Chapter 1801 - 975

Leaving Jackals’ room, Xiao Jun’s expression relaxed a lot.

Talking that much with his Uncle gave an answer to the knot he’d been wrestling with inside.

All that overthinking left and right was useless; better to take the initiative and explain things to the City Lord. It’s just that before that, he needed to go make contact with that Ma Yingxue himself.

Back in his own room, he folded his hands behind his head as a pillow.

He’d been brooding over this so much lately his head hurt. Now that he’d figured it out, he could finally get a good night’s sleep.

.....

First outer city.

Inside Greenhouse No. 1.

The place where the Cooperative Personnel lived.

Zhang Rufen took off his clothes in the tent, stripping down until he had only a pair of boxers left.

The greenhouse stayed at a constant 26 degrees, really comfortable.

Once he’d taken off his clothes, he grabbed a towel and crawled out of the tent.

"Ghost Head, you done yet? Let’s go!"

He pushed at the tent next to his, speaking in a low voice.

Ghost Head crawled out of his tent too, just like Zhang Rufen, wearing nothing but underwear.

The only difference was that Ghost Head’s build was better; though he was skinny, you could still see his abs.

"I’m ready, let’s go." Ghost Head said.

The two of them walked barefoot down the central aisle that was less than a meter wide. On both sides of the aisle, tents were packed densely, with barely twenty centimeters between each tent.

They’d already gone over to the extra staff’s greenhouse a couple rows away to take a look. That one was three or four times roomier than theirs.

They carefully made their way down the aisle, afraid of stepping on other people’s tents or belongings.

The people in this greenhouse were basically all old Cooperative Personnel from the Big Camphor Tree Base. They were different; they were the newcomers.

This time the base had specially opened things up for just a few of their teams to come in; the other new Cooperative Personnel hadn’t been allowed in.

So they didn’t want to stir up trouble, and tried to be as cautious and careful as possible.

Soon.

They reached the outside of the greenhouse.

Outside, it was pouring, and the weather was cold.

The temperature was under ten degrees.

Rain poured down over their heads. Zhang Rufen shivered, then hurriedly scrubbed at his hair.

He rubbed his body hard with the towel.

In the Doomsday, taking a bath was a real hassle.

Out in the mountains and lakes there were always some Zombies hiding around.

They didn’t dare get close.

It had been raining hard for quite a while now, and they were getting restless in the greenhouse, their whole bodies reeking.

A few days ago they’d seen some people from the greenhouse run out to shower in the rain.

Today Zhang Rufen and Ghost Head had made plans to come out together for a cold shower.

The two of them scrubbed themselves vigorously, the rain washing the black grime off their bodies.

"Damn, that feels good!" Zhang Rufen was still a bit cold, but having the storm drench him like this still felt great.

They’d been cooped up in the greenhouse too long. Even with the ventilation system, there were just too many people; with everyone’s breath mixed together, the air in there got pretty nasty.

Once they came out, the icy rain pounding down on them jolted them awake.

"Hurry up and wash, don’t catch a cold. I’m almost done." Ghost Head said.

As he spoke, he was furiously scrubbing his armpits with the towel.

Zhang Rufen looked over at the lit residential area not far away, and said with a bit of envy:

"I heard the Outer City people still have hot water for showers. You need to swipe a card to use it, they say. If only we could take a hot shower. Bathing in cold water in weather like this really is enough to freeze you to death."

Ghost Head glanced at him and said, "I’m done. I’m heading in first."

"You’ve been washing for not even three damn minutes." Zhang Rufen said helplessly.

"I’m freezing." Ghost Head shuddered, scratching his head as he walked back inside.

Zhang Rufen clenched his teeth and kept showering in the downpour.

But with only a pair of underwear on, his skin directly touching the icy rain, he only managed to last six or seven minutes before bolting back into the greenhouse.

Once inside, he wrung out the towel and wiped down his body.

Then he closed the greenhouse door.

It was really warm in the greenhouse, Zhang Rufen thought to himself.

But every pore on his body was standing on end, and he shivered as he walked toward his tent.

People like them had scarce food and weak bodies; if they didn’t take care of themselves, it was easy to get sick.

When he got to his tent, he saw Ghost Head across from him, using a nail clipper to trim his hair and beard.

As Cooperative Personnel, before entering the Big Camphor Tree Base they had to hand over all their weapons, so they had no daggers or any other melee weapons.

But the nail clipper hadn’t been taken from them.

Seeing this, Zhang Rufen’s eyes lit up and he said to Ghost Head:

"Ghost Head, let me use that later, my hair’s gotten pretty long too."

Ghost Head waved his hand to show he agreed.

Zhang Rufen shivered his way into his tent. He at least had a tent; Liu Cunyi and the others didn’t even have that, they could only sleep like on a big shared kang, bedding spread out on the ground with nothing at all around them.

Once inside the tent, Zhang Rufen quickly took off his shorts and put on dry clothes.

He felt a lot warmer, and his body much more comfortable, though his stomach was a bit hungry.

They didn’t have much food left, and now they only ate one meal a day to stay alive.

Sometimes when they saw the other teams of Cooperative Personnel—the older ones—they’d feel a bit jealous.