236

“I knew we should have brought more…” Wang Duo could not help but mutter seeing that everything was sold out and people were still asking about the situation.

“Do you want us to do a quick return trip?” Because they were worried about not being able to handle vegetables at home, Luo Xun deliberately controlled the crop yield. They planted a lot of long-term crops that were not yet mature.

Those plants took longer to grow and last longer after harvest.

Zhang Yi walked over with narrowed eyes and poured cold water. “Are you seeking death? Hurrying back to get things, there would obviously be tails. Even if we go back and continue with the stall, we’ll have to deal with a group of people the next time.”

Although the people who came here to put up stalls were from other bases, there were a lot of vehicles together with numerous people. Even if someone wanted to take action, they may not be able to.

But the Otaku squad’s house was not the same. If their cars and pulling goods from outside were found out by others not to mention the A-city base forces, their team would have a target painted on them.

After hearing Zhang Yi’s words, obviously the team calmed down. How could they not when they were thinking of selling things without taking into account their security? If they really went back for more goods to sell, were they not waiting to be robbed?

Luo Xun did not participate in the gossip. He had just finished speaking with people he had previously cooperated with. He asked about the situation at the base before saying goodbye and continuing shopping with Yan Fei.

The market was full of things, more than before they moved out of the A-city base. Strolling through it was even more dazzling. It would be impossible to look through all the stalls in a day. One had to check one by one to carefully distinguish from those that were only publicity or ones selling things.

Luo Xun pulled Yan Fei around for the morning. They only returned with a bamboo basket loaded with many things. They took turns eating some simple food in the car. After wiping their mouths, they exited the car and continued shopping around.

The morning people had left while others were seeing the stalls in the afternoon. The rest were wandering around the market.

Luo Xun roughly counted the remaining goods. “Our sales are quite good.” All the dried vegetables and fruit had been sold. Even many of the metal and straw products as well. If this continued, they would be able to pack and go home when the market closed.

“Luo Xun what are we going to do” Go home or continue?” They were squatting the car’s shadow to avoid being exposed to the sun. The weather was hot and more terrible – the open-air stalls had no air-conditioning! There weren’t even electric fans, even if they had some they dared not bring out their car.

Luo Xun looked the four down and sighed, “Look at the situation.” They actually brought a lot of stuff but the vast majority had been sold. They honestly did not have enough things to insist on selling. It would not be a problem to leave the car in the market and wander around.

But if the car was left outside, they were afraid that there would not be help in the event of an accident.

But thinking again, although there were many things on the market they carefully selected what things to buy. Even if there were two more days, they were afraid it would not be enough…

With the sun above…Luo Xun’s mind felt like it was turning into paste and evaporated by the sun. His brain had been dried to the point of crashing.

Yan Fei could not help but look and rub Luo Xun’s head with a laugh. “Go cool off in the car.” There was still a cooling device in the car. They went to collect goods everywhere and found a small hand-held fans but unfortunately those things mostly used batteries and those were difficult to save. Today’s small fans were USB ones that were accidentally harvested from the computer mall.

Hearing his words, he looked at Luo Xun and remembered those few small fans.

So Luo Xun and He Qiankun climbed into the car, the two hid behind the box loaded with coal while holding the fan to restore energy. Then – Luo Xun silently looked and felt that the heat was as strong as the sun and the small fan had no effect.

The team’s water and wind users were not here. Luo Xun could only use the small fan. After waiting a while, he fell asleep due to the heat.

When Yan Fei came to find him, he saw Luo Xun snoring. He lightly shook to wake him up.

“What’s the matter?” Luo Xun rubbed his eyes and felt his clothes were glued to his body. The electric fan fell to the ground, blowing air upwards.

“They came back and said there was a stall selling seeds.” Don’t look at everyone growing vegetables, they could identify which seeds were relatively healthy and able to germinate. But for professional problems Luo Xun had to identify.

For example, varieties and such.

“What’s the seeds?” Luo Xun perked up while rubbing his eyes and restored his energy.

“I heard it was brought from a base in the south. They seem like cotton seeds.” Yan Fei’s words succeeded in bringing Luo Xun to complete attention. Cotton seeds…that was a good thing! If it was true.

With a little excitement in his heart, Luo Xun hurried out of the car and went to find Xu Mei.

Xu Mei pointed in a direction. “Stall 107, there are several kinds of seeds we have never seen but dare not buy since they are quite expensive.” Seeds were not cheap anywhere on base, not to mention here?

Luo Xun and Yan Fei took some crystal cores and went straight to the stall, waiting for the right moment. There were a few people near the stall and things were in disarray.

After all, no one could be sure what would grow out of a planted seed – especially after the apocalypse.

And how many survivors still alive had worked the fields? Even if something was planted, there was not necessarily the knowledge of the crop and its seeds.

Luo Xun casually approached the stall and bent down to look at the small bags of different seeds.

Color, looked like nothing was wrong. After all he collected information before the end with the corresponding pictures. But he also needed to remember that looks may be deceiving.

Thinking about it, Luo Xun looked at the price tag beside each bag and asked the stall owner. “Can we try the seeds?”

“Try? How are you going to try?” The man choked and asked with an annoyed expression. “Buy or not buy, I don’t have time to wait for you to decide!” Seeds were not like other things, fakes could be seen on the spot. If it was food, Luo Xun would like samples to ensure authenticity. For seeds, it was too difficult to identify good from the bad so the stall had only sold a bit and business was simply too slow.

Luo Xun also did not get angry and smiled while pointing at the small bags in front of him. “I’ll give you a crystal core, give one of each of some seeds.”

The man choked again and stared suspiciously at Luo Xun, did he have a way to check the seeds…was there a plant user in the world? Thinking, he asked, “What will you do?”

“Try it.” Seeds did not have hands or feet, Luo Xun’s method could only distinguish whether the seeds had been cooked or frozen. Unable to think of an answer, the man waved his hand with a dark face. “Go, go, don’t mess around. If you aren’t buying then leave!”

Seeing his attitude, Luo Xun did not have to ask. “No wonder, sure.” Even this apparently uncheap crop seeds were being sold? His stall had a wide variety of seeds, even wheat and rice and other ones needed for daily life.

You know, crop seeds are precious items and many people would rather keep their own seeds than sell. Especially common and high-quality mutant crops.

The man saw Luo Xun taunting him and his face also changed. A few people around him stood him and cracked their fists. It was a power user at least level four.

Only, before they had time to do anything threatening, a few sharp metal knives flew towards their eyes, five centimeters away. If they made a move, their eye was done for…

Cold sweat beaded down the people’s heads. It was too fast! They did not even move and these weapons flew in front of them!

Luo Xun side-eyed the group and turned to Yan Fei with a stomach full of regret. “Let’s go back, I knew this trip would turn out like this.”

As the two men turned away, the metal knives disappeared like they appeared.

“….Those two, who are they?”

“…I don’t know.” Cannot guess at all, they didn’t even see where those knives came from. Like with water and fire abilities…those knives appeared out of thin air. How was that possible? They had never heard of it…

237

Luo Xun felt that their luck at the A-city base was bad. They were prepared to purchase a batch of cloth but the price was too expensive. Rather than be cheated, it was better to put away their crystal cores. Hearing that someone was selling the seeds they needed, but fakes did not count. They wanted to punch those lying rogues.

Yan Fei saw Luo Xun’s frustration and comforted him. “Even if you could buy those seeds, it would not matter since we have to find a way to de seed and spin the cotton along with weaving which we cannot do yet.” Of course both Yan Fei and Luo Xun understood the theoretical knowledge, they would empty-handed without the relevant equipment.

Luo Xun came back to himself with Yan Fei’s reminder. He took a deep breath and calmed down. They went back to their own stall and found that there was a dark pole-like thing -”sugar cane”?

Li Tie was sitting bored in the stall while yawning. From time to time he would look left and right to see if Luo Xun had come back.

“Do you think they’ll bring some things back?”

“Those seeds are expensive, but we can afford. Only we don’t know if they are mutant plants…”

“Eh? Luo Xun, they’re back holding …sugarcane??”

Luo Xun and Yan Fei were holding a small bundle of sugar cane while walking back to their stalls. Luo Xun flung his arm after putting the things down while telling Li Tie and the others came to help. “Be careful, don’t touch the top buds.”

“Buds? What buds?”

Following the direction of Luo Xun’s finger, they saw that these sugar canes did have some hairy buds.

Luo Xun fanned his collar to stir up a breeze. “The buds are still alive. Remember to keep their roots wet and we’ll see if we can plant them.” If this thing could be grown at home…they would not be short of sugar!

Although there were a variety of fruits at home, there were none that could produce sugar. If it could be planted, it would be a great boon.

As soon as the team heard, they immediately carefully placed the sugar cane into the car. Xu Mei looked at the empty baskets behind them. “You didn’t buy any seeds?”

Luo Xun had a helpless expression. “I’m afraid their seeds have been meddled with. People are not allowed to touch the goods and also get scolded if they want to examine them first.”

It was a pity that everyone else was not worried about what had happened with Luo Xun and the others – did they not see the pair come back safe? They just regretted that they could not increase their crops.

“The cotton thing is not urgent, we’re already close to farmland. We’ll check around to see if we can find some cotton fields and find a way.” Luo Xun coughed and added, “If we grow cotton, we also have to come up with a way to process…” Otherwise, even if they had cotton in hand they could not use it.

Xu Mei thought a while before understanding Luo Xun’s meaning while Song Lingling came to the same conclusion. “Yeah! Remember the two sheep we hunted before we came out? I would have thought we could use the wool to knit sweaters but we can’t even spin thread.”

The sheep skin was processed and sent straight back to base where they hung it. Although mutant animal fur was a lot thicker, the hair was coarse but obviously it was still pretty soft. They thought of wool sweaters. But now thinking carefully, it was even clear how to turn wool into yarn! And how does one knit?

The group of people threw away the complaints about not buying suitable seeds. The sky had gradually darkened so they started a meeting after returning their things to the car.

The main idea of the meeting was – are they going back today? Or waiting another two days?

The team leaned against the sweltering car and wiped their sweat. Finally Luo Xun summarized everyone’s opinion. This time we’ll go back. It’s fine since this is the first time the bases held such a meeting. A lot of things were expensive and of mixed quality. We only came to look at the situation, there weren’t a lot of things to urgently buy and the shelf life was relatively short. The climate was not good so they would go back first. They guessed that after the bases got more experience they would set things up better.

The decision was met with unanimous agreement. The main reason being the weather, it was the hottest time of year in early August. The city weather was not just hot, it was no humid that without wind, it felt like they were in a steamer.

Don’t underestimate this summer, even the women could not stand it.

After the discussion, they left the market before the stalls closed.

The vehicles and stalls would stay overnight but it would cost 20 crystal cores for parking and to set up the stall. So the vast majority of traders who sold goods would choose to leave a find a vacant spot near the market for the night.

Luo Xun took advantage of everyone leaving and left as well. They found a relatively remote place to set up camp, ready to pass the night and head out tomorrow.

A lot of vehicles were camped around, some were selling while others were buying. Some had deliberately stayed outside the city and set up a stall as they feared that they could not grab a good stall the next day.

Set the fire, prepare the pot and the team cooked dinner to pass the time. Although they certainly get everything from the stalls, everyone gained something.

For example, the car had a lot more clothes for children to wear and then Luo Xun also found a stall selling a variety of books which they chose a few novels.

Needless to say, there was the sugar cane they acquired and all sorts of gadgets.

Xu Mei, Song Lingling and Yu Xinran went shopping and saw a stall with a bunch of toys. They only spent three cores but brought back a lot of items for the children to play with. Yu Xinran was holding two Barbie dolls and the baby also held a couple colorful toys. Even the two women held a bunch of bags and did not the men see the inside.

Everyone was talking and laughing while waiting for the meal. A person rushed over and smiled at Luo Xun, “You guys, there are a lot of good things in the car over there, want to go and see?”

Not everyone could earn back the money for setting up a stall. Many people tried and found that they earned no money so they simply set up a stall outside. The majority of people from the venue and pulled people to buy things.

Luo Xun looked in the direction he pointed and shook his head. “No, we’ll wait until tomorrow morning.” What a joke, the person was pointing in the opposite direction of base towards a pile of broken walls with weeds. Were they selling things or planning on stealing?

The man spoke some more but when he saw that Luo Xun was not interested, he finally turned away.

Li Tie saw nothing strange about it and had nothing to say about the man. When they were at base, they already knew to never go with people who said they were selling things. And now?

Not long after, while Luo Xun was eating, others came with wares for people to look at. Those with goods dared not approach likely they were afraid to get robbed? And what was sold was often of little value, the expensive stuff to big to stand out.

The buyers did not trust the sellers and vice versa, which made it more difficult for both parties to make a sale outside the stalls. Luo Xun found them more annoying than the stalls and set the night shift after resting.

The night was not pleasant and they camped near the A-city base and the new marketplace. For the sake of security against mutant animals and other dangers, all the trees were removed and the land flattened. The same was true of the stalls. In the distance they could see the broken walls along with the wild plant growth since the apocalypse.

Due to less vegetation, the area was exposed to the sun. Even at night there was little change in temperature. Coupled with the humidity in the air Luo Xun felt like he was drowning in sweat.

With Song Lingling’’s cold water to wash their faces. They also used from frozen water to cool their hands instead of drinking it.

“How’s it going? Are we going back?” It did not take long for everyone to get up and He Qiankun looked at Luo Xun with bright eyes.

Luo Xun nodded, half his face covered with a water bottle. “We leave after breakfast!”

Not long after, the two cars started and drove towards a major road. Soon after Zhang Yi’s voice came from the radio, “There are about five cars about three or four hundred meters behind us.”

Luo Xun squinted, “Keep driving, get ready down the road.” Today the vast majority of base teams arrived after a few days. There were quite a few convoys around. Teams from A-city may go this way, if it was another party they would quickly figure out the situation.

It would be for the best that those people were just going down the road…

238

The blue sky was hidden behind the haze, but there was no sign of any rain. Only shimmering as if there was a huge lid on top of one’s head. Although the sun could not be clearly seen, the heat was still baking the land. The water vapor in the air was quickly heated, making the day even more depressing and uncomfortable.

With the weather, if there were any people with respiratory or heart disease, it would be very difficult without air-conditioned rooms. However, whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, most patients with such conditions were mostly gone at the start of the apocalypse, few survived. To this day, people who could endure the weather had been hardened by the end of the world.

At this time, Luo Xun was very glad they had chosen to return home. One of the biggest reasons was – away from the A-city base, they finally dared to turn on the air conditioning.

With the car air conditioning, the whole space had become much more comfortable. In fact, the cooling function was not the most important point, it was actually the dehumidification. With the reduced moisture and a cool breeze, the day felt better.

In such a comfortable environment, they looked leagues better than while they were on base.

“Are they still following?” Luo Xun did not use the walkie-talkie. Due to the air conditioning and that the rear was suffocatingly hot, Yan Fei simply connected all the cars together into one.

It was not much trouble for the small electric cars since the body and head were already in one piece.

“Ah.” Zhang Yi leaned his head against the back of the chair. He manipulated the air to send as much cold air as possible towards himself while humming in a half-dead voice.

Luo Xun helplessly glanced over – his line of sight was blocked. “Weren’t you fine yesterday? What happened today?”

Zhang Yi put a bottle of ice water on his forehead and continued to hum, “Heat stroke…”