Chapter 243: Rain Can Cause Lung Disease
There was a knock at the door.
Not long after Zheng Yan took the condoms back, Meng Ci heard the sound.
When he opened the door, he saw Lin Jun and Zheng Yan standing outside, with Lin Jun holding a bag in his hand.
Judging by the appearance, it seemed to be the condoms that had been given away earlier.
"Is there something wrong?" Meng Ci asked.
Lin Jun handed the bag to Meng Ci, saying, "These things are too valuable; we need to reconsider the distribution of the goods."
Meng Ci raised an eyebrow, confused.
"Zheng Yan said that the goods exchanged from these should be divided seven for you and three for us, but I don't think it's appropriate."
"We are just middlemen, running errands for some extra cash. We think 30% is too much. We'd only take 10%."
"If you agree, I'll take this back to handle. If not, you can take it back."
Zheng Yan, like a quail, stood behind Lin Jun. He did have his eyes on the goods and felt guilty towards his big brother.
Meng Ci said, "No need."
"We can't use these things, and they're just trash lying around here."
"I gave them to you outright and didn't plan to take any share. If you don't accept them, just throw them away."
Hearing this, Zheng Yan's eyes widened!
Wow, Big Brother is really generous. Does he even realize how much food these condoms could be traded for? To just throw them away would be such a waste.
Lin Jun frowned but stuck to his opinion, "No, we can't accept these. If you're going to throw them away, you should do it yourself."
"Big brother, we definitely can't take these for free." While Zheng Yan was greedy, he wasn't trying to take advantage of anyone—just looking out for himself.
When Zheng Yan first saw the bag of condoms, he got so excited that he grabbed them without thinking.
Now, having calmed down, Zheng Yan realized that what he did was wrong.
He couldn't justify taking things for free.
Noticing their stubbornness, Meng Ci, upon seeing Shen Que returning with a bucket of water, suggested, "How about this? Lin Jun, don't you know someone who can dig wells? Ask him to come over and check if there's a suitable spot in our yard to dig a well. Help us dig a well."
"Then find some sand, cement, and other materials to help us turn the ground into a cement floor."
"Consider this bag of condoms as payment for the work. What do you say?"
Shen Que, seeing Lin Jun and the others blocking the door, quickened his pace back and asked what was happening.
After listening, Shen Que had no objections to Meng Ci's proposal.
"This bag of condoms is the reward for digging the well and cementing the floor."
"If you don't accept it, someone else surely will."
Having a well in the yard would save them from having to go out and trade for water every day.
The ground work was just an additional task.
Moreover, the ground was dirt, and the dust from people coming and going was too much; the house was getting dirtier every day.
Lin Jun hesitated for a moment.
Zheng Yan, hearing this, quickly said, "Big brother, we'll take it, we'll take it."
If you feel like you're losing out, big brother, we can make up for it with something else.
This bag can't fall into the wrong hands.
After Zheng Yan agreed, Lin Jun hesitated but eventually accepted the bag.
A few hours later, they came back with a middle-aged guy, each carrying a bunch of tools.
This must be the well-drilling expert.
Lin Jun assisted the expert, while Zheng Yan kicked a backpack and mysteriously called Meng Ci into the house, then crouched down to open the backpack.
Meng Ci's eyes widened at the sight of what was inside.
"Big brother, my boss said we can't let you take a loss."
"This bag of gold, is it enough?"
"If it's not enough, we have more where that came from."
In the past two years of the apocalypse, Lin Jun had accumulated quite a bit of gold through buying and selling, so he went back and packed a bag full of it.
Meng Ci, looking at the bag of gold, was incredibly surprised!
These gold bars would have been worth tens of millions before the apocalypse.
"It's enough," Meng Ci said.
Hearing this, Zheng Yan's face showed a look of relief.
Good thing, or we'd have had to lug more stuff from home, which would have been a pain.
Fortunately, the expert found that there was likely water about 30 to 40 meters underground, near the wall of the yard.
Thus, workers came in over the next few days to drill the well.
Meng Ci had stashed all the important items in his space, so no one could tell anything was missing.
And Lin Jun and Zheng Yan had already instructed the workers not to enter the house. Plus, Zheng Yan, having nothing to do all day, sat on the front steps to help supervise the workers.
Eagle and Qie Zi were also keeping an eye on the workers, so Meng Ci and Shen Que weren't worried about the workers entering the house.
On the third day after the well and the ground were completed, rain fell.
It wasn't rain; it was a dust storm.
The sky gradually turned gray, and the grayness carried a hint of red, as if stained with blood, appearing extremely eerie.
Suddenly, countless dense particles fell from the sky like a gray drizzle.
More than two hours had passed, and a thick layer of dust had accumulated on the ground.
The residents of the base noticed that something was amiss and panicked, rushing back to their homes and tightly shutting doors and windows, fearing that the dust would enter their rooms.
However, some people ran more slowly or lived farther away, especially those residing outside the base. Due to inhaling large amounts of dust, they began to feel extreme discomfort in their nasal passages and started coughing uncontrollably.
As time went on, their discomfort intensified, and they realized that the dust seemed to have entered their lungs, causing them unbearable distress.
Those who still had water at home quickly soaked clothes in it and covered their mouths and noses, hoping to alleviate the pain.
Meng Ci and Shen Que also stayed at home. Seeing the situation outside, they immediately understood the severity of the matter.
The two quickly took out masks from their spatial storage and put them on to protect themselves from the dust.
Earlier, Shen Que had mentioned that there would be such a dust storm, so Meng Ci and he had modified the masks and fitted them for the two animals as well.
Shen Que had also mentioned this in his letter to the authorities, but due to the scarcity of materials for making masks in this post-apocalyptic world, the authorities were unable to produce a large number of high-quality masks.
However, they had prepared a batch of masks in advance, which were distributed to the residents by the military.
The main reason was that this dust storm, while not fatal, could cause lung diseases in those who inhaled the dust.
As for whether these lung diseases would worsen after the apocalypse ended, Shen Que did not know.
But it was best to avoid inhaling the dust if possible.
Therefore, Meng Ci took Shen Que into the spatial realm, staying there for seventy-two hours before coming out.
By then, the dust storm was nearly over.
Both humans and animals kept their masks on, and only when the sky outside gradually cleared did they feel relieved.
However, they did not rush to remove their masks and waited until the next day before leaving their house.