Chapter 182: Dragon Boat Festival

"What are you whispering about?" Dong Junwei's voice came over.

It happened to be the afternoon break; everyone returned to the living area and saw Chen Mu squatting beside Gu Yinglong, chatting about something.

"These tea leaves……"

"Oh, I saw Yinglong had nothing to do the past few days, thought of these tea leaves, and casually gave her a few stalks."

Since Qiming's last grain of raw rice was eaten, there was nothing left that could be split for Gu Yinglong; therefore, after these tea leaves appeared, Dong Junwei naturally thought of this.

"But, is it necessary to split the tea leaves?"

Chen Mu was a bit doubtful, because unlike other food, tea leaves are just for brewing water, there's no texture issue; as long as you pluck some, the brewed tea is the same, splitting it is purely superfluous.

Dong Junwei laughed: "I also know it's unnecessary, I just wanted to find something for Yinglong to do."

Chen Mu smiled, no wonder Yinglong just said it was a game.

Tang Jing said: "Besides, it can also train the Special Ability; we'll eventually need to plant other plants, and then we'll need Yinglong's help."

Everyone's chat, Gu Yinglong heard it all, but remained focused on planting the tea leaves; upon hearing Tang Jing's words, she gave an "um" and nodded heavily.

Chen Mu said: "However, looking at it, the difficulty of the tea leaves is much higher than that of rice."

"I've also noticed that; perhaps the structure is more complex?" Dong Junwei said.

Tang Jing nodded: "That's probably it; look, the previous six foods—rice, potatoes, carrots, green peppers, eggplants, tomatoes—all share a common trait."

"Simple structure?"

"Exactly, they're mostly simple roundish shapes, but tea leaves are comparatively much more complex—not only irregular in shape, they also have many fine hairs on them."

"This point seems applicable to all object-control-type Special Abilities."

Qiming's research on the Special Ability is increasingly moving toward summarization and induction, hoping to find its patterns and laws.

The afternoon break lasted only half an hour; after that, everyone had to return to work until dinner time.

After the shelving organization progressed to the second floor, everyone had even more things to do.

And Chen Mu, Wei Dalei, and the other main laborers had all their energy diverted by the high-position artillery platform project, so they couldn't help Dong Junwei's side.

……

The afternoon work ended.

Before dinner.

Chen Mu and Tang Jing went to see Yu Yuan.

This guy has been driven to a spot over 40 centimeters away from everyone else, and Chen Mu specially built him a single-person hut.

Originally we thought he would feel lonely, and even Chen Mu worried he might feel isolated.

But upon looking, this guy was hugging a pile of tomatoes, eating them with utter abandon.

Friends are nothing compared to food.

He had already finished the first crate of tomatoes, and was now eating the second crate, not even noticing Chen Mu and Tang Jing's arrival.

"Don't just focus on eating; remember what I told you—practice your control."

"Mm-hmm." Upon seeing Tang Jing, Yu Yuan immediately perked up: "Tang senior, I know."

"You haven't spoken to that person, have you?" Tang Jing asked again.

"No, no, not even eye contact."

Near Yu Yuan's hut was none other than one of the two captives from Yi Zhong, Kong Qi.

Tang Jing needed Yu Yuan to control the outward dispersion of energy as much as possible, i. e., to cut off the supply to those around him.

If so, naturally someone was still needed to serve as his test subject.

Quite obvious.

This person is now being used as the experimental subject.

Kong Qi was still unaware of this; the only strange thing was that Tang Jing, who usually brought him his meals, hadn't come today.

Not only that, but no meal had been delivered either.

For Kong Qi, who had grown accustomed to living here, he could skip meals, but not seeing Tang Jing left him feeling empty inside.

Not giving him meals.

Could it be that they intend to starve him to death?

Are they finally going to kill him?

However, after a full day with two meals missed, he actually didn't feel hungry.

Tang Jing, to conserve food, had been feeding them both with tomatoes all along, occasionally adding some salt.

Kong Qi now feels like vomiting at the smell of tomatoes, but even so, he still never feels full each day.

Tomatoes have little calories, merely relying on water to fill the stomach, making one hungry again soon; yet today, he felt no hunger at all.

Kong Qi knew nothing about Yu Yuan, who had recently moved in nearby to keep him company; at first he thought Yu Yuan was also a captive like him, just with better conditions—a hut of his own.

But later he discovered that person could freely leave the hut.

Going a whole day without eating yet feeling no hunger made Kong Qi feel a twinge of worry about his body.

Thus, when Tang Jing approached, he spoke up for the first time:

"What have you done to me?"

"Nothing?" Tang Jing looked puzzled.

"Then why do I have no hunger? I haven't eaten anything all day."

Kong Qi has become increasingly accustomed to life here, and has even developed some reliance on Tang Jing; thus, although the content of his words is a reproach, his tone is entirely one of discussion and puzzlement.

"Isn't that fine?" Tang Jing laughed: "You're probably sick of tomatoes too."

"I've been sick of them for a while."

Kong Qi perhaps hasn't even noticed, but over these days, subtly, his wariness toward Tang Jing has gradually faded.

Our food isn't much either, so we can only wrong you.

I remember there were several dozen boxes of stuff on that truck, right? Kong Qi mercilessly exposed her.

Tang Jing laughed: "Last time Yi Zhong made a nighttime sneak attack, you must have heard it too; now we dare not go out, and we don't know how long those supplies will last."

You guys are really generous, even providing food for a captive like me.

So from now on, there won't be any more.

Huh?

Kong Qi's heart jolted; although he had long been prepared for death, hearing Tang Jing say that now still left him somewhat unable to accept it.

However, Tang Jing no longer paid him any attention, turned and left.

After walking back to Yu Yuan and Chen Mu's side, she said to the former: "When you can make that guy shout 'I'm hungry,' that'll count as some small achievement."

"I'll do my best!" Yu Yuan stood at attention.

When Chen Mu and Tang Jing returned to the living area, dinner was already ready.

As the most important meal of the day, Du Jia Jia usually puts the most effort into dinner.

But when today's food was brought out, everyone was stunned.

It looked like a ball of kneaded rice, but the color was off—it was green.

At that moment.

Du Jia Jia then excitedly announced:

"Today is the Dragon Boat Festival, I'll treat everyone to zongzi."