Chapter 26

"Then I won't disturb your rest, Major." Tong Shu looked into Wen Shaocheng's deep eyes and felt a little overwhelmed. Being stared at like that by someone like that gave her a sense of being seen through. "If you need anything, just call me or someone else."

"Okay." Wen Shaocheng nodded. "No need to call me Major, just call me by my name. We should be about the same age."

"Huh? Really?" Tong Shu was a little surprised and gave her birth year: "But you look much more mature than my brother."

Wen Shaocheng smiled slightly, pursing his lips: "I am indeed three years older than you."

Tong Shu was quite annoyed.

What's going on? This person is only three years older than me and is already a major. Is the difference between people really that big?

Seeing the somewhat puzzled look in Wen Shaocheng's eyes, who was like "someone else's child," Tong Shu awkwardly said, "Okay, then I still have to call you brother."

Wen Shaocheng neither agreed nor disagreed, meaning he meant it was up to her to call him whatever she wanted.

Tong Shu poured him a thermos of hot water and placed it on the simple tea table by the bedside, telling him to drink it while it was hot. Then she turned and ran off.

Looking at the chubby cartoon thermos, Wen Shaocheng found it amusing and picked it up to take a sip.

All the able-bodied men in the Tong family went to the community to help dig cellars. After Wen Shaocheng's observation, the two elderly people, along with Tong Shu's aunt and mother, went to the warehouse store. Due to rumors of an impending drop in temperature, the entire community was caught up in a hoarding frenzy, and the Tong family store saw a surge in customers. The two people who were originally scheduled to work every day were completely overwhelmed.

Tong Shu and another aunt went to the duplex, but nothing has happened since.

Currently, only Wen Shaocheng and Qin Xiaoxiao are on this floor.

Wen Shaocheng struggled to turn over, making some noise.

Qin Xiaoxiao, who was busy in the living room, heard it immediately and rushed into the study to ask, "Major, what's wrong? Just call me if you need anything." As she spoke, she straightened Wen Shaocheng's back and tucked it in.

"Thank you." Wen Shaocheng said weakly, "You're Tong Shu's cousin, your name is... Xiaoxiao, right?"

"Yes! My surname is Qin, you can just call me Xiaoxiao."

"Xiaoxiao, I can't let anyone know about my current situation, but if my deputy doesn't see me for a few days, he'll probably send someone out to look for me." Wen Shaocheng put on a troubled expression at the right time: "Could you help me pass on a message to Zhu Cheng so he can take it to the supply ship?"

Qin Xiaoxiao thought about it and realized it wasn't a big deal, so she nodded and agreed.

She ran out to find paper and pen, and asked Wen Shaocheng to dictate while she wrote it down. After thanking her, Wen Shaocheng slowly said that he was fine, that he was on a mission and his return date was uncertain.

Qin Xiaoxiao carefully folded the paper. Wen Shaocheng then handed her something else. She took it and saw that it was a badge with a number engraved on it.

“This is my serial number. My deputy will know it’s a letter from me as soon as he sees the serial number,” Wen Shaocheng said.

Qin Xiaoxiao nodded, indicating that she would definitely deliver the items properly.

After saying that, she immediately went out to find Zhu Cheng.

Unbeknownst to Qin Xiaoxiao, this badge was actually a small recorder, a tool used by special operations forces to transmit information. Wen Shaocheng, taking advantage of a moment when no one was around, recorded an audio message, informing his deputy that a severe cold disaster was likely imminent, urging him to relay the message urgently and simultaneously prepare combat deployments to prevent foreign forces from taking advantage of the situation.

Although Wen Shaocheng could not be 100% certain of Tong Shu's prophetic abilities, out of caution and a sense of responsibility to the people, he had to make arrangements in advance.

Another week has passed in the blink of an eye. The community has dug three huge cellars on the back hill, which are used to store crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes that are easy to store and can fill people's stomachs.

After residents who planted crops on their allocated land handed over most of their harvest to the area's supply ship, the community would also collect a small amount of crops, and the rest would be distributed among the growers themselves. This could be considered a hidden benefit for the workers.

Kowloon Community is nestled against several small hills, and many people have been allocated land for planting, resulting in the community stockpiling a considerable amount of food.

However, Zhu Cheng was always meticulous in his work. After the supplies were stockpiled, he began organizing able-bodied men to seal the windows of the unfinished houses that were still inhabited. Although unfinished houses could block the wind and rain, their insulation was far inferior to that of fully furnished houses. Before the disaster, people generally preferred to buy low- to mid-rise houses, not only for their convenience but also because of the Chinese people's emphasis on moderation. This resulted in more than half of the high-rise houses remaining unsold and unfinished.

Now that the floods have occurred, most of the lower and middle-rise buildings are submerged. The existing unoccupied apartments that could be relocated are already fully occupied. The others can only live in cramped, unfinished apartments.

"Director Zhu, these are a batch of cotton-padded coats I brought in from W City. Keep them for the community." Tong Shu called Zhu Cheng to a small storeroom in the office's warehouse and pointed to several bulging sacks.

"Oh, Tong, you're so kind!" Zhu Cheng was deeply moved. Thanks to the Tong family's support for community work, Jiulongjiao became the community with the most survivors in the surrounding area, and also the community that restored order and production the fastest.

"It's alright. We're all in the same community, so we should help each other out," Tong Shu said. "I wonder if the supply ship has made any preparations. If they need them, our community can provide some too."

"Yes, yes," Zhu Cheng agreed. "These comrades have been working hard in our community for several months now, putting in their best effort every day. Everyone has seen it. We're all one family, after all! I'll talk to their leaders and tell them not to be shy!"

"It's strange, though. Before, our adjutant Liu kept saying we were being too paranoid, but I've noticed they've started stockpiling supplies lately." Zhu Cheng scratched his head.

Deputy Liu is Liu Wanqi, Wen Shaocheng's deputy.

"Maybe I think you make a good point when I think about it privately," Tong Shu said with a smile.

"Hey, that's not what I said." Zhu Cheng waved his hand sheepishly. "I'm not going to talk to you anymore, Xiao Tong. Anyway, thank you all. I still need to check the generator. There's only one generator in this whole community, so it can't fail."

Knowing that Zhu Cheng was busy, Tong Shu didn't keep him any longer. She put an orange in his pocket and saw him off.

Liu Wanqi never believed or interfered with rumors and hoarding among the public. But he had no choice but to listen to the major.

Liu Wanqi had followed Wen Shaocheng since he first joined the army. The two had fought their way up from ordinary companies to special forces, passing through layers of selection and carrying out numerous missions along the way. Liu Wanqi knew very well how many hardships Wen Shaocheng had endured along the way. Many times, Wen Shaocheng had saved him from danger, thanks not only to Wen Shaocheng's own superb skills but also to his beast-like intuition.

When others say this winter will be particularly cold, Liu Wanqi can only believe it 10 percent of the time. But when Wen Shaocheng says this winter might be a harsh one, Liu Wanqi will tell everyone that this winter will definitely be a harsh one.

The troops disposed of the trees that had been felled to clear land for cultivation, and summoned skilled craftsmen who had survived from various communities to work day and night to build many wooden boats to store the crops harvested from the fields over the past few months.

Not only that, Liu Wanqi also had the soldiers go to great lengths to retrieve a lot of cotton quilts, cotton-padded jackets and the like from the bottom of the water. These things that no one would want before were now taking up the whole boat. They untied the threads, took out the cotton inside, washed them with spring water from the mountain, and then dried them on a few rare sunny days. After packing them tightly, they stored them in the cabin.

In consideration of winter heating, the community and the government organized people to collect dead branches and wood in the mountains. Bundles of firewood were piled together, a large portion of which was made into charcoal, and some was dried for later use.

The supplies from Tong Shu's family have filled the warehouse on the island.

In addition to providing community assistance, they began making some cooked and semi-finished foods at home.

For Tong Shu, the most vivid memory of the cold winter is her family sitting together and eating steaming hot food.

Sauerkraut fish, hot pot, braised chicken in a clay pot...

Even though the impending natural disaster felt like a tiger lurking at her heels, bringing Tong Shu an endless sense of crisis, the deep-rooted Chinese love for food was able to somewhat mitigate this fear.

Sure enough, Tong Shu has already gathered her family together and is making arrangements to produce some semi-finished products.

The mustard greens were just planted recently because everyone agreed that winter wouldn't be complete without sauerkraut fish. Although they could buy ready-made sauerkraut fish directly from restaurants on the island, to be honest, prices are high, portions are small, and the flavor remains the same as the one they recorded in the guidebook, making it far less cost-effective than making it themselves.

The newly harvested pickled cabbage filled three large baskets, and had already been briefly rinsed on the island. Grandma Tong sat on a small stool, carefully removing the old leaves, then took a small knife, trimmed the mustard roots, and put them into a clean basin.

The others followed suit, bringing their own small stools to help process the mustard greens.

Shu Hua and Shu Ya put the prepared mustard greens into a large pot in batches to blanch them. After blanching, they used chopsticks to put the blanched mustard greens into clean jars, which they had obtained from the community in exchange with the residents.

Grandma Tong handed the remaining mustard greens to the children to handle. She got up to prepare the pickling brine. She put a large spoonful of glutinous rice flour into a large bowl, added some salt and clean water, stirred it well, and then poured it into a jar full of mustard greens. She then used a large, clean stone that she had picked up outside to press it down tightly before putting the lid on.

"Alright, this pickled cabbage will be ready to eat in a week," Grandma Tong said, rubbing her lower back.

"Yay!" Tong Shu and Qin Xiaoxiao cheered.

“But we don’t have any fish,” Qin Xiaoxiao said, her joy turning to worry. “If we only have pickled cabbage but no fish, won’t it just turn into pickled cabbage soup?”

This is indeed a problem, Tong Shu touched her chin.

Because the setting of Komori Island is the happy life of the island owner and the animals, the island has everything except farms and slaughterhouses. The only tolerance the island has for the island owner is the finished meat dishes in the encyclopedia.

“There are some on the supply ship,” Wen Shaocheng said, leaning against the balcony sunbathing. “A few experts have kept some fish in the ship’s cabin. They’re clean and edible.”

Tong Shu's eyes lit up: "Really!"

Looking at the girl's bright face, a strange light flashed in Wen Shaocheng's eyes. He paused for a moment, composed himself, and nodded.

"Great! Then we can exchange vegetables and supplies with the ship!" Tong Shu didn't notice Wen Shaocheng's strange behavior and happily started planning. "I wonder if they'll have basa fish. Please don't let it be crucian carp; it has too many bones and can't be used to make sauerkraut fish."

"I want to eat black carp, grass carp is fine too..."

"You're lucky to have anything to eat at all, and you're being picky..."

...