Chapter 17: Practice

Wei Dalei stopped, returning the spear to Chen Mu.

Chen Mu, however, didn't take it, turning to Dong Junwei and said: "Monitor, organize everyone to move the rice grains onto the truck, leaving half the space empty; I and Old Wei will go get some water."

"Go ahead." Dong Junwei nodded.

Before coming, Chen Mu had gotten a few more pieces of material from a disposable plastic spoon, preparing to do as last time, making a few more buckets of water, since it's likely they won't come back again.

Returning to the bottled water crate again, Wei Dalei followed the same method, piercing a bottle with his spear.

Chen Mu handed the prepared water buckets one by one to Wei Dalei; after filling them, he sealed them.

Because he had done it once before and after a night's rest, his mental energy was now abundant; while making these buckets, Chen Mu became noticeably more practiced.

"Boss, I feel the water surface isn't level," Wei Dalei asked, a bit puzzled, while filling the water.

"The water's surface tension and capillary action cause this, just like the water in a test tube is concave; this bucket is even smaller than a test tube, so of course this phenomenon appears—just look at you, you clearly didn't pay attention in class," Chen Mu explained while scolding.

"Hehe." Wei Dalei felt no shame at all.

Last time, because it was dark and everyone was listless, no one noticed these, but Chen Mu had thought of it long ago and even discussed it with Tang Jing.

After filling five buckets in a row, the two finally stopped.

Wei Dalei carried a bucket in each hand, walking toward the flatbed cart.

Chen Mu also tried, but the bucket didn't budge at all.

Indeed, it couldn't compare to that bear monster.

On Dong Junwei's side, she merely moved the rice grains onto the cart; it was soon finished. Although the rice grains looked exaggerated in size, their weight was still acceptable—even a girl could move one grain.

Because they needed to leave space for the water buckets, they only moved a dozen or so rice grains, but judging by size, it was already enough to last them a long time.

The only problem was that they currently had no way to cook it.

If it really couldn't be done, they could only eat it raw.

Better than starving to death.

Tang Jing moved the last grain of rice, stroked the plump grain with her hand, and a smile appeared on her face: "This is new rice less than a year old."

"You can tell that too?"

"The color and luster of old rice differ greatly, and it has a smell; eating it raw is never reassuring, but new rice can be barely tolerated," Tang Jing explained.

Nowadays, students being able to distinguish the five grains is already good, let alone telling new from old rice.

Chen Mu sighed: "The biggest problem now is how to cook food; we can't keep eating raw meat and drinking blood."

"Yeah." Dong Junwei nodded.

"Is it possible to make a fire?"

"It's hard." Tang Jing shook her head: "Leaving aside how to start a fire, even if we could light it, a match larger than us would burn out in a few seconds, meaningless; and wood that could burn for a while, we definitely couldn't move, and even if we could, once lit we couldn't get close."

"So, from now on, we won't be able to use fire at all?"

"Not entirely impossible; we could look for something relatively small and more burn-resistant."

"For example?"

"For example, candles—although they're still much larger than us, they're barely acceptable; if handled properly, they can still be used."

"But aside from birthdays, I haven't seen a candle in many years." Dong Junwei sighed.

"Not to mention Shangshi, a developed coastal city; even nationwide, few places now have frequent power outages, and residents are indeed becoming unfamiliar with candles."

"The cafeteria probably doesn't have any either; even if it did, we couldn't find any right away." Chen Mu also sighed.

Tang Jing said: "This is indeed a big problem; we'll likely have to rely on eating raw to satisfy our hunger for a long time."

"Let's talk about that later; first let's go back, then slowly think of a solution." Dong Junwei said, then began organizing everyone to head back.

Chen Mu interrupted: "Monitor, do you guys want to go over there and wash up?"

That suggestion instantly gained everyone's support.

For the past couple of days, everyone has been drenched in sweat, wet then dry then wet again, almost forming salt crystals, yet they haven't had a chance to wash properly.

Wei Dalei stepped forward, piercing another two bottles of water in succession, letting everyone wash together.

The boys simply showered there, splashing water everywhere.

The girls didn't dare be so bold; they could only dab water with a handkerchief or sleeve to wipe themselves.

But being able to wash their faces was more comfortable than anything at that moment.

After becoming small, whenever there's a bit of wind, the ground dust is like a sandstorm; right now almost everyone is covered in dust and grime, their faces full of dirt.

Dong Junwei washed her face, regaining a bit of her former pretty appearance.

Everyone then drank their fill here.

"Alright, let's head back."

This place is full of food; fortunately the time hasn't been long, so there aren't many miscellaneous small animals yet, but Chen Mu can already see small moths flying around the flour bags up high.

However, just as they were about to leave, Du Jia Jia suddenly cried out.

At this moment, everyone was especially sensitive to cries, and they instinctively went on alert.

"Rats… oh no, what kind of bug…"

Only saw Du Jia Jia point her hand toward the spot near the rice bag; there were several blackish bugs, which at a glance really looked like rats.

However, at this moment, real rats were who knows how many times larger than humans.

"It's rice worms." Tang Jing quickly recognized them.

"Rice worms?"

"Well, when grain is stored for a long time, rice worms appear; although these bags are new rice, this place is ultimately a long-term grain storage site, so having rice worms is quite normal."

"It… won't bite people, will it?"

"Don't worry, rice worms only eat grain; they have no teeth and won't bite people," Tang Jing explained.

"Then that's fine." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Let's hurry up, I always feel sick to my stomach.

Wait a moment. Dong Junwei called a halt, saying, "I have an idea."

What?

Besides Chen Mu and Da Lei, I suggest everyone try to kill a rice worm. Dong Junwei said.

Why? Not only Zhao Xiao Yan, even the tall Qian Fei showed some hesitation.

The size of the rice worm is still small compared to humans now, so nobody worries about being eaten like encountering a centipede.

However, humans' fear of certain things is not entirely based on size.

Rats, cockroaches, snakes—most are much smaller than humans, yet 99% of people, upon seeing them, still get the creeps.

Dong Junwei understands everyone's dissatisfaction, but she insists: "We can't always rely on others; we also need some self-defense ability. Without mentioning centipedes, at least we should be able to handle ordinary ants. Rice worms cause no harm, so they're perfect for practice."

Everyone quickly understood the class monitor's meaning.

It must be said, Dong Junwei's idea is indeed good.

Chang Junyan hesitated, saying, "But we don't have Da Lei's abilities."

Dong Junwei said, "Chen Mu is also an ordinary person, so why did he dare to kill ants from the start?"

Everyone thought such a person is rare to begin with, so using them as a role model is really unfair.

However, they also knew the class monitor's suggestion was for everyone's benefit.

Tang Jing also said, "Not bad; even if we can't practice our skills, at least we can bolster our courage, so we won't be too scared to move when we encounter something next time."

After saying that, she turned around again and smiled, "Chen Mu, lend me your weapon for a bit."