Teacher Xizhilang watched from a distance, a bit lost in thought.
Chen Qing wasn't an easy student to take care of.
Being an orphan, no one taught him how to use chopsticks, no one told him that spicy strips were junk food, and no one taught him how to mend the ripped seams of his pants.
When other kids were just starting to learn to talk, they would be taught by adults to call people "uncle" and "aunt".
But orphans would spend a long time learning these basic things from the scornful looks of others.
So Chen Qing wasn't an easy student.
Sensitive, self-abased, and with all kinds of problems.
But often, parents love the child who seems the least promising and has the most flaws the most.
So it was almost an open secret that Teacher Xizhilang shielded Chen Qing. As long as he was around, no one could bully Chen Qing.
But now, looking at that arrogant and unrestrained teenager on the stage,
he suddenly smiled slightly too.
This guy, who had lost his parents and still had to take care of his younger brother, probably wouldn't need his worry anymore in the future.
On the way back, Chen Qing called out to Monkey.
"Monkey, do you trust me?"
Monkey was stunned for a moment and then grinned: "Tell me what it is first, and then I'll decide whether to trust you or not."
"Stock up on more food, instant noodles, canned food, the kind that can be preserved for as long as possible."
"No problem!" Monkey nodded. "This little thing is approved by me."
"If possible, your family can consider building a safe house."
"A safe house?"
Monkey frowned. This was no small project.
"Do you have some inside information?"
"It's not really inside information. I'm afraid it's going to be really tough this time."
Chen Qing didn't go into too much detail. After all, it was too strange.
Monkey nodded: "I'll try to persuade them."
Chen Qing also sent a text message to Teacher Xizhilang, asking him to stock up on more food too.
He didn't mention the specific reason.
Teacher Xizhilang replied with just one word: "Okay."
Monkey's family also lived in the Jiangpan Community, but since Chen Qing was staying in a hotel now, they didn't go the same way and separated at the intersection.
Still on the way, Chen Qing called Manager Yang:
"Manager Yang, do you know any reliable pig feed manufacturers?"
"Are you really going to buy some?"
"No, I'm just curious and want to prepare a little bit. You know, I'm a bit paranoid."
"Yes, I do."
Soon, Manager Yang sent a PDF document.
It wasn't convenient to look at it carefully on the road. Glancing through it roughly, there were more than ten pig feed manufacturers listed on it.
When he got back to the hotel, a luxurious lunch banquet had already been set in front of Chen Man, and he was eating with his mouth full of oil.
Chen Qing also sat down, casually grabbed a tomahawk steak and started gnawing on it while looking at the PDF.
Among these manufacturers, two were quite suitable. They were local, had reasonable prices, and were of an appropriate scale.
He called one of them and asked about the price.
"How much do you want?"
"One thousand tons."
"Three million yuan~"
"What if we add meat to it?"
The person on the other end was slightly stunned, and his tone became a bit impatient: "Do you add meat to pig feed? Are you kidding?"
"I'm not joking. I was introduced by Manager Yang of the Three Hundred Guards."
"Oh?"
"It's not adding commercial meat. It's adding zombie meat, those old frozen fish and frozen meat. If you have connections, the scraps from processing factories are also okay."
"How strange... There's someone adding meat to pig feed these days!"
This customer service person was a bit arrogant.
"Alright, we'll discuss it and give you a reply before tomorrow."
After hanging up the phone, Chen Qing let out a long sigh.
If people don't have meat for a long time, they'll feel weak.
If eaten sparingly, ten adults would consume one ton of food in a year. One thousand tons would be enough to support a community.
People's qi and blood are the foundation of everything. Without the support of qi and blood, even the strongest formations would decay.
In places where people's qi is abundant enough, evil spirits dare not approach.
For example, military camps and schools.
But now he didn't have enough money. He still had to go to a loan shark company to get some more money.
Just as Chen Qing was about to make the second call, suddenly the necklace on his chest vibrated gently!
Chen Qing was stunned for a moment, and then his heart tightened!
"There's a ghost!!"
"There's a ghost here!!"
A strange but cheerful voice rang out:
"Jin Bu~huan, Jin Bu Huan, Jin Bu~huan, Jin Bu Huan..."
Suddenly, a half-meter-tall, skinny and short ghost with tattered clothes and carrying a huge sack with a diameter of one meter appeared in the room.
Was it Jin Bu Huan?
Chen Qing was slightly stunned.
"Jin Bu Huan!"
He called out, but there was no response.
"Jin Bu~huan, Jin Bu Huan, Jin Bu~huan, Jin Bu Huan..."
While chanting, Jin Bu Huan jumped high and disappeared into a slipper.
And the slipper naturally turned into a solid gold slipper.
Chen Qing weighed the gold slipper. It weighed about ten catties.
Gold has a high density, and this slipper had a thick sole.
He could find a chance to sell it and exchange it for some supplies. He casually put it into the Demon-Suppressing Tower.
Chen Qing came to the Jiangpan Community.
The construction of his own safe house was in full swing, and the progress was quite good.
After thinking for a moment, Chen Qing turned into the electric bike shed in the northeast corner of the community.
When he came to the back of the electric bike shed, he saw a familiar figure.
Blind Uncle Xia.
During the apocalypse, there were probably only two people who didn't betray Chen Qing, Monkey and Uncle Xia.
In the Jiangpan Community, Chen Qing actually had a relative: his aunt.
When Chen Qing was 13 years old, there was a time when they really ran out of food.
Chen Qing mustered up the courage to beg at his aunt's house. He used the last bit of his dignity to beg her to lend him 200 yuan.
But all he got was humiliation.
Especially when Chen Qing went out and hid in the corridor, lost in thought, he heard his aunt laughing loudly at home. Every word was deeply engraved in Chen Qing's mind:
"That bitch always targeted me when we were young. She was better than me in everything. Hahaha, look! Now her little bastard has come begging to my door!"
That winter, Chen Qing once thought that he and Chen Man would die.
It was at that time that Uncle Xia gave him a pile of dirty and smelly small bills, totaling 48.5 yuan.
Among them, there were even two toy bills for children.
So, during the Blood Moon, Chen Qing would only eat after Uncle Xia had enough.
If it weren't for Uncle Xia's consistent refusal, Chen Qing would have taken him home long ago.
At this moment, Uncle Xia was cooking.
A blind man living alone, the hygiene must be quite poor.
The water in the pot was muddy. He groped to put the small pot on a stove made of three bricks. He fumbled with the lighter for quite a while before finally lighting the wooden blocks under the pot - those wooden blocks should be scraps from building materials.
During this process, the lighter burned his hand, but perhaps he was already used to it. He just shook his hand and didn't pay any more attention.
When the water in the pot started to bubble, Uncle Xia tore open a wrinkled pack of instant noodles, groped to put the noodle cake in, and then put the seasoning packets in one by one.
He shook the crumbs of the instant noodles in the bag into his hand and ate them all, and then licked the seasoning packets clean.
After waiting for a while, Uncle Xia took out a wooden board, pushed the ashes aside to put out the fire, and then took out a pair of disposable chopsticks from a big bag beside him.
Just as he was about to eat, he suddenly frowned: "Who's there?"
Chen Qing took a deep breath, forced a smile on his face, and said with a smile, "Uncle Xia, it's me."
"Chen Qing!"
Uncle Xia immediately greeted him: "Come on, do you want some noodles?"
Chen Qing walked over and sat down on a blackened and torn brown sofa, smiling and asking, "How have you been lately?"
It was messy here, but Chen Qing knew that he couldn't move anything.
Because Uncle Xia had already memorized the positions of everything. Even if something was moved a little bit, it would cause trouble for him.
Chen Qing was thinking about how to give him money.
Unlike other people in hardship, Uncle Xia was a proud and stubborn man.
Even Chen Qing himself was full of inferiority complex.
But Uncle Xia?
Although he was blind, he was always a remarkable figure wherever he went, just like a flag stuck in a garbage dump.
"You haven't come for a while. Chen Man came to see me a few days ago and gave me a cake."
Huh?
Chen Qing was a bit surprised.
"Don't look at that kid as if he's a bit slow-witted. He'll surely become a great person when he grows up!" Uncle Xia said with a smile, "What about you? You should have taken the talent test, right? How was the result?"
"Yes! I got an S-level talent. Pretty good, right?"
"Really?!" Uncle Xia was overjoyed: "See! Every cloud has a silver lining! Every cloud has a silver lining!"
Chen Qing suddenly had an idea!
"Uncle Xia, it's like this. When you pass the talent test, they'll give you shopping cards. But those shopping cards are about to expire. I bought a lot of things and can't finish them all..."
"If you can't finish them, give them to me! You naughty kid. Get more milk and such."
"Okay, okay. I'll send them right away."
Immediately, Chen Qing went to the supermarket. He didn't choose expensive things but only picked things like biscuits, instant noodles, bread, ham sausages, self-heating rice, and so on.
When the two big bags of things were delivered to Uncle Xia, he was overjoyed.
After chatting for a while, Chen Qing then took his leave.
Uncle Xia faced the direction where Chen Qing left, feeling the two big bags of things, and fell silent.
After a long while, he let out a sigh.
"How could the Ghost-Controlling Army give shopping cards, and even expired ones at that?"
"I'm just blind, not stupid."
With that, he bowed to a broken Buddha statue in the corner:
"The world is in turmoil. I hope the two kids will be safe and healthy."