Surviving the apocalypse with a wife and a system! [GL]

Bai Li packed the frozen food into a large plastic supermarket bag and tied it off with quick, practiced hands. The bag looked heavy, but she could still carry it easily. She already knew what she would say when she went up later. Nothing fancy. No big speech. Just a quick drop off and a warning to keep their doors locked. That would be enough. People who had once spoken up for her did not need fancy gratitude. They needed practical help. Bai Li understood that better than most. If she could give them food and save them a little trouble, that was already a good exchange.

Having done this, Bai Li carefully continued searching the small supermarket and found dried vegetables such as seaweed, wood ear mushrooms, white fungus, and dried bean curd sticks. Bai Li put all of these into her spatial storage, which was now almost full.

The dry goods were small, light, and useful, exactly the kind of thing that made life a little easier later. Bai Li knew how much value there was in ingredients that could last a long time. Seaweed could stretch a soup. Wood ear mushrooms added texture and made a bowl of food feel less plain. White fungus was good for soup too. Dried bean curd sticks were one of those things that could soak up flavor and make a meal feel like more than just survival food. She swept the shelves carefully and looked through the little packets with a much slower eye now, because her storage was nearly full and she did not want to waste space on things that would not matter. The supermarket still had other items, but she had already taken the most important things.

Bai Li’s backpack was still empty, so she simply filled it with toys and dolls from the mini supermarket. She knew Li Li would love them.

That thought made her mouth soften a little. Bai Li walked over to the small toy section and looked at the shelves for a few seconds. There were cheap dolls, a few stuffed animals, some tiny plastic cars, and other little things meant to distract children while adults were busy shopping. Bai Li did not have to think too hard about what LiLi would like. The little girl already had a face that lit up fast when something cute appeared in front of her. So Bai Li picked a few things that looked clean and harmless, put them into the backpack, and then added a few more when she saw how light they were. A soft doll, a little stuffed bear, a small toy set with bright colors, and one or two extra bits just because she could imagine LiLi hugging them all at once with that bright little smile of hers.

Bai Li could already picture the child’s reaction. LiLi would probably hug the toys to her chest, then look up with those round eyes and ask if they were really for her. She would probably smile so wide that her cheeks would puff up. Bai Li found herself feeling a little warmer at the thought. It was strange how quickly the little girl made her think about soft things. A kid like that was like a tiny patch of sunlight in a place that had already gone gray. Bai Li did not have many people around her who could do that. LiLi managed it without trying.

She kept searching the small supermarket for a little longer, opening a few more cabinets and checking the shelves one last time. A few packets of instant food were still there, and she took those too. Some preserved vegetables sat at the back of a shelf, and she added them to the pile as well. There was no point leaving things that might still help later. When the space was nearly empty and her own storage was almost full, Bai Li finally stopped. She had taken enough. Taking more would only start making her storage messy, and she preferred keeping some room open for things that might matter later.

Bai Li finished searching the small supermarket, and it was almost 7 PM. However, the days are long in summer, and it was still light. She didn’t waste any time and rushed out of the supermarket, running into the building entrance of Building 9.

The evening light outside was still bright, stretching long and pale across the courtyard in that typical summer way where it felt like the day refused to end even though the world had already become terrible. Bai Li stepped out of the supermarket and moved straight toward the building entrance. She did not linger outside longer than necessary. There were still zombies around the neighborhood, and the courtyard was not fully safe even if the area she had cleared earlier looked quieter for a moment. The long summer evening made everything a little deceptive. It was bright enough to look almost normal from far away, but nothing about the place was normal anymore. Bai Li kept her pace steady and her eyes alert, making sure to keep her body ready in case a zombie wandered in from the street again.

Bai Li entered the large white door leading to the staircase with ease and started walking upstairs. Only Qian Fang and He Baoping, the couple from apartment 903, were still on the 9th floor. Everyone else was either dead or trapped elsewhere; in any case, only apartment 903 was occupied on this floor.

The stairwell felt cooler than the outdoor courtyard, though not by much. Bai Li climbed in silence, one step after another, with the familiar feeling of the building pressing in around her. She already knew the 9th floor was mostly empty now. That made the old couple stand out even more. Their apartment was one of the few still occupied on the floor, and their lights were still on when a lot of others had already gone dark. Bai Li thought about that as she climbed. In a building that had become half silent and half afraid, those two people remained one of the few stable things left.

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to be continued.