Outside the space, the couple went out together.
Bi Qiaoan was dressed very thickly, almost like a bear. But Shen Yanming was going to the event, so he wasn't dressed as bulky as usual.
A biting wind blew, and the two of them shivered simultaneously.
Shen Yanming felt cold all over his body, and after walking for only ten minutes, he could no longer stand it.
"Wife, are you alright? Do you want to go back?" Shen Yanming asked the woman beside him.
Bi Qiaoan was also cold, but she couldn't bear to see her husband, Lao Shen, struggle alone, so she shook her head and said, "I can still persevere."
Shen Yanming sighed, stopped and hugged Bi Qiaoan: "If you can't hold on, go back. No one will blame you."
"Yes, I know. You too, don't push yourself too hard."
Shen Yanming smiled, thinking to himself that this time he really couldn't back down.
He's cold, but does that mean others aren't?
His own wife can go home and make excuses like she's not feeling well or there are children to take care of. But he knows the situation is serious and yet he hides at home—what kind of behavior is that?! Right?
But he didn't want his wife to worry, so he vaguely said, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of myself."
The two walked for more than half an hour before reaching the fork in the road.
Shen Yanming did not hesitate to take Bi Qiaoan to the hospital, intending to settle her in before leaving.
The hospital was bustling with people, and there wasn't a single empty space.
An office near the entrance had been cleared out, where two guards were working. One was simmering ginger soup, and the other was cooking porridge. Outside, a long line of people were waiting to get their porridge and ginger soup, while the two guards inside were sweating profusely, unable to keep up with the demand.
Shen Yanming didn't want his wife to come into contact with those patients, so he knocked on the office door.
Under the surprised gazes of the two guards, he revealed his identity.
“My wife heard about the accident at the base and volunteered to help. She's also a security guard, belonging to the Traditional Chinese Medicine department. Since it wasn't convenient for her to go to the accident site, I brought her here. Do you need any help?”
The two guards' eyes lit up and they quickly nodded: "Yes, yes, we're just too busy!"
Bi Qiaoan smiled and asked, "Do I need to verify my identity?" She turned on her smart bracelet, preparing to show the other party her identity information.
The two men shook their heads: "No, no, we've seen you before. You and your husband have twins, right?"
"Yes, I didn't expect you to know us. What a coincidence!" Bi Qiaoan complimented with a smile.
"Hehe, you two are quite the stars in our guard team," one of them said with a laugh.
Bi Qiaoan didn't ask them what the rumors were about; anyway, the rumors at the base had never stopped from the beginning. She and Shen Yanming were used to it.
She reached out and took the spoon from Chang Jiarong, who was simmering ginger soup, and waved to Shen Yanming with a smile: "I'll stay here, you go ahead and do your work."
Shen Yanming nodded: "Take care of yourself. Rest when you're tired. Don't go back by yourself after you're done. Stay at Heping's place and I'll come pick you up when I'm done."
"Okay, you too!"
After Shen Yanming left, Bi Qiaoan stirred the soup with a spoon.
The pungent aroma of ginger reached her nostrils through the steam. After Bi Qiaoan scooped a spoonful for the thin old man in front of her, two people squeezed in from outside and handed the bowl to Chang Jiarong.
"Would you like more ginger soup?" Chang Jiarong asked as he received the bowl.
"No, thank you, I'm warm now!" the other person said.
Chang Jiarong nodded and took the bowl to a large basin in the corner of the office to wash it.
Then he placed it next to Bi Qiaoan: "Time is tight and the task is heavy, so we can only make do with this."
“Yes, I know.” Bi Qiaoan nodded and served the next person a bowl of ginger soup.
On Chang Jiarong's side, seven or eight people have already had their turn, while on her side, only two have been taken.
Suddenly feeling like he'd gotten a great deal, he said somewhat awkwardly, "How about we switch?"
The two guards waved their hands and said with a smile, "No need, no need. You're a girl, you should receive some special treatment. There are two of us here, we can manage."
Bi Qiaoan thought about it and didn't insist anymore. Once the pot beside her was empty, the people outside looked on with disappointment and left.
The two guards refilled the water, added rice, stirred it with a spoon, and cooked the porridge.
Bi Qiaoan still had a pot of broth left, but she added water as well. She couldn't just wait until the guests arrived and then run out of water to start cooking again.
Seeing the two guards sitting on the ground wiping their sweat, Bi Qiaoan asked them, "When did you arrive?"
Wu Shizhu said, "I arrived at 3 p.m. and have been busy ever since."
Have you eaten yet?
"No, there are so many patients waiting outside, and our comrades who travel between Zone D and the hospital are still hungry. How can we eat? Are you hungry? If you are, I'll get you a bowl of porridge when it's ready."
Bi Qiaoan smiled and shook her head: "It's okay, I ate something at home before going out."
Then he took out a few roasted sweet potatoes from his bag and handed them to the two of them: "Try them. You can't stay hungry forever; we still have work to do."
Wu Shizhu and Chang Jiarong didn't know why, but the food they usually ate until they were sick of smelled incredibly delicious now.
They wondered, "Are they starving?"
The two exchanged a glance, smiled, thanked them, and accepted the gift. They figured that since the other person could afford it, it meant they had enough to eat and weren't lacking anything.
The three of them ate the sweet potatoes and felt much warmer.
Bi Qiaoan got up and threw a handful of ginger slices into the pot. She did it so fast that Wu Shizhu and Chang Jiarong couldn't stop her.
"Honey, you put in too much! We don't have many ginger slices, and they'll be gone after we finish cooking!"
“It’s okay, I have one!” Bi Qiaoan picked up her backpack from the chair and took out a plastic jar from the bag.
The jar was full of ginger slices.
“After learning that the planet’s temperature was dropping, we planted a lot of ginger in the fields. After the harvest, we sliced and dried it all,” she explained.
Wu Shizhu and Chang Jiarong were both excited. They said happily, "That's great! Now we can make some for the guards to drink."
Bi Qiaoan paused, "They don't have any to drink?"
Chang Jiarong's smile froze, realizing he had said the wrong thing. He stammered, "Well, everyone was worried that District D wouldn't make it, so we unanimously decided to leave the supplies to them."
Bi Qiaoan frowned, thinking, "It's just some ginger slices, how could the guards be short of them?"
What she didn't know was that this stuff wasn't meant to be eaten or drunk; it was just used for seasoning, so nobody really paid much attention to it.
Ginger slices are available now, but not in large quantities.
"It's alright, I have plenty at home, enough for everyone." Bi Qiao thought to herself. The ginger slices in the space have a strong flavor, so just a little bit will be effective. Therefore, she could afford to supply them.
Chang Jiarong nodded, bent down to find a piece of paper in the cabinet, wrote something down, and went out to stick it on the wall.
"Is there enough porridge for the guards?" Bi Qiaoan asked.
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