# Chapter 49: The Internet
Qiao Jiajin didn't hesitate after hearing this and handed over the cloth bag tied at his waist. Lin Qin followed suit.
Tiantian looked at the two of them, her expression somewhat unnatural, but after all, she was in a weaker position. After thinking it over repeatedly, she still handed over her cloth bag.
Qi Xia took all the cloth bags, sat down to one side, and began fiddling with something. Not long after, he discarded an empty cloth bag, stood up, and said to the three of them, "We earned five portions this time, a total of ninety-five 'Tao.' This number can't be divided equally among four people. We can only add the one we had left over from before to make ninety-six, twenty-four each."
He extended the three cloth bags forward and said to them, "I've packed them for you. Remember to count them in front of me. I won't acknowledge it afterward."
Tiantian quickly reached out to take her cloth bag, opened it, and counted. There were indeed twenty-four 'Tao,' not a single one missing.
Lin Qin and Qiao Jiajin simply rehung their cloth bags at their waists.
"Aren't you going to count them?" Qi Xia said. "I am a liar."
"It doesn't matter," Lin Qin shook her head and said. "If I find any missing later, I'll just take them from you."
"That's right, don't pull that kind of stunt," Qiao Jiajin also waved his hand. "Where to next?"
Qi Xia looked at the bear arm in Qiao Jiajin's arms, thought for a moment, and said, "Let's go get something to eat..."
...
The group's idea was simple: if they could cook this bear arm, as long as it filled their stomachs, they could swallow it no matter what it tasted like.
But in this ruined city, finding the necessities for cooking was extremely difficult.
Clean water, a stove, a pot, a lighter—none of these things were available.
The group wandered through abandoned buildings in the city for over an hour, still coming up empty-handed.
When they reached an abandoned restaurant, Qiao Jiajin finally couldn't take it anymore.
"This isn't going to work," he threw the bear arm to the ground and flexed his sore wrist. "Carrying these dozens of pounds of meat around everywhere, we'll die from exhaustion before we starve."
"Sorry for making you carry it," Lin Qin said with a smile to Qiao Jiajin. "Want me to take it for a while?"
"No need."
"I feel like this place has a lot of promise," Tiantian said, looking around the restaurant. She noticed it wasn't severely damaged.
Sure enough, after a brief search, they found an aluminum pot under a table.
The pot looked fairly clean, just slightly deformed.
"For firewood, there's plenty everywhere," Qi Xia said, looking at the damaged furniture on the ground. "The only things missing are water and fire."
"I'll check the kitchen," Tiantian said, heading straight for the back of the restaurant. "Maybe there's water in there."
Qi Xia nodded slightly and began searching the room for other useful items. After a few seconds, he felt something was off and said to Qiao Jiajin, "Qiao Jiajin, go with Tiantian. Be careful of the 'Natives.'"
"Good point." Qiao Jiajin also nodded and headed toward the back kitchen. But before he had taken three steps, he heard Tiantian's voice from a distance.
"Oh? Why are you here?"
"Ah! Sister, you're here too!"
The voice talking to Tiantian was a woman's.
Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin immediately ran to the back kitchen. When they opened the door, they found the slightly chubby girl standing there.
She reached out and familiarly linked arms with Tiantian, saying to the group, "How come you're all here? What a coincidence!"
Qi Xia looked coldly at this woman, his expression displeased.
"Are you following us?"
"Huh?" The girl showed an incredulous expression. "How is that possible?! I came here first."
Qiao Jiajin also didn't know what was going on. Why would this girl deliberately wait for them here?
"Are you looking for something?" the girl asked again.
"Yes, we're looking for water and fire," Tiantian replied.
"Water and fire?" The girl laughed again. "That's great. They're both here."
Under Qi Xia's cautious gaze, the woman led Tiantian to a cupboard. She stood on tiptoe, opened the cupboard door, and inside were indeed several plastic buckets filled with clean water.
Then she pulled a lighter from her pocket: "See?"
Qi Xia felt this was all too coincidental, as if someone had arranged it.
Tiantian happily took the lighter the woman handed her and asked, "Little sister, are you really going to lend this to us?"
"Sister, don't be so formal," the woman smiled innocuously. "We survivors should help each other."
Tiantian immediately took a liking to this woman and thanked her repeatedly.
"What do you want?" Qi Xia asked from the side.
The chubby girl turned her head in confusion and replied, "Want what? I don't want anything. I'm just helping you out."
"It had better be that way." Qi Xia ignored her and turned to collect things that could be used as firewood.
"That brother is really strange," the girl blinked her big eyes. "Why is he so wary of me?"
"That's just how he is. You'll get used to it," Tiantian said with a smile. "Little sister, what's your name?"
"Sister, just call me Xiaoxiao."
Lin Qin watched Xiaoxiao from the side, feeling something was off.
This girl was slightly chubby, with broad shoulders, and wore a very oversized T-shirt. But her face was quite thin, disproportionate to her body shape.
"Xiaoxiao, stay and eat something with us," Tiantian said. "The four of us can't finish that bear arm."
"Okay." Xiaoxiao nodded happily.
Seeing that this girl named Xiaoxiao was deliberately hiding something, Qi Xia stopped pressing her. He just hoped she wouldn't try to show off her skills here and attempt to deceive him.
Qiao Jiajin found a few bricks, built a simple stove, threw in some scrap wood, and lit it.
With Xiaoxiao's help, Tiantian scrubbed the pot clean and boiled a pot of water.
Qi Xia, meanwhile, dealt with the bear arm on the side.
He often cooked at home but had never cooked a bear arm before, so he could only treat it like a chicken for now.
After briefly scalding it with hot water, he plucked the fur, peeled off the skin, and rinsed the blood with clean water. He insisted that Xiaoxiao not touch the ingredients, and no one objected.
Qiao Jiajin fetched a rusty kitchen knife from the kitchen, gave it a quick sharpening, chopped the processed bear arm into two sections, and threw them directly into the pot.
This was the most perfect cooking method they could manage.
Meat soup.
Watching the water in the pot slowly come to a boil, producing a "gurgle gurgle" sound, the group sat together in a circle, silently staring at the iron pot.
After a while, Lin Qin spoke up: "Will bear meat taste good?"
"Delicious," Qiao Jiajin immediately nodded and said. "Haven't you ever eaten bear paw?"
"Have you?" Tiantian turned her head and asked.
"I was lucky enough to have it once," Qiao Jiajin said. "The taste is unforgettable. If I ever get out of here, I'm definitely going to eat it again."
Tiantian shook her head helplessly upon hearing this. "You really are a desperado."
"Desperado?" Qiao Jiajin was amused. "Tiantian, are you crazy? It's not like I'm going to kill the bear myself. I'll just go to a restaurant and eat it."
"Eating bear paw is illegal," Tiantian added another remark. "No matter how good it tastes, what's the point? Do you want to go to jail for it?"
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Qiao Jiajin looked at Tiantian with slight contempt. "When did eating bear paw become illegal?"
Tiantian frowned. She always felt that sometimes she and Qiao Jiajin could chat well, and other times they were on completely different wavelengths.
"You really should use the Internet more," Tiantian sighed. "Don't show off your ignorance so matter-of-factly every time."
"'The Internet'?" Qiao Jiajin scratched his head. "Are you talking about... that 'Internet' that became popular a few years ago?"