Blessed Girl From a Farm Family: Surviving the Famine With Space - Chapter 11

Damn, even if I don’t get eaten by wild beasts tonight, I’ll freeze to death.

She cradled the swaddled baby in her arms. “You poor little thing, you have to hang in there! As long as we make it through tonight, big sister will find food for you tomorrow.”

The thought of a little life depending on her for survival filled Fu Manman with strength and warmth.

Tonight, I must persevere. Don’t be afraid. A little life needs me.

So cold, so hungry. Fu Manman felt her body temperature slowly fading. She drifted in and out of sleep, startled awake now and then by the strange roars of animals echoing through the quiet forest.

So terrifying!

“Owwwooo…”

The frightening roar seemed to ring right beside her ear.

Fu Manman jolted awake, her heart suddenly pounding wildly.

The bundle in her arms stirred slightly, followed by a weak, kitten-like cry.

The baby was awake! What should she do?

The cries were faint and pitiful, enough to break anyone’s heart.

They came one after another, growing weaker and weaker, like a lampwick on the verge of burning out, about to flicker into darkness.

“Good baby, dear baby, don’t cry. Save your strength. Big sister will find food for you tomorrow.” Fu Manman’s own voice was terribly weak.

She had long been dizzy with hunger, but at least she could endure it.

But how could such a tiny infant hold on?

Fu Manman’s expression darkened as if she were making a difficult decision. Finally, she resolved herself.

She lowered her head and bit down hard on her index finger. A rush of metallic sweetness filled her mouth. For a moment, she actually found the blood sweet and felt an impulse to drink more.

Then she immediately despised herself for the thought.

Have I really gone so mad with hunger that I want to eat my own flesh and blood?

She placed her bleeding finger into the baby’s mouth.

Instantly, a warm, soft tongue wrapped around her finger, followed by soft gulping sounds.

The sucking force was incredibly strong. She didn’t feel pain in her fingertip, only a sense of some energy draining away.

This child was truly starving.

Soon, no more blood could be drawn from her finger. The baby continued to suckle and cry at the same time.

Fu Manman switched to another finger.

Ten fingers, all connected to the heart. The pain from biting her own finger brought tears to her eyes.

She was hungry too! Who would give her something to eat?

Suddenly, several pairs of green, glowing dots appeared ahead.

Low, menacing growls echoed around them.

Wolves!

The scent of blood had attracted the wolves!

They were done for!

Tonight, they would die here.

Fu Manman held Little Maodan tightly in her arms, despair washing over her. The great strength she had always prided herself on now seemed to fail her—weakened by hunger, she had no energy left to fight.

“Little Maodan! We’re going to die together!” Fu Manman tightened her grip, her palms slick with sweat.

Perhaps sensing their impending doom, the baby in her arms began to wail.

The crying agitated the wolf pack beneath the tree. Suddenly, a hungry wolf lunged forward and clamped its jaws around the vine Fu Manman had tied.

Crash… The vine snapped. The support beneath her gave way, and she plummeted downward, weightless.

Even then, she never loosened her hold on the child in her arms.

This is it!

She squeezed her eyes shut, too weak to struggle.

…Huh?

Why didn’t it hurt? Being bitten by a wolf couldn’t possibly be this painless, could it?

In the past, even a small cut from a knife would bring tears to her eyes. But now…

She snapped her eyes open!

“This…” Fu Manman was speechless, stunned by the scene before her.

At this moment, she was floating in a deep blue aquatic world. Beneath her feet lay countless shipwrecks and containers stretching as far as the eye could see. Each container was topped with bubble-like buoys.

One such bubble floated right beside her. She reached out and poked it—pop!—it burst.

She was in the water! But it didn’t feel like water—more like an undersea realm.

A dream! This space was exactly like the one in her dream last night.

She bit her hand again. Ouch! It hurt—she wasn’t dead. She was still alive.

This is a space! Could it be that after falling into the sea, the ocean had gifted her this?

The endless containers below must be cargo lost from ships that had encountered disasters at sea.

Maritime transport was incredibly bustling, with millions of ships carrying goods across the oceans every day.

Who knew how many ships and their cargo had been lost to the depths after meeting with danger on the high seas?

“I wonder where I can find food?” Fu Manman thought to herself. Suddenly, she felt herself drifting. Soon, countless buoys labelled with various food categories appeared before her eyes.

Beneath each buoy were corresponding containers and shipwrecks.

How magical!

Automatic retrieval! Could there be food inside these containers and ships below?

Fu Manman’s stomach growled fiercely, and her legs felt weak with hunger.

She drifted to a container and tent called out, “Open.”

With a click, the container opened. Inside were boxes upon boxes of food. Her eyes immediately landed on a case printed with images of instant noodles!

She couldn’t help but swallow hard.

What she once considered junk food now seemed like a gourmet feast.

Driven by starvation, she carefully set down the little one in her arms. The baby was asleep but still breathing.

Then, she eagerly tore into the box. She needed to get her hands on a pack of instant noodles to quiet her raging hunger.

The box was sealed tightly with tape. It took her some effort to open it. By the time she finally did, her hands were shaking from hunger, and sweat beaded on her forehead.

Classic low blood sugar symptoms. She needed food—now.

With trembling hands, she ripped open a pack of instant noodles and buried her face in it, eating it dry.

Delicious! So delicious! So fragrant!

Fu Manman ate so quickly she barely had time to swallow. The dry noodles scraped her throat as she forced them down after just a few chews.

But she didn’t care. She was too hungry, too desperate. Her stomach needed to be filled—now.

After a few mouthfuls of noodles, she finally felt like she was coming back to life. She glanced around and spotted something to drink. Without caring about the flavour, she roughly pulled out a bottle, twisted off the cap, and gulped it down in large, hurried swallows.

Heavenly! So heavenly!

The drink tasted amazing. As she ate and drank, tears began to stream down her face.

“God, you haven’t abandoned me! Wuwu…”

After finishing a pack of instant noodles and a bottle of drink, Fu Manman felt her strength returning.

She didn’t rest long. Instead, she immediately began searching around.

She needed to find something for Little Maodan to eat.

Milk powder—she needed milk powder.

After looking around, she actually found it—a container filled with various brands of milk powder, from stage one to stage three. There was enough here to feed dozens of children until they grew up.

And this was just one container—there were many others filled with milk powder as well.

But finding milk powder wasn’t enough. Without water or a bottle, how could she feed the baby?

Even if she found water, without hot water, it wouldn’t work.

Giving a child milk powder mixed with cold water would cause diarrhea—and for such a fragile baby, diarrhea could be fatal.

She had to keep looking—for a bottle, for purified water, for a pot to boil water in. Without electricity, she could only hope to find some kind of gas stove.

Back when she was in school, she went camping with her classmates. One senior brought a small gas burner and a pot to cook with. She had found it fascinating at the time and made a mental note of it.

With so many containers here, there might just be one.

(End of Chapter)