Although living on a high floor was troublesome, Liu Ruoyan didn't want to live in someone else's house, nor did she want to live in a crowded place. After all, living alone on a high floor was quite peaceful for her.
Except for having to go downstairs once a day, Liu Ruoyan thought that living alone was quite nice.
After November, the supermarkets were taken over by the state.
Those who used to cause trouble in the supermarkets no longer had the guts to do so and could only target other people who were buying supplies.
Liu Ruoyan had been targeted several times. Just by having a brief encounter, Liu Ruoyan could tell that those people had already had blood on their hands.
Liu Ruoyan didn't show any mercy to such people and usually killed them with one strike.
Every dark night, there were always people dying.
The authorities had also sent people to patrol, suppress, and manage, but the effect wasn't great.
Surviving had already become a luxury. Who would listen to discipline?
As the Chinese New Year was approaching, there was not the slightest atmosphere of joy. Instead, it became even more depressing.
The extreme heat accelerated the spoilage of food.
Even in uncooked rice and flour, there were worms.
In the past, there were just rice weevils in the rice or small bugs in the flour.
But now, these two kinds of bugs had grown much larger, even bigger than ordinary pearl rice.
Some people felt really bad when they opened the grain bucket and saw it full of wriggling bugs.
It wasn't because they were scared, but because of the despair of losing their food.
It was already difficult to buy food, and now the food they bought was full of bugs. How could this not make people despair?
The small chat groups used to be quite harmonious, but gradually no one chatted anymore.
Before, when Liu Ruoyan went out at night, she could see people going to buy supplies in groups. But now, they all kept a distance from each other, obviously having conflicts.
It wasn't strange for people who were living together temporarily to separate again after having conflicts of interest.
This was also the fundamental reason why Liu Ruoyan didn't want to form a team with others.
On the night of New Year's Eve, Liu Ruoyan took out a sweet and sour fish, a plate of braised beef in soy sauce, a plate of boiled shrimps, and a plate of broccoli with minced garlic from her space and celebrated the New Year alone.
This was the first New Year after the apocalypse.
At this time in her previous life, Liu Ruoyan and the people in the apartment building shared a pot of plain boiled noodles. When dividing the noodles, they almost got into a fight because of the uneven distribution. It was noisy, and no one had a smile on their face.
Now, although there was no one else around Liu Ruoyan, she felt that she had had a happy New Year.
If she could live like this every year in the future, Liu Ruoyan would be satisfied.
After the New Year, the power was completely cut off, and the water supply trucks never came to the community again.
The shopping malls were open every night, but there were very few things for sale. Some people might not even be able to get in line even if they queued up all night.
The small rivers and lakes in the urban area had already dried up due to the sun. The sun was still scorching the earth. The low shrubs had already been dried to death by the sun and were cut down by people to be used as firewood. The tall trees were also all drooping, half-dead.
This kind of life made people see no hope, and despair gradually spread.
People who had relatives and friends in the countryside decided to go there. But without gasoline and no way to drive, how to get there was also a problem.
Even if they really got there, whether life would be better than it was now was also a problem.
Many people in Liu Ruoyan's community had left.
Some people came to borrow gasoline from Liu Ruoyan, but she refused directly, saying that she didn't have any gasoline either.
To prove that she didn't have any gasoline, Liu Ruoyan walked every time she went out at night.
Some people did want to break into Liu Ruoyan's house to have a look, but they couldn't defeat Liu Ruoyan. In the end, they could only leave reluctantly.
Many people had left, but Liu Ruoyan was not among them.
Liu Ruoyan was waiting for the news of the base.
At this time in her previous life, Liu Ruoyan had already gone to the countryside with the people in the apartment building, but life in the countryside wasn't much better than that in the city.
Only deep wells could pump out some water. Shallow wells didn't produce any water at all.
There were no large shopping malls or supermarkets in the countryside to sell supplies. The villagers did have stored grain, but they didn't sell it either.
They dug up grass roots and ate tree bark, looking for everything that could be eaten. Finally, before starving to death, they heard the news of the base and went to a small base.
But life in the small base wasn't much better than outside.
Not long after going to the base, there was a big drop in temperature, and it became even more difficult later.
In this life, Liu Ruoyan didn't want to take any more detours. She would wait here. After the official announcement of the top ten bases, she would go directly to the official base.
Liu Ruoyan remembered that in her previous life, she heard the news of the small base in May. Presumably, the official base should be about the same.
Calculating the time, the news of the base was about to be announced.
Unless necessary, Liu Ruoyan didn't go out anymore. She turned on the radio every day, waiting to hear the news of the base.
The radios were specially stocked up by Liu Ruoyan before. She bought dozens of them of various prices and models.
Even accessories and other things were bought in large quantities.
Time quietly entered June. One afternoon, when Liu Ruoyan was sleeping drowsily, she heard a voice on the radio.
Hearing the word "base", Liu Ruoyan suddenly sat up on the bed, staring straight at the radio and continuing to listen to the news inside.
The government had established ten major safe bases across the country.
Among them, the First Safe Base was only two hundred kilometers away from the city where Liu Ruoyan was.
Two hundred kilometers wasn't far. Under normal circumstances, starting from Liu Ruoyan's community, it would take no more than three hours to get there.
Even under the current abnormal situation, Liu Ruoyan thought that she could get there within five hours.
Finally having waited for the news of the base, Liu Ruoyan didn't hesitate at all and immediately prepared to set off.
It was only five o'clock in the afternoon. There were still several hours before the sun went down.
But Liu Ruoyan wasn't in a hurry. Taking this time, she could just pack up her things.
All the furniture and appliances she was used to using were all put into her space by Liu Ruoyan.
The solar power storage panels and sunshade cloth were also all taken down by Liu Ruoyan after it got dark and put into her space.
As a result, the apartment was suddenly empty.
Thinking that someone would probably come to check here after she left, Liu Ruoyan took out a set of furniture and appliances from her space and placed them in the apartment.
They weren't anything good. Liu Ruoyan had bought them casually when she was collecting supplies.
After making sure that all the things that could be taken away from home were taken away, Liu Ruoyan got dressed neatly, closed the door, and walked step by step towards the underground parking lot.
There were many cars in the parking lot, but many of them had a thick layer of dust on them, obviously not having been driven for a long time.
Liu Ruoyan didn't look much and directly got into her own car.
Besides this Hummer, there were also several other cars in Liu Ruoyan's space.
Some were specially customized by Liu Ruoyan, including off-road vehicles, RVs, and heavy trucks.
There were also two cars that Liu Ruoyan bought from the car dealership after prices soared.