Although Dong Junwei was the class monitor of Class 4, her social circle had expanded to encompass the entire school. While she and He Ying might not have been very close, they had exchanged words on several occasions. At the very least, during the school sports events where Dong Junwei often served as the host, it was impossible not to have any interactions with He Ying, who represented the athletes.
"Let's go in first and then we can talk."
Dong Junwei didn't immediately inquire about what had happened; instead, she directed everyone to start carrying things.
The eight bags of condiments were taken out one by one, and everyone took turns pushing them under the door crack.
Then, three or four people carried each bag and brought all the condiments inside.
Even the remaining instant noodle wrappers were not discarded. Chen Mu asked Wei Dalei to help pull them inside.
As they entered the room, Chen Mu blinked in surprise, almost thinking he had walked into the wrong place.
The storage room had undergone a significant change.
The towels that were once scattered on the ground were now neatly stacked in the corner. The defective cutlery that used to be scattered in that corner had also been tidied up and placed along the wall.
It was evident that the floor had been cleaned.
Overall, it was much cleaner and tidier than when they had left.
"After you guys left, we thought since we had nothing else to do, we might as well tidy up here. After all, we'll be staying here for a long time, and treating it like our own home, we can't just leave it in a mess all the time," Dong Junwei explained. "But we can only do what we can; those larger items, we don't have the ability to handle. We'll have to wait for you and Dalei to come back and deal with them."
The storage room was nearly two square meters in size, and on both sides, there were shelves taking up some space. The rest of the area had some cardboard boxes of goods stacked directly on the ground, which originally looked somewhat messy. However, at this moment, it was clearly much neater.
"Much tidier now," Chen Mu smiled. Everyone liked to live in a cleaner environment.
"More than that, we even cleaned the toilet," Du Jiajia said with a hint of pride and a touch of complaint on her face.
"Toilet?"
"You guys have a toilet too?"
He Ying and Sun Yuan exclaimed at the same time, their voices filled with disbelief.
In these times, even having enough food was still a problem for many people, yet these individuals already had a toilet?
"It's just a few squat toilets, there's no way to handle sewage, so we need to clean them regularly," Dong Junwei explained. "But Chen Mu, you might have to help us make some tools again. We threw away the few plastic buckets and shovels we had together with the filth."
A while ago, while practicing his abilities, Chen Mu had also helped everyone make quite a few tools: plastic buckets, metal shovels, forks, poles, dustpans, brooms, plates, cups...
Whatever they thought of at the time, they made it on the spot.
As Tang Jing had said, human evolution began with the use of tools. After everyone had handy tools, their efficiency in doing work had significantly increased.
"You've all worked hard," Chen Mu said.
Chen Mu could imagine how challenging it was to ask a group of students who had never even cooked a meal to do the task of cleaning the toilets.
"It's not just you and Dalei who worked hard," Dong Junwei smiled.
"And me too!" Zhao Xiaoyan rushed out.
"Yes, you too." Dong Junwei went forward and hugged Zhao Xiaoyan's petite body, saying with a smile, "You even managed to bring your best friend back?"
Dong Junwei clearly knew about Zhao Xiaoyan's relationship with He Ying.
"Hehe, we happened to run into each other."
As they chatted, they walked inside.
When He Ying saw the two plastic-made rooms in front of her, she instantly felt uneasy.
"This is... a house?"
Although the appearance was quite simple, they indeed looked like two houses, especially the doors, with even the doorknobs made quite delicately.
At this moment, He Ying felt inexplicably aggrieved.
She even felt a tinge of jealousy.
While others were struggling to survive, fighting for a meal and risking their lives, these people... had actually built houses!
Why? On what basis?
Why was there such a huge gap between different people?
Thinking about her deceased companions and the hardships they had endured during these days, He Ying even felt like crying.
Tang Jing seemed to sense her emotions and explained, "We were relatively lucky, but we also lost two classmates along the way."
"You're... doing quite well here."
He Ying didn't know how to describe it for a moment.
Meanwhile, Sun Yuan had already rushed to the front of the two rooms and was lying on them, looking extremely delighted. He exclaimed, "This is amazing, really amazing..."
Zhao Hao reminded him, "Brother, lying down and peeking inside the girls' dorm, what are you up to?"
"Oh... sorry, senior!"
"Haha, just kidding."
On the other side, Qian Fei and the others were playing around with Sun Yuan, but Tang Jing asked Chen Mu, "You came back at this hour, so that means you traveled at night?"
"Yes, we encountered some special circumstances."
Then Chen Mu began to narrate the experiences of the three of them.
The towels on the ground were still spread out as before. Besides cutting off two small pieces to use as bedding in the rooms, nothing else had changed. Normally, during the day, when everyone occasionally rested, they would also lie on the towels.
But at this moment, they were being used as seating for guests.
Dong Junwei and the others invited He Ying to sit on the towels, and everyone sat cross-legged.
He Ying touched the soft and white padding.
Once again, she felt a blow to her spirits.
"So, you have rooms and mattresses at night?" Sun Yuan shouted, "That's incredible, absolutely incredible..."
Chen Mu ignored him and continued to narrate their experiences of more than a day.
But because He Ying was present, many things weren't explained in detail. It was only with her addition to the account that everyone finally understood.
While they were talking, Du Jiajia came over with a large plate, saying, "Let's have something to eat, everyone."
The plate still contained her signature dish.
Fried rice cakes.
The seasonings she brought back were still unopened, so Du Jiajia couldn't use them for now, and she hadn't touched the flour and celery leaves either.
Since they had guests, upon Tang Jing's instructions, Du Jiajia made a few rice cakes as a treat.
However, what caught He Ying's attention first was not the food, but the exquisite stainless steel dining plate.
Only now did she realize where the strange feeling had come from since entering this place.
These things might not have been anything special in the past.
But in the current environment, where could such refined items come from?
The rooms, tools, dining plates, and even the flatbed truck that she had been wanting to ask about but hadn't yet—these were all things that clearly shouldn't be here.
But in the next moment, her attention was completely drawn to the rice cakes in front of her.
They were warm.
Steam rising from them.
After eating leftovers and cold food found on the ground for so many days, this was the first time she had seen warm food.
He Ying even forgot to be polite.
With trembling hands, she slowly took a piece of rice cake.
"Is it really warm?"
She could hardly believe it.
"Give it a try. I've improved the technique Chen Mu taught me recently, and I think it tastes much better than before." Du Jiajia said proudly.
Dong Junwei introduced with a smile, "This is our current head chef, Miss Du Jiajia."
Du Jiajia placed two fingers on her temple, made a graceful salute, and said, "So, you even have a dedicated chef?"
He Ying asked blankly, then picked up the slightly warm rice cake and put it near her mouth.
Crunch.
The crispy sensation filled her entire mouth.
In the next moment, He Ying couldn't hold back anymore.
Tears flowed out uncontrollably.