amaotonovel Chapter 4150 When the Pumpkin Ripens (32)
Chapter 4150 When the Pumpkin Ripens (32)
Chapter 4150 When the Pumpkins Ripen (Thirty-Two)
"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?" Bruce's voice came through the phone. He said, "What a coincidence! I came back with Selena to get Elsa's toys, and then martial law was imposed. Looks like we'll have to stay here for a while. How are things over there?"
“Not bad.” Dick chatted with Bruce on his phone. “There aren’t many people here, the space is big enough, and the supplies are fairly plentiful. What about your place? Selena’s apartment is probably only about 60 square meters, right?”
“But there are only three of us living here, which is more than enough,” Bruce said. “Besides, there’s central heating here, and it’s so hot inside that I’m sweating. And as long as we stay in the building, we can still go out.”
“Oh my god,” Dick exclaimed enviously. “How could I forget? The East End has prefabricated buildings; you can even go shopping there.”
“Yes, Selena and I are just getting ready to leave.” Bruce glanced back at the phone; Selena was combing Aisha’s hair. He walked over, picked up Selena’s bag, and said, “Okay, we’re about to go. We’ll talk to you later.”
After hanging up the phone, Selena looked up and asked him, "How's everything at the manor? The martial law was so sudden this time."
"It's nothing. They have plenty of supplies stored over there, enough firewood, and there aren't many people. They live in much more spacious accommodations than we do."
“But they can only stay indoors, while we can at least go out for a walk.” Selena picked up Elsa and said, “Let’s go see the inflatable castle that Elsa donated to the children’s playground.”
They moved from the bedroom to the living room. The living room wasn't big, but it was more than enough for the three of them. Aisha took several books from the bookshelf and said, "I'm going to take these to exchange with them; someone still owes me three books."
Bruce went to the balcony to collect the laundry, while Selena went to open the door. After a flurry of activity, they finally emerged from the house.
This house was originally bought by Selena. After Brainiac arrived, it was supposed to be taken back, and it was indeed taken back and left there for a while. But because no one moved in for a long time, the locks weren't changed, so Selena could still come back to live there.
Elsa goes to elementary school here. Sometimes she has extracurricular activities after school on Fridays, and if she plays too late, Selena will let her stay here overnight. They originally came back today to retrieve Elsa's toys that she left here, but they ended up being locked up here.
This apartment is over 60 square meters, with two bedrooms and one living room. There's no shared area, so it's actually more than enough space. In fact, Selena prefers this place to the manor because it has central heating, making the whole apartment—or rather, the entire building—warm.
They didn't even need to wear coats when they went out; all three of them were wearing short sleeves because it was just as warm in the hallway. Even when they reached the children's park, the indoor temperature remained constant at around 25 degrees Celsius, which could even be described as a bit warm.
The East Side consists entirely of prefabricated buildings. Except for a few open-air parks, almost everything is built indoors and accessible via indoor pathways. The nearest children's park to Selena's home is about half a mile away as the crow flies, a short walk away.
Then Elsa saw the familiar castle. It was a toy Batman had given her during her grand adventure, which Elsa had donated to a children's park so that all the children could play with it. When they arrived, a bunch of children were playing there.
"Jenny! David! And Olivia!" Aisha screamed immediately, grabbed her book, and ran off to play with her friends.
As Selena wrote her name on the registration form, she said, "I don't have any food at home, so we need to go to the market."
Bruce nodded and said, "I just learned that the East District doesn't require individuals to register their supplies, which is actually quite good."
“Of course. Life inside the building continues as usual, and Brainiac directly supplies the market inside the building with fresh food every day, so there is no need to hoard supplies.”
The two walked together toward the market. The market inside the building wasn't far away either. After going down one more floor and walking for a while, they arrived at a huge supermarket that almost filled the entire floor, with a dazzling array of goods and a bustling atmosphere.
People seemed unaffected by the martial law, walking with ease and leisure, moving between different shelves, picking up items to examine them, or looking down at price tags.
Bruce and Selena went to the supermarket and wanted to buy everything they saw. Their salaries were pretty good, and they bought a whole cart full of groceries before picking Elsa up.
Then they started experimenting with cooking. Neither of them had much experience in this area: Bruce mostly ate what was already prepared, while Selena could manage to cook something simple for herself, so she was the head chef and Bruce assisted her.
Just as the two were busy in the kitchen, the phone rang again. Bruce answered and said, "Hello? Are you guys cooking too? Who's the chef? Ha, I knew it couldn't be Batman."
Jason, while mixing the batter, held the phone between his ear and shoulder and said, "He's quite self-aware; he went to the backyard to till the soil. Dick and I are going to make burgers. What are you guys planning to make?"
Bruce said as he picked out a spice bottle, "Let's make a sandwich or a salad. I don't know how to make anything more complicated."
“We should get a Schiller!” Dick shouted on the other end of the phone. “I’ll never forget what we had last night!”
"Are you out of your mind? Aren't you afraid of turning into a moose?"
"No way. The professor wouldn't bother putting us in the refrigerator if he's already full."
Schiller, whom they were talking about, wasn't cooking. They hadn't participated in the night's operations, had a peaceful night, and slept until noon before discovering that martial law had been declared.
"Theoretically speaking, this is my protected area, which is my territory, so I can still go out, right?" Arrogantly asked.
“No,” Brainiac replied decisively. “There are no adequate security measures on the streets, so it’s best not to go out.”
“Alright.” Arrogance didn’t insist too much. After he went down the stairs, he found the agent adding firewood to the fireplace.
That's right, the agent arrived at Arrogant's house after the operation last night. But he clearly didn't think his decision was right. As he added firewood to the fireplace, he said, "If I have to be locked up with someone, I'd rather my roommate be Batman."
“You have no choice,” said Arrogance. “For at least the next week, you will have to stay with us.”
The detective sighed and said, "I hope you can talk less, no more than three sentences a day."
“No,” Brainiac said again. “For your mental health, you should actively communicate with your peers, join at least one communication group, and communicate with others by phone.”
“There are two psychology experts here. Don’t they understand human psychology better than you?” the agent asked.
"Hey? Harley, how are you doing at the food factory? Yes, I've sent you the recipe. See if you can use it. If you make a sample, have Brainiac send it over for me to try."
"Dick? Good morning! I slept pretty well. Did you want the Kung Pao Chicken recipe? Okay, I'll send it to you now, but you should watch out for the fried peanuts..."
"Professor Frith, did you see the photos I sent you yesterday? Why isn't the vacuum cleaner on that cleaning robot working properly? I put some lubricant on the parts, but it doesn't seem to help..."
Greedy, with a phone in his left hand, a tablet in his right, and a communicator in his pocket, put his things on the table after getting off the plane and said, "Thank goodness the phone still works, otherwise I would have been suffocating. I really don't know how you guys got through that year."
“That’s more than a year.” Arrogance poured himself a cup of black tea, leaned against the window, and admired the falling leaves of the chestnut trees outside.
“I’ll go plant the vegetables.” The detective stood up and walked towards the backyard. Greedy looked at him and said, “You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Eat first…”
He was met with the agent's resolute back.
“The supplies need to be registered,” Arrogant said. “I’ll go make breakfast, you go register the supplies, and we should be done before noon.”
"Register supplies? What supplies?"
“Every time martial law is declared, you need to manually upload your supplies to Brainiac's software so he can allocate them. Medical supplies are in the cabinets over there, and food is in the refrigerators and freezers. You can get it yourself…”
Greed walked to a cabinet on the side of the living room and found several medical kits and some medicines underneath. He took these items and began to count them.
The so-called inventory count wasn't a very complicated task; it just involved taking things out, counting them, and checking their expiration dates. Arrogance didn't have many supplies, so he could finish counting them in no time.
The only problem is that greed has a certain inertia when it comes to bookkeeping. When they took them out, there were three medical kits, but as they were counted, there were only two. When they were taken out to take pictures, there was only one left. By the time they were uploaded, the registered quantity had become zero.
"Do you think I'm stupid?" Brainiac's voice came through the phone. "There are backup records when supplies are distributed, and they are also recorded as soon as they are used up."
"Then why do we still need to register manually? Is this some kind of integrity test?"
"Sudden events like martial law can affect human emotions, and establishing fixed procedures and getting people focused on the tasks they need to complete immediately can help reduce panic."
"I didn't realize you were a psychologist."
"Spit out the medical kit."
"I do not."
"Spit it out!"
"No!"
The butter sizzled on the hot plate. A rich aroma wafted out as the bun was placed on it. Jason pressed the hamburger bun down with a spatula, searing it until golden brown. He then placed the bottom bun on a plate, followed by a freshly seared beef patty, a slice of cheese, another beef patty, then another slice of cheese and a beef patty, a slice of bacon, pickles, and jalapeno rings. He topped it with his special Thousand Island dressing, then covered it with the top bun.
"Who ordered the triple beef and cheese burger? Come and pick it up!"
“Mine, mine,” Pamela said. “Add more chili, otherwise it’ll be a bit too greasy. And some sushi vinegar too…”
"When will my pork knuckle burger be ready?" Tim asked, leaning on the island counter. "I'm starving!"
"Almost done." Dick, who was using a frying pan, scooped out the pork knuckle patty and started assembling the burger. First, he placed the base, then added hamburger lettuce, the patty, tomato slices, black olives, and onions. A pork knuckle and vegetable burger was ready.
Tim and Pamela received their burgers at roughly the same time at the island counter. Tim glanced at Pamela's burger and said, "You're not eating any vegetables at all?"
"Who said that? Aren't there pickled cucumbers and chili peppers?"
"Won't it be too greasy without lettuce?"
“Of course not, the cheese and beef burger is the best.” Then Pamela glanced at Tim’s burger and said, “Why do you need so many kinds of vegetables in a burger?”
"So what? Eating more vegetables is healthy."
"Watch out, the lettuce might jump up and hit you!"
Upon hearing this, Tim instinctively pulled the hamburger away from his mouth, cautiously examined the lettuce inside, and only after confirming that it wouldn't jump up and hit him did he carefully take a bite. Pamela, on the other hand, burst into laughter.