"Whoohoo, good times, good times…"
"It smells good, it"s delicious!"
"Mmhmm…"
The group of the people stuffed their faces with the mutton dumplings. There was not a lot of noodles left so they could not bear to waste even a speck of flour. Although they had planted wheat in the house after harvesting rice, it would take a few months before harvest. After this meal, there would be no more noodles to eat for a while.
Would the planted wheat have some losses due to mutation? It was unknown how long and how much they would have…
"Eat slowly, the hot pot is almost ready." Xu Mei came over with the last plate of dumplings and laughed at the group with bulging cheeks.
"Sit down and eat, take your portion or it will get taken." Song Lingling quickly pulled her down.
In fact, not all the dumplings were cooked, around half were set aside and frozen. Today"s hot pot could be eaten with rice so they should not be too greedy. That way, there would be more to eat later.
After all the dumplings were eaten, the large pot was placed in the middle of the table filled with stewed food.
The group did not mind filling their bowls with rice that used to have dumplings. Cabbage was at the bottom with a variety of food on top: roast duck, fried mutton, potatoes, tofu, yam and meatb.a.l.l.s. In addition there was a variety of their mushrooms and other veggies stewed in the pot.
The soup had all the fragrance and flavor of the ingredients, it could be mixed with rice to make it more filling.
Everyone"s appet.i.te was reawakened after the dumplings. They chatted and laughed while the meal continued.
"Since it is new years, let"s each make a wish?" Song Lingling proposed the idea and the room went silent except for the bubbling pot.
Luo Xun and Yan Fei exchanged glances before looking at the other people at the dinner table.
w.a.n.g Duo raised both of his chopsticks. "I wish to never separate from my dear and to have a happy life!"
The group laughed as Zhang Yi politely spooned meat and vegetables into his bowl. "I wish that every month we hunt a mutant animal so we have meat to eat."
Gourmands were really different from regular people, but everyone did agree with Zhang Yi"s desire and nodded their heads in support.
Song Lingling also raised her hand. "I wish we have a b.u.mper harvest every time! More than enough for a year so we won"t worry about running out!"
Xu Mei giggled. "Then I might as well wish for more vegetables to grow so our house is more cost-effective."
"Right! It should at least be better than before? There must be empty s.p.a.ce on base since the incident." Song Lingling turned towards Luo Xun.
As captain, Luo Xun could only say, "Rest a.s.sured, we will see if there is suitable s.p.a.ce after two days. A number of our solar panels have broken so we also need to find replacements."
"Then I wish we can gather more nuclei and other important supplies!"
"It should be more higher level nuclei right? We"re getting less lower level ones?"
"Yeah, it only we had more s.p.a.ce…" Li Tie got distracted. "Is there really no s.p.a.ce ability users?"
"People would not say anything even if they were. They are reluctant to be exposed."
The team chatted before suddenly asking, "Captain, what is your wish?"
Luo Xun froze, a wish? He could not really say what he wanted. His past desire was basically – a home to grow a lot of things, walls filled with solar panels, enough food to eat and someone to accompany him. All of these goals had already been achieved.
In thought, he turned to look at Yan Fei. "Nothing really…I wish there were less zombies surrounding the city."
Xu Mei sighed, "It would be nice if the apocalypse could end…it would be nice to never see a zombie again."
The room fell silent again as Wu Xin quietly added. "…It it was possible, I really want to visit my hometown…"
In an instant, the joyous atmosphere was replaced with sadness. The sound of the hot pot and radio seemed so far away.
After new years was the spring festival. The set aside food was ready in batches as the group of people resumed their daily life.
Packing up the crops, sorting out the walls that were previously damaged in the air raid, replace and repair any damaged items. Luo Xun made a list of all the things that needed to be replaced and purchased. Their solar panels had been damaged, they had a number of filled batteries that would support them for the moment but they needed to find a way to replenish the energy.
In addition, they had to solve the issue of finding an empty house and increasing their planting area as soon as possible.
In fact, the second problem was more troublesome, especially with their limited manpower. It was not an issue finding an empty s.p.a.ce and renovating, but an empty room could be easily occupied…
If they looked for a house elsewhere, they could grow vegetables, but how would it be guarded? After a certain distance, the s.p.a.ce would be a sitting duck…who would they send over? The Otaku squad had insufficient manpower and could not ask for help from the garrison.
After all, everyone was very comfortable in their renovated home, who would want to move? They also had to shoulder the farming, housekeeping, harvesting and so on. It was also likely that their secrets would be exposed…in short there were a lot of problems.
So many issues, they still had to ask and there were other things to be done.
Luo Xun asked around and found that logistics had been closed temporarily during the new year. In fact, outsiders were not allowed to enter the barracks. Both men guessed that it was related to the incident a few days ago.
There was no way to exchange for solar panels. The couple took their cores and points to the window but there were none available until later…
The two men then went to the information hall again to see if they could rent a few rooms. The results – because the deaths from the zombie birds had not been counted, the situation was not clear for the empty homes, they needed more time for specific information.
"Right after the end of the year, things are not going smoothly…" Luo Xun ground his teeth while walking. They came out today and did not get a single thing done, not one task! It was really bad luck.
"Don"t be anxious, after all it"s only the second day…" Although Yan Fei also felt uncomfortable, it was best not to have both of them angry. If venting would solve the issue, he would not mind listening for three days and nights – so long as they could take care of what was needed.
Luo Xun took a deep breath. "Let"s go back first."
He thought about it, Li Tie and the others had gotten all the data before leaving. They just did not know if it was useful…When the pair returned home, Luo Xun immediately went straight to Li Tie who was busy fertilizing. "Did you bring all the base data home?"
Li Tie paused and then nodded, "Yes, was there a tv series or something missing?"
Luo Xun shook his head. "No, I"m asking if there was anything else in the data you brought back? For example the location of solar panels? Or a place where a lot of panels were used?"
"Ah, true! Why didn"t we think of that before!" Li Tie jumped up and exchanged annoyed looks with his friends.
He Qiankun laughed. "Well…maybe we can look now."
"Look? What do you mean?" Luo Xun asked with bright eyes.
"I"ve put several programs into the hard drive and I have a lot of messy files. I have not had the time to sort it out carefully before we left." He also added smugly, "I left a back door in the base database before leaving…although the network is not very fast, its still usable."
"He Qiankun did good!"
"You"re so talented!"
"Go, go, go and check the data as soon as possible in case your back door was found…"
The five turned and ran but were stopped by Xu Mei, Zhang Yi and Yan Fei who all hard dark expressions. "If you all leave, who will apply the fertilizer?! Only one or two people need to leave, the rest have to work!"
Xu Mei, her temperament has become more queen-like. Was she planning on competing with Zhang Yi?