◎Happy 85th Day: Intuitive Creature◎
The little fur balls rolled around on the wet ground for a few rounds, and one of them happened to bump into Jiang Muyun's feet.
Jiang Muyun watched it stretch its wings and legs, swaying back and forth for a long time before it could barely stand.
As soon as the little fur ball looked up, it found itself in an unfamiliar place. It turned around twice in panic and finally aimed in the direction of its own kind. Two pointed triangles immediately protruded from both sides of its round body.
The lost little ball of fur spread its little wings and staggered all the way back to the center of the other two little balls of fur.
Jiang Muyun was quite familiar with the appearance of these three furry balls.
Before these two older ones became so rebellious, they were also so well-behaved and soft.
Jiang Muyun looked at the three little ones and then at the two big ones, and felt extremely heartbroken.
Could it be that these three little guys will become like that when they grow up?
"It shouldn't be that serious?" Zhao Jiahao squatted down and poked the little fur ball with his hand.
The third generation of the family has been born, so everyone must come and watch.
As a result, before he had time to be happy about having a source of meat in the future, he heard Jiang Muyun's worries.
While these three little fur balls look adorable now, their adult selves are standing right beside them. What if they raise three more ancestors who dare to eat anything, then... well, they'll have to eat them anyway. At worst, I can just let Dabai smell them first after I kill them.
The two rebellious cubs who had been strong all their lives were completely unaware of the evil thoughts in Jiang Muyun and others' minds. They led the three little fur balls around in front of the crowd as if showing off their trophies.
Wang Qingqing seized the opportunity to snatch a small ball of fur, held it in both hands, and carefully rubbed it against her face. After hearing the little fur ball's tender chirps a few times, Wang Qingqing chuckled strangely, "This little baby is so soft! After being fried in the oil, even the bones will be crispy."
Zhou Ying, who had seen many small poultry, was more pragmatic: "Have you seen the male and female?"
Jiang Muyun said, "Two hens and a rooster are just the right size to take over. Our breeding business is about to grow and prosper."
The mother rabbit is carrying a lot of cubs in her belly. It seems she will give birth in a few days.
What they didn't expect was that before the little rabbits arrived, these two chickens, which looked bigger than wild rabbits, actually gave them a surprise.
"Do the chicks need any special feed?" Qin Shiwen asked.
She remembered that when Jiang Muyun was raising chicks, he had specially prepared chicken feed.
Jiang Muyun squatted on the ground and picked up a small ball of fur to examine. "I don't think so. They can chirp now, which means they've been around for a few days and are living a comfortable life. It's just that they were always following these two street urchins around, so we didn't notice them."
The grass in the woods outside was all wild, and once these three little fur balls were thrown in, there was no trace of them at all.
They have been finding food on their own during this period and know how to recognize their home. Jiang Muyun basically doesn't care about them except when he goes to get eggs or clean the chicken coop. He doesn't even ask if they stay out all night.
Jiang Muyun thought about it and realized that her two nameless cubs had always been very rebellious, and leaving eggs in the nest depended entirely on their mood, so she didn't think much about it when she didn't pick up the eggs some time ago.
Comparing the ages of these chicks now, it is easy to guess why there were no eggs during that period.
Jiang Muyun held down a rebellious cub and stroked its feathers: "You guys are quite capable. Have you all learned to build your own nests outside?"
It takes more than one or two days for a hen to sit on its nest. During the time when the hen was sitting on its nest, Jiang Muyun also went to the chicken coop to clean the nest, but there were no eggs in the nest at that time.
Thinking about their behavior of not being home every day, there is no other explanation except that they have built another nest outside.
The chicken held down by Jiang Muyun felt no guilt at all. It acted like a king of the mountain even more arrogantly than Dabai, and didn't think there was anything wrong with building a few more nests.
The mountain king had shown off enough, so he shook off his feathers and slipped out of Jiang Muyun's hands with his smooth feathers. He walked away proudly with his friends, without even glancing at the three fur balls that were used as tools for showing off.
The three little fur balls looked at the crowd and then at their larger counterparts, and finally decided to stumble and follow the larger counterparts, diving into the grass and disappearing again.
Zhao Jiahao was amazed. "Free-range animals are so easy to keep alive. You don't have to worry about them and just wait for them to grow. When I was a kid, I bought chicks and ducklings for fun, but none of them survived more than two months. I even spent money to buy them feed."
It's not just the chicks that can survive without any care, but also the mycelium.
Jiang Muyun's previous statement that the mushroom bags could be grown in two days was not a casual remark. It has been a week since they started growing the mycelium. As long as nothing unexpected happens, the harvest time for the mushroom bags is just around the corner.
A few of us got together today to knead the little balls of fur, and then we went to see how the mycelium was growing.
With the current temperature and humidity, as long as they don't disturb the mushroom bags, there will be no accidents with the mycelium.
The inside of the mushroom bags in the simple mushroom cultivation room is already covered with mycelium, and some of the fast-growing ones have even shown mushroom seedlings emerging.
Qin Shiwen was surprised by the vigorous growth. "I remember growing mushrooms in indoor greenhouses, using some kind of intelligent temperature and humidity control system. Are these mushrooms here mutated?"
Zhou Ying had never grown mushrooms before, but there was always something in common when it came to growing them: "It could be because they're mutated, or it could be because they're wild."
"In today's environment, the more it is like this, the easier it is to survive." Zhou Ying said this, and couldn't help but think of his other crops that had not mutated.
Their potatoes and sweet potatoes, which tasted and looked normal, never produced good yields. Even with their meticulous attention to temperature and sunlight, and their daily efforts to conserve water for irrigation despite being covered in dust, they still couldn't recover their pre-apocalyptic state.
Whether planted in summer or winter, the number is increasing, but the size of the fruits has not improved much.
Zhou Ying felt that they could try again.
Let’s try to see if the growth of these rhizomes can be restored a little after using the coconut brick soil sent from the South One Base.
If they can recover, even to 60% of the normal yield, they can still comfort themselves by saying that their improper planting methods and bad conditions have led to the reduction in crop yields.
But if this cannot be saved... it only means that the non-mutated plants are no longer suitable for growing on the current Blue Planet.
Thinking about the rice and flour that had run out at home, and the sweet potatoes that had replaced the rice and flour in the past few days, Zhou Ying felt the temperature of the mushroom bags in his hands, and felt that the sea of fire, poisonous rain, and extreme cold and drought were not the most terrifying things. The most terrifying thing was waiting for them here.
While Zhou Ying was turning over the mushroom bags, Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen had already selected the mushroom strains for seed preservation.
Although Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen do not have the conditions to grow mushrooms all year round, they have collected rare mushroom mother species from the wild and sold them for a long time. They are quite good at judging the quality of mycelium.
Several people returned to the big cave with the mushroom bags selected by Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen. Zhou Ying looked up on the way and saw the familiar gray sky.
Cutting meat with a blunt knife, I don’t know whether to be thankful or despairing.
Jiang Muyun was not desperate at all. She happily disinfected the instruments used to store the mushrooms with everyone else. She was so happy when she was picking the mycelium and kneading the mushroom balls that she wanted to sing a song.
There are poultry and livestock, vegetables and staple foods, as well as mushrooms as a backup. Even ice cellars and water reservoirs are all there. Even if the space disappears now - bah, children's words are innocent.
Jiang Muyun felt better when he thought of his air-conditioned room.
These mushrooms are easy to grow, have high yields, and grow fast. They are not rare in the apocalypse, but they can be used to save lives. Therefore, Jiang Muyun is extremely careful when preserving the strains, and has specially divided them into two methods to ensure that they are foolproof.
The most commonly used slant low-temperature preservation method is to simply place the slant culture in a container, seal it with cotton plugs, and then store it in a low-temperature environment that can preserve the activity of the culture without allowing it to continue growing.
This method requires an ambient temperature of around 4°C, which would be difficult to do if they hadn't dug an ice cellar.
The other method is the mycelial ball preservation method.
Roll four to five mycelium balls and place them in a container filled with sterile saline, distilled water, nutrient solution or other media. Then seal the container. It can be stored at low temperature or room temperature.
Jiang Muyun and Chu Buwen didn't have ice cellars in their previous lives, so they often used this method, which could preserve the fungus for more than a year, which was enough.
Part of the mushroom strains preserved in mycelial balls were distributed to everyone to take home and preserve, part was placed in a large cave, and the rest were put into a storage box together with the slope mushroom strains and buried in a hole dug outside the ice cellar.
All the mushroom strains were divided into three parts for storage to prevent accidents. The only exception was the straw mushroom strains that were not resistant to low temperatures. All of them were rolled into mycelium balls and soaked in salt water at room temperature.
After keeping the fungus seeds, you just need to take care of the remaining fungus bags step by step and wait for them to sprout.
Jiang Muyun, who felt that her family business was beginning to take shape, sat in the air-conditioned room at night, sipping juice and vacuum-packing the small chili peppers she had found in the space.
In order to complete the act, she also found a bunch of other commonly used spices, packed them into packages of the same size, and then put them into a colorful paper box, and then added a basin of mud water and soaked the entire box in the mud water.
There were also a few books she planned to bring back with her, all of which had to be packed in sealed bags.
Nowadays, many people like to use sealed bags as dust bags for books. The "Barefoot Doctor's Manual" that Jiang Muyun bought is a red-covered version with a very old feel. Many people like to buy such old things to collect, so it is not surprising that it is well preserved.
Of course, after sealing it in a sealed bag, it still needs to be soaked in water.
Moreover, they have to soak for a few more days and repeat the soaking and drying process several times before they can be mixed into the ruins without any flaws.
The next morning, when Jiang Muyun opened the door with Xiaobai, she saw her two rebellious cubs and three little fur balls lined up and sneaked past her door, and then went back to their original nests one by one.
Jiang Muyun wondered: "Now he knows to come back."
Two hours later, Jiang Muyun knew why her rebellious child suddenly came back to the nest.
Because it rained heavily again today.
Just like last time, the rain stopped after a few hours, and Jiang Muyun and others also dragged a cart of processed firewood back.
Within two days, the same thing happened again.
There was no thunder during either rainstorm, but the wind was frightening.
After the second rainstorm, Jiang Muyun was afraid that the rabbits that were about to give birth would be frightened and get into trouble, so he waited by the side for a while while delivering hay to the rabbits.
Seeing that there was nothing abnormal with the two rabbits, I felt relieved.
Wild rabbits are different from the two chickens in her family that have been kept in cages since they were young. Those two chickens can take their chicks out for a walk a few days after they are born, and they can move back and forth between the two nests. They don’t even mind being rubbed by Jiang Muyun and others. But that’s not the case with rabbits.
There is a period of about two months from the time the mother rabbit becomes pregnant to the time the cubs leave the nest, during which the mother rabbit will not tolerate any other creatures approaching.
No matter how much Jiang Muyun and others cared about the No. 2 cornerstone of their breeding industry, they could only watch from afar to prevent the bad-tempered rabbit from swallowing the cubs without saying a word.
After a few days of rabbit observation, some people were still a little depressed.
"Don't worry about the chickens or the rabbits. Dabai and Xiaobai are both easy to raise. It makes me feel unaccomplished." Jiang Muyun happened to be on duty staying behind today. While cutting food for the rabbits, he chattered with Wang Qingqing who was also staying behind.
Wang Qingqing stuffed a handful of leaves from the shrubs the rabbits had been eating more of lately into a large net bag and said in an enigmatic tone, "After all this experience, don't you notice any patterns?"
Jiang Muyun smashed a mushroom that was already filled with worms with a shovel: "For example?"
Wang Qingqing pointed to the two adults and three children who were searching for snacks in the fields not far away and said, "No need to take care of them."
Then he pointed in the direction where they had placed the crops: "We take good care of them."
"One is so small." Wang Qingqing made a circle with her index finger and thumb: "Even its cub is bigger than it."
"What does this prove? It proves that the less you take care of something, the better it grows! Our rabbits will definitely be in good health and give birth to a bunch of babies at a time if we don't take care of them!" Wang Qingqing said confidently.
Jiang Muyun once again lamented that intuitive creatures were truly terrifying.
Wang Qingqing seemed to have a bad mouth, but in fact it was just because she was too sensitive to certain things. She guessed the truth when there were no obvious signs, and then said it casually as a joke.
Because if she were really asked to explain why she made such a guess, she might not be able to explain it clearly.
But she could just feel that even if they took good care of the crops, it might be in vain. Only creatures that had survived one disaster after another could survive safely on the Blue Star.
Smart people perceive this trend through comparative observation and thinking, but Wang Qingqing doesn't need to do that. She doesn't need to think so much at all, and she can still lay out the most intuitive reality.
This might also be a kind of talent, Jiang Muyun thought.
Anyway, Zhao Jiahao, who is also slow-witted, doesn't have this ability.
How about letting Wang Qingqing make the final guess on any unsure matters from now on? Sometimes, thinking too much in circles isn't necessarily a good thing. Too much information can lead to more interference, and your judgment might not be as accurate as Wang Qingqing's straightforward approach.
Jiang Muyun decided to find an opportunity to give it a try, and for a moment, his eyes looked at Wang Qingqing with an extremely kind look.
There were more than ten days between the first and second rainstorms, and the third rainstorm came just a week after the second rainstorm.
This rainstorm happened to coincide with the first batch of mushroom harvest. They hardly spent any time on the mushrooms and easily harvested two or three hundred kilograms of mushrooms.
The rainy days lasted too long, and they were afraid that if they kept storing firewood, it would be ruined, so they simply sealed all the charcoal in plastic bags. They used the ordinary wood they found, ate the mushrooms as they picked them, and strung the leftovers on strings to dry.
Qin Shiwen even sealed up all the remaining rice at home.
First there was a severe drought, then a long cold winter. The dryness and coldness delayed them for too much time, which is why they were able to store the food for so long without any problems. But now they can't delay any longer.
The rice they have is already stale. No matter how well it is sealed, it cannot withstand the current high temperature and humid environment. Ordinary vacuum packaging is not enough.
If you don't want to eat everything in these few days, you can only use some unconventional methods to preserve it.
Qin Shiwen disinfected the glass jar with boiling water, and when she was about to dry the mushrooms, she carefully dried the glass jar to make sure there was not a trace of moisture inside. She also dried the few pounds of rice left in her house.
This jar originally contained pickled cucumbers. Fortunately, it was entangled in a quilt and was not broken in the water. Qin Shiwen picked it up.
The contents were long inedible, but the jar was still very useful.
Burying orange peels in rice seeds can repel insects and prevent pests. Now that there are no dried orange peels, they have been using the crushed dried tangerine peels picked out of the spice bags.
After pouring the rice mixed with tangerine peel into the jar, fill a small cup with white wine, insert the cup into the rice, and leave the cup mouth open to expose the rice, so that the alcohol can naturally evaporate and disinfect in the jar, and then seal the jar.
As long as you don't open the can casually during the operation, it is possible to preserve rice for ten years or even longer.
After Qin Shiwen sealed the remaining rice, others also began to seal the rice in sealed jars one after another.
Anyway, they don’t have much rice left, and sooner or later they will have to live without rice. It is better to seal up the remaining rice in advance and preserve it as a reminder for themselves.
After the rice was sealed, mushrooms, sweet potatoes and a small amount of potatoes that were not cut into pieces for seeds became their current staple food.
Because the scale of vegetable cultivation is always small, it is not worth it to use fire to dry them separately, so they don't deliberately keep the vegetables.
Unless the harvest season of vegetables coincides with that of mushrooms, they will keep these vegetables and dry them for storage.
Just four days after the third rainstorm, the fourth rainstorm is coming.
Jiang Muyun has now figured out the pattern.
Xiaobai didn't react much to whether it rained or not, but Dabai and the two rebellious chickens showed it quite obviously.
Fish will float to the surface before a rainstorm, and will be particularly excited on the day of the big white rain.
On the same morning, the two chickens in Jiang Muyun's family would bring their three furry cubs, who seemed to be less able to withstand the rain, home to visit their former parents, and take shelter from the rain in the safe haven carved out for them by their parents.
When Jiang Muyun opened the door again and saw two or three days later, she had almost soaked the spices and books.
Unless they were veterans like her and Chu Buwen who had been rummaging through ruins for years, no one would be able to tell there was anything wrong with them under the cover of the heavy rain.
It just so happened that Chu Buwen went to the river today, so Jiang Muyun decisively stuffed the things into the space and took them to the art market.
It's just raining and windy. There's no need to hide at home. It'll be more comfortable to go out and get some rain and wind.
Now everyone has experience in taking shelter from the rain. Those who go to the river not only wear raincoats and goggles, but also bring waterproof cloth and a bag of dry firewood, even seasonings, saying that they can also grill a fish while taking shelter from the wind.
Some people who went to the city were dissatisfied. If I can't get materials locally, can't I bring my own?
But there were definitely more people in the city than by the river, so they didn't dare bring fish out to grill. They could only bring a few more mushrooms, and they had to be the kind with little smell.
Nowadays, people are not tired of eating mushrooms yet, so you can roast some mushrooms and sprinkle some salt on them to kill time.
"We have to change places today. The solid wood customization store we went to last time was almost sold out yesterday." Zheng Xiang said.
Those who came to the Art City today were Jiang Muyun, Zheng Xiang, Qin Shiwu and Zhao Jiahao.
Except for Zheng Xiang, the other three went to the river to fetch water yesterday, so they were not very familiar with the situation in the store.
Jiang Muyun thought for a moment and asked, "How about going to the second-hand furniture market in the alley?"
They have been to the Art City so many times that they have already known it pretty well.
They had found this second-hand home furnishing market when they were searching for supplies in preparation for the winter. As soon as Jiang Muyun mentioned it, they knew where it was.
That place is quite remote. It is called a market but it is actually full of small shops run by private individuals.
Several friends and relatives who sell second-hand furniture and appliances got together, rented a large yard, hung up a sign saying "second-hand home furnishing market", and introduced customers to each other to increase popularity.
This kind of market is not well-known and is hidden in an alley. Few people know about it except the locals, and even the locals may not all know that such a place exists.
The Art City wasn't big to begin with, with only a few reputable furniture markets. And they weren't the only ones looking for lumber. Over the past few days, the survivors had emptied out several furniture markets, so it was obvious that the situation wouldn't be much better in places they hadn't visited.
Instead of going to other big markets and trying your luck to pick up what others have left, it is better to go directly to this unknown place.
It just so happens that this kind of private shop often has a living area for employees or owners, which makes it convenient for Jiang Muyun to stuff things in.
They made the right bet this time. This inconspicuous second-hand home furnishing market did not seem to have been visited by many people. The things inside showed signs of being turned over and moved away, but the remaining parts were enough for them to spend quite a bit of time.
A few people knew that it would rain soon and they had to wait until the rain stopped before they could leave, so they were not in a hurry when searching for things.
Coming to the city to search for wood and debris is different from transporting water. The water truck has a heavy body but a small force-bearing surface, so they can rely on the water truck to keep their bodies steady while walking in the wind.
But it is different for trucks loaded with timber. They are not as heavy as others and the force-bearing surface is larger. If they carry a truck full of timber in the wind, they will definitely end up overturning along with the truck and the people.
Moreover, the wood will get wet if they travel in the rain. Instead of carrying a pile of wet wood back with great effort, they might as well just cut down trees in the mountains. Why bother coming to the city?
Jiang Muyun and the other three skillfully knocked on tables and cabinets as they moved all the solid wood furniture indoors. When the rain came, they would process all the furniture, whether intact or broken, into neatly arranged firewood.
When Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwu were carrying half a bed board inside, a breeze blew by.
Jiang Muyun said to Zheng Xiang, who was about to come out to continue moving things, "It's going to rain soon. Just bring some small things in. There's no time to move the big things."
Zheng Xiang responded and dragged in a few wooden boards whose original shapes could not be identified. He also stopped Zhao Jiahao who was about to go out.
As soon as Jiang Muyun and Qin Shiwu stepped into the door, the wind outside became fierce.
After a few seconds, the rain fell down with a loud noise.
Several people were already accustomed to this kind of scene. They wiped the sweat from their foreheads and started working with axes.
Making furniture is not easy, but dismantling it is much easier. The most tedious part of processing these woods is to peel off the coating paint on the outside of the furniture.
They didn't seek efficiency, instead dismantling furniture, scraping paint, and alternating between tasks to adjust their moods. The finished firewood was piled onto the cart, and once a pile was complete, it was tied up with ropes.
When the wind got boring, we would light a bonfire and roast mushrooms while working.
Jiang Muyun took advantage of this opportunity to get up and said that he was bored and wanted to walk around the store to see if he could find any interesting gadgets.
Zheng Xiang and others were still not too excited about the grilled mushrooms, and they didn't think they could find any valuable supplies in such a place. They preferred to gather around the campfire to warm themselves and get rid of the dampness.
Jiang Muyun didn't mind. It was actually more convenient for her to move around without anyone following her.
Jiang Muyun had set his sights on his target early in the morning and walked straight towards the inconspicuous small door inside the store.
The small door looked quite old and still used traditional buckles and locks.
The lock was still hanging well, but the buckle had rusted out of shape.
Jiang Muyun didn't have to spend any effort to pull the buckle off the crooked door panel.
Without the support of the buckle, and pushed by Jiang Muyun, the door panel, which was already half-fallen, fell down with a bang.
"Wow, this style brings me back to my childhood." Jiang Muyun looked into the small room and was immediately delighted.
The style of the room and the door lock are highly consistent. In the room that was damaged by water, you can still see the shapes of the iron bed and old desk that were once placed inside.
Jiang Muyun opened the old desk that was tilted and half broken, and reached out to pull the drawer next to it.
The drawer was blocked by something, and Jiang Muyun couldn't even move it.
If the drawer handle was not integrated with the entire drawer, Jiang Muyun would probably have been able to pull the drawer handle off.
It's good to block it tightly. The more and more mixed things there are inside, the easier it is for her to mix things in.
Jiang Muyun only opened the drawer after pinching a handful of wood chips. After opening it, she felt that she had made a big profit.
The owner of the room should be quite old. In the drawer, besides some things that were soaked beyond recognition, there were also a few pairs of reading glasses and some red rubber ID books.
Jiang Muyun mixed the book in the messy sealed bag in, and it didn't feel out of place at all.
It's just that spices may not be suitable here.
The spices in small vacuum packages are obviously expensive, the kind that older people wouldn't even glance at.
Jiang Muyun went over the layout of the home furnishing market in his mind, wondering if there was any suitable place to put the spices.
Before she could make a choice between the home appliance recycling store and the porcelain recycling store, she heard a loud bang outside.
It was the sound of the iron door hitting the wall.
Jiang Muyun ran out with the book and saw a group of about ten people falling in from the gate in a mess. Without even catching their breath, they crawled up and tried to close the big iron gate at the gate.
One of the men who seemed to be the team leader looked up and saw Jiang Muyun and others standing at the door of the store, holding sharp weapons and staring at them with unfriendly eyes. He immediately cried out in his heart.
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