Chapter 23 Oxalis
The Yao couple spent most of the day loading three of the generators onto the truck at the Jiguang warehouse, while Lu An loaded one as well. Zhang Xiaohe couldn't ride a heavy vehicle, so Yao Yuan was already quite satisfied after inspecting the generator, wires, ceiling panels, and other items on the truck.
Just as the Yao family was about to head to Warehouse No. 3, Lu An suggested going to the surrounding residential area. The four discussed it briefly, and since they planned to return early the next morning and it was past noon, they split up. The Yao couple went to Warehouse No. 3, while Lu An and Zhao Xuan went to the residential area.
The Yao family's tricycle had reached its maximum load capacity. Going to Warehouse No. 3 was for two reasons: first, to help Lu An and his group find supplies, and second, to scout out the area. If there were any good items left in Warehouse No. 3, they could come back another time.
Lu An took an axe, a crowbar, and a coil of rope, and he and Zhao Xuan each carried a large canvas bag before leaving. The car was guarded by the Yao couple, who would return at the agreed time, regardless of whether they had found anything.
The surrounding residential buildings weren't tall; in fact, buildings in Taiping Town were generally low-rise, and there wasn't a single high-rise building in sight. The two of them were already very familiar with searching residential buildings; they had done this countless times before they became homeless.
Five years later, Taiping Town has very little supplies left. Buildings in other areas have been emptied out, but many houses in the Jiguang Warehouse area are still intact. Entering from the outside is impossible; prying open the door would make a lot of noise, and if it's a security door, there's no leverage point. They usually have to be lowered down from the roof and then use a crowbar to pry open the security bars to get in.
Lu An and Lao Dao had learned a set of window-picking techniques. With just a crowbar and a rope, they could silently pry open security windows. He had seen countless thieves use this technique when he was a patrol officer, and he never expected that he would perfect it in the post-apocalyptic world.
The location of the residents was chosen by Zhao Xuan. Her eye for talent is unique and precise. The residents she chooses are like the fields she selects – they are exceptionally fertile.
This time, Zhao Xuan chose a unit on the top floor of a six-story building. She said it was a duplex because the security bars on both floors were the same style. Lu An broke in through a window and opened the security door from the inside.
As he opened the door, Lu An added, "Be careful, there's a body inside."
Just as Zhao Xuan was about to ask where it was, he saw a skeleton hanging under the chandelier in the entrance hall. The skeleton was hanging with its head tilted to one side from a curtain tie, and there were tattered pieces of clothing hanging on its body. It looked like a pitiful man who had hanged himself after the apocalypse.
“There are two smaller bodies in the children’s room, probably dead from illness, lying in bed,” Luan said. “There’s nothing there, you don’t need to go in.”
Zhao Xuan nodded.
The house was dark, and even on a bright summer afternoon, a strange smell permeated the air. All the windows and curtains were drawn, and the contents were arranged neatly, suggesting that the man of the house had prepared everything before committing suicide.
Zhao Xuan didn't speculate about what happened to the family's owner before his death. She had seen too many dead people. When society collapsed, she saw piles of corpses in the crematorium, each with a loved one who loved them dearly, but they died alone.
Death is an exceptionally lonely thing. She had seen it all before, and she had come to understand it completely.
This was clearly a well-off family; even their furniture was made of mahogany, large and heavy, yet it hadn't changed at all in the past five years, not even a single crack. Zhao Xuan noticed that many of his parents' generation liked mahogany furniture, saying that it wouldn't rot for a thousand years and could be passed down as a family heirloom. However, such expensive items were of no use to them now.
Zhao Xuan found several packets of salt and sugar in the kitchen, and a dozen bottles of fine wine, both foreign and Chinese liquor, were hidden in the cabinet under the antique shelf. There were also many quilts and clothes hidden in the other bedrooms.
The woman of the house was clearly a virtuous person; everything was neatly organized, with winter clothes and quilts compressed in the closet. Zhao Xuan preferred things packed in compression bags; these bags were difficult for mice to chew, and by isolating them from air, they kept things as clean as new.
Zhao Xuan picked out several quilts, some with down and some with cotton, several windbreakers, and even a mink coat.
The lady of the house's clothes were a bit too big for the short Zhao Xuan, while the gentleman's clothes were a bit too short for Lu An. Zhao Xuan piled the collected supplies at the door, intending to take them all with him when he returned.
As she was leaving, Zhao Xuan glanced back at the skeleton hanging in the entryway, paused, and said, "Lu An, shall we reunite him with his children?"
Lu An paused for a moment, then nodded, stepped onto a chair, and carefully removed the skeleton. The children's room had a bunk bed, with the two children sleeping on the larger bed below, both covered with blankets. Lu An then placed the skeleton in the aisle next to the bed, and Zhao Xuan covered it with a blanket.
"Bye-bye." The girl waved to the three skeletons inside the house, and then the two of them left the house.
Zhao Xuan seemed to have a bit of luck about her; afterwards, she visited two different stores and made quite a few purchases from both. Zhao Xuan found suitable clothes and shoes for Lu An, along with some unopened packages of soap and laundry detergent, and even some well-preserved sanitary napkins. As they gathered more and more, it became clear that their tricycle was about to overflow.
When they arrived at the last house, Zhao Xuan saw the spare key that the owner had left in the entrance hall.
"Let's store the things here for now, and we'll come back to pick them up when we're not farming in the winter," Zhao Xuan said.
Lu An thought it made sense. After picking out some clothes and blankets they needed, they moved the rest of their belongings into the house and then locked the door.
“If we get caught, all of these things will be confiscated,” Lu An said.
Zhao Xuan was unusually open-minded at this moment: "That's fate!"
The two stuffed their backpacks to the brim, then Lu An carried two quilts in his arms, and Zhao Xuan carried a large bag of clothes on his head. The two staggered back to the Jiguang warehouse.
The Yao couple were still waiting there. When they saw them returning with their bounty, they came up to greet them. The awning paper they had collected yesterday came in handy. A large section was used to wrap clothes and quilts, and the fluffy quilts could be used to wrap the row of glass jars that Zhao Xuan had his eye on.
The jars had already been washed and dried by Zhang Xiaohe. She and Yao Yuan first explored Warehouse No. 3, then she started a fire to cook, while Yao Yuan went outside the town to fetch water.
Warehouse No. 3 was significantly smaller than the previous two, and it was probably used as a temporary transit storage for goods before they were put into the warehouse. There were many shelves and trailers inside, but not many usable goods. Most of them had been looted or damaged, and what was left was not what was urgently needed at the moment. So they had been waiting for Lu An and the others there for quite a while.
Zhao Xuan tied all the spoils he had acquired to the tricycle with ropes. His greed made the back of the tricycle unusually high; if someone hadn't been holding it from the front, the tricycle would probably have tipped backward.
"With this weight, it would take a whole day and night to get home..." Zhao Xuan thought, stroking his chin as he looked at the four carts full of goods.
The four decided to sleep in the Jiguang Warehouse that night. If they weren't locals, the outside survivors wouldn't be able to find this place anytime soon. Lu An and Zhao Xuan preferred to camp on flat ground, where there were many paths and it would be easier to escape. Camping in a building would only have one exit, the stairwell, which would be less safe.
The Yao couple were protected by the large camp during the early stages of the apocalypse when humanity was at its worst. Later, when they were wandering, the population had greatly decreased, and they trusted Lu An and his family's survival experience.
For dinner, we had crispy, fragrant, salty, and spicy preserved vegetable and pork flatbread again. After eating it for two days, no one felt tired of it. Zhao Xuan also shared her boiled eggs. She put the cooled eggs and flatbread together by the campfire to roast them. The roasted eggs would crack open their pinkish-white shells, and the originally tasteless egg whites would be coated with the charred aroma of charcoal. They could be eaten with just a little salt.
They probably planned to return early tomorrow morning, so everyone relaxed their guard. Zhao Xuan, who was enjoying his meal, glanced out of the corner of his eye and suddenly noticed a long shadow flash past outside a gap in the warehouse!
She paused, staring at the breach for a long time.
The sun had not yet set, and all the objects illuminated by the sunlight cast long shadows. Shadows often passed by, sometimes like one or two birds, sometimes like a wild dog, or sometimes like a few mice. The shadow she had just seen did not move as fast as an animal; instead, it looked like a person.
"There are people outside," Zhao Xuan said softly.
The remaining three people immediately stopped moving, but then quickly resumed their original actions.
"If Xiao Zhao likes this pancake, eat more!" Yao Yuan said casually as he picked up the axe beside him. Lu An opposite him also picked up an axe. Zhao Xuan responded to Yao Yuan's words, but pointed to the direction where she had just seen the shadow. She also gripped an iron rod and gestured to Zhang Xiaohe to stay where she was.
She said, "Luan, fetch me some water."
“Okay.” Lu An agreed, and he and Yao Yuan walked towards the hole, one on each side.
The next second, Zhao Xuan saw that the two men had already flashed away, and she also rushed out with the iron rod in her hand!
Outside the sweltering warehouse, the expected sounds of fighting did not come. The three looked at the grinning intruder in the open space, remained silent for a few seconds, and then Zhao Xuan said, "I know her."
She was a madwoman; you could tell from the fact that she was wearing layer upon layer of tattered clothes in this weather.
Under such close observation, Zhao Xuan finally confirmed that the madman he had met outside the farmers' market in the spring was a woman. She was very thin, with deep sunken cheeks and eye sockets. Even with so many layers of clothing, one could still vaguely make out her skeletal body underneath.
Zhao Xuan didn't know how old this woman was; people who have been tortured to this extent always look much older than their actual age.
This madwoman walks silently. Zhao Xuan knew this from the last time he saw her in the rain. He didn't know how long she had been following them. If it weren't for that fleeting shadow, they probably wouldn't have noticed her even after leaving Taiping Town.
“She…” Yao Yuan seemed to have many questions.
Lu An continued, "We met her when we came to Taiping Town last time. Because of her, Xuanxuan and I thought there wouldn't be any danger in Taiping Town." After all, there shouldn't be anyone else in a place that can accommodate a madwoman for so long.
The madwoman didn't seem afraid of people. When she saw the group of people who suddenly rushed out, she even laughed, drool dripping from her mouth as she mumbled incoherently, "Pastries..."
Oh, so she was attracted by the aroma of the baked flatbread.
While everyone was unsure whether to chase her away or find another place to camp, the madwoman reached into her filthy pocket and pulled out a handful of almost rotten green grass. She carefully handed the grass over, her body emitting an unbearable stench, but her eyes were bright and sparkling.
She didn't get too close, perhaps because she had been hurt by strangers before, and therefore her not-so-clear mind firmly remembered the safe distance from other humans.
She said, "Wow... Da Bao and Er Bao love to eat pancakes, pancakes... wow."
In her hand was a large bunch of clover, the most vigorous and common weed of the season. It had three heart-shaped leaves and small pink or yellow flowers. Or you could just call it clover; it's said that finding a four-leaf clover among them brings good luck.
Zhao Xuan knew this herb could be used in medicine and was also edible; it tasted sour and wasn't palatable. Looking at this bunch of herbs, she suddenly understood that the madman hadn't said "Wow," but rather "Change."
She wanted to trade the oxalis she had gathered for their bread.
Oxalis can be used in medicine, but it's definitely not a good thing to eat it as a staple food for a long time. Zhao Xuan couldn't imagine how anyone could survive on such a plant. She heard footsteps behind her, turned around, and saw Zhang Xiaohe coming out as well. Zhao Xuan asked, "Should we give it to her?" The flatbread was brought by the Yao family; she didn't have the authority to decide whether to give it to her.
Zhang Xiaohe glanced at the madman with his fawning expression, then at her companions' expressions, and after a moment, she said, "We still have plenty of pancakes."
Zhao Xuan knew that she had always been a very kind person, and she agreed.
Two golden-brown flatbreads were handed to the madwoman, who accepted them with a grin. She held the flatbreads above her head to examine them, then licked the oil that had seeped out. For a fleeting moment, her eyes cleared, only to become dazed again. She clutched the flatbreads to her chest, oblivious to whether the flatbreads were greasy or the flatbreads were getting on her clothes. She ran off joyfully, shouting, "Da Bao, Er Bao, time for flatbreads! Time for flatbreads!"
Where she left, there was a large pile of wood sorrel that had been ground into green juice.
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