Chapter 4 - 2: Daily Settlement
"SOB... SOB..."
On the riverbank, a girl knelt on the ground, sobbing her heart out as her mother held her.
An old man carrying a bucket shook his head. "Ai, this family is in for a hard time... Their only son is gone."
Back home, Qin Ziwen emptied all the mulberries from his bag into a metal basin.
Having been picked a while ago, the mulberries were already getting a little soft.
He picked one up, sniffed it, then popped it into his mouth and took a small bite.
The flavor had already changed from when they were freshly picked.
Qin Ziwen furrowed his brow. ’They go bad this quickly.’
He walked outside and looked up at the increasingly scorching suns.
Two suns, one on the left and one on the right, hung close together. From a distance, they looked like a pair of eyes in the sky.
He gently dabbed the mulberries dry with a tissue, picked out the fresh, plump ones, and spread them evenly on a piece of cardboard on the balcony.
Qin Ziwu squatted beside him, watching. "Bro, will this work?"
"We’ll try it out first. If we can sun-dry them, they’ll last longer. Think of it as an experiment."
Picking up the basin, he looked at the remaining broken and shriveled mulberries. Qin Ziwen wiped them gently with a tissue, carefully picked out any impurities, and put them in his mouth to chew slowly.
The pulp was soft and juicy with a slight graininess. The sweetness was prominent, with just the right touch of tartness.
The taste was quite good. He’d heard they were also rich in vitamins and could supplement many of the nutrients the body needed.
𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
"Have some." He passed the basin to his younger brother.
Qin Ziwu took the basin, wiped the dust off a few, and stuffed them directly into his mouth. "Mm, they’re pretty sweet."
It was too hot to go out at noon, so Qin Ziwen stayed inside. He found a piece of paper and, drawing on his memories from the morning, began to sketch a map.
In the center was the Gated Community. A little over a hundred meters south of the Gated Community was a river that flowed from east to west. The water was calm and shallow, with exposed rocks visible in some areas. The river was about one to two hundred meters wide.
To the north, the terrain was higher. In the distance were mountains, surrounded by dense forests and thick vegetation.
He paused his pen. After a moment of thought, Qin Ziwen drew a small circle in the northwest, where he had found the mulberry tree.
Putting down the pen and paper, he felt sleepy. He hadn’t slept much last night and had been busy all day.
Qin Ziwen yawned. "I’m going to take a nap. It’s too hot outside right now, so let’s not go out, or we’ll get heatstroke. We can go out later this afternoon when it cools down."
Qin Ziwu nodded. His older brother had always gotten good grades since they were kids. Listening to him was never the wrong choice.
The bed was a bit hot, so Qin Ziwen simply pulled off the sheet, spread it on the floor, and, lying down, quickly fell asleep.
When he woke up, it was already 4:40 in the afternoon. The temperature had cooled down; the diurnal range here was quite large.
His phone’s battery was down to just 24%. It would probably shut down automatically soon.
So, he just went ahead and turned it off completely.
After waking up his brother, Qin Ziwen went to the balcony. Looking down, he saw that some residents were actually setting up stalls in the shade of the trees in the Gated Community, laying out items to start a little flea market.
People were putting out their unwanted, surplus household items to barter.
Qin Ziwen squatted down and turned the mulberries on the balcony over to prevent them from sticking to the cardboard.
He wasn’t sure if this would actually produce dried fruit, but he’d seen people do it this way when he used to browse videos online.
Qin Ziwu was leaning against the balcony, still yawning nonstop. He watched for a while, growing interested in the stalls below. The more he watched, the more awake he became. He leaned over the balcony, propping his elbows on the railing and stretching his neck out.
"Bro, I want to go down and take a look. Think I can find any good stuff?"
Qin Ziwen flipped a mulberry in his hand. "Everything out there was brought out by the owners themselves. They aren’t idiots. If you want to find a real bargain, you’ll have to wait a while. By then, you probably won’t even need money."
Qin Ziwu understood his brother’s meaning and chuckled.
After turning the last mulberry, Qin Ziwen stood up and looked at the bustling scene downstairs. "Right now, most families still have food and can maintain some dignity. It’ll be different once the food runs out."
After the transmigration, the power and internet were completely out.
Without the internet, time seemed to slow down.
Qin Ziwen said to his brother, "Weapons, food, water—we need to prepare more of everything. Our advantage now is that we’re two adult men. We have to try our best not to get sick. If you need to drink water, you must boil it first. And try to eat cooked food as much as possible."
"But you just gave me mulberries to eat!"
"Don’t talk back!" Qin Ziwen turned and rapped him on the head.
Qin Ziwu asked, "Bro, do we have a lighter at home?"
"I don’t smoke."
"Neither do I! So where are we going to get fire?"
"You don’t know how to make fire by drilling wood?"
"I don’t."
"Don’t worry, I’ll teach you."
Coming out of their apartment building, Qin Ziwen noticed the atmosphere in the Gated Community was somewhat oppressive.
People were gathered in small groups of twos and threes.
From listening to others’ conversations, he learned that someone from Building 6 had been bitten by a venomous snake that afternoon. By the time they were carried back, their whole body was black and blue, and they were already cold.
Counting the resident from Building 4 who was eaten by a crocodile in the morning, two people had died in the Gated Community in less than a day, making everyone panic.
At a nearby stall under a tree, an old man in a gray tank top asked the vendor, "How much for this lighter?"
The vendor replied, "Five liters of clean water or enough food for one meal."
The old man was taken aback. "Are you crazy, kid?! A one-yuan lighter for such a high price!"
The vendor sneered. "This is fire we’re talking about! How are you going to cook without fire? Eat raw food? Besides, this lighter is brand new. If you’re careful, it’ll last you a long time."
"That’s still too expensive. Lower the price. How about this, I have half a bottle of mineral water at home. I’ll trade you for that." As he spoke, the old man squatted down and reached for the lighter.
The vendor was a tall, heavyset man. He grabbed the old man’s hand. "I haven’t agreed. Are you trying to steal it?"
"Hey! He’s hitting me! He’s hitting me!" The old man flopped onto the ground.
The big man laughed in anger, rolling up his sleeves. "There are no cops here. Are you really asking for a beating?"
Hearing this, the old man scrambled back to his feet. "Young people these days, your words are so barbed. You have no respect for your elders."
The big man’s lips moved, but no sound came out. However, Qin Ziwen could recognize the three words he mouthed.
The big man turned his head to look at Qin Ziwen, who was standing nearby. "Hey buddy, want to buy a lighter?"
Qin Ziwen smiled and waved his hand in refusal.
He took his brother for a stroll around the Gated Community. The things their neighbors were selling were a motley collection.
Most of it was luxury goods, electronics, and some Gold jewelry. There were very few items that were actually useful for survival. Even for those, the asking prices were exorbitant and usually required food in trade.
Qin Ziwen suddenly stopped. He saw a crowd gathered at a stall not far ahead.
Moving closer, he saw that someone was selling a fishing rod.
Qin Ziwu whispered in a low voice, "Bro, this is good stuff. There’s a river right next to us. With a fishing rod, we can catch fish."
Qin Ziwen listened for a moment and then silently shook his head. "It’s too expensive."
Scarcity drives up value. Several families were already vying for the fishing rod; getting it for a bargain was impossible.
Besides, the most important thing in fishing was never the rod, but the bait.
As long as the bait could attract fish, you could catch them with just a branch, some thin line, and a safety pin.
"Come on, man, sell it a bit cheaper. I’m a serious buyer. There are crocodiles in that river, so fishing isn’t that safe anyway. What if a croc takes the hook? The rod would be ruined."
"This is a Daiwa! It’s a brand name!"
A man in a suit standing nearby said, "Brother, I’ve got five packs of crackers here. I’ll trade you. You really won’t lose out. These crackers have a long shelf life; you can keep them for months. In a few months, you won’t even be able to get two packs for this, let alone ten."
"No way, that’s too cheap. If you add a few more packs, maybe we can talk."
Qin Ziwen recognized the man in the suit. It was the resident from Building 7 who called himself Huang Tao and had tried to rally everyone to work together.
He led his brother out of the crowd and continued to search the area around the Gated Community.
Unfortunately, he couldn’t find any other fruit trees like the mulberry. He did, however, find a rat trap next to what looked like a rat’s burrow, seemingly hidden there recently by one of the residents.
Memorizing the location, Qin Ziwen returned home, drew all the curtains, and locked the door and windows.
That evening, he ate four small bread rolls and drank half a bottle of water. His stomach was still a bit empty. Qin Ziwen lay flat on his bed. ’Until I find a new food source, I have to conserve as much as possible,’ he thought.
Outside, the sky gradually darkened.
Without the internet, he wasn’t used to sleeping this early.
But having walked around outside for most of the day, he was mentally and physically exhausted. Not long after lying down, he drifted into a deep sleep.
In his sleep, he thought he vaguely heard a voice.
"You have successfully survived your first day in the wilderness, gathered a small amount of fresh fruit, and drawn a simple map. Overall score: 3 points."
"You have received a reward: Flint x1, Simple Trap Blueprint (Fragment) x1."
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