What’s so hard about cooking? There’s electricity and water—anything can be cooked.

With the food in the fridge, she could eat her fill alone, instead of being isolated and excluded by Qian Ying and the others.

Tan Wanwan suspected her roommate was secretly stealing her food, but the matter was forgotten with the arrival of the cockroach infestation.

Once the seed of suspicion is planted, it grows uncontrollably.

Tan Wanwan refused Qian Ying’s proposal. She sat on the sofa, taking a sip of water and eating a bite of compressed biscuit.

She ate almost half a piece in one go, feeling the long-lost sensation of fullness in her stomach.

Qian Ying’s expression was not good.

The three of them said something in the bedroom; the pile of compressed biscuits and canned cold dishes on the table went back into each of their hands.

Tan Wanwan sneered silently to herself.

After the community distributed supplies, they arrested a batch of thieves and robbers.

The neighborhood became much quieter.

But power still hadn’t been restored, and for higher floors, many people were collecting rainwater to drink.

Yu Xifeng noticed that Little Orange (the cat) had been very sleepy lately.

Where it slept depended on where Yu Xifeng was when it fell asleep.

When Yu Xifeng worked out in the gym, it would lie next to the equipment, resting its head on its front paws.

When Yu Xifeng finished showering and returned to the sofa…

In the afternoon, she either picked vegetables or worked with flour or rinsed rice; now Yu Xifeng was very careful about using the stove.

Usually, she would cook a pot at noon, and the extra semi-prepared ingredients were stacked in the storage space.

Even so, the stock of cooked food was still increasing.

For lunch, she had a portion of spicy cold chicken and a serving of rice tofu.

In the afternoon, Yu Xifeng made herself a basin of iced jelly powder, which tasted like flavorless jelly.

She mixed a bowl of brown sugar syrup over it and added nuts.

Eating it was warm and silky smooth.

Yu Xifeng ate one bowl and packed thirty small bowls from the remaining basin.

Little Orange stumbled out from the gym, walking unsteadily, taking three steps but swaying.

It struggled to jump onto the sofa, finally laying down beside Yu Xifeng and fell asleep again.

Yu Xifeng frowned at it.

She hadn’t raised cats before and wasn’t very familiar with their habits.

Sleeping twenty hours a day seemed abnormal.

Yu Xifeng searched through the pile of pet supplies in her storage and found some pet medicines.

She sat cross-legged on the sofa and studied the medication instructions for two hours.

From time to time, she compared by lifting Little Orange’s eyelids, brushing back the fur on its neck, even parting its hind legs.

Oh, it was a male cat.

Its fur hadn’t been this long before.

After all this fuss, Yu Xifeng found no positive signs, and Little Orange became quite irritable, lightly biting Yu Xifeng’s hand.

Yu Xifeng could only decide to observe for two more days.

Dinner was still cold noodles.

Yu Xifeng rummaged through the storage and picked out a bottle of lemon sour and spicy boneless chicken feet.

When she took out the noodles, steam was still rising.

Yu Xifeng poured the whole jar of chicken feet in.

There were many chili peppers, but the spiciness wasn’t strong, and it carried a faint sweetness.

The lemon was cut into thin slices; the sourness was wrapped inside, whetting the appetite.

Yu Xifeng took a bite, amazed.

It was so delicious.

The bones were removed from the feet, the chewy tendons remained, and every bite was crisp and satisfying.

Yu Xifeng ate happily; after finishing one bowl of noodles, she still wasn’t full, so she took another bowl and mixed it with the remaining sour and spicy chicken feet.

After that bowl, she was completely full.

Yu Xifeng washed the bowl with spring water from the storage.

She counted her stock and found there were sixteen more boxes of the same chicken feet.

With a strange sense of satisfaction, she turned on the fresh air system and the exhaust fan to clear the smell.

Little Orange finally woke up.

It seemed to be getting better; it looked much more energetic.

Seeing it look like it was recovering from a serious illness, Yu Xifeng carefully prepared a can of food for it.

Little Orange buried its head and ate greedily.

“Have you… grown up?”

Spending every day together, it was easy to overlook subtle changes.

Yu Xifeng should have noticed long ago; Little Orange’s size was much bigger than when it first came home.

Thinking carefully, it seemed to be the change after eating cockroaches.

Little Orange was now about the size of a small dog.

She didn’t know if it would keep growing.

Speaking of which, a tiger is also a type of feline.

Was Little Orange exhibiting atavism?

Yu Xifeng let her thoughts wander and smoothed the long fur on Little Orange’s neck.

Able to eat and sleep well, it shouldn’t be a bad thing.

There was good news about the saplings planted in the storage space.

The fruits were large and round, growing well.

That night, Yu Xifeng cut herself a box of fruit slices.

Evenings were always leisurely.

The rain poured outside the window. Yu Xifeng curled up on the bed, propping her phone screen on Little Orange.

She watched a drama while occasionally stuffing fruit into her mouth.

Before ten o’clock, sleepiness came over her.

She didn’t stay up late—it consumed electricity, and saving every bit counted.

Before sleeping, she would think about what to do the next day, though she didn’t always follow the plan.

For example, she had originally planned to mash potatoes the next day, but after peeling and washing them, she thought keeping them for stir-fried shredded potatoes with vinegar would be nice, so she switched to cutting them into strips.

The last time she received compressed biscuits, after seven days, the community people came again.

This time, Captain Wang wasn’t there.

Yu Xifeng breathed a sigh of relief.

Aunt Liu said some strange things, hinting that Yu Xifeng had a thing with Captain Wang.

Because of the rumor about her and Captain Wang, or perhaps because of Yu Xifeng herself, Chen Caifeng didn’t dare provoke Yu Xifeng anymore.

She just glared resentfully at Sister Yun.

Sister Yun wasn’t good-tempered, but looking at her increasingly swollen belly, she pinched her nose and endured it.

Chen Caifeng was about to give birth.

Ma Tian wasn’t around either; no one wanted to provoke her at this time.

Tan Wanwan stood far away, but her eyes were fixed tightly on Yu Xifeng.

She didn’t hide it well; the resentment was all over her face.

Yu Xifeng silently noted it in her heart and then looked away.

Sister Yun called her from ahead, “Xiao Yu, I saved you a spot.”

This time, like last time, they distributed an extra liter of drinking water.

She heard that rainwater was not clean; many people lacked filtering equipment and even had no natural gas, so they couldn’t boil water.

People who drank rainwater got vomiting and diarrhea.

Due to lack of treatment, they died quietly at home.

When they returned to the 15th floor, Sister Yun gave Yu Xifeng a knowing look.

Yu Xifeng asked, “?”

“Come to my place,” Sister Yun glanced behind her, “I have something for you.”

Yu Xifeng followed her. Sister Yun carefully took out a box of filter cartridges from deep in the cabinet.

“Use this to filter the rainwater before drinking it. I heard there are parasites in the rain,” Sister Yun said. “There’s no effective antiparasitic medicine yet; going to the hospital doesn’t help, and now you can’t even go.”

Yu Xifeng looked at the filter box. “Keep it for yourself, Sister Yun.”

“Oh, I got two boxes through someone, so I’m giving you one. Since it’s just the two of us alone in this top floor, if something happens to you, I’d hope you’d help me out. I shouldn’t keep this to myself. So many people have died outside; if you’re okay, I’ll be less stressed.”

Sister Yun’s eyes held a cold light as she said, “There are who knows how many people watching us in this building, itching to kick us out and move in themselves.”

They sat across a tea table; Sister Yun saw Yu Xifeng look up.

The girl sitting opposite was very straight-backed, like a well-behaved student.

She heard Yu Xifeng say softly, “That won’t happen.”