Chapter 35: Uncle, I’m taking a bath, do you want to see?
“Hehe! Heh! Hahahaha…..” Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at the various goods in front of him, feeling a huge sense of satisfaction throughout his entire body. They had been moving without stop during the entire week. The whole transportation had taken a week of endless toiling and nervous movement, in order to collect everything in the cave.
Thinking back, Zhang Xiao Qiang could not help but weep! He had lost a few pound, and even that chubby cheeks of Yang Ke’er had begun to turn sharp.
Regardless, he felt accomplished looking at the stack of resources, as Yang Ke’er was squatting by one side brushing her teeth. It seemed as though the lass was trying to recover the 3 months of non-brushing, obviously, she took Zhang Xiao Qiang’s previous words to heart!
As for the rice and other consumables, there was no need to mention further. Close to 200,000 jins of rations were stacked till the roof. The farmer’s house had more than a year’s worth of items stored up, it must have been due to the habit of saving for a rainy day brought from the 1960s where food was scarce. Adding on to all the items that were not sold off in time, now they were all collected here.
All sorts of household items like blankets and covers were all brought back as well, even the miscellaneous items in the shelves were not spared. Zhang Xiao Qiang had actually moved the whole cabinet back. He had also insisted on bringing back 10 plastic containers used to store Baogu White Wine, each of them easily as tall as half a person, capable of storing a few dozen jins of water.
Yang Ke’er was clueless as to why Zhang Xiao Qiang was hoarding so much, especially with regards to those plastic containers. He, on the other hand, knew that drinkable water was extremely important, just 2 of the containers could last 2 people for more than month.
“If we didn’t find those tanks of diesel, these wouldn’t be brought back!” Zhang Xiao Qiang sighed, as he remembered about the diesel, his gaze traveled to the bottom of the platform, where 5 huge steel tanks of diesel were placed neatly in a row. 4 of them were full, with one half-full, and standing next to them was a ‘Yamaha’ single-phase diesel generator. Seeing that generator, Zhang Xiao Qiang had some lingering fear.
The generator had been discovered at some random shophouse. At that time, the doors and windows were locked. Zhang Xiao Qiang had broken into the house and immediately discovered the blue color generator, as well as the 6 tanks.
When he then pushed the generator out, he realized the problem.
The generator was heavy, just 2 jin short of a full 100 kg. Zhang Xiao Qiang could carry a 100 jin bag of rice with no issues, but he couldn’t carry the 100 kg generator up by himself. Yang Ke’er’s strength wasn’t going to be of help, and even after trying for half a day, they didn’t manage to move it onto the tractor.
Zhang Xiao Qiang had run of ideas, and was feeling dejected. At the end, Yang Ke’er had managed to pull out some lever from goodness knows where, and after expending all their energy, they managed to transport it onto the tractor. Now, catching sight of that generator, Zhang Xiao Qiang almost cried again.
“Uncle, take a whiff, is there any smell?” Yang Ke’er came up to Zhang Xiao Qiang and blow into his face.
“Another week and you’ll be fine!” He replied absentmindedly.
“You’re so mean! Stupid Uncle! Really?” She was half doubtful, half trusting of his words, as she brought up her palms and blew into them to try and smell her own breath.
After straightening out his thoughts that were disrupted by Yang Ke’er, Zhang Xiao Qiang lamented.
When that pulley of god-knows-how-long ago was used to move the generator, it scattered after one use, which caused Zhang Xiao Qiang to gape. Without the pulley, they couldn’t lift the oil drums, without the oil drums there would be no diesel, without diesel, what’s the point of moving that freaking generator?!
In the end, he had used his own mouth to siphon the diesel out, as his thoughts came up to here, he could still feel the taste of the diesel in his mouth. Yuck.
“Uncle, I’m taking a bath, do you want to see?” Yang Ke’er carried a tub of hot water as she walked in front of Zhang Xiao Qiang, her face wearing a weird smile.
“Shoo shoo shoo! Little kids have nothing to show, wait till you’re matured!” Zhang Xiao Qiang shooed her away.
“Hmph!” Yang Ke’er darted to another area.
“Things are so boring without a computer or internet!”
The otaku in Zhang Xiao Qiang reared its head! Ever since he had stepped out of home, he had been cautious and wary, even when moving supplies into the cave, he had no other thoughts in his mind. Now that things had stabilized, his otaku-side became restless again.
“Why didn’t I think of transporting a computer here?” Looking at the generator, Zhang Xiao Qiang felt dejected, when suddenly, he remembered that he saw a PSP3000 in one of the houses. It could have been left behind by some kid or child of the farmers.
The moment he thought of it, he went ahead to do it.
He found a wiring board, connecting it to the generator, before filling it with diesel and manually starting the generator.
“Weng weng weng…” The generator began to stir alive noisily, while a bulb that hung atop a bamboo pole erected between 2 simple beds lighted up. It glowed with light and warmth, giving the cave a cozy feel.
Zhang Xiao Qiang sat on the bed and played the PSP, looking at the light, he felt that there was finally some semblance of civilization again.
“There’s electricity?” Yang Ke’er stood under the bulb, her head tilted to the side as she used a towel to dry her wet hair.
“En!!!” Zhang Xiao Qiang nodded proudly.
“Yay, then can we use the hot water heater to bathe?” Yang Ke’er jumped excitedly.
“Little girl, even if you can transport the item back, it can’t be pressed!” He chided her seriously.
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After placing 2 bed covers inside the tractor’s trunk, Zhang Xiao Qiang heaved out a sigh, the preparations were almost done. An oil drum filled with diesel had been placed securely inside the trunk as well. Next to it, he packed 3 huge containers of water, 2 bags of rice, as well as a few packets of dried meat. There was also a red plastic tub with a few chickens, he had decided to bring all the chickens being reared in the cave.
At the end, he stuffed a huge oil cloth that could prevent water from seeping in, before nodding and saying: “It’s all ready.”
“Uncle, do we really have to leave?” Yang Ke’er eyed the platform that was packed full of resources, before asking.
Zhang Xiao Qiang nodded wordlessly.
“Can we not?” Yang Ke’er could not bear to leave the current safe haven.
“You can stay here alone if you want to!” Zhang Xiao Qiang looked at her and replied honestly.
She looked at the platform once more, before looking towards the cave hole, shivering.
“Uncle, I’ve decided, wherever you go, I’ll follow! If we have to die, let’s die together as fated mandarin ducks!” She spoke up with an air of knowing.
“Who wants to die with you?! If you want to die, please die further away, otherwise, I’ll never rest in peace!” Although Zhang Xiao Qiang cursed out, he was a little moved!
“Oh, if it’s like this! Then it’s better that you die and I live, so I can find a handsome guy to bring here! We will live in our perfect sanctuary!” Yang Ke’er pouted and shot back.
“Damn, your father I have not even died and you’re already thinking of splitting our assets?” The slimmer of emotion that he had felt instantly disappeared, as he scolded Yang Ke’er.
“Ok fine! Let’s not go further, sleep early tonight Uncle, there’s a long day ahead tomorrow! Oh yeah, lend me the PSP when you’re going to bed. You’ve been on it for so long!” She blinked in a bid to act cute, before taking the PSP and jumped into her bed.
“I really brought a little ancestor with me, why was I soft-hearted to save her?!” Zhang Xiao Qiang grumbled as he climbed into the bed and looked up at the ceiling.
“Hong Long” Thunder rumbled outside, the sound traveling into the cave.
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*Fated Mandarin Ducks (Direct translation from 同命鸳鸯) which I’m guessing is from an old chinese film:
hkmdb.com/db/movies/view.mhtml?id=3306&display_set=eng