RIACMET chapter 57

 

That evening, as Cheng Jing was preparing dinner, Li Kaiyun called again and invited everyone over.

He said that they had all been busy lately, but now that things had finally settled down, it would be good to get together. Of course, no one turned down the invitation.

At the dinner table, Li Kaiyun told them that Xiaoya had registered her identity and enrolled in the base management school. She would start classes the next day.

He didn’t mention that they wouldn’t be able to contact her in the future. For the time being, that part of the situation was kept hidden from Xiaoya and anyone else who wasn’t in the know.

Xiaoya seemed to be in a good mood. Li Shuhui and Huang Qian reminded her to study hard and said they would visit her when they had the chance.

Meanwhile, Jiang Nian and the others learned that Li Kaiyun and Li Liang had joined the base security team. They were now responsible for maintaining public order along the commercial street near the west gate.

Judging by their expressions, it was clear that they had chosen the west gate on purpose, probably with Li Sheng’s help.

Li Shuhui was working in the rescue center’s logistics department as a warehouse keeper, a relatively easy job.

With everyone’s work situation finally settled, Jiang Nian felt relieved and planned to rent a shop the next day.

After all, this was the start of something new.

…

By trading supplies and with the generous support of his teammates, who had already received their salaries, Jiang Nian managed to gather a considerable number of points.

The next morning, while Cheng Jing and the others went to the command center for training, Jiang Nian drove an electric scooter to the base market management office to sign a lease contract.

The base had unified rental rules: one deposit and one payment upfront, which was meant to help survivors get established more easily.

The monthly rent for a stall was 300 points.

For a shop kiosk, the monthly rent was 3,000 points. Combined with the deposit and first payment, that came to 6,000 points. Electricity followed standard rules, while water usage required a prepaid water card.

The kiosk was approximately 40 square meters, with a ceiling height of around five meters. It had a smaller front area, a larger back area, and a private bathroom.

A circular skylight, about one meter wide, was built over the rear half of the space and covered with special transparent, heat-insulating material.

Due to the high ceiling, a loft could be built for extra storage or living space, but Jiang Nian didn’t want to do that. Instead, he planned to add reinforced insulation. The extreme heat was no joke.

The kiosk was located in the first row to the left when exiting the west gate. Right across the square was a security post.

Even putting everything else aside, Jiang Nian was satisfied knowing he’d be safe there. If he ran into Li Liang and the others on duty, he could stop by to chat.

He did some rough calculations. If he fully renovated the place, the cost of labor and materials alone would be about 20,000 points at current base prices.

The shop wouldn’t just be a place for him to stay; it also needed to be comfortable enough for his teammates to hang out there. The second phase of the renovations would have to be designed with that in mind.

It’s either do it properly, or don’t do it at all. That was his principle.

After signing the lease, Jiang Nian went to the job market near the west gate that day to look for a renovation team.

He explained his requirements, negotiated the price, paid the deposit, and signed the work contract.

They would start work the next morning.

Jiang Nian never considered doing the renovations himself. He knew his limitations, and he believed that professional work should be left to professionals.

All he had to do was specify what he wanted and monitor the progress. He spent the rest of his time cruising around on his scooter.

Besides going to the grocery store, there was one more thing he needed to take care of quickly:

Renting farmland.

Otherwise, all of the seeds he had bought would go to waste.

After a few days of asking around, Jiang Nian found out that—

Just like in his previous life at this stage, none of the country’s research institutes had developed soil purification or improvement formulas yet.

Therefore, there simply wasn’t any clean farmland available to rent at Nancheng Base.

The only option was to lease the planned farmland in the abandoned outer zone.

This farmland was intended for integrated planting and breeding:

In clearly marked plots, tenants could grow crops and raise animals. Each plot ranged from one mu[mfn]“Mu” (亩 / 畝) is a traditional Chinese unit of area. 1 mu ≈ 666.7 square meters (m²) 10 mu ≈ 6,666.7 square meters (m²)[/mfn] to ten mu.

There was plenty of empty land, and the layout was decent. For now, though, the only breeding facilities were a few sheds that the base had built, where soldiers kept chickens, ducks, and pigs.

The farmland itself was barren and deserted, with not even a trace of green.

After the apocalypse, seeds of all kinds were scarce, and the base wasn’t about to waste them on contaminated soil.

Currently, vegetables and fruits were only grown in specialized nutrient greenhouses belonging to research institutes in the central zone, which made them extremely expensive.

To encourage survivors to lease farmland, the base set the rent extremely low, but basically no one was interested.

Jiang Nian wanted to rent one of these plots while the lease was cheap so he could grow vegetables.

Agriculture and livestock have always been the foundation of civilization, no matter the era.

With a little shop and a vegetable garden, he could enjoy a peaceful life in the countryside, even in the apocalypse.

He sat in a lounge chair, wearing a straw hat he’d bought from an old woman’s stall and chewing on a little pudding, watching the decorators at work.

Jiang Nian crossed his legs and tapped his foot happily.

…

The temperature kept rising, and the sun was blinding. There was no rain or wind, just a relentless heat.

Because Jiang Nian rode his scooter everywhere wearing a sun-protection jacket, Cheng Jing left the Hummer for him and started using another off-road vehicle allocated by the base.

Thus, Jiang Nian went from riding a small scooter to driving a Hummer around the base.

While most people looked worn out and miserable, Jiang Nian seemed to have turned into a stylish young man:

He was well-dressed, pale-skinned, soft-looking, and picky about what he ate every day.

In the past few days especially, since Cheng Jing had just started working and was too busy to make it home for dinner, Jiang Nian’s eating habits had become even more relaxed.

Since the new team was in the familiarization phase, Cheng Jing and the others spent half the day training and the other half patrolling the base.

As a result, they often ran into Jiang Nian on patrol. He would pop up out of nowhere, as if he were running around the map in a game.

Beep beep—

In the eight-seater patrol vehicle, a familiar honk sounded from behind. Tang Yi, the driver that day, smiled and pulled the car over.

A moment later, the Hummer stopped beside them.

Jiang Nian, wearing sunglasses and a short-sleeved white shirt, leaned halfway out the window and held out a bag of popsicles.

“Here, let me help you all cool off.”

The patrol officers were fully armed and sweating profusely in the heat.

He reminded himself to tell them to use prickly heat powder or something similar as a precaution. The heat itself wasn’t scary, but getting a rash would definitely ruin your mood.

Cheng Jing glanced at the two top buttons undone on Jiang Nian’s shirt. As he reached out to take the bag, he pinched his fingertips. He asked,

“Where are you going now?”

Such a reckless man.

“I’m going to check out the farmland development plans.”

Jiang Nian replied, rubbing the back of Cheng Jing’s hand with his thumb.

Unfortunately, Cheng Jing couldn’t feel it because he was wearing gloves.

“Thank you, Brother Nian…”

“Thanks…”

“Thank you for your hard work, Godfather.”

“…”

Grateful voices came one after another, and Jiang Nian waved his hand dismissively.

“All right, hurry up and eat them before they melt. I’m off—see you later.”

With that, he rolled up the window, stepped on the gas, and left behind nothing but his dashing figure and a swirling cloud of dust.