Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Conversation, do you want to merge into my base...

Before leaving, Su Qing took out several sets of warm clothes and handed them to Lu Chen and the others. These were clothes produced in her base. They were made of solid materials and were much more cold-resistant than those things produced before the apocalypse.

Lu Chen didn't want anyone to know Su Qing's abilities, so they first came to a logistics park next to the base warehouse and asked Su Qing to put the supplies into the rows of trucks parked inside.

Due to the severe cold climate, most fresh fruits and vegetables are difficult to preserve, so Su Qing prepared freeze-resistant items.

Thanks to the enthusiastic suggestions from her Northeast friends at the base, Su Qing prepared frozen pears, frozen persimmons, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, cabbage, beans, corn and other fruits and vegetables that can be frozen and still taste good after being frozen, as well as various meats, fish and shrimps that are more resistant to freezing.

There were also rice, flour, charcoal, wood, coal for heating, various cold-resistant clothes, and some daily emergency medicines. Her base had limited output and the number of medicines was not large, so Su Qing could only pick out some emergency medicines to bring over.

There were too many things. Even though Su Qing took advantage of the convenience of teleporting items in her backpack, it still took her more than an hour to fill up all the boxes and cabinets of the truck in the warehouse.

Li Yi and Zeng Li were very excited when they saw the supplies filling the entire warehouse truck. When they saw Su Qing loading the truck, they took the initiative to go to the nearby storage park to ask people to pick up the supplies and enter them into the warehouse.

"Thank you for your hard work, Su Qing." Lu Chen stared at Su Qing with a sharp gaze.

"I've already told you there's no need to do this. We each have our own needs." Su Qing looked a little uncomfortable at Lu Chen and just waved at him casually.

"It's cold here. Let's go to the warehouse and warm up by the fire. We can talk about it over there later." Gu Yan looked at the two of them, shook his head, and walked out, speaking to the person behind him as he walked.

The three of them came to the storage park next door and walked into one of the warehouses. The warehouse covered an area of ​​about tens of thousands of square meters. There were two long rows of shelves on both sides. Looking around, all kinds of materials were neatly stacked inside, but the quantity was not large, only about a quarter of the warehouse.

There were many braziers placed on the empty space in the middle of the warehouse, and about twenty or thirty people were busy sorting supplies.

The warehouse supervisor is reporting to Li Yi Zengli.

"Chief! Manager Gu!" Qi Hao was speaking when he looked up and saw Lu Chen and others walking in. He quickly greeted them respectfully.

Lu Chen nodded, "Just talk about yourselves, don't bother with us."

Gu Yan stayed to talk with a few people, and Lu Chen took Su Qing to a mobile home, opened the door and motioned her to go in.

There was a charcoal brazier burning in the mobile house. As soon as the door was opened, a warm feeling came out. The two walked in. There was a large window on the side through which they could clearly see everything in the warehouse.

After being outside for a long time, the scarf around her mouth and nose was covered with frost and frozen hard, and her eyebrows and eyes were also covered with frost. Now, when the heat in the room came, it began to melt into water and fall on her face.

Su Qing took off her scarf, gloves and hat, took out a pack of tissues from her backpack, handed a few to Lu Chen, and then wiped her face with the tissues.

She had just wiped the water stains off her face when a cup was handed to her.

Lu Chen handed Su Qing a cup of hot water and said, "Sit down and drink some hot water to warm yourself up."

"Thanks."

Su Qing took it and casually sat on a chair in front of the window. He looked through the window at people being gathered outside, and watched them go out and come back in trucks after trucks. The compartments of those trucks were opened, and the trucks were full of supplies, which made them excited.

She listened to people cheering loudly as they worked hard to unload the goods and check them into the warehouse.

Their base is now almost out of ammunition and food, and the arrival of this batch of supplies has solved their urgent needs.

Su Qing looked at it and her expression gradually became dazed. The scenes she saw when she first arrived here began to flash through her mind: people huddled in their homes, coughing non-stop due to the charcoal smoke, houses collapsed everywhere by the snow, with no idea how many people were trapped underneath, as well as naked corpses, women's heartbreaking cries, and children's numb expressions.

Compared with the people in his own base who live and work in peace and contentment, everyone's face is filled with happiness and joy, and they have no worries about food, clothing, or warmth, the contrast is too great.

"Lu Chen, do you want to merge into my base?" Su Qing suddenly had an idea in her mind, and she said it out loud without thinking.

After she finished speaking, she regretted her recklessness. City S was a fairly large base in China. Even if it was in a bad state, there were still tens of thousands of people here. Normally, no one would give up such great authority and merge with her.

She suddenly said this, and was worried that Lu Chen would misunderstand that she was coveting the S City base. Su Qing looked up at Lu Chen cautiously.

"I'm not..."

"I know exactly what kind of person you are. To be honest, we've actually discussed this before." Lu Chen interrupted Su Qing, then raised the corner of his mouth slightly. "Li Yi mentioned it to us a long time ago. He trusts you and is confident that he wants to hand over the people in this base to you."

Lu Chen casually grabbed a chair and sat down next to Su Qing. He looked out the window and said, "We are all family friends. We grew up together and later started a business together. Our company was originally in the capital. Before the apocalypse, we came here to evaluate projects, but who knew that a global infectious disease would suddenly break out."

"Initially, to prevent the spread of the virus, the government closed the city and cut off transportation. All those who were not infected with the virus were forced to stay home, leaving us trapped here. Later, the situation became increasingly serious and the virus broke out completely. Man-eating zombies were everywhere. The government, military, and police departments were useless, transportation was paralyzed, and those trapped in the city had no choice but to save themselves."

"We tried everything to get back to the capital, but it was so chaotic back then that we couldn't leave. We could only try to survive with the people we knew. Gradually, our team grew larger and larger, and we established a base. The leader of this base wasn't me at first, but a long-time client we'd worked with for many years. He had a lot of influence in S City, and we always followed him."

"Later, he passed away due to illness and entrusted this base to us before he died."

Having said that, Lu Chen turned around and looked at Su Qing. "Our families are all in the capital now, and we will have to leave here sooner or later. Our original plan was to support a capable person to take on this important task. But now, Su Qing, your place is the best choice for the people in our base."

"But I know it wasn't easy for you to build the base. You have to rely on yourself for everything there. You simply can't handle accepting so many people all of a sudden."

Su Qing listened to Lu Chen slowly recounting the past, and after hearing the last sentence, he couldn't help but say: "But, our base still has spare capacity. If I had mentioned it to you earlier, wouldn't we have..." So many people died tragically in this extremely cold weather.

Su Qing didn't say the last sentence.

Lu Chen thought for a moment and knew what Su Qing hadn't said. "Su Qing, you are just an ordinary person. Human power is limited. You can't save everyone."

"Before the extreme cold arrived, I sent the elderly and weak in the base, as well as the families of the elite personnel, to stay with you temporarily. We also informed everyone in the base that anyone who wanted to leave could do so on their own. We will cover all expenses for those who have made great contributions to the base, but we can't afford to cover the expenses for ordinary people, and there's no reason to do so. It's entirely up to them to decide where to live."

"Everyone who can leave has left. For those who remain, what happens to them is their own karma. Although cruel, this world is always a place where the strong prey on the weak, and the fittest survive. Those with ability can survive anywhere."

Seeing Su Qing tightly gripping the cup, her knuckles turning white from the cold, Lu Chen stood up, picked up the kettle beside her, and added some hot water to her cup.

"Even if we announce right now that we'll merge with your base and praise your place to the skies, there will still be people who make different choices. Don't put pressure on yourself."

Su Qing stared blankly at the water cup in her hand. "I understand what you said, but there is one thing." She raised her head, "No one doesn't want to live a good life. There are always more ordinary people in this world. They just lack a chance to live. Although my ability is limited, I will save as many people as I can. No one deserves to die."

Lu Chen looked at the girl in front of him. She was obviously a thin and small person, but she was shouldering the so-called mission of saving the world and struggling to move forward alone in this apocalypse. There seemed to be a gleam in her eyes, and she was full of respect for life. Her determined look made it difficult for people to look away and deeply attracted them.

When they first met, he found her clumsy concealment amusing. This girl was full of secrets, and she tried hard to cover them up but often she would reveal them one by one inadvertently.

Lu Chen had already roughly guessed about Su Qing's origins. He remembered that when he was young, there was an elder in his family who always believed in the sayings of heaven and reincarnation. He thought that if there really was such a thing as heaven, it probably had mercy on them and could not bear to see mankind become extinct, so it sent such a lovely person.

Su Qing probably didn't realize it herself, but her attitude towards this place had always been to complete the task successfully. She had some abilities so she always wanted to do better. She was not afraid of anything, but she had never considered the reality and human nature of this world.

In the end times, the laws and order collapsed, and without constraints, Su Qing had never experienced firsthand how dark human nature was, so his thoughts were always naive and beautiful.

Lu Chen looked at Su Qing deeply for a long time. He thought over some words but didn't say them out loud. He just nodded and said, "You're right."

Knock knock!

There were several knocks on the window, interrupting their gaze.

They looked back out the window. Li Yi had just put down his hand that was knocking on the window. The three people outside were looking at them with smiles on their faces and great interest.

"Hey, hey, hey, why are you so close to my sister Su Qing! Get away from me quickly." Li Yi shouted at Lu Chen with a teasing look on his face.

Lu Chen raised his hand and motioned them to come in.

"Have you explained everything?"

"Well, they are sorting and storing them. There are no problems here for the time being." Gu Yan said.

"Since everyone is here, I have something to tell you." Lu Chen stood up. "It's about us merging into Su Qing's base."