The uncle's tone was full of envy.
They are different from him; they are young and strong, and possess formidable martial prowess. They would be highly valued anywhere.
Someone like him can only make a living by doing manual labor.
The two chatted briefly for a few more minutes before it was time to start work in the afternoon, and they continued to work hard, chiseling ice.
Villa area
Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao slept until noon again, while Gu Yanlin had already finished lunch and started his afternoon work.
After lunch, Song Zhao pushed the wheelchair and followed Gu Yanzhi out the door.
Today they plan to go to the hospital here to look for clues.
"Doctor, how is my wife's leg recovering?"
Since they came to the hospital to look for clues, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao went all out and got an appointment with a doctor, while Gu Yanzhi also had his leg injury checked.
"The recovery is going well; you should be fully recovered in a few more days." The doctor looked to be in his fifties, with half of his hair already turned white.
He gently tapped Gu Yanzhi's leg with a small hammer, observed it for a while, and then said thoughtfully.
Without electricity, many hospital equipment facilities are unusable, and most medical care relies on the doctor's experience. Therefore, older doctors are very popular in hospitals.
The doctor gave them a few more instructions about the recovery of their legs before letting them take the bill to pay.
Perhaps due to a shortage of doctors, the fees are very high. They only did a simple examination of my legs, and they charged me 5 kilograms of rice.
"No wonder there are so few people in this hospital," Gu Yanzhi muttered to himself. "Luckily, they have enough stock, otherwise they wouldn't even be able to pay for the hospital bills."
The hospital is located on the west side of the Liancheng base. Coming from the villa area, you have to cross most of the base.
The once bustling base became sparsely populated here. The hospital was a single, flat building, seemingly newly constructed after the apocalypse. The entire hospital could be seen from the lobby.
The entire hospital has only five consultation rooms, and there are only a handful of patients waiting for their consultations.
The payment office is located at the far end of the east side of the entire hospital, on the same side as the five consultation rooms. The other one, judging from the sign at the entrance, should be the inpatient department.
Several security personnel were on duty at the entrance of the corridor.
After paying the consultation fee, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao lingered as they walked out. The hospital was so small that they couldn't see anything wrong just by looking at it.
"That guy is here again. We've been talking about it for so long, when is he going to stop?" Gu Yanzhi overheard the complaints of two nurses passing by as they came out of the payment counter.
"Don't say anything more, he's a pitiful person too."
Looking up, I saw a scruffy-bearded man standing at the registration desk in the middle of the hall, pleading with the nurse over something.
As they approached, Gu Yanzhi finally heard the man repeatedly pleading, "Please, please let me see my wife."
"She's been here for half a month, and I haven't seen her at all."
The nurses passing by seemed unfazed, simply carrying their things as they walked by.
The nurse on duty inside the window ignored her and chatted animatedly with the person next to her, as if the person talking outside was a fake.
Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao stood in the hall for a while before they saw the man leave, looking utterly dejected.
The nurse on duty caught a glimpse of the man leaving the hospital. Of the two nurses on duty, the younger one seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and pretended to wipe non-existent sweat from her brow.
He muttered to himself, "Finally gone! This guy comes every day like this, I wonder when it'll ever end."
"Sister, why don't you want people to visit? You won't even let us into the ward," the young nurse asked, frowning in confusion.
"I don't know either. It's all arranged by higher-ups. We just have to do what they tell us. Things are tough these days, so don't ask too many questions." The older nurse glared at the younger nurse and warned her in a low voice.
Finding a job isn't easy these days; hospitals are short-staffed, the work is easy, and the pay isn't bad. She didn't want to be dragged down by others.
Not long after they entered the hospital, they were taught a piece of advice by their seniors: "Don't ask about things you shouldn't ask about; don't look, don't listen, and don't say anything."
The young nurse had only been there for a little over half a month. Although she had been warned about this, she still maintained her curiosity and couldn't help but want to complain.
I lost this job.
The young nurse hadn't seen the previous nurse since the day after she inadvertently complained about how strict the hospital rules were, and unfortunately, a doctor overheard her.
That's why they brought in another nurse.
Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao exchanged a glance after seeing the man leave. Song Zhao then pushed Gu Yanzhi and followed the man's retreating figure.
As soon as they left the hospital, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao keenly sensed the gazes that were watching them intently from the shadows.
Not daring to catch up with the man directly, Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao pretended to want to stroll around the hospital. They followed the man for a short distance, noted the direction he went, and then casually changed direction and began to wander around the neighborhood.
To be honest, this stroll wasn't a complete waste of time.
Gu Yanzhi and Song Zhao followed the crowd and discovered a small trading market nearby.
There weren't many vendors in the market. There were officials guarding the entrance, and every few hundred meters there were also officials standing guard to prevent anyone from causing trouble.
Song Zhao pushed Gu Yanzhi to the door, where they were stopped by the security team.
"Wait, are you setting up a stall or selling things?"
"Is there any explanation?" Gu Yanzhi asked.
"The stall fee is one jin of rice, and the entrance fee for buying things is half a jin of rice. You can use items of equivalent value to replace them," the security guard said, pointing to the sign at the entrance.
This price is undeniably expensive; half a pound of rice is practically a two-day ration for an adult man these days. Those who can get in are either desperately short of supplies or wealthy people who have no shortage of resources.
"We need two tickets to buy something," Song Zhao said, taking a bag of rice out of his backpack and handing it over. It was exactly one jin (500 grams), and it was the ticket for both him and Gu Yanzhi.
Knowing that the hard currency these days is things like rice, flour, and water, I specially carried a very large bag before leaving home, containing more than 10 kilograms of rice.
However, instead of storing large, well-stocked rice, they used some moldy rice that they had found while collecting supplies in City C.
Even in the apocalypse, this is considered a pretty good amount of rice.
How long can a ticket be used?
"You can enter and exit multiple times a day."
"Most of the people who set up stalls are out looking for supplies right now, so you'd better come at night when there are more people."
After weighing and checking the quality of the rice, and finding it to be of good quality, the security guards smiled, tore off two tickets, wrote down the time and date, and handed them to the deliveryman.
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