Chapter 400: Binding the Birth System to Become a Life Winner Chapter 401: Wasteland Gathering Daily Life (29)

·

·

·

Protagonist:

Shen Yao

The day after tomorrow? Then the day after tomorrow!

Anyway, each person only gets two days of work at the base cotton field; once you've gone, you can't go again.

After two consecutive days of work, she even brought back a beehive full of honey on the second day, so Shen Yao gave herself a rare day off and went nowhere after waking up in the morning.

Staying home to tidy up the full storage room, weave some useful tools from the remaining vines, and clean the room...

In short, Shen Yao spent the day very relaxed, and when Cheng Qi got off work and came home, he was greeted by a dinner full of color, aroma, and flavor.

Shen Yao opened the fruit wine she had brewed last Mild Season and poured full glasses for herself and Cheng Qi.

The bright color was crystal clear under the lamplight, and a faint wine fragrance emanated from the bottle mouth.

Cheng Qi washed up, sat down, picked up the glass, and took a light sip to taste it.

"How is it?" Shen Yao's eyes were bright, looking forward to Cheng Qi's reaction.

Cheng Qi smiled and nodded, "Delicious, just a bit sweet."

Mm, because quite a bit of white sugar was added, and the fruit itself is sweet, Shen Yao took a sip herself, "Next time I'll use honey."

Honey isn't as sweet as white sugar, and eating mutated honey is good for the body.

"Finish this jar first, and brew another jar before the Cold Season arrives."

There's no such leisure time right now, and besides, the mutated honey hasn't been purified, so it can't be used.

Cheng Qi used chopsticks to pick up some vegetables and put them in Shen Yao's bowl, "Eat."

Cheng Qi came back early today, and the cooked food was still steaming.

Meat and potatoes stewed until soft and mushy, paired with crisp vegetable stems.

Shen Yao ate a mouthful of rice and two mouthfuls of vegetables, and took an extra small sip of sweet fruit wine; after devouring this table of food, she was unsurprisingly a bit tipsy.

Shaking her dizzy head, Shen Yao sat on the sofa to rest, and when Cheng Qi came back after washing the bowls and plates clean, he found Shen Yao had already fallen asleep.

Cheng Qi was helpless and had to reach out and carry her back to bed; as for bathing? She had already simply cleaned her body before dinner.

Shen Yao slept extremely well this time, possibly because of the fruit wine's effect or possibly because her body wasn't tired.

"Finish breakfast, and we'll drive to the wilderness to pick cotton in a while."

Cheng Qi got up early to cook, and when he spoke, he still had an apron on.

Shen Yao reached out and picked up a flower roll from the basin, tore it into two halves, and took a light bite, "Auntie and them are all going; is the rented car enough for us?"

This trip isn't just family; there are also other Patrol Team members, initially estimated at around fifty people, made up of seven families.

"Enough, but we still need our car to help carry some people."

For hauling goods, a truck with a cargo bed is more convenient, so they rented three vehicles in total for this trip.

Two trucks responsible for hauling goods (can carry people), and one car responsible for carrying people.

Shen Yao had no objection, finished the flower roll in her hand, washed her hands, looked at her wristwatch, and signaled Cheng Qi they could depart.

At noon they'll still use Nutrient Agents; the wilderness is dangerous and stressful, and if they really brought food that needs slow chewing, it would only delay themselves.

At this time, Cheng Ma and Song Ling and several others were waiting at the B District City Wall entrance.

The Shen Family side had three people; Cheng Ma's side brought Cheng Dage and Zhao Xue, while the two children and Cheng Ba stayed behind to guard the home.

"How are the two getting along? I heard their relationship is fine."

Cheng Ma pulled Song Ling and whispered about Shen Yu's current blind date.

Same age as Shen Yu, steady and hardworking personality, currently working at the Hospital; no matter how you look at it, she's a high-quality choice.

Song Ling was also very satisfied with this blind date; the key was that Shen Yu had ideas in his heart, unlike those previous ones where he had no reaction whether they were proposed or not.

"Not bad; they went out for a walk a couple of days ago, but recently the Hospital has been too busy, so Xiao Fu has no time; however, this isn't Xiao Fu's fault—can a Nurse defy the Leader's command? Song Ling keeps telling Shen Yu to go to the Hospital more often to find people and build feelings."

Shen Yu himself is also willing to go; now it's developed to where he can go without Song Ling urging him; it seems next year the two might possibly get married.

Cheng Ma had a face full of smiles; Xiao Fu is Cheng Ma's niece, and the two have a good relationship; otherwise, she couldn't act as a matchmaker.

Complimenting each other that this side is good and that side is great; when Shen Yao and Cheng Qi arrived, everyone went out together.

The rented cars were uniformly parked at the Base entrance; because the Patrol Team was very busy, unlike before when they could exploit a bug to drive the car in and save time.

"Walking there doesn't delay matters, but Xiao Cheng, can you take a few days off? Don't let it affect your work at all."

In Song Ling's heart, Cheng Qi's status was roughly equivalent to Shen Yu's; sometimes Shen Yu wasn't as important as Cheng Qi, after all Cheng Qi knows how to handle things and speak, unlike Shen Yu who inherited Shen Jiancheng's clumsy mouth and dullness, making people angry just looking at him.

"Mom, this counts as normal leave; I rest for two days, and colleagues will help afterward."

Every family lacks Cold Season supplies, and the Patrol Team would love to hitch a ride on this trip.

Cheng Qi didn't waste many words organizing people these two days; he easily filled the manpower.

When their group arrived at the Base entrance, they saw many people gathered around.

Cheng Qi was responsible for going out to negotiate with the Patrol Team members, while everyone else got in the cars to wait for departure.

Three cars lined up and left the Base entrance, heading toward the destination they had long decided on.

The cars came quickly, the place they wanted to go was far, and there were quite a few people in the cars; Shen Yao rubbed her dizzy head, and only after getting out of the car did she feel a bit clear-headed.

"Careful!"

The Ground was covered in fine gravel; stepping unsteadily makes it easy to fall.

Cheng Qi held Shen Yao's Wrist and led her out, verbally asking how she was.

"It's fine, just a bit unaccustomed;" it's a problem with this body—not suitable for staying in enclosed, crowded spaces, but here it's unavoidable.

"Walk forward, cross the Small Hillside, and that's the Cotton Field we're going to." The area definitely can't compare to the Base's side, but fewer of us came, so sharing among ourselves is more cost-effective than at the Base.

"Let's go over; Mom and the others will be here soon."

Cheng Ma and Song Ling were full of energy, the two of them carrying back baskets and hemp sacks walking very fast, showing how much they looked forward to this day.

Cheng Qi told Shen Yao not to rush; the two of them just needed enough cotton.

"Not going over yet?" Shen Yao raised an eyebrow, seeing Cheng Qi keep looking back, and suddenly thought of those hawthorn trees mentioned earlier.

"I'll tell Mom and Dad; it's more important to pick the hawthorns."

The hawthorn trees were close to them; after picking, they could put them on the cart and head over without delaying too long.

Compared to cotton, Cheng Qi still felt those few hawthorn trees couldn't be missed.

Shen Yao:...

Fine.

She indeed had quite a lot of cotton in her space; when picking, she could secretly put some in, and with their family's current population, they didn't need to worry about not having enough cotton at all.

The two looked at each other, made up their minds, then simply turned their steps backward and directly went up the mountain along the small path.

The surrounding area was full of mountain forests, and every walkable place grew densely packed trees.

The two spent some time before reaching under the hawthorn trees; coincidentally, this place wasn't peaceful either, as someone was being visited by an uninvited guest.

"It's a squirrel."

A furry big tail, holding several hawthorns in both hands, jumping down from the tree.

Cheng Qi pointed at the squirrel hiding not far away and not running far; that sleek, smooth fur was very suitable for making a scarf for warmth.

"The squirrel is storing food for winter; we can go take a look later."

Earlier Shen Yao had wanted to go dig energy stones at the sweet potato garden, but it turned out to be overthinking; there simply weren't any energy stones there.

Seeing the squirrel this time, Shen Yao thought squirrels liked storing food; maybe there were treasures in the squirrel's hole.

Shen Yao's strange train of thought shocked Cheng Qi; he vaguely clenched his fist and coughed, wanting to explain that energy stones weren't that easy to find, but meeting Shen Yao's eyes, some words seemed hard to speak out.

"Mm, if there's time, we'll go take a look," Cheng Qi finally chose to lower his head.

Shen Yao patted Cheng Qi's shoulder, "Get to work, finish picking the hawthorns as soon as possible."

The hawthorns on several trees looked like a lot, but actually hadn't filled the hemp sacks they brought, because the hawthorns hadn't changed much in size; a tiny one didn't take up space at all.

After finishing, it was already half an hour later; Shen Yao stood up and wiped her face.

Cheng Qi broke off a section of vine, peeled off the outer skin to reveal the stem inside, then tied up the hemp sacks one by one and stacked them; the two planned to head back.

Because they wanted to explore the squirrel's nest midway, they didn't return the same way but took a detour.

As a result, they found no trace of energy stones, only gained another half sack of decent nuts.

Taking them back to clean up, Shen Yao and Cheng Qi didn't empty out the squirrel's possessions; mostly they still used the hawthorns in their hands to exchange.

Several sacks of hawthorns, removing the inedible ones, still left two-thirds; after giving some to Cheng Ma and Song Ling's two families, there would still be plenty left.

"They can be taken out to sell," not selling raw materials, but making them into semi-finished or finished products, because raw materials weren't worth money, especially since hawthorns tasted sour; those who didn't like that taste would hardly be willing to spend money.

Hawthorn cake, hawthorn strips, hawthorn powder... Shen Yao thought of many edible hawthorn snacks; she planned to try making them after these few days were done, anyway the work was endless, no need to make herself too tired.

Shen Yao, who had been here for more than half a year, her thoughts constantly changed; maybe after a while she would abandon her current thoughts, who knew?

"Daughter, daughter"

Song Ling waved and called Shen Yao over, also letting out the cotton tree she was guarding.

"Mom, the cotton picked at home is enough," Shen Yao pointed at the few trees in the distance, indicating she could go over there.

"Isn't that far? Besides, my tree produces a lot of good cotton," Song Ling didn't let Shen Yao go over, but kept her by her side to take care of her.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao felt helpless, but could understand this was Song Ling's goodwill.

Looking up at the cotton full of branches, Shen Yao directly climbed up and used scissors to cut.

She didn't let Song Ling measure while collecting, but had her pick up the fallen cuttings to measure.

Shen Yao, who had a cheat on her person, saved Song Ling quite a bit of effort.

Although among the cotton Shen Yao cut there were also unusable highly mutated ones, compared to her previous shipping rate, Shen Yao was still luckier.

Song Ling picked up while praising Shen Yao for being capable, stronger than her, this mother.

Not far away, Cheng Ma, who had just finished picking cotton with Zhao Xue, came back and heard Song Ling praising like that, immediately joining in to praise together.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao only felt a bit awkward, especially since there were still many worms on the cotton trees.

One white cotton ball after another fell and smashed onto the ground, directly paving a layer of soft carpet.

Song Ling pulled Cheng Ma to work together; the two occasionally chatted about things when they were young, including what supplies the family needed to prepare, just like old friends who hadn't seen each other for years, no matter how much they said, it wasn't enough.

The morning passed like this without incident; at noon everyone sat under the cart, slowly putting a nutrient agent into their mouths.

Chatting about picking a few more trees in the afternoon, then they heard humming roars from not far away, scaring everyone to hastily get up and look around.

What's wrong? Could it be a mutant beast?

"It's a wild boar rooting around in the cotton field; don't move first, we'll go take a look."

Cheng Qi had the elderly and women get on the cart first, then closed the cart door leaving the driver, while the others took weapons and went in a group to the cotton field to check the real-time situation.

Cheng Ma grabbed Song Ling's hand; the two of them were huddling together for warmth.

Cheng Dage and Shen Yu both went over; Shen Jiancheng stayed behind to drive the cart; now only a few inner chamber women sat in the cart, they could only encourage each other.

The people around were all nervous in their own way; at a time like this, who wouldn't be afraid?

The roars in the distance grew louder, and they could even hear the sound of wood being struck.

"The wood is being struck; did they fight with the wild boar?"

Song Ling cried out "aiyo aiyo" twice, covering her chest and repeatedly asking back.

Cheng Ma kept saying she was fine while her hands and body trembled uncontrollably; both Eldest Young Master and Second Young Master looked on pitifully.

Shen Yao and Zhao Xue could only comfort them with words, but such words were hollow—pleasant to hear, yet not necessarily satisfying.

Anyway, Shen Yao saw that it had little effect; better to pray that Cheng Qi's side went smoothly.

Boom—

A louder, more violent sound came, and the whole carriage let out a roar after several seconds of silence.

Whether truly afraid or frightened into a reflex, in short, this matter severely affected them, and the afternoon gathering was directly canceled.

The driver left behind started the vehicle and drove back, not caring about those left in the Cotton Field.

"Rest assured, there are still trucks; they will wait." The cars were full of the old, weak, sick, and disabled; the trucks were the main haul of today's harvest.

Finding time to say a few words to Shen Jiancheng, Shen Yao sighed helplessly; encountering such sudden bad luck, they could only surrender.

The car drove for about twenty minutes before slowly stopping; the driver opened his mouth to explain that the crisis was over, and those left behind were catching up.

"Then how are they? Are they hurt?"

"My man won't have an accident, right? Why hasn't he replied?"

"Don't rush; mine hasn't replied either; maybe the signal is bad on the vehicle."

"……"

Many worried their family members were injured, especially since these people were Pillars; once they fell, their lives would become difficult.

Shen Yao found time to ask about Cheng Qi and Shen Yu, but neither replied; Zhao Xue also couldn't contact Eldest Young Master Cheng; as for Shen Jiancheng? He couldn't reply while driving.

"Aiyo, my heart, thump-thump jumping," Cheng Ma and Song Ling were nervous together; the old sisters sat together leaning on and comforting each other, making Shen Yao and Zhao Xue seem idle.