Did You See

Bai Xuan looked up at the woman who had called out to her.

It was Sun Jiao.

She was wearing a white crop top and sexy shorts, poking her head out from her room.

"Do you need help cleaning?"

Bai Xuan asked with a questioning expression, feeling a hint of anticipation inside.

Sun Jiao nodded and said with a smile:

"Yes, please help me, just like before."

Hearing there was another chance to exchange work for food, Bai Xuan naturally wouldn't refuse.

Sun Jiao had already asked for her help cleaning several times before, and each time she would give food in return.

Bai Xuan actually found it strange - this sister's room was always quite clean, yet she kept trading food for cleaning services.

Could it be because she had some kind of cleanliness obsession?

"Okay, but can I come a bit later?"

Bai Xuan agreed without much thought.

She planned to go to the activity room first, then clean Fatty Zhao's room.

However, this time she had decided to gather her courage and try asking Fatty Zhao for food - she couldn't keep working for free.

Now that Teacher Zhang was gone, she felt she had to work harder.

She had taken on this invisible burden.

"Sure, don't forget!"

Sun Jiao reminded her once more before returning to her room.

Bai Xuan obediently responded with a "mm-hmm" and left.

In the activity room, after handing over the food she had obtained to another student for distribution,

Bai Xuan got up, preparing to go to Fatty Zhao's place.

Seeing that Bai Xuan was about to leave, several students held her back:

"Won't you eat something too?"

Bai Xuan just shook her head gently:

"No thanks, I'm not very hungry..."

She was still extremely depressed inside; Teacher Zhang's death today had impacted her too deeply.

Those students glanced at the food being distributed, worried that Bai Xuan would have nothing to eat.

Bai Xuan understood their concern and took out the strawberry lollipop that Ning Yu had given her this afternoon:

"Don't worry, I have food."

Only then did those students feel relieved.

Throughout the afternoon, more and more students began "pestering" other survivors, hoping to exchange labor for food.

They didn't want to see only Bai Xuan working hard, especially now that Teacher Zhang was dead and they had lost their support.

These more mature students already understood that from now on, they needed to rely on themselves.

But unfortunately, there weren't that many jobs to go around.

For most people, maintaining room cleanliness was much easier than obtaining food.

So most students came back empty-handed.

Even Bai Xuan didn't know if she could still exchange work for food starting tomorrow.

Her mood was very heavy.

"Knock knock knock"

She knocked on Fatty Zhao's door. He had asked her yesterday to come clean, but as usual, hadn't mentioned anything about payment.

Fatty Zhao had taken this as obligatory unpaid labor.

The door opened, and Fatty Zhao appeared with an exhausted and impatient expression:

"What's with all the knocking, I was still sleeping, how annoying..."

Looking down to see it was Bai Xuan, he remembered he had asked her to come yesterday, and suddenly didn't know what to say.

But his expression hadn't improved much.

His room was a mess, with cigarette ash all over the table, along with scattered food wrappers.

The floor was littered with tissue balls and some unidentifiable stains.

It was indeed quite dirty.

But Bai Xuan had already cleaned here several times, and it was always like this.

Even in the apocalypse, Fatty Zhao's lifestyle seemed to remain quite luxurious. He hadn't lacked food when he arrived and never bothered to conserve anything.

"Here to clean, right? Come in!"

Fatty Zhao sneered and walked back in, sitting down on a chair with an annoyed expression.

However, Bai Xuan stood still at the doorway, not immediately entering.

"What are you standing there for? Come in!"

Fatty Zhao called out in confusion when he saw Bai Xuan not moving.

"Uncle... if I help you clean... could you..."

Bai Xuan stammered.

She had never dared to actively ask for food before, usually only receiving it when others occasionally gave it to her.

She didn't dare ask, after all, no one was obligated to give her food.

But under the current circumstances, she had no room left for embarrassment, though her voice was still hesitant.

"Could I what?"

Fatty Zhao raised an eyebrow, not understanding what Bai Xuan was trying to say.

"Could you give me... some food..."

"Just a little bit!"

This morning, the bag Teacher Zhang brought back didn't contain any food, and if they didn't work hard today, everyone would soon go hungry.

She didn't understand why Teacher Zhang had brought back an empty bag, yet still pointed at it.

Unfortunately, Teacher Zhang had turned too quickly, leaving no time for communication.

"Oh? You want food, well that's..."

Fatty Zhao was about to refuse when he suddenly turned his head and looked Bai Xuan up and down.

She was wearing her Tianshen Elementary School uniform, with shoulder-length black hair, and clear bright eyes without a trace of impurity.

Her clean little face was pure and flawless - she was a budding beauty.

Her eyes were red, making her look particularly pitiful.

Feeling Fatty Zhao's appraising gaze, Bai Xuan felt an inexplicable chill, as if that gaze wanted to devour her whole.

"Tch... still too young..."

Fatty Zhao muttered under his breath, barely audible.

On his chubby face, his eyes were moving, examining and contemplating something.

"Whatever, I'm in a good mood today!"

Fatty Zhao seemed to dismiss whatever thought he had, remembering something that pleased him.

With a wave of his large hand, he pulled out an opened packet of cookies from among the mess.

"Here, clean well, and these are yours. Don't go saying I'm stingy once you leave."

The cookies were only half a packet, and who knew when they had been opened or if they were expired.

Though it really wasn't much, it was better than nothing.

Bai Xuan felt she had no room to be picky, and lowered her head, softly responding:

"Mm, thank you, uncle."

Then she took her cleaning tools and prepared to enter.

Fatty Zhao sat in his chair, idly cutting his nails, and when he saw Bai Xuan pass by, he threw the nail clippings near her.

"Clean these up too."

Bai Xuan didn't say anything, just silently cleaning.

After cleaning for a while, Fatty Zhao stood up, twisted his neck a couple times, and said:

"I'm going out for a bit. Don't you dare rummage through my things, or you'll regret it!"

He casually made this threat before opening the door.

He wasn't at all worried that Bai Xuan would have the courage to steal anything.

He was confident in her timid nature, seeing how she could barely even ask for food.

"If only she were a bit older..."

Fatty Zhao muttered as he left, his figure disappearing.

Bai Xuan worked hard at cleaning; his room was really too dirty.

She swept the cigarette ash onto the floor, then gathered it all together.

After wiping the table, she started cleaning the stains on the floor, and collected all the garbage together.

Just then, Bai Xuan suddenly noticed water seeping out from under a cabinet in the room.

The cabinet door was half-open, and it seemed to be full of something.

For some reason, Bai Xuan was drawn to it as if by an inexplicable call.

Opening the cabinet door, she found it was full of food packages!

Most were frozen foods - dumplings, buns, steamed buns of various kinds.

Bai Xuan's eyes suddenly widened, her small mouth agape in disbelief.

The curry beef buns were especially familiar to her - they were specially supplied by the school cafeteria, and she loved them.

Because there was no freezer, this food had started to thaw, which explained the water leakage.

Which meant...

This food must have been brought here today.

Could it be!

The room door was suddenly pushed open silently.

A large, robust figure stood behind Bai Xuan as she was still examining the contents of the cabinet.

Bai Xuan felt her heart turn cold.

"Tch, so you saw?"