On the white square, everyone stood in neat lines, each holding an empty water bottle.
In the front, there was a room where people could be seen distributing things. Those who received their items walked past us, chatting and laughing. In their hands were a piece of bread and a bottle filled with water, somewhat resembling the snacks distributed during school breaks, but much better. I noticed that the bread they held was really about the same size as the one Edmund gave me. Could this really be a day's ration? And was that bottle of water also meant to last a day?
The bottle looked like it could hold at most two bottles of water. How could that be enough?
Emery led me to the side, walking past the long queue, and went straight to the front, standing in front of the white window.
Inside the window, there were two women and a girl. The two women looked like Asians from our region, with black hair. One of them had her hair tied up and was sporting a large belly – she had a baby! They were busy distributing bread and water, and the girl inside handed out the bread, while one of the women took the empty water bottles and filled them. The water tap was next to her, connected to a pipe that went through the roof. I followed the pipe upwards and saw that it went through the ceiling.
"Emery, you brought her," the two women distributing bread and water smiled at me.
"Emery, brother!" the girl inside happily ran over, looking at Emery with joy. The girl was also wearing a linen dress, with two long ponytails, cute and lovely in appearance, but her complexion was somewhat pale, with small freckles. Indeed, there was a difference in appearance between ability users and non-ability users.
The skin of ability users tends to be better, a strange phenomenon.
Non-ability users look more like ordinary people. In such a severe shortage of food and supplies, normal people should be suffering from severe malnutrition, and their skin wouldn't be too good.
If that's the case, Asna should also be an ability user.
"Yvette, here you go." One of the women placed a box in front of me.
"Wife, this is Jessie Carter." Emery pointed to the pregnant woman. I nodded, "Hello, Jessie." I instinctively looked at her pregnant belly, and she happily caressed it, "I hope it's a girl~"
In this world, there is a shortage of girls.
"This is Kama Perez." Emery introduced another woman to me. Kama placed bread and water in my box and smiled at me, "Thank you, Yvette."
I looked at the box; it was a very ordinary iron box with two towels, a plain plastic cup with patterns, and a toothbrush inside. However, I didn't see any toothpaste. The toothbrush was beautiful, though, transparent pink with peach blossom patterns on the top.Then, I saw a roll of toilet paper, but only one.
"May I ask, how long does this roll of toilet paper last?" I casually inquired.
Kama and Jessie exchanged a glance and chuckled, "One month."
I was taken aback, and they became awkward seeing my surprised expression. Jessie blinked, a hint of embarrassment on her face, "Yvette, I'm sorry, we..."
"You've been provided according to Princess Asna's allocation. Don't look so disgusted," suddenly, the girl frowned at me, "Others have even less than you!"
"Adelaide Turner! Don't be like this! Yvette brought us seeds!" Jessie pulled Adelaide away, and the people around also smiled at me, "Yvette, sorry, we have limited supplies here."
Everyone began to apologize to me, treating me like an honored guest, making me feel very embarrassed. I didn't mean to show any disdain; it's just that I came from a place where resources were abundant, and wastefulness was common. Suddenly, having only one roll of toilet paper for a month left me momentarily stunned because I had no idea how to manage such a limited resource.
"No, no, no, I'm not disgusted. This is already good," I quickly picked up the iron box.
"And you say you're not disgusted with that expression?" Adelaide still had a stern face, glaring at me in disbelief.
"Adelaide, my wife said she isn't, what's wrong with you today?" Emery reached out to touch Adelaide's head, but she angrily pushed him away, turning her face red with frustration, "You mind your own business! Why does your wife care about me so much?!"
Emery raised an eyebrow, amusingly watching Adelaide get angry.
I suddenly became awkward.
Kama immediately looked at everyone, "Alright, let's continue distributing things; we've made Yvette feel awkward."
People apologized to me with a hint of regret, and they all received their bread and water.
They even apologized to me for making me feel embarrassed, which made me even more embarrassed.
I quickly glanced at Jessie and waved to her. She leaned over with her big belly, and I whispered, "I mean... do we use this paper for everything?"
Emery also leaned in to eavesdrop, but I pushed his face away with a slap. Adelaide, seeing this, turned red with anger, huffed, and turned around to distribute bread with determination.
Kama, while distributing bread and water, looked at us with confusion. Jessie was bewildered for a moment, then suddenly realized, "Oh~~ my bad, my bad. It's been so long since we had a girl; I forgot about such an important thing." She repeatedly slapped her forehead, then whispered to Kama, who could only shake her head helplessly."What are you guys talking about?" Emery curiously leaned over again, and Kama gave him a tap on the head, saying, "Step aside, boys need to give way!"
Jessie also immediately used her hand to separate Emery. Emery stretched his neck, looking curious. By now, there were no people around us; everyone had received their bread and water.
Kama took out a paper box from under the window and placed it in my iron box. When Emery saw that paper box, his face turned red, and he quickly turned away, tilting his head as if counting stars.
Looking at the box that Kama gave me, the packaging was very delicate. Everything here was rough, but this was surprisingly well done. The outer packaging was undamaged, with beautiful patterns, clearly designed to attract girls. It was evidently a box of good-quality sanitary napkins.
It's strange how, in this world of scarce resources, they managed to make such delicate items?
"Nowadays, there are fewer girls, and many things in this ruin were left behind..." Kama's words provided an explanation. So, these things weren't made recently but were left over from before. With the drastic reduction in the female population, the demand also significantly decreased, making the leftovers sufficient. So, in this world, would there be more women's products?
Kama smiled at me, "If it's not enough, you can come back to get more. This is a special privilege for us women~" Kama patted my hand, covering the box of sanitary napkins with a towel, considerate and warm.
With this, I felt relieved. At this moment, being a girl felt troublesome. If even this essential item were missing in the apocalypse, how would girls survive?
Why were these items in the ruins? Ruins usually referred to ancient structures. Then, is this place a post-apocalyptic version of the city?!
City!
"Yvette! Yvette! Did you hear that?!" Suddenly, Edmund's anxious shout echoed through the square, probably coming from some speaker, "If you hear this, please hurry back to my workshop. Second sister seems off. Please, please come back quickly!" Edmund's voice trembled towards the end, sounding scared.
"Oh no! Is Second sister going to eat Edmund?!" Emery became nervous. "She hasn't had breakfast yet!"
Since the rescue of Second sister, Emery, Edmund, and the others have been reminding me about the high aggressiveness of the Flying Corpse Monster. I didn't need them to tell me; I had witnessed the strength of the Flying Corpse Monster firsthand. Its claws could pierce through escape pods, indicating its extremely high attack power.