Chapter 109: Peak of Extreme Heat
An hour later.
The remaining villagers gathered in an open space not far from the underground river, eating around a large table of freshly prepared python meat dishes with their mouths drooling.
"I was worried that the python would hurt people, but I didn't expect it to become our dish in the blink of an eye."
"The key is that it tastes amazing! I thought the meat from such a large python would be tough and fishy, but I never expected it to be so tender! It's much better than wild boar or wolf meat!"
"After cleaning up a giant python, it yielded over nine hundred pounds of meat. Each family gets twenty pounds, which means we have a lot more meat to stockpile. That's great!"
The audience in the live broadcast room had completely forgotten the disappointment they had experienced not long ago.
What's the point of a big battle? How can the delicious food be so delicious!
Braised snake chunks, salt and pepper snake chops, spicy snake meat, snake soup, snake meat broth... There are so many delicious dishes that I can't even finish them all.
As the villagers chatted, the topic turned to the underground cave.
Zhang Chengming looked around and said, "You know what, this cave is quite cool even without air conditioning."
"Can we just move downstairs? We can save some money on air conditioning."
Li Tie shook his head. "It's too humid here, it's not suitable for living. Besides, we don't know if there are any dangers in the unexplored areas."
Before they came down, Lu Xuan led his men back along the original route of the underground river and explored several other passages. They found that there were more branches deep in those passages, and there were branches further inside the branches... as if there was no end.
The underground space is much larger than expected, and can even be called an underground world. It is impossible to explore it all in a short period of time. Who knows if there are any unknown dangers in the unexplored areas.
Living in a big cave, we usually keep an eye on the gaps so that no danger will easily come up. Once everyone moves underground, there will be no time to run if an accident really happens.
However, the exploration team has discovered a nutritious edible mushroom in other areas, and they also found a delicious algae while walking downstream along the underground river.
It can be seen that there are quite a few resources worth obtaining in the cave that seems to be full of rocks.
As long as safety is ensured, it is still worth exploring.
…
In the next few days, Lu Xuan led the team to explore a large area.
We didn't encounter any threats like giant pythons, only some salamanders, spiders, and smaller water snakes.
In terms of resources, two types of usable mushrooms with different flavors were discovered, and a natural agate mine was found on a fork in the road.
The agate mine is not large in scale, but agate was very valuable in ancient times.
Dig out the raw stones and store them. Once the disaster period is over, the villagers with these agate raw stones will not have to worry about their lives for the rest of their lives.
The wealth is right in front of us, so we must dig it all up!
Missing any piece would be disrespectful to it.
The villagers happily dug for three consecutive days.
Then, the biggest and final test of the extreme hot season arrived.
·
According to the weather companion, the temperature will soar from over 50 degrees to over 60 degrees in the future, and may even reach 70 degrees on the hottest days.
This temperature will last for nearly a month before slowly dropping back to normal summer temperatures half a month later, marking the end of the extreme hot season.
But it will be over a month before it ends. Right now, the temperature outside is over 60 degrees Celsius. Even with the biological suit to cool down, it is still an environment that ordinary people cannot bear.
Although the villagers have tried their best to choose the coolest time of the day to work in the fields based on the real-time temperature provided by Lu Xuan, more than half of them still suffered from mild heatstroke and dehydration, and had to constantly drink cold drinks or take medicine to relieve the symptoms.
Weeding is not a big deal, just pull it out every other day, but there is really no way to water it.
The hotter the weather, the faster the water evaporates.
During the first round of planting, the crops were watered only once an hour, but now they must be watered once every half an hour, otherwise they will be sun-dried to death.
It already takes a lot of time to water the land once, and now I just sit down to take a breath after watering it once, and the land is dry again, so I have to water it again, water it again, and it gets dry again, endlessly.
It is necessary to water the crops not only during the day but also at night, otherwise the temperature at night will be over 50 degrees and the crops will not be able to withstand it.
Only two days into the peak of the heatwave, the people of Yunlu Village already looked as if their bodies had been hollowed out.
I can’t stand it, I really can’t stand it.
I feel numb.
The audience in the live broadcast room felt a little sympathetic towards them.
At this time, it was naturally Lu Xuan's turn to show his ability.
Just when the villagers began to discuss whether to give up part of the harvest and reduce the scope of watering, Lu Xuan's silver blind box was full of 100 draws and a guaranteed minimum was issued.
Fully automatic intelligent plant protection machine.
It integrates functions such as watering, fertilizing, and sowing, can automatically replenish water tanks/seeds, automatically avoid obstacles, transmit images in real time, and has an abnormal alarm device, etc.
As long as the range is set properly and enough energy is supplied, it can operate continuously for twelve hours, regardless of cold or heat.
The villagers were suddenly cheered up when they saw Lu Xuan operating the plant protection machine to water the crops in the field back and forth.
“This plant protection machine is so easy to use!”
"Wouldn't it be completely free for me to have this device? I no longer have to water the plants from morning till night?"
Li Tie excitedly asked Lu Xuan about the consumption of the plant protection machine.
Lu Xuan said: "Ten kilograms of food a day."
Like a lawn mower, a plant protection machine can also be charged with either stellar energy or energy stones. However, watering requires twelve hours of uninterrupted operation, and stellar energy cannot be replenished in time, so only energy stones can be used.
One primary energy stone is consumed every three days. According to the point value of the primary energy stone, ten kilograms of food a day is already the cost price after rounding off the amount.
A round of crops matures in half a month, and the cost of watering is equivalent to the cost of 150 kilograms of grain.
It sounds like a lot, but it seems insignificant compared to the villagers' hard work for half a month and the subsequent harvest of tens of thousands of kilograms.
What's more, it comes from public resources and individuals don't have to contribute any money at all, so there is naturally no problem.
Li Tie immediately decided to rent a plant protection machine from Lu Xuan, and also took charge of the watering work in Lu's fields.
With the plant protection machine, villagers only need to weed manually and no longer have to worry about work in the fields.
·
Inside the underground cave.
Dozens of large vats were lined up in a row, and the women stood on a long chopping board and started cutting the piles of cabbage and radishes.
After cutting the cabbage in half, take it to the large iron pot next to it and blanch it with boiling water, then rinse it with cold water, and finally put it into a clean jar. Put a layer of cabbage and sprinkle a handful of salt, then put another layer and sprinkle salt again, until the entire jar is filled. Press it with a large stone that has been found in advance and it is done.
The best season for making sauerkraut is probably autumn when the temperature is only around ten degrees Celsius, but it is cool in the cave, and installing an air conditioner to further cool it down and simulate the autumn temperature will not be a problem.
Why not pickle some for breakfast to add a delicious dish?
As for the taste of out-of-season dishes, it’s not a big deal if they are optimized with special abilities.
Marinate it now and you can eat it at the end of the hottest season.
In addition to sauerkraut, some cabbage is used to make kimchi.
Lu Xuan, a former rich second-generation, naturally didn't know how to make kimchi, but it didn't matter. He didn't know, but people who followed other ancient/ancient dimension live broadcasts knew it, and each kind of kimchi used slightly different ingredients.
Radishes can also be pickled with the same seasoning as kimchi.
This kind of pickled radish needs a month or so to be eaten. There is another method similar to pickled peppers and bamboo shoots, which is seasoned with sweet and sour chili peppers to make a hot and sour soup. The hot and sour radish can be eaten after soaking in hot and sour soup for two or three days. It is appetizing and refreshing, and is best eaten with porridge.
Cut the remaining radishes into thin strips and take them to the square to dry.
After entering the peak season, many leaves in the Giant Tree Square fell off due to the sun, and the sunshade effect was not as good as before. With the cave, everyone usually cooks and processes by-products underground. The square has become a drying yard for everyone, and is filled with various shredded radishes, fruit slices, dried vegetables, etc. every day.
The volume of the dried radish strips is much smaller than that of fresh radish. When eating, take an appropriate amount and soak it in water. You can use it as a spicy dried radish side dish to go with rice, or you can cut the radish strips into cubes and make stir-fried radish cubes.
Add bacon, diced mushrooms, onions, garlic, fermented black bean sauce, chili powder, and season with soy sauce. No other side dishes are needed, it is delicious enough to be mixed with rice.
Unlike sauerkraut and kimchi, stir-fried diced radish can be made and eaten immediately.
As soon as a big pot of spicy, salty and fragrant stir-fried diced radish was ready, a bucket of steaming rice was placed on top. The audience in the live broadcast room cheered and couldn't wait to start eating.
[Woo woo woo! How can it smell so good! ]
[It's crispy and spicy, and the addition of bacon and mushrooms makes it very rich in flavor. It's so delicious!!!]
[I can eat three bowls of rice just with the stir-fried diced radish!]
Not only the audience loves it, the villagers also like it very much.
In previous years, they would often make fried diced radishes after harvesting and drying them. Although the taste was different in each family and some families were reluctant to use bacon, it was still delicious.
Especially after eating and then having a glass of iced juice, it is so refreshing!
After eating and drinking, continue working.
While others were busy processing radishes and cabbages, the elderly and children were also busy.
In addition to continuing to make baskets and sew shoe soles every day, they are responsible for feeding cattle, sheep, pheasants, and milking cows.
It is difficult for humans to survive in high temperatures, let alone animals with thick fur. After confirming that the cave is safe, the cattle, sheep and pheasants in the poultry pen were moved underground.
Lu Xuan brought back a total of twelve cattle and sheep, including one male bull and one sheep for breeding, and five female cows and five sheep in lactation.
The food for these cattle and sheep mainly consists of fruit residue, bean residue, sweet potato residue, and straw. Occasionally, Lu Xuan will also provide some fresh vegetables, radishes and bamboo shoots as snacks after meals.
In addition to boiled water, the drinking water also includes sugar water. The conditions are better than those of many disaster victims who have no food to eat.
After having enough food and water, these cattle and sheep are doing quite well, producing 120-130 kilograms of milk and ten kilograms of goat milk every day.
One day, Lu Xuan had an idea and fed them some mutated vegetables, and the yield increased further.
Now the daily milk production of the five cows has increased to 200 kilograms (about 100 liters), and the goat milk production has doubled to 20 kilograms.
Lu Xuan kept half of the milk produced, and the other half was distributed to the villagers by the village chief Li Tie.
You can drink fresh milk directly, or add tea leaves and sugar to make milk tea, mix it with soy milk to make soy milk, or use a yogurt maker to make yogurt.
In addition, it can also be used to knead dough and make big steamed buns with milk flavor.
It is made with new flour harvested from the first round. The taste of new grain and pure natural milk mixed together is so delicious.
However, not all villagers are used to the smell of milk, and they cannot consume more than 100 kilograms of milk a day.
There were only four people on Lu Xuan's side, and there were many other drinks to choose from, so it was impossible for them to drink up all that milk.
In addition to being stored in space, the excess milk is also processed into milk powder that is easier to store for a long time.
If there is a chance in the future, I might consider trading it to someone else.
·
After entering the peak of the extreme heat period, the work of the hunting team following the gathering team also came to a complete halt.
It's not just because it's too hot to travel, but also because the animals are so hot that no one knows where to hide, so there's nothing to catch.
The young and strong people can only continue to expand the scope of cave exploration to pass the time and catch fish in the underground river.
Occasionally, Lu Xuan would organize people to have a barbecue together.
Beef skewers, lamb skewers, vegetable mushrooms, sweet potato chips, peppers and corn, put them on the big oven, and paired with almost brewed fruit wine and rice wine bought in the capital city, it makes a delicious meal.
Apart from being unable to go out, the peak season did not have much impact on the lives of the villagers in Yunlu Village. In fact, because most of the work in the fields was left to the plant protection machines, their lives were even more comfortable.
The situation is different for the disaster victims next door.
There were no biological suits, no air conditioners, ice packs or cold drinks. Even though Li Tie had intentionally left them some extra summer heat medicine when the wolves attacked, several victims still died of heat stroke in the first few days of the peak season.
Others rarely go out except to fetch water.
But there was too little food nearby, and they didn't dare to go to Yunlu Village, so they couldn't hold on for a few days.
One day, the people of Yunlu Village accidentally discovered that the cave was deserted. Lu Xuan used a drone to fly around and found that these people had returned to the previous cave. The surviving victims spent half of their time every day soaking in the waterfall pool with a slightly shallower water level to cool down.
This method effectively slowed down the rate of death, but it only slowed it down.
The high temperature continued, and one or two people died every three or four days.
Lei Shan, Zhou Shi, Zhao Shi and Xu Da Wu were all unexpectedly killed, but they managed to hold on and survive.
As for Lei Tianbao, on the tenth night when the fever reached its peak, Zhao Shi failed to keep an eye on him and let him run away. By the time they found him, the child had been sunburned to death not far from the cave.
Half a month after the peak period, the number of disaster victims was reduced to only thirteen people.
At the same time, Yunlu Village ushered in its second bumper harvest.
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