Chapter 36 Chapter 36
The gathering point was at the entrance of the base. When they arrived, quite a few people were already waiting there. As soon as they appeared, they were caught by Xu Feng who was looking around.
Ye Xun saw Xu Feng waving his long arms and beckoning to them from afar, and he also waved in response.
Transportation is in short supply now, and the base has only allocated three vehicles for a team of more than 30 people.
There was a hemp rope tied behind each of the three cars, and three sleds were tied behind each hemp rope. It could be used barely, but the safety was not guaranteed.
When the vehicle was moving, the snow hit people in the face. Those who had hoods on their clothes would wear them, and those who didn't would turn their heads away.
The destination of this trip is far away, a tourist attraction more than 80 kilometers away. Before the end of the world, the main focus was on the original ecology, so the mountains were rich in species. If some wild boars could be caught, the people in the base would be able to eat meat.
The journey that originally took only an hour and a half now took twice as long.
The car was parked at the foot of the mountain. The mountain road was too winding and the wheels were prone to slipping in the snow, so it was very likely to roll directly down the valley.
Before going out, Ye Xun put anti-slip pads on the soles of both of their shoes. Unlike the others, he did not take three steps forward and one step back. So he walked at the front of the team and was the first to get to know the couples on the mountain.
The snow in the mountains is complete and has no traces, which means that no one has been here yet. It also means that there are few living things near the mountain. If you want to catch prey, you have to explore deeper.
After the team entered the mountain, they split into three teams. Xu Feng followed Ye Xun and the others consciously. In addition to him, there was another familiar face in the team, who surprised Ye Xun.
It was Li Kewei. The wound on her face hadn't healed yet, but she was already struggling to make a living. She was the only female in the team. The other female was a boxer, with big arms and a strong waist, stronger than the average man, but she was not in Ye Xun's team.
No one spoke on the road, everyone was trying to conserve their energy. This operation might take them five to seven days to find food.
Their team was lucky. Not long after they started walking, they found a pheasant on a low branch. Judging from its colorful body, it must be a rooster.
Ye Xun immediately raised the crossbow in his hand, aimed at the body and fired without alerting the target.
The pheasant let out a shrill crow, fell to the ground, flapped its wings a few times, and then died.
Half a pound of meat was obtained just like that.
Ye Xun's first shot gave the team members great confidence, and for a moment everyone wanted to show themselves.
There are not many living things here, but there are still a lot of pine nuts and chestnuts. You can see them if you dig up the top layer of snow. If you are lucky, you can even see a few pheasant eggs.
The thick snow and the densely vegetated forests made it difficult to move forward. By noon, the team had not gone far before some of them were exhausted.
That person is Li Kewei, who has been abused for many years and was seriously injured not long ago. Naturally, her physical fitness is much lower than others.
But he insisted on following the team. Even if he was at the end of the team, he was unwilling to delay the entire team's journey because of himself.
In fact, he was not the only one who was tired in the team. Everyone was tired, but no one was willing to ask for a break, including the team leader Zhao Wenjie, who was already exhausted.
After continuing to move forward for another half an hour, he finally gave the order to stop and reorganize the team.
Because the mission takes a long time, everyone basically brought some cakes and other easy-to-store foods. If the conditions were better, they would also bring some palm-sized dried meat.
Ye Xun and Qin Wei's meals were much better than those of others. In addition to dried meat, they also had rice balls with meat floss and pickled cucumbers in their backpacks. Although they were not delicacies from land and sea, they were still very good.
After dinner, the team set off again.
The daylight duration is now six hours, so the time they have to collect supplies every day is still relatively short.
It was not known whether the wild boar had run down the mountain or someone had got there first. After three days in the mountains, Ye Xun and his team had not seen a single boar. The only prey they had caught was a nest of rabbits.
This litter of rabbits was captured by Qin Wei. He used the smoke-fucking method to smuggle out the rabbits in the cave. All eighteen rabbits in the litter were caught in one go.
When processing the rabbits, the rabbit blood was not spared and was placed in a separate container.
On the fourth day, Ye Xun and Qin Wei applied to leave the team and act alone. In view of their previous outstanding performance, Zhao Wenjie knew that they had some skills and that following the large group might restrict them, so he approved their request.
After the two men left the team, they were like birds that had regained their freedom, rushing around in the forest without any worries. After all, they had guns in their hands, so they would not panic even if they really encountered a wild boar.
In the end, I didn’t meet the wild boar, but I met some other unexpected surprises.
Ye Xun took on this task not because he wanted to get a bigger share of the meat, but because he wanted to explore to see if there were any other mutated vegetables. As a result, he actually found some.
While digging a hole in the snow to look for bird eggs, I found a green ball-like object. It looked like a cabbage, but it felt harder and was difficult to cut without applying some force.
Qin Wei pulled out a knife and cut the sphere in the middle, revealing layers of leaves inside. It was undoubtedly cabbage. The two speculated that the outermost hard shell might be for anti-freeze.
They swept away the other snow around them and did not find a large number of cabbages, but instead found a few peanut plants with needle-like leaves that were invisible unless you looked carefully.
Leaves of this shape completely imitate pine needles. Not only do they reduce water evaporation, but they are also cold-resistant. It is very likely that this will be the evolutionary trend of plants in the future.
Ye Xun wanted to dig down along the rhizome, but Qin Wei took the shovel away first. In the Qin family, it was unreasonable to let the daughter-in-law do the work, and this young daughter-in-law had never done this kind of work. He was worried that Ye Xun would cut the roots directly with one shovel, and he would be the one who would feel sad.
After digging up the soil, the newly grown peanuts' well-developed root system is exposed to the air. Compared with the roots of traditional peanuts, their roots are thicker and more developed, and they penetrate deeper into the ground, effectively helping them absorb water from the dry soil.
This is the third type of evolved plant they have encountered. The direction of mutation is not large, and its main purpose is to adapt to the current weather and survive better.
The evolution of plants is very fast, but humans are no more adaptable to environmental changes than before.
If the glaciers melt, the sea level rises, and the continents are submerged by sea water, will humans evolve?
He asked Qin Wei curiously: "Do you think humans will evolve gills? Like fish, they can breathe in water."
Qin Wei didn't think this was evolution. He tried to correct Ye Xun's words: "Perhaps this should be called degeneration? Back to the time when humans hadn't evolved into primates, they were probably amphibians?"
In Ye Xun's impression, amphibians are all toads with big mouths, bulging eyes, and webbed feet and fingers. When he imagined how tiring they would be in the future, his hair stood on end.
He should be thankful that the more advanced the animals, the slower their evolution speed. It would have been impossible for the Shangding Cavemen to evolve into the present human beings without tens of thousands of years. By that time, they would have turned into a handful of soil somewhere.
Instead of thinking about these trivial things, it is better to think about where to find more mutant plants. The number found today is not large, so I will keep some for myself as seeds and hand over some to the base.
New plants need to be kept secret before they are mass-produced, because it is uncertain whether artificial cultivation will be successful. Therefore, Xun did not take the peanuts and cabbage leaves in his hands, but put them all into the space. He would hand them over to Chen Guoan when he returned to the base.
The two walked along the mountain road all the way to the top of the mountain. Apart from the footprints of other teams that had come out with them, they did not find any other large animals, and it was almost dark.
As the sun sets, the temperature of the mountains also goes down.
When the two of them came up yesterday, they found a narrow cave that was more than enough for two people to sleep in. The wind couldn't blow in, and it was still warmer at night.
Lying in the sleeping bag, some physical contact was inevitable. Ye Xun was not careful and his left hand was grabbed by a hand that was much bigger than his palm. The hand gently rubbed the chilblains caused by digging snow in the past few days.
In fact, he always wore gloves, but the temperature was too low and the gloves provided little protection.
Feeling the big hand passing through his fingers, he asked a question that puzzled him: "Why don't you have frostbite on your hands? You obviously do more work than me. It's really unfair."
Qin Wei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "My hands are calloused enough, so I can resist the cold. If you had calluses on your hands, I wouldn't want to let you go. Don't do anything for the next two days. Just catch some pheasants and rabbits."
Ye Xun thought, that’s fine, his archery accuracy is getting better and better now, basically as long as the prey is not running, he can kill it with one shot.
And so, the two redistributed the work before going to bed.
Not sure if it was affected by the length of daylight, but Ye Xun clearly felt that he was sleeping much longer now than before. Take today for example, if the sunlight outside the cave hadn't been too glaring, the two of them might still be sleeping.
Like a bear in hibernation.
On the way to find the mutant vegetables, he told Qin Wei about his discovery.
"Because of the lack of food, the body reduces its consumption through sleep. It sounds like the body is gradually becoming closer to hibernating animals in order to save its own energy. I can ask the base commander if there are other people in the base who have the same problem. If everyone is like this, then it's not a bad thing."
Indeed, it could even be considered a good thing, because he found that his demand for food had decreased. He had only eaten for more than ten hours, and he did not feel hungry until now.
The two of them shuttled through the woods, one in front and one behind. The forest was a little too quiet today. Usually, one could hear the flapping of bird wings or the sound of hares jumping and landing, but today, nothing could be heard.
Qin Wei's hearing was much better than Ye Xun's. In addition to the sound of snowflakes falling on the branches, he could also faintly hear the sound of chewing, blown by the wind from not far away.
"Shh—" He stopped Ye Xun from opening his mouth to make a sound, then made a gun gesture to him with his hand.
Ye Xun immediately took out two pistols from the space, gave one to Qin Wei, and kept the remaining one for himself.
After arming himself, Qin Wei took Ye Xun's hand, lightened his steps, and slowly approached the direction where the sound came from.
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