In the following days, because the first batch of people who went to work on the surface all returned safely day after day, those who had been watching began to grow excited. More and more people registered with their administrators.
Now there were hundreds of people going to the surface every day, not just to farm, but also following the army to disinfect the ruins, or bury exposed bodies.
Because these jobs were rotated, Feng Chen began to work as a corpse carrier after he finally managed to master how to use a hoe.
Thank goodness it would only be three days before he switched to disinfection duty.
The corpses on the surface were all dried husks that resembled black roots, gnawed away by animals. There weren’t enough body bags now, so two people worked together to carry and throw corpses onto a truck bed. They would be take to the edge of the city where excavators dug large holes for mass burials.
The first time Feng Chen lifted a corpse, it was already beyond recognition. All four limbs had been chewed off, but a short-sleeved shirt and black pants could still be seen. This should’ve once been a company employee.
He couldn’t do it. He just stood there. His partner got impatient and asked him to go back to the settlement already. Only then did he grit his teeth and went to lift the corpse’s feet.
But it got easier after that. He lifted various corpses again and again to throw into the truck bed. Not many remained intact. They were basically all missing limbs or the head or all of the above. Some were gnawed by animals to the bone.
But the real difficulty wasn’t to carry these dried corpses, but to carry some from confined space that hadn’t dried yet. Those were highly rotted by now.
Even if the air was filtered by the insulated suit, you could still smell the nauseating stench of decay. The feeling of handling those corpses was burned deep into his memory.
First, your fingers would plunge into some kind of semi-liquid that was a bit dense before touching bone. After the body was lifted up, brownish-black chunks would fall off, revealing the discoloured yellow-black bones underneath.
After throwing that corpse into the truck bed, Feng Chen’s fingers wouldn’t stop shaking. He repeatedly rubbed them together and pinched them, but the feeling of the semi-liquid mass clinging to him lingered.
And Feng Chen’s partner didn’t seem that okay either. Unlike the silent Feng Chen, his mouth chattered away non-stop like a defense mechanism, “This style of skirts looks good. Real popular with young ladies this year. I prefer light yellow to this light green, but it’s okay too… This should be an old man. My father loved to wear this kind of sweatshirt before I was born. He said it’s breathable and sweat-absorbent. The price is also cheap…”
Feng Chen didn’t stop until he lifted away a piece of debris and spotted the corpse huddled below.
His partner also came over. He didn’t notice Feng Chen’s abnormal reaction and roughly dragged the body out. “I can handle this one myself. Go find another. This should be a child, a little boy. They love to wear this kind of dark blue denim overalls, not to mention that pattern on the T-shirt. It’s from that cartoon that’s really popular with kids nowadays. What was it again? Nunu or something…”
“Put him down.” Feng Chen suddenly said hoarsely.
“Huh?”
“Put him down. I’ll do it.” Feng Chen’s tone was a little less than good.
His partner froze, but put down the body. He muttered as he walked off, “Is this what they call teenage rebellion…”
Feng Chen bent down and removed the debris on the body. Then he carefully turned him over and brought him into his arms.
The child was about the same height as Yan Bubu. He should only be a few years old, with slightly curly hair. His face was unrecognizable. Feng Chen held him in the crook of his arm, the weight seeming to crush his heart directly.
He found an adult sized jacket in the rubble and wrapped it around the child’s head before placing him in a corner of the truck bed free of other bodies.
Returning to the underground settlement in the afternoon, Feng Chen leaned against the lift bars. He immediately looked down to the right when the view was no longer obscured by those dark rock walls.
–There was a big rock where Yan Bubu would sit every day, waiting for him with Binunu in his arms.
Today was no exception. A tiny person sat on the rock, staring up at the lift.
After work each day, the insulated suits were to be taken off and returned to Military HQ, where they were disinfected and re-distributed the next day. Everyone else took off their suits after they got off the lift, but Feng Chen would take his off as soon as they entered the entrance passage and have someone else take it to Military HQ.
Because as soon as the lift came to a stop, Yan Bubu would run over and jump into his arms. He was afraid that the insulated suit was too dirty.
Another lift creaked its way down. Yan Bubu stood up and stared unblinkingly at it. Feng Chen wasn’t inside the past two times, so maybe he was here.
When the lift was still in midair, he saw that familiar figure between the bars who was also looking down at him.
Joy instantly filled his entire being. Yan Bubu jumped to his feet and kept waving his hands, yelling for his big brother.
The person between the steel bars also waved at him.
The lift clanged to a halt. As the steel bars opened, Yan Bubu immediately rushed over and dove into the outgoing crowd.
“Qin Shen, your brother’s here to pick you up again.” The person next to him laughed. Then he saw the silent and handsome young man actually also show a faint smile for once.
When Feng Chen walked out of the crowd, Yan Bubu jumped into his arms and hugged his waist tightly.
But today Feng Chen didn’t just ruffled Yan Bubu’s hair and lead him towards the Hive by the land. He picked him up and buried his face on the child’s shoulder.
Yan Bubu’s neck tickled a bit from his hot breath. He twisted away and laughed.
“Don’t move.” Feng Chen said sullenly.
Yan Bubu really stopped moving. Only after a few moments did he quietly say, “Big Brother, you’re a little different today.”
“What do you mean?”
Yan Bubu thought for a moment. “You’re acting a little sticky.”
Feng Chen: “Then let me stick to you for a while.”
“Okay.”
Feng Chen held Yan Bubu like this, until he was sure from the beating of his heart, the warmth of his body, and the faint smell of shampoo that he was different from the young child he put on the truck bed this afternoon. Then he set Yan Bubu down and led him towards the Hive by the hand.
Feng Chen asked, “What did you eat this morning?”
Yan Bubu counted off his fingers. “Two steamed buns and a bowl of porridge.”
Feng Chen: “What about at lunch? What dishes did you have?”
Yan Bubu continued to count, “There was tofu and bean sprouts. Hey, by the way, there was a bean sprout that looked really funny! Hahahahaha…ahahaha…”
Feng Chen: “……”
Yan Bubu finished laughing before saying, “That bean sprout has three black dots on it like eyes and a mouth. I didn’t eat it so I could show you. See?”
Feng Chen looked over and paused. “…En, it’s a little funny, but don’t put food in your pocket in the future.”
Yan Bubu: “Got it.”
……
The sound of chatting continued, mostly from Yan Bubu. Feng Chen listened quietly and carefully. The underground settlement’s searchlights shifted, stretching out their shadows holding hands.
The next few days, after Feng Chen finished his turn to transport corpses and disinfect the surface, it was time to go work in the greenhouses again.
Like he always did, the first thing he did upon entering the greenhouses was to glance at his wristwatch. He expected to see 43 degrees, only to find that display showed 68 degrees, which was about the same as outside.
He pressed the watch button with some confusion to refresh the display, because the greenhouses were supposed to be cooler than that. Although it was still hot, it couldn’t be that hot.
Some people had already started to take off their insulated suits when a soldier suddenly barked, “Don’t take off your insulated suits! Something doesn’t seem right here.”
With that, everyone stilled and fearfully began to look around.
“Look, there’s a hole in the wall!” Someone pointed to the upper right and exclaimed.
Deng Chen raised his head as well. He saw a hole where the roof and walls connected. Scorching daylight came in from there, shining on the extra rock lying on the ground.
And the hole had obviously been enlarged. There were claw marks from animals around it.
“What’s going on here? Why is there a big hole on the right?”
“Shit, could it be that the bomb the army used when exterminating mutant species nearby yesterday afternoon launched debris here?”
“Probably. We were wrapping up then and the explosion happened while we were closing the gates. I think I heard a thud from the greenhouses.”
Several soldiers rushed to the fields. Others reacted and stopped caring about the hole and followed.
There were potatoes and corn planted here. The potatoes would’ve been ready for harvest in a few days, and tender corn sprouts just popped out of the ground. The future of the entire underground settlement rested on these crops. If anything were to happen…
When they were through the long passageway to reach the edge of the fields, the soldier in front suddenly stopped and looked ahead in a daze. The people behind him couldn’t stop in time and crashed into him, almost making him fall. When they too saw the scene in front of them, they also froze.
Feng Chen stood at the back. He saw that the corn fields seemed to be ravaged by a tornado. The stalks were all broken or ripped out.
Then looking on the other side at the potato fields, entire plants had been pulled up, revealing nibbled and mangled potatoes.
“Fuck, who did this? Who did this?? Which son of a bitch did this?” Someone screeched hatefully.
A soldier looked at the messy footprints on the ground and could barely hold back the rage in his voice, “Do you still need to ask? Animals came in through that hole last night.”
“What now? If this batch of potatoes can’t be harvested, the settlement will run out of food. What should we do…”
All their hopes bursting like a bubble, some people squatted down and had a nervous breakdown. Other cursed up a storm. The soldiers didn’t say anything, but some of them had red-rimmed eyes.
Feng Chen separated from the crowd and walked to the cornfield, squatting down to look at the footprints. He remembered that when he was at the training center, there used to be wild boars in the surrounding hills. The footprints they left in the mud were similar.
A wild boar could destroy a large corn field by itself in one night. Looking at all the footprints on the ground, more than one was here last night. At least a dozen.
Although the corn was obviously unsalvageable, he went to the potato fields and picked through the potatoes that had been pulled up.
Under each potato plant was a pile of potatoes not yet the size of eggs, many of which had half bitten off. But looking at those teeth marks, this wasn’t the work of wild boars, but some kind of small rodent. There were probably thousands of them, coming in with the boars and leaving before dawn.
Yet Feng Chen found that not all the potatoes were ruined. With all the potato plants densely packed together, at least half of them were still intact.
Feng Chen’s movements caught the attention of a soldier. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and also went over to pick up a potato plant, moving the leaves away to look inside.
“Stop fucking howling, these potatoes can still be salvaged! We won’t starve to death.” The soldier turned and bellowed loudly.
The people standing over there suddenly went silent, as if they were collectively being choked. They all froze and looked at him.
The soldier shook the potatoes in his hand. “At least half the potatoes on each plant are fine, and it’s almost time to harvest anyway. He pointed to the distance and said, “Although the corn is gone, we still have half the potatoes. We can always replant as long as we don’t starve.”
Everyone was too thrown off by the sudden development earlier, but on closer inspection not all the potatoes were destroyed. They calmed down some immediately.
As the soldier said, even they couldn’t be full, they wouldn’t starve to death.
The soldier yelled: “Everyone go pick potatoes! Remember to throw away any that have been nibble on, no exceptions! It would be a real headache if someone ate the tings and got a damn virus or something.”
“Got it!”
Because the potatoes had to all be collected today, a steady streams of trucks went between the settlement and the greenhouses, first bringing in mechanics to patch the hole in the roof, and then bringing an additional 450 people to harvest potatoes.
There weren’t enough insulated suits so those in good shape went without. Still, they were flushed and kept drinking water, soaked through with sweat.
While Feng Chen was picking potatoes, he heard two soldiers conversing quietly nearby.
“I think it’s rats, right? Or field mice? But there’s too many. There had to have been several thousand of those fucking things. Does Haiyun City usually have so many rats?”
“They should have multiplied in number only after the earthquake. I guess they’re also a mutant species. They even know to run away before dawn.”
“These damn mutants. Kill one and another two pop up.”
……
After the greenhouse incident, although some of the potatoes were salvaged, the quantity was much less than expected. The food stocks in the underground settlements continued to decrease day by day.
The steamed buns in the dining hall which used to be the size of an adult’s fist have now shrunk by half and continue to get smaller. The price of a meal has risen from five credits to eight.
Those who had previously threatened to live on the base amount of credits only sought out management to register. Now there were too many applicants and not enough jobs. The jobs at the greenhouses were actually in high demand now. You didn’t have to wear an insulated suit once inside and the most dangerous part was the trip there. Many people could go, but the max number was limited by the number of insulated suits available.
Luckily, as Feng Chen was one of the first group to go out and work, the army took care of them and raised the base amount of credits they received. And while others have to wait two days before they get a chance to work, this group got to work everyday, so they didn’t have to worry too much about credits.
Feng Chen was working at the greenhouses today. The new batch of corn planted had just sprouted. When he returned to the underground settlement and stepped out of the lift, Yan Bubu greeted him as usual, first hugging him for a while and then going to the rock to bring over a lunchbox with cooled boiled water.
Feng Chen had some water as he looked at the smiling Yan Bubu. He noticed how the baby fat he lost from not eating enough some time ago had not grown back. The two chubby dimples on his cheeks were gone, and his chin was still pointed, making his eyes look bigger.
Feng Chen squeezed his chin and frowned.
“What did you eat today?” Feng Chen asked.
Yan Bubu was asked this question everyday. He counted off his fingers and said, “I ate two steamed buns and a bowl of porridge in the morning, and a potato, half an ear of corn and half a bowl of rice for lunch.”
“Are you full?” The portion size sounded fair enough to Feng Chen.
Yan Bubu nodded. “Yeah.”
Feng Chen took his hand. “Let’s go have dinner then.”
The dining hall line was already very long. Everyone started complaining, as usual, that the steamed buns were too small, that this potato was not as big as the others, that there were stir-fried bean sprouts yesterday but not a single vegetable tonight.
Feng Chen took his and Yan Bubu’s credit cards. When they reached the front of the line, they each asked for two steamed buns and two potatoes.
He swiped his card first. When Yan Bubu swiped his card, he glanced at the balance on the display and found that there were 750 credits left on the card.
Feng Chen froze.
His breakfast and lunch has been provided by the army all this time, so he only left himself 200 credits on his card for dinner. He transferred everything else into Yan Bubu’s card for a total of 750 credits.
Yan Bubu said he ate two meals today, so the balance should be 16 credits less. How come the credits on his card was still 750?
Yan Bubu had just walked out of the line with his lunchbox when Feng Chen pulled him aside.
“Let me ask you again. Have you eaten today?” Feng Chen asked.
Yan Bubu stared at the steamed buns in the lunchbox. He gulped hungrily before saying, “Yeah. I ate two steamed buns and a bowl of porridge for breakfast, and for lunch–”
“You’re lying.” Feng Chen interrupted him coldly.
“Ah…ah…I…” Yan Bubu stuttered quietly. Seeing Feng Chen’s expression getting ugly, he finally closed his mouth and stood there in defeat.
“You’ve been starving all day?” Feng Chen looked and sounded stern.
Yan Bubu quietly glanced up at him before hurriedly lowering his head again.
“I just transferred you credits yesterday and here you are starving yourself. Why? Are you being picky? You don’t like potatoes?”
Yan Bubu shook his head in a panic. “No, the potatoes are real tasty. So soft and fragrant… I like them a lot.”
Feng Chen saw that he seemed to be telling the truth about the potatoes, even gulping hungrily. After a little thought, he suppressed his anger and asked, “Are you afraid there won’t be enough credits?”
Yan Bubu didn’t nod or shake his head this time. He just shuffled on the spot somewhat uneasily, but Feng Chen already understood.
He looked at Yan Bubu’s lunchbox and took it. He turned towards the kitchen counter, “Auntie, add another portion for me.”
“No need! I have enough to eat, I have enough.” When Yan Bubu heard that he was getting more food, he rushed over and stood on tiptoe to try and grab the lunchbox.
Feng Chen didn’t even look at him. He raised the lunchbox out of reach with one hand. “Auntie, I’m swiping the card.” At the same time, his other hand grabbed Yan Bubu’s wrist and pressed it to the ID detector.
After a confirmation beep, Feng Chen proceeded to swipe Yan Bubu’s credit card and purchase another meal.
