Stock Up For Natural Disasters And Cubs Survive – CH37

Chapter 37

The woman saw the old lady heading upstairs and immediately forgot about her own private thoughts. She hurried after her. “Oh come on, old madam, can you at least have some manners? Don’t go upstairs. People are living up there!”

The old lady shot her a glare. “This isn’t your private property, so why are you yelling? Since new members have joined, resources should be redistributed. Don’t even think about getting special treatment!”

“Me, getting special treatment? Old madam, my family got here first!”

The old lady curled her lip. “What does getting here first matter? Didn’t they say everyone, old or young, has to work for the shelter? Everyone eats the same food and does the same work. There’s no such thing as first come, first served!”

The woman was so angry she started breathing hard. “Stop spouting that nonsense, old woman!”

“What nonsense am I spouting? If this were before, people like you would’ve had to submit a report just to see me!”

The old lady refused to let go of the staircase railing and lifted her chin. “If you’re willing to do my work for me, then I won’t fight you for the upstairs room!”

Guanguan was woken by the argument between the two. Scratching his little face, he half-opened his sleepy eyes and slumped over his brother’s shoulder. “Brother, I need to pee.”

Wei Cheng did not watch the drama. He only took a quick look at the situation and said, “Okay, bathroom.”

There was a small guest bathroom beside the stairs. It was not big, but it was fairly clean.

Although this kind of mountaintop vacation town would normally have emergency power and large generators on hand, ordinary survivors like them still did not qualify to use them.

Even the bathrooms here could only be flushed manually.

When they came out, they saw that a few more people had arrived on the first floor.

Two elderly people were holding the hand of a little boy about six or seven years old.

The old man wearing glasses tried to smooth things over. “Ah Xin, what are you arguing about? It’s already hard enough just to have a place where we can survive. Upstairs or downstairs, it’s all the same. With the shelter protecting us, those monsters can’t get in anyway.”

Then he tapped the watch on his wrist. “Look what time it is. If we start making trouble and delay the work the shelter assigned, what if they get angry and throw us all out?”

Hearing that, the old lady’s expression eased a little.

Zhao Xin glanced toward the people coming out of the guest bathroom and signaled to her in-laws with her eyes. “There are two more children.”

“Children?”

Father Qiao followed her gaze and saw two children who, though dusty and grimy, still stood out. One was eight or nine years old, and the other…

Mother Qiao widened her eyes. “Oh my, this child, this child—isn’t he that—”

Their little grandson suddenly rushed over, speaking in a strange half-north half-south accent. “You beggar child! You came again to steal my dad and mom and grandpa and grandma! I’ll beat you to death!”

The moment he clenched his fists and charged over, Wei Cheng raised a hand and shoved him straight to the floor. “What are you doing!”

Guanguan blinked, tilted his head to look at the child on the ground, then at the adults.

He had a vague impression, but only a vague one.

Guanguan only dimly remembered that Driver Uncle had brought him to a small room. During the daytime, an auntie in an apron would make him rice paste, and sometimes some noodles. Every night, it had been Driver Uncle who brought him delicious meals.

In the twenty-some days after leaving the orphanage, he seemed to have seen this family a few times. At first things had been all right, but after just a few days, there was always the sound of this little boy crying and yelling in his ears.

And after that, Driver Uncle had taken him back to the orphanage.

Mother Qiao hurried to help their precious little Yaozu up. “Oh my dear grandson, how can you hit people like that!”

Yaoyao covered his backside and burst into loud tears.

Wei Cheng shielded Guanguan behind him and said coldly, “If you’re blind, then don’t talk nonsense. Anyone with eyes could see that he was the one trying to hit my little brother!”

Then a vague thought came to him. “Your family wouldn’t happen to be surnamed Qiao, would it?” Teacher Xiaomei had told him about how Guanguan had been adopted and then returned in less than a month.

Mother Qiao and Zhao Xin exchanged looks, but said nothing.

Father Qiao coughed lightly and put on the act of being the good guy again. “This is fate. We’re destined to be one family. All right, all right, Ah Xin, hurry and help them find a good room.”

The old lady at the side rolled her eyes. “Why are you putting on airs like the master of the house? There are so many empty rooms here. We’ll live wherever we want.”

As she spoke, she went upstairs. Afraid she would steal something, Zhao Xin quickly followed after her.

Mother Qiao was furious. “These people really do take money and refuse to work. Didn’t our Dasheng already grease the right palms? We asked for a few older children who could work. What use are two tiny kids and an old woman!”

Father Qiao smiled blandly. “Children have their advantages too. How much can children really eat? A child or old person only needs to do a little work to earn a few meal tickets. And besides, food tickets are issued by household. Our family can earn five meal tickets a day. If these few join us, maybe we’ll earn eight or nine meal tickets. Since our family is larger, no matter how you look at it, we’re the ones benefitting.”

The moment Mother Qiao understood, she brightened. “That works too. Then Dasheng won’t have to go outside and risk himself so often anymore.”

Those two assumed children were too young to understand, so right in front of Wei Cheng and Guanguan, they started quietly calculating how to take advantage of others.

Wei Cheng kept his thoughts to himself. “Guanguan, shall we go look at the rooms?”

Guanguan obediently nodded, holding his brother’s hand. “Okay!”

There were two empty rooms on the ground floor in total. In the end, they chose a small one whose window looked out onto the lawn.

Inside was a bed that looked huge to two little children, and warm beige cabinets built into the walls.

The room was very nicely decorated, but felt oddly empty. Some decorations and lamps had probably already been taken away by the shelter.

Wei Cheng let the little dog out and asked Guanguan, “Did that little boy ever hit you?”

Guanguan was busy being curious about the big bed, touching this and poking that. Hearing his brother’s question, he lifted his plump little face. “He didn’t hit me!”

Then he toddled over to Brother and shook his head. “Guanguan couldn’t understand all his wuwuwa sounds. He just cried, and got angry!”

That child’s accent really was strange. Combined with what he knew about Guanguan being adopted and then returned, Wei Cheng had a guess in mind, though he still needed to wait for Driver Uncle to return and confirm it with him.

Guanguan, however, could not care less about this family. Sitting on the bed, he kicked off his little snow boots with two quick thumps and pointed at the bed. “Brother, Guanguan wants to lie on it!”

Wei Cheng took off his outerwear and smiled. “All right, go feel it.”

The living conditions at Highland Shelter were truly a hundred times better than the other two bases.

Guanguan bounced on it twice and was sprung high back up. “So fun!”

After bouncing around until he got tired, he huffed and flopped down. On that enormous bed, he looked like such a tiny little cub, truly like a little gas canister.

At the orphanage they had slept on little iron beds. In Sun Village they had slept on those old-style cotton beds. The little bed in the safehouse was soft too, but because it had not been upgraded enough, the quality definitely could not compare to the high-tech beds in a famous vacation estate.

Wei Cheng found him both adorable and funny. Suddenly remembering the novels Grandma used to listen to, he laughed and said, “From now on, President Guanguan will wake up every morning from his eight-hundred-meter-long bed.”

Guanguan suddenly raised his little head and crawled over, eyes sparkling. “Brother, are you praising your Guanguan?”

“Yes, I am.”

Wei Cheng picked up his little shoes. “Come on, let’s go see where breakfast is served. Later we still need to find out what work we have to do.”

“Okay!” Guanguan kicked his little feet. “Brother, isn’t President Guanguan super-duper amazing?”

“Yes, extremely amazing.”

Wei Cheng lifted him down. “From now on, if anyone dares yell at you or scold you, you scold them right back and yell right back. Don’t be afraid. Brother will protect you.”

Bar­ing his little baby teeth, Guanguan clenched his little bun-like fists. “Yah! Guanguan isn’t a dough baby!”

When they reached the living room, they found the Qiao family and the old lady all in the kitchen.

Several of them were arguing over a bowl of coarse rice.

“The management didn’t prepare breakfast for you, which means you don’t get breakfast today. This rice was all earned by our family!”

There was no stove in the kitchen. The food here must have all been distributed centrally.

Having gotten the upper hand while choosing rooms earlier, the old lady had become even more unreasonable. “Even so, you can’t make us work on an empty stomach!”

“That’s exactly how it was for us when we first came.”

Mother Qiao spoon-fed the coarse rice to her grandson without even raising her eyes. “You lot can go work with us in a little while and earn meal tickets. Our family has many people, and the child is still growing. We don’t have anything to spare for you.”

The old lady, unable to get what she wanted, turned and went upstairs back to her room.

When Qiao Yaoyao saw Guanguan, he again forgot the lesson of just having been pushed over. Sticking his tongue out with grains of rice still on it, he jeered, “Nyah nyah nyah, you don’t get any food! Starve to death!”

The rest of the Qiao family pretended not to see and just kept eating their own rice.

Wei Cheng was just about to speak when he saw Guanguan plant one hand on his waist, lean his little neck forward, and puff himself up like a fighting rooster. “Shut up, little kid! Guanguan doesn’t care!”

Not bad. Brother had already successfully raised him into a combat-oriented personality.

Qiao Yaoyao burst into laughter, but in the middle of laughing suddenly started coughing violently. His face turned bright red—rice grains had gone into his windpipe!

“Oh dear, Yaoyao, what’s wrong with Yaoyao…”

That family was thrown into utter panic.

Once they were back in their room, they could still hear Qiao Yaoyao’s earth-shaking coughing.

Wei Cheng locked the room door and drew the curtains, then took Guanguan into the safehouse.

“Come on, let’s brush teeth and wash faces first, then we’ll eat.”

The water in the sink gradually turned murky.

Guanguan lifted his little wet face. “Brother, do we still have to put gray stuff on Guanguan?”

“Not today. Close your eyes.”

Wei Cheng wiped cream onto Guanguan’s face and felt that the cheeks under his hands seemed even plumper now.

The soft little cheek-meat had become even softer and fuller.

Over the past few days, they had more or less been taking Guanguan out for exercise, and yesterday they had walked that long mountain road too. The system had turned a blind eye and awarded them five Twist Coins for it.

The more he pinched, the more fun it felt. “Guanguan, you’re kind of like a little steamed bun that’s had yeast sprinkled on it.”

Guanguan opened his clear, bright eyes. “Steamed buns? Brother, Guanguan wants to eat steamed buns!”

“We had dry buns last night. Aren’t you tired of them?”

“Not tired! Guanguan can still handle one more!” He grabbed his little hands and swallowed his saliva. “Inside the bun should go sweet potato, sausage, fried egg, yummy chicken cutlet, and just a little bit of sweet shrimp!”

Wei Cheng laughed so hard he could barely stand it, then scooped the child up and carried him downstairs. “Is that so? Then you’re pretty hard to deal with.”

There was every kind of food imaginable in the mall. Wei Cheng tapped around on the panel a few times, and all the things Guanguan wanted were ready.

He did not forget to heat up a cup of milk for him too.

The white, soft cream bun was cut in half with a knife and stuffed full of brightly colored fillings—sausage, shrimp, fried egg, and other goodies, all smelling richly of roasting spices.

Guanguan held the stuffed bun in one hand and his milk cup in the other. Whenever he choked a little, he took a drink of milk to wash it down, eating so happily he shook his head back and forth. “So delicious!”

With so much tasty food, who would care about that little bowl of coarse rice?

Wei Cheng was eating a chicken cutlet bun himself, and at the same time filled Little Apricot’s bowl with sheep’s milk.

At the base, elderly people, children, and women usually worked in the cafeteria preparing ready-to-eat supplies—making canned corn, canned pickles, dried sweet potatoes, bean cakes, roasted flour, and so on. They could also go to the mountain farms to raise livestock, though livestock was rare these days, so the shelter only let people with specialized skills do that. Adult men did physically demanding work like reinforcing walls, taking turns on patrol and guard duty, and going outside on missions to gather survival supplies for their families. Adult women were not required to do forced labor.

Listening to the Qiao family talk, it turned out that the male head of that family, Qiao Dasheng, was on a mission with Driver Uncle to Mingshui Grain Town.

In the early days of the apocalypse, many resources had not yet been unearthed. These bases naturally wanted to seize the initiative and stockpile like mad, which was why they were taking in survivors so aggressively.

Wei Cheng and Guanguan followed the adults to the cafeteria building and saw many people already hard at work there. Children even younger than Guanguan were staggering inside, holding iron basins bigger than they were.

The cafeteria manager looked a bit displeased that they had come late. Flipping through the roster, he said coldly, “Your family is still assigned to make canned corn today. Four adults, three children total…”

Then he tilted his head. “Why is there one adult and one child missing?”

Mother Qiao immediately answered, “The child choked while eating, and his mother is at home taking care of him.”

The cafeteria manager said nothing more, clearly unwilling to waste words over something so minor.

The old lady suddenly made trouble again. “At a time like this, if the child chokes, they still don’t come work? The little one doesn’t come, and the big one doesn’t come either? That child over there is only two or three and is still here working! I heard meal tickets are issued by family. On what grounds should an old woman like me and someone else’s child help feed your grandson and daughter-in-law?”

Mother Qiao let out an exaggerated sigh. “Aren’t the two old ones in our family still able to work?”

The cafeteria manager was so busy he had no desire to deal with such petty nonsense. “Either get the missing adult and child here quickly, or your tickets will be calculated separately from the newcomers.”

Mother Qiao sighed and moaned. “The child doesn’t feel well, so they can’t come!”

The old lady immediately jumped in, “Separate them, separate them! This family isn’t united at all. I saw it—they have so much bread and steamed buns, and they weren’t even willing to lend us a little. Me and these two children came here hungry to work!”

Wei Cheng seized the chance to add fuel to the fire. “Uncle, my little brother is too small. He can’t really do much work anyway. If the meal tickets are counted separately, then at least we won’t be taking advantage of them. Otherwise when arguments break out, it’ll just affect Uncle’s work.”

The moment he heard “affect work,” the cafeteria manager frowned and flipped through the roster. “Then the three of you go to the front and cut sweet potatoes and potatoes. Children and old people can earn one meal ticket by cutting fifty jin of sweet potatoes. One ticket can be exchanged for two liang of rice.”

The Qiao family definitely did not want to watch this ready-made labor force slip away. “Manager, our Dasheng said—”

“If you keep dragging this out, you can all get out!” The manager was completely annoyed now. The man from their family who went outside on missions had not given him any benefit at all, yet they still created endless trouble every day.

The job of cutting sweet potatoes and potatoes was simple, but Guanguan was too small, and Wei Cheng did not intend to let him actually do it.

On the ground were piles of dirt-covered sweet potatoes stacked like small hills. Everyone was fighting to grab them, because the more they washed, the more meal tickets they could earn.

Full of fighting spirit, Guanguan saw everyone else snatching and rushed in too. His whole little body flung itself onto the sweet potato pile, and he nearly got picked up as if he himself were a sweet potato.

He strained with both little hands and managed to hug ten sweet potatoes at once—but dropped eight of them.

Wei Cheng hurried over to help him gather them up, laughing quietly. “Guanguan, you don’t have to fight this hard. We only need to cut a little and make a token effort.”

They only needed to earn one meal ticket a day.

Guanguan hugged the big sweet potato. “Okay!”

“Here, you can use this.”

A metal basin with kitchen knives in it was pushed over in front of the brothers.

It was from a very pale and very thin older girl who looked about fourteen or fifteen.

Wei Cheng saw several large basins filled with clean sweet potatoes around her.

She spoke in a very soft voice. “Next time, come earlier. If you come too late, the iron basins and kitchen knives will all be snatched by other people.”

“Ruirui, what are you doing! Stop dawdling! Time to weigh them!”

The girl’s thin arms could not even lift the heavy iron basin properly. On the first try, she failed to move it.

Wei Cheng quickly helped her.

Lowering her head, the girl said, “Thank you.”

Not long after, her family also carried away the rest of the basins of cut sweet potatoes.

The dirt on the sweet potatoes had to be washed off before they could be cut into chunks. From what these people were saying, the shelter ground the sweet potatoes and potatoes into powder and also roasted them into dried pieces. These were foods prepared for the hunters who went out on missions.

After setting down two big sweet potatoes, Guanguan panted and asked, “Brother, does Guanguan count as doing a big exercise today?”

“Of course you do. Just look how tired you are.”

Wei Cheng let him sit on the little stool while he squatted nearby washing the dirt off the sweet potatoes. “Once we’re done here, we’ll go back and rest.”

Sweet potatoes were large and heavy, so everyone liked to fight over them. The Wei brothers could not match the speed of the others, and in the end they had to wash some potatoes too to make the weight.

Fifty jin of sweet potatoes and potatoes came to only around eighty-some pieces.

After a whole busy morning, they finally earned their first meal ticket since arriving at the shelter.

It was just an ordinary piece of paper with a red stamp printed on it.

Guanguan was overjoyed. He tucked the meal ticket into his pocket and patted it. “Guanguan made money again!”

—

Under Highland Shelter’s protection, Wei Cheng and Guanguan passed through a stretch of safe and peaceful days.

They no longer had to worry about zombies breaking down doors, nor about vicious survivors climbing over walls.

For the next week, Guanguan and his brother went to the cafeteria every day to do simple jobs and earned one little meal ticket each day.

After they came back, they locked the room door, entered the safehouse, and rarely crossed paths with the Qiao family.

On the lawn outside the window, a chubby little baby was spinning in circles with a black wolfdog puppy whose long ears stood straight up.

Soon enough, the puppy pounced and knocked the little baby over.

The two chubby cubs rolled around together, laughing and wrestling.

Little Apricot was a standard large-breed dog and needed plenty of exercise every day. Conveniently, overweight Guanguan also needed exercise too.

Wei Cheng noticed yet another passerby staring greedily at the glossy, well-fed little black dog.

Little Apricot had grown a lot, and now it could no longer be hidden inside a backpack.

He frowned, walked over, and helped Guanguan up. “Guanguan, it’s time to go back.”

Guanguan’s face was flushed from playing. Dragging the little black dog along, he walked toward home and shouted carefree, “Going home!”

But Wei Cheng felt troubled inside.

Driver Uncle’s and Uncle Sun Dali’s warnings were not without reason.

The puppy could not stay hidden forever in the cramped safehouse, but it also could not be taken outside to play all the time. If this kept up, they would have no way to protect Little Apricot.

Late that night, when all was quiet, Wei Cheng quietly called up the system panel.

After he and Guanguan successfully moved into the new base, the system had rewarded them with 3000 Twist Coins and a map of Highland Shelter.

Opening that map showed the entire base in high-definition detail. It even showed the general status of the survivors inside.

There were currently 1,281 people in the shelter—men and women, old and young, all sorts mixed together.

At that moment, he noticed a red dot appear in the task column.

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