Stock Up For Natural Disasters And Cubs Survive – CH66

Chapter 66

Wei Cheng smiled. “Are you craving salted duck eggs? Want salted duck yolk fried rice for lunch?”

Guanguan got so excited he started waving his hands and feet. “Yes, yes!”

Then he began flamboyantly ordering dishes on his little fingers. “A little grilled sausage, lots and lots of shrimp, and no baby greens!”

Baby bok choy and broccoli, both of which tasted a little odd if not blanched first, were officially blacklisted from Little Guanguan’s menu.

Wei Cheng laughed. “Then how about a little carrot? If you eat carrots, your eyes will get better.”

The moment he heard eyes, Guanguan put his little hands above his eye sockets. “Will I still turn into a baby panda after eating it?”

Wei Cheng said, “Then you won’t.”

Guanguan’s dark eyes moved a little. “Can we put in the sweet kind of carrot?”

Wei Cheng knew he meant baby carrots, the kind that were sweeter than regular carrots and didn’t have that earthy taste.

Sometimes he would make carrot salad with them for Guanguan.

“Okay, Brother remembers.”

“Yay!” Guanguan’s two little chubby legs swung wildly sideways.

He hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet and was already looking forward to lunch!

He wrapped his arms around Brother’s neck. “Then when Guanguan grows up, he won’t sell grilled sausages anymore!”

Wei Cheng carried him toward the bathroom, laughing as he said, “If you don’t sell grilled sausages, then what will you sell? Your sausage machine is still in the kitchen.”

“Duck eggs!” Guanguan lifted his chin proudly. “Guanguan is very good at roasting duck eggs! And after roasting duck eggs, you can eat duck-yolk fried rice!”

Wei Cheng laughed so hard he ruffled the soft hair on his head. “Hahaha, don’t say that in front of Director Grandpa, or you’ll end up making Grandpa mad.”

After breakfast, Wei Cheng took little Wei Guanguan by the hand to see Director Wang.

Brother carried Guanguan’s backpack, stuffed full of snacks, while Guanguan himself wore a spotted puppy cup slung around his neck. His two short little legs marched with great force, and the little tuft of hair on top of his head bobbed in the breeze. He didn’t look at all like a “problem child” being taken to see the grown-ups.

Out on the grassland, the little black dog was once again chasing the little gray dog. Guanguan’s eyes lit up, and he immediately wanted to run off and play with the puppies.

Wei Cheng quickly tugged him back. “Be good, Guanguan. Grandpa is waiting for you. You can come play with the puppies later.”

When they reached the nearby little wooden cabin, they saw Wang Xiaotiao and Mingming sitting obediently and writing, while Director Wang stood over them solemnly with a little wooden stick in his hand.

In order to create a study atmosphere for the children, Director Wang had specially found a square wooden board from the construction area. Every day he wrote what he wanted to teach on white paper, then pasted it onto the board and used it as a blackboard.

“Grandpa, Guanguan is here!” Guanguan ran in with his little backpack swinging all over the place.

The moment he saw the little stick in Grandpa’s hand, he made a sharp turn and ran right back into Brother’s arms.

Wei Cheng asked knowingly, enjoying himself, “What’s wrong?”

Guanguan hugged Brother’s leg tightly and turned into a timid little coward. “Brother, don’t leave. Grandpa has a weapon in his hand!”

Wei Cheng rubbed his head. “Don’t be scared. Grandpa won’t hit you.”

Director Wang said, “Guanguan, come here. Grandpa won’t hit you. This little stick is a pointer. It’s for pointing at the blackboard when teaching you characters.”

Only after hearing Grandpa’s promise did Guanguan sit down beside Wang Xiaotiao with his little backpack in his arms.

The two little babies exchanged a look and immediately synced up, grinning and pressing against each other, one leaning into the other.

Director Wang cleared his throat and said, “Mingming, sit between the two of them and separate them.”

Mingming obediently gathered up his paper and pen and sat between Guanguan and Xiaotiao.

The two little ones immediately tried leaning into Mingming too, but Mingming waved both hands seriously at them: No snuggling during class!

The two little problem babies gasped in shock. They simply could not believe that without snuggling, they were somehow supposed to sit there and listen to Director Grandpa chant spells all morning!

Director Wang said, “Your brother Mingming is studying first-grade material. You two are learning kindergarten-level things. You just need to recognize some words and read pinyin. This way, separated out like this, each of you can study your own things.”

Then he added, “Otherwise, when you grow up and go out looking for supplies, if you can’t even recognize a few big characters, don’t go mistaking laundry detergent for milk powder.”

Guanguan shot his hand high into the air. “Grandpa, milk powder smells sweet and yummy, and Guanguan likes it. What does laundry detergent taste like? Is it sweet too?”

Director Wang looked helplessly at Wei Cheng with a smile. “See? You really can’t mention food in front of him.”

Wei Cheng explained, “Guanguan, laundry detergent is for giving clothes a bath. People can’t eat it or drink it. It’s like body wash—when Guanguan takes a bath, he uses body wash, right? Body wash can’t be eaten either. Both body wash and laundry detergent have only one function, which is making Guanguan and the clothes clean.”

Guanguan’s eyes lit up. It was bubble bath!

He swung his little feet and said happily, “If I drink laundry detergent, I’ll turn into a bubble-blowing fish Guanguan!”

Mingming’s expression turned serious again. In sign language, he said: You won’t turn into a fish. If you drink laundry detergent, you and Xiaotiao will be poisoned to death and won’t get to see Brother and us anymore.

Since they had grown up together from childhood, Guanguan could vaguely understand what Brother Mingming meant. And when he saw Mingming sticking out his tongue and rolling his eyes back, he got scared!

The child leaned forward and slammed his two little steamed-bun hands on the table. “Laundry detergent is a bad guy! Guanguan doesn’t want to get poisoned to death!”

“Since we’ve already talked about this, Grandpa might as well teach you some life-supplies characters today, and how they’re used.” Director Wang smiled.

Wei Cheng listened for a while, saw that Guanguan really was studying seriously, then quietly pushed open the door and left the wooden cabin.

He didn’t stay idle either. He went to the fencing area to hand tools to the adults, and sometimes pushed little carts carrying sand and mortar.

When he pushed a cart of sand over, Chen Fangshun was taking big gulps of water nearby. Yi Qi, wearing protective goggles and getting ready to weld, lowered his voice and said, “He tried fishing for information again just now.”

Wei Cheng turned his back to him and said quietly, “What kind of information?”

“Whether we can spare them some gasoline when they leave.”

Wei Cheng fell silent for a moment. “What did you say?”

Yi Qi said, “He was vague, so I was vague too. Neither of us said it outright, but I didn’t clearly reject him either.”

Wei Cheng chuckled faintly. “Looks like they really are tired from all the work.”

Asking about gasoline meant they wanted to leave as soon as possible.

Yi Qi laughed too. “How could they not be? For the past two days we’ve all been working until after ten at night before resting. If this were before the apocalypse, that’d be illegal labor. We’d all be fined and hauled off.”

From where they stood, the ground was high enough that they could clearly see the silver-gray steel wall surrounding the lower half of the “7”-shaped ranch.

Wei Cheng said, “Almost done.”

Yi Qi nodded. “Only about another twenty days. Once the steel plates are all up, we’ll paint them.”

Wei Cheng said, “There’s no rush for that. After they leave, we’ll dig the traps first.”

Then, thinking of something, he lowered his voice. “For the last few days, show Chen Fangshun a little more kindness. Tell him the kind of things murderers like him most want to hear, about turning over a new leaf. You know how to say that kind of thing, right?”

Yi Qi thought for a moment, then smiled. “I understand.”

At lunch, Chen Fangshun’s family ate beef-canned-rice bowls, and thanks to Guanguan, they also got to eat salted duck-yolk fried rice.

To keep Director Wang from getting suspicious, only Guanguan’s portion had fresh carrot cubes in it.

When Wei Cheng brought the fried rice to Director Wang, the old man said, “Oh? There are duck eggs in this too?”

Then he remembered something. “Right, Mr. Yi said this ranch used to do tourism business. They’d definitely have stocked things like salted duck eggs. Did you keep the egg whites?”

Wei Cheng replied, “Yes, I kept them. The fridge in my cabin is powered, so they won’t spoil. Uncle Shen said he’s saving them for breakfast with porridge.”

Director Wang nodded in satisfaction. “That’s right. That’s how you should live—properly making use of things.”

Then he added, “Now that the weather’s warming up, it’s about time to go outside and find some seeds to plant vegetables.”

Without changing expression, Wei Cheng said, “I think Uncle Yi has corn seeds and vegetable seeds. I’ll ask him.”

Director Wang lit up with delight. “Really? That’s wonderful. There’s so much empty land on the ranch—if we plant summer corn and yardlong beans, then we won’t have to worry about vegetables later.”

Seeing how happy Grandpa Director was, Wei Cheng smiled too. “Okay. Once the fencing is all laid down, I’ll plant the fields with Grandpa.”

—

By mid-May, the outer wooden fence of the ranch had disappeared, replaced by a steel-and-stone wall about three meters high.

Along the top of the wall were welded strips of barbed iron. If you counted carefully, it was nearly four meters tall in total. From a distance, it looked like an airtight iron barrel—high, solid, and just looking at it gave people a sense of security.

Chen Fangshun’s family had now been at the ranch for exactly two full months.

Working as fast as they could, they had finally finished building the steel wall, and only some finishing work remained.

That evening, after the work was done, Chen Fangshun came over and started talking to Yi Qi—first saying goodbye, then expressing reluctance to part, and finally angrily lamenting how hard the apocalypse was, saying he only wanted his family to find a suitable place to shelter.

Yi Qi patted him on the shoulder. “Fangshun, you’ve really worked hard, and you work fast and efficiently too. Don’t worry—tomorrow morning I’ll definitely come see you off.”

Chen Fangshun immediately knew there was hope.

Early the next morning, Yi Qi and Shen Zheng went to the wooden cabin where Chen Fangshun was staying.

At that moment, the family was also packing their things.

Shen Zheng glanced at the neat tofu-block folds on the bed.

Chen Fangshun greeted them with a smile. “Brother Yi, Brother Shen, you’re here.”

Shen Zheng put a black bag down on the table. “These are your old knives and tools. We know it’s hard for you with a child, so we still managed to set aside a little supplies for you. We’ve known each other for a while now—let’s part on good terms. You should go.”

Li Rui and Chen Fangshun exchanged a look.

Chen Fangshun still smiled, rubbing his arm twice. “Brother Shen, our car…”

Yi Qi sighed. “Fangshun, to be honest, we don’t have much gasoline left either. But we still put some in your car. It should be enough to get you out of Wuqing City. Don’t think it’s too little—these days, everyone’s life is hard.”

The main thing Chen Fangshun had learned in prison was when to quit while ahead. He pressed his palms together in thanks. “Thank you, Brother Yi. Thank you, Brother Shen. I truly thank you.”

Yi Qi shifted slightly to one side. “Your car is still parked by the main gate. We’ll walk you out.”

Chen Fangshun and Li Rui thanked them all over again.

The family of three loaded their big and small bags into the car. After starting it, Chen Fangshun looked at Yi Qi once more. “Brother Yi, Brother Shen, then… we’re going.”

Yi Qi waved at him. “Go on.”

Chen Fangshun seemed to hesitate, then finally bit down and said, “Brother Yi, Brother Shen, I’m not a good man. I’m a bad man, and I’ve had crooked thoughts too. But I really do thank you for saving my son that night. I owe you one life.”

Yi Qi’s lips moved slightly. He thought that Chengcheng’s strategy really was effective. Half genuine, half not, he said, “Meeting is fate. Treat your wife and child well from now on.”

The white car gradually disappeared into the distance.

Both Shen Zheng and Yi Qi let out a long breath of relief.

Throwing an arm around Shen Zheng’s shoulders, Yi Qi said, “Come on. Chengcheng said today we should rest properly. Let’s go sleep, brother.”

Shen Zheng jabbed him with an elbow. “Damn it! You’re so disgusting. Get out of my room already!”

Yi Qi strolled back toward the ranch with his hands clasped behind his head. “Didn’t hear that, didn’t hear that. I’m going to see whether Little Guanguan is awake yet!”

Shen Zheng had no idea what was going on with him. What exactly was wrong with that guy?

There were so many empty wooden cabins—why did he insist on cramming into the same bed with him?

Author’s Note:
Little Guanguan, woken up by the noise: Uncle, Guanguan hates you! [crying hard]

Click here to download the full novel (PDF & EPUB)