Chapter 22

Instant Noodles at Sky-High Prices

“I… my child at home needs surgery, please, everyone, help us! I’m here kowtowing to all of you!”

Liu Qilong almost went speechless, saying that he needed surgery himself. He looked at his voice message sent successfully and patted his chest with relief.

The injuries on Liu Qilong’s body were actually lighter than those on his son’s. Before he left, he deliberately put on two extra layers of cotton clothes and avoided sharp fragments when going through the window.

However, when it came to his son, luck wasn’t on their side.

His son was just in elementary school, and not very tall, and when he was going through that window, Liu Qilong dragged him along. His body was inevitably cut in a few places, and because he was short, when Zhang Yi swung the knife and rushed over, the knife cut his trouser leg and slashed his calf.

Although Lin Sijia was a doctor, her home didn’t have so many medicines.

Listening to Liu Qilong’s plea for help in the group, everyone seemed to have tacitly agreed and suddenly fell silent.

Are you kidding me? Who keeps so many of these medicines at home?

Even if they had them, who would be willing to selflessly give them away at a time like this?

Who knows when it might be their turn to get injured!

Moreover, alcohol is a major source of heat. Who would help an unrelated neighbor in such extreme cold?

What does his son’s life or death have to do with them?

Ye Xingchen looked at the last message in the group, where Liu Qilong’s anxious voice lingered, and raised an eyebrow.

Interestingly enough, the medicines Liu Qilong needed were fully stocked in his space.

However, he wouldn’t give them to Liu Qilong and his son.

Firstly, in this post-apocalyptic world, medicines and food were equally important survival resources, and he didn’t want to expose himself.

Secondly, Liu Qilong deserved his fate!

Who asked him to have crooked thoughts first, dragging his son to Zhang Yi’s house to steal things?

Furthermore, looking at the purplish-black wound on his body due to delayed treatment, such a serious injury, even if he managed to barely save him, he wouldn’t survive the prolonged extreme cold.

People’s feelings were different, and no one spoke first in the group.

Regardless of how many voice messages Liu Qilong sent to the group, they all sank into oblivion without any response.

After a long time, Lin Sijia finally sent a message to the group.

She said that Uncle Liu’s son’s injury had been temporarily treated, but due to a shortage of medicines, they could only do emergency treatment, which wouldn’t last long. To achieve a full recovery, they would have to go to the hospital.

At the same time, she also mentioned in the group that if anyone encountered an emergency situation and couldn’t go to the hospital, they could come to her for emergency treatment.

Immediately following were a bunch of praises for Dr. Lin’s benevolence.

Ye Xingchen still didn’t speak in the group, quietly watching the various thoughts of the people in the group.

In the past few days, Chen Rou’er hadn’t harassed him anymore.

Ye Xingchen enjoyed the leisure, but he also knew that in just a few days, Chen Rou’er would come looking for him again.

Chen Rou’er’s deliberate distance was just to maintain her noble and aloof school beauty image. She just wanted Ye Xingchen to, as usual, be unable to resist and take the initiative to apologize to her.

Snow fell continuously, and the entire first floor was completely submerged under the snow.

With the power outage, there were no TV programs to watch anymore. Ye Xingchen could only look at the situation inside the camera every day or occasionally watch a movie and play games.

The outdoor temperature had dropped to minus sixty-eight degrees Celsius, making it almost impossible for anyone to go out at this time.

Without enough warm clothing and with no signs of the snow outside being cleared, going out now would easily lead to accidentally getting buried in the snow.

In the blink of an eye, a week had passed since the beginning of doomsday.

Seven days might not seem long, but in this extremely low temperature with limited food and clothing, people huddled in their blankets, enduring hunger, felt like it was longer than seven years.

At first, they still had hope for the authorities, but as time went on, the officials never appeared again. Now, they were finally forced to face reality.

The authorities might have abandoned them, and the chance of waiting at home for rescue and survival was extremely slim.

Extreme weather, and lack of water and electricity, had already taken the lives of many elderly people.

The remaining people had already learned through the internet that this massive snow disaster had covered the entire globe.

The entire world was buried in snow, and even in tropical regions, news of people freezing to death had emerged, not to mention areas closer to the cold regions, where the temperature had dropped to more than minus one hundred degrees Celsius in this extreme weather, causing many cities to disappear in the blizzard nights.

The authorities were still encouraging people online not to give up hope of survival, to unite and live on. But seeing the frozen cities, everyone’s hearts seemed to be buried in the thick snow, cold as ice.

Due to the scarcity of supplies, various issues became even more acute.

Suddenly, a message in the group broke the eerie silence.

“Does anyone still have food at home? My child and I haven’t eaten anything for two days. I… I’m willing to buy at a high price!”

This message immediately caused a commotion in the homeowners’ group.

Initially, everyone thought that this snow disaster would pass quickly and wouldn’t affect their lives at all.

Food transactions occasionally happened in secret, but prices were several times higher than usual.

However, after so many days, the supplies of every household were almost depleted.

Outside was a world of white snow, inside were mouths eagerly waiting to be fed.

No one dared to take the risk of going outside. Even material exchanges were arranged secretly using drones. After all, with such deep snow, no one knew if they could come back alive after leaving.

Before long, someone replied in the group: “I have a few packs of instant noodles at home. If you need them, I can sell them to you. But for one pack of instant noodles, I’m asking for five thousand yuan!”

Five thousand yuan for a pack of instant noodles!

This price was unimaginable before the doomsday. Even if someone had proposed it, others would have thought they were crazy.

At this time, people still believed that this person was being unreasonable, and no one thought that anyone would be willing to buy at this price and become the scapegoat.

After all, five thousand yuan was enough not just for instant noodles, but possibly even for a whole table of sumptuous feast.

The initial inquiry from the concerned mother received no response, and she seemed hesitant.

After all, she and her child were hungry, but her monthly salary was only about six to seven thousand yuan. Now, asking her to spend five thousand yuan on a pack of instant noodles that usually cost three yuan was a bit…

Just at this moment, Zhang Peng, who hadn’t spoken in the group for a long time, suddenly chimed in.

“I’ll offer ten thousand for a pack! How many do you have at your place? I’ll take them all!”