Author Archives: Thandar

The registrar shook his head, “I haven’t paid attention to that.”

The county magistrate proceeded, “Do you happen to know who cured the strange illness of the second young master of the Cai family, which has been rumored to have improved recently in the city?”

The registrar continued shaking his head, but an uneasy feeling started to rise in his heart.

The county magistrate glanced at him, paused, and changed the topic, saying, “The tax collection for this year’s autumn harvest is also of great concern to the county magistrate. Registrar, let’s hear your opinion first.”

The registrar, upon hearing the county magistrate’s words, set aside his doubts and repeated the issue concerning the tax collection.

“This is exactly the same as what you mentioned during the summer harvest,” remarked the county magistrate.

The registrar bowed his head in silence.

It was merely an excuse the registrar casually came up with, lacking any novelty. He simply repeated what had been said before, a familiar topic of discussion.

“Alright, you can go back now and think about the tax issue,” said the county magistrate.

The registrar nodded repeatedly and was about to leave.

“Furthermore,” the county magistrate called him back, saying, “Registrar, when those people come again tomorrow to handle their matters, make sure to handle it properly. Don’t bring trouble to the entire county office.”

Originally, the county magistrate didn’t want to remind his colleague, but he feared that if he made a mistake, the entire county office might be implicated. Reluctantly, he added a few more words of advice.

When he first heard that the owner of a snack stall had cured the strange illness of the second young master of the Cai family, the county magistrate had intentionally gone to North Street to have a look. When he saw the young man just now, he immediately recognized him. A few days ago, the Cai family had distributed mooncakes made by the snack stall as Mid-Autumn Festival gifts. He even heard reports from his household servants that the Cai family had invited the snack stall owner to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival together. It was evident that the Cai family highly regarded this snack stall owner.

However, he didn’t expect that the registrar would intentionally keep the person waiting for an entire afternoon. Did he truly not want to advance in his position? It didn’t matter if he didn’t want to advance; the county magistrate himself still wanted to.

Moreover, the matter of unlicensed registration was known only to a few insiders and some officials who had handled it. Even the county magistrate kept it hidden from the Cai family, fearing any mishaps. Yet, the registrar had chosen to harass this person closely associated with the Cai family. It was truly beyond comprehension.

“Hmph!” The county magistrate snorted coldly in his heart and cunningly thought to himself that perhaps the higher authorities already knew about this matter but simply hadn’t found the time to take action. After all, he had vehemently opposed it back then. If something went wrong, it might turn out to be his own opportunity.

Sighing, whether he could absolve himself from the situation was hard to say. He might even face serious consequences. The county magistrate sighed once again, extinguishing his own sense of luck. He only hoped that the registrar would be wise.

In the evening, the registrar went to Boss Wang’s house and learned about the situation with the snack stall. He was so infuriated that he pointed at his nephew and scolded, “Why didn’t you tell me about that person’s relationship with the Cai family?! Are you out of your mind? If he mentions something to the Cai family, even a word or two, I’ll be finished!”

Boss Wang learned the reason and was about to teach his disappointing son a lesson with a stick, but he was stopped by his wife.

The registrar became furious and said, “Don’t come to me with your matters anymore!” With that, he turned around and slammed the door as he left.

Early the next morning, although Yu Qingze knew about the relationship between the registrar and Boss Wang, he still had to handle his household registration, so he came with the village chief and others.

He mentally prepared himself for various troubles or a hefty loss of money, but when he arrived at the room where he was ignored yesterday, he saw the registrar who had avoided him suddenly wearing a warm smile.

“Oh, you’re here. I apologize for my urgent matters yesterday. My subordinates have informed me. Here, this is the completed wooden plaque for your household registration. The other procedures have also been taken care of. Just go to him to sign and leave your fingerprint.” The registrar personally handed Yu Qingze his completed household registration wooden plaque, displaying an unexpectedly warm and sincere attitude.

Yu Qingze: …

The clerks and the village chief: …

The three of them exchanged puzzled glances, struggling to comprehend this miraculous transformation. However, since the household registration was successfully completed, they accepted the outcome.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

“Thank you, sir,” Yu Qingze had a faint speculation in his mind. Yesterday, the registrar treated them strictly professionally in the morning, but then his attitude changed in the afternoon. It was likely that something happened during lunchtime. And today, his attitude had changed again. Could it be that yesterday afternoon, the registrar didn’t know about his slight connection with the Cai family, but then he found out in the evening? That’s why his attitude changed?

Regardless, this was the best outcome.

Yu Qingze received the household registration wooden plaque and then signed and left his fingerprint with the clerk in charge of household registration. The household registration was now completed.

Even after leaving the government office, the three of them remained somewhat dazed.

The village chief glanced behind him and asked, puzzled, “Why did things suddenly turn so good today?”

Li Zheng also shook his head and said, “I don’t know. Sigh, these people, it’s not something we can understand. In any case, as long as the household registration is done.”

Yu Qingze nodded and said, “Li Zheng is right. As long as things are done well.”

When the three of them reached the snack stall, Yu Qingze shared the good news with Chang Le and showed him the wooden plaque for the household registration.

Chang Le looked at the brand-new wooden plaque, feeling as if his own household registration had been completed, and he was very happy. He gestured and expressed his congratulations to Yu Qingze.

Brother Chang and his father also congratulated him when they learned that his matter was resolved.

Yu Qingze smiled and thanked them, then he said to Chang Le, “I have something to attend to and need to go back first. You should close the stall early today because I invited Li Zheng and the village chief for dinner tonight.”

Chang Le nodded with a smile, agreeing to the plan.

On his way back, Yu Qingze asked the village chief, “Village Chief, is Matchmaker Liao’s house on the way? Also, if there is a marriage proposal in the village, what kind of gifts should be prepared?”

The village chief was surprised and asked, “You want to propose?”

Yu Qingze scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit embarrassed. He nodded and said, “Yes.”

The village chief smiled and asked, “Which young man caught your eye?”

Yu Qingze smiled and replied, “Brother Le.”

“Brother Le?” The village chief widened his eyes but then thought it made sense. Yu Qingze was rescued by Brother Le in the past and had been living in his house ever since. It was not surprising that they had developed a good relationship.

He nodded and said, “Brother Le is good, a fine young man.”

Yu Qingze was happy to hear the village chief praise Brother Le and chuckled.

The village chief glanced at him and said, “Matchmaker Liao is in the small village behind our village where Li Zheng lives. As for what gifts you should prepare for the proposal, it depends on how much money you have. Matchmaker Liao will let you know. The countryside doesn’t have as many customs as the city, so if you have money, prepare more; if you don’t have much, prepare less. It entirely depends on your own situation. Besides, I don’t think Brother Le’s family will care much about the amount of gifts and betrothal money.”

Yu Qingze nodded and said, “Thank you, Village Chief. I understand.”

After returning home, Yu Qingze invited the village chief and Li Zheng to come over for dinner in the evening. Then he had lunch and immediately went to Matchmaker Liao’s house in the afternoon.

After settling matters with Matchmaker Liao, he went to the city to buy all the necessary gifts, along with groceries, and returned home.

Later, he secretly placed the gifts at the village chief’s house in advance, so he could pick them up later, and he asked the village chief’s family to keep it a secret. He managed to keep all of this hidden from Grandpa Chang and Chang Hao’s eyes, without letting them know. Of course, Chang Le was busy with the snack stall, so he had no clue either.

In the evening, Yu Qingze prepared a table of delicious dishes to thank the Li Zheng and the village chief for their help.

Li Zheng and the village chief tasted the dishes Yu Qingze prepared, and they were pleasantly surprised. They couldn’t stop eating and left with satisfied hearts and full stomachs, happily returning home.

After the village chief and Li Zheng left, Yu Qingze went to Brother Chang’s house to inform them that he wouldn’t be opening the stall tomorrow and also told the three of them to take the day off.

They were all a bit surprised, but since Yu Qingze had made the decision, they nodded in agreement.

The next day, after having breakfast, Chang Le returned from the creek after washing clothes and entered the house to find Matchmaker Liao sitting in the main hall, talking to his grandfather.

His heart sank.

Oh no, Matchmaker Liao has come again to propose to Big Brother Yu!

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Thandar: All hail to wealth and power

Liang Jincheng quickly discovered that someone was around him. He silently accelerated his pace, taking advantage of the darkness and the chaotic surroundings, and climbed over a high wall and crossed an empty field.

The area they were searching today used to be a small business district in the bustling downtown of S city, but now the prosperity was nowhere to be seen, only disorder and chaos.

Liang Jincheng went around to the back door of the supermarket, which was not surprising to find that it had already been violently destroyed. In this environment, two months ago, it was probably already like this. And after a long time, passing teams would often come in to check for resources, and in many cases, everyone would take something they needed, whether it was useful or not. So at this point, it was not necessarily possible to find any useful supplies or products.

But Liang Jincheng came with a clear purpose, and he estimated that the things he needed should not have been completely taken.

Sure enough, when he walked to the skincare counter, most of the things inside had already been looted, leaving only a few scattered items. Liang Jincheng searched through the shelf like a garbage dump and finally found some Vaseline and baby oil.

It was better than nothing, so he put the items in his backpack and continued to wander around the supermarket. The supermarket was quite large, with a small area dedicated to making prescriptions. Medicines were extremely scarce in the end of the world, and this area was even cleaner than what was scavenged in the supermarket. As long as it was medicine, it had been taken.

But Liang Jincheng still went in to take a look, and to his surprise, he found what he was looking for.

Lubricant, and even three bottles of men’s.

He carefully examined the lubricant in his hand and couldn’t help but think of Ji Cha, a smile appearing on his face that was originally expressionless.

Just then, Liang Jincheng heard an extremely subtle sound of plastic being crushed behind him. He seemed to be completely unaware and continued to collect all the lubricant he could see on the counter. The footsteps behind him were getting closer and louder, clearly more than one person.

Liang Jincheng pulled up the zipper of his backpack with both hands, and then slung the backpack over his shoulder with a casual flick.

“Don’t move.” A gun was pointed at the back of his head from behind.

Liang Jincheng slowly raised his hands. “Let’s talk.”

“Where did you come from? Take all the supplies from your car and give them to me!”

There was a group of people living here who used to be on the road and had a few guns and bullets. After the chaos of the apocalypse, they turned to robbing people.

Liang Jincheng and his team came over, all dressed neatly, obviously living well and not starving in the apocalypse. Robbing people like them would surely yield the biggest rewards.

“We don’t have any supplies in our car,” Liang Jincheng said as he spoke, his eyes still searching in front of him in the counter. After a while, he saw a bottle of eye drops scattered in the corner and thought he should bring it back for Ji Cha.

Ji Cha had said a few days ago that his eyes were dry…

“Don’t bluff, you don’t have supplies?” The gun on the back of his head was forcefully pressed against Liang Jincheng’s head.

He frowned, his gaze falling on a small piece of glass on the counter. The glass reflected his face and the face of the gun-wielding person behind him. There were three people standing behind Liang Jincheng, two of them in the corners, in a surrounding position.

All three of them had guns.

Liang Jincheng took half a second to roughly judge their speed of movement, and then suddenly acted as fast as lightning. First, he grabbed the gun behind him with a reverse grip, and then pulled the person towards him with force, using his body to block the other two people’s guns.

One of them was scared and, being used as a human shield, fired a shot that hit the heart. The situation suddenly got out of control, and Liang Jincheng took advantage of their confusion to quickly take away all three guns.

The remaining two people were scared and crouched on the ground, begging for mercy.

Liang Jincheng had no intention of killing anyone, he just asked for the details of the situation here. He learned that there was a small group here, with over twenty people, almost all of them had killed someone and assaulted women. It’s absolutely impossible to bring them into the base.

Liang Jincheng knocked the three out with ease, picked up his backpack, and walked away calmly, as if he had just finished shopping at the mall.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The other team members returned one by one from their search outside, and they had tied up five live people and left three dead bodies outside the car. Qin Shuang was sitting under the car reading a book. Ignoring the background scene beside her, she looked as relaxed as if she were sitting in a coffee shop.

These people came with the intention of attacking and looting the vehicles, but they didn’t expect Qin Shuang to be lying in wait nearby. They were quickly subdued by the beautiful woman before they could even put up a fight.

As the other team members returned, it took them about an afternoon to fully assess the remaining resources and the situation of the group, and they made a map to take back with them.

As for the remaining people, they were left behind to figure out how to untie themselves.

There are many similar small groups outside the S city base, both good and bad. Although it is difficult to apply the pre-apocalyptic concept of good and bad at this time, there is still a general standard.

If someone is only seeking survival and doesn’t intend to harm their companions, they can be considered “good” in the apocalypse. Although this requirement is simple, many people still can’t meet it.

The other type of people are like those they encountered today; their evil side was amplified by the apocalypse, revealing what was already within them.

Liang Jincheng had done many audits on the former type of people on behalf of the base and brought them back to live inside the base. After establishing a basic chain of production and manpower, the S city base was no longer particularly welcoming to outsiders. At least, newcomers had to undergo strict inspections, and the military did not want small gangs causing trouble and disrupting the peaceful atmosphere of the base.

This approach has both good and bad sides. The good side is that life in the base is particularly peaceful, and people can maintain their livelihoods as long as they work hard. Although their happiness and satisfaction cannot compare to the past, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The bad side is that the people in the base are completely shielded from the dangers outside, and they have no idea what kind of people are forced to become in order to survive. Once they leave the base, they become like lambs in the jaws of wolves.

The off-road vehicle quickly returned to the entrance of the S city base and was checked by the soldiers.

At the entrance, some refugees who had made their way here were standing. Approximately ten people would arrive each day, and the majority of them would pass the screening. They gazed with envy as the off-road vehicle effortlessly gained clearance, hoping for a secure life within the base.

Liang Jincheng had a mission to protect the base, but in reality, there was only one person he wanted to protect.

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Thandar: Who is it that our perv ML wants to protect? Zhang Xing? XD

Anxious

Upon hearing that the person they encountered was the county magistrate, both Yu Qingze and the village chief hurriedly greeted him, saying, “We pay our respects to the magistrate.”

Seeing the county magistrate, all three of them were momentarily stunned, and they exchanged a quick glance with lowered heads.

Wasn’t it said that the county magistrate was in discussion with the registrar regarding urgent matters? But the county magistrate was clearly standing right in front of them.

The three of them quickly realized what was going on. It seemed that the clerk had come up with an excuse. They didn’t know if the registrar had slipped away or intentionally avoided them to delay their proceedings.

The county magistrate appeared younger than the registrar, probably around thirty-five or so. When he saw Li Zheng, he felt a sense of familiarity and assumed he might be one of the subordinates. He nodded slightly and casually asked, “No need for excessive formalities. Are you folks here at the county office for some business?”

Li Zheng replied, “Yes, sir. We’re here to handle household registration.”

“Is it already taken care of?” Upon hearing that it was about household registration, the county magistrate glanced at the village chief and Yu Qingze. When he saw Yu Qingze, he showed a hint of surprise and took a closer look.

Li Zheng raised his head slightly and said, “Sir, it hasn’t been completed yet. Coincidentally, the registrar is busy and not available. We plan to come back tomorrow to process it.”

Upon hearing that the registrar was unavailable, the county magistrate replied, “I see. In that case, there’s nothing we can do. I suggest you come back tomorrow, fellow villagers.”

Li Zheng acknowledged his words. The county magistrate then entered the office.

After leaving the government office, they walked to a secluded corner. Li Zheng pulled the two of them aside and said, “Aze, you might need to prepare more money tomorrow.”

The village chief also said, “Exactly! The registrar clearly wasn’t with the county magistrate. It’s obvious that it’s an excuse, probably because we didn’t offer any benefits.”

Yu Qingze had the same thought in mind, but if it was about benefits, the clerk shouldn’t have rejected the silver coins he tried to offer. However, they didn’t know the exact situation, so they could only give it a try.

“That’s all we can do for now.”

At the crossroads, Yu Qingze said to Li Zheng and the village chief, “Li Zheng, Village Chief, I’ll go inform Brother Le first, and then we’ll go back together.”

Li Zheng replied, “You go and attend to the snack stall. They seem busy there. Old Yu and I can go back first.”

Yu Qingze hurriedly said, “No problem, I’ll just go and inform him. We agreed to have a taste of my cooking tonight, so I’ll join you later.”

Li Zheng waved his hand and said, “There’s no rush for that. We can eat together after the household registration is done.”

“Well…”

The village chief added, “It’s alright, Aze. You go and attend to your work. Once the household registration is completed, Li Zheng and I will be there whenever you call. It’s just a day or two.”

Li Zheng also agreed, “That makes sense.”

Yu Qingze helplessly said, “Alright then, it’s been a tiring trip for both of you.”

“No problem, we’ll leave first. Take care of your business.”

After parting ways with Li Zheng and the village chief, Yu Qingze arrived at the snack stall.

When Chang Le saw Yu Qingze frowning, he asked if something was going wrong.

Not wanting Chang Le to worry, Yu Qingze replied, “Hmm, things didn’t go smoothly. The registrar was unavailable in the afternoon, so we’ll go back tomorrow.”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Chang Le, thinking it was just a regular absence, didn’t inquire further and instead asked Li Zheng and the village chief about it. Yu Qingze informed him that the village chief and Li Zheng had already gone back, saying they would eat together once the household registration was completed.

Chang Le understood and went about his own business.

Not long after, Boss Liu noticed Yu Qingze at the snack stall and sent his son to invite him over to taste the flavors.

Yu Qingze went over.

Boss Liu and his sons prepared both soup-based and stir-fried versions of the previously unsatisfactory knife-cut noodles for him to try. They had been busy with business in the past few days and hadn’t had time for the knife-cut noodles. Now, they specifically chose a time when there were fewer customers to practice.

“Mmm, the soup-based one is good. The stir-fried one has been cooked for a bit too long and is a bit burnt. It can be cooked for a shorter time,” Yu Qingze commented after tasting them.

Boss Liu and the others took note of his feedback.

After speaking, Yu Qingze fell silent, his brow furrowing as he pondered.

Seeing that he was not in a cheerful mood today, Boss Liu asked, “I heard you went to handle some matters this morning. Did things not go smoothly?”

Yu Qingze nodded and replied, “I went to the county office today. Things were going smoothly in the morning, but in the afternoon, the registrar deliberately avoided us, and we didn’t accomplish anything.”

As soon as Boss Liu heard “registrar,” he slammed the table with a loud noise, angrily exclaiming, “It must be that Fatty Wang causing trouble!”

“Oh, my goodness! Don’t shout so loudly, or someone might overhear,” Boss Liu’s eldest son exclaimed in fear, quickly glancing out of the kitchen and closing the door tightly.

Yu Qingze was startled by the sudden outburst. Hearing Boss Liu’s words, he remembered the conversation between Boss Liu and Boss Wang during their argument at the grain and oil shop before. He asked, “Older brother, is there a connection between this registrar and Boss Wang?”

Boss Liu sat down heavily and said, “The registrar is Boss Wang’s younger brother-in-law.”

Yu Qingze: … No wonder!

Boss Liu sighed and said, “That Fatty Wang relies on the fact that his younger brother-in-law is the registrar at the county office. He has caused several noodle shops to shut down before. The owners of those shops didn’t dare offend him. They suffered losses but didn’t dare speak up, and in the end, they had to change their businesses. Speaking of which, if it weren’t for my brother-in-law being classmates with Young Master Cai from the Cai family, my noodle shop wouldn’t have been able to survive for so long.”

Yu Qingze asked again, “What about the other two noodle shops on the main street?”

Boss Liu glanced at him and whispered, “Those who can open shops on this street all have some kind of connections. Otherwise, they would have been pushed out long ago. Even shops on Dongxi Street need to maintain good relationships if they want to survive in this city. Otherwise, they can only do small business in the alleys. Our previous small noodle shop was also located in an alley and didn’t have much business. It was my brother-in-law who found us this storefront. Sigh, we owe him a lot.”

“…,” Yu Qingze sighed and said, “I was thinking of opening a restaurant on this street.”

Boss Liu leaned closer and whispered, “As long as you maintain a good relationship with the Cai family, whether it’s a snack stall or a small restaurant, Fatty Wang won’t dare touch you, at least not openly. Other people will also consider the Cai family’s face.”

Yu Qingze let out a soft sigh and said, “Thank you for the advice, older brother. I guess that’s the only way.”

Speaking of which, if Fatty Wang knows about your relationship with the Cai family, why would he still make things difficult for you like this?”

Yu Qingze shook his head and said, “I’m not sure. Maybe he… wants to teach me a lesson?”

Boss Liu:…

“But unless it’s absolutely necessary, if I can handle these matters on my own, I don’t want to trouble the Cai family. It’s not good to owe too many favors.”

Boss Liu nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, in the county office, the county magistrate entered his office and saw his colleague sitting inside, drinking tea and reading a book. He asked, “So, you’re here. Earlier, I encountered a few people who said they came to handle some matters but left when they didn’t find you.”

“Oh, Your Honor, you’re here.” The registrar stood up when he saw the county magistrate approaching. When the county magistrate mentioned the people he had encountered, the registrar felt a pang of anxiety and quickly came up with an excuse, saying, “I’ve been waiting here this afternoon, hoping to discuss the autumn harvest taxes with you.”

The county magistrate glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “Oh? You’re right across from me. Did you really need to come over here to wait for me?”

The registrar lowered his head and replied, “I was afraid of being too focused and missing Your Honor’s presence.”

The county magistrate sneered and then asked, “What were those people here to do?”

The registrar replied, “Reporting to Your Honor, in the morning, there were a few people who came to handle the registration for buying official land. I think they must be the ones.”

“Is it the young one who wants to register?”

“Yes.”

“Unlicensed registration?”

“Yes.”

“But is their surname Yu?”

“Yes.”

Upon hearing this, the county magistrate’s heart skipped a beat, and he asked, “Registrar, do you know about a famous snack stall on North Street recently?”

The registrar lifted his head and answered, “Yes, I have heard about it. My son-in-law even brought some food back from there. I have also tried it, and the taste is excellent.”

The county magistrate continued, “Do you happen to know the surname and name of the owner of that snack stall?”

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The egg incubator has been running continuously for twenty days, and as expected, these two days should be about the time when the chicks hatch.

Ji Cha endured the discomfort of his buttocks and got up early, guarding the small storage room where the eggs were hatching. Every now and then, he stood up to carefully check if there was any movement in the incubator.

Around noon, the outermost egg finally showed some changes. Ji Cha saw a little chick pecking hard and breaking out of the eggshell, squeezing out its head, still somewhat wet all over.

Ji Cha didn’t dare to help and quickly turned around to turn on the heater in the room. The weather now was clearly chilly, and the newly born chicks could not be directly exposed to outdoor temperatures.

The storage room was not large and heated up quickly. With the first little chick’s tender and crisp chirping, many of the remaining eggs also began to slowly change. In one afternoon, more than sixty little chicks hatched. By the time it was almost dark, a total of seventy little chicks had hatched. Ji Cha didn’t touch the other eggs and left them in the incubator to wait for further changes.

As for the seventy little chicks hatched that day, Ji Cha took out the clean feed and water he had prepared early. The chicks eat a lot in the early stages, and their weight can double within seven days of birth, triple within half a month, and increase by five or six times in less than a month. Feed is very important in this process.

When raising chicks, the land area occupied is not large. About five or six dozen chicks can be raised in one square meter. Ji Cha took a small iron cage with upper and lower layers, lined it with newspaper, and put the fully dried chicks in it in two batches. When it was completely dark, the chicks had their first meal of the day. As soon as the crushed corn and millet were put into the feed trough, they were snatched up immediately.

Ji Cha worked tirelessly all day and was extremely pleased with the scene he saw. After all, there were now seventy little chicks, which would later become seventy or more meat chickens.

After settling them in, Ji Cha still couldn’t relax with the incubator. After all, it was a machine he had bought online, and he himself was only half-knowledgeable about many things. He could only spend more time preparing and taking care of them to make up for it.

The other people in the house didn’t have an easier day than Ji Cha.

Early in the morning, Zhang Xing began to modify various mechanical vehicles and equipment outside the gate. He was so busy that he even forgot to drink water. When he stood up suddenly, he almost dropped because of low blood sugar.

Many things planted in the factory have reached the fruiting period. Weeding, spraying pesticides, loosening the soil, and other tasks are enough to keep Wang family busy.

The remaining Zhang Qinqin and Grandma Ji are busy with various food processing tasks with other workers in the factory.

Liang Jincheng stayed at home for a while yesterday but left again early in the morning today. When everyone sat down to eat together in the evening, he still hadn’t returned.

If anyone in the family is idle, it is only Xiaochao, who is just over three years old. However, even Xiaochao was quite busy today.

“There’s a wormhole in the apple we ate today,” Xiaochao mentioned during dinner. “Uncle Ji, is the apple going to spoil?”

Ji Cha, who was busy scooping rice and preparing to go back to the warehouse to continue guarding, was stunned. Indeed, he hadn’t checked the apples for the past two days.

There are still more than thirty fruits picked from the apple tree, which Ji Cha originally planned to keep for everyone to eat daily. But after Xiaochao’s reminder, he went to check and found that the apples didn’t seem as juicy as before.

After dinner, Grandma cut two apples to eat, and when Ji Cha took a bite, he frowned tightly. It was not because it tasted bad, but because it was too sweet. Ji Cha hadn’t thought about eating apples for four or five days, and felt that the apple was twice as sweet as before. Even if a little bit of apple juice spilled on his hand, it felt sticky.

If he made apple sauce directly, he wouldn’t need to add sugar. The shelf life of apple sauce is about three months, which could solve the urgent problem now.

Ji Cha quickly wrote down “make apple sauce” on his notebook and waited until he finished taking care of the little chicks before finding time to do it.

He sat in the chicken-raising warehouse all night, waking up and falling asleep, but the result was barely satisfactory. Only five out of the remaining thirty eggs were hatched, meaning the success rate of hatching was only about 75%, far lower than the promised 90% or more by the online seller.

However, Ji Cha had no place to complain now and couldn’t even leave a negative review online. Moreover, even if he takes a step back, out of one hundred eggs, seventy-five chicks hatched, so he couldn’t say that the egg hatching machine was completely unreliable. After all, it took some time to accumulate the eggs, and he didn’t sort out the dead eggs in advance.

As Zhang Xing’s various mechanical tools were modified, the large piece of farmland behind the factory was gradually cultivated and repaired. Modern agriculture can now achieve out-of-season planting, and the rise in many crops grown in the greenhouse of the tea factory indicates that similar planting can be carried out in the current environment of S city.

The biggest problem at the S city base is currently the lack of various vegetable crops, while staple foods pile up like mountains.

Therefore, the military also meant for Ji Cha to immediately begin preparing for planting. The few technicians who were originally difficult to communicate with were now picked up and dropped off by military vehicles, and they discussed various planting matters with Ji Cha.

They were called technicians, but they were all young people, only two in total. Although they were specialized in their field, they did not have much knowledge about the cultivation of different crops. Nevertheless, it was better than not knowing anything. When Ji Cha picked workers to work with them, he chose those who were older and had rural backgrounds or experience with rural life, not those who didn’t even know how to grow potatoes.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Although the production and construction at the S city base occasionally encountered setbacks, overall, it was moving in the right direction. The people at the base did not have to worry about their safety and had returned to a socialized way of life.

However, for those who were still struggling to survive alone outside, the hardships and fears of the apocalypse did not diminish at all; on the contrary, they increased day by day.

***

Liang Jincheng parked the car at the entrance of a large supermarket, and the people in the car quickly got out after surveying the surroundings. The zombies around them immediately swarmed over when they heard the noise. The ability users were indifferent to the approach of the zombies, each wielding their own handy tools. Faced with the attack of the zombies, they cut down a large area almost like cutting vegetables.

“There are two tasks today. The first is to check if there are any survivors, the second is to survey the surrounding terrain, and the third is to see if there are any factors that may affect the safety of the base. Finally, everyone should be careful and not be careless.”

Liang Jincheng said these words in a deep voice, and the others nodded and left, blending into the surroundings in no time. In secluded areas, pairs of greedy or fearful eyes followed them closely.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Thandar: Wooooo finally got eggs. I love eggs.

Obtaining Residency

They set off immediately upon deciding to go.

The village where Li Zheng lived was behind Niutou Village, so they had to pass through Niutou Village to reach the county town.

As they passed by the village, Yu Qingze asked the village chief and Li Zheng to wait for him by the roadside for a moment. He went home and brought out the box where Chang Le had stored the money for him. Inside were all the earnings he had made in the past month, from the snack stall, mooncakes, and his share of the noodle money from Liu’s Noodle House. It amounted to nearly ninety taels, almost a hundred taels. This was only possible because he had made a substantial profit from selling mooncakes recently. It was just enough.

Chang Le helped him string the copper coins one by one. The large strings contained one thousand coins each, while the small strings had one hundred coins each.

One tael of silver is equivalent to one thousand copper coins, which is called a yuan in currency. Stringing them together forms a long string, which is quite heavy. Fortunately, Yu Qingze would regularly go to the money exchange to convert them into silver, or else it would be very inconvenient to carry eighty yuan of copper coins when going out.

After counting eighty taels of silver, Yu Qingze put them in a large money pouch, which he then tied around his waist with a bundle, for easy protection. This was almost eighty percent of his wealth, on which he relied for buying land and obtaining household registration.

Grandpa Chang saw it and asked him, “Do you want me to go with you? It’s safer with more people.”

This matter might take a long time to handle, and Yu Qingze didn’t want the old man to go through the hardship, so he replied, “Grandpa, it’s not necessary. The village chief and Li Zheng will accompany me.”

Upon hearing that the village chief and Li Zheng would go together, Grandpa Chang felt relieved and advised, “Still, be careful and stay safe.”

“Okay, Grandpa. I’m leaving now.” Yu Qingze responded, taking some silver and copper coins and putting them in a small pouch for backup. Then he bid farewell to Grandpa Chang and went to meed up with the village chief and others, who waiting at the intersection. The sooner they finished the business, the sooner they could return.

“Alright, stay safe.”

The three of them headed towards the county office in the north of the city.

After the gate guards were informed, Li Zheng led them to the east side of the county administrative building, where the registrar’s office was located. This was the place where land transactions and household registrations were processed.

Upon entering, there were only three people inside. Two individuals were sitting at desks on the left and right, copying documents, while a man who appeared to be under forty was handling official affairs in the middle.

After Li Zheng entered, he greeted first and said, “The humble ones pay respects to the registrar.”

The village chief and Yu Qingze also followed suit and paid their respects.

The registrar looked up, glanced at them, and asked, “What is the matter?”

Li Zheng explained the situation.

The registrar looked at Yu Qingze, then turned to Li Zheng and asked, “Do you both understand the procedures?”

Li Zheng nodded and replied, “Yes, we understand.”

Yu Qingze also nodded in agreement.

The registrar then lifted his chin towards the right side and said, “Over there, do as you need to do.”

“Thank you, Registrar.” Li Zheng expressed his gratitude and led Yu Qingze to the clerk on the left to complete the formalities.

The clerk extended his hand to the three of them. Yu Qingze saw this, glanced at Li Zheng, and upon seeing Li Zheng nodding, he handed the pouch containing eighty taels of silver to the clerk.

The clerk quickly counted the amount and then went to show it to the registrar. After receiving the registrar’s approval, he returned and divided the silver into two portions. Thirty-five taels were placed in the box on the left, while the remaining were placed in another box on the right.

Once the money was collected, the clerk began to inquire, “Which piece of land would you like to buy?”

Li Zheng replied, “A fertile acre in Niutou Village, west of the city.”

Upon hearing this, the clerk went to the back shelf and pulled out a ledger. After flipping through a few pages, he pointed to them and said, “These three documents are all for the public land in Niutou Village. The ones without a red seal are still available for sale. You can choose one for yourselves.”

Yu Qingze took the ledger, looked at it, and then handed it to the village chief, saying, “Village chief, take a look and help me choose a plot. I’m not familiar with the village’s land.”

The village chief took the ledger, examined it, and then pointed to a specific entry, saying, “Let’s go with this one. It has good water source and is close to the road.”

Yu Qingze nodded and said, “Okay, let’s go with this one.”

The clerk took the ledger again and double-checked, asking, “This plot, you won’t make any changes?”

Yu Qingze nodded and replied, “Yes, no changes.”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

The clerk then stamped a small red mark on the back of the document, indicating that it had been sold. Afterward, he took out another ledger and asked Yu Qingze for some personal information to register. Then he produced a blank official land deed and filled in the necessary information, double-checking it with Yu Qingze. Once the ink had dried slightly, he took it to the registrar.

The registrar looked it over, then took out two seals and stamped them on the deed.

After sealing the document and allowing the ink to dry, the clerk said to Yu Qingze, “Please pay one tael of silver as the document fee.”

Yu Qingze took out one tael of silver and handed it to the clerk.

After receiving the silver, the clerk cut the completely transcribed and sealed deed in half, giving one part to Yu Qingze and keeping the other part for the government’s records.

Yu Qingze held the official land deed in his hand, feeling relieved. Finally, the first step was completed.

Then, the clerk handed him a slip of paper, saying, “Take this to complete the household registration.”

Yu Qingze took a look at it, and it read “Official Land Registration” on it. Yu Qingze murmured to himself, realizing that this was probably their special designation, indicating the method of buying official land with eighty taels to process the household registration.

Truly a shady practice.

The purchase of the land was finally completed, and now he needed to go to the clerk on the right side to process the household registration.

However, at that moment, a gong sounded. The two clerks and the registrar quickly tidied up their desks, stood up, and left.

The clerk who had just processed their land purchase procedures said, “Office hours for the morning have ended. The officials need to have their lunch. Come back in the afternoon.”

Yu Qingze asked, “What time does the afternoon session start?”

The clerk replied, “Come back during the hour of Wei (between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM).”

After saying that, the clerk hurriedly ushered them out and locked the door as they left.

On the other side, as the county official stepped out of the yamen, he was stopped by someone.

“What are you here for?” the official frowned when he saw the young man in front of him.

The young man grinned and said, “Uncle, my father sent me to invite you to have lunch with us.”

“What does he want?” the official asked.

The young man replied, “Nothing, he just wanted to make it up to you for the trouble caused earlier. He wants to apologize.”

The official sighed and said, “Let’s go then.”

“Yes, yes,” the young man gestured for him to follow and whispered, “By the way, uncle, I saw three people in your office earlier, what were they there for?”

The official glanced at him and said, “Why do you ask about that?”

The young man responded, “Uncle, you don’t know, the young one among those three was the person who previously snatched our business. And you know what? He even partnered with our archrival, Liu’s, to come after us. Now they’re stealing all the customers from our noodle shop! Our business is worse than ever, barely making enough to cover rent and daily expenses. It’s really infuriating!”

The official frowned upon hearing this and said, “I have no involvement in your business matters. And you shouldn’t use my name to do anything. I’ve already told your father about this.”

The young man quickly replied, “I know that. But, uncle, since he came to you for something, why don’t you, you know, give him a hard time or cause some trouble for him? Just to vent our frustration.”

The official stared at him and said, “Childish! Official duties are not to be treated lightly!”

With a tearful face, the young man pleaded, “Uncle, we’re on the verge of losing our business, and we won’t have enough to eat. We can’t earn any money, and we thought maybe helping you could help us too. But now we’re left with nothing. What can we do?”

The official suddenly stopped walking, furrowed his brows, and stared intently at him.

Undeterred, the young man nodded and said, “It’s true. Business is really bad. My father hasn’t been sleeping well lately due to the worries. You’ll see when you meet him later.”

The official sighed and said, “Let’s go.”

On the other side, Yu Qingze and the other two watched as the clerk walked away.

“Let’s go. They will take at least an hour for lunch break. We can come back in the afternoon,” the village chief, who was more familiar with the situation, suggested.

Yu Qingze nodded and said, “Let’s find a place to have lunch and take a rest.”

The three of them left the county office, and Yu Qingze found a decent restaurant to treat the village chief and the assistant.

To be honest, the food in this restaurant didn’t taste that great, but the village chief and Li Zheng seemed quite happy. As they chatted, Yu Qingze got to know more about the situation.

After finishing lunch and still having some time, Yu Qingze took the village chief and Li Zheng to his snack stall and treated them to some Guandong-style hot pot.

After taking a few bites, the village chief and Li Zheng regretted their decision. The village chief said, “You should have brought us here earlier instead of going to that restaurant. It’s a waste of money, and the taste isn’t as good as this.”

Li Zheng also nodded and said, “Exactly, ah, it’s a pity that we already ate enough to be quite full. We can’t eat anymore now.”

Yu Qingze laughed and said, “This is just a snack. When we go to my place tonight, I’ll cook some dishes, and we can have a proper chat.”

The village chief said, “That sounds great! I’ve heard that Aze’s cooking skills are excellent. I won’t hold back and will definitely try it.”

Li Zheng exclaimed in surprise, “Really? Aze can cook as well?”

The village chief replied, “Yes, look at all these dishes. He made them. How does it taste?”

Li Zheng nodded while eating a meatball and said, “It’s really good. It tastes even better than the food we had at the restaurant.”

The village chief smiled and said, “See, Li Zheng, I never lie.”

Yu Qingze smiled and said, “Alright, once we’re done with the household registration, let’s all go to my place and have a gathering.”

“Yes, let’s do that,” Li Zheng replied.

Chang Le walked up to Yu Qingze and asked how things were going.

Yu Qingze smiled and said, “I got the land deed done in the morning. We’ll go to handle the household registration in the afternoon.”

Chang Le also smiled upon hearing this, feeling like things were going smoothly.

In the afternoon, the three of them went to the county office again, but they only saw two clerks present, and the registrar was not there.

Based on the morning’s process, it was clear that the registrar would need to confirm and stamp the documents in the end.

Yu Qingze asked the clerk responsible for household registration, “Excuse me, is the registrar not here yet?”

The clerk replied, “He came, but he went to discuss urgent matters with the county magistrate. It’s uncertain when he’ll be back.”

Yu Qingze nodded and asked, “Can we still process the household registration today?”

The clerk answered, “We can process it, but we won’t be able to finalize the results without the main clerk’s return to stamp the documents. It’s uncertain when the registrar will be back.”

Yu Qingze and Li Zheng exchanged a glance, and then Yu Qingze said, “Let’s proceed for now. Maybe when we finish the initial steps, the registrar will be back.”

The clerk glanced at him, smiled, and said, “Alright. Give me your land deed.”

Yu Qingze handed over the land deed and the piece of paper he received earlier in the morning.

Upon seeing the paper, the clerk indeed didn’t ask for the original household registration wooden plaque. Instead, he asked the village chief and Li Zheng to provide additional information for the new household registration. Then, he recorded the information in the county register based on the provided data.

Then he took out a specialized household registration wooden plaque and wrote down all the information one by one. After finishing, he said, “We can only proceed up to this point. The next step is for the main clerk to stamp the documents, and then we can handle the tax assessment.”

Completing these procedures took nearly an hour, but the main clerk had not returned yet.

Yu Qingze asked, “Excuse me, is there any indication from the registrar about when he might be back?”

The clerk shook his head and said, “The registrar didn’t say. It’s uncertain. Maybe you should come back tomorrow; he might be available then.”

“Maybe” he’ll be available tomorrow, but it’s also possible that he won’t be. This is clearly an excuse. When big shots in the workplace don’t want to see someone, the answer they give to the subordinates is always this sentence. It’s like a universal response.

Upon hearing this, Yu Qingze reached into his pocket, took out a silver coin, and handed it over, saying, “Please help us out, sir.”

Unexpectedly, the clerk pushed the silver coin back and said, “I can’t help with this. You should come back tomorrow.”

Yu Qingze tried to offer a little more, but it was still rejected.

If even money couldn’t resolve the situation, it seemed that they wouldn’t be able to handle the household registration today.

Li Zheng suggested, “How about we come back tomorrow?”

Yu Qingze nodded helplessly and said, “That seems to be the only option.”

As the three of them walked out, they encountered someone at the entrance of the county yamen. When Li Zheng saw the person, he exclaimed in surprise, “County Magistrate?”

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Thandar: Isn’t it kinda stupid to stall the household registration by the registrar. Like what is the end result you want outta this? Yu Qingze getting the paperwork a few days later? How does it relate to Wang’s Stupid Noodle Crap losing money? Dumb dumb dumb

Ji Cha covered his eyes and didn’t move for a long time.

His body was soaked in slippery sweat, and even the sheets and covers on the bed had strange, indescribable stains. He couldn’t believe he had just slept with Liang Jincheng…

Slept with…

Liang Jincheng had just gotten out of bed and walked out the door quietly. Ji Cha felt even more ashamed and turned over, but his uncomfortable body touched a certain part, forcing him to grit his teeth and cover his face with a pillow.

The most shameful thing was his uncontrollable reaction just now, it was really embarrassing…

But before Ji Cha could feel sorry for himself for too long, Liang Jincheng came back in from outside. Through his fingers, Ji Cha saw him holding a basin of water with a towel on top, placing it on the floor as he half-knelt on the bed.

Liang Jincheng’s mood was obviously very happy, and it showed in almost every movement of his body.

“Chacha,” his voice was deep, but it made the hairs on the back of Ji Cha’s neck stand up, “Let me help you wash up, you don’t have to move.”

Liang Jincheng reached for Ji Cha’s ankle, trying to pull him closer to the bed.

Ji Cha quickly kicked his hand away and moved back, “No, no need. I’ll take a shower by myself later.”

Mainly because Liang Jincheng’s behavior just now was too scary, Ji Cha was afraid that he might turn into a cannibal again.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Liang Jincheng sat on the edge of the bed and hugged Ji Cha tightly, kissing his forehead over and over again, saying in a low voice, “I’m very happy.”

At this moment, he had returned to his usual gentle and polite demeanor, not at all like the dirty old man full of vulgar words last night. Ji Cha’s heart was pounding, feeling like Liang Jincheng might have multiple personalities, but he couldn’t help but want to smile. His expression and body movements seemed a bit contradictory.

But he didn’t have time to think too much, because at this moment, there was suddenly the sound of someone opening the door and walking outside.

Ji Cha’s heart skipped a beat and he struggled to look at the clock on the wall. The hour hand clearly pointed to six, and it was already time for everyone to start getting up.

Liang Jincheng’s forehead pressed against his, “You probably can’t take a shower yet. Be good, let me help you wipe down, hmm?”

Ji Cha wanted to protest, but he couldn’t do much and could only nod in agreement.

After a tumultuous encounter that lasted for nearly half an hour, Ji Cha almost ignited Liang Jincheng’s desire for another round. Fortunately, Ji Cha resisted with all his might, his eyes turning red, and managed to temporarily subdue Liang Jincheng.

Around seven o’clock, Liang Jincheng went downstairs with light footsteps.

Grandma Ji saw him and said, “Oh, Xiaoliang, when did you come back?”

“This morning,” Liang Jincheng smiled. “Grandma, Chacha seems to have been tired yesterday, so he’s not feeling very well this morning. I let him rest upstairs, and I’ll help him with anything he needs.”

Grandma was also concerned about her grandson, so she nodded and wanted to bring breakfast to Ji Cha. Liang Jincheng naturally took on this task.

Although Ji Cha was embarrassed and a little angry, he ate his breakfast without hesitation. He put down his chopsticks after finishing half a bowl of porridge and exclaimed, “I almost starved to death…”

“Drink porridge all day today. I’m afraid you won’t feel well later,” Liang Jincheng sat by the bed, staring at Ji Cha, making him feel uneasy.

However, after last night, he felt he had a bit of leverage. He tilted his head and hummed, “So you want to starve me.”

“I was too reckless last night,” Liang Jincheng apologized and leaned in to give Ji Cha’s mouth, which still had some porridge, a kiss. He sincerely said, “I’ll go outside the base tomorrow to find a good lubricant.”

Ji Cha’s face, which had just calmed down, turned red again. He almost threw the bowl of porridge in Liang Jincheng’s face, “Get lost!”

He really couldn’t stand Liang Jincheng’s constant teasing.

Liang Jincheng first cleaned up the dishes and utensils used by Ji Cha, then tended to all kinds of poultry raised at home. Many leftover soybean dregs from making tofu couldn’t be used up, so Ji Cha dried them and stored them, not worrying about running out. As the scale of animal husbandry grew in the future, the amount of these feeds would increase exponentially, and they might not be enough.

***

Although the base was invaded by zombies, the impact was not significant because of its small scale, and the troops reacted fast. Except for a few civilian casualties, other losses were negligible.

Although this was good news, it also indicated that the construction of the base’s periphery was far from enough. Many families who had lost loved ones had not had time to mourn before being required by the army to participate in the new day’s production and construction.

The situation outside could not be estimated now, and wasting even a minute could bring unforeseeable consequences. Everyone understood this logic, and they were afraid of being the next one to die.

Liang Jincheng’s team of ability users played an irreplaceable and important role in this situation. To put it broadly, if they hadn’t led the zombies away last night, perhaps the S city base would no longer exist.

Although Ji Cha had gone through a night of “labors” yesterday, he couldn’t rest all day today. Just past noon, a junior officer from the army came to him. This time, for some reason, he unexpectedly relaxed his tone.

“The final result is probably out. You can leave the food you need here, and some straw-like resources can also be used for your animal breeding. However, breeding and planting must first meet the needs of the army to maintain the basic operation of the base. Then you can have the maximum scheduling power for the remaining livestock. As for food allocation, you will also have some say. You can have a certain degree of control over how much food is taken out of the warehouse. As for other small details, we can negotiate and compromise at that time.”

This result satisfied Ji Cha, who nodded and signed a simple agreement with the army. In fact, as far as Ji Cha was concerned, this agreement was useless. When the army wanted to keep its promise, they didn’t need this piece of paper. If the other party didn’t want to keep their promise, then what was the use of this paper? After all, this was not the pre-apocalyptic society, where whoever had the army had the most power.

Finally, the power plant was repaired after three days and basically restored its power generation function. With electricity, the slow pace of many manual labors increased significantly. This allowed many projects that were not moving very quickly before to increase their speed by several times almost overnight. The towering walls were finally completed around mid-November, and the construction of the S city base’s periphery was completed, leaving only its operation inside.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Gunshots rang out outside shortly after, causing the people in the factory to tense up, but then they all relaxed together. The sound of footsteps grew closer and closer, and then someone knocked forcefully on the door. “Is everyone inside okay?”

“No, there are no casualties inside,” Ji Cha quickly replied.

“Did you kill all these zombies?” the person outside asked.

Ji Cha confirmed it, and the soldiers outside murmured a few words before speaking up loudly, “Stay inside for now and wait for further instructions.”

With the number of zombies that came and most people having houses to defend themselves, there were only a few unlucky ones who died because they were caught within the range of the zombie attack. The rest of the people were unharmed.

The military quickly disposed of the remaining scattered zombies and took away a few injured people who had not yet turned into zombies.

“I was bitten on my hand, please amputate it! I don’t want to die!” someone shouted, but most people just hung their heads in despair. After living in the apocalypse for so long, they knew that once the virus entered the body, turning into a zombie was only a matter of time. They had already wasted several hours, so amputation or similar treatments were no longer an option.

Before, both the military and individuals had faced the rapid transformation of dead bodies into zombies. It was better to eliminate the risk early on rather than leave a potential hazard. Therefore, more people just turned their heads and didn’t look, creating a surprisingly silent scene.

It wasn’t until around noon that the soldiers came knocking on the door again. It was Zhao Tiankuo, who had some injuries on his face and looked a little unwell. But when he saw Ji Cha staring at the wound on his cheek, he smiled easily and said, “Don’t worry, this was just from the chaos, and has nothing to do with the zombies. I came to tell you that we don’t need to make tofu today. Let’s start tomorrow. Two of the six workers here have died, so remember to go to the recruitment point and find two more workers tomorrow morning.”

Ji Cha’s heart sank. He had been employing them for some time, and compared to the other people outside the base, he felt a greater resonance with those he knew personally who had died.

Zhao Tiankuo casually reported their names, his expression already numb to death.

“Oh, and the technicians we were supposed to bring today, they haven’t come yet. We’ll wait until the security facilities around here are completed and the walls and dormitories are built before bringing them in, ensuring their safety first.”

Although the technicians did not arrive on schedule, the military did send several large agricultural machinery in the afternoon, parked outside the factory gates, and set up protective barriers around the area.

“You can modify it outside here. I’ll leave a soldier behind to ensure your safety. If you need anything, just tell us and we’ll find a way to get it for you.”

Zhang Xing was very excited as he stood in front of the armed soldier. He walked around the agricultural machinery several times, very satisfied with this work. He didn’t know how to farm, but he was very familiar with these things.

So he even had more confidence when he spoke, “Alright, I’ll make a list later and give it to you. I still have to take it apart to see what I need specifically.”

The factory was less busy today, and there were no outsiders around. Everyone sat in the living room, feeling worried about the zombie attack.

Li Xiuzhen sighed, “If they keep coming like this in the future…”

“It won’t happen,” Wang Qinxue said, “The protection outside will only get stronger, and the zombies didn’t cause too much damage today.”

Ji Cha walked to the window and looked up at the setting sun, then at the clock on the wall. It was already four o’clock in the afternoon, and Liang Jincheng hadn’t returned yet.

Although he had told himself earlier that Liang Jincheng might not come back this soon, Ji Cha couldn’t help but worry.

Ji Cha even regretted a little that he didn’t agree to Liang Jincheng’s more excessive demands last night.

“Let’s just stick to moral kidnapping. You’re the one who’s always pretending to be righteous.” In his heart, Ji Cha repeatedly blamed himself, and was afraid that his grandmother would notice something wrong, so he could only hold back his emotions and went upstairs after dinner.

Because of the tension during the day, falling asleep was not difficult. However, because of his worry about Liang Jincheng, Ji Cha woke up shortly after falling asleep.

He sat up in bed and thought for a while, then got up in the darkness, opened the door lightly, and walked to the living room.

Ji Cha felt very lost and uneasy due to the uncertainty of Liang Jincheng’s whereabouts and safety. He walked carefully to Liang Jincheng’s door and looked around. Everyone else was sleeping in the dark.

He then cautiously opened the door and sneaked into Liang Jincheng’s room.

Liang Jincheng’s room was very simply furnished. Compared with Ji Cha’s room, which had a more lived-in feeling, his room was incredibly empty. Apart from a wardrobe, a bed, and a stool, even the desk had been moved out. In its place were several heavy and terrifying pieces of exercise equipment, lying quietly on the ground.

Ji Cha walked to the bed, picked up Liang Jincheng’s blanket, and sniffed his scent on it. This gave him some comfort, and he slowly lay down on the bed, falling asleep at some point.

The night was deep.

Two jeeps drove down the main road, kicking up dust behind them. They stopped at the wall of the S base and were inspected by soldiers.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

When the soldiers saw the symbols on the two jeeps, they didn’t dare to make things difficult for them and simply greeted the people in the cars before allowing them to pass.

The people in the two jeeps did not look tired at all, and instead were full of energy, joking and laughing.

“Can we take a day off tomorrow?” Qin Shuang asked. “This trip has been really tough.”

“We led away several thousand zombies, which we risked our lives to do. Shouldn’t that earn us a break?”

“Boss,” Qin Shuang leaned back in her seat with one hand, grinning at Liang Jincheng who was driving, “They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. When you go back this time, Ji Cha is bound to be thrilled to see you.”

Liang Jincheng heard Ji Cha’s name, and a faint smile appeared on his previously expressionless face. He spoke slowly, almost sparingly, “I hope so.”

The jeeps soon parted ways at the factory gate, and Qin Shuang and the others got out of the car.

Liang Jincheng easily climbed over the wall and then climbed up to the rooftop, without even gasping for air. It was as easy as walking on flat ground.

Without disturbing anyone, he quickly walked to the second floor. Liang Jincheng went to the bathroom first and freshened up a bit, then slowly walked to Ji Cha’s door and pushed it open, only to find that there was no one inside.

Liang Jincheng thought that something might have happened, and he became alert. But he soon noticed that there was breathing coming from his own room. Could it be…?

This hypothesis made his heart race. He walked faster and faster until he twisted the doorknob of his own room.

Ji Cha was indeed curled up in his bed.

His sleeping posture was not very good. At this moment, his legs were entangled with the cotton quilt that Liang Jincheng brought, his cheek was crooked on his pillow, and the collar of his pajamas was unbuttoned, revealing his alluring collarbone.

This scene was like washing a little white rabbit and sending it to the mouth of a big bad wolf for Liang Jincheng at this moment. Who could resist taking a bite?

He chuckled lowly, and slowly began to unbutton his own clothes.

In the darkness where he couldn’t see his fingers, Ji Cha slept defenselessly, not knowing that danger was approaching him.

He rolled over in a hazy sleep, turned his back to Liang Jincheng, and his feet also stretched out from between the futons and placed them horizontally on his back. Liang Jincheng walked over silently, and at this time the shirt on his body had been almost dragged off by him with brute force and thrown aside.

The button fell to the ground with a soft tinkling sound, stirring Ji Cha from his slumber and causing him to wake up slightly, feeling a sense of unease.

At this moment, it was already too late.

Liang Jincheng’s fingers seized Ji Cha’s ankle tightly, gripping it with increasing force as he pulled him closer. Ji Cha felt a surge of fear welling up within him, ready to cry out for help, but before he could, a searing kiss descended upon his lips. Liang Jincheng’s breath was scorching, and Ji Cha instantly recognized who it was.

“How do you…” Only came back at this time … Ji Cha’s words were cut short as he finally regained his senses. He wanted to inquire about the situation, but before he could utter a complete sentence, Liang Jincheng took advantage of the opportunity. His tongue swiftly darted into Ji Cha’s mouth, skillfully locating and entwining with Ji Cha’s tongue, pulling it inside and sucking hard.

Liang Jincheng’s calloused fingertips traced along the edge of Ji Cha’s sleepwear, ascending until they rested upon the two crimson dots on Ji Cha’s chest. What was previously a gentle caress and probing instantly transformed into a ferocious kneading, as if driven by a fervent desire to tear away a piece of Ji Cha’s flesh.

This caused Ji Cha some discomfort, but more than that, it was the scorching sensation brought by the rough fingertips rubbing against his tender and sensitive area. Unable to restrain himself, he arched his chest forcefully and let out a soft moan through his nose. His movements were a combination of evading and accommodating.

Liang Jincheng’s movements were urgent. After thoroughly exploring Ji Cha’s tongue, he shifted his kisses downwards. He trailed kisses along Ji Cha’s neck and gently latched onto his Adam’s apple, tenderly nibbling and sucking on it.

This almost emptied Ji Cha’s rationality. He lay on his back in the darkness, panting uncontrollably, passively accepting all the passion that Liang Jincheng bestowed upon him. It continued until Liang Jincheng’s other hand couldn’t resist the longing to explore further down his body.

“No, it can’t.” Ji Cha’s intermittent attempts to resist and catch his breath seemed feeble at this moment. The fingertips placed on Liang Jincheng’s wrist trembled uncontrollably in response to his actions.

**WARNING: NSFW**

Liang Jincheng grasped Ji Cha’s hardened penis. He had imagined this scene countless times before and knew how excited he might be when this moment finally arrived. He underestimated Ji Cha’s influence on him.

At this time, just touching Ji Cha’s genital and feeling his excitement under his own strokes, Liang Jincheng felt that even his breathing was so hot that he felt like he was about to burn, and his own penis began to swell, clamoring to go galloped in Ji Cha’s soft little hole.

“I want to see you down there.” Liang Jincheng breathed heavily, and his hot breath spraying against Ji Cha’s ear. Following that sentence, Liang Jincheng licked his earlobe, producing a provocative and sensual sound. “Chacha, I want to lick it…”

Ji Cha’s emotions surged in the sea of desire stirred up by Liang Jincheng. His face was flushed to the point where his original color was almost unrecognizable. He never expected that the intense passion he had experienced before was only a fraction of what Liang Jincheng was capable of. At this moment, he found himself uttering such audacious words…

“No, don’t,” Ji Cha was forced to tears by the unbearable intense pleasure, he put his hands on Liang Jincheng’s shoulders, and said softly with a trembling voice, “Liang Jincheng, I’m afraid, don’t be like this…”

“Chacha,” Liang Jincheng slowly stopped his movements, and even withdrew his hand from Ji Cha’s pants. In an instant, all the intense waves of emotion came to a sudden halt, leaving Ji Cha with a faint sense of disappointment in his heart.

He rubbed his eyes and tried to free himself from Liang Jincheng’s grasp when he heard Liang Jincheng’s voice slowly by his ear, “When you cry, I want to fuck you to death on the bed.”

Almost as soon as the words fell, Ji Cha was suddenly turned over and lay on the bed like a small turtle. Liang Jincheng took off his pants almost as easily as breathing and dragged Ji Cha’s pants to his ankles. He then pinched Ji Cha’s waist with both hands and pushed his fleshy butt up high.

Ji Cha exclaimed, and before he had time to react to how shameful his actions were, Liang Jincheng had already begun a new round of attack.

His one hand reached in front of him and quickly stroked Ji Cha’s hard and straight sex organ while the other hand first erotically rubbed his ass cheeks, and then spread them aside to reveal the unexplored flower hole. Lin Jincheng slowly rubbed his thumb at the entrance of the small hole without hesitation.

Ji Cha’s waist was almost soft at once, and the pleasure coming from behind almost overshadowed the joy of the penis. He had no idea that a place that no one had touched could be so sensitive.

Ji Cha’s reaction stimulated Liang Jincheng’s movements even more. He jerked Ji Cha up and put him in a 69 position, and then touched his hard unbearable sex organ to Ji Cha’s lips. Panting, he said, “Chacha, take me in your mouth, huh?”

Ji Cha was in a daze, seeing a big cock knocked down in front of him, he was about to cry and wanted to say no, but when he parted his lips to speak, it felt as if he was granting the man an opportunity. Ji Cha’s mouth was instantly filled with the head of Liang Jincheng’s penis.

The head alone was already huge, almost taking up most of Ji Cha’s mouth, he subconsciously refused. The tip of his tongue pressed against the glans wanting to push it out. Unbeknownst to him, this gesture elicited a heavy snort from Liang Jincheng.

Having been under Liang Jincheng’s control all along, Ji Cha finally grasped a lifeline, realizing that escaping Liang Jincheng’s clutches might not be possible today. This realization filled him with a hint of anger, so he went all out and held Liang Jincheng’s genital. Clumsily, he stroked it up and down and began to suck neither light nor heavy.

Just this move alone was almost enough to suck the soul out of Liang Jincheng. Without anything else, just knowing that it was Ji Cha doing this made him feel so satisfied that he felt he could die.

The thing in his mouth that he thought had swelled to the maximum suddenly became bigger at this moment, Ji Cha snorted and almost burst into tears.

At the same time, Liang Jincheng’s fingers, which were just lingering at the entrance of the cave, abruptly slipped in. Ji Cha’s back stiffened, and he was just about to break free, he felt Liang Jincheng’s fingertips twirling in his back acupoint. When the fingers suddenly pressed on a slightly different spot, Ji Cha almost jumped out of bed.

He couldn’t help opening his mouth to moan, but his mouth was still blocked by Liang Jincheng’s sex organ, and he could only let out a lewd cry from his nasal cavity that changed its tone to extremely erotic.

Liang Jincheng’s fingertips were quickly pulled out and pushed in again, this time directing at the sensitive point he found just now.

Ji Cha was so fucked that he was at a lost for words. He fell limply. He was so overwhelmed with pleasure that he almost lost consciousness and couldn’t control his own cries.

“Mmm, ummm…mm!”

Fortunately, there was a big thing in his mouth, and he subconsciously knew that he couldn’t yell out loud now.

Liang Jincheng patiently carried out thorough foreplay. He smeared all Ji Cha’s semen on his back hole and slowly turned two fingers into three. When Ji Cha swallowed all four fingers without hindrance and pain. Liang Jincheng picked him up and put his penis against Ji Cha’s hole with the two of them facing each other.

Ji Cha was rendered completely powerless by this actions, feeling limp all over. With freedom between his lips and teeth and the lingering pleasure still coursing through his body, Ji Cha intermittently let out soft moans in response to Liang Jincheng’s touch.

Panting, Liang Jincheng whispered into Ji Cha’s ear, “Who is fucking you?”

“Liang Jincheng, Liang, Jincheng…” Ji Cha covered his eyes with the back of his hand in shame. He knew what was going to happen, but he couldn’t control his lustful reaction, so he could only use a little cover to deviate from what he couldn’t control now. He needed to do something to alleviate this embarrassment.

The thick cock pressed against the soft hole and then slowly drilled into it uncontrollably. Although it has been fully expanded by the fingers, Ji Cha’s hole still seemed a bit reluctant to take in the huge object. Ji Cha only felt that his asshole was so swollen.

Liang Jincheng’s kiss fell on his lips, “Don’t be afraid…”

As he spoke, he began to rub Ji Cha’s penis very gently, and lowered his head to suck the nipple. Only when he fully inserted the entire length inside and Ji Cha showed a relaxed expression again, did Liang Jincheng slowly began to move.

His movements went from slow to fast, and in the end, he hit Ji Cha’s buttocks almost uncontrollably, and he couldn’t help but lean back.

Liang Jincheng’s thick and hard genital was faintly visible between Ji Cha’s ass cheeks, bringing out a rush of slapping sounds. At first, Ji Cha bit his lips and silently endured the pleasure that was so intense that he almost lost all self-consciousness, but soon he couldn’t control himself from moaning from the corner of his mouth.

It is particularly noticeable in the silent night.

Although Ji Cha knew that the sound insulation in the room was very good, he still tried his best to cover his mouth for fear of being heard by others.

“You, slow down,” he said with tears streaming from the corners of his eyes, afraid that Liang Jincheng’s violent movements would wake up others.

Their entangled bodies felt like two blazing flames, growing hotter and larger as they merged. There was no trace of reason left amidst the rising flames.

Ji Cha’s back hole tightly held Liang Jincheng’s dick, swallowing and sucking them, every stroke could bring out Liang Jincheng’s life. Every push of his can get Ji Cha’s enthusiastic response. The two hugged each other face to face, and Liang Jincheng’s movements below the waist almost turned into shadows. Every push could accurately rub Ji Cha’s sensitive inner walls.

Layers of pleasure accumulated, and amidst the constant penetration, Ji Cha hugged Liang Jincheng’s back unbearably, raised his head, searched for Liang Jincheng’s lips, and kissed him deeply.

The two of them ejaculated almost at the same time when the pleasure became so intense that they couldn’t contain themselves.

At the end of their lovemaking section, the two piled up on top of each other, like two mountains, drenched in sweat. They couldn’t move for a while.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Thandar: That’s what happens when you send yourself directly to the bed, Mr. Ji! 🤭

Buying Land

After the midday rest, Yu Qingze was in the kitchen frying meatballs and preparing tofu puffs, getting the ingredients ready for tomorrow’s Guandong-style hot pot. Chang Hao was tending to the fire for him.

After half an hour of rest, Grandpa Chang had also sobered up. He was making mooncakes to sell at the snack stall the next day. Here, mooncakes were not exclusively associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, so they could be sold as snacks.

When Yu Qingze finished making the meatballs and the tofu puffs, he noticed that Chang Le was still not awake. He checked the time and realized that it had been three hours since he fell asleep. It seemed like he had drunk quite heavily. Next time, Yu Qingze decided to limit Chang Le’s alcohol intake to a maximum of two small cups. He made a mental note of the alcohol limit for Chang Le.

Was Chang Le still sleeping?

Chang Le had actually woken up earlier but felt too embarrassed to come out. Once he woke up, the dizziness from the alcohol had subsided, and he was clear-headed. Gradually, he began to recall the scenes before he fell asleep.

He remembered that during lunch, he had indulged in drinking too much and was helped back to his room by Big Brother Yu. Then, Big Brother Yu had fed him water, but when Big Brother Yu was about to leave, he had held onto him. And then, had he said something to Big Brother Yu?

“I sleep, and you’ll leave?”

“Wait until I fall asleep before you leave.”

Chang Le covered his face. How could he say such bold words?!

Was he asking Big Brother Yu to accompany him while he slept?!

It was so embarrassing. So shameful.

And then…

He remembered that after he said those words, Big Brother Yu had bitten him, on… his lips?

His lips!

Chang Le widened his eyes and stared at the ceiling, absentmindedly reaching up to touch his lower lip. He faintly remembered the slight swelling sensation when his lips were sucked…

His face turned completely red.

So it wasn’t a bite, it was… a kiss.

Big Brother Yu had kissed him, not like before on his forehead, but on his lips.

His first kiss.

Chang Le’s face felt like it was going to explode. He blushed, covering his face and curling up, wanting to hide himself from the world.

Like a little turtle startled by passersby, he retreated his head back into his shell and didn’t dare to peek out for a long time.

After a while, Chang Le slowly opened his hands, lowered them, and gently touched his lower lip with his index finger. A smile appeared on his face, a silly smile filled with joy.

He kissed Big Brother Yu.

Hehe, hehehe…

In the next moment, he frowned. It was such a pity. He was still dizzy and not fully awake at that time, only remembering bits and pieces.

And then, he suddenly remembered the silly question he had asked.

“Why did you bite me?”

“It wasn’t a bite.”

Ah ah ah, he was going crazy!

Chang Le felt a sense of internal collapse, overwhelmed with embarrassment and anger. He wanted to go back in time and strangle his past self for asking such a foolish question.

How could he face Big Brother Yu again?

He might die of embarrassment!

After much internal struggle, a long time passed, and Chang Le still didn’t have the courage to open that door and step outside. Even though he needed to pee, he held it in and didn’t go out.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and Chang Hao’s voice came from outside.

“Brother, brother? Are you awake? It’s time to get up. Is your head still dizzy? Big Brother Yu said if you’re still dizzy, get up and have some sobering soup, take a walk.”

Chang Le:… Can I pretend to be asleep?

Chang Hao, seeing that his brother didn’t open the door for a while, knocked again. He had to wake his brother up. “Brother, get up quickly. We’ll go see the lanterns after we eat. Are you feeling unwell? If you don’t open the door soon, I… I’ll come in, okay?”

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

Afraid that his brother was feeling unwell and couldn’t get out of bed to open the door, and with no response from his brother, Chang Hao started to get worried.

When he heard his younger brother was about to come in, Chang Le quickly got up, put on his shoes, and went to open the door.

Seeing the door open, Chang Hao breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at his brother and, aside from a slightly flushed face, everything seemed fine. He asked, “Brother, you’re up. Is your head still dizzy?”

Chang Le gestured, indicating that it was still a little bit.

Chang Hao said, “You drank too much. Look at you, your face is still so red. Big Brother Yu made sobering soup for you. Come and drink it.”

Chang Le nodded, motioning for his younger brother to go ahead. He combed his hair.

After dawdling for a while, Chang Le first went to the restroom to relieve himself, and finally mustered up the courage to go to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, there were only Yu Qingze and Chang Hao. Chang Hao was cooking rice and watching the beef braising on the stove, while Grandpa Chang went to the fields to check.

Yu Qingze was preparing dinner. When he saw Chang Le, he smiled and asked, “Awake now? Is your head still dizzy? There’s seaweed soup in the pot. Have some to help with the hangover.”

Seeing that Yu Qingze didn’t bring up the previous incident, Chang Le felt relieved. He nodded, washed his hands, and then filled a bowl with seaweed soup to drink. However, he still couldn’t meet Yu Qingze’s gaze, so he took the bowl to the entrance and drank it there.

Yu Qingze saw this and his lips curved. Little Brother Le was shy; he must have remembered. But for now, he naturally wouldn’t bring it up. He had some emotional intelligence. If he did mention it, Brother Le would be too embarrassed to let him kiss him anymore. What should he do then?

Despite feeling shy, there were new dishes to learn tonight. After finishing the soup, Chang Le gathered his courage and went to Yu Qingze’s side to learn cooking.

Because they had made a lot of dishes for lunch and still had leftovers, they only made radish stew with beef brisket and stir-fried wild boar meat with vegetables for dinner.

Since the beef brisket needed a long time to stew, Yu Qingze had already started it while Chang Le was in his room struggling. The beef brisket was almost done. He then had Chang Le prepare the stir-fried wild boar meat.

Once he entered the cooking mode, Chang Le’s entire demeanor visibly changed. He became focused, and his previous shyness disappeared.

After dinner, they set off to the city to see the lantern festival.

Because it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, the lanterns on this day were even more lively than the lanterns on the previous festival. People were everywhere.

During the previous lantern festival, it was the time when the two of them confessed their feelings to each other. However, they didn’t enjoy the festival as much afterward. But today, they went to the lantern festival together with Grandpa Chang and Chang Hao. They explored the entire lantern festival, walking along the two main streets, and even went to the riverside to release lanterns. They had a great time.

When they returned home, they sat together in the courtyard, admiring the moon and eating mooncakes, tuan yuan bing, and pomelos.

A cool breeze blew, and the bright moon hung in the sky.

They had a warm and joyful Mid-Autumn Festival.

Yu Qingze looked at Chang Le beside him, then at Grandpa Chang and Chang Hao. He felt very happy. It had been more than ten years since he had such a fulfilling festival since his grandfather passed away. Although the material conditions here were poor compared to the twelve years he lived alone, it clearly brought him a sense of spiritual satisfaction and touched his heart.

The next day, Yu Qingze didn’t go to set up his stall. He asked Brother Chang’s mother for help and sent Brother Chang and his father to go instead.

Today, he planned to find the village chief and ask him to take him to the *Li Zheng’s family to discuss buying land and obtaining residency.

*(T/N: Li Zheng translates to Head of the Administrative Unit. I think he has the higher rank than village chief coz he’s in charge of multiple villages).

After seeing off Brother Chang and his father, he prepared some gifts and went to the village chief’s house. Two days ago, when he came to give holiday gifts, he mentioned to the village chief that he would like him to accompany him for some matters today. Therefore, the village chief had already finished his meal and was waiting for him.

The Li Zheng family lived in a neighboring village, separated by a mountain from Niutou Village.

Li Zheng was a man in his forties. When Yu Qingze and the others arrived, he happened to be at home.

The village chief handed over the gifts brought by Yu Qingze and explained the purpose of the visit.

Li Zheng glanced at the gifts in his hands, smiled, put them aside on the table, and then looked at Yu Qingze, asking, “Where are you originally from? How did you end up here?”

Yu Qingze casually made up a story he had heard from a merchant about a very remote place in the north, and then he repeated the reasons he had previously discussed with Chang Le’s family and the village chief.

Li Zheng frowned when he heard him say that the household registration certificate had been lost along with his luggage. He said, “I see. If your household registration plaque is missing, it will be a bit difficult to handle.”

Yu Qingze asked, “Li Zheng, what should I do in this situation?”

Li Zheng thought for a moment and said, “Originally, if you had the household registration certificate, you could buy a piece of land, record it in the land deed, and I would help you with the registration based on the land deed. Then we would go to the county government to verify and register, and finally handle the tax registration. The county government would then issue you a household registration plaque. But now that your original plaque is lost, you’ll have to go to the county government to handle it.”

Yu Qingze frowned and asked, “If I go to the county government, what are the requirements?”

Li Zheng sighed, glanced at the village chief, and then lowered his voice. He said, “Old Yu is also one of us, a fellow villager. I’ll be straightforward with you. Because you don’t have a household registration plaque, the government officials can arrest you as a vagrant at any time. So, if you go to the county government, you need to make some preparations and establish connections.”

Yu Qingze asked, “How much preparation is needed? Are there any specific requirements? If they do something like this, do they need any particular pretext?”

Li Zheng looked at him with surprise and said, “You are a smart person, so I’ll be honest with you. In our area, besides the land owned by our villagers and some big landowners, there is also a significant amount of land under the control of the government. The government has set the price for the land here at 50 taels of silver for good quality land and 30 taels for slightly inferior land. Old Yu should have told you, right?”

The village chief nodded, and Yu Qingze also nodded, saying, “I know about this. I came to find you, Li Zheng, because I have saved enough money to buy the land.”

Li Zheng sighed and said, “If you have only saved 50 taels, it won’t be enough. Save up a bit more.”

Yu Qingze frowned and asked, “How much would be needed then?”

Li Zheng held up eight fingers.

“80 taels?”

Li Zheng nodded.

Yu Qingze asked, “What if I buy the land from a private landlord?”

Li Zheng shook his head and said, “You can only buy land from the government. Without a household registration plaque, even if someone sells land to you, you still need a household registration plaque to process the official deed at the government. Without an official deed, you won’t be able to obtain residency.”

Yu Qingze: … A vicious cycle.

“What about those who don’t have their own land and can only rent land? How do they obtain household registration?”

“They are originally from here. If they are not from here and have no way to buy land, they are not allowed to obtain residency and are sent back to their original place of residence.”

Yu Qingze: …

Li Zheng sighed and said, “Tongshan City has stricter requirements for obtaining residency compared to other places. Take Niutou Village, for example. You know that there are more than ten households that moved here later, the ten-plus households with the surname Chang. During the time when the chaos of war had just subsided, the court issued special decrees to appease the refugees and settle them here. That’s why they were able to obtain land for free and settle down here. Otherwise, they would have been sent back to their original place of residence.”

At this point, the village chief also sighed and said, “The price of land is getting higher and higher. Five years ago, it was still 35 taels of silver per mu for good quality land. Now, sigh…”

“Hush!” Li Zheng glared at the village chief and said, “Don’t speak recklessly!”

The village chief immediately sat up straight and nodded, saying, “Yes, I’m sorry, I spoke out of turn.”

Yu Qingze glanced at both of them and understood when they mentioned five years ago.

If he remembered correctly, eight years ago, it was still County Magistrate Cai Wendong who was in charge, and at that time, the price was 35 taels of silver per mu of land. Later, it was increased to 50 taels. This issue must be related to the current county magistrate.

However, regardless of the price, he still needed to obtain residency.

Yu Qingze then asked Li Zheng, “Li Zheng, apart from the 80 taels to buy the land, is there anything else I need to prepare to obtain residency? Do I need to prepare anything else?”

Li Zheng glanced at him and said, “If you buy the land from the government, they will handle the land deed for you, and they won’t ask for your original household registration plaque. However, there will be a fee of one tael of silver for processing the official deed and the household registration plaque. As for the rest, if you have it, you can prepare some broken silver to treat the officials who handle the matter. They will naturally take care of it for you.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Qingze asked, “What about the homestead after obtaining residency?”

Li Zheng replied, “Once you obtain residency in our rural area, you can be allocated a homestead based on the number of people in your family. If you settle in the city, you will have to buy your own homestead. In our village, it’s half a mu for households with less than five people, one mu for five to eight people, and one and a half mu for eight to ten people. When the time comes, you can apply to the village and get the consent of the villagers after selecting a suitable location. How many people are there in your family?”

Yu Qingze replied, “One person.”

“That would be half a mu. If you want a larger house, you will need to buy the extra land. One mu of land costs ten taels of silver. You don’t need to go through the government for that. You can handle it with me. Once the house is built, you can go to the government to process the house deed.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Qingze said, “I understand. Li Zheng, Village Chief, please take me to the county office to apply for residency.”

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Thandar: Money talks~

Unexpectedly, before everything was back on track, the partially repaired defense measures of the base were put to a great test.

During the night when Liang Jincheng did not return, Ji Cha had insomnia. He tossed and turned in bed for a long time and couldn’t fall asleep, so he couldn’t help but complain about himself.

Normally, when Liang Jincheng disturbed his sleep, Ji Cha wished he could go to the ends of the earth, but when the real situation came, it turned out that Liang Jincheng couldn’t even adapt after just one night.

It was also fortunate that because he couldn’t fall asleep, Ji Cha heard the gradually rising turmoil outside very early. There were screams of men and women and sporadic gunfire. He jumped out of bed and opened the door to run towards the rooftop without saying a word.

Strict no-light strategy was being imposed in the S City base at night, but at this time, many people forgot about this rule when the commotion started and almost everyone found a way to illuminate things. The entire base was dotted with dim lights flashing everywhere, almost becoming the horn of death ignited at this moment.

The recent period was too smooth-sailing that Ji Cha almost forgot that they had not completely escaped the shadow of the zombies, and the S City base was not yet strong enough to deal with such zombie attacks as in the later days.

Ji Cha kept calm and looked around the factory building. Fortunately, there were not many people around the factory building, except for the wandering zombies near the wall. He couldn’t see any injured people. There were only two options at this time: either go out and kill the zombies or stay quietly in the factory building.

Ji Cha chose the second option without hesitation, but then he became worried because the daylight was about to begin. The rooster crowing in the factory was about to start in a while, and he lifted his telescope to look at the distant road where zombies were still streaming in.

The peace of the factory building was shattered, and everyone gradually woke up. After learning about the situation, everyone was worried and couldn’t think of a good countermeasure. At this moment, a rooster crowed almost breaking through the sky.

Zhang Xing trembled all over and immediately stood up from the sofa, “Rooster…”

“Why don’t we kill it?” Wang Qinxue continued, “We also have a batch of fertilized eggs on hand, and after hatching, we can still keep some for breeding.”

“But we don’t know if the egg incubator can be successful now,” Zhang Qinqin said, “What if it fails? Where do we find another rooster?”

The poultry had been raised for a long time, and everyone vaguely felt that the fortress they were in was strong enough to stop zombie attacks, so they were not willing to kill the rooster as their first choice.

Because they couldn’t come up with a decision, everyone turned to Ji Cha at this moment.

“We have fewer people here, so attracting zombies might be a good thing to some extent,” Ji Cha said, knowing that the factory fence could withstand several rounds of zombie attacks. “On top of that, if we can kill zombies at a safe distance, that’s the best option.”

“The key is to aim for the head,” Zhang Xing said. “We just need to find the right tool.”

Having watched many zombie movies and played zombie games, he knew a lot about how to deal with zombies, but he lacked courage.

The group made a decision and scattered around the factory to find suitable weapons that could quickly kill zombies with one blow while ensuring safety.

In the end, they settled on the steel pipes left over from the decoration, sharpened at the head with a metal file and wrapped with cloth at the tail to prevent friction with the hands.

Even the elderly grandparents who were waiting on the side did not sit idle. They were ready to lend a hand when needed.

The factory’s two doors played a big role at this time. Ji Cha and Wang Qinxue first moved a large wire mesh from the house. This was a small piece left over from making the fence, with each hole about four or five centimeters in diameter. They opened the first door and then told grandma Ji to immediately close it and not to open it randomly. Then, they fixed the wire mesh in front of the first door and slowly opened the first door to a gap of about thirty centimeters.

Zhang Xing held a thick rope that connected a hook on the ground between the first and second doors, keeping the first door open in this arc. After the rope was fixed, it would not be easily broken by zombies.

The door slowly opened, and there were not many zombies at the entrance, only one or two immediately surrounded them. Ji Cha took a deep breath and whispered, “We cannot be soft-hearted at this time. The head is the key, and it is safest to pierce directly through the skull.”

“If it doesn’t work, just stick the steel pipe into the zombie’s eyes. It’s effortless,” Zhang Xing whispered in Zhang Qinqin’s ear, fearing that she would not be able to make a decisive move.

Zhang Qinqin silently glanced at Zhang Xing, then wordlessly plunged the steel pipe she held through the hole. A muffled sound followed, and the steel pipe easily pierced through the zombie’s skull. With Zhang Qinqin pulling it back, the zombie that had blindly charged forward just a moment ago fell heavily to the ground.

Zhang Xing was lucky to stand far away, otherwise he would have been disgusted by the pus and fluid that might spray out.

Zhang Qinqin’s actions proved that Zhang Xing’s concerns were completely unnecessary.

With someone taking the initial actions, albeit a bit nauseating, it stirred up the emotions of the crowd. In addition, as the zombies heard the commotion from this side, they began to rush towards them. Wang Qinxue and Ji Cha struggled to hold down the wire mesh, allowing Zhang Qinqin and Zhang Xing to kill a wave of zombies first, and then the four of them exchanged positions in pairs to conserve their strength.

For a while, the only sound heard was the sound of flesh and blood splattering, as a dozen or so zombies fell down, almost blocking the entrance. However, the zombies showed no fear or retreat at the sight of their kind dying, and they continued to surge upward, full of desire for fresh meat.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

As time passed, the sky gradually began to brighten, and the previously intermittent crowing of roosters inside the room became less and less frequent. The corpses of the first zombies that fell in front of the main gate had piled up to several dozen, which to some extent slowed down the zombies’ movements, forming a pile of corpses.

Ji Cha took a breath and wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Let’s close the door and take a break.”

At this point, everyone’s strength was exhausted to varying degrees, and it was time to rest for a while.

The two of them struggled to push the door closed, cutting off the zombies’ bites from outside. After locking the door, the four of them relaxed their nerves and could rest for a while.

The first thing Ji Cha did when he returned to the factory was to run to the roof with a telescope to check the surrounding situation. After seeing clearly, he finally relaxed. The current situation was much better than he had expected.

Because it was already fully bright, the surrounding situation was also clear to Ji Cha. Military vehicles had already started to scatter and control the zombies. There were only five or six zombies left at the entrance of his factory, and the pile of corpses made up of zombies was even more eye-catching.

With some free time, Ji Cha was now only worried about what kind of situation Liang Jincheng would encounter when he left in this situation.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Thandar: For the people who have been living in the safe factory compound since the beginning, I think the group did a great job.

Ji Cha can only think of one method to propagate the preferred seeds, which is to select the excellent seeds from each crop harvest and repeat this process to solve the problem of seed degeneration. Once the complete production chain is established, Ji Cha will not have to worry about this issue alone.

With November approaching, the temperature difference between morning and night is getting bigger, and the greenhouse frame that was prepared earlier now needs to be covered with a plastic film to maintain the growth temperature required for potatoes and sweet potatoes.

The walls around the factory are now lush due to hatching eggs and managing pregnant mother rabbits, and Ji Cha has not paid much attention to the piglets for several days. He went to feed the pigs one morning and saw a boar riding on a sow.

The boar grunted vigorously while the sow lazily leaned against the trough and looked eagerly at Ji Cha, waiting for him to pour the breakfast. Ji Cha didn’t know whether to pour it down or hold it up. He also had to pay some attention to the piglets.

Now that the piglets are more than six months old, it is indeed the age to start breeding. Although Ji Cha has carefully read the guidebook and video tutorials, he did not expect that before he could give guidance, the boar would naturally mate.

Ji Cha was happy and proud. When Liang Jincheng came back to the pigsty in the afternoon, Ji Cha couldn’t help but say to him, “He’s so smart, he knows how to mate at such a young age.”

Liang Jincheng put his hand casually on Ji Cha’s shoulder and spoke naturally, but his eyes looking at Ji Cha had a different meaning, “Not too smart, it’s just that the meat in front of him is so big that he knows to eat it.”

Ji Cha shrank his shoulders and felt chills all over his body. His heart was beating rapidly.

“I’m going out tomorrow. I might not be back at night,” Liang Jincheng paused and changed the subject.

Ji Cha broke free from the embarrassment and turned his head to look at Liang Jincheng with widened eyes, “Where are you going?”

“We’re going to investigate the situation of the survivors outside. It’s a task assigned by the military, and I’m going with Qin Shuang and others.” Liang Jincheng put his two fingers on Ji Cha’s neck and groped slightly. “The base is relatively safe for now, and we have close contact with the military. You are safe at home.”

“What about you?” Ji Cha felt anxious. He didn’t want Liang Jincheng to go out during the zombie apocalypse. “Can you guarantee your absolute safety? How about…”

Anyway, they had enough food and didn’t need to risk their lives outside.

But Ji Cha didn’t say it out loud. During the last apocalypse, he knew that Liang Jincheng didn’t just want to find a safe haven.

Liang Jincheng’s eyes showed a smile, “If you are willing to give me a little extra motivation, maybe I can work harder.”

“You’re totally morally blackmailing me,” Ji Cha’s face turned red.

“Is that a no?” Liang Jincheng’s face was full of disappointment, but if Ji Cha looked carefully at this moment, he could see the teasing deep in his eyes.

“It’s not a no,” Ji Cha muttered in his heart about his own awkwardness, but his expression couldn’t be corrected for a while. He lowered his head and couldn’t look directly into Liang Jincheng’s overly enthusiastic eyes. He whispered, “If you can safely come back, we’ll talk about it then.”

“Can I come into your room and sleep with you?” Liang Jincheng asked. “If I can hold you while I sleep, I’ll definitely sleep more soundly.”

“Okay,” Ji Cha nodded.

“Can I kiss the places I want to?” Liang Jincheng continued to ask.

Hey, where does he want to kiss? Ji Cha looked at Liang Jincheng with a suspicious look, but he didn’t dare to ask. He was afraid that Liang Jincheng would say anything, and he would be the one blushing later.

It’s better to be vague now, and if it doesn’t work out later, just play dumb.

“Um, okay.”

“Can I take a shower with you? It can save water,” Liang Jincheng continued.

“You’re going too far!” Ji Cha couldn’t take it anymore, and pushed Liang Jincheng back two steps.

“It’s okay, I’m already satisfied with the first two things. I’ll be leaving early tomorrow morning, so I can’t say goodbye to you. Can I move our farewell kiss to tonight?”

“Who said yes to these nonsense!” Ji Cha couldn’t take it anymore and walked ahead by himself.

No matter what he said, Liang Jincheng continued to plot to himself, “Actually, one farewell kiss is not enough. Can I sleep with you tonight? I promise not to do anything else.”

With this kind of promise, it actually made people feel more dangerous!

After arguing for half the night, Ji Cha woke up a little later the next day. Fortunately, the various processing projects in the factory were already very organized and did not require much supervision from him.

However, there was also something unexpected that day.

Ji Cha was recording data in the fields while silently calculating where Liang Jincheng might be at this moment. That was when Zhao Tiankuo came over.

“This morning, the leader called me over to talk about the matter you raised last time. There are still a lot of land outside of the planned area, and it is indeed necessary to develop production. The higher-ups have made it clear that the land can be approved, but the army will also need to send personnel to manage it. At present, it has been decided that the grain produced cannot be sold commercially for the time being, and the distribution of grain will also be taken over by the army. The army also has some seeds and technical personnel. If you can confirm that the land can be developed, the army will prepare tools and manpower for you.”

Ji Cha understood what was going on here. This was actually a collective farm from his previous life, a public ownership system. This was a system that had to be implemented in the end times and was also for the management of the base.

Zhao Tiankuo continued, “Actually, I think this is great. Isn’t dealing with food your strong suit? The army is just to save the trouble of setting up an agricultural department or something. Your work with making tofu, sprouting beans, and planting vegetables is quite good, and the leaders trust you,” he lowered his voice a bit here, “The leaders also said that this doesn’t sound like there’s much benefit to it, but you won’t know until you actually do it. Although the distribution of grain is decided within the army, it still has to be managed by you at your level. And from what I’ve heard from the leaders, they aren’t too strict, so you can always negotiate with them in the end.”

“I understand,” Ji Cha nodded. He had worked on a farm before and knew how it all worked.

If he was really in charge of this, on the surface it would be said that all the grain would be distributed to the army. But, just like the leaders in the farms in the previous era, who didn’t move grain to their own homes? As long as it wasn’t too excessive, the army wouldn’t manage this small shortfall.

Even so, Ji Cha was clear that he still needed to clarify things face to face.

He didn’t need to store grain. What Ji Cha wanted was the supply of feed for animal husbandry.

Translated on ho lo lo novels dot com.

When he went with Zhao Tiankuo to see the leader in charge of this matter in the military, he made his requirements very clear, “I hope to get ownership of some byproducts, like straw, corn stalks, and other types from production. Additionally, I have about ten people to feed in my factory building, and I hope to keep some of the grain for ourselves.”

It didn’t matter if the army took charge of all crop production. Ji Cha just needed to focus on animal husbandry and if necessary, he could still use meat to exchange for grain.

Public ownership can never be a long-term system, it’s only a way to gather all productive forces during times of crisis. As time goes on, it will inevitably dissolve and become more liberalized. This trend had already started to emerge in the end times that Ji Cha had experienced and was also confirmed by the development of C country itself.

Therefore, Ji Cha had to reserve some of his own rights and interests during these times.

The requirements that Ji Cha proposed were not excessive to the leader’s ears. He had originally planned to offer more than this, and now that he saw Ji Cha being so straightforward, he agreed.

“After I send a report up, I’ll have them bring over a few technicians tomorrow. They can stay in the dormitory building near your factory until the farmland planning is complete. It won’t be too far away, just the area behind your factory. We’ll have someone discuss the details of personnel management and other issues with you later. As for many of the mechanical tools, they may be a bit difficult because you know that fuel and other things can only go out and not come in…”

“I have a solution to that. As long as there’s electricity and some materials, people in my factory can modify those machines.”

“Alright,” the leader’s eyes lit up. “Electricity shouldn’t be a big problem. There’s a small power plant within the range of our base, and it’s already being repaired intensively. It will be usable in no time.”

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

Thandar: Good for him to set things straight since the very beginning.