It definitely would not be right out on a main road.
Lan Jin said, "We need supplies to enter the base, right? Food is the most important, sure. But if we don't have food, we can still trade other supplies. I think gold is definitely valuable. Maybe we can use gold to trade for some food later. Of course, that's not guaranteed. Maybe gold won't mean anything in the apocalypse and it'll be worthless. Still, that doesn't stop me from liking it."
A woman's likes could be just that willful.
But when Lao Gao glanced again at the pile of supplies, he noticed the boxes of nail polish. With a baffled look, he asked, "And these? They're worth a lot too?"
These office buildings had quite a few nail salons. Most of the stock was untouched—unopened bottles stacked in boxes in storage rooms, probably because no one saw a reason to take them. Lan Jin had gathered them all into her space.
Lao Gao counted. Fifteen boxes in total. If Lan Jin hadn't had the space to store them, there was no way he would have agreed to bring them.
But to Lan Jin, these things were genuinely valuable.
"When we're out surviving, anything other than food seems unimportant. But if you put these 'unimportant' things inside the base, in front of people who don't need to fight for food… won't they suddenly become very valuable?"
Of course, this was just her personal opinion. Still, since she had already collected them and her space was large enough, there was no reason not to keep them.
After a full day of work, everyone naturally wanted a good meal. Lan Jin asked, "How about some barbecue?"
Almost without hesitation, everyone replied, "Yes."
Lan Jin led them to where she had stored barbecue skewers. She had bought in bulk, and the vendor had tied them in bundles of ten. Just from a glance, there had to be about three hundred skewers. They stood there eating happily, but when they had eaten about half, Lao Gao hesitated. "If we finish these, that's it. Maybe we should save some for next time."
"No need," Lan Jin said, pointing toward a pile of meat. "We've got plenty there. I have all the seasoning. We can make our own. And if our cooking isn't great, I still have a lot of semi-prepared stuff from the supermarket. We can cook it with electricity or fire, and it should taste pretty close to what I bought."
If we're talking about the most authentic taste, nothing beat the oily, salty barbecue from outside. But they could still eat it later, so the rest of the skewers didn't last long. They were all gone in one meal.
They had eaten so much meat in one sitting that Grandma Ling couldn't bear to look. "It's not like the old days were easy, but we weren't starving. Why are you eating so much in one meal?"
"Grandma, you don't understand the joy of junk food."
Grandma Ling was only teasing. She was open-minded and even ate along. Spotting a small portion of skewers set aside, she asked, "Why are these separate? Aren't we eating them?"
Lan Jin replied, "These don't have chili. I give them to Qiao Qiao sometimes so she can taste the joy of junk food."
And since barbecue without chili didn't taste great, no one touched the portion meant for Qiao Qiao.
…
Junk food really did make everyone happy. After finishing all the skewers, they drank some spirit spring water and went to sleep.
The straw-roofed structure had the layout of a two-bedroom apartment. Lan Jin stayed in the master bedroom with Qiao Qiao and Nana. Grandma Ling and Ling Jiang took the second bedroom. Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe could have set up camp elsewhere, but since Lan Jin's space contained tents, the two of them made do with that.
Of course, calling it "making do" was underselling it. The temperature inside was just right, something they hadn't enjoyed in a long time.
There was no need to get up in the night to tend a fire. After the exhausting day, everyone slept deeply. They didn't wake until half past ten the next morning. After washing up, they set out for their next stop.
Not far from this office building—just the distance of crossing a bridge in the old days—they reached another. The building was big, but the area had too many residents. It had long since been picked clean, not even a scrap of wood left. Any office building near a residential area was no longer worth searching.
Once they ran out of targets, the vehicle headed straight toward the J City base.
By a little past four in the afternoon, as the sky began to darken, Lan Jin, sitting in the passenger seat, spotted a towering, solid wall ahead. She asked excitedly, "Over there! Is that the base?"
It looked exactly like the ones in movies—tall and sheer, impossible to climb. Just from the outside, it could block a lot of trouble.
There was no need to ask. It was definitely the base.
But instead of driving straight there, Lao Gao pulled into a hidden spot and stopped.
As they wondered why, Lao Gao said, "Let's not drive the car in. We'll ride bicycles."
Lan Jin asked, "Why? You think the car's too nice and they'll take it? A big base like this wouldn't do that."
A Hummer might be standard in the apocalypse, but there were better vehicles out there.
Lao Gao said, "Call me paranoid if you want, but this is our only fuel-powered car. I don't want to risk anything happening to it. Besides, it's not like I can't store it away."
Huang Jinghe agreed. "He's right. We're close anyway. It's only ten minutes or so by bike."
But bicycles on ice were a nightmare. Ling Jiang, still traumatized from the past week, wanted no part of it. "This ice looks like it's been treated. Forget bikes. Skates and a sled would work better."
She wasn't wrong. In this frozen world, that setup worked better than bicycles. But showing up at the base gate like that would turn heads. Then again, after the poisonous fog and the first heavy rain had wrecked nearly every car, most had been scrapped and traded for contribution points. Now, getting a vehicle was harder than getting skates. They just hadn't thought about it until now.
Lan Jin didn't care. "Alright. Let's pack some supplies too, just in case."
With a thought, she put both the car and themselves into her space. Once inside, the four of them got out.
Seeing the car vanish again, Grandma Ling quickly asked, "What's going on? Is it getting dark? Where are we staying tonight?"