The old lady silently finished the kumquat, her eyes filled with gratitude as she looked at Fu Erdie.
But Fu Erdie took a step back.
While she might not be able to resist saving a person’s life, a moment of soft-heartedness didn’t mean she would support them long-term.
Right now, she only had a bit of surplus. With potatoes producing two to three every two days, along with kumquats, sweet potatoes, and other crops gradually ripening, she could barely sustain herself. She was just starting to accumulate some new supplies.
She wouldn’t support someone who wasn’t crucial to her, nor would she expose her secrets.
“Take care,” she said, leaving behind those few words as she went to search the other rooms on this floor.
This time, to keep her secrets safe, she didn’t bring any potted plants. Instead, she moved useful items to 16-2 in batches, enduring discomfort, collecting corpses, and concentrating them in a corner room on the floor. Next to the corpses, she added a layer of soil and planted dandelion and cabbage seedlings.
Fu Erdie had already discovered that ordinary seeds had a very high survival rate in 16-1 and tended to mutate positively. But only the seeds capable of surviving outside were truly intelligent mutants.
The dandelions and cabbages planted on the 24th floor were intelligent mutant seedlings.
If the old lady found them when the cabbage matured, it would be fine to take them. If not, Fu Erdie wouldn’t go out of her way to remind her.
After finishing this, she returned to the corridor. The old lady was waiting for her, holding a bag.
Fu Erdie walked over. “Is there anything else?”
Seemingly aware that she was being cautious, the old lady didn’t say much. Instead, she lowered her head and rummaged through the dusty sack.
Inside were dozens of sprouting potatoes, a large bag of sesame paste, and a large can of oatmeal.
The old lady’s voice was no longer dry; she said softly, “I want to exchange some fruits with you, if that’s okay.”
Everything she took out for exchange needed to be soaked in water or couldn’t be consumed directly.
The old lady didn’t inquire about Fu Erdie’s situation. She just took out everything she could exchange.
“In exchange just a few bottles of water and the kumquats you just ate. How many exactly, you decide,” the old lady said sincerely, “You decide the amount, dear.”
Surrounded by zombies, the old lady couldn’t leave. Without water, no matter how much food she had, it would be useless.
Fu Erdie hesitated for a moment but ultimately agreed.
She hoped that when she helped the old lady, someone would also help her grandmother and aunt when they needed it.
Although this hope and effort didn’t necessarily equate to each other, she still wanted her grandmother and aunt to be okay.
Fu Erdie filled a bucket with water for the old lady and estimated her food intake, giving her the 30 kumquats she had saved up.
Kumquats could last for fifteen days at this temperature. With the old lady eating two to three a day, she should be able to get through a period of time.
As for the bag of dry goods Fu Erdie received, oatmeal and sesame paste could be eaten for breakfast, but the sprouting potatoes were a bit of a headache. She had nowhere to plant them.
During the sweep from the 16th to the 24th floor, she gradually acquired eleven more flowerpots. However, all the soil in these pots had already been sprinkled with scavenged seeds, leaving no space to plant more potatoes.
Moreover, the balcony was only a few square meters in size, with a flowerbed already occupying the edge, where many things were planted, taking up about two to three square meters. Behind it, there were another seventeen flowerpots, along with a wooden box carrying mutated green plants to be taken outside, taking up another two to three square meters.
As the crops grew larger, the distance between different pots gradually increased. The eco-friendly green plants also grew larger, now occupying the entire balcony. Planting more would mean having to extend to the living room or bedroom.
But here comes the problem, even if her small two-bedroom apartment is used entirely for planting, she still wouldn’t have enough soil.
However, what about these seeds and sprouted potatoes? Would she just ignore them? Use them as food for the house and eco-friendly green plants?
Fu Erdie couldn’t bear to do so.
She rubbed her chin, feeling at a loss for a moment.
After cleaning the 24th floor, Fu Erdie successfully reached the top floor.
The view from the rooftop was broad, allowing Fu Erdie to see the current situation of the surrounding buildings.
Compared to the early days of the apocalypse, the world now seemed overly quiet.
There were no chirping birds, only scorching heat.
Whether the zombies were affected by the heat or not, they rarely came out wandering. Instead, there were quite a few zombies wandering around in those residential buildings.
Suddenly, Fu Erdie felt that the high temperature made people tired, dehydrated, and decreased their appetite. But high temperature also had its advantages, as it not only limited humans but also constrained the zombies.
Now that she had cleared all the floors above the 16th, once she cleared the floors below the 16th as well, confirming that the entire building was free of zombies, she could attempt to seal off the building.
Whether it was the main entrance or the broken windows on the first floor, they all needed to be sealed.
When there were only her and the elderly lady left in the building, it would be unlikely to attract more zombies from afar.
At that time, even though her house was small, the continuously producing fruits from her crops could easily sustain the two of them. Seeds that couldn’t be planted anymore, even if they went bad, wouldn’t be as heart-breaking.
Fu Erdie hadn’t realized that she was already considering the elderly lady in her plans.
Now the question was, she could clean the floors one by one going down, but how could she seal off the windows on the first floor? Moreover, sealing off the windows was to isolate the smell as much as possible and block the zombies from entering. But in a pile of dilapidated buildings, if this building was sealed so tightly, wouldn’t it be too obvious?
Even if the zombies couldn’t get in, what about those survivors? Or the ability users who search for resources everywhere?
Fu Erdie felt the negative emotions surging again, took a deep breath, and forcibly suppressed them.
Returning to 16-2, she organized all the useful and useless things she scavenged, then went to water the barley in 16-7.
Compared to the potted plants and mutated plants at home, the smart mutated plants outside were very pitiful, looking listless all day long. Only when Fu Erdie came to water them did they perk up a little.
But Fu Erdie could still feel the barley’s resentment. After drinking water and feeling better, the little barley seedlings would unhappily poke Fu Erdie’s fingers, melting her heart.
But what could she do? There was no place to plant them now!
After finishing everything, Fu Erdie went home, took a shower, changed her clothes, and collapsed on the bed.
Physically exhausted but mentally tense, her less intelligent brain was spinning fast.
Currently, she had two very big problems. One was that she wasn’t an ability user and might not be able to defend this house or this building.
Secondly, she actually liked to get to the bottom of things. The house and the ivy were her backup, but they also grew step by step because they ate a lot of zombies.
Now, they couldn’t move, and the zombies they could eat were all gone. It had been a long time since they had eaten.
Every day, there was only a small amount of household waste to decompose, along with the waste from her and the dog in the bathroom. Perhaps she also needed to count the flies and mosquitoes flying around.
But could these things really keep the house running normally?
Air conditioning every day, water for drinking, bathing, and electricity used daily couldn’t just appear out of thin air.
Even if an ability user uses their ability, the prerequisite is that they must continue to eat to maintain their strength.
The house and the plants haven’t eaten in a long time. Can they hold up?
Once they can’t hold up, the comfort and stability she currently enjoys, clean water, fresh air, a cool indoor environment, and continuously produced crops… will all become meaningless.
Unless she is certain that this house and the ivy can photosynthesize, withstand wind and rain, and grow healthily, Fu Erdie’s dangling heart will never be at ease.
In the two months of the apocalypse, Fu Erdie learned one survival experience: when anxious and fearful, use physical busyness to wash away mental tension.
From the 16th floor downwards, a whole 15 floors, she cleaned each floor at the fastest speed.
Among them, on the eighth floor, she brought potato seedlings. During this time, the potato seedlings contributed 30 potatoes.
Potato seedlings work one day and rest one day. During the seven days of rest, seven floors, it was up to the gardenias and spider plants.
As for the most adorable and slow-moving of the eco-friendly plants, succulents, Fu Erdie simply took one floor at a time, bringing it along, placing it where it could be seen, treating it as a mascot to improve and regulate her mood. As for food, it could eat as much as it wanted. If it was bullied by kindergarten classmates… by the spider plants or potato seedlings stealing its food, Fu Erdie would try to stop it, if possible. If she couldn’t stop it, there was nothing she could do.
It took Fu Erdie almost half a month to clear the entire building.
During this time, in addition to some routine supplies, Fu Erdie also found some inspiring items.
Firstly, power strips.
Fu Erdie couldn’t wire them, but she knew how to use power strips.
In each room, she could find at least two power strips. And for households engaged in certain businesses or activities outside that required very long power strips, this was a boon for Fu Erdie.
With over two hundred households and four to five hundred power strips collected in total, Fu Erdie felt like she could circle the earth twice.
Anyway, it was no problem to connect from the 16th floor to the 1st floor.
That meant she could install surveillance cameras on the floors needed in this building.
And surveillance cameras were also found by Fu Erdie, along with a series of tools she could use.
There was a surveillance camera in the corridor outside her house. For fun, she had also bought a pet camera before, so she had some basic knowledge of surveillance equipment.
Some surveillance cameras could only connect to the network for remote transmission, while others only had recording functions.
In the current environment, if she wanted to remotely monitor the situation downstairs, she could only use Bluetooth surveillance.
However, Bluetooth has limited range, at most it can be used across one floor. If Fu Erdie doesn’t move to the second floor, she won’t be able to know the movements in and out of the first floor at all times.
Fortunately, Fu Erdie stumbled upon a third tool, a walkie-talkie.
Different walkie-talkies, as long as they are adjusted to the same channel, can communicate with each other. From the 24th floor, Fu Erdie found 9 walkie-talkies. As long as they are within five kilometres of each other, they can definitely hear each other’s voices. Fu Erdie feels like she knows how to settle the little old lady now.
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