Ten days later, Sheng Youqing's family was in good health. Except for Sheng Youbin who still needed to take medication, Sheng Youqing and her daughter had no problems.

Si Nan asked Sheng Youqing: "What are your plans next?"

Sheng Youqing was silent for a while and then replied: "You told me before that the army would build a base at the foot of the stone mountain, and you and Cheng Suming were going there. I want to go with you."

Si Nan packed his luggage and said, "Going there is a good choice. Staying in the base established by the country, the national army will at least give people basic protection. If you keep wandering outside, no one will help you when you encounter big problems. You can come with me, and I can at least take care of you."

"Sinan, thank you." Sheng Youqing held her hand, eyes red. "I know how much hard work you have put in to find our family. I followed you because I wanted to repay you for saving my life. I will always be there for you. As long as you don't dislike me, I will always follow you."

She saw everything Si Nan did during this period. Not only did she take care of the three of them's eating, drinking, defecating and urinating needs, she also looked everywhere for antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs and other medicines to treat Sheng Youbin.

Nowadays, medicines are in short supply. Doctors in the medical tent can treat and perform surgery on patients for free, but the medicines brought by the troops were all used up seven days ago. Subsequent patients who need treatment have to find medicines on their own.

After experiencing a huge earthquake, most of the buildings in Xingcheng were reduced to ruins, and the previous buildings had been soaked in water, so it was not easy to find medicine.

Many people couldn’t find medicine and could only lie in their tents, leaving everything to fate and waiting for death with no desire to live.

Every day Si Nan would go out alone with two geese to search the ruins and would not come back until dark. No one knew where she found the medicine. Anyway, one day, she took a lot of medicine that Sheng Youbin needed and secretly stuffed it into her hands, asking her to give it to Sheng Youbin.

After Sheng Youbin used those medicines, the wound did not become inflamed or swollen, and his condition gradually improved. Now he can be discharged from the hospital and start a new life.

Sheng Youqing's gratitude to Si Nan was useless if she just expressed it verbally. She planned to always follow Si Nan, protect her, and do everything she could for her. If necessary, she would sacrifice her life for her to repay her for saving her life twice.

"You're being polite again." Si Nan patted her hands. "I've said before that we are best friends. It's reasonable for me to save you. You don't need to thank me so much. It makes me feel strange. Of course I welcome your thoughts about following me. I'll have something to eat in the future and I will never let you starve."

"Yes!" Sheng Youqing nodded heavily with tears in her eyes.

In the small tent where the officers of the army lived in the tent area, Commander Zhou repeatedly tried to persuade Cheng Suming, who was standing in front of him, to stay: "Doctor Cheng, your medical skills are obvious to all. If a doctor with superb medical skills like you stays in our army, I will give you the highest level of food and accommodation. Why do you have to leave?"

Cheng Suming stood with his back to the light. The black down jacket did not make him look bulky, but rather made him look slender and with a straight back. His facial features were angular but not sharp. He wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, which gave him a refined, handsome and easy-to-talk-to feeling.

"Everyone has their own ambitions. My ambition is not to use a scalpel to treat patients and get supplies and salaries from the army." Cheng Suming looked at Officer Zhou calmly and said, "My wife and I have other plans. Officer Zhou, you don't need to persuade me anymore. I have made up my mind to leave. When we meet again in the future, please remember the promise you made to me."

Commander Zhou knew that it was useless to say more, so he sighed and waved his hand: "Go ahead, go to the tent where the supplies are stored before you leave, and ask the soldiers at the door to get some food before you leave. This is my way of thanking you for your dedicated efforts in treating the people during this period of time."

"Thank you, Commander Zhou." Cheng Suming was not polite. He turned to the tent where the supplies were placed and repeated what Commander Zhou had said.

The soldier in charge of guarding the supplies ran to the officers' tent and, after confirming the matter, gave Cheng Suming ten kilograms of rice, a 5L bucket of purified water, and more than a dozen fist-sized sweet potatoes, filled a bulging bag and asked him to carry it.

When Cheng Suming returned to the medical tent carrying the bag, many of the patients he had treated and the doctors and nurses who had worked with him for more than half a month were reluctant to see him go. They took out some of their own food and daily necessities and wished him a safe journey.

"Brother, what are you holding?" Cheng Wei, who had reunited with them a week ago, saw that he was holding a lot of things in his arms, such as unused toothbrushes, towels, clothes, shoes and socks, a small amount of biscuits and candies, and a big bag on his shoulders, so she hurried over to help take it.

"Let me do it." Just as she was about to reach out her hand, Yang Wentao reached out first and helped Cheng Suming take off the pocket on his shoulder.

Si Nan and Sheng Youqing's family stood up from the "bed" curiously to see what was in the pocket.

Cheng Suming stuffed everything in his arms into Si Nan's backpack, then turned around and opened his pocket: "Commander Zhou gave me these supplies to thank me for my hard work during this period."

"Wow, so much rice, sweet potatoes, and water!" Cheng Wei exclaimed: "Commander Zhou is so generous."

Sheng Youqing was full of envy: "It's great to be a doctor, there are so many benefits to receive."

Si Nan smiled: "I'm so envious. It's not too late for you to study medicine now."

"Do you think anyone can be a doctor?"

"Even if you can't be a doctor, you can study medical nursing and become a nurse. Maybe you can be useful at the base in the future. You can have a proper job and get a salary, benefits and food."

Sheng Youqing's heart moved, and she quickly shook her head: "It's not easy to learn medical nursing knowledge and become a nurse. I'm also impatient and have a hot temper. I can't calm down and study. Forget it, let's talk about it later."

Cheng Suming looked at the large and small packages packed on the ground and asked, "Are they all packed?"

Si Nan nodded: "Okay."

Cheng Suming brought her heavy backpack forward and put it on his back, then hung his backpack on his chest and held her hand: "Let's go."

Their target location is the old house of the Cheng family. They will live there for about a week, searching for usable supplies in the ruins throughout Xingcheng, and then take those supplies to the stone mountain about six days away from Xingcheng.

Cheng Wei and Yang Wentao came to meet Cheng Suming ten days later than agreed. The first thing Cheng Wei did when she saw Cheng Suming was to tell him that the Cheng family got two helicopters from somewhere and in those ten days, they moved all the Cheng family members and most of their property and supplies to Kyoto. They wanted to take root again in Kyoto.

Originally, Old Lady Cheng wanted to take Cheng Wei away, but Cheng Wei refused to agree, so she had to leave some supplies for her in the Cheng family's old house.

The purpose of their trip was to get supplies.

Everyone put on their backpacks and walked out of the tent.

Si Nan had nothing in his hands and wanted to help Sheng's mother and Sheng Youbin carry the packages, but was rejected by both of them.

Mother Sheng smiled and said, "No need, Sinan. My package only contains two pieces of clothes. It's not heavy. I can carry it."

Mother Sheng looks gentle and weak. Because she has a heart disease and other minor ailments, her face is always pale and she looks sickly.

Before this, she had always been well taken care of by Sheng's father. Sheng's father didn't let her go to work, do laundry, cooking, or do housework. He never made her angry or let her get emotional, and gave her more than 20 years of happy and fulfilling marriage life.

Suddenly, the husband who gave her warmth and support and loved her like a treasure died to protect their daughter, and her world collapsed!

During this period, she cried so much that her eyes were almost blinded, but she forced herself to be strong because she had to protect her husband's two children and protect him. She did everything she could without affecting her heart disease.

Sheng Youbin refused because after his arm was amputated, he changed from a handsome and cheerful young man who loved to smile and show off to a gloomy and unhappy person who didn't talk much and was unwilling to make friends and talk.

He knew that Si Nan was doing this for his own good, and he also knew that he was alive today thanks to the medicine that Si Nan found, but he still couldn't accept the fact that he had become disabled.

In recent days, his mentality has been distorted and his mood has fluctuated greatly. He gets angry easily and smashes things to vent his emotions.

He knew he shouldn't get angry and shouldn't do those things, but he just couldn't control himself.

In order not to lose control in front of his savior, he awkwardly turned his back and didn't look at Sinan. His meaning was very clear.

Neither of them was willing to go, but Si Nan did not force them. He asked Dabai and his wife to walk in front and clear the way for them.

They left the hospital troop station and followed a barely passable road to the Cheng family's old house near the central city of Xingcheng.

The weather today is still sunny to the point of being annoying. Under the bright sunshine, Xingcheng, which was once full of tall buildings, now has only a few crooked buildings standing side by side.

They walked on the once prosperous streets, with ruins and garbage on both sides. The view was so wide that there was no end in sight. People who were in it would feel suffocating, desolate and dilapidated.

Almost twenty days have passed since the initial major earthquake. Most of the trapped people buried in the middle and upper layers have been rescued, but those buried deep underground have almost no chance of survival, and their bodies have begun to rot.

The number of troops stationed in Xingcheng was not large to begin with. There were two main armies, about 200,000 people, but they had to rescue a population of more than 10 million.

After the earthquake, troops were deployed to various parts of Xingcheng for rescue, and they gave priority to rescuing the buried medical staff in major hospitals, because only with medical staff could more people be saved.

But judging from the Grade A hospital where Sinan and his men stayed, the army stayed there for nearly twenty days just to save the people in the hospital. The same situation might have happened in other places.

In other words, for people who are not in the main rescue area, except for the kind-hearted rescue of the surviving survivors, the people buried underground have almost no chance of survival.

After not being rescued for a long time, the trapped people died. After twenty days of continuous exposure to the sun and dry air, their bodies began to rot. The corpse water flowed out through the layers of ruins, and the air was filled with an unpleasant stench.

Many survivors were scavenging for usable supplies among the ruins, some found places where the walls of houses were still intact to sleep and rest, and many people carried large and small bags and began to head for the countryside and mountains, away from the city.

This earthquake caused the death rate of at least one-third of the people in Xingcheng, and as many as three to five million corpses!

Only a quarter of the bodies could be dug out and burned. More bodies were buried under the rubble and could not be dug out, so they could only be left to rot.

Rotting corpses are full of various bacteria, which can be spread through the air, snakes, rats, insects, and humans searching for supplies, causing widespread epidemics of dysentery plagues such as fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, and bloody stools.

In order to avoid being infected, many people have to leave the city where they grew up.

Si Nan and his companions walked on the cracked road, and from time to time they saw blue-white and purple limbs and bodies half-exposed in the ruins.

No one dug out the corpses to burn. Only groups of hungry rats, cockroaches, and insects, as well as eagles and carnivorous birds that flew from nowhere, lay on the corpses in groups and devoured the rotten flesh.

Cheng Wei and Sheng's mother, who had weak psychological endurance, turned pale when they saw such a scene. They vomited as they walked until their stomachs were empty. Only then did they slowly accept such a tragic scene.

Because no one had cleaned the ground, it was still littered with garbage, ruins and cracks everywhere. In order to avoid stepping on the cracks and falling, Sinan asked the Dabai couple, who had sensitive hearing, to walk ahead to explore the way. If there was any danger, they could fly up to save themselves. It took everyone about three hours to safely arrive at the Cheng family's old house near the central city.

The Cheng family's old house has a large building area. Knowing that Xingcheng has been hit by earthquakes for many years, except for the main building area, the rest of the auxiliary buildings of the Cheng family's old house were newly built with solid reinforced concrete materials.

During the earthquake, only the main building of the Cheng family's old house collapsed, while the auxiliary buildings remained standing. In particular, there was a twelve-story auxiliary building located next to the Cheng family's artificial lake, which was used as the main residence by the Cheng family after the earthquake.

Because the accumulated water receded after the earthquake, it has not rained for some time. In Xingcheng, which is short of water and electricity, if you want to get water, you have to find water yourself. This artificial lake has become a Feng Shui treasure land.

Cheng Wei had previously asked Cheng Su Ming to stay temporarily at the Cheng family's old house, but Cheng Su Ming was extremely reluctant. He had always been unwilling to have anything to do with members of the Cheng family other than Cheng Wei. No matter whether the Cheng family members were in the Cheng family's old house or not, he was unwilling to come here.

In the end, he was willing to come because he was persuaded by Si Nan and compromised with her.

Si Nan had been busy digging in the ruins for twenty days. Although she wiped her hands, face and neck with wet wipes every day, she could not use the water in the space to take a shower or wash her hair when everyone had no water. Her hair was so greasy that she could not be seen in public. She kept wearing a baseball cap that she lied she had dug out from the ruins, and the smell on her body was so bad that it made her feel sick.

Now that she had the chance to take a shower and wash her hair, she didn’t care what Cheng Suming thought. She was going to the Cheng family’s old house anyway, and she wanted to take a good bath!

The group walked through the Cheng family's spacious garden area for more than half an hour before reaching the annex building next to the artificial lake.

This annex building was previously used as a guest room. The Cheng family has Cheng Wei's parents in Kyoto, so they are well-informed about the internal information there.

They knew that earthquakes might occur earlier, so one month before the doomsday warning post warned of the next natural disaster, that is, the big earthquake, the entire Cheng family moved into this annex building.

Although the annex building was shaken by the earthquake and many cracks appeared on its walls, its construction materials were so strong that it managed to survive and remain standing.

After the Cheng family left, the remaining servants, gardeners, chefs, drivers and others who were laid off still lived here temporarily.

When Si Nan and his group arrived at the annex building, two sturdy bodyguards were standing downstairs chatting at the stairs.

The Cheng family used to have at least fifty bodyguards at home, but they have been laying off employees since the natural disaster. So far, five bodyguards have been taken away, and only five are left here.

These people no longer worked for the Cheng family, but before leaving, the Cheng family gave them a lot of supplies and asked them to protect Cheng Wei's safety. They also explained that they could live here with their relatives and friends.

These bodyguards, as well as servants, gardeners, cooks, drivers and the like, total about twenty people. The Cheng family had treated them quite well before, and their salaries and benefits were among the best in the industry.

They intended to arrange for all their relatives and friends to live here, but they were also worried that the Cheng family would retaliate against them if they rebelled. Therefore, these people were quite polite to Cheng Wei and did not dare to take the supplies that the Cheng family had left for her.

They sent two people to guard the entrance to the annex building every day to prevent others from knowing that the Cheng family had left and the survivors of the artificial lake from coming to take over this place.

Seeing Cheng Wei and her group, a dark-skinned bodyguard stood up and greeted her with a smile: "Miss Cheng, you're back. Who are they?"

Cheng Wei replied: "You have all met my brother and sister-in-law. The other three are my sister-in-law's friends. We will stay here for about a week."

"Stay temporarily? Miss Cheng, you are leaving here too?" The black-faced bodyguard was surprised.

"Yes, we are going to..." When she got here, Yang Wentao pulled her hand. She realized something and stopped talking. "Anyway, after I leave, you can live here as you like. If possible, I hope you can leave here and settle down in the remote countryside or mountainous areas. There is a high possibility that a plague will break out in Xingcheng."

Cheng Wei grew up in the old house of the Cheng family. These bodyguards and servants can be said to have watched her grow up. She has a lot of feelings for them and hopes that they can all leave Xingcheng, stay away from the plague, and settle down in the Shishan base.

However, as Cheng Suming said, the Shishan base has not yet been built, and the news of the base construction is kept secret for the time being. She was repeatedly reminded before not to tell anyone about this matter.

Although she didn't understand why she couldn't tell it, she had always remembered it. She almost said it out loud just now because she spoke too quickly. She couldn't help but stick out her tongue and secretly look at Cheng Suming's reaction.

Cheng Suming looked at her indifferently, his brows slightly furrowed, obviously dissatisfied with what she had just said.

Cheng Wei shrank her neck guiltily, and heard the dark-faced bodyguard sighing and saying, "Our family has lived in Xingcheng for generations. Our family members were injured in this earthquake to varying degrees. We have a house to live in and water to drink here. I'm afraid we won't leave here for a while."

Cheng Wei stopped persuading them and led Si Nan and the others up the stairs to the top floor.

Xingcheng had lost power long ago, and in the absence of an elevator, everyone could only climb up step by step.

When they climbed to the twelfth floor, except for Cheng Suming, Si Nan and Yang Wentao who had been exercising the whole time, the rest of the people were exhausted and panting, holding on to the wall of the twelfth floor and catching their breath.

"Sinan, we are both women, how come you have such good physical strength? You climbed up to the twelfth floor in one breath, aren't you tired?" Sheng Youqing saw Sinan just took two breaths, then stood up and asked Cheng Wei where they lived. Sheng Youqing panted and gave her a thumbs up, "I admire you, I admire you."

Si Nan smiled calmly: "If you were like me, you would be able to climb the twelfth floor effortlessly like me, as my husband urged me to do all kinds of fighting and physical training every day for nearly two years. Cheng Su Ming has almost trained me into a female special soldier!"

Cheng Suming raised his eyebrows: "Would you rather be like them, panting when climbing stairs, falling down when walking, unable to lift anything with your hands or shoulders, and being knocked down by a single blow when you meet a bad guy, or would you rather have a strong body that can easily deal with various emergencies?"

Cheng Wei:......

There is a connotation.

"Of course I want to be healthy." Si Nan pulled his arm, with a bright smile on her beautiful face: "I know you are doing this for my own good. The situation in the future will only become darker and more difficult. If I can't protect myself, I will not only hurt others and myself, but also..."

Repeat the same mistakes.

Sheng Youqing's heart was moved when he heard this, and he stood up straight: "Sinan, if you have time, can you teach me fighting and self-defense?"

She wanted to protect her mother and brother and become the pillar of the family, but given her current physical condition, that would definitely not be possible.

Si Nan turned around, looking delighted: "Okay, come find me when you have time and I'll teach you."

Her friend has lost a loved one, so of course she hopes Sheng Youqing can get over her grief and cheer up again. It is undoubtedly a good thing that Sheng Youqing is thinking about exercising and learning martial arts.

The rooms in the annex building are similar to single rooms in a hotel. They were previously used for guests visiting the Cheng family. The floors below the tenth floor had been soaked in water for a long time, and after the water receded, a lot of dirt and debris accumulated in the house, making it unsuitable for living. Friends and family members such as bodyguards and servants all lived on the tenth and eleventh floors, and the twelfth floor was empty.

The VIP rooms before the twelfth floor are for important guests of the Cheng family. There are only four rooms on one floor, and each room is about 150 square meters. It has single beds, double beds, kitchens, toilets, bathrooms, bathtubs, large terraces and other facilities, comparable to a luxurious suite.

The supplies that the Cheng family left for Cheng Wei were locked in the innermost guest room. Only Cheng Wei had the key. As for the remaining three rooms, Cheng Wei and Yang Wentao shared one, Si Nan and Cheng Suming lived across from her, and Sheng Youqing and the other two lived next to Si Nan's room which had three beds.

Everyone went into their respective rooms and saw the clean and comfortable big bed. Si Nan really wanted to throw himself on the soft big bed and roll around for a few rounds, but when he thought of how dirty and smelly he was now, he stared at Cheng Suming with his eyes.

Cheng Suming understood immediately: "There is an independent water storage tank on the twelfth floor. With the extravagant nature of the Cheng family, they must have a generator or something like that here. I wonder if they left one for Cheng Wei. I'll go ask Cheng Wei. If they do, generate the electricity and you can take a comfortable hot bath in your room."