Offer blocks to the end times

Yuri lay motionless on the wooden board, saying, "It's so warm and comfortable."

"Yuri, don't slack off," Qianhu said, constantly tending to the flames by the fire pit. Yuri rolled over and then asked, "Hey, what's up?"

"Eat, eat, You, have you forgotten?"

"Ah, I almost forgot, I haven't eaten yet. Hurry up and give me the food." Yuri suddenly sat up and opened her mouth to bite the two of them.

"It's not done yet, Yuri, come and help us, otherwise we'll have to wait a while to eat it," Senju said, setting up an electric stove to cook a pot of fish soup. Yuri ran over to watch, and Senju put water in a small pool on the side.

After filling the fire pit with water, he added fish and some salt, and told her to keep a close eye on it. Then, he placed a pile of scraps on one side of the fire pit, intending to save them for later use.

"It's really easy with Senju around," Chito said with some emotion as he fiddled with the scraps in the fire pit. "Whether it's food, fuel, or this house, I really don't know what we would do without Senju."

"It's okay, we'll always be together, the trip isn't over yet."

Chapter Thirty: Perhaps this was once common sense

"Hey everyone, the soup's ready!" Yuri called out as she watched the pot start to boil. "Come on over and eat!"

"Yu is still so energetic," Qianhu stood up, dusted off his gloves, and walked over. "Yu, what's for dinner tonight?"

“It’s fish soup, it’s delicious,” Yuri showed off, holding up the pot. Then she divided the fish soup into three cups, each containing some fish.

After tidying up the fire pit, Senju came over and, seeing that there was still quite a bit of bread in the package, took out three loaves of bread. "There's still bread left."

“Really? That’s great!” Yuri was very happy, but Chito was a little worried. “Will it be okay to eat so much every day? Will we run out of food in the end?”

"Chihiro, you're really enjoying your meal," Yuri muttered while munching on her bread. Chito blushed. "So noisy."

"It's alright, as long as you have time, you can get fish and bread anytime."

"Oh, that's really reliable. It would have been better to bring Senju from the beginning. Now there are two Senju. What should I call you, Senju Number Two?"

"Hey, Yu, what are you thinking about? The book says that boys should be called 'Jun', so Senju should be called Sen-Jun."

“‘Mushroom’ sounds delicious,” Yuri said, drooling as she held the fish soup. Senju quickly waved his hand, “Please spare me, just call me Senju, ‘Sen-kun’ is too weird.”

"I see, so this is the difference in culture?" Qianhu said before starting to eat.

After dinner, Chito and Yuri went to maintain the vehicle and rifle as usual. Chito's rifle was also maintained by Yuri. He originally thought that as long as it could be used, that was fine. But after seeing Yuri's maintenance and adjustments, he realized that there were so many problems. No wonder his hit rate was always so low.

Thousand Hands sat by the fire pit, adjusting the fire while watching Yuri's movements. After disassembling the gun, she wiped each part clean, applied oil, and then reassembled it, adjusting the sights. The series of actions dazzled Thousand Hands.

A moment later, Sento also finished inspecting the vehicle and came over, holding a diary in her arms. "Sento, continue teaching me to read."

"Alright, what should I teach you today? I'll teach you to recognize numbers," Senju thought for a moment and felt that numbers were the easiest to learn. Chito, however, was somewhat puzzled. "Numbers?"

“That’s right, there are numbers on many signs. You can write numbers too, right? It will be easy to learn by comparing them. Try writing down the numbers one through ten using the characters you know.”

Chito wrote ten strange characters in his notebook and read them aloud to Senju. Senju then wrote down two kinds of numbers below them, one in Chinese and one in English.

Numerical and Arabic numerals, "These are two corresponding types of numbers, which I often see here."

“Oh, I’ve seen this before. So it’s the number six,” Qianhu pointed to the number six and recognized it. “There are so many of them. But why are there so many kinds? It would be so much more convenient to have only one.”

"There are all sorts of needs, and sometimes we need to use several numbers to ensure accuracy. Just remember these two for now."

"Oh, I'll definitely remember that." After saying that, Qianhu silently began to learn. After a while, Yuri came over and said, "Here, your gun."

While Senju was trying out her gun, Yuri noticed Chito muttering something to herself. However, seeing her serious expression, she didn't dare to go over and ask her. Instead, she quietly asked Senju, "Hey, what's Chito doing?"

"She's learning a number."

"number?"

"Yeah, Yuri, do you want to learn?"

"Haha, Chihiro can do it," Yuri said, patting the wooden board. "By the way, what kind of material is this? I've never seen it before."

"These are planks, made from trees."

“Tree?” Yuri only understood one word. “What a strange thing.”

"Yes, humans used to make things from trees, but most of what remains today is made of metal and various artificial materials; very few are made from trees."

“Oh, I see. I think I’ve seen something like this before, but the color was a little different,” Yuri said, taking off her gloves and stroking the floor with a puzzled look.

"That's because there are many kinds of trees, and they have different colors and smells," Senju sighed, as he had never seen any wooden products before.

“I see,” Yuri said, somewhat disappointed. “Why are they all gone now?”

Even the Thousand Hands didn't know the answer, but perhaps it was caused by human needs.

After a while, the fire in the hearth gradually died down. After throwing in some scraps, Senju took out a blanket and spread it on the floor. "I'm going to sleep now. You should all get some rest too. And don't put the fire on the floor."

“Why? I want it to be even warmer,” Yuri said, a little annoyed. But Senju explained to her properly, “These planks are just as easy to burn as those organic wastes. I don’t want to wake up in a fire.”

"Yes, I understand," Yuri replied, then hugged her blanket and spread it on the floor like Senju, and went to sleep there.

Seeing Yuri sleeping, Senju looked at Chito next to her, who nodded in understanding. Senju then felt relieved and fell asleep in the blankets.

After writing in his diary for a while, Chito added some fuel to the fire pit and then fell asleep next to Yuri.

When Senju woke up in the morning, she was still a little groggy, but she quickly became alert. After putting away the blankets, she saw that the two people next to her were sleeping soundly, so she went outside to take a look. Although the sky outside wasn't sunny, it wasn't snowing, so it was a good day to go out.

Back in the house, Senju started preparing breakfast, putting some compressed rations into a pot to cook. A little while later, Chito and Yuri were also woken up.

"Good morning, Senju, you're up early!" Sento sat up and stretched. "What are you having for breakfast?"

"I'll try to cook the dry food into porridge; it'll taste better that way."

"What is porridge? Is it delicious?" Yuri was also puzzled, as it was a food she had never heard of before.

"It's just like cooking rice in water."

"Oh, so it's rice. How strange, why is it called porridge?"

"Because the ingredients are different, all kinds of food can be used to make porridge. Rice is one of them."

"Is that so, Chihiro?"

"Yes, it was mentioned in the book that people in the past had many kinds of food to eat. For example, the military rations we eat are made from potatoes." Qianhu took out a bag of military rations and pointed out the words on it to Yuli.

"Really? I didn't expect there to be so many different kinds of food. I really want to try them all!"

Chapter Thirty-One: The Iron Tower on the Snowfield

"So this is 'porridge'? I've eaten it many times before." After looking at the porridge in the pot, Yuri quickly recognized what it was; she used to eat it often.

The three of them divided the porridge into cups and ate it slowly. It tasted even sweeter than when eaten alone. Soon they finished eating and got ready to set off.

Chito and the others tidied up the tableware and blankets, while Senju started to dismantle the floorboards, torches, and water source. Then she took down the door as well, leaving the house there unattended, since it was built of concrete blocks that could be seen everywhere anyway.

After packing up, Chito drove the car out. The cold outside made her shiver, but she got used to it after a while. Chito and Yuri got in as well. Today, they continued in the same direction as yesterday.

After walking for an unknown amount of time on a vast expanse of white snow, suddenly a series of tall iron towers appeared ahead, arranged in two rows that stretched into the distance.

"What are these towers for?" Chito and Yuri were both puzzled, but Senju found the towers very familiar. "These should be used to transmit electricity; there are wires on them."

"Electricity? Is that what makes lights turn on? I didn't expect to find it here." Yuri was a little puzzled, but...

I didn't see anything like streetlights around.

“That’s right, that’s it. Electricity has many uses. Every city needs electricity to do many things, so we must be able to find a new city by following these towers,” Senju thought, believing that there must be a new city nearby.

"Really? Then let's follow these towers." Qianhu adjusted the vehicle's direction and proceeded along the iron towers.

However, the Thousand Hands forgot one thing: they had just left the city and were heading towards the source of the electricity. They were getting further and further away from the city.

After a few days of progress, Senju changed the building materials to snow blocks. He found that the iron tower had been the only thing going on for the past few days, and it seemed like there was no end in sight. That alone was not so bad, but these days it started snowing heavily. Sometimes when they woke up, they found that there was already a thick layer of snow outside the house, and they had to push the car out.

The past few days' experiences had left everyone listless and eager to reach the new city as soon as possible. So they continued on their way despite the snowy weather. However, even in this cold and boring environment, Yuri still managed to find enjoyment.

She piled the snow on the car into snowballs, preparing to build a snowman there, while Senju watched from the side, shivering. Although he was wrapped in a blanket, he still felt very cold.

"Hey, Yuri," Chito suddenly spoke up, but Yuri was still focused on building up the snowballs. "What is it?"

"Where exactly is this?" Chito asked in a trembling voice. Yuri looked around and felt inspired to write poetry.

"Hmm, everything in sight is white, as if only the three of us are left in this world."

"The poet is really living a leisurely life. What do you think, Senju?"

"I think we should find a building soon. Building a house outside will get buried by the snow very quickly, and the house won't keep very warm."

"That's true. In this kind of weather, we have to do everything we can to find shelter from the cold."

However, Yuri placed the snowball she had just piled up on Chito's helmet, saying, "Or perhaps we are actually dead, wandering in a snowy afterlife."

As she spoke, she built a snowman on Qianhu's head, sticking a bullet into it as a nose. Qianhu breathed on it a few times and said, "This is really unlucky."

Then, feeling the thing on her head, she thought, "And don't build a snowman on my head, Senju, keep an eye on her too."

"Sigh, this looks so fun, Senju, you should try it too." Yuri continued making snowballs.

"My head feels so heavy and so cold..."

Yuri then gave up on continuing to build a snowman on her head and lay back down in the carriage. "Hey, did you know that the afterlife is supposedly very warm?"

"So we're not dead yet? It's so cold."

At this point, the iron tower next to us also came to an end. In front of us were some low, strange buildings, about the size of a car, with a strange stick standing on top of them.

The wind and snow intensified, and Yuri beside her became drowsy. Senju was a little worried. "If we can't find a place to rest... perhaps I should build a structure to rest for the night."

"Yeah, you're right, I'm so sleepy," Chito mumbled sleepily, then noticed something ahead. "Ah, there seems to be something on the hill. Chito, did you see it?"

"Really? Yuri, wake up quickly!" Senju also saw the building and quickly shook Yuri awake. Although she was covered in snow, she opened her eyes soon. "I wasn't asleep."

As the car drew closer, the building came into view. "What a huge building!"

Ahead was a strange building, which looked very tall and didn't seem to be afraid of being buried by snow. There were also many pipes around it, but I didn't know what they were for.

The three of them slowly climbed out of the car. Their bodies were already frozen stiff in the cold wind. They felt numb when they got out of the car, and Qianhu even fell headfirst into the snow. It took them a while to warm up.

"Let's find the entrance first," the three of them said, and walked between the pipes. At this moment, Chito found a board covered by snow. After wiping away the snow, he looked at the words on it and found that he only recognized a few. "Seven, ten, two, I don't recognize the other words. Chito, do you recognize them?"

After looking at it, Senju realized that the characters were ones he recognized: "The power plant on the 72nd ground. So this is also a power plant."

"Senju, do you know where this is?" Chito wanted to ask more, but Yuri interrupted her, "Look here!"

"What's wrong?"

“That pipe doesn’t have any snow accumulation at all,” Yuri pointed to a pipe that was completely free of snow and was dripping water.

"Really? It's melting! Is it hot inside?"

"This should be the power plant's warm water pipe," Senju guessed, as he wasn't very familiar with these structures. He still reminded everyone, "Aren't we going to look for the entrance?"