Chapter 70 - 66: Flood
Carrying the Beaked Eagle to the window, he used the light from outside to examine it. The wounds on its body had all scabbed over; it was recovering quickly.
It was still raining outside, but it was much lighter now compared to last night’s downpour.
He pushed open the window, and the roar of rushing water filled his ears.
The small river, which once snaked through the forest like a jade-green ribbon, had been transformed.
The water level had risen visibly, its color turning murky as the torrent surged past.
Qin Ziwen’s expression grew grim.
The rain still hadn’t stopped.
’I hope it doesn’t flood.’
With the rain coming down this hard, almost none of the neighbors in the gated community were going outside.
Everyone was staying home.
The forces of nature were more terrifying than any wild beast.
Qin Ziwen opened his cellar. The food stored inside was still enough to feed three people for half a month.
He wasn’t worried about food, but with such heavy rain, the temperature might plummet.
He could already feel the air getting colder, and a chill draft came from the balcony.
That morning, Zhao Pu came to find him.
"Want to go check out the garage?"
"The garage?"
Zhao Pu said, "Yeah. It’s pouring out, so no one can leave today. A lot of people are in the garage right now, trading supplies. I heard some wild animals ran in there to escape the rain, but they were pretty much all caught."
At this, Zhao Pu sounded a little regretful. It had poured all night, and everything was drenched. To a wild animal, the gated community’s garage must have looked like a giant "natural cave."
That, combined with the pitch-dark environment, would have been very appealing to them.
But they could never have imagined that this "cave" was already occupied by over a thousand ravenous, tool-wielding Horror Upright Apes, each weighing over a hundred pounds and desperate for food.
The animals that took shelter there were walking straight into a trap.
"Alright, let’s go check it out."
They went down the emergency stairwell, and it grew darker the farther they descended.
He had expected the garage to be pitch-black, but when he emerged on the first basement level...
...the scene before him was completely different from what he’d imagined.
Inside the garage, car owners who hadn’t moved their vehicles had turned on their headlights, illuminating the walls. Others walked around holding candles. On the ground, bonfires had been built, with groups of people huddled around them for warmth, chatting, or trading goods.
Some people even used their phone flashlights to navigate the space.
It had become its own strange ecosystem.
"Hahaha, got it!"
A loud laugh came from not far away. Someone had used a homemade net to catch a gecko on a support pillar.
A crowd immediately gathered around, asking if it was for sale.
"Sure. Anyone have fruit? I’ll trade for an equal weight of fruit."
Someone thought the price was too high. "That gecko won’t taste good. There’s not much meat on it. Once you remove the guts and bones, less than half of it is even edible."
"I’ve got some wild hawthorn. Want to trade for that?"
RUMBLE...
Listening to the others discussing food, Zhao Pu’s stomach rumbled.
Noticing Qin Ziwen’s gaze, Zhao Pu gave an embarrassed smile. "My kid’s going through a growth spurt. Big appetite."
Qin Ziwen said, "If you still have medicine, I can trade you a little food for it. But not too much; I don’t have much left myself."
Zhao Pu thanked him profusely. "Thank you! Thank you!"
In terms of value, medicine—something only modern industry could produce—was an "out-of-print" resource. Every bit used was a bit gone forever.
In the long run, its value was immense.
But right now, food was the primary concern for most people.
Many families only had enough food to barely get by. Most were alternating between a full meal and an empty stomach.
It wasn’t that no one was trying to grow crops. As Huaxia People, the instinct to farm was practically in their blood.
But even the fastest-growing crops couldn’t be harvested immediately after planting.
Therefore, at this stage, food you could put in your belly was the only real hard currency.
Everyone understood this. To put it bluntly, you could try to tough out a minor illness and gamble on your immune system. Taking medicine for a major illness was also a gamble. But hunger was a guaranteed killer. You could truly starve to death.
Qin Ziwen walked over to one of the bonfires.
In the crowd around the fire, a man in glasses was tirelessly asking people, "Anyone want some seedlings? I’ll trade for grain. These are top-quality seedlings! If they aren’t planted soon, they’ll go to waste." A bystander said, annoyed, "No, stop asking."
Qin Ziwen walked over and looked at the seedlings in the man’s bag. "Your seedlings look a little wilted."
The man gave a wry smile. "They were planted on the roof, but then yesterday’s downpour flooded them. These are the ones we managed to salvage right away."
"What kind of seedlings are they?"
Seeing that Qin Ziwen was interested, the man eagerly listed them off. "This is lettuce, spinach, shiso, wild ginger, purslane, and wild cherry tomatoes."
Qin Ziwen was surprised at first. ’That’s a lot of variety.’
But he quickly understood. They were all foraged from the wild, so what he found was entirely dependent on luck and experience.
It made sense that the selection was so diverse.
Seeing Qin Ziwen remain silent, the man spoke again.
The man quickly added, "The wild lettuce and spinach grow fast; you can just harvest them periodically after planting. And the wild ginger is great, too! Some meat is too gamey and hard to stomach, but you can use the ginger to get rid of the smell. The cherry tomatoes are sweet and sour. They grow a bit slower, but they’re easy to care for."
Qin Ziwen looked at him. "I’m only interested in the price. What are you asking for them?"
The man said hurriedly, "Just some food would be fine."
Qin Ziwen frowned. "Just ’some’?"
He didn’t like hearing that word.
It meant the other party held all the leverage.
The man spread the burlap sack open. "How about enough food for two meals? There are a lot of seedlings here, all carefully selected. Plus, once they grow, you can transplant them."
Qin Ziwen glanced over them. There looked to be twenty or thirty shoots.
Most of the individual plants were tiny. If he were to eat them now, he could probably finish several in a single bite.
’All of them together wouldn’t even make for one filling meal.’ No wonder he’d been trying to sell them for so long without any takers.
"What if they don’t survive? They already look wilted."
The man in glasses quickly replied, "I can teach you! I studied agriculture, so I have experience with this. We can exchange contact info, and you can ask me anything you don’t understand. Besides, this lettuce is really easy to grow! You just have to follow a few key steps: ’transplant when they have four to six true leaves, keep the root ball intact to avoid damage, plant them shallowly without burying the crown, and water them thoroughly to set the roots.’ If you do that, the survival rate is over ninety percent. Plus, they grow fast and you can transplant them multiple times."
Qin Ziwen sized him up. "You studied agriculture?"
"No, I’m a biology teacher."
Qin Ziwen mused, "Two meals is too much. These seedlings aren’t worth that price. But if you can provide value in other ways, it might be possible."
Just as they were speaking, a panicked shout suddenly came from the other side of the garage. "Run! There’s a flood coming down from the mountain! Get out of here! Don’t stay in the garage!"
’A flood!?’
Qin Ziwen’s heart clenched. He quickly asked, "Where do you live? Which building? I’ll find you later."
"Building 6! I’m in Building 6, Unit 1, apartment 101!" Hearing the warning, the man in glasses scrambled to pack up his things. He grabbed a torch from the fire, waved at Qin Ziwen, and shouted, "Talk to you later! Make sure you come find me!"
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