Zheng Gang and the two young men did not stay for long. They filled the buckets they brought with water and carried the water back on their shoulders, taking a bunch of wild vegetables with them.
It is hard to walk in the dark at night, and the wild vegetable soup is not enough to consume on the way. However, people have been honed to have strong endurance and tolerance in the seventeen years of the apocalypse, so this little hardship is nothing.
On this day, the survivors at the peace base were still waiting to die. The little water they were given during the day was not enough. The severe lack of water made most people listless, and the weak ones even fainted.
"Mom, Mom!" In a family's home, the daughter-in-law heard the old lady mumbling something, but after a while there was no movement. She felt something was wrong, so she went over and called out twice, but the old lady didn't move. She pushed her, but her body was cold.
The young woman was suddenly startled and screamed in grief.
"...What are you shouting about?" the old lady said weakly.
"Mom, you're still awake. I thought..."
"I'm fine. Don't worry too much..." The old lady raised her hand, then put it down weakly. Due to lack of water, her hands and feet were cold, her eyes were blurry, and her head was dizzy. "It's getting dark. Go cook. Qiangqiang's father should be back soon."
Qiangqiang was the young woman's son and the old lady's grandson, only five years old. However, upon hearing this, the young woman fell silent. After a while, she said in a trembling voice, "Mom, you forgot, Qiangqiang's father is gone."
The selfish and cruel man followed the team out of the base. He thought he left very secretly. In fact, the two women knew it, but they also knew that they could not keep him, so no one said anything.
"Oh, yes, yes..." The old lady was a little confused. After a while, she said, "Afen, you must take good care of Qiangqiang in the future. Our Liu family... is sorry for you..."
The young woman said nothing, but poured out all the water from the plastic jug, which only barely filled the bottom of a bowl: "Mom, drink some water."
"No, no, I'll leave it for you and Qiangqiang... You two mother should be fine... This damn God, why don't you rain..." The old lady kept muttering. The young woman's eyes were sore, knowing that her mother-in-law was about to die. Over the years, especially this year, she had seen too many people die like this.
But her eyes could no longer shed tears, not because she was numb, but because she was dehydrated and had no tears to shed.
Such things happened not only in this family, but also in this night, countless lives were lost helplessly and quietly.
The sky seemed to be getting darker and darker, with no light at all. Suddenly, a loud voice rang out: "Come and get the water! Divide the water!"
At first, there was only one person shouting, and then many people from far and near shouted, and there were sounds of running and cheering. The silent night was suddenly awakened as if it was injected with magic.
The young woman also ran out in a hurry. Many people were holding basins and kettles and heading in one direction. The young woman didn't care what was happening. She said something to the old lady, woke up her sleeping son, and asked them to be more alert. She took the kettle and followed the people.
Next to the only well that was still producing water, there was a torch and a group of people gathered around it, noisily distributing water in a very orderly manner. People kept going in with empty containers and coming out with clear water.
The young woman was extremely anxious. When it was finally her turn, she realized that the people were gathered around two old red buckets that were as high as her calf. One bucket was empty, while the other was half full. The water was not very clear, but it was much better than the well water in recent days. The shimmering light in the fire was particularly pleasant to look at.
She also recognized the young man from Fenshui, who was Gang Ge's friend. He glanced at her first and asked, "How many people are there in your family?"
"Three, an old man and a child." The young woman said immediately, and someone next to her testified for her.
The young man actually had an impression of this woman and knew that she was not lying, so he put a funnel on her kettle and used the kettle lid in his hand to fill six capfuls of water for her.
"There's not much water today, so each person will get two lids. Tomorrow you can go get water yourselves. Each person can get about three liters of water." The young man explained.
The young woman's heart suddenly jumped: "Where to get it?"
Someone nearby had heard this before, so they quickly told the young woman, "We've found a water hole in the mountains. We'll go get water ourselves from now on. It's available every day, but we need to form groups of ten to get water together, otherwise it'll be a mess... Oh, Gang has to hold a meeting to explain the details later. At least one family member should go to listen. It's in the warehouse over at the plantation."
The young woman found what she heard a little confusing, but she understood it anyway. From then on, she could get water every day, three liters per person.
Three liters! A big kettle like hers can only hold five liters. The two kettles her family members got can hold two liters!
The young woman almost cried with joy and ran home sobbing, wanting to tell her family the good news as soon as possible.
There were many people like her, and the good news spread like wildfire in a short time.
Regardless of how the base was celebrating like New Year's Day, Lin Man's side was still quiet because two mattresses were brought in during the day. The three members of the Wu family, plus the new old lady and middle-aged woman, finally didn't have to sleep directly on the floor.
The surroundings were very quiet, with only the sound of the mountain breeze blowing gently and one or two insects chirping. Lin Man still slept with his mother Lin on the simple bed she had made, looking at the twinkling stars in the sky.
“Gurgle…”
"Gurgle, gurgle..." Lin Man had very sensitive hearing. At first he thought the sound came from the stomachs of the five people over there, but later he found out that it came from his own stomach.
Hmm, I'm hungry.
"You must be hungry. Don't change the calcium tablets tomorrow." Mother Lin obviously heard the voice as well.
Lin Man replaced today's three items with a calcium tablet, and the other two items with a multi-grain cake and a bowl of noodles, and found an opportunity to share them with Lin's mother.
Lin Man found that her appetite had increased. She could easily finish two multi-grain cakes and a bowl of noodles by herself, but now she had only eaten half of it. Moreover, she had only eaten that much and some wild vegetables all day, so she was already hungry.
"Mom, aren't you hungry?" she asked in a low voice.
"I'm not hungry. You're still growing and you're always active, so you won't feel hungry. It's almost midnight, so why not try something else?"
Lin Man thought for a moment and whispered, "I'm going into the space."
She quietly got up, walked out of the valley, and then entered the space.
The space was still bright. Lin Man looked at the densely grown wild vegetables and the lush green vegetable field. She swallowed and asked the white chicken lying there in a daze, "Guan Guan, can we light a fire in the space?" She wanted to cook some wild vegetables.
"Sure." The little chicken chirped twice. "Stove, pot, shovel or big spoon, salt, whatever you need, just use your daily quota to exchange. You can buy on credit."
Lin Man glanced at it gloomily. If she was willing to exchange it, she would just exchange it for ready-made food.
It seems I have to bring in kitchen utensils from outside.
Now, Lin Man was squatting in the wild vegetable field. He couldn't possibly eat these guys alive, right?
The sweet potatoes are still too small, and there is no flesh after peeling them. The corn stalks are only a little bit tall, and the potatoes... the potatoes have just sprouted.
Lin Man sighed and fell back. Just be hungry. It’s not like he hasn’t been hungry before.
She lay down on the ground in space and fell asleep.
The little chicken looked at her and secretly reflected on whether he had gone too far. After all, he was a partner in the contract, and he already had everything she wanted, but he just gave it to her for free.
Okay, next time she asks for it, just give it to her.
The little chick made up his mind and continued to absorb spiritual energy without any burden.
After a while.
"..." What's wrong? The little chick raised its head with a "chirp". Why did the spiritual energy suddenly decrease? No, it was all floating away to the same place.
The little chick looked around and stopped when his eyes fell on Lin Man who was sleeping soundly.
How could it be possible? How could a mortal, with a mortal body, absorb spiritual energy?
The little chick was frightened and worried about its own spiritual energy. It fluttered its tender wings and ran over: "Lin Man! Lin Man!"
Lin Man was woken up: "Ah, I actually fell asleep, huh? Something happened?" Why are this guy's eyes so big?
The absorption of spiritual energy stopped.
The little chicken walked around her and asked, "Don't you think something is wrong?"
"..." Lin Man looked at himself, "What's wrong?"
The little chicken said seriously: "You were absorbing spiritual energy just now."
"Is it the spiritual energy generated by those vegetables and seedlings?" Lin Man felt it for a moment, but there was no change on his body. "I don't feel anything. What will happen if I absorb spiritual energy?"
"I don't know. Spiritual energy is what we need for cultivation. You are a mortal. Logically, you can't feel spiritual energy, let alone absorb it."
“…” Lin Man indeed could not feel the spiritual energy, but according to Guan Guan, she skipped the first step and went straight to absorb it.
"I just fell asleep. How about I try to sleep again?"
The little chick pouted immediately. It was amazing that it could pout with its pointed beak. Lin Man could tell from the white that it was pouting. Lin Man felt that he was quite amazing.
Lin Man held his stomach and said, "I'm so hungry, I'm going to faint. If I don't have anything to eat, I'm really going to faint. Ah..."
Lin Man pretended to faint, and the little chicken quickly said, "Okay, okay, here are the kitchen utensils for you."
As it spoke, it went to the mysterious cabin again with its head hung, dragging out a frying pan, then a square black object, then a shovel, a bowl, and seasonings.
"Here, all for you, all yours!"
Lin Man was surprised, looking at these brand new things: "Are they really all mine? Can I use them next time?"
"Hmm." The little chick looked dejected.
Lin Man secretly suppressed her laughter. She was of course surprised and excited that she could absorb spiritual energy, but she also knew that there was very little new spiritual energy in the space now. This little chick treated it like a treasure and wanted to collect it from every plant like a little bee. Even if Lin Man wanted to explore the changes in herself, she would not compete with it for spiritual energy at this time.
But being able to get a set of kitchen utensils was a real surprise. She finally understood that this little chick had a lot of collections and had no restrictions on what it could take out, but it just wouldn't give more and especially treasured its own collection.
If I have the chance in the future, I will return all the things I stole from it. Now, isn't it too poor? I can only watch it cheat me.
but--
"What is this thin, boxy, black thing?"
"Induction cooker, you ignorant one!"
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