Almost scaring to death
Half a kilogram of white rice was enough for a family to eat for a whole week if diluted with water to make gruel. Paying such an amount to park a vehicle was a bit too expensive. Moreover, according to Mei Lin, they were only willing to pay five kilograms of rice for the vehicle which was equivalent to only ten days of parking.
Of course, five kilograms of rice was a large amount of food nowadays. A normal family would not have to worry about starving for a long time at least. Besides, maintaining a vehicle in this new chaotic era was considered extremely expensive as most of the fuel in the surrounding area had been collected by the high command of the camp, and if one wanted to find some fuel, one would have to go deep into unexplored cities, towns, or villages; which meant a high probability of dying.