Chapter 36 p2
Three hours later
Ji Yang knew what Xie Muzhi meant by “wait.”
He had directly cooked a seafood feast before he left and had Luo Laosan pack it and send it over!
A small portion was in a thermal container, and the rest was in ordinary takeout boxes.
Luo Laosan was wrapped up tightly and didn’t even let Ji Yang come down. He huffed and puffed all the way up to the fifteenth floor, handed the things over, and didn’t forget to pass on Xie Muzhi’s instructions. “The ones in the thermal container can be eaten directly. These need to be heated. The boss said your house has a fireplace, so you can just heat it with the fireplace. No need to stir-fry.”
Then he handed over a pack of couplets and door gods for the New Year and said enthusiastically, “Why don’t I put them up for you?”
The ones that Ji Yang had put up on her door last year had long since fallen off. She didn’t know who had torn them off with their itchy hands, and she hadn’t paid any attention.
Ji Yang took them in a daze, still a little dazed. But she refused Luo Laosan’s help. “No need. I’ll just put them up myself when I have nothing to do.”
“That’s fine,” Luo Laosan chuckled. Even though there was no one else around, he still spoke as if he were whispering. “Miss Ji, I told you I thought you were unusual the first time I saw you. I didn’t expect to have this fate. As soon as the boss came back, he started cooking. He was so busy that his feet didn’t touch the ground. The few of us were ordered around. We thought something had happened, that we were having our last supper. It turned out that he was going on a mission and didn’t have time to cook. He was called away before he had finished the last bit. Otherwise, he would have delivered it himself.”
They were all good stuff, and they were alive, not frozen.
He didn’t even know where the boss had gotten them.
The most crucial thing was that they had always thought that the boss was a high and mighty flower. Even if he were to fall in love, he would be the one being pursued. After all, a big man, so handsome, like a pretty boy.
But he had met the even colder Miss Ji and had directly become a pug.
Miss Ji can’t cook seafood. He was about to go on a mission, but he still had to hurry up and cook it, and have someone send it to Miss Ji.
It was heartbreaking to see.
Only then did Luo Laosan say a few more words. At least he had done it, so he had to let people know. In this world now, it was not easy to meet someone you liked, and it was even more difficult to be together.
The few of them were fine. Most of them had wives and children before the disaster. The only single ones were a few young people who followed Liang Yuan, and… the boss.
Ji Yang was actually a little surprised.
And a little shocked.
Xie Muzhi hadn’t specifically told her anything, but he had indeed done it, and he could even do it to this extent. Thinking of how the two of them usually got along, Xie Muzhi was not a clingy person, but when they were together, he was always paying attention to her needs.
At least the two of them got along very happily.
Ji Yang’s eyes curved. “Thank you, I know.”
Luo Laosan didn’t say much more, so he nodded. “Is there anything Miss Ji needs me to do? If not, I’ll be going. If you have anything, just say it. For example, if something is broken and needs to be repaired, the boss has already taken care of it. Don’t be polite.”
“No, no,” Ji Yang shook her head. “Everything is fine.”
Only then did Luo Laosan leave with peace of mind.
Ji Yang, on the other hand, looked at the things piled at her feet and only came to her senses after a long while.
The main reason was that the door was not closed, and the cold wind from outside was about to freeze her.
She quickly closed the door, directly stored the things in her space, looked at the time, and found that it was just dinner time. So, she took out the thermal container again. As soon as she opened it, a fragrance wafted over.
The steam dissipated, and a closer look revealed three dishes and one soup: seafood and mushroom soup, fried king crab legs, salt and pepper mantis shrimp, and steamed egg with sea urchin and shrimp.
The portion was not large, but with rice, it was just enough for one meal.
It was quite a good calculation.
Xixi was also attracted over, staring with pitiful eyes.
Ji Yang thought for a moment and gave it a crab leg. “Have a taste.”
Xixi happily took the crab leg to its nest to eat.
However, the crab leg was a little soft from being in the thermal container. Ji Yang didn’t eat it immediately, but first put it on the fireplace to heat it up. After confirming that the skin was crispy again, she began to eat.
The taste was indeed delicious. It was not frozen and then thawed, but directly cooked with fresh and live seafood. The texture was on another level.
Ji Yang ate with great satisfaction and couldn’t help but admire Xie Muzhi’s ability as a “daoye.” He could even get fresh and live seafood at a temperature of minus fifty or sixty degrees. Amazing!
—
The next day was New Year’s Eve.
Ji Yang took out the couplets that Xie Muzhi had asked Luo Laosan to send and spent some time putting them up.
She had actually bought some herself, but the time on them was still from last year. Xie Muzhi’s batch was from this year, which was very good.
After they were all put up, it was time for cleaning.
Normally, when she was at home, she was too lazy to move, but she had a robot vacuum cleaner, the latest model from 2060. Its function was powerful, sweeping and mopping at the same time. The floor could be cleaned very clean, and the long hair she had shed was also cleaned up smoothly.
So, the house was generally kept very clean.
It was just that the tables, chairs, and benches, as well as some nooks and crannies, were difficult to take care of.
A sense of ritual was still necessary. Life was already so deprived, and these things could not be lost. So, Ji Yang was full of energy. The first step was to store all the furniture in her space.
Having a space was convenient. Now, the entire living room and the room she was in were all cleared out.
Then, the robot vacuum cleaner.
While the robot vacuum cleaner was cleaning, Ji Yang was cleaning the furniture in her space. A simple wipe with a cloth dipped in detergent could wipe off the dust. Then, she would wipe it with a clean cloth, and after one was done, she would put it back.
By the time everything was cleaned, Ji Yang also came out of her space, and the robot vacuum cleaner happened to go back to charge and rest.
She then put the furniture out one by one.
It was clearly just a simple cleaning, but it felt like the whole house had been refreshed!
After that was cleaning the balcony, windowsill, and other dead corners.
After everything was done, Ji Yang first took out her phone, took a video of the whole house, and then took a high-definition photo of each one. When she was old, these would all be memories. Of course, she didn’t forget to take a bunch of photos with Xixi.
In the photo, her long hair was a little messy from being busy, and her cheeks were also rosy. When she smiled, her face was full, and it was clear that she had not suffered.
So good.
After throwing her phone into her space, Ji Yang was so tired that she collapsed on the sofa for three hours.
Cleaning the nooks and crannies was simply more tiring than exercising.
However, after all this tossing and turning, it was time for dinner.
Ji Yang took out the official version of the seafood feast that Xie Muzhi had sent over, transferred these from the ordinary takeout boxes to plates, and reheated them all. At 7:30, she began to eat dinner. Hers was seafood, and Xixi’s was a whole rabbit.
At the same time, the television was playing a Spring Festival Gala that she had randomly selected.
When she encountered a program that made her embarrassed, she would bury her head and eat. When she encountered one she liked, she would watch it with relish.
Without realizing it, it was almost twelve o’clock.
Ji Yang immediately went to the rooftop.
She lit the fireworks she had prepared long ago.
The brilliant fireworks exploded in the sky, and some fireworks and firecrackers also sounded from other corners of the city. As for the base, it was too far away, and she couldn’t see it from here.
However, this was enough for the human and the dog to have some fun.
As soon as it was twelve o’clock, Ji Yang held Xixi, and her voice was clear and cheerful, “Xixi, Happy New Year!”
Xixi was still a little afraid of the fireworks, but with its owner holding it, it became energetic again and wagged its tail in response, “Woof woof woof!”
—
After the New Year, everything seemed to be the same as usual.
It was still a world of ice and snow, still extreme low temperatures, and still sparsely populated.
But Ji Yang remembered that the temperature would probably start to rise after the New Year.
So, she had been paying attention to the changes in temperature.
During this period, the five hundred square meters of rice in her space planting area was also harvested by her. She had harvested about eight hundred and fifty jin, but this was the weight with the husks. She didn’t plan to husk it either and would just leave it for now, and use it when she needed it in the future.
For the time being, the rice she had hoarded after her rebirth was enough for her to eat.
It wasn’t until the tenth day that the thermometer clearly showed—it was indeed starting to warm up!
Ji Yang had placed the thermometer on the window of the storage room. After the New Year, she would go in every day to record the temperature. Ever since the freezing rain, the temperature had been stable at minus sixty-five degrees for a long time, and minus fifty-five degrees during the day.
But the last few times she had gone to see, it had reached minus fifty-two degrees during the day, and minus fifty-one degrees…
At the beginning, the change was not obvious. If it weren’t for the fact that Ji Yang had been looking at the thermometer, she wouldn’t have noticed.
But after a period of time, she could feel that the temperature had indeed gone up.
In fact, Ji Yang was very repulsed by the rising temperature. She would even rather be in a state of extreme cold for the next few years. At the very least, the food would not rot as quickly, and the ocean could still provide a certain amount of food.
But the natural disaster would definitely not follow the will of humans. It was willful and strong.
Therefore, humans could only try their best to adapt to it.
The floods were coming, and after the floods, the predicted extreme heat. There had been extreme cold, plus the blizzard, which had lasted for a year. It was impossible for the government not to believe this, so they had to prepare in advance.
After another ten days or so, the temperature had risen to about minus twenty degrees. Heating equipment was no longer needed. Two fireplaces were completely enough, and even a little too much.
During this period, Ji Yang had gone out once.
She found that there were more and more people outside. It hadn’t reached above zero yet, and the ice layer was still there, but the temperature was no longer so cold that people would freeze to death easily. So, everyone’s search for supplies had expanded. The news of the floods was no longer a secret. Everyone knew, and they were even more frantically trying to get more supplies to exchange for points and hoard them as food at home.
Otherwise, once the flood came, it would be difficult for ordinary people to go out, and they would really have to starve to death at home.
There were also more and more people in the base. The people who had been afraid to travel long distances due to the temperature had all come out to seek the help of the country.
This was what Luo Laosan had told her.
Worried that she had any needs, and Xie Muzhi had not come back, Luo Laosan would come over about every ten days to send some things. Ji Yang would also give back some fruit or medicinal herbs each time.
The base had used many methods to spread the news of the impending floods and torrential rains.
For example, broadcasting, helicopters patrolling everywhere and leaving notices, and so on.
Therefore, even those who were living in the villages and still had grain for the time being had all come out.
This also caused the number of people to far exceed the current capacity of the base. So, the base was still expanding outwards, striving to accommodate more survivors. But the real core area was still the ones that had been planned at the beginning. If there were earthquakes and the like, these survivors would have to run this way.
The further out you went, the cheaper the houses were.
This time when she went, Ji Yang had brought two more bags of medicinal herbs. Luo Laosan’s eyes went straight. Unfortunately, now Miss Ji was directly giving them to the boss, and he could no longer enjoy the generous commission.
However, every time Ji Yang came, she would bring some fruit over, saying that she was letting them help her eat some, to prevent them from going bad when the temperature completely rose.
Luo Laosan could always get the largest portion and then take it home for his wife and children to eat.
But now, Xie Muzhi still hadn’t come back.
She didn’t stay in the base for long. After Ji Yang had delivered the things and gotten a large bag of jade, she was about to leave. Because there were many people, she didn’t dare to drive the motorcycle fast. She was moving slowly on the road when she suddenly noticed someone looking at her. Ji Yang looked back a few more times and met a pair of familiar eyes.
“Ji Yang!” The other party’s eyes also lit up, and she ran over excitedly. Seeing that the person in front of her was intact, Zhao Xing almost cried out, “I thought you were dead. I looked for you in the base for a long time and couldn’t find you!”
Ji Yang was a little dazed.
Zhao Xing was her friend. Their family backgrounds were similar. Zhao Xing’s grandparents and her grandparents lived in the same community. But later, after Zhao Xing’s grandparents had passed away, she had not gone there anymore. But the two had become friends because of this and often played together.
Besides, there were many other similar friends.
It was just that Zhao Xing was the best of them. In her previous life, Ji Yang had gone to old man Ji’s place and had never seen Zhao Xing again. She had not seen her after coming to the base either.
She hadn’t expected to meet her so early in this life.
It could be said that Zhao Xing represented her beautiful youth. So, suddenly seeing her in this gray apocalypse, she couldn’t react for a moment.
But she quickly came to her senses. “Mm, I’m still alive. I’m fine. How are you?”
With that, she sized up Zhao Xing.
The person in front of her was much thinner, and her skin was not as delicate as before, but overall, it was still very good.
Zhao Xing also sized her up. Seeing that she was the same as before the apocalypse, except for her cold expression, and her whole person seemed to be much colder than before, there was no difference, especially her still well-maintained and tender face, she was so envious.
She also showed a smile. “I’m fine. Thanks to your reminder, I bought a lot of things, so I didn’t starve to death. It’s just that I was unlucky enough to be targeted for robbery by many people. Fortunately, my dad also had a strong sense of crisis and inquired everywhere about the situation. So, he got a connection and immediately handed over his assets. The government arranged for a new place to live, and the safety was greatly improved. After the base was built, my family also moved over immediately. We’re in the second district now. What about you?”
She glanced at the car, and then thought of how Ji Yang had reminded her that something was wrong during the blizzard. She might have made more preparations. “Could you be in the first district?”
The first and second districts were the villa area and the high-end residential area. But it was the apocalypse, so they hadn’t been given any particularly nice names.
Ji Yang smiled and shook her head. “I live outside, not in the base.”
Zhao Xing’s eyes widened. “Holy crap, aren’t you afraid of dying?! It’s so dangerous outside!”
Ji Yang said mysteriously, “I have some life-saving means.”
“Haha, alright, you’re amazing,” Zhao Xing gave her a thumbs up and then enthusiastically pulled her. “It’s still early. Let me treat you to some milk tea. I heard that after a while, when the floods come, the milk tea shops will all close down. If we don’t drink it now, we won’t have time. Want to go?”
Ji Yang couldn’t resist her enthusiasm. She looked at the time. It was past three in the afternoon, and it was still early, so she nodded.