Reborn in the end of the world, I scavenged in the empty city and bought for free

This was Cai Min's second transaction with Gu Tongwan, and this time the goods she got back were cucumbers and lettuce.

Although there has been one transaction experience, I am both looking forward to and a little worried about the goods for the second transaction. After all, cucumbers and lettuces are not uncommon in the Wanderer Base Camp, especially lettuce. Basically, every orchard will set up a few vegetable greenhouses for planting. After all, lettuce sprouts quickly and the planting conditions are not harsh, so it is one of the most important vegetables in the base camp.

However, the lettuces grown at the base camp have a shortcoming, that is, each head of lettuce is relatively small, and the leaves are yellowish. In extremely hot weather, the soil moisture evaporates severely, so the heads are particularly small and the leaves are few. A head of lettuce weighs only two or three taels at most, and has a dozen leaves. But the price is ridiculously high. Before the extreme heat, the lettuce that cost 20 points per catty has risen to 30 points per catty at the base camp. However, the base camp is close to the mountain, and springs occasionally flow into the groundwater here. Therefore, many plantations are irrigated with mountain spring water, so it is not to the point where nothing can be grown in dry land. On the contrary, I heard that lettuce at the base is already sold for 40 points per catty.

Because they had cooperated once before, this time Cai Min only let her husband go with her to pick up the goods. Anyway, her husband's workplace had been completely shut down since the extremely hot weather, and it just so happened that he had been running around with Cai Min during this period of time, and he really got to see his wife, Reilly's, business methods.

Compared to the father-in-law who only knew how to work in the plantation fields, the wife's decisiveness when bargaining with the seller and her professionalism when inspecting the goods made the man, who had always believed that his wife only knew how to cook three meals a day at home and wait for him to come home from get off work, start to look at his partner in a new light.

The Cai family also has an acre of cucumbers planted in their farmland, and two vegetable greenhouses planted with lettuce. So when she first heard Gu Tongwan say that the vegetables to be traded this time were cucumbers and lettuce, she was a little hesitant whether to refuse. But thinking that they would have long-term cooperation in the future, Cai Min agreed. However, she also agreed in advance that the price would be determined according to the quality of the goods. After all, although cucumbers and lettuce are relatively expensive now, they are still common vegetable varieties in the base.

But everything was beyond Cai Min's expectations. She had originally guessed that the cucumbers and lettuces that Boss Gu brought would be similar to those she grew herself, or at most a little better. But when she opened the plastic film and saw the tender, fresh lettuces with full leaves, Cai Min frowned instead. She and her father had studied for several months before finding the key to growing lettuces in damaged soil. The lettuces grown by their Cai family had the best yield in the entire wanderer base camp. But she had not expected that the lettuces in front of her were larger than she had imagined. She picked them up and weighed them. Each one was at least half a kilogram, with dozens of leaves, and looked like a blooming flower.

Cai Min did not hesitate any longer and directly gave a price of 40 points per pound. She estimated that the lettuce could be sold for at least 60 points per pound at the base. If Boss Gu sold it at the base himself, it would at least sell for 70 points. So Cai Min directly gave a reasonable price.

Boss Gu was also very happy. He gave Cai Min nearly 200 kilograms of lettuce and 200 kilograms of cucumbers. The remaining small box of 100 kilograms of lettuce was to be sold to the black market.

As soon as Cai Min brought back the lettuce, she saw her old father running towards her from the two-story villa in her home in slippers. He looked very anxious, as if he was afraid of missing something.

"Dad, why don't you stay inside when the sun is so strong? Why do you have to come here?" He glared at his brother and said, "Cai Gong, how do you take care of dad? Didn't I ask you to take care of mom and dad when I went out?"

Cai Kang wiped the sweat off his forehead and kept looking at the car despite the scorching sun. "Have you brought back all the vegetables?"

He heard that his daughter was going to do business with the same boss Gu as last time, so he wondered what good stuff she could see this time.

Although Cai Min told him not to have too much hope before they set off, and also clearly told him that the goods to be traded today were cucumbers and lettuces that their family grew themselves, Cai Kang was still very interested in everything that the mysterious Boss Gu was trading.

As soon as he saw his father's face, he knew what he was expecting. Cai Min just smiled unhappily and said, "Look how anxious you are, Cai Gong, you help dad go back first, and then you can come out and help us move the goods."

"There are four of us, so two people can carry one box. I'm fine, so hurry up and don't dawdle. The air conditioning on the solar truck is not enough, and the vegetables may wilt soon." Cai Kang immediately waved his hand and did not let his son help him. Instead, he started to carry the box of lettuce. Seeing this, Cai Gong also immediately lent a hand, fearing that his old father might sprain his waist.

Seeing this, Cai Min knew that she could not persuade her old father, so she could only smile helplessly at her husband, and the two of them quickly moved the remaining box of cucumbers.

One box weighed two hundred pounds, and it was quite difficult for two people to move it. As a result, Cai Min's mother, who was originally enjoying the cool in the house, hurried out to help.

Cai Min and her husband looked at the cucumbers on the ground and could not move them, so they could only move them into the house little by little.

If they had a strength-type psychic at home, it wouldn't be so difficult. It's not very convenient for them to do heavy work on a daily basis.

Despite their thoughts, the family worked together to move their things back into the house.

The Cai family lives in a two-story rural self-built house with a small courtyard allocated by the base camp. It had been flooded before, and when they first moved in, it still smelled bad and was full of mud.

The area occupied by the Wanderer Base Camp was a disaster-stricken area during the apocalyptic flood period. Since the villages on the high ground had been occupied by the base, the Wanderer Organization had no choice but to settle for the second best and choose another sloping land dozens of kilometers away.

Although this place has been flooded before, fortunately it is close to mountains and rivers and has abundant water resources. Moreover, during the previous acid rain period, most of the corrosion was caused by the dried silt on top. When the acid rain ended, the residents turned the soil over, and the damage to the deeper soil was not serious. Therefore, the crops grown here are much better than those grown at the base's agricultural science institute.

However, as the Wanderer Base has been expanding, its population has reached over 100,000, which can be considered an independent town. Therefore, the vegetables and staple foods grown there are just enough for the base to be self-sufficient. Even though the base has sent many people to contact them about cooperation on agricultural products, they were still rejected by the latter. However, there are people who are eager to make quick money and will transport goods to outside the base for trading.

The fruits and vegetables with good quality that you can occasionally see in the base supply and marketing cooperatives are basically brought from the wanderer base camp, but because the cost and freight are already very high, these vegetables are basically only supplied to some powerful people, and ordinary people can basically not afford them.

The moment he opened the lid, Cai Kang's eyes immediately lit up. As expected, he was not disappointed. It was difficult to find lettuces of this size in the apocalypse.

So he picked up a lettuce and smelled the soil on the roots, frowned and murmured, "What kind of mud is this? It looks like black soil, but it doesn't smell like it." He rubbed the moist soil with his fingers, and it felt softer and spongier. It was not like the hard and sandy mud in the plantation. Even when he was in his own orchard, he had never seen such good soil before.

"Dad, did you see anything?"

Seeing Cai Kang frowning and then looking confused, Cai Min couldn't help but ask. After all, Cai Kang had been dealing with the land all his life, and perhaps he could discover some secrets from this little bit of soil.

Cai Kang carefully put down the lettuce in his hand and could only shake his head: "The soil is different, and there is a little smell of other fertilizers in it. Unless it is taken to a professional institution for inspection, it is difficult to determine."

"Don't we have a temporary research institute in our base camp? The deputy battalion commander just recruited some talent from outside. I think they sound quite professional. I'll have Cai Gong take it to them for testing later."

"Well, this is the only way. If we can also grow vegetables like this, our future life will be better." Cai Kang felt a headache when he thought of this. The weather is hot now, and the recent harvest of fruits and vegetables are not very good, so the price that can be raised is limited. In addition, the price of meat at the farm is ridiculously expensive. In the past, every kilogram of vegetables could be exchanged for one kilogram of mutant meat, but now every kilogram of vegetables can only be exchanged for half a kilogram of mutant meat.

At noon, the Cai family specially took some fresh lettuce to stir-fry. The garlic they used was a kind of mutant garlic, with cloves only the size of a little finger, but at least the taste was not much different from what they used to eat.

First, sauté the garlic in hot oil, then add the lettuce and stir-fry for one minute before serving. This dish can be said to be the most perfect stir-fried seasonal vegetables I have eaten in the past three years in terms of appearance, color, aroma and taste. The air is even filled with the fragrance of vegetables.

The fresh and juicy cucumbers can be drained and mixed with some garlic vinegar. When eaten directly, they have a sour taste and the fragrance of cucumber. This is the perfect cold dish to eat on a hot summer day.

Cai Min's mother was afraid that everyone would have no appetite in the hot weather, so she specially cooked some rice porridge at noon. Although the rice had a slight musty smell, it tasted great with the two vegetarian dishes. The family of five ate heartily and soon finished the two plates of food.

"This lettuce is so delicious. The ones we grow at home are always bitter and have a bad taste. And this cucumber is juicy. It's not like the ones grown in the vegetable garden which are dry and have no taste. You have to peel them before you can eat them. Even though I don't like vegetarian food very much, I will fall in love with these two dishes. If we can grow vegetables like this, I would rather eat vegetarian food for the rest of my life." Cai Gong burped and said with a smile.

Cai Gong was still a grown man after all, and even though the porridge tasted bad, he still finished four bowls of it in one go. If it were any other time, because the vegetables were really unpalatable and the family couldn't eat meat every day, Cai Gong could basically only wolf down two bowls of porridge with some pickles made by his mother, but every time his stomach would start to protest within a few hours.

The family had just finished their meal when suddenly a burst of hurried footsteps were heard outside, instantly breaking the tranquility of the hot afternoon.

The person who came was an old acquaintance of the Cai family, but he was also a small leader of the Wanderers Organization. In fact, the reason why Cai Kang was able to work on the plantation was thanks to the introduction and arrangement of this acquaintance.

The man who came was called Li Yong. He was broad and fat. It was conceivable that his quality of life should not be too bad if he could maintain such a figure in the apocalypse.

Li Yong's home was less than 200 meters away from here, so he walked here. However, it was noon, and he was walking along the ridge of the field under the scorching sun. In less than five minutes, he felt his skin burning under his clothes.

"Brother Cai, it's a good thing you're at home. I was worried that you weren't here." Li Yong wiped the sweat from his forehead, then put away his umbrella and hurried into the house.

Cai Kang's wife saw that his shirt was already wet, so she quickly got him a bowl of water and handed it to him, "Director Li, drink some water first. Be careful of heatstroke in this awful weather."

"Thank you, sister-in-law. I'm fine, the sun was just a little too strong." Li Yong smiled, but he drank water very eagerly. It was obvious that he felt he was about to become dehydrated in just five minutes.

The Cai family didn't have air conditioning, and there were two electric fans on in the living room. Li Yong was very hot, but right now he had something more important to discuss with Cai Kang.

"Brother Cai, let me ask you, those tomatoes that Cai Min gave to Wang's wife were grown in your vegetable greenhouse?"

Cai Kang frowned, then looked at his daughter, and both saw astonishment in each other's eyes.

Cai Min did give about four or five tomatoes to Wang's wife before, because they had a good relationship. The head of the Wang family now works in a breeding farm, so he can often get a lot of leftover meat from the farm or enjoy some employee benefits. For this reason, the Wang family often sends meat to their family, and the Cai family has also become accustomed to sending fruits and vegetables from their own orchard to the Wang family.

But how did Li Yong know about this?

"Don't look at me. I saw it when I went to look for Wang Sheng."

When Li Yong went to Wang's house to find Wang Sheng to kill the mutant pig, he happened to see Wang's wife washing vegetables in the yard. Didn't she notice the red and juicy tomatoes at first glance?

After bargaining with Wang's wife for a while, he finally bought the tomatoes for 100 points, a price known to many people. He then turned around and gave them to his superior. Unexpectedly, the superior praised the tomatoes the next day and even asked Li Yong to find out the source of the tomatoes.

So after a few visits, Li Yong found the Cai family.