Chapter 64: Busy Farming in the Last Days

Jul 03 2023

Ji Cha actually had some ideas about fish farming. But firstly, he already had a lot of things to do, and secondly, there was nowhere to find fish.

The military once visited a fish farming village where most of the tens of thousands of fish had already turned into zombies. Not to mention eating them, even touching them could be deadly. The fact that these teenagers had caught such fish made Ji Cha ponder a bit.

However, fish farming is not a simple matter. Just like when he first considered rice fields for fish farming, the problem of introducing running water still exists. Fortunately, they can now think of a solution together with the military, and there are technicians who know more than Ji Cha. Once the problem of fish is solved, it will be much easier to farm fish in the future.

“The behavior is still very dangerous. There may be zombies or mutated animals outside, and if you’re not careful, you could lose your life.” Ji Cha felt obligated to say these words, even though they made him feel like a hypocrite.

The teenager was also helpless, “But if we don’t catch fish, we won’t have enough to eat, and there are many jobs that we’re not allowed to do.”

Ji Cha thought for a moment and said, “Why don’t you go to the labor department these days and see if there are any suitable jobs?”

Many of the fields on the farm were already being prepared for cultivation. Although most of the work was done by machines, there was still a need for human operators, especially in the smaller areas where machines couldn’t reach.

The teenagers were too young to work, but Ji Cha had some authority in this regard, and it was no problem to relax the age requirement.

The teenagers looked at each other and reluctantly agreed, but they didn’t know if they would actually follow through and go to sign up.

Ji Cha returned to the factory building, and the first thing she had to do was prepare the “wages” for the workers today. Before long, the workers had come from the work site to the factory and were waiting at the door.

They still couldn’t believe that they would receive fresh potatoes.

Where could they find potatoes at this time, let alone fresh ones? It was impossible.

But then Ji Cha took out the things and distributed one portion of staple food and potatoes to each person. He then carefully asked each person whether they wanted bean sprouts or tofu.

After the shock came the excitement. Once they got the food, all the exhaustion of the day vanished. On their way back, everyone was bouncing with joy.

Who would have thought they would receive fresh potatoes? Juicy, not at all wrinkled, fresh potatoes!

All five of them were grateful they had waited for Ji Cha this morning. Otherwise, they would have had to eat wild vegetables mixed with bran.

With their potatoes in hand, they happily made their way home. Once there, they cooked up some potato slices, braised tofu, or stir-fried bean sprouts. It was a great meal.

After finishing the distribution of the other workers’ wages and making sure there were no strangers around, Ji Cha closed the factory gate.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Chili peppers were also starting to be harvested. They could pick almost half a pound of fresh peppers in one day.

Besides using them for cooking, Grandma and Zhang Qinqin turned the fresh red peppers into chopped chili, so they could store them for a long time. Some peppers were dried in the sun and spread out on the roof.

Dinner was simple, a portion of spicy stir-fried meat, braised tofu, stir-fried vegetables, and a pot of chicken soup. Ji Cha had already eaten a third of the frozen meat he had saved. If everything went smoothly, the meat production of chickens, rabbits, and pigs here could just be used with what was left in his home.

The next morning, Ji Cha got up slightly earlier due to yesterday’s experience and went to the labor office. Today, to his surprise, not only were people waiting, but there were also about twenty or thirty of them for only five positions. This was unheard of during a time of relative labor shortage.

Word had already spread about someone bringing back fresh potatoes last night. When they heard there were five vacancies, who wouldn’t come? Some people who received potatoes yesterday were reluctant to eat them and traded them on the black market for three portions of staple food, which was a great deal.

Ji Cha felt somewhat comforted that he saw several of the young boys he had seen yesterday at the recruitment office, consulting with the staff at the window. And he had also submitted the new recruitment requirements, which the boys met.

Sure enough, the boys turned their heads with a smile and hurriedly went to get the forms to compete for tomorrow’s job opportunities.

Ji Cha wanted to turn around and leave, but he saw a notice at the entrance.

“Starting the day after tomorrow, wages will no longer be immediately issued based on food standards but recorded as credit points. Workers are requested to come to my office these two days to collect their magnetic cards and enter their identity information.”

The barter trade method was finally going to change.

Ji Cha returned to the workshop, and Zhao Tiankuo was already there. He brought a small machine and a stack of magnetic cards to Ji Cha, “With this, you can connect to the military network. It can’t be considered the Internet, just a LAN. Every morning, workers have to clock in, and every evening, they have to clock out, then the credit points will be loaded onto their cards. When they need to buy food, they can use the card to deduct the credit points. In the future, every person will have one card, real-name system, and their identity information needs to be verified every time they use the card. “

“Then these are for your family. You can take care of them yourself today, anyway, Zhang Xing will definitely understand.”

“Okay.” Ji Cha nodded. Although these cards were basically useless for the people in the factory compound at the moment, they didn’t need to worry about their livelihoods.

Ji Cha returned to his room on the second floor, turned on the computer, and after Zhang Xing helped him fix all the data problems, he opened the web page, which was no longer a network error symbol but a military network page.

The webpage displayed a lot of information, mostly the many notices that the military had to do every day, including “food credit points,” which were set up for the credit cards. For example, ten credit points for a serving of staple food, three points for a serving of bean sprouts, and four points for a serving of tofu. Meat, which is still mostly unavailable, is also assigned points, and it is much more expensive, with fifty points for one or two servings of meat.

Most people in the base have not eaten a whole piece of meat for a long time. When they do eat meat, it was usually found from an outside breeding farm occasionally by the military. After confirming that the pigs inside can be safely eaten, the soldiers would slaughter a few pigs to satisfy their cravings.

Ji Cha logged in to his account online. His account had some management permissions, and there was an item on his personal page called “Salary Distribution.” Ji Cha clicked on today and input the identity information and corresponding food points of ten workers under him. This way, when the workers finish work in the evening, they only need to bring their magnetic card with their identity information to Ji Cha to swipe, and the card will have the point information.

And the data here will also be immediately transmitted to the military’s central database, managing in real-time the property and life situation of each person in the base.