A survival base is the utopia that almost everyone who survives in the wild yearns for.
I heard there's an endless supply of food there, so people don't have to go out and forage for supplies. I heard there's a wide variety of animals kept in captivity to provide the nutrients people need. I heard the defenses are so strong that even the sky above is covered with high-voltage barbed wire, so there's no need to worry about mutant animals suddenly attacking. It's incredibly safe...
In short, almost all the survivors in the shelter yearned for the survival base. Unfortunately, across the country, only about 200 million people could afford to live in a survival base. The remaining 400 to 500 million people, like the survivors in the Xinghai shelter, were left hiding like gray mice in every corner of the country.
After hearing so much about the survival base, Xia Ruanruan became curious about it. She pricked up her ears, wanting to know what the difference was between a shelter and a survival base. Was it really as safe and comfortable as the other survivors described, reminiscent of society in the early stages of the virus outbreak?
Stability, tranquility, order.
"Oh! What are you talking about? This is not just for you, isn't it also for my own comfort? The old man doesn't want anything else, I just want the life in the shelter to be improved, so that I can enjoy my old age comfortably." The old man touched his mustache and showed a bright smile to Yang Fan.
"The people at the survival base were quite kind. This time, they not only gave me some medicine... but also some potatoes. Don't underestimate these potatoes, they're a bit smaller than the mutant potatoes we usually see, but the person in charge told me that these potatoes are the latest ones selected and bred by the research institute this year... They're said to taste much better than the potatoes we grew before."
"Although they may not taste as good as regular potatoes before the virus, they're high in starch and have fewer rough roots than potatoes today. We should try growing some in the shelter later."
The old man explained the origin of these potatoes, which immediately caused many people around to look at the potatoes with particularly bright eyes.
Xia Ruanruan glanced at the potatoes curiously, then slowly withdrew her gaze. It seemed that there were still many pre-disaster scientists protected within the survival base. Judging by the medicines, it seemed there might even be a pharmaceutical factory and R&D department inside. Furthermore, there were government troops protecting the civilian population.
No wonder it is much stronger than their small shelter of 300 people.
"Ah... I don't know when those scientists will be able to research varieties that taste as good as the crops before the disaster. In the past, scientists were all thinking about increasing crop yields. Now we don't have to worry about increasing yields, but the taste is really hard to describe." A survivor who came in with Yang Fan shook his head, his face full of sighs.
Yang Fan patted the man's shoulder, picked out all the potatoes and seeds from the package, and piled them on the small table next to him. "You kid, you have enough to eat, but you still can't stop eating. Hurry up and use these potatoes to grow seedlings. Grow them in the shelter first. When the temperature rises outside, we can plant them in the fields."
"Okay! Don't worry, Boss Yang. I'll take care of these things later." The survivor nodded, smiled, took all the potatoes and seeds into his arms, turned around and walked out the door to cultivate potatoes.
Xia Ruanruan looked at the potatoes, then thought about the starchy root crops she'd been eating these days. Her small eyebrows knitted together, and she tilted her head back and asked a soul-searching question, "Uncle Yang, the shelter has its own power supply and is so spacious...why don't we get a pulp grinder?"
"Put the rough starchy rhizomes into a powder grinder and grind them into powder, then wash out the starch... In this way, the food will definitely taste much better than what we have now... Uncle Yang, why don't you try it?" Xia Runrun stood on tiptoe, trying to make the adults who were talking see her.
So much had happened in the past few days that she hadn't thought about this for a while. It was only when they chatted that she remembered this question.
The little girl's bright eyes seemed to contain stars, and she was very lively and cute.
Such a curious look fell on Yang Fan's eyes, making him scratch his head awkwardly. He explained with a headache: "Ruanruan... It's not that uncle doesn't want to bring back a powder grinder... But isn't this thing unavailable?"
Yang Fan really felt that he had worked hard. In the early days of the virus outbreak, there was widespread chaos around the world, houses collapsed, and mutated animals were rampant. This chaotic process lasted for three or four months before the entire city slowly calmed down. It was at this time that the Xinghai Shelter was established.
At first, there were not many people in the shelter, only a few dozen, but as time went by, it grew to its current size.
When people have hope in life, they will naturally think about improving their quality of life.
But powder grinders are really hard to find! Ordinary small household powder grinders don't have enough power to grind the mutated starch rhizomes. You need something with slightly more power, at least the size of a home workshop.
This type of powder making machine is usually sold by farmers for making sweet potato flour.
If Xingyue City was a second- or third-tier city, or even a small county town, they might have already obtained this kind of small processing machine.
But Xingyue City happens to be a super first-tier city!
What small agricultural machinery manufacturer would be so blind as to locate its products in a first-tier city like Beijing, where rent and land are exorbitantly expensive? Sales of these products in cities are already low, and with the added cost of rent, how can they expect to make a profit?
Not to mention companies, there are very few agricultural machinery sales stores in the entire city. In addition, agricultural machinery includes more than just powder grinders, and the city suffered a disaster again.
Yang Fan dared to bet that among the hundreds of small shelters in the entire Xingyue City, only less than 10 shelters had this kind of powder-making machine.
They also thought about going to the survival base to seek official help, but unfortunately, after two years, they didn't find any chance.
There was no other way. The survival base was safe, but the land was limited. Even with abundant crops, it wasn't a luxury for everyone to eat refined grains like sweet potato flour and potato flour. Such refined grains only appeared through private sales.
In order to monopolize this business, the leaders of the survival base will not give these things to them casually.
"Oh..." Yang Fan sighed. It should not be that complicated to make a powder grinding machine, but it is too unrealistic to expect the people in the shelter to make a powder grinding machine with bare hands.
"Little girl... are you a survivor who joined the shelter in the last half month? You look short and stout, so you must be only two years old this year, right?" The old man seemed to have just noticed Xia Runrun's existence at this moment. He half-knelt down with a smile, and spoke with his eyes level with Xia Runrun.
Xia Ruanruan: “????”
No, she's an 18-year-old girl, and it's fine that she's turned into a four-year-old, but this person actually said she was only two?! Is that unreasonable?! How does she look like she's two?
"No! I'm already 18 years old this year!" Xia Ruanruan put her hands on her hips angrily and shouted her age to the old man.
The little girl was chubby, with short arms and legs, and her fair cheeks were puffed up like a chubby little frog. Yan Guangqi almost laughed out loud when he saw this, and his mustache trembled with laughter. The old man reached out and touched Xia Ruan's soft forehead and said, "Okay, okay, 18, 18... You are 18 this year."
Xia Ruanruan: "..."
Xia Ruanruan glanced at the people around her who were covering their mouths and laughing secretly. She felt a choking sensation in her chest. She was really 18 years old. In this day and age, no one would believe her when she told the truth. Looking around, the entire infirmary was filled with people who were amused by her words.
Even Xiaobai wagged his tail playfully, his expression amusement etched on his face. He looked as if he was being funny, telling a joke. Seeing Xia Ruanruan staring at him, Xiaobai even blinked innocently and tilted his head slightly.
Xia Ruanruan: Hey! Doesn’t this make me even more angry?
Seeing the little girl's face was almost covered with oil bottles, Old Man Yan laughed and said, "18, 18, Grandpa really believes that you are 18 years old this year."
Xia Ruanruan: "..."
No...with your perfunctory attitude, do you really think I'm a 4-year-old child?
“Gu, gu, gu…” (Are you in here…? Gu, gu, I want to go back to sleep…)
Just when Xia Runrun was feeling depressed, an owl's head slowly appeared at the door. At the same time, accompanied by voices, the owl also slowly crawled into the infirmary. It looked as if it had not woken up yet, with a tuft of white hair sticking up on its head.
Xia Runrun looked at Old Man Yan, then at the oversized white owl at the door, which was standing on the ground with its two feet and wings folded, and was more than two meters tall. She was stunned.
She originally thought that a man like the old man who looked so strong would have a pet that was also quite strong.
Unexpectedly, the owl in front of me was not only stupid, but also a little stuttering.
Seeing the other party's slow and confused appearance, Xia Runrun was a little worried that this guy might fly in the air and suddenly his wings would stop and get stuck, and he would fall from the sky.
"Oh, Gugu is back... It looks like it can hardly open its eyelids... Uncle Yan, please take it back to sleep." Yang Fan saw that the white owl could hardly open its eyes, and he immediately smiled and hurriedly took two steps forward.
This was the only mutant pet capable of carrying a person into space among the dozens of nearby shelters! If it weren't for this owl, their shelter wouldn't have been able to make the long journey from Star-Moon City to the neighboring survival base, hundreds of kilometers away, to search for supplies. The shelter had many seeds, salt, toothbrushes, soap, and other daily necessities, all of which were distributed to them by the survival base officials after they contacted them.
Those shelters that cannot contact the official base are not so lucky.
“Coo, coo?” (Huh? This cub… is it, is it an owl?)
"Gu, gu, gu..." (You look so much like us, a cat-headed owl...)
The owl suddenly put its entire large face in front of the little girl and cooed sleepily.
Xia Ruanruan: "..."
No, you may have misunderstood me.
I really don't look like an owl.
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