Chapter 301: The Cargo List

Zeyu held the pantry door open while Hanchuan came down the corridor.

Shichen stood beside him with the flashlight pointed at the shelves, its beam catching on tins packed behind metal retaining bars.

There were sacks on the lower shelves and unopened boxes above them, some with pictures he recognized despite the unfamiliar writing.

He had called Hanchuan before touching anything. Now that his friend was there, Zeyu reached for a tin of peaches.

The weight of it settled into his palm. He turned it over, checking the rim and the date stamped beneath it, then looked back into the pantry. There was another behind it, and more stacked farther along the shelf.

"Look at the dates," Zeyu said, handing it to Hanchuan. His voice sounded strange in the quiet room. "This hasn’t been sitting here since the Heat started. Some of it was packed this year."

Hanchuan examined the tin before passing it back.

He moved farther into the galley, checking the narrow space behind the counters and a second door near the far wall.

Shichen followed with the light while Zeyu remained by the pantry, holding enough fruit for everyone to have some.

He remembered pouring peaches into a bowl at Xiling because Zhiyi preferred them chilled. She would eat the slices while reading, occasionally leaving the bowl where one of them would find it later.

He had never paid much attention to what remained at the bottom.

Now he wanted the syrup too.

Qinghe brought Zhiyi into the doorway with the towel still around her shoulders. Jingwei followed them, looking along the corridor before coming inside. Zhiyi’s gaze went first to the tin in Zeyu’s hand, then to the shelves behind him.

"There’s more than that," Zeyu told her, stepping aside so she could see. "Rice, beans, crackers. I haven’t checked all of it yet, but we’re going to have something better than a few mouthfuls today."

She leaned forward to look past him without reaching for anything. Her hair was still damp, and the borrowed shirt hung loosely beneath her life jacket. He wanted to take the jacket off her, sit her down and put a bowl in front of her.

But first, he needed to find a clean bowl.

Hanchuan returned from the second doorway.

"There’s a mess room through here," Hanchuan said. "We’ll check it, then sit down together. Zeyu, bring what we can eat without starting any equipment."

Zeyu gathered the peaches, two tins of beans and a sealed packet of crackers while the others moved ahead.

Beneath the counter, he found dishes held in place by racks. The first bowl had dried food along its edge, but those farther back were clean. He took six and stacked spoons inside them.

The small saucepan they had worked so hard to recover was still outside with their other belongings. He meant to bring it in. He couldn’t quite bear the thought of leaving it there just because he had found a cupboard full of better ones.

The mess room had three tables fixed to the floor, with chairs crowded around them. Daylight entered through broad windows, showing dust along the sill and a dried spill beneath one table. Hanchuan and Jingwei checked the adjoining spaces while Qinghe pulled out a chair for Zhiyi.

She sat carefully, keeping her hands on the table after lowering herself.

Zeyu put the dishes down near her. "Does it still feel as though we’re moving?"

Zhiyi looked up at him and nodded. "I keep waiting for the chair to tip. I know it isn’t going to, but my legs haven’t noticed yet."

He smiled and rested his hand against the back of her chair while she shifted her feet beneath it. "Mine are doing the same thing. At least you’re sitting down before anyone can see you walk into a wall."

Her mouth curved, and he squeezed her shoulder before returning to the galley for a can opener.

By the time he came back, Hanchuan had taken the chair beside her.

Jingwei stood near the door, watching while Shichen opened a cupboard against the wall. He found napkins, a box of tea and a packet of sugar that had spilled across the shelf.

Zeyu set the tins beside the bowls. The can opener turned stiffly at first, and he adjusted his grip rather than force it. When the lid finally came free, the smell of peaches reached him.

He had to swallow before he could start dividing them.

Zhiyi watched each slice fall into a bowl. Hanchuan drew the towel more securely around her shoulders while Zeyu added syrup, making sure nothing remained in the tin. He passed her bowl across the table, then kept serving until everyone had one.

"Jingwei, come and eat," Hanchuan said, indicating the chair where Zeyu had placed his portion. "You can see the doorway from here."

Jingwei sat, bringing the bowl toward him with both hands. For a while, the room was quiet except for spoons touching the sides.

Zeyu ate one slice and closed his eyes briefly. It was soft and sweet, with none of the smoke or bones he had learned to expect from a meal.

Across the table, Shichen scraped syrup from the side of his bowl before realizing there were crackers within reach.

Zhiyi finished her first slice, then looked toward the pantry door.

"There are more," Zeyu assured her.

He wasn’t sure whether she wanted another portion or simply needed to know it hadn’t disappeared. "We’ll eat this first. Then I’ll show you what else is on the shelves."

She nodded and returned to her bowl. Hanchuan’s hand rested over her knee beneath the table, and Zeyu watched her shoulders gradually lower as she ate.

The beans were cold, but nobody objected.

They spread them over crackers and passed the packet around until Qinghe suggested leaving the rest for a little later.

Zeyu wanted to open another tin anyway. He resisted when he realized his own stomach had begun to feel uncomfortable.

Afterward, Hanchuan helped Zhiyi out of her life jacket while Qinghe checked the cloth around her foot. The skin beneath it was pale and rubbed raw. Zeyu looked away long enough to gather the bowls, then stopped when Zhiyi caught his sleeve.

"Thank you for finding this," she said. Her fingers remained against his wrist as she glanced around the table. "I wanted to eat sitting down."

Zeyu turned his hand beneath hers and brushed his thumb over her fingers.

"I wanted to feed you somewhere I could put the plate down," he replied. "Next time, I’ll see what I can do about making it hot."

He stayed beside her until she let go, then carried the dishes back to the galley. Through the open doorway, he heard Hanchuan assigning the next search, keeping two of them with Zhiyi while the others checked the nearby rooms.

Zeyu put the bowls beside the sink and opened a drawer for a cloth. Beneath a folded apron lay a clipboard, its pages secured by a rubber band. He drew it out and found a list of provisions, followed by several sheets marked with container numbers.

He read the first page, then turned to the next. Vehicles, plumbing supplies, packaged food and rolls of insulation appeared beneath separate destinations.

Zeyu carried the clipboard back to the table and laid it in front of Hanchuan.

"This is only part of what they were carrying," Zeyu said, holding the curling pages flat. "We need to find the rest of the cargo list."