Chapter 88: Busy Farming in the Last Days

Aug 18 2023

“I always thought that Grandma didn’t really know,” Ji Cha placed the dinner he brought on the table and watched Liang Jincheng eat. He repeated the conversation he had with Grandma and some old folks at the factory to him.

Liang Jincheng was also surprised by this, but he said, “Actually, this is good. Let’s find a time to talk to Grandma about it, okay?”

Ji Cha nodded. This outcome was much better than he had originally anticipated.

After being nervous for so long, suddenly being able to relax made Ji Cha feel a bit uncomfortable.

The base outside was already lined up with people as the day started to break.

The largest and most stable base in the entire southeast coastal region was currently in S City, where Ji Cha and his family were. News gradually spread, and combined with the base’s intentional propaganda, people who had gone through great hardships to come here were coming in an unending stream.

There was a group of people among them that could not be ignored: orphans.

Regardless of how they came to the base or who helped them, these orphans, from infants to those under twelve years old, had accumulated to quite a number.

The end of the world was different from before. As long as they could find a way to survive, the base would not meddle too much. Basically, children over fifteen years old had to find their own jobs to survive. Those between twelve and fifteen years old would be assigned some relatively light collective work, such as picking things. Children under twelve had their food and accommodation taken care of by the base.

For a long time at first, apart from maintaining everyone’s livelihood, no one had the energy to think about other things, such as education or medical care.

But now that the base’s food and safety were guaranteed, and with the leadership of Liang Jincheng, who officially took office as the highest leader of the base after passing a vote at the end of August, plans for various things began to be planned and executed at a much faster pace than when Cheng Feng was in power.

The teaching profession was officially established, and recruitment and screening began early on in the information column.

This made many knowledge workers who could only do heavy physical labor at the beginning very happy. The salary and benefits were good, and they could return to their own professions, so there was no shortage of people signing up.

Ji Cha’s cousin Zhang Qinqin had been working in early childhood education before the apocalypse and had been helping out in the factory since then. Upon hearing this news, she immediately signed up.

This matter is not under Ji Cha’s control, but because the location set for the school is quite far from both canteens, a school canteen needs to be opened nearby. Ji Cha needs to do some preparation and handover farm related matters before personally visiting the place.

Currently, the school is temporarily divided into four parts: kindergarten, primary school, junior high school, and high school.

Since the news of opening a school was announced, many parents with children in the base have been interested, and there have been many inquiries on the information board. There are also many matters and things to prepare for the school, so it is scheduled to open at the end of September. However, pre-registration has already begun, and in just two days, there are already more than 500 registrations, excluding orphans. Apart from the small amount of fees that everyone can afford, the remaining families still need to pay for education, especially for the daily meals.

From a demographic perspective, the number of eligible children in the base is actually unhealthy, so they need to be protected.

“I estimate that there will be about 700 people who need to eat lunch at school every day when school starts. The dishes in the school canteen should be slightly different from those in the large canteens,” said the temporary head of the school in charge, who is from the army. “It is necessary to pay more attention to nutrition, but it should also be not too different from the meals from other canteens. Being too specialized is not good. How does Mr. Ji think?”

“Well, there should be differences. Actually, there are not many vegetables on the farm, and if they are supplied to the two large canteens, it is not enough. It’s just right to put them in the school canteen. Let’s see the students’ appetite on the first day, make a little more, and then send a quantifiable amount later,” Ji Cha said while recording various data on the school side.

When preparing to leave, he met Zhang Qinqin.

Zhang Qinqin has obtained the qualification to teach in kindergarten and has come to help with various decorations in these two days. The school is an empty shell, even the houses are newly built with red bricks, and it can be said that there is nothing if you don’t ask for it. Many of the equipment inside are all collected from several schools outside during this period.

Fortunately, even though the outside world is chaotic, there are not many people who want to come rob the school, nor are there many good things to rob. Except for the fact that some books in the library were burned for heating, there aren’t still many valuable things. For example, tables, chairs, and electronic tools for teaching have been brought back a lot. The arrangement before and after is really quite similar.

“You must be very busy these two days too, right?” Zhang Qinqin smiled, obviously very happy. “I have a feeling of never experiencing the end of the world when I stay here for a long time. I really want to return to the state of teaching children. I will bring Xiaochao to school when the time comes.”

“I think it’s good too,” Ji Cha nodded. “But I never thought we could start this so early. Before, I had thought about what we would do if the children stopped going to school in the future.”

Even though it’s the apocalypse, at least the people in the base have the motivation to live. In a hopeful environment, everyone has the expectation of being able to rebuild their lives. Education and enlightenment are the sparks that will continue all hope.

By the end of September, the school officially opened, and production on the farm entered a new stage.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The production of chickens, ducks, and rabbits has entered the process, and the chicken coops, duck coops, and rabbit hutches have all been expanded more than twice their original size, and can now meet most of the relevant demands. The output of large meat production was slightly slower, but the supply of pork is now much better than before.

The experience accumulated from the breeding and production of livestock over time is more vivid than the simple language descriptions in books. As for food crops, a rich and diverse production has been achieved.

The problem of seed degeneration that had troubled Ji Cha before has also been solved by using the variation of crops. Like vegetables, almost all crops have two types of variations. Positive variations increase yield or optimize dryness in the mouth, while negative variations cause many plants to become aggressive and even cause fatal consequences.

This also requires the farm to pay attention to the growth and development of each batch of food crops at all times. Fortunately, as long as the crops have positive variations, there is basically no risk of infection, which is also one of the benefits.

The fish fry that Ji Cha planned to release has not yet shown any results in the ponds dug out by several people due to the limitations of the river, but this is a long-term investment, and Ji Cha has the patience to wait.

On the first day of school, Ji Cha went to the school’s cafeteria to check various situations himself, to supervise the preparation of the cafeteria and to perfect the later food handover matters.

On the first day of school, many of the students who came to school still looked confused. They brought their own tableware to the cafeteria, because the cost of the meals would be deducted from their family’s information points. Although the prices here were relatively cheaper than those of the large cafeteria, few people were willing to order meat and vegetables. This resulted in a surprising amount of leftovers, which could be digested by the large cafeteria for dinner, or it would be a waste in this hot weather.

All the food prices in the base are actually set based on the cost of maintaining the operation of the base. There is no room for profit at the moment, so it is not realistic to further reduce the price of meat and vegetables. Therefore, after a night of calculation by Ji Cha, they decided to change the dishes in the canteen. All meat dishes were reduced to one per day, but many vegetables were mixed with meat shreds, so the price was also reduced. As a result, the composite version of dishes with both vegetables and meat sold well the next day when they were sold in the canteen.

After observing for a week, the digestion and popular dishes of the school cafeteria became clear, and the supply from the farm became smoother.

All kinds of matters in the base began to proceed in an orderly manner. They thought that it would continue like this for some time, and almost all ordinary people forgot about the outside world. Suddenly, S Base received news from the outside world.

Even though C Country was so big, even if the end of the world brought devastating blows to the population, the existence of the base cannot be limited to S City alone, which is a fact that everyone understands.

However, what the outside base has developed into, whether their intentions are hostile or friendly, and what kind of consequences it may cause are concerns not only for ordinary people but also for Ji Cha.

He had experienced the end of the world in his previous life for so long. He knows that people outside were difficult to read, and no matter what, one cannot treat the other party as a simple character.

The safest way is to speculate maliciously about the other party’s intentions, but one cannot act recklessly. Even though S Base is now such a large base, there are still hidden worries when facing the outside world.

Of course, communication between the base and the outside world cannot be completely cut off. After all, humans are social animals, and although the base has achieved basic self-sufficiency, there are still many vacancies.

For example, salt in the base, although there has not been a shortage yet, it is inevitable that there will be a shortage when they run out, because they do not have well salt or access to the sea.