Chapter 562: Better to Die Soon
Chapter 562: Better to Die Soon
“Oh—” An Ran lowered her eyes. She felt nothing; she wasn’t the one who was cold.
Liu Zhi, however, thought An Ran was quite introverted. That made sense—she had heard surviving in the south wasn’t easy. If a woman ran into a group of survivors, she would likely be hardened by it. An Ran must have been through a lot, so it explained why she was so quiet.
Liu Zhi understood and said to An Ran with sympathy, “Our family is local. We heard many of you here have survived, so we came to take a look. Don’t worry, I won’t go spreading this around in the base. We’re really just here to ask for some firewood.”
Liu Zhi looked very much like the one who held things together in her household. The two men she brought with her looked like strength-type ability users. They called Liu Zhi “Auntie” and Liu Zhi handed An Ran a bag of crystal nuclei, shaking it lightly.
“Here, I know it’s not easy for you to grow trees. Take this bag of crystal cores. Consider it payment for your wood.”
“Don’t you have any wood near your home?” An Ran did not take the bag, but finally looked up at Liu Zhi.
Liu Zhi gave a wry smile and said, “The wood in Hedong is almost gone. All the Wood-type ability users in the base are working to grow rice, vegetables, and fruit. Who’s going to care about the warmth and cold of us low-class people?”
It wasn’t just that there was electricity during the day but not at night. All of Hedong’s resources were being prioritized for the safe zone. Outside the safe zone, heating was intermittent, sometimes going off for long stretches without repair. The pipelines ran for long stretches underground—who knew where the problem lay?
So now, everyone was building makeshift heating systems at home: in a sealed room, they set up a stove, burned firewood inside, and connected a pipe to vent the smoke outside.
Firewood had become a vital heating resource. Yaoyang Base wasn’t primarily agricultural; it was mostly industrial, and many people survived here. The more distant hills were impossible to reach because no one organized trips and the snow was too heavy. As a result, the trees in Hedong were almost entirely cut down.
Recently, more and more people have frozen to death in Hedong. But according to the base’s higher-ups, this was a process of survival of the fittest. Only those with poor physical fitness would freeze to death. Since these people were weak, they would either die in this heavy snow or in the next disaster. Sooner or later, they’d die—better to die sooner rather than later.
It was cruel, but the long history of humankind seemed to prove that survival of the fittest was a natural law. Those who endured hardship were physically strong and lived longer. Only such people could continue the human race.
So for lower-level base residents like Liu Zhi, who had at least some capability, the only option was to find their own solutions—scrounging up firewood for heating.
But as she had said, vegetation in Hedong had truly been decimated.
“I can’t make the decision on this matter. You’ll have to ask our Brother Fatty.” An Ran still refused the crystal cores Liu Zhi offered.
She tried hard not to be the first to decide, pushing everything onto Fatty. Who had made Fatty so authoritative?
As Liu Zhi and An Ran pushed the bag back and forth, they heard footsteps outside the cultivation room, along with Fatty’s voice and Luo Feifan’s.
A moment later, Fatty pushed the door open, followed by Luo Feifan and several strength-type ability users who chopped wood every day.
“Here, take as much as you need.”