Three days after the great fire, people were finally allowed to enter the underground shelter.

The authorities prioritized restoring heating in the inner circle first.

Wang Anmin followed those instructions.

He immediately brought everyone into the inner circle.

Everyone — regardless of whether they belonged to the inner or outer circle, or whether they came from Zone 2 or Zone 8.

As for the original property certificates for the inner circle rooms:

Those holding property certificates had priority in choosing their rooms.

Even someone as arrogant as Zhou Qingsha had to squeeze into a room blackened and charred by the fire with others.

According to regulations, at least twelve people must be accommodated in one room.

Zhou Qingsha’s camper was also requisitioned.

It was now turned into an office for the upper levels.

Countless people must have been itching with resentment toward Wang Anmin.

Yu Xifeng’s residence in the inner circle was naturally not spared either.

Yu Xifeng didn’t complain. Using her property certificate for the inner circle room, she assigned Old Cai, Sister Yun, and a few others to stay with her.

If she were still the penniless survivor she was in her previous life, she would be grateful to Wang Anmin.

After all, even if twelve people had to cram into one room, the current conditions were far better than in her previous life.

Moreover, the temperature outside was rising.

This underground shelter wouldn’t be habitable for much longer.

In her previous life, the shelter had not been affected by such a fire.

With the altered timeline, Yu Xifeng wasn’t quite sure.

If anything had changed, she could only hope it was for the better.

Once inside the room, Sister Yun took out her fabric curtain and sectioned off their own space.

For Yu Xifeng, since this room was bound to be shared anyway, whether it was Sister Yun, Old Cai, or someone else, it didn’t matter.

But for Sister Yun, if Yu Xifeng hadn’t used her property certificate to get them in, they most likely would have been assigned to a hallway.

In the worst case, they might even have been placed near a drafty entrance.

Having a complete room with a bathroom was already the best possible condition—better than Zone 2.

After discussing among themselves, they gave the tent to Yu Xifeng.

They all felt that Yu Xifeng had suffered the greatest losses in the fire.

No one dared to ask about the fate of the geese and chickens, afraid of hurting Yu Xifeng’s feelings.

Yu Xifeng didn’t refuse.

Her space was already littered with chicken and pig droppings.

She had been placing food into their feeding bowls.

Using her mind to control objects inside the space while she was outside was mentally taxing.

It was much easier to go in personally.

That was why Yu Xifeng looked more tired.

With an opaque tent, whatever she needed to do had some cover.

The warm breeze made her, already sleepy, even drowsier.

Once the tent was set up, Yu Xifeng lay down inside and fell asleep.

Her tent was in the far corner; outside were Old Cai and Sister Yun, and beyond them were Zhang Qiu and Fatty, who were yawning.

Zhang Qiu and Fatty took turns keeping watch.

Alternating shifts, they finally got a good rest.

When Yu Xifeng woke, it was completely silent outside.

She locked the tent from inside.

After listening to the breathing outside for a while, she went into her space to feed the pigs, ducks, geese, chickens, and cats.

After several days apart, the little orange cat rubbed against her feet, practically pressing its whole body against her.

Yu Xifeng smiled and picked it up.

The little chicks were lively, circling around Big White.

After cleaning up their area, Yu Xifeng munched on some fried chicken pieces and a bowl of potato beef stew.

She specifically picked out the beef chunks.

Though Zhang Qiu and Fatty were both good cooks, the fire’s heat in the tent was never quite right.

The food was always lukewarm.

And the meat was too scarce.

Yu Xifeng ate her fill and even took two eggs with her when she left.

She stayed in the tent for about twelve hours.

When she came out, Zhang Qiu was sitting outside.

Yu Xifeng handed him the eggs. “Go sleep in the tent.”

Zhang Qiu shook his head. “The tent is for you. The old man and I will squeeze together.”

Others in the room were still awake.

Although the supplies were tempting, no one dared make a fuss.

They just threw curious glances at the somewhat strange group.

Zhang Qiu slipped a candy into Yu Xifeng’s hand.

Yu Xifeng smiled faintly and sat down where Zhang Qiu had been sitting.

In her previous life, Yu Xifeng had always lived alone, sleeping with one eye open.

She was always on guard, rarely able to relax.

This life was better in many ways — thanks to her increased strength and all the supplies in her space.

Finally, she had the mental space to experience other things.

Like Zhang Qiu’s thoughts.

Logically, with her space, it was best to keep distance from everyone.

She couldn’t gamble her precious space and resources on interpersonal feelings.

Other people were a kind of hell.

But emotionally, she liked the warmth of everyday human life and was even willing to take some risks for it.

To accompany someone for a while was fate.

Yu Xifeng unwrapped the candy.

It was strawberry-flavored.

Keeping watch was a boring task.

Yu Xifeng zoned out.

She really shouldn’t be around so many people.

She now wanted to kick everyone out and play games alone in the room.

Once the cold snap was over, she would get rid of everyone completely.

She stood her Tang Dao sword next to her leg and hugged it, her mind racing with ideas.

Eventually, Yu Xifeng found a solution.

There was a projector screen in the camper inside her space.

She put in a lot of effort to upload movies and shows she had downloaded before the apocalypse.

After careful selection, she had originally picked a comedy film.

Then she reconsidered—laughing randomly in front of a crowd would look weird.

Instead, she leaned against the wall and quietly rewatched childhood cartoons.

Someone came over and asked Yu Xifeng, “I heard you used to be the owner of this room. This room is really expensive—must’ve cost a lot.”

Yu Xifeng slowly shifted her eyes, neither confirming nor denying.

“What’s your relationship with those people?”

Yu Xifeng said, “Hmm.”

The person walked away, clearly displeased.

Yu Xifeng slowly turned her head.

At night, Zhang Qiu hadn’t woken up yet, and Fatty had cooked a meal.

Yu Xifeng gave Fatty the last egg.

Everyone got a bowl of steaming seaweed egg drop soup.

Salty and flavorful.

Yu Xifeng had eaten plenty of meat in her space, so she wasn’t very hungry, only drinking the soup and skipping the compressed biscuits.

When Zhang Qiu woke up, he reheated the remaining soup and dipped the compressed biscuits in it.

He rebandaged everyone’s wounds.

“I never really learned this. I had a roommate in clinical training who had dealt with this twice. Didn’t expect it to come in handy here.”

Fatty said, “Thanks, Doctor Zhang.”

A girl nearby spoke up, “Doctor Zhang, my hand is injured too. Can you bandage it?”

Zhang Qiu, good-natured, replied, “I can bandage you, but you have to provide your own bandages.”

The girl looked very young—under twenty, still living with her parents and brother.

In this room, the largest group was Yu Xifeng’s, and next was this young girl’s family.

The girl’s eyes shone brightly as she looked at Zhang Qiu, seeming to have washed her face specially.

Her face wasn’t very fair but had a healthy complexion.

She spoke hesitantly, “Don’t you have bandages here? Please lend me a roll.”

Zhang Qiu refused without hesitation, “I can’t give you these bandages.”

The girl held out her hand.

Zhang Qiu fell silent.

Yu Xifeng thought that maybe exchanging some supplies wouldn’t be so bad, especially since the girl had a pleasant voice.

She peeked over to take a look.

Silence was tonight’s norm at Kangqiao.

Fatty said, “You really need to bandage it soon. If you don’t, the wound will close up and we won’t find the opening anymore.”