After the tunnel to Building 38 was opened, it became much easier for them to get there, and they no longer had to face zombies directly, minimizing the danger.
While Ye Yunyi's family was diligently farming, some other families, driven by hunger, had already ventured out in search of food. They were both relieved that the neighborhood was large enough and had few zombies, and anxiously searched each house one by one.
After several days of power outage, the internet and mobile phones were unusable. However, many people had already roughly sorted out the situation in the community when there was still local area network and electricity, which buildings were occupied and which were not, so they could check and look for their belongings.
However, each building is about 100 meters apart, and to get in, you have to climb over doors or walls. Once inside, you have to fight with the residents for a while, which is a life-or-death situation, and most of the time you don't come back. The zombie horde has grown even larger.
Some of the older folks are a bit better off. They usually grow flowers and plants. Although they don't buy many seeds, they plant some vegetables that can be propagated by cuttings or potatoes and radishes with roots in their yards, and they can barely make ends meet.
They thought there would be government assistance eventually, and if not, they could just wait a few more months until the fruit trees in the villa area ripened and they could eat for a while.
Ye Yunyi and the others went through the tunnel to Building 38 and started cutting grass. It was more like shrubs than grass, and they were all about half a person's height or a person's height. After cutting the grass, they had to dig out the roots, like clearing land. If they weren't so reluctant to part with it and planned to use it as firewood later, they would have burned it all long ago.
The grass roots were mostly withered branches, with only a few tender new shoots emerging. This time, Wang Xuanxuan was guarding the house, and all four adults came over. Initially, they would come at night.
Although the zombie virus is rampant, the weather feels better, the sky is bluer, the moonlight is brighter, and even the stars that were previously invisible can be seen.
It seems that without factory pollution and vehicle exhaust, nature is slowly purifying itself, even though only a little over a month has passed.
The moonlight was exceptionally bright tonight, just like it was when I was a child. Except for the lack of intensity, everything was crystal clear. They cut grass, inhaling its fragrance, and talking quietly.
"We'll finish cutting the grass here tonight and then go back to rest. Tomorrow we'll come back to dig the ground and then plan how to plant," said Ye's father.
"Okay, Dad, can we dig a hole over here? It's troublesome without water." Ye Yunyi thought to herself that it would be too tiring to carry water from over there.
"That's a good idea." Lazy Wang Zixiang raised both hands in agreement, after all, he would never take two steps if he could take one.
"That's a good suggestion," Ye's mother agreed.
“Then let’s dig one up,” Ye’s father decided.
Everyone was overjoyed, and at that moment, their sense of unity was unprecedented. For Mr. Ye, who was over 60, it was as if he had returned to his youth, to the time when he was the head of the family.
Under the moonlight, everyone wielded their knives, chopping and slicing, the rustling sounds echoing in the quiet night.
After they had cleared most of the grass in the yard, suddenly an object flew out of the grass, screeching as it flew towards the outside of the wall. It startled all four of them.
If they hadn't been used to not shouting and hadn't covered their mouths in time, they almost would have yelled out loud.
"What is it?" Ye Yunyi asked.
“Go and see for yourself,” Wang Zixiang said.
"It looks like a pheasant," said Ye's father.
"Yes, it does," Ye's mother added.
Led by Ye's father, the four of them walked quietly over, parted the grass, and went to the spot where the pheasant had flown away.
“A nest of baby pheasants.” Ye’s father’s voice was somewhat light and cheerful.
"That's great." Ye Yunyi gently parted the nearby grass and saw a fluffy little thing chirping. Its little heads were huddled together, and its fur was a mixture of yellow and black, unlike the domesticated chicks that were all yellow.
We are so grateful to that pheasant mother. She had such a good back mountain, but instead of incubating her chicks, she provided them with a sustainable source of meat.
Ye Yunyi took off her coat and carefully put all the baby wild chickens inside. She counted them and there were 10 in total.
They didn't even bother cutting grass anymore; everyone went home through the tunnel.
Hearing them return, Wang Xuanxuan quickly came downstairs, and she was overjoyed when she saw the chicks.
Mom quickly found a cardboard box and made a nest for the chicks. Mom said that the chicks are afraid of the cold. They weren't afraid before because the mother hen was looking after them, but now they need to be extra careful.
Under the light, the ten baby pheasants looked incredibly tiny, probably only a few days old. They had been there a few days earlier, but hadn't encountered the grass. Had they discovered it sooner, the mother hen would have been frightened away, and the chicks would have died in their eggs.
I brought them back using Ye Yunyi's clothes, so I'll just use her clothes to line the chicks' coop. After all, Ye Yunyi has the most clothes in the house. It's a cotton coat, soft and warm.
It's not enough to just lay out a nest for them; you also need to provide them with lighting or a fire to increase their temperature.
So they had to put it in the basement. DouDou was very happy to see a new member in the family and kept sniffing it.
"DouDou, don't scare the chicks," Xuanxuan said to the puppy.
The puppy actually nodded. From then on, Xuanxuan had to go check on the chicks every day, and the task of taking care of the chicks fell to her.
After settling the chicks, Ye Yunyi and her team spent three days finally digging up the land there.
After the weeds near the gate were pulled out, the gate was finally exposed. The main gate was an iron gate, and one could see inside the courtyard from the outside.
Ye Yunyi didn't like this kind of door, so she replaced it with a solid wood door during the renovation. Sometimes, when they saw this door, they would see zombies' faces turned inwards. If they saw someone inside, they would rush over, reach their hands into the hole in the iron door, and roar—it was quite frightening. Therefore, before they decided to open this pit, they moved in the wooden doors that had been replaced during the renovation of their previous villa and installed another layer of doors.
Ye's father also said that after planting this area, he would connect the electricity from the tunnel and install an electric fence around the wall. He added that it was too dangerous because the area hadn't been reinforced or raised.
The spring sun was warm, but since Ye Yunyi's family mainly supplied refrigerators, home appliances, and the power grid, it was barely enough, so they didn't need to use a diesel generator.
It must be said that Ye's father thought of these things very carefully, which made Ye Yunyi much more relaxed, no longer as anxious and sad as she was at the beginning of the virus outbreak.
They spent another week planting corn and various vegetables and fruits in the yard, and dug a pond in the yard, which was shallower than the one in their yard, but there was no water at the moment. Before the pond was dug, the water and electricity could not be sustained and were all cut off.
They were all hoping for a spring rain, which was as precious as oil, but even more precious because it could save lives.
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