This is apocalyptic

Chapter 49: Way Out

Lin Duoduo uses solar energy technology to make dried fruits and firewood.

Bai Xiao was holding a saw and studying the bamboo basket for catching fish. At the same time, he was using very primitive physical labor to cut up the dead tree that Lin Duoduo regarded as a treasure.

In her opinion, this tree is much more important than a few bamboo rats and wild pheasants.

It has been done a lot and is easier to saw. It is not too heavy either. Bai Xiao gradually finds happiness in this repetitive work.

The sawdust was collected. Lin Duoduo said that it might be useful. Anyway, it didn't take up space and it was better to put it away than to throw it away.

Just when Bai Xiao was sweating, he met Aunt Qian again. Aunt Qian might have come over to see what was happening following the sound.

Bai Xiao stopped and sat on a piece of wood to rest.

It has been a while since he was brought back to the yard for observation by Lin Duoduo after being infected. His symptoms of infection have completely stabilized. However, during this long period of time, he has only met Aunt Qian twice in this small village.

"Can I help you move a piece back?" Bai Xiao had a good impression of this woman, although he had not seen her often.

From the first time I knew of her existence when I delivered meat to Lin Duoduo, to later seeing photos before the disaster in her old house when I went to the city to pick up trash, to later visiting her with Lin Duoduo, and the morning glory on Uncle Cai's ear, this is an old man who has tried hard to survive to the present after the disaster, but misses the past and quietly waits for death.

"I don't need it." Aunt Qian shook her head. "I'm old and can't chop wood anymore."

"Then...I'll help you chop it?" Bai Xiao followed up.

"No, we don't need such good firewood." said Aunt Qian.

Bai Xiao was speechless. He wanted to get closer to her and ask for some seeds, but he didn't know if it was because of Aunt Qian's personality or if she had a bad impression of him.

Judging from the last time I reminded him to be careful of the trap, it shouldn't be the latter.

Aunt Qian stared at his sunglasses. Just when Bai Xiao thought she was going to leave, Aunt Qian slowly sat down at the tree root at the other end and asked, "Are you just going to stay here?"

"Well...what do you mean?" Bai Xiao asked.

"Don't you plan to take Duoduo away from this village?" Aunt Qian asked, "There is no one left in this village. Even if we can survive for two or three years, how long can we last? If you plan to have a child..."

"Cough cough cough..."

Bai Xiao was suddenly choked.

Aunt Qian stopped and stared at him without saying anything.

"We are just neighbors...we don't have any thoughts in that regard." Bai Xiao explained.

"A man and a woman, living so close to each other, with no one else around, it was bound to happen sooner or later." Aunt Qian said calmly.

Bai Xiao calmed down for a while, picked up the big kettle and took a sip. He didn't explain about being infected, but asked, "What do you want to say?"

“This village is dead.”

Aunt Qian looked at the dead village in the distance, and after a moment she repeated, "He's already dead... You should find a way out instead of waiting to die with an old woman like me."

"Lin Duoduo...she doesn't want to leave. She lives very well here." Bai Xiao said after thinking for a while.

"But this is not the way out," said Aunt Qian.

Bai Xiao was silent. What Aunt Qian said was true. Lin Duoduo seemed to be living a decent life, but if she stayed here, she would only die slowly.

Just like the infected deer I saw in the mountains two days ago.

The disaster has lasted for twenty years and is far from over. Now it is just the calm before the storm. The worst future that Lin Duoduo's father is worried about may gradually become a reality.

"If she doesn't want to leave because of me, I won't live long. You have to think, think more, about the next way out." Aunt Qian said slowly.

"Do you have any suggestions?" Bai Xiao asked after a moment's hesitation. Aunt Qian shook her head slightly, still looking at the village in the distance, "I have been here... for too long, and I have never been out. I don't know the changes outside, so I can't give you any good advice. It may be worse outside, or there may be a way out, but it is better than rotting in this village."

Bai Xiao said: "Last time, Lin Duoduo mentioned... that settlement, maybe I can go and observe it. If possible, you and Lin Duoduo can move there together."

Aunt Qian smiled and said, "I'll stay here and not go anywhere."

Bai Xiao wanted to say something, but when he saw her smile, he swallowed his words back.

He thought for a while and said, "What if we find help?"

In the notes left by Lin Duoduo's father, he tried to find the organization many times, but Bai Xiao didn't know what happened later and had no way of guessing.

Aunt Qian's expression remained unchanged and she continued to shake her head slightly.

"Lin Duoduo's father...left a message telling her that if she has the chance to find him in the future, she should go," Bai Xiao said.

"Oh? Did you see it?" Aunt Qian seemed to remember that man when she mentioned Lin Duoduo's father. After a moment, she said:

"If there is no other solution, then the best solution is to find one."

"then you……"

"I won't go. You and Lin Duoduo can trust them, but I don't want to trust them. I don't trust anyone. Dying here is my destination." Aunt Qian said.

This was beyond Bai Xiao's expectations.

"Why?" he asked subconsciously. This old lady seemed to have been prepared to die here.

"We have been victims all our lives. It's actually pretty good to live a peaceful life like this now, without getting involved in anything. It's just a pity for a child like Duoduo..."

Aunt Qian sighed imperceptibly and sat there.

"If I didn't have a child like Duoduo, I would actually hope for destruction."

After a long time, Aunt Qian stood up from the tree roots and adjusted her hat. "But you are still young and have never lived before the disaster... Leave, if you can leave, if there is a way to survive, it must be outside."

Aunt Qian left after she finished speaking.

Bai Xiao sat on the fallen tree, holding a saw, his body burning from the sun, and looked at her back.

If there is a way to survive, it must be outside.

After a long time, the sound of saws was heard. The lifeless tree was being cut and then dragged back to the residence bit by bit.

This is hard firewood, which Lin Duoduo piled up under the shed to dry in the shade.

Bai Xiao was thinking about what Aunt Qian had said to him in the afternoon. While taking a rest, he watched Lin Duoduo pile the firewood.

'A child like Duoduo...'

He looked at this healthy human, full of energy and vitality.

Lin Duoduo did not accuse him of being lazy. After dragging so much back, it was time for him to take a break.

The hot weather turned into sultry heat before dusk as the sun set.

"If there is a safe shelter outside, will you leave?" Bai Xiao asked.

"Of course there is, but we haven't found it yet." Lin Duoduo said, "When the time comes... you'll see, confirming safety is not an easy task."

After she finished stacking the firewood, she turned over the drying raspberries, then sat in the shade with a palm-leaf fan to prevent birds from coming to steal the fruits.

(End of this chapter)