Chapter 12: Exchanging for Hygiene Products

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Exchanging for Hygiene Products

"Captain Zhou."

The two officers saluted Zhou Qian before breaking into smiles. "What are your orders?"

Zhou Qian thought for a moment, then pointed at Huai Yu not far away. "Ask her what she wants to trade for. As long as it isn’t overboard, anything under 200 Contribution Points is fine."

The two women were momentarily speechless. What did he mean by "isn’t overboard"? There had to be a limit.

But since Zhou Qian had given the order, one of them walked over to Huai Yu. "Little girl, what would you like to trade for?"

Huai Yu loosened her grip on the hem of her shirt. "Mung beans. What can I get for these?"

Being a woman, the officer was naturally more observant than a rough man like Zhou Qian. Her gaze swept over Huai Yu before she spoke in a soft voice. "Toiletries, glycerin, elastic cords, clothes... You can trade for any of these."

"Wow..."

Huai Yu’s mouth fell open slightly, her eyes sparkling. She desperately needed every single thing the officer had just listed.

But... with only two handfuls of mung beans, she could probably only pick a few, right? Torn and unable to decide, she looked up pitifully at the woman in front of her. "Miss, could you see how much these mung beans are worth and give me some suggestions?"

Just then, the other female officer walked over. "Hello, could you let me test the mung beans first? If the quality is high enough, you can get pretty much one of everything she just mentioned."

Huai Yu was pleasantly surprised! She had no idea about the quality of the mung beans, but they looked so plump that they shouldn’t be too bad, right?

The officer took out a device resembling a thermometer and gently scanned the mung beans gathered in Huai Yu’s shirt.

BEEP!

The device let out a long chime, and the number "9" appeared on its pale green screen.

Zhou Qian saw it too and felt a slight tinge of disappointment—it wasn’t a "3" like the pine nuts from last time. But on second thought, a "9" was still quite good; it fell under the category of high-quality crop seeds. He nodded at the female officer. She put the scanner away and smiled.

"One meter of elastic cord, two toothbrushes with soft and hard bristles, and a 400-gram tube of toothpaste.

"Two towels, and one set of one-size-fits-all underwear.

"You can trade for all of these at once. Or, you can swap some of them out for other items. Why don’t you tell us what you need first?"

The other officer chimed in with a smile, "You have about half a pound of mung beans there. The quality is excellent, so their market trade value is roughly between 20 and 30 Contribution Points.

"After all, as you know, everyone’s top priority right now is high-yield crops, and mung beans aren’t one of them. So even though the quality is excellent, the price takes a little hit."

Huai Yu didn’t immediately answer what she wanted. Instead, she pondered aloud, "So yesterday, when I traded the pine cones for the waterproof tarp, did Captain Zhou pay out of pocket to cover the difference?"

"No," Zhou Qian quickly replied. "The pine nuts you brought were of exceptionally high quality—a premium grade even better than excellent. However, because their yield is low and the growing cycle exceeds twenty years, the official value was set at 50 Contribution Points."

Pinus armandii generally took fifteen to twenty years to reach the fruiting stage. Growing them directly from seeds was indeed far too slow and inefficient.

Despite his explanation, Huai Yu thought to herself that when she had handed over the seeds, Captain Zhou hadn’t even tested them before giving her the waterproof tarp in exchange. That meant he really had covered part of the difference at the very beginning.

Because of this, she didn’t bother asking the female officer how many points the suggested items actually cost. Instead, she lowered her voice and asked, "If I only take one towel, could I swap the other one for a pack of sanitary pads?"

The female officer paused for a moment, then patted her on the shoulder. "I forgot. You look so skinny, but you’re actually a grown girl now. Tell you what, I’ll personally cover the cost of two packs of sanitary pads and two rolls of toilet paper for you. As for that extra towel, you can trade it for a bottle of thirty small Water Purification Tablets.

"Do you know how to use Water Purification Tablets? These are for household use; one tablet can purify three liters of water."

Huai Yu’s eyes widened. She hadn’t had a single drop of water to drink over the past few days, so she hadn’t even realized such a thing existed. The problem was... she didn’t even have a container to hold water right now.

She looked up shyly, her gaze sincere. "Um... do you have any unwanted buckets or bottles lying around?

"Or do you know where the city’s dump is? I can go scavenge for some."

The female officer was completely taken aback by her words. Was her life really that destitute? What had she been doing during the six years since the apocalypse?

The officer didn’t know about Huai Yu’s balance of zero Contribution Points, but Huai Yu herself was well aware of it. However, she didn’t feel ashamed. After all, she was already building her own house. Her poverty was clearly just the harsh world oppressing her. The fact that she was currently self-reliant was already incredibly impressive.

However, city life was only just barely getting back on track. Since the apocalypse, many items were solely distributed by the government, meaning these daily necessities were actually in very short supply.

The two female officers discussed it with Zhou Qian for a moment. Eventually, one of them headed back into the base and returned carrying a large red plastic bucket in one hand and an empty water dispenser jug in the other.

"Here!

"Check and make sure everything is inside. The two buckets are a form of assistance from our base to you. Whenever you find good seeds in the future, you can keep bringing them here to trade."

Huai Yu accepted them with deep gratitude. Even though the world treated her poorly, the people she met treated her very well. She was satisfied!

She thought for a moment, then pulled that handful of wheat out of her pocket. "Thank you, ladies, thank you, Captain Zhou, and thank you, Mr. Quartermaster.

"This is some wheat I managed to get. I want to give it to you."

Zhou Qian didn’t want to take her things, but the wheat in front of him was truly just a tiny, pitiful handful. Seeing the girl’s earnest expression, he paused before finally reaching out and accepting it.

Thinking about it, he couldn’t help but ask curiously, "You picked up the pine cones near the Rose, but this wheat... don’t tell me there are ears of wheat growing there too?"

Even if there were, winter wheat wasn’t ripe yet, and last year’s spring wheat had already gone through the winter. How could she possibly find any?

"Nope."

Perhaps because her supply of daily necessities had suddenly become so abundant, Huai Yu’s smile right now was incredibly content and sweet. "I dug out a field mouse’s burrow. There was a lot inside."

Everyone was left speechless.

If they didn’t know the government had issued her nutrient solutions and protein-supplementing beans, they would have genuinely wanted to pool their money and buy her some proper food right then and there. To be so starved that she had to dig up a field mouse’s burrow—wasn’t her life a bit too arduous?!

It had been six years since the apocalypse. Normal life had been forced to a halt, and resources were somewhat scarce... but with the government providing a safety net, they had never heard of anyone being this destitute. Looking at her again, their minds vaguely tossed aside the impression of her zero Contribution Points and began to feel a deep sense of pity instead.

Zhou Qian paused, then couldn’t resist adding, "Work hard to gather a few more things. Next time you come by, I’ll put in a request to trade for a field kettle for you."

He didn’t specify how much she needed to gather. Regardless, as long as she showed up, the worst-case scenario was that he would just pay out of pocket to cover it.