32: rice seeds

“This shovel is really f*cking small?”

Brother Chen poured a shovel of dirt into the bucket, somewhat regretting having melted down the few farming tools obtained from Lihe Village.

“Hmm? Why is the ground shaking? Could it be low blood sugar?” Wan Ning muttered, sounding a bit strange.

Brother Chen was startled and quickly looked up, only to see countless black cracks shattering across the sky.

The World Fragment was about to break?

He hurriedly pulled out his old phone and pressed the power button.

It didn't light up.

“F*ck! It’s out of power.”

He angrily smashed the old phone to the ground and shouted loudly at Wan Ning, who was looking at him: “Quick, get on the Train! The World Fragment is about to break.”

With that, he was the first to run towards the Train.

At this moment, Chen Yujun and the other three women, who were unloading dirt inside the Train, heard the Train announcement and quickly ran to the Train door, shouting loudly at Brother Chen and Wan Ning: “Brother Chen / Train Conductor, come back quickly, the Train is about to depart.”

Brother Chen ran about twenty to thirty meters, and his peripheral vision still hadn't caught sight of Wan Ning, so he looked back with some surprise.

He saw Wan Ning holding her abdomen tightly with both hands, stumbling as she jogged towards the Train, her brow furrowing more with every meter she ran.

Seeing this, Brother Chen quickly turned around, picked up Wan Ning in a princess carry, and sprinted towards the Train.

“Brother Chen, come in quickly.”

Dongfang Yuyao stood at the carriage door, shouting anxiously, and only after Brother Chen rushed into the carriage did she quickly close the Train door.

Phew!

Putting Wan Ning down, Brother Chen let out a heavy breath, feeling as if his throat had been sprinkled with ice and his lungs were about to burst.

At this moment, the Train announcement sounded:

“The Train is starting. All passengers, please be seated.”

“Entering countdown, three, two, one.”

Immediately, the Train transformed into a streak of light and shot out of the World Fragment, and the view outside the window once again turned into darkness.

When the Train stabilized, Brother Chen came to Wan Ning's side and asked with concern in his eyes: “Are you alright?”

Wan Ning lay on the massage chair, shaking her head, her brows tightly furrowed, seemingly enduring pain with difficulty.

Her hands pressed tightly against her lower abdomen, and she said in a low voice: “Help me wipe myself down with a towel, I feel sticky and uncomfortable.”

Brother Chen nodded, turned to boil a pot of hot water, and then began to wipe her down on the massage chair.

Aside from him, everyone else on the Train was female, so there was no need for him to be overly cautious, and he didn't carry her to the bathroom.

After changing Wan Ning into clean pajamas, Brother Chen suddenly remembered that he had opened an emergency medical carriage yesterday.

“Wait for me.”

Brother Chen said to Wan Ning and then quickly ran into the emergency medical carriage.

The interior was relatively simple: a row of medical cabinets, two medical beds, two medical pods, and several machines Brother Chen had never heard of.

One of them was said to be able to perform 3D color imaging of the human body, helping doctors quickly locate diseased areas.

However, none of these were needed for now.

Brother Chen came to a screen, where the four large characters for “Pharmacy Shop” were displayed at the top, and below the text was a search bar.

Searching for painkillers, a bunch of medicines popped up below. He looked at them and finally chose the cheapest one, 1 star coin. It was just menstrual pain, no need for anything too good.

A small blue bottle, only a few milliliters in size, dropped out of the cabinet below the screen.

Holding the medicine, Brother Chen returned to Wan Ning's side: “Here. Drink this!”

Wan Ning took the medicine bottle, didn't ask further, and drank it all in one gulp.

After drinking, she looked at Brother Chen with some confusion: “What is this? It tastes so strange.”

“Painkiller. How do you feel?” Brother Chen stared directly at Wan Ning, curious about the medicine's effect.

“Where did we get painkillers on our Train? Did you buy them from someone else?”

“No! I opened an emergency medical carriage yesterday, and I bought them there,” Brother Chen shook his head and explained.

“Mmm hmm~”

A moment later, Wan Ning let out a comfortable moan. She felt a warm current spreading from her stomach, sweeping through her entire body, and finally gathering in her lower abdomen.

It was warm and quite comfortable.

She jumped up from the massage chair in surprise, somewhat delighted, and said: “Huh? It doesn't hurt anymore!”

“That’s good.” Brother Chen smiled with relief, then instructed: “Rest a bit more, then go back to your room. Pain relief is only temporary, it treats the symptoms, not the root cause, so you still need more rest.”

“Got it! You sound like an old nagging mother.” Wan Ning smiled charmingly... Arriving at the cockpit, Brother Chen noticed a red exclamation mark at the top of the screen, constantly flashing on the Train.

[Risk Alert: Carriages 4-1, 4-2 have glass damage, 12% damaged. Please repair promptly. Current carriages are in a state of heat loss, please do not enter.]

Brother Chen recalled information previously mentioned in the group chat—repairs require the use of repair cores.

He didn't have any for now!

Forget it, let's leave it for now.

He clicked to ignore the risk and continue.

He opened the trading platform.

Brother Chen found that the lumber Jiang Zhi owed had already been sent.

He wondered if it was enough for another upgrade?

He opened the upgrade material status:

[Current Train Level: 5 (Bronze)]

[Metal: 1372 / 500kg]

[Lumber: 12370 / 500kg]

[Sandstone: 1885 / 150kg]

So much lumber!

He didn't have much of a concept when moving it, but he didn't expect to have collected so much. Many hands indeed make light work; it was much faster than collecting it alone.

Hmm! He needed to get more people.

Upgrade to Level 7.

Two carriages appeared from the distant void, transforming into streaks of light and attaching behind the Train's fifth carriage.

He clicked into the chat room.

After a day of warm-up, various alliance forces had begun openly recruiting people.

[The Great Xia Interstellar Federation is recruiting! Don't miss out. All citizens of the Great Xia Federation have a chance to enjoy a daily federal subsidy of 2 star coins. All compatriots of Xia Nation are welcome to join. Contact person: Train Conductor ECB11111]

[The United States Interstellar Federation is recruiting...]

[The Sakura Interstellar Federation is recruiting...]

[The Great Qin Heavy Industries Alliance is recruiting...]

Brother Chen looked around and found over a dozen federations had emerged, offering varying benefits.

He also saw Qin Mengyue's Great Xia Trade Alliance. The benefits were not as good as other forces, after all, it was just a loose alliance, and the only benefit was transaction discounts.

[To all big shots, does anyone need rice seeds? I have two packs here, asking for food. I haven't eaten for three days. Please, I beg you!]

[Can you stop posting? In this world, even water isn't enough, and you're planting rice. Who the f*ck is that stupid?]

Rice seeds?

He could give it a try, but he didn't know if they would grow.

Brother Chen pondered, planning to buy them and test them out.

The remaining food now was mostly junk food—chips, instant noodles, biscuits, and such. He couldn't eat that every day.

As for the previous rice, at 300g per person per day, plus Chen Tianxiang, the child, nine people would eat 5 jin a day, which could barely last a month.

But according to his thinking, he might need to add more people in the future, and the rice consumption would be even greater; one month wouldn't be enough at all.

Furthermore, whether he could obtain food in the future was still unknown. He had to solve the food problem and ensure self-sufficiency in grain. It also takes a long time for rice to grow from planting to maturity.

Brother Chen clicked on the other party's avatar; it was a boy about thirteen or fourteen years old.

He then clicked on a private chat: “Do you still have rice seeds?”

“Yes, yes, big shot, do you want them? I need food.”

“I'll give you five packs of instant noodles, want to trade?”

Wan Ning had collected a lot of instant noodles, including some old pickled cabbage ones that no one had eaten, so they had just been left there.

They could be traded to others, so they wouldn't go to waste.

Ever since that incident, anyone who knew about it found it very difficult to eat old pickled cabbage noodles again. It was disgusting on one hand, and on the other, they were worried about getting stomach problems. If they got so sick they became weak and there was no medicine, it would be troublesome.

“Trade! Trade! Trade! Thank you, big shot, thank you, big shot.”

Brother Chen clicked the trade request and sent all the old pickled cabbage noodles.

“Big shot, why did you give ten packs? Did you make a mistake? I'll send them back to you.”

“No need! The other five packs are a gift for you.”

“Thank you, big shot, thank you, big shot. Big shot, you are truly a good person.”

The trade was successful.

Taking them out of the Train's trading warehouse, two packs of rice seeds appeared out of thin air in front of him, each weighing 500g.

He found a bucket and soaked the rice seeds in water to see if they would sprout.