Most people's moods still weren't great.
Under the teacher's resentful gaze, Lan Jin picked up her child and casually tried to ask what had happened today. But whether it was because the little one's lips were sealed tight or because nothing had actually happened, she didn't get a single word out of her. In the end, the matter didn't blow up, and naturally, it fizzled out just like that.
…
Elsewhere.
Inside a certain lab, a gray-haired professor nearly jumped with joy when he got the news that the vaccine had been brought back. Shaking a middle-aged man's hand, he asked excitedly, "Really? It's been brought back? You're sure it came out of the forest in R City?"
The middle-aged man nodded. "Yeah, Captain Zhang personally led the team. He carried it back himself the whole way, didn't hand it off to anyone else. You know his personality. If the vaccine's in his hands, then there shouldn't be any problems. It's just…"
Seeing him trail off, the professor pressed urgently, "Just what? Don't tell me something's wrong with the vaccine."
"No, no, the vaccine's fine. It's just that Captain Zhang decided on his own to give one bottle to Lao Shi at the J City base. So instead of four hundred bottles, we only brought back three hundred ninety-nine." The man also shared the news he'd heard about Lao Shi.
Hearing that, the professor let out a huge sigh of relief. "I thought it was something serious. One bottle's nothing, won't cause any trouble."
"But… for some reason, the people who went into that forest all think these vaccines can cure body mutations."
"Oh? Really?" The professor raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah, no one knows how that rumor even started. But if the base people insist on running their own research, they might cause some mess."
The professor waved it off. "If the base wants to do private experiments, that's even better. They'll be running free trials for us, won't they? Still, we'd better hurry over and at least make sure they leave us a few bottles."
Then he said quickly, "Go get the car ready. Put in a request with the higher-ups so we can join this experiment. Best if they wait until we arrive before starting anything. Come on, let's pack and head out."
…
The next morning.
After dropping Qiao Qiao at kindergarten, the four of them went to the base's planting zone. The Capital city base really was massive. Just walking from their dorm building to the fields took them twenty-five minutes.
Lan Jin sighed. "Since we're living here long-term, shouldn't we get a vehicle? I've got bicycles and solar cars in my space. Why do we have to keep walking everywhere?"
Ling Jiang agreed. "Walking isn't tiring, but the base is way too big. Each zone's different, and going back and forth wastes time."
Lao Gao chimed in, "Why don't we just use bicycles? We've got tons of them in the space. If something happens and one gets lost, I won't feel bad."
They'd gotten the bicycles back when they'd done those zero-cost supermarket hauls. Every supermarket had stocked a bunch, so many that her space now had a mountain of them piled up.
While checking the seeds in her hand, Lan Jin asked, "Should we sell some of them?"
"Why not? We've got so many it'd take forever to use them all. We'll keep what we need, then sell the rest and trade for other goods. We're not running a shop that only sells one thing anyway." Lao Gao thought about it and realized selling bicycles inside the base really was feasible. "I'll ask around about prices later. No need to rush."
For now though, planting was the priority.
Yesterday, they'd received seeds for potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a few leafy greens.
All the seeds had already been improved by the base, so their growth cycles were much shorter. These three types wouldn't take more than two months from planting to harvest.
Since they'd paid for both the seeds and the land, the food they grew wouldn't be taken by the base for free. Still, they had to sell half their harvest to the base. Only the other half would be theirs to deal with however they wanted.
Sure, the rule felt like forced sales, but the base did give contribution points in return. It wasn't unreasonable.
Because the seeds were already cultivated, they didn't need nursery work. Just put them in the soil and water them daily.
As for fertilizer—
Right now, that wasn't a thing. Just like in H City, everyone used nutrient solution instead. Buying it wasn't required either, since all it did was speed up growth. Pesticides weren't needed either. If it came to that, the base would send people to deal with it directly. So apart from watering, they really didn't have much to do. Still, even though planting seemed easy, whether crops grew or not actually came down to luck.
Captain Zhang had said it himself. Same plot of land, same batch of seeds, yet some people got a harvest and some got nothing. Either way, by noon they'd planted all the seeds and watered them for the last time before leaving the fields.
…
The shopfront was another thirty-minute walk from the planting zone. After trekking all morning and planting seeds, none of them wanted to walk anymore. They headed to a nearby bus stop instead.
The bus wasn't free. Tickets cost half a contribution point each, paid by scanning their residence card.
But once they were on board, it was much faster. Including wait time, it only took ten minutes. The bus stopped right at the shop district gate, and walking inside took another two minutes. Their travel time had been cut drastically.
Opening a shop supposedly required a key, but in reality it was just a passcode. The code had already been sent straight to their phones. No one even came in person. The initial code was six zeroes. After punching it in, Lao Gao immediately changed it. Then they started checking what needed to be renovated.
They'd already agreed on their first product: condoms.
In the apocalypse, children were important, but that didn't mean it was always the right time to have them. And not everyone wanted kids either. Plus, condoms were a non-renewable supply, which meant their price was sky-high.