I know you are in a hurry (v1ch66)
"Cotton forest?"
Ye Sheng had heard someone mention it on her way back. She never expected to hear it again from Zhou Lin's mouth.
She pushed aside the awkwardness of the accidental kiss with Xiaodongxi and asked eagerly: "What does it mean to recruit workers on a small scale? Do they pay in cotton or points? Or..."
Zhou Lin waved her hands to stop Ye Sheng's barrage of questions. She raised her index finger and pressed it against his other palm, making a silent gesture to tell Ye Sheng to listen to her first.
"I know you're in a hurry, but don't be anxious now!"
Zhou Lin understood why Ye Sheng was so excited.
After all, it was warm cotton!!!
The swap shop in the mitigation zone couldn't sell cotton to the outside world. They could only spend high points to buy second-hand or even third-hand cotton from the residents of the safe zone. Sometimes the rotten cotton was not only black but also smelled bad.
But still, the demand was higher than the supply.
The cotton that could save lives during a blizzard didn't matter how dirty or smelly it was.
Logically speaking, cotton was not edible like grains and vegetables. Even if it was contaminated by poisonous fog and radiation, it could still be used as a warm lining for winter clothes to resist the cold.
But after the cotton forest bloomed, the cotton bolls that grew in the bud stage were the favorite of beasts.
Even if the beasts turned into polluted creatures, they couldn't change some of their eating habits.
They liked to bite open cotton bolls and eat the tender cotton seeds inside. Some careless ones would swallow the cotton bolls even if they were not ripe yet, and then excrete them whole...
That's why cotton forests growing in the wilderness were very rare, and every time you found one, you were lucky.
Because of the high price of cotton, ordinary people had to save points for many years to buy cotton for a winter coat, and more often a winter coat was passed down in a family for several generations.
Of course, cotton was expensive and most people in the mitigation areas couldn't afford it, so they had to think of other ways.
They would find black locust hardwood to make a round barrel, and then put some straw inside. After the adults and children got in, they would close the lid to use the airtight feature to keep out the cold wind.
It was still freezing cold, but at least the biting wind wouldn't turn them into ice blocks. But they couldn't move around as they wished.
And they had to prepare enough nutrient solution to last for three months.
Ye Sheng had no memory of the original body, but since she came to this world, she hadn't seen any winter clothes at home. She didn't know if the original body had entrusted her to find the remains of her parents and given them away, or if there were none at all...
In any case, when she heard about the cotton forest recruitment, she was determined to go, even if she had to face mountains of swords and seas of fire!
Renting a house inside the safe zone cost 5,000 points a month, and 15,000 points for three months... Even though there was still a long time to prepare before the blizzard season, Ye Sheng had gotten nothing in the past three days, which made her feel that she needed a better plan.
>_<
If she didn't have enough points and had to keep living in a shack, it would be nice to have some cotton!
Besides the two winter coats for her and Xiaodongxi, it would be great to get some more cotton to make a thick quilt~
"I met the Green Frog in the wilderness before, do you remember? Because my brother reported it to the base officials in time, they sent mercenaries to deal with it and saved many lives. So this time, when the base discovered a cotton forest, they gave my brother thirty worker spots as a reward."
"There's a risk of being attacked by blood-sucking aphids when picking cotton, and the cotton forest is far from the base, so it takes a lot of time to travel. Everyone has to stay in the wilderness for three days and nights without going home. That's why the workers get paid well. Three hundred points a day!"
"When the three-day picking period is over, they'll give us three extra hours, and we can pick as much cotton as we want."
Ye Sheng thought that the offer was very generous.
Working for three days would earn her 900 points, which was a fortune for people in the mitigation zone.
Not to mention the precious cotton!
But after Zhou Lin explained, she raised her hand and scratched her head, then glanced at Ye Sheng, looking like she was in a hurry and couldn't find a bathroom.
Ye Sheng wanted to laugh. She knew Zhou Lin's personality, and she must have some other conditions for the cotton forest recruitment.
Sure enough, after some hesitation, Zhou Lin said, "Because this is the official reward spot given to my brother by the base, so if you want to join, Shengsheng, you'll have to pay a price."
"There are three options: one is to give 900 points and keep the cotton for yourself, the second is to give half the points and half the cotton, and the third is to give all the cotton..."
There were three choices, but anyone with a brain would choose the first one!
Cotton was more valuable than points.
Ye Sheng chose the first one without hesitation. Even though she had to give up all 900 points, the lure of unlimited cotton picking for three hours was too great.
Did she think the Zhou family was asking too much?
Not really.
After all, this was the spot that the base had given to the Zhou family, and they could do whatever they wanted with it.
If it wasn't for her "famous reputation" for killing the thugs two days ago, showing her worth and making the Zhou family want to befriend her, she probably wouldn't have gotten this rare opportunity.
But Ye Sheng was a little puzzled, "Zhou Lin, your family is big. Thirty spots are not enough for you all. Right so why outsider?"
"These spots are officially given to my brother by the base, so he has the right to allocate half of them. Whether he gives them to himself or sells them to others, it's his decision."
Zhou Lin's eyes were a bit shifty as she spoke.
The Zhou family was large, but not as harmonious as it seemed. The siblings and their spouses were always at odds with each other, and sometimes they fought over the distribution of resources.
So, to avoid trouble, Zhou Lin's brother decided to sell the fifteen spots.
That way, he could keep the points for himself. If he gave all the spots to his family, he would have to share them with the public fund. As the common property of the whole family, he would only get some benefits as a reward.
Zhou Lin kept these unpleasant things to herself, and she didn't want to spread the news, or she would be the one who would suffer.
"Since you want this spot, Shengsheng, I'll go home and tell my brother. We'll leave at five in the morning tomorrow. You should get up early so you don't have to worry about catching the car at the base."
"Okay."
"Alright, I'm going then, but... Shengsheng, why were your cheeks so red when you came out of the house? I was scared that you had a fever, but luckily you're fine now."
"...I was just a bit warm."
Ye Sheng's eyes were shifty this time.
Zhou Lin was in a hurry to get home and didn't ask any more questions. Ye Sheng, who had been focused on the cotton forest, remembered the unexpected kiss and felt her head heat up.
How could she explain this?
(◎_◎;)
She couldn't avoid the confrontation.
Ye Sheng steeled herself and turned around to open the door, ready to have a serious talk with Xiaodongxi.
But as soon as she opened the door, she saw Gu Luoyu staring at her.
Her blank face made Ye Sheng shiver.
She had a bad feeling about this!