Chapter 40: Trading, Also a Way Out

It was already past five o'clock when I reached the outskirts of the county seat. In summer, the sky brightens early. Looking out from the driver's seat, the earth was almost devoid of any green. After the dust settled, it was a vast, gray expanse. Everything was desperately interpreting decadence, desolation, and destruction; the interwoven scenery seemed to have already established the tone for the arrival of the human apocalypse.

When the truck neared the Base, there were already quite a few Survivors scavenging on the road. Suddenly seeing a truck that wasn't from the Base, they looked over with curiosity.

Liu Mu drove the vehicle to the open space where she had traded things before, locked it, and headed toward the Base, greeting the sentry who had just changed shifts at the entrance. Fortunately, this sentry looked familiar, and after a few words, he agreed to help keep an eye on the truck.

As for why she didn't drive the truck directly over this time, it was, of course, for fear of being treated as a bad element deliberately approaching and getting surrounded again.

Last time, Niu Boyi was shocked because of Da Gouzi; if she dared to drive directly toward them this time, she might end up catching a couple of bursts of gunfire.

Walking into the Base, someone who had watched her trade things last time immediately greeted her, "Boss Liu is here? What are you trading this time?"

Liu Mu replied with a smile that it wasn't food this time, and most people lost interest. Of course, her target wasn't these ordinary Survivors for the time being.

When Yang Shuo heard the Guard report that Liu Mu wanted to see him, he had just woken up. That night, he had only slept for a little over three hours again. There were too many things in the Base that needed arranging. The orders from above were that they would take root locally from now on and establish a Barrier to house Survivors, in order to cope with the various possibilities inferred by the scientists at the General Command.

At present, the Base couldn't even be considered a prototype. As plans were submitted one by one, he had to arrange for people to carry them out in a timely manner; everything was for long-term development.

"Why is she here again?" Hearing the report that the other party had brought a large truck, Yang Shuo thought she was here to trade with the Survivors again and didn't think to stop her. "If she's trading for food, find a few people to help her maintain order."

The implication was that he had no time to deal with such trivial matters. Since the first time went smoothly, Liu Mu should figure out how to continue on her own from now on.

But the Guard told him that Liu Mu said she wasn't here to trade, but had an important situation to report.

Yang Shuo hung the non-woven cloth he used to wash his face back on the rack, thought for a moment, and said, "Let her come to my office, and get her a cup of coffee while you're at it—not the instant kind."

Since the Chief said so, the Guard knew that Liu Mu was someone who needed to be taken seriously, and immediately went to fetch her.

Liu Mu carried a large red-and-white checkered woven bag into the office, looked up, and flashed a smile at Yang Shuo, "Uncle Yang, I've come to visit you again. Happy, right?"

Happy about what... Yang Shuo was impressed. His original fatigue was eased a bit by Liu Mu's familiarity, and he revealed a fairly gentle smile, "You girl, coming is enough, why bring things?"

Yang Shuo didn't actually think these were things Liu Mu intended to give him; he just took them to see how she would handle it.

But Liu Mu wasn't embarrassed in the slightest and took a sip of the coffee the Guard had brought, "Hmm, bitter!"

"This is freshly brewed, not that instant kind..." The Guard wanted to emphasize the Chief's regard for Liu Mu; under the current circumstances, that kind of coffee was becoming scarcer with every spoonful. But before he could finish, Yang Shuo waved him away.

"Speak," with just the two of them in the office, Yang Shuo's expression returned to a degree of seriousness, "Did you discover some Mutated creature again, or have you mutated yourself?"

When he said this, his hand was placed seemingly casually under the desk, but in fact, his fingers were already on the red alarm button. His safety was tied to the development of the entire Base, and naturally, the Base had protective measures in place for him.

After hearing the reports from Xing Tianyang and Tan Ziyan the day before yesterday, although he didn't believe a normal person could absorb that kind of rock from the sky, who knew if the radiation from the stone would cause Liu Mu to change? After all, there were already Mutated Rats and the Military Dog as precedents.

"Heh heh, sorry, it's neither!" Liu Mu wore a smug look, and her words didn't give the big leader any face at all.

With a look of disdain, she downed the coffee in one gulp, pushed the cup aside, and lifted the woven bag from the floor onto the desk.

The woven bag itself had a large capacity, and the things inside were very heavy. With a 'thud', the plywood desk shook under the weight.

Liu Mu hadn't expected the desk of a dignified leader to be so flimsy, and she lifted it a bit awkwardly, "A bit heavy, heh. But, Uncle Yang, take a look first. I went to Haicheng Wharf yesterday; I got all of this there."

Hearing it was brought from Haicheng Wharf, Yang Shuo immediately straightened up, "You snuck to the wharf?"

"Uncle, I'm a scrap collector, of course I go wherever there's a lot of scrap!" Liu Mu said it as a matter of course, raised her hand to unzip the woven bag, and took the items out one by one, placing them on the desk.

"Look, this is an umbrella, this is a pair of rain boots, and there's a raincoat, though there aren't many intact ones, and I didn't dig out many. These are screws from some machine, though they aren't damaged much. And this one is really something!"

The girl with the spiky hair raised her thick, dark eyebrows, her pitch-black eyes filled with mystery, as she took out a few stones and placed them gently in front of Yang Shuo, "Uncle, do you know what kind of stone this is?"

Yang Shuo picked them up and examined them carefully for a while. He didn't have much experience with ores, but he still had some basic common sense, "This is... iron ore?"

"Right! I found a lot of it. If you can refine steel, you can go get it."

Liu Mu saying this was actually testing the strength of the Base's military. If they really had plans to set up a Steel Factory, then she would have to make other plans.

Yang Shuo thought for nearly a minute, then finally sighed, quite helplessly, "This can't be done in the short term. The Steel Mill over in Fucheng is severely damaged, and also... there is no fuel."

He thought Liu Mu didn't know the situation outside, so he stopped at that.

Liu Mu shrugged, put the stones back, and took out a few cans, "There were originally instant noodles and such, but unfortunately they were all ruined. I opened a few of these cans; the taste is a bit strange, and I don't know if they can still be eaten."

Yang Shuo pulled open a drawer and took out a military knife to open a can. The metal can, which had traces of fire on the outside, was almost dry inside and smelled a bit burnt. He pried out a bit to taste, "Don't eat it unless it's an extreme situation. What else is there? Let me see it all."

Liu Mu took out some plastic that had melted into a lump, saying it should have been shampoo or something, and it couldn't be used at all.

After looking at everything, it was basically determined that only those metal parts could be used, but it was uncertain where they could be used and how much use they would be.

Seeing that Yang Shuo hadn't gotten to the point, Liu Mu made it clear, "My big sister said it's going to rain heavily soon, especially with the temperature difference between day and night being so large now. With the clouds formed by the previous evaporation of water, plus the seawater, the rain won't be small. So, Uncle Yang, does your Base want to trade for rain tarps and Rain Gear?"

Yang Shuo finally understood Liu Mu's purpose, but having things to trade with the Base wasn't a bad thing. As for why she didn't trade with the Survivors like before, one could imagine: those people only cared about having a full stomach now; how could they bear to trade away things they couldn't use at the moment?

"What do you want?" Yang Shuo calculated the Base's supplies, thinking that since Liu Mu had come twice, she was probably eyeing something here, and he couldn't help but feel a bit wary.

"Uncle Yang, you're a straightforward person. I knew I had to tell you the truth the first time I met you." Liu Mu habitually flattered him, then stated her purpose directly, "Actually, I have two things I'd like to ask of you."

Ask? A flicker of light passed through the eyes on Yang Shuo's aged face, and he thought to himself that this girl indeed had an agenda, "Tell me about them first?"

"Alright," Liu Mu raised a hearty smile, "Then I'll say it. First, when the Base establishes a trading market in the future, can you give me a permanent spot? Of course, I'm not picky about whether it's a stall or a storefront."

"We talked about this last time; it's possible," Yang Shuo had indeed considered it when Liu Mu first proposed it. As the initiator of trade in the Base, the significance of Liu Mu's trading was great; it gave the Survivors a new direction for survival and relieved a lot of pressure on the Base.

"And the second?"

"The second is..." Liu Mu smiled, "I want to ask you for some people. Of course, I don't need them right away. I have a Scrap Station, right? In the future, when I collect scrap, I'll need some manpower. When I recruit workers, I want to recruit them from our Base—people I know well, and there's a guarantee."

Yang Shuo was a bit surprised. Even now, this child was still thinking about doing a scrap business? Intending to remind Liu Mu, he said, "Judging by the current situation, it will probably take a long time to restore a complete model of scrap recycling. You'd better change your condition."

What he actually wanted to say was that it was impossible. The world was already in tatters; who still cared about scrap? Everything was scrap.

Liu Mu, however, shook her head stubbornly, "No, Uncle. To tell you the truth, the only business I know how to do is collecting scrap. Now there's scrap everywhere, and I plan to go to other areas to walk around too. I can always find or trade for something useful. I used to travel around the countryside, and I'll do business much the same way in the future."

Being a traveling merchant is indeed a way out.