Chapter 165: The Robbers (2) |
When he said that, Luo Gang looked apologetic, “It’s just that this way, it might be harder on you all.”
Qin Ziwen was about to speak.
The woman who had been sitting quietly in the corner since they entered the room suddenly said, “President Zou, my husband trusted you a lot. He always said you’re a good person and that you do things for everyone’s sake. He also wanted to contribute more to the complex.
When I married him, I valued his kindness, but now I’d rather he be selfish! The child is only five, and there are two elderly people at home. Without the main breadwinner, how can I, a single woman, raise them?”
The woman turned her head, her eyes reddened.
Zou Jianghe rubbed his brow and showed a trace of helplessness, “Sister Li.”
“My surname is Xiang.” The woman said sharply.
“All right, Sister Xiang.”
“I’m not older than you.”
“Hah.” The woman scoffed, “A bit older? How many years are we supposed to wait? Will our whole family still be alive in a few years? You’re used to promising people things, but now you’re promising me the moon?”
Zou Jianghe’s face showed annoyance. He might have let things slide privately, but with the other two people right there now, he still had to save face.
He slapped the table, “How am I promising the moon? Your husband wasn’t the only one who died. Seven people died this time! Your family has children and elders, but do others not? Am I a god? The complex is so small, resources are limited. Where am I supposed to conjure so much food from? I don’t want this to happen either.”
“Hah, you seem to be living pretty well. You leaders, you live comfortably; your profits are squeezed out from people like us at the bottom.” Miss Xiang sneered, her gaze sweeping over the other two people in the room as she spoke.
Luo Gang frowned slightly. Qin Ziwen leaned back and yawned.
Luo Gang stood up, “President Zou, if there’s nothing else, Chairman Qin and I will go now.”
“All right.” Qin Ziwen stood and left shoulder to shoulder with Luo Gang.
While going downstairs, Luo Gang asked, “How has Xiao Cao been performing recently?”
“Pretty good, very proactive.” Qin Ziwen nodded.
Luo Gang pondered for a moment, then said, “Before the second transmigration, although we stocked up on food and water, we’re burning through it too quickly now, especially water. We’re already running a deficit.
This morning we went to the eastern canyon and found that its biodiversity was richer than expected. More importantly, we found two water sources.
One closer to the north near the altar is a larger pool, but it’s stagnant water.
The southern source is smaller, with less flow, and animals frequently come by.
I plan to organize people to clear the southern spring and make it our steady water extraction point. Do you want to take part directly?”
Qin Ziwen agreed readily, “Sure, but I have one condition. If your team finds a dinosaur of appropriate size, keep an eye out for one for me.”
“What counts as appropriate size?”
“A carnivorous dinosaur weighing over four hundred jin.”
Luo Gang nodded. He found the request odd, especially the weight limit, but it was a trivial favor and not troublesome.
Besides, Qin Ziwen’s people being willing to handle more beasts was beneficial anyway.
Beasts were meant to be killed regardless.
Qin Ziwen smiled, “When it’s done, I can tell you a secret.”
“All right.” Luo Gang nodded, then asked curiously, “Aren’t you lacking food and water yourselves?”
“We are, of course.” Mentioning this made Qin Ziwen feel pressured.
Unlike a typical household that might feed three or four people, his home supported thirteen people within the settlement alone, plus the crowned eagle, the Mongolian horse, and several small livestock.
Daily meat consumption alone was thirty to forty jin, and the Mongolian horse consumed extra hay and drank heavily — thirty to forty liters a day by itself. Adding the daily drinking needs of the home’s members, water consumption approached seventy liters a day.
With daily consumption from workshops like the blacksmith, the level-two spring barely covered needs, leaving only a small surplus.
But these details didn’t need to be aired to others, so Qin Ziwen changed the subject, “Teacher Luo, I’m curious how you distribute food internally. If it’s awkward to explain, don’t worry about it.”
Luo Gang opened his thermos and smiled, “There’s nothing we can’t say. It’s not a very advanced method. At first we used equal distribution, a communal pot, everyone gets the same share. But we found some people began to slack off, working less. So we switched to group competitions.
We split everyone into small teams, which were then grouped into eight large groups.
Each day the total resources for each of the eight large groups are fixed, but resources are allocated among the small teams inside each large group through competition, stirring up a catfish effect.
But to prevent excessive internal conflict, shares within a small team are equal.”
“How’s it working?”
Luo Gang tightened the cap and gave a helpless smile, “Efficiency has definitely improved. Teammates supervise each other, since one person slacking harms their own gains. The competition between teams increased initiative compared to the beginning. People often need both carrots and sticks.”
He continued, “I don’t know whether it’s lucky or unlucky, but compared to us, many households in your complex had relatives come along. Having family members here creates extra bonds. Still, this place isn’t safe; sometimes it means facing death and permanent separation.”
Qin Ziwen thought of his foolish younger brother and muttered, “For those who survive, being alive is a blessing.”
He chatted with Luo Gang a bit more, then left and returned to his residence.
Jia Liangcai seized the opportunity while his master was free to report on affairs.
After listening to Jia Liangcai’s briefing, Qin Ziwen had a general idea.
First, for the guild: Zhao Pu’s tailor shop officially opened; he hired a designer who had previously run a small studio.
Second, the guild’s planting expansion plan encountered setbacks, mainly due to lack of soil and water.
Gobi soil lacks nutrients and suffers erosion, making most crops difficult to grow.
Next, the number of ordinary guild members surpassed twenty households, most from Building 8, and they formed a gathering team centered on ordinary residents, totaling about fifteen people.
The gathering team’s task is to collect nearby usable resources and map them in detail.
Also, every household has relatives participating in the master’s settlement work: leather armor workshop, archery workshop, iron mine, stone mine, coal mine...
Finally, Jia Liangcai discovered locals collecting car panels and parts from the underground garage. He asked Qin Ziwu to lead people to join the collection effort.
After the report, Jia Liangcai waited respectfully at his side.
Qin Ziwen nodded slowly. He had granted Jia Liangcai some authority, but didn’t expect him to be so efficient; he could even command that foolish Qin Ziwu.
This steward truly behaved like a steward.
Qin Ziwen said, “Liangcai, your name suits you. My good talent, you’re capable. If I had a few more people like you, I could take on the world.”
Jia Liangcai’s expression tightened and he stepped back half a pace, bowing low to the ground, “Master flatters me. Liangcai is unworthy of such praise.”
He straightened, eyes lowered, voice steady as water, “All orders stem from the master’s strategy. Liangcai only follows orders. It is because the master trusts me and grants me temporary authority that I can drive people to act.”
He raised his eyes slightly and slowed his speech, “Moreover, with all industries just beginning to revive, the master must steer the helm; the master cannot slack off.”
Qin Ziwen laughed at that, “Industries reviving, steering the helm — you make it sound like we’ve built a great enterprise. All right, you go about your business. I’ll go take a look myself.”
“Yes.”
Qin Ziwen rose to inspect the settlement’s industries.
Inside the settlement, the busiest spot was the leather armor workshop, followed by the coal mine.
The Gobi’s large day-night temperature swings made naturally pure coal useful for many things.
Whether smelting, heating, or cooking, the coal was very useful.
The advantage of resource points is that they’re renewable.
Just like the spring produces water continuously, resources in a harvest point slowly recover after extraction.
The higher the level, the faster the recovery.
That’s why Qin Ziwen constantly used the Healing Spring; otherwise water would be wasted when it filled up.
At present, the Healing Spring wasn’t slow — it produced around fifty to sixty liters a day.
In the blacksmith, Du Yu was working vigorously. Under Li Tieshan’s guidance, Du Yu was pounding an iron cake, shaping it into a spearhead.
Since acquiring the furnace bunker, iron ore refining efficiency had skyrocketed — at least dozens of times faster than before.
Qin Ziwen approached, “How’s it going?”
Li Tieshan praised, “Brother Du has natural strength and talent for forging! If he studies it, he might become a famed craftsman.”
“He probably won’t become a famed craftsman, but you might have a chance, Tieshan. I’m rooting for you.”
Finally he reached the tavern.
After sitting quietly for a while in the tavern — whether it could attract customers was a matter of fate. Sometimes he came in the evening for a bit, but most of the time it was a waste, and over time he stopped coming as often.
Outside of rest times when he might drop by, most of his downtime was spent in the Celestial Star Arrow Gallery, and he had already mastered the Two-Star Consecutive Shot.
After practicing a few moves, his hands itched and he wanted to shoot arrows, but seeing the tavern always empty felt wasteful.
He thought: now that Luo Gang has a traveling merchant teahouse, currency from tavern transactions can be spent. Maybe hire a long-term manager stationed at the tavern.
Otherwise, one waiter is out killing dinosaurs every day and the cook isn’t cooking, running off to act as steward — that’s not being serious.
While he was thinking, the curtain was lifted.
A man carrying a shoulder pole entered, two baskets hanging at both ends covered with white cloths; from the outline they looked like fruit.
“It’s scorching. Do you have any cooled boiled water?” The man wiped sweat with a towel on his shoulder and surveyed the place.
“Yes, anything else?” Qin Ziwen asked from behind the counter.
“Let me think. Innkeeper, you go pour the water. I’m parched.” The man’s eyes flashed sharply.
As Qin Ziwen went into the kitchen, the man rose and feigned idly browsing the tavern, looking around, “Manager, is it usually just you here? Can you handle everything?”
Qin Ziwen brought out a pot of cooled boiled water, “Business is so slow here I’m the only one. One person is enough.”
“Oh.” The man said, then a murderous gleam flashed in his eyes.
He suddenly drew a short knife from behind him and lunged at Qin Ziwen’s chest.
Qin Ziwen had been prepared. Since the man entered, his eyes had been wandering and his small gestures seemed deliberate.
He stepped back to dodge the blade and countered with a flying kick.
The man was kicked flying, crashing into a stool.
“My stool!”
Qin Ziwen set down the bowl, grabbed the nearest long bench like a plank of wood, and brought it down on him.
“You—”
He didn’t give the man a chance to argue.
He struck the bench down hard, again and again, pounding the man until his body convulsed and went still.
Setting the bench down, Qin Ziwen clapped his hands. Unless someone like Du Yu — with exceptionally high physique and skill — showed up, his own full-star physical condition meant he wasn’t afraid in a one-on-one fight.
They say desperate places breed villains; this was the first time Qin Ziwen had encountered a robber.
This man had likely seen he was alone at the tavern and grew malicious.
Qin Ziwen checked the corpse and found a small cloth bag in the man’s bosom. He emptied it: two small silver pieces and over twenty copper coins, all with a faint yellowish glow.
Thinking back to the first time he saw copper coins in Jia Liangcai’s book case that didn’t glow, Qin Ziwen guessed these coins glowed because the man harbored ill intent.
As for disposing of the body... Qin Ziwen picked the man up and tossed him out past the curtain!
When he lifted the curtain again, his settlement was empty.
The man had returned to his original world.
Qin Ziwen glanced at the shoulder pole; there was a large gourd inside. He picked it up and shook it — it sounded like something dry.
He poured it out and found yellow-brown powder with impurities, like ground plant material.
“This is knockout powder.” When Du Yu returned, he recognized the yellow-brown powder.
Qin Ziwen fanned it briefly and sniffed it lightly. The knockout powder had a slight earthy fishiness and the bitter scent of herbs. A normal person would notice it, which explained why the poison was meant to be mixed into the drink.
Du Yu warned, “Master, be more careful when you’re alone. Taverns usually appear in remote places and not on main roads. People who come here are either villagers, passing strong men, or travelers.
Villagers aren’t necessarily kind; during busy farming seasons they’re in the fields, and during slack seasons they go up the hills. They seldom attack locals, but they’ll rob passing outsiders, those with an accent like you. Compared to them, people in the complex are much kinder.”
......