Chapter 129: Shen Que, the Watermelons Are Ready to Eat
"By the way." Meng Ci suddenly remembered that his space could be used for growing vegetables, so he led Shen Que out of the house.
"Shen Que, from now on, all the physical labor will be your responsibility."
In the ten minutes since Shen Que entered Meng Ci's space, he had been utterly astonished.
After all, before his rebirth, there were several people who had awakened with spatial abilities, but Shen Que had never heard of anyone whose space had a preservation function, let alone one that could accommodate people.
Moreover, seeing the items stored in the space only added to his shock.
Considering that the Meng family was the richest in M City, it wasn't surprising they could afford such things.
As for Shen Que himself, he only had some severance pay and the money he had saved over the years, which he used to buy essential supplies.
Other materials were obtained through zero-cost purchases outside.
Due to the limited size of the space, Shen Que had only stockpiled necessities.
However, when he saw the vegetables growing in the space, Shen Que was even more surprised.
"These vegetables were planted by me over the past few days."
"In my space, ordinary leafy greens usually take about ten days to mature."
"Vegetables like eggplants and peppers, which need to flower and bear fruit, take about twenty days to be ready."
Seeing the watermelons in the field had grown large, Meng Ci quickly ran away from Shen Que.
Then, he squatted down next to the nearest watermelon and patted it.
"Shen Que, the watermelons are ripe!"
Looking at Meng Ci's sparkling eyes, Shen Que thought he looked just like an eggplant eager for food.
Meng Ci continued to explain that while the space could grow vegetables, it required manually obtaining soil from the pile and using the endless supply of snow nearby.
Since Shen Que was already inside, Meng Qi naturally couldn't let him leave without doing something.
So Meng Ci directed Shen Que to dig and plant, calling it a form of exercise.
Shen Que had no objections and began planting under Meng Ci's guidance.
This time, Meng Ci sowed two bags of watermelon seeds, planning to save them for the hottest days after they matured.
While Shen Que was digging, Meng Ci ran to find a fruit knife and sat on the ground, splitting the watermelon in half.
Originally, Meng Ci wanted to smash the watermelon on the ground to split it, but then he thought it might get dirty if it stuck to the soil.
In the post-apocalyptic world, fruits were still very precious.
He called Shen Que over to eat together.
After a couple of bites, Meng Ci finished his piece of watermelon.
Looking at the watermelon rind in his hand, he thought, "I'll give this to the eggplant later."
Meng Ci checked the time; they had been in the space for nearly two hours. He decided to leave with Shen Que.
When they emerged, Shen Que was still holding a hoe, looking bewildered.
"Snap out of it!" Meng Ci saw Shen Que standing there in a daze and waved his hand in front of him.
Shen Que looked at the hoe in his hand, then at Meng Ci.
"What do I do with this?"
Meng Ci hadn't thought much about it when he brought Shen Que out of the space. Seeing the hoe in Shen Que's hand, he realized his mistake and quickly put it back into the space.
"Ao wu, ao wu!"
The eggplant, seeing its owners reappear and noticing that Meng Ci had something tasty in his hand, hurried over and barked.
Well, well, since the master had brought it something to eat, it would forgive him for leaving it behind this time.
Meng Ci poured the watermelon rinds from the bag into the eggplant's feeding dish.
Of course, he didn't let it eat only the rinds; he also cut up the remaining half of the watermelon for the eggplant.
It was already around eight o'clock. Thinking they needed to go to the exchange in the morning, Shen Que heated the bed and wiped himself down. The two of them then went to bed and fell asleep.
The next morning, Meng Ci openly took out two bowls of tofu pudding, two whole grain pancakes, a plate of shredded lemon chicken, and a plate of bean curd and enoki mushrooms from the space.
On the stove, there was a pot of porridge that Shen Que had prepared upon waking up.
In the post-apocalyptic world, although they only ate two meals a day, each meal was quite substantial.
After eating, they checked the time; it was almost noon. They attached warm packs to their bodies, dressed warmly, and then went out.
Outside, Zhang Mingtian and the others were already waiting. After exchanging greetings, they carried the tiger downstairs.
The route to the exchange was originally flat.
However, due to the snow cleared from the exchange being piled around, the area became a low point.
Thus, pulling the tiger there felt like climbing a mountain, and everyone was panting heavily by the time they arrived.
Fortunately, once they reached the top, it was all downhill from there. They just needed to secure the raft and the tiger together, and a few of them could pull to prevent it from slipping.
At the bottom of the slope, it would still take another half an hour to reach the trading post.
Along the way, residents who saw Meng Ci and his group pulling the tiger were amazed beyond words.
Those who were not busy quietly followed behind, curious to see how much food this tiger could fetch.
Upon arriving at the official trading point, soldiers who saw the tiger they were pulling hurried over to help.
And when Lu Chen heard that someone had killed a tiger, he also came out.
In recent days, others had killed fierce beasts, but they were mostly smaller wild boars.
The tiger, however, was the first.
Seeing that the leaders were Meng Ci and Shen Que, Lu Chen felt a sense of certainty that only they could have caught the tiger.
"Captain Lu." Meng Ci greeted him first upon seeing Lu Chen.
Lu Chen nodded, standing aside as the soldiers brought over a scale and an iron plate.
"Do you two have any interest in joining the security team?" Lu Chen suddenly asked Meng Ci and Shen Que beside him.
Meng Ci refused without hesitation, "No interest."
"Wouldn't you like to think about it?"
"Moreover, with your skills, and my recommendation, your treatment would definitely be the same as our soldiers," Lu Chen continued to persuade.
The security team not only included those who patrolled outside like Zhang Mingtian, but also a group of people who, due to their exceptional skills, received special training from Lu Chen.
If they performed well later on, they could be promoted to become soldiers.
Shen Que had mentioned before that in his previous life, he became a soldier because of his outstanding performance.
A soldier's duty is to protect the people.
So Shen Que devoted himself to protecting ordinary people who had not awakened their abilities, only to be betrayed by the very humans he protected, who pushed him into the zombies.
Thus, after being reborn, Shen Que only planned to stockpile supplies and protect himself.
If not for meeting Meng Ci, he might still be fighting alone.
Meng Ci knew that Shen Que did not want to join the security team, and he himself did not like being constrained, so he refused again.
"Thank you for your kind offer, Captain Lu, but neither of us likes being bound."
"We go out to find food when we run out, and stay at home when we have enough."
"So, Captain Lu, please don't try to persuade us anymore."
Since they had spoken so clearly, Lu Chen did not press further, but he left a message that if they ever wanted to join the security team in the future, they could find him.