Our neighborhood has been transported again.

Chapter 3 Giant Bird
The next day, when Qin Ziwen woke up, he touched something cold and icy with his left hand.

I picked it up instinctively; it felt like an iron rod.

He sat up and his right hand touched a piece of paper.

I went to the window and drew back the curtains.

In the dim light of dawn, I could see clearly what was in my hand.

"This is a magnesium flint? Why is there a flint on the bed all of a sudden? Wait a minute."

Qin Ziwen's thoughts raced. He remembered the voice he heard in his dream last night. Strangely enough, when he woke up this morning, he couldn't remember any of the other details of the dream, but he did remember a cold, detached notification sound.

The item in my hand also happened to match the strange notification sound.

Daily settlement... normally, 12:00 AM should be the dividing line.

I'll stay up a little later tonight, and I should be able to confirm it by midnight.

When I arrived at my younger brother's room, I noticed how well he slept; his heavy, rumbling voice was like thunder.

He first looked around the bed and found nothing extra on his brother's bed. Then he checked the living room and other places in the house to make sure he hadn't missed anything. After that, he woke his brother up and asked, "Did you hear any noise last night?"

"Huh? What? The bats are here again?"

Qin Ziwu was startled awake and instinctively looked out the window.

"He didn't come. Did you hear anything last night? Like, did you hear any sounds in your dreams?"

Qin Ziwu shook his head blankly: "No."

Qin Ziwen pondered for a moment, then said, "It's alright."

I walked to the balcony and spread out the blueprints. It was a blueprint for making a rope trap, with torn edges, as if it had been torn directly from a book.

The drawings detail how to make a tripwire trap that can capture small mammals and reptiles.

Qin Ziwu leaned closer and said, "This trap doesn't seem too difficult. All you need is wood and rope. Do we have any rope at home?"

"Have."

Qin Ziwen raised his head and looked at the curtain cord above his head.

He found a stool, climbed up, removed the curtain adjustment cord, gripped it with both hands and pulled it. It felt quite sturdy. The cord was a bit long, so he used a kitchen knife to cut it into two sections.

I took a small handful of mulberries from the balcony.

Then, carrying the rope, he and his younger brother left the residential area together.

When the two went out, some residents were already leaving the community, and he even saw people fishing by the river.

The fishermen stayed on high rocks on the shore, so that even if the crocodiles came ashore, they wouldn't be able to attack them immediately.

"Brother, where did we set the trap?"

"Let me think about it." Qin Ziwen frowned. If the trap was set up too close, it would be easily spotted by the residents of the neighborhood, and the captured prey would most likely be taken away.

Setting up a distant location is dangerous, and the round trip is too risky.

Therefore, a relatively secluded location must be found around the community, and the possibility of animals passing by must also be taken into account, since the purpose of setting up a trap is to catch prey.

First, avoid areas near water sources and rivers; second, avoid open areas; and finally, avoid areas with overgrown vegetation or piles of rocks. Qin Ziwen remembered seeing the large snake upstairs yesterday.

Finally, Qin Ziwen set up a rope trap next to the bushes against the wall on the north side of the community and under a tree more than 80 meters away in the northwest, using mulberry berries as bait.

"Brother, what do you think of this?"

Qin Ziwu broke off a tree branch as thick as a baby's arm from somewhere.

It is long and straight, about two meters long, and has a certain degree of elasticity.

Qin Ziwen took it and twirled it a couple of times. It felt great to hit. "Okay, you can use it as a gun by attaching a sharp object to the top."

"Wow—"

A cry suddenly came from the sky.

A dark shadow was approaching at an alarming speed overhead.

As it drew closer, the shadow grew larger.

Qin Ziwen quickly pulled his younger brother and hid under a big tree.

"There's something in the sky!" someone shouted from afar, but it was too late.

A boy who couldn't dodge in time was hooked by the shoulder and pulled high into the air.

The giant bird was very fast, and the boy it caught looked like a struggling lamb from a distance.

After flying to a height of tens of meters, the giant bird released its claws, and the person fell downwards like a meteorite.

Bang!
A muffled thud came from afar.

After circling once, the giant bird landed, and its claws lifted another figure, flying towards the northern mountains.

However, unlike before, this time the figure on the claws stopped struggling.

Qin Ziwen's heart sank.

Judging from the size of the giant bird compared to a human, its wingspan is at least six or seven meters wide.

It feels like here, humanity's position in the food chain has been steadily declining.

I've witnessed so many dangers in the neighborhood in just the last two days, not to mention those I haven't seen.

"Brother, where are we going now?"

Qin Ziwen said, "Go to the riverbank and try to stay close to the trees, avoid walking in open areas."

Qin Ziwu nodded to indicate that he understood.

Under the shade of a tree in front, a round-faced woman wearing glasses asked an older woman who was squatting down digging for something, "Auntie, is this wild vegetable?"

The woman quickly shook her head, "I don't know, I was just digging around."

"That's not very kind of you! We're all neighbors, what's wrong with talking about it?"

The woman got angry: "How dare you talk nonsense, girl? If you're so capable, go dig it yourself and don't bother me."

As she spoke, the woman put the plant she had dug up, stems and leaves included, into a cloth bag and covered it with the cloth.

The round-faced woman reached out to grab it, about to lift the cloth covering it.

The woman quickly covered her mouth and stood up, scolding, "Have you no shame! How old are you, touching other people's things like that? Didn't your mother teach you anything?!"

The round-faced woman paused, glancing out of the corner of her eye at the Qin Ziwen brothers who were passing by.

The woman quickly grabbed Qin Ziwen's arm. "Young man, you be the judge. Do you think it's right to touch other people's things without permission?"

Qin Ziwen looked down at the old hand gripping his arm, then slowly looked up to meet the old woman's gaze.

The woman realized something was wrong and let go of her hand.

Qin Ziwen laughed and said, "Of course she's wrong to do that. How can you just touch other people's things?"

The round-faced woman's face turned ashen, and she hurried away with her head down. Seeing the woman leave, the older woman also turned to leave, but Qin Ziwen stopped her, saying, "We're all neighbors; helping each other is only right."

The woman suddenly realized she had made a mistake; she shouldn't have dragged these two people into this mess.

He forced a smile. "Yes, we're all neighbors, we should help each other out."

Qin Ziwen glanced at the tightly wrapped bag. "My brother and I left early this morning and haven't eaten yet. Is this food safe to eat?"

The woman quickly complained, "Young man, I have an old man who is bedridden and an eight-year-old grandson at home. If I give it to you, my whole family will be out of food."

Qin Ziwen waved his hand, "You're overthinking it. I won't take yours. I just want to see what wild vegetables look like. After all, the outside world is so big, you can't dig them all by yourself. Didn't you say that neighbors should help each other?"

The woman's face froze. "What do you mean, 'what I said'? Didn't you say it?"

However, after glancing at the two burly young men, she felt that speaking out was better than having her things stolen.

I opened the bag and took out some wild vegetables.

"This is purslane, this is bupleurum tips, and this is bracken."

Qin Ziwen noticed that many of these wild vegetables looked familiar, as if he had seen them in other places.

I just didn't recognize them, so I didn't pick any.

It seems that the resources in this area are even more abundant than I imagined. I wish I had studied agriculture or botany in college.

Since she had already said everything, the auntie simply said, "These vegetables need to be blanched before eating. Cook them for a few more minutes. They can be used in cold dishes, stir-fries, or as fillings."

The aunt hesitated for a moment before saying this, "Although there are many wild vegetables, they can't be picked for more than a few days. If everyone picks them, they'll be all gone in a couple of days."

Qin Ziwen nodded. "Thanks, please continue picking here."

After the two walked away, Qin Ziwu whispered, "Brother, look over there, isn't that person picking wild vegetables too?"

Following his younger brother's pointing finger, Qin Ziwen saw an old man a few dozen meters away with his hands behind his back, carrying a bag in his hand, pretending to take a walk. Then he suddenly bent down and quickly put the things he had picked into the bag.

After getting up, the old man casually looked around. When he saw the two brothers staring at him not far away, he smiled at them and then leisurely continued walking forward. After a few steps, he suddenly accelerated and bent over.

Qin Ziwen smiled.

He simply brought his younger brother along to join the wild vegetable picking team.

After a busy morning, the two went home several times and picked about ten kilograms of wild vegetables.

With so much food left out, it will spoil in just a few days.

So he simply brought some soil back with him, turned the plastic round stool upside down, filled it with soil, and planted some wild vegetables with relatively intact root systems inside.

Looking down from above, the small space inside the round stool was densely packed with wild vegetables; it would be good if they could live for a couple more days.

"I'm so hungry, can I eat more for lunch today, bro?" Qin Ziwu rubbed his stomach.

"I'll go cook some noodles." Qin Ziwen opened the spicy chicken noodles and took out four packets. The two of them had been busy all morning, and one packet was definitely not enough, so he also blanched a large handful of purslane.

I didn't add much water to the pot, just enough to cover the noodles.

After cooking, I put in about 1/3 of the turkey noodle sauce packet, and then added a little soy sauce and MSG.

Water resources are scarce now, and eating too spicy food will waste a lot of water.

Although there was a flint and steel and a river nearby, so water was not scarce in a sense, there were crocodiles in the river, so it was not necessarily safe to fetch water.

After lunch, Qin Ziwen still felt a little hungry. He hadn't eaten enough in the past two days, and his body was instinctively craving more meat and protein.

"You take a nap first. In the afternoon, we'll go fetch water, then check the traps and pick wild vegetables."

When I woke up, it was past the hottest part of the day. Since I didn't have a clock, I didn't know the exact time, but judging from the sky, I guessed it was around two or three o'clock.

There was a large green plastic bucket in the house. The two people, carrying bags and buckets, came out of the building.

The closest one is the South Gate, and the two have just arrived at the South Gate.

Then I heard arguing and shouting inside.

On one side were property management staff in white security uniforms, and on the other side were several residents. Qin Ziwen spotted Huang Tao in a suit among the security guards.

I don't know how I got involved with this group of security guards.

A large group of residents from the community gathered around to watch the spectacle.

I learned the whole story from the conversations around me.

It turns out that these security guards and property management staff lived in the security guard dormitory when they traveled through time, and after they came across the passage, these rooms became their territory.

The property management fees in their Yujing Jiangcheng residential complex are not low. It consists of low-rise buildings with two elevators serving two households per floor, and two units per building.

Therefore, the security is quite good on a daily basis. The property management has a dedicated room on one floor, and it is equipped with all the necessary tools.

Tools such as fire axes, riot shields, and steel forks.

Several homeowners wanted to get some tools from the property management office, but were refused by the security guards, which led to a conflict.

People nearby pointed and whispered, "These security guards have teamed up with a few residents in the community and formed a small clique."

“The items in the property are all purchased with our property management fees, so we can’t let a few people take them all.”

"Yeah, those security guards in the property management office talk really arrogantly."

Huang Tao stepped forward, raising his hands in a reassuring gesture: "Neighbors, please calm down. Don't be impulsive. Let's communicate calmly, okay? Conflict won't solve anything."

“I’m just like everyone else, a member of this community. What’s going on now? Our whole community has been transported to this godforsaken place. There are crocodiles, poisonous snakes, and those giant birds that catch people and eat them! You are all the pillars of your families. It would be very irrational for yourselves to fight each other at a time like this.”

A man with a thick beard across from them said impatiently, "Stop babbling on and on, just tell me if you're giving me the stuff or not, one word!"

Huang Tao patiently explained, "The tools in the property warehouse belong to everyone, not just one household, and the quantity is limited; it's impossible for every household to have one. If you urgently need them, taking them out is fine, but what if you take them and keep them for yourself?"

The bearded man cursed, "I paid the property management fees!"

Huang Tao said calmly, "Everyone has already paid! Just like I said, I suggest keeping these supplies and establishing a public supplies supervision group. If any household needs them, they can use them under the supervision of the community, and then put them back after use."

Our community has ten buildings in total. I suggest that each building send one representative, and the property management staff also send one representative, for a total of eleven representatives. The minority should obey the majority; if more than half vote in favor, the application will be approved. What do you all think?

Huang Tao looked at the others present.

Some people looked disdainful, but others were interested, especially the elderly.

Huang Tao said to the bearded man, "We are all civilized people. If anyone has a real need, such as going out to chop wood, make traps, or make weapons for self-defense, then come and apply."

Register your name, building and apartment number, what you borrowed, and when you will return it. Return it in its original condition after use. If it gets damaged or lost, we will also discuss and come up with a compensation mechanism.

And everyone remembers that big bird that caught people this morning, right? Who knows if something else will fly in or crawl into the community tonight? Our community can't be left unattended at night. I think we can divide the community into groups according to the apartment buildings and have the groups take turns on night duty. That way, everyone will feel more at ease at night.

In this place, going it alone won't work. If we want to survive, we have to stick together! If you're interested, you can come to the property management office to find me privately. My name is Huang Tao, and I live in Building 7.

"Brother, I see you're an honest person. If you need anything, come find me later. These four security guards from the property management aren't with their families. They're missing their loved ones, so their tone was a bit harsh, but they absolutely didn't mean anything by it."

His last words completely shut down the bearded man on the other end. What did he mean by saying his family wasn't around and that his tone was a bit aggressive because he missed them? That was clearly a threat. The barefoot aren't afraid of those wearing shoes!

After glancing around at the other people, the bearded man snorted coldly, "So you're all just watching the show, huh?"

He simply said, "Okay, let's talk later."

(End of this chapter)