When Tom proposed to go out exploring with Bo Zai tomorrow, Bo Zai was somewhat surprised. He thought it was foolish for Tom to want to go out exploring with such serious injuries before fully recovering. He wondered if Tom's head was messed up.
When Tom made it clear that he just wanted to move around a bit, Bo Zai glanced thoughtfully at Uncle Qi's back and nodded slightly. Only then did he agree, saying that unless Uncle Wei agreed, because Tom was a patient now, according to the rules, patients were under Uncle Wei's jurisdiction.
Tom said it was no problem and that he would convince Uncle Wei.
Through subtle inquiries earlier, Tom learned from Uncle Wei that all his gemstones had been allocated to Zeng Shisan by Uncle Qi. It was impossible for him to rely on the power of gemstones to protect himself in this camp. So Tom planned to go out with Bo Zai's team to kill a few mutated ants or cockroaches and hopefully find some rubies to use as leverage against Zeng Shisan.
Tom had already figured out Zeng Shisan's character. Today's conflict was by no means accidental; there must have been conflicts between the two sides before. However, Bo Zai's people were few, and they had no intention of competing with Zeng Shisan for favor, so they relied on Uncle Qi's support to resist Zeng Shisan.
Once Uncle Qi leaned towards one side or couldn't hold his position, Bo Zai would surely face severe retaliation.
A few words of slander, a frame-up, were enough to make Uncle Qi, who originally didn't care much about Bo Zai, lean towards one side and watch Zeng Shisan retaliate against Bo Zai.
By then, without Bo Zai's counterbalance, Uncle Qi's position would likely be precarious.
So Tom needed his own strength. With rubies, he could help Bo Zai resist Zeng Shisan. To survive, he needed more companions. In this camp of about two hundred people, although there were many middle-aged men and women and children, having more guarantees in the face of danger was necessary.
Later that night, Tom found Uncle Wei who was still busy brewing medicine and told him about his request to go out exploring with Bo Zai. However, Uncle Wei strongly opposed it.
Healing from broken ribs was not easy; it would take at least two or three months to heal quickly, and for those with poor constitution, it might take even longer. So Uncle Wei strongly opposed Tom going out exploring with the team because Tom couldn't handle heavy work in his current state.
No matter how Tom pleaded and promised not to engage in strenuous activity, Uncle Wei refused to budge. He flatly refused, stating that if Tom insisted on going out, he would have to kick him out of the camp. With things escalating to this point, Tom couldn't say much more. It seemed he would have to find another way to get the rubies.
With nothing else to do, Tom took a stroll around Uncle Wei's room.
Uncle Qi's group wasn't in this room; they were reportedly in the next room, which made everyone more at ease.
Instead of matches, they used modified lighters for cooking. They were the cheapest disposable lighters, modified to create sparks by dropping a weight on the switch, igniting the flammable gas, butane, which was released by a device called a piezoelectric ceramic. Tom was amazed by this modified ignition design. Upon asking around, he learned that it was the achievement of an old man who had moved into the sickroom. It seemed this old man was quite handy; no wonder Tom felt a special connection when he saw him.
Now that the old iron man was sick and hospitalized, other modification projects were also half halted because without the old iron man, the progress of the project had slowed down a lot. After all, many things were done based on experience, without understanding the specific data and principles.
Some uncles were sharpening needles, which were collected by Bo Zai and then modified into weapons for everyone. Tom's knife, which was modified from a penknife, was quite rare among them, as such small knives were not common in these places. Their smallest cutting tool was about the length of a finger, but that was in the past. Now that people had become smaller, that thing was too long and too heavy; they couldn't even pick it up without the enhanced strength from rubies.
Apart from cutting tools, their weapons were mostly crude hammers, which were modified from stones, iron rods, and some even large iron pieces, which were transformed into maces.
As for the other part, the aunties were unpacking the four cigarettes brought back by Bo Zai yesterday, then separating the tobacco and repackaging them into sizes that the current small people could smoke. They were almost the size of cigars. With people shrinking, a single cigarette's nicotine was enough to kill someone, so they naturally had to be divided into smaller portions as much as possible.
Most of these cigarettes were taken by Uncle Qi, leaving only a small portion for others. The process here was supervised by Uncle Qi's men, and each one had to be recorded. If one was missing, these aunties would be punished.
Yesterday, Zeng Shisan sent someone to intercept the cigarettes, wanting to take them back and repackage them. Those two repackaged cigarettes were not within Uncle Qi's distribution range. After all, in Uncle Qi's team, there were more than twenty subordinates who didn't belong to Zeng Shisan.
The disaster of shrinking had only passed for about ten days, and a privileged class had already emerged in the survivors' camp. Tom understood that there was nothing he could do about it; human nature was such. These answers, collected together, formed the cycle of the old society.
Apart from luxury items like cigarettes, of course, liquor was also indispensable.
The surrounding residents were all ordinary people, and there wasn't much good liquor at home. Bo Zai could only bring back very ordinary white wine. However, it was heard that Zeng Shisan had the idea of raiding a liquor store at the corner of the street outside, where there were definitely some good wines. They were continuously constructing containers to carry them, but it would take a few more days to finish. Uncle Qi was calculating to get some good liquor as soon as possible.
However, Tom didn't understand. Maotai was indeed precious, but with people shrinking, drinking ready-made Maotai would definitely lead to alcohol poisoning, because for the current small people, forty to fifty percent alcohol was even more dangerous than industrial alcohol. To drink, it had to be diluted significantly, and diluted Maotai was actually no different from other cheap liquors. It just required more water.
Perhaps what Uncle Qi pursued was a kind of spiritual enjoyment.
Today's lunch was steamed rice noodles, which was also one of the classic breakfasts here. Tom had eaten it several times.
The fine rice noodles made in the countryside of Senchuan City, steamed with various meats and seasonings in a pot, tasted delicious and tender when eaten.
Now that people had shrunk, what used to be enough for one person in a plate of steamed rice noodles was now enough for twenty or so people. For the more than two hundred people in the camp, only about ten plates were needed.
Even so, to facilitate putting the containers down, twenty or so people had to cut the noodles into sections and place them in stainless steel plates before placing them on taller glass plates filled with water.
The cooking tool was a small induction cooker modified by the old iron man over a day. This modification was somewhat challenging for Tom, but the old iron man was obviously more professional than Tom. With the concerted efforts of over a hundred people, the camp life now had hot food.
There were both wood-burning stoves and induction cookers in the camp. Thanks to the clever design of the old iron man and Bo Zai, their kitchen utensils were quite complete. What surprised Tom was that, even after so many days had passed, there was still electricity in the public facilities, which were not maintained by anyone.
Upon reflection, unlike other places, there was a nuclear power plant in the province here, and its continuous power generation could last a long time. Of course, if there were problems with the facilities, it would stop. Maintenance of the power grid, on the other hand, was regular. Tom estimated that in a few more days, the entire city's power grid might collapse due to lack of maintenance.
So the old iron man designed two solutions: one was the small induction cooker, and the other was the wood-burning stove. With nearly two hundred people in the camp, except for Bo Zai and Zeng Shisan's teams going out to collect resources, others were responsible for gathering materials for starting fires from the surroundings. They had amassed quite a lot while there was electricity.
Seeing everyone busy, Tom naturally didn't idle and immediately joined the helping queue.
In the days that followed, Tom gradually adapted to camp life. Although he had always wanted to go out exploring, Uncle Wei never allowed him. Later on, he was even forbidden to step out of the medical clinic gate, which made him quite frustrated.
Until April 20th, there was suddenly a turning point.
The camp had been preparing for a long time, and finally, the bamboo tubes, over fifty hand carts, and more than one hundred and eighty men and women were ready to go. Their destination was just one place: a liquor store at the corner of the street in the old market, led by Zeng Shisan. Besides collecting some candies and other supplies, the most important thing was to bring back good liquor. Uncle Qi had been enduring his craving for a long time.
To prepare for these things, Bo Zai hadn't gone out exploring for three days, and instead helped improve the hand carts and bamboo tubes.
As for reconnaissance, Zeng Shisan solemnly stated that he had already investigated several times and there was no danger at all. Only then did Uncle Qi specially arrange for this team of more than one hundred and eighty people to go. However, these more than one hundred and eighty people accounted for most of the manpower in the camp.
Bo Zai refused to participate in this operation. Tom felt that he didn't want to stay with Zeng Shisan. Even if they returned from this operation, Bo Zai would definitely receive Uncle Qi's commendation.
The team set off in the morning, but around 11 o'clock, someone ran back, too frightened to speak coherently. Even Uncle Qi's kicks and slaps didn't help.
Finally, more and more people ran back, and the people in the camp pieced together the original situation from the survivors' mouths.
They had left the alley and were walking on the old market street. Less than halfway through the journey, they unexpectedly encountered a fierce dog.
This fierce dog was very aggressive and bit several people. Everyone was scared and scattered.
Uncle Qi kept asking what had happened to Zeng Shisan, but no one could explain clearly. Some said that as soon as the fierce dog appeared, Zeng Shisan ran away with his men, only to be slapped and kicked by Uncle Qi, who loudly scolded him, saying, "Impossible."
Hearing that there was a fierce dog outside, Uncle Qi didn't dare to go out to look for it. He could only wait anxiously in the camp, looking somewhat at a loss.
At this time, it was Uncle Wei who took the lead. He immediately called everyone back to his clinic room, distributed the stored fine needles and large hammers, and instructed everyone to work together to push the open door shut.
Because the doors of these old houses were very old, even people who had become smaller could crawl through the bottom gap.
The main door was barely shut, and everyone finally felt a little safer. Now they had to wait and see how many people could escape back.