Driving all the way to the nearby town.
This was his first time leaving the shelter since the arrival of the Cataclysm, so he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.
The town was very quiet at night, with every household's doors tightly shut.
Not even the barking of dogs could be heard.
The entire town was under an extremely oppressive, almost dead silent atmosphere.
After the Cataclysm, due to frequent mutation incidents, most domestic cats and dogs were beaten to death. Even if they were allowed to live, in the current food shortage, humans themselves barely had enough to eat—who would be willing to share food with dogs and cats?
Lin Fan parked the truck in a remote corner and carried the food out of the cargo box.
Because of the mutations, some people in the town had mistakenly eaten those irradiated vegetables and died.
Now, yellow paper offerings floated in the wind along the streets, adding a strange, eerie feeling to the dark night.
Xinxin and Xiao Hei followed closely behind Lin Fan, unusually quiet and well-behaved.
Xinxin was carrying a small basket filled with candies and cookies.
She remembered that Uncle Nan's son really liked those sweets, so she reluctantly contributed half of her own stock.
This memory was from a year ago.
Back then, Uncle Nan's eighteen-year-old son, Xiao Tian, came to help at the farm. Perhaps out of some childish impulse, he snatched a lollipop from Xinxin.
Simple-minded Xinxin didn't think Xiao Tian's somewhat rough behavior was mean-spirited; instead, she assumed he simply loved candy as much as she did. So, she generously gave him a new candy.
However, Xiao Hei was not pleased. Being perceptive, he sensed a hint of "bullying" in the boy's behavior and bared his fangs, chasing Xiao Tian for hundreds of meters before finally biting him on the butt, leaving him bedridden for half a month.
At that time, in front of Uncle Nan, Lin Fan was very angry. He scolded Xiao Hei and even threatened to starve him for three days to teach him a lesson for being naughty.
In the end, Lin Fan paid 500 yuan for Xiao Tian's rabies vaccination to smooth things over.
But that very night, Xiao Hei's food bowl was not reduced; instead, there were a few delicious chicken drumsticks added.
Since then, Xiao Tian never returned to the farm.
But Xinxin never forgot that Uncle Nan's family had a big brother who loved sweets very much...
Lin Fan walked briskly and stopped in front of an old house.
Uncle Nan's home was an old rural house with a low fence. Peeking over the wall, Lin Fan saw the lights on inside.
He quietly tied the rice, vegetables, and the candies Xinxin brought with ropes and lowered them over the wall, placing the food quietly along the base of the fence inside the courtyard.
This way, Uncle Nan would see the food as soon as he came into the yard.
Also, due to the viewing angle, passersby outside couldn't see the food hidden by the fence—very safe.
After finishing, Lin Fan was about to leave when suddenly he heard heart-wrenching sobs coming from Uncle Nan's room—wailing full of grief!
"Xiao Tian, what's wrong? Don't scare your dad!" Uncle Nan's crying voice pierced Lin Fan's ears, stopping his footsteps as he had been about to turn away.
*Cough! Cough! Cough!*
Next came a series of harsh coughing sounds.
Lin Fan picked up Xinxin and looked inside over the fence.
Under the bright light in the room, the tall Xiao Tian was half-reclining on the bed, coughing up blood continuously, his face showing a lifeless gray pallor!
Lin Fan's heart sank. He quickly took out his phone and pulled up news reports on patients severely poisoned by irradiated vegetables, comparing Xiao Tian's condition with those.
Continuous coughing blood, difficulty breathing, dull skin, gray complexion…
Exactly the same!
Xiao Tian had also mistakenly eaten the irradiated vegetables?
"Son, it's not that Dad doesn't want to save you! It's just that the hospital's damn incompetent doctors said there are no beds, and even if there were, they can't cure you…" Uncle Nan squatted beside the bed, a man in his forties crying like a child, "All Dad can do is drag you home and watch you die!"
Xiao Tian didn't respond, only coughing nonstop, his veins nearly bursting.
Lin Fan quickly covered Xinxin's eyes.
Although many people had already died from this since the Cataclysm began, nothing was as shocking as watching a living person about to die right before your eyes.
Listening to Uncle Nan's crying and Xiao Tian's coughing, Lin Fan took a deep breath to calm his racing heart.
"Big brother, Uncle Nan's son coughed up so much blood…" Xinxin stammered, "Is he… going to die?"
"It's going to be okay, it's going to be okay," Lin Fan squatted down, holding Xinxin tightly to comfort her.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind.
"Retrieve the ancient-grade carrot?"
A pleasant prompt sounded.
"Yes."
Lin Fan decisively chose.
The next second, a carrot emitting a faint medicinal fragrance appeared in Lin Fan's palm.
Because he often had to prepare delivery receipts, he habitually kept paper and pen in his coat pocket. Taking them out, he wrote a line of words on the paper, then wrapped the ancient-grade carrot and an iron lighter together in the paper, rolling them into a small bundle.
Yes.
He was going to send this ancient-grade carrot to Uncle Nan, hoping Uncle Nan could use it to treat Xiao Tian!
Of course, honestly, although Lin Fan and Uncle Nan had some old ties, their relationship was not close enough for this.
He was simply testing his hypothesis!
He had wanted to experiment to see if the ancient-grade medicine could cure poisoning from irradiated vegetables. Originally, he planned to buy a piglet for testing, but now the best test subject was right in front of him!
If the carrot could save Xiao Tian, it would be the best outcome—Lin Fan would get the answer he wanted, and Xiao Tian would survive.
If it didn't work, Lin Fan would lose nothing—Xiao Tian was already dying, so he need not feel guilty.
"Whether you survive depends on your fate!" Lin Fan silently said, then forcefully threw the paper bundle at Uncle Nan's window.
Crash!
The glass in Uncle Nan's bedroom shattered instantly. The paper bundle bounced three times on Xiao Tian's bed before coming to a stop.
"Who's there?!" Uncle Nan exploded with rage, rushing to the window with a kitchen knife in hand, shouting hysterically, "I'll chop you up!"
But no one was in the yard.
Furious, Uncle Nan noticed a pile of things at the corner of the wall. In the dim room light, he stared in disbelief.
"Food… food?"
Just then, a weak voice called from inside.
Uncle Nan didn't have time to examine carefully and turned back into the room.
Xiao Tian was half-leaning on the bed, weakly pointing to the partially torn paper bundle on the bed, and stammered, "Dad… there's something inside… and… words!"