Chapter 67: Busy Farming in the Last Days

Jul 09 2023

The first thing Ji Cha did when he got up early in the morning was to run downstairs and find the leftover crayfish from yesterday in the fridge. After heating it up a little, he pinched one and ate it.

When he lightly twisted the head and tail of the crayfish, the juicy meat was revealed. Heating it up did not affect the texture of the meat at all, and Ji Cha’s teeth could feel the springiness of the meat.

Perhaps it had been ten years since Ji Cha last ate crayfish, so he thought the taste of the meat was surprisingly good.

His grandmother walked in from outside and saw Ji Cha eating crayfish early in the morning. She said he was gluttonous and brought out breakfast, “Eat this, don’t eat crayfish. It’s oily and greasy.”

Ji Cha followed her advice and ate two bowls of porridge. Just as he was about to ride his electric scooter out, the boys he met outside while catching crayfish appeared at the factory gate. They looked a little confused at first, but as soon as they spotted Ji Cha, their eyes lit up and they came over to talk to him, “Have you eaten that crayfish? We ate it on the day we brought it back…”

They seemed afraid that Ji Cha would blame them and quickly added, “We didn’t bring back much food that day and were a bit hungry. But fortunately, there was no problem with the crayfish meat. We plan to go out and catch some more later. Do you want some? We can bring it for you.”

Ji Cha didn’t have time to go out and deal with this today, and their offer was tempting, but he didn’t want to trouble them for nothing.

“You haven’t had breakfast, have you? Wait for me here for a while.”

Ji Cha went back to his room and took out four steamed buns from the steamer, which were still warm. He handed them over and said, “Fill your stomachs first.”

Two boys didn’t hesitate and immediately took the steamed buns and ate them hungrily. One of them even put a steamed bun in his pocket, saying that he wanted to bring it back to his sister.

The boys left, saying that they would be back around noon, but Ji Cha didn’t think too much of it. He spent the day supervising the farming area and checking on the construction of the chicken coop, everything going smoothly.

Unexpectedly, something happened in the evening.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The two boys who were supposed to be back at noon had not returned even when it was almost dark outside. Ji Cha suddenly remembered and was startled. He stood up to go out, ready to search for them.

Liang Jincheng grabbed his hand. “Where are you going?”

“There were two kids who said they’d be back at noon, but they haven’t returned yet.” Ji Cha frowned. He had a feeling that something had happened to them. “I have to go out and look for them.”

Since it was not completely dark outside, and the place they were going to was not far from the base, the danger was relatively small.

The world outside was in a state of chaos, and there were all kinds of people with ulterior motives. Ji Cha didn’t want to think about the worst, but he couldn’t help but think about it. Although the boys seemed to have some experience, they were still relatively innocent.

After hearing the whole story, Liang Jincheng stood up too. “I’ll contact the military.”

“Will they help?” Ji Cha hesitated, because the military strictly forbade anyone from leaving without reporting it.

“Let’s go and see.”

The two quickly found Zhao Tiankuo, who took the matter seriously and immediately said, “I’ll inform the higher-ups and send people out to look for them.”

He saw the surprise on Ji Cha’s face and continued, “Everyone in our base is registered with a status and they are all our people. We cannot lose anyone.”

Without Liang Jincheng saying anything, the army also dispatched a six-person team to search for the missing kids. Ji Cha originally wanted to go with them, but Liang Jincheng didn’t allow him to go. Besides, Ji Cha knew his own weaknesses and realized that he would most likely only cause trouble for Liang Jincheng if he went out, so he didn’t insist and instead found the residential addresses of two of the missing teenagers in the system.

The address showed that five children lived together, four teenagers and a girl around ten years old who was probably the sister of the teenager from earlier that morning.

When Ji Cha arrived, the three of them were planning to venture out to find someone but were stopped by Ji Cha.

“The army has already gone out to look for them, and there should be results soon.” He brought some food with him, enough to feed the teenagers for a meal.

“You should make some food first. They might come back to eat when they’re found.”

His words were obviously meant to comfort them, but they still had a reassuring effect on the three children since there was an adult present. The little girl thanked Ji Cha for bringing the food and went to start a fire and cook.

The house they lived in was an old one, and they used a stove inside. This was actually more convenient since those who were assigned to modern houses didn’t have access to natural gas anyway.

The little girl was skilled at cooking and quickly put the rice in the pot to cook. She then carefully washed the bean sprouts and potatoes that Ji Cha brought and stopped working, sitting on a bench with the other two teenagers to wait.

Ji Cha couldn’t bear to leave and waited with them.

They waited until midnight, and the little girl silently wiped away tears. The other two teenagers also had red eyes. When Ji Cha stood up, not knowing what comforting words he could say at this point, the sound of a car engine suddenly came from a distance.

The four of them looked at each other and immediately stood up, quickly running outside.

To Ji Cha’s surprise, the two teenagers who went out didn’t have any major injuries, despite their disheveled appearance. They both had a look of relief on their faces.

While the teenagers were catching their breath, Ji Cha learned from Liang Jincheng, who was driving, what had happened. It turned out that some outsiders had come to the base, and they had been coveting the resources here for a long time. They had just happened to run into the two teenagers when they were exploring the area.

Five or six people had chased and tried to capture the teenagers, but they were familiar with the terrain and managed to evade them until the afternoon. Fortunately, the outsiders did not have firearms, so the teenagers were unharmed.

Just when the teenagers were feeling hopeless, the people from the base happened to go out to search for them. Liang Jincheng’s team ran into the outsiders who were searching for the teenagers, and a fight broke out. In the end, four of the outsiders were killed and two were captured alive, with some minor injuries on the base’s side. The two captured outsiders were brought back for interrogation to find out more about their situation, how many people they had, and whether the base was in danger.

“Thank you so much.” When Ji Cha was about to leave, the disheveled teenager caught up with him and took out a large bag of crayfish from behind, looking a bit embarrassed. “We caught a lot of them on the way back.”

They had brought all the rewards they had risked their lives to get back to Ji Cha. The teenagers had also learned from the military that Ji Cha had remembered them, and that was how the military found out about what had happened. They were also very grateful that they had mentioned going to Ji Cha’s place before they went out, or they might not have made it back alive today.

Ji Cha took the bag and poured half of the crayfish into the bag he had left in the car, then gave the rest back to the teenagers. “Remember to go to the medical station later to check your injuries.”

Thandar: I feel so sad for these kids … damn apocalypse!!!