Chapter 565: Ground Shelter 7
"How long were you all at sea?"
Everyone sank into their memories. "Probably over a year."
"Over a year?" Liam Sterling was completely shocked.
"You must have gone through so much to get here."
Who could argue with that?
"The sea must be so dangerous. Were there hurricanes and huge waves every day? Did you guys do any fishing?"
Evelyn Ford pointed to the king crab and tuna on the table. "Ronan Kendrick caught all of this."
"Mr. Kendrick is something else, isn’t he? Absolutely perfect. If I were a woman, I’d fall for him too."
Ronan Kendrick glanced at Liam Sterling. "Get lost."
Liam Sterling scooted aside a little. Watching the two of them, Evelyn Ford burst out laughing.
"Let’s all have a drink to celebrate another year we’ve made it through safely." Taylor Vance raised his glass, and everyone else stood up.
Evelyn Ford couldn’t hold her liquor, so she just took a small sip. Zoe and Annie drank juice. Wendy, being an adult now, also took a sip of the liquor. It was harsh and spicy, and she had to down a large glass of tea to wash away the strong flavor.
Everyone sat around the dining table, eating and chatting about everything under the sun. By the early hours of the morning, Rhys Chase and Liam Sterling were both drunk. They were put to bed in Liam’s room, while the others helped each other back to their own. Quincy staggered as he picked up Zoe, humming a song.
Evelyn Ford collapsed onto the bed, resting her chin in her hands as she watched Ronan Kendrick tidy up the room.
"Go take a bath. I’ve already drawn the water."
Evelyn didn’t want to move. She lay stiffly on the bed, playing dead. Ronan came over, pried her eyelids open with his fingers, and just stared at her.
"Want me to carry you?"
Evelyn shot up from the bed like a spring. "I’ll go myself."
’If I let him help me bathe, it’ll probably take forever.’ She had been drinking tonight and just wanted to soak in the tub and get a good night’s sleep.
Ronan Kendrick smiled and helped Evelyn Ford take off her jacket. He’d had two glasses of liquor tonight, and the corners of his eyes were slightly red, making him look exactly like a seductive spirit from a dream.
Evelyn couldn’t resist reaching out and pinching his cheek.
"I have so many rivals in love."
Ronan froze for a second. "Rivals?"
"Hmph! I won’t even mention Winnie Miller from Kestrel Villa. And Liam Sterling just said it too—that if he were a girl, he’d fall for you. Tell me, why do you have to be so handsome for no reason?"
Evelyn was drunk and starting to talk nonsense, completely uninhibited.
"It’s making me so mad."
Evelyn put her hands on her hips and angrily shook her head, her hair instantly turning into a bird’s nest. Ronan found her grumbling and pouting adorable. When would he ever see this side of her? She always acted so mature and composed. When drunk, however, her true nature came out.
"Don’t be mad. Liam was just joking. As for that Winnie Miller, if you hadn’t brought her up, I wouldn’t have even remembered she existed."
Evelyn waddled back and forth in the room like a penguin. The moment she heard that, she leaped onto Ronan, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"You’re not allowed to attract any more attention from others. Otherwise, I’m going to get really angry."
Ronan supported her with one arm while his other hand smoothed out Evelyn’s messy hair.
"Okay. From now on, I’ll cover my face and only let Felicity see it."
"Well, you don’t have to go that far. I mean, I’m a little jealous, just a tiny bit, but you shouldn’t have to sacrifice that much."
Ronan nodded. "Okay, whatever Felicity says."
Evelyn’s head lolled back, and a snore suddenly escaped her. Seeing her fall asleep so quickly, Ronan couldn’t help but let out a helpless chuckle.
—
After the Mid-Autumn Festival, time seemed to fly. The first shelters built at the base were completed, and residents from the apartment buildings had already started moving in. Villagers from the surrounding areas also began arriving at the base with their luggage.
The base housed the villagers in Flumen. Once the shelters in Flumen were finished, they could move in.
Evelyn would sometimes take Wendy, Annie, and Zoe for a drive in Flumen. Ronan Kendrick was still very busy. Even though they had the Solar Lamps and several shelters were nearing completion, Rhys Chase still wanted to store all the medicine and canned goods produced at the base in the dimensional space.
On one of these drives, Evelyn even ran into Winnie Miller and Seth Scott. The two of them seemed to be a couple now. Evelyn saw them handing out oxygen tanks to villagers in front of the Flumen municipal building.
Coincidentally, Evelyn also saw those three clumsy thieves from before.
But what Evelyn hadn’t expected was that they had actually become police officers in the Flumen Police Department. Seeing them on the street, lecturing some thugs who had been trying to rob someone, Evelyn thought she was hallucinating.
The base and Flumen added several more Solar Lamps. To help people adjust to a day-night cycle, the Solar Lamps were kept on from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and would automatically turn off from 8 p.m. until 6 a.m. the next morning.
After the six shelters were successively completed, all residents moved in. The base opened several more factories, and with a safe place to live and no more immediate threats to their lives, residents began signing up for work.
The land in the base’s planting area also needed to be tilled and replanted. The Solar Lamps could now provide a stable source of heat, and only by planting something could photosynthesis occur. Regardless of whether they could grow food, the land couldn’t be left fallow. If fertile soil was left barren for too long, its nutrients would be quickly lost.
Evelyn Ford suggested to Rhys Chase that the base’s planting area should also grow wheat. Wheat has a short growth cycle, and flour-based foods are more filling.
She traded some rare seeds with Rhys, giving him all the pumpkin seeds from her dimensional space. When he learned that the pumpkins from these seeds could grow to over a hundred pounds, Rhys was stunned.
"This is a special variety from Shale Province. Over a hundred pounds is normal. And these are second-generation seeds. The pumpkins from first-generation seeds would be even heavier."
Thinking Rhys didn’t believe her, Evelyn took out a huge pumpkin grown in the safe zone to show him. It was golden all over, emitting a fresh fragrance, and so large that it would take three strong men to even think about lifting it.
"These pumpkin seeds are incredible! I’ll have them sent to the planting area to be sown immediately. With pumpkins this big, our food crisis will be solved in no time. Evelyn, no wonder Ronan is always praising you. You really are amazing."
Evelyn smiled. "I’m not that amazing, I’m just a bit better at farming. But our people have farming in our blood. As long as we have a handful of seeds, we can grow food even in the wasteland."
With the base starting to grow crops, Evelyn spent her free time checking on the black soil in her dimensional space. The wheat she had sown was already ten centimeters tall.
The others were busy in the livestock area. Besides the Mammoth, all the other animals were multiplying. Even the two little pigs she had swiped from the base and brought into her space had given birth to a litter of piglets.
’People really do need to be diligent.’ Only through hard work could one reap endless rewards.
Ethan Dawson and Quincy were managing the fishpond. The fish and shrimp populations were growing so much that a single pond could no longer hold them. They needed to be separated quickly, or the big fish would eat the small fish, leading to a crisis of the fish population cannibalizing itself.
The bamboo planted around the fishpond had grown tall. Zion Lowell cut down a few stalks and wove two baskets for Zoe and Annie. The two children’s daily task was to collect chicken and duck eggs. Though they were young, their responsibility was not small.