Chapter 35 Peace and Safety
Bai Tang and An An were warming themselves by the stove inside the house, waiting for Gu Yanxu and the others to return.
About half an hour later, Gu Yanxu and Lin Fan returned with two packages each, and then went back to their respective rooms to make their beds.
Bai Tang stopped Li Ping, who still wanted to help, and told him to go back and rest. It was already very late, so Li Ping stopped and headed into the house.
Bai Tang went to each of their rooms and took out thick blankets from her space. Since there was no stove in the room, they could make do with more blankets for now.
After finishing making their quilts, Bai Tang and Gu Yanxu returned to their room, where the bedding had already been laid out on the bed, and Bai Tang also took out a thick quilt.
Gu Yanxu pulled Bai Tang aside and said, "You've had a long day, go and rest. We can talk about it tomorrow."
Everyone lay down to rest. Li An took out a few milk candies from under his pillow and handed them to Li Ping.
"Brother, have some candy. That older sister gave it to me. It's really sweet."
Li Ping took a piece of candy, unwrapped it, and put it in his mouth. He hadn't eaten candy in a long time, and he was still just a teenager.
Li Ping put the remaining candy back into her sister's hand.
"Brother, just eat one. An'an can keep the rest for herself."
Is An'an hungry? Brother, go get the bread that the older sister gave you and give it to An'an.
Li An looked at his brother, nodded, and said, "An'an is hungry, and your brother must be hungry too. Brother, eat with us."
Li Ping took out the two bags of bread that Bai Tang had given him, hid one of them in the house, and then opened the other bag and gave his sister two-thirds of the bread, while Li Ping ate the remaining one-third.
After eating the bread, Li Ping added a few more pieces of wood to the stove, then told his sister to go to sleep. Soon after, he also lay down to sleep.
Before going to sleep, Li Ping kept thinking: My sister and her group are so kind. Tomorrow I need to work even harder to guide them.
As night fell, everyone gradually fell asleep.
The next day, Bai Tang and the others got up, and Li Ping also got up early.
Li Ping was thinking about how to buy some food to make breakfast for Bai Tang and the others when Bai Tang came to their room and called the two siblings to come eat.
Lin Zhou and Bai Jiyang managed to cook a pot of porridge in Li Ping's kitchen that morning, and also cut a few sausages from Bai Tang's space.
Bai Tang also took out some steamed buns made of coarse grains from her space to eat as a staple food.
After all, they had just arrived at the base and were renting a place from someone else, so they couldn't eat too well, or people would become suspicious.
However, these simple dishes were already considered delicacies by Li Ping and his sister.
Since the end of the world, the two of them have been going hungry, relying entirely on Li Ping to earn contribution points or food by doing odd jobs outside, since Li An is only seven years old and too young.
While Bai Tang was calling Li Ping and Li An, Gu Yanxu and the others cleared out a place in the house where they could sit and eat.
While Li Ping and his companion were still in shock at the hot porridge and coarse grain steamed buns in front of them, Bai Jiyang brought over another bowl of hot porridge.
Seeing this, Li Ping quickly went over to help serve the food, while Bai Tang pulled An An to sit down.
I picked up a whole-grain steamed bun and put it in An'an's hand, saying, "Eat breakfast, An'an. You can grow taller if you eat your fill."
Bai Tang called out to Li Ping, who was still busy, "Come sit down and eat, Pingping."
Bai Tang called him Pingping without any hesitation, because she understood the meaning behind their names: their parents hoped that the two children would be safe and sound.
After everyone sat down, Li Ping said with tears in her eyes, "Thank you for taking care of me, sisters. I will help you with the work and show you around in a little while."
Lin Fan smiled after hearing this and said, "Don't cry, none of us know how to comfort a child."
One sentence made Li Ping laugh through his tears.
At first, Li Ping and An An were quite reserved and only drank porridge, not daring to add sausage.
Lin Feng saw this and put a large piece on each of their plates, then said, "Eat up. We don't mistreat child laborers. You need to be full so you have the strength to lead the way for us."
Only then did Li Ping and Li Ping dare to eat heartily.
Bai Tang said to them, "I don't mistreat children, so you can eat."
"Meow~" The canned food also joined in the fun. Bai Tang poured cat food into its cat bowl, without adding any meat.
Bai Tang didn't eat much of the canned cat food; after finishing her meal, she picked up the canned food.
He said, "Canned food, if you get any fatter, I won't be able to hug you anymore."
Then she whispered to the canned food, "When no one's around, I'll give you extra food, two more cans."
When the canned food heard that two more could be added, it meowed excitedly. The canned food is becoming more and more human-like.
After everyone had eaten breakfast, Li Ping volunteered to clear the dishes, and Bai Tang didn't stop him.
It's good to make him do some work, so he doesn't think that Bai Tang and the others are being taken advantage of and that they can eat without doing anything.
Li An, the younger sister, also thoughtfully helped her brother carry some things.
After they finished packing, Li Ping came over and asked Bai Tang if there was anywhere else they wanted to go.
Bai Tang said she wanted to visit the housing center at the base.
Li Ping told his younger sister to stay home and wait patiently, and then he was about to take Bai Tang and the others out.
Bai Tang said, "Aren't you comfortable leaving your younger sister home alone like this?"
Li Ping said, "I was worried but there was nothing I could do. She's so young, I can't leave her outside in the cold. I could only lock the door from the outside and have her lock it from the inside as well."
Bai Tang didn't say anything after hearing this, nor did she suggest that one of the men stay behind to take care of a little girl like An An.
Li Ping would never risk entrusting his sister to a stranger he had only met once.
Even though Bai Tang and the others treated them very well yesterday, one should always be wary of others.
As they spoke, Li Ping locked the gate and left with Bai Tang and the others.
As they walked, Li Ping explained to Bai Tang and the others what he knew about the base.
The base's residential areas are roughly divided into several zones: refugee zone, general zone, intermediate zone, high-level zone (rich zone), official zone, and military zone.
Refugee area: The refugee camp is in a mess, and most people live in houses built by refugees.
Those who couldn't get into the refugee camp simply set up tents outside and lived there as a family; a whole area of these tent refugees was set up.
The hygiene inside was even more worrying, with garbage dumped everywhere and the environment extremely poor.
The general area consists of ordinary bungalows built on a foundation, as well as some low-rise buildings that are not yet decorated.
Most of the people living inside are those who are capable of earning money in the base or who have certain resources.
The living conditions inside are not great, but they are better than those in the refugee camp.
Intermediate Zone: Inside are buildings with doors and windows built on the base, as well as some detached courtyards, but those courtyards are also bare.
In the intermediate district, some people use their contribution points to buy houses, while others can't afford to buy houses, so they rent houses together and live in a small courtyard.
Of course, the town where Li Ping and his family lived also belonged to the intermediate zone, but the authorities had not yet allocated their houses to other people and were still letting them live in their own homes.
The environment in the middle-class area is relatively good, and most of the people who can afford to buy a house are of decent quality.
The wealthy area: The wealthy people live in some of the original villas, hotels, buildings and detached houses in the base.
The hotel was originally built as a scenic spot by Nanshan Mountain Villa, and has since been bought by some wealthy individuals.
The government has not built any villa districts, so the number of villas in those affluent areas is limited.
The authorities and the military are too busy dealing with the accommodation needs of ordinary people to pay attention to the demands of the wealthy: to build them more villas.
It's called a rich area because those wealthy people had already stockpiled a lot of supplies through their economic power when the apocalypse came, which is why they were able to join the ranks of the rich in the apocalypse.