Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 173

The cries for help came from much farther away than Yu Xi initially thought, but with her heightened hearing, it felt as if the source was nearby.
This dense forest had originally been a green park, dotted with remnants of small shops, fountains, and fitness equipment. Despite the vegetation’s mutation, the space hadn’t been completely overtaken, leaving some areas accessible. Occasionally, people from the nearby official shelters would venture into the park in groups to search for overlooked supplies in the abandoned shops.
Due to the strict no-violence policy enforced in the official shelters, this sprawling park had become a preferred battleground for settling personal grudges.
The commotion was taking place in a damaged building in the forest clearing, once likely a service station. Half of one wall had been crushed by plants, but the roof and most of the second floor remained intact.
A girl’s clothing was in tatters—her protective suit reduced to shreds, her T-shirt collar torn apart, and her sweatpants completely gone. She curled up on the ground, trembling and exhausted from resisting. A young woman crouched beside her, draping a piece of torn protective suit over her exposed body.
Not far away, a man lay slumped against the wall, sweating profusely and clutching his side after a well-placed kick to his vitals. Gritting his teeth, he spat, “Why are you meddling? Do you even know what she did? She stole from me! She deserves this! Trash like her needs to be taught a lesson!”
The moment he spoke, the crouching woman’s anger flared further. She stormed toward him, wielding an iron rod, and began swinging without restraint.
“She stole from you, so you think you can do this to her? How much did she even take to deserve being stripped? No wonder you suddenly wanted to split up today, you disgusting piece of trash! Are you not afraid some mutated centipede will crawl out of the walls and bite your—ugh! Just look at yourself, you pig-headed jerk! Calling someone else trash—what could be lower than you?”
The onlookers froze in silence.
“Uh… is Sister Xuefei more upset than usual today?” someone whispered.
“You don’t know? He hit a nerve,” another murmured. “Back when the mutations started, Sister Xuefei was super kind and gentle. Then someone she trusted sold her out, and she almost… you know. Ever since, she can’t stand this kind of thing. The guy who tried to… well, she made sure he couldn’t ever try again.”
“Shh… keep it down, or she’ll go ballistic on you too…”
Oblivious to the murmurs, Zhao Xuefei continued her furious assault, hitting the man harder each time he tried to insult her. Finally, her swing sent one of his teeth flying. Blood spattered onto the floor.
The onlookers grew anxious—not because they thought she was too harsh, but because in this dense forest, blood could attract mutated creatures.
“Sister Xuefei, that’s enough! It’s not safe here!” one of them called out.
Zhao Xuefei paused, delivering one last kick before stepping back. Some of the others moved toward the victimized girl to help her up, but she shrank away in fear. Understanding her hesitation, Zhao Xuefei was about to order them to strip the man of his protective suit to cover the girl when one of her teammates shouted from the ground floor.
“Sister Xuefei, what’s that?!”
Zhao Xuefei leaned out to look.
On the uneven clearing outside, surrounded by dense vegetation, sat a silver RV with an open window. A piece of cardboard hung from the window, bearing three bold words:
Open for Business.
Zhao Xuefei froze.
What… the hell?
Later, an electric cart with four wheels and eight seats rolled forward at a steady pace. Sitting beside Zhao Xuefei was the girl, now wearing a new protective suit they had traded for at the
Star House
.
They had approached the RV skeptically, wondering if the shop was a trap. However, the trade had been straightforward: they handed over food and immediately received a new suit.
As Zhao Xuefei stared at the silver RV following behind them through the rearview mirror, her brows furrowed deeply.
“What do you make of this, Xiao Jun-ge?” she asked.
“It’s… tricky.” The man driving the cart also wore a puzzled expression. “In this world, bad people are easy to deal with. But people like this—who seem to go around helping others—are hard to figure out. It doesn’t make sense.
“If I had that kind of vehicle and resources, I’d never risk driving around. It’s practically inviting people to rob you.”
“Do you think they might be… insane?” Zhao Xuefei ventured.
“That’s the only explanation I can think of,” Xiao Jun-ge muttered, still perplexed.
Inside the RV, Yu Xi could feel the occasional glances and curious stares from the passengers in the vehicle ahead.
She hadn’t planned to visit the official shelter. Its air-raid shelters were sturdy, with supplies far more abundant than the self-organized refugee zones. From her perspective, it didn’t seem like a place in urgent need of her charity.
But plans changed with the unexpected presence of someone familiar.
Hiding behind a disguise with the
Disguise Lipstick
still freshly applied, Yu Xi wasn’t ready to reveal her true identity. However, since fate had brought her to this person—her father’s cherished relative—it was only natural to investigate her living conditions and circumstances.
As for what she would do next, it depended on her observations and the other person’s willingness. From what she could tell, Zhao Xuefei didn’t seem to be doing badly.
The electric cart quickly traversed the forest and reached the open space outside the official shelter.
Surrounding the air-raid shelter was a three-meter-high iron fence, draped with dense green vines dotted with pale pink, spherical flowers. These plants, originally known as
Hoya
, had mutated to grow rapidly. When approached, their flower centers would shoot out needle-like stamens, which were both venomous and sharp.
Mutated creatures instinctively avoided these “poisonous hoya” plants, making them an effective barrier against crawling threats. Cleverly cultivated by humans, the vines now covered the fences to enhance the shelter’s defenses.
Human ingenuity never failed to adapt, even in the face of dire circumstances.
Yu Xi parked her RV outside the iron fence, avoiding the official zone where vehicles were subjected to inspection. She found a shaded, dense patch of vegetation nearby and hung up her “Open for Business” sign once more.
This time, she decided to skip
oden
and instead retrieved a cotton candy machine from her Star House warehouse. She had acquired it during her venture into the
acid rain world
, where it had been part of a party setup. By simply filling the machine with colorful sugar pellets and selecting a shape, it produced beautiful cotton candy creations within a minute.
After testing a multicolored star-shaped cotton candy, Yu Xi found it delightfully soft, sweet, and not overly cloying. She quickly made rabbit, star, and flower-shaped candies, placing each in transparent covers and neatly displaying them in the RV’s open window.
Nearby, Zhao Xuefei had just escorted the girl she rescued into the shelter. Unable to suppress her curiosity, she left the air-raid shelter to investigate the RV’s activities.
When she reached the RV and saw the cotton candy, her suspicion deepened.
“Something’s fishy,” she muttered, gripping the iron rod in her hand and tapping it lightly against her palm. “There has to be an ulterior motive.”
“Should I go check it out, Sister Xuefei?” one of her team members offered.
“No need,” she said with a frown. “I’ll handle it myself.”
Ten minutes later—
Zhao Xuefei pulled down her mask, her expression rigid as she stuffed a second cotton candy into her mouth.
The two team members following her from a distance exchanged silent, incredulous looks.
Leaning casually against the RV window, Yu Xi rested her chin in her hand, watching the scene unfold. Despite their shared bloodline and past misunderstandings, everything that had happened so far made those grievances seem trivial.
“How is it?” Yu Xi asked, unable to suppress a smile as she observed the once sugar-averse Zhao Xuefei demolish two cotton candies in quick succession.
“It’s… decent,” Zhao Xuefei replied, a hint of awkwardness in her voice. “You’re really not charging for these? Isn’t this a barter system? What do you want in return? Just name it. I don’t like taking advantage of people.”
Yu Xi chuckled. “I don’t need anything. Are you a local, or were you here on vacation? What about your family?”
Zhao Xuefei’s guard went up again, but before she could respond, Yu Xi opened the RV’s mini-fridge and took out a latte. She removed the lid, added ice cubes, and used a whipped cream canister to top it with a fluffy dollop of cream. Handing her the iced latte, complete with a disposable spoon, Yu Xi smiled faintly.
Zhao Xuefei froze, staring at the decadent drink. Her iron rod nearly slipped from her hand.
An iced latte with whipped cream.
Help… help me…
Inside the shelter, a meeting was wrapping up in a somber mood.
The day’s discussion revolved around the complete loss of a convoy sent to the outskirts of Changcheng, near South Sea Island. The convoy had been tasked with retrieving seeds from a warehouse to establish a protected farming zone. However, heavy rain and landslides had led to their demise.
The island’s isolation from the mainland and the destruction of nearby farmland by mutated plants had made the situation dire. Reestablishing short-cycle crops to replenish dwindling supplies was critical, yet their plans were now in disarray.
Zhou Ningyuan, responsible for the shelter’s daily security, left the meeting room, rubbing his temples. His father, Zhou Guocheng, a member of the management team, had aged significantly from the stress of the food crisis.
On his way to his room, Zhou Ningyuan encountered a group of team members returning early from their mission.
“Weren’t you supposed to be out? Why are you back already?” he asked with a frown.
“Oh, boss,” one of them replied awkwardly. “Something came up. Sister Xuefei saved a girl, so we brought her back early.”
“And where is she now?”
The team exchanged uneasy glances.
How could they explain that Sister Xuefei went to spy on a “suspicious” RV, only to end up ensnared by cotton candy and iced coffee? Would they get beaten up for telling the truth?