Yumi pointed out all the people he thought were suitable to Jiang Chen’an one by one.
Jiang Chen’an followed his gaze. “Go ask them? Though I think it’s unlikely they’ll agree.”
As long as Yumi could bring people over, Jiang Chen’an didn’t mind. After all, the ones Yumi picked were all popular choices—each of them already had several people trying to invite them to form teams.
Everyone knew that land reclamation was hard labor, so when forming teams, the priority naturally went to strong, healthy young men. Next were slightly older people who had the advantage of experience. After that came people like Jiang Chen’an and Yumi—half-grown youths.
As for women, they weren’t even part of the men’s consideration when forming teams—let alone someone like Gu Xiaomai, who had fainted for a whole day on the road.
Gu Xiaomai also understood her own situation. She figured no one would actively want to team up with her, so she simply stood still and watched Yumi running around trying to recruit people.
Soon, team formation was completed. Yumi returned to Jiang Chen’an’s side dejectedly. The people he had tried to recruit all refused to team up with him and Chen-ge—no vision at all!
The men in the reclamation team formed groups of three or four, splitting into seven teams. That left Jiang Chen’an, Yumi, and Gu Xiaomai, along with four other women.
Mi Tang looked at the seven remaining people and was about to speak when Jiang Chen’an said, “Officer Mi, let me team up with Yumi and Gu Xiaomai.”
Mi Tang glanced at the three of them and said nothing, then turned to the remaining four women. “Then you four form one group.”
Yumi became even more dejected. That little sister is nice, but she’s really not suited for this kind of work!
Gu Xiaomai was a little surprised by Jiang Chen’an’s choice. After all, the other four women looked stronger and more capable than her. But since he had chosen her…
Well… she couldn’t exactly do physical labor anyway.
After the grouping was settled, they began assigning tents. The northernmost tent, No. 5, was given to the five women, including Gu Xiaomai.
The adjacent No. 4 tent was shared by Mi Tang, Jiang Chen’an, Yumi, and Zhang Tao’s group.
Zhang Tao was the one Yumi had said looked solid and strong-armed. He was not much older than Jiang Chen’an and Yumi, and his group was also made up of young men who looked physically strong.
The remaining three tents were distributed among the other six groups.
After the tents were assigned, each group went to Mi Tang to collect their supplies.
Each person received a ten-day supply of nutrient solution and drinking water.
Tools like hoes, sickles, rakes, and plows were distributed one per person.
Ropes, sacks, axes, and machetes—used for gathering work—were issued one set per group.
The metal parts of these tools were all gray. They looked like iron, but Gu Xiaomai felt they were slightly different from the iron she had seen in her previous life.
She couldn’t figure it out, so she set it aside for now.
Gu Xiaomai evenly distributed the group’s supplies onto each person’s bed, then stood in place waiting for Jiang Chen’an and Yumi to move their things first before helping her move hers.
When Gu Xiaomai finally carried her bed and belongings into tent No. 5, only the two sides near the entrance were left available. There wasn’t much to choose from, so she let Jiang Chen’an and Yumi place their beds on the right side after entering.
The four women who had been talking earlier fell silent and looked at them as they entered.
After setting down their beds, Jiang Chen’an and Yumi left.
Thinking that they would be living together for a long time, Gu Xiaomai smiled first and greeted them. “Hello, sisters.”
Years of dormitory experience told her that maintaining good roommate relationships was important, and a friendly smile could never go wrong.
“Haha… calling me ‘sister’ makes this old lady feel young again. My name is Liu Ju. If you don’t mind, just call me Grandma Liu.”
The oldest of the four women, Liu Ju, who was closest to Gu Xiaomai, smiled and responded, introducing the others.
Next to them, further inside, was Wan Chuncui’s bed.
She looked younger than Liu Ju, dressed more neatly and in better-quality clothing. Her face was much cleaner too—clearly someone living relatively well inside the base. However, she seemed to lack energy. When Gu Xiaomai greeted her, she only nodded lightly.
Across from Wan Chuncui was Wei Xiaoqin. Her clothes weren’t as good, but they were clean and without patches. She spoke gently, giving people a comfortable feeling.
Next to Wei Xiaoqin was Meng Xue. Her clothes were as worn and patched as Liu Ju’s, all in dark colors so it was hard to tell how clean they were.
Her hands were covered in calluses and scars from hard labor. Although she was three years younger than Wei Xiaoqin, she looked five or six years older.
When she rolled up her sleeves while making the bed, Gu Xiaomai could see old and new scars layered on her arms.
Fortunately, no one caused trouble on the first day, and the five of them got along fairly peacefully.
The men’s side was the same. Everyone who joined the reclamation team was trying to find a way to survive.
Even the convicted laborers shared the same mindset—coming here to reclaim land was far easier than being sent to the mines.
Before they even finished unpacking, Mi Tang called everyone out with their assigned tools.
“Your task for now is land reclamation. First clear the weeds on the ground, then use hoes or plows to turn the soil over, and finally use rakes to level it.”
“Officer Mi, how do we use these hoes, rakes, and plows?” someone asked.
When they left the base before, they only used blades and axes that could double as weapons and harvesting tools. They had never seen tools like hoes or rakes, let alone something as strange as a plow.
Except for Liu Ju and an elderly thin man named Xia Yang—who had lined up in front of Gu Xiaomai when receiving nutrient solutions—and a few older people, most of them were quite young. They only had faint childhood memories of such tools.
Those even younger, born around or after the catastrophe, didn’t recognize them at all, let alone know how to use them.
Even Mi Tang himself only learned after attending special training classes when he was assigned to manage the reclamation team.
The instructors were old farmers from before the catastrophe, teaching them how to plow, weed, and sow…
Mi Tang felt confident in his theoretical knowledge and believed he could definitely lead everyone to reclaim the barren land of E4 camp and grow plenty of purification plants for the soldiers.
He brought everyone to a designated area and began introducing the tools.
He picked up a hoe first.
“The hoe is a universal farming tool. It can be used for harvesting, digging trenches, ridging, plowing, covering soil, weeding, breaking soil, shallow tilling, earthing up… just watch carefully.”
He bent down, gripping the handle tightly, recalling the movements taught by the old farmers.
He raised the hoe and swung it lightly. It sank deep into the soil.
He lifted it again, bringing up a large chunk of earth.
He let out a breath of relief. Good—he had done exactly what the old farmers taught him.
His confidence grew.
He swung a few more times, breaking up clumps of soil, then used a rake to level the ground.
“This is roughly how you use them. Got it?”
Everyone nodded. It looked simple enough.
Next, he picked up the plow.
“This is a single-furrow hand-drawn plow. It can be used for ridging, trenching, earthing up, shallow tilling…”
While explaining its parts, he demonstrated.
“Before the plowshare enters the ground, you need to adjust the weight frame and the angle lever. This allows the blade to dig deeper into the soil for proper tilling. After adjustment, you can start plowing.”
He pulled the plow into the soil beside the area he had just hoed.
With a light pull, the blade sank into the ground, turning over large chunks of soil far more easily than the hoe.
After a few steps, he stopped.
“The rest is the same—break up the clumps and level them.”
“The plots have already been divided, each about one mu. Each person must reclaim one mu. You can work alone or cooperate within your group—as long as you complete the required total for your group size.”
“Alright, disperse and start working.”
Everyone returned to their tents to fetch their tools and headed to their assigned plots.
Yumi looked left and right. Some groups split their work individually, while others worked together. “Chen-ge, how do we do this?”
Jiang Chen’an glanced at Gu Xiaomai. “Let’s work together.”
“Alright.” Yumi followed him toward an empty plot.
Gu Xiaomai had no objection. It was clear they were accommodating her. She grabbed her hoe and hand plow and followed behind.
Once they began, everyone realized that neither the hoe nor the plow was as easy as it had looked when Mi Tang demonstrated it—especially Gu Xiaomai.
Faced with the hoe and the plow, she chose the hoe. With her current strength, she couldn’t pull the plow.
The moment the hoe hit the ground, her hand went numb from the shock. The tool only dug in about two finger-widths.
She pressed her lips together. She had expected this.
Earlier, when pulling weeds, she had already realized the soil here was extremely hard.
Yumi glanced at her result and burst out laughing.
“Hahaha… Little sister, you’re using way too little strength. Watch me.”
Bang—the hoe in his hands went halfway into the ground.
“See? You need more force, like this.”
You didn’t even go that deep either… though she thought that, Gu Xiaomai still forced a smile. “Mm, got it, Brother Yumi.”
On the next swing, even though she used more strength, it still barely went in.
By the time Jiang Chen’an and Yumi had cleared half their row, Gu Xiaomai was still stuck at the beginning.
The soil was just too hard, and after the journey and setting up camp, she had already lost quite a bit of blood and strength. Now she barely had any energy left.
She cursed inwardly while swinging the hoe with determination.
As long as she swings often enough, she can dig deep enough!
Yumi pulled his hoe out of the soil, bringing up a large clump of earth.
“Chen-ge, Little Sister is seriously holding us back. At this rate it won’t work. Look at how much others have done.”
Jiang Chen’an released the plow handle and shook his aching arm to rest briefly, glancing at Gu Xiaomai, who had barely moved forward.
“Let her break up the clods and clear weeds in the soil we’ve already turned over.”
“Sigh, guess that’s all we can do. I’ll go tell her.”
Yumi ran over and explained their decision.
“Brother Yumi, thank you.” She had already said “thank you” so many times that day she almost felt it had lost its meaning.
Yumi waved his hand and returned to continue working.
The sun was about to set. If they didn’t hurry, their group—essentially only two laborers—would never finish three mu of land.
When the sun finally went down, Mi Tang called everyone to stop and return to rest.
After two days of travel and half a day of land reclamation, everyone was exhausted—but lying on clean, warm beds made them strangely excited.
They hadn’t slept on fresh, clean bedding for a long time.
With excitement, anticipation, and unease about the future, none of them fell asleep quickly.
Neither did Gu Xiaomai.
Lying in bed, she thought about how much progress their group had lost, and felt a small trace of guilt for slowing them down.
As her body relaxed, however, the pain became more obvious—heavy legs, sore arms, swollen and stinging hands…
Her exhausted body quickly erased that trace of guilt, and tears slowly welled up in her eyes.
After her parents passed away, she had taken care of the small vegetable garden at home, and back then it hadn’t felt this hard.
Six months of this kind of life ahead… just thinking about it was terrifying. Too bitter. Really too bitter.
The more she thought, the worse she felt. And this broken body—she needed to find another way.
Otherwise, she really might work herself to death.
And Jiang Chen’an and Yumi… they were good people. How could she avoid dragging them down while also not exhausting herself so much?
Thinking and thinking, Gu Xiaomai slowly drifted into sleep.
Inside her body, the rough little bead condensed another drop of liquid the size of a grain of rice. It entered her heart and lungs, circulated through her limbs and torso, and when only a needle-tip remained, it sank into her bone marrow.
The pain in her body gradually eased, her furrowed brows smoothing out as she fell into a deeper, more peaceful sleep.