Socially Anxious Girl Starts Hoarding Before the Apocalypse

Chapter 69

After setting up the tent, Wen Qian took a rest and then went out to see if there was anything useful in the rooms.

On the way, Wen Qian saw empty plastic bottles and wanted to pick them up, as it's uncertain if there would be any plastic products in the future.

She saw that the sturdy security doors and stainless steel window grilles were still intact, which would normally fetch some money if sold as second-hand goods.

If Wen Qian were the boss, she would do the same - take these doors and windows after the place was abandoned.

Thinking about it, Wen Qian wanted to dismantle them.

If she had bought them originally, it would have cost her a lot of money. But if she dismantled them from here, it would be free.

The prefabricated houses here were connected in a row, with two floors. Wen Qian planned to dismantle the second floor.

In some rooms, the garbage was cleared and moved to another room, indicating that someone had camped here before and left traces of their stay.

Holding a knife, Wen Qian went upstairs, and as she stepped on the stairs, she felt that even the stairs could be dismantled.

All the rooms here only had some garbage, and there were no wild animals.

In one room, there was a simple cloth wardrobe, so she put her knife into her space and dismantled and packed the wardrobe into her space.

The more she looked around, the more she felt like a rag-picker, sighing inwardly.

After collecting the items, Wen Qian started thinking about where to dismantle the house.

How should she do it? She knew that during construction, the ground was first leveled, then steel beams were set up, the roof was built, and finally, the panels were laid.

But now, looking at the abandoned two-story prefabricated house, she didn't know where to start, and she only planned to dismantle one or two rooms on the second floor.

She wouldn't touch the first floor, so that many cyclists passing by could still have a place to take shelter from the wind and rain.

Speaking of which, when she was riding a motorcycle, she also saw many cyclists, some in groups of two or three, and some alone.

Perhaps there were some classic routes where, despite the harsh environment, cyclists could still find supply points along the way, as there were still large trucks running.

Wen Qian had always been concerned about safety along the way and had researched and gathered information and experiences from others who had been there before.

How to put it? If Wen Qian hadn't wanted to find a safe spot herself, she wouldn't have come here alone.

In the news she had searched, there were cases of people going missing while traveling alone on the highway, and even the police couldn't find any trace of them.

Moreover, wild yaks and wolves could appear here, the living environment was harsh, and at night, the temperature was very low as they had to cross uninhabited areas.

Whether in movies or novels, these uninhabited areas were not places that one could easily enter or leave.

Wen Qian studied the structure of the house on the second floor and first dismantled the security window grilles, then planned to dismantle the doors.

The window grilles were easier to dismantle, but the doors were tall, large, and heavy. Wen Qian set up a ladder to remove the doors, afraid of getting crushed or hit, which would be a waste of effort.

After dismantling only two doors upstairs, Wen Qian had consumed most of her energy, so she went downstairs to cook some fish soup for herself.

The hot soup warmed her belly, and with the hot food from her space, Wen Qian ate her fill.

After resting, Wen Qian continued to dismantle the doors upstairs.

It's not that she needed so many doors for her future house, but she felt that having more free materials would always be beneficial.

She continued until the sky darkened, then returned to her room to rest.

Whenever she did physical labor, Wen Qian would leave time to rest, afraid of overexerting herself.

Moreover, she was in Xia Province and was concerned about altitude sickness, which would be a big problem if it happened.

Another reason was that excessive fatigue could lead to a weakened immune system and increased susceptibility to illness.

Since the doors and windows were tightly closed and there were no disturbances, Wen Qian slept soundly that night, unusually not waking up early.

She had a hearty breakfast, as today would be another day of physical labor, dismantling the corrugated sheet metal roof.

Although dismantling it would create holes, she could seal them with foam or glass sealant, and a shelter could still be set up.

She spent the entire morning carefully dismantling the roof, aiming to reach the wall panels of the prefabricated house by the afternoon.

The main challenge was her lack of strength and the need to do everything herself without access to large tools. She couldn't simply push the walls down with large concrete blocks as she had done before, as the panels here were intact, and crushing them would make them unusable.

Previously, she had planned to dismantle the entire second floor, but realized that the steel beams were welded together from top to bottom, so dismantling just the second floor wouldn't work, as it would also bring down the first floor.

So, Wen Qian decided to dismantle the sides instead of the top layer. Instead of dismantling the top layer, she would now dismantle two rooms on each side, making four rooms in total.

This way, she could obtain the materials for a complete two-story room, with space to set up a shelter on the side.

Later, she might be able to reassemble it somewhere else.

Thinking of this, she suddenly remembered downloading the installation instructions for prefabricated houses, but wasn't sure if there were any disassembly instructions.

Wen Qian searched online and found the installation instructions but no disassembly instructions.

However, the order of dismantling from the roof down was correct.

With this in mind, she quickly got to work and even set up a scaffolding for herself to move around more easily.

After 4 PM, Wen Qian stored the scaffolding in her space and collected all the dismantled materials, then started wandering around the area.

Since vehicles occasionally passed through this place, Wen Qian was concerned that someone might also stop and stay here later.

In that case, her dismantling work with the scaffolding would seem strange.

While resting in the room, Wen Qian heard noises outside.

Someone had indeed stopped and partially opened the ajar door.

It was a single person, carrying a bicycle loaded with bags, who entered.

The first thing they said was, "Is anyone here? Is anyone here?" in a cautious tone. So, Wen Qian opened the door and replied, "Someone's here."

"Holy crap, you startled me!"

Although the person had asked if anyone was there, they didn't actually expect a response, and may have just been trying to scare away any wild animals that could be inside.

Or they were simply announcing their presence before entering an empty building.

But they didn't expect someone to actually answer, which quickened their heart rate.