Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 962

Chapter 962: Chapter 306: Barren Predicaments, Maintaining Awe

After leaving the Civil Affairs Bureau, the sky had already turned a shade of twilight.

As winter approached, the days grew shorter. Just past five o’clock, the sun sank to the edge of the horizon, leaving only half of its glow barely illuminating the sky.

Before returning to the community, Cheng Ye took a detour to the checkpoint, planning to “freeload” some vegetables once more.

Of course, it wasn’t just that he was a bit peckish; he also wanted to take the opportunity to test Zhou Kuan’s cooking skills, to see if this young man harbored ambitions of opening a restaurant early, and whether his skills were truly reliable.

“Inspector Cheng, although I haven’t opened a shop by myself, you can rest assured about my cooking skills!”

Zhou Kuan followed closely behind Cheng Ye, patting his chest in assurance, “I studied under a master at the Hailong Shelter City in Sea Province for nearly ten years. Outsiders thought my master had great skills, but starting from the third year, many of the signature dishes in the shop were actually cooked by me.”

He became more excited as he spoke: “Like some homely dishes, the most popular in Sea Province is sweet and sour fish, customers would eat until they licked the plates… Hmm, especially the noodles I make, they’re truly exceptional! Many adults in the Shelter City would bring their families to eat every three days or so, devouring three to five bowls at a time until their bellies were round before leaving.”

Listening to Zhou Kuan listing those various dishes, Cheng Ye couldn’t help but lick the corner of his mouth.

Food is the people’s heaven.

Ever since tasting a few flavorful meals, the appetite suppressed by nutrient paste became hard to control, and from time to time he wanted to cook a dish to add some taste to his mouth.

But nowadays, with scarce ingredients, the little vegetables sent by Jiang Chuan could barely last a week, even if consumed sparingly.

To truly have vegetables in every meal, they’d have to wait until next autumn when the planting industry spreads out.

“Then why did you come to Happiness City?” Cheng Ye asked.

“Hailong Shelter City relocated,” Zhou Kuan sniffed, his tone turning somber, “The weather in Sea Province these years has become increasingly terrifying, typhoons coming one after another, blowing for half a month, making it impossible to do anything. Many large shelter cities are successively choosing to relocate to safer places. Hailong Shelter City decided earlier this year, the destination being Guang Province.”

“Oh? Then why didn’t you follow your master and go to Guang Province with Hailong Shelter City?”

Cheng Ye raised an eyebrow, asking knowingly to probe Zhou Kuan’s character.

Large shelter cities, often with populations of twenty or thirty thousand, naturally couldn’t relocate everyone at once.

According to documents he reviewed these days, such relocations mostly follow a fixed procedure, first building the basic framework at the destination (like Guang Province), then transferring core members in batches.

By the time the shelter city officially announces the relocation news, the core force actually had long since arrived at the new location and taken root.

As for ordinary residents, they’re free to migrate, or leave and find their own way.

After all, large-scale migrations of tens of thousands of people would inevitably attract a large number of attacking infection sources, posing great risks.

Many shelter cities actually do not want to bear this responsibility, fearing the outbreak of a big infection wave, investing manpower and material resources only to end up with nothing. They maintain this façade to avoid the bad reputation of abandoning everything.

“The migrating population was divided into three batches: one for young people, one for those with families, and one for elderly like my master with inconvenient mobility.”

Zhou Kuan sighed, his voice carrying a bit of hoarseness, “He’s already sixty-two years old this year, childless and alone all his life. How could he have the strength to trek a thousand kilometers to Guang Province? I sent him to the nearby Haiqing Shelter City, but by then, we’d already missed Hailong Shelter City’s organized migration batch.”

“Originally, I planned to rebuild in Haiqing, open a small shop, and keep him company through his old age. But the journey was still too tough, even though Hailong and Haiqing were only three hundred kilometers apart. Climbing mountains and hiding all the way, rain fell twice between, my master couldn’t withstand it, and hurriedly passed within half a month.”

“After burying him, I had no mind to stay in Haiqing, afraid it might someday relocate as well, so I followed the route northwards to join my uncle’s family.”

Elderly people of this era mostly struggled to survive in the Wasteland when young, labor endured with poor medical care, making their bodies far weaker than those of modern peers.

Sixty years is already old age. Struggling in a fixed area is barely manageable; trekking hundreds or thousands of kilometers to unfamiliar regions, even if everything goes smoothly, may not ensure reaching the destination.

Because migration relies solely on the measure of footsteps, there are no planes, trains, or vehicles to take.

“Back then, my father went to Sea Province during the Great Expansion Era; my uncle’s family stayed in Yueye Shelter City in Stone Province. I hurried over to join them, only to find they were planning to leave too, so I joined Happiness City with them.”

“Why was your uncle’s family leaving?” Cheng Ye followed up.

His family entered the city in early April, when not even a shadow of an infection wave was visible, unlikely to act simply on impulse.

“It’s quite a coincidence,” Zhou Kuan scratched his head, his tone carrying a hint of irony, “My uncle went scavenging with others and unexpectedly struck rich. But during the loot distribution, disagreements arose, and my uncle accidentally killed two people. To avoid vengeance, they fled overnight to Happiness City, unexpectedly dodging June’s infection wave.”

“That is certainly fortunate,” Cheng Ye nodded slightly.

Whether accidental or intentional, the scavenger’s rules were always so; before finding treasure, they were brothers, but afterward, they might turn into enemies.