Upon hearing the girl's words, Su Nian instantly grasped the situation.
"They must be the newcomers!"
In other words, the bodies of the woman and her son, who had recently moved in, should have been discovered and removed by now.
It hadn't been long since then, and the bodies were already found. Su Nian pondered for a moment and could only think of one possibility: the woman hadn't paid rent for quite some time. It wasn't surprising. Earning contribution points wasn't easy, and some people would pay rent daily if they could. However, with the cold weather, nobody would want to go out every day if they could avoid it. Yet, there were certainly many who paid rent every ten days.
Su Nian didn't dwell on it further. The discovery of the bodies was inevitable sooner or later, and it made no difference to her whether it happened sooner or later. As long as nobody caused her trouble because of it, she didn't care who the newcomers downstairs were.
Turning back to her room, Su Nian poured herself a cup of red date ginger tea and sipped it slowly. Just as she finished the hot tea, she heard Jing Mo's voice.
Quickly stepping out, she opened the door and saw Jing Mo standing outside. Snowflakes adorned his hat and shoulders. Despite the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors not being significant, even after Jing Mo had walked from the first floor to the sixth, the snowflakes remained intact, showing no signs of melting.
Furrowing her brows at the sight, Su Nian said, "Hurry up and open your door, check if the stove in your bedroom is out, and if it is, add more charcoal. If it's out, I'll give you some charcoal from my side."
"Okay."
Jing Mo replied with just one word, but his tone was cheerful.
Su Nian didn't follow Jing Mo inside. She disliked others entering her territory casually and wouldn't enter someone else's room without permission either.
After a short while, Jing Mo strode out of the small bedroom. "The charcoal fire hasn't gone out. I added some more charcoal, and it should ignite soon."
Su Nian nodded at his words and gestured towards the box beside her. "These are what I mentioned earlier. Do you want to take a look?"
Speaking at the doorway, even if the voices weren't loud, they could still be heard downstairs. To avoid trouble, Su Nian didn't mention the words "rabbit meat" explicitly, but Jing Mo surely understood.
Indeed, Jing Mo understood. He walked up briskly and said, "Let me take a look!"
Su Nian squatted down, opening each cardboard box for Jing Mo to inspect the contents. His gaze scanned each box, finally affirming, "I'll take them all!"
After saying that, Jing Mo hesitated for a moment and looked at Su Nian. "Do you have any left?"
"Of course!"
She had plenty of those!
Hearing Su Nian's response, Jing Mo relaxed. Together, they made several trips, moving all the boxes into Jing Mo's living room.
"For these, would five bullets per bag suffice for you?"
If bought with gold, one bullet cost five grams of gold, which meant twenty-five grams for five bullets. Before the apocalypse, the price of one gram of gold had risen to 393 yuan, making five grams roughly two thousand yuan. With that amount, they could easily purchase these boxes of food.
However, that was under the presumption of pre-apocalyptic times. After the apocalypse, food became more precious than gold. While some people still valued gold, it wouldn't get them food if they tried to exchange it. Hence, this transaction couldn't be said to favor either Su Nian or Jing Mo. As long as they felt satisfied, the exchange was fair.
Together, they counted the boxes. There were a total of sixty bags of rabbit meat, equivalent to three hundred bullets. After a quick trip to the bedroom, Jing Mo returned with a smaller box, handing it to Su Nian.
"Check it."
Su Nian didn't refuse. In front of Jing Mo, she opened the box, counting the number of bullets. It was precisely three hundred.
"The count is exact. I'll leave now. You should head indoors as well!"
Both had been outside all day, despite their thick clothing, they might not have suffered frostbite, but they still felt uncomfortable.
Returning home this time, Su Nian first went to the bathroom, then returned to the bedroom. She hadn't changed her clothes all day while waiting for Jing Mo to return. Now that she didn't need to go out, she took off her outerwear and changed into warm and soft pajamas.
At home, wearing pajamas was the most comfortable. Su Nian took out her iPad, found a TV series to watch, and fetched a basin of hotpot rabbit from her space. She had been craving rabbit meat for a while now. The hotpot rabbit was ordered directly from a restaurant, packed in containers. They had just been made and promptly stored in her space. Now, taking it out, it tasted exactly like it had just come off the stove.
The hotpot rabbit was red and spicy, filled with plenty of chili peppers. Soon, the entire room was filled with its aroma. Su Nian ate it bite by bite, not too slowly. Despite the room's temperature rising, it was still only a few degrees, and eating too slowly would allow the hotpot rabbit to cool down before she finished.
The portion wasn't particularly large, and Su Nian could finish it neatly by herself. She also had egg fried rice to accompany the meal. If she could cook noodles or rice with the broth, the taste would be excellent. However, cooking would make the aroma too strong. During extremely hot weather, the room was airtight, but now with the stove burning, despite the exhaust pipe, ventilation was still necessary. Su Nian had left a small crack in the window.
Taking food out directly from the space would certainly have an aroma, but it was limited. However, if she heated the hotpot rabbit on the stove, the aroma would increase significantly. When it wafted out, she didn't know how many people it would tempt.
Su Nian wasn't afraid of tempting others to tears; she was worried about attracting unwanted visitors. She just wanted to live peacefully. Some things were best avoided if possible.
Although she regretted not being able to cook noodles or rice, Su Nian still enjoyed her meal thoroughly. After cleaning up the table, it was already past seven.
Su Nian took out a foot bath bucket, plugged it in, and soaked her feet seriously for over half an hour. Foot baths aided blood circulation and promoted sleep. Especially in cold weather, soaking one's feet would make a person feel much warmer.
After soaking her feet, she washed up. By eight-thirty, Su Nian was lying in bed on time.
Perhaps due to exhaustion from the day, Su Nian fell into a deep sleep soon after lying down. When she woke up again, it was already six in the morning of the next day. She had slept for ten hours straight, feeling completely refreshed.