s, its contamination level had to be low. Lu Li had never seen such enormous pinecones before, and she was filled with anticipation for the pine nuts inside.
“Brother Pine, your pinecones are simply magnificent! Look at this shape, this curve! I’ve never seen a pine tree produce such perfect pinecones. I’m going to take them everywhere and sing your praises…”
Her flattery flowed without end, like a mighty river.
At last, the cedar had heard enough. Its branches began to sway, and Lu Li lowered her head toward the willow branch, which was enthusiastically pulling out quills.
The willow branch waved impatiently up and down.
Lu Li was delighted. This was the only plant she had encountered along the way that had been friendly to her from the very beginning.
She hugged the trunk and rubbed against it excitedly. The needles became even more animated, all turning toward Lu Li.
Unfortunately, she did not look up. Otherwise, she would certainly have been trembling in terror.
She carefully took out the detector and aimed it at the pinecone.
Contamination level: 60 percent. Mutation level: 68 percent.
After seeing the results, Lu Li’s hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
A high mutation level. High contamination?
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