CHAPTER 174: CHAPTER 172: SPECULATION ABOUT THE ENEMY

Someone died? Looking at this prompt, Chen Xin couldn’t help but feel very surprised.

"Personnel death in another shelter" this clearly referred to the shelter that had received the oxygen generator and ground source heat pump equipment he provided, earning him survival points.

Given that the official shelter accounting wasn’t settled yet, this range was actually very narrow.

The doctor, Li Wensheng, Mo Qingyan... were all friends in the survival group.

So whose shelter had someone died? So far, Chen Xin had traded out eight oxygen generators and two ground source heat pumps to friends, gaining a total of 3400 one-off survival points and +34 points per day.

But now this number had changed to +32.

Does the increase from previously gained points decrease with personnel deaths? While Chen Xin noted this down to himself, he was more concerned about who had someone die in their shelter.

He couldn’t openly ask about it, after all, he couldn’t just turn on the radio and shout, "Who lost two people in their shelter?" right?

Thinking it over, Chen Xin could only note this down, planning to ask which friend’s place had an incident during the routine communication contact.

Besides this unexpected event, nothing else disrupted Chen Xin’s plans.

After cleaning the empty planting panels in the greenhouse and putting in new seeds, and checking the rice seedling status and the fish in the tanks, Chen Xin finally finished his chores.

Rubbing his already somewhat hungry stomach, Chen Xin also began preparing dinner. Tonight, he planned to visit Qin Lan in the city, and bring her dinner.

Although the hospital’s meals weren’t bad, with porridge and other vegetables, the rice was clearly aged rice stored in warehouses, and it was polished white rice, nutritionally inferior to germ rice or brown rice.

It’s not that Chen Xin insisted on arguing that germ rice is better than white rice, but in this current widespread situation, the hospital’s meals are roughly considered good compared to the standard food in other shelters. Though not bad, it’s just ordinary standard before the disaster.

For an injured person like Qin Lan, being able to eat something more nutritious would also aid in her recovery.

Taking some rice from the food storage room, cutting a piece of Jinhua ham, taking a piece of previously frozen fish from the fridge, and some stored carrots, Chen Xin pondered a bit then took a can of tuna before leaving the storage room to prepare dinner.

He hulled the rice, blew away the rice bran, washed it clean, then took it to make porridge. Only then did Chen Xin start handling other ingredients.

The frozen fish was obtained in a trade with Li Wensheng, and since Chen Xin wasn’t eating quickly, there was still some left. The live fish in the greenhouse were for breeding, and he wouldn’t touch them for now, so only the frozen fish was available.

Fortunately, the fish had been cleaned long ago, and Chen Xin had cut them into sections, so they just needed to be thawed before cooking.

Chen Xin planned to stew a pot of fish soup, as fish meat is a high-protein food, beneficial for wound recovery.

"It’s a pity there’s no ginger or garlic, so I’ll have to use wine to cover the fishy taste." Chen Xin sighed. Fish naturally has a fishy odor, and normally, ginger and garlic would be used to remove it. But with none of those available now, he’d have to use some wine for the job.

Fortunately, since it’s stewing soup, Chen Xin wasn’t worried about the wine affecting Qin Lan’s wound recovery.

After frying the thawed fish meat in a pot, he added a splash of rum he hadn’t finished near the pot edge, and finding the smell okay, Chen Xin felt reassured putting the fish into the stew pot, adding water to start stewing.

As for the Jinhua ham and carrots, they were to be stewed together in the soup.

Jinhua ham would enhance the flavor, and carrots are nutritious, making them great complementary ingredients for the fish soup.

While thinking about this, Chen Xin opened the can of tuna, checked the smell, and added it to the boiling porridge.

White rice porridge doesn’t have much taste, so adding a little tuna counted as flavoring.

After everything was prepared, Chen Xin heated up a portion of shelter food for himself, serving as his dinner.

Finishing quickly and taking a simple shower, the soup and porridge were also ready. Chen Xin packed the soup and porridge separately in the thermos he had used for Qin Lan before. The remaining portion was stored in sealed containers, and Chen Xin carried the thermos to his car, heading towards the city.

With the roads being tricky and lacking Li Yulong’s modified RV, after some hesitation, Chen Xin decided to upgrade his SUV.

However, since it was a spontaneous decision and due to material and survival point restrictions on hand, Chen Xin only spent 500 points to modify the tires, enhancing the vehicle’s mobility, without undergoing major modifications.

With the upgraded tires improving passage, the SUV drove more smoothly, and even when encountering crosswinds on the bridge to the city, Chen Xin’s car only swayed slightly without any skidding.

Driving steadily to the hospital, Chen Xin stepped into the ward with the thermos, finding Ding Ning chatting with Qin Lan.

Their conversation was undoubtedly the content Chen Xin analyzed before, as they continued discussing who those people, deemed as terrorists, really were.

Ding Ning speculated that they might be members of some terrorist organization, but Qin Lan didn’t think any such organization could exist in the heart of the Flame Country and cause such a commotion. Instead, she believed it might be some cult.

After all, only faith can make people fearless, but some faiths inspire greatness, while others lead to blind fervor.

In today’s post-apocalyptic environment, with shelters isolated, it’s a fertile ground for cults. If not for strict control by the city and each shelter, doomsday cults would likely have spread widely already.

Even so, Qin Lan had already witnessed various absurd, foolish, and even evil and cruel cults during previous duties.

However, she didn’t believe these cults, cropping up like mushrooms after rain, could possess such organizational and execution capabilities. Inspiring followers with fervent faith is the basic skill of cults, but achieving well-trained, fearless suicidal attacks isn’t something ordinary cults can do.

Moreover, cultivating followers akin to Death Warriors isn’t something accomplished overnight.

So Qin Lan felt it was likely an old cult that had long existed, merely hidden below the surface until the apocalypse exposed their ambition.