“Thank you~” Bai Jie and the others said one after another.
They were too hungry; when they had last eaten porridge was a hazy memory.
All thoughts of ladylike demeanor and delicate chewing were cast aside.
In the year or so since the apocalypse, they had learned to eat in the shortest time possible.
“Don’t rush, there’s more.” Seeing their appearance, Auntie recalled her own days in Liberation City, which were actually quite similar to theirs. The reason she had such a life now was all thanks to Li Yu.
Thinking of this, Auntie looked at Li Yu gratefully.
Li Yu felt a gaze on him. Seeing it was Auntie, and understanding the look in her eyes, he instantly knew what she was thinking.
He walked over, placed a hand on Auntie’s shoulder, and said gently, “Auntie, we are family.”
Auntie nodded heavily, a hint of tears in her eyes. She had just remembered when she was raising her child alone in such difficult circumstances, and just as she was about to break down, she met Xiao Yu and the others.
Yes, family.
In the apocalypse, the safety of family is more important than anything else.
Noon.
Yu Tong took Bai Jie and the five others to arrange their accommodation.
In these three rows of houses, surveillance cameras were installed, allowing every room in all three rows to be seen via the monitoring screens.
The rooms assigned to these five individuals happened to face several of these cameras.
Xiao Shi had initially been told to stay in the medical room, as her fever hadn't completely subsided yet.
After taking medicine last night and having breakfast this morning, she felt much better. So, Yu Tong gave her some fever-reducing medicine, told her to take it on time, and allowed her to go to her own room with them.
They had never expected that in this environment of tens of degrees below zero, there would still be a hot water supply!
Building 2, Room 314. Yu Tong led Bai Jie and the others into this room.
After entering the room, Yu Tong said, “Bai Jie, you’re in this room. Here are some toiletries for you.”
Bai Jie quickly took them and said, “Okay, thank you~”
“There’s hot water in the room, and you can turn on the lights, but during the day, try to go to the basement. We have an underground planting base there,” Yu Tong said.
“Mhm, okay.”
“Okay, Sister Yu Tong.”
Yu Tong arranged rooms for each of them, then left.
In Bai Jie’s room.
She turned on the heating, and as the indoor temperature slowly rose, she felt the warmth spread.
She took off her overcoat.
Standing in front of the mirror, her hair was a bit disheveled, but her face held a hint of charm.
Faintly.
Long, slender legs, clad in black tights.
Presenting a stunning curve.
At her age, she was like a ripe peach.
What a pity.
Bai Jie suddenly recalled Li Yu’s cold questioning of all of them today, the way he interrogated them with an unquestionable authority. It was this cool demeanor that made her momentarily feel a ripple of emotion.
She turned on the faucet.
The floor became wet.
From the bathroom, a faint, almost inaudible sound, filled with extreme suppression, occasionally emerged.
Yet, it seemed like an unrestrainable moan.
First floor.
Restaurant.
The interior was warm like spring.
Filled with a steaming, hot atmosphere.
The past two days.
Li Yu still went to the mountain pond. He drilled a hole in the pond, nearly half a meter deep through the ice, finally making an opening. He found that the fish in the water hadn't frozen to death, so he made a hole for them to breathe.
As soon as the hole was opened, many fish appeared at the opening, so Li Yu simply pulled a few fish out.
In winter, even at sub-zero temperatures, fish are not easily frozen to death. The lake surface freezes, but the water temperature below is still relatively higher, and fish themselves are cold-blooded animals.
Fish bodies contain high levels of purines, allowing for normal energy conversion and metabolism even in very cold water. Generally, only a few species of fish will freeze to death, such as tilapia—because they are tropical fish and not suited for cold weather.
Today’s lunch was: braised fish, spicy and sour radish strips, and soybean sprouts.
Three dishes, not many, but they had already astonished Bai Jie and the others for a long time.
They couldn't even dream of being able to eat such food in this apocalypse.
It felt like living in a dream.
The surgeon received her portion of food and sat blankly in her seat. When she took the first bite of the braised fish, that familiar taste, carrying a hint of Hextech, brought tears to her eyes.
A long-lost taste.
“Mommy,” Xiao Lan cried.
Song Min and others, not far from them, were also eating rice and watching their reactions.
Optimistic Xiao Han giggled. Song Min tapped her head with a chopstick: “What are you laughing at? Think about when you first came; your condition wasn’t much better than theirs.”
Optimistic Xiao Han immediately stopped smiling and covered her face with her right hand. She remembered now that when she first ate a hot meal here, she cried for half an hour straight.
It seemed to bring back some unpleasant memories from before, those memories being the most painful experiences of their lives.
The suffering of hunger, only those who have experienced it truly know.
It had been over a year since the apocalypse, and before entering the base, they had basically never eaten a full meal.
“Bai Jie, have we arrived in heaven?” Xiao Lan, not as dramatic, said while eating.
“I don’t know, but I want to stay. I must stay,” Bai Jie said, a tall figure flashing through her mind.
“I can understand. There’s hot water, food, and it’s very safe. I want to stay too.”
“Mhm. You’re right,” Bai Jie said.
Sitting across from Bai Jie, the dark-skinned girl who said she worked in agronomy carefully examined the soybean sprouts and said blandly:
“These sprouts weren’t grown well. They should have been soaked in 60-degree hot water for 2 minutes.
Then rinsed twice with cold water. This helps stimulate the seed temperature, and then the seeds are placed in a sprouting container.”
Uncle Two, carrying a basin and about to wash it after eating, happened to overhear what the girl said. He suddenly stopped.
He asked in surprise, “What did you do before?”
The dark-skinned girl looked up and saw it was Uncle Two. She seemed not to have met him before, but Uncle Two had seen all of them.
The dark-skinned girl hesitated for a moment, then said, “I studied agronomy before, that is, I researched farming.”
Uncle Two heard this and looked at the girl’s dark complexion.
This was clearly a professional!
It was like judging a programmer’s skill level by looking at their hair; it was mostly proportional.
A professional complexion immediately instilled trust.
“Studying agriculture is good, studying agriculture is good. Later, I’ll have Li Yu introduce us.
We have a planting base in the basement. You can come and see it then, see if you can help.”
Uncle Two said happily.
