Chapter 8
“Ding ding ding—”
At 5:30 in the morning, Zhou Qi's watch alarm rang on time.
He opened his eyes as soon as the alarm clock rang. Just as he turned it off, Tang Yu'an, who was originally sleeping soundly, hummed softly and turned over to face him.
"Brother Xiaoqi, good morning..."
"Good morning." Zhou Qi touched his forehead and said, "You should sleep a little longer."
"No."
Tang Yu'an got up dazedly, "How is your injury?"
Remembering something, Tang Yu'an pulled Zhou Qi's hand over and looked at it.
Because of the bandage, he couldn't see anything, but the bruise on Zhou Qi's cheek had disappeared.
What a great recovery!
Tang Yu'an was a little happy and was about to smile, but she saw a red light shining in Zhou Qi's pure black eyes.
He was slightly startled, and when he looked carefully, the red light had disappeared, as if it was just an illusion.
Tang Yu'an blinked.
"What's wrong?" Zhou Qi asked, not knowing his abnormality.
Tang Yu'an hesitated and said, "Your eyes...seem a little red?"
"Maybe it's inflammation?" Zhou Qi said.
Tang Yu'an looked at it carefully again, and finally shook his head and said, "Maybe I saw it wrong."
"Then get up."
"Yeah, okay."
Zhou Qi made the bed, then went downstairs with Tang Yu'an to wash up and do morning exercises.
Seeing them gesturing, Wangcai, who was woken up, ran out from the corner, wagging his tail and circling around their feet, meowing happily.
Although it looks like a cat, it is actually a happy puppy!
Tang Yu'an couldn't help but squat down and play with it.
“Meow—meow—”
Wangcai stuck out his tongue, wagged his tail, and enthusiastically rubbed his head against Tang Yu'an's palm.
"Are you hungry?"
Tang Yu'an said this, and stood up to get some dried fish to feed it.
Because it was not yet 8 o'clock, he didn't get any points for feeding the cat, but seeing the happy look on the little orange cat's face, Tang Yu'an still felt very good.
In the kitchen.
Zhou Qi removed the bandage on his hand and found that the wound was not only completely healed, but there was not even a scar left.
He frowned slightly, but finally put the bandage back on.
He didn't know what had penetrated his body, but he didn't feel any discomfort at the moment, so he couldn't do anything for the time being.
He put aside his worries and started preparing breakfast.
"An An, it's time to eat."
Afterwards, the two sat together to have breakfast.
"Shall we go find Grandma Guo first today?" Tang Yu'an asked.
"Yeah." Zhou Qi nodded.
Although each daily task can only earn you 2 points, completing all of them will earn you lucky wheel draws.
Yesterday's experience has shown that the rewards from the Lucky Wheel are very important to them. From this perspective, the task of eliminating dangerous creatures is undoubtedly more attractive.
However, in terms of difficulty, daily tasks are undoubtedly safer.
Tang Yu'an listened to his analysis and nodded, "Besides, we now have a map. We can see where the customers are on it, so we don't have to search around like a headless fly anymore."
In addition, you can see light spots of dangerous creatures on the map.
They were able to avoid danger in advance, which greatly increased their safety. They no longer had to worry like before, and there would be no dangerous situation like yesterday.
Zhou Qi frowned slightly and did not respond for a moment.
The map couldn't be shared with him, so this also meant that if An An wanted to use the map, she would have to go out with him...
Tang Yu'an looked at him.
The two grew up together, so how could he not understand Zhou Qi? As soon as Zhou Qi frowned, Tang Yu'an knew what he was thinking.
"Don't you dare leave me in the shop again!"
He put down his chopsticks and said angrily, "My illness has been cured, and now I am the only one who can use the map..."
"You must take me with you, otherwise I won't let you out!"
Zhou Qi felt helpless seeing him throwing a tantrum. The two of them just looked at each other for a moment, and then he compromised.
"Okay, I understand."
Zhou Qi reached out and touched Tang Yu'an's head, comforting her, "Let's finish our meal, clean up, and go out together after eight o'clock when it's completely light."
"Hmph, that's more like it."
Tang Yu'an was flattered. After his anger subsided, he couldn't help but secretly glance at Zhou Qi and reached out to pull his clothes.
"Brother Xiaoqi, I didn't mean to lose my temper just now, I just..."
"I understand."
Zhou Qi nodded and said, "You are right. We should advance and retreat together."
Hearing this, Tang Yu'an laughed happily.
Seeing that he smiled so cutely, Zhou Qi also curled his lips and rubbed his head again with his palm.
Soon, they finished breakfast, Zhou Qi went to clean up, and Tang Yu'an prepared to sort the goods.
However, before he sorted out the goods, he opened today's daily tasks and took a quick look. What he saw was—
【Daily tasks (refreshed at 00:00 every day)】
⑴Complete transaction (0/1)
⑵Purchase goods at the wholesale market (0/10)
⑶ Attract new customers (0/1)
⑷ Clean the shop (0/1)
⑸Complete the transaction and gain profit (0/1)
Tang Yu'an was stunned and quickly shared his daily tasks with Zhou Qi.
"Brother Xiaoqi, look, the daily tasks have changed!"
The task of the third step changes from organizing goods with the help of the list function to attracting new customers!
Hearing this news, Zhou Qi couldn't help but frown, "It seems that the daily tasks are not fixed."
Perhaps as An An's level continues to rise, the difficulty of the tasks will also increase, and this new daily routine... If I have to recruit new customers every day, it will be troublesome.
It is difficult for them to meet anyone, let alone attract a new customer every day.
Tang Yu'an was optimistic. "It's okay. We can see where the new customers are on the map."
Zhou Qi nodded, "Let's go find that old lady from yesterday and get to know some new people through her."
This way, security can be guaranteed to a certain extent and the possibility of reaching a transaction can be increased.
"good!"
Tang Yu'an naturally had no objection.
So Zhou Qi continued to clean, and Tang Yu'an also helped. When they were almost done, they began to prepare the things they needed to take with them when going out today.
Tang Yu'an has 5 portable storage slots, and none of them are full yet.
Grid No. 1 is shared by two people and is used to store things that need to be accessed at any time. The remaining grids can be used to store some supplies.
There were several boxes of mineral water and beverages in the shop, all of which he put into grid No. 5 to prevent accidents from happening when he was out and couldn't come back for a long time without water.
Then dry food such as biscuits is also necessary. Tang Yu'an also brought a bottle of gasoline, which can be used if he encounters a situation where he needs to start a fire.
Since you have gasoline, you naturally need a lighter, as well as stainless steel bowls and plates, soup spoons and chopsticks, a pot for cooking and boiling water, and a dagger and scissors.
The remaining space is used to store fruits, vegetables, meat and eggs that are easy to spoil.
In addition to these things, you also need to bring medicine, especially hemostatic drugs and bandages...
Before they knew it, eight o'clock had passed. Seeing that Tang Yu'an was still picking things out, Zhou Qi took some dried fish to feed Wangcai.
“Meow—”
Wangcai, having eaten and drunk his fill, searched for 35 points for you.
[Points +35, Points Balance: 37]
When Tang Yu'an saw the system message, he couldn't help but look at the little orange cat happily eating dried fish on the ground.
Because it was Xiaoqi who fed it, so there was no loyalty increase this time? He made a note of this doubt and planned to test it again tomorrow.
"Brother Xiaoqi, I'm ready." Tang Yu'an came to Zhou Qi and said with full enthusiasm.
"Um."
Zhou Qi stood up and rubbed his head with his hand, "Let's go."
"Then what are we going to trade with Granny Guo today?" Tang Yu'an asked.
Although Granny Guo wasn't a new customer, as a regular, she could still earn experience points and credits for successful transactions. As for the people living with her, we'd see how things unfolded.
Zhou Qi thought for a moment and said, "Let's take some brown rice with us."
"oh oh."
So, Tang Yu'an used the newly acquired points to exchange for 500 grams of brown rice, and then followed Zhou Qi's instructions and took out the pound of brown rice.
Zhou Qi took out the sealed bag that contained salt yesterday and carefully counted out 20 pieces and put them in.
Tang Yu'an looked at him in confusion.
A pound of brown rice is 500 grams, which is only enough for the two of them to eat for one day. Of course, Granny Guo may be alone, and this is in the doomsday world, so she may be able to eat it for a few days.
But what does Brother Xiaoqi mean by packing by number of grains?
“These are high-quality brown rices that can be grown as seed.”
Zhou Qi explained, "That old woman has the ability to make plants mature in a short period of time. She should be interested in these seeds."
The rice in the grocery store was all hulled. Although it could be used for trading, it would inevitably arouse suspicion to bring out so much refined rice, and...
When Zhou Qi saw Grandma Guo, he couldn't help but think of his deceased grandmother.
And if she hadn't taken the initiative to talk to him yesterday and was willing to trust him and make a deal with him, An An wouldn't have been able to level up, let alone receive the subsequent series of rewards.
If that were the case, he might have been killed and eaten by Wangcai.
So Zhou Qi took out high-quality grain seeds such as brown rice, hoping that as a reward, the short and skinny old woman could eat better.
If her only source of food was those fruits, she probably wouldn't be full and would easily become malnourished.
"But if this happens, we won't be able to trade food with her in the future," Zhou Qi said.
If the old woman's ability really is to accelerate plant growth, then after she has these high-quality seeds, she can get brown rice continuously.
"It doesn't matter." Tang Yu'an said with a smile, "If food doesn't work, we still have salt. Salt is also a consumable."
"When she grows more food, we can trade salt for brown rice. As long as 1 gram of salt can be exchanged for more than 10 grams of brown rice, we'll make a profit!"
After all, 1 point = 10 grams of salt = 100 grams of brown rice.
Granny Guo has the ability to make plants grow quickly, so after a while, she will definitely have surplus rice to exchange for salt.
"Not only will we be able to earn points and make a profit, but we can also use the brown rice we earn to eat ourselves or continue to trade with others."
Tang Yu'an said with a smile, "Isn't this killing three birds with one stone?"
Zhou Qi's brows relaxed. He patted Tang Yu'an's head and praised: "Well, this is a win-win result."
Tang Yu'an chuckled and picked up a sealed bag to help pack the brown rice.
They packed five small bags, a total of 100 grains of brown rice -
Because Tang Yu'an can only gain experience points and credits if the first three transactions with each customer are successful every day, there is no need to install too many.
Tang Yu put the remaining brown rice into a large sealable bag and put it into his personal storage.
In addition to brown rice, Tang Yu'an also took out a few pieces of rock sugar from the cabinet, smashed them with a hammer, and stored them in his portable warehouse.
No one would refuse sweets, right?
Anyway, glucose can be exchanged in the mall now, so he will never lack sugar in the future.
Of course, in order to avoid attracting covetousness, he certainly couldn't take out a large piece at a time, so he had to break it into pieces.
Only after he felt that nothing was left out did Tang Yu'an put on his backpack as a cover and said goodbye to Wangcai: "We are going out, you take care of the house."
“Meow—”
Wangcai wagged his tail and wanted to follow reluctantly, but he was blocked by a transparent barrier after taking only a few steps.
Tang Yu'an set the pet to the "stay-behind" state on the pet panel, so it couldn't leave the grocery store at will and could only stay at home.
The little orange cat jumped onto the roof and remained there, watching from afar until Tang Yu'an and the others disappeared from sight...
*
This was the first time Tang Yu'an followed Zhou Qi out.
Yesterday, in order to rescue Zhou Qi, he ran all the way without carefully observing the surrounding environment. On the way back, he was still frightened and in no mood.
At this moment, he looked at the desolate scenery around him, not daring to say much, and followed Zhou Qi closely.
In the void before his eyes, a map that only he could see was suspended. It was adjusted to the appropriate size and could provide the approximate terrain direction and the dynamics of dangerous creatures in real time.
Compared to last night's activity, the red dots representing dangerous creatures were obviously much quieter after dawn, with only one or two dots active in a small area.
They were temporarily safe on the road that they had to take to reach Grandma Guo's residence.
Zhou Qi also led Tang Yu'an, carefully avoiding the place where he had stepped on the nameless corpse before.
The two walked for more than an hour before arriving at the place where Zhou Qi had met Grandma Guo yesterday. However, looking at the map, they were still at least half the distance to Grandma Guo's residence.
At Zhou Qi's suggestion, the two sat on the rocks by the roadside to rest.
"This is too far..."
Tang Yu'an couldn't help but say while drinking water.
"Do you regret following me out?" Zhou Qi said with a smile.
"No!"
Tang Yu'an shook his head in denial, then said, "I just think it's inconvenient to do business here since it's so far away."
Zhou Qi nodded, that's right.
Although they had a map, whether they were out doing business or customers wanted to go to the grocery store to buy things, they would have to spend a lot of time on the road and might encounter mutant creatures.
"At least the safety of the grocery store can be guaranteed," he said.
People's hearts are unpredictable, so Zhou Qi still thinks it is better not to reveal the location of the grocery store for the time being.
"Uh-huh."
Tang Yu'an also agrees with this view.
They trudged along and finally arrived at a new ruin around ten o'clock.
Tang Yu'an enlarged the map to the maximum scale, and found that Granny Guo was less than ten meters away from them.
From last night until now, the light golden dot representing Granny Guo has been motionless, and the green dot representing the new guest is almost overlapping with hers.
In other words, Grandma Guo has not left the house since morning until now.
Tang Yu'an looked at the ruins around him. This should have been a residential area before. Several residential buildings collapsed, leaving behind empty shells made of reinforced concrete.
I don’t know how many years it has been deserted, weeds are overgrown and the stones are covered with moss.
Tang Yu'an and Zhou Qi searched everywhere but didn't see many signs of human habitation. If it weren't for the map, it would have been difficult to find people living in the rubble.
They climbed up over rocks and with great effort.
Finally, Zhou Qi grabbed a piece of exposed steel bar and just climbed to the top of the collapsed building with the help of it, when he suddenly became aware of something and looked up vigilantly.
And Tang Yu'an's voice also sounded behind him: "Brother Xiaoqi..."
Zhou Qi no longer had time to listen carefully to what Tang Yu'an said.
What appeared before him was the skinny figure of Granny Guo in the backlight.
She raised her sickle high and slashed down at him!
A flash of metallic light passed by.
At this critical moment, a faint red light appeared in Zhou Qi's dark pupils, and then he took a step to the left at an incredible speed.
Zhou Qi dodged Granny Guo's attack and at the same time reached out and firmly grasped her wrist!
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