Chapter 397

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

Everyone discussed it and followed them back to the base with all the loot.

The rented car was parked outside; when several people came out, they got in directly.

Because the wild deer and wild goats were too voluminous, after the meat was put in the car, the whole vehicle seemed somewhat overloaded.

The overburdened car made creaking, somewhat antiquated sounds; Shen Jiancheng knocked here and touched there, indicating the car had been used for too long and its iron skin was about to crack.

Cheng Qi said helplessly, "The base's new car production is insufficient; most usable ones are discarded old things."

"When we get back, I'll negotiate with the Patrol Team people to see if we can exchange for a better one."

After hearing this, Song Ling, fearing trouble for her son-in-law, waved her hand to explain that the car was still usable, and they weren't hauling a load like this every time.

Pinching the meddlesome Shen Jiancheng, Song Ling raised her eyebrows with an unfriendly tone, "Can't you speak properly? The kids at home are busy as usual."

Use it if you have it, just to show off your ability, butting in with a clatter everywhere.

Shen Jiancheng:...

Shen Jiancheng felt wronged; the tall, sturdy man looked full of sorrow. He wasn't intentionally picking trouble when he spoke; he was also doing it for his son-in-law's good.

If a base vehicle breaks down, one must pay out of pocket for compensation. For this broken car, spending five or six figures of points was not cost-effective at all.

Shen Yao also quietly explained Shen Jiancheng's good intentions, coaxing Song Ling not to lose her temper.

Song Ling:...

Song Ling was so choked up she couldn't breathe in or out; finally, she stopped speaking and sat honestly in her seat waiting to return to the base.

Starting the engine, the vehicle roared; Cheng Qi stepped on the gas and drifted onto the main road.

The interior of the car was full of the smell of raw meat, and beside them was a bleating kid goat.

Accompanied by a special animal symphony, after causing quite a stir at the base entrance, the vehicle drove into the internal Exchange Center as desired.

With the help of Zhao Xue, a counter employee, the wild goat kid was sold at a good price. At the same time, the house Cheng Qi and Shen Yao had previously taken a liking to had reached a tradable stage.

……

"Not going out to gather today; making a trip to B District. But regarding the price, did the other party really nod in agreement?"

They were still haggling with them a few days ago; unexpectedly, today they suddenly gave in. Shen Yao couldn't understand the seller's train of thought, but it was ultimately beneficial to their side.

There's no reason to push away a bargain. After reconfirming the massive amount of points on the wristwatch, Shen Yao and Cheng Qi went out together, walking to B District.

The distance from C District to B District was not far, and besides, where they lived was even closer to B District.

Taking the small path, going around several small alleys, then continuing straight along the main road.

Soon, a silver-white city wall appeared before Shen Yao and Cheng Qi.

When they first got married, Shen Yao had visited Cheng Qi's parents in B District; afterward, both sides mostly communicated via wristwatches and rarely met at home.

This time Shen Yao came over, and she actually felt a sense of being in a different world.

"It's just that I haven't come enough times. Once we move in later, I won't have such thoughts."

Shen Yao chatted idly with the system. Recently, life had been relatively relaxed, thanks to the abundant grain reserves. Next, they didn't need to gather with all their might; the grain at home was enough to cope with the approaching Cold Season.

"Verify identity"

A staff member stopped them and gestured for an inspection.

Not just anyone can enter B District or even A District. The most obvious case is people living in E District or F District, who need a clear guarantor.

Shen Yao and Cheng Qi didn't need to. Their identity cards showed family status; Cheng Ma was a B District resident, and the two of them had the right to enter and exit freely.

Didi two sounds

The card information displayed green "Pass" in large characters. Seeing this, the staff member waved his hand, and the horizontal bar blocking the front was raised to let them in.

"Having to be checked every time we enter or exit is really troublesome." Only B District and A District require this in the base; people in the other districts come and go freely. Otherwise, that incident at the end of the Hot Rainy Season wouldn't have happened.

"The base has decided that after the Cold Season ends, automatic detection equipment will be installed in front of every district wall to prevent certain people from harming the base."

The list compiled by the Patrol Team cannot be ignored. After dealing with the extremely wicked portion, some who crossed the line but weren't completely bad remain—they are the time bombs the base needs to guard against closely.

During special times, the base must also consider population numbers and the male-female ratio.

"For ordinary people, being safer is good," but it's not absolutely safe.

The Dao rises one foot, the Demon rises ten feet.

There are always some people who like to find loopholes and cause destruction; the base cannot exterminate them all.

"Yes, I hope it gets better and better. Over these years, many bases large and small have fallen for various reasons. I don't know how long Dawn Base can hold on."

Once Dawn Base can no longer hold on, if they want to keep surviving, all they can do is flee to a new base.

But there is no human habitation within a hundred li of Dawn Base, and bases farther away are too weak.

Cheng Qi had once looked at the layout map around Dawn Base during his free time. If one day they had to leave, the only place they could go was the East Side.

Going straight east, if they were lucky, they would find several large bases several times larger than Dawn Base.

The two's topic suddenly became heavy. Just as the atmosphere grew increasingly stiff, they arrived at their destination.

The seller's voice timely cut through the quiet atmosphere around the two and made the air flow again.

"This is an old house passed down in my family. If I weren't urgently selling it, I would..."

The seller was eloquent; compared to communicating via wristwatch, it was even better.

At first, Shen Yao was fairly cooperative. But after discovering this person was a pure chatterbox who liked to talk in circles, Shen Yao began forcing a smile and strongly steered the topic to the house price, emphasizing whether payment and transfer could be made at any time.

Seller:...

"Of course, our whole family is moving into A District." They were just short of points to buy the house they liked.

Besides, many people were fighting over properties in A District, far more competition than in B District.

The seller had a good relative helping pull strings and build connections; otherwise, the house wouldn't have fallen to him.

"Then let's go to the Housing Administration Bureau," Shen Yao pointed to the courtyard outside, and shook the wristwatch on her wrist.

Seller:...

The seller's smile grew even stronger; not only did he agree, but he also fetched a human-powered tricycle from next door, enthusiastically inviting Shen Yao and Cheng Qi to sit down, and they would go to the Housing Administration Bureau to transfer ownership right away.

Property resources in the Mutated World were divided into two parts: one was public property of the Base, and the other was personal private property.

Whether it was a private transaction or anything else, everyone had to go to the Housing Administration Bureau to register.

When the three arrived at the Housing Administration Bureau, they happened to catch the bureau's staff busy at work.

They casually drew a number and waited to be called; the seller took the opportunity to chat with the two of them.

Shen Yao and Cheng Qi often encountered such things and didn't worry about leaking anything at all; as for this seller, he chattered away and said everything he could say, a very typical case of a loose mouth.

"Number 2105."

When they were called, Shen Yao and the seller went to register, hand over the point deposit, and change the household head on the property certificate.

A huge amount of points was transferred from the wristwatch, exchanged for a brand-new property certificate fresh off the press.

Sigh.

Not only did the seller breathe a sigh of relief, but Shen Yao and Cheng Qi could also sleep soundly.

You have to know that in order to exchange for this house, their house in C District had already been sold two days in advance; if it weren't for the contract being signed too quickly here, by the time the agreed time arrived they would have had to move out and rent a house to live in.

Parting ways with the seller at the entrance of the Housing Bureau, Shen Yao and Cheng Qi returned to their new home once again, and toured a three-story building inside and out thoroughly.

Compared to C District, although the houses in B District had more floors, their overall area couldn't compare to C District, which also had a direct relationship with the fact that land prices within the Base were worth their weight in gold.

As before, the first floor was for office work, the second floor for lodging, and the third floor was used as an attic.

Shen Yao initially designed a plan in her mind; as for when to arrange the renovation, "These couple of days, or the sooner the better."

Moving over earlier would allow them to free up their hands to go out and do collection work; of course, food had to be as much as possible.

"I've made an appointment with the construction team; same as before, the price is increased by 30 percent, and they agreed to finish the work ahead of schedule."

Although doing it this way wasn't very cost-effective, time was urgent; during this period, everyone within the Base was swapping houses, and their timing was unlucky, so they could only rely on money power to strive for it.

Shen Yao made an affirmative sound and transferred a sum of points to Cheng Qi. The renovation team side was temporarily handled by Cheng Qi, while Shen Yao dealt with things at home.

Everything that could be thrown away was thrown away; things that needed to be taken away were packed and organized properly.

Because of this, Shen Yao delayed a few days before cleaning the inside and outside of the house once.

At this time, Cheng Qi brought news that a large patch of cotton in the wild had matured and could be harvested; he had already signed up his family members.

"Cotton?"

Shen Yao slapped her head and only then remembered that the hardest part of the Cold Season was the sudden drop in temperature and the icy bedding.

Cotton was an indispensable supply for them; no matter what, they had to collect enough.

Because mutated cotton had stronger warmth retention while also reducing its service life, it was best to use newly harvested cotton from the same year to make cotton quilts and padded jackets.

"Collection quota?" Shen Yao's eyes sparkled.

Cheng Qi said helplessly, "For people like us, each person will be limited to 25 jin."

"But if it's highly mutated, there's no quota; it's just that unless absolutely necessary, no one would be willing to use it."

Cotton also came in different degrees of mutation; although the Base claimed to have a way to treat highly mutated cotton so it could be used normally, that was just to placate the lower class; in reality, high-level people basically chose low to moderate mutation cotton because such cotton was safe.

The quota Cheng Qi spoke of referred to low to moderate mutation cotton. Don't let such a large number of jin seem like a lot; actually, after removing the cotton seeds inside and discarding unusable cotton bolls, the actual cotton weight was barely enough.

And what Cheng Qi said was based on his identity as a member of the Patrol Team; if it were the Shen Family, even 20 jin per person would be considered generous by the Base.

"What 20 jin, our quota is 15 jin," just slightly better than sending off a beggar.

Song Ling felt wronged, and when going out to collect with Shen Yao, she didn't forget to complain about the new cotton notice issued by the Base.

Shen Yao told her to look behind; the most miserable ones only had 5 jin, wasn't that enough to get by?

Song Ling's expression was hard to describe; "The Base wants us to go collect in the wild."

Cotton wasn't only from the plot provided by the Base; actually, there were many cotton fields of various sizes around the Base, but wild cotton had insects and spiders; if not picked clean, it could take a person's life.

Who would be willing to risk their life to pick cotton? Basically, they alternated between new and old cotton; after surviving the Cold Season, they were considered heroes.

"Don't worry about home; find an opportunity and we can go together."

Wild collection and wild collection were different; not to mention Cheng Qi had his own connections, Shen Yao's side also had a system cheat; cotton would definitely be enough.

Song Ling shoveled many vines into her back basket, then turned and picked some leaves to put away; they hadn't gone far today, just picking some commonly used weaving materials.

None of the three families lacked grain; once the cotton collection was successfully finished, they could officially prepare for wintering matters.

"When are you and Xiao Cheng moving into your new house? I'll go with your dad to help."

As for Shen Yu, he temporarily went out with the Mercenary Team and would need a few more days to return.

"Set for the day after tomorrow; by then everyone come over to liven things up."

Things had already been sent over in advance; now the C District house only had the bed for sleeping left.

Shen Yao and Cheng Qi didn't plan to pack up and take the bed, because when selling it, the buyer had offered a price.

"Alright, I'll go over early the day after tomorrow; just right to take a look at the house currently for sale in B District."

Shen Yao's house purchase was more tortuous than the Cheng Family's, but fortunately someone spoke up, allowing them to snag a bargain.

Currently, the price had been negotiated; if nothing unexpected happened, before the Cold Season arrived, the Shen Family could also move to B District.

"Recently, many people are moving house;" professions related to renovation could all make a fortune.

"The neighbors living around us are the old Zhou Family; they moved to D District," Song Ling mentioned her old female best friend, with a face full of incomprehension at the other's choice, "saying that Zhou Ying that girl pulled strings and built connections, the Zhou Family should have earned a large sum."

The house was valuable; besides, C District houses were neither the best nor the worst.

The Zhou Family's buying and selling back and forth, the points earned could double.

However, "Zhou Ying?"

Shen Yao had almost forgotten this person; there was no helping it—when life was going well, she just couldn't remember.

Asking the system if it knew what Zhou Ying was up to, Shen Yao's purpose was clear: "He wouldn't be scheming against me, would he?"

System:...

The system indicated Zhou Ying didn't dare scheme against the Host; his target was her natal family.

Ah?

"Scheming against her natal family?" Has she finally become a pervert in her heart?

"Yeah, she feels her own life is too miserable, that her family did nothing, and joined forces with outsiders to set a trap." Right now, the Zhou Family had already walked into the trap and become the dish on their plate, unable to escape.

Shen Yao:...

"Idiot!"

If Zhou Ying had awakened on her own, Shen Yao might have admired her, but to be used as a tool person by outsiders was truly beyond foolish.

System:...

The system kept silent, thinking that for this kind of thing Zhou Ying did, they really couldn't manage it.

"Yao Yao, do you still remember Zhou Ying? That girl suffered a great injustice, but her man is gone, and lately I don't know how she's getting along?"

Song Ling could still recall Zhou Ying's appearance, though it had been a while since she'd seen her.

"When Aunt Zhou and them moved away, didn't you persuade her? Moving out is easy, moving back in is hard."

Houses near the base center have always been hot property; no matter when, there's never a lack of buyers.

Those with ambition all want their homes to get better and better; the Zhou Family actively moving to a worse place is puzzling.

"I persuaded her, but your Aunt Zhou is in a tough spot—the son and daughter-in-law at home make the decisions, what can she do? Just an old bone trying hard to live a few more years."

Song Ling felt some sorrow at the sight of the object, and the idle chat topic grew heavy once more.