Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

It seems that the owner of this house fled in panic when the major earthquake occurred.

It's likely they left in such a hurry that they only took valuable or essential items.

These fragments, bearing the marks of life but of little value, have been left here forever.

Xu Xiaoyan needs to find a place to spend the night, but those half-collapsed mud houses are obviously not suitable. Not only do they smell musty, but they also pose a risk of collapsing at any time.

As for that small pond filled with dead fish and reeking of stench, she avoided it like the plague.

Her gaze fell on the dark hillside behind the village, which appeared gloomy in the moonlight. She thought she would climb up and see if she could find a flat, sheltered place.

She climbed up a mountain path overgrown with weeds, almost unrecognizable, before she could even begin to seriously search for a suitable campsite.

The breathtaking view before her made her hold her breath. On a relatively flat terrace on the hillside, several neat plots of land were covered with densely packed sugarcane!

Xu Xiaoyan practically ran down the slope.

Arriving at the edge of the field, she pulled out a watermelon knife from her backpack, selected a relatively thick sugarcane, and with a swift motion, cut a piece of sugarcane into her hand with a crisp "snap".

She quickly peeled off the tough outer skin and eagerly took a bite.

The sweet juice bursts in your mouth instantly, carrying the unique fragrance of plants, dispelling the greasiness brought on by the compressed biscuits of the past few days.

She looked up excitedly and roughly estimated that there were at least four such sugarcane fields.

Beside them, in two other fields, the leaves of the plants had already withered and turned black, drooping on the soil, their original appearance no longer recognizable.

"What is that?"

Curious, she temporarily suppressed her urge to harvest the sugarcane, carefully climbed down the ridge, and walked to the two plots of land covered with withered branches and leaves.

Xu Xiaoyan took out a pair of gardening gloves and a small hoe from her spatial storage.

Crouching down, I selected the base of a withered vine and carefully dug into the soil. After a few strokes, the hoe struck a clump buried in the ground.

She put down the hoe, gently parted the soft soil with her hands, and several red-skinned, spindle-shaped fruits suddenly appeared before her eyes!

"Good heavens! It's a sweet potato!" she couldn't help but exclaim, her voice filled with unbelievable joy.

Looking at the sugarcane and sweet potatoes in front of her, she made a decisive decision:

I'm not sleeping tonight! I must take advantage of the darkness to harvest all these sugarcane and sweet potatoes and store them in my spatial dimension!

Opportunities are fleeting; who knows if someone else will discover this place tomorrow?

Xu Xiaoyan picked the leaves in order according to their location. She first used her hands to find the approximate area of ​​the roots by following the main stem of the withered vine.

Then he picked up a small hoe and dug about half a palm's width away from the root, carefully loosening the surrounding soil to form a loose circle of earth.

Then, she put down the hoe and reached her gloved hands into the soft soil.

Gently grasp the main body of the sweet potato, shake it left and right a few times to feel the roots sticking to the soil, and then lift it upwards.

A bunch of sweet potatoes of all sizes and with plump red skin were pulled out intact!

Shake off the soil from the roots, break off the sweet potatoes one by one, and put them directly into the space.

After harvesting the sweet potatoes from the two plots of land.

She gripped the watermelon knife tightly, holding the lower middle part of the sugarcane firmly with her left hand, while swinging the knife with her right hand, aiming at the hard joint near the root of the sugarcane, and forcefully chopping it diagonally!

"Snap!" A crisp sound was particularly clear in the quiet night. She adjusted the angle and made a few more clean cuts, completely separating the sugarcane from its roots.

After laying down the long sugarcane, she didn't stop. Instead, she continued to wield her knife, cutting off the overly tender parts at the top and the leaves that were already dry or had insect holes.

Only the most essential and easily preserved purple stems are retained, and after processing, they are placed into the space.

Under the moonlight, her figure was busy working on the ridges of the fields.

Sweat quickly soaked her back, and her forehead was covered with fine beads of sweat. Her arms began to ache and go numb from continuously swinging the knife, but she dared not stop for a moment.

When the last sugarcane was stored in the space, Xu Xiaoyan was so exhausted that she almost collapsed on the ground.

The sky was already turning a pale white, and she had spent the entire night finally finishing harvesting all the sugarcane and sweet potatoes.

At this moment, she was so tired that she could barely keep her eyes open, her arms were so sore that she could barely lift them, and her back was so stiff and aching.

"I can't go on... I can't take another step," she lamented inwardly. Her original plan to travel during the day and rest at night had been completely disrupted by this unexpected gain.

Looking at the harvested fields at her feet and the silent, half-collapsed mud houses in the distance, a thought of giving up and ruining everything popped into her head.

"Anyway... we've already missed the army, so there's no point in rushing for one more day."

She muttered to herself, trying to find excuses for her laziness. Besides, although the place was dilapidated, it should be safe for the time being after investigation.

"Maybe... we should just stay in this godforsaken place for another day."

With her last bit of strength, she struggled to her feet and staggered toward a sheltered spot on the hillside, hidden by several large rocks and dense bushes.

The view from here is decent; you can observe the village and paths below without being easily spotted.

She took out the lightweight single tent from her storage space, set it up almost instinctively, and then crawled inside, even the action of zipping it up seemed weak and listless.

The moment her body touched the bottom of the tent, extreme drowsiness completely overwhelmed her. All warnings and dangers were thrown to the back of her mind. She had only one thought now—to sleep.

Xu Xiaoyan didn't know how long she had slept when she suddenly opened her eyes. The tent was pitch black, with only a faint ray of light filtering through the gaps in the tent fabric, indicating that it was not the middle of the night.

She took out two still-warm pork rice bowls from her storage space and wolfed them down.

The marbled slices of meat and rice soaked in broth quickly soothed the protesting stomach, providing much-needed energy and satisfaction.

After filling her stomach, she finally regained full consciousness. She took out the watch that Wang Yuming had given her, pressed the button, and the dim light illuminated the dial. It was already around 4 a.m. the next day.

"Good heavens..." she muttered to herself, with a hint of disbelief. She had actually slept from yesterday morning until the early hours of the next day, a full twenty hours!

Although my muscles were still a little sore, my mental fatigue had vanished, my mind was clear, and my body was full of energy again.

"It's four in the morning..." She carefully looked around in the dim morning light. The continuous mountain range stretched as far as the eye could see, its peaks hidden in leaden-gray clouds.

If she really wanted to climb, it would not only be physically demanding, but she might also lose her way. She shook her head slightly, thinking that climbing was not worthwhile and that she should return the way she came.