The Return of Cambrian Period Volume 1 Chapter 18 11 Feb 05, 2020

The two men found the exclusive area for mountain climbing products and found that it had been turned upside down. There were not many pairs of shoes left, especially warm shoes and the like. However, there were still some clothes left. Because obviously when the temperature suddenly dropped, down jackets and cotton clothes could keep warm much better. It was the summer at the moment, so there was no such kind of clothes in the mall at all.

Most people didn't know that the more the weather changed, the more important the heat-proof and moisture-proof clothes were compared to the simple cold-proof clothes. Mountain climbing clothes had the function that Cheng Tianbi needed the most - moisture-proof. Once the inner clothes got wet, it would accelerate the consumption of human body heat, which was very dangerous. Before each mission, they would prepare appropriate equipment in accordance with different environments. Now it was not only for the mission, but also for survival. He must try to be fully prepared in details as much as possible.

After searching for a long time, the two men finally found a complete set of outdoor outfit. After changing, they felt a little lighter thanks to the light clothing and shoes.

They went around again, looking for something useful. In an store for outdoor products, Cong Xia found a crossbow hanging on the wall.

"Wow, this thing is so cool."

Cheng Tianbi came closer, took the crossbow and looked at it. The crossbow was about 30 cm long, not very large. The crossbow was beautifully made and decorated with dragon-shaped carves. The nature of it was more of a play thing than practicality. Normally, Cheng Tianbi would never look at this fancy thing twice, but it was very much needed now. It was more or less also a weapon.

"Find out if there are any arrows. I don't have many bullets. This is a good thing."

Cong Xia rummaged for a long time and only found one box of arrows in the original crossbow case, there were only six arrows. Cheng Tianbi put them in his bag.

When the two of them left this floor, Liu Fengyu was already gone, but the smell of his perfume was still lingering here and didn't disperse at all. Cong Xia said.

"What a weird man. He doesn't look hungry at all, he even has the mood to choose clothes."

Cheng Tianbi said.

"He must have something extraordinary, otherwise he wouldn't live so well."

"Yeah, I feel like the two of us have done quite well. At least we have something to eat every day, but he is just like before the apocalypse. I suspect he is a mutant."

"It's very likely."

Cheng Tianbi seemed like he was thinking something.

"His evolutionary ability should be a very powerful one, he looks even more well off than that person with the mutated hair."

"How many more evolutionary abilities that we don't know after all..."

Cong Xia lost in his own thought. Cheng Tianbi said.

"Don't think about it, we have more important things to do now."

"Well, yes, we have already said that today we would inquire more about the military and thought of a way to approach them. Those who distribute food are all ordinary soldiers. It seems like this method is not going to work."

"No, before that, let's eat."

Cong Xia's eyes lit up. It was noon now, they hadn't eaten anything yet. He immediately remembered the mantis's body.

"Yes, let's quickly eat it, it won't take long to go bad."

Cheng Tianbi threw out the corpse of the praying mantis and knocked on the green carapace with the military knife.

"I'm afraid there's not much meat."

"Should be enough for each of us to have a few bites. I'll do it."

Cong Xia took the military knife and expertly pried off the carapace while Cheng Tianbi was making a fire on the side.

The praying mantis indeed only had a little bit of flesh on his stomach. When gathered together at one place, it was only as big as a fist, but this was already enough to cause Cong Xia to drool.

They took some salt from the house last night and sprinkled it on the barbecued meat, which was much better than the unseasoned worm meat. It only took them two bites to gobble the meat down to their stomachs.

Cong Xia touched his stomach. With the feeling of unsatisfied, he said.

"It's really satisfying to have a bite of meat."

After finishing his sentence, he fiddled the carapace of the mantis.

"This carapace is really beautiful, it's green and quite hard, it seems... Eh?"

Cong Xia was stunned. His body froze. Cheng Tianbi became alerted.

"What's wrong?"

Cong Xia looked at his hands and then looked at the carapace again.

"Something just now... was absorbed by me."

He didn't know if it was his illusion or not, but when he touched the carapace and thought that it would be much safer if he also had a shell like that, he felt an extremely weak trace of energy coming out of the carapace and got into his palm. It was an extremely wonderful feeling. He didn't see it and didn't actually touch anything, but he could feel it.

Although the feeling was extremely weak, he doubted that it was just his hallucination. Cheng Tianbi frowned.

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know, maybe it's just my hallucination. I see lots of green things and that makes me dazzled."

Cheng Tianbi looked at him suspiciously without asking anything.

"Let's go back. I saw military vehicles at the perimeters of the square. Let's go and have a look."

The two men left the mall and walked towards the perimeters of the square. The number of people that came to receive the food at the square had not decreased at all. On the contrary, it even had the tendency of increasing as people were coming from all directions. Cong Xia also believed that due to supplying this much amount of food, the military wouldn't be able to hold on in two days. By then, there would be chaos in the city. Before that, they would have to find a way out for themselves.

The two men tried to walk to the other side of the square, but there were too many people at the square. They could only walk around along the outermost. When they passed an abandoned fountain, they saw a few men who sounded and looked maliciously cornering a family of three at the fountain and trying to rob the food they had just received.

The family of three was cowering at the edge of the fountain. The couple looked like ordinary citizens who were honest. The young daughter was only four or five years old. They were holding the food in their hands tightly despite the fact that those men were pushing their heads left and right. They dared not to resist but was also unwilling to let go.

"Quickly give us your food! We're good enough to leave you half of the package, don't be stupid."

[Note: The author actually used the Chinese idiom "不識好歹" which means 'unable to tell good from bad'. I tried, guys, I really tried, but I couldn't think of a proper and equivalent English term/words for this idiom. Let me know if you can think of any.]

The little girl cried and said.

"Grandpa and grandma still have to eat, uncle, please don't take it."

[Note: Chinese people call people who seem to be older than them all sort of things like uncle, aunt, sister, brother etc. depends on how much older they seem to be and their genders. It doesn't mean they are related.]

It seemed to be a common thing to the surrounding people. With the hurried expression on their faces, the ones who hadn't received the food yet would line up. The ones who had received the food would stuff it into their arms. They held it tightly and firmly. No one was capable of acting heroically for a righteous cause at this time and concerned about other people's safety.

"You give me or not?! I'll kill you if you don't!"

The leader slapped the wife's face and reached out to grab the food in her arms.

"No, no, there are the elders in the family, I beg you, I beg you, we only got it after eight hours of waiting!"

The wife and the daughter burst into tears, the husband tried to protect them but it was in vain, he cowered and dared not to resist. One of them pulled out a knife.

"You asked for this..."

[Note: The author actually used the Chinese idiom "敬酒不吃吃罚酒" which literally means 'to refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit'. The idiom is use when someone hesitates to do something and as the result, is forced to do even more than what they are originally asked to do.]

He hadn't even had time to finish the ruthless words and was suddenly attacked from behind. His whole body was kicked and flung away like a bag. He rolled on the ground twice before stopping. His face was covered in blood. All his companions turned their heads around.

Cheng Tianbi didn't give them extra time. The fist that was as hard and heavy as iron firmly hit a man's face. The man's teeth along with threads of blood flew out of his mouth, he then fainted on the ground.

His companions pulled out all sorts of knives and struck towards Cheng Tianbi. Too bad that in Cheng Tianbi's eyes, these ordinary people had already had no chance even before his evolution, let alone now, he played with them like toys.

Cong Xia stood on one side, delightedly watching Cheng Tianbi beating the crap out of those people. His heart was filled with pride.

This handsome, cool and powerful man was his friend.

The commotion over here quickly caught the attention of many people. Within a short time, two armed PLA soldiers rushed over here.

[Note: PLA is the acronym for People's Liberation Army. It's the armed forces of China.]

"What's the matter? Fighting is not allowed here! Everyone stops."

Cheng Tianbi threw the last person on the ground, picked up his bag, carried it on his back, turned around and walked away.

"Wait a minute."

A young PLA ran over here.

"What happened? Why did you guys fight?"

Cong Xia explained.

"These gangsters robbed that family's food."

They looked to the direction of Cong Xia's fingers and saw a family of three hugging and crying together.

The young soldier sighed, his eyes were full of helplessness and sympathy. He walked next to a groaning gangster lying on the ground and kicked him hard.

"You're not allowed to visit the square in the future!"

Cheng Tianbi walked next to the young soldier and whispered.

"I'm from the Xth Military District of Beijing. Who is your highest commanding officer here?"

The soldier turned his head around and looked at him in surprise.