Chapter 79: Soft-hearted, save yourself
Unfortunately, it was an extremely cold period and the soil outside was frozen hard, making it impossible to dig. They found pickaxes in the department store and exchanged supplies for three of them, as well as two shovels.
As soon as they came out of the trading building, Min Weihuan and others also arrived. Seeing that Lu Xingtang had exchanged for a planting pot and a pickaxe, they followed suit and exchanged for a planting pot, pickaxe, and shovel.
The next day, Lu Xingtang and the other two went outside to dig the soil with a pickaxe, a shovel, a fire axe and Ji Yanmo's tricycle.
There was no way to find soil in the city, so they could only go to the mountains. It was difficult to dig the snow-covered land. The three of them took turns knocking on the ice and digging the frozen soil. They worked hard for a whole day to fill the tricycle, but this amount of soil was far from enough. If the soil was baked in the heated house, it would become soft. If the soil in a tricycle was divided equally among the three of them, they would only get enough for a planting pot.
So they went out and dug every day for four days until they filled all the planting pots.
On the day of receiving the cold-resistant potatoes, Lu Xingtang did not sleep in. He called Su Cheng and Ji Yanmo and went to the original neighborhood committee early to wait for the distribution of cold-resistant potatoes. In the previous life, when the cold-resistant potatoes were distributed, they would be gone if they arrived a little later.
When the three arrived at the original neighborhood committee, there were not many people there, but there were already soldiers standing guard.
At eight o'clock, there was a dense crowd of people behind Lu Xingtang and his group, all of whom came to receive cold-resistant potatoes, and everyone had a smile on their face.
Lu Xingtang and his friends arrived early and were also early to claim their food. After registering with their ID cards, they received five kilograms of cold-resistant potatoes. However, when they were claiming their food, they were told, "Cold-resistant potatoes aren't as delicious as the ones we get before. They're a good source of food in extremely cold weather, so please don't waste them! If you can't finish them, return them to the neighborhood committee so others can plant them or eat them."
Then he told them the planting method, "Our research institute has developed cold-resistant potatoes and also cold-resistant nutrient solution. With the addition of cold-resistant nutrient solution, the harvest of cold-resistant potatoes will be doubled!
However, the cold-resistant nutrient solution requires a material exchange. A 100ml bottle of cold-resistant nutrient solution is just enough for five pounds of cold-resistant potatoes! Mix the cold-resistant nutrient solution with the soil, cut the cold-resistant potatoes along the buds, and plant them in the soil mixed with the nutrient solution. They will mature in two months.
Without nutrient solution, potatoes are planted directly in the soil, which results in slow growth, taking three months, and low yields.
Lu Xingtang asked: "Excuse me, how do I redeem the cold-resistant nutrient solution?"
"10 jin of grain for a bottle of nutrient solution, no bargaining!"
"Change now?"
"If you have food on you, you can exchange it now!" Ten kilograms of food for one bottle of nutrient solution. Not many people would exchange it, as not everyone has ten kilograms of food. Ten kilograms of food is enough for a family to save money for a week.
"I want to exchange!" Lu Xingtang looked at them in embarrassment: "Can you keep it for us? We can go home and get food!" Lu Xingtang didn't expect that there would be cold-resistant nutrient solution. She had never heard of nutrient solution in her previous life, so she didn't prepare it. Even if there was some in the space, she couldn't take it out and exchange it openly!
"Hurry up, it might not be available if you're late!"
Fortunately, Ji Yanmo rode his tricycle over. The three of them discussed and decided that Ji Yanmo would help them deliver the cold-resistant potatoes back to the community and temporarily lend them the food. After they returned, they would return the food to Ji Yanmo.
Su Cheng and Lu Xingtang had supplies, so Ji Yanmo agreed readily.
It only took Ji Yanmo half an hour to go back and forth. Lu Xingtang and Su Cheng saw that many people exchanged food for nutrient solution. Some of them had heard the news early, and some lived close to home, so they came back quickly to exchange.
Lu Xingtang and Su Cheng seemed calm, but they were actually a little anxious because they didn't know how much nutrient solution they had and were worried that it would be used up soon.
Fortunately, Ji Yanmo was quick enough. They each exchanged a bottle of nutrient solution, and when they returned home, they returned the ten kilograms of food they had borrowed to Ji Yanmo.
Lu Xingtang compared the cold-resistant potatoes with the potatoes stored in his space. The cold-resistant potatoes had a hard skin and lacked the aroma of potatoes, but were very starchy, with thick stems and veins. He bit into them and they were dry and astringent. He washed and cooked two cold-resistant potatoes, and they were just as filling.
Five pounds of cold-resistant potatoes were planted in batches, some in planting pots, some in the black soil in the space, and the seeds were saved at the same time.
Then they continued to play badly until Su Cheng's family ran out of firewood, so the three of them went out to chop wood again. They chopped wood for seven or eight days. Now the firewood was not as easy to chop as before. In the extremely cold weather, the survivors of the entire imperial capital were chopping wood.
In the blink of an eye, it was October and the originally stable temperature began to drop again. It was not as terrible as before. Now it was already minus 60°C, with the cold wind howling. After a few days, it started snowing again. Fortunately, the snow was not heavy.
When Lu Xingtang was observing the situation outside with a telescope, he saw that the patrol soldiers outside the Sunshine Community were wearing thin clothes and their faces were black and blue from the cold, but they were still determined to protect their safety.
Thinking of the supplies in the space, which was a quantity she could not use up in ten lifetimes, she immediately entered the space and sorted out all the supplies she had found from the Liuxu Gang, especially clothes and quilts. She took out all the thick items, including guns and bullets, some medicines, and food.
So she went out alone under the pretext of looking for supplies. After great effort, she finally found a place that had not been discovered by anyone. She hid the supplies and observed for a few days. After making sure that no one had gone there, Lu Xingtang secretly found the military and told them that she had found a batch of supplies, including guns and ammunition, and took them to get the supplies.
She had planned to tell the military secretly, but she understood that the military would not use this batch of supplies on themselves, but would try to use it on the survivors, so she told the military openly.
In order to make the military believe that she had seen the supplies by accident, she said that she wanted to go hunting in a remote mountain to see if there were any frozen rabbits or other small animals to pick up and eat.
The reason was a bit lame, but the military also knew that supplies were hard to find during extreme weather. Lu Xingtang was not the only one who ran far away to find supplies, but no one was as brave as Lu Xingtang and actually ran into the mountains.
When the military learned that Lu Xingtang had found a batch of supplies, including a large number of guns and ammunition, they immediately sent people to collect the supplies with Lu Xingtang. When they saw that the supplies were from the Liuxu Gang, they were shocked and quickly took control and transferred the supplies back.
After seeing them transfer the supplies back, Lu Xingtang looked at the highest military commander and said, "I hope this batch of supplies will be used by the soldiers. They are braving the cold wind to protect us. I feel very sorry for them. Although I understand that this is their duty, I don't want this duty to cost them their lives! While protecting us, I hope to protect yourselves as well! Only when you are well, can we all be well!"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
