Chapter 8 – The Scavengers of Winter (Patreon)

The weather grew colder with each passing day after the harvest. Lynn Naya went to her job every day, and her neighbors continued to go out on sunny days and return at night with their haul.

Most of the time, it was jerky. Sometimes, it was nuts they had stolen from a lucky squirrel. She called them lucky because the unlucky ones were often caught along with their nuts.

Xue Yong’s wife never brought Lynn Naya much, but the pile grew over time. Lynn Naya’s stone jar for storing food was getting full, and she was considering getting another one.

The increasing amount of food gave Lynn Naya a great sense of security. She cherished it, which was why she went to Xue Yong’s wife and told her that Zhao Laoer, their neighbor, had been following Xue Yong for the third time.

Yes, even though a month or two had passed, the friction between the families in their courtyard had not lessened. In fact, it was getting worse. Zhao Laoer had been secretly watching Xue Yong’s every move. Whenever Xue Yong left the house, he would release a bug smaller than a bee to follow him.

When Lynn Naya first found out, she was surprised that Zhao Laoer knew such a peculiar technique. It seemed all of her neighbors had their own secrets. But then again, anyone who had survived the chaos of the last few years must have had some hidden skills to protect themselves.

Lynn Naya knew that Zhao Laoer was following Xue Yong to find the person who was providing him with the Detoxification Pills so he could take over.

But unfortunately for him, she had already chosen Xue Yong and his wife. She had no intention of changing partners.

After she told Xue Yong’s wife, Lynn Naya didn’t get involved anymore and focused on her cultivation. She trusted XueYong to handle these minor issues.

Life went on peacefully. Since she didn’t have any pills, and her diet wouldn’t improve much in the short term, Lynn Naya decided to practice the body-strengthening technique her father had left behind.

Every time she used the technique, she felt an invisible resistance, so she would sweat profusely after each session. But with the sweat came a feeling of ease in her meridians and a subtle increase in her physical strength.

She didn’t hide while practicing; she just did it out in the open in her small courtyard.

The other healers in the safe zone also had their own health exercises, so her practice wasn’t too noticeable. At most, her neighbors would tease her, asking her what the point of the exercises was and if they would learn martial arts by practicing them.

Sometimes, when Xue Yong saw her, he would sit at his door and watch her quietly, a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

Lynn Naya didn’t care if he was curious about the technique or about her warning. As long as he didn’t speak, she would pretend she didn’t see him.

As her body-strengthening technique became more proficient, Lynn Naya’s complexion improved, and her physical strength increased. She could now crush a stone in her hand with a little force.

When she clenched her more muscular hands and let go, her blood would rush back quickly, no longer looking pale and sickly. At the same time, her cultivation speed improved slightly.

The only thing that was still bothering her was the stabbing pain she felt whenever she tried to use her spiritual energy.

Just as her Evergreen Technique’s experience gain went from one point every five days to one point every four, the first snow of the year fell in this world.

Winter had arrived.

Lynn Naya disliked snow more than rain. Rain wouldn’t break the medicinal herbs, but snow could crush them and freeze them to death. The first-year herbs would be fine, but the three- or four-year-old ones were a great loss.

If the death rate of the herbs was too high, the person in charge would be fired.

It was a form of “performance review.”

So, when she saw the snowflakes falling, Lynn Naya couldn’t help but worry about her herbs.

Even though the Detoxification Pills were a good source of income, her job at the medicinal fields was her official source of food. So she didn’t want to lose it.

Before winter, she had subtly suggested to the supervisor—her father’s friend—about building a greenhouse for the herbs.

But the supervisor told her that without the harshness of the four seasons, the herbs’ potency would be insufficient and that she shouldn’t ruin a good thing with her good intentions.

Lynn Naya was surprised to find that the herbs in this world, just like people, needed to be tempered by the elements. She didn’t bring it up again and instead built a wooden frame for the herbs’ roots to prevent them from being crushed by the snow.

She didn’t know if it would help.

With her mind preoccupied, Lynn Naya slept lightly that night. Before the sun rose, she suddenly heard a knock on the door far away. The sound was short and urgent, making it all the more jarring in the quiet morning.

Lynn Naya pulled the blanket over her head, but then she remembered something and immediately woke up.

The Scavengers.

The people knocking on the door were the Scavengers.

Every winter was a difficult time for the mortals at the foot of the mountain. If you survived, you lived to see the next year. If you didn’t, you stayed in the last one forever.

If you could eat and dress warmly, you might be able to grit your teeth and get through it. But most people couldn’t eat or dress warmly, and their houses were drafty, so people froze to death every year when it snowed.

If the dead had family, they would be found. If they didn’t, it was often too late when they were discovered. Some people took advantage of this. Every morning after a snowfall, they would go from door to door to see who had died. If they were lucky, they would loot the dead person’s house, leaving only a body behind.

Everyone was going to die eventually, so people who stole from the dead and deprived them of their dignity were naturally hated. It evolved into a system where whoever found a body would help collect it, and in return, they would get everything the dead person left behind except the house.

The house belonged to the gang.

Soon, the knocking came to Lynn Naya’s small courtyard.

“Get lost!” Before the knocking even started, Xue Yong’s roar put an immediate stop to it.

“You have a good sleep, Brother Yong. We’re leaving now,” the person at the door said with a chuckle before going to the next house.

The commotion had completely ruined Lynn Naya’s sleep. She got up and began to cultivate.

Cultivation required a calm mind. By the time she finished circulating the Evergreen Technique once, it was already bright outside.

It wasn’t that bright, but the snow reflected the light, turning a meager three parts of sunlight into seven.

After she got up and washed, the communal kitchen was pretty much out of use for the winter. The cold weather made the bran cakes last a long time, so they only lit the fire once every two weeks.

Lynn Naya would now heat some water at night, then put coarse rice and the hot water into a sealed bamboo tube and place it on the brazier to simmer.

The smoldering sawdust would burn slowly throughout the night, with the temperature not too high or too low. It was just enough to cook the rice and heat a pot of warm water.

After washing her face with the warm water, Lynn Naya opened the bamboo tube and ate her breakfast. She took two strips of jerky from her grain jar and briefly heated them over the brazier. She chewed on the jerky while she packed her things and opened her door.

Her neighbors were all awake. The weather was gloomy today, so no one was going out, but they all had work to do.

Lynn Naya nodded at them and opened the courtyard door. Outside, everything was white. The snow was knee-deep. There were only a few footprints on the path, likely left by the Scavengers.

She wondered if they had found anyone.

With her spiritual sense, Lynn Naya could walk without difficulty. She scanned the houses along the street as she walked. Most people were already awake, repairing tools or weaving nets. A small portion of them were still huddled in bed, trying to skip a meal.

Suddenly, Lynn Naya stopped.

Two men carrying a body were walking toward her. She moved to the side of the road to make way for them. As they passed, a cold gust of wind lifted the cloth covering the body, and Lynn Naya saw what they were carrying.

It was a woman. She was not very old. She had been strangled; there were deep bruises on her neck and a laceration at the corner of her mouth.

The men weren’t walking fast, so Lynn Naya had a long time to look at the woman’s wide, dead eyes.

She only looked away when the men had passed.

A person who freezes to death wouldn’t have so many wounds on their body.

Even though she had already accepted that life was as cheap as grass in this world, she still found it difficult to stomach. And then…

“…This damn weather is really cold. Let’s go, let’s go. I’m freezing to death.”

“I wonder how much stuff this woman has left. I hope we don’t get nothing.”

“What a shame. Someone murdering her on a day like this, and they’ll never get caught.”

“This isn’t the first time. The footprints get covered by the snow. Who would waste their energy to investigate? You’re lucky to be alive. If you’re not, it’s just your bad luck…”

The voices of the two men faded as they walked further away, leaving only the howling winter wind behind.

Lynn Naya arrived at the medicinal fields with a heavy heart. The person in charge of the field next to hers was already there, standing on the path between their fields.

When she saw Lynn Naya, she looked a little embarrassed. “Lady Lynn, you take such good care of your herbs. I just looked at them, and they’re barely hurt. So many in my field died. I’m probably going to get scolded later.”

Lynn Naya knew the person. She was a woman around her age named Qian Baolin. Her family used to be merchants. Her father died during the war, and she and her mother fled here. Her mother remarried a supervisor, and she was then assigned to work in the medicinal fields.

Now she was married to another supervisor’s adopted son, and two years ago she had given birth to twins—making her the pride of this entire medicinal fields.

The original owner had also tried to befriend Qian Baolin, but Qian Baolin saw herself as being of higher status and didn’t pay her much mind. They had always been distant acquaintances.

After Lynn Naya transmigrated, she just continued to be indifferent to Qian Baolin to avoid arousing suspicion.

This was the first time Qian Baolin had ever spoken to her first.