Chapter 10

After everyone left, Jiang Shu wore a bitter face, feeling extremely aggrieved. "Mom, that was my lighter!"

Ye Qingyun glared at him: "What's wrong with a lighter? Buying a lighter is already a bargain considering the relationship with the land reclamation team! Now that Xiao Hu has promised to bring us so much clay, isn't that worth it? If we rely on ourselves, how long will it take to get enough mud bricks to build a house?"

Jiang Shu hummed in agreement, but he was still reluctant to part with it. That lighter was the first thing he had saved up to buy. If his mother hadn't found out he was smoking during a trip and confiscated it, he would still be carrying it with him.

"Mom, you didn't have this in mind from the beginning, did you?"

Ye Qingyun would certainly not admit that he only started thinking about getting along with Hu Yang after overhearing Captain Luo chatting with his teammates.

"You brat, can't you talk properly?"

Jiang Zhi tugged at her brother's clothes and changed the subject, "Brother, when we go scavenging tomorrow, I'll find you some good stuff."

Jiang Shu immediately beamed with joy, "My sister really cares about me, unlike my mother, who treats me like an illegitimate child."

Everyone in the family knows Jiangzhi's abilities; if she says it's a good thing, then it must be a good thing.

Ye Qingyun laughed in anger, and pretended to hit him, "Who am I doing this for?"

When they were buying the house, they learned from Hu Yang that not all members of the land reclamation team were mutants; anyone who met the physical requirements could also sign up.

Although Ye Qingyun had no intention of sending his son to the reclamation team, he thought that if he could build a good relationship with the people there, he might need their help someday.

Often, things that are beyond their ability to handle are simply a matter of lifting a finger to them.

Putting everything else aside, the information they possess is obtained much faster than that of ordinary people.

Although he was a bit snobbish, these were all little tricks that Ye Qingyun had learned to handle things with ease over the years.

Jiang Zhi's words reminded Jiang Shan of what happened on the road.

He pulled out the bone stick tucked into his waistband. "Speaking of which, we owe a lot to this stick today, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to get back so easily."

Upon hearing this, Ye Qingyun became anxious, "What's going on?"

Jiang Shan said, "After we cut open the mutated vines, we found a nest of mutated mayflies growing under the car."

Jiang Shu gasped upon hearing this, "Those tiny insects that shed corrosive powder when startled?"

They had encountered these things before while traveling, and almost got themselves killed by them that time.

Each mutated mayfly is 10 centimeters long and has a longer lifespan than before the mutation.

Generally, mutated mayflies do not attack unless provoked. However, if startled, they will secrete corrosive powder.

At that time, Jiang Shu's arm was only covered with a little bit of droplets, but a layer of flesh was still torn off. If they hadn't had Yunnan Baiyao, his hand would have been ruined!

Even now, thinking back on it, Jiang Shu still can't help but shudder.

Jiang Shan nodded in agreement, "In that situation, as soon as I started driving, I was sure to startle those mayflies."

Jiang Zhi frowned; just from hearing it, she knew the situation was perilous.

A brood of mayflies—the corrosive powder from them was enough to turn the car and everyone present to ash.

"I pulled this stick out to use as a weapon, but as soon as I pulled it out, all the adult mayflies flew away." Jiang Shan put his luggage on the ground and prepared to set up camp. While tidying up, he continued, "At the time, the people in the reclamation team didn't know why, but the adult mayflies ran away. They took the mayfly eggs that were attached to our vehicle and handed them over to the biologists above for experiments."

Ye Qingyun: "You mean, it was this bone stick that chased away the mayflies?"

Jiang Shan nodded with a smile, "That's right. Besides mayflies, there were some mutated insects under the car. They all scurried away as soon as I got close. After checking, I found out it was this thing in my hand that caused it."

In other words, this bone stick may have an insect-repelling effect.

Although it hasn't been fully confirmed, it's pretty much true.

If that's the case, the value of the bone club is immeasurable.

Jiang Shu gasped, then eagerly turned to Jiang Zhi and asked, "Ah Zhi! Did you know it had special effects when you bought it?!"

Jiang Zhi did not deny it, "At the time, this thing was displayed as gold on my dashboard."

The golden sign appeared suddenly on the way to the base.

At the time, it was still very blurry in her mind, but it only began to become clear after she ate the low-toxicity heart of the fanged rabbit.

"Gold?" Jiang Shan pondered. "Is it a new color that has only recently appeared?"

Jiang Zhi nodded, "We haven't figured out exactly what it represents yet."

She thought of the two sharp-toothed rabbit's teeth, which were also light gold in color.

Now we just have to wait for the results from Niu Dali's side to confirm her conjecture.

Jiang Shan: "Did you see any more golden signs after that?"

"I've seen it a few times," Jiang Zhi honestly recounted the story of the sharp-toothed rabbit.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shan and his wife both became serious.

Jiang Shan organized his thoughts, "There are two key points. First, the gold color encompasses the creatures marked with green and red. Second, the gold color might represent some special function."

Jiang Shan and the others all knew that on the dashboard inside Jiang Zhi's brain, red dots represented highly aggressive creatures, while green dots represented neutral creatures that would not attack people on their own initiative. Almost all the plants and animals that the base's detector could detect were green.

Now everyone knows what the appearance of gold means.

Jiang Shu was so excited his mouth was trembling: "I'm rich! I'm rich! Sister, if you become rich and powerful, don't forget me!"

Ye Qingyun slapped him across the face. "You brat, keep your voice down!"

She didn't bother to tidy up anymore, and solemnly instructed the brother and sister, "You two listen to me, this matter must not be told to anyone else, especially you! Jiang Dashu! If you dare to talk nonsense outside, you'll be risking your sister's life. I'd rather not have you as my son than not beat you to death myself!"

"I'm not stupid!"

Jiang Shu no longer cared about his mother's favoritism; he understood the principle that possessing a treasure invites trouble.

He picked up the bone stick and examined it from all angles, becoming more and more fond of it.

I never imagined that the item I bought for 50 points would now be worth a hundred times more.

The important thing is that this valuable item now belongs to him!

Jiang Shu said happily, "With this thing, I won't have to be afraid of those annoying bugs anymore."

In fact, in the wild, what is most frightening is not only the mutated giant plants and animals, but also all kinds of insects that are hard to guard against.

Jiang Shan agreed, saying, "Given the situation at the time, this bone staff had the ability to passively repel insects, but it wasn't effective against all kinds of insects. Some special insects still needed to be actively driven away. This was already a very good ability. Captain Luo even wanted to offer 10,000 points to buy our weapon."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shu immediately hugged him tightly, saying, "Dad, this is mine. Don't you dare sell it without my permission."

Jiang Shan laughed and said, "Knowing the value of this thing, why would I possibly sell it?"

Ye Qingyun looked at his silly son with annoyance, "Silly boy, why are you hugging me so tightly? Aren't you afraid of radiation?! Let go right now! Go help your dad set up camp!"

Jiang Shu cherished the moment for a while longer before reluctantly getting up.

As he laid the sleeping mat on the ground, he asked Ye Qingyun, "Mom, can we use all the tents this time?"

Speaking of which, the reason they have such complete living supplies is thanks to Jiang Shu's sudden whim to try out the camping mode of marketing accounts.

At the time, I even spent several months' salary to buy a lot of flashy but impractical equipment.

They even have real wood-burning stoves for heating, and the tents are all high-end tunnel tents.

Previously, in the wild, they only dared to use the main tent for easy escape. Now that they have arrived at the base, the three-room tunnel tent is just right.

Empress Dowager Ye Qingyun said, "It is permissible."

Before the houses were built, they had to live in tents, so they couldn't make themselves suffer any longer.

The father and son were used to setting up camp, and they quickly put up the tent.

Ye Qingyun looked at the tent, which was over 100 square meters, and was very satisfied.

It was already 5 p.m., and more and more residents were returning to the self-built area from outside the city. They couldn't help but take a few more curious glances at the suddenly increased number of tents.

Jiang Shu noticed that one of the uncles had a basket full of things on his back. In keeping with the spirit of friendly social interaction, he was about to say hello when their eyes met. The moment their eyes met, the man immediately covered his basket defensively and quickly left.

Ginger Tree: ...

What the heck!

Jiang Shan chuckled and said, "Alright, things are different now than before. If you go too close, people will think you're going to rob us. Hurry up and come in."

Jiang Shu grumbled as he entered the tent.

Ye Qingyun and her daughter moved all their luggage in.

"Ah Zhi, come over here and help me take stock of the things that are usable."

During my three years in the wilderness, I didn't dare to use many things freely in order to survive. Equipment like air pumps were still brand new.

Some of them were never even taken apart or used.

Jiang Zhi responded, walked over, opened the Oxford cloth waterproof storage bag, and took out the contents one by one.

After they took everything out, Jiang Shan and his wife were both quite taken aback.

Surprisingly, quite a few of them are usable.

Jiang Shu stood to the side, beaming with pride, "You should thank me. If I hadn't spent a fortune buying so many things back then, we wouldn't be living such a good life now."

Jiang Shu is not wrong.

Don't be fooled by the fact that they don't have houses yet; when it comes to daily necessities, they are miles ahead of the average person in the base.

They might not even be as wealthy as the people in Zone B.

After all, many items from the old era were destroyed in the catastrophe three years ago.

Jiang Zhi summarized and checked everything.

Four sleeping bags.

In addition to the portable stoves and insulated boxes they used, their cooking utensils even included a roasting oven for brewing tea around a fire.

There are three air mattresses, and the sofa and chairs are also provided in quantities sufficient for the whole family.

Jiang Shu specially charged the air pump yesterday when they were in the low-rent housing, and it came in handy now.

After inflating the mattress and sofa, Jiang Shu even ostentatiously laid out a decorative rug next to them.

The family sat on the sofa in the living room.

Jiang Shu let out a comfortable sigh, "I must say, it really does feel a bit like before the cataclysm."

Looking at the well-organized tent, Ye Qingyun breathed a sigh of relief. "I still have enough daily necessities, which will save me some points."

The family only has so many points, and if they really want to buy everything, they'll need several thousand points.

Even so, there are still many things we need to buy for the house.

For example, the baskets used for scavenging, although we have bags at home, are not durable enough and are easily torn.

They also need to install power cords as soon as possible, otherwise their power banks will run out in just a few days.

Ye Qingyun: "We need to buy another big water tank, otherwise carrying water every day is a waste of energy. We also need to find someone to build a few wooden cabinets. We'll definitely have more and more stuff in the future, and it'll look messy if everything is piled up together. We also need to buy brooms..."

As Jiang Zhi listened to her mother list the things the family urgently needed, she set up the water pot to start a fire and cook dinner.

Ye Qingyun came over to help, "I've already spoken with Dr. Liang and we'll postpone going back to work for two days. Let's take care of things at home first."

He then turned to the brother and sister and said, "You two should also go and look around tomorrow, and see if you can find a suitable job."

After Ye Qingyun finished speaking, Jiang Zhi said, "Mom, my brother and I will go scavenging tomorrow."