Chapter 29 - Harvest Season

Even after the second young master Wu begged to God for a good reward, it was not professional and deserved retribution. It was obvious that the task level was rated as E+, but the reward drawn was not as good as the 'Basic Breathing Technique' that he had drawn as the reward for the last E-level task.

Wu Ye stared at the 500 points reward displayed on the control panel along with the x3 body-strengthening pills he got, and was completely driven to despair by his deceptive system.

The system probably also felt the depression coming off in waves from the host and wisely chose to play dead.

Disappointed to the point of despair, Wu Ye carefully read the introduction to the body-strengthening pills. The long explanation could be summed up as 'strengthening the body'. Second young master knew that despite everything, the effect of the system's product was always reliable. Thus, he looked at the words 'stimulate the vitality of the cells, recuperate from unmentionable disease and weaknesses', and then looked at the exchange price of the system before the discomfort he felt from the bottom of his heart finally dissipated at the look of 3000 points and 300 red crystals in the price tag.

Anyway, he didn't need it. So he might as well take the three pills back for his parents and Ah Li for them to eat it. The old man and lady were getting older day by day, and they had been suffering from some minor ailments in the past two or three years. So, by bringing them the pills, it could help ease their pains.

As soon as the crisis from the zombie siege ended, the upper-echelon of Lan Cheng immediately organized the base guards to go outside the base to dispose of the bodies and harvest the crystal nuclei. The former was a necessary task, while the latter was a key task. The method to deal with the zombie corpses in the settlement was simple and rough. The method was to directly dig a huge pit, shove the zombie corpses in, and burnt it to ashes.

In order to prevent the loss of crystal nuclei, Lan Cheng base blocked the base gate and prohibited people from entering and leaving aside from the base guards. On the other hand, the base guards who went out to harvest crystal nuclei would be searched when they came in and out of the base. Furthermore, there were cameras that were especially arranged to monitor them during the mission. Absolutely no one would be allowed to hide even a single crystal nucleus.

The upper-echelon of Lan Cheng base couldn't be blamed for doing this. After all, when the zombies were besieging the base, they had urgently bought more guns and ammunition from the capital. Furthermore, they had also provided the zombie hunters with two free meals, though that one was financed from Lan Cheng's finance and tax revenue division's coffer. So, the 400W worth of crystal nuclei they seized after the zombies siege ended was only normal.

Fortunately, the annual autumn harvest season is finally here and the rice could immediately be harvested. And after the rice harvest, soybean, corn, and sweet potato would all enter the harvest period one after another.

It had been more than a year and eight months since the apocalypse. Last year, many bases were still in the tense stage of construction and integration. Aside from that, the management of the bases didn't formulate effective regulations at all. The result of that lack of planning and effective regulations was chaos and the inability to grow food at all. And, a small part of the grain currently on the market was gained through survivor's plundering, and most of it was the country's strategic grain reserves.

Before the end of the world, with a population of more than 2 billion, HuaXia firmly ranked first in the world. At that time, half of HuaXia's grains were imported. Knowing that, how much could HuaXia's strategic grain reserves be? And, what's more, many reserve granaries were in the hardest-hit areas where the zombies were ravaging, making it so that the food inside couldn't be taken out at all without astronomical risk.

While the situation in the past year or two was still quite good, as we go on, the grain reserves would run out, and the weight that the planting-based bases must bear as the population grew would only become heavier and heavier.

For what reason did the Lan Cheng base's upper-echelon spend countless manpower and resources to build a 54-kilometers long wall? It was for the 280000mu farmland in the base. After this year's harvest was done, they would earn a lot of profits from that investment.

Aside from the humongous wall that had to be erected for protection, Lan Cheng base naturally benefitted from a superior natural environment. And, although they didn't have as much sunlight as what was available for other bases, and the soil quality was subpar, they had an abundant water source that trumped all of that. Not to mention, Lan Cheng base also didn't suffer from droughts or floods like other bases.

This year, despite the unknown number of the bases that suffered from the drought and had no harvest, Lan Cheng base had still reaped a bountiful crop yield.

As long as Lan Cheng's upper-echelon thought about the situation after the harvest, they wouldn't feel any pain at the thought of the early stage of investment.

Similarly, this was the real reason why the five forces in Lan Cheng base were willing to give tax-free shops to the zombie hunters team and refuse to decentralize their power.

In order to pacify the restless people, Lan Cheng's management side specially set a recruitment center to recruit survivors in the base to participate in the autumn harvest, and the payment the workers got for it was unexpectedly generous. This decision made Lan Cheng base's atmosphere, which had been lifeless all these times, finally gain the hard to come by layer of cheerfulness.

"Wuhua, what do you think we should sell in our store?"

When the siege's crisis ended, Lan Cheng's management fulfilled their promise and handed over management rights of four tax-free stores to the four teams of zombie hunters who manage to complete the task. However, Lan Cheng's management played a little trick, demanding that the price of the goods in the tax-free shops shouldn't be lower than that of official stores. If they did otherwise, then it would be regarded as a vicious move to disturb the market, and the lightest punishment should that accusation be proven was heavy fine while the heaviest punishment was the retraction of the shop's right to operate.

It was not easy to get some materials these days. It was also the same case with Wu Ye. After all, he had to spend 2000 points to shift back and forth between the world. The 30000 points he had accumulated in the past 20 days would only be enough to do shift back and forth for 15 times. As he could only bring a small number of things every time, he didn't really want to miss on huge sales.

The tax-free shop's location that was given to them was not very good. They were all placed in the corners with little traffic. Furthermore, the area was not that large either. It was only fifteen or sixteen square meters with a clean room and nothing else. Not even a small warehouse for stacking goods was available.

Qin Wuhua sat on one side as he took care of several guns he had brought with him. When he looked up and saw Wu Ye's snow-white feet hanging by the bed, he froze for two seconds as he unerringly stared at it. He then lowered his head once again, avoiding the sight as he oiled the guns. "What can you bring with you here?"

Wu Ye's two little feet swung happily as he answered, "I can only bring a small sample of things with me every time. Cigarettes are a must. Maybe I can bring some sugars too. Oh, I'm going to bring some whole milk powder for An An. Ah, I can bring more of the small stuff like chocolate and compressed biscuits. Some people should like that kind of stuff. Hmm, I also want to bring some medicine, but the font we used on our side is different from the one on this side...and the brand is also different. Can we sell it after removing the brands?"

The font was not the same.

Qin Wuhua now knew a little bit more about Wu Ye's world.

"Medicine in Lan Cheng base is very scarce. As long as the medicine you bring is effective, you can certainly sell it."

"What kind of medicine do you think I should bring here? Cold medicine? Antibiotics? Medicine for falling injury? Do you think there are so many mosquitoes right now? Do you think I should bring some mosquitoes-repellent incense tablet? And perhaps I should bring hydrosol or something." During this period of time, the number of mosquitoes had suddenly increased. Therefore, it's better to close the door and windows when you go in and out of the house.

Previously, when they were squatting and firing the guns on the base wall, the mosquitoes were rampant as they bite people indiscriminately when it caught people. Wu Ye originally thought nothing of the mosquitoes, but he was not resistant to the itching. So, after being bitten, he exchanged insect-repellent water with the system and sprayed it on his body. The insect-repellent water from the system was relatively advanced, as such the cheapest one needed 300 points. One bottle of it was only 300 ml, but the effect was good. Though Wu Ye was reluctant to use it more due to the amount in the bottle and the price.

"You can take other medicines with you, but take more antibiotics and injury medicines. Do you have Yunnan Baiyao over there?"

"Yes, there is!" Second young master nodded happily, finally finding a common brand between the two worlds.

"You can bring more of this medicine here." HuaXia, like TianChao, adopted strict control measures for guns and knives, which were only lifted after the apocalypse. That's why, at first, most zombie hunters couldn't use guns. The consequences of lacking those skills was the lack of accuracy, and secondly, the inability to bear the recoil. In the long run, this would cause a great burden on the shoulders and wrists. Yunnan Baiyao was a good medicine that was effective in promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis. So, this medicine should be sought after by the zombie hunters.

"Yes." Wu Ye thought for a moment and said, "Didn't Ji Xiang invite us to dinner? How about I bring some perfume to his wife?" Since they were going to another person's house for dinner, they couldn't come to them empty-handed. Ji Xiang is Lan Cheng base master, so he undoubtedly would despise ordinary stuff. After getting the tax-free store's right, Wu Ye specially strolled around the official stores owned by Lan Cheng base.

And, the results of the inspection showed that there were so few cosmetics here and they were extremely expensive. An ordinary lipstick of inferior quality was priced with the sky-high price of 500 transparent crystal nuclei and it still made two groups compete with each other to buy it. If the store manager didn't take out another lipstick, maybe the groups would have fought with each other for the right to buy it.

The saying that 'men conquer the world and women conquer men' couldn't be more truthful in this place. In the apocalypse where the restraint and moral order that was prevalent in civilized society had collapsed, men with even a little skill always wanted to have three wives and four concubines, wishing to take all the beauties in the world. As such, some women who depended on these men would naturally try to make themselves more beautiful.

When the survivors first fled from the city, what they carried with them the most was food and money. And when they entered the stores to raze it, they wouldn't focus on useless cosmetics since priority went to food and drinks. It was only after the small and medium-sized bases were in the initial stage of stabilization and 20% of the people had climbed to the top of the pyramid that demand for some luxury items sprung up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.

In the apocalypse, people didn't believe in the existence of an 'afterlife'. People preferred to make merry while they still could, as such, many people broke through the shackles of ethical doctrine that restrict them in the civilized society.

In the apocalypse, the very first thing to degenerate was the people's will.

"It's up to you," Qin Wuhua paused as he looked at Wu Ye, "Stay away from Ji Chong."

"Why?" Wu Ye wondered.

"He is fond of men."

The apocalypse had caused the number of women to drastically reduce, leading to serious imbalance in the male-to-female ratio. As a result, it was not that abnormal to find a man living with another man in a formal relationship. And while Wu Ye had always been quite 'upright', he had a troublesome face that would invite people to grope him and invite him to 'dance'. He had regarded that part of his past as the darkest history he got, especially when he beat people half to death and had to be detained in the police station. Though Pang Zhi had always made fun of that past. Wu Ye himself had no opinion about homosexuality, but whenever he thought that someone was targeting him, he couldn't help but blow up his top.

Wrong.

"It's none of my business whether Ji Chong prefers to be with males or not!" Wu Ye hated people's ambiguous relationship with the same sex. His wide-opened eyes were full of anger as he questioned Qin Wuhua, "What exactly you meant by telling me that, Mr. Qin?"

Qin Wuhua didn't expect that Wu Ye's reaction would be so big. He just said that there was no other meaning. Then, there was a flash of white light in the room. When it dispersed, Wu Ye's figure couldn't be found.

Qin Wuhua's usually calm cold face turned as black as the bottom of a pot. With a crisp 'bang' sound, the gun barrel in his hand broke in half.

Even though Wu Ye was angry, he didn't forget to take the canvas bag filled with gold and jewelry. Father Wu was currently supporting Ah Li leaving the toilet, and when he saw his second son suddenly appearing in the living room, he was surprised and pleased. Meanwhile, Mother Wu burst into tears.

"Mom, why are you crying?" What Wu Ye couldn't see the most was women crying, especially if that woman was his mother. "Don't cry, if you continue to cry, your eyes will become swollen and will not look as beautiful as usual. If they are not beautiful, my father will have to find a younger one." Wu Ye didn't know how many times he had said this to his mother since childhood, but it was effective every single time he used it.

"Stinky boy, can your dog's mouth spit out ivory? When did I ever go to look for a younger one, huh?!" Once Wu Ye came back, he always spoke some words that made Father Wu angry.

"Ah Ye has just returned, why are you scolding him? He's just kidding around. Why are you being anxious if you didn't do anything wrong?" As expected, as soon as her tears dried, Mother Wu's eyes were immediately glued to her son, searching whether he was hurt or not.

Wu Ye was always angry recently, but seeing his old man's ate bitterness, his anger placated itself. He made a boastful face at his father, looking just like a child who had not grown up. Seeing that, Father Wu shook his head so angrily to the point he didn't know what to say.

"...why have you lost so much weight? Did something happen to you over there? You say you would come back in a few days, but now it's been more than 20 days. Do you know how worried we are about you?"

Wu Ye put the canvas bag on the ground and said with a smile, "Recently, the war there had been a little intense, but now the problem had been solved and the enemy had been defeated by us. My friends and I over there exchanged our military skills for a store located in the city, and this time, I'm going to bring more things to sell there."

In order to ease his parent's hearts, Wu Ye talked about the zombie's world with three parts truth and seven parts lies. Then, he distracted them by busily showing off the wealth he had exchanged with the fake cigarettes he had sold there. He didn't notice Ah Li, who had been standing quietly at the side, clenching his fist as his eyes were filled with tears.

The author has something to say: Big Qin was very angry and the consequences were very serious that the author silently lit a candle for little Ye.

In addition, goods trading was a very promising career, but space was certainly a necessity that one must have. However, little Ye had to first accumulate enough products (real powers) for people .

HeXie: Honestly, the author had added a little poem in the chapter...likely their own creation...but...translated in English...the poem doesn't make a lick of sense and have no rhyme...so forgive me for cutting that part out!