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By the end of April, the temperature still hadn't risen, and the village was in an uproar. The men were wandering around the fields every day, especially those big landowners. Within a few days, they had developed a fiery temper, their lips swollen like sausages. Li Ming found it amusing and took his Winnie the Pooh digital camera to snap photos every day, which he then had Yu Tian upload online. Li Ming had a QQ account called Cat Cat Boy, with over twenty albums in his space.
Each album featured various fun and delicious things he had photographed with his Winnie the Pooh camera. The click rates were astonishingly high. Just a few days after posting those sausage-lipped photos online, the click rates skyrocketed. Li Yan was aware of this but thought it was fine for kids to have their own interests. Seeing those comments, Yu Tian had a bright idea; as the saying goes, many hands make light work.
He took photos of the still-frozen land and uploaded them to the Cat Cat Boy album, detailing in writing how farmers were unable to plant crops. Yu Tian was the president of the literature club at school, so these tasks were not difficult for him. Since there was nothing that could be done at the moment, perhaps someone could offer some advice.
The young people in the village noticed that the weather was getting better and began packing their bags to head back to the big city for work. Xuan Laotou's grandson was the first to leave, claiming that conditions in the city had improved.
Everyone seemed to forget about the suffering from hunger during winter when there was no food and they couldn't return home. Groups of two or three gathered together, chatting and laughing about how great life was in the city and how beautiful the girls there were. The village girls were all naive; they didn't know anything about charm like those city girls did.
Zhang Ming had only returned home at the end of last year, and when he came back, he was skin and bones from hunger. He swore he would never go back to another place again and told others that many people in the city were starving and fighting over food. But once the weather warmed up, he immediately called his friends in the city, saying that prices had dropped and factories were gradually resuming production. The initial fear seemed to vanish like smoke, and after discussing with a few people, Zhang Ming decided to leave the next day.
By early May, very few people remained in the village; those who stayed were either old, weak, sick, or genuinely scared. Of course, some saw through it all, like Li Yan and a few others.
Li Yan received a call from Eva along with several former employees asking when the company would start up again. Li Yan was quite polite; after all, these people had shown terrible attitudes last year—some didn't even answer calls.
Some even went so far as to say things like they had nothing to eat while working for him or questioned why they should work hard for a boss who wasn't even a big deal.
Li Yan remembered all these remarks. He was actually quite petty but believed in being a gentleman who didn't advocate arguing with others. He answered politely that he had ended operations at his company in City A and was planning to reopen but needed stable employees since the weather was unpredictable.
After a moment of silence on the other end of the line, it hung up abruptly. After all, Li Yan was a boss; in these times, who hadn't encountered unscrupulous bosses with arrogant employees? If you think you're great, then be great all the way.
Eva hesitated several times; she had been with Li Yan for the longest time but chose to back down when he needed help most—she couldn't blame anyone else for that. However, her situation was truly troublesome. Finally, she spoke up: "Boss, can you lend me some money?" After last year's harsh winter where companies closed down left and right, only large groups or companies with solid foundations survived. In today's job market, finding work was harder than before liberation; despite Eva's high education and strong abilities, there were countless others more capable than her given China's vast population.
"Sure, how much?" Li Yan asked while watching Li Ming enjoy his meal with a slight smile—consider it a gesture for her past help in taking care of Mingming.
After thinking for a long time—at least three minutes—Eva finally replied: "Fifty thousand."
"Alright, I'll call you the day after tomorrow." After saying this, Li Yan hung up the phone and wiped Li Ming's greasy hands with a towel.
There was indeed someone shameless; Li Yan remembered this person. His name was Wu Gang, a salesman from the company. This guy had thick skin; even after Li Yan had made things clear, he still shamelessly insisted on following him, calling him "General Manager Li" and saying how he wanted to work with him. Wu Gang claimed to have a good eye for people and went on about how someone like General Manager Li must be a great leader in these chaotic times, rambling on for quite a while.
Li Yan's mouth twitched as he put the phone on speaker. Everyone was eating when suddenly they were hit with such a disgusting conversation. Well, at least they saved some food today.
"What planet is this guy from? Li Yan, this won't do. We can tolerate our fellow slaves, but how did your company manage to bring in creatures from some remote corner of the universe? If they mutate or something, aren't you just bringing disaster to Earth? This situation is too terrible, too terrible," Zhou Miao sternly criticized Li Yan's actions and issued a warning.
Li Ming was happily munching on fried chicken legs, and Wonton also wanted some. So, he patiently waited for Li Ming to toss down the bones. Every time Li Ming threw one, Wonton would eat it, and once finished, he would look up at Li Ming.
When Li Ming's little friend got to the fourth fried chicken leg, he became unhappy and stuffed the chicken leg into Li Yan's hand. "Brother, Wonton is so bad! I can't eat anymore, and it still wants me to feed it chicken meat!" In his mind, dogs only gnaw on bones and don't eat meat. So he tried hard to eat the meat himself, but he really couldn't anymore; his little belly was already round!
After Li Ming expressed his grievances, Li Yan couldn't help but laugh. "Mingming, Wonton eats meat too."
"Huh?" Li Ming's little friend was shocked; it turned out dogs not only gnaw on bones but also eat meat! He learned something new today and planned to write it in his diary tonight.
During this time online, discussions began to heat up as many people recounted how last winter was so difficult—surviving disasters and hardships. Some starved to death while others froze; some couldn't take it anymore and committed suicide...
Large supermarkets across the country began operating again. Although not many opened, at least there was a sign of life. The government allocated more funds, and those high-ranking officials on TV stated that China's grain reserves were enough for the entire population for ten years. They assured everyone not to worry and that special grain stations would be set up nationwide to prevent any future food price hikes.
Yu Tian felt heavy-hearted after watching this. If they couldn't grow food here and farmers had no money or power without crops, how could they face another winter like this? Yu Tian spent every day looking through online suggestions from netizens; many were impractical and not only troublesome but also had low success rates. Finally, one day he saw a comment from a netizen mentioning that similar issues with frozen land had occurred elsewhere and suggested using greenhouse effects—essentially building greenhouses.
Building greenhouses? This idea wasn't bad; if they built greenhouses, they could ensure the temperature inside would rise, which would naturally warm the soil as well. Yu Tian shared this method with everyone, and Li Yan thought it was feasible.
Zhang Agou initially disagreed with their suggestion; greenhouses were meant for growing vegetables—could they really be used for grains? But now everyone was anxiously looking at those fields; if they didn't plant something soon, it would truly be too late.
After staying home for a week contemplating his decision, Zhang Agou saw some people couldn't sit still any longer and went out to buy greenhouse plastic themselves—using their own money meant it would be fine in the end. In fact, Zhang Agou didn't entirely oppose the idea; however, if it failed, the responsibility would be too great. After all, he was just a small village chief who couldn't bear such weight!
Since someone else had bought it themselves, it wasn't his responsibility anymore. Zhang Agou pretended to scold the first family that bought plastic sheeting: "You young ones are so impulsive! You didn't even think about such a large sum of money."
Since someone bought it, more people started to buy as well. Li Yan and Zhou Miao also went to town to purchase plastic greenhouses for three acres of land. To be honest, the prices in town have indeed dropped quite a bit. However, compared to before, they still can't compare; for instance, steamed buns are now two and a half yuan each, while just before winter they were only one yuan and fifty cents.
None of them had ever used a greenhouse before, but fortunately, there were still a few college students left in the village. The school was also worried about taking responsibility and had let out for winter break early last year. Although the temperature has risen quite a bit now, the start of school has still been postponed. They said classes wouldn't begin until June, which made the college students quite happy.
Everyone was feeling their way through this new endeavor. Li Yan downloaded a lot of knowledge about this topic online. He, Zhou Miao, and Yu Tian worked hard for four whole days to get everything set up. Li Ming took Wonton and Dumpling to the fields as well, but his purpose was purely to cause trouble and cheer them on. The three men working in the fields got dirtier than Li Ming did; Li Yan didn't even dare let him wear white clothes—he would definitely come back black after going out white.
Once the greenhouse was ready, the temperature inside rose within two or three days. They had even made a few simple windows on the outside of the plastic greenhouse; whenever it got too hot inside, they could just open the windows, ensuring that the temperature stayed around 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.
This method actually worked quite well. Everyone took their hoes to the fields and discovered that farming could be so enjoyable; as long as there was land to cultivate, they wouldn't starve. Of course, farming required effort. Among them, only Zhou Miao had done hard labor before; during his time in the army, their commander had certainly put them through tough training—they had experienced all kinds of hardships.
Li Yan had previously farmed in his space but was considered an amateur. Yu Tian had been studying all along and was a typical bookish type, yet he was quite stubborn. On the first day of tilling the land, he returned without uttering a single complaint; he just sat stiffly for half the night without moving—mainly because he couldn't move due to soreness and fatigue.
Zhou Miao pulled him into his arms and rubbed his back. Yu Tian was already sensitive and stubborn by nature; if it weren't for himself, he wouldn't have come here. Zhou Miao understood that Yu Tian was calculating in his heart and didn't want to hold everyone back. Every time he saw Yu Tian's strained expression trying to hold on, Zhou Miao felt soft-hearted and wished he could pull him close and comfort him.
Looking at Yu Tian's sleeping face, which was slightly furrowed—perhaps he was uncomfortable—he mumbled a few words as if arguing with someone. Zhou Miao kissed his cool lips; they were tender and sweet, like being coated in honey, sweetening Zhou Miao's heart. He wouldn't dare do this during the day; with Yu Tian's seemingly gentle yet actually tough personality, he could easily chop him up with a kitchen knife.
"Why aren't you asleep yet?" Yu Tian stirred slightly from Zhou Miao's movements but remained groggy, even licking his lips.
Zhou Miao's gaze deepened with suppressed heat; after a moment, he hoarsely replied, "Uh, I am now."
"Oh." Yu Tian buried his face in Zhou Miao's chest and fell asleep again. Zhou Miao held him tightly; well, he would just have to hold it in—eventually it would fade away...
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