Chapter 5: Detected... Recycling!

Aside from the three of them, the meal included Xu Xiaofeng, her younger brother, and Xu Xiaoxia.

Xu Xiaoxia had been picked up by Hu Xing on his way; on the road, he had told her that Liu Mu wanted to keep a low profile and asked her not to say anything to the people at the table.

This girl was sharp; she hadn't even mentioned to Hu Xing that Liu Mu had five off-road vehicles and two top-spec off-road campers, let alone to anyone else.

Thus, both of them thought they were each keeping a secret for Liu Mu—a secret belonging only to themselves and Liu Mu; this sense of accomplishment was quite good!

Once the meal ended, the construction of the Scrap Station's basic infrastructure was more or less complete.

Over the next few days, people nearby saw trucks arriving fully loaded and leaving empty.

What was being hauled in wasn't anything rare; most of it was discarded machinery dismantled from factories, followed by old appliances, furniture, waste books, and paper—things that were basically worthless individually.

Piled together, it looked more like a mountain of trash.

Many people from nearby villages came to see the spectacle, only to leave disappointed later.

"What is this? It's just trash. I thought they were going to do some big business, and this is it?"

Liu Mu ignored them entirely; gradually, fewer people came to watch, and everyone stopped being curious about the trucks coming and going from the Scrap Station.

Another month passed just like this, and the area from the small building's perimeter wall to the outer wall was basically full, with only a path left at the main gate wide enough for a single truck to enter and exit.

Those off-road vehicles had also finished their modifications at Hu Xing's garage; except for one that was relatively low-profile and practical, which was parked in the basement, the rest were all put into Heitao A.

Xu Xiaofeng brought lunch over that day, her round face worried into a bun.

"Oh my, you say you're in the scrap business, but why are you only taking things in and not selling them out? Little sister, do you not have any sales channels? Piling it up like this, it's become a mountain."

"It's fine," Liu Mu stuffed a large mouthful of rice into her mouth, chewing it with the twice-cooked pork until her mouth was full of oil, "Having goods makes me feel at ease. I'll find sales channels slowly; no rush, no rush."

"You're not in a rush, but I'm so worried for you that my hair is turning white," Xu Xiaofeng sat down on a plastic stool beside her, seemingly having made a decision, and said: "Don't take this the wrong way, after all, you've always taken good care of me and Xiao Yong. Liu Mu, if you're short on cash because you've bought too many goods, don't pay me for now. I'll still bring you three meals a day; my breakfast shop can still earn enough for the three of us to eat."

Liu Mu wore a yellow hard hat, lifted her eyelids to look at this older sister, and remained silent.

Speaking of money, adding up everything on the ground, underground, and in the warehouse, she had only spent eighty percent of the system's funds, and she still had a "small goal" left.

Seeing her bury her head in her meal, Xu Xiaofeng thought she had guessed correctly and said no more, only thinking about not taking Liu Mu's money next month.

In the following days, the trucks that arrived were covered with military-green tarps, and the workers unloading them carried out boxes of parts and equipment that looked brand new in their packaging.

The workers didn't suspect anything; after all, their factory produced these things, and delivering them was just a work task.

Time reached June 10th; this year's summer seemed particularly hot, with the outdoors reaching forty-three degrees in the afternoon, comparable to the country of A-San.

The last team of eight trucks did not leave; the drivers and unloading workers were told by the employer that they could just leave.

Once they were gone, Liu Mu took a crowbar and opened the boxes sealed with wooden strips one by one.

The brand-new paint surfaces reflected the scorching sun, becoming scalding hot within minutes.

Liu Mu was like a heartless killer; the tip of the crowbar ruthlessly scraped across these painted surfaces, and in some places, the metal shells were even slightly dented.

【Engine with scratched paint detected, do you wish to recycle?】

"Recycle."

【Loader with broken tracks detected, do you wish to recycle?】

"Recycle."

【Generator sets x5 missing control system parts detected, do you wish to recycle?】

"Recycle!"

【Meat Canned Food with unknown production date and shelf life detected, do you wish to recycle?】

【Recycle!】

【Trucks X8 missing steering wheels detected, do you wish to recycle?】

【Recycle!】

This was what Liu Mu had been doing every day since May.

The recycling system only stored waste and old items, but the scope of "waste" and "old" was vast, and she had long since figured out the loopholes she could exploit.

For example, with a perfectly fine off-road vehicle, if Liu Mu removed one wheel, then both the vehicle and the wheel could be recycled by the system as scrap separately.

Using this point, she put some key machinery into the system, especially equipment that would be difficult to produce after the apocalypse.

Seeing the date approaching, the equipment and infrastructure in Liu Mu's hands were basically complete; now all that was missing was food and basic daily necessities.

The freezer and constant-temperature storage in the basement were turned on two days early, and Liu Mu began her final round of procurement.

Having done construction for the past two months, she had already bought whole pigs from this pig farm several times, and this time, the Boss didn't feel surprised at all.

But after hearing the quantity she wanted, Zhu Lao Wu still hesitated, "Twenty head? At the current price of live pigs, that's a large sum. Boss Liu, do you really need that many?"

Liu Mu scratched her bird's nest hair, which hadn't been cut in months, and smiled honestly, "I've been taken care of by the fellow villagers for so many years, so I want to host a banquet to treat everyone to a meal. I estimate there will be over a hundred tables. Boss Zhu, I'm buying so many, can you waive the slaughtering fee for me?"

Zhu Lao Wu wasn't in the same town as Liu Mu, but he knew her reputation for being stingy; however, after these few interactions, he found she wasn't *too* excessive.

He asked: "Why, you're going to slaughter them all? You don't need twenty head for a hundred tables, do you?"

Liu Mu explained that she wanted to serve hearty meat dishes at every table.

When she said that, the heartache was all over her face, implying she didn't intend to host guests again for decades.

Zhu Lao Wu had experience with treating villagers to meals; to be honest, these villagers looked fine, but there were quite a few troublemakers among them.

Opening a factory on their turf, if you didn't provide enough benefits and greet them properly, the things they could do behind your back were truly as filthy as could be.

Based on his own experience, if these filthy things happened once or twice, a whole year's worth of pig farming would be for nothing.

"Fine, you've always supported my business, so I won't charge you for the slaughtering this time. But let's be clear, you have to pay the slaughter tax, otherwise, I won't make a single cent!"

How could he not make money? With the recent hot weather, the price of pork had been skyrocketing.

Liu Mu knew this, but it wasn't the time to quibble; she only emphasized that the offal and internal organs should be cleaned and given to her, so she could eat them slowly later.

Zhu Lao Wu had seen Liu Mu's scrap station; despite it being piled like a mountain, it was actually built quite poorly.

Moreover, he had heard people say that this little Boss had no other businesses elsewhere, so he felt she was actually just putting on a brave front.

It was agreed that the pork would be delivered to the Scrap Station together on the third day, and Liu Mu ran to the nearby vegetable wholesale market once more.

As for why I didn't buy from the vegetable farmers' fields, it's because there are many fellow villagers helping out there, and I was afraid the news would spread too quickly; once I returned to the village, everyone would start "caring and inviting me to dinner," and it would never end.

I ordered two hundred catties of each type of fresh vegetable, which added up to three trucks' worth.

Then there was the beef and mutton; this time I went to a more distant slaughterhouse, getting two cows, ten sheep, and two hundred each of chickens and ducks.

The slaughter and processing fee for beef cattle is ten thousand per head, twelve hundred per sheep, and five thousand each for the chickens and ducks; delivery was free, making the total forty-two thousand.

Following the recommendation of the slaughterhouse Boss, he also went to a chicken farm and a duck farm, buying five hundred eggs from each.

It wasn't that I didn't want to buy more, but they are hard to preserve, and even a constant-temperature basement might not keep them for long.

However, under the suggestion of the duck farm Boss, I bought one thousand preserved eggs and five hundred salted duck eggs.

The reason given for this batch of purchases was that I was buying them for a certain hotel; as long as the money was paid, no one was bored enough to get to the bottom of it.

As for why I didn't put them into the system space, it's because... the system doesn't preserve fresh food!

After all, Heitao A is a recycling system; even if I add preservatives to keep food, I still have to eat it before it expires, so forget about anything else.

This is also one of the main reasons why Liu Mu had to spend time and effort fixing up the basement; as for the other reason... it will become apparent in a few days.

After finishing the food procurement, Liu Mu went to the "Victory Clothing Wholesale Market," where there are labor protection clothing stores; the clothes and shoes are not only cheap, but they also have the fireproof clothing she needs.

"I mainly need heat-resistant and fireproof ones, preferably firefighter-grade materials."

In one labor protection store, after telling the clerk her requirements, she really did manage to get a few sets of fire-resistant and heat-insulating suits.

It is said that they can even be worn by firefighters when entering a fire scene.

But Liu Mu was not very satisfied; the sharp-eyed clerk saw this immediately and asked cautiously, "Boss, actually we have a new batch of fabric here that hasn't been processed into finished garments yet; would you like to take a look?"

Seeing her acting all mysterious, Liu Mu became interested immediately; one must know that even before the apocalypse, a batch of highly heat-resistant, fire-retardant clothing had already appeared on the market in secret.

This was no coincidence; although she didn't know if there were other reborn people like her, or if they obtained the news through technical means, there must have been a very small number of people who knew in advance that the natural disaster was coming.

When she was first reborn, it wasn't that Liu Mu hadn't thought about telling the government or more people about this news, but she didn't dare.

Because later on, it wasn't as if humans hadn't investigated the initial cause of the Burning, but according to what Liu Mu knew, everyone who insisted on investigating either went missing or died.

Therefore, this was even less of a matter that she, an ordinary person, could touch; at the very least, the current her did not have any ability to do so.

If she were to be arrested on some serious charge, then her three months of hard work would all be for nothing.

In the apocalypse, just staying alive is already a huge difficulty!

Who still cares about how others are doing?

When the procurement ended, it was already three days before the apocalypse.

Considering that it would be hard to cook for the week after, Liu Mu took out a portion of the ingredients and asked Xu Xiaofeng to help make a lot of dishes, which were all put into the freezer after cooling down.

The weather has been too hot lately, and Xu Xiaofeng gets up even earlier in the morning, almost having to start preparing the food needed for the day's business around three in the morning.

Breakfast only sells until about eight o'clock; once the weather gets hot, no one comes out.

Seeing that time was running out, an unexpected guest came to the recycling station early that morning.

When Hu Xing arrived, he brought a case of white liquor, his expression carrying a hidden anxiety; he didn't chat for long before he couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Little Sister Liu Mu, Brother has always treated you well, right? Today, tell Brother the honest truth: did you get some news? Is something big about to happen?"

From the moment he entered the door, Liu Mu knew what he was going to ask, but she didn't answer directly, only asking, "Brother Xing, you're the one who got the news, right? Why don't you give your little sister a direction, otherwise I don't even know what to say."

Reading between the lines, Hu Xing understood immediately, "Little sister, I suppose you've guessed it too. My brothers and I actually work for the government. Naturally, we know quite a few insiders and can occasionally learn some news. There are mainly two things: one is that the higher-ups recently issued us a lot of fireproof and high-heat-resistant gear, and the other is that last night..."

It turned out that last night, Hu Xing suddenly received an order to return to the military, and they were to report directly to a secret underground Base in the deep mountains, and they had to arrive before eight o'clock tonight.

"Not to mention anything else, call me selfish if you want, but I just can't stop worrying about my wife and one-year-old daughter. Sister, you know that my parents died early, and I have no other siblings; they are my only two relatives. I have no confidence at all going there like this!"

Hearing this, Liu Mu was certain that some people already knew what would happen in three days, but why did they still choose not to announce it to let everyone prepare in advance?

Or could it be... they didn't know the specific time, or how severe it would be?

After deliberating, Liu Mu said, "Brother, you know my character; actually, I don't know exactly what will happen or when it will happen.

"My source of information isn't much different from yours, but there is one thing: if you are truly worried about your family, take them with you."

Handing Hu Xing a bottle of ice water, Liu Mu's tone lost its usual playfulness and calculation, becoming quite serious.

"This is what I think: since it's a secret Base, staying inside must be a hundred times safer than outside. And looking at you, you don't seem to be of an ordinary rank; if you bring them along, they will give you some face and let your wife and niece inside. They can't just dump people in the deep mountains and forests, right?"

"You mean..." Hu Xing's expression was grave, and he sighed, "Act first and report later? But I have never caused any trouble for the organization; bringing my family along rashly both violates the confidentiality agreement and isn't appropriate, right?"

"What's inappropriate about that?" Liu Mu spread her hands, "To be honest, if your wife and the others are safe, wouldn't you be able to contribute with more peace of mind? You also said that you haven't caused them any trouble all these years, so just this once, could they really forbid it?

"Little sister will give you a method: when you go back, go to the city hospital and find someone to write a medical diagnosis, saying your niece is in poor health and cannot be left without you, and your wife cannot take care of her alone, and she is so young that you really can't bear to leave her.

"Just take them with you, don't worry about the rest; what's wrong with being thick-skinned once for the sake of your family? There will be plenty of times you'll need to protect your country in the future!"

Hu Xing took it to heart and immediately clapped his hands, deciding to do just that.

But before leaving, he still said one more thing, saying that he would reveal some news to the brothers left at his car factory; if something big really happened, he hoped she would think of a way if they came to Liu Mu for help in the future.

"You don't have to support them; if they have the ability, they can follow you to earn a living, and if they don't, you can chase them away; you don't need to give me any face!

"Sister, I know you are not an ordinary person; who knows when we siblings will meet again next time!"

Liu Mu promised that as long as she had the ability, she would help those veterans, and then she saw Hu Xing off.

Since she had already given Hu Xing a hint, Liu Mu mentioned that it might be related to a sudden ultra-high temperature, believing that veterans always have more ways to survive than ordinary people.

This day was also strange; in the afternoon, Luo Sanlin, who hadn't come for a long time, also arrived.

"The higher-ups gave us a fire safety mission; the weather is devilishly hot this year, and every household must have enough fire safety equipment, so I'm checking your place too."

Luo Sanlin checked the fire extinguishers and water storage in Liu Mu's home before feeling relieved, "You have a lot of things piled up here, so don't be careless. If anything happens, come to the Police Station to find me; I've also saved the fire department's number for you."

After Liu Mu promised repeatedly, Luo Sanlin finally prepared to leave.

"Brother Sanlin," just as he was about to go out, Liu Mu called him back, "If I remember correctly, the residential complex you live in has an underground garage, right? And it has several levels?"

"Of course, it's the biggest shelter in our area, why?"

Liu Mu scratched her hair and said embarrassedly, "Nothing, just curious if one can go down there to cool off when the weather is too hot?"

Luo Sanlin remembered his parents' daily afternoon entertainment and laughed, "You don't say, our underground garage has almost become an activity center for the elderly and children. Every time after lunch, there are always people setting up a few tables down there."

Liu Mu realized, "That's great, it even saves on air conditioning electricity bills; if the ventilation is good at night, can one go down there to sleep?"

"You!" Luo Sanlin pointed his finger in front of Liu Mu, looking as if he didn't want to say more, "Just keep being stingy; sleeping in an underground garage, you actually thought of that. I'm leaving!"

Watching him ride his bicycle away, Liu Mu shouted from behind: "For that garage, make sure you have them get more water storage barrels. You have to pay even more attention to underground fire safety, and water can also lower the temperature! It's hellishly hot, so store more food at home. Don't always let Uncle and Aunt go out; it's dangerous for older people to get heatstroke..."

Luo Sanlin didn't even turn his head, and it was unknown if he had taken it to heart.

The air conditioner hummed, and Liu Mu returned to her room to cut open an iced watermelon for herself, thinking that she had said what she could to remind him; Luo Sanlin was able to survive last time, and it was nine times out of ten thanks to their underground garage.

Xu Xiaofeng came to make lunch, and after the three of them ate, she went back to sleep, instead leaving her younger brother Zhang Xiaoyong here.

Since the air conditioner was on anyway, and the little thing wasn't sleeping at noon, Liu Mu had him help watch the surveillance monitors.

A total of fifty-six high-temperature-resistant surveillance cameras were installed throughout the yard, connected to the surveillance room on the second floor of the small building, and also connected to that heat-insulated, constant-temperature room in the basement.

Liu Mu lay on the floor scrolling through her phone; as soon as she opened short videos, there were all kinds of fire news, or otherwise propaganda about fire prevention and people dying of heat.

All kinds of red, bold "Attention!" signs made one's heart feel heavy.

In her past life, she just thought it was a hot summer and didn't think much of it at all; now it seems that everything actually had omens.

Carrying an indescribable and unclear mood, the time finally arrived at the last day.