Reborn in the end of the world, I scavenged in the empty city and bought for free

Gu Tongwan and Yan Fan had no intention of turning back. Although they knew something must have happened over there, they were afraid that if they went there rashly, they would only get themselves into trouble. So after discussing it, the two decided to go back the same way and leave immediately after getting the car.

Fortunately, no accidents happened on the way back, and the two returned to the city smoothly.

On the way back, I found that the temperature seemed to be a little lower than in the morning, and the temperature was around eleven degrees.

"Yan Fan, let's go to the farmer's market later and exchange the raw branches for charcoal as soon as possible. I also want to buy some more. I have a feeling that this winter may not be that simple."

"Sister Wanwan, are you saying that this year might be extremely cold?" Yan Fan looked at the passers-by hurrying on the street. Everyone had already wrapped themselves in cotton clothes. Some people even took out long and wide windbreakers and wrapped themselves tightly from head to toe.

It has been nearly two and a half years since the last extreme cold weather in the world. During this period, the coldest place was the Extreme Cold, but it only maintained at around minus 40 degrees Celsius. This is a big difference from the real extreme cold when the temperature can drop to minus 70 degrees Celsius. But this time, perhaps winter came too late. The weather that was about to enter winter in December was delayed until mid-January due to the influence of extreme heat and acid rain. Therefore, many experts and scholars have put forward the "extreme cold theory".

The two were shocked when they drove to the farmer's market. It was already 6:30 in the evening, but it was still crowded with people. The number of people had at least doubled compared to the previous two days. It looked exactly like the crowded scene during the National Day holiday.

"Hurry up, or we won't be able to buy charcoal if we're any later." Gu Tongwan glanced at the charcoal street, which was the place with the most people. There were more than a dozen people gathered in almost every store. Some were bargaining, some were selecting charcoal, and some were comparing prices. There were people of all ages, men, women, young and old.

Gu Tongwan brought back a total of more than 200 kilograms of raw branches this time. He could have picked up more, but because he encountered a swarm of rats and a mutant rat king one after another, he wasted a lot of time, so the amount this time was only half of the usual amount.

Two hundred kilograms of raw branches were exchanged for about thirty kilograms of charcoal. I originally planned to buy another five hundred kilograms of charcoal, but I found that the price of charcoal had increased by 20% compared to some time ago.

"It's impossible not to raise the price. It's not just my store that's raising the price. Almost all the places selling charcoal in the base are raising the price. The charcoal price has been too high recently. The main reason is that the labor cost of the logging team has increased. The other reason is that the base will be closed and under a one-month curfew next month. During the curfew, the logging team can't leave the city. So the price of charcoal must go up."

The shop owner smiled bitterly with some embarrassment, because he had been complained about the price increase by his regular customers in the past two days, but he really had no choice. If he sold it to his acquaintances at cost price, he would not even make a profit, and the shop would also suffer losses.

"Then give me two hundred kilograms of charcoal, and put it together with the charcoal I just replaced."

After the price went up, Gu Tongwan could only buy 200 kilograms temporarily. Combined with the coal he bought some time ago and the coal in the space, he would definitely be able to hold on for a year or two.

At this time, more and more people came into the store, and a father and daughter came in. Judging from their attire, they should be from a relatively well-off family. The girl didn't even look at the ordinary charcoal, but directly picked the best lychee wood. She turned her head and said to the middle-aged man, "Dad, there is lychee wood here. Let's go in and buy some. There will be no smoke when we barbecue in winter, and it will not be easy to get carbon monoxide poisoning."

The middle-aged man glanced at the prices above. The price of ordinary charcoal has risen to 41 kilograms, and the price of lychee wood has risen to 61 kilograms. Ordinary people have to hesitate before buying a kilogram of ordinary charcoal, and there are very few people who can make a happy decision to buy lychee wood. Even Gu Tongwan only prepared 200 kilograms of lychee wood. She also thought that if there was a shortage of electricity in winter, she could use coal to heat the stove at home for hot pot, which would be more interesting.

The middle-aged man nodded and first asked the boss if he could give a discount. After hearing the negative answer, he did not get angry and continue to argue. Instead, he directly ordered 200 kilograms of lychee wood, spending more than 10,000 yuan in one go, which immediately attracted the attention of many people.

"This rich person still buys lychee wood? His home should have air conditioning and heating, right?"

"Who knows, maybe rich people prefer to use charcoal?"

"You know nothing. If the extreme cold comes, turning on the air conditioner will be useless. The heated kang is more comfortable. When we were in our hometown, we used to burn charcoal for heating. The whole wall was warm. It was so comfortable to sleep on the heated kang at night."

"It's true. I have air conditioning at home, but it doesn't keep me warm at all. That winter, I turned the heating up to 30 degrees, but it was only 4 or 5 degrees lower than the temperature outside. It felt worse than the stove in my old home."

Others in the store couldn't help but talk about it. Everyone came here today to buy charcoal. Not everyone's family conditions were so bad that they had to burn charcoal for heating. It's just that some people just like to use a stove at home.

In addition to a dozen shops selling charcoal on this street, there are many shops selling stoves, electric heaters and various heating equipment. Most of these things were found in abandoned cities nearby, so they are marked as second-hand. Their prices are cheaper than new products from supply and marketing cooperatives and trading centers, but the difficulty is that there is no warranty or after-sales service. The store can only inspect the goods once on the spot, and will not be responsible after you pay for them. This is a bit like withdrawing money from a bank.

While the middle-aged man was paying, the young girl started looking around the store again. She glanced at Yan Fan intentionally or unintentionally. Perhaps because Yan Fan had an upright figure and a delicate appearance, he had attracted the attention of girls when he walked outside recently. The girl looked at him for a long time, until Yan Fan keenly noticed the clinging gaze and turned around. Then the girl suddenly shouted in surprise, "Are you Yan Fan?"

After the words fell, the girl immediately walked up to Yan Fan, looked at him carefully again and again, and made sure that she was not mistaken. Then she took Yan Fan's arm and said, "It's really Yan Fan, right? I'm your junior high school classmate Li Yuanyuan. Do you still remember me? We were deskmates for a year in the second year of junior high school."

Yan Fan's body was a little stiff and there were some wrinkles on his brows, but he still turned around and looked at the girl in front of him.

The girl has a round face and bright eyes. Her short bob haircut makes it look like she still has some baby fat on her face. She has a very lovable and cute look.

"I don't remember much. I didn't pay much attention to my deskmate at that time." Yan Fan was telling the truth. He was the type of good student who studied hard throughout junior high school. He usually stayed at home to study on weekends and didn't pay any attention to his classmates. Therefore, even from the first to the second year of junior high school, he didn't remember everyone in the class clearly.

There was a hint of disappointment in the girl's eyes, but it was soon filled with new joy. She smiled and said, "You didn't deny that you were Yan Fan, so that means you are the real person. I didn't expect that we can meet here again. It's been four years, and you... you seem to have changed a lot. Oh, I mean your appearance has changed a lot." When she said this, the girl tilted her head, wanting to take a closer look.

Yan Fan was less than 1.6 meters tall, thin and introverted in junior high school, but Li Yuanyuan remembered that every time he was on duty, he would always do his job silently and was the first person to arrive every day. When she was in junior high school, she often forgot to bring her textbooks, but he didn't mind sharing the same book with her, and most of the time she copied her class notes from him, because Yan Fan had beautiful handwriting, his homework books were always tidy, and his academic performance was good. At that time, he was already a top student who could be admitted to a key high school in the eyes of most teachers.

After the end of the world, Li Yuanyuan completely lost contact with her junior high school classmates. She originally wanted to rely on her family's connections to find her classmates back in school, but unfortunately she was never able to do so. It wasn't until the base's network infrastructure was completed and a forum section was set up online that Li Yuanyuan regained hope. In the end, she found many classmates with the help of the Internet, but she also learned some bad news, that is, some people in the class and even the teacher did not survive the natural disasters in previous years.

But no matter what, being able to find former classmates is already a blessing in disguise, so being able to see Yan Fan here, and even face to face at such a close distance, makes Li Yuanyuan very excited.

"Yan Fan, where do you live now? Do you have a cell phone? Can I exchange contact information with you?" Li Yuanyuan asked anxiously, fearing that there would be no follow-up to this meeting.

Yan Fan originally didn't plan to have too much interaction with Li Yuanyuan, but Gu Tongwan smiled and joked beside him: "The little girl is begging you for your contact information so eagerly, you can't refuse to give it to her, and besides, aren't we classmates? I think it's good to have one more friend in the end times."

Yan Fan was a little embarrassed at first, but when he saw Li Yuanyuan's drooping eyebrows and pouting mouth, and many people looking at her in a teasing manner, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and exchange contact information with Li Yuanyuan.

Gu Tongwan had a good chat with Li Yuanyuan. She just said that she was Yan Fan's cousin and roughly told him where she lived. Li Yuanyuan was surprised and happy: "Then we don't live far away. I live in XX community. It should take 20 minutes to drive there."

Before leaving, Li Yuanyuan did not forget to say to Yan Fan: "Zhang He, Liu Xi, and Zhang Zhi all live in the inner circle, Peng Yu and Lin Feng live in the resettlement housing in the outer circle, and the former Dean of Academic Affairs, Teacher Liu, lives near my home. These are all the former classmates I can contact for now. I am still trying to find all the former classmates. We will have a class reunion during the Chinese New Year, and you must come then."

Yan Fan didn't agree, so he didn't respond to her question, but Li Yuanyuan was not discouraged. She kept looking back as she left. Even her father couldn't help but ask in a low voice: "Yuanyuan, why are you so concerned about this little boy? Do you like him?"

This made Li Yuanyuan blush. Seeing that Kui Yangfan, who had already walked a distance away, didn't hear it, she immediately glared at her father and said, "What are you talking about? I was a little excited when I met an old friend in a foreign land."

Li Yuanyuan's father did not comment on what his daughter said. Although he did not object to his daughter's relationship, he remained wary of Yan Fan. After all, their family is well off now, and there are many people who want to get close to them. Recently, many people have even started to inquire about Li Yuanyuan's situation, as if they wanted to become relatives. They did not think that Li Yuanyuan had just turned 18. If she could still study normally, she would have just entered college now. It was too early for her to fall in love!

Yan Fan had no idea what the Li father and daughter were thinking. He just accompanied Gu Tongwan to select the charcoal. In the end, he spent almost three thousand points to buy the charcoal. On the way back, he could see people rushing over to buy charcoal. It seemed that everyone had noticed the recent abnormal temperature. Although the temperature had not dropped to zero degrees, many years of survival habits in the apocalypse had made most people learn to prepare for a rainy day. Coupled with the Chinese people's nature of hoarding goods, they had to prepare all the materials for the winter before the temperature dropped.

"It seems that we won't be able to buy charcoal in two days, but what does the curfew that the boss just mentioned mean?" Gu Tongwan asked while driving.

The two dogs in the back of the car were snoring softly. There was no air conditioning in the car, and cold wind kept blowing in from the half-open windows. At this time, street lights had been turned on on both roads, but the wattage of the lights was not enough, so the people hurrying on the road looked as if there was a haze on their faces under such lights, like evil spirits shuttling in the shadows.

Yan Fan leaned his elbows against the car window. He actually liked the feeling of the cold wind blowing across his cheeks. It could help him calm down quickly. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "This news is most likely true. I heard from the felling team that if extreme cold weather comes, some mutant beasts in the forest may flee to warmer places. Secondly, the mutant beasts will have fewer hunting opportunities, so they may go to more popular places. It is not ruled out that a large-scale beast tide will form. By then, not only the guard team, but also the Self-Defense Force will have to make preparations for the war in advance."

"No wonder a curfew might be issued. So that's what's going on. In that case, I'm afraid that the prices that have just been lowered may rise again in the future. Meat should not be affected much, after all, there is frozen meat. But it's hard to say about fruits and vegetables. It seems that my shop needs to recruit salespersons as soon as possible, because I guess I can't handle it alone." Gu Tongwan pointed in a direction and couldn't help muttering to himself.