CHAPTER 56: CHAPTER 56: POLICE STATION (SEEKING RECOMMENDATIONS, SEEKING FAVORITES)

While Chen Xin was busy upgrading the greenhouse and planting seeds, Qin Lan had also returned home with Mo Qingyan and drove the truck back to the police station.

The city’s police station’s main gate was originally easy to access since the immigration management hall of the city was located within the office building of the police station, and citizens usually came here to handle relevant procedures.

This was also the city’s emergency call center, so in reality, the police station was always bustling, whether day or night.

But now, the previously accessible gate had its barriers lowered, and barricades were placed outside the entrance.

Qin Lan honked twice, prompting the guard in the duty room to move the barriers and raise the crossbar at the entrance, allowing the vehicle to enter.

As Qin Lan drove in, the two gatekeepers couldn’t help but brighten up their eyes at the sight of fresh vegetables on the truck, swallowing their saliva uncontrollably.

Although the police station wasn’t exactly short on resources since the disaster struck, it had been nearly two months since anyone had seen fresh green vegetables.

The greenhouse in the underground bunker, although capable of producing fresh mushrooms, was fulfilling for nutrition, with delicious broth or roasted dishes. After eating mushrooms continuously for two months, anyone would want some fresh green vegetables.

Being able to have a bite of fresh green vegetables, even if eaten raw, would feel delicious and appetizing under such circumstances.

However, the guards figured it was just wishful thinking since a few hundred pounds of vegetables, even if used for soup, wouldn’t be enough for everyone in the city’s police station to have a bowl.

Currently, there are thousands of police officers and their families residing in the city’s police station’s underground bunker. While not as populous as the city’s three large shelters, each housing fifty to sixty thousand people, there were still over twenty thousand people.

Dividing a few hundred pounds of vegetables among more than twenty thousand people would only allow for a taste of soup for everyone.

In reality, these few hundred pounds of vegetables couldn’t truly be divided among everyone because they were traded by the special police force, so naturally, they also belonged to the special police force’s resources and couldn’t be shared with everyone.

So when Qin Lan drove into the garage, and the car was barely parked, a few special police officers waiting there climbed onto the vehicle and hurriedly unloaded the crates of vegetables as if in a hurry, it was unsurprising.

But when Qin Lan jumped out of the car, observing the officers’ hurried actions, he still quipped at them, "Do you have to be so eager? Just because you haven’t eaten fresh vegetables for two months? It’ll be available every month, don’t rush like that!"

"Qin Lan, don’t say that; it’s not like we’re not afraid others will see and want a share," one officer carrying a crate quickly responded to Qin Lan, but their movements didn’t slow in the slightest.

Upon hearing this, Qin Lan had nothing else to say, as his words, although undermining unity, were indeed the truth.

Besides the central police station, there were four sub-stations and more than ten precincts in the city, not to mention various units, which weren’t few in number.

Though everyone was a police officer, even normally, there was a distinction between departments. There wasn’t a policy to share good things among brother departments when one department received a benefit.

Unless there were too many surplus items, they would be shared with closely related departments.

In this post-apocalyptic environment, each department held tightly onto its resources, although grain was distributed centrally, each department still stockpiled some good things for themselves before the disaster, and together with resources collected or traded post-disaster, these constituted each department’s private stash.

Qin Lan, along with the officers carrying the vegetable crates, went down to the underground shelter via the garage elevator, drawing quite a bit of attention due to the vegetables they carried.

In the dark, sunless two months underground, the shelter had started implementing a ration system to conserve resources. Although the distributed food was sufficient, everyone wanted to eat better, which was the role these departmental stashes played.

It’s not considered selfish, for when able, considering oneself more without harming others isn’t out of line.

In this post-apocalyptic setting, distributing resources strictly fairly and selflessly wouldn’t create a united, perfect collective but would lead to everyone underperforming, eventually leaving everyone without food.

Equality is the greatest unfairness in the world, for some always do more while others do less.

If both parties received the same, what would those who did more think, and how would those who did less feel?

Flame Country once tried collective equality, where more or less effort resulted in the same outcome, but such policies underestimated the selfish aspect of human nature.

Qin Lan and the others passed through the corridors of the underground shelter and returned to the special police force’s designated area.

The underground shelter of the police station was vast, originally built as an air raid shelter and later expanded and reinforced, making it quite sizable.

Not only did it have rooms for accommodation, but it also had a canteen and offices, capable of being an underground base.

The special police force was allocated a relatively well-conditioned area, which had offices, living quarters, an activity room, and even a canteen and meeting room, like a separate independent area, only lacking its own entrance and exit.

Such situations were common for these underground shelters built in the previous century since it was expanded three to four times, with the earliest construction dating back over forty years, resulting in relatively independent small areas.

In that special era, this city was part of the "Large Third Line" national defense project, building numerous defense facilities, and in the suburbs, the top-secret project known as the 6501 Project was constructed.

Though it was abandoned for a long time, the fortification known as the Underground Great Wall played a significant role in providing accommodation for a large part of the city’s suburban population in these circumstances.

These remnants from that era, originally constructed to counter potential invasion wars, became the key and confidence for Flame Country in housing most of its population.

The special police force made some modifications after being allocated this area; the offices were converted into living spaces, and the activity room became the special police force’s private stash, where resources and ammunition were centralized.