Chapter 333: Farm Daily Life 5

Ronan Kendrick lowered his gaze to Evelyn Ford. "You have me. I can help you with anything."

Evelyn Ford wrapped her arms around Ronan Kendrick’s waist. "Ronan, it’s so good to have you."

Those were the very words Ronan wanted to say to her, too.

The rice in her space needed harvesting. As soon as her consciousness entered, Evelyn took out a thresher and a sickle.

The rice was thriving. She had planted five mu in total. The heads of grain were large, and every kernel was plump. Each mu could yield around a thousand kilograms.

The rice had to be harvested by hand, so she could only manage to clear half a mu in a single night.

The seedlings in the farm’s greenhouse were also doing alright, but their growth was slow. They had only started growing a little bigger with the recent appearance of the sun.

There was still quite a bit of the napa cabbage they had brought back from Tarr City. Everyone had made some pickled vegetables and kimchi. After eating coarse grains and noodles every day, they could finally improve their diet a little.

When she emerged from the space, Evelyn was utterly exhausted. Even though she was only working in her conscious form, the labor was draining both mentally and physically.

"I should have stockpiled a harvester."

"Tarr City should have harvesters. Next time we go to trade for supplies, we’ll get one," Ronan said, rubbing Evelyn’s sore wrist.

"Yes, we definitely need to get a harvester. And a rice transplanter, too."

They chatted for a little while before Evelyn fell asleep. Ronan gave a resigned smile and pulled her into his embrace.

"Good night."

The next day, everyone’s enthusiasm for work had clearly increased. When Evelyn went to the chicken coop, even Taylor Vance and Zion Lowell were chatting about what to watch on TV that night.

The three patrol guards came by for their antidote. When they learned that people on the farm could watch TV at night, they actually sought Evelyn out and asked if they could work there.

"Aren’t you patrol guards assigned by the military?"

The three patrol guards looked absolutely miserable. Other patrol guards got to live the high life, but they had nearly been shot and killed, and now they were poisoned.

"There’s no rule from our superiors saying patrol guards can’t do other work. Besides, this job is incredibly risky. If we weren’t afraid of being punished, we would have quit long ago. Miss Ford, please just let us become official workers on the farm. We’re not asking for anything else, we just want to watch TV too."

Evelyn was speechless.

"Miss Ford, what happened before was our fault. We’ve turned over a new leaf and we won’t dare spout nonsense again. Besides, we’ve been on our best behavior lately. I think you should give us a chance."

"You should just stick to maintaining order in Fairgate. I hear the refugees there are always giving you food in exchange for protection. By all accounts, you shouldn’t be short on things to eat."

The first guard asked, "So, can we come in to watch TV?"

Evelyn shook her head. "No."

The second guard chimed in, "Miss Ford, we can come over in shifts. We promise you, we’ll do an excellent job maintaining security from now on. In all of Fairgate, there will be absolutely no thievery, no human trafficking, and no looting."

’They’re really going all out just to watch some TV.’

Evelyn raised an eyebrow, scrutinizing the three of them. "When your superiors ask about the situation in Fairgate, what do you tell them?"

The third guard declared, "Miss Ford, from now on, Fairgate is our home. We will do everything in our power to protect it."

Evelyn rolled her eyes.

"If the three of you dare to run your mouths, you can say goodbye to your tongues."

"Understood, understood! So, can we come in to watch TV?"

Evelyn’s face was blank. "That’s not for me to decide. It’s no use talking to me about it."

Evelyn couldn’t understand it. ’How do these three still have the nerve to approach me?’

The refugees from Fairgate brought firewood every day to trade for goods. Evelyn put Chet Lawrence in charge of the exchanges. Since more and more people were coming to trade, Officer Graham and the others hadn’t needed to go out and chop firewood or branches for a while now.

Evelyn was now pouring all her energy into the chicken coop and the greenhouse. To prevent any outbreaks of poultry disease, the entire area, inside and out, had to be disinfected with wood ash.

The refugees’ lives were incredibly difficult. People frequently starved or died from sickness. In the shadows, crime continued to fester. People themselves were a massive breeding ground for germs—the more contact one had, the more pathogens one was exposed to. Disinfection had to be meticulous.

Although the temperature still hovered at thirty-five degrees below zero, you could feel a faint warmth when the sun was out. To wash their clothes, they had set up a laundry room and would dry everything indoors. To conserve water, the farm had a rule: everyone could only do a major load of laundry once a week.

While tidying up, Evelyn discovered that she and Ronan had also accumulated a lot of dirty clothes in her space. She decided it was time for her own major laundry session. She moved the generator and washing machines next to the well, and with several machines running at once, she finished everything in a single afternoon.

The gasoline and diesel they had scavenged from Mount Caldera added up to hundreds of tons, so Evelyn wasn’t worried about being wasteful. She hadn’t even touched the gasoline she’d stockpiled in her space before the apocalypse, and they had also scavenged plenty more fuel during their trip to Westeria.

At eight o’clock that evening, the others punctually appeared in the screening room to watch TV. Even two of the patrol guards showed up. Evelyn and Ronan, however, stayed home. They had to continue harvesting the rice and then plant the second crop.

Evelyn planned to sow tens of kilograms of Four Seasons Green seeds on the farm. Four Seasons Green could grow even in extremely cold regions; the plant wasn’t picky about the season or environment. Compared to tree branches, fresh grass would be much easier for the livestock to chew.

The seeds were a second-generation, improved version harvested from the safe zone. The resulting plants should be much sturdier and more lush.

Evelyn gave the task of sowing the seeds to Peter Owens. In the next few days, two of the red deer were due to give birth, adding even more to Evelyn’s workload.

The thorny fruit bushes and blueberry bushes she had dug up on her travels had all been planted in her space. The few red fruit trees—the ones that had saved Wendy and Officer Graham—had also sprouted. Evelyn thought that if she grafted and cultivated them, the fruit might have even greater medicinal value.

In a corner of the cabin was a huge glass tank, inside which lived a dense swarm of bee-tailed venomous scorpions. If her space could sustain living animals, Evelyn would have moved them in there long ago. When Wyatt Vaughn had come looking for her once, the sight of the scorpions had nearly scared him to death.

"I just remembered something."

Just before bed, Evelyn smacked her forehead in frustration.

"Remember all that rotting wood we picked up on our travels? I was planning to use it to cultivate mushrooms, but I got so busy I completely forgot. I have to get on that tomorrow."

"Where are you going to cultivate them?"

Evelyn thought for a moment. "I’ll start by putting them next to the well in the cultivation area of my space. Being near a water source should make it easier for mycelium to grow on the rotting wood. I’ll have to do some research, though. I don’t know much about this."

’I should have stockpiled some commercial mushroom spawn kits. We still have a lot of the desert mushrooms we dug up in the safe zone, but mushrooms aren’t plants—you can’t just graft them.’

"Button mushrooms could work too. I’ll look up some information tomorrow and see if I can find a cultivation method."