Chapter 57 p1
In the afternoon, the person who replied to Ji Yang’s message became Luo Laosan.
Xie Muzhi had probably gone to get busy again.
The list of Chinese medicinal herbs needed was also given to her. She had most of them. For the few she didn’t have, she had seeds. And there were a few… that were really impossible to get.
Because Chinese medicine included all sorts of strange things. It could be a weed on the roadside, a pot of soil, or a certain insect that everyone hated. The number was too large.
Ji Yang picked some and made two burlap sacks. The next afternoon, she went over.
Luo Laosan brought people to pick her up.
The base had just gotten rid of a group of troublemakers, and the remaining people were exceptionally honest. Besides taking a few more glances at the supplies, they didn’t care at all.
It was just that there were also more insects in the base.
Even though there were dedicated survivors who cleaned every morning and evening, you could still see cockroaches crawling randomly on the roadside, and all sorts of strange insects in the corners. Of course, there were also survivors who were chasing after the cockroaches, wanting to exchange them for points.
The snakes, insects, rats, and ants that had disappeared from her side might have all run over here. After all, this was the most crowded place, and also the place with the most food.
However, overall, it was already far better than her previous life, which was very good.
This time, Ji Yang had only stayed for two days. Xie Muzhi was on a business trip. The government had just sent away a few thousand troublemakers. Although the remaining infected were not fooled, with such a big move from the government, they would also be afraid, which was not conducive to recuperation.
Therefore, the government wanted to appease the public.
It just so happened that the potatoes and sweet potatoes planted in the base had a bumper harvest, and the yield was not bad. So, they took out a portion to go to the base by the sea to get some seafood back, to improve the diet of the survivors.
Xie Muzhi also said that the base also had the intention of helping its neighbors. The survivors of the coastal cities had all moved to the base near the inland because of the tsunami forecast. The number of people far exceeded the original capacity, and the food pressure was naturally greater. Their side had not received many survivors, and they had also made full preparations. The planting area was exceptionally large, and after a bountiful harvest, they naturally had to help each other.
So, after sending Xie Muzhi off, Ji Yang also went back with a yawn.
—
The news that the specific medicine for the plague might be successfully developed was not announced.
The government was very cautious about this matter.
And the specific medicine was not only needed for the plague. What if this was announced too early, and there was no news about the others for a long time? Wouldn’t it make people even more disappointed?
Therefore, the survivors of the base still lived as usual.
As the government had predicted, under the continuous threat of death, the relaxed atmosphere only lasted for a few days, and then it slowly returned to the previous low.
Jiang Jing and Li Yi and the others returned to the base with excited faces, and their smiles instantly disappeared. They cautiously observed their surroundings, and only after there were no people with strange behavior did they breathe a sigh of relief.
A month ago, a riot had occurred in the base. They were very lucky to have had a bad feeling and had stayed at home to guard. Although that group of people had attacked, they were no longer the helpless and bloodless people they had been before. They all held knives to resist, and had killed a few of the people who had rushed to the front, and had waited for the government’s rescue.
In fact, before this, the atmosphere between the survivors was already very subtle. After that, another riot had occurred in the base, which was even more terrifying than before. But this time, it was no longer aimed at the ordinary survivors, but only those with abundant supplies.
They were not affected much.
That group of people had been taken away, and everything seemed to have returned to peace, but there was also an undercurrent.
The fundamental problem was that there were not enough resources to go around, and even the government could not solve it. These ordinary people were even more on tenterhooks, for fear of being targeted again by the collapsed extremists.
Their team now had a total of seven people who went out. The daily cost of the rubber boat or the assault boat was shared among them. The points they earned could also be used to buy some grain to store. Although life was difficult, it was still manageable, so they did not risk their lives to professionally catch rats and cockroaches.
Especially today, they had an extra discovery!
They had left three people outside to wait, and the four of them had come back. They had carefully returned to the ordinary residential area of the third district, and very tacitly, they had each gone back to their own homes to pick up their respective relatives.
Li Yi picked up her mother, Jiang Jing picked up her daughter, Zhao Ming picked up his son, and Zhu Yun also picked up her mother. After they had picked up the people, the group had met up and then had gone to the store to rent a rubber boat, and had purchased some gasoline, clean water, outdoor survival equipment, and other supplies. Now, you needed a ticket to buy anything. Fortunately, their few families were very frugal, and now they could only get so much by putting them together.
After they had purchased what they needed, they had quickly left.
They had sped all the way. About sixty kilometers away, on a mountain, the assault boat had stopped. The group had gone over and had seen their familiar companions, as well as the wild boar carcass lying next to them. Everything was intact, and they had finally shown a smile.
Before today, they had already swept through almost all the places within a forty-kilometer radius of the base. There was almost nothing to be caught in the water, so they could only pin their hopes on the mountains. Li Yi had impulsively suggested that they go to a farther place to see.
The assault boat was a gas-guzzler, and their hearts ached. They had struggled for a long time, but they really wanted some harvest, so they had gritted their teeth and had come over.
They were very lucky to have found this mountain forest.
This was already another city. Due to the terrain, there were very few places that were submerged. The mountain forest was dense, and most of the trees were dead, but there were still many that were stubbornly alive. They had indeed found a lot to eat, but these were not enough to let them pull everyone over. The main reason was that they had found a nest of wild boars here!
Wild boars had not been a protected animal for decades. When the disaster came, a large number of animals had died, and meat had become scarcer and scarcer. The government had already sent people to sweep the surrounding several mountain forests to get some meat sources for the survivors.
After all, when people couldn’t even eat their fill, there were no taboos.
However, their ability was limited, and their preparation was not sufficient. They had only caught one, but it was also very large, estimated to be two hundred jin. This was not even an adult wild boar, but it was probably about to become one.
Such a large wild boar, they were naturally reluctant to exchange it, so they had thought of directly smoking it into dried meat and taking it back to eat slowly in the future.
Of course, it was not to be processed on the mountain. It was still too dangerous in the wild now. They had also found this mountain forest by mistake, and it was not good to process it here.
In addition… they did this also because they had ideas about the remaining wild boars.
—
After the group had come back, they had quickly started to pack the wild boar, and then had moved it onto the assault boat and the rubber boat. The nine adults and two children had sat separately on them, and then had loaded a pile of dried firewood. Led by the assault boat, they had headed in another direction.
After a lot of rushing, it had taken about an hour to reach the familiar community building.
It couldn’t be said to be familiar. After a few months, every building was in a state of devastation, as if it had been hit hard by something. It went without saying that it was the result of the tornado’s ravages. The once exquisite decoration was now in a state of disrepair. At a glance, it looked like a deserted and unfinished building.
Jiang Jing and the Li family all sighed faintly. The house they had bought with so much money had been reduced to a ruin overnight. It was so depressing.
Especially since their relatives were also ‘buried’ here.
They went around the other few buildings and came to Building 9.
It had not rained for more than twenty days, and the water level had receded to the top of the sixth floor.
The group of them skillfully climbed in through the corridor window. This place had been submerged in water, and after it had dried, there was still a lingering stench in the corridor. The few of them subconsciously frowned.
“Is there really someone living here?” The few who had come here for the first time were a little apprehensive. Zhu Yun looked at the entrance that seemed to have no signs of entry or exit and couldn’t help but ask.
Li Yi immediately said, “Of course there is. Don’t worry. Even if there isn’t, we are safer here than in the base.”
Now, it was easy to be targeted for doing anything. There were many people in the base. Once you were targeted, once you were out of the base, it could be said to be a bloody battle. It was different here.
Thinking back to the icy and snowy environment, how many people had tried to sneak attack Ji Yang, but they had all been killed. As a result, their building was the cleanest, and the number of people who had stayed in the community was also small.
After they had dealt with it here, and then had found a way to take it back to the base in several trips, it was relatively much safer.
The teammates also thought so, but the premise was that they could get so much meat. One of the men in his thirties, Zhao Ming, also began to worry because he had come to a strange and seemingly deserted building. “If there’s no one, then are we still going to get the wild boars? And is the person you mentioned willing to go on an adventure with us? That’s a whole herd of wild boars!”
They had come this time, besides dealing with the wild boars, they also wanted to find an ally. Jiang Jing and Li Yi had both said that they knew a particularly formidable big shot. If she was willing to make a move, the herd of wild boars would definitely be all gg. Only then had they discussed coming over.
Speaking of which, Li Yi was not so sure. She scratched her head. “I’m not sure about this. It depends on whether she likes to eat wild boar meat. If she’s not here or not interested, we’ll try it ourselves. If we can get this one, we can definitely get a second and a third! As long as we get one more, we’ve made a profit!”
Li Yi’s tone was full of confidence, which immediately made the few of them compose themselves and show a look of anticipation.
Vegetables could be grown in a month, but meat could not. The breeding speed of pigs was fast, but meat was not something that could be raised casually. So, the price of meat was still high. If they got a little more stock themselves, and sold a portion of the rest, they could exchange for a lot of points, which was enough to cover their expenses.
It was just that they were a little scared to be in a strange environment for the first time.
The few who had just joined the team happened to be two families, one was a brother and sister with their mother, and the other was a couple with a seven-year-old child. They were all with their families, and they were usually very cautious in their actions.
Li Yi and Jiang Jing had also chosen to cooperate because they valued their caution.
They wanted the supplies, but what was more important was their lives.
They moved all the supplies from the boat down. In the middle of it, they had also gotten a few rats and a pile of cockroaches. Jiang Jing had killed the rats without changing her expression and had collected them in a separate burlap sack. These things could also be exchanged for points if they were given to the government, so they couldn’t be wasted.
Then, the group went upstairs.