I became a farmer in the apocalypse.

"The little tree and the others are having a much better time now."

When Wenru returned, she told Ji Hong what she had seen when she came back from the group of children: "When I went over there, they were eating pumpkin porridge. Before, they would only put a few grains of rice in a pot of porridge, but now it's a full pot of thick porridge."

Ji Hong: "Once I've earned points, life will naturally be much easier."

Wen Ru smiled and said, "That pumpkin porridge smells so good! When will we have enough points to buy a pumpkin from Farmer Jiang and try it?"

Yesterday, Wenru also went with Ji Hong to dig for mutated bamboo shoots. It was the first time she had seen that farm, the bamboo shoot recycling machine, and she even ate pumpkin cakes.

Ji Hong was packing up the bamboo shoot digging tools she would take with her later. "I don't know how many more days we can earn these points. Let's save them and accumulate more points to buy food later."

The pumpkins from the farmer cost 150 points per pound; they probably can't afford them.

Wen Ru nodded upon hearing this, "That's true, she can't keep collecting garbage forever."

This will eventually come to an end; no one will keep accepting these useless things forever.

Li Xiang stood up. "Let's make as much money as we can while we can! If we can't make money this way anymore, we'll find another way to do it."

"Li Xiang is right, we should make as much money as we can while we still can."

"Yesterday, didn't Iron Hammer and Old Sparrow dig up such a huge mutated bamboo shoot? They earned a full thousand points. Later in the afternoon, we found another one weighing seventy pounds, but it didn't meet the target. It seems we were a little short."

"It should weigh at least 100 jin (50 kg), only bamboo shoots weighing 100 jin can be considered giant bamboo shoots! Let's try to find a few more giant bamboo shoots weighing over 100 jin today! With such a big forest, I don't believe we can't find any."

"Yeah, let's get going!" someone exclaimed impatiently.

If the last bus from the field area hadn't been leaving for the safe zone at 3:40, they would have liked to search in the woods a little longer!

The group packed up their tools and changed their clothes, all in high spirits, ready to set off.

……

"Chen Jiqi, have you found Jiang Tang?" Zhao Yongxiang asked Chen Jiqi.

Chen Jiqi shook his head. "Jiang Tang is gone."

Since the last time he waited for Jiang Tang at the entrance of the No. 9 shelter and said a few words to him, Jiang Tang has vanished without a trace.

Qiu Mei hasn't seen Jiang Tang these past few days.

She was perfectly fine, and then suddenly she disappeared. I saw her selling vegetables at the agricultural products market a few days ago, but I haven't seen her there since.

I asked other stall owners and found out that Jiang Tang had been selling vegetables for a long time, but hadn't come recently.

"There's no rice left, absolutely no rice left." Zhao Yongxiang sighed as she looked at the empty rice bucket.

What should we do?

She had told Chen Jiqi last time that there wasn't enough rice, but Chen Jiqi seemed not to have listened and said he would find a way, but in the end there was still no rice in the rice bucket.

"Mom, what's left in the fridge?"

Zhao Yongxiang opened the refrigerator. "There's still some pork."

There was no rice, but there was still meat.

This pork was sent over by Jiang Li before. It was all top-quality spare ribs. We usually couldn't bear to eat it, only having it occasionally. There are still three or four pounds left, all stored in the freezer.

"Give me the ribs, I'll take them to the market and exchange them for some rice."

Chen Jiqi found a styrofoam box, put some crushed ice at the bottom, put the ribs inside, and hurriedly headed to the market street with the box in his arms.

The market street has many places for exchanging goods.

Some people traded rice for pork, while others traded household goods for rice.

Chen Jiqi walked into the exchange area, spread the cloth he brought on the ground, placed the foam box on top, and opened it to reveal the ribs inside.

Soon someone came over to ask.

He was a middle-aged man.

"How about I exchange this pork?"

Chen Jiqi: "Do you have rice? I only need to exchange rice."

"How about I trade you one pound of pork ribs for three pounds of polished rice?"

Chen Jiqi shook his head. "No, that's too little. Pork at the market is 370 points per jin now. How much would 3 jin of rice cost?"

The man frowned. "This isn't fresh meat either! Frozen meat can't be priced the same as fresh meat. Judging by the appearance of this meat, I don't know how long it's been frozen."

Chen Jiqi said impatiently, "It's been frozen for less than a month, it's not like it's inedible! Besides, I'm keeping it warm with crushed ice! If you want to exchange it, bring rice instead. If not, forget it. By the time the ribs thaw, they'll be even harder to sell."

The man sighed, "Fine, I'll trade you 3.5 jin of rice for one jin of pork ribs. I'll give you all these pork ribs, okay? This is my bottom line."

Chen Jiqi thought for a moment and agreed, "Okay."

This man had fine rice, which perfectly met his requirements. Others might have only been able to offer him coarse rice in exchange.

In the end, he exchanged 12 jin of rice. Chen Jiqi carried the rice back to the recycling area. Along the way, he saw many vagrants coming out of the dark alleys, begging on the roadside, looking thin and bony.

Chen Jiqi sighed.

These days are getting harder and harder.

With food prices soaring, everyone is struggling to make ends meet. I didn't realize this until now, when I wasn't in charge of the household. I've discovered that with my meager salary of 4,000 points, I can't afford anything. I have to tighten my belt to make ends meet, or I'll run out of food at the end of the month.

As Chen Jiqi was thinking this, he suddenly thought of Jiang Tang, and then of pork. Suddenly, a brilliant idea struck him.

He seemed to know where Jiang Tang had gone.

Field area.

He almost forgot that Jiang Li had quit her job at the weaving factory to go farming. His attention had been focused on Jiang Tang, and he hadn't thought about Jiang Li at all.

With that thought in mind, Chen Jiqi went straight to the service hall.

Agricultural service window.

The clerk glanced at him. "Buying land?"

"No," Chen Jiqi shook his head. "I'm asking about someone. I want to know if she bought land here."

"What's your relationship with that person?"

"She is my wife's younger sister, named Jiang Li. My wife has been missing recently, and I'm worried something has happened to her. I want to see if she went to the fields to find her sister."

As soon as the clerk heard that they were looking for someone, they helped them look it up.

"Jiang Li, right? She does own land in B Tian District."

Having received a positive answer, Chen Jiqi left the service hall.

Jiang Li has indeed gone out to farm.

When he got home, he gave the rice to Zhao Yongxiang and told her what he had just found out.

"Jiang Tang probably went to see her sister. Jiang Li bought land in the field and has been farming there lately."

"Farming?" Zhao Yongxiang asked incredulously. "That burdensome younger sister of Jiang Tang?"

Why did she go out to farm?

Jiang Li has always been a timid and indecisive person, so it's surprising that she would go out to farm. This is really not what Zhao Yongxiang always thought of Jiang Li.

Chen Jiqi: "It's not easy to farm now. Area A was opened earlier than Area B, and people there have already farmed there once. A colleague of mine had a relative who worked in Area A for a year, but the harvest for that year couldn't even cover the cost of buying the land and seeds."