Zhao Xiaoxiu, who had just woken up, was completely covered in a wrinkled adult shirt, with only her little head showing.
A round head, round eyes, sparse and frizzy blond hair, like a chestnut.
Her father squatted by the bed, staring at her with his eyes rolling back and forth, seemingly quite pleased.
Zhao Xiaoxiu was unaware that from Zhao Gang's perspective, the entire planet appeared as a hazy gray.
Only she possesses color.
Especially now, after eating and sleeping well, colorful bubbles are bubbling up from her body.
This unique bright color is particularly captivating.
Zhao Gang grinned and smiled at Zhao Xiaoxiu.
A blood-red tentacle, no bigger than a little finger, emerged from his body and tentatively poked Zhao Xiaoxiu's face, which showed signs of sleep.
The child's face was soft; if you poked it, it would leave a dent, and then bounce back.
Zhao Xiaoxiu clearly saw that her father's eyes instantly turned into vertical pupils and flashed twice.
He was quite excited!
Then, the tentacle was sent flying by his large, fan-like hand.
Even though the tentacles grew from his body, he didn't seem to be very familiar with them.
Zhao Gang raised his hand, extended his index finger, and poked the cub's cheek once, twice, three times...
Zhao Xiaoxiu was just a thin, three-year-old child who couldn't withstand the force and was poked around by him, swaying from side to side like a roly-poly toy.
The father, however, was completely unaware of his own actions.
Perhaps they'd never seen a cub like this before and found it interesting, so they kept poking at it.
In the enigmatic eyes of that face, a human-like excitement and tenderness welled up.
He had only one thought in his mind: Feed her! Feed her! Feed her!
Zhao Xiaoxiu bit her cheeks tightly, her eyes bulging, daring not to speak out in anger.
There was a knocking sound at the door.
The hand that was groping Zhao Xiaoxiu's face immediately stopped, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
Grandma Meng from next door called from outside the door, "Gangzi, hurry up and get up to fetch water!"
The old man muttered to himself, "Hurry up, the water gate will be shut off at seven o'clock. It's only used once a day. Don't be lazy. Xiaoxiu's little hands and feet are all black. As her father, you need to pay attention and wash her quickly. Things outside are dirty; you don't want her to get sick..."
Granny Meng pressed her ear to the door and heard a noise inside. She then prepared to leave with her bucket.
After taking two steps out, I suddenly remembered that my son had seen Zhao Gang being carried back by thugs from the gladiatorial arena yesterday.
She stepped back and tentatively asked, "Is everything alright at home?"
After waiting for a while, a voice came from inside the house: "Don't worry about me, Granny Meng, you go first."
It was indeed Zhao Gang's voice, and his tone was as usual, nonsensical.
Granny Meng was still a little worried, so she called out to Xiaoxiu, who replied "Granny" to her. She then urged Zhao Gang to hurry up and left.
The survivors of Hope Base live in a super high-rise unfinished building.
The building has a total of forty-five floors.
Because it was an unfinished building, there was no elevator; the only structures in the building were two large freight elevators used by the construction team.
Therefore, the residential areas are only the floors below the 18th floor.
The area between the 18th and 40th floors was used as a storage warehouse for the base.
The top five floors are the building's pre-installed defensive walls, designed to resist attacks from mutated birds.
There are four special areas surrounding the unfinished building.
One is the territory of the base's senior management and the biotechnology company, which belongs to the core area of the base.
One is the industrial zone of Hope Base, where the tools needed by scavengers are produced and sold to the other four major bases in exchange for food.
The twelfth year of the end times, which was last year.
On the vast territory of Country C, the survivors of Country C established five major survivor bases in the east, west, south, north and central regions, taking advantage of the natural geographical advantages of each area.
Located in the east, Hope Base is backed by a large amount of urban waste resources and mainly makes a living by scavenging and industrial manufacturing.
The five bases collaborate with each other, and are further supported by the latest SHASI virus inhibitors and evolutionary agents developed by the biotechnology company.
Humanity's tumultuous life of wandering and fleeing has finally come to an end.
The other two special areas within the Hope Base are the super garbage stations located within the base's power grid.
And the chaotic shantytowns outside the base's power grid.
A large group of scavengers lived there. Most of them were not native to Country C, so they were not accepted by the major bases.
Outside the power grid, they are not bound by the rules within the base, but follow only the most primitive rules of survival.
The seemingly cramped and crammed unfinished buildings of the base are something that the survivors of the shantytown yearn for.
However, for Zhao Xiaoxiu, a resident living in the 'Land of Longing'...
This unfinished building is really smelly and dirty.
After Granny Meng left, her adoptive father found two empty buckets, lifted her up, put her in one of the buckets, and went out.
More than 20,000 people were crammed into the 18-story building, with only one public toilet and one water room on each floor.
Clean, unpolluted water is provided daily by the base in fixed quantities, enough to sustain basic survival needs.
So let alone taking a shower, it's difficult to even wash your face and brush your teeth every day.
There is a public bathhouse in the industrial area, but the high price of 50 points per person is enough to buy 10 bottles of nutrient solution.
Without engaging in strenuous physical activity, one vial of nutritional fluid can sustain an adult for a day.
Spending ten days' worth of food money to take a half-hour shower is a luxury for someone whose basic survival needs are not even met.
So when there are many people, the combined smell from everyone's bodies becomes as potent as biological poison gas.
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