I'm Hoarding for the Apocalypse

Du Yue stood on Field No. 90 and stepped on the field under her feet. The ground was as hard as a suet road. She really doubted if she could dig it with a hoe. Xia Ju, who was usually chattering, was unusually quiet along the way. She walked down the field and dug hard with the hoe. The hoe only managed to dig up the topmost layer of soil. Xia Ju did not give up and wanted to continue swinging the hoe, but Du Yue stopped her. “Stop digging.”

Xia Ju straightened up and looked at Du Yue in confusion. “If we don’t dig quickly, we might not be able to finish.”

“I said stop digging, but I didn’t say that we’re done.”

Xia Ju still did not understand. “So are we going to do it or not?”

Looking at Xia Ju’s confused expression, Du Yue suddenly felt that she was quite interesting. “Do you know when you’re the cutest? It’s when you occasionally act foolishly. Follow me.”

“Where are we going?” Xia Ju asked when she saw He Xing and Du Yue walking back the way they came.

As they walked back to the office, they saw the old man walking out. When the old man saw the three of them coming over, he did not look surprised at all. “Why are you back? You don’t want to work anymore?”

He Xing walked forward and took out a box of cigarettes from his pocket. He handed one over with a smile. “Of course, I want to do it, but the tools are a little inconvenient. I want to ask you where I can rent some suitable tools.”

When the old man spoke, his teeth were all yellow. It was obvious that he had smoked a lot before. Seeing the cigarette He Xing handed over, the old man’s muddled eyes instantly lit up. He took it and placed it on the tip of his nose to sniff it carefully a few times before he slowly said, “There’s a way to work in the fields. If the three mu of land is plowed with a tiller, it’ll take about half an hour. As for the broken stones and grass in the ground, if it’s just the three of you, you probably won’t be able to finish picking them up even if you die of exhaustion. However, if you can find a hundred or 80 people to pick them up together, it’ll take at most three hours to clean everything up.

“Moreover, I can also help you break up the big pieces of soil in the ground. It’ll save you the trouble of doing it yourself.”

Xia Ju was helpless. “But where can we find a tiller and so many people?”

“The rent for the tiller is two catties of grain per hour. Three catties of grain will definitely be enough for your three mu of land. As for manpower, there’s a team in the base that specializes in this. They charge two catties of grain for one mu of land, so three mu of land is six catties of grain.”

Xia Ju understood. “So, although the base said that we can stay in the base if we partake in the labor, we still have to spend some money if we can’t finish the work…”

Before Xia Ju could finish, Du Yue covered her mouth. “She doesn’t understand. Please don’t mind her.”

This kind of thing could not be exposed so outright. It was not good for everyone if it was exposed. The old man looked at Du Yue with satisfaction. “You might not be able to finish it even if you work yourself to death. Spending some money will save you some trouble. If you want to find people and machines, I can help you contact them. But if you want to do it yourself, then…”

The old man stopped, but Du Yue understood what he meant. If they were to do it themselves, they might not be able to finish it even if they worked themselves to death.

“We’ll get help!” He Xing immediately made the decision. “Of course, we want to find others to help us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have come to you to ask. We’ll go to our car to get the food now. I’ll have to trouble you to contact the people you know.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s no trouble.”

He Xing said to Du Yue, “You two go and get the food. I’ll wait here for them.”

Du Yue nodded and dragged Xia Ju to the parking lot. After walking for some distance, Xia Ju said, “The base said that newcomers can stay if they participate in three days of labor. The work assigned to them can definitely be completed in three days. Otherwise, why would anyone come to the base? I think that old man did it on purpose just now. He arranged an impossible task for us!”

Looking at Xia Ju’s indignant expression, Du Yue nodded. “That’s right, he did it on purpose. However, he has the power given to him by this position. As for whether he uses this power for personal gain or self-interest, we can’t control it.

“All we can do is finish our work and stay here. The officials of the base might not be completely unaware. They might just be too lazy to care..”