Chapter 78 Someone's Here
Pull the cart to the middle of the woods, then take a basket and start searching for mushrooms around the cart.
If you see a small mound of earth or a pile of rotten leaves, gently turn it over with a twig to take a look.
If you can see even a tiny circular outline, then it's a poplar mushroom.
If you find a bunch of mushrooms, you can fill half a small basket.
Just like yesterday, when I found the mushrooms, I used a knife to cut off the soil from the roots.
So they harvested basket after basket of clean, plump, and adorable mushrooms.
For lunch, I simply put beef sauce on a flatbread, rolled it up with scallions and cilantro, and ate it as is.
I've been walking around and working all the time, and now that I'm hungry, food tastes really good.
After finishing the wrap and drinking half a bottle of mineral water, we continued picking mushrooms.
By the time the sun was setting, I had filled four baskets and two buckets to the brim.
This grove of poplar trees has been almost completely searched; even if some escaped, there aren't many left.
Just as I was about to go home, I saw a large patch of beautiful wildflowers. The petals looked a lot like roses, and the red color was very vibrant.
I can't tell what kind it is, but it smells wonderful.
"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, for ye may ye have nothing left but bare branches."
Based on this truth, I cut most of the wildflowers off at the base, intending to take them home and dry them into petals.
Pushing their carts, they returned home laden with their purchases in the afterglow of the setting sun.
Upon arriving home, I immediately set the mushrooms up to dry without hesitation.
Freshly picked wild mushrooms will basically rot the next day if they are placed together overnight.
However, mushrooms cannot be left to dry outdoors, as there will be dew on them as evening approaches.
Not only will it not dry out the mushrooms, it will actually make them more moist, which will also cause them to rot.
Let's leave them to dry on the windshield and in the open space in the kitchen for now.
After drying all the mushrooms, I took out a large bunch of pretty bouquets, put them in a very nice wine bottle, and placed them on the coffee table. They looked absolutely gorgeous.
The remaining flowers were also processed immediately; the petals were plucked from the flowers and gently placed in a basket to air dry.
The petals should not be exposed to direct sunlight, otherwise the dried flowers will change color.
The next day, when the sun came out, I moved the mushrooms outdoors.
The willow baskets weren't enough, so they spread burlap sacks all over the ground and hung the mushrooms on them to dry.
After drying the mushrooms, I started messing around with the chicken coop.
Now that it's cool outside, the chickens need to be kept outdoors.
Sang Biao knew the chickens at home and wouldn't let the wolves attack them.
They then built a chicken coop in the original corner and kept the chickens inside.
The chicks have grown up, but I feed them every day, so I can tell which ones are newly grown and which ones were there before.
I had just finished cleaning the chicken coop and was about to rest for a while when I heard a beeping sound.
At first, I didn't think much of it; I just noticed that a tricycle was driving by on the road.
Then it suddenly dawned on me, there's a tricycle!
Before I could even react and prepare anything, the tricycle had already appeared in my sight.
The people on the tricycle have already seen me.
I quickly went back into the room and grabbed the baseball bat and the stun gun that was on the windowsill.
At this moment, Xiao Di and Xiao Gua also rushed over upon hearing the noise. Xiao Di and Xiao Gua had never seen anyone other than me before.
They went on high alert as soon as they saw the car approaching.
When the car stopped outside our gate and four men got out, Xiao Di and Xiao Gua became even more nervous.
I took my baseball bat and walked to the gate of the yard, watching them.
One man looked to be in his 50s, two looked to be in their 40s, and one looked to be in his 20s.
The man in his fifties didn't look fierce; he even had a kind expression on his face.
But I remained tense. They didn't speak, so I didn't speak either. I stared at them expressionlessly, gripping the baseball bat tightly in my hand.
Little Gua had learned something from hanging out with the wolf pack; he wore a fierce expression on his face.
It lowered its neck slightly, mimicking a wolf, and made a whining, menacing sound.
"Hello, don't be nervous, we are from the town government."
A man in his fifties took the first step forward, smiling as he spoke to me.
"Is something the matter?"
I tried to make myself look fierce, and asked in a cold and distant manner.
"Now that the high temperature has dropped, let's count the number of survivors."
After explaining, the man in his fifties saw that I had no reaction and continued.
"Have you always lived here? Are you not very familiar with the situation outside?"
I nodded without saying anything.
The man continued, "There are very few people left in our town. Many people froze and starved to death during those two cold years. You know about the recent heat wave, right?"
He paused for a moment, and I nodded again.
"An infectious disease broke out during the high-temperature period. The virus was very powerful and many countries were infected. People who survived the extreme cold were almost wiped out."
"There are less than 1% of the population left on Earth. People from several towns have gathered together to live. They are all at the White Town base. We have come out to search for other survivors at the request of our superiors."
When he said this, I realized that he wanted me to live in a survival base similar to the apocalypse.
I don't believe they would be so kind as to gather more women in the base so that they can reproduce.
So I immediately refused: "I don't need it, I'm not going to live in the base."
Little Gua probably sensed the harshness in my tone, and its whimpering grew louder.
The man I was talking to looked down at the dog and took two steps back.
"It's okay, it's voluntary. You can come if you want, or you can live on your own if you don't want to. I'm just here to count the number of people and pass on some information to you."
Hearing him say that made me feel a little more at ease, but I was still very afraid that they would say one thing to my face and another behind my back.
Perhaps sensing the doubt in my eyes, the man continued in a friendly manner.
"We've all survived the extreme cold and the epidemic, and it wasn't easy for us to live. We won't continue to fight to the death, and you don't need to worry. We won't hurt you."
"I just wanted to share the news from the outside world with everyone around us. After all, we live in the same town, and so many people have died. The rest are all our relatives."
Seeing the man's sincerity, I actually started to believe him.
It seemed he had a lot to tell me, and he continued.
“There are also a few people in other villages who, like you, do not want to go to the base and live on their own. We really will not interfere with your choices.”
It turns out that there are other people living alone like me in other villages. It seems that I am the only one in the village I am in now.
Thank you for your understanding.
I uttered these words through my throat, which was dry and hoarse from nervousness.
"If you need furniture or any tools, you can walk to town and pick them up directly. There are hardly any people left in town, and a lot of things are just sitting idle. There are no more than 20 people alive in the whole town, so there's more furniture than you can use."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com