The World Turned into Zombies, So I Went Back to the Countryside to Farm 48

Chapter 48: Partner

Every time they went out to find medicine, Jiang Wuni was on pins and needles day and night. She couldn’t close her eyes until they came back. Without them saying anything, Jiang Wuni knew from the bloodstains and wounds on their bodies that every trip was a close brush with death. This was the most helpless and self-loathing moment of Jiang Wuni’s life.

Wen Zhao leaned against the door and watched as Jiang Zao came out of Jiang Wuni’s room and gently closed the door for her.

“Has Grandma Jiang taken her medicine and gone to bed?”

“After much persuasion, she finally took the medicine.”

“As long as she took it. This batch of medicine can last for more than half a year.”

The two of them walked downstairs as they talked.

“How is Grandma’s blood pressure? Is it stable?”

“I don’t know if it’s because she hasn’t been resting well these past two days or what, but her blood pressure has been fluctuating, hovering around the critical value.”

“Did you measure it after she took the medicine?”

“Yes.”

Jiang Zao replied, then suddenly stopped. Wen Zhao turned her head to look at her.

“What’s wrong?”

“I suspect there’s a problem with the medicine. All the medicine on the market now was produced before the apocalypse. The longest shelf life is only three years.”

The longest shelf life of instant foods like instant noodles, ham sausage, and bread was basically between half a year and a year. A large part of the supplies they had collected now had already expired. But eating these expired foods would at most cause a few days of diarrhea. Medicine was different. It was a life-saving thing.

As time went by, the efficacy of expired medicines might decrease or be completely lost, affecting the final treatment effect.

This was a reality they had to face.

Wen Zhao saw her standing in the shadows, her expression not without disappointment. So, she took a step forward and patted her shoulder in comfort.

“Don’t worry. There will always be a way. We’ll sort out the storage room tomorrow and take out the medicines that are about to expire first.”

Jiang Zao forced a smile. “Yes.”

“You’ve been tired for two days. You should also rest early after dinner.”

“Alright.”

The meal had been prepared by Jiang Wuni and was warming in the pot. All they had to do was take it out and eat. Fortunately, in terms of food, they had basically achieved self-sufficiency through their daily hard work.

However, the dietary structure was still relatively simple. The rice and flour they had found in the village last year were being consumed too quickly. They were not growing rice and wheat now, so they could only eat potatoes and sweet potatoes as staple foods.

After all, these two crops had a high yield, were not picky about soil fertility, and were filling.

They were still raising rabbits, but they would get tired of eating them after a long time. They could only hope for good luck every time they went up the mountain to hunt, to hunt a pheasant or a roe deer to satisfy their cravings.

But such opportunities were rare.

Li Mi lifted the lid of the pot and served a large bowl of sweet potato congee for each of them. There were also roasted potatoes in the stove, which she also took out.

Jiang Wuni would always make delicious food at home when they went out to search for supplies. This time was no exception. She had braised a rabbit.

Wen Zhao picked up a rabbit leg and put it in her bowl.

Jiang Wuni had left them food, but she hadn’t touched the meat at all.

Jiang Zao left her portion in the pot, gave one leg to Kele and one to Little Mi, and then looked at the one in her own bowl. She tore off the meat and gave half of it to Wen Zhao.

Wen Zhao didn’t say anything, but the corners of her mouth were almost reaching her temples. Little Li Mi shook her head.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

After dinner, Wen Zhao went to wash the dishes.

As usual, Li Mi was doing her homework in the main hall.

While she was learning martial arts from Wen Zhao and various combat skills, she had not fallen behind in her studies. In just over a year, she had already completed all the courses of the sixth grade of primary school.

At her age, her mind was the most delicate. Jiang Zao had just told her the story of “Guan Ju” in the Book of Songs.

Little Mi raised her head. ” ‘Guan-guan’ cry the ospreys, on the islet in the river. I think this ‘gentleman’ should be a woman, just like Big Sister Wen and Big Sister Jiang.” [1]

Jiang Zao had not intended to hide it from her. She just smiled slightly and patted her head.

“Little Mi is so smart. When did you figure it out?”

Li Mi bit her pen.

“Hmm… every time you two are talking or doing things together, you only have eyes for each other. No one can interrupt. Big Sister Jiang, you also like Big Sister Wen very much, right?”

Since they had already talked about this, Jiang Zao also felt that it was necessary to establish a correct view of love for her at her age.

“I… I do like her very much. But for two people to decide to be together and face the future life together is actually a very serious matter. You have to think it through at all times. This is being responsible for yourself and for her.”

Li Mi nodded as if she understood but not quite.

“So is big sister testing Big Sister Wen now?”

“No. Your Big Sister Wen is the best person I’ve ever seen in the world. She doesn’t need to be tested. She has a full vote from me.”

“It’s just that I… still have a hurdle in my own heart to overcome.”

Jiang Zao propped up her chin and looked at the clever and mischievous Li Mi. She gently tapped her head with a pen.

“Our Little Mi is so smart and so outstanding. I really don’t know what kind of person she will be with in the future.”

Li Mi threw down her pen and rushed into her arms, her eyes red.

“I don’t want to leave you, leave Grandma Jiang, and Big Sister Wen. Little Mi wants to be with you all for the rest of her life.”

Jiang Zao raised her hand and gently stroked her hair.

“Silly Little Mi, you will have your own story. Alright, it’s getting late. Finish this and go to sleep.”

Wen Zhao was leaning against the door outside. She had actually heard their conversation just now. When she heard the sentence “She has a full vote from me,” a smile couldn’t help but appear on her lips, but her eyes also turned red. It wasn’t until it was quiet inside again that she wiped the corner of her eye with her sleeve and lifted the curtain to go in.

Ever since the first snow had fallen.

It soon entered winter.

This was the slack season for farming. Besides going up the mountain every day to chop firewood and hunt, there was nothing else to do. Only Jiang Wuni was exceptionally busy. Besides writing and drawing in her notebook all day, she also took out all the rabbit skins she had saved for a long time to tan. She had already saved dozens of skins and planned to make a vest for everyone.

Jiang Zao watched as she wore the reading glasses with one broken leg wrapped in cloth, frowning as she threaded the needle under the lamp. She thought about when she would go out and get her a new pair.

Just as she was thinking this, Jiang Wuni let out a soft “aiya,” and the tip of the needle accidentally pricked her finger.

Jiang Zao quickly took her hand and squeezed it twice, but no blood came out.

Jiang Wuni smiled sheepishly and pulled her hand back.

“I’m old. It’s just like this.”

“Let me do it.”

Jiang Wuni handed her the needle and thread.

Jiang Zao very deftly passed the thread through the eye of the needle.

Jiang Wuni stood up and brought over a piece of paper.

“What’s this?”

Jiang Zao took it and saw that it was crookedly written with “rice seeds,” “wheat seeds,” and some fertilizer and pesticide names.

“Next time you go out, help me find some and bring them back.”

“Didn’t you say that rice and wheat are difficult to grow and don’t survive well?”

Jiang Wuni used a thimble to push the tip of the needle through the leather and then pulled out the thread. “We have to try. We can’t just wait to eat up all our supplies. When we grow rice and wheat, that’s when we’ll be… truly self-sufficient.”

Jiang Zao’s lips moved, and she put the note away.

“Alright. I’ll go and find some for you next time I go out.”

She looked at Jiang Wuni’s increasingly stooped back. Time had silently flowed through everyone’s fingers, but it was never fair. Little Mi had grown taller like a sprout, but she was getting older day by day, and her silver hair was also becoming thinner.

Jiang Zao remembered that when she had come home a year before the apocalypse, she could still see half-black and half-white strands of hair on her head.

At that time, Jiang Wuni was still an old lady who loved beauty. She had been clamoring for her to take her to the town to dye and perm her hair.

“Next time we go to collect supplies, if there’s any hair dye, I’ll bring some back and dye your hair for you, so you can have a beautiful New Year.”

Jiang Wuni squinted her eyes and smiled.

“Forget it. I’m already this old. I’m too lazy to bother. By the way, you asked me last time if there was any knitting thread at home. I found some for you. See if it’s enough.”

Jiang Zao rummaged through the plastic bag of colorful silk threads that she didn’t know how long she had kept.

“It’s enough, it’s enough.”

“What do you want this thread for?”

“Isn’t it Wen Zhao’s birthday soon? I was thinking that her knife is still missing a tassel…”

“Then if you want to make a peace knot, you have to do it like this…”

***

Besides Jiang Wuni, the busiest person in the whole house was Kele. Ever since all the zombies in the village had been eliminated, it was no longer kept locked up. Kele would run out to play by itself every day. It would usually come back at noon. Recently, the weather had gotten cold, and it was snowing. But Kele was nowhere to be seen all day. It would go out in the morning and only come back with a body full of dead branches and leaves at mealtimes. No one knew where it had gone to play.

When Jiang Zao was grooming it, she turned it over and found a long, thin cut on its belly. The blood had already dried, and it was starting to scab. Because its fur was too thick, no one had noticed it before.

“How did this happen?”

Kele couldn’t speak, just barked twice and licked her hand. Wen Zhao also came over and squatted down to take a look.

“It looks like a scratch from a claw.”

“What animal could have hurt Kele? It can’t be a zombie, can it?”

They had been patrolling every day recently and had not found any traces of zombies near the village. It couldn’t be that a zombie had climbed over the 6,000-meter-high Chongming Snow Mountain and entered the village.

Jiang Zao thought it was a fantasy.

“Don’t worry.” Wen Zhao rubbed Kele’s head.

“It could also be that it got scratched on a rock or something when it was out playing in the wild. Kele is so smart. If it were a zombie or an animal that was a threat to it, it would definitely have come back to warn us.”

Kele stood up and barked three times, as if to say she was right.

It wasn’t until a few days later, when they went up the mountain to hunt, that the mystery was solved. Their luck was particularly good that day. The wild boar they had been tracking for three days had finally appeared.

The cause was that there were still some sweet potatoes in the fields. Because they had gone out to find medicine a few days ago and had not had time to harvest them, when they came back with their baskets to harvest the sweet potatoes, they found that the ground had been dug up in a mess. The sweet potato roots that were buried deep had been dug out and gnawed to pieces, and there were wild boar footprints next to them.

Jiang Wuni slapped her thigh.

“Oh no, I forgot about the wild boar pest since we didn’t farm last year. It’s ruined all the good food.”

Jiang Zao and Wen Zhao exchanged a look, and they both had an idea: don’t let the prey that has come to their door go to waste.

They didn’t pick up the sweet potatoes that were rotting in the field and left them as bait. When they saw fresh wild boar footprints in the field again, Wen Zhao decisively chased after them.

“Kele, chase!”

After Kele found the wild boar’s tracks, it pounced on it and forced it into an open valley. It used its agile body to play a game of chase. After its strength was exhausted, it rushed up and bit its neck tightly.

Wen Zhao also arrived and bled the wild boar with a single stroke.

They cleaned the wild boar on the spot. Before the cut meat could be put into a sack, Kele picked up a pig’s leg and ran into the dense forest without looking back.

“Kele! Kele! Where are you going!”

Jiang Zao called out a few times but couldn’t call it back. Seeing that the situation was not right, she also picked up her bow and arrow and chased after it.

The group followed it through the dense forest, up the mountain and over the river. It wasn’t until they had passed the small wooden cabin where the forest ranger lived last time and had run for another forty minutes that they stopped in a mountain pass.

Jiang Zao rested her hands on her knees, panting heavily. She watched as Kele finally stopped in front of a large rock and wagged its tail.

“I’d like to see… what you’re up to.”

Jiang Zao took the bow and arrow from her back and tiptoed over.

She saw Kele throw the pig’s leg on the ground and then howl at the back of the rock. Before Jiang Zao could see clearly, a yellowish-brown shadow rushed out and pounced on her face.

Jiang Zao instantly raised her bow and aimed.

Kele leaped up and stood in front of her.

The thing also stopped. Only then did Jiang Zao see clearly that it was a wolf. No, to be precise, it was a lactating female wolf. Its limbs were slender, and only its belly was abnormally large because of lactation.

Jiang Zao stared at its wolf snout and suddenly felt that she had seen it somewhere before. Wasn’t this the alpha wolf that had led the pack to attack them in the mountains that winter?!

But times had changed. The alpha wolf’s once pure white fur was now a dry and matted yellowish-brown after rolling in the mud and water. It also had large and small injuries on its body.

The most serious was a deep claw mark from its forehead to its jawline, which had scratched its eye. Its right eye was already cloudy, and it probably couldn’t see anything.

Kele howled a few more times, walked to Jiang Zao, and rubbed against her hand and thigh, wagging its tail, as if to say, “This is my friend. You can’t hurt her.”

The fangs that the female wolf had bared were then retracted, but it was still crouched, looking at them with wary eyes.

Wen Zhao pulled Jiang Zao back out of its line of sight. Only then did the female wolf pick up the pig’s leg and go into the rock den.

Kele didn’t follow them over.

Wen Zhao: “Wolves are very aggressive during lactation. There might be cubs in that den. We should stay away.”

Seeing the little brat she had raised give the prey she had worked so hard to hunt to another wolf, Jiang Zao was still a little indignant.

“That’s a big pig’s leg. We could have eaten it for several days.”

Wen Zhao handed her the binoculars.

“Look.”

Jiang Zao took the binoculars and looked. There were indeed three newborn wolf cubs behind the rock. Kele was guarding the female wolf, watching it finish eating, then lay down to nurse the cubs. While it was nursing, Kele also lay down, licking its wounds and grooming its fur.

Jiang Zao handed the binoculars back.

“Is this right? Even if they don’t have reproductive isolation, that’s still…”

Wen Zhao chuckled.

“It seems Kele has also found its own partner.”

Jiang Zao knew that in nature, there was only the law of the jungle. Perhaps in the fight for the alpha wolf position, this already pregnant female wolf had lost the upper hand. Its partner had either died in battle or had betrayed its promise of loyalty and abandoned it. But that was no longer important.

She looked at Wen Zhao beside her. What was important was that in this world where only the cold law of the jungle existed, there was still you, warming me.

Seeing that it was getting late.

Wen Zhao whistled. “Kele, let’s go home.”

Only then did Kele reluctantly get up from the pile of rocks, looking back every three steps as it followed them.