My Romance Game Updated – Chapter 35
by Little PandaResidence
Ren Chenxi watched Huo Keyu’s group enter the Nanhai Base Quarantine Point before turning around, just in time to meet Mu Ning’s somewhat dazed gaze. Her expression instantly turned cold.
“What are you looking at!”
Ren Chenxi’s abrupt change in demeanor snapped Mu Ning out of the memories she was about to sink into. Her agitated heart also began to cool, bit by bit, under Ren Chenxi’s icy stare.
“I⦔ Mu Ning opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but she understood that the person before her was no longer the Ren Muhui who had once tolerated her every whim with bottomless gentleness. “There was a reason I didn’t want you to register as a spatial esper just now.”
The stark difference in Ren Chenxi’s attitude toward others versus toward her left Mu Ning feeling unhappy, stifled, and miserable. But she had no right to blame her. So, she could only change the subject herself.
“Oh? Why?” Mu Ning’s question successfully diverted Ren Chenxi’s train of thought.
“There are a few other spatial espers in the base. Their spaces vary in size, but none are as large as yours, I’m sure. These spatial espers are quite sought-after in the base, but at the same time, it’s also very troublesome⦔
“Hm?” Ren Chenxi lifted her chin, signaling for Mu Ning to continue.
Mu Ning’s gaze fell on the tip of Ren Chenxi’s delicate chin, then traced the curve of her jawline toward her long, beautiful neck. She paused for a moment before continuing, “Many squads go out to scavenge for supplies. To bring more back, they’ll ask these spatial espers for help. But while having a spatial inventory is convenient, only the esper themselves knows what’s inside. So, a lot of the time, disputes break out between squads and spatial espers. They suspect the espers of secretly stashing away some of their supplies.”
“Mmβ¦ that does sound troublesome.” Ren Chenxi nodded in agreement. “In that case, spatial espers should just go out with their own squad members.” Given Ren Chenxi’s personality, she would never invite unnecessary trouble for a meager reward.
“That’s not all. Acting as a warehouse for other squads is voluntary, but for some of the large-scale supply runs organized by the base, spatial espers are forced to participate. And in the end, the spatial esper has to take inventory of all the supplies under the supervision of base personnelβ¦ Of course, only people from the Fan family would pull something so coercive.”
“Tch!” After expressing her disdain for the Fan family, Ren Chenxi hesitated for a moment before thanking Mu Ning. Wellβ¦ not liking her is one thing, but Mu Ning’s advice really will save me a lot of trouble in the future.
“You’re welcome. You’re his sister. I said I would take care of you!” Ren Chenxi’s rare display of friendliness made Mu Ning very happy. “By the way, there are still a few empty rooms in the building we live in. Would you like to⦔
“No, thanks!” Thanking Mu Ning for her advice was one thing; whether she wanted to continue interacting with her was another matter entirely. “I’ll be with Jian Dan and the others. We’ll look around the base in a bit.”
“⦔ Being rejected by Ren Chenxi was within Mu Ning’s expectations, butβ¦ hearing her refuse so bluntly still made her heart ache with a sour bitterness. So this is the kind of pain Ren Muhui must have endured, time and time again, when I ruthlessly rejected him?
“⦔ Mu Ning fell silent, and Ren Chenxi was left speechless. Hey, hey, hey, what’s with you, an iceberg goddess? Why are you putting on such a wronged expression! This mother didn’t bully you!
Ren Chenxi wanted to ditch Mu Ning and enter the base, but Jian Dan and the others hadn’t come out yet. Just as she was about to go back and check on them, the three of them finally emerged with their musical instruments.
“Xi-jie~”
“What took you so long?”
“Sigh, our abilities are probably pretty rare, right? The registrar was afraid we were making it up and insisted we give a demonstration, so it took a little longer.”
“No wonder⦔ Ren Chenxi nodded. She thought she had heard a cacophony of “wula-wula-kuang-kuang-qiang-qiang” a moment ago.
Beside them, Mu Ning glanced at Ren Chenxi without a word. Earlier, when Ren Chenxi had filled out the registration form for “Shooting” and handed it to the registrar, he had also been about to ask for a verification. However, a single look from Mu Ning had made him silently accept the form. Ren Chenxi didn’t know, and Mu Ning had no intention of telling her. Besides, even if she did, this person wouldn’t give her a pleasant look, would she?
See, now that her companions are here, she’s ignoring me againβ¦
Mu Ning watched with a pang of jealousy as Ren Chenxi led Jian Dan and the others into the base. She looked back at Chen Gu’s group, then turned and followed Ren Chenxi again. Chen Gu received Mu Ning’s signal and quickly led the group of newcomers from S University, jogging a few steps to catch up to Ren Chenxi’s side and eagerly introducing the housing situation in the base.
Nanhai Base had been expanded from a middle school, so many of the original school buildings had been preserved. The Administrative Building now served as the office building for base personnel, while the classrooms where children once studied had been converted into the cheapest form of survivor dormitories.
According to Chen Gu’s introduction, the desks and chairs in this three-row, six-story Teaching Building had been almost entirely cleared out, leaving only three or four for the survivors to use. Survivors who moved into the classrooms had to provide their own furniture. Most of them didn’t even have beds; they just made a pallet on the floor to sleep on. For these survivors, the classrooms were only good for resting. According to base regulations, they were not allowed to light fires or cook inside the classrooms.
Despite such spartan living conditions, a large number of survivors chose to live in the Teaching Building dormitories. The reason was simple: the rent was cheap. One classroom cost only 200 1st-order crystal cores a month, or the equivalent value in supplies.
Most of the people who chose to live in the Teaching Building were ordinary people, though some were espers who simply wanted to save crystal cores. The classrooms, once filled with students, were now home to survivors struggling to get by in the apocalypse. To minimize rent payments, some classrooms were packed with as many as thirty-plus adults.
The living environment in the Teaching Building wasn’t considered terrible. After all, the building was sturdy and solid. Each classroom had four walls and windows, the space was relatively ample, and it provided shelter from the cold in winter. For classrooms with fewer occupants, life was still barely decent. Furthermore, at the end of each floor, there were two restrooms, one for men and one for women. These restrooms later had shower stalls partitioned off, so as long as hygiene was maintained, living in a classroom wasn’t so bad.
Even cheaper than the Teaching Building were the Student and Teacher Dormitories. The environment was similar to the classrooms, with a few desks and iron-frame bunk beds. Cooking was also forbidden, and the restrooms and showers were at the end of the hall. However, because they were much smaller than the classrooms, the rent was half the price.
Compared to the Teaching and Dormitory Buildings, the environment in the Tin Shacksβhastily erected on the Sports Field to accommodate the massive influx of survivors when the base was first establishedβwas absolutely abysmal. A thin layer of sheet metal barely served as a roof, and the walls were made of equally thin fiberboard or wooden planks scavenged from the school, pieced together to create several thousand square meters of temporary housing. They were called “temporary” because the base later organized construction workers to build various other types of housing, leaving these Tin Shacks vacant. Many of the old, weak, sick, and disabledβthose with no ability to earn crystal coresβended up occupying them.
There was no rent for the Tin Shacks, but the living conditions were truly harsh. The 7,000-plus square meters of shacks were divided into only 10 sections, each housing several hundred people. It was crowded, noisy, and filled with the stench of various body odors. At night, the sounds of conversation, snoring, complaining, and the creaking of triple-decker iron-frame bunk beds were things the long-term residents had grown accustomed to. The truly unbearable times were winter and summer.
In the summer, the Tin Shacks baked under the scorching sun. It was sweltering and stuffy, with temperatures inside high enough to give people heatstroke. Then there was winter. Although it didn’t snow in the south, the cold was damp and bone-chilling. The Tin Shacks were drafty, and without adequate protection from the cold, living in such an environment meant falling ill in the best case; in the worst, it meant freezing to death. Even if they got sick, medicine was now precious and rare. The survivors living in the Tin Shacks couldn’t afford it. They could only endure, toughing it out. If they made it, they kept their lives. If they didn’t, they died.
Last year, countless survivors in these Tin Shacks who had escaped the zombies’ maws failed to survive the winter.
After Chen Gu finished his description of the Tin Shacks, the group fell into a long, heavy silence. Seeing the somber atmosphere, Zhang Tongqi quickly shot Chen Gu a look. He immediately started introducing the other housing options.
“Hey, how about we go check out the Villa Area at the very back? That’s where we live now. Hahaha, it’s called a Villa Area, but they’re really just ordinary single-family houses~ Most of the buildings there were converted from original rural self-built houses,1 and a few were newly built. The one the Boss and we live in was a converted self-built house. It has four floors. Do you want to go take a look?”
Jian Dan and the others turned to look at Ren Chenxi. She didn’t want to go, so she asked Chen Gu, “Besides the Villa Area? Are there any other housing options?”
“Other options⦔ Chen Gu looked around, then pointed to a building further behind the Administrative Building. “That building is also newly constructed. The base’s key personnel and their families live there. Our base’s leader lives there too. Unfortunately, that building isn’t open to outsiders.” After that, Chen Gu pointed to a distant area of mansions that was clearly out of place with its surroundings. “That’s the Fan family’s territory. Other survivors aren’t usually allowed to set foot in there.”
“Ahβ¦ so the only choices we have are the Tin Shacks and the Teaching Building?” a student from S University asked, sounding dejected. Although they had saved up some crystal cores on their way to H City, it was obvious that it wasn’t nearly enough to afford living in the Villa Area.
“Chen-ge, is thereβ¦ really no other choice?” another female student from S University pressed.
Chen Gu looked at the students with a troubled expression, then glanced at Mu Ning before shaking his head. “For other options, some newly arrived survivors pitch tents in open areas. Some survivors don’t even enter the base and instead team up to live in the self-built houses on the outskirts. But I don’t recommend either of those. Needless to say, living outside the base is dangerous at night in the apocalypse, as you’ve all experiencedβespecially around Nanhai Base, where so many humans are gathered. As for pitching tents in the open areas inside the baseβ¦ well, you should know that it’s not as stable inside the base as it appears. Theft, robbery, and even more violent incidentsβ¦ Without sufficient strength, you’d be better off squeezing into the Tin Shacks than pitching a tent!”
According to Chen Gu, the Tin Shacks were crowded, and the base, wanting to maintain a semblance of stability, absolutely did not want such a large number of survivors to cause any major trouble. Therefore, the base’s patrol teams would also make rounds through the Tin Shacks area every night. Furthermore, most of the people who resigned themselves to living in such a harsh environment were ordinary people with few crystal cores or supplies. Thugs wouldn’t gain much by targeting them.
After listening to Chen Gu’s introduction, Ren Chenxi began to discuss the matter with Jian Dan and the other two with a serious expression.
The author has something to say:
Wooden Goddess: Her neck is so prettyβ¦ no Adam’s appleβ¦ I want to bite itβ¦
Xixi: ( β― Β°ΠΒ°)β― οΈ΅ β»ββ» The point is the ‘no Adam’s apple’ part, isn’t it!
Happy New Year~ Happy New Year~ Happy New Year, everyone~ May the Year of the Tiger be auspicious~2
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