Joy and Hope Under the Rain.
As a man of action, Lu Li always did things the moment he thought of them.
"We could call Fatty Lei too; he should be pretty eager for a bath as well," Lu Li suggested.
Jun Shutong rolled her eyes at Lu Li. She knew very well what Lu Li was up to. As for why she knew so well? Because she had thought of the same thing earlier.
Speechless, Jun Shutong said, "I invited him before too, but he said he could skip the bath, that going to the roof to catch rainwater was too dangerous, and that there was no need to risk his life just to be clean."
Lu Li: "..."
Lu Li gave Jun Shutong a somewhat surprised look. He hadn't expected that she had also discovered Fatty Lei's utility.
"Then it'll just be the two of us," Lu Li nodded helplessly.
Since Fatty Lei wasn't going to take the bait, there was nothing to be done.
After all, this sort of thing still required mutual willingness, or it would easily alienate people.
Once the two of them agreed to go collect water when it rained, Lu Li returned to his own room and began his daily feeding and care routine for Feebas.
Lu Li had actually been quite curious all along about where Feebas's limit lay, because he found that no matter how much food he fed it, Feebas could take it all in, acting just like an insatiable bottomless pit.
The feeding and care lasted for a full hour.
Feeling his hands cramp up slightly, Lu Li put Feebas back into the fish tank and constantly worked his wrists to loosen them up.
Rumble!
A flash of lightning struck, and a loud crack of thunder exploded right beside his ears.
Immediately following that was a continuous barrage of lightning and thunder.
Lu Li only heard the thunder; he didn't hear any rain.
Yet Jun Shutong told him that it was already raining.
"Lu Li, it's raining! Do you have any buckets or basins on your side?" Jun Shutong stood at the doorway holding two red plastic buckets.
"I do." Lu Li took out the two plastic buckets he had prepared in advance. These two plastic buckets were originally used to transport water and fish food from the aquarium side.
"Then let's hurry up and go." Lu Li nodded, then quietly glanced at the pistol at Jun Shutong's waist.
Very nice, the gun was brought along, a plus one to his sense of security.
Fearing being targeted by flying-type Pokémon, Lu Li simply pushed the four buckets out the door and then waited quietly in the stairwell for the buckets to fill up.
"Speaking of which, if we use gas to boil water, would that count as wasting resources?" Lu Li asked suddenly.
Speechless, Jun Shutong rolled her eyes at Lu Li, then explained, "There's no shortage of firewood in the camp."
The reason there was no shortage of firewood in the camp was because there were many things in the mall that could replace firewood, and there were also quite a few gas canisters there.
"Speaking of which, if we boil water for baths, will the others in the camp say anything?" Jun Shutong asked with some concern as well.
Lu Li gave Jun Shutong a surprised look, silently praising this young lady in his heart for being so upright.
Given Jun Shutong's background before the apocalypse, this girl actually still worried that exercising privilege would affect the camp's morale. If people from the neighboring camp learned of this, they would probably gasp in shock and think it was a sci-fi movie.
People in that neighboring camp had already gone down the path of dictatorship, regressing their privileges straight back to ways from two thousand years ago. Lu Li had no doubt that slaves and slave masters had probably already emerged over in that camp.
The rain fell heavily, and the four buckets were quickly filled.
After carrying the several buckets of water back into the stairwell, Lu Li suggested, "We might as well notify the other survivors in the camp so they can also come fetch some rainwater for baths."
"If the camp's firewood is truly enough, then we might as well let everyone take a bath. After all, not bathing for a long time easily leads to illness."
The reason Lu Li made this suggestion was also because Jun Shutong had said there was no shortage of firewood in the camp.
"There really is no shortage of firewood in the camp, but won't this be too dangerous?" Jun Shutong was still rather worried about safety issues.
Hearing this, Lu Li's heart skipped a beat.
Wait.
This woman wasn't thinking of...
The thing Lu Li worried about most in his heart still happened.
"You carry the water back first and notify everyone later. I'll keep watch here. If we really run into flying Magical Beasts, I can buy some time for everyone to escape," Jun Shutong said, and even patted the pistol at her waist.
"You... sigh, alright then." Lu Li nodded helplessly, then carried the buckets and walked downstairs.
Resigned as he was, Lu Li actually still deeply admired Jun Shutong in his heart.
Jun Shutong was indeed overly kind, you could even call her a bleeding heart.
At least she wasn't a hypocritical saint, though. She knew collecting rainwater here was unsafe, so she let him leave first while guarding the place herself to act as "insurance" for everyone.
After carrying the water back to the camp, Lu Li shared the news with Fatty Lei.
Hearing this, Fatty Lei also furrowed his brows in a deep frown, complaining with a displeased expression, "Sister Jun is something else. If she had just said the word for a thing like this, I could have arranged for people to haul the water. Why did she have to go herself? What if she runs into flying Magical Beasts?"
"Alright, go pass the news on to everyone. Sister Jun has already made up her decision, so we just need to cooperate. Besides, with such heavy rain pouring down, those flying Magical Beasts probably won't brave the storm to hunt," Lu Li patted Fatty Lei's shoulder to comfort him.
Hearing this, Fatty Lei's eyes flashed.
He didn't dare go to the roof, but he could order someone else to go, couldn't he?
Since Jun Shutong was preparing to organize the entire camp to take action together, he could completely abuse a tiny bit of privilege and have someone else go upstairs to haul water down for him.
After saying that, Lu Li carried the water into the kitchen.
"Boil these two buckets of water for me; I'm getting ready to take a bath in the washroom," Lu Li told the staff in the kitchen.
Facing an order from Lu Li, the camp's second-in-command, the person in charge of the kitchen didn't say anything, and directly ordered two assistants to start a fire.
Seeing the other party catch on so smoothly, Lu Li deliberately reminded them, "Go call more people over right now; Sister Jun is getting ready to boil extra water so everyone can take a bath."
Hearing this, the kitchen manager said with a grateful expression, "Thank you, Second Boss, I'll go call people right now."
After speaking, the kitchen manager went straight to find Fatty Lei.
Fatty Lei managed the camp's personnel dispatch, and shifting people around was entirely his responsibility.
Looking at the two old folks tending the fire in the distance, Lu Li thought of another matter.
Should he also boil some water for Feebas to take a hot bath?
Yet the moment he thought of his and Feebas's virtually negligible intimacy, Lu Li ultimately dismissed the thought-intimacy wasn't so easy to grind up, after all.
Now that Feebas had finally given him a bit of feedback, it wasn't worth taking the risk of lowering their intimacy just for such an unfounded guess.
The water was soon boiled. Lu Li went home to prepare a change of clothes and a bath towel, then carried the water into the washroom.
Half an hour later.
Refreshed, Lu Li left the washroom. By this time, people were continuously carrying water into the kitchen.
Mindful of whether something might go wrong over on Jun Shutong's end, Lu Li made a special trip back up to the roof.
Jun Shutong was directing everyone in hauling water. Perhaps because they hadn't run into any danger for so long, Jun Shutong wasn't as tense as before.
Seeing Lu Li return, Jun Shutong said happily, "Your guess earlier was right. After the rain started, those flying Magical Beasts don't seem to be moving around much at all."