As expected, moderate radiation could be detected in this wheat. It seemed this trip to the secret base wasn’t in vain. She quickly plucked off a large wheat grain, which was a full three times the size of the wheat grains from her previous life.
Working under the scorching sun was a bit grueling, so she simply cut a large bundle of wheat ears and returned to the earthen cave to test them.
Leng Yi, meanwhile, stayed behind to cut down all the remaining wheat, carrying it bundle by bundle to the side of the cave.
There was too much wheat for the two of them to possibly carry home in one trip. Besides, if the two of them appeared in public carrying bundles of wheat outside of the harvesting season, their secret base would surely be compromised.
The wastelanders’ craving for food was insane. If they saw this, they would immediately scour the entire wheat field again. The base might be exposed by tomorrow, and they could forget about coming back next year.
Therefore, they could only stay here and obediently test the wheat.
Fortunately, the yield rate of this wheat was quite good, already exceeding one-tenth.
Four in the afternoon.
The two had already tested more than half of it. Leng Xuan used the Detector’s weighing function and found they had harvested a total of 8 jin of wheat grains. After hulling, they would get at least five or six jin of food.
And they still had half of the wheat ears left to test. The day’s harvest would probably amount to about 10 jin of food.
Leng Xuan was very satisfied with this haul.
She didn’t know how much food a scavenger could gather in a day during the proper season, but according to the original owner’s memory, she couldn’t glean this much in a day when she went out with her father.
That was because there were too many scavengers. The moment a harvester passed, a huge crowd of scavengers would rush madly into the wheat field, and people would often come to blows over a single wheat ear.
“Leng Yi, the sun is about to set. We can’t keep testing. Let’s strip all the remaining grains and take them home to test tonight.”
Under these conditions, there was no advanced method for threshing the wheat grains; they just had to strip them by hand.
Fortunately, both of them were wearing gloves.
When people are busy, they don’t feel tired. Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye, and the two finally stripped all the wheat ears into a burlap sack. It was more than half full, weighing a hundred and fifty or sixty jin.
Leng Yi shouldered the burlap sack and walked in front, while Leng Xuan packed the tested wheat grains into her own backpack.
Leaning on her large staff, she followed behind her younger brother.
With food on their backs, the two didn’t dare take the main road at all, trekking through the woods the entire way.
As they neared the Shantytown, there were no more woods to cut through, and the two had no choice but to take the main road.
Leng Xuan cut down a few branches, piled them together, divided the grain into several small bags, and hid them among the branches. She then found many large leaves to cover them, making it look as if the siblings were just returning from gathering firewood.
The people here would bring some dry firewood home every day when they came down from the mountains after scavenging. After all, they had to heat the kang every night, so the task of gathering firewood could not be skipped for even a day.
Almost everyone coming down the mountain carried a few pieces of dry firewood.
Therefore, the foolish siblings dragging a pile of fresh, leafy branches didn’t attract much attention.
After all, they were fools; it was reasonable that they couldn’t tell the difference between dry and wet firewood.
When they got home, Mother Leng rolled out on her little cart and hurriedly took Leng Xuan’s backpack.
“Xuan’er, why are you back so late? You worried me to death.”
Before she could finish her sentence, she felt the heavy backpack. It seemed to be food!
She glanced at her daughter in disbelief. Leng Xuan nodded at her. Overjoyed, Mother Leng hugged the backpack and zipped into the house on her little cart.
“Quick, come inside. Mom cooked some porridge, and it’s still warm. Hurry up and have a bowl.”
Hearing there was porridge, Leng Yi bolted toward the house, only to be yanked back by the ear by Leng Xuan.
She had to make this kid carry the grain hidden in the branches into the house. In her sickly state, it was already a feat to have made it home. Right now, she didn’t have an ounce of strength left to move branches and find the grain.
The night was already very dark. Unless you were right up close, you couldn’t see what their family was busy with. Thus, Leng Yi openly carried the several small bags of grain into the room.
When Mother Leng saw so many bags, she was completely stunned!
“This… so much wheat, where did you get it? You didn’t steal it from the granary, did you?”
Thinking of her foolish daughter and son, it was possible they could actually do something like that.
Mother Leng’s heart leaped into her throat.
If they dared to steal from the granary, they would be sent to the reclamation team to serve a sentence!
Leng Xuan quickly told Mother Leng about the secret base. Mother Leng looked at Leng Yi, couldn’t help but grab a feather duster, and whipped it at her son. “You brat, why didn’t you tell us about such a good place sooner? What if someone else got there first?”
Leng Yi declared, “That is my Huashan Sect sacred ground! How could you mortals enter?”
Mother Leng’s feather duster whipped out again.
After spanking her son, she couldn’t hide the smile on her face as she held the grain, treasuring it and examining it over and over.
Leng Xuan, on the other hand, ran over to check on Father Leng. Father Leng was conscious at the moment, but he still couldn’t speak or move. He lay quietly on the kang, grinning at Leng Xuan.
Leng Xuan took out the small potion vial from her backpack and said to Father Leng, “Open your mouth.”
She poured all 0.2 doses of the potion into Father Leng’s mouth. Father Leng smacked his lips, smiled at Leng Xuan again, rolled over, and began to snore like thunder.
When this potion repaired the body, the person would feel extremely tired. A good sleep was all that was needed.
Leng Xuan didn’t disturb Father Leng and turned to look at the two small infants lying side by side in their swaddling clothes.
The two little ones had wrinkled faces. It had been over ten days since their birth, but they hadn’t filled out yet. It was all because of poverty!
Leng Xuan’s gaze fell on the can of milk powder placed next to the swaddling clothes. The packaging was almost identical to those she had seen in her previous life. A baby was printed on it, and there were many dense, small characters on the side.
Leng Xuan was very curious. What did the writing of this world look like?
Surely she hadn’t become illiterate the moment she transmigrated, right? All those years of studying would have been for nothing.
After seeing the small characters clearly by the candlelight, Leng Xuan finally relaxed.
The writing here was surprisingly similar to Chinese characters, somewhere between simplified and traditional. If she were asked to write it, she definitely couldn’t do it correctly, but she had no problem recognizing it.
After reading the ingredients list, Leng Xuan finally understood why the Base government distributed milk powder to newborns.
The radiation levels in this world were off the charts. Even if a person had never eaten high-radiation food since birth, they would inevitably accumulate a certain amount of radiation in their body, whether from breathing the air or drinking water.
The milk powder distributed by the Base government contained anti-radiation components specially made for infants and young children, allowing them to pass through the most fragile period of their lives in good health.
Children raised on milk powder were generally healthier than those raised on rice paste or even breast milk. When they grew up, they would have a lower probability of suffering from radiation contamination and falling ill.
Leng Xuan decided to immediately trade their grain for two cans of milk powder to ensure they could grow up healthy.
She shared this idea with Mother Leng. Mother Leng was a little tempted but felt that the milk powder was too expensive.
“Xuan’er, we people in the Shantytown can’t compare to the precious folks in the safe zone. No child here is truly raised on milk powder. Most families trade the milk powder they receive for food.
“Kids can survive on rice water too!”