Luo Xun felt that their luck at the city base was bad. They were prepared to purchase a batch of cloth but the price was too expensive. Rather than be cheated, it was better to put away their crystal cores. Hearing that someone was selling the seeds they needed, but fakes did not count. They wanted to punch those lying rogues.
Yan Fei saw Luo Xun"s frustration and comforted him. "Even if you could buy those seeds, it would not matter since we have to find a way to de seed and spin the cotton along with weaving which we cannot do yet." Of course both Yan Fei and Luo Xun understood the theoretical knowledge, they would empty-handed without the relevant equipment.
Luo Xun came back to himself with Yan Fei"s reminder. He took a deep breath and calmed down. They went back to their own stall and found that there was a dark pole-like thing -"sugar cane"?
Li Tie was sitting bored in the stall while yawning. From time to time he would look left and right to see if Luo Xun had come back.
"Do you think they"ll bring some things back?"
"Those seeds are expensive, but we can afford. Only we don"t know if they are mutant plants…"
"Eh? Luo Xun, they"re back holding …sugarcane??"
Luo Xun and Yan Fei were holding a small bundle of sugar cane while walking back to their stalls. Luo Xun flung his arm after putting the things down while telling Li Tie and the others came to help. "Be careful, don"t touch the top buds."
"Buds? What buds?"
Following the direction of Luo Xun"s finger, they saw that these sugar canes did have some hairy buds.
Luo Xun fanned his collar to stir up a breeze. "The buds are still alive. Remember to keep their roots wet and we"ll see if we can plant them." If this thing could be grown at home…they would not be short of sugar!
Although there were a variety of fruits at home, there were none that could produce sugar. If it could be planted, it would be a great boon.
As soon as the team heard, they immediately carefully placed the sugar cane into the car. Xu Mei looked at the empty baskets behind them. "You didn"t buy any seeds?"
Luo Xun had a helpless expression. "I"m afraid their seeds have been meddled with. People are not allowed to touch the goods and also get scolded if they want to examine them first."
It was a pity that everyone else was not worried about what had happened with Luo Xun and the others – did they not see the pair come back safe? They just regretted that they could not increase their crops.
"The cotton thing is not urgent, we"re already close to farmland. We"ll check around to see if we can find some cotton fields and find a way." Luo Xun coughed and added, "If we grow cotton, we also have to come up with a way to process…" Otherwise, even if they had cotton in hand they could not use it.
Xu Mei thought a while before understanding Luo Xun"s meaning while Song Lingling came to the same conclusion. "Yeah! Remember the two sheep we hunted before we came out? I would have thought we could use the wool to knit sweaters but we can"t even spin thread."
The sheep skin was processed and sent straight back to base where they hung it. Although mutant animal fur was a lot thicker, the hair was coa.r.s.e but obviously it was still pretty soft. They thought of wool sweaters. But now thinking carefully, it was even clear how to turn wool into yarn! And how does one knit?
The group of people threw away the complaints about not buying suitable seeds. The sky had gradually darkened so they started a meeting after returning their things to the car.
The main idea of the meeting was – are they going back today? Or waiting another two days?
The team leaned against the sweltering car and wiped their sweat. Finally Luo Xun summarized everyone"s opinion. This time we"ll go back. It"s fine since this is the first time the bases held such a meeting. A lot of things were expensive and of mixed quality. We only came to look at the situation, there weren"t a lot of things to urgently buy and the shelf life was relatively short. The climate was not good so they would go back first. They guessed that after the bases got more experience they would set things up better.
The decision was met with unanimous agreement. The main reason being the weather, it was the hottest time of year in early August. The city weather was not just hot, it was no humid that without wind, it felt like they were in a steamer.
Don"t underestimate this summer, even the women could not stand it.
After the discussion, they left the market before the stalls closed.
The vehicles and stalls would stay overnight but it would cost 20 crystal cores for parking and to set up the stall. So the vast majority of traders who sold goods would choose to leave a find a vacant spot near the market for the night.
Luo Xun took advantage of everyone leaving and left as well. They found a relatively remote place to set up camp, ready to pa.s.s the night and head out tomorrow.
A lot of vehicles were camped around, some were selling while others were buying. Some had deliberately stayed outside the city and set up a stall as they feared that they could not grab a good stall the next day.
Set the fire, prepare the pot and the team cooked dinner to pa.s.s the time. Although they certainly get everything from the stalls, everyone gained something.
For example, the car had a lot more clothes for children to wear and then Luo Xun also found a stall selling a variety of books which they chose a few novels.
Needless to say, there was the sugar cane they acquired and all sorts of gadgets.
Xu Mei, Song Lingling and Yu Xinran went shopping and saw a stall with a bunch of toys. They only spent three cores but brought back a lot of items for the children to play with. Yu Xinran was holding two Barbie dolls and the baby also held a couple colorful toys. Even the two women held a bunch of bags and did not the men see the inside.
Everyone was talking and laughing while waiting for the meal. A person rushed over and smiled at Luo Xun, "You guys, there are a lot of good things in the car over there, want to go and see?"
Not everyone could earn back the money for setting up a stall. Many people tried and found that they earned no money so they simply set up a stall outside. The majority of people from the venue and pulled people to buy things.
Luo Xun looked in the direction he pointed and shook his head. "No, we"ll wait until tomorrow morning." What a joke, the person was pointing in the opposite direction of base towards a pile of broken walls with weeds. Were they selling things or planning on stealing?
The man spoke some more but when he saw that Luo Xun was not interested, he finally turned away.
Li Tie saw nothing strange about it and had nothing to say about the man. When they were at base, they already knew to never go with people who said they were selling things. And now?
Not long after, while Luo Xun was eating, others came with wares for people to look at. Those with goods dared not approach likely they were afraid to get robbed? And what was sold was often of little value, the expensive stuff to big to stand out.
The buyers did not trust the sellers and vice versa, which made it more difficult for both parties to make a sale outside the stalls. Luo Xun found them more annoying than the stalls and set the night s.h.i.+ft after resting.
The night was not pleasant and they camped near the city base and the new marketplace. For the sake of security against mutant animals and other dangers, all the trees were removed and the land flattened. The same was true of the stalls. In the distance they could see the broken walls along with the wild plant growth since the apocalypse.
Due to less vegetation, the area was exposed to the sun. Even at night there was little change in temperature. Coupled with the humidity in the air Luo Xun felt like he was drowning in sweat.
With Song Lingling""s cold water to wash their faces. They also used from frozen water to cool their hands instead of drinking it.
"How"s it going? Are we going back?" It did not take long for everyone to get up and He Qiankun looked at Luo Xun with bright eyes.
Luo Xun nodded, half his face covered with a water bottle. "We leave after breakfast!"
Not long after, the two cars started and drove towards a major road. Soon after Zhang Yi"s voice came from the radio, "There are about five cars about three or four hundred meters behind us."
Luo Xun squinted, "Keep driving, get ready down the road." Today the vast majority of base teams arrived after a few days. There were quite a few convoys around. Teams from city may go this way, if it was another party they would quickly figure out the situation.
It would be for the best that those people were just going down the road…