Ye Qingyun had no idea that a few bags of stir-fried cotton aphids would set off a “bloody case” among the Exploration Team’s members.
She was wholly absorbed in pressing out syrup.
With three pots boiling at once, efficiency really did go up a great deal.
That night, apart from the two old folks and Jiang Hai, whose body hadn’t fully recovered, everyone was racing against the clock, processing cotton aphids straight through till dawn.
The two children were too excited to sleep, scampering over to look here one moment and dashing off to peek there the next.
Only in the small hours did they finally give out and fall asleep beside the adults.
Fortunately, the more they did the work, the more practiced they grew, toward the end, everyone was practically working on instinct.
To finish processing this batch of cotton aphids sooner, Jiang Zhi and the others didn’t head back out to the collection zones the next day.
Thinking of the cotton aphids still uncollected that might well end up in someone else’s hands, Jiang Shu ached with regret.
Jiang Wen comforted him, “We caught quite a lot yesterday, and by the afternoon the moderate-toxin ones had grown a lot scarcer. Go back today and the edible ones probably won’t amount to much.”
Hearing that, Jiang Shu could only console himself the same way.
In fact, Jiang Wen’s guess wasn’t wrong.
After yesterday, no shortage of people had gone asking after the siblings, and catching the mouthwatering aroma of food drifting from their place, they’d more or less guessed they’d caught some sort of bug.
The next day quite a few people went off to Collection Zone 3.
Only, after all their flailing about, nearly all the cotton aphids they caught were high-toxin.
Of course, that’s getting ahead of the story.
Because she’d called up her radar so many times during the day, by the small hours Jiang Zhi was visibly drained.
Seeing this, Ye Qingyun shooed her off to sleep. “Go rest, quick. Don’t go wearing yourself out. Take a page from your brother, when there’s a chance to slack off, slack off.”
Jiang Zhi didn’t force herself either, she answered and returned to the tent.
She’d changed her clothes and was about to lie down when she suddenly remembered the few leaves she’d picked up in the mutated snake’s den that day, and got back up.
She carefully took them out of her pack.
The greenish-yellow color was no different from what she’d seen by day.
She couldn’t help breathing in the leaf-scent again, aside from being refreshing, there seemed to be nothing special about it.
But since it was a gold-marked item, Jiang Zhi firmly believed these few leaves couldn’t be good for nothing but waking one up.
—Forget it. She had the thing in hand now, no need to rush.
Unable to puzzle it out, Jiang Zhi didn’t keep dwelling on it. She tucked the leaves beneath her clothes and dropped off to sleep.
＊
The Jiang family worked the whole night, and it wasn’t until midday the next day that they finished processing all the cotton aphids.
After everyone’s efforts the night before, they now had a hundred and seventy jin of stir-fried cotton aphids, the weight had shrunk by nearly half.
The Jiang family planned to mark up the price on the processed cotton aphids.
The wholesale price went from sixty-five a jin up to seventy-five.
The retail price went from seventy points a jin up to eighty.
This stuff had to be sold while the timing was hot to fetch a good price.
Jiang Shan hadn’t slept all night. First thing in the morning, he packed up thirty jin of stir-fried cotton aphids and twenty jin of sugar blocks together with the siblings and went to find Chen Li.
The man lived in District B, a whole county-town’s distance from their District D.
The whole way there, the three couldn’t help but marvel at how complete the base’s construction was.
Along the way they passed an enormous plaza, word was there was an air-raid shelter beneath it, big enough to hold two-thirds of Ancheng’s residents if mutated creatures attacked.
As for the remaining third…
All one could say was that, if it ever came to that, the residents living on the outskirts would have to fend for themselves.
A design like this gave even someone as careless as Jiang Shu a vague sense that something was off. “Ah Zhi, Ancheng Base’s city wall is so tall, surely they’d never need this air-raid shelter, right?”
Jiang Zhi shrugged. “If it exists, there’s a reason for it. Maybe one day it’ll come in handy. Who knows.”
Jiang Shu shivered. “Then we’d better work hard and buy ourselves a place in District B.”
Jiang Shan laughed. “A house in District B isn’t something you can buy with points alone.”
Those who lived in District B all had connections of some kind, powerful figures or the wealthy. And of course, there was no shortage of former entrepreneurs who’d made enormous contributions to the base during the catastrophe.
Word had it that Ancheng’s richest man, back in the day, had donated all the supplies from every mall and supermarket under his name to the base just to secure a foothold there.
About District B, not just Jiang Shu, even Jiang Zhi was very curious.
The mere sight of the fifty-plus-meter inner wall ringing District B gave one an oddly reassuring sense of safety.
The three registered with the security at District B’s main gate before being let through.
Jiang Shu pursed his lips. “Looks like there’s a privileged class no matter when.”
Stepping into District B, Jiang Zhi felt as if she’d returned to before the catastrophe.
The broad streets within the district were spotless. Some green plants were even planted along both sides of the roads, neatly trimmed.
Villas stood scattered throughout, the district fully equipped, on a scale much like a pre-catastrophe county town.
Now and then a modified vehicle drove past on the road.
Jiang Zhi recognized them as an Evolvers’ motorcade.
Jiang Shu felt his worldview take another hit.
“Damn, I thought everyone was living in dire straits. Turns out that ‘everyone’ was just me.”
Jiang Shan didn’t think much of it.
He was older and had seen plenty.
So long as there were people, class would always exist in this world.
Once inside District B, Jiang Shan left the cotton-aphid business to the siblings.
He had to go to a District B shop to ask after building materials.
Niu Dali had told him before that District B’s shops had more goods, and better ones too.
Jiang Shan wanted to see whether he could buy the mutated white jade snail’s slime, along with heat-resistant cement, one of the materials for building the house. Their District D had no high-end goods like these.
After Jiang Shan left, Jiang Zhi looked around a while and noticed that most of the villas were uniform in style. “This must have been a villa district before the catastrophe, just requisitioned by the base. The old building materials probably won’t hold up much longer, I’d guess they’ll all be torn down and rebuilt before long.”
Hearing that, Jiang Shu felt a good deal better. “Even so, District B’s basic facilities are far more complete than District D’s.”
Jiang Zhi neither agreed nor disagreed. This was probably the base’s preferential treatment for Evolvers and their families. Otherwise, why would they work for the base?
“I actually prefer District D.” Although District D was, on the whole, not as safe as District B, it had a lot more lived-in warmth, Jiang Zhi said. “I hear the bases over in the capital are split into lots of districts, no different from before the catastrophe, they’ve even got places like bars.”
The capital’s armed forces were the strongest in all of Dragon Nation, so once trouble broke out over there it was swiftly cleared up too.
Jiang Shu was a little surprised. “Ah Zhi, how do you know?”
Jiang Zhi said flatly, “I listen to the broadcast every day.”
Jiang Shu was envious. “The capital really is better. If only there were a chance to go again someday.”
Jiang Zhi said, “The roads between the two haven’t been fully connected. Even if you wanted to go, you couldn’t.”
While the siblings talked, they arrived at Chen Li’s home without quite realizing it.
From the outside it was a small courtyard house.
Not large, a little over two hundred square meters.
Jiang Shu had knocked only a short while when Chen Li came out.
He happened to be off today.
Chen Li: “Jiang Shu? Here so early? Come in and sit a while?”
Ever since his cousin had bought the Jiang family’s vehicle, he’d pocketed a not-insignificant middleman’s fee, and life had grown more comfortable lately, so he held the Jiang family in considerable favor.
Jiang Zhi declined. “We won’t intrude. We’ve got other things to see to in a bit. Director Chen, want to take a look at the goods?”
Chen Li didn’t press. “Sure.”
Jiang Shu loosened the bag’s mouth to reveal the stir-fried cotton aphids on top.
Chen Li didn’t even have to bend down to catch the rich, high-protein, oily fragrance, a thick savoriness threaded with a faint clean sweetness winding into his nose.
His eyes went wide. “This, are these silkworm pupae?”
Jiang Shu waggled his index finger. “Nonono, not at all. We haven’t got the skill to find silkworm pupae. These are just a kind of bug similar to silkworm pupae, all moderate-toxin, already processed. We stir-fried them last night, guaranteed fresh.”
With that, Jiang Shu picked out one for Chen Li to try.
“Here, Brother Li, give it a taste and see if it suits you.”
Chen Li didn’t stand on ceremony and tried it.
The moment it entered his mouth, his eyes brightened.
This thing in the Jiang family’s hands, even if it wasn’t silkworm pupae, was a fine delicacy.
Just the smell told you that much.
Chen Li made up his mind on the spot. “I’ll take all of it.”
Jiang Shu’s smile deepened. “There’s thirty jin here, Brother Li. We’ve done plenty of deals, I’ll give you a discount for sure. We sell it to everyone else at eighty-five points a jin, since you’re buying a lot, eighty a jin works.”
“Deal.” Eighty points a jin wasn’t expensive, taking the whole lot came to twenty-four hundred points, and whether he gifted it or resold it, he wouldn’t lose out.
Seeing one deal settled, Jiang Shu took out the sugar blocks too. “We’ve also got some sugar blocks, Brother Li, if you’re interested.”
“Sugar blocks?” Chen Li looked over.
Sugar blocks indeed, they looked much like brown sugar.
“How do you have brown sugar?”
“Not exactly brown sugar, but close enough,” Jiang Shu didn’t explain too much. “This is sweeter than brown sugar, one small block can steep a whole big pot of sugar water.”
Chen Li crushed off a bit of sugar grit and tasted it.
It really was cloyingly sweet.
He thought of the sugarcane grove in Collection Zone 3.
The base had once sent people there to gather the sugarcane, hoping to extract some brown sugar, but several tries had all failed.
The reason was that most of the sugarcane had no flavor, so naturally no brown sugar could be extracted.
So to suddenly see this much sugar in the Jiang family’s hands left Chen Li rather surprised.
“How do you want to sell it?”
This time Jiang Shu kept a card up his sleeve. Feigning ignorance, he scratched his head. “We only came to the base not long ago. We don’t know how much is fair to sell it for—Brother Li, why don’t you name a figure?”
Grandpa Jiang had said that buying a jin of brown sugar at the base store ran forty or fifty points, but that was the old price.
Their sugar blocks were far more concentrated than ordinary brown sugar, the price couldn’t possibly come out cheap.
Sure enough, Chen Li said directly, “I’ll give you eighty points a jin. I’ll take it all.”
Jiang Shu was so excited.
Eighty points a jin, that was the same as meat.
“As expected of you, Brother Li, you really do go big.”
He handed everything over. “There are thirty-five jin of meat-bugs here, the extra five are on us.”
Chen Li didn’t expect a freebie too, which pleased him all the more, though his mouth still said, “How could I accept that?”
Jiang Shu: “You’ve looked out for us plenty, it’s a small token of thanks. Don’t stand on ceremony, Brother Li.”
Chen Li pushed it back twice, then accepted.
In the end the two sides closed the deal at four thousand points.
Having taken the goods, Chen Li was in a fine mood and said, “Bring me good stuff like this anytime in the future, I’ll never turn it away.”
Jiang Shu said, “We just got lucky this time and came across a bit of good stuff. We were thinking of selling it to get the house built faster, otherwise that little tent of ours won’t hold out.”
Chen Li knew the Jiang family had found something. “In this weather, it really isn’t fit to stay under a tent the whole time. What materials are you still short on? I can ask around.”
Jiang Shu said happily, “We’re short on everything right now. My dad also wants to buy some sun-blocking blue tiles.”
These blue tiles were coated with a glue made from a mutated curled-leaf plant.
After the catastrophe, sunlight too carried trace amounts of radiation, under long exposure, objects easily mutated into highly radioactive things, and people easily came to harm.
“For that, just go find someone from the vanguard team to buy curled-leaf glue and coat it on yourselves. My cousin and the others brought back a fair amount a while back.”
Hearing this, Jiang Shu was delighted. “That’d be great, we’ll go find them right after this!”
After taking their leave of Chen Li, the siblings went to meet up with Jiang Shan at the District B shops.
District B’s shops were more finely divided, there was even a dedicated building-materials store.
Only when the three got there did they learn that mutated materials had so many uses.
For instance, besides white jade snail slime to strengthen the toughness and hardness of mud bricks, all sorts of materials could alter a wall’s properties.
For instance, a certain mutated animal’s dung could keep walls at a constant temperature, coating a certain plant’s sap on indoor walls could effectively improve soundproofing… and many more such materials.
Every one of them functional materials that even a construction engineer like Jiang Shan couldn’t help wanting to buy.
But without exception, they were absurdly expensive.
They’d wanted to build the house with somewhat better materials, now it seemed the money in their hands might not be enough.
The siblings looked around and wanted to add every single thing to their house.
But one glance at the prices and they instantly wilted.
Jiang Shu pointed at the material that kept walls at a constant temperature and grumbled quietly to Jiang Zhi, “Isn’t this way too expensive? It’s just dung, isn’t it? Ten thousand points a kilogram, this is daylight robbery!”
Unfortunately the clerk beside them had sharp ears and overheard. “Young man, watch how you talk. How is this robbery? Do you have any idea how hard it is for the vanguard team to bring back this dung?”
“This is rhino-horn ox dung. Do you know how big a rhino-horn ox is? It’s a story tall before it’s even grown!” The clerk had clearly taken the lot of them for country bumpkins. “Large mutated beasts use their dung to mark their territory. Bringing it back isn’t just a huge risk, it also has to be specially treated before it can be used once it’s inside the base. Aren’t those costs?”
Jiang Shu pursed his lips. “It’s just a rhino-horn ox. It’s not like I’ve never seen one.”
Jiang Shu wasn’t lying, either. In their three years surviving in the wild, they’d seen no shortage of mutated beasts, he had indeed seen a rhino-horn ox, though only from a great distance.
Back then they’d been out scavenging for supplies and come upon a stretch of mutated grassland where a herd of rhino-horn oxen lived.
Each was four or five stories tall.
Even now, recalling it made Jiang Shu’s scalp prickle.
Such colossal creatures, and a whole herd of them. Ordinary people who saw them had no choice but to give them a wide berth.
The clerk was so angry he laughed. “You?”
He looked Jiang Shu up and down.
Patched clothes, that nonconformist hair, and skin as dark as any bottom-rung laborer’s.
The clerk sneered. “I’d say you’ve never been past a collection zone. You’ve probably never even seen a mutated ant!”
Jiang Shu rolled his eyes. “Don’t go judging people by their looks. I’ve killed more mutated beasts than you’ve ever sold materials. Don’t believe me? I can even give you the location of a rhino-horn ox herd, question is whether you’ve got the guts. Though, by the look of you, all you can manage is showing off your sense of importance here. Send you out there for real and you’d probably wet yourself.”
The clerk flew into a rage. “You little brat, you—”
Before he could finish, Jiang Shan barked, “Dashu, watch your mouth.”
Seeing this, the clerk gave a satisfied hmph, they knew their place after all—
Then heard Jiang Shan go on, “Even if it’s the truth, you can’t say it to people’s faces. Think how embarrassing that is for them!”
The clerk: …
Jiang Shu, holding back a laugh, played along solemnly. “Right, right, right, Dad, you’re absolutely right. I’ll be sure not to tell the truth from now on, so I don’t go puncturing certain people’s fragile pride.”
Jiang Zhi delivered the finishing blow, expressionless. “Something everyone already knows, what difference does saying it out loud make?”
Jiang Shu couldn’t hold it and snorted with laughter.
They weren’t afraid of offending the man before them, either.
Building-material stores like this all belonged to the base, so even offending him wouldn’t keep them from buying the materials they wanted.
Jiang Shan had always been protective of his own, however much trouble the kids stirred up, outside the home he’d only ever shield them.
Just as the clerk was about to blow up in fury, someone nearby spoke. “Young fellow, you said you know where there are rhino-horn oxen?”
The few of them looked over. It was a man in his early forties, his whole frame taut, solid muscle, with a scar across his face, a mark that anyone could tell at a glance was the handiwork of a mutated beast.
Jiang Shu said, “Yeah, what about it?”
The clerk, seeing who’d come, was so excited his words stammered. “Captain Ji…”
Hearing this, Jiang Shan frowned and stepped straight forward to shield the siblings behind him.
Seeing this, the man smiled. “Don’t be nervous, friend. I just heard this young fellow say he knows where there are rhino-horn oxen. We happen to need a certain thing off a rhino-horn ox for materials, so I came to ask. Rest easy, if there really are rhino-horn oxen where the young fellow says, I’ll pay you for it.”
Jiang Shan said evenly, “It was years ago. Even if I told you now, you might not run into them.”
Sizing up the man’s appearance, plus the clerk’s form of address, he figured this was probably some vanguard team captain, Jiang Shan didn’t want to invite trouble.
“Rhino-horn oxen are herd animals. Since the young fellow saw a whole herd, that proves it’s their gathering ground, generally they won’t readily abandon it.” The man said, “Of course, even if we don’t find them in the end, we won’t blame you.”
So far, only the horn of a rhino-horn ox could effectively relieve the symptoms Evolvers suffered after overusing their abilities.
Last time Ji Xing led a team out on a mission, several key members still hadn’t recovered, the infirmary doctors suspected irreversible mental-strength damage.
There was no choice but to take the risk of capturing a rhino-horn ox.
Unfortunately, Ji Xing had led teams out several times and never found a trace of one.
Seeing that Ji Xing had spoken thus and the Jiang family still wouldn’t budge, the clerk leapt to take offense on his behalf. “Do you even know who Captain Ji is? He’s the head of our base’s entire vanguard force!”
“If you were just talking nonsense earlier, admit it. Don’t go wasting Captain Ji’s time.”
That last line was already openly mocking them.
Jiang Shu snorted. “Who says we’re talking nonsense? Bring me a pen.”
Ji Xing glanced at the clerk, who reluctantly produced pen and paper.
Jiang Shu snatched it up, scrawled a line in a flourishing hand, and just as the clerk was about to lean in for a look, Jiang Shu had already taken it and handed it to Ji Xing.
“There. If you’ve got a death wish, go for it. I’ll say this first, back then we saw no fewer than ten rhino-horn oxen there. If you go and something happens to you, don’t go pinning the blame on us.”
Ji Xing wasn’t angry. “Thank you.”
He glanced at the address on it and tucked the slip away.
As the head of the entire vanguard force, he could tell at a glance the few before him were ordinary people, yet able to come back safe from un-reclaimed wilderness, they had to have some special ability.
Ji Xing said no more and turned to leave.
Then he heard the girl behind him speak. “There’s danger beneath that grassland.”
Ji Xing’s stride paused. He swept a glance at Jiang Zhi and smiled. “Thank you.”
Jiang Zhi nodded. “You’re welcome. I just don’t want you unable to come back and pay us our reward.”
Ji Xing was a little taken aback, but said nothing more. He nodded, then said to the clerk, “Give them a twenty percent discount today.”
After the man left, the clerk wore a look of someone fit to burst with rage.
These few were dirt-poor, yet they dared talk to Captain Ji like that, utterly insolent.
And Captain Ji actually wanted to give them a discount!?
Hearing about the twenty percent off, Jiang Shu grinned.
He called out toward Ji Xing’s retreating back, “Thank you, Captain Ji!”
Then he pointed at the cheapest cement in the store and said haughtily, “This one, give me two hundred kilograms!”
With that, he even turned back to ask Jiang Shan, “Dad, that enough?”
That petty, triumphant look had the clerk’s face twisting in anger.
Jiang Shan nodded with a smile.
Mud bricks made from cement mixed with clay looked more presentable.
The clerk weighed out the cement in a huff. Seeing the bill, Jiang Shu didn’t show it, but his heart gave little aching twinges.
Cement was eight hundred points per hundred jin, two hundred kilograms was thirty-two hundred points, twenty-five hundred sixty after the discount.
In one stroke, more than half of what they’d earned that morning was gone.
Their task today, besides selling the cotton aphids, was to buy the materials on the list.
But for basic stuff like cement, going to Chen Li’s cousin to ask would waste a favor, so buying it at the store was the most cost-effective.
With the rest of the money, Jiang Shan bought a dozen-odd kilograms of white jade snail slime and mutated sand.
Just as he was about to pay, Jiang Shan received five thousand six hundred and five thousand eight hundred fifty points transferred over in installments from Yuan Ying.
That was the proceeds from the ninety jin of stir-fried cotton aphids and eighty jin of sugar blocks Yuan Ying had sold to the District D base store.
Although it didn’t match the price Chen Li gave, only the base store had the deep pockets to take in this much at once.
If they hadn’t been in a hurry to build the house, the base store wouldn’t have been their first choice.
A smile spread across Jiang Shan’s face.
Jiang Shu: “Dad, what’s got you so happy?”
“Your second aunt sold off her goods over there too.”
The family had already agreed: all the money from the processed cotton aphids would be transferred to Jiang Shan, who would handle buying the house-building materials in one place.
Jiang Shu asked happily, “How much did it go for?”
There was nothing to hide about this, Jiang Shan showed the siblings, and Jiang Shu’s heart surged.
“With this money, we’ve got enough to build the whole house, right?”
Jiang Shan had spent these past days calculating all the materials they’d need, it was about right. He smiled. “This should about do it. Your mom said the money from these two batches goes to building the house, once Ah Wen’s share comes in too, things will ease up a bit.”
Jiang Shu looked over eagerly. “Dad, you see how hard we’ve worked these past couple of days, shouldn’t you…”
He made a money-rubbing gesture with his fingers. “Shouldn’t you give us a little reward?”
Jiang Shan found it funny. “A grown man, still after money?”
Jiang Shu said matter-of-factly, “Look, Ah Zhi dug up good stuff last time, who’s to say we won’t find something good this time too?”
Jiang Shan snorted a laugh. “You think good stuff is cabbage? Just lying around for the finding.”
Even so, Jiang Shan transferred a hundred points each to the siblings.
“Ahem, don’t let your mom find out about this.”
Jiang Shu shot Jiang Zhi an “aren’t I great?” look, then gave Jiang Shan a military salute. “Yes, sir!”
With such a big sum suddenly in hand, Jiang Shu felt instantly emboldened.
He pointed at the materials on the list. “This one, this one, and this one, fifty kilograms of each!”
The very picture of a nouveau riche.
Jiang Shan let him fool around.
After buying the basic materials, with the money left Jiang Shan bought a good number of functional materials too.
The clerk’s face was black.
With this big discount, his commission had shrunk no small amount.
He’d taken them for a few paupers, only for their purchasing power to rival a District B bigwig’s, he couldn’t help regretting what he’d said earlier.
A short while later, the three walked out of the building-materials store under the clerk’s resentful gaze.
Afterward they went to District C to find Chen Li’s cousin, Captain Chen Rong.
Evolver teams could often turn up good things, aside from items required for missions, the rest were left to each person’s discretion.
After buying enough curled-leaf-plant sap from Chen Rong at a low price, the three finally headed home.
On the way, Jiang Shan asked Jiang Zhi about her warning to Ji Xing. “Ah Zhi, what’s beneath that grassland?”
Jiang Zhi shook her head. “Not sure. At the time I just detected a dense cluster of red warning points over there.”
Jiang Shu sucked in a breath. “Then will that Captain Ji not make it back if he goes?”
“Don’t know. But the man’s probably very strong, otherwise he wouldn’t be eyeing rhino-horn oxen.”
It was just an offhand remark to them anyway, it had little to do with them.
The three pushed the materials-laden cart home.
The moment they arrived, they saw Jiang Jun sitting in a low, simple wheelchair, repairing the real-firewood heating stove.
Jiang Zhi leaned in for a look. “This thing broken?”
Ye Qingyun, still boiling down sugar blocks, said, “It’s not broken. I had Ah Jun modify it. We’ve never used this thing before, and the weather’s hot now, so it won’t be needed anytime soon. Your eldest brother’s always been good at repairs, so I had him convert it into a water-heating cabinet, that way we don’t have to tie up a stove burner just to boil water.”
Jiang Jun used to be a repairman, he’d once partnered with someone to run a repair shop in the county town. Anything in the household put into his hands always came out good as new.
Soon the heating stove had taken on a new look, with two extra burners on top, sized about like the family’s kettles.
Placed on the tunnel, anyone who rose early could boil two pots in passing, enough for the whole family to drink all day. Quite convenient.
Jiang Zhi gave him an admiring thumbs-up. “Big Brother, your skills are as good as ever.”
Jiang Jun smiled. “These skills are about all I’ve got left to show now.”
Jiang Zhi looked at him, then ran back into the tent and dug out a hanging camping lamp, handing it over without ceremony. “Big Brother, this thing’s broken, see if you can fix it?”
Jiang Jun took it and pressed it a few times, spotting the problem at a glance. “The adjustable shade’s gone wrong, probably from the radiation.”
Jiang Zhi didn’t follow. “So can it be fixed or not?”
Jiang Jun said, “Before, yes, now, without tools, no. But the shape’s still all right, if you don’t mind, I can convert it into a kerosene type.”
After the great catastrophe, many electronics had lost their use, base stations and factory grounds had been destroyed, and old-world tech had nearly all been junked by the radiation. What worked now was new tech developed from mutated materials.
Jiang Zhi didn’t mind in the least. “Sure, that way the house can be a bit brighter at night too.”
Although they could later apply to the base for electricity, due to circuit limits the base ruled that each District D household could run only one lamp at night. More was allowed, but the electricity fee doubled.
Electricity was already dear, ten points per kilowatt-hour, doubled, a month would easily run several hundred points.
So in District D, most households chose to use kerosene lamps.
Only the fuel wasn’t kerosene, but some plant oil refined by the base.
Jiang Sui tugged at Jiang Jun’s sleeve. “Daddy, can you teach me? I want to learn too.”
Jiang Jun smiled. “Of course.”
Jiang Shu came over and looked at the water-heating cabinet Jiang Jun had converted, sighing in admiration. “In our family it’s Big Brother who’s got the patience. If you made me tinker with these things, I’d rather go out gathering.”
Jiang Wen said, “Me neither. I’m not as handy as Big Brother, otherwise my dad would’ve nabbed me ages ago to carry on his trade.”
Jiang Jun smiled and said nothing.
How could he not know the few of them were comforting him on purpose, afraid he might not take it well?
To have survived was already lucky enough, what more could he ask?
Jiang Shan was unloading the cart. “All right, hurry over and help. Today we’ve got to finish digging the foundation and make up the mud-brick blanks.”
Jiang Shu: “Coming, coming!”
On the way back Jiang Shan had bought several shovels too, these were all essential tools.
A couple of days ago Niu Dali had dug up a good bit of ground for them, but since the food business had drawn so much attention these past two days, Jiang Shan decided to build the perimeter wall first.
The able-bodied men in the family quickly got moving.
They mixed the prepared clay with a great deal of water, stirred it without pause, then used the molds Chen Rong had lent them to form mud blanks.
Even on no sleep the night before, the Jiang family’s zeal for the work was undimmed.
Grunting and straining, they soon turned out over a thousand mud bricks, each thirty centimeters long, twenty wide, and twelve thick.
Niu Dali, as if he’d timed it perfectly, filled their water vat whenever they ran low.
Back and forth, trip after trip, it left the Jiang family rather embarrassed.
Ye Qingyun stopped him several times, but Niu Dali wouldn’t be swayed. She was both exasperated and amused. “Dali, you silly boy, why won’t it sink in? We’ve got enough hands, we don’t need your help.”
Filling the water vat yet again, Niu Dali said, “My wife said we’ve got nothing to repay you with, so doing a few small things won’t hurt.”
Seeing how dense he was, Ye Qingyun said helplessly, “How come I don’t see your wife today?”
“My wife said you’ve only just reunited with your family these past days and must be busy, so she didn’t want to intrude.”
This couple was sensible and grateful, Ye Qingyun had a good impression of them.
“You coming over to help us every single day isn’t a long-term solution. Your household’s only three people, you’ve still got to eat.” Ye Qingyun said, “How about this: you head back for now, and if we need anything later we’ll come find you for help.”
Niu Dali scratched his head.
He didn’t dare make decisions on his own, lest his wife scold him. “I’ll have to ask my wife first.”
His earnest, simple manner had the whole Jiang family laughing.
Ye Qingyun pressed a few freshly boiled sugar blocks into his hand.
Niu Dali was about to refuse when Ye Qingyun said with a stern face, “No pushing it back. This isn’t for you, it’s for your wife and child. If you won’t take it, our family won’t let you come by anymore.”
Niu Dali scratched his head again.
Take it, then.
If his wife scolded him when he got home, worst case he’d just bring it back.
Watching him run back and forth so many times without even getting winded, Jiang Zhi was a little astonished at his strength.
She thought about it. “Niu Dali, in a couple of days, could you do me a favor?”
Niu Dali nodded. “We settled this before, as long as you saved my wife, short of murder or arson, whatever you ask, I’ll do it.”
Once it was arranged, Jiang Zhi sent Niu Dali home.
Niu Dali took Jiang Zhi’s words seriously, he no longer refused, shouldered his water buckets, and headed back.
Jiang Shu sidled over, waggling his eyebrows. “Ah Zhi, you’re not planning to have him help with…”
Jiang Zhi didn’t deny it, giving an “mm.” “He’s strong. Our odds of catching it go up.”
She hadn’t given up on that silver carp.
When she’d met Ji Xing today, she’d noticed the man carried no shortage of gold-marked items.
Jiang Zhi guessed the base’s Evolvers had ways to seek out and test the effects of special items.
It was just that, at their current rung, they had no way to access such things.
Jiang Shu instantly grew excited. “I knew it! I had Brother Wen ask around earlier, there’s a kind of mutated spider silk with extraordinary toughness, ordinary blades can’t even cut through it. The secondhand shop sells it for just over a hundred points. If we made it into a fishing net…”
Jiang Zhi got it.
No wonder, on the way back, her brother had asked their dad for pocket money, so this was the goal!
She laughed. “Brother, not bad! You’re getting smarter and smarter.”
Jiang Shu kept a straight face. “What, you saying I had no brains before?”
Jiang Zhi gave a sly little laugh.
Truly, there was strength in numbers.
Under the blazing sun, in a single midday the thousand-odd mud bricks dried out.
Following Jiang Shan’s layout plan, the family walled off the three-hundred-square-meter plot.
Except for the side bordering the self-built district’s perimeter wall, which they built to two meters, the rest was only a meter and a half high.
To save materials, that afternoon Jiang Zhi and the others made a special trip out of the city to the base’s buffer zone to cut down a load of brambles and wind them along the wall.
The thorns of the mutated brambles were longer, thicker, and far more numerous and densely packed than ordinary brambles.
The few of them made several trips and gathered a great deal, wrapping the top of the wall airtight.
Once the wall was up, the whole family stood in the yard and were instantly flooded with a sense of security.
They had no materials for a gate, so they just covered the opening with two wooden boards, but no one could hide their excitement.
The happiest were Jiang Sui and Jiang Si.
These two days the little ones had been kept cooped up in the tent, apart from milling about the stove, they weren’t allowed anywhere, for fear someone might spot them and coax secrets out of them.
Now that they had a yard, the two children immediately started romping about.
“Auntie, when will the house be finished? After this, when we cook something tasty, will we not have to worry about people coming to snatch it?”
The little girl’s questions came one after another.
A far cry from her timid manner of a few days ago.
Jiang Zhi smiled. “Once the kitchen’s built, we can cook whatever we like.”
These past couple of days, the cotton-aphid business had made the whole family realize how important it was to manage the smell.
So Jiang Shan put his old trade to use and designed a kitchen that drew air downward, underground.
Jiang Si’s eyes sparkled. “When I grow up, I want to go gathering too.”
Jiang Sui kept echoing, “Me too, me too!”
Jiang Hai came out and smiled. “Then you’ll have to train hard.”
Jiang Shu was curious. “Train? Train what?”
Jiang Hai said, “Nothing too impressive, just the army boxing I practiced in the military. The way the world is now, I figure some skill is necessary.”
Hearing this, Jiang Shu was instantly itching to try. “Uncle, can I learn too?”
“Of course.”
Jiang Hai looked in good spirits today, he wanted to help out, but everyone refused to let him.
After a brief rest, they all got back to work.
First the dry latrine, then the kitchen…
By the time night fell, the foundations for four rooms and a hall had just barely been dug out.
At today’s pace, two more days should see it finished.
This too was thanks to the present climate.
Otherwise, forming the mud bricks alone would have taken no small amount of time.
At eight-thirty in the evening, with the power about to cut out, Grandpa Jiang called everyone to a halt.
“All right, that’s enough for today. Keep going and even an iron man couldn’t take it.”
“Old lady, you put in a bit more effort and make everyone dinner.”
Grandma Jiang was about to answer when Ye Qingyun said, “Dad, let me do it. Mom hasn’t stopped all day, we can’t have her wearing herself into illness.”
Grandma Jiang fished some highland barley from the rice jar with a smile. “The intensity of my old field work was no less than today’s. Don’t worry, I can handle this much.”
Ye Qingyun wouldn’t let the old woman toil away, and hurried over to help, the few sisters-in-law following to light the fire and wash vegetables.
A whole day and night of work had left everyone exhausted, the most worn-out being Jiang Shan and Jiang He.
The two were the mainstays of the house-building, though everyone helped, it all hinged on the two of them keeping watch.
Now that they’d stopped, their backs ached and their hands had swollen.
Jiang Shan sat on the ground and drank some water. A faint cool breeze had come up with the night, making it rather pleasant. He smiled. “How come I never felt house-building was this exhausting before?”
Jiang Shu said, “Dad, before you used a bulldozer, right? Now it’s all done by hand, of course it’s different. Don’t believe me, ask Second Uncle.”
Jiang He nodded. “I’m fairly used to it. Compared to working for someone else, I still prefer doing things for my own family.”
Yuan Ying teased him, “Of course that’s better, no one squeezing you dry.”
Jiang Shu seized the chance to make a request. “Second Uncle, once we finish the house, make me a weapon cabinet! I want to line up all my weapons nice and neat.”
Jiang Zhi was utterly speechless. “…Brother, you’ve got exactly one stick. Do you really need a weapon cabinet?”
Jiang Shu declared righteously, “I’ve only got one stick now. There’ll be more down the line, I call it planning ahead!”
Jiang He laughed as he watched the siblings bicker. “All right, all right, I’ll make Dashu one. And I’ll make Ah Zhi a display cabinet too, I remember you’ve loved collecting things since you were small.”
She didn’t expect Second Uncle to remember her hobby, Jiang Zhi flushed a little. “You don’t have to…”
All right, fine, she did rather want one.
So she changed her tune. “…Just make a small one, three or four shelves.”
Jiang Shan looked helplessly at the two kids.
“Dashu, if you want a weapon, you can ask your uncle. Back when he was in the army, he was quite the hand with weapons.”