Chapter 73: Plague of Locusts 2
The fear and despair brought by the locust plague enveloped the floating city like a dark cloud.
However, before they could react, they were attracted by the message sent by the trading point.
5 kilograms of locusts can be exchanged for 1 kilogram of food. When this news was released, the locusts outside were no longer locusts, they were walking supplies!
Before daybreak, some people were using flashlights and torches to catch locusts.
Xia Xiaoman also joined the group of people catching locusts. Others caught locusts to exchange for supplies, but she caught them purely to save some feed for raising chickens and rabbits.
Wen Jianfeng and Zhou Qiuyang also wanted to catch locusts, but they had not received any news of suspension of work, so they needed to ask their superiors whether they should still go to work.
There are only Su Ran and the twins on the 15th floor. Xia Xiaoman is worried about Su Ran's ability and is afraid that someone will rob the house, so she just stays downstairs to catch locusts. If anything happens at home, she can hear Su Ran shouting upstairs.
Around 10 o'clock in the morning, Wen Jianfeng and Zhou Qiuyang came back.
"Has the work been stopped?" Xia Xiaoman asked.
Zhou Qiuyang shook his head. "We were fired. They said they didn't want so many electricians, so they fired all the non-professionals like us."
Xia Xiaoman frowned. "Most of the circuits in the floating city haven't been connected yet. How could there be no need for electricians?"
Zhou Qiuyang sighed, "I discussed this with the coach, and we both agreed that it might be because of the locust plague that the higher-ups couldn't pay their salaries, or maybe they wanted to focus on dealing with the plague, so they put the plan to repair the water and electricity on hold."
Zhou Qiuyang was extremely depressed after finally getting a stable job only to be fired not long after starting.
Xia Xiaoman patted his arm to comfort him. "If you lose your job, then you lose it! Locusts are quite valuable now. You can catch them and exchange them for supplies."
Zhou Qiuyang nodded and was about to speak when someone pointed at the sky and screamed, "Fuck! The locusts are coming again! Again!"
A dark cloud covered the floating city at a very fast speed. Zhou Qiuyang turned around and saw this scene, his eyes widened in shock.
Xia Xiaoman's face changed, and he ran into the building, shouting at Zhou Qiuyang and Wen Jianfeng, "What are you standing there for! Run!"
Zhou Qiuyang came to his senses and saw that Xia Xiaoman had already run into the building. He immediately ran into the building with Wen Jianfeng.
As soon as the two ran into the building, a swarm of locusts rushed over. The one who ran slower was attacked by the swarm of locusts, and soon all the exposed parts of his face and arms were cut by the locusts.
Xia Xiaoman ran up to the 15th floor in one breath, went home, covered his head with a cloth, and turned on all the electric mosquito swatters hanging on the balcony.
Crackling sounds of electricity and a burnt smell came from the balcony. Soon, the balcony was filled with locust corpses.
Today's batch of locusts is obviously different from yesterday's batch.
Perhaps it was because the previous batch of locusts had eaten all the food, and this batch of locusts had to follow behind and go hungry, so this batch of locusts was a hundred times more ferocious than yesterday's locusts.
The green cloth she hung on the balcony as bait was eaten by locusts in the blink of an eye.
But this batch of locusts was slightly smaller than yesterday. After about two hours, the main group of locusts migrated southward, leaving a small group to gnaw on tree roots.
Xia Xiaoman took a piece of bread in one hand and stuffed it into his mouth, and took a broom in the other hand to sweep the locust corpses on the balcony into a pile. After finishing eating the bun, he took out a shovel, put the locusts into a snakeskin bag and threw it into the space.
After cleaning up the dead locusts on the balcony, Xia Xiaoman tied seven or eight snakeskin bags around his waist and went downstairs to catch locusts while the locust army had just left and there were still many locusts left outside.
Before going downstairs, she said hello to Wen Jianfeng and went to a farther place to catch locusts.
There were too many people catching locusts in the community, and she couldn't catch many by staying in the community, so it was better for her to go outside and sweep the area.
There are many people catching locusts on the street. Some carry net bags, some carry basins, and some carry buckets and quilts.
After seeing the man who used a quilt to cover the locusts, Xia Xiaoman quietly walked to an unmanned area and found two quilt covers of average quality from the space.
It was because the quilt cover was so big that it could hold so much. One quilt cover was equivalent to three or four snakeskin bags.
Everyone was busy catching locusts and had no time to think about how much disaster the locust plague would bring to people, nor did anyone think about what they would face after all the locusts were caught.
Maybe it’s not that no one thinks about it, but that no one dares to think about it.
When locusts pass through a place, not a blade of grass will grow. This is not just a saying.
Wherever the locust army passed, there was not a single bit of green to be seen, and even some tree bark and tender branches were eaten clean.
No one dared to think about what would happen to the floating city without food. Now they were actively catching locusts, wasn't it for the future?
When Xia Xiaoman was catching locusts, she saw a girl with a round face and a very cute appearance. The girl was frightened by the locusts and cried loudly, but she still gritted her teeth and caught the locusts.
Who would touch something they hate and fear unless they have no choice?
…
After catching them for an entire afternoon, Xia Xiaoman caught seven or eight snakeskin bags and a quilt full of locusts. But on the surface, she only dragged a quilt, and she covered the snakeskin bags full of locusts with the quilt and threw them into the space.
A quilt full of locusts looks like a lot, and is taller than the summer solstice when standing upright. But it is not actually very heavy, probably less than 50 kilograms. In other words, a quilt full of locusts can only be exchanged for 10 kilograms of food at most.
So 5 kilograms of locusts can be exchanged for 1 kilogram of food. It seems that this 1 kilogram of food can be easily obtained, but it is actually not that simple.
Dragging a quilt of locusts towards the community, Xia Xiaoman received many envious and jealous looks.
Suddenly, a man jumped out and reached out to grab Xia Xiaoman.
Xia Xiaoman was holding a quilt full of locusts in her hand and was unable to dodge for a moment, so she was caught by the man.
"Wife, why did you come out to catch locusts by yourself? Come back with me quickly. Xiaobao has woken up and is crying for his mother."
Xia Xiaoman: "??? Who is your wife?"
"Wife, I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have made you angry yesterday. Don't be angry. Come home with me!" The man didn't say anything and grabbed Xia Xiaoman's hand and walked into a remote alley.
Xia Xiaoman frowned and tried to shake off the man's hand, but the man was very strong and dragged her away, "Wife, stop being angry, let's go home!"
Xia Xiaoman's wrist was hurt by his pulling, and she said coldly: "Let go! I'm not your wife!"
While the two were arguing, several passers-by kept casting inquiring glances at them.
The man noticed their gazes and said to the passers-by with a slightly apologetic smile: "I'm sorry, my wife and I are having a conflict. Women are like this, they run away from home at the slightest dissatisfaction..."
Hearing the man's lies, Xia Xiaoman narrowed her eyes slightly and moved her hand to her waist without making a sound...
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