Chapter 68: Busy Farming in the Last Days

Jul 11 2023

The arrival of winter has made many people’s lives difficult.

With the withering of plants and the cold weather, people need more food to maintain their energy and body temperature, but the source of food is becoming increasingly scarce.

The competition outside the base has become more intense, and of course, there are people who covet the base. However, within the current scope of S City base, no force can shake the base, and with the army stationed there, their weapons are far superior to scattered militias. Moreover, S city Base has basically formed a self-sufficient chain.

However, after the incident involving the young boys, the army was indeed alerted. There are still many refugees in S City, and if they are all banished outside, they will inevitably pose a threat to the base. It is better to organize some of them to be incorporated.

Around the time when the chicken coop was completed and the second batch of chicks hatched, the army issued a new decree: to expand the quota for population recruitment and expand the scope of the base.

New planning drawings are being rushed, but Ji Cha knows that after the expansion, the place where they are now will become the inner city of S city Base in the future, and it will be the most prosperous and safest place.

So he is very happy with this decision.

Although the army does not encourage residents to leave the base, it is not prohibited either. After all, in the current environment, there are always people willing to try their luck outside. There are also many vendors active in the black market, many of whom are willing to form their own teams to leave the base and take risks. Although this is a life-threatening situation, the gains are often objective.

In this regard, the management of the base is strict on the surface, but as long as an adult wants to leave the base, after registering the departure time and identity information, they will be allowed to leave.

Ji Cha has never been to the black market, and although he occasionally thinks of going to see it, he has never had the time.

When the time quickly approaches January, the weather becomes even colder. Going out is almost torture. The cold and dampness of southern cities in the first winter after the apocalypse is even more apparent.

To prevent people from freezing to death due to the cold, the army has set up some public coal heating points, with chimneys burning many places warm and cozy. However, this is also the extreme that can be achieved under the current scarce resources.

Ji Cha no longer needs to go to the recruitment point every day to announce the recruitment information. He can now publish the information through his computer connected to the internet. However, sometimes he still needs to personally go to the recruitment point to select the final candidates.

On this day, after finishing the recruitment, Ji Cha rode his electric scooter home. While passing by the black market, he unexpectedly found it very lively inside. This made him curious, so he stopped his scooter and walked over to take a look at the black market for the first time.

The black market was set up in a maze of old rural houses, with stalls distributed at a distance from each other. Each stall was manned by more than one person to prevent uncontrollable situations such as riots and looting.

There were all kinds of things sold in the black market, some of which were limited items sold in military supermarkets, but could be bought here without limit at a higher price. There were also some things that the military didn’t sell, such as small appliances, toys, precious resources and even medicines.

Ji Cha walked around and even found some potatoes and vegetables that had flowed out from his own farm. Due to the winter season, they could be stored for a longer time, and some workers might have bought them in the black market in exchange for more food.

After looking around, Ji Cha planned to leave, but at this moment, he suddenly heard a small cry in a secluded corner.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

He turned his head and saw a skinny little girl about twelve or thirteen years old being pulled by a tall man to one side.

There were hardly any women in the black market, let alone a little girl like her. Ji Cha instinctively felt that something was wrong. He took two steps forward but didn’t act rashly. Instead, he carefully observed the situation there.

In troubled times, women’s status often tends to decline, and this is even more evident in the end times. Compared to the relatively better situation in the base, where there is still supervision and people who can eat their fill are not willing to exchange their women for anything, the women in the base can also find a job to support themselves and avoid falling to that level.

“Come with me, you won’t go hungry in the future.” The middle-aged man grabbed the little girl, but his expression was not that of an elder’s kindness.

On the contrary… Ji Cha felt that it was a man’s desire towards a woman. This made him feel disgusted.

The vendor then spoke harshly to the little girl, “If you don’t behave, there won’t be any record of your identity in the base. If I decide to kill you, no one will know.”

After being threatened, the little girl immediately stopped talking.

Ji Cha couldn’t bear to watch this anymore, so he stepped forward to stop the middle-aged man who was about to take the little girl away. He said to the vendor, “Human trafficking is against the management of the base, you can’t do this.”

Immediately, people around him gathered, staring at Ji Cha with hostility, “Who are you?”

These people were obviously a group protecting each other. Ji Cha didn’t know how many such deals they had done. The military didn’t have much knowledge about the black market’s activities. Perhaps they thought it was just a market that sold various small products. Or what Ji Cha didn’t dare to think deeply about was that the military might know of such things but didn’t take much action to control it.

“I am in charge of the processing plant,” Ji Cha frowned. This identity was well-known in the base, but it was not certain if people could match him with his identity.

The processing plant had a high status in the base, and the farm was also connected to it. Most people knew that it was a lucrative job.

As expected, when Ji Cha finished speaking, those who were eager to take the girl away immediately backed off a bit, but not very pleased, one of them said to Ji Cha, “We are doing business here. What does it have to do with you? If you know what’s good for you, don’t get in our way.”

Ji Cha wanted to say something more, but suddenly someone in the crowd reached out and pulled him back. He turned around and saw that it was a man who had worked for him for a few days. He whispered to Ji Cha, “Xiao Ji, don’t act tough. These people have done things like killing and arson.”

In the blink of an eye, the little girl had been forcefully taken away by someone, and she didn’t even cry at this point.

This made Ji Cha feel uneasy. Even after experiencing ten years in the apocalypse, he still couldn’t bear to see such things happen directly in front of him. Moreover, he still felt that he should be able to change some of the behaviors that he was powerless to change before.

“These girls were all abducted from outside and hidden in the car and brought back. The military seems to be unaware of this, and even if they know, they don’t really care. After all, identity verification isn’t checked every day. After they are bought, they won’t be registered, because once registered, they can find work to support themselves, and they won’t be controlled anymore.”

The man told Ji Cha some information he knew.

Thandar: omg scummmmmm