After Si Nan's kitchen was renovated, the original stone walls in the approximately 15-square-meter space were all covered with cement and installed with gray-toned tiles that Si Nan lied about finding from the ruins. It looked neat and generous.

On the left side of the kitchen was an old-fashioned elm cabinet, and next to the cabinet were two large water vats filled with clean well water. There were many nails on the wall, on which were hung three bamboo sieves of different sizes, two iron sieves, various colanders, pot brushes, strings of dried chilies, garlic, and so on that she had taken out of the space.

Next to the kitchen door was a honeycomb coal stove, which was rarely used. Inside, near the toilet, in a dimly lit area, was a gas can and a gas stove, which she occasionally used.

The brightly lit area in the middle is a country-style earthen stove that she asked the construction workers to build. Next to the stove, near the chimney, there is also a small stove. When she cooks in the big pot, she puts a pot of water on the small stove. The heat from the big stove can heat the water in the small pot, saving the effort of boiling hot water. Therefore, she often cooks on the big stove.

During the more than one month that Cheng Suming had been working, the military hospital provided three meals a day, but because the meals served in the military canteen were the same every time, the big pot dishes did not taste that good, so Cheng Suming often ate breakfast and dinner at home, and had lunch in the canteen.

Of course, in line with the principle of not wasting food, he would pack breakfast and dinner into lunch boxes and bring them back every day.

Usually Si Nan would put the food he brought back in the space, and when Cheng Suming was not at home the next day, she would eat the food he brought back at noon.

If neither she nor Cheng Su Ming wanted to cook, they could eat together the cafeteria meals they had stockpiled, and add some extra dishes from the big bags in the space to go with the rice, which saved a lot of effort.

Si Nan walked into the kitchen and turned on the pear-shaped light bulb in the kitchen. Under the dim light, he opened the round four-layer iron lunch box that Cheng Suming used for his meal today.

Breakfast was another box of porridge with two steamed buns, and in the evening there was white rice with a small amount of shredded potatoes, a canned grass carp that was one finger long and two fingers wide, and a bowl of yellow pumpkin soup with salt.

If these meals were served before the end of the world, some people would definitely say that the food was too bad.

To this day, this is the best food available in the canteens of all the factories, units, and work packages in the Shishan Base.

Many canteens only serve porridge, two steamed buns, and at most some pickled mustard and salted vegetables.

Unlike Cheng Suming and his colleagues who were in the military canteen, they thought that as doctors and soldiers they were very tired. Not only did they have to eat dry rice every day, but they also had to cook potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions that were more durable and could be stored in different ways. They also frequently changed canned meats and sometimes made dumplings and steamed buns with fillings.

Today's steamed buns are round, not square, which means there is stuffing inside. Si Nan took out the steamed buns and put the porridge into a large iron bucket in the space that was specially used to hold the porridge that Cheng Suming brought back, planning to eat it later.

The rice was left untouched, as she planned to mash it with shredded potatoes and canned grass carp meat to make egg fried rice.

Cheng Su Ming had been working hard all day, and eating just these was definitely not enough, so she took out two kilograms of fresh pork ribs from the space, and because someone had come to her house to see Cheng Su Ming for medical treatment a few days ago, and gave him various fresh mushrooms as medical expenses, she added some ginger slices and peppercorns to remove the fishy smell, and cooked a pot of pork ribs and mushroom soup.

An iron tripod was placed on the soup, and the two buns bigger than Cheng Suming's face that he brought back a few days ago were taken out from the space. Together with the steamed buns he brought back today, they were placed in a bowl and steamed on the tripod.

She lit the earthen stove, piled a few pieces of wood into it and set them on fire, then turned to add water to the medium-sized aluminum pot on the stove.

The corner in front of the earthen stove was filled with neatly piled firewood. They were all the wood she had cut from Keeling County in the past two months and placed in the space. They were all sawed into one-meter lengths and then chopped into wrist-thick pieces with an axe.

During this period, the entire base, including the military soldiers, were frantically cutting down trees. At night, the sound of chopping wood could be heard in every household. Sinan certainly would not miss this opportunity. Whenever he had time, he would take an axe and chop wood desperately.

Cheng Suming felt sorry for her and asked her to leave it there until he came back from chopping trees in the evening before chopping wood.

It was almost midnight when he came back from chopping trees. How could she let him work so hard, busy all day and night? Of course, she did everything she could do herself, just as exercise.

After chopping wood day after day, her arms really developed solid muscles. In addition to some firewood piled up in the kitchen and woodshed for demonstration, she put the rest of the firewood into the space and piled it into a small hill.

When the firewood in the stove was burned out, she took the fire tongs she made and added two pieces of firewood. She kept adding firewood in the red flames. The pot soon boiled, emitting the unique aroma of pork ribs and mushroom soup.

After stewing for about half an hour, she opened the lid of the pot and saw that the ribs were almost cooked. She took out two green cucumbers that she had planted in Xingcheng 1501 two years ago from the space. After washing them with water, she did not peel them. She smashed the whole thing with a knife, cut them into knuckle-length cubes, and put them in a large bowl for easy cold mixing.

Turning around, I took a garlic from a long string hanging on the wall opposite the boiler, broke off a few cloves, washed and chopped them, put half of them into the bowl with cucumbers, and added some salt, MSG, chili oil, pepper powder, and soy sauce to mix them together. A red and green, colorful, spicy and appetizing cucumber salad with a garlic aroma is now ready.

Sinan has always had a strong taste, and when eating soup dishes, she likes to dip them in some spicy sauce, so she took out a small bowl from the cupboard, put the remaining minced garlic on the chopping board into the bowl, and then took out five chilies from the space, chopped them up, and minced two scallions, and mixed them with salt, MSG, pepper oil, chili oil and soy sauce. It is very good to dip the dishes in with rice.

She picked up the hot steamed buns and the fragrant, bright-colored pork ribs and mushroom soup. She added a little salt and served it out without adding any chicken essence or MSG, because the mushroom soup itself was very fresh and adding MSG would destroy the freshness.

Then she cleaned the pot, took out three eggs from the space, and fried a big egg rice with the rice that Cheng Suming brought back.

She brought the prepared meals one by one to the square dining table in the living room. Cheng Suming woke up from the sofa when he smelled the fragrance of the food and put on his glasses again.

Seeing the delicious dishes, he smiled: "I made hot dishes today. Aren't you afraid that the fragrance will reach Sheng Youqing and Cheng Wei's noses?"

This was of course a joke. These two women didn't know what was going on, but their noses were as sensitive as dogs'. Even though Sinan had specifically asked the house renovator to make the kitchen window glass very tight, and she always closed the doors and windows tightly when she cooked, they could always smell that little bit of fragrance that leaked out.

Whenever they smelled the aroma of the dishes, they always liked to run to their house, or ask them what delicious food they had prepared the next day. As a result, Si Nan was afraid to cook hot dishes, for fear that they would smell the food and it would be difficult to explain the origin of the dishes.

This kind of thing happened so often that Cheng Su Ming felt sorry for Si Nan and reprimanded Cheng Wei and the others several times, telling them not to come to their house at mealtime to eat for free, and not to ask Si Nan what delicious food he had eaten the day before, so that Si Nan would feel guilty and cook the same dishes for them.

Cheng Suming told them to live their lives on their own and not to disturb their lives. Only then did Cheng Wei and her husband pack up.

"The mushrooms are the money given by others for medical treatment. The spareribs can be exchanged with points from the logistics department for the frozen goods that the military has stockpiled in advance. Even if they smell it, I have a reason to explain." Si Nan put a few pieces of spareribs into Cheng Suming's bowl, and also put a lot of green cucumbers for him to supplement vitamins. Finally, he scooped a bowl of fragrant mushroom soup and handed it to him: "Eat more. You have been busy in the hospital during the day and have to come back to chop wood at night. You have lost a lot of weight. Eat more food to replenish your body."

Cheng Suming ate a piece of spareribs. The spareribs were full of the flavor of mushrooms such as porcini, matsutake mushrooms, yellow mushrooms, chanterelles, etc. They fell off the bones when bitten, and the meat was tender and not dry, with the unique aroma of various mushrooms. It was delicious even just eating it, and it had another flavor when paired with the spicy dipping sauce prepared by Sinan, which made people salivate and went well with rice.

Cheng Suming ate several pieces in a row, and when he saw Sinan constantly putting meat into his bowl, he put a lot of the remaining ribs in the soup bowl into hers: "Don't just pick vegetables for me, eat too. I know that when I'm at work, you don't want to cook delicious food at home, so you just eat the food I get from the cafeteria. You don't have to be so frugal, just cook whatever you want. The points I earn are enough for you to eat as much as you want and never worry about food and clothing."

"I'm not thrifty, I'm just too lazy to use a stove. I usually eat whatever I see when I'm rummaging through the space at home. I've eaten a lot of delicious meat dishes without your knowledge for every meal." Sinan smiled as he drank the delicious mushroom soup.

Cheng Suming broke open a steamed bun that looked delicious and was dripping with sweet bean paste and put it into her bowl: "It's best that you don't let yourself suffer. When the severe cold comes, I won't have to go out to chop firewood at night. I will cook whatever you want to eat."

"I want to eat a full banquet, will you make it for me?"

"As long as you have the ingredients and don't mind my cooking, I will learn to cook for you."

"I'm just saying it casually, don't take it seriously. If we really make a full banquet, the aroma of the dishes will definitely attract everyone on the street. Forget it. Eat slowly, it's still early for the agreed time to chop wood."

Cheng Wei next door smelled the faint aroma of pork ribs and mushrooms in the air, sniffed hard and said, "My sister-in-law is making delicious food again."

"If you want to eat, I'll go to the logistics department tomorrow to get points to exchange for some pork ribs and mushrooms and stew them for you." Yang Wentao reached out and touched her head, and whispered, "Don't go to your sister-in-law's house for free meals again, or your brother will be unhappy."

Cheng Wei muttered, "My brother is just stingy. My sister-in-law didn't say anything, but he got so anxious. What's wrong with me eating some of his food? It's not like I haven't sent him the delicious meals we cooked before."

"Put yourself in their shoes. If we cooked something delicious and your brother came to eat it at mealtime, what would you think?" Yang Wentao patiently persuaded her, "For example, if I cooked your favorite sweet and sour pork tenderloin, the portion was only enough for the two of us, but when your brother came, you could only eat one or two pieces. Would you be happy?"

Cheng Wei's ears turned red at what he said, and she said embarrassedly, "I used to spend money lavishly on food and drink. I had everything I wanted, and I could eat whatever I wanted. I never thought that my dinner at my brother's house would cause trouble to my brother and sister-in-law."

Yang Wentao smiled and said, "It's not too late to wake up now. Anyway, try to go to your brother's house less often for free meals in the future. I will cook whatever you want to eat."

On the left is the Sheng family.

Sheng Youqing and his family were sitting in the living room drinking porridge. When they smelled the fragrance coming from next door, Sheng Youqing sighed and said, "We are all workers, why is there such a big difference?"

Sheng Youbin understood what she meant: "Sister, our family actually still has a lot of points left. You can go to the logistics department to exchange for anything you want to eat. There's no need to save."

"Forget it. We have food and drink now, which is pretty good. How can we spend points so lavishly?" Sheng Youqing shook his head and said, "If you meet a girl you like here and want to marry her, you have to save some points for renting a house and exchanging food for betrothal gifts. It will also cost a lot of points to get married and have children."

Sheng Youbin was stunned. He didn't expect her to think so far ahead. He was touched but helpless: "Sister, who would like me when I'm like this? Besides, the current environment is so bad, who would want to get married and have children? That would hurt others and yourself."

“No matter how tough the environment is, it can’t stop the development of human emotions.” Sheng Youqing’s eyes fell on his empty left sleeve, and she put another steamed bun in his bowl with a distressed look, saying, “The world is already so bad, if I meet the right person who makes my heart beat, I will marry him and have children with him, even if it costs my life! Even if I fall into an irretrievable situation, I want to experience the emotional life experience that I should have enjoyed before I die. On the contrary, if I don’t meet someone who makes my heart beat, I would rather be alone all my life than settle for anything.”

Sheng Youbin wanted to refute her idea, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that there was some truth in it, so he ate his steamed bun silently without saying anything.

Mother Sheng drank her porridge quietly the whole time without interrupting her two children's conversation.

Before the end of the world, like most parents in Country Z, she hoped that her children would get married and have children as soon as possible. She would feel at ease only when she saw that they had someone to carry on their legacy.

Therefore, she often urged them to get married, which made the children impatient and both sides unhappy.

It is different now. The world has changed a lot. Natural disasters one after another have made people exhausted and lose the desire to live. Many people cannot bear it and simply end it all.

It is already difficult for everyone to just survive, and everything else is just like passing clouds. She has also let go of the issue of whether the children get married or not, and will just let nature take its course.

At seven o'clock in the evening, nearly three hundred people who were going out to the base to chop firewood gathered at the intersection of the old stone house where Sinan lived.

The leader was Yang Wentao, who was tall and fierce-looking. He was also the captain of the seventh squad of the patrol team and was in charge of ten strong patrolmen. These patrolmen all lived in nearby stone houses. They knew each other well and supported each other, so there would be no disputes or uneven division of labor.

Therefore, whenever Yang Wentao went out to chop wood at night, he would be the leader. If he worked the night shift and could not go out to chop wood, Cheng Suming would be the leader.

Cheng Suming is a doctor with excellent medical skills. Everyone has faith in him. With him and Yang Wentao around, everyone feels at ease.

The place where they were going to chop wood this time was a little far from the base, and it would take three hours to go back and forth, so everyone made their own wooden carts. At Yang Wentao's command to set off, everyone pushed the carts and followed the three families of Yang Wentao, Si Nan, and Sheng Youqing who were riding tricycles in front.

Cheng Wei and Sheng's mother still stayed at home to look after the house.

Si Nan was sitting in the back of the car, Cheng Su Ming was riding in the front, on the left was Yang Wentao, who was riding a young aunt from Northeast China who had some mobility problems, and on the right was Sheng Youqing, who was riding a bike with Sheng Youbin.

They were in the lead, followed by the ten patrol team members from Yang Wentao's team. Each of them had weapons issued by the army, such as long swords and iron rods, on their flatbed carts to deal with emergencies and people blocking the road.

Further back were the people living along the stream, both men and women, old and young. They all knew that going out to chop wood was dangerous, so they all followed the team quietly, without chattering or making any noise.

In the past, except for the Boulder Town, other places were extremely desolate. The vast Stone Mountain Base has now changed greatly and turned into a medium-sized urban base with countless construction roads.

On the crisscrossing roads and under the exterior walls of countless tall buildings, energy-saving lights are lit every thirty meters.

Although these street lights are much dimmer than those before the end of the world, people who have not seen lights for a long time still feel warm and safe when they see those street lights.

Si Nan and his group were moving along the lamplit road towards the exit of the outer base. During the journey, they saw many groups of people like them, pushing wooden carts and holding axes, going out to chop firewood.

For some teams that people know each other, they will communicate with each other, but more often they will ignore each other, follow their own teams, line up in a row, and wait to register.

It was the first time that Sinan saw the gate of the base. It was built very tall and majestic. It was estimated that the wall was at least fifteen meters high. There were high-voltage electric wire meshes on the wall, and several searchlights with very long-range light were on, which clearly illuminated the area within a radius of 500 meters from the base gate.

Two watchtowers five meters higher than the city wall were set up near the entrance of the base. There were more than a dozen soldiers armed with live ammunition standing on the watchtowers to keep watch.

The entrance to the base below is about ten meters wide, with two heavy double iron doors that can accommodate four cars passing side by side.

Now the team that wants to go out to chop firewood has formed eight long queues, and there are also many armed soldiers doing registration at the door.

"Sinan." When the team came to Sinan's group, an officer asked Sinan what her name was. After she gave her name, the officer checked her ID card and other information. With a numb face, he said to her mechanically: "The base will close on time at 12 o'clock at night. No one will be served after that time."

This was to tell her that if she didn't get back to the base before midnight, she would have to find a way to spend the night outside the base and could not enter until the base opened at six o'clock the next morning.

There are many dangers hidden outside the base. Once you leave the base gate, the soldiers will no longer care about your safety. If you want to spend the night safely, you must return before the time specified by the base.

Si Nan thanked the soldier. After Cheng Su Ming rode her out of the base gate, she whispered to Cheng Su Ming: "Weren't we allowed to go out freely a few days ago? Why is it so strict now? We have to register before going out."

"Two days ago, people were attacked by tigers, lions, wolves and other wild animals outside the base, causing heavy casualties. Some robbers also set their sights on the military's firewood and supplies, so the Shishan military imposed martial law."

After Cheng Suming left the base, he took out a rechargeable headlamp from his backpack and put it on his head. He looked up at the several road signs outside the base, then rode laboriously along a winding mountain road towards his destination.

"Tigers and lions? Were there these ferocious beasts in Shishan originally?" After they rode for a distance, the flat road turned into a climbing road. Si Nan jumped off the back of the car and asked while pushing the tricycle with Cheng Suming.

"It should be the wild animals that escaped from the zoos in the larger cities after the earthquake. I don't know how they got to the Stone Mountain." Cheng Suming turned around and said to her, "You don't have to push, I can do it myself. Put on your headlamp, take out your weapon, and be alert to the surroundings. If you encounter wild animals or people blocking the way, you must react and fight back immediately to protect everyone's safety."

The ten patrol team members behind them, including Yang Wentao, all wore headlamps and held their weapons in their hands.

They exchanged these lights at the army logistics department in order to illuminate the surrounding area in the dark night.

After they took up their weapons, several older men immediately came out from behind to help them push the flatbed carts. The carts pushed by the elderly, children and women were gathered in the team.

They were separated into the front, back, left and right, responsible for protecting the safety of the team's rear, while the front was left to Yang Wentao, Cheng Suming and others.

The night was dark. The farther away from the Stone Mountain Base, the less lights there were. It was pitch black everywhere. Only the faint shadows of mountains and weeds could be seen. Rustling sounds were made by the night wind, as if something was hidden in them and could come out and eat people at any time.

Such a solemn and eerie night frightened the seven or eight children in their teens who were originally whispering and acting coquettishly with their parents, so much so that they shut their mouths and cautiously followed everyone walking on the uneven mountain road.

Si Nan was infected by the lifeless atmosphere of the team. After putting on a headlamp and holding a crossbow with loaded arrows in his hands, he followed Cheng Suming and followed the road they had walked before, climbing and going downhill. After walking for about an hour, they stopped at a high place halfway up the mountain.

"We're here." The speaker was Yang Wentao. "As usual, we'll form groups of 50. Don't separate too far. If anything happens, run to the diesel truck first. Only by gathering together can we fight the danger."

Yang Wentao and Cheng Suming are people with extremely high attack power. While cutting down trees, they are also responsible for protecting everyone's safety, so the two of them have to lead a team separately.

Si Nan had just taken out the axe she was going to use to chop down trees from the tricycle when she heard a chubby little boy ask his mother, "Mom, there was a nearby mountain where we could chop down trees. Why did we have to go so far to chop down trees?"

His mother replied, "There are many people cutting trees in the nearby mountains. When there are too many people, there will be fights and brawls over trees. Your uncle Yang and his friends don't want to fight with others, which would waste time and energy. Besides, there are no complete mountain roads to push the trucks up there. The cut trees have to be moved a long way before they can be loaded onto the trucks and transported away. That's really too tiring. It's better to go farther away so that you don't have to fight with others and it's more convenient for storage and transportation, killing two birds with one stone."

"But this mountain is too dark. I just saw something running through the bushes. It looked so scary. Woohoo, I want to go home. I don't want to pick up branches."

"Little Fatty, dad and mom are at work during the day and don't have time to chop wood. Your grandma is old and has difficulty walking. If you don't follow mom and dad out to collect more wood at night, our family will freeze to death when the weather gets really cold. Do you want to become the frozen man in the cartoons you've seen before, who breaks into pieces with just a knock and can never be put together again?"

"I don't want to, wuwuwu..."

Such a cruel conversation is the brutal fact that every family teaches their children to recognize after the end of the world.

No one knows whether tomorrow will be as peaceful as it is now, or whether they will still be alive tomorrow. Most parents do not want their children to live in the beautiful fantasy before the end of the world. Although they know it is cruel to the children, they must use words and practical actions to make their children strong and independent.