Bai Heqing first asked the old man sitting beside her, "Grandpa Xu, have you been coughing these past few days?"
Although Grandpa Xu's hair had turned white, his body was still robust. He looked at Bai Heqing and chuckled, "The coughing stopped once the rain did."
Grandpa Xu was an old soldier, ninety years old this year, and in excellent spirits.
Aside from coughing when it rained, he had no major health issues.
Hearing that Grandpa Xu was no longer coughing, Bai Heqing nodded.
Since she and her brother had gone out to search for supplies after the heavy rain stopped, they had been out for two or three days and had only just returned today.
Fortunately, their trip had been fruitful. Although it was dangerous outside, they had made a good haul.
They could only hope their next outing would be as lucky.
Because their area had survivors, Bai Heqing feared direct confrontation would be disadvantageous. Therefore, she and Bai Yuling primarily operated at night, hiding and sleeping during the day to recover their strength.
However, the two rarely slept at the same time; one would stand guard while the other slept.
After inquiring with Grandpa Xu, Bai Heqing turned her attention to the person next to him. "Grandma Zhang, does your leg still hurt?"
Grandma Zhang rubbed her leg and looked at Bai Heqing. With a kind smile, she shook her head, "It's better after applying the medicated plaster; it doesn't hurt anymore."
Before retiring, the elderly lady was a teacher. Due to standing for extended periods, her legs would ache whenever the weather turned gloomy in her old age.
Next, Bai Heqing asked a few other people. After confirming that everyone was fine, she finally focused on the woman with a protruding abdomen. "Jingyi jie, when Yu Ling and I went out this time, we found quite a few nutritional supplements needed by expectant mothers. You should check them out later and see if they are what you need at this stage."
Jingyi jie smiled at Bai Heqing. "You've burdened yourselves for me."
Bai Heqing held Jingyi jie's hand and smiled, shaking her head. "We're family, aren't we? Family doesn't talk about such things."
Bai Heqing and her brother had grown up in this nursing home, raised by these grandparents and supported through their schooling.
When the apocalypse struck, the nursing home staff mutated into zombies. Some people left, but only the siblings stayed behind.
To them, this was their home, and these grandparents in need of care were their family.
If not for these grandparents back then, the siblings would not have survived.
Grateful, the Bai siblings took on the responsibility of caring for everyone.
As for what happened in the previous life, why Su Ling met Bai Heqing and Bai Yuling in Lucheng was because, as time passed in the apocalypse and they could no longer find supplies, Grandpa Xu and the others did not want to be a burden to the siblings. When the siblings went out to search for supplies one more time, everyone brewed a pot of sweet water and added rat poison to it.
They drank the poisoned sweet water. When Bai Heqing and Bai Yuling returned with supplies they had risked their lives to collect, they were greeted by the mangled corpses of everyone, already gnawed by animals.
With tears in their eyes, Bai Heqing and Bai Yuling dug a grave and buried everyone at the nursing home. Carrying the only letter left for them by everyone, along with the collected supplies, they embarked on their journey to a survivor base.
It was also because of this that they met Su Ling and Sister Na in Lucheng.
Bai Yuling, after showering and putting on a black t-shirt, came over with his wet hair and sat next to Bai Heqing.
Looking up at the night sky, Bai Yuling said, "When we were coming back, I saw some movement in the direction of the night market. Why don't we go and check it out tomorrow?"
Even though they operated at night to search for supplies, they still needed to pay attention to daytime activities.
Bai Heqing nodded. "Okay, we can sleep well tonight."