Chapter 63: Wild Vegetables

Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Wild Vegetables

Zayed looked at her like she was an idiot, his gaze flat and unchanging: "Rabbits are smarter than people. They’re not that easy to trap."

Zara: "?" Was he calling her stupid?

Zara wanted to lash out, but she knew that apart from being a bit nicer to Renee Morgan, Zayed and the others wouldn’t indulge her at all. The more she thought about the unfair treatment, the more she resented Renee. If only Renee would take the initiative, the others would definitely follow her lead—getting something to eat for her and Wendy Aldridge wouldn’t be that hard, would it?

But Renee clearly had no intention of helping. She was probably secretly pleased, watching her and Wendy starve, and if they couldn’t hold out any longer, she’d be even happier.

The more Zara thought about it, the angrier she got, her voice almost breaking into a sob: "So what do we do? The two of us are starving."

Wendy’s eyes were red too, but she stayed silent.

"Stop crying, you two. If you really can’t handle it, just leave. The food at the base is actually pretty good..." Kyle Beckett suddenly thought of those big chicken legs in the cafeteria, swallowed hard, and, seeing everyone staring at him, opened his mouth awkwardly: "I’m tempted to leave myself."

But deep down, he wasn’t willing to give up the chance to get a base pass. The three-day, three-night rule—they’d already made it through two days and a night; soon, it’d be two days and two nights. Just a little longer and they’d finish the task.

Let them leave?

Zara couldn’t accept that. Besides, everyone else was doing fine inside, so why should she and Wendy be the first to go?

"We’re teammates. The instructor said it: Don’t abandon, don’t give up. How can you say something like that?" Zara glared at Kyle, then looked at the others. "Are you all trying to ditch your teammates?"

Kyle was so scared he didn’t dare make a sound. He hated people who threw accusations around like that the most.

Zara saw Kyle had been cowed, and snorted coldly to herself. Her eyes, sharp as knives, fixed on Renee for a few seconds, then she seemed to reluctantly soften her tone: "Renee, you’re the resourceful one. Can you think of something?"

Renee actually did think seriously for a moment, her gaze questioning: "Would you eat wild greens?"

Zara immediately perked up: "What kind? Is it edible?"

Renee: "It should be fine. My grandma used to take us to pick them from the fields when I was little. The taste’s not great, but if you guys don’t mind, I know where to find some."

As soon as Zara and Wendy heard there was food—edible wild greens—they couldn’t wait: "Then hurry and go pick them, we’ll just eat those."

Renee hesitated: "But they’re a bit bitter—used to be famine food for poor families. Not sure if you can handle the taste."

Hearing that last part, Zara’s face changed in an instant. What did Renee mean by that?

Wendy didn’t look good either. They both felt Renee was throwing shade, implying they were refugees.

They knew very well that Renee didn’t want to help them, but with the cameras on, she didn’t dare not to.

If Renee and the others really ignored her and Zara, not only would the instructors call them out, even the online viewers would see them as cold-blooded. Renee, Miles Yates, and Kyle Beckett all wanted to make it in showbiz, so of course they needed to be role models in the public eye.

Zara’s face was stiff as she forced out: "Fine, we’ll eat it. There’s no better option anyway. Are you picking them, or should we go with you?"

Wendy nodded, pretending to sound optimistic: "Yeah, vegetarian is good too. We’ll just treat it as dieting."

Since both agreed, Renee stood up: "Alright, I’ll go with Ms. Miller. You two wait here—it’s not far."

The livestream chat was convinced they’d just leave Wendy and Zara to fend for themselves. Even though the other team members didn’t particularly dislike them, those two had really killed any goodwill with their actions—and their personalities had issues too.

As for Renee, there was no doubt—Zara and Wendy had both clashed with her before. If the other teammates went to get food for them, no one online would be surprised.

But the person who went happened to be Renee, which made people marvel at how generous she was.

Viewers commented one after another: No wonder she’s popular!

But Renee didn’t know any of this. She just wanted to give Zara and her friend a taste of their own medicine. They liked throwing moral accusations around? Well, let’s see if they’ll really eat what she brings back.

Lynn Miller didn’t expect the wild greens Renee talked about were actually the little green weeds she’d just picked under those flowers.

"Morgan, this stuff is edible? Why didn’t you say so before?" Lynn asked curiously.

Because it tastes awful! Renee still remembered as a kid, after eating too much fried fish and getting a sore throat, her grandma would fetch this kind of wild vegetable, boil it as a soup, and make her drink it, claiming it was good for ’clearing heat’ and detoxifying. Back then, her grandma’s generation of farmers had it hard—supposedly it was famine food. Renee even got her hopes up, but after one sip, she refused to drink any more. It was so unbearably bitter, it became a childhood nightmare.

After growing up, she’d heard that the northern and southern varieties tasted different, that the bitterness varied a lot. In any case, she’d never touched it since. Today was the perfect chance to ’treat’ Wendy and Zara to it.

Of course Renee wouldn’t tell the truth. She just smiled and explained, "I just remembered—it’s a kind of wild green called ’bitter-thistle.’ My grandma used to cook it all the time when I was little. The taste is... unique. It also detoxifies and cools the body."

Lynn’s eyes lit up, but, being a woman of principle, she wasn’t about to fight Zara and Wendy for food.

The two of them picked a lot, rinsed them by the river, then headed back to the campfire to roast the greens.

Wendy and Zara were starving. Renee roasted two skewers and handed one to each, her tone gentle: "They’re really hot—be careful eating them."

Still, the two kept up appearances; once the wild greens had cooled down enough, they went over and took a huge bite each.

"Ugh!" Zara immediately spat it out, the bitterness making her eyes roll. But the water bottle she’d brought along was nearly empty, and there was nothing to rinse her mouth with. She glared at Renee in frustration: "Renee, you did this on purpose, didn’t you? What kind of wild vegetable is this? It’s horridly bitter!"

Wendy spat it out too, looking weak and pitiful, her tearful eyes fixed on Renee in grievance. She couldn’t understand why Renee targeted her. Renee was good to everyone else, but always picked on her and left her nothing—no mushrooms, not even a scrap—now she brought this disgustingly bitter weed to make things worse.

Renee looked at them with a puzzled face: "I told you it was a bit bitter. You said you wanted it, so I went to pick some. Besides, this wild green may taste bitter, but it’s super nutritious, and it detoxifies as well."

Zara wanted to snap, "Bullshit—if it’s so good, why don’t you eat it? Why hunt for morels if this stuff is edible?" She was sure they knew how awful it tasted, or that maybe it wasn’t even edible, and brought it just to spite them.