Chapter 52 - 48: Tenth Day Settlement
Back home, Qin Ziwen relied on his memories from the day, rewatching the video recorded by the phone he had placed in the small pack on the Beaked Eagle’s chest.
He then drew a rough route map.
On the map, he made sure to mark the locations where he had picked the wild kiwis and encountered the wild boar.
The main reason he hadn’t finished picking all the kiwis today was a lack of backpack space. He decided he could go there first tomorrow to gather the rest.
He recalled that fruits were divided into two types: climacteric and non-climacteric.
If a climacteric fruit wasn’t fully ripe, it could be picked when it was close to maturity and would continue to ripen afterward.
After finishing the map, Qin Ziwen picked up the master map he had drawn before, his gaze falling on a spot marked "cave" to the north.
’The two places I know of for obtaining Cards are both related to "caves." What about that cave on the mountainside I saw in the video? Could there be an altar inside that one, too?’
’And it’s not just that one. The Beaked Eagle can fly. I can use its aerial advantage to have it scout from high above. It’s bound to find caves others haven’t discovered.’
’A one-time altar that only yields a single Card, versus an altar that provides a steady supply of Cards every day—the strategic value between the two is worlds apart!’
’It’s worth making a dedicated search for them.’
That evening, he went to check on the small animals in the cage. The rabbit, field mouse, and hedgehog were all quietly staying in their respective sections.
After accumulating water for the past two days, the huge stone pit was already nearly half full. It seemed the Level 2 Spring Eye’s water production rate was indeed quite fast.
He scooped up a bowl of the clear spring water, washed up, and then lay in bed, quietly waiting for the next day.
[You have successfully survived in the wilderness for ten days. Today, you caught a field mouse and a hedgehog with a snare trap, harvested a sufficient amount of wild kiwis, and drew a simple map. Overall Score: 40]
[Reward: [Expansion Card] Blank Expansion Card (Micro) x2]
Qin Ziwen’s eyes lit up. ’Finally!’
He got up and went to the expanded space behind the bathroom. Facing the empty area, he used the two Cards. Thanks to the buffer space he had intentionally left during previous expansions, a large new square of empty land appeared before him when the two new Cards activated!
Then, Qin Ziwen took out the Level 1 Farmland Card he had prepared and activated it.
A brilliant light enveloped the land in front of him.
Soon, a 20x20-meter plot of dark brown earth—with a total area nearly the size of a standard basketball court—appeared in his field of view.
He walked to the edge of the farmland. As his shoes stepped onto the soil, he didn’t feel the usual heavy resistance of dirt; instead, it felt fluffy.
Crouching down, he plunged his hand into the soil and grabbed a handful.
The dark brown soil trickled through the gaps between his fingers. It felt finely granular, moist but not sticky.
He didn’t know much about farming, but he could tell this was excellent soil.
Qin Ziwen muttered to himself, "It would be a real shame not to plant something in such good soil."
He turned and went to the spare bedroom to wake his brother, calling him over to help transplant the Gray Sweet Potatoes.
They picked off the tubers of the Gray Sweet Potatoes, cut them into small pieces, and buried each piece in the soil.
"Brother, will they really sprout this way? Won’t they just rot?"
Qin Ziwen hesitated before nodding. "They will. Trust me."
’I’ve never planted them before either,’ he admitted to himself. He only knew fragments of information he’d picked up from books or online—that crops like sweet potatoes and potatoes could supposedly sprout into full plants if you just cut them into small pieces and buried them.
’As for whether it’ll actually work... I have to at least try.’
"Brother, this place is getting bigger and bigger. Now there’s a whole field, too. You’re a hell of a digger," Qin Ziwu teased.
"Haha."
Qin Ziwen laughed. "We still need to go to the riverbank to find more Gray Sweet Potatoes, and then pick the things we couldn’t get yesterday."
"Gray Sweet Potato? Is that what these are?"
"Yeah. I saw its root tubers were a drab gray color, so I decided to call them Gray Sweet Potatoes."
"Easy enough to remember."
When they came out of the stairwell, Deng Guang was already waiting downstairs. He always left home very early in the morning.
There were more people than usual in the Gated Community this morning, gathered in small groups. With just one glance, Qin Ziwen knew something had happened.
Deng Guang said, "Something happened last night. Wang Mingchao is dead."
Qin Ziwu was shocked. "Dead?"
Deng Guang said, "Yeah. He was found in the early hours of this morning. His body was right at the entrance to the Gated Community. He’d been stabbed over a dozen times in the chest, but the fatal wound was a cut to the neck—his head was almost severed. The killer must have been venting their rage."
Qin Ziwu muttered, "Who could have done it? Could it be Zhang Bo?"
Deng Guang shook his head. "No idea. There’s no surveillance, no eyewitnesses. But a lot of people suspect it was Zhang Bo. Even if he didn’t do it himself, he’s probably connected to it."
In the middle of the crowd, Zhang Bo had a stress blister forming on the corner of his mouth. "It wasn’t me! It really wasn’t! If I killed him right after he said all that yesterday, wouldn’t that be as good as a confession? Am I that stupid?"
A large crowd surrounded him, using the pretext of avenging Wang Mingchao.
They had Zhang Bo cornered, not letting him leave.
One person in the surrounding crowd shouted, "If you didn’t kill him, then let us go see your Salt Well to prove it! Let’s see what’s so different about your structure compared to Huang Tao’s."
Zhang Bo’s mind went blank. ’What does proving I’m not the killer have to do with them going to my house to see the Salt Well?’
He looked at the expressions in the eyes of the people around him and suddenly understood. ’It doesn’t matter if I killed him or not. What matters is that I have a Salt Well.’
...
Having seen enough of the commotion, Qin Ziwen was about to leave when a woman rushed toward him from behind, but Qin Ziwu blocked her.
Qin Ziwu’s expression darkened. "What do you think you’re doing?"
The woman’s face was sallow, her eyes ringed with dark circles. She demanded loudly, "Qin! Where’s my husband?!"
Her shrill voice attracted the attention of many people nearby.
Qin Ziwen took a closer look before recognizing the disheveled and unstable woman as Liu Changgen’s wife.
Standing behind his older brother, Qin Ziwu said impatiently, "How should we know where your husband went? We’re not close with him."
Liu Changgen’s wife muttered, "My husband’s been missing for two days. The night he vanished, he just got dressed and went out. I’ve been searching for him for two days! There’s no trace of him, dead or alive."
As she spoke, her eyes filled with resentment. "Yesterday, I went to find the guy who was fishing with him. He was too scared to talk at first, but I hounded him all day until he finally told me: while they were fishing during the day, they saw you using an Earth Cage! My husband tried to get him to go steal it with him that night, and then my husband disappeared! It was you, wasn’t it?!"
Her words caused many of the surrounding neighbors to start pointing and whispering about Qin Ziwen and his brother.
Deng Guang was taken aback. He said, puzzled, "Xue E, you must be mistaken. Younger Brother Qin has been with me for the past few days. Liu Changgen could have been snatched by a crocodile when he went out. It’s not like that hasn’t happened before. You can’t just go blaming Brother Qin."
Xue E’s lips quivered, a flicker of confusion in her eyes.
She had also considered that he might have been taken by a crocodile or some other predator, but she couldn’t accept it.
’A perfectly healthy person, just gone in an instant.’
’What are my child and I supposed to do now?’
"I don’t care! This is still related to you! If it weren’t for your Earth Cage, would he have gone out at night?! He wouldn’t have met with an accident! Based on humanitarian principles, you should compensate me!"
...
...