Chapter 37: Chapter 31: Who’s the Boss?
For some unknown reason, there were no mutant beasts wandering around the entrance to the school cafeteria. This was why An Yang had chosen this place as their base in the first place.
An Yang opened his watch and made a video call. A moment later, the door opened from the inside.
After they all went in, the person inside locked the door again with a large padlock and lowered a curtain over it.
The first floor of the cafeteria was empty; everyone was gathered on the second floor to rest.
After heading up to the second floor, Tang Mo carefully surveyed the area. If nothing unexpected happened, most of the people from the school would be spending the next month or so here.
Aside from the service counters, the second floor of the cafeteria was filled with tables and chairs for dining. Everyone was sitting down, listlessly tending to their own business.
In reality, there wasn’t much to do. They were just opening their watches to browse the latest news, trying not to be completely cut off from the world.
"An Yang, you’re back." Wenqing rushed over as soon as she saw him come upstairs.
"Why did you bring them back with you?" Wenqing’s expression soured when she saw Tang Mo and the others trailing behind An Yang.
Ever since An Yang had rescued her from the dorms, she had developed feelings for her "hero saving the damsel." Furthermore, she firmly believed that she, blessed with a unique advantage, was the protagonist of this new world, and An Yang was her leading man.
"Yeah, I was out scouting and saved some classmates along the way."
An Yang’s emotional intelligence was high enough to understand what Wenqing was thinking, but he clearly wasn’t going to say anything to provoke her right now.
Hearing An Yang’s words, Tang Mo noticed the light go out of Song Qing’s eyes.
’Was it because of Wenqing that those two didn’t get together in my past life?’ Tang Mo wondered.
’But this really wasn’t something she should get involved in. From their respective standpoints, neither of them was wrong. Ah, well, it’s up to their own fate.’
"But I don’t like her. Make her leave." Wenqing pointed at Tang Mo, whose delicate features she still found very threatening.
"We’re all classmates, we should..."
"I’ll go! I’ll stay on the first floor, out of your sight." Tang Mo spoke up before An Yang could finish.
’She really had to thank Wenqing, didn’t she? She had just been wondering what excuse she could use to get away from the group, and Wenqing immediately came out to help her.’
’Wenqing didn’t want to see her, and she didn’t want to live with them either!’
’If she stayed on the second floor with everyone else, how was she supposed to take out the food from her Space?’
’Starving on the second floor with them would be true misery. Besides, she needed to devote energy to training her spiritual power and Sword Skill. Being alone would be much more convenient.’
"No! I’ll go down and stay with you then." The first to object was Song Qing.
"It’s really fine. It’s more convenient for me to live alone." Tang Mo pulled Song Qing’s hand and gave her a meaningful look.
Receiving the signal, Song Qing remembered that Tang Mo still had a backpack full of food. She must have her own plans. She nodded and said no more.
An Yang nodded, seeing how tactful Tang Mo was being. If Tang Mo had insisted, it would have put him in a very difficult position, given that she was Qingqing’s friend.
"Then you’ll have to put up with it for now. There’s a small, empty storage room on the first floor. It should be relatively suitable for living in."
After he finished speaking, Wenqing pulled An Yang away under the pretext of discussing food distribution. Tang Mo glanced at the dejected look in her roommate’s eyes, gave her hand a squeeze, and then headed downstairs alone with her backpack.
She knew that Song Qing and Li Lanlan still had some food in their bags, so she wasn’t worried.
Besides, another reason she wanted to be alone was to separate from her roommates. Although they were truly close, she had too many things she needed to do.
Having always been used to being on her own, she didn’t want to be tied to her roommates at every moment.
She found the small storage room An Yang had mentioned. Opening the door, she saw it was about twenty-some square meters.
It had previously been used to store things like rice, flour, grain, and oil, but now that the food was gone, it was completely empty.
The storeroom door could be bolted from the inside. Tang Mo was delighted; this way, she would have her own private space, making it convenient to do anything she wanted.
But across from her was...
The wall directly opposite the door was stacked high with cardboard boxes, the only items in the large room.
Looking at the pile of cardboard boxes, Tang Mo felt they were in the way. She planned to train in this room, so it would be better to move them all out.
So, little by little, Tang Mo moved all the boxes out into the main hall of the first-floor cafeteria. When she had finished, she froze.
Behind the boxes wasn’t a wall at all, but a huge door.
Tang Mo gave the door a light push, and it immediately opened a crack. Startled, she quickly slammed it shut and locked it from the inside.
’An unlocked door in a first-floor storeroom of the cafeteria? Could this door be the reason the cafeteria was eventually overrun by mutant beasts in my past life?’
Tang Mo broke out in a cold sweat. She was the one who was going to be living here. If mutant beasts really did sneak in unnoticed during the night, she would be the first to die.
Not daring to be careless again, Tang Mo carefully inspected the storeroom twice more. Only after finding nothing else out of the ordinary did she finally relax.
She moved a table and a chair in from the first-floor hall, then bolted her little storeroom’s door from the inside.
Although the storeroom had a concrete floor, it was quite clean, since it had been used for storing food after all.
It was the apocalypse now; Tang Mo wasn’t that picky.
She took a pile of foam floor tiles out of her Space, piecing them together on the ground to the size of a bed. These things, which insulated against both cold and heat, were practically a household essential.
She then took out two comforters and a pillow. She placed one comforter underneath as a mattress pad and used the other to cover herself.
It was winter, and the weather was cold enough to leave one’s hands and feet feeling icy.
The people living on the second floor didn’t have any comforters; at night, they just rested on the tables, still in their clothes.
But Tang Mo was different. If possible, she wanted to make herself as comfortable as she could within her means.
After getting everything set up, Tang Mo looked at her "new home" with satisfaction.
She took a bowl of steaming hot rice noodles and a baked flatbread from her Space, sat down on the chair, and began to eat.
’Today counts as a housewarming, I guess. It’s perfectly reasonable to celebrate moving into a new home with a nice meal.’
There was still plenty of cooked food in her Space, but she was always conscious that her supply was finite, so she was usually very frugal.
Tang Mo ate the rice noodles and flatbread with a look of pure satisfaction. ’This is the whole point of staying on the first floor. Let them go gnaw on cabbage.’
’Life in the apocalypse was already this hard. If you didn’t have a mindset for finding your own little joys, it would be truly difficult to endure.’
After she finished eating and cleaned up, Tang Mo took out her knife and began her training.
Training was the most important part of her day. Nothing was more important than strength, and she would never slack off on her training.
