Chapter 6 Straight from the Horse’s Mouth

Translator Notes: next time I’ll make the post ahead of time and set publish date instead…

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The doorway became an enclosed space due to Luo Xun’s home renovation. In order to enter the living room one had to go through an additional door. This was a safety precaution, in the event someone opens the door after the apocalypse they would not see the entire house at a glance.

At this moment he was sitting in the entranceway putting on shoes when a chorus of whimpers echoed from the living room.

“You! Acting so pitiful.” Luo Xun exasperatedly strode back into the house and lifted the puppy by her scruff.

“You want to go outside with me?”

The puppy panted with her small tongue lolled out and brush-like tail wagging back and forth.

“Why?! It’s so cold outside! Honestly, just stay home and behave.”

The puppy’s tail continued to wag. Luo Xun bent over and put the puppy back in her cage.

“Wooo….” The pitiful voice resurfaced and the tail drooped.

Luo Xun soothingly patted the puppy’s head. “I’ll be back later and bring something good. So behave at home, don’t make too much noise.”

If the weather permitted, he may spoil the puppy and hold it outside. The puppy was too young and the weather was too cold. The dog was rather smart, no matter what Luo Xun would not let her so she quietly laid on the mat looking with big soulful eyes.

Luo Xun sighed and felt he brought big trouble back. Even if the puppy did not mutate, how would he walk the dog when grown the zombies everywhere! He changed his shoes, locked the door and headed to the elevator with a sigh. A notice was posted on the first floor near the the elevator.

Printed above, ‘On December 10 the property offices open the doors. Hydro, electricity and gas may be subject to change before and after the New Year’s Day to be notified otherwise. The building had not yet been completely set up. Water and electricity timetables were temporary – one did not have to pay every month. The utility companies would come and collect fees after everything was finalized.

Luo Xun read the notice again, shaking his head as he walked out – he can save some of his money… However since the district was not yet completed, there were occasional temporary water shortages. He needed to reserve two days worth of water.

He drove home in his used car after the last shopping trip. In the past few days he had visited the farmer’s market and purchased vacuum sealed rice, flour, oil and other grains in bulk. After he drove to all the southwestern area pharmacies.

It was inconvenient to buy medicine online, especially those with specific prerequisites. Luo Xun could buy first supplies online but for the others like anti-inflammatories and cold medicine he had to visit a pharmacy.

Each time he entered a pharmacy he only bought one or two boxes due to the limitations. However there are dozens of pharmacies, small and large in the area. How many could he hit? Thus Luo Xun spent the last sum of money on multi-purpose but hard to access drugs, along with some more common drugs and rice.

Using this method, Luo Xun could quietly amass a lot of medicine, the city is big enough for that. If he had enough money he could have gone through the entire city instead. He stacked and organized everything into the house. The puppy sniffed around and perked up, owner had come home early! Luo Xun had become more cautious when returning home since the puppy had attempted to run out the door.

“Don’t run around! You could fall off the railing!”

Luo Xun huffed as he dropped the last bag of soil on the ground. His head hurt as he saw the filled living room. So many things, when would he have the time to organize it all? An unorganized room would never be clean!

Before, Luo Xun had purchased a number of buckets, boxes and aquariums online. After delivery, there was no walking space left. Fortunately the stacked boxes did not occupy much space. Being space efficient was a good thing. Luo Xun temporarily piled garden supplies on the terrace.

The rice, flour, oil and grains were heaped outside the kitchen door. The storage room next to the kitchen would be used as a nursery with higher temperatures to plant shade loving crops and maybe mushrooms. The balcony would cultivate fruits with the remaining space used for storing hardware and tools.

The living room was storage, Luo Xun placed three freezers along with a microwave oven, electric stove, small stone mill, peeler, manual meat grinder, manual sausage machine, distillation equipment, spare buckets and baskets. There was also a pile of bulk rice and noodle to the side.

On the second floor there was a small amount of instant food, vacuum sealed rice, noodles, grain, oil, sealed seed packets, a spare plastic pipe and a large amount of charcoal. In the large bedroom there were large cabinets, bed,  a bedside table, small desk, a laptop and boxes of medicine. There’s also spare clothing in the wardrobe, several sets of bedding and fabric packed in compression bags.

These things would always be useful, Luo Xun remembered the disaster of three to four years before the base reorganized the textile mills. At that time cotton, flax and other plants had large scale mutations. Raw materials became extremely scarce, people changed back to ‘a pair of pants and a child’.

Behind the first floor staircase, Luo Xun hid barrels of recently bought gasoline and diesel due to restrictions of these goods. The demand for gasoline was not that high from what he remembered from being a part of an adventure group but it was still better to have some reserves.

Lastly on the second floor terrace he placed shelves above the patio, some have plants but others had been set aside for future use. Along with the shelves, small buckets with holes were placed alongside the terrace.

For these he could wait until spring to plant some crops according to weather conditions. A grill stood in the center of the terrace, circular with a new iron grille and filled with coal. When covered, a charcoal briquette burned faster than if open. If the sun was not strong enough or the sky was continuously cloudy, Luo Xun could feed charcoal to the fire. He would also use wood as fuel if reserves ran low.

By the time everything was prepared, it was mid-November. Luo Xun woke up and opened the tap to collect water. Not long ago Luo Xun hired someone to install solar water heaters, he also secretly added two on the small cistern roof.

Normally, by December the extras would have to be demolished because the weight is not safe and authorization for public uses would be needed. But for now, it is private property if the apocalypse does not occur Luo Xun would naturally remove the water tank. However if doomsday did occur as foretold, the water heaters would be a life saving measure.

The kitchen cabinets were filled with all sorts of things. Luo Xun joyfully rolled up his sleeves, hands covered in flour. How many years had it been since he cooked with white flour and rice? He did not get the chance in his previous life.

Before the apocalypse, Luo Xun bought all his food other than instant noodles. He could only fry and scramble eggs. He actually learned how to cook after the apocalypse but by then he had no chance. Ordinary people could not buy rice.

Now he had an abundance of ingredients, water and electricity! If not now, then would he be able to cook to his heart’s desire. The puppy was sleeping with a full stomach, the milk was not the same as mother’s but there were no thieving brothers or sisters!

 

The scent of cooking and the sound of owner’s humming was very comfortable. Although she cannot huddle and snuggle with her brothers and sisters, yesterday owner bought a dog plush she can cuddle with while sleeping.

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