Lin Man spent two hours to preliminarily process all thirty baskets of soil and paved a large slope. It was already nine o'clock in the morning. She was covered in dirt and panting. She looked at the sunlight shining on the soil and smiled. She really liked it no matter how she looked at it. Even the earthy smell and faint rotten smell emanating from the soil made her feel pleasant.

It is May now and the temperature is not very high, but the sun is still very strong at noon. If it is sunny in the future, the soil can be exposed to the sun for two or three days, and the disinfection effect should be good.

There is no other way. There is no other soil disinfectant available now, and there is no place to get quicklime. We can only rely on exposure to the sun.

Afraid that her mother would worry, she hid her hoe, shovel and other things and hurried home.

Hearing the knock on the door, Mother Lin, who had been worried for hours, hurried to open the door on her crutches: "Xiaoman."

Lin Man closed the door as soon as he entered the room, helped Mother Lin back to bed, and said in a low voice, "It's going well. I've already dug thirty baskets of soil and put them on the slope to dry."

There was a hint of smug delight in her voice. "That adds up to about ten cubic meters, and I've only been digging for two or three hours. I'll dig again after dark. If I dig all night, there'll be a lot."

Mother Lin held her rough, cracked hand, which was covered with many new small wounds and was even rougher than her own, with a look of concern. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Mom, no need. I can handle it by myself." Lin Man whispered excitedly, "Shall we have breakfast now? How about using the rice to make porridge?"

She washed her hands with the little water left in the kettle, then lit the stove and added well water from the bucket at home to the pot. Only the bottom of the bucket was left, a slightly dirty layer from settling. She carefully poured out the top layer: "I'll get some water later."

Mother Lin also took out the lunch box hidden in the box. When the water in the pot boiled, Lin Man put all the rice in. After a while, bubbles began to appear in the pot.

The aroma of rice wafted out, which was very attractive. Fortunately, the gaps in the doors and windows were stuffed with cloth strips.

In fact, Lin Man had already become so hungry that her hands and feet were weak. She kept swallowing her saliva. White rice, she had eaten it a few times when she was very young and the food in the base was relatively abundant. Later, she only ate coarse grains.

A bowl of rice cooked into porridge is quite large, so Lin Man also put in a handful of wild vegetables, which made it look even more, filling two large bowls.

"Mom, eat quickly."

"Mom is not hungry, you eat first."

"Here are two bowls. If you don't eat it, I won't eat it either!" Lin Man cooked porridge because he was worried that his mother would not want to eat it. There were two big bowls, which looked like a lot!

Mother Lin had no choice but to pick up her chopsticks and eat slowly, but she still tried her best to pass the rice grains to Lin Man: "You have to do hard work, so eat more."

The mother and daughter shared this delicious breakfast, feeling extremely satisfied and full of hope and expectation for the future.

After eating, Lin Man wiped the pots and bowls clean and destroyed all evidence. Then he opened the door and picked up the bucket at home to fetch water.

Many wells have been drilled in the base over the years, but only three are still producing water. They have been regulated for a long time. There is a fixed time for drawing water every day, and each household can only draw a fixed amount of water.

But there are exceptions. If you can get some good things to give to the person who manages the well, you can get more.

Lin Man thought that he would not have time to fetch water every day, so he brought some wild vegetables with him.

Although her family still couldn't get enough to eat, the wild vegetables were no longer so important. After picking them and leaving them for almost a day, they had wilted and were about to rot, so she simply took them out to change the water.

The atmosphere in the base is more tense and heavier than yesterday, but those who have made up their minds or have no choice but to stay have to continue to live their lives. Every day they live is a day, so basic order is still there.

However, Mother Lin also secretly told Lin Man that when the day of destruction really comes, their base will definitely be in chaos. People always go crazy before they die.

Now it is just the calm and death struggle before madness.

Lin Man just hopes that there will be no chaos for the time being, at least to get through these ten days.

Lin Man went to the well closest to her home. There were several people in line ahead of her, all of them were hunched old men and women with white hair. The team looked lifeless.

The man in charge of the well is a bearded man with a broken leg and a broken hand, known as Brother Gang. He is a tough guy, and was a tough guy even before he became disabled. He was the captain of the security team. He became disabled in the zombie tide in the fifth year of the apocalypse, but he is still as strong as ever. Also, because he is a cousin of Madam Zhang - the Madam Zhang who delivered rags to Lin Man's family yesterday, this Brother Gang still has a good job and a relatively high status.

But he would definitely not do the job of managing the water wells, which was assigned to the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled.

Soon it was Lin Man's turn. He quietly handed over the wild vegetables and said, "Brother Gang, this is a gift to you."

Brother Gang raised his dark eyes, glanced at her lightly, and said "hmm".

Lin Man placed the wild vegetables next to the bench where Gang Ge was sitting, picked up the small wooden bucket for drawing water, threw it into the well, gently shook the rope twice, and drew up half a bucket of well water mixed with some mud and sand.

Others could only hit him once, but Lin Man glanced at Brother Gang and saw that he had a dull expression, so he hit him again.

The bucket she brought was half full. If she used it sparingly, it would be enough for her family to use for two or three days, so she planned to leave.

Gang Ge suddenly said, "Let's get some more water." He grinned expressionlessly, his face looking a little grim. "I'm afraid this is the last time we have to queue up for water."

Lin Man's heart skipped a beat. He beat the boy again without saying a word, then picked up his bucket and went home.

She kept thinking about what Gang Ge said. Did it mean that order was going to be disrupted, or that the base was about to reach the worst point?

After she left, Gang Ge picked up a piece of wild vegetable, stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it slowly and swallowed it, and managed to eat the whole wild vegetable in this way.

Lin Man didn't tell his mother what happened at the well, but he felt a sense of urgency in his heart. He put down the bucket and hurried back to the slope.

All day long, she spent the entire day on the slope processing the thirty baskets of soil for the second time, breaking and crushing all the clods of earth, picking out all the small stones, reptiles, insect eggs, etc., and she wished she could use a sieve to sift the soil.

She managed to make a piece of soil soft and fine, with great care.

The little fat chicken in the space observed her silently and nodded secretly. Hardworking, able to endure hardships, and persevering... Not bad.

Lin Man was busy from dawn to dusk, cleaning up all the soil. His back was almost unable to straighten up, and his face and arms were sunburned red. He hurried home to report his safety to Mother Lin and have dinner together. Dinner was the three eggs and the remaining wild vegetables.

Mother Lin refused to eat eggs. After Lin Man’s much persuasion, she ate half of one, and then she refused to eat any more.

Lin Man also knew that now was not the time to show off, so he ate the remaining half and put the other two eggs in his pocket as a midnight snack.

After a short rest, he returned to the plantation and continued digging.

It takes a whole night to dig.

She dug a total of eighty baskets. From digging and carrying, she was exhausted. Her hoe, shovel and baskets of soil were almost broken.

She sat on the slope, panting, with baskets of dirt beside her that had been poured out of the basket and had not yet been shoveled away. She took a deep breath, raised her hands that were trembling from excessive exertion and hunger, and untied the cloth wrapped around her palms one by one. Her hands were in so much pain that she couldn't even hold them. In the moonlight, she could see that they were covered with blisters and blood, and some places had broken skin and were bleeding.

Lin Man didn't care much about these wounds. He put the cloth aside, picked up the kettle, poured out some water and slowly washed his hands. Then he slowly drank a few sips of water, took out the last egg from his pocket, knocked it gently on the ground, peeled off the shell, and slowly ate it.

The egg white is elastic and tender, the egg yolk is soft and sticky, it is fragrant and sweet, and delicious.

Lin Man couldn't help but squint his eyes and smiled with enjoyment as he faced the cool breeze before dawn.

She gulped down all the water in the kettle, feeling full and much better. Before dawn, she went back home and fell onto the bed as soon as she entered. Mother Lin was distressed and said, "You should get some sleep."

"No, we have to spread the soil out before the sun rises, so we can dry it earlier and collect it earlier." With so much soil spread out on the slope, Lin Man was worried about rain and people discovering it. He was always worried and wanted to dry it earlier and collect it from that space.

"I'll go with you then."

"mom……"

"Mom can't do anything else, so I can just sit there and pick up some stones." Mother Lin rarely spoke to Lin Man in a tone that did not allow for refusal. "You can get some sleep for a few hours."

Lin Man climbed up and leaned on his mother's shoulder: "Okay, then let's go before dawn."

"Lie down for a while. You'll need to carry your mother on your back soon. I'll boil some water and bring it with me. I won't be back today."

Ten minutes later, Mother Lin boiled a pot of water and brought a plastic pot of well water. Lin Man stuffed the stainless steel lunch box into his backpack, along with two small bowls for rice and eggs that he brought from the space.

This bowl is exquisite and complete. If someone sees it, they won’t be able to tell where it came from. She plans to return it to the space later.

So the mother and daughter came out of the house, locked the door, and Lin Man carried his mother Lin on his back and went back to the slope.

Fortunately, the base was not big, and it only took seven or eight minutes to walk from her home to the slope. At least she arrived there before people got up and moved around.

When Mother Lin saw the lumps of earth, she immediately used the big iron spoon that Lin Man used to dig wild vegetables to dig out the earth and pick up stones.

Lin Man took a long breath. She had been holding her breath all the way, and the egg she had just eaten seemed to have been completely digested.

She recovered her breath and went to help: "Mom, I'll go into the space to get food in a while. What are we eating today?"

Mother Lin's hands were weak, so she had to rest after a few moves. She just picked up the stones and grass roots and put them in the basket. After a while, she let Lin Man pour them aside. After thinking for a while, she said, "No need to cook. It's full."

"Okay." Lin Man took out the two bowls from the space, sat aside, and thought about entering the dream space. Sure enough, the next moment she appeared at the table from yesterday, and the surroundings were still foggy.

"Hello." She greeted everyone around.

"Choose your food." The voice said coldly.

Lin Man put down the two bowls and looked at the table. In addition to the leftover food from yesterday, there were a few more items today. One was a black and purple cake that looked very rough and fluffy. Two pieces were stacked in a large bowl, each piece was as big as her palm, and it looked very filling.

She weighed it and found it was quite heavy, about half as heavy as the bowl of rice she had yesterday. She smelled it and found it fragrant and sweet.

"What's this?"

"Purple sweet potato cake."