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

When Gu Tongwan got closer, he found that it was actually a child who looked no more than eleven or twelve years old. He was holding a dry branch in his hand and wearing a dirty navy blue down jacket. However, the sneakers underneath had holes in them, and the toes exposed outside were red from the cold.

The boy kept trying to pry the door handle with the branch in his hand, but failed for about two minutes, so he started to knock on the glass window with the branch, as if to see if he could break it.

Perhaps he was too focused, the boy didn't even notice Gu Tongwan was right behind him.

"Why don't they break? Is this glass window bulletproof?" the boy muttered. At his age, his voice hasn't changed yet, and his voice still has that childishness.

"It's not bulletproof glass, but it has been modified into thickened glass." She remembered seeing this off-road vehicle at an auto show. The glass was all thickened, making it suitable for all kinds of outdoor camping and mountain adventures. The entire body was damage-resistant and wear-resistant, but the cost was not cheap, it seemed to be between 800,000 and 1.2 million. At that time, compared to the flashy sports cars at the auto show, this off-road vehicle that focused on performance was more to her liking.

"Thickened glass? No wonder I said it wouldn't break no matter how hard I knocked..." The boy's voice was a little disappointed, but then he was stunned. When he reacted, he immediately turned around and saw Gu Tongwan wearing a mask and black clothes standing half a meter away from him. The guilt and fear of being caught doing something wrong made the boy lose his balance and do a split. He fell hard on his butt on the snow.

Gu Tongwan shook his head and took two steps forward. Before he could say anything, a girl's voice came from a distance.

"Come on!"

The girl was wearing a light blue jacket and grey sweatpants, but it was obvious that she was wearing a lot of clothes layered on top of each other. Even running was very strenuous for her, and from a distance she looked more like a bloated blue penguin.

The girl looked to be about eighteen or nineteen years old and was very pretty. Even in this weather, she was not wearing a scarf, a hat or a mask. Her face was red from the cold, and you could even see that the skin on the side of her cheek was very dry.

"I told you not to cause trouble for me all day long. Tell me, have you gotten into trouble again?" The girl stretched out her hand and grabbed the boy's ear, but she didn't dare to use too much force. In this kind of weather, she was really afraid of pulling her ear off.

"Sister, I didn't... I didn't do anything bad." He hadn't succeeded yet, and he only touched the car.

"You dare to talk back, don't you? Have you forgotten that last time you broke someone's water tank, your family had to pay a lot of money for it, and now your family can only eat pickles because of this incident."

"Hey, I told you that I didn't break the water jar. He wanted to hit me, and then he accidentally fell and hit it. What does it have to do with me? He deserved it." And if he hadn't called him a fatherless bastard first, would he have been so angry that he hit him in the face with something? Besides, he was so anxious to pick up a weapon to hit him that he didn't pay attention to the stone under his feet. Besides, that broken water jar was not worth a few hundred dollars. It was simply a rip-off.

The two siblings were arguing for a while and didn't notice Gu Tongwan standing beside them. In the end, the girl was the first to react. She pulled the boy back and stood in front of them.

"I'm sorry, is this your car? My brother wanted to touch it out of curiosity." The girl apologized familiarly. This situation must have happened countless times.

"Accidentally?" Gu Tongwan looked at the two of them leisurely, and then his eyes fell on a scratch on the car body that was more than ten centimeters long.

The girl followed Gu Tongwan's gaze and saw the scratch. Even if she wanted to explain herself, she felt powerless to do so because her brother was holding the tools used in the crime in his hand.

"The child is young and ignorant, and my brother has a naughty personality, so..." The girl felt embarrassed as she spoke, because she knew very well that the boy scratched the car body just in order to pry open other people's cars.

Perhaps because he felt uncomfortable hearing his sister's humble tone, the boy tore away the girl's hand that was strangling him, ran to the front angrily and said loudly: "I did it. This matter has nothing to do with my sister. If you want to send me to the Security Bureau, then go ahead. Everyone has their own consequences."

Gu Tongwan was amused and asked, "Each person is responsible for his own actions? Okay, then you pay for it. Now it will cost money to take it to the repair shop to repaint it."

The boy frowned when he heard the word "money", but for the sake of face he still said stubbornly: "I'll compensate you, how much?" He didn't know if the pocket money he had saved was enough.

"Spray painting usually costs around 200 points." Gu Tongwan had previously learned a little about the repair prices of the repair shops here, but she usually didn't need them. She still had a lot of car maintenance products in her space that she had looted from abandoned repair shops, so spraying paint wasn't difficult.

"You are a robber. You want two hundred points for just one scratch. You are kidding me." The boy overreacted immediately after hearing the price. His eyes were as big as bells, and Gu Tongwan reflected in his pupils seemed to have turned into some monster.

"Chengcheng, shut up!" The girl was so anxious and angry that she could only stomp her feet on the spot.

Gu Tongwan raised the corners of his mouth slightly under the mask, and his tone was still unhurried: "Whether I cheated you or not, you just need to go to the repair shop with me. Anyway, you will pay the fee after the repair."

"I..." The boy touched his brand-name card in his pocket. There were actually less than a hundred points in it, and he had saved up for three months.

He took out his brand-name card and handed it over, saying with a guilty tone, "This is my card, you can use it. The password is XXX, but I don't know how many points are left in it."

Gu Tongwan glanced at the name card and saw "Luo Cheng" written on it, which should be the boy's name.

Currently, the base can enable payment and transfer functions on the brand-name cards of children over ten years old. Considering that the economy in the base is in the development stage and the greater the population, the greater the employment pressure, the base has also opened up the right to work to young people over the age of fourteen, but it is limited to certain industries.

Luo Cheng is still too old to go out to work, so since he knew that his family was often unable to make ends meet, he would get up early every day and run to the crowded places on the commercial street to wait for the shop owners to come and take out the garbage. He would find recyclable plastic bottles or old cardboard in the garbage. When he was lucky, he could sell the scraps he picked up for twenty or thirty points a day, and when he was unlucky, he could only exchange them for three or four points. Even so, he could still earn about two hundred points every month.

Although Luo Cheng had considered his family's situation at a young age, he had not studied at his age and his family could not control him, so he met many young people from all walks of life outside. It was these people who took Luo Cheng to steal and cause trouble everywhere, which caused Luo Cheng to get into trouble. However, because he was young, he could not be sent to the Security Bureau, so he always paid compensation. But because of this, the financial burden on the family was a little heavier.

Seeing the two siblings looking embarrassed when they heard about money, Gu Tongwan knew how difficult it was for them to get 200 points.

In fact, she didn't necessarily want compensation from the other party, but when she saw the boy took out his brand name card on his own initiative, she felt that the little boy was quite courageous. Although he had done something wrong, he still dared to take responsibility for it. In addition, his sister did not forget to defend her brother when she apologized. It made her suddenly think of the time when she and Liao Yunyun were bullied in the orphanage, when Chen Yanxi was always the first one to rush to them.

"Forget it, since I've apologized, just take the card back." Gu Tongwan said casually and unlocked the car. Just as he put his hand on the door handle, the girl rushed over and said anxiously, "No, it was my brother who damaged your car. No matter what, we must pay for it. I have money. I'll go to the repair shop with you."

Gu Tongwan pointed at the boy behind the girl, "Where's his apology?"

The boy raised his head immediately after hearing that, but then showed an unwilling look on his face. However, he became a little timid when he met his sister's sharp gaze. In the end, he apologized in person: "Big sister, I'm sorry, it's my fault. I shouldn't have had such bad intentions to damage your car. Please forgive me."

"Okay, since you know you're wrong, there's still hope. You have a good sister, so you'd better be honest in the future. If you want to make money, there are many ways, but you must not go astray, otherwise your sister will worry if you get into trouble in the future." After saying that, he looked at the girl again: "Don't pay me. I can handle this paint myself. You guys go back. I'm afraid the weather will get even colder in the afternoon. Don't go out recently. The temperature is estimated to reach minus 40 degrees the day after tomorrow. Try to keep warm indoors."

Without waiting for the girl to react, he got into the driving seat and started the car. The two siblings could only stare in a daze as the SUV disappeared into the vast snow.

"Chengcheng, let's go home quickly." The girl took a deep breath, then tightly held the brand name card of her brother that Gu Tongwan had returned to her in her hand.

The two siblings walked to the last apartment building with one step deep and one step shallow. They lived on the sixth floor. Their bodies were still cold when they climbed up. The temperature seemed to be getting colder and colder as the sister had just said.

As soon as they opened the door, the living room was freezing cold and there was no heating equipment. Then they heard a burst of rapid coughing, and the two siblings quickly quickened their pace and walked into one of the bedrooms.

A woman in her early forties was lying in the bedroom, wrapped in a dark blue quilt. In a corner of the room there was a charcoal-burning heater. The temperature in the room was warmer than the living room, but it was still about ten degrees below zero.

"Xiaomei, Xiaocheng, you're back?" The woman just raised her head and saw her two children standing in front of the bed, so a warm smile appeared on her face.

"Mom, why don't you lie down? It's so uncomfortable sitting." Luo Mei tucked the quilt for Zhou Ruchu and looked at her mother with some worry.

Zhou Ruochu smiled and said, "I've been lying down for so long that I'm almost going to get moldy. Besides, it's so cold and I'm worried that I won't be able to wake up if I keep sleeping."

"Mom, can you please stop saying that? Your illness is just that the medicine hasn't been transferred back yet. I'll go to other hospitals tomorrow to ask. Maybe the medicine has been transferred from the capital."

The smile on Zhou Ruochu's lips faded a little. In fact, she knew that her body was ill because of the extreme cold three years ago. When the weather was a little cold, she would feel weak all over and cough frequently. She went to the hospital for a check-up and was told that there was something wrong with her lungs. But if she needed the right medicine, she would have to be hospitalized or get medicine. However, the hospitalization fee was too expensive and their family could not afford to go to the hospital. If they needed medicine, the price of a dose would be nearly one month's living expenses for their family. Moreover, this special medicine was in short supply and they could no longer buy it after they ran out of medicine last month.

If Zhou Ruchu hadn't been worried about his children, he would have really wanted to pass away.

"Okay, I won't say any more. By the way, there's lunch on the table. Please heat it up."

Luo Mei nodded and said, "Mom, I'd better find a job as soon as possible, so that the burden on the family can be reduced."

Before Zhou Ruochu could say anything, Luo Mei's phone rang.

It wasn't someone calling Luo Mei, but the message alert tone of the forum.

Zhou Ruchu saw his daughter hurriedly pick up the phone, smiling and frowning, and after a while she stood by the window with her teeth gritted, not knowing what she was thinking about. She seemed to be worried about something.

"Xiaomei, what's wrong? Who sent you the message?"

Luo Mei finally came to her senses after hearing her mother's call, so she sat down on the bed and said carefully, "Mom, my resume that I submitted on the forum was accepted, and the other party asked me to go for an interview in two days."

"What kind of job is it?" Zhou Ruochu actually didn't want her daughter to take on the responsibility of the family at such a young age, but she is now bedridden and her husband has been working in the underground city for a long time. Now it all depends on her daughter to bear the burden of the family and she also needs her daughter to take care of herself. She puts on a smile every day just to reassure her children and husband, so she can't persuade her daughter not to go out to work at the moment, she can only ask about the situation clearly.

Luo Mei briefly explained the situation of the fruit and vegetable store. "I looked at it. The store is located near the Hunter's Guild. It should have a decent flow of customers. The working hours seem quite long, but a fruit and vegetable store cannot be busy all the time. There is basically no work to do in my spare time. Except for getting up early in the morning, this job is actually quite good. It's not far from home. It's only five kilometers away from our community. If I take a shortcut, I should be able to get there in more than half an hour."

Zhou Ruochu thought the job was okay, but still a little worried: "Is the store manager a man or a woman? How old is she?"

"I see the contact person is Miss Gu, so she should be a woman. Anyway, I'll have an interview first, and it doesn't matter whether she's a man or a woman. I'm going to work, and the store faces the street, so what do I have to be afraid of?" Luo Mei is not without experience. She has suffered losses and been scolded during her two years of work, and of course she has also learned the ability to observe people's words and expressions, so she is not so confused as a rookie.

Since his daughter had already said so, Zhou Ruchu had no objection and just hoped that his daughter could meet a good person this time.