Chapter 84
When Susu first arrived home, she seemed a little timid. But after being pampered and cared for by the Tong family for a while, her natural liveliness and energy began to show, and she wanted to get involved in everything.
When Grandma Tong was feeding the chickens, it would chase them away, scaring the mother hens so much that they ran all over the chicken coop with their chicks. When feeding the sheep, it would provoke them again. The lambs had already grown horns and were already quite temperamental. Even Qin Xiaoxiao was not spared. Su Su was even gored and rolled over several times. From then on, whenever she saw a sheep, she would bleat a few times in her babyish voice.
When Tong Shu and the others went to the other side of the river to make a transaction, it was indispensable. It insisted on going with them, otherwise it would wail and howl all morning on this side of the river. Tong Shu had no choice but to let whoever went across take it with them.
“These red bricks are completely different from the ones before. Every single one looks clean and tidy, not like they were found in ruins.” Tong Shu picked up a red brick, half admiring and half testing.
Tian Zhaozhao smiled smugly: "These bricks are definitely not from the ruins. We have a few experienced craftsmen in our camp who built a brick kiln a while ago and experimented for a long time. These red bricks are our first batch of successful results."
Unexpectedly, Tian Zhaozhao acted so quickly, quietly establishing her first business. Tong Shu nodded, "That's impressive! I thought you would start with a food workshop."
"The food workshop is also being prepared. We've planted a lot of wheat and rice, and the wheat still needs to be ground into flour. People are already chiseling stone mills. As you know, this area is mostly ruins from the collapsed city, and there's not much usable arable land. We can only grow some staple foods for now, and we still have to trade other fruits and vegetables with you." Tian Zhaozhao was afraid that Tong Shu would think that they were planning to go solo, so she deliberately explained, "To be honest, although the building we're currently living in isn't leaning too badly, it's still a dangerous building. Not to mention that there are many new people coming here. We can only arrange for them to stay in nearby buildings that aren't leaning too badly, but this isn't a long-term solution. We still have to rebuild the houses."
Tong Shu nodded: "That's true. Any tilting will risk collapse."
"So we cleared out a lot of those old, collapsed houses. That area is quite far from the original city center, but much closer to the river. There aren't any leaning tall buildings around, so it's suitable for building new houses. The bricks we provided to you before were mostly picked up from there, so it didn't take us much effort to clear them out." Tian Zhaozhao explained to Tong Shu in detail. Otherwise, if they suddenly appeared at the riverbank from the center, and Tong Shu and the others decided to shoot, it wouldn't be good if they were shot.
Tong Shu didn't care about any of that; as long as they didn't cross the river, she was fine with them doing whatever they wanted. Seeing that Tong Shu didn't object, Tian Zhaozhao took the opportunity to bring up the matter of trading steel bars with Tong Shu. The two agreed on the materials and quantities to be traded and then went home separately.
After returning home, Tong Shu thought about it. Since the other side had already started growing their own food, they could grow some other crops on the island. The vegetables from Grandpa Tong's garden outside were enough to supply both their own family and the other side. Tong Shu considered it and decided to grow some rapeseed, peanuts, and beans on the island. Then they could press oil and brew soy sauce, and then trade with Tian Zhaozhao and the others.
"You really know how to give me a challenge." Tong Songming looked helpless after hearing Tong Shu's idea: "Then I'll have to figure out an oil press machine."
"This should be easy, Dad!" Tong Shu propped her head up and tapped around on the tablet. She had saved a lot of information on the tablet before, including blueprints for an oil press. After searching, Tong Shu found the relevant information and proudly handed the tablet to Tong Songming.
“I know that. When we were kids, we used these wooden oil presses, but they were time-consuming, laborious, and didn’t extract the oil cleanly. I’ll go to the island and think of a solution.” Tong Songming glanced at the tablet, shook his head, and turned to run off to the island.
Tong Shu pouted. She really wanted to return to simplicity, but unfortunately, her father didn't have that childlike heart and only had efficiency on his mind.
A few days ago, Tian Zhaozhao placed an order for a batch of quilts. The three Shu sisters went back to their old ways and started working on the sewing machine from morning to night. These days, Grandma Tong has been cooking for the family. Tong Shu and Wang Jie are suffering from the old lady's bland taste and can't say anything. In the afternoon, they secretly hide in the woods to eat "island takeout".
“Although they can’t grow cotton on the other side, they have plenty of manpower. We can process cotton cloth and send it over to them so they can make their own quilts.” Wang Jie’s mouth was full of roujiamo (Chinese hamburger), and his lips were greasy.
“I think so too. I’ll go talk to Tian Zhaozhao tomorrow. Anyway, he’s planning to build a base, so the garment factory, textile factory and stuff should be built too.” Tong Shu took a big gulp of hot and sour noodles soup and sighed contentedly.
The next day, Tian Zhaozhao traded a wild boar for six sewing machines from Tong Shu. The three Shu sisters were finally freed from the clothing store on the small island. With machines for weaving, only one person needed to watch over it. The family was finally able to enjoy delicious and colorful meals again.
However, after this incident, Tian Zhaozhao roughly realized that Tong Shu and his group might not have as many people as he had imagined. After tasting the rapeseed oil that Tong Shu had sent, he cautiously asked Tong Shu if he wanted to trade rapeseed directly with them and build an oil mill to press the oil.
Tong Shu gave him a meaningful look. Actually, pressing oil at home was really easy. The oil press made by Tong Songming was very efficient. If Tian Zhaozhao and the others wanted to press oil, they would definitely not want to waste the precious electricity generated by that old generator. They would most likely have to do it manually.
"Sister Hua, I didn't mean anything by it. You must all have highly skilled people over there. We can handle the heavy lifting like oil pressing." Tian Zhaozhao said with a flattering smile.
“Alright, then you can trade oil for rapeseed from now on.” Rapeseed is plentiful and yields a lot of faith points, so Tong Shu was happy to make this deal.
This offer was practically free oil for them. Tian Zhaozhao had no idea what Tong Shu was planning; she only felt that Tong Shu was being incredibly kind and taking care of them, and her eyes were overflowing with gratitude: "Thank you, thank you, Sister Hua."
SuSu darted around at their feet. It was very affectionate towards Tian Zhaozhao. Before Tong Shu took it away, Tian Zhaozhao had always taken care of it. Now, when they saw each other every now and then, SuSu's tail would wag so hard it left a trail of shadows.
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Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and Tong Shu's family moved into their newly built house. The three Shu sisters prepared a large table of dishes, and the family gathered together for a lively meal.
"Speaking of which, why haven't Tian Zhaozhao and the others contacted us this past week?" Wang Jie asked vaguely, putting a piece of fish into his mouth.
This fish was caught by Wang Jianye in the river. Now his family is gradually able to free up some time to pursue their hobbies. Every few days, Wang Jianye will go to the riverbank and sit for a few hours to catch some plump river fish.
"They're probably quite busy. There are more and more people on their side, and if we have to assign positions to everyone, there are a lot of things to plan," Tong Songming said casually.
Tong Shu was also a little confused. In order to maintain their relationship, Tian Zhaozhao would whistle to explain to them even if it was windy and rainy and they hadn't gathered enough bricks and sand. This time, they hadn't seen each other for a week, and Tong Shu was a little worried.
"Nothing should happen, right? The young man is a nice guy. He even brought us things when someone came from out of town." Grandma Tong had never met Tian Zhaozhao, but she had heard a lot about the other side from Tong Shu and the others. In her imagination, Tian Zhaozhao was a young man who was not very old but had a very good manner.
“Okay, I’ll blow a whistle tomorrow to get him to meet me. We’ve just managed to collect quite a bit of cotton and rapeseed.” Tong Shu said after taking a couple of bites of rice.
Qin Xiaoxiao had already eaten her fill. She gathered all the remaining bones on the table, put them in a bowl, and led Susu out to the yard to eat the bones.
"Xiaoxiao is getting better and better now." Shuli said with a smile as she watched Qin Xiaoxiao's back. "We also have to thank Tian Zhaozhao for bringing Susu over. Having the puppy with her makes her much happier."
Shuya was also very pleased. Her daughter was now completely focused on the puppy. A few days ago, when she saw them picking cotton on the island, she asked her for a piece of nice-colored cotton fabric, saying she wanted to make some clothes for Susu to wear as a puppy.
Although the clothes looked rather shabby and Su Su didn't want to wear them, Qin Xiaoxiao was happy with them, and that was enough.
Early the next morning, Tong Shu and Wang Jie, carrying backpacks and dragging a small boat, prepared to set off for the other side. They needed to first place their supplies before anyone was on the other side.
SuSu woke up as soon as it heard the noise in the morning and wouldn't leave no matter how hard it tried to shoo it away. Now it was biting Tong Shu's trouser leg and insisted on going with her. SuSu slept in Qin Xiaoxiao's room. After it ran out, Qin Xiaoxiao quickly changed her clothes and followed.
"Susu and I will go with you." Looking at the stubborn little dog, Qin Xiaoxiao couldn't help but say.
If it were a while ago, Tong Shu would have brought them without hesitation, but this time she sensed something was amiss and was quite hesitant. If something unexpected happened on the other side, she might not be able to take care of the two people and the dog.
SuSu had always considered going to the other side as a picnic, and she was incredibly excited. She jumped onto the small boat and barked loudly at the people below, her meaning couldn't be clearer.
"Forget it, let's go. Tian Zhaozhao might not even come today. We'll just drop off our things and come back." Tong Shu had no choice but to invite the two of them onto the boat together.
The three people and the dog arrived at the riverside park on the other side of the river. Tong Shu looked around at the open space where the trading goods had been piled up. It had been a week since she last came here, and it was now overgrown with weeds. It seemed that Tian Zhaozhao and the others had not been here either.
Tong Shu's doubts deepened.
"What do you mean? Do we still need to take the things out?" Wang Jie also sensed something was wrong and leaned closer to Tong Shu to ask in a low voice.
Tong Shu turned her head slightly, glancing at the dimly lit bushes out of the corner of her eye. She wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but she felt like something was secretly watching her from nearby.
SuSu's reaction was also different from usual; it clung tightly to Qin Xiaoxiao's calf and made a "woo-woo" warning sound in its throat.
"Go back!" Tong Shu made a quick decision, grabbing one person with each hand and leaving the park, returning to the riverbank along the same route.
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