As Xu An followed Lin Zhuoran inside, she kept observing the state of the people around them.
Every person who passed by Xu An wore a look of peculiar exhaustion.
Not only that, but their skin was exceptionally pale, almost to a sickly degree.
This immediately reminded her of Chu Yu.
Besides the visible paleness, everyone was gaunt and emaciated, clearly a result of malnutrition.
Xu An continued to observe these people, and her gaze inevitably met theirs.
But to Xu An's confusion, the people here acted as if they didn't see her. Their eyes merely swept over her face before they coldly averted their gaze and continued walking.
This was somewhat inconsistent with her memories from her previous life.
Even without prior memory, normal people would generally show some curiosity upon seeing new survivors, but the people in this base showed no reaction to Xu An's arrival.
"Are the people here always like this?"
Xu An assumed that these people had become so indifferent due to spending too much time underground, so she asked Lin Zhuoran.
"I haven't been at this base for much longer than half a year, but I remember it wasn't like this when I first arrived. It's only been since about three months ago that people here inexplicably became so indifferent," Lin Zhuoran shook her head, speaking softly with Xu An.
While they were discussing this, Zhou Haimei began to ask, "Where's your teammate Yu Qin? I haven't seen her."
"She's living with her family. We're just a temporary team. Back then, I... they saved me by chance, and I'm very grateful to them. Later, Yu Qin and the others came to find me and said they wanted to form a small team to search for supplies, so I agreed. Our previous captain died protecting Yu Qin, and after that, they elected me as captain..."
Listening to Lin Zhuoran's slowly unfolding narrative, a thought suddenly struck Xu An and Zhou Haimei.
Being a captain of this team was truly a high-risk profession.
Before the previous captain's death, another captain had already met an untimely end.
Logically speaking, Yu Qin's team hadn't been formed for very long, yet they had already lost two captains.
Xu An instinctively blurted out, "Maybe you should just resign from being captain."
Zhou Haimei chimed in, agreeing, "I think so too. It's practically a high-risk profession."
Lin Zhuoran sensed the concern in Xu An's words but didn't take it too seriously, treating it more like a joke as she led them to their newly assigned capsule rooms.
Calling them capsule rooms was a bit of a stretch; they were more like dormitories with a few partitions.
The space inside wasn't even ten square meters. Once the three of them entered and lay on the beds, they could barely even turn over.
"Can't you choose your rooms here? I have some supplies, I can trade for a better one for you."
Zhou Haimei hadn't experienced such hardship even during the most difficult days of the early apocalypse. The place Lin Zhuoran was living in now wasn't even as big as her own bathroom, and she found it utterly unaccustomed.
Lin Zhuoran shook her head with a hint of difficulty, "No, it's impossible to trade for better rooms here, even with sufficient supplies. Apart from the owner of this bunker's family, who has a slightly larger single room, everyone else is allocated rooms based on the number of people."
"They say this ensures the maximum utilization of space and allows them to save more people."
Xu An pondered this, finding the reasoning sound, and then comforted Zhou Haimei, knowing that the latter hadn't endured much hardship and it was normal for her to be unable to tolerate this environment.
"Sister Mei, let's make do for now. Fortunately, we're not staying here permanently; we'll be leaving first thing tomorrow."
After saying this, she turned to Lin Zhuoran again, "When we leave, can you keep this room for yourself?"
She worried that after she and Zhou Haimei left, the base might reclaim the room, and Lin Zhuoran would have to return to the communal dorm without privacy.
"Yes, we register based on the number of people. I've already registered under our three names. As long as you don't deregister your identity information, I can continue to live here."
"That's good."
"Zhuoran, are you really not considering leaving with us?"
Xu An had already told Zhou Haimei about her situation, so she didn't hide anything from her now. She truly hoped Lin Zhuoran would return to the Lighthouse with her.
Unintentionally, the image of Ana surfaced in her mind again, that stubborn girl who might become a regret in her heart.
Xu An didn't know if it was Ana's regret that compelled her to want to give Lin Zhuoran another chance. If Lin Zhuoran agreed, she was willing to take her to the Lighthouse.
But Lin Zhuoran still shook her head and refused.
"Thank you, Xiao An, but I've made up my mind. I want to stay in this land."
"I wanted to go to the Lighthouse before to bring my sister, to find a safe and stable place to spend the rest of my life. But since my sister died, I've been thinking about one thing."
"My whole life before was lived for my sister. Only after she left did I realize I never knew what I truly wanted."
They were sitting in the capsule room, and Zhou Haimei checked that the door was closed.
"It's okay, the soundproofing here is pretty good, don't worry."
After Lin Zhuoran spoke, Xu An felt slightly at ease.
"You can probably see that in the year and a half you've been gone, I've changed a lot and grown. I really enjoy this feeling of having my destiny in my own hands now."
"You might laugh at me for cherishing a life that's precarious, but I've truly found my value here."
Lin Zhuoran said this with a faint smile. Xu An looked at her performance throughout this journey. She had known before that Lin Zhuoran wasn't the kind of clinging vine who only relied on men, but looking at the person before her now, Xu An felt that she was gradually growing into a towering tree. She thought this was good and didn't try to persuade her further.
Everyone has their own path to walk.
In front of Lin Zhuoran and Zhou Haimei, Xu An couldn't openly take things from her space.
However, Xu An would absolutely not reveal the existence of her space to anyone, not even her closest friends. The human heart is the most untrustworthy thing in this world, and she couldn't guarantee that anyone other than her mother wouldn't betray her. Since the seed of doubt would be sown from the beginning, she would never allow such a possibility to occur.