Chapter 60: Busy Farming in the Last Days

Jun 25 2023

In the blink of an eye, December arrived and the weather in S city base began to get really cold. The temperature difference between morning and evening gradually decreased, and those who had the means wrapped themselves up in thick winter clothes. It was also around this time that a new thing appeared in the S city base – a trading market.

It’s not that this kind of thing had never existed before, it’s just that it gradually became more organized from this time on. The reason for this was simple – winter had come and keeping warm became a big problem. Some residents were prepared for the winter, perhaps benefiting from clothes left by the previous occupants of their homes, or perhaps bringing their own, but in any case, those who had extra clothes like scarves, shoes, coats, and sweaters, were in demand.

Ji Cha had prepared a lot of clothes, enough to fill two rooms. If the people in his factory wore them themselves, they would never wear them all out. Ji Cha planned to take some out later and exchange them with others using their productivity. Currently, the most popular “currency” in the market was food.

The army is now more generous with food than it was at the beginning, and even some of the people who used to live hand-to-mouth can save some now, accumulating a small resource over time. However, when Ji Cha asked around and found out that it would take nearly a month’s worth of rations to buy a winter coat, and the price was still rising, he was startled.

Fortunately, the purchase of winter clothes was made possible by the fact that the army had already issued some warm clothes, and so far, no major problems had arisen due to the cold.

During this time, various clever people showed their abilities by using the still-unrestricted buying and selling to make a lot of profit, even though they started with almost the same resources. But as long as a social environment is established, people will eventually be divided into different classes, and this cannot be changed.

Ji Cha is currently focused solely on farming and has turned a deaf ear to outside affairs. From the mechanical preparations to the basic completion of land cultivation, to the final report with the army to determine the crops and area to be planted after next spring, the farm is taking shape.

As a place that needs to provide food for thousands of people, and even larger bases in the future, the farm requires more than just a few people. The army has entrusted Ji Cha with all remaining tasks, and he has considered the future of the farm. Laziness is the biggest fear among farm workers, so relying on collective labor like in the past is not allowed. More work equals more rewards, that’s a must.

Since Liang Jincheng brought back the items he found outside, Ji Cha has been busy with farming during the day and product processing, and dealing with Liang Jincheng at night.

Unfortunately, since Liang Jincheng started eating meat, his thick skin has gotten even thicker, and Ji Cha has kicked him under the bed a few times at night. But Liang Jincheng always manages to stop him with his sweet talk. Whenever he sees Liang Jincheng’s face, Ji Cha can’t get angry anymore.

He’s angry at himself…

Recently, Liang Jincheng has been going out less and spending most of his time at home, following Ji Cha around. Whenever there’s work to do, he rushes to do it, and when there’s nothing to do, he just watches Ji Cha.

At first, Ji Cha found it annoying, but he got used to it later on. The soldiers who came over to the farm used to come to see him, but now they all go to Liang Jincheng. Ji Cha is a bit puzzled and asks Liang Jincheng at night while kicking him, “Why do they keep coming to see you?”

Liang Jincheng hugs Ji Cha tightly, not caring about his weak struggles, and kisses his cheek and ear while answering, “There are many ability users in the army now, and they don’t have much experience in dealing with them, so they sent me over.”

“Ability users…”. Ji Cha is too used to Liang Jincheng acting like an ordinary boyfriend in front of him, and has completely forgotten that his primary identity in the eyes of others is a powerful ability user.

“At present, the abilities manifested by the current stage of ability users are different from the initial ones,” Liang Jincheng knew that Ji Cha was very interested in this topic, so he continued, “According to our investigation, some soldiers who exhibited mutations during the zombie clearance earlier had outstanding performances, but their abilities are relatively less significant compared to the first mutated individuals.”

The first batch, represented by Liang Jincheng, could be described as possessing supernatural abilities. However, the current ability users are only relatively superior to ordinary people, but the gap between them and the members of Liang Jincheng’s team is still significant.

“However,” Liang Jincheng said, “the good news is that based on our current experience, abilities can slowly improve in various practical combat situations. Especially for those ability users with lower starting points, it means that they have a lot of room for improvement.”

Since the base is large, it requires more talented individuals and powerful ability users to maintain order here. Therefore, having more ability users in the base is almost never too many.

Nevertheless, what worries the leaders of the base is that the emergence of ability users has begun to threaten their leadership position.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

There are about fifty ability users in the base, but if calculated by Liang Jincheng’s standards, these fifty individuals can almost wipe out the entire army. Fortunately, Liang Jincheng is almost invincible, but the same cannot be said for the other members of his team. However, with this momentum, worries about their leadership position have dissipated.

The top leaders of the base are still former military leaders, and they are already old. Even a new recruit can easily defeat them in terms of strength. However, their position is still there, and even in the apocalypse, they still live a life similar to before.

This goes against the emerging law of the jungle in the current apocalypse, where those who are strong are revered.

The base leaders know this, and so does Liang Jincheng.

If it weren’t for Ji Cha and his family around him, Liang Jincheng would probably not be in his current position without any restrictions or backing.

If Ji Cha could understand this, he would probably understand why Liang Jincheng was able to quickly take the leadership position of the base in his past life.

However, at this moment, Ji Cha is already sleeping soundly in Liang Jincheng’s arms, completely unaware of these thoughts.

After a while, Liang Jincheng lowered his head and looked at Ji Cha, who had closed his eyes and fallen into a deep sleep. He let out an almost inaudible sigh and then gently kissed Ji Cha on the lips before holding him tightly and falling asleep together.

***

Ji Cha was awakened by the sound of chickens outside. He sat up in bed, and found that Liang Jincheng was no longer in the room. Just then, his phone rang, almost at the exact time he woke up. He picked it up and saw that the alarm clock showed 6:30am, and sure enough, there was a message from Liang Jincheng.

“It’ll be a whole day outside, sleep a little longer.”

Even though Liang Jincheng slept with him every day, Ji Cha thought the little bed was almost crushed by his big body. He grumbled inwardly, put down his phone, and began to get dressed slowly. With the arrival of winter, people became lazy, and the factory was using electricity day and night, and even the solar panels were not enough. Fortunately, the military’s electrical circuit was going to be taken over in the next two days.

Thinking about it, Ji Cha thought it was still better to sleep with Liang Jincheng. At least he was warm like a stove, while sleeping alone would be freezing.

After washing up, he went downstairs and found something to eat in the kitchen. The workers outside started to arrive one by one, and without any instructions, they each went to their respective places to work.

Ji Cha’s first thing every morning was to check on the little chicks. They were now half a month old, full of energy and lively, and much larger in size compared to when they were born.

Thandar: So, there are actually a lot of ability users but compared to other apocalypse novels, this number is still very unremarkable. Is that why Ji Cha wasn’t aware of their existence in his previous life?