Wei Xuan currently had quite a few insulating materials, and he might be able to find more while exploring the city. However, even with these materials, he needed a suitable place to store the ice he planned to collect.
The apartment complex had basements, with each building having a full floor underneath. However, the area of each basement was not large, as it had to be divided into individual rooms for each household in the building, and thus, the space was limited.
To make matters worse, all these basements had a small portion above ground level, and each room had a small narrow window-like opening. This created a ventilation problem, making them prone to leaks in the summer.
If possible, Wei Xuan would like to dig a large pit to create a storage room, but how deep should he dig? How could he ensure proper ventilation once it was dug? And how to ensure people wouldn’t fall through when walking on top?
“Ah, if that doesn’t work, I’ll have to use some spray polyurethane foam to block the windows and seal them with steel plates for insulation.” Wei Xuan scratched his head, pondering whether it would be simpler to transform the basement into an ice chamber. At least, he wouldn’t have to worry about digging a large pit only to have it collapse later.
Though it would be wasteful to individually remodel each room with steel plates, he had to consider that connecting all the basements might compromise the stability of the building and cause other problems.
After contemplating the matter, Wei Xuan realized it wasn’t as straightforward as he initially thought. He decided that he would go out and find some books on the subject.
Although he hadn’t studied architecture, he was sure he could find relevant books in the city’s bookstores. If small bookstores didn’t have them, bigger ones surely would. And if even the larger bookstores didn’t have them, he could visit some universities in t city, as the city did have several universities from before the apocalypse. Some of them were prestigious institutions, and he was bound to find relevant resources in one of them.
Since he was planning to visit the lunatic’s place in a few days, Wei Xuan decided that he would look for the books with Du Hang’s help during that trip. If they couldn’t find any, he could consider other options.
Putting this matter aside for now, the steel plates and foam containers could stay in the apartment complex for a while without any problems, Wei Xuan decided to focus on other tasks.
He got up and headed to the living room, with Du Hang obediently following. Wei Xuan inspected the cultivation machine carefully and couldn’t help but smile with relief. Some of the grains he had planted were now fully mature.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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However, there was one significant difference between these crops and the previous ones, their growth period seemed to have become much longer. Let alone the ones that hadn’t matured yet, at least the rice’s harvest period had significantly slowed down compared to before.
Before the apocalypse, he could grow rice at least twice a year, even thrice during the favorable seasons with a controlled temperature in the cultivation machine. However, now it had been over half a year, and they had just started to mature.
“It seems that not all crops have shorter growth cycles after the apocalypse…” Wei Xuan recalled his life in the base before the apocalypse. If most crops had longer growth periods, it explained why the base heavily promoted the cultivation of potatoes and carrots – quick-growing, high-yield, and less demanding on the environment.
Opening the glass door, Wei Xuan harvested the seemingly mature rice and peanuts and started his experiment. He had no intentions of digging a cellar or ice chamber today since he wasn’t planning to go out immediately.
Instead, he poured all his enthusiasm into researching these food items, but he was disappointed to find that he wasn’t sure if these grains and peanuts he had tampered with could replace staple foods. Moreover, from what he had made so far, the taste wasn’t great… it was even worse than the potatoes he grew.
Enduring the unpleasant taste was one thing, but what frustrated him more was the extremely low yield. He had carefully hand-pollinated these crops when they were in the flowering stage, but when they bore fruit, they only yielded a few grains, and the taste was nothing impressive.
Shifting his gaze back to the cultivation machine, Wei Xuan could only pin his hopes on the few plants that he couldn’t recognize without the labels attached, crops like adzuki beans and sorghum, which had numerous flower buds.
For now, he could only hope that at least one or two staple foods would emerge, even if their growth cycles were slow, he could wait.
Wei Xuan’s grand farming venture was temporarily dealt a harsh blow by the unyielding reality. After sighing for a while, he put the matter aside. After all, during the three years of the apocalypse in his previous life, the large base hadn’t managed to make any breakthroughs in this area, so he couldn’t expect to find any significant conclusions by himself in less than two years.
So, after resting for two days, Wei Xuan set out again with Du Hang. Or rather, after resting for two days, Du Hang carried Wei Xuan out again.
Their destination was still the same shop where the two madmen exchanged messages, and as before, they left before dawn. When they arrived at the shop, just as they climbed the stairs and caught a glimpse of the situation in the second-floor room, Wei Xuan immediately deduced that the two guys had definitely been there!
“What the heck is this?” Wei Xuan stopped on the stairs, feeling an urge to turn around and leave. However, reason overcame emotions, and he resisted the immediate thought of heading back home. He continued up the stairs.
In the second-floor room, there was an extraordinarily conspicuous item. Conspicuous was an understatement, it practically occupied more than half of the room, how could it not be conspicuous!!
“An antler? No, this is much larger than an ordinary antler, and the shape is different… more like the antlers of those reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh!” Wei Xuan couldn’t recall the name of the reindeer at the moment, but he was quite familiar with such an antler.
Such a huge thing was just lying there in the room, almost sticking out of the window on one end, while the remaining part stretched out and nearly touched the ceiling. Wei Xuan couldn’t fathom how those two guys managed to bring it here!
Fortunately, there was only one antler without another one or a deer head to scare people away, otherwise, Wei Xuan would probably never enter this room again.
But having just one antler practically spanning the entire room’s diagonal axis made Wei Xuan wonder just how big this deer had been.
Taking a deep breath and carefully bypassing the dangerous object, Wei Xuan arrived at the place where the notebooks were piled. He quickly grabbed the newest one on top and began to read it attentively.
“…They actually said this thing is a goat?” Wei Xuan turned to glance at the antler, almost poking his nose, and then returned to reading the notebook with a twitching mouth.
Aside from the disorderly and emotional content about their zombie wives and sons they didn’t want to take outside for fear of frightening other creatures, the recent activities of these two guys were quite simple.
In short, they went to a villa base and successfully exchanged some items, which included the energy conversion device Wei Xuan had mentioned earlier. Another significant discovery was the prototype of the antler beside Wei Xuan…
Silently and with a touch of speechlessness, Wei Xuan glanced at the antler beside him and then back at the written content in the notebook. The Fire Lady claimed that her son liked eating goat meat, so when they arrived at the villa base and found this “goat” nearby, she asked the people there to help her kill it and bring it back.
Just imagining the expressions of the people in that base when she asked for the “goat” made Wei Xuan chuckle inwardly. Well, he couldn’t blame himself for being inconsiderate, after all, he had also been dubbed “Potato” by these two guys.
Completely devoid of any comrade love, Wei Xuan stuffed the notebook back into his backpack. There was still a lot of content and various miscellaneous plotlines in there, and he decided to read it like a fantasy novel once he brought it back. After a brief search, he discovered the energy conversion devices hidden in the shadows of the antler.
Originally, these items should have been quite noticeable after the two guys took away the equipment he had stacked here before. However, this time, the room was filled with the enormous antler, so Wei Xuan naturally couldn’t spot these items right away when he came upstairs.
He packed these items into their backpacks first. But Wei Xuan was now puzzled about how to take the massive antler with him.
There was no way around it, the size of this thing was a bit too large! Even if Du Hang could carry it, how could he carry it while holding Wei Xuan or the energy conversion device? Besides, even if they managed to bring it back, where would he put it?
“Is this thing edible?” Wei Xuan tapped the antler with his hand, feeling its hard texture as if it were knocking on a fossil or a bone. Wei Xuan knew that deer antlers could be used for medicinal purposes, but what about this kind of deer antler? Was it edible?
For the current Wei Xuan, he’d prefer if those two guys gave him a piece of deer meat instead of this antler! But, who asked her son to like goats? Getting a deer antler was already quite good!
Wei Xuan looked at this gigantic thing, feeling more troubled than ever, and his determination to visit a bookstore immediately grew stronger, he had to check if there were any books about this thing and find out if it was edible!
For the present Wei Xuan, there weren’t many things that could improve his quality of life, but different types of food would definitely spark his interest.
Are antlers edible? Medicine? Well, some say not good for dogs to chew.
I think the velvet from when the antlers aren’t completely grown yet is the only thing that has a reasonable medical value. (In traditional medicine)
Its mostly calcium, ground up it would be nutritious, like adding bone meal to food and even soil.
… wtf are you supposed to do with an antler. Even it’s medicinal use in TCM is dubious at best.
Also, Du Hang is slowly mentally returning to being human, and Wei Xuan seems to be slowly physically turning into a zombie while retaining his mental functions.
Thank you for the update!
Maybe you could make glue out of it?
What if it was a goat with deer antlers? ponders
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR BEING AWESOME!!!!
That’s possible, after all, everything mutated… just that the Chinese word for goat and sheep is one and the same.
There was a zoo near that villa so it should be a mutated deer🤔
Antelope?
Zombie chew toys? No marrow so not good for flavoring soup… pfft. Thanks for tha chapter 🤣❤️🤣❤️
Thanks for the chapter! New weapon? lol
I’m surprised that WX’s thinking if antlers are edible, instead of the more obvious thought about how antlers can be made into weapons! Or a defensive fence or something.
I agree. For sure it would be a very good club. Just go bonking at every enemy. Or a very good hammer.
Crazy, but creative
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚