Novel Full Chapter 126 - Depart, Planting The Fire Of Hope!
Chapter 126: Depart, Planting The Fire Of Hope!
“Why is there an infant?”
Su Mo asked while gritting his teeth, but he was also afraid of disturbing the woman and the child inside, so he forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart and whispered.
Chen Shen behind him was taken aback. He hurriedly said, “Brother Lu, don’t be angry. She was already about to give birth before crossing over. With the help of Doctor Song, the child was born in this camp. The child was not directly transported here…”
Listening to Chen Shen’s explanation, Su Mo closed his eyes and went silent.
After a while, Su Mo turned around and walked out of the pit. He opened the shed of the third nest.
Fortunately, in the entire camp, there was only this one mother and child pair.
“What do all of you usually eat?”
Walking down the hillside, and looking at the supplies on the ground, Su Mo’s tone was no longer heavy and cold.
Without waiting for Chen Shen to answer, the person who was still sitting paralyzed on the ground pointed to the nearby supplies and whispered, “We usually eat bark and grass roots, and then they will give us some muddy water. After boiling, everyone can still eat enough to barely survive.”
“Then there will be an extra meal every four days. Potatoes. Each person gets half…”
Potatoes?
Su Mo lowered his body and sliced open the bag on the ground. Sure enough, the bag was filled with potatoes.
Occasionally, there were a few potatoes that had sprouted, but had not rotted away.
Su Mo was very familiar with potatoes. When he planted vegetables in the culture medium for the first time, Su Mo had considered planting potatoes, but finally chose to give up the idea.
When he was on Earth, based on the movie “The Martian”, almost everyone knew to grow a lot of potatoes; they were filling, delicious and people could survive eating them.
Therefore, in most of survival scenarios, once there was insufficient food, the number one solution proposed was:
Plant potatoes!
Compared to other crops that require constant care, potatoes are hardy, and the starch inside can provide a lot of calories and nutrients. They would indeed be the best crops to grow in this environment.
Plus its high yield output of several thousand catties per mu made it seem like the most perfect and wonderful food source.
The reason why Su Mo gave up on planting them was straightforward and realistic…
Energy conservation; the exaggerated yield and nutrition value of potatoes came from the fertility of the land it was planted on.
On ordinary barren land, the potatoes grown would be small and the yield would be low. Without proper fertilizer, the harvest would be greatly reduced as well.
History has also taught us that, if you grew a lot of potatoes, all it took was one disease and it would be game over.
“Cook them! Cook all the potatoes and have a full meal first!”
There were about one and a half bags of potatoes on the ground, if they were distributed to everyone, basically everyone could get two or so.
Although some potatoes had sprouted and may have produced solanine, in this environment, everyone would not think twice after hearing Su Mo’s words.
Loud cheers rose from the center of the camp, but everyone did not get into action immediately. Instead, the group of grateful people bent down and bowed before they started performing their duties.
Some people looked for a pot, and some built the fire. A group of people went toward untrodden ground and collected handfuls of slightly clean snow.
Every refugee who passed by Su Mo had joy etched on their faces, rejoicing at the prospect of soon having a big meal.
Two potatoes per person…
“So this is the simple happiness of ordinary people in the Doomsday world?”
Looking at these people, Su Mo suddenly understood why, from ancient times to the present on Earth, even several catastrophes had failed to exterminate human beings.
“Perhaps I am a decisive person, but I… am not a cold-blooded person, at least, not yet!”
Su Mo just stood quietly in the middle of the camp.
Seeing the busy people around him, Su Mo even briefly considered bringing all these people back to the base to live in a small camp.
Humans are always lonely.
Even if he was accompanied by Oreo, Big Spark, and Little Spark, returning to life within a social circle after half a month, a sense of collectivism that had previously disappeared returned.
It was an inexplicable feeling.
Looking at the smiling faces of his fellow humans, Su Mo could not stop smiling.
“However, my current base has not solved its food problem at all, and I don’t have enough trusted individuals to manage these people. If they rebel, I will have no way to counteract it!”
Looking silently at the Doomsday rules written in his private message channel, Su Mo’s heart that had just warmed up gradually turned calm.
Anger makes people lose their minds.
Excitement does that as well!
Until the character and style of doing things of the opposite party were confirmed, no stranger could step within three kilometers of the shelter except for family members.
Otherwise, they could only be the enemy!
Standing in the corner, Su Mo, in a state of contemplation, was like a sculpture and the words “do not come close” were carved on his face.
Of course, there would not be anyone who would come to bother him at this moment.
The mother from the nest walked out, assisted by the group. The baby in her arms seemed to feel the cold outside and cried.
All the men formed a circle spontaneously, guarding her in the middle, and walked over to the center of the camp.
The scent of the salt evaporating from the water, the round potatoes, and the vigorous firewood burning below piqued her curiosity.
On her dark face, her dead eyes slowly recovered a trace of expression at this time.
When she saw Su Mo standing in the corner, a glimmer of expectation appeared on her face.
The firewood was still burning and the water had begun to boil. The potatoes bobbed up and down like a dangling boat in the water.
All the refugees seemed to be possessed as they stared intensely at the white steam emerging from the pot and the flickering flames below.
Looking at the baby, and then at the longing faces of these hope-starved refugees, Su Mo’s gaze finally came to a halt over the pot that had not boiled yet.
He summoned the remaining 200ml of psychic energy water and opened the lid, watched as the psychic energy water slowly poured into the pot.
A fragrance different from that of the potatoes diffused out and surprised all the refugees!
No one could refuse the taste of psychic energy water!
As long as it was their first time smelling it, almost everyone could feel the desire for this smell within their genes!
Watching Su Mo put the lid over the pot, a complex emotion surfaced on these people’s faces.
They were used to seeing the ugly side of human nature, so when there was a person who was a little more normal, in their eyes, he was no less than an angel.
“This would be the reward for helping me collect saltpeter!” Su Mo said silently in his heart. While walking away from the camp, he said loudly, “I will come back later, divide four of these potatoes to the mother and child. If anyone dares to snatch it, do so at your own risk!”
Su Mo was used to the food he made in the shelter. Potatoes could not bring the slightest change in Su Mo’s taste and mood at all.
Everyone watched in awe as Su Mo followed along the path he had come, and then walked out the gate. His lonely figure gradually disappeared.
“He is a good man!”
Someone from the group said such a sentence, and the others all nodded and agreed!
However, as the fragrance in the pot became more and more intense, everyone turned their eyes back and stared enthusiastically inside the pot.
…
“Oreo, do you think I should care for these people? Obviously, I have the ability to do something…”
Walking on the snow, Oreo ran over affectionately, rubbing Su Mo’s trousers with her head.
Hearing Su Mo’s words, Oreo raised her head, her eyes full of curiosity and perplexity.
Woof!
Woo!
Immediately, when she could not figure it out, she showed a humane smile and straightened her chest.
“You mean I’m great?” Seeing Oreo nodded repeatedly, Su Mo laughed, then shook his head again.
“You’re wrong, I am not good. If I was good, I would have brought everyone back to Earth!”
Stopping his steps, Su Mo turned his head and looked at the camp where the fire was still visibly burning behind him.
This flame could become the flame of hope, or it could also become the fire of hell that consumed everyone.
After a moment, Su Mo’s eyes gradually became firmer.
He walked all the way back to where Earth Tiger was parked, lit a fire, and drove the Earth Tiger out.
On the way back to the camp, Su Mo estimated the time and drove slowly.
The noon sun shone upon the car window and Oreo laid lazily on the passenger seat, smiling with satisfaction from time to time as the terrain undulated.
When he drove to the entrance of the camp, Su Mo honked the horn and startled all the refugees, who were still eating potatoes inside.
Seeing Earth Tiger, a trace of disbelief first appeared on the faces of these refugees, before turning into relief.
“Bring me all the saltpeter and the treasure chests!” Su Mo yelled while resting his arm on the edge of the car window.
The refugees, who were still eating, got the order and hurriedly put down the hot potatoes in their hands and started to work.
The saltpeter ores were moved to the front of the car and were moved into Earth Tiger’s storage space by Su Mo.
The treasure chests obtained from killing the kobolds were also stored in the storage space of the game panel by Su Mo.
After all the things were moved over, Su Mo shook his head under the mask when the refugees tried to pass some potatoes to him.
“Chen Shen, come here!”
The young man came over. Before Su Mo could speak, Chen Shen said timidly, “Brother Lu, are you leaving now?”
Su Mo was silent for a while, not answering directly. Instead, he reached out his hand and touched Chen Shen’s head, looking faintly forward, “Remember, walk along this path, and continue to the west for fifty kilometers. There is a shelter for humans there. Take all the remaining supplies and go. Live on!”
After speaking, Su Mo slowly released the brakes and Earth Tiger began to lurch forward.
The snow chains left huge tire marks on the ground as they gradually drove the car forward.
Hearing what Chen Shen conveyed, all the refugees had their eyes full of awe and hope. They stood at the door and watched Earth Tiger as it left.
These people stood blankly until Earth Tiger disappeared, no longer visible at the end of the horizon.
Suddenly, an exclamation “woke” everyone up, “Look, what’s that?”
The others followed the direction of this person’s finger, looking on curiously. There seemed to be a pile of colorful objects lying in the haystack at the entrance of the camp.
Everyone walked over quickly and, in the haystack, they found the cotton-padded jackets that Su Mo had collected from before that had been stained with blood and had yet to be cleaned.
On the cotton-padded jackets, there were two stacks of pancakes, and a piece of paper was sandwiched between the pancakes.
Everyone looked at Chen Shen. Chen Shen was no longer timid and walked up quickly, picking up the paper between the pancakes. After a glance, he could no longer hold back the tears in his eyes, “Brother Lu said that joining the shelter in the west is a test for us. If one day he thinks that we have passed the test, we can join his shelter!”
“Brother Lu… he… is a good person!”
Swoosh!
Once again, no one proposed, and no one spoke. All the refugees spontaneously knelt on the ground in the direction where Earth Tiger had left.
Kowtow! The refugees thanked Su Mo with their bows!