Chapter 31 The Troubles Caused by the Pickle Jar

With furniture and a bed, Zuo Shan finally felt that the room had a bit of a homey feel to it.

Jiang Sha and Jia Yiming thoughtfully used the remaining bamboo to build a fence around her yard.

Fences are at best something that keeps out honest people, not scoundrels. In a place like District 50, theft and robbery are commonplace, let alone something like fences.

But when they were nailing the fence, they were all wearing mercenary uniforms, which served as a warning to the scavengers in District 50.

This is a warning to everyone that this family has powerful connections and backing, and anyone who dares to offend them will definitely suffer the consequences.

After all, scavengers are ordinary people, while mercenaries are genetic warriors. Even if their superpower level is low, dealing with ordinary people is as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.

After Jia Yiming and Jiang Sha left, some gossipy women whispered among themselves, saying that Zuo Shan must have slept with some officer of the mercenary group, otherwise how could she have such treatment?

But despite the gossip, they no longer dared to whisper behind her back. To Zuo Shan, the gossip behind her back was worthless, and she didn't care at all.

We're so poor already, instead of wasting time worrying about rumors, we should go out into the wild and gather a few more leaves to store up as food.

There are now two lemon trees and a firethorn bush in the yard. Zuo Shan has decided to plant three more pagoda plants.

This plant is very easy to grow; she saw it growing in the countryside when she was a child.

Separate each pagoda-shaped vegetable, with the root end facing down, and bury the whole plant in the soil, adding fertilizer.

Unfortunately, there was nowhere to buy fertilizer in this wasteland era, so she had to make do with what she had. She burned the leaves of highly radioactive wild grass that she had collected to cover up the yams and mixed the resulting ash into the soil as fertilizer.

The effect will definitely be less than ideal, but something is better than nothing.

She selected three pagoda plants to plant. Since pagoda plants cannot be watered at the beginning of planting, she simply buried them in the soil.

As for whether she can successfully cultivate it, that's up to fate. After all, she has only watched others farm, and she herself is not a qualified farmer.

Since each head of pagoda cabbage was as big as a radish, she handed over more than half of them, keeping only about ten for herself. She buried three of them in the ground, leaving nine in total, enough to pickle a jar of cabbage.

But when she wanted to pickle vegetables, she discovered that she didn't have a pickling jar at home.

She was so frustrated she wanted to cry. What kind of terrible era is this? There isn't even a kimchi jar!

Unfortunately, she wasn't a time-traveling heroine who could make porcelain herself. After thinking it over, she decided to go to a small shop to see if they had any suitable containers.

There are no convenience stores in District 50; the closest one is the Lin family's convenience store in District 49.

But with Lin Dandan, the original owner's rival in love, in the convenience store, she really didn't want to face her.

If we don't go to Lin's shop, then we can only go to the shop in District 48, but District 48 is 200 kilometers away from District 49, and we have to take a bus to get there.

After thinking it over and over, she decided to bite the bullet and go to the Lin family's shop.

To make the trip go more smoothly, she decided to bring two pine nuts to sell, so that the Lin family wouldn't assume she was there to freeload.

Early in the morning, Zuo Shan packed two pine nuts into his backpack and then jogged slowly to Lin's small shop.

The convenience store is about ten kilometers away from her home, a distance that is just right for her to exercise.

It took her 40 minutes to run to the convenience store, which was at least a quarter slower than her daily training speed, but much better than when she first arrived in the wasteland.

She ran through the night, covered in sweat, and entered the Lin family's shop with the smell of sweat still lingering.

Today, the elderly couple from the Lin family had to go out on an unexpected matter, so Lin Dandan stayed behind to watch the shop. Coincidentally, Qi Yang also went out to purchase parts, leaving Lin Dandan alone at home.

Her face darkened the moment she saw Zuo Shan.

She had secretly followed Qi Yang twice when he went back to see his sister, so she had seen Zuo Shan before.

On those two occasions, she originally intended to catch them in the act of adultery, but she discovered that Qi Yang only stayed at her sister's house for fifteen minutes. When he left, he was dressed neatly and there were no signs of any intimate activity.

After that, she stopped following him. And every time Qi Yang returned, she timed it precisely to estimate how long he stayed there, which was almost always around fifteen minutes.

She couldn't find any fault with him, but she always felt uneasy, as if Qi Yang actually cared more about his sister who wasn't related to him by blood, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Now that she's come to my door today, Lin Dandan is determined to teach her a lesson so she'll understand that her husband is not someone a lowly scavenger like her from District 50 can covet.

Zuo Shan could tell what she was thinking just by looking at her expression, and asked directly, "Do you buy pine nuts here? They have moderate radiation."

Lin Dandan was about to speak when she was silenced.

Upon hearing that she wanted to sell mountain pine nuts, she wanted to refuse, but she held back.

Pine nuts are highly nutritious nuts, and they are a rare find even in District 49. I heard the other day that the Flying Tiger Mercenary Group took their families to the Black Pine Forest.

However, most of the pine nuts they harvested were secretly bought at high prices by mercenaries from District 48 and given to families with children who were genetic warriors to supplement their nutrition.

Their Lin family's small shop hasn't received a single one.

"Where did you get your pine nuts?" Lin Dandan blurted out, questioning her.

"What do you care where I come from? Since when has your Lin family's shop started asking about the origin of things when it buys them?" Zuo Shan retorted.

"If we don't find out the truth, what if you steal this thing? If the owner comes looking for it, we'll all be caught in the crossfire!" Lin Dandan said matter-of-factly.

"Heh! No wonder your Lin family's shop has never grown big in decades. So this is how you do business." Zuo Shan sneered, then turned and left.

She now deeply regrets it; she shouldn't have gone to Lin's shop to cause trouble for a mere pickle jar.