Chapter 79: Eat More Sweets, Forget the Bitterness of the Past
Then, she received the full month’s rent for May, totaling 215,000 Federal Coins.
Adding this to her original savings of 400,000, her total assets reached a whopping 610,000 Federal Coins.
Su Tao had never held such a substantial amount of wealth in her hands before. For a moment, she felt a bit light-headed.
Her heart raced, and she almost wanted to click and upgrade all the shops at once.
But she held back and began to rationally consider the cost-effectiveness of each upgrade.
Spending 200,000 on upgrading the home goods store would unlock the purchase of smart home appliances, such as robot vacuums, fingerprint-locked doors, temperature-controlled water dispensers, automatic curtains, voice-activated lights, and various smart gadgets.
Rooms furnished with smart home devices could significantly increase the rental income.
Spending 500,000 on upgrading the public facilities store would allow for the expansion of an underground level.
This was equivalent to doubling Taoyang’s usable land area.
The expanded basement could be developed into an underground parking lot or a commercial street.
At that point, all vending machines could be moved underground. As the variety of machines and products increased, a business district could form, allowing everyone to shop in a centralized location.
And she even dreamed that if Taoyang became as large as Changjing in the future, they could build subways and underground tunnels like before the apocalypse, achieving a qualitative leap in urban transportation…
Su Tao stopped daydreaming. Upgrading any shop would cost hundreds of thousands.
Plus, the next system upgrade would require a full million.
Thinking this way, 600,000 in assets suddenly didn’t feel like much at all…
Since she needed to keep cash on hand, she had to either upgrade one shop or save everything to hit the million needed for the system upgrade in one go.
After careful consideration, the penny-pinching Su Tao ultimately didn’t spend a single coin. She decided to wait until they reached the Shou’an Base, where there would be a signal, and call Old Mei for professional advice.
Closing the system panel to get some sleep, Su Tao suddenly heard noises from the back of the car. She crawled over and pressed her face to the rear window to look out.
Shi Zijin had brought two subordinates and opened the vehicle containing the “Bone Wings,” climbing in through the sunroof one by one.
Su Tao’s heart started to race. She turned and gently nudged the sleeping Guan Zining, whispering, “I saw Major Shi get into that car back there. Why would he go in? Isn’t it too dangerous?”
Guan Zining woke up and pulled her down to lie flat together, “Go to sleep. It’s nothing major. They’re just giving that monster a nutrient drip to keep it barely alive. People need to eat, and so do zombies. If it dies, how would we explain it to Changjing?”
Only then did Su Tao feel relieved, though her heart still pounded.
She tugged on Guan Zining’s clothes: “It won’t break out, will it?”
Annoyed by her questions, Guan Zining turned over, muttering sleepily, “It won’t. Now sleep. If you talk again, I’ll hit you.”
Su Tao kicked her on the butt—taking action first to gain the upper hand.
The two began to play around, wrestling with each other. The backup driver glanced back but didn’t interfere.
Xue Dao merely twitched his ears and continued sleeping.
But suddenly, Lin Fangzhi burst out from the space, pulling Guan Zining away from Su Tao. He glared at her like an angry little black sesame ball.
Su Tao quickly soothed him: “It’s okay, it’s okay. We’re just playing around, not fighting.”
After coaxing for a long time, Lin Fangzhi finally understood that Su Tao wasn’t being bullied. He calmed down and returned to his well-behaved, childlike state.
Guan Zining’s drowsiness was gone. She looked at Lin Fangzhi with frustration and muttered, “Like a little wolf cub.”
After a bumpy night, they encountered a few small waves of zombies the next day. They dealt with them, ate, watched TV, and killed time until around 5 p.m., when the convoy stopped for the final round of preparations.
Su Tao started seeing ragged survivors walking in groups toward the Shou’an Base.
These people looked at the massive convoy with both fear and desperate hope.
In less than twenty minutes, five or six women, all skin and bones and with children in tow, cautiously approached the waste water the logistics team had just dumped.
It was wastewater from washing and kitchen scraps.
On the dry, hot ground, the water slowly seeped in, and fearing it would soon evaporate, the women braved their fear of the unfamiliar convoy and rushed forward. They lay on the ground, licking the water and using small containers to scoop from the tiny puddles.
Most of their children were only four or five years old. They lay beside their mothers, drinking the water, their faces covered in mud and dust. Yet when they looked up, they still wore innocent smiles.
Shi Zijin and his team seemed unfazed by the scene. They neither chased them away nor paid them any attention, letting the survivors follow behind the convoy, scavenging trash and drinking the dirty water.
Su Tao couldn’t bear to watch and pulled down the privacy curtain to block the view.
Guan Zining asked her, “Do you want to help them?”
Su Tao shook her head. “I can’t help. If I give water to even one person, our convoy won’t be able to move.”
The survivors, driven mad by thirst and hunger, would cling to them like a lifeline, refusing to let go.
Looking out, there were around a hundred survivors. Even if they couldn’t cause significant damage to the convoy, they would severely slow them down and create unnecessary trouble.
Her compassion wasn’t that excessive.
Guan Zining raised an eyebrow. “You’re quite clear-headed. Some of our pioneer soldiers, on their first mission, gave food to these people. In the end, the Major had to kill two survivors and use force to stabilize the situation.”
Su Tao sighed and reached out to touch Lin Fangzhi’s long hair.
Seeing those kids lying on the ground reminded her that when Lin Fangzhi was that young, he didn’t even have a mother. He might not have even been allowed to lie on the ground and drink water with them.
The more she thought about it, the more her heart ached. Su Tao took out a candy, peeled it, and popped it into Lin Fangzhi’s mouth.
Eat more sweets—maybe it’ll help you forget the bitterness of the past.
As the sweetness melted in his mouth, Lin Fangzhi gave Su Tao a silly, cheerful smile.
At 7 p.m., just before sunset, the convoy finally reached the Shou’an Base.
This was Su Tao’s first time seeing a base other than Dongyang.
She hadn’t realized that not all bases cared about the safety of ordinary people’s lives like Dongyang did.
Dongyang at least had a low wall as a boundary, with sentries stationed around the base to ensure safety.
Shou’an had nothing.
The base, home to 50,000 people, didn’t even have a main gate, let alone walls to prevent external invasions.
Some of the poorest people’s houses were built on the outskirts, acting as a makeshift wall—crumbling, dilapidated, with the faint sight of corpses surrounded by flies.
It seemed as if you could smell the stench of decay even from a distance.
Su Tao’s jaw dropped. She suppressed the nausea in her stomach and asked Guan Zining, “Aren’t they afraid of dying? Wouldn’t evolved zombies love this place? They wouldn’t even need to climb walls—they could just rush in and start killing.”
Guan Zining replied, “A lot of them have already died recently. The wealthy moved to the city center long ago, where there’s armed protection.”
