Chapter 24 p1
If the other party had malicious intent, Ji Yang could have just shot them.
But in this situation, she was genuinely a bit baffled.
Fortunately, Ji Yang had long had a plan for her future. She had no interest in forming some gang to collect protection fees, nor did she have the energy to protect others. When the Extreme Cold Survival Alliance was established and was throwing its weight around in the corridor, she couldn’t be bothered to care as long as they didn’t mess with her.
As for the incident with Jiang Jing, she had only intervened because of Xixi. It wasn’t a direct rescue, but rather providing a weapon. If Jiang Jing couldn’t stand up for herself, she would eventually be bullied by others, and Ji Yang wouldn’t have done anything.
Therefore, realizing what this group of people was thinking, Ji Yang said directly, “I’m not taking these. I have no obligation to protect this building. As long as you don’t disturb me, you can do as you please.”
The few of them were immediately a little disappointed.
The tall and sturdy man, however, was not disappointed and nodded as if it were a matter of course. “As it should be. We understand.”
Ji Yang nodded in satisfaction, glanced at the supplies at the door and at her feet, thought for a moment, and took out the two small bread rolls she had gotten from the building. She handed them to the tall man. “Please help me return these to those people, back to their original owners. This is the reward. Will you do it?”
She was used to everything being a transaction.
If she asked someone for help, she would give them supplies as a reward.
The man was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly. “I’ll do it, I’ll do it! I’ll make sure these are all returned to their original owners!”
Seeing that he had taken the things, Ji Yang didn’t say much more and went in.
The remaining people outside had no choice but to take their own things. Someone muttered in a low voice, “We’re done for now. She said she won’t protect us. It’s not safe to live here. We moved for nothing.”
The tall and sturdy man said in annoyance, “Get your head straight. She never said she would protect anyone. But we’re living here because we’re hoping those people won’t dare to come over, right?”
The person who was being complained about was abashed. Seeing the disapproval on the faces of the people around him, he quickly ran away.
The tall and sturdy man, on the other hand, picked up all the supplies on the ground and happily went to return them. He had thought he was coming to hand over supplies, but he hadn’t expected to be able to earn something. Not bad, not bad.
Li Yi, who had been watching the whole process from the side, was drooling with envy.
If only she had Ji Yang’s skills!
No, I have to exercise for an extra half an hour today!
—
Finally back in her own home, the moment Ji Yang closed the door, her whole body relaxed.
Unfortunately, she hadn’t been back for three days, and both fireplaces had gone out. The batteries that supplied power to the heaters were also dead. The entire house was only a few degrees warmer than outside.
So, she didn’t rest. She immediately replaced the batteries, cleaned the fireplaces, put in the burning wood she had prepared in her space, added some wood chips and blocks, and finally added two more charcoal basins. After a flurry of activity, the living room quickly began to warm up.
Xixi had already gone to its dog bed to lie down. Ji Yang changed out of her outer clothes and flashed into her space to wash up. She hadn’t had a proper wash in three days and felt dirty.
After a hot bath and washing and slowly blow-drying her hair, she felt like she had come back to life.
Comfortable!
When she came out of her space, the indoor temperature was already very high, and she didn’t feel cold even in a single layer of clothing.
However, to prevent catching a cold, Ji Yang still added a sweater and came to the sofa to eat.
She first took out an electric pot to cook meat for Xixi. She had hoarded too much meat from abroad and also a lot domestically. Every time she fed the dog, she would directly take a piece of pork or beef, cut it into palm-sized pieces, cook it for a few minutes, take it out, and then leave it on the side to cool. Xixi would go and eat it on its own when it felt it was about right.
She herself directly picked out a steaming hot bowl of ramen from a pile of cooked food as her lunch.
For these three days, she seemed to have returned to her previous life of being alone. Even with Xixi, the non-enclosed place made it impossible for her to sleep peacefully. Every time, she would wake up at the slightest noise. So, when she returned home, the first thing she wanted to do was to take a hot bath and then sleep.
Of course, she didn’t want to sleep on an empty stomach, so she still had to eat something.
Just like that, after feeding Xixi while she ate, Ji Yang quickly cleaned the dining table, rinsed her mouth, wiped her mouth, and ran to bed. Xixi had also eaten and drunk its fill, first went to the cat litter box to solve its problem, and then happily went to its own bed to sleep.
One unlucky incident required Ji Yang three days to heal.
For a full three days, Ji Yang ate and slept, and slept and ate. Apart from the three hours of exercise she dared not stop every day, she did nothing.
Except when she was really bored. It just so happened that the pasture she had planted before had grown almost enough. She moved the rabbits over, and the next day, the female rabbit gave birth to a litter of three baby rabbits.
Their territory was large and full of pasture. The female rabbit had been eating and sleeping well these past few days. After giving birth, she didn’t eat the baby rabbits as the boss had said. Instead, she was excitedly eating the fresh pasture that Ji Yang had brought to her mouth.
Ji Yang was very gratified.
Looking at the chickens and ducks, their population had also expanded a lot. Almost every hen and duck had about ten palm-sized chicks behind them. These were the ones that had been brooding before.
In comparison, the growth rate of the pigs, cattle, and sheep was much slower, especially the pigs, which were still separated by gender.
However, after more than half a year of normal growth, they had all grown very large, and it was time to consider expanding their living quarters.
From then on, Ji Yang finally had the motivation to go out.
In the middle of winter, in a state of extreme cold, it was really too comfortable to stay at home.
Seeing that it was almost eleven o’clock and the weather was still sunny, Ji Yang reluctantly got out of her blanket and got up to get dressed.
As soon as she saw her owner’s movements, Xixi immediately got up and circled around her.
Ten minutes later, Ji Yang went out fully armed.
This time when she went out, she found that some families had moved into the building one after another. There were only a few empty houses left. Ji Yang glanced at them and still went out through the second-floor window.
Ever since the freezing rain, it hadn’t snowed again.
The sun came out for three or four hours every day. The temperature wasn’t very warm, but at noon, it could reach minus fifty-two or fifty-three degrees. Compared to the previous state of almost reaching minus seventy degrees, it was simply too comfortable.
Therefore, there were also many people on the road.
No snow meant that the dog could no longer pull a sleigh. Ji Yang had no choice but to put on her ice skates, hold the fat dog that was slipping on the ice, and skate for twenty minutes. She walked to a place near the suburbs, let Xixi check to confirm that there was no one, and then quickly changed her equipment and brought the fruit she had prepared.
With a motorcycle, the speed shot up. In addition, there were no roads now, so there was no need to obey traffic laws. She just went in a straight line. In another twenty minutes, Ji Yang arrived at the exchange point.
There were many more people than last time.
It seemed that the freezing rain a few days ago had not caused many casualties. But on the contrary, it was noon, the warmest time, and the weather had been good for the past few days. Everyone was willing to come out to get some points at this time. The freezing rain had caused many families to lose members, and it was the able-bodied laborers who were lost. With one less, more labor was needed to supplement.
Naturally, there were more people.
—
Luo Laosan was welcoming customers at a prime location, his glib tongue persuading customers to buy his things. It wasn’t until he heard the roar of an engine and saw Ji Yang that his eyes lit up. He quickly called someone to take care of the stall and came through the crowd with an apologetic smile. “Oh my, Miss Ji, you’re finally here! You scared me to death!”
He was afraid that Ji Yang had had an accident because of the freezing rain. Too many people had died in this freezing rain.
Now that he saw her, he was finally relieved. The big customer was still there.
Ji Yang smiled in understanding and said, “I rested for a few days. How many good things have you collected this time?”
“I guarantee it’s enough!” Luo Laosan glanced at the large burlap sack tied to her motorcycle and smiled so wide that his face bloomed. “Yo, you have one more bag than last time.”
“That’s right. That’s why I was afraid you had prepared too much,” Ji Yang also replied.
Luo Laosan rubbed his hands excitedly and then said, “There are a lot of people here now. Let’s go somewhere else to count the goods.” After a pause, he added, “It’s just behind here. If you shout, the government officials can hear you.”
Ji Yang nodded casually, not afraid.
Luo Laosan couldn’t help but think of the first time they had traded, when this girl had killed six people without batting an eye. He gave a dry laugh and glanced at the dog sitting obediently beside her. His throat became even drier. “Hmph, this big dog has grown a lot.”
Xixi felt that it was being praised and stuck out its tongue and smiled happily.
Ji Yang nodded seriously. Yes.
It was difficult for her to even pick it up now.
As they were talking, the human and the dog went around to the back of the exchange point.
There were not many people here. Luo Laosan first went to get the jade he had prepared for the transaction and also called a few brothers to come and count. This time, there were a total of two hundred and eighty jin of frozen fruit.
The price of fruit was even more expensive, so he gave more jade. The quality was about the same as the previous two times, but the weight was almost one and a half times more.
Both parties were very satisfied and didn’t even need to bargain.
After the transaction was over, Ji Yang put the jade in her hiking backpack and then asked, “By the way, I want to ask about something. Is the base built yet?”
Luo Laosan was stunned and then said, “Not yet, but it’s almost done. It’s estimated that in a month at most, a portion of the move-in quotas will be opened. Is Miss Ji also going to move in? You can find us for moving. We’re acquaintances, so we’ll give you a 20% discount!”
Ji Yang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “No, why isn’t it built yet? I heard a long time ago that it was being built.”
Luo Laosan immediately became mysterious, leaned over, and said in a low voice, “Isn’t there a rumor that the natural disaster won’t be over in a short time? First, it was a blizzard, then extreme cold. Many people predict that there might be extreme heat and a bunch of other messy natural disasters in the future. So, the country is building the base very formally and has recruited a lot of workers. I was lucky enough to see it in advance with my boss. Just one wall, and the materials used for all the houses and buildings inside are said to be particularly good. They seem to be the materials that were just used for space travel. They are expensive, so it will definitely take a long time.”
After he finished speaking, he looked at this girl with a conflicted expression. The natural disaster didn’t know when it would end, and she was still so extravagant, using food to buy inedible jade. She must be really rich.
He had actually been tactfully reminding her.
Ji Yang’s heart stirred, and she looked very interested. “Why haven’t I heard any news?”
Luo Laosan spread his hands playfully. “How can this be said casually? Once ordinary people know that the country is spending so much manpower and resources to build a base, someone will definitely take the opportunity to stir up trouble, saying that the government is ignoring ordinary people and instead extravagantly building a fortress base. Now, many places have directly claimed land and become bandit dens, which are much more difficult to manage than before. I was only able to know this because of my boss’s connections. I heard that at the beginning of the blizzard, the higher-ups immediately decided on the base plan. Many formidable construction big shots were all secretly taken away, and their relatives were protected, just so that they could build the base into a fortress with peace of mind. The people who went to build the base can’t come back at all, and ordinary people can’t go there either, so naturally, no news has been revealed.”
“Wow, that’s great,” Ji Yang sighed, and her mood became even better.
This was completely different from her previous life. In her previous life, the base was probably announced around this time, and the materials were far from as good as now. As a result, during the extreme heat, many people were literally cooked alive in their homes by the temperature.
Even though the base had reacted quickly and built air-conditioned rooms for the survivors who couldn’t afford air conditioning and ice to survive, there were too many monks and too little porridge, and the number of people who got heatstroke was still countless.
Now, it seemed that the country had really believed what she had said in her email and had made full preparations. Then the future would definitely not be like her previous life, where the survivor base had become a graveyard for countless people.
However, if the completion of the base was delayed, it meant that there might not be any moving for the next period of time, and the jade would not be sold in large quantities. So, Ji Yang said, “Then I’ll come back in twenty days next time.”
“Okay,” Luo Laosan also nodded. This time, they were able to collect so much because the freezing rain had been another blow to humanity.
But to be cruel, the more people died, the more survival resources the living could share. Relatively speaking, life was easier. In the next wave, it would definitely be more difficult to collect so many good-quality jades than before.
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