Chapter 853

·

·

·

Main Character:

Shen Yao

After muttering to herself for quite a while, Shen Yao finally stood up and went to the bathroom to wash up and tidy herself.

The bathroom wasn't large, and the noise Shen Yao made washing up startled Shen Chengyi, who was still asleep.

Rubbing her eyes, Shen Chengyi sat up on the bed, yawned, and the phone placed nearby suddenly lit up — this was the new satellite phone they had switched to after arriving at the shelter; it didn't have many functions, its structure was simple, but it worked in more places than a regular phone, so there wouldn't be a situation where the signal disappeared and they couldn't be reached.

A text message popped into Shen Chengyi's view; it mentioned last night's situation, and that this morning official shelter vehicles had gone to the farm where supplies were discovered yesterday; the points they had earned for providing the information had also already been smoothly credited to their household card.

"What's wrong?"

Shen Yao came out of the bathroom, water droplets still lingering on her face, not yet wiped dry.

Shen Chengyi pointed at the phone in her hand, "Something happened outside the shelter last night; it's already been resolved, the officials issued a formal announcement.

Also, our points from yesterday have all arrived; a text message reminder came through."

Because all four of them had a share in the information provided yesterday, the points in the household card were also split equally among the four; the officials always handle things per head; as for how they divide it privately, that's not the officials' business.

Shen Yao gave an "mm" of acknowledgment and nodded, her eyes scanning a circle around the room, finally settling on the several hemp sacks at the doorway; these were the farm supplies they had brought back last night; on the surface they could all be exchanged for points; after all, the house they rented wasn't large, and if they really had to handle eating, drinking, and waste themselves, it still wouldn't be as cheap and effortless as going to the canteen.

However, this was only temporary; in the long run, they still had to do it themselves; the taste of the canteen's big-pot dishes ultimately couldn't compare to small-pot cooking.

The mother and daughter finished washing up one after another; Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning still hadn't gotten up.

Rubbing her eyes in a daze, Shen Chengyu spoke while yawning; she indicated she wasn't going out today; anyway, she wasn't going outside.

"You two just rest in the room; Chengyi and I will go to the trading center to check the situation."

They had lived in their house for several days; once the term was up they would switch to another, more spacious residence; these days at the shelter they hadn't been idle, and they had figured out quite a lot.

Waving her hand, each picking up a hemp sack from the doorway, they walked out the door; as Shen Yao walked down the stairs she happened to run into other neighbors.

Those able to live in this building all had some family assets; after all, a single room wasn't cheap; the End of Days had only been going on for so long, and those who could kill wood puppets without changing expression and still gather resources were all ruthless people.

Both sides smiled and turned their heads as a greeting; Shen Yao didn't explain the sacks in her hands to the other party, only urged Shen Chengyi to hurry up and follow; besides going to the trading center they also had to make a trip to the shelter resources; her space wasn't lacking in daily medicine, but you could never have too much of that stuff; going forward they would be putting down roots outside long-term, the probability of accidental injury was high, and preparing some hemostatic medicine in advance had no downside.

"Ai, did you see? The sacks are packed full; they're definitely taking them to exchange for points."

"They came back so late yesterday; if it weren't for the shelter's notification in the phone, I wouldn't have known something happened outside."

"Hai! In this world, staying alive isn't easy; hurry back and rest; we still have to go out in a bit."

"..."

The voices behind them grew increasingly indistinct until they left the stairwell and came to the doorway.

The sound outside was actually louder, but they abruptly went from the narrow stairwell to the wide outside, and their ears would have a moment of crashing.

The originally flat environment suddenly had a few more floors of buildings currently being painted; these were just rushed out; although the whole process was tofu-dregs construction, right now there wasn't too much to solve; the shelter's houses weren't enough to live in, and quite a few people had been settled in the plaza or conference room sleeping on the floor; solving their housing problem early was the priority.

"The weather is still fine for now; living outside isn't a big problem.

Once the weather turns cool and there's temperature change, these people will all have problems."

Lightly they'd freeze and get fevers and colds; severely, they'd trigger other problems from lack of medicine and die.

Shen Yao and Shen Chengyi walked outward along the small path they had returned by yesterday; at this time, the attention on them was far greater than in the stairwell.

The hemp sacks they carried in their hands became the focus.

Someone couldn't help but come over to probe the situation inside the sacks; especially since the sacks were bulging, there were definitely good things inside.

Shen Yao:...

"These are being sent to the trading center," the implication being, not for private sale.

"Ai, the price we offer is higher than the trading center; little sister, consider it."

The elderly auntie spoke hurriedly, her eyes constantly darting toward the sacks.

Shen Yao believed they would offer a higher price, but she didn't believe the other party would trade honestly; currently, aside from the official trading center, all other private trades were in a no-man's-land; if you got cheated or sold out, no one was responsible.

Shen Yao didn't want to worry about being cheated on top of gathering supplies; therefore, aside from the trading center, their goods would also be prohibited from private buying and selling.

"Ai, you, what's wrong with selling a bit?" The auntie was a bit anxious; after all, running into someone like Shen Yao wasn't easy; actually, more people still had money (points) with nowhere to spend it; the official shelter did have stores selling food, but there were points limits there; families with many members or who could eat a bit simply couldn't eat their fill.

Unwilling to let their family suffer by going out to gather supplies, yet unable to get the official shelter to lift restrictions for free purchase, the remaining path — wasn't it private trade?

Shen Yao shook her head; before she could say anything, Shen Chengyi beside her simply lifted her leg and placed herself between the two, "We said, not selling means not selling."

And if they sold it, the buyer would eat poorly and then come back to cause trouble; don't look at how Shen Chengyi had never done private trade, but every day downstairs in the residential area all kinds of disputes happened; she was also a quite experienced elder.

Auntie:...

Shen Chengyi's expression was stern; she looked beautiful but her imposing manner was not diminished.

Fine then; the auntie could only reluctantly make way, still advising Shen Yao to be more flexible in her thinking; selling to them was more cost-effective than sending to the trading center.

Regardless of how the people behind them shouted, Shen Yao and Shen Chengyi still firmly delivered the two hemp sacks in their hands to the official trading center.

There were many people inside; no matter when you came, it was very rare to see a time without a queue.

First on the first floor they handed over the sacks in their hands to exchange for the needed points; then the two went up to the second floor to inquire about renting a house.

Their current stay was only seven days; by now it was almost used up; because the official shelter currently had quite a variety of housing types (partly because some people moved out, partly because newly built buildings were livable).

Shen Yao considered for a long while, finally choosing a two-bedroom, one-living-room, one-bathroom room.

Points would inevitably rise, but living inside would be more spacious; four people squeezed into one room, even daily movement was very difficult.

Here you could reserve in advance; Shen Yao spent another seven days' worth of lodging points; then she and Shen Chengyi left; the two didn't return to the dormitory, but went to the small supermarket next to the trading center, purchasing some supplies needed for going out.

There weren't many people inside the supermarket; daily food and drink were expensive and purchase-limited; non-limited daily necessities, if hoarded too much, expiring was also a trouble.

The two only bought what they needed; then they chatted with the sales clerk inside; upon learning that another large batch of survivors would be coming over these two days, Shen Yao walked along sighing that the outside environment was deteriorating too fast; she believed it wouldn't be long before there would be no survivors living outside.

Compared to humans, those animals and plants evolved with even greater natural advantage.

They also bought back quite a lot of the hospital's hemostatic medicine, healing medicine, and bandages.

Where to next?

"Let's check the shelter's policies again; we'll need to live here for a very long time."

It wasn't that they couldn't leave, but the official shelter they were in was located in the north, while the remaining shelters were mostly in the south or central areas; if they wanted to go to a shelter better than this one, they would have to expend much more energy.

If there were no problems with the shelter here, Shen Yao planned to develop and plan here seriously; this place not only had the military but was also a major agricultural province, basically not lacking grain (even if grain was scarce, some land could not be planted), the innate advantages were there, and unless there was internal strife or natural disaster and human calamity, the official shelter would be very hard to destroy.

The two went again to the place where missions were released; officially called the Mission Hall, civilian parlance called it the Labor Market.

The missions released here were all led by the official side; if anyone was willing to do them, they could not only get points but also receive quite a lot of supplies.

But official missions were relatively difficult; one careless move and it was easy to die; unless a family was truly in difficulty or lacked grain, no one was willing to risk their life for this.

Shen Yao and Shen Chengyi came over not to take missions, but to infer the situation around the shelter by observing the mission conditions.

There were quite a few people in the Mission Hall, and the Mission Hall was unlike the Trading Center; here there was only a tent, inside which were placed electronic screens playing on a loop; below the electronic screens were official personnel; if someone wanted to take a mission, they went to the official side to register; once a mission was full, it would be removed from the electronic screen.

Shen Yao raised a hand and pinched her chin; what appeared above were all clearing missions, related to Wood Puppets and Evolution Crystals.

Related missions were distributed radially outward from the range where the official shelter was located, among which the most numerous were still several cities inside H Province; Ping City had relatively few, the reason being this city had already been cleared several times, whether the supplies inside or the Wood Puppets were already nothing to fear.

Shen Chengyi raised a hand and took out a mobile phone from her bosom; it was her own mobile phone, not the satellite phone issued by the official side; inside were stored the electronic maps they had downloaded in advance; comparing against the cities above, she marked them out one by one; Shen Chengyi said in a low voice that the official shelter's advance was currently relatively smooth; some cities had already neared the edge of H Province; once this side of H Province resolved its rear worries, next would be search work facing the surrounding nearby provinces and cities.

"Who knows, we might even be able to ride this east wind and go back to Yang City to see the situation."

They had come out from Yang City; going back now, things would long since have changed beyond recognition.

Speaking of it, no one knew what situation Yang City was currently in; but judging from the sudden outbreak of evolution back then, and without the condition of a powerful military force to suppress it, Yang City's ending was already predestined.

She shook her head; the two did not stay long in the Mission Hall.

Returning to the residence, they passed by the canteen and bought a few portions of rice; just then they ran into Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning quarreling downstairs.

The two people's faces were red and necks thick; the ones quarreling opposite them were several young men.

Shen Chengyi took a step forward and ran over; a long blade lay horizontally between the two sides; she didn't care about cause and effect, just stared dead at them like that.

Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning had even more confidence; pointing at the several young men, they demanded they apologize quickly, otherwise they would report directly to the official side; then right and wrong would be obvious at a glance, and the other side would get no benefit.

"You all"

The young men were obviously unconvinced; they had dyed colorful hair, and their speech was also strange; they didn't look like proper people at all.

In fact, these people were merely lucky hoodlums who had dodged the evolution crisis; what they were best at daily was stealing chickens and dogs and fighting; coming to the official shelter they also didn't do proper business; today they stole a bit, tomorrow they threatened someone.

In short, they enjoyed the benefits of getting something for nothing; when they met someone they thought they could bully, they showed no mercy.

Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning got up late today; when they went out, they were accidentally targeted by the other side; a few sentences of slick talk provoked Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning into great anger; if the official shelter didn't strictly forbid fighting, and getting caught meant fifty blows each (mainly because the place they were in was too open and transparent, with nothing to block the view), the two of them would long not have been satisfied with only moving mouths and not hands.

Right now Shen Chengyi's arrival gave Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning more sense of security; even if Shen Chengyi couldn't act, they knew full well in their hearts how strong their elder sister's capability was; hehehe, they weren't afraid of the opposite side at all.

"What 'us'? It's just you who are wrong, and you still dare make excuses; official people have been watching for a long time."

One sentence from Shen Chengyu startled the several young men; they really were very afraid of the official side; before, in the shelter, whatever they did was behind the official side's back; even if they discovered something was off, they would retreat in time, absolutely not leaving the official side a single handle; afraid they would be kicked out.

Leaving the official shelter at this time meant a dead end; they were hoodlums, but not stupid people; daily stealing chickens and dogs they also didn't dare push those people too hard, afraid the other side would take them down together.

Right now they accidentally kicked an iron plate; the several of them also wanted to withdraw, only their mouths were harder, unable to get down face.

"Don't you get cocky; once you leave the shelter," they would definitely make the other side look good.

The hoodlums' personal connections were still many; basically all the people not doing proper business could pull out a big batch; in their hearts they harbored the thought that revenge is never too late; the several left in a dejected slink, causing Shen Chengyu and Shen Chengning to laugh loudly; hmph! Who doesn't know how to talk tough; if they really dared run outside to block them, that would just send the other side to early deliverance.

Shen Chengyi also secretly noted down these several people's appearances; if they didn't run into them outside, fine; if they really ran into them, they absolutely could not leave trouble by their side; solving it cleanly early was the correct opening approach.