Chapter 2: Busy Farming in the Last Days

His nerves were tense for too long, and being able to return to a relaxed environment without having to be on high alert felt unreal.

Ji Cha took off his clothes and stood in front of the mirror. The young man’s chest was thin, and there were abdominal muscles vaguely visible on his lower abdomen with no heavy scars. Even when he saw himself in the mirror, he was stunned, he couldn’t see the exhaustion that had built up over the years.

Ji Cha would still be a young man with a lot of time on his hands if it weren’t for the end of the world.

But if those ten years were just a long nightmare, why are the details in the dream so vivid? The despair and pain of succumbing to the pressure of survival, the numbness of death and the vagueness of survival, can almost drain a person’s vitality in the blink of an eye.

In the five years after the end of the world, he and Wang Qinxue tossed around and almost gave up their lives several times. After modern civilization was annihilated, the equality and moral laws that people once took for granted disappeared quickly. It is not uncommon for those with strong combat power to drive the old, the weak, the sick and the young to become slaves and either women or men to become their own personal possessions. Several large bases in the country that still remained in order were scattered around, and the rest of the small bases were concealed in the forests where they could be protected. According to the wishes of the leaders, the order in a base would have degraded to either a slave society or a feudal society.

Everyone has almost lost the bottom line in order to survive.

In the sixth year, the two of them finally found a place to stay in a large base in S City, where Ji Cha was originally from. There was an army base there before the end of the world. Although it was unused for a period of time in the later period, the base still maintained in a better order than the outside world. At least there, casual killing was not allowed, and women could still retain dignity.

The two were assigned to the farming department of ​​the S city base, which was already considered very lucky. After all, there was no danger farming, and they could still eat half full every day.

Ji Cha took out a T-shirt from the closet and put it on casually. He walked to the desk and picked up the wallet on top. There were a few red banknotes inside.

The summer vacation has already begun, and there are not many people in the school except those who have applied to stay.

Auntie Guan downstairs was holding a mobile phone to watch a drama. She caught a glimpse of Ji Cha coming down from the corner of her eye. She quickly pressed pause and said to him, “Ji Cha, were you not going to somewhere else? Why haven’t you left yet, do you know anyone leaving tomorrow? If you live here without applying for summer stay, the school will find out and blame me.”

“Un.” Looking at the middle-aged woman in front of him, Ji Cha was still in a very unreal trance. For the auntie, he just slept and went downstairs as usual, but for Ji Cha, it has been a long absence of ten years.

“Are you sick, why do you look pale?” Aunt Guan said. She bent over, took out half of a watermelon from under the table, and said carelessly, “If you are sick, you have to go to the doctor.”

The screen of the mobile phone was lightly clicked, the suspended scene was resumed, showing the love between a man and a woman dotted in an ordinary day.

Ji Cha stepped outside, the sun was scorching, just reaching the highest peak in the day, and occasionally, some people would walk by in a hurry.

Five minutes later, in the school supermarket.

Ji Cha stood in front of the rows of shelves. Although he was holding money in his hands, he felt a little clueless. Too many options – all so dazzling and colorful.

He subconsciously guarded against other students who passed by him. His stomach was empty, but the hunger emanated from his head, not his stomach, as the trance he had been in since waking up was finally diminished.

This kind of peaceful shopping, where no one fighting and looting for supplies, is something he hasn’t encountered for a long time. When Ji Cha picked up a shopping basket, it was difficult to resist the old habit of mopping up food at first sight.

The two girls next to him were surprised when he saw him. They hid on the side and whispered, “Isn’t that Ji Cha from the Chinese department?”

“What does he buy so much? Hahaha … “

He was suddenly a little nervous, but Ji Cha did not pay attention to them. Local news was being broadcasted on the high-hanging display in the middle of the supermarket. As soon as the scene of the dispute between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law changed, the announcer used a formulaic voice to report that the poaching activity became more and more intense. In one month, dozens of carcasses of endangered and protected animals were discovered.

The rotten and decayed pictures on the screen have been added with mosaics, but it still makes people feel vaguely disgusted.

“Oh, it’s so pitiful, the whole family of animals was killed by poaching!” Someone next to him discussed in a low voice, with an indignant tone.

As a result, Ji Cha’s eyes slowly warmed up.

Where is the behavior of poachers? It is just one of the signs before the end of the world arrives, but what could anyone do? The end of the world is unavoidable. Even if he is reborn at this time, the virus has already infiltrated the bodies of humans and animals through the air for an unknown period of time, and it will only cause a large-scale, unpredictable, and uncontrollable full-scale outbreak when it accumulates to a certain concentration.

Although Ji Cha didn’t know how he would return to the time before it all begins, one thing he knows for sure is that the apocalypse will inevitably come.

Ten minutes later, under the surprised eyes of the cashier, he walked out of the supermarket with four shopping bags that were almost exploded.

Ji Cha was eating along the road, and he couldn’t wait to return to the dormitory. Because of the habits developed in the last days, he dared not eat without worry in front of everyone. So, he went all the way to a small open space behind the music department building.

He has to make a good plan to make use of the remaining two months. Ji Cha does not want to live so tiredly again. He wants to at least ensure that he will have a safe home, and he will not go hungry again.

Before the end of the world, his two expectations appear to be too simple to be true, but after the end of the world, they are the extravagant desires of the majority of most people.

The music building has been empty for the last two days, and almost no one would come here unless to perform or practice, which is in line with Ji Cha’s expectations for safety.

After the end of the world, as long as it was not rotten food, it could be considered a good meal. If you could add a precious product like salt and cook it a little, it is equivalent to a feast in the New Year. He could almost feel the seasoned food in his hand dancing on his tongue.

After taking two bites, Ji Cha almost cried.

A person sitting in a mound of snacks, biting a plate in his mouth and crying with his palm on his face is a strange picture no matter who sees it whether it is man or woman, young or old, beautiful or ugly, fat or thin.

Ji Cha’s mobile phone vibrated twice, and a text message came, but it did not attract his immediate attention.

“So you came back just to see my yellow-haired?” Ji Cha suddenly heard a man’s stern voice. Judging from the direction the sound came from, the person could have been walking from the corner to this side of the road. Ji Cha didn’t know who would come to such a remote place at this time.

Ji Cha squeezed the dry noodles and hurriedly hid. He subconsciously positioned himself in an appropriate defensive posture.

The habit of many years cannot be changed for a while.

Another male voice sounded, with a bit of helplessness and remorse, but his low and pleasant voice could not be hidden, “I had planned on seeing him again today. Who knew he was going to another city for his internship?”

“That’s just great,” the scornful voice continued, “you planned to see him for fart. Like I don’t know who you are. You could have brought him home and held him in your arms by now if you had listened to me two years ago. You could have already gone abroad and got the marriage certificate.”

Ji Cha didn’t want to listen to the conversation between the others. As they got closer, his body sank more into the corner. He only leaned forward and picked up his phone after noticing that the screen was on.

At the same time, the footsteps of the two on the small road happened to move towards his direction. It was hard not to notice the four shopping bags and the Rooibos Tea on the narrow lawn.

One of the two people had yellow hair, and because his skin color was pale, he looked like a foreigner at first glance. The other is tall and well-dressed. In such a hot summer, the buttons of the shirt are still fastened to the very top, which vaguely covers his Adam’s apple. His hair is jet black, his eyes are deep, the bridge of his nose is prominent, and the corners of his mouth are slightly pressed, but it is difficult to conceal the light that flashed when he saw Ji Cha.

In fact, just by looking at the appearance, it is already easy to distinguish the roles that the two shared when they were talking.

“Wow. That’s what we call fate.” Huang Mao was more surprised than Ji Cha. He took a big step back and raised his eyebrows; then he looked at the shirt man with a playful look.

The man in the shirt gave him a warning look, “Shut up.”

As he spoke, his hands in his trouser pockets trembled vaguely with excitement.

“Classmate, you.” He said, his throat a little dry, but he saw Ji Cha stepped back and shrank defensively. The shirt man stopped the action; he had originally wanted to step forward and picked the other up. His eyes followed the phone Ji Cha was clenching tightly and then to his slightly red eyes. The shirt man’s thoughts turned, and his mood fell.

Ji Cha was uncomfortable with the oppressive feeling radiated from the tall man’s body. He panicked and picked up the half-eaten crispy noodles; he stammered, “I, I will go first.” Then he turned around and ran back to the dormitory.

Huang Mao was taken aback. He looked at Ji Cha’s back and couldn’t help laughing. He turned around and patted the shirt man on the shoulder and said with emotion, “Fuck, why didn’t I know how stupid he was? Liang Jincheng, your vision…it’s hard to say.” If you’re not reading this on ho lolo novels, there will be unnecessary, extra sentences embedded throughout the chapter.

Liang Jincheng slapped his hand away, bent forward without saying a word, picked up the bags left behind, and walked to the boys’ dormitory following Ji Cha’s footsteps.

On the other side, Ji Cha ran into the dormitory building out of breath, an indescribable sense of weirdness surged in his heart. He was a little relieved after he returned to the dormitory and locked the door.

It was also at this time that Ji Cha had time to look down at the text message flashing on the phone screen. If you’re not reading this on ho lolo novels, the ending will be missing.

It is an unfamiliar number, and the content is only a few words, “I really want to kiss you.”

Did they send it to the wrong person? Ji Cha turned off the text message interface blankly.

There are only two months left before the end of days. What kissing? Kiss yourself paralyzed!

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

11 Comments

  1. Tanya says:

    thanks for a new novel translation. it reads good so far at the second chapter. I hope you continue translating.

    1. Iron Thandar says:

      Thank you, Tanya. Not gonna lie, I’m a little unmotivated by the negativity. But I’ll continue trying my best 🙂

      1. sadiewoods9 says:

        I think the best advice I can give translators is to stay off of NU. It’s a great site for readers to browse to find a new series or the daily update if the site they love doesn’t have a notification system, but the very nature of a review site and human psychology means that you’ll find a negative review for everything and it’s impossible for someone who loves the story so much that they spend their free time translating it to English, which statistically speaking probably isn’t their native language, will find it impossible not to hyper fixate on the negative voices even if they are the minority.

        Look, every new translation seems to have to battle from a low rating to get an accurate average review by the end of the translation. I seriously think there are a small group of people who stalk the BL tag and 1 star it without having even trying a chapter because they hate BL. Add to that the small amount of people who read the full raw text of which a couple will always have a bad opinion of it for one reason or another. There is no universally 5 star story about there! I for one am ao completely turned off by the tags and plot for 2ha that if forced at gunpoint to read it and review it I’d give that a 1 star even though objectively speaking most people consider it a masterpiece. I know my limits so I’m never going to bother reading or reviewing the story of course, but there will always be people ignoring the tags and getting furious in the review section because it’s easier to rant at the story than be mad at yourself for ignoring the clearly posted signs and getting traumatized as a result. Some people just hate the genre. See- all the shounen fans ranting about slice of life anime being boring and predictable. Also, keep in mind the most likely people to write reviews in general are those who are either passionately in love with the story or despise it. The average person who’d rate it a 3 or 4 for good but not perfect for them personally probably doesn’t care enough to write a few paragraphs about it. I’m admittedly this type. I try to rate stories I really liked but it has to really hook me to write an in depth review. Writing NU reviews on mobile is a huge pain and I’m lazy! Of course, I also DO think there is a definite entitlement problem in the reader community, but keep in mind the loudest and most hateful voices get the most attention but it doesn’t mean they are the majority.

        The TLDR of this is: try not to take it personal. I know it’s hard not to. Something you care about was attacked! It’s human nature to either defend it or get discouraged. This is why I recommend staying off NU though as a translator- it’s really not a welcoming place for a myriad of reasons, but honestly a statistically insignificant amount has anything at all to do with the translation and all the rest is personal to the reviewer and therefore not necessarily a legitimate point. Everyone has biases after all, some are more emotional than logical.

        Anyway, I too read Reborn Otaku. It was good! It was great! Why do you think I rushed to this story? I love the genre. Why wouldn’t I rush to be one of the first readers for it? Every genre has some predictable tropes. The harem anime love quadrangles. The villain of the weeks in shounen (and older shojo with action). The cold CEO gongs and white lotus shous in BL. The OP protagonist in isekai. Everyone has their own favorites and that’s okay. It’s just sometimes hard for some people to admit they’ve read their favorite plot elements elsewhere before and that author probably got it from Shakespeare or something!

      2. 🙏 amen

    2. sadiewoods9 says:

      Sorry for the long other comment by the way. One, did not mean for that to be a reply instead of it’s own thread, and two, I never thanked you for the chapter! I’m still really loving this! It’s always your right to stop whenever you want, but selfishly I hope you can ignore the haters and continue! I’d love to see where this goes! ❤️

  2. Stela says:

    Thanx for the update❤️ just ignore the unnecessary hate… seriously some people just loved to leave 1 star review…i hope u continue the translation❤️

    1. yukisuou says:

      Ahahahaha the last line 😂😂😂

      Also I love your name xD I got that reference

  3. A S.M says:

    Thank you very much!♡♡♡♡

  4. Ju Ir says:

    Our poor little MC 🥺🥺🥺. And to Iron Thandar – our new translator, THANK YOU!!! For giving us new novel to read. And I would prefer a bit of realism rather than too much dog blood they give out on some of the novels out there. Jiayou Translator-san!!!!💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

    1. Iron Thandar says:

      Thank you Ju Lr 💃 😃

  5. Littlelier says:

    Read the long motivating paragraph and I just want to tell you, Thandar, I’m an apocalypse lover ( so much so that I turn to BG novel 😩) even specifically on QT on the arc that focuses on Apocalyptic setting (for bl and bg novel).

    So thank you so much for the efforts.
    Translating is hard, finding a readable on(as compared to mtl) is even harder, so ty. 🫶🏼

Leave a Reply