This dog understands humans. Look at the way it’s staring at them — it sends chills down your spine.

“We’re all dog lovers here, so we absolutely refuse to eat dog meat,” Zhang Chao was the first to back down. “Aning, tell it not to look at me like that.” So scary!

Zheng Weili understood her feelings but still advised as a friend: “Aning, I’d normally fully support you, but these are special times. Most of the food got soaked and ruined.

We were lucky to stash some quickly, but your share will only last six or seven months at most. We don’t know what the future holds, and large dogs like this eat a lot. You really have to think carefully.”

Don’t wait until you run out of food and regret it—by then, no one can help you.

“To me, it’s not a dog; it’s family.”

Jiang Ning gently comforted the anxious Kele. “If supplies run out, we can find more. I won’t abandon it.”

Zheng Weili and the others weren’t meddling; as long as Jiang Ning had thought it through, that was fine.

Bringing Kele inside, Jiang Ning took out dog food from her space and soaked it in goat milk.

She had grabbed the goat milk from the supermarket but disliked its strong smell and wasn’t used to drinking it — now it was perfect for Kele.

After finishing a big bowl of dog food, Kele’s shriveled belly finally puffed up.

Standing in front of the sofa, it stared fixedly at Jiang Ning, suddenly tears flowing from its eyes.

Caught off guard, it showed a flicker of hope.

Its crying broke down Jiang Ning’s defenses.

She hugged Kele and cried, letting out the fears and resentments from her past life, the loneliness and despair.

The dog rested its head on her shoulder, making soft whimpering sounds.

Kele was crying too, crying that she hadn’t been abandoned like by the last owner, but instead was being embraced and given delicious food…

Would it trust humans again? Whimper, whimper!

One human, one dog, they hugged and cried for a long time.

After the tears, Jiang Ning no longer felt the previous confusion and fear.

Having come back to life to stash supplies, she simply wanted to survive, to live longer.

But now it was different—not only to live long, but to live well and to protect Kele.

Calming down, she began to examine Kele’s body.

There were shocking new and old wounds everywhere, plus severe skin disease—dense patches of scabies all over, and the dog’s head was blackened, looking extremely ugly.

Jiang Ning gave it anti-inflammatory medicine, found a clipper, and shaved all the fur off.

She disinfected the wounds with iodine, then applied Yunnan Baiyao powder.

Without any pet medicine stocked, Jiang Ning searched her medicine box for similar effective plasters and gently applied them to Kele.

Kele didn’t resist but kept trying to lick.

Skin and bones, now even more eye-sore after shaving. Jiang Ning found her number 7 jersey and put it on the dog, stroking its head, saying, “Once I fatten you up, you’ll look handsome.”

Jiang Ning wasn’t worried about supplies — her space had enough for both her and Kele to live on forever, plus she had the Black Soil Garden to plant crops.

The floor was damp and had no dog bed, so she laid down some cardboard and brought out a dirt-resistant lazy sofa from her space.

No training needed; Kele knew immediately that was its dog bed.

Soft, comfortable — finally a home.

It lay down in the bed and fell into a deep, tired sleep.

Jiang Ning grabbed her large backpack and knocked on room 1801’s door, then gathered everyone at 1803.

In front of everyone, she opened the heavy backpack.

Zhang Chao and Lu Yu were shocked, counting the stacks over and over, “One million?”

Jiang Ning nodded. “Went out shopping today and found it in the cashier’s office of an office building.”

If this had been before the disaster, anyone would’ve gone crazy over this much money. But now, faced with thick stacks of cash, they all felt deeply depressed.

“Even if we have money, there’s nowhere to spend it now.”

Rice prices had risen to 500 yuan per jin, with a limit of one jin per day, and even that rice was salvaged and dried from water damage.

You could eat it, but whether it would cause death was uncertain.

How to spend so much money? Holding onto it just made it useless.

Jiang Ning warned them, “Being able to buy food now is already lucky; it might not be available later.”

“You can’t even buy now,” Lu Yu, always asking around, said, “They say it’s just rationing, but the real problem is that the daily supply is very low. Many people who line up overnight still can’t get any.”

Outside, there were resellers selling salvaged rice at 2,000 yuan per jin.

How ironic — one million yuan could only buy 500 jin of rice.

“Any connections?”

The government was cracking down on profiteering; if caught, goods were confiscated, so not everyone had a way.

“Money will keep losing value. More and more things are bartered. Who knows, maybe one day money will be worthless. We have to think of ways to spend it tomorrow.”

“How to spend it if we can’t buy food?”

“Buy whatever the department store sells,” Jiang Ning steered the group, “It’s October now. We used to wear short sleeves; now we need blankets to sleep. If this rain keeps up into winter, how will we survive?”

But the three, clueless about life, responded, “Alright, tomorrow we’ll raid the department store and grab whatever we can.”

1801 stayed silent, his deep eyes unreadable.

Though he seemed part of the group, he was cold and wary.

His sharp eyes seemed to pierce straight into people’s hearts, making Jiang Ning uneasy.

After leaving 1803, just as Jiang Ning was about to enter her home, unexpectedly, Huo Yishen spoke up:

“Jiang Ning, can I discuss something with you?”

“Go ahead.”

“I used to be a SWAT officer, but retired due to injury and moved here.”

Huo Yishen explained, “On missions, I often teamed up with police dogs and have some experience training dogs.

The Belgian Malinois you brought back is a new breed of police dog. Not only do they have great endurance, but their obedience and combat abilities are excellent.

If it can be properly trained, its fighting ability could rival several adults, which would definitely benefit the 18th floor.”

Jiang Ning was surprised. At first, she suspected he was military or police, but after seeing how easily he killed, she dismissed that, thinking he was either a professional killer or a paid bodyguard.

Never expected he was actually SWAT.

Judging by what he said, he must have just retired. How could he kill without blinking?

Suspicious but everyone has secrets. As long as he didn’t harm her, Jiang Ning wouldn’t pry.

She composed herself and asked, “What are your conditions?”