Just when they were about to give up, they stumbled upon a convenience store on the seventeenth floor. A few scattered snack packs still sat on the shelves. Without hesitation, they pried open the door and began rummaging inside.
"This is a convenience store. That means there should be a storage room somewhere. Let's look for it."
After stuffing the snacks from the shelves into their bags, they tore through the shop in search of the storage room. They didn't want to miss even a single hidden door.
Luck was on their side. In a dusty corner of the warehouse, they found over a dozen unopened bottles of drinks and water. Once those were crammed into their bags, Ling Jiang took out a red, white, and blue woven sack her grandmother had handed her before they left.
"My grandma found this for me," Ling Jiang explained. "She said it can hold a lot. If we're going out, we should bring back as much as we can. I also brought a rope. If it doesn't all fit inside, I'll tie the rest on top. We're not leaving a single thing behind."
"If we can fill it up, even if it's heavy, I'm carrying all of it home," she added. The temptation of supplies was too strong. If you had a bag full of them, no one could just abandon it.
…
Once the seventeenth floor was picked clean, they checked the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth floors but found nothing.
It wasn't until they reached the twenty-first floor that they made another discovery: a pharmaceutical company. In the boss's office, Lan Jin opened a desk drawer and spotted a stash in the corner—thirty boxes of blood pressure medicine, twenty boxes of fever reducers, and one half-used box of antibiotics.
Medicine like this was even more valuable than food for trading. Lan Jin carefully packed it all away, then, once they were back outside, announced excitedly, "I found blood pressure pills, fever reducers, and some antibiotics. The antibiotics are already opened, but the other two are still in good supply."
The mention of blood pressure pills made Ling Jiang perk up. "Blood pressure medicine?"
"Yes. Does your grandma need it?"
It wasn't uncommon for elderly people to have chronic conditions, so Grandma Ling taking it would be nothing unusual.
Ling Jiang nodded. Her grandmother did have high blood pressure, though they still had enough medicine at home. "A long time ago, my grandma stocked up on plenty of blood pressure pills. We still have enough for now, but it's always better to have extra. And fever reducers—those are really useful."
"Yeah, we got lucky."
Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe also brought out what they'd found—some cough syrup, cholesterol-lowering pills, and even some medicine for diarrhea, though not as much as Lan Jin's haul.
Still, any medicine was good medicine. They weren't picky.
…
After stripping the pharmaceutical company bare, they moved on to the twenty-second floor and found a gourmet food live-streaming company. The company occupied the entire floor, and in nearly every corner there was something edible.
Even though there were clear signs that someone had already cleaned the place out, there were still plenty of things left behind.
"This is definitely a snack hoarder's place," Lan Jin said. "Otherwise, who would miss things sitting right under their nose?"
"Yeah, but we have to be careful," Ling Jiang warned. "Anything with holes or broken seals, we can't take. If we get sick from it, we'll be in real trouble." She had nearly stuffed a sausage gnawed by a rat into her bag earlier, and just thinking about it now made her shudder.
In the pantry, Lan Jin dug through the cabinets and came up with instant coffee, milk tea, loose tea leaves, biscuits, and all kinds of chips and snacks, stuffing them all into her backpack. In another corner, she found various self-heating meals and instant foods. The quantity wasn't huge, and her backpack could hold all of it.
Then Lao Gao discovered a hidden storage compartment. Inside was a treasure trove—especially self-heating hotpots, noodles, flour, biscuits—all packed by the box. Ling Jiang's two woven sacks couldn't possibly hold it all.
Lan Jin hesitated. "How about I take a load back first? We have the car. If we wait until we're done searching everything, we might not be able to fit it all in anyway."
Ling Jiang agreed. Why cram everything into one trip when they could deliver as they went? "I'll go with you. It'll be hard to carry things upstairs alone. Lao Gao, Huang Jinghe, you two keep searching. Even if no one else is around, stay alert."
The two men had no objections. They loaded up the car—first the back seats, then the trunk, then tied bundles on the roof. Ling Jiang even hugged a bundle to her chest. When there was no space left at all, Lan Jin and Ling Jiang drove off.
The road was familiar now, but… their speed wasn't any faster.
It was winter, the roads were icy, and Lan Jin didn't dare drive too quickly. She kept to a steady pace, made it back to the neighborhood, unloaded everything into Lao Gao's home, and immediately headed back to the industrial park.
Before they could even get upstairs, Lao Gao heard them and called down, "Wait there!" He soon dragged two more loads down himself.
By the time morning turned into afternoon, they had made four round trips and cleared out all the supplies from the gourmet company. When they regrouped in the office building, it was already one o'clock. The four of them sat together eating self-heating hotpot, planning their next moves.
"I like this pace," Lao Gao said. "But I don't think we should all go out tomorrow. Sister Ling, you should stay home and guard the supplies. Lan Jin can drive. Once she's back, you can help unload. With all that stuff at home, I won't feel safe unless you or I are there. Not that I don't trust Sister Lan and Huang Jinghe—it's just that if something happens, the two of them can't fight off trouble as well as you can."
Even if the twelve-building complex was now empty apart from them, worry was worry.
Lan Jin nodded. "Honestly, when I brought the first load back, I told Ling Jiang to stay. She only came because she was worried we couldn't manage without her."
"If it's too much to handle, we'll slow down. Better that than working ourselves to the bone only to lose everything."
"Alright, I'll listen to you," Ling Jiang agreed at last.
After their quick lunch, they moved on to sweep the second office building.
Starting from the eighth floor and working upward, they found many more live-streaming companies, though most focused on clothing or cosmetics.
Lan Jin kept the lighter, practical clothes in common sizes. The rest, as Lao Gao put it, could be used to feed the fire or make charcoal. She didn't pass those up either, just piled them into boxes. If they could haul them back, great; if not, no big loss.