Zhao Hengshui thought of countless possibilities in his mind, feeling very heavy-hearted, and even prepared for the worst.
So when the cloth covering his face was removed and he saw a familiar face, he was stunned.
"You--" He didn't know Lin Man's name yet.
Lin Man looked at him and reached out to untie him: "Why did you come here?"
"I saw a lot of planes flying here before, and I guessed there should be a base here." Zhao Hengshui followed Lin Man out in a daze. The sun was shining brightly outside, shining on the wide and flat concrete ground and then reflecting, which was a bit dazzling. Looking around, there were rows of sturdy and neat houses and a large open space.
Smoke was rising slowly from the chimney of a large house. People were busily coming in and out. They were drying... huh? Was that dried sweet potatoes?
What are people drying on poles in front of a big house? Noodles!
And what are those things drying on the ground in that big open space? They are golden, could they be corn kernels?
Zhao Hengshui gasped. This place was surprisingly, truly, so wealthy! No wonder his boasts of having tons of sweet potatoes were useless. Of course, no one would look down upon his meager supply.
"You...you guys here..."
Lin Man smiled and said, "It's nice here, isn't it? By the way, my name is Lin Man."
"Oh, Lin Man." Zhao Hengshui found that the area here was separated into pieces. The place where he was imprisoned was obviously not the living area. There were people guarding the gate. They looked well-trained, majestic and imposing. Those people were very respectful to Lin Man. He thought Lin Man must have a high status here.
"Where is this place?"
"This is Dayan Mountain, the Peace Base," Lin Man said. "The people you mentioned wanting to come here are your family, right? Are those sweet potatoes growing well?"
"Yes, we are a family. The sweet potatoes are growing well and will be ripe in more than a month." This was originally Zhao Hengshui's biggest ceremony, but after seeing the situation in this place, he no longer felt that the sweet potato field was valuable, not to mention that he was facing Lin Man.
He smiled bitterly and said, "So you come from such a wealthy base. No wonder you can produce so many sweet potatoes in one go."
Oh, there is indeed a causal relationship here, but it's the other way around. It was because she had so many sweet potatoes that she was able to create such a prosperous scene. Lin Man was secretly proud, but also happy to see Zhao Hengshui misunderstand.
"Are you still short of people here? I know you will definitely look down on my sweet potatoes, but at least we have our own food, and eating does not take up your resources. As long as you can give our family a place to live, it will be fine. You also know that my parents are both superpowers and can help with some things. As for me, I can do all the dirty and tiring work." Zhao Hengshui tried his best to promote his family. Knowing the situation here, and there being an acquaintance here, only a fool would be willing to let go of this opportunity.
Lin Man glanced at him and thought to himself that Zhao's father and mother's supernatural powers were not strong, otherwise they would not have lived so badly in the Nanming base. However, that was also because the Nanming base did not have the conditions for them to display their abilities.
No matter what, people with special abilities are still quite valuable. Even if you do nothing, it would be nice to provide her with some spiritual energy every day.
She also had some understanding of the five members of the Zhao family. They were not bad people, and there were no disadvantages in taking them in.
Zhao Hengshui thought she couldn't make a decision, so he said, "Who is the person who can make the decision here? I'll go talk to him myself."
They were just walking out of the gate of this area. The gatekeeper looked at Zhao Hengshui and asked, "Didn't they say they were acquaintances? How come they didn't even know who was in charge here?"
Lin Man waved his hand: "No need to ask others, I can make the decision. If your family comes here, you will definitely have to work. We have a lot of work right now."
Zhao Hengshui nodded repeatedly.
"Your mother has a job already, so she can take care of the livestock."
The old hen that Zhao's mother raised was doing very well. She was always lively and active in the space. Now she had good food, a good environment, and a good mood. She could lay an egg every day. Some time ago, Lin Man used her eggs to secretly replace a few eggs laid by two hens outside. This time, she was brooding!
Zhao Hengshui was shocked: "There are livestock?"
"Well, we have pigs, sheep, and chickens, not many. We hatched a dozen chicks a few days ago, but two of them almost died. Everyone is very nervous now. If there was a person with special abilities who could take care of them, we would feel much more at ease."
Lin Man had saved the two chicks that had nearly died by using her spiritual energy. However, she had so much to do all day long, and so many places where she needed to use her spiritual energy, that she didn't have much energy to care for the little animals. Fortunately, they all ate well—whatever people ate, they ate too. Even the two sheep ate lush, fresh, green corn leaves, and their bodies grew stronger day by day.
"As for your father, I haven't decided what he can do yet. Your wife can just work with the elderly women here, doing whatever jobs they can. Their work isn't heavy, just processing food. Your son can play with the children at the base, and they'll have lessons every day."
At present, those younger than Lin Man in the base are considered children. They don’t have to work, and if they do, the work is very easy. They are fed well and fed, and we want to raise them fat and strong. These are all precious seedlings.
Unfortunately, there are only eight children in total, big and small. Lin Man is still very happy to have one more child.
The more Lin Man talked, the more Zhao Hengshui wished he could grow wings and fly back to bring his family over immediately.
"But after you come in, you can't leave the mountain easily without any reason, and you can't reveal anything about this place, otherwise the punishment will be very severe."
"Of course."
Lin Man thought about it and decided that was basically it. She would wait until everyone else arrived before deciding. Then she arranged for five people to go with Zhao Hengshui to pick them up. Of course, they couldn't fly a plane. Wasting fuel for the Zhao family was absolutely out of the question. With five soldiers acting together, there was basically no danger.
Although this job is harder than staying in the base, it takes at least five or six days to go back and forth. However, since the mission reward is one meal of potato noodles and two meals of sweet potato flour, there are many people competing for it. In the end, the five strongest and most capable people grabbed this mission, and without exception, they were all deputy captains of the team.
Hey, if it were true that the captain could not leave his post without permission, the other captains would have wanted to leave too. Those were noodles, which Lin Man had kept tightly wrapped up and would be saved for winter.
After the task force left, the captains who heard the news and came to watch surrounded Lin Man and said, "Boss, when can we have some potato noodles? If not, sweet potato flour will work too."
"No." Lin Man ruthlessly refused. Seeing that they were not giving up, he gave them a detailed explanation: "Look, it's already the beginning of November. By the end of the month, the weather will get colder. When it gets cold, the sunlight will be weaker. When the sunlight is weak, electricity will have to be used sparingly. Water will freeze, making it difficult to use water. People will be frozen, and there will be less labor... In short, it will be difficult to start a fire. We will definitely have to eat the simplest food. If we don't store some different foods now, you really want to eat sweet potatoes and potatoes every day for the whole winter?"
Everyone lamented, and the captains said, why not at least give the captains some benefits?
Being a captain does have its benefits. After all, they have to compete for the position and have heavier responsibilities, so they will have a little more food supply, or while others eat from the big pot, they can order some small stir-fries or something.
In short, the gap is not big enough to make the team members jealous, but it can also motivate the captain to do a good job.
Lin Man thought for a moment and said, "That's fine. We'll cancel all your usual benefits, but we'll give you three days of special food every month. For example, we're currently eating potato noodles and sweet potato flour. If we introduce other foods in the future, we'll switch to them. The captain can also make your own requests. We'll increase or decrease your usual benefits based on what you ask for."
She paused, then drew out her words. "For example, in the future, if anyone wants a little rooster, that's fine, but after deducting the welfare benefits, they must also provide five to ten days of food to offset it."
"Gudong!" There were many sounds of swallowing saliva at the scene. The captains looked at each other, and their brains, which were particularly flexible due to the stimulation of delicious food, reacted immediately. If they gathered a few more people and each person went hungry for a day or two, wouldn't that be enough to eat a little rooster?
Lin Man added, "I need to discuss this system with someone. Anyway, only the captain, vice-captain, and particularly important personnel, or those who have made significant contributions to the base, will have this benefit. Of course, to ensure fairness, the captain will be elected once a month from now on."
Now the captains wailed, and the team members were excited.
Lin Man smiled and left. It seemed that the captain and vice-captain selected were both worthy of the title. Didn’t you see that the ones who won the competition just now were both vice-captains?
…
Lin Man said she was worried about the problem of food in winter, and that was not nonsense. Although there would be no shortage of food, in order to ensure that everyone could eat as rich food as possible in winter, she started preparing now.
Drying sweet potatoes, making potato flour, rubbing sweet potato starch, grinding corn flour, drying vegetables, making pickles... Lin Manrang built several large houses, each of which was used for the same work, just like a workshop. The people working here were mainly the elderly and women, and children would also come to help.
When Lin Man went there, everyone was working hard. They also realized that the sunlight was getting weaker day by day, and they had to seize every minute. It was a pity that there was still more food growing in the fields and they couldn't process it all now.
When Lin Man approached them, they greeted him with smiles on their faces. The joy and vitality on their faces had not been seen in the past decades.
Seeing this, Lin Man became even more grateful to Guan Guan, her father, and Lin Cheng. Without Guan Guan and Kong Xi, they would probably have died long ago. Without her father and Lin Cheng, the conditions at their base would not have been improved so much.
Lin Man came to the open space where vegetables were drying and found her mother: "Mom!"
Chen Yu was standing there cutting a thin white radish. Hearing this, he looked up and smiled at his daughter, but the knife in his hand did not stop, wiping, wiping, wiping, and wiping without even taking a breath.
Lin Man was worried about her: "Mom, watch out for your hands!"
"Don't worry, it won't get cut." Chen Yu finished cutting one side of the white radish, and turned it over to continue cutting. Lin Man had just learned that her mother was so good at cutting. She helped wash the radish while watching. When Chen Yu stopped, she pulled with both hands, and a white radish was pulled apart like a spring, and it didn't break at all.
Lin Man exclaimed: "What are you doing? Are you going to pickle radishes? But aren't radishes good for making soup in winter?" And they can be kept well.
"Yes, that's why I only pickled this basket of radishes. They are all small and thin." Chen Yu took the radish from Lin Man and continued to cut it. "Pickled radishes are better than ordinary pickled vegetables. Many people are particularly craving this taste." She smiled and said, "I am craving it too. I will let you taste the sour, sweet and crispy pickled radish later."
Lin Man also laughed. His mother had finished her medicine a few days ago, and before she finished it, she was able to walk freely. Now she is even more restless. At first she just walked around, but later she came directly to work. Lin Man was worried that she would be overworked, but seeing that she was much happier than staying in the house, he let her go, but she had to come over a few times a day.
"How long have you been standing today? Does your back hurt? Otherwise, you should find something easier to do. I think drying vegetables would be good..."
Before he could finish his nagging, he was kicked out. Lin Man touched his nose and added, "If you stand for a long time, you should sit down for a while. Don't stand all the time." This made many people laugh. This scene happened every day. Someone said to Chen Yu, "Ayu, you have raised a daughter so well. You can enjoy the blessing of your daughter from now on. We will also enjoy the blessing with you."
Chen Yu smiled. Because of her daughter, people around her were more cautious in their attitude towards her, and there was a certain degree of fawning. She felt very emotional every time she thought of her, and occasionally she would think of Mrs. Zhang from the past.
Xiaoman said that Mrs. Zhang had died in the Nanming base a long time ago, and Zhang Chengtao's life or death is still unknown... She shook her head and stopped thinking about it.
…
Lin Man left the camp and went to inspect the various "major projects." While winter food availability was somewhat guaranteed, cooking, water, and staying warm remained major challenges.
There's virtually no firewood left on Dayan Mountain these days, unless you go far afield to collect it. A small team is dispatched daily to do this, and once a large enough supply is gathered, a plane is sent to bring it all back. Furthermore, experts on Dayan Mountain are developing a power station to store more electricity before winter arrives.
Lin Man also had a large water pit built at the foot of the mountain, made entirely of cement, and then pumped deep groundwater into it for use in winter.
In contrast, she had several large cellars dug to store snow in the winter, which could be used to cool down in the summer and also serve as a water resource.
Lin Man used to miss the snow-covered mountains in winter especially in the summer, and he missed the summer sun especially in the winter. Now he can finally put his thoughts into action.
In addition to these three major projects, greenhouses are being built in the fields.
The staple food areas in the field are mainly divided into two batches. One batch was planted in mid-to-late August, and it has been two and a half months now. The potatoes should be mature at the end of November or early December, and the sweet potatoes and corn will be mature around the end of December.
The second batch is the "God-given grain". It was planted in early September, only two months ago, but because it is an improved version that has been planted in the space for several generations, it grows faster and better than the first batch. It is estimated that it will mature around the same time as the first batch.
So now it is necessary to build a greenhouse for insulation on any piece of land, but they really don’t have that much material, which makes the experts very worried. They all want to squat there every day and use their mind power to urge the plants to grow quickly.
Then a group of old men and women gathered together and discussed for a long time, and asked Lin Man to send a small team to them. They went out to search for many days, and finally brought back a few usable film blowing machines from some factory. They started to make greenhouse film by themselves, and Lin Man was very impressed.
So the massive greenhouse construction activity began, and it was unknown when all the work would be completed.
So what Lin Man and Zhao Hengshui said, that there was a lot of work to do in the base, was not nonsense.
She was thinking about getting some labor from somewhere, and at the same time, the Zhao family's land welcomed a lot of free labor.
Father Zhao was almost furious when he saw these guys who couldn't be driven away and were difficult to beat. These people were scared away on the first day, but they didn't run far. They kept wandering around nearby. Maybe they knew that they were the only family here, so they became more and more courageous.
"We'll help you pull out the weeds."
"Catching bugs."
"Watering it."
"Fertilize."
"Just give us some sweet potatoes!"
The free laborers spoke shamelessly.
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