Madness After the Apocalypse-Chapter 26: You’re injured?

An Nan stared at the bloodstains in Fu Gui's bed, her heart suddenly filled with anxiety.

Could it have been injured on the mountain without her noticing?

She anxiously held Fu Gui, inspecting it from head to tail but found no visible wounds.

However, Fu Gui's demeanor was subdued, clearly feeling unwell.

Just as she was beginning to wonder, An Nan felt a warm sensation in her palm. She looked down and saw a drop of blood.

She immediately lifted Fu Gui's little backside to check.

It dawned on her.

The little one was just on her period!

Dogs have their own cycles? As long as it wasn't an injury, An Nan felt relieved. She quickly searched through the piles of pet supplies in her space, and sure enough, she found doggie diapers among the stock.

She gently cleaned Fu Gui with a towel, put on the diaper, then bundled it up in a warm little outfit before giving it a new, clean bed.

Seeing Fu Gui's sad expression, An Nan couldn't help but reflect:

So, dogs can have mood swings and lose their appetite just like us during that time of the month.

Indeed, Aunt Flo visits every woman equally!

She realized it must have been the water mishap and the cold on the mountain that made Fu Gui feel so uncomfortable.

Heading to the kitchen, An Nan made a warm bowl of millet porridge for Fu Gui. She added red dates to nourish the blood, carrots for digestion, angelica to relieve pain, motherwort to invigorate the blood, and yam for energy.

She finished by mixing in some lamb slices and set the bowl before Fu Gui.

"Good dog, eat this to get some nutrients and warmth, and you'll feel better."

Fu Gui seemed to understand her words, standing up to eat slowly and delicately.

An Nan was taken aback; Fu Gui had never eaten so gracefully before. It always wolfed down food like a little pig.

An Nan, relieved that Fu Gui was eating, returned to her own meal.

The copper pot didn't have any hotpot seasoning, only scallions and ginger slices. For a proper old Beijing lamb hotpot, the key was the fresh, unaltered taste.

She had more lamb than she could eat in her space, so she used a meat slicer to prepare two large plates of meat rolls.

Unlike the hotpot restaurants, where they lay a layer of ice or vegetables under the meat, her plates were solid slabs of lamb.

After spending days hunting on the mountain, she certainly needed to replenish her energy.

Though food was abundant in the mountains, the conditions were rudimentary, and they had to stay vigilant against wild animals. It was a far cry from the safety and comfort of home.

Taking a large bite of lamb, An Nan felt it still wasn't flavorful enough.

She glanced at the seasoning bowl and decided to add a block of red fermented tofu and half a spoonful of chive flowers to the sesame paste and chili oil.

After mixing it, she tasted a bit with her chopsticks.

That's the right flavor!

She scooped up some lamb and coated it with the sauce before taking a mouthful. The aroma exploded in her mouth, and An Nan smiled in delight as she savored the meal.

While enjoying the lamb, she quickly made a plate of water-boiled tripe.

Feeling that eating only meat was too greasy, she added some greens and frozen tofu into the pot for balance.

Finally, she threw in a handful of hand-pulled noodles, making herself a bowl of lamb noodle soup.

The room was filled with warmth and the fragrant aroma of the meal.

An Nan suddenly felt like the apocalypse wasn't all that different from the life she had before. There were delicious meals, and she had Fu Gui, her obedient companion, by her side.

Meanwhile, downstairs, the neighbors were struggling to divide the meager food they had.

A family sat at the table, placing the day's rations in front of them. Each person got a piece of dry, stale bread or expired crackers, eating slowly.

That's all they could eat for the day, barely enough to fill their stomachs.

After carefully finishing, they picked up every crumb from the table, not wasting a single morsel.

Today, for some reason, as they ate the crackers, it seemed like they could smell the scent of hotpot.

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Sigh, they were so hungry they were imagining things.

Everyone couldn't help but reminisce about the good old days.

Back then, meals were plentiful, and leftover food was casually thrown away. They'd go to restaurants for hotpot, and always left with leftover meat and vegetables.

Now, just thinking about it made their mouths water. How they wished they could travel back in time, scold their past selves for wasting food, and eat everything they left behind.

...

For the next several days, An Nan didn't leave the house.

Fu Gui was on its period and felt weak. And there was nothing else she needed to stockpile at the moment.

The mountain of supplies in her space required her attention and organization.

While people outside continued their search for food, An Nan and Fu Gui rested in peace.

Fu Gui was actually asleep, while An Nan worked on organizing her space. Using her consciousness was tiring, but she had grown stronger and could now move things for longer periods without feeling dizzy.

Her mental energy was improving.

Once the space was organized, she began working on the leftover meat from before.

Each type of animal required different processing methods. Fortunately, she had downloaded all kinds of fragmented knowledge from various fields, so she could follow the tutorials to prepare the meat.

When she got tired, she watched downloaded TV shows, enjoying the food with Fu Gui.

Time passed in this warm, harmonious atmosphere.

In contrast to her peaceful surroundings, the outside world grew increasingly tense.

Supermarkets and factories full of supplies were submerged, and people were left to search through the high-rise buildings still above water.

These buildings were mostly office spaces, with very little food—mostly snacks and instant noodles.

Resources were running out fast. Even those who knew how to dive couldn't salvage anything useful from the submerged areas. The floating food that had been soaked in water was now inedible.

With food growing scarcer by the day, people became more desperate.

The death toll began to rise. Most of the bodies floating in the water had drowned while scavenging for food, but now, many were people who had starved to death and were thrown into the water by others.

The drainage systems were no longer working, and toilets were unusable. People disposed of their waste and household garbage in the floodwaters.

The stench in the water was unbearable.

Without running water, people had to filter and boil floodwater to drink, but many, already weakened, fell ill from drinking it, and there were no medicines available.

In short, the living conditions were unbearable.

As their lives were threatened, the darkness of human nature began to resurface once again.

The number of people searching for supplies dwindled, but looting and violence increased.

One day, as An Nan sat with Fu Gui watching a movie, a sudden sound of pots being banged in the stairwell interrupted.

"Neighbors, meeting! 1302, assemble!"

An Nan thought for a moment but decided not to go out.

People outside were already skin and bones, while she looked healthy and well-fed. It wasn't the right time to show up in a crowd.

She couldn't help but wonder what they were planning...