The food problem has been temporarily solved, so it's time to consider other issues. The five of them came out in a hurry and didn't bring much stuff. They slept on the ground with tents. Now even the cave is gone. If they want to stay in this valley, they should have a house, right? If they don't have a house, they should at least have a bed, right?
But that was the problem. Both families' houses had been burned down to the bare bones, so returning to retrieve their belongings was out of the question. The only options left were to either go to someone else's house to get something done, or make something yourself using local materials.
Neither of these is easy, so Grandma Wu carefully asked Lin Man about his plans.
Lin Man had other plans, but couldn't say them out loud yet, so he told Grandma Wu, "Our current food supply depends entirely on this wild vegetable patch. Grandma Wu, why don't you find a way to take better care of it? I think this place has moist soil, and with this wild vegetable patch, it should be a good place to grow things. I'll go out and look for other wild vegetables and plant them there as well."
This sentence drew all of Grandma Wu's attention away. Yes, it would be more important to manage this vegetable garden first. If we continue picking like this, all the vegetables should be picked in a few days. There is no other way to talk about it.
So she immediately started clearing the ground with wooden sticks and asked her grandchildren to pick up bird droppings and dig earthworms. She was going back to her old job.
Seeing that Grandma Wu was going to raise earthworms again, Lin Man thought it would be best to raise a lot of them quickly. Then she could get some and raise them in the space, which would be very helpful in fertilizing the fields.
Lin Man was not idle either. She cleared out a place, found some dry branches and grass, and made a simple bed for Lin's mother. At the same time, she would go to the puddle every one or two hours, actually to pump water and secretly water the soil in the space.
At other times, she would go around the mountain "looking for food", but in fact she was busy in the space.
When she saw Grandma Wu tilling the land, she remembered that the land needed to be turned over, so she used the broken hoe she took from the plantation to dig furrows and ridges in the ground.
By evening, nearly twenty hours after the sweet potatoes and corn were buried, the seedlings had grown to the height of a palm, lush green and vibrant. Because they were all crammed into two square meters of land back then, now that they've grown, it seems crowded.
Lin Manxian carefully cut the sweet potato seedlings and planted them in the cleared ground.
She first put some humus soil at the bottom of the pit, then planted the sweet potato seedlings, covered them with soil, and watered them. Lin Man set the spacing between them at about 0.4 meters. She asked Grandma Wu about this and estimated it herself based on the available soil in the space.
There are only eight seedlings in total, four in a row, divided into two rows, and it looks very neat.
She also transplanted corn seedlings to another piece of land. She buried more than 40 corn kernels in total. Now she transplanted them at the same distance of 0.4 meters. They occupied about seven square meters at once. Together with the sweet potato field, there was only a little bit of wet land left.
Lin Man thought about it and buried another sweet potato and a potato.
She turned her head to look at the wild vegetable field. It had been twelve hours since these wild vegetables were planted, which was equivalent to five days outside. When they were first transplanted, they were all half-grown, but now each plant had grown much stronger, and even some small wild vegetables had grown.
That night, the five of them still slept side by side on the floor under the tent. Only Lin Man would quietly get up every one or two hours to pump out water and take a look into the space.
It was really different every moment, and there was a new harvest every time he went in. Lin Man felt as if he was watching the money in his pocket increase little by little, and the crops in the field were also growing stronger and more lush.
The next day she continued to “go out” and came back at noon excitedly: “Grandma Wu, look what this is!”
Grandma Wu squinted her eyes and took a look, and was immediately shocked: "This, this is a sweet potato!"
Lin Man smiled and nodded. She carefully took out two nests of sweet potatoes from her backpack.
They were really, really small. Under a bunch of tender sweet potato vines were finger-sized tubers, each covered with mud and with short, thin roots.
Everyone gathered around, and Mother Lin stretched her neck to see. Lin Man took it and showed it to her, and the three members of the Wu family also moved over.
"sweet potato!"
“It’s really a sweet potato!”
The two little ones also started shouting. In their eyes, there was nothing cuter than these two nests of sweet potatoes.
Lin Man said to Grandma Wu, "From a distance, it looked a bit like a sweet potato vine. When I dug it down, it really was one. I was afraid it would die if I left it there, so I dug it up. Grandma Wu, do you think we can continue planting it?"
"I'll try, I'll try." Grandma Wu took it excitedly and nervously, and hurried to plant it. The soil on it was still a little wet, so she had to plant it quickly.
"And this." Lin Man pulled out a handful of wild vegetables wrapped in clothes. Each plant was small, with clods of soil covering its roots, and its stems and leaves were still juicy. "Do you think this can be planted?"
"It should be possible." Grandma Wu took a look and felt a little confident. This was the same wild vegetable as the one in the valley. The fact that this wild vegetable had survived until now showed that it was particularly tenacious. There was also plenty of water in the valley, so it should be able to grow.
"Then plant it. It won't be enough to eat just like this."
"Oh!" Grandma Wu was still thinking that the original wild vegetable field was not very lush. With these wild vegetable seedlings, she would have another vegetable field. Grandma Wu immediately smiled.
The three of them, young and old, went to work happily. Lin Man and Lin's mother looked at each other, with some joy and relief in their eyes.
They can help everyone, and in a long-term and safe way.
"Xiao Man, can it really survive?"
"Yes," Lin Man whispered, "They've grown in space before. Simply put, they've been improved and are very easy to keep alive."
In fact, it should grow in space for a generation, and the seeds obtained will be much stronger than the previous generation, and the quality of the products obtained by sowing again will be greatly improved, but the current situation does not allow us to wait that long.
Guan Guan said that although it had only grown in the space for one or two days, there was no change in quality, but as for its vitality, as long as it was given enough water and fertilizer, it would basically not die.
After the two nests of sweet potatoes were planted like treasures, Lin Man told everyone, especially Grandma Wu, "I've been going in and out these past two days and saw people from the base."
The smile on Grandma Wu's face faded, and she looked worried: "I saw it from a distance once or twice when I went out to collect firewood." She didn't dare let those people see it, for fear of exposing the valley.
"Grandma Wu, this is what I think. They will find this place sooner or later. We are few in number, and they are many. Once they are discovered, we will definitely not be able to defend this place. Those wild vegetables and those two nests of sweet potatoes will definitely be dug out and eaten."
When Grandma Wu thought of that scene, her face turned pale. It was so hard to get two days of peace.
"Instead of waiting for them to come and rob us, I think we should bring them here so everyone can see this wild vegetable patch and the sweet potatoes. As long as everyone knows that food can still be produced here, there won't be chaos. As long as we can get through these few months together, everything will be fine later."
"What if everyone doesn't believe me?" Or what if the two nests of sweet potatoes can't survive? Grandma Wu didn't dare say the latter sentence, because she didn't want to face that result.
"Then find someone with prestige and ability to take care of us. Grandma Wu, don't worry for now. I'll go back to the base and take a look. If the situation is right, I'll bring everyone here."
Lin Man didn't want to do something that could cause trouble if she wasn't careful, but there was a possibility that the valley would be discovered. Secondly, she really wanted as many people as possible to survive. Otherwise, there would be only five of them, except for her, and the elderly, the weak, women and children would all be there. Moreover, daily necessities would be extremely scarce, which was really unreasonable.
When she said this to Grandma Wu, she was not actually discussing it with her, but rather giving her a heads-up.
Mother Lin didn't say anything. Lin Man had already told her about this, and she agreed. Grandma Wu was a little flustered. Wu Hui still looked confused and didn't understand the situation. But Wu Peng suddenly said, "Sister Xiaoman, go ahead. I support you."
Lin Manle was delighted and looked at the determined child: "Why?"
"Everyone has been out of water for a long time, and the feeling of thirst is very uncomfortable. We have such a big puddle. I want everyone to drink water so that they don't die of thirst." said the 13-year-old boy who still looks very young and has dry and yellow skin.
Lin Man touched the child's dry hair.
Lin Man secretly returned to the base.
She wanted to take a look first to see what the current situation in the base was. If she met three criteria, she would be immediately taken to the valley.
The first point is whether the survivors have gone crazy. If the survivors are all eating each other and killing each other, then she will definitely stay away from them.
The second point is whether there is water and food. If she can hold on for a while, then she is not in a hurry to do anything.
As for the third point...
Lin Man returned to the base. The base was quiet and still looked like it had been burned, but the bodies in the ruins had been disposed of.
She walked around the base and found that some people were still living in their homes if their houses were not burned or destroyed, while the rest were concentrated in the warehouses on the plantation.
There were some relatively fresh bloodstains on the street. When passing by several houses, some people were sitting in the doorway in a daze, and some people had committed suicide at home. The thick despair of impending death enveloped the place.
But after all, I didn’t go crazy, so it’s okay.
Lin Man went to the drained wells and took a look. The silt underneath had been dug down a lot, but there was still no water. She felt a little heavy-hearted.
When she arrived at the well where she had queued up to fetch water, there were some people gathered there, carefully pulling up buckets of water. When the buckets were pulled up, the water inside was only shallow at the bottom and was very turbid. Those people brought their own bowls, basins or kettles, and each of them was given a little water.
Lin Man saw that the water was not enough for two sips, but those who got water smiled and hurried away with their containers carefully. The rest of the people who didn't get water continued to wait there eagerly.
Lin Man looked up at the sun hanging high in the sky. During the days when she was digging the soil, she hoped every day that it would not rain, but in fact, it had not rained here for a long time. The sky without a single cloud made people feel particularly desperate and powerless.
Lin Man looked again and saw a man standing outside the crowd near the well. He looked thinner than two days ago, but even so, even though he was still leaning on a cane, his figure was still taller than the others.
Lin Man sighed secretly. Okay, all three conditions are met, so she has no reason not to do it.
She walked towards the man.
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