Chapter 41: Busy Farming in the Last Days

May 16 2023

The icy water washed over Liang Jincheng’s face. His head was raised high, and the picture in his mind was erratic. Many small details that had not been noticed in the past, or had become blurred over time, became extremely clear after the awakening of his ability.

Not only the various sensory functions have been magnified countless times, but also the “taste” of Ji Cha that has always attracted him has also been magnified. Even if there are several walls between the bathroom and the his bedroom, he could still smell Ji Cha from all the way.

He was about to go crazy because of it.

Rationally, Liang Jincheng regretted kissing Ji Cha on the rooftop, but from the point of view of love, he was like a person who has been poisoned and finally relieved his drug addiction a little, both his body and soul felt very satisfied.

Ji Cha finally sent Zhang Xing out the door, let out a long sigh of relief, raised his hand to close the door when he saw the bathroom door from the opposite side suddenly opened.

Liang Jincheng was neatly dressed, with a towel draped around his neck, the water droplets on his hair fell down intermittently and volleyed onto his T-shirt.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The pure white cloth became transparent after being soaked in water, which outlined his sturdy figure more clearly.

Through the crack of the door that wasn’t fully closed yet, Ji Cha’s eyes met Liang Jincheng’s.

Ji Cha was frightened by Liang Jincheng’s expression at this time. Before tonight, even a few hours ago, Liang Jincheng to him seemed like a gentle and reliable person. But now, Liang Jincheng looked at him as if a beast was staring at his prey, and if he would launch and take a bite at any time, ending his life.

Ji Cha couldn’t help but reached out and touched his neck, then lowered his eyes and avoided Liang Jincheng’s line of sight, closed the last gap in the door, and immediately turned off the light.

He took a few steps back and sat on the bed. The sound of footsteps rang in his ears, getting closer and closer. An invisible sense of oppression slanted down from above, overwhelming Ji Cha as if grabbing his throat with every footstep.

I can hardly breathe…

Ji Cha clutched the corner of the bed sheet, and his mind was filled with various events since he met Liang Jincheng, until the scene was frozen on the two people kissing on the rooftop just now.

His hot head was smoking, and his eyes were fixed on the thin door panel. Ji Cha knew that if Liang Jincheng really wanted to come in, a door like this wouldn’t be able to stop even his fingers.

The footsteps finally stopped in front of the bedroom door. Ji Cha’s hands shook, he was so nervous that he even held his breath.

“Ji Cha.” Liang Jincheng said, standing outside the door, his voice was calm with nothing out of usual.

“What…” Ji Cha asked cautiously.

“Go to bed early.” Liang Jincheng turned around and left after saying that.

This is it? It’s over?

Ji Cha was a little confused. He ran to the door in three or two steps and put his ears on top of it to listen. The sound of Liang Jincheng’s footsteps had indeed gone away, and then there was the sound of opening and closing the door. Ji Cha breathed a sigh of relief, he slowly sat down, leaning against the door panel, and put his face between his bent knees.

After being kissed by Liang Jincheng, he didn’t feel disgust, but the surprise was far more prevailing. Then there was… Ji Cha lowered his head and put his hand on his chest, feeling the rhythm of the pounding inside.

This is unfair… Ji Cha gritted his teeth.

He went back to the bed, thinking about Liang Jincheng’s words telling him to go to bed earlier, he slowly closed his eyelids.

In his previous life, after six or seven years of development, the S City base had basically resumed production and construction from the bottom level up. No one would starve to death until the tenth year. However, at that time, there was a clear difference between the classes, and the boundaries between the poor and the powerful had become more clear.

Ji Cha needed to work twelve hours a day, going to work on the farm at six in the morning and leaving work at six in the evening, and only 30 minutes to eat during this period. Under such circumstances, he was able to support himself and save a little of the circulating currency in the S City base every month.

***

It was another ordinary day.

When Ji Cha woke up early, he heard the public broadcast about the situation outside the base in S City and the problem of zombies in the southeast corner today. He held the steamed buns prepared last night in his hand and a bottle of drinking water in the other hand. It was ten minutes before six o’clock.

The gate of the farm was right in front of the dorm.

“Ji Cha!”

“Ji Cha!”

When he met his fellow workers on the road, everyone greeted each other warmly. Being able to work on a farm is much better than struggling to survive outside, at least the workers here could still smile.

Standing in front of the iron locker door in the dressing area, Ji Cha finished the last mouthful of steamed buns, carefully put away the water bottle, and locked it in his cabinet. Then he turned around and picked up the tool to go to yesterday’s work block, ready to continue the work for the day.

“Today, a big man is coming to inspect.” In the narrow aisle, a dozen workers were divided into several teams. Wang Qinxue stood side by side with Ji Cha and told him what he had just heard from other workers.

“Big man?” Ji Cha didn’t really care, he asked casually, “What big man?”

The agricultural department was indeed quite valued, and the best vegetables and fruits must be supplied to the people above. Now someone above coming down to inspect? This seemed to be the first time.

“It’s the particularly awesome senior I told you, Liang Jincheng. If we can pass by him at that time, do you think we can use the name of our university to get acquainted with him and get some benefits in return?” Wang Qinxue was happily daydreaming.

The footsteps scattered, everyone spread out in the lively farmland and went to their own block.

“Let’s have lunch together later.” Ji Cha waved at Wang Qinxue.

For the day-to-day tiresome work, Ji Cha didn’t have any complaint. After going through so much, he was very grateful that he could still have a stable job, eat boring but enough food, and sleep at night without having to worry whether he would be bitten off by a zombie in his sleep.

Ji Cha didn’t take it to heart about what Wang Qinxue said before about the inspection of the big man.

Due to the displacement of professional and technical personnel and the rupture of the material industry chain, many machines that were considered very simple in modern society could not be manufactured. So, most projects had to be done manually.

At this moment, working under the high temperature of more than 30 degrees Celsius, Ji Cha who was wearing thin long sleeves could not cut off the sunlight from shining on his head and neck. The skin on Ji Cha’s neck was obviously dark. He didn’t even look like a man in his early thirties, but more like an old farmer who had been running around for many years.

He squatted between the ridges and carefully pulled weeds. Although this work was small, it had to be done meticulously. In the evening, there would be a special inspection. The quality assurance personnel would come check everyone’s work and then evaluate them. If you could get all the top prizes in a month, you would receive an extra bonus. Ji Cha won the top prize for 28 consecutive days this month, and victory was in sight. In the last few days, he naturally did not dare to relax for a moment.

“Watermelons are planted in this field, and the planting effect is very ideal. It doesn’t take long before the fruits and melons are ripe. In addition, the vegetable cultivation here is also very successful, and the rich varieties before the end of the world have basically been achieved. Everyone can eat whatever they want…”

A burst of human voices came from the entrance, Ji Cha took a peek from under the straw hat and saw a group of people came in from outside.

The last sentence said was something the staff in the farm had heard a hundred times before but never actually got to experience. Now they were just too lazy to complain anymore.

“Everyone can eat whatever they want?” A voice suddenly sounded. It was like an air conditioner on this hot day, and it made everyone in the audience instantly became quiet.

Ji Cha burst into laughter in his heart. He raised his head boldly to see who said such a windless remark. He saw that the escorts were still smiling around the “big man” at the moment, but their faces tinged with confusion, looking at the man in the middle.

Ji Cha held his breath and carefully observed from the corner of his eye, but the movements of his hands kept on pulling the weeds nonstop.

“You stand up.” The man walked to a person who was working not far away, “Tell me your three meals and hourly wages.”

The worker, who was suddenly called, looked anxiously at the person in charge of the farm, and did not dare to speak until he was given permission.

It was only then that Ji Cha could see clearly that the man was actually Liang Jincheng, the second-in-command in the S City base. Everyone knew that he had a very strong team in his hands, which was the guarantee for the safety of the entire base.

Ji Cha didn’t know why this person suddenly became concerned about farming.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

When the workers did not answer his question right away, Liang Jincheng didn’t seem angry. He continued to ask questions one after the other, and slowly arrived where Ji Cha was working. Ji Cha silently counted, two people, one person…

A pair of neat shoe uppers stopped at his feet.

“Tell me…” Liang Jincheng opened his mouth, his eyes flattened on the straw hat on Ji Cha’s head, and just as he was about to speak, Ji Cha raised his head in a panic, “I eat well!”

Ji Cha was holding a handful of weeds in his hand. He knew how important this job was to him, so he tried his best to make it clear, “I ate this morning…”

He was talking, but Liang Jincheng’s eyes widened as if there was an illusory air standing in front of him, he reached out to touch Ji Cha’s face and muttered, “Ji Cha…?”

***

“Ji Cha?” There was a knock on the door.

Ji Cha suddenly woke up from the dream, the sky was bright outside the window, and the ordinary Liang Jincheng stood outside the door. Which one is the dream?

Thingyan: So, how did Ji Cha die again?