Chapter 56

The voice was rather hoarse, so it was not familiar, but the name and tone were very familiar.

Fu Erdie turned her head and took a closer look. Her cousin's thin face looked particularly kind in the dim light.

There was a small light next to the food truck. The cousin excitedly pulled Fu Erdie over and barely saw Fu Erdie's face in the dim light. He blushed with excitement and said, "It's really you!"

He turned around and shouted hurriedly: "Mom! Mother-in-law! My cousin is coming to our base!"

The two people who were supporting each other in the back hurried over here. Fu Erdie pushed her cousin aside to help the two people.

When they got there and saw the two emaciated faces, Fu Erdie choked up and said, "Grandma, Auntie, I'm here to see you."

The two people smelled bad, and their bodies were covered with redness, swelling, peeling and ulcers of varying sizes caused by skin diseases, but Fu Erdie didn't care about that. She hugged both of them in her arms, tears streaming silently.

My aunt hugged her and cried, but my grandmother was stunned for a long time and didn't react.

Fu Erdie realized that something was wrong. Her grandmother had high blood pressure!

She suddenly turned around to face her grandmother, and sure enough, there was still a look of surprise on her grandmother's face, but she had lost consciousness in an instant.

Fu Erdie didn't think twice and immediately asked Sang Wenhao to go back to the temporary small room.

The three of them flew into the air, leaving behind an urgent message: "Auntie, Yuanbai, wait for me here. I'll come find you after I've settled grandma."

Cao Yuanbai stood on the ground, staring in amazement at the figures that quickly disappeared into the night. He turned to look at his mother and said in surprise, "They are superpowers!"

Cao Rui's focus was not here. She was very happy with the information revealed by Fu Erdie.

"Xiaodie can help with the treatment for mom! She just said that once grandma is settled, there must be a way to cure her!"

Cao Rui was very happy. The more he thought about it, the happier he became. He almost wanted to spin around in place.

It took her a long time to calm down and she called Cao Yuanbai to go get food together.

Cao Yuanbai followed reluctantly: "My cousin is obviously here to see us. She is a superpower and has superpower food. She will take us to eat delicious food in a while. Why are we still eating these pig food?"

The word "pig food" caused the people nearby, who were already curious and jealous, to glare at him angrily.

"Don't talk nonsense, and don't assume things you don't know." Cao Rui hurriedly grabbed the man, "We only have two meals a day. If we don't eat now, we will be hungry all night. No matter what happens with mom, we must prepare dinner first."

The people around had already been attracted by this sudden scene.

Everyone in the queue started to inquire, even those who had already gotten their meals turned around and surrounded the mother and son, wanting to see if there was any news.

Needless to say, Cao Rui dealt with the questions from people around her. Fu Erdie hurriedly took her grandmother back to the temporary residence, entered the iron box in the room, and began emergency treatment.

White light poured into grandma's body, and soon her pale face began to improve.

There was only one rechargeable desk lamp in the temporary residence, and no other sockets. I guess there was not enough power and there was no electricity here.

Fu Erdie didn't care. She turned on her own rechargeable desk lamp, illuminating the entire metal box very brightly, and then began to undress her grandmother and check her body.

Sang Wenhao left the iron box, put a piece of cloth on the door of the iron box to block the view, and then walked to the balcony with his back to the house to leave privacy for the grandmother and granddaughter.

The iron box adjusts the temperature, keeping the inside of the box car at a comfortable temperature of 24 degrees, so you won't feel cold even if you take off your clothes.

Fu Erdie threw away the clothes that her grandmother had taken off, then filled a basin with warm water and wiped her grandmother's body while checking on her condition.

Her spine was slightly tilted to one side, obviously her bones had been deformed due to the excessive work.

Her thighs and arms were swollen where she exerted force, and there were many abrasions and injuries, with layers of scabs from wear and tear, festering, and repeated skin diseases.

The legs and feet have become deformed due to long-term standing and walking, and the feet have developed severe foot rot because they cannot be cleaned.

Fu Erdie cried as she watched.

My grandmother, who loves cleanliness so much, would never have imagined that one day she would become so messy just because she didn't take a bath or clean herself.

Skin injuries are secondary; internal diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease, blood clots, respiratory tract and lung function are the most important.

The house needs plenty of white light to stabilize these more serious underlying conditions first.

Fu Erdie walked out of the van, walked around this temporary residence, and found a bathtub full of water.

Fu Erdie carried the bucket into the truck and asked the room to heat and sterilize the water. When the water temperature was right, Fu Erdie cleaned the dirty, scabby and constantly infected areas on her grandmother's skin, little by little, over and over again.

Ten minutes later, grandma woke up. She looked at the strange place and the familiar people, and tears suddenly came out: "My daughter...my daughter..." (Note) Fu Erdie hurriedly held grandma's hand: "It's me, grandma, don't get excited, I'm treating your illness, come, take a deep breath, and calm down."

Fu Erdie can cry, my aunt can cry, my parents can cry when they reunite, but my grandmother, who is over 70 and has suffered so much, cannot cry! Whether it is great sorrow or great joy, it is very likely to cause an impact on the body of the elderly.

Although my grandmother is old and sometimes acts like a child, most of the time, especially when it comes to big things, she is very sensible.

When Fu Erdie said this, grandma understood it immediately.

Although she was still crying and holding Fu Erdie's hand very tightly, her heartbeat was not as intense and her emotions were not fluctuating so violently. She just slowly calmed down through her tears.

Fu Erdie waited until the white light on the wall of the box car lit up a [√] before wiping away her grandmother's tears and said with a smile: "It should be better now. How do you feel? Are you still feeling dizzy, palpitations, or anything like that?"

The grandmother was still lying on the ground, watching her granddaughter calm down, not daring to say much. After hearing what she said, she suddenly found that she was no longer dizzy, and the trachea and stomach, which were often painful, no longer felt uncomfortable.

She looked at her granddaughter whom she hadn't seen for half a year, and her old and hoarse voice sounded a little cautious: "Can I speak now?"

Fu Erdie smiled and nodded: "Okay, okay!"

Sang Wenhao stood on the balcony, silently listening to the loud crying that broke out from inside.

If the suffering that my parents endured was the pain of traveling and the possibility of death at any time, then the suffering that my grandmother endured was the pain of being boiled like a frog in warm water.

As they drove out of the city center, they turned around for a long time to avoid car accidents and zombies. After leaving the city center, they followed the road signs for a long time before they found the right road to Xiangde Village.

Later, in order to get gasoline, they searched for a long time on the map for a gas station in a remote corner that was not officially accessible. Finally, when the car ran out of gasoline, they came to a gas station on a very remote town road and filled up the car with gas.

After communications were briefly restored at the end of June, I made a few phone calls to Fu Erdie and others, downloaded the map, and continued on my journey.

Then we were forced to change lanes due to traffic jam, and finally we went straight out of the province and made a big detour before returning to Xiangde Village.

My grandmother still feels scared when she thinks about it now: "If we hadn't happened to meet some villagers who were out looking for gasoline and diesel, we would have almost not been able to reach the village."

Fu Erdie held her grandmother's hand tightly and listened to her talk bit by bit.

In fact, if you have no worries, you can go to any village for temporary residence. But if you agree to go to Xiangde Village, but end up going to another village, and then you can't notify your family, it means that the family may never be reunited.

So no matter how difficult it was, grandma chose to insist on going to Xiangde Village.

"When the base's convoy passed through the county, I didn't want to go. After all, it's the same everywhere, and it's almost the same at the base. Besides, I'm old, and going to the base will just add one more mouth to feed and cause trouble to the country. It's better not to go." Grandma's concept is very simple, "Get a few more acres of land in the countryside. If you can't grow food, forget it. If you eat it this year, you'll die next year..."

"Don't talk about life or death." Fu Erdie frowned. For a moment, she was more averse to the word death than the old man in front of her.

Grandma made a few "Puh, Puh, Puh" sounds, patted Fu Erdie's arm to comfort her, and continued, "Anyway, I don't want to cause trouble for the country, so let your aunt and cousin go to the base by themselves if they want to. Your aunt and cousin couldn't bear to leave me alone, so they took me with them."

Fu Erdie nodded, but couldn't help but sigh: "They probably didn't expect that the base would be so hard."

Grandma shook her head when she heard that. "It wasn't that hard in the beginning, because we had a lot of healing and water-related psychics at the base. Later, there were a few zombie sieges. I don't know what happened, but one side was not defended, and a few powerful zombies came in and ran rampant, destroying the crops that were about to be planted. Especially since one zombie could breathe fire, it would burn a large area. Now we can only continue to eat the moldy stored food and wait to see if we can grow new crops."

"But now, it's winter..." Grandma was also worried when she said this.

Fu Erdie didn't feel too involved in this. She handed the mashed potatoes with warm water and seasoning to her grandmother, and handed her a large pot of water. "You must be hungry. Eat first. After you eat, your spine and leg bones should be almost recovered. Then take a bath in the tub, and then I'll go pick up my aunt and Cao Yuanbai."

Fu Erdie was afraid that there would be too many people watching in the base, so she showed the box truck's healing ability while asking her grandmother to keep it a secret.

Grandma nodded quickly, ate a large bowl of mashed potatoes and drank a large pot of water, then went to take a quick bath in the tub: "You go pick them up first, so they don't have to wait. I'll be done soon."

Fu Erdie thought so too, and walked out of the van with Sang Wenhao who was ready to pick up the remaining two.

"Grandma, wait for me for two minutes, I'll be back soon."

Grandma: "I know, I know. Go quickly and come back soon."

In the past, at this time, many people would have finished their meals and started to slowly go upstairs. But this time, because Cao Rui and Cao Yuanbai were waiting for their relatives to pick them up, others wanted to follow and see what was going on.

The food cart had been pushed away after collecting all the food bowls. In the dim downstairs, there were only dry branches and leaves that someone had brought, and they were waiting for someone with a burning torch along with the mother and son.

Cao Rui remained calm and said he knew nothing. He had just seen his niece and didn't understand.

Cao Yuanbai was still a 17-year-old hot-blooded minor. Seeing that the people who were questioning him were all those who had worked with him in the past two months, he thought that he would definitely live with the psychics in the future, in a big and formal house in the base. After relaxing, he had an inexplicable sense of superiority over his colleagues.

Seeing that his mother didn't know what others said, Cao Yuanbai couldn't help but say, "It must be the ability to fly, otherwise how could it fly away just like that?"

In fact, other people also speculated this way. Now that Cao Yuanbai also said this, they felt that it was probably true.

So when Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao arrived, they saw Cao Yuanbai ignoring his mother's attempts to stop him, seemingly guessing but actually bragging about how awesome his cousin's abilities were.

Fu Erdie's brows were so furrowed that they could almost pinch a mosquito.

When she entered the city, she registered as having no special abilities.

"Cao Yuanbai, the one with super powers is my boyfriend, not me." She pulled Sang Wenhao's hand down from the air and stopped Cao Yuanbai from talking nonsense.

Cao Yuanbai was interrupted and turned to look at Fu Erdie. He uttered a short "Ah" and scratched his head awkwardly: "Aren't you able to fly? Is it... this big brother who can fly? Then what is your special ability?"

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Fu Erdie had a blank expression on her face: "I don't have any special abilities."

Cao Yuanbai opened his mouth, and all the sounds were blocked. He said in a low voice: "Don't you have any special abilities? Ah, hehe..."

He touched his head and felt a little slapped in the face.

Fu Erdie was too lazy to pay attention to him, so she pulled her aunt over and said, "Grandma is fine now. I'll take you to where we live tonight, and we can live together."

The aunt nodded repeatedly, then glared at her son, signaling him not to speak anymore.

Fu Erdie and Sang Wenhao each pulled one person and turned to leave, and the crowd behind them became agitated.

Someone asked: "Cao Rui, you three, the grandmother and the grandson, will never come back?"

Before my aunt replied, Fu Erdie said, "It should be. Thank you all for taking care of me during this period. It's getting late, so we'll go back first."

A young man shouted, "I am Cao Yuanbai's brother. I can clean the house and sweep the floor. I can do anything. Take me with you!"

Seeing these people flying into the sky, except Cao Yuanbai who turned back to look at him, no one else intended to pay attention. The boy continued to shout: "Cao Yuanbai has already promised me, sister, brother-in-law, you can take me with you, okay."

Sang Wenhao stopped and looked at Fu Erdie, who looked very gloomy, but still turned around and said, "I'm sorry, my ability is limited and I can't lead so many people."

After saying that, he and Sang Wenhao left quickly with his aunt and her son.

Fu Erdie looked unhappy, and Cao Yuanbai was also feeling uneasy.

But the feeling of flying into the sky was really exciting. I didn’t care about the uneasiness. My heart was full of novelty.

After entering from the balcony, the four of them found their feet on the ground.

The balcony is connected to the living room, which is a small apartment with one bedroom and one living room. On one side of the living room is a metal box that takes up almost half of the living room, and the other side is empty.

As soon as Cao Rui landed, she asked which room her mother was in so she could go and check.

Cao Yuanbai walked around the room in a familiar manner, and then asked incredulously: "Does a superpower only have such a small room?"

Fu Erdie originally wanted to quietly tell everyone about her box truck ability while they were all together and at home, and keep it a secret. But seeing that her cousin's character had not changed much compared to before the end of the world, she didn't want to say anything.

"Grandma is taking a bath in that box car." Sang Wenhao explained, "We only have one psychic, so this temporary residence only has one bedroom and one living room. If there are more psychics, the room should be bigger."

When Cao Xiufen heard the noise outside, she got out of the bathtub, having been almost cleaned by Fu Erdie, wiped the water off her body and head, and started to change into the clothes that Fu Erdie had prepared for her.

She could clearly feel that not only was her dizziness gone, but the problems with her waist and legs were also much better. Although she had not recovered completely yet, she felt like a new person from the inside out.

While putting on thermal underwear and a sweater, he said, "I'm fine, wait for me."

By the time grandma came out, putting on one piece of clothes after another, the people outside had already found benches to sit down, looking at each other in silence.

The grandmother was about to talk about her granddaughter, and when she saw this, she asked, "What happened?"

Fu Erdie helped her grandmother to sit down at the table: "Nothing, it's just that Cao Yuanbai took the initiative to say that he wanted to bring some brothers to live with us, and I didn't agree."

Grandma immediately said, "What are you doing? Such a small house can accommodate so many people."

Cao Yuanbai was not happy either. After all, he had just lost face in front of so many people. He pouted and said, "How do I know that my sister doesn't have superpowers? Only my brother-in-law has them. And the house is so small."

Grandma looked at Fu Erdie and instantly realized that Fu Erdie had not told them about this yet.

Fu Erdie shook her head slightly at her grandmother, intending not to tell her cousin about her special abilities at least within the base. She said, "Aunt, do you have any injuries that need immediate treatment? If so, I'll go find a special ability healer at the base now."

"I, I, I!" Cao Yuanbai interrupted his mother before she could speak.

He took off his shoes and raised his smelly feet: "I have had athlete's foot for a long time. Can I find a healer to treat it now?"

"Put your feet down." Fu Erdie said expressionlessly, "I have water here, you can get some water and wash yourself. If you don't have any other major problems, shut up now."

Seeing that Fu Erdie was a little angry, Cao Yuanbai thought that he was indeed a little too proud of himself, so he sat down obediently again.

Fu Erdie asked her aunt again, and after confirming that she didn't have any major problems, she said that there was now a "base" in her community, and they were here to pick them up. She had heard that it would take more than 700 kilograms of food to pick up one person, and asked them if they were clear about this.

My aunt was curious about the situation at Fu Erdie's base, but she nodded and talked about the problem of the base in City D first: "In the past, ordinary people had to pay resettlement fees for this period of time if they withdrew. However, food has been in short supply recently, and many small leaders inside have hinted to us that we can leave directly if we want, but we cannot take any food or water from the base. But seeing so many disaster victims outside, we didn't dare to leave."

Fu Erdie knew.

This is actually the different strategies given by the base considering food issues and the needs of different people.

If outsiders come to pick up people, then they need to pay for their needs. The base can ask for the full resettlement fee and let the outsiders pay it.

But if you heard that a certain base is better, or you have relatives or friends in a certain base and want to join them, the base will be eager for you to go there, the more you go, the better.

However, the latter is only limited to ordinary people. If a person with special abilities wants to leave, he must leave behind a large amount of resources, which will be counted by the base.

In fact, peeling off a layer of skin is secondary. The most important thing is to keep the psychics and ensure that the base can be as powerful as possible.

However, despite this, more and more people with special abilities are leaving, thinking that they can get more benefits outside.

"And I heard that the base and the psychics mainly trade crystal cores. The reason why the base has so many crystal cores is that after gathering a lot of zombies, it used large-scale weapons and then obtained a lot of crystal cores. But the zombies don't gather around the base every ten days or half a month. Sometimes there is no zombie wave for a month. So although the base is safe, it doesn't have many crystal cores to trade."

"If the people at the base take the initiative to attack, bypassing the psychics to fight zombies and look for crystal cores, the consumption of weapons cannot be restored, which is not cost-effective. So the relationship between the base and the psychics is a bit awkward."

My aunt is not a psychic, she just knows a little about the situation from sometimes hearing people chatting, but she doesn’t know the details.

However, if even ordinary people know about these situations, it means that the actual situation of the base must be even more serious.

This speculation became more obvious later when He Xuan contacted Fu Erdie through the walkie-talkie.

Through the conversation with Xu Qi, He Xuan learned about D City's demand for large-scale food, and also understood the core contradiction: "The branch that used to belong to the government still wants to protect at least the 30,000 people who are already in the base as much as possible. At the same time, they also need to use manpower to build infrastructure so that steel and cement can be continuously supplied. Then, after the zombies in a larger circle around are cleared, a new circle of walls will be rebuilt to establish a larger safe zone with more arable land to feed more people."

"But cleaning up zombies and searching for various resources requires psychics, and psychics are willing to do more tasks only because the base can give them crystal cores."

"But the safer the periphery is, the fewer zombies can get close, and the fewer opportunities there are to use thermal weapons. So the base is running out of crystal cores now, and can't mobilize anyone. And the base itself doesn't want to waste weapons."

"Most of the psychics don't care about ordinary people or infrastructure. They think they can survive in the apocalypse by relying on the existing city walls. The plant-based psychics in the existing base can actually feed most psychics well. Ordinary people are just wasting food and consuming the supplies they brought back from outside."

"Ordinary people feel that they are doing hard labor for the psychics, and often mock and complain about them openly or secretly. The psychics also feel that what ordinary people do is just useless work assigned by the people at the base, and has nothing to do with them. They are all just idiots who waste food."

"In the D City base, the conflict between ordinary people and people with special abilities has become very serious."

Fu Erdie listened to the words on the walkie-talkie and thought about her own situation.

In fact, it is probably not the case that the conflict in the D City base is so great, but that all bases that shelter ordinary people have such conflicts. Over time, those with special abilities will either leave and set up small bases on their own, or join bases that do not support ordinary people.

Her community is not even close to the base, but isn't it unwilling to accept ordinary people, or even ordinary people with special abilities? These complicated thoughts floated through her mind, and Fu Erdie quickly put them behind her and asked the most concerned question: "Did you pick up the child?"

(End of this chapter)