After the convoy had been on the road for a while, we passed by a fairly large supermarket.
Over the radio, the bearded man informed us to stop the vehicles in front of the store so we could go in and search for supplies.
Once Shen Feng parked our car behind the ones in front, I turned around and gestured to Uncle Gazi to stay in the car with Chen Pu and Tingyun, then got out with the others.
The supermarket was located just to the left of the entrance to a large residential complex.
We parked the vehicles right in front of the store, and the open view around us at least ensured that there wouldn't be another situation where walkers were upon us before we even noticed them.
Because the supermarket was so close to the residential area, walker would occasionally stumble out upon hearing noise.
So we decided to leave half the group outside on watch.
From our side, only Xu Shu, Shen Feng, and I entered the store.
Almost naturally, it was again Suo Tian who took the lead.
The glass doors of the supermarket had been locked from the outside.
After quickly unlocking them, Suo Tian gave a hand signal to stay alert, then pushed open the door and slipped inside first.
The rest of us hurried to follow.
The interior of the supermarket was unlike the ones we had visited before—it had already been picked almost clean.
Most of the shelves were half-empty or entirely bare.
Seeing such a nearly desolate space, we all stood there for a moment in stunned silence.
Up ahead, Suo Tian had also stopped in his tracks.
After surveying the area, he walked toward the section with agricultural and food products.
Meanwhile, the rest of us, under Big Beard's instructions, quickly swept through the entire supermarket to confirm that it was mostly safe.
Only then did everyone start spreading out to scavenge whatever useful items were left.
Xu Shu, Shen Feng, and I headed first toward the mostly overlooked baby formula section.
Recently, Rongrong had been visibly wasting away, losing weight at a frightening pace.
Wang Tingyun was being looked after decently by Uncle Gazi, but even she was growing increasingly frail.
No matter how many biscuits she ate, they just couldn't meet a child's nutritional needs.
Adding to that, although Chen Pu, Yangyang, and Jun Di were all young men, they were still in their growing years.
As for Uncle Gazi, there was no need to say more—he was already quite old.
We had no idea how long we'd be traveling on the road, so stocking up on nutritious items was never a bad idea.
Besides, judging by the look of things, there probably wasn't much other edible stuff left in this store anyway.
Even in the milk powder section, supplies were running low.
The baby formula shelves were practically cleaned out.
Fortunately, there were still some items like black sesame paste, oatmeal, and milk powder for the elderly.
The three of us went over to check the production dates.
At first, we wanted to only take what hadn't expired yet, but after a moment of thought, we just tossed the expired ones into the cart too.
In times like this, we couldn't afford to be picky.
If something was only a month or two past its expiration, we could just boil it in water—those of us with stronger constitutions should be fine eating it.
After grabbing those, we felt a bit more reassured and pushed the cart around the rest of the store, seeing if we could find anything else worth taking.
As we were looking around, Shen Feng glanced at the empty shelves and asked with some confusion, "The place was locked from the outside—how is it already so cleaned out?"
Xu Shu also scanned the area and replied, "Maybe the ones who took everything were the ones who locked the door on their way out."
She paused, then turned to me and asked, "Chen Yang, the residential area is right next door—could there still be people alive in there? Maybe they're the ones who took all this stuff?"
"You know, that's actually pretty likely," Shen Feng agreed.
I thought for a moment, then looked at the empty shelves beside me.
"It's very likely. And based on the timing, if it really was people from the residential area who took everything, judging by how cleaned out this place is—especially the milk powder section—there's probably a decent-sized group, and they likely have babies or children with them."
Xu Shu was briefly stunned when she heard that, then smiled with heartfelt relief and said, "If that's the case, then honestly, I'd rather this place be empty. After all, we're still moving forward on the road and we'll definitely pass by thousands more supermarkets later. We don't really need what's here. But just knowing there are still people out there like us, still striving to survive—it's truly uplifting."
Hearing that, I patted Xu Shu on the shoulder and smiled, "Isn't that the truth? Alright, let's grab a few more things and head out. If there are still people alive here, they definitely need this stuff more than we do."
I had a feeling that Suo Tian had also arrived at the same conclusion as we did.
When we pushed the cart to the front entrance to regroup, I noticed that the rest of the group had only taken a single bag of rice, a bag of flour, and what looked like some dried vermicelli from the dry goods section.
Though the store was a bit empty, there was clearly more than just that left.
When I locked eyes with Suo Tian during that moment, his dark eyes were as calm and steady as always.
I gave him a smile, and even though there was no expression on his face, there was unmistakably a hint of warmth in his gaze.
As we locked the store doors behind us once more and prepared to leave, my heart felt full of warmth.
Maybe this is one of the reasons why humanity has managed to survive in this world—no matter who we are, deep down, there's always kindness.
A silent understanding among us all.
Even those people in the neighborhood next door, whom we'd never met before—I still choose to believe they are good people.
Because they didn't clean the place out entirely.
And even though it's likely they were saving those things for themselves, I'd rather believe the opposite—that the leftover supplies were their way of leaving something behind for others.
A quiet gesture of goodwill.
In the afternoon, we finally came across another, much larger shopping mall.
Although this place had also been picked through by others, we had learned from our experience back in the county.
We went straight to the manager's office and, luckily, found the keys to the warehouse.
Inside was a fully stocked warehouse—shelves packed to the brim.
We loaded every vehicle with food, filling them to capacity.
The second floor of the mall was a clothing section, and Suo Tian, understanding me perfectly, had his black-clad team escort us upstairs after we had restocked, allowing us to change out of our filthy clothes from head to toe.
Knowing the weather would gradually warm up, and with all our previous clothes left behind in the village and that so-called shelter, we took the opportunity to pack another huge bundle of clothes.
In the end, under Big Beard's grimacing complaints, four of the black-clad men had to carry it all down for us.
Back in the car, after helping Tingyun, Yangyang, and Chen Pu roughly change into clean clothes, I took a carefully chosen red cotton dress over to Suo Tian's vehicle.
Zheng Rongrong was still sound asleep in the arms of one of the black-clad men.
After changing her out of her dirty, grimy clothes and dressing her in the red dress, I handed her back gently.
Once all that was done, we decided to stop and have lunch right then and there.
I had found a few alcohol stoves in the mall and brought them along, along with two full crates of dry ice.
Taking the chance, I cooked two pots using the milk powder and cereal we had collected.
Little Wang Tingyun, being so young and fond of sweet, milky things, squealed with joy the moment she saw the food.
The black-clad men, who usually looked so stern and serious, couldn't resist and crowded around the two steaming pots without a shred of restraint.
In the end, I—the one who had done all the cooking—got squeezed out of the crowd and could only shout nonsense in frustration.
But it was no use.
All I could do in the end was sulk off to the side and gnaw on a sausage.
After that stop, one of Suo Tian's team's vehicles ended up with two extra boxes of cereal and milk powder tied to its roof as we departed…
Everyone was in a great mood after a full meal.
When we got back on the road, Big Beard even grabbed the walkie-talkie and sang a love duet with one of the black-clad men.
Hearing his rough voice switch back and forth between his usual tone and a fake, high-pitched "girly" voice had everyone in our car howling with laughter—we were nearly doubled over, laughing until our stomachs hurt.
Over the next two days, to be cautious, Suo Tian revised our route again.
After filling up our tanks, we detoured onto rural roads.
Back in that small city earlier, we had nearly run headfirst into a massive horde of over a thousand walkers roaming the streets.
The black-clad team had already used up most of their bullets in several previous large-scale battles, and with limited firepower remaining, we had no choice but to avoid clashing with walker hordes as much as possible.
Taking the rural route had its benefits.
After traveling for over a month, the weather had clearly warmed up.
The black-clad men had already taken off their heavy down jackets and switched back to their standard black uniforms.
Everyone in our car, except for little Wang Tingyun, had shed their winter coats as well.
The barren land on either side of the road was now dotted with fresh patches of green as spring arrived in full.
The trees lining the roadside had begun to sprout tender buds.
Rural roads always ran between the fields, and as we drove along, surrounded by stretches of green, the scenery felt incredibly calming.
If it weren't for the occasional walker encounter—or the distant figures wandering the fields—we could've almost believed we were just on a long road trip to enjoy the spring.
During this time, Rongrong's condition seemed to have stabilized quite a bit, though she still slept a lot—at least twenty hours a day.
I didn't know if Suo Tian and his people were still giving her sedatives, and I didn't dare ask, because I was afraid of getting a definite "yes."
I'd rather believe that Rongrong really was getting better.
Yangyang had taken care of Rongrong for a long time.
After Xiao Xue's death, he did blame Rongrong at first, but with time, most of that resentment had faded.
Now, whenever the convoy stopped to rest, he would often run over to Suo Tian's car just to check on Rongrong.
Every time I finished cooking some cereal or milk, he would make sure to set aside a thermos to give to Suo Tian, constantly reminding him not to forget to feed Rongrong with it.
Wang Tingyun had also grown much closer to all of us.
She no longer clung exclusively to Uncle Gazi all day long.
Uncle Gazi was actually a little jealous because of this and often grumbled about how he'd raised a thankless little brat.
It was unclear whether Tingyun really didn't understand or was just pretending, but every time Uncle Gazi said the words "thankless little brat," she would immediately react—smacking him across the face with one of her chubby little hands.
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