234 This Hotel Is a Little Shabby
While Du Yue was frowning and pondering, He Xing, who was beside her, spoke first, “Brother, we don’t have much food on hand right now. Can we pay with other things?”
The man smiled thoughtfully. “If it’s something good, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
He Xing took out a slightly worn paper box from his backpack and handed it over. “Brother, I still have half a box of cigarettes here. Do you think it’s okay?”
He Xing then opened the box so that the man could see the cigarettes clearly. There were still 11 cigarettes left in the box. The man’s eyes changed the moment he saw them. “It’s not easy for everyone. Since you call me ‘Brother,’ that means we’re friends, so I’ll do you a favor.”
The man took out two cards from the drawer, swiped them on the card reader, and passed them to He Xing. “You must keep your temporary identity cards well. If you lose them, you’ll be kicked out of the base. ”
He Xing took the cards with one hand and handed the box to the man with the other. “Okay, thank you, Brother!”
The two of them addressed each other as brothers. After getting the access cards, He Xing said goodbye to the man and drove into the base. As the car window rolled up, the smile on He Xing’s face disappeared instantly and was replaced by obvious displeasure. “If we want to enter the base without an official resident card, we have to pay two catties worth of food. One person has to offer up two catties, so a hundred people will have to offer up 200 catties. The second base is really good at doing business.”
With such a large base, the daily income from the entrance fee alone should be a lot, right? They did not know where all this food was used. Du Yue’s voice was also cold. “No wonder. Haidao City isn’t that big. There’s an official base, but there are still small bases built by the people. Ordinary people really can’t afford to live in such a place.”
If the second base was the same as the first base and did not charge any fees and allowed survivors to enter the city… No one would spend so much effort into building small bases outside where they would lead difficult lives with the elderly and children. The entrance fee alone was as high as two catties worth of food. How much would it take to become an official resident of the second base?
As the car entered the gate, Du Yue and He Xing could finally see the entire outer city of the second base. The road was wide and flat. There was a street lamp every few steps. The light of the street lamp was a little dazzling. Even in the thick fog, they could see everything around them. On both sides of the road, there were shops after shops. All the shops were open for business, and the lights were still on.
At a glance, there were quite a number of different shops. Du Yue even suspected that she was dreaming when she saw this scene. Even though she had been reborn, she was still shocked by the scene in front of her. The bases were the top two bases, but the difference between the first and second bases was too big.
“Are we back to before the apocalypse? Did we transmigrate when we passed through the gate just now?”
Du Yue was still in shock when she suddenly heard He Xing’s words. Not only did she snap out of her daze, but she even laughed out loud. She pointed at the people walking on the road and said to He Xing, “It’s simple. Just look at their clothes and you can tell that we didn’t transmigrate. People before the apocalypse didn’t dress like this.”
Although there were many shops here, it could be seen from the clothes of the pedestrians that the lives of the people here were not much better than that of the first base. At the very least, the people living in the outer city were living an ordinary life. He Xing could not help but laugh. “Where should we go now?”
Du Yue did not know where they should go, but since they were new here, the most important thing should be to settle the problem of accommodation first.
He Xing drove straight ahead while Du Yue sat in the passenger’s seat, silently observing the shops by the roadside. When they passed the first intersection, they finally saw a shop with a hotel sign. “Let’s go to this hotel?” Du Yue asked.
He Xing nodded and stopped the car by the roadside.
They did not feel anything when they were watching from the car. After walking into the hotel, however, Du Yue realized that the building was built in a crude manner. The building was made of red bricks, and the roof was covered with cement. Everything was simple, and it even looked a little shabby. There was a light hanging on the roof, and it was quite bright. A simple wooden counter was placed in the middle of the hotel, and a woman was sleeping on it.