Chapter 82: Busy Farming in the Last Days

Aug 06 2023

Liang Jincheng curled his fingertips, wiping the water droplets off his face with the back of his hand. He tilted his head towards him and spoke in a lower voice, but with a firm tone: “Kill him.”

“What?” Ji Cha was stunned. He knew that Liang Jincheng was not joking.

But during the last apocalypse, the leader of the S Base in his memory seemed to be surnamed Cheng, so there was a good chance it was Cheng Feng. If Cheng Feng could hold onto the leadership position for a solid ten years during the last apocalypse, how could such a sudden change occur within less than a year?

“He shouldn’t have targeted you,” Liang Jincheng said calmly, pushing Ji Cha into the bathroom to blow-dry his hair.

Liang Jincheng’s initial expectation was that Cheng Feng would only go after him temporarily. Who knew Cheng Feng had such a big appetite and included Ji Cha in his plans. Liang Jincheng could afford to be indifferent to his own life and death, but Ji Cha was his bottom line.

Although Liang Jincheng had made such a decision, it didn’t affect Ji Cha’s daily life on the surface.

The next day, he went to the recruitment office as usual to hire workers. Many of the employees on the farm had already stabilized, as changing workers every day was not conducive to taking care of the crops. After the same group of people gained experience in planting, the farm’s profits clearly increased.

This time, the farm was hiring for stable long-term positions, which attracted many applicants.

As soon as Ji Cha parked his electric scooter, he was immediately surrounded by onlookers.

“Boss Ji, are you really okay?”

“Yeah, Boss Ji, what’s been happening outside?”

Ji Cha’s face tightened, and he made a hesitant expression with a restrained anger, saying, “Some things are not easy to explain.”

He turned and walked towards the recruitment office.

Upon seeing his expression, everyone concluded that something fishy was going on, and the action of going out to search for the cattle was probably intentional. After giving it some thought, it was easy to guess that apart from the possibility of removing a major threat, there were rumors flying around that Cheng Feng had no conscience. One was the captain of an Ability team, responsible for maintaining the stability and peace of the base and always taking the lead in any situation. The other was the person in charge of the farm, where they obtained their food and clothing. No one was foolish enough not to notice the change in their meals, from eating mostly white rice in the canteen to having vegetables and meat every meal now. It wasn’t hard to figure out that it was all thanks to Ji Cha and his electric scooter.

Both of them were faultless, but Cheng Feng was different. There was also the incident where a military vehicle full of zombies entering the base, which he had not explained clearly. As a result, the support for Cheng Feng, which was already shaky, plummeted even further.

Ji Cha took a tour of the farm and ran into Wang Qiang, who had just woken up. He took Wang Qiang to the base’s canteen, “There’s food here from 6:30 to 8:30 every morning, but it’s best to come early, otherwise, there might only be leftovers by 8:30.”

Wang Qiang sat behind Ji Cha on the electric scooter, carefully noting the location of the canteen and marveling at its size.

“It has to be big,” Ji Cha said. “It has to support half the population of the base right now, and maybe even more in the future.”

When they arrived, it was still early, around 7:30, but there were already many people rushing to work in the morning, and the queue was long.

Everyone held their own bowls and chopsticks, most of them carrying food they had saved time to eat on the way. There were also plates in the canteen, and Ji Cha took Wang Qiang to pick one up and then queued up.

There was an electronic screen above the canteen window, displaying the food for sale today.

Today’s menu: white steamed buns, sweet steamed buns, vegetable buns, scallion steamed buns, white congee, bean curd pudding, pickled vegetables (three types), fermented bean curd, soy milk, and noodles.

Although the variety was somewhat limited compared to the canteen before the apocalypse, for Wang Qiang, who hadn’t had a proper meal in days, he could only stare in amazement and feel like he was dreaming.

“Brother Ji, everyone eats like this every day? Can they afford it?” Wang Qiang had been educated yesterday that everything here, including food, lodging, and transportation, was paid for with credit points, which they earned through work.

There are six people in their family, four boys and two girls. He’s a bit worried that they won’t earn enough money to eat later.

Ji Cha had to explain this problem to him again, as he had already explained it to Wang Qiang several times before. “Your family of six can easily rent a small house with a yard. By pooling together everyone’s salaries and splitting the rent, it’s actually better and cheaper than living in a dormitory. It’s also convenient for your family to live together and won’t affect others.”

“In addition, currently, the rent and food expenses account for about 80% of the base’s expenses, but that doesn’t mean there’s no extra money left. And the situation I’m talking about is based on good food. After a while, when the pigs are slaughtered, we may open another channel for ordinary residents to buy meat. If you want to give your family some extra money, there will still be plenty left.”

Wang Qiang couldn’t help but be excited. “Really? That’s great!”

He eagerly lined up with his plate, but when the canteen staff asked for his information card to deduct points, Wang Qiang froze. He didn’t have an information card or any points to buy food.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

In his embarrassment, Ji Cha handed over his own information card and said to Wang Qiang, “Order whatever you want.”

Wang Qiang felt a bit shy and only ordered the cheapest white porridge and a small side dish, along with a meat bun. Ji Cha refused to order anything more, saying that this was enough.

Ji Cha asked the staff with his plate, “Do you have any meat buns today?”

People like him and Liang Jincheng, who have some level of power, can enjoy some privileges when eating in the canteen, such as being able to eat more meat and getting discounts on meat buns. Although meat buns aren’t advertised on the electronic screen, most people know they exist. It’s just that few people are willing to spend money on breakfast like this.

“Yes, but there aren’t many left. They may have to limit it,” said the staff member.

“It’s okay, just give me two and a bowl of noodles,” said Ji Cha.

The staff member was quick and efficient, and within three minutes, the noodles were cooked and the buns were taken out.

Ji Cha found Wang Qiang, who had already sat down, and placed the buns and noodles in front of him. He said, “You eat first, I have something to do and need to go back.”

Yesterday evening, he noticed that Wang Qiang had a big appetite, so what he ordered just now might not be enough for him.

Wang Qiang blushed and felt embarrassed. Ji Cha spoke up before he could refuse, “I still have some things to do, so you need to eat faster and go back to the farm. Someone will accompany you to pick up your family later, and the journey will be quite tiring. You need to eat enough.”

After saying that, he turned around and left. Wang Qiang looked at the rich breakfast in front of him and remembered that his family hadn’t eaten such good food for a long time. He couldn’t help but feel motivated for the upcoming journey to pick them up.

Meanwhile, Wang Qiang’s family was anxious and even regretted letting him bring two cows with him.

“If they kill him halfway and take the two cows, we won’t know,” the five of them gathered together, worried and scared. The more they thought about it, the scarier and more anxious they became. It wasn’t until it got dark and another day passed that they hastily made some food and went to bed.

Soon after lying down, they heard a sound outside, and the cows in the yard became restless.

The men jumped up with their weapons and cautiously walked out. After taking two steps, they heard someone tinkering with the lock on the gate.

Their nerves were tense, and they dared not breathe loudly. They held their knives and stared at the gate with wide eyes, their hearts pounding.

As everyone held their breath, suddenly a voice could be heard from outside.

“Dad, Uncle, it’s me, Qiangzi!”

Upon hearing that it was Wang Qiang’s voice, the tense nerves of the group finally relaxed. Wang Qiang’s father took a quick step forward to open the door, and upon seeing that Wang Qiang was indeed unharmed, he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The people inside the room, upon hearing that Wang Qiang had returned, all rushed out in a hurry and anxiously pulled him aside to ask in a low voice.

“How was it over there? Were you scammed?”

Wang Qiang grinned and pulled out a meat bun he hadn’t been willing to eat that morning from his pocket, broke it open into five pieces, and handed them to his family. “Eat this.”

Although it was already cold, the meat bun still had a strong meaty aroma, and paired with the decent quality flour, just the smell alone was enough to make one’s stomach growl.