Chapter 13: The Multi-functional Shovel
Huai Yu didn’t want a kettle.
To be precise, given her limited supplies, she was sustaining herself with nutritional liquid and didn’t urgently need a clean water source.
She thought for a moment and asked seriously, “If I wanted to exchange for a multi-functional shovel, how many points would you need? Something like the green beans.”
A multi-functional shovel?
Zhou Qian frowned. “Wait a moment, let me ask logistics. We haven’t had anyone exchange for that, so I’m not very familiar with it.”
Huai Yu nodded, holding the large red bucket of supplies and patiently waiting.
Logistics soon gave an answer—
“It requires 350 contribution points.”
350?!
Huai Yu was a bit shocked.
She had gone to great lengths to dig a hole, and the green beans inside could only be exchanged for 20–30 points. A third of the things in her red bucket had been covered by others.
Now, a shovel required 350 points?
Not just Huai Yu, but even Zhou Qian thought it was expensive.
But the more expensive, the more worthwhile.
Their multi-functional shovel was genuinely versatile, with functions like a hoe, pickaxe, window-breaking hammer, saw, wrench, measuring ruler, and more.
And since it was made from manganese steel, its hardness and durability were impressive. These tools, in today’s world, could even be used as weapons.
Because of this, even Zhou Qian couldn’t borrow one for others. And with Huai Yu’s zero contribution points, she had no way to show any credit.
At this point, he could only tell Huai Yu, “You can save up some food, and later go to the trading market in the city. They should have second-hand farming tools.”
However, considering that she had even dug into a rat hole, Zhou Qian didn’t know what method Huai Yu could use to generate income.
He sighed, “If you had chosen Jin Yuan community, it would have been better. Though climbing the 30+ floors of stairs is tiring, and there are no windows or doors, there are a lot of people living there, and it has a small trading market. It would be much easier for neighbors to trade goods.”
The most important thing was that the first resources people had could be used to exchange for things outside of residential conditions.
Meanwhile, this girl was still living alone in a grass hut.
Huai Yu, however, shook her head.
At the time, she only liked the area around the Rose Corridor because it was large, but after living here for a few days, she could understand the current conditions of the community.
In her understanding, an unfinished building was called an “unfinished building” because the Jin Yuan community was supposed to be 37 stories tall.
However, construction was halted when only 32 or 33 floors were built. Living inside, apart from having a roof and land, there was no actual partition between neighbors.
Of course, few people made it to the top floors, so she could easily have a whole floor to herself.
But for a single girl to live there, the problems would definitely outweigh the labor she was enduring now.
She picked up the red bucket and plastic water bottle and smiled lightly. “Thank you, Captain Zhou, thank you, sisters, I’ll head back now.”
Although second-hand farming tools were tempting, she was planning to go up the mountain, where she might need to dig or chop trees… In any case, the multi-functional shovel would be more practical.
However, if she went up the mountain to gather food, she wouldn’t be able to exchange items here, since if they asked how she got to the mountains, she wouldn’t be able to answer.
But her house wasn’t fully prepared yet, and before the heavy rain came, she didn’t have much time to go to the trading market to observe…
Huai Yu was troubled.
But just as she turned, she heard Zhou Qian call out again: “Wait!”
Huai Yu turned back and saw him pull a lighter from his pocket and hand it to her. “If you’re really out of food, at least you’ll need fire to roast the rats. Remember to cook them well.”
After all, this girl didn’t seem like someone who would know how to start a fire with wood.
Huai Yu: …
She took the lighter with a complex expression and couldn’t help but praise him again: “Captain Zhou, you’re really thoughtful.”
Though, she wasn’t really starving, nor did she have any intention of eating rats…
…
The 3-kilometer walk took quite a bit of effort. By the time Huai Yu returned to her little treehouse, it was already evening.
In early spring, the days were short and nights long. Without lighting, her working hours were significantly reduced. Now, she could only quickly organize her things again.
She grabbed a thin vine and tied it to the treehouse’s support vines. The first thing she did was hang her new, clean white towel.
Wow!
Then, she placed her toothpaste and toothbrush on the nearby green bricks, and the sense of life immediately became stronger.
The 1-meter-long elastic rope wasn’t needed yet, so she took it out, tied a knot, and wrapped it around a few times. After some effort, she finally tied up her messy hair.
The remaining items were placed on the haystack, and she quickly took the red bucket and left.
About two minutes down the slope from the treehouse, there was a small pond, only a few acres in size, with clear water visible at the bottom.
Before this, Huai Yu had no intention of touching the water, except to wash her hands.
Now that she had a container and purification tablets, she quickly found another vine to attach to the water bucket, tossed it into the middle of the pond, and carefully pulled it back. Soon, the red bucket was 70% full.
Considering her current water storage needs, the red bucket was really large. Even after bringing it inside the house, it was still about 30 liters, though only 65% of it was filled.
Huai Yu carefully counted out 10 purification tablets and threw them in. After a moment’s thought, she tossed in one more, then gently shook the bucket.
The purification tablets dissolved rapidly, and the microorganisms in the water were being eliminated.
According to her original plan, she should have used the towel for initial filtration. After all, the purification tablets only kill microorganisms and insect eggs but don’t remove other impurities.
But…
Forget it, the nutritional liquid will keep her alive.
Going to the toilet was inconvenient, so she decided to drink and eat as little as possible.
Next…
Since she had the lighter, she planned to head to the small woods before nightfall to collect dry branches and leaves to build a fire.
That way, she wouldn’t have to go to bed as soon as it got dark at six or seven.
Lying down was inherently a happy thing, but without blankets and only a sleeping bag to keep warm, with no phone…
Huai Yu thought to herself that if she weren’t strong enough, she’d probably end up crying herself to sleep every night until morning.
The rough vine net she had made was dragged forward again. The small woods ahead had once been a lush mountain slope.
After the plant mutation, the Mutated Plant Defense Army had plowed through every inch of Flower City, and all the trees that had shown abnormal activity had been cut down.
The reason they didn’t uproot everything was that if they did, the atmosphere would change, and humanity would be on the brink of extinction.
Now, the national defense policy was half defensive and half expulsive, based on this consideration.
The small hill was now bare, with only a few saplings left growing. The rest were small, poorly developed trees.
As Huai Yu snapped and collected the dry branches that were too hard to drag, she couldn’t help but feel hopeful:
“Once this spring rain is over, wild vegetables and mushrooms should be coming out, right?”
