Emerging from the basement, having a meal and taking a midday nap, time crawled by as slowly as a snail.
Li Yu immensely enjoyed this busyness, the relaxation that came after tension.
Li Yu stood on the balcony, gazing up at the myriad of stars, the speckled night sky held a tranquil beauty.
His thoughts flew about for a moment, touching on many things:
Killing is a complex matter, but also the simplest of acts.
In this apocalyptic world, it's often unclear what constitutes justice and what constitutes evil.
When a person's heart is shattered, right and wrong no longer matter; what's more important is to find the meaning of existence.
Human nature is inherently evil. If you have no expectations from the world, any warmth encountered is a delightful surprise.
Contentment brings happiness; lower your expectations and happiness is easily attained.
Li Yu's heart no longer discerned between good and evil, his sole focus was on protecting his family and loved ones, to live a stable life.
After sweating profusely, taking a refreshing bath is happiness, after being busy for a long time, eating the delicious food cooked by mom is a joy; when you occasionally feel emo, getting a hug from the person you like is joy.
If none of these exist, then just live on. Wood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, washing clothes, cooking, cleaning, and arranging time wisely is a way of life. It may be tedious, but after doing it, there's a calm happiness in your heart.
Night deepened, and now it was the middle of October. In a short while, the weather would turn cold. Recalling his past life's memories, this winter would be tough to endure.
He remembered, from before his rebirth, that one winter, he was nearly frozen to death. The zombie crisis, food crisis, and weather crisis had overwhelmed many people at once.
That winter, many died, not from zombie bites, nor from starvation, but because the weather was too cold, they were frozen to death.
He must prepare in advance. Although Li Yu had already instructed Second Uncle and others to cultivate some indoor crops in the several thousand square meters of basement space underneath the single-story houses, he felt it wasn't enough.
Solar energy could provide them with heating, but if the heater was left on throughout the winter, it would consume too much electricity. In the past, the northern regions used to rely on burning either electricity or coal for heating.
There was some coal. Over in Bamboo Forest, there was a house that was used to store miscellaneous items, and some coal was among them.
When the heating system was constructed in this base, neither Li Yu's parents nor the construction workers could understand why. This is the Southern region, after all, where winters are hot with temperatures sometimes exceeding 30 degrees Celsius, and even at their coldest, they stay above 0 degrees. Typically, winters range from 7 to over 20 degrees.
Below zero was rare, extremely uncommon.
Thus, many people found it hard to comprehend Li Yu's decision, but Li Yu ignored their opinions and installed the heating system anyway. Since it was his own money, others had no say.
And the heating system built back then could come in handy this winter!
In this winter, according to his memories, there were days without sunlight. No sunlight meant insufficient power generation, even though they had also added wind turbines.
But now, there are quite a few places in the base that use electricity – the fridge, freezer, cold storage, as well as everyday domestic electricity usage, and the newly built indoor plantations that require heating and supplementary lighting.
All these consume electricity.
Although they have batteries for power storage, it's best to make additional preparations.
It's now late October, and even within the mountain forests of the base, there are some dry branches, but these are relatively rare within the base.
Outside the base, however, dead trees are plentiful.
For example, there's a dense forest surrounding the base.
"It's time to start stockpiling some wood," Li Yu murmured to himself as he tightened the clothes around his body.
The season of October was upon them, and the evenings carried a chill.
After a night had passed and Li Yu had just gotten up, Li Haoran came looking for him.
Li Haoran was on guard duty by the door last night, and Li Yu looked at him curiously, "Wasn't it your shift? Why are you here now?"
Clearly having run over, Li Haoran, panting slightly, immediately said: "Big brother, there's someone at the door looking for you. He says his last name is Lv. Then there are two more people."
On hearing this, Li Yu quickly brushed his teeth a couple more times, rinsed his mouth, splashed some water on his face, and then ran towards the door.
On the way, he asked Li Haoran who was following him, "Did they say what it was about?"
Li Haoran shook his head, "They just said they were looking for you, so I came to find you as soon as I heard. Haoxian is still down there, and Zhengping is watching over them right now."
Li Yu's pace was quick, and it took him only a few minutes to reach the gate.
Standing atop the wall, Li Yu saw several people below.
Among them was Captain Lv, and beside him should be the Elder Xie he had referred to before, and another seemed vaguely familiar.
Currently, Captain Lv and his group were marveling at the encircling wall; it was their first time here. Although they knew the approximate location, they had never bothered to visit. Had it not been for an urgent matter, he wouldn't have rashly come.
"Captain Lv!" Li Yu called out.
Hearing the voice, Captain Lv looked up, and without any pleasantries, he got straight to the point, "Director Li, we discovered some strangers in the vicinity."
Li Yu thought about it and asked, "Strangers, are there many of them?"
The wall was rather high, and Captain Lv was below it, craning his neck at a ninety-degree angle, which was inconvenient. So, he stepped back a few paces and said, "There are two vehicles in total. But we saw someone familiar, this person is from Jiefang City! The destruction of Jiefang City has something to do with him."
Upon hearing this, a chill crept into Li Yu's eyes.
Then, seeing Captain Lv and his group looking up at him uncomfortably, he decided and told Li Zhengping behind him, "Zhengping, open the gate, let them into Weng City."
Li Zhengping, upon hearing the order, didn't hesitate much. Although he was worried about strangers entering the base, he had blind adoration and confidence in his big brother.
The gate gradually opened.
"Come inside for now," Li Yu said from atop the wall.
Captain Lv and his two comrades hadn't anticipated being allowed entry to the base, yet they had not dismissed the thought of joining Li Yu and his group. Now that Li Yu was letting them in, it seemed like a signal had been given.
Captain Lv slowly headed towards the gate, with Elder Xie and the others closely following.
Once inside, they realized how desolate it was. Li Yu observed the three men.
After entering Weng City, the three voluntarily placed their weapons near the gate.
"I'm going down. You guys keep watch from up here, and call Second Uncle over," Li Yu said.
He then headed down, while Li Haoran on top of the wall picked up his gun and subtly aimed at the three men.
These three, whom Li Haoran had never seen before, were met with no objection from Li Yu when he saw the gesture. After all, such caution was good.