"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?" Bruce's voice came through the phone, saying, "What a coincidence, I came back with Selina to get Aisha's toys, and now we're stuck here. Looks like we'll be staying for a while. How are things on your end?"
"Not bad." Dick chatted with Bruce on the phone, saying, "There aren't many people here, the space is big enough, and resources are quite sufficient. How about your side? Selina's house is only about 60 square meters, right?"
"But there are only three of us, it's completely enough," Bruce said, "and there's centralized heating here, it's so warm inside I'm sweating. Plus, as long as we stay inside the building, we can still go out."
"Oh my, oh my." Dick's voice was full of envy, he said, "How could I forget, the East District is integrated buildings, you can even go shopping."
"Yes, Selina and I are getting ready to head out." Bruce glanced back while on the phone; Selina was combing Aisha's hair. He walked over, grabbed Selina's bag, and said, "Alright, we're ready to go. I'll contact you later."
After hanging up, Selina looked up and asked him, "Is everything okay at the estate? This lockdown was so sudden."
"Nothing special. There are plenty of supplies stocked up there, enough firewood, and not many people, much more spacious than where we are staying."
"But they can only stay cooped up indoors. At least we can still go out for a walk." Selina picked up Aisha, then said, "Let's go, let's check out the inflatable castle Aisha donated to the children's park."
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 to move around. Aisha took several books from the bookshelf beside her and said, "I want to bring these to exchange with others, someone owes me three books."
Bruce went to the balcony to collect clothes, while Selina went to open the door. They bustled around for a while before they finally got out of the house.
This house was bought by Selina initially. When Brainiac came, it was supposed to be reclaimed, and it indeed was taken back and left unattended for a while. But since no one moved in, and the locks weren't changed, Selina could still come back to stay.
Aisha attended elementary school here. Sometimes, there were extracurricular activities after school on Fridays, and if she played too late, Selina would let her stay here for the night. Originally, they came to get the toys Aisha left here, but then they got stuck.
The apartment is about 60 square meters, with 2 bedrooms and 1 living room, no shared areas, so it's more than enough. Compared to the estate, Selina actually prefers it here because of the centralized heating; the whole house—accurately speaking, the entire building—is very warm.
They didn't even need to wear coats when going out; all three wore short sleeves since the hallway was just as warm. Even when they reached the children's park, it maintained a constant temperature of around 25 degrees indoors; it was even somewhat hot.
The East District is all integrated buildings. Aside from a few open-air parks, almost everything is built indoors, and all can be accessed through interior passageways. The nearest children's park from Selina's place is half a mile in a straight line, just a short walk away.
Then Aisha saw the familiar castle. It was a toy given to her by Big Adventure Batman, and Aisha donated it to the children's park so all the kids could play with it. When they arrived, a bunch of children was playing there.
"Jenny! David! And Olivia!" Aisha immediately screamed, clutching her books as she ran over to play with her little friends.
While writing her name on the registration form, Selina said, "I don't have anything to eat at home, we need to check out the market."
Bruce nodded, then said, "I just found out there's no need for personal registration of resources in the East District, which is quite good."
"Of course. Since everything remains normal within the building, Brainiac also directly supplies the indoor market, with fresh food every day, there's no need to stockpile supplies yourself."
The two of them headed to the market together. The indoor market wasn't far from there either, just on the next floor down, a short walk led them to a gigantic supermarket that took up almost an entire floor, filled with various goods, bustling and thriving.
People didn't seem affected by the lockdown, appearing relaxed and quite leisurely, wandering between different shelves, casually picking up items to examine, or checking the price tags.
Bruce and Selina strolled around the supermarket, wanting to buy everything they saw. Both of their salaries were pretty good, and they ended up with a cart full of stuff before they went to pick up Aisha to head home.
Then they started exploring cooking. Neither of them had much experience in this area: Bruce usually ate ready-made food, while Selina could make something simple for herself, so she took the role of head chef, with Bruce assisting her.
While the two were busy in the kitchen, a call came in. Bruce picked it up and said, "Hello? Are you guys cooking too? Who's the chef? Ha, I knew it couldn't be Batman."
Jason was mixing batter over the phone, using his ear and shoulder to hold the phone, saying, "At least he's self-aware, he's out in the backyard digging soil. Dick and I are preparing burgers, what are you guys planning to make?"
Bruce picked out seasoning bottles while saying, "We'll make sandwiches and a salad, nothing more complicated than that."
"We should have had Shiller with us!" Dick shouted from the other end of the phone, "I'll never forget last night's meal!"
"You're out of your mind, aren't you afraid you'll turn into a moose?"
"No way. As long as the professor's full, he wouldn't bother to stick us in the fridge."
But the Shiller they were talking about wasn't cooking at the moment. They hadn't been involved in the evening's activity, passing a peaceful night, and only found out about the lockdown after sleeping until noon.
"Theoretically, this is my protected area, my territory, so I should still be able to go out, right?" Arrogant asked.
"No, you can't," Brainiac answered crisply, "there aren't adequate security measures on the streets, it's best not to go out."
"Alright." Arrogant didn't insist much either. After going downstairs, he found an agent adding firewood to the fireplace.
Indeed, after last night's activities, the agent had come to Arrogant's house. But he apparently didn't feel that it was the right decision. While adding firewood to the fireplace, he said, "If I have to be locked in with someone, I'd rather my roommate be Batman."
"You have no choice now." Arrogant said, "For at least the next week, you'll have to stay with us."
The agent sighed and said, "I hope you guys can talk less, no more than three sentences a day."
"No way," Brainiac spoke up again, "For mental health reasons, you need to actively communicate with your peers and join at least one communication group, and also have phone conversations with others."
"There are two psychology experts here, don't they understand human psychology better than you?" the agent asked.
"Hello? Harley, are you doing okay at the food factory? Yes, I've already sent you the recipe. See if you can use it. If you manage to make a sample, have Brainiac bring it over so that I can taste it."
"Dick? Good morning! I slept pretty well. Do you want the Kung Pao Chicken recipe? Sure, I'll send it to you right away, but you need to pay attention to the fried peanuts in it..."
"Professor Fries, did you see the photos I sent you yesterday? Why isn't the vacuum cleaner on that cleaning robot working? I oiled some parts, but it didn't seem to help..."
Greed held a phone in his left hand and a tablet in his right, with a communicator in his pocket. After coming downstairs, he placed all the items on the table and said, "Fortunately, the phone still works, or I'd go crazy. I really don't know how you guys coped in that year."
"It wasn't just one year," Arrogant said, pouring a cup of red tea, leaning by the window and admiring the falling leaves of the chestnut tree outside.
"I'll go plant the vegetables." The agent stood up and headed towards the backyard. Greed looked at him and said, "You haven't eaten yet, right? Eat first and then..."
What greeted him was the agent's resolute back.
"We need to register the supplies," Arrogant said, "I'll make breakfast, you register the supplies, and it should be finished by noon."
"Register supplies? What supplies are we registering?"
"During every lockdown, you need to manually upload your owned supplies to Brainiac's software for easier distribution. Medical supplies are in the cabinet over there, and food ingredients are in the fridge and freezer; you can get them yourself..."
Greed walked to the cabinet in the living room, found a few medical kits and some medicines at the bottom. He brought them over and started counting the quantities.
Registering supplies wasn't really a complicated task; it just involved taking them out, counting them, and checking the expiration dates. Arrogant didn't have many supplies, so it didn't take long to count.
The only problem was that Greed had some inertia when it came to bookkeeping. He started with three medical kits, but after counting, there were two; by the time he took a photo, there was just one left, and when it was uploaded, the count became zero.
"Do you think I'm stupid?" Brainiac's voice came from the phone, "The supplies are backed up during distribution, and consumption is recorded immediately."
"Then why do we have to manually register them? Is this some kind of honesty test?"
"Unexpected events like lockdowns can affect human emotions, and establishing fixed procedures while immediately engaging them in tasks requiring focus helps reduce panic."
"I didn't realize you were a psychologist too."
"Spit out the medical kits."
"No."
"Spit them out!"
"No!"
Butter melted on the griddle, making a sizzling sound. When the bun was placed on it, a rich aroma spread through the air. Jason pressed a hamburger bun with a metal spatula, grilling it to a golden brown on the griddle. He took a plate, placed the bottom bun, added a freshly grilled beef patty, a slice of cheese, another beef patty, and one more slice of cheese and beef patty, then added a piece of bacon, followed by pickles and slices of jalapeño, topped with a special Thousand Island dressing, and finally covered it with the top half of the bun.
"Who ordered the triple beef and cheese burger? Come pick it up!"
"Mine, mine," Pamela said, "Add more jalapeños, otherwise it gets a bit greasy. Also, give me some sushi vinegar..."
"When will my pork knuckle burger be ready?" Tim lay on the island platform, "I'm starving!"
"Almost ready." Nearby, Dick used a frying pan to serve the pork knuckle patty, also starting to assemble the burger. First, he placed the bun's bottom, laid down the burger lettuce, added the patty and tomato slices, accompanied by black olives and onions, thus finishing a pork knuckle veggie burger.
Tim and Pamela basically got their burgers at the same time at the island platform. Tim glanced at Pamela's burger and said, "You really don't eat any vegetables, huh?"
"Who says? Aren't there pickles and jalapeños?"
"Won't it feel too greasy without any lettuce?"
"Of course not, cheesy beef burger is the best." Then Pamela took another look at Tim's burger and said, "Why put so many kinds of veggies in a burger?"
"What's the problem? Eating more vegetables is healthy."
"Watch out, the lettuce might jump up and hit you!"
As he said this, Tim instinctively pulled the burger away from his mouth, carefully inspected the lettuce inside to make sure it wouldn't jump up and hit him, then cautiously took a bite. Meanwhile, Pamela burst into laughter.