Chapter 182-I Clean Up Garbage in a Wasteland World
Chapter 182 Fire Seed
A layer of white snow had settled on the surface of the Red House. The surveillance feed went still—their monitoring equipment showed that the Contamination Zone had been purified.
The man in the duck-tongue cap was named Ye Fei. His taut nerves finally loosened. "It's finally over."
This job was exhausting. Zhu Ning owed him overtime pay.
After he spoke, he noticed the silence beside him. "Shen-jie?"
Ye Fei turned his head. She'd been quiet the whole time, lost in thought. He snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Hey, Shen Xingqiao? Wake up."
Shen Xingqiao snapped out of it and swatted his hand away irritably. "Stop being annoying."
Ye Fei asked, "What are you thinking about?"
Shen Xingqiao reached for a cigarette, only to find she was long out. She said flatly, "She knows the truth now."
Ye Fei let out an "oh." "Are you worried she'll come settle the score? Motorcycle Boss?"
Selling the boss's own bike back to the boss and pocketing two-and-a-half million—Shen Xingqiao was definitely something else.
Trust him to bring up the one sore spot. At the mention of it, Shen Xingqiao's expression soured. She wanted him to shut up.
It wasn't like she'd done it on purpose. If she'd given the bike away for free, wouldn't Zhu Ning have gotten even more suspicious?
Ye Fei changed the subject himself. "I wonder if she'll recognize us."
Zhu Ning had said she was going to carry out a secret operation. She hadn't specified what the operation entailed—only given them a plan.
Before the operation, she'd told them she would lose all her memories. Shen Xingqiao had personally interacted with her afterward and confirmed it—not a single memory remained. Zhu Ning couldn't recognize her at all.
That was exactly what Shen Xingqiao had been thinking about. If Zhu Ning had no memories, was she still Zhu Ning?
Ye Fei gazed out the window. The snow was really heavy this time. It reminded him of a lot of things from the past.
Ye Fei asked, "Do you remember the first time she came to the club?"
How could she forget? Once you've been through something like that, it's hard to forget. They'd all been young then—only fifteen or sixteen, still in the tail end of teenage rebellion.
It had been snowing that day, too. The coldest winter District 103 had ever seen. The snow wouldn't stop. The club only operated at night—doors stayed shut during the day.
Once night fell, the Fire Seed Club was loud and rowdy. The moment you walked in, you were hit by the smell of smoke and booze. Men and women milled about inside. In the corners, people were kissing. The place reeked of vice—all sorts of services for sale. Definitely not somewhere a little kid should be.
That night, right in the middle of business hours, the bell hanging by the door gave a little jingle. The bouncer thought it was a customer. Before he could blink, a little girl had slipped inside.
Zhu Ning's clothes were old and threadbare, offering no warmth. Her face and hands were flushed red from the cold, snowflakes dusting the top of her head.
She looked like a little beggar.
The moment Zhu Ning stepped in, the bouncer grabbed her. The hulking mechanical man seized Zhu Ning by the back of her collar and hoisted her up. "Where'd you come from? Out, out."
Before the mechanical bouncer could throw her out, she unfolded a crumpled business card. "Your manager said I could come find the Fire Seed Club."
That was Zhu Ning's last card to play. With Li Xin's help, she'd gone to the Bright Orphanage to compete. The only thing she'd gained from it was the manager's business card.
She was going to see this road through to the end.
The mechanical bouncer immediately understood—their manager had a soft heart and had been "spreading goodwill" all over the place again.
The card had been tucked into the innermost pocket of her coat. Zhu Ning handed it over with great care. Seeing how pitiful she looked, the bouncer decided to help.
Zhu Ning was carried into a VIP viewing room.
The lights inside were off. Screens glowed. It was a very professional spectating setup—much like the coaching observation rooms from Zhu Ning's original era.
A long sofa sat in the room with six people on it—men and women, plus two teenagers.
"Manager."
Shen Li was a striking woman with long, wavy curls cascading over her chest. She was drinking beer at the time. The match was at its most exciting point. She said impatiently, "What do you want?"
"Someone's here for you."
"Nice shot!" Someone on screen had hit a simulated monster. This season's free-for-all had great prospects. Shen Li was busy watching and replied offhandedly, "Who?"
Shen Li turned around, squinting at Zhu Ning. The little beggar looked awfully familiar. "You're the one from the orphanage?"
She had an excellent memory—she never forgot a face.
That day at the Bright Orphanage, their club had hosted an event. A little girl had barged onto the scene and shot brilliantly—immediately drawing everyone's attention.
The orphanage's Mechanical Mother hadn't looked too happy about it. Only after the competition ended did Shen Li learn that Zhu Ning wasn't from the Bright Orphanage at all—she'd snuck in from some other orphanage.
But Shen Li had given Zhu Ning the certificate anyway. Honestly, to an adult, a certificate was just a piece of paper—it wasn't money. Who would've guessed Zhu Ning was actually happy about it?
Grinning like an idiot.
So Shen Li's soft heart had gotten the better of her. She'd given Zhu Ning her business card and said something perfunctory and official-sounding: "Come find me if you need anything."
She hadn't expected Zhu Ning to actually show up. In this freezing weather with the rail transit shut down, how had she even gotten here?
Before Shen Li could say anything, Zhu Ning spoke up: "Miss, you have to take me in."
"Huh?" Shen Li first registered that the girl had called her "Miss," then processed the request that followed. She'd been out in the world for years, and she'd never heard such an outrageous demand. And delivered with such conviction, too. Even if she'd given out her card, wasn't this girl a bit too brazen?
Shen Li raised an eyebrow. "And why should I?"
Zhu Ning put on a smile—the look of someone working hard to sell herself. "I can make you money. Lots and lots of money."
Big talk. Such arrogance. Had this little girl never been beaten in her life? And why could she even smile while being held up in the air like that?
Zhu Ning's legs were dangling off the ground. She pointed at the person on screen, her voice still carrying a childish lilt. "I can do better than him."
She was pointing at the year's strongest Rookie King.
"Are you kidding?" Shen Li didn't say anything, but a bearded man sitting nearby couldn't hold back. "Have you ever held a real gun?"
He'd been there at the Bright Orphanage too. Obviously, you couldn't give real guns to kids—the competition at the orphanage was no different from shooting balloons at an amusement park.
Every year they went out scouting for talent, and they'd seen a few kids who were great at "balloon shooting"—but without exception, every single one fell apart the moment they picked up a real gun.
Besides, Zhu Ning looked about seven or eight—frail and wispy, like she hadn't been eating properly. She'd probably shake just holding a gun.
Zhu Ning: "I think you'll really regret passing on me. I'm super profitable."
Shen Li: "..."
Why did those words sound so strange coming from a little kid's mouth?
Shen Li studied Zhu Ning's expression more carefully and noticed something: this child was calm. Extremely calm.
Zhu Ning had clearly run into some kind of trouble. Otherwise, an orphan wouldn't come running to the club in the middle of the night, in the snow, with nobody looking after her. Unless the person who'd been looking after her was already gone.
Staying composed under pressure, maintaining a baseline of composure no matter what—when top-tier competitors met on the field and the skill gap was negligible, what they competed on was mental fortitude.
This kid might actually be a real prospect.
Shen Li asked, "How would you prove it to me?"
Zhu Ning asked, "How do you want me to prove it?"
The bearded man beside them said, "Ten shots, all tens."
Shen Li glared at him. Wasn't that bullying? He hadn't even specified the range, whether it was moving or stationary, or whether it was a simulated live-fire match. She was just a little girl.
There had to be some basic rules, even in a challenge.
To everyone's surprise, Zhu Ning agreed without hesitation. "Ten shots, all tens, and you take me in."
She was a national team member. This wasn't hard.
She'd agreed so fast that the bearded man actually felt a twinge of guilt. This really did look like bullying. But with words already said, whoever backed down first would look like the coward.
Shen Li was about to say this deal wasn't fair—why was the stake that she had to adopt the girl? She wasn't her daughter. But before she could, someone nearby was already fired up and agreed on the spot: "Set up the range."
Someone let out a whistle. People who loved drama were never fazed by more of it—they were all too eager.
Shen Xingqiao was only fifteen at the time. That day, she thought the whole thing felt surreal—like something out of a movie. A slum kid barging into the Fire Seed Club, declaring she'd become the club's biggest moneymaker.
Most people there didn't believe her. But Shen Xingqiao did, a little. She had a feeling this wasn't a joke.
Later, Zhu Ning was brought to a dedicated range. They didn't even bother watching the real competition anymore—they all went to watch an eight-year-old shoot. Saying it out loud sounded insane.
Zhu Ning surveyed the range. The bearded man hadn't made it too difficult—it really was just a ten-meter stationary target. If he'd given her a moving target, he'd have been ripped apart for it. What kind of tough guy bullies a child?
But even if he'd given her moving targets that day, she could've made it. Throw her into a simulation match and she'd still deliver. She had to.
This was the most important match of her life. In her original world, she'd spent years and years preparing for an international competition. Then the zombies came.
Now she'd been given a second chance to prove herself. This was her international stage.
Zhu Ning had just escaped from the Red House. She'd only just learned that she'd been living with a "ghost" all along—that her best friend had been a "ghost" the entire time.
Her heart was in turmoil. She wanted so badly to cry right then—to cry like a real eight-year-old. Lao Yang had been right. Something was wrong with the Red House.
After fleeing the Red House, her first instinct was to find Lao Yang. She missed Lao Yang so much—the only person who'd been good to her.
But then Zhu Ning forced herself to stop. She didn't want to make things difficult for Lao Yang again.
She was Lao Yang's burden. A burden that had been sent away didn't just run back on its own.
Lao Yang had already signed the guardianship contract. They weren't allowed to see each other again.
So this time, Zhu Ning refused to be shipped around by others. She wanted to choose her own path—and she'd own the outcome, good or bad.
Zhu Ning picked up the gun. Her hands were red from the cold. Normally, they'd shake a little, but she remained perfectly calm. This was her only chance.
Compared to the competitions she'd fought before, this was nothing. The audience was only eight people.
Zhu Ning aimed at the target, her finger on the trigger, adjusting her breathing.
This body hadn't been trained. Her muscle strength was abysmal. For Zhu Ning, this was a trial of its own—she had to deliver a perfect round with the worst possible body.
The snow on her head melted, soaking her hair, making her look like a drenched stray dog.
Beside her, someone yawned. Someone looked impatient. No one said anything, but she knew they were probably wondering if she could actually do it.
Bang—!
Zhu Ning pulled the trigger. In that instant, her mind was blank. Once she was in motion, she never thought.
"Ten." Someone nearby read out the score in surprise.
Shen Li had only meant to test Zhu Ning. After the first ten, she wanted to call it. That was proof enough.
"That's enough," Shen Li said. "You can stop. Very impressive."
But Zhu Ning acted as if she hadn't heard. She fired a second shot. Another ten.
Shen Li understood immediately—Zhu Ning was shooting to vent. Something must have happened to her. The pressure was too much, the pent-up fury suffocating. This was how she released it.
Shen Li had no idea what Zhu Ning had been through—what could push someone to this point.
For a while, nobody around her spoke. There was only the steady, unbroken sound of gunfire.
Zhu Ning's hands went stiff. Her fingers had already been frostbitten, and after firing, the trigger finger wouldn't uncurl—rigid and unyielding. She showed no reaction to the scores being called out. She just kept repeating the same motion.
This skill had saved her life in every world. It was the one ability she survived on.
Sometimes she didn't know who she was. But as long as she was still shooting, the world didn't seem quite so terrible. Years of training had built it into reflex. Everything still had a chance.
She heard the final ten and set the gun down. Her curled finger wouldn't straighten.
Only then did her hands begin to shake—as though the hardest, most agonizing part was over. People don't tremble when they're wound tight. It's only in the aftermath of survival that the shaking comes.
The training room was quiet. Everyone was silent.
In the end, it was the bearded man who walked up to Zhu Ning. He no longer looked at her as a little girl. He crouched down to meet her eyes.
He extended his hand. "Welcome to the Fire Seed Club."
Zhu Ning calmly took his broad hand, as if they truly stood as equals.
Shen Xingqiao watched from the side. That was the first time she met Zhu Ning. The story after that was unremarkable.
Zhu Ning shone brilliantly on the competitive stage, winning championship after championship. To her, coming in second would have been the surprise. She became famous fast—buried under countless flowers and applause.
The first time Zhu Ning received prize money, she made a special trip out. Because she was young and couldn't handle many things on her own, Shen Xingqiao went with her.
Zhu Ning went to a slum near the garbage mountain. Trash loomed precariously on all sides. A drifter high on Black Dream lay by the roadside. The whole place was filthy and run-down.
Shen Xingqiao guessed this might have been where Zhu Ning used to live.
Zhu Ning didn't go herself. She asked Shen Xingqiao to deliver the money to a young man named Liu Sheng inside, and if Liu Sheng wasn't there, to give it to Lao Yang. Shen Xingqiao didn't know why Zhu Ning wouldn't go in person, but she took the money and went.
Shen Xingqiao walked into a cramped, thirty-square-meter dump. Inside lived a fifty-year-old man with a scraggly beard and a needle still stuck in his arm—clearly just done with a Black Dream fix. That was how it was for people at the bottom.
She asked around for a while, but the man couldn't even hold a conversation with her. She had to ask the neighbors next door. After a full round of inquiries, nobody named Liu Sheng turned up.
"No one," Shen Xingqiao told Zhu Ning.
Zhu Ning asked, "Are you sure?"
Shen Xingqiao: "I asked around for you. The person here is gone. Nobody's left. No Lao Yang, either."
Zhu Ning looked quite disappointed. She'd finally earned some money and thought she could face Lao Yang with her head held high. This time, Zhu Ning wouldn't be Lao Yang's burden. She could give Lao Yang a better life.
She could support Lao Yang and Liu Sheng—even see them through to the end. She'd had it all planned out on the way over.
Now she stood there clutching money with no one left to give it to. People in the slums never stayed long. Sometimes when someone died, a new person moved in almost immediately.
Zhu Ning's mood sank. Shen Xingqiao helped her ask a few more people nearby. After five or six, someone finally knew something.
"Lao Yang? No idea. Haven't seen her in ages," said a sallow-faced woman with utter indifference. "Probably died on the garbage mountain."
Shen Xingqiao froze. She clearly hadn't expected that answer. The woman went on: "It's not exactly rare. The garbage on that mountain doesn't look where it's falling. People get crushed every month. Happens all the time."
Scavengers risked their lives picking through trash. Collapses, falls—accidents happened constantly. Once dead, there wasn't even a body to collect. Just tossed into the incinerator and burned on the spot.
It was perfectly ordinary.
Shen Xingqiao didn't know who these two people were, but hearing it still moved her. Life was truly unpredictable.
Shen Xingqiao turned to look at Zhu Ning. She was so small, standing alone in the shadows, thoughts unreadable.
Then Shen Xingqiao noticed something different on Zhu Ning's face and realized she was crying. A single tear slid from the corner of her eye and hit the ground with a small splat.
So even the cocky Zhu Ning could cry.
Shen Xingqiao didn't say a word. They walked back together in silence.
On the way, Zhu Ning spotted a charity organization and donated the money on the spot. She probably hadn't even bothered to check what kind of charity it was.
Shen Xingqiao thought Zhu Ning was a fool with money to burn, so she double-checked for her—and confirmed it was indeed a legitimate organization.
After that, Zhu Ning never brought it up again. She never went back to the garbage mountain.
Shen Xingqiao never asked. At the time, she and Zhu Ning weren't that close—and they were rivals, after all. The logic was simple: when someone who was always stronger than you suddenly appeared in your life, someone you could never surpass, it was hard.
Shen Xingqiao adjusted her mindset. Mainly because she didn't feel she absolutely had to go the professional competition route.
She had to admit, Zhu Ning's existence made you question your own talent.
Shen Xingqiao was seven years older than Zhu Ning, but they got along well—because Zhu Ning didn't act like a kid her age. She was remarkably mature.
They grew up together, like real sisters.
Once, the two of them stumbled into a Contamination Zone. Zhu Ning and Shen Xingqiao fought their way out together.
Trust is forged on real battlefields. After that, Zhu Ning became Shen Xingqiao's boss.
It was also during that incident that they both received the same link. The world of the Dead Post slowly unfolded before them.
They'd carried out a few covert operations on their own, but it didn't take long before Shen Li found out. She was a retired Demon Hunter herself. When she learned they'd encountered contaminants, she said nothing—as if she'd long expected this day would come.
Shen Xingqiao and Zhu Ning formally paired up as partners. Later, they recruited Ye Fei, and the three of them formed a freelance Demon Hunter squad.
And then came the time Zhu Ning brought up the apocalypse...
Boom—
Shen Xingqiao's memories were cut short. She snapped back to reality. The surveillance feed had changed—it was now a sea of red. The Red House was on fire.
Ye Fei leaped to his feet. He was already rushing out of the monitoring room. Shen Xingqiao hesitated for a split second, then immediately followed.
The monitoring room wasn't far from the Red House. Someone had set the Red House ablaze. In the darkness, it looked like a massive burning torch.
The old wood crackled and popped as it burned. Firelight and white snow reflected off each other, the contrast pushed to its absolute extreme.
A silhouette stood before the Red House. Zhu Ning was lightly dressed. She walked out of the Red House, her shadow stretched long by the firelight, her frame looking thin.
She also saw them. Her gaze was cold and sharp—the same look she'd worn the first time she appeared at the Fire Seed Club.
She was their fire seed.
Author's Note
Changed the manager's gender and made the manager and Shen Xingqiao sisters, so it better matches the image of the wavy-haired lady boss.
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