After we all had a simple meal, we began packing up the supplies we needed for the journey. Now that we had a vehicle, we could bring as muc
After we all had a simple meal, we began packing up the supplies we needed for the journey.
Now that we had a vehicle, we could bring as much as possible.
After all, even if we made it to the shelter, there was no guarantee there would be enough food and supplies.
It wasn't like the old days, when people farmed and grew crops to supply us.
At least for now, everything pointed to living off the dwindling reserves.
Uncle Gazi went down into the cellar again, saying he was going to bring out everything he had stored in there.
Suo Tian and I crouched at the cellar entrance, receiving the items he handed up.
The cellar was dug into the corner of the courtyard wall, with a small entrance.
Once Uncle Gazi was inside, I noticed the opening only came up to about his chest, meaning the cellar was just over a meter underground.
I figured a place that size couldn't hold much, but after catching bag after bag, I was sweating and couldn't help asking into the cellar, "How did you even manage to fit so much stuff in such a small space?"
…Now I finally understood why Uncle Gazi was so generous when he offered Suo Tian and me food.
With a natural storage room like that at home, I'd be generous too!
Then I remembered how, after we found the warehouse and brought back tons of supplies, when Li Jianguo and the others came to talk to us, I had purposely locked the door to keep them from seeing what we had—never even considering giving them a share…
Thinking about that now, I felt like my soul had suddenly shrunk in shame.
I shook my head and grabbed the next few oversized sweet potatoes Uncle Gazi handed up, comforting myself with the thought that what I did back then was justified—Li Jianguo and his bunch were total bastards, typical greedy wolves who were never satisfied.
They ate and still wanted to take, took and still wanted to rob.
Now all those supplies we had managed to bring back?
Weren't they practically all in their hands now?
Even the school we cleared out had ended up entirely under their control.
Wang Tingyun sat on a small stool off to the side, nibbling on a roasted sweet potato, grinning as she watched the three of us bustle around.
While moving things, I'd occasionally run over to tease her, but every time I did, she'd just blush, lower her head, and say nothing—giving me absolutely no reaction.
It took us over an hour to haul everything out of the cellar.
Considering Uncle Gazi's age, I ended up shooing him into the house to handle other stuff while Suo Tian and I moved the mountain of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and other cellar goods into the vehicle.
By the time it was all done, I was so exhausted I was panting like a cow.
After shutting the car doors and locking the gate behind me, I almost collapsed straight onto the ground.
Thankfully, Suo Tian caught me by the waist and helped steady me so I could stay on my feet.
This kind of manual labor was honestly way more tiring than killing walkers.
When I finally stepped into the house, Uncle Gazi was pulling clothes out of a large cardboard box tucked in the corner by the brick bed.
I noticed nearly all of it was Wang Tingyun's clothing.
"Uncle Gazi, just pack a couple pieces of clothing, no need to bring everything…"
I didn't have the energy to care about my posture anymore—I went straight to the kang and flopped down, determined not to move another inch.
Uncle Gazi chuckled heartily at my words and said, "No way! With all that snow and ice out there, we have to bring enough clothes for Yun'er. That girl's body is weak—when she was born, she barely weighed over 2kg. Every winter, we had to wrap her up like a ball just to get through it. We're going over there to make sure she doesn't get sick—if she ends up freezing along the way, then what's the point of going at all?"
I gave a weak laugh and thought to myself: this old guy is the perfect example of grandparental overindulgence—textbook spoiled by love.
Suo Tian sat beside me, occasionally exchanging glances with Wang Tingyun, who was sitting on the kang across from us.
She seemed to really like Suo Tian, staring straight at him with a gaze that was nothing like the shy, dodgy looks she gave me.
Her eyes were laser-focused on him.
If it weren't for the obvious age gap, I might've seriously started worrying.
Uncle Gazi didn't pack anything for himself.
After stuffing all of Tingyun's things into one large bag, he proudly announced that everything was ready.
Even though it wasn't dinner time yet, that intense bout of physical labor had left us pretty drained.
Uncle Gazi suggested we eat something and get some rest early—plus, we could finally take the time to go over the things we needed to be careful about tomorrow, since last time our talk got cut short.
Naturally, I raised both hands and feet in agreement.
The food, as always, came from the cellar—roasted sweet potatoes, some potatoes and beans, and to top it off, Uncle Gazi even made millet porridge.
Honestly, it was like a luxury feast!
Way better than any so-called deluxe fast food family meal.
Originally, I didn't dare drink the millet porridge—some subconscious part of me still believed that the water wasn't safe.
Even though Uncle Gazi had boiled it, I just couldn't shake the feeling.
I didn't want him to notice, so I kept shoveling sweet potatoes and potatoes into my mouth, pretending I was too busy chewing to drink any porridge.
At one point, I turned to quietly ask Suo Tian whether the porridge was actually safe to drink.
But the moment I looked over, I saw him sipping it already.
He looked like it was a bit too hot—his brows furrowed slightly on instinct.
I stared at him in surprise, completely forgetting to chew the piece of potato I'd just bitten.
From what I knew about Suo Tian, he never did anything he wasn't absolutely sure about, and he definitely wouldn't touch anything he suspected might be unsafe.
Yet here he was, drinking that porridge so calmly—even with his usual absent-minded expression, it was obvious he had zero concerns.
I twitched the corner of my mouth…
So this guy figured out long ago that the water was safe?
And he didn't tell me?
Just left me there being all paranoid and cautious for nothing?
Well, if Suo Tian dared to drink it, then I had no reason to hesitate either.
I trusted that he would never risk his life over something so small—if he drank it, it had to be safe.
After we finished eating, I lay sprawled out on the heated kang, feeling full and blissfully relaxed—like I'd died and gone to heaven.
My mood was so good, I almost felt like bursting into song.
But then I remembered how I'd accidentally made Zheng Rongrong cry the last time I sang in the supermarket, and I shut my mouth awkwardly.
The kang table placed between us was stacked with the clothes Uncle Gazi had packed for Wang Tingyun.
With that in place, we couldn't really see them on the other side anymore—this side and that were now completely divided into two separate spaces.
Suo Tian was lying beside me.
I turned my head to look at him, and perhaps sensing my gaze, he turned to look back.
His pitch-black eyes were calm and expressionless.
I let out a small chuckle, thinking to myself, Suo Tian is really handsome.
"Suo Tian?" I called out.
"Mm?" he replied, turning his head back, not looking at me anymore, and once again closed his eyes to rest.
"Oh, nothing. I just felt like calling your name."
He didn't respond again—probably thought I was just being bored and silly.
"Hey, what if… that shelter or whatever is already full when we get there tomorrow? What if they don't let us in?" Uncle Gazi suddenly raised his voice from the other side of the kang table.
He'd been reading fairy tales to Wang Tingyun just a moment ago.
Suo Tian's eyes opened slightly when he heard the question, but he quickly shut them again and said nothing.
I laughed and replied, "Uncle Gazi, you're overthinking it. The whole point of a shelter is to take in survivors like us. They're not going to turn us away—don't worry."
"But there's got to be a limit, right? What if it's already packed and there's no room left for us?"
Hearing that, the corner of my mouth twitched again…
This old man's talent for worrying over nothing was honestly even more impressive than mine.
Clearing my throat, I replied, "Even if it's full, they should still arrange another place for us. It's unlikely they'd just cram people into a building until it bursts."
Truth be told, I had a lot of questions about that shelter—like how they communicated with the outside world.
Could it be that each shelter had its own dedicated signal connection?
And what about their personnel arrangements, supplies, and so on?
Too many questions to count.
But since we'd be seeing it with our own eyes tomorrow, I decided not to dwell on it.
After all, there's no point stressing over things you haven't even seen yet—it's just a waste of energy.
The human ability to fall asleep really is something else.
When we finished eating, I figured it was around three or four in the afternoon.
But after chatting with Uncle Gazi for just a bit, I ended up dozing off in a daze.
When I woke up, the sky outside was already turning a faint white.
At first, I didn't register the time shift.
I kept thinking it was still afternoon.
I lay there staring at the ceiling for a good twenty minutes before my mind finally caught up and I realized—it was morning.
The sky outside was brightening, and it was now the start of a new day.
Just like the morning before, Suo Tian and Uncle Gazi were already up—who knows when they left the room.
Right now, it was just me and Tingyun.
But unlike yesterday, Tingyun was already awake.
She lay under the blanket, humming an unrecognizable little tune while playing with her fingers.
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