Our neighborhood has been transported again.

Chapter 167 The Robbers (Part 2)

At this point, Luo Gang looked apologetic, "But this might make things difficult for you."

Qin Ziwen was just about to speak.

The woman who had been sitting to the side since entering the house suddenly said, "President Zou, my husband trusts you a lot. He always says that you are a good person who is doing things for the good of everyone, and he also wants to contribute more to the community."

I married him because of his kindness, but now I'd rather he were a little selfish! Our child is only five, and we have two elderly parents to support. Without the breadwinner, how am I, a single woman, supposed to raise them?"

The woman turned her head, her eyes red.

Zou Jianghe rubbed his temples, a hint of helplessness on his face. "Sister Li."

"My surname is Xiang," the woman said coldly.

"Okay, Sister Xiang."

"I'm not as old as you."

Zou Jianghe frowned. "Alright, Miss Xiang, as I just said, I will arrange an easy job for you within the alliance, and I will also arrange a good job for your son when he gets a little older."

"Ha." The woman sneered. "Bigger? Tell me, how many years do you expect? Will my whole family still be alive in a few years? You're used to making empty promises to others, now you're trying to make them to me?"

Zou Jianghe looked displeased. It might be one thing in private, but now that the other two were right there, did he have no dignity left?

She immediately slammed her hand on the table. "How am I making empty promises? It wasn't just your husband who died; seven people died this time! Is it just your family with children and elderly people, and the others don't? Am I a god? This neighborhood is only so big, and the resources are limited. Where am I supposed to conjure up so much food for you? I don't want to see this kind of thing happen to me."

"Heh, I see you're living quite comfortably. You leaders live such good lives, but the profits are squeezed out of us lower-level employees." Miss Xiang sneered, her gaze sweeping over the other two people in the room as she spoke.

Luo Gang frowned slightly, while Qin Ziwen leaned back and yawned.

Luo Gang stood up. "President Zou, if there's nothing else, then President Qin and I will be leaving now."

"Let's go." Qin Ziwen stood up and left side by side with Luo Gang.

As they went downstairs, Luo Gang asked, "How has Xiao Cao been doing lately?"

"That's good, very proactive." Qin Ziwen nodded.

Luo Gang pondered for a moment before speaking: "Before the second time we traveled through time, we had stored up food and water, but now we are consuming them too quickly, especially water, which is already insufficient to cover our needs."

This morning we went to the canyon on the east side and found that the species inside were more abundant than we had imagined. More importantly, we found two water sources.

Near the north altar was a larger, stagnant pool of water.

The water source to the south is small in area and has a low water output, and animals are frequently seen there.

I plan to organize a team to clear out the water source to the south, making it a stable water source for us. Would you like to participate?

Qin Ziwen readily agreed: "Sure, but I have one condition: if your people find a dinosaur of the right size, please keep an eye out for it for me."

"What constitutes a suitable body type?"

"Carnivorous dinosaurs weighing over 400 pounds."

Luo Gang nodded. He found the requirement a bit strange, especially the restriction on the dinosaur's weight.

But it was something that happened easily, not a big deal.

Moreover, it's a good thing that Qin Ziwen's people are willing to deal with more wild animals.

Anyway, wild animals are meant to be killed.

Qin Ziwen smiled and said, "After it's finished, I can tell you a secret."

“Okay.” Luo Gang nodded, then asked curiously, “Don’t you lack food and water?”

"Of course we're in need. How could we not be?" Qin Ziwen felt a bit pressured when this was mentioned.

Unlike most families that only support three or four people at most, he had a full thirteen people in his home alone, plus harpy eagles, Mongolian horses, and a host of small livestock.

Every day, the Mongolian horse loses 30 to 40 kilograms of meat, not counting the grass it eats. It is also a heavy drinker, consuming 30 to 40 liters of water a day. Adding the daily drinking water of other people in the household, it consumes nearly 70 liters of water every day.

Adding in the daily losses of workshops such as blacksmith shops, the water produced by a level 2 spring is only enough, with a slight surplus, but not much.

However, there was no need to explain these details to others, so Qin Ziwen changed the subject: "Teacher Luo, I'm curious, how is the food you get distributed internally? Of course, it's not convenient to talk about it."

Luo Gang unscrewed the thermos and water bottle, and laughed, "There's nothing I can't say. It's not some very advanced method. At first, we used a communal system where everyone got their share, but then we found that some people started to slack off and didn't put in the effort. So we changed it to a group competition system."

All students were divided into different groups, and then further divided into eight large groups.

The total resources allocated to the eight major groups each day are fixed, but the subgroups within each major group adopt a competitive system to distribute resources, creating a "catfish effect".

However, to avoid excessive competition that could escalate internal conflicts within the group, the prizes were divided equally among all members.

Qin Ziwen asked, "How was the effect?"

Luo Gang tightened the cap, a helpless smile on his lips. "Efficiency has definitely improved. Teammates in the same squad encourage each other, since a teammate's laziness will affect their own earnings."

Then, the competition between the different teams made them much more motivated than at the beginning. People sometimes need both rewards and challenges.

At this point, Luo Gang said, "Actually, I don't know if it's lucky or unlucky. Compared to us, many residents in your community have their relatives who can come with them. With family members by their side, they have an extra bond here. But this place is really not a good place. Sometimes, you have to face the result of being separated by life and death."

Qin Ziwen thought of his mentally challenged younger brother and couldn't help but sigh, "For those who are alive, being alive is a blessing."

After chatting with Luo Gang for a while, Qin Ziwen left and returned to his residence.

Seeing that his lord had some free time, Jia Liangcai stepped forward to report on government affairs.

After listening to Jia Liangcai's account, Qin Ziwen had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

Firstly, regarding the guild, Zhao Pu's tailor shop officially opened, and he hired a designer who had previously run a small studio.

Secondly, the guild's planting promotion plan encountered setbacks, mainly due to a lack of soil and water.

The sandy soil of the Gobi Desert lacks nutrients, and soil erosion makes it difficult to grow most crops.

Then the number of ordinary members of the guild exceeded twenty households, most of whom lived in Building 8. They also formed a gathering team with ordinary residents as the core, and the gathering team had a slightly larger number of people, a total of fifteen.

The gathering team's mission is to collect available resources in the vicinity and create a detailed map.

In addition, each household has relatives involved in the work of the Lord's Homestead, including leather armor workshops, bow and arrow workshops, iron mines, stone mines, and coal mines.
Finally, Jia Liangcai discovered that someone in the community was collecting car bodies, parts, and other items from the underground parking garage. He asked Qin Ziwu to bring people to participate in the collection as well.

After the report was finished, Jia Liangcai waited quietly to the side.

Qin Ziwen nodded slowly. He had given Jia Liangcai some authority, but he didn't expect him to be so efficient that he could even get that silly boy Qin Ziwu under his command.

This butler really is a butler.

Qin Ziwen said, "Liangcai, your name is indeed well-chosen. You are my Liangcai, and you are very capable. If I had more people as capable as you, I could relax and enjoy my retirement." Jia Liangcai's expression turned serious, and he immediately took half a step back, bowing deeply to the ground: "My lord is too kind. I am unworthy of such praise."

He straightened up, his gaze lowered, and his voice was deep and calm: "All decrees are based on the Lord's strategies, and talented people merely follow the lead. It is only because the Lord trusts me and has granted me the authority to act on my own initiative that I am able to command the people."

At this point, Jia Liangcai slightly raised his eyes and slowed his speech: "Moreover, all industries are just beginning to flourish, and it is precisely because of this that our lord needs to steer them forward. How can our lord slacken his efforts?"

Qin Ziwen laughed upon hearing this, "What do you mean by 'all industries are just beginning to flourish,' or 'steering forward'? It's as if we've built a huge empire. Alright, you go ahead and get busy, I'll go take a look myself."

"Yes."

Qin Ziwen got up and toured the family's businesses.

Inside the community, the leather armor workshops are busiest, followed by the coal mines.

The Gobi Desert experiences large temperature differences between day and night, and high-quality natural refined coal has many uses.

Whether for smelting, heating, or starting a fire, it has many uses.

The biggest advantage of resource points is that they are renewable.

Just as a spring can continuously produce water, the resources consumed by mining at a resource point can also slowly replenish themselves.

The higher the level, the faster the recovery speed.

Therefore, Qin Ziwen has been using the Healing Fountain, since it would be a waste if the water inside were full.

Currently, the Healing Spring is producing water at a fairly fast rate, about fifty to sixty liters per day.

Then, inside the blacksmith's shop, Du Yu was working with great enthusiasm. Under Li Tieshan's guidance, Du Yu was hammering an iron disc, preparing to forge it into the shape of a spearhead.

Since the introduction of the furnace bunker, the efficiency of iron ore refining has increased dramatically, at least several dozen times faster than before.

Qin Ziwen approached: "How's it going?"

Li Tieshan praised repeatedly, "Brother Du is naturally strong and has a great talent for blacksmithing! If he is willing to study hard, he may become a master craftsman in the future." "He probably has no chance of becoming a master craftsman, but you have a chance, Tieshan, I have high hopes for you."

Finally, they arrived at the tavern.

He sat quietly in the tavern for a while. Whether the tavern could attract customers depended entirely on fate. Sometimes he would come here at night, but most of the time he would just waste his time. Over time, he stopped coming.

Aside from coming here during his rest periods, he spends most of his rest time in the Heavenly Star Arrow Corridor, where he has now mastered the art of the Two Stars Alignment.

After practicing for a while, Qin Ziwen got a little itchy and wanted to try shooting an arrow.

But seeing the tavern always empty, I felt it was a bit of a waste.

One can't help but think that now that Luo Gang has his traveling teahouse, the currency obtained from transactions at the tavern has a channel for consumption.

Or we could hire a manager who is permanently stationed at the tavern.

Otherwise, it would be too disrespectful for the tavern to have one waiter killing dinosaurs outside every day, and another cook not cooking but running around as a housekeeper.

While I was thinking, the curtain was lifted.

A man carrying a shoulder pole walked in. On either side of the pole were two baskets covered with white cloth, and from the outline, it could be roughly seen that they contained fruit.

"It's so hot! Is there any boiled water?" The man grabbed a towel from his shoulder, wiped the sweat from his face, and looked around.

“Yes, what else do you need?” Qin Ziwen asked, sitting behind the counter.

"Let me think about it. Shopkeeper, go get me some water. I'm dying of thirst." A glint of shrewdness flashed in the man's eyes.

While Qin Ziwen was walking into the kitchen, she stood up and pretended to be strolling around the tavern, looking around. "Manager, are you the only one here? Can you manage all the work?"

Qin Ziwen brought out a pot of cold boiled water: "My business is very slow. I don't usually have many customers. One person is enough."

"Oh." After the man finished speaking, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes.

Suddenly, he pulled a short knife from behind his back and stabbed Qin Ziwen in the chest.

Qin Ziwen was prepared. He noticed that the man's eyes had been darting around ever since he came in, and some of his small movements seemed a bit deliberate.

He took a half step back, dodging the stabbing dagger, and then delivered a flying kick with his back foot.

The man was kicked away and sent flying, knocking over a bench.

"My bench!"

Qin Ziwen put down his bowl, grabbed the nearest long bench as if it were a piece of wood.

They smashed it down on his head.

"you--"

Don't give him a chance to argue.

The long bench slammed down hard, once, twice, until his body convulsed and he fell silent.

Putting down the bench, Qin Ziwen clapped his hands. As long as he didn't encounter someone like Du Yu, whose physical abilities and skills were extremely high, he was basically not afraid in a one-on-one situation with his maxed-out physical abilities.

It is said that bad people come from poor and remote places, but this was the first time Qin Ziwen had encountered robbers.

This man probably got the idea of ​​doing something bad when he heard that he was guarding the tavern alone.

Qin Ziwen stepped forward and touched the corpse, finding a small cloth bag in his arms. He emptied the bag, which contained two small pieces of silver and about twenty copper coins, all of which had a faint yellow glow.

Thinking back to the copper coin he found in Jia Liangcai's book during their first meeting, which hadn't glowed, Qin Ziwen guessed it was probably because the man harbored malicious intentions.

As for what to do with the body, Qin Ziwen picked it up and threw it out of the curtain!
When the curtain was lifted again, the house was completely empty.

That person has returned to their original world.

Looking again at the carrying pole he was carrying, there was a large gourd inside.

I picked up the gourd and shook it. It seemed to contain some kind of dry substance.

After pouring it out, I found it was some yellowish-brown powder with some impurities, as if it was made from some kind of plant.

“This is a sleeping potion,” Du Yu recognized the yellowish-brown powder after returning.

Qin Ziwen fanned himself with his hand, then took a light sniff. The sleeping potion had a faint earthy smell and a bitter herbal scent. A normal person would definitely notice it, no wonder they put the sleeping potion in the wine.

Du Yu advised, "My lord, you should be a little more careful when you're alone. Taverns are usually found in remote areas and rarely on main roads. Those who come here are either villagers, bandits, or travelers passing through."

Even the villagers aren't necessarily kind. Many work in the fields during the busy farming season and go up the mountain during the off-season. They generally don't target locals, but rather rob passing outsiders, like you, my lord, with your out-of-town accent. In comparison, the people in the neighborhood seem much kinder.

(End of this chapter)