Sister Wang was about fifty years old, with a square face and tall stature. She had a typical northerner appearance with thick eyebrows and a high nose bridge. She was wearing a shabby blue-gray long gown.

Her husband has the typical appearance of a man from the southwest of Xingcheng, with small facial features and a small stature. When Sister Wang stands next to him, it feels like Sister Wang is a whole head taller than him. I don't know how these two met and got married.

The two sat on chairs at the gate of the compound and heard Si Nan say, "The daily salary of workers in the agricultural park is 3-5 credits. Each person has to manage at least two mu of land, and all the work is done by themselves. If the seeds are lost and the crops are not harvested as expected, the salary credits will be deducted to encourage the workers to work more actively. I only have two mu of land, and I don't have too many requirements for you. As long as you don't lose money, don't cause trouble, and don't take my crops privately, I will give you 60 kilograms of food every month. These grains are not necessarily staple foods, but may also be biscuits, candies, canned food, etc. When the crops are ripe, I will also use the crops to offset your wages. If you accept it, we will sign a contract and press our fingerprints. If there is any dispute between the two parties, we can go to the newly built Ministry of Justice in the base according to the contract to seek justice."

"Sign, we'll sign right away!" Sister Wang said without hesitation.

Sixty kilograms of food a month is equivalent to sixty points. Although it is less than the salary of formal workers in the agricultural park, it is much better than having no job and no food. Without thinking twice, Sister Wang immediately asked her husband to sign the contract and put their fingerprints on it.

Si Nan put away the signed contract and said to the couple, "I don't have that much food at the moment. At the beginning of next month, I will go to the Statistics Department to transfer my points to your account as salary. Then you can exchange them for food yourself."

"Okay, then wait for you to get the work supplementary cards for us tomorrow and exchange them for farm tools, and we will go to work early the day after tomorrow." Sister Wang responded readily.

After they left, Si Nan turned to Sheng's mother and said, "Aunt Sheng, your compensation is the same as theirs, but to the outside world, I will tell you that I will give you one point every day. Don't tell anyone else. Just keep it to yourself."

"That won't do." Mother Sheng waved her hand and refused: "I can't do much work with my body, how can I ask you for so much salary, no, no, I can't accept it."

"Aunt Sheng, I don't give you this salary for nothing." Si Nan said to her with a smile, "I don't trust Sister Wang and the others very much. I hired you mainly because I want you to help me keep an eye on them. It's like you are their manager. With you helping me take care of the greenhouse, I can do what I want to do with peace of mind. This is a laborious task. You worry more than them. You can afford this salary."

Mother Sheng was convinced by her instantly. Whether before or after the apocalypse, she had always stayed at home as a dodder because of her physical condition and depended on her family for survival. To be honest, she was not as happy as everyone saw on the surface.

A person who stays at home all the time, has no career or job of his own, and does not have many interpersonal relationships is like a canary in a cage, without freedom and unable to go to the distant place he longs for.

She has always wanted to have a career of her own. Now that Si Nan trusts and recognizes her, she can work in the agricultural park and realize her own value. She is so happy that she can't contain herself. How could she refuse Si Nan's kindness? She immediately thanked Si Nan repeatedly and went home happily to tell Sheng Youqing and her brother the good news.

"Have you agreed?" Cheng Suming brought the prepared meal to the dining table in the living room on the first floor. He watched Si Nan come back after closing the gate, then he pulled her to sit at the table and added more rice and dishes to her.

For dinner, we had spicy stir-fried river shrimp, crab and small fish, wild fern fried with bacon, a plate of lettuce with oyster sauce, and a bowl of wild nightshade and egg soup.

River shrimps and crabs grow wild in the streams. Every day, women, the elderly, and children who have nothing to do stand in the waist-deep cold stream water with rattan net baskets they have woven, moving stones to catch them. Or several people work together to chase the fast-swimming small fish and shrimps in the water, then store a certain number of them and sell them in crowded places.

Before the Shishan Base was built, the river shrimps and crabs growing in the streams here were quite large. For example, river crabs were as big as a fist, and they were quite meaty to eat.

There are too many people living in the Shishan base now. Many people are unemployed and there is not enough food. People are trying to get food everywhere. The shrimps and crabs in the stream have been searched and caught over and over again. Now there are very few shrimps and crabs that can be caught.

River crabs are only the size of coins, and river shrimps and river fish are only as big as the head of a chopstick, one or two centimeters long. I don’t know how long it will take to catch enough to make a dish.

Cheng Suming was on his way home from get off work when he saw someone who couldn't sell river shrimps and crabs, so he stood outside the hospital and asked people in fancy clothes if they wanted to buy any.

He thought the little girl selling shrimps and crabs was really pitiful. She was wearing dirty and torn clothes and had a very thin face. A little girl the size of a bean with a runny nose was following behind her. Thinking that Sinan loved to eat fish and shrimps, he took out the food he got from the hospital cafeteria in the morning and at noon, and exchanged it for the fish, shrimps and crabs that the little girl was holding in her hand wrapped in a large leaf that she had picked from somewhere.

The little girl also knew that the amount of fish, shrimp and crab was too small, only about two taels, which was not enough to exchange for the food in his hand. She turned around and gave Cheng Suming the two handfuls of fresh wild ferns and nightshade she had picked. She also politely took her sister's hand, bowed to him, said thank you, and then took his lunch box and left.

Cheng Suming returned home and blanched the bracken and then soaked it in cold water for a while to remove the bitterness.

Then he went to the greenhouse on the upper floor of the Sinan Building and cut a handful of well-grown garlic sprouts and four mature lettuces and washed them.

I cut the garlic sprouts into pieces, smashed a few garlic cloves and minced them, then cut some dried chilies hanging on the kitchen wall into sections. I took out a piece of bacon from the refrigerator next to the water tank in the kitchen, washed it and sliced it, then started cooking.

He is a doctor and has a bit of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Sinan is afraid that he will make a fire and cook, which will make him dirty and make him feel uncomfortable. Whenever he cooks, she asks him to cook on the gas stove. Anyway, she has many gas cylinders stored in her space, and he doesn't have much time to cook, so she lets him use it. He will get used to cooking with gas.

His cooking does not require any technical skills. He just follows Sinan's method or the cooking tutorials he has seen online. He heats the pan, adds oil, and puts the cleaned shrimps, crabs and small fish into the pan to fry.

The shrimps and crabs were fried red in a few seconds. He was not in a hurry to turn them over. He waited until the small fish was fried into shape and the meat would not be broken if he turned it over before continuing to fry it.

When the fish was fried until it was slightly browned, he put half of the garlic leaves in, added some salt and MSG for seasoning, stir-fried it for a few times, and put it into a white plate. A plate of red shrimps, crabs and river fish with green garlic sprouts, the colorful and fragrant fried river shrimps and crabs were ready.

After frying river fish, shrimp and crabs, he chopped up wild nightshade, melted a little lard in the pot, added a ladle of sweet well water from his own yard, put the chopped nightshade in and cook for a while after the water boiled. Then he took two eggs that were placed in the refrigerator, beat them in a bowl, and poured them evenly on the soup to form beautiful egg flowers. He added a little salt and MSG, and it became a wild vegetable egg drop soup that was green with white, delicious, and could clear away heat and reduce internal heat.

Next is stir-frying lettuce, bracken and bacon.

He likes to use less salt and oil when cooking, and would not use oil if possible, so he just scalded the lettuce with water and placed it neatly on a plate. He then stir-fried the minced garlic with a little oil and added oyster sauce to make a garlic and oyster sauce that he poured on top. It was light and suited Sinan's heavy taste.

After soaking the bracken for a while, most of the bitterness had been removed. Cheng Suming picked it up and washed it several times with clean water to reduce the bitterness of the bracken to a minimum. He then cut it into pieces and dry-fried it with slices of bright red bacon. When the bacon was slightly curled, he put the remaining garlic leaves and dried chili segments in and stir-fried them for a few seconds, then added a little salt and MSG to season. Then a dish of the same emerald green and red color, the salty and fragrant bacon, and the crisp and refreshing bracken was served on the plate.

Sinan sat at the dinner table and told him about hiring Sheng's mother, Sister Wang and her husband, and their salary and benefits.

Seeing the sumptuous meal on the table, she said contentedly while eating, "These river shrimps and crabs are a little small, but they are also very delicious when chewed with garlic leaves and shells. And the bacon with fern is absolutely delicious, without any bitterness, full of the salty and fragrant taste of bacon. I can eat two bowls of rice with it. The soup is a little bitter, and the lettuce is a little less oily, but it tastes very good..."

When she said this, a look of melancholy appeared in her eyes. "Are we too extravagant? There are so many people in the base who don't have jobs and don't have enough food and clothing. Those who have jobs don't dare to eat and drink lavishly, and they all live frugally. The two of us only had three dishes and one soup for a meal! There is so much food in my space, I dare not give it to my relatives and friends, for fear that the space will be exposed. I don't know what my uncle and aunt are eating now? Every time I eat alone, I always feel guilty for them."

"We live an ordinary life, nothing extravagant or not. Before the apocalypse, many ordinary families would cook so many dishes, or even more than us. You don't need to feel guilty."

Cheng Suming peeled a small river shrimp or crab for her and put the meat into her bowl. "One day we will catch the murderer who killed you in my dream. By then, you can open your heart to your uncle and aunt and tell them about your space. But I don't recommend you to do that..."

"You don't need to say the rest. I know what you want to say."

Si Nan shoveled the shrimps and crabs he had peeled into his mouth and chewed them. He changed the subject incoherently and said, "I have to pay three people's wages next month. According to the growth habits of crops, many crops will take more than three months to mature. I can't make money for the time being, so I have to pay for them. I plan to sell some things at the roadside market today to earn some food, points, and other tools, and then go to the logistics department to exchange points for their wages."

"What are you going to sell?" Cheng Su Ming asked while wiping the oil stains from the corners of her mouth with a tissue.

Si Nan had long been accustomed to him wiping her mouth, washing her hands, combing her hair, etc. She waited for him to wipe the corners of her mouth with a sweet but helpless feeling in her heart, and then she said, "I plan to deal with my fifteen mobile phones, and also sell a small amount of the daily sundries stored in the space, such as alarm clocks, outdoor flashlights, cotton hats, thick cotton gloves, goggles, toothpaste and toothbrushes. I will also pick some fresh vegetables, sell a box of canned fruit, and some candies and snacks that children like to eat..."

In fact, she wanted to sell the several air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions and other items that she brought from Xingcheng and stored in the space. Unfortunately, the target was too big to sell these big things.

Her room on the second floor was equipped with an air conditioner and a TV, and there was a refrigerator in the kitchen, which already made Cheng Wei and the others sigh that her tricycle was very capable of carrying things. Now she was selling these large items, and it was easy to explain where they came from.

Fortunately, she had foresight and planted some vegetables with short growth cycles and quick maturity, intending to make a fortune before the severe cold came.

After finishing her meal, she didn't even take a break. Instead, she picked up two vegetable baskets and went upstairs to pick vegetables.

In the greenhouse on the rooftop, the fruits and vegetables that were originally planned to be planted have already been planted. Some are only one or two inches long, some have taken two months to emerge, and many have just started climbing and are blooming. Most of them are early-maturing vegetables that she specially planted, growing in patches in the early-maturing vegetable area on the right side that she has designated, which is more sunny.

She grows several kinds of early-maturing vegetables, such as cherry radishes, which are no bigger than two thumbs, have red skin, and taste crispy and sweet when eaten raw. Their growth cycle is 21-40 days, and she has already sold a batch.

Others, such as non-heading lettuce, Chinese cabbage, and spinach, have a growth cycle of 30 days, water spinach, green onions, and garlic sprouts have a growth cycle of 30-45 days, the shade-loving and cold-resistant wood ear vegetable has a growth cycle of 40 days, 45 days for Chinese kale, 50-70 days for white radish, 50-60 days for loofah, 40-60 days for early-maturing cabbage, and there are also lettuce, rapeseed seedlings, early-maturing lettuce, etc., which can all be picked.

Most of Si Nan’s early-maturing vegetables will not be uprooted, but the tender green leaves will be picked off, and the rhizomes can continue to grow leaves.

When the rhizomes grow old and the tops bloom and bear fruit, you can save the seeds, dry them and continue planting.

Holding a utility knife in his hand, Si Nan quickly harvested the green onions, garlic sprouts, water spinach, spinach and other vegetables that could be harvested, leaving only the roots and the center parts uncut so that they would not die and would continue to grow.

Vegetables like cherry radish and Chinese cabbage are "disposable vegetables" in the humid southwestern region. They will die if they are not picked and it is difficult to preserve their seeds.

When most of them have grown to the size where they can be eaten, Si Nan will pull them up by the roots and only leave a few that are strong and look vigorous and have a chance of surviving to bloom, to see if they can preserve their seeds.

While she was busy, Cheng Suming finished washing the dishes and came over to help. He sorted the vegetables she had cut and placed on the path beside the land and placed them neatly in the vegetable basket.

Si Nan saw that he had finished tidying up the plants and pointed to a dimly lit area in the corner. "Su Ming, the wood ear vegetables can be picked. Pick off all the larger leaves."

"Okay." Cheng Suming responded and walked over to pick it.

Wood ear vegetable, also known as tofu vegetable, is a climbing vegetable. Because it is cold-resistant and likes shade, it tastes a bit greasy, like wood ear but not like wood ear. Except for snails, it is rarely affected by other pests. As long as there is enough fertilizer, its growth will be very gratifying.

More than a month ago, Cheng Suming and Si Nan inserted and tied some wooden frames next to all the climbing crops planted against the wall, and then tied many long ropes between the wooden frames to facilitate the climbing plants to climb.

At that time, the five wood ear vegetables planted by Sinan climbed up a wooden frame less than one meter high, with only a few leaves scattered on the vines. Now, the entire wooden frame is covered with densely packed emerald green wood ear leaves, many of which have grown to the size of a palm and can be picked and sold.

Cheng Suming stood in front of the vine, picked the grown leaves one by one, stacked them together, and soon picked a large pile.

The two vegetable baskets were filled to the brim. Si Nan and Cheng Su Ming each carried a basket of vegetables downstairs and placed them on three carts pushed out in the middle of the yard. They then placed an electronic scale next to them.

Si Nan turned around and went to the greenhouse on the left side of the yard, cut some dandelion, mugwort, thistle, isatis root, plantain and other Chinese medicinal herb leaves, took Cheng Suming's white coat and asked him to put it on. Then he took out the things he wanted to sell, two small stools, and a folding rectangular table of nearly two meters, put them all on the tricycle, covered it with a large shed cloth, and put the two geese on the car before leaving, locked the doors and windows, and went out.

At night, there are many spontaneous stall areas in the Stone Mountain Base. The most popular one is the road leading to the center of Giant Stone Town, which leads to any place in the base.

There will be many government staff, employees, workers who work in government units, have points, money and houses to live in, and all kinds of people passing by there.

Setting up a stall there will do better business than setting up a stall in other places.

It was around eight o'clock in the evening when Cheng Suming drove Si Nan to the three-way intersection.

All the places with bright street lights along the way were occupied by people, selling wild vegetables, wild fruits, used quilts and clothes dug out from the ruins, steel bars, pots and pans, old tables and chairs, cabinets, toys and daily necessities, etc. Some people also sold a small amount of food, pheasant, rabbit, wild boar, tiger and wolf meat obtained from hunting, etc. There were even people selling piles of dry firewood they had chopped back, hiding in the dark to sell their children, and engaging in sensual trade.

The various stalls along the way are dazzling to look at, and there are many people visiting the stalls, asking prices, bargaining, and the scene is very noisy.

Cheng Suming parked the car on the side of a remote and dimly lit road.

They brought rechargeable fluorescent lamps. After getting off the car, they first put the two geese aside, then took out the folding table and set it up, and placed the flashlights, mobile phones, watches, goggles and other things that Sinan wanted to sell on the table. They then spread the large shed cloth covering the goods on the ground next to it, sorted the vegetables in the baskets and placed them on the ground, put the Chinese medicinal herbs aside, and finally took out the lamp, wrapped it around a long stick, and stuck it between the three cars, illuminating both stalls.

Because night markets are organized spontaneously by people, the people who come to visit the night markets are a mixed bag, and it is very chaotic. Smashing, stealing and looting are common occurrences.

Although there are patrol teams coming to patrol from time to time, many things happen on a voluntary basis. As long as there are no serious crimes such as murder or rape, the patrol teams will turn a blind eye.

In order to avoid being robbed, Si Nan would bring weapons with her every time she went out to set up a stall, telling everyone that they were not to be messed with.

She sat on a small stool in front of the stall holding a crossbow, staring at the people shopping at the night market with interest. She had no intention of shouting to attract people to buy things at her stall.

Dabai and Xiaobai stood on her left and right, looking curiously at the people coming and going on the street, occasionally making a gurgling sound with their mouths, and no one knew what they were mumbling.

Cheng Su Ming was standing next to a folding table with a banner that read "Surgeon Seeing Patients" hanging on it. He was playing with two gleaming scalpels in his hands. He was wearing a white coat and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was a living signboard and had no intention of inviting guests.

These two people, the man is gentle and handsome, and the woman is gentle and beautiful, both holding weapons in their hands, form a sharp contrast with the stall owners around who are constantly hawking their wares, and are very eye-catching.

The most important thing is that the two big geese beside Sinan have glowing white feathers. They don’t look like they are raised in captivity at all. Instead, they look like domestic pets. They are often bathed and grow fat and big. They are completely different from the dozens of goslings that have just been hatched and have not grown up yet in the current agricultural poultry area.

People passing by looked at them sideways, and then looked at the goods they displayed. They knew that they were not something that ordinary people could sell. A crowd of people immediately gathered in front of the stall, asking in unison: "How much is the lettuce?"

"Is this a smartphone? Can it be used with the internet? How much does it cost?"

"How much is that outdoor flashlight?"

"How do you feed your geese? They are so fat. How much do you sell them for?"

"They actually have candy and canned fruit for sale! My kids love canned fruit the most. Can I exchange it for potatoes?"

"A surgeon? Ah, I know you. You're Dr. Cheng. You cured my wife's broken hand. I didn't expect you're still setting up a stall at the night market."

......

Si Nan answered the chattering questions while skillfully weighing and selling the goods: "Lettuce and wood ear vegetables cost one point for two kilograms, pakchoy costs one point for one kilogram, and other vegetables cost two points for one kilogram. Those with mobile phones can log in directly to the newly established points network at the Shishan base and transfer the points to my account. My account number is xxx."

"Flashlight batteries are sold for 15 points each, and rechargeable batteries are sold for 25 points each. Smartphones have power and can connect to any network. If you're interested, you can open them and take a look. Each one is sold for 300 points. I don't sell geese, they're my pets. Canned fruit is sold for 5 points each. Candies are sold by category. Chocolate and fruit candies are more expensive, and other candies are cheaper..."

"Wow, you're selling it so expensively, why don't you just go grab it!"

Many people thought it was too expensive and left after asking the price. Some people wanted to take advantage of the crowds and steal something, but they were seen by two big geese with sharp eyes acting as police dogs. They immediately spread their wings, stretched their necks, cried loudly, and pecked at the thieves with their beaks.

After hearing this, Si Nan immediately picked up the crossbow in his hand and shot an arrow in front of the thieves without saying a word, and shouted coldly: "Put down the things!"