Chapter 35

Chapter 35

The chirping of birds outside the window woke Qi Mo up.

Opening his eyes, Qi Mo first checked on the chubby baby.

The chubby baby was sleeping safely beside him, with a little kitty sprawled like a pancake nearby, softly snoring.

Everything was perfect—pure happiness!

He got up, stood by the window, pulled open the curtains, and opened the window. A cool mountain breeze brushed past, lifting a few strands of Qi Mo’s hair…

After stretching lazily, he drew the curtains back.

It was now 5:10 in the morning.

The sun had not risen yet.

Qi Mo first checked his storage space, poured some rice for the chickens and ducks, and threw a cabbage to the geese.

He made a mental note to cut grass later.

If it dried out, it’d just go to waste.

Actually, ducks and geese would eat water hyacinths and algae. Cutting grass was tedious, but these could just be scooped up.

In Huangjia Village below, there was a lake with plenty of water hyacinths. When Qi Mo went to buy fish, he saw a sea of green from afar—water hyacinth flowers were beautiful.

He fed the piglets sweet potatoes, winter melon, and cabbage, and planned to buy pig feed today.

He then sprinkled millet into the fishpond as fish feed before finally stepping out of his space.

The chubby baby was sound asleep, while Snowball the kitty stirred awake at his touch.

She blinked sleepily before dozing off again.

Qi Mo smiled—Snowball had grown to trust him.

After washing up, Qi Mo carried the chubby baby and the kitty downstairs, placing them in the playpen before beginning to steam rice.

The heat would only intensify from here. Temperatures had already hit 40°C yesterday, and would keep rising until the extreme weather passed.

He filled a pressure steamer with water, set the steaming rack inside, and placed the wooden rice barrel on top.

After sealing the barrel and cooker, he lit the fire.

The rice steamed for twenty minutes, then rested for fifteen—this way, it turned out delicious.

This was the most effortless method.

Ten pounds of rice would last them two weeks.

Another large pressure steamer waited on standby. He poured boiling water over tomatoes to peel them.

In a large pot, water came to a boil, and cubed beef brisket was added for blanching.

The tomatoes were diced.

Once the brisket was blanched, it was scooped out and rinsed clean. Oil was added to the pot along with ginger, followed by the diced tomatoes for stir-frying.

He poured the stir-fried tomatoes into a large bowl. After washing the pot, he added oil, along with sliced onions and ginger. He then stir-fried the beef brisket until it changed color, adding seasonings to bring out the aroma. Then he returned the previously stir-fried tomatoes to the pot.

He stirred in half a bottle of tomato sauce and brought everything to a boil.

Next, he poured in boiling water and brought it to a boil again.

Finally, all the contents were transferred into the pressure steamer.

After opening the pot, he let it simmer on low heat for fifteen minutes...

After finishing up in the kitchen, Qi Mo went out to the yard.

Near the carport, there was a foul smell—he kept five pigs outside, along with racks of drying fish.

He moved the smoking rack under the eaves.

He hosed down the pigs, washing all the waste away.

Then, he tossed two cabbages and a few sweet potatoes to the pigs—that would hold them for now, as he'd be slaughtering them that evening.

After cleaning the yard, Qi Mo went back to retrieve the smoking rack and lit some pine branches to smoke the dried fish.

He went to check on the baby quail.

Under the osmanthus tree, the baby quail were living happily.

In a few days, he planned to move four of them indoors, leaving just two hens outside for egg-laying.

Half an hour later, the chubby baby woke up.

The kitty jumped down and circled around Qi Mo’s feet, meowing, its fluffy long tail playfully brushing against Daddy's ankle.

It made Qi Mo’s heart melt, so he couldn’t resist squatting down to pet the kitty for a while.

Only then did he wash his hands and open the pressure steamer, letting the rice and beef cool off.

As the chubby baby babbled impatiently, Qi Mo washed off the food smells and gave the little one a diaper change.

Qi Mo loved doing diaper changes for the chubby baby—it gave him an excuse to feel that softness, which was no less satisfying than petting the kitty!

“Let’s air out your bottom first, then put on some little pants. It’s been wrapped up all day and gotten a bit smelly,” Qi Mo said, patting the chubby baby’s head, giving the baby a bottle, and then carrying it out of the playpen onto the living room’s straw mat.

Qi Mo returned to the kitchen.

Just as he took out thirty lunch boxes, someone knocked at the yard gate.

“Who is it?” Qi Mo called out as he walked over.

From outside, Huo Huakang replied, “Qi Mo, can I come by at noon? I need to go dig potatoes with Aunt Wang in the morning.”

Hearing this, Qi Mo opened the gate with a smile. “Sure, no rush. Take your time. Just make sure you’ve got your food and water ready—that’s the priority.”

Huo Huakang chuckled. “Then I’ll thank you in advance.”

Qi Mo remembered his errand. “Uncle Huakang, I need to go to town to buy some jars. I might not be back until noon. Once you've got your stuff ready, come by then.”

Huo Huakang asked, “What do you need jars for?”

“I want to make some canned peaches—for when we run out of fresh fruit. They’re sweet, and if stored in the basement, they’ll keep for two or three months,” Qi Mo explained.

Huo Huakang heard this and said, "Not bad."

After Huo Huakang left, Qi Mo closed the door, wondering if the pig farmer would bring him some yellow peaches today.

Once the high temperatures arrived, Qi Mo also wanted to dig up other people's fruit trees.

No hurry yet.

But he could buy some fruit saplings to plant first.

The temperature would rise quickly, and the paddy fields and ponds would soon dry up, followed by rivers and lakes rapidly drying out. That would signal the real start of the apocalypse.

Back in the kitchen, Qi Mo opened the meal containers one by one, washed them, and rinsed off the moisture with boiling water.

One compartment for rice, another for tomato-braised beef, quickly packed into the containers.

After filling over forty containers, there was almost nothing left in the steamer.

Qi Mo scraped out the remaining rice from the wooden bucket, then scooped the last of the beef onto the rice, mixed it, let it cool a bit, and started eating.

The aroma of rice mixed with the rich scent of braised beef and thick tomato sauce—so good.

Kitty Snowball and Baby Yan both smelled the delicious food but couldn't have any. They still had rice-and-millet porridge and a quail egg.

Snowball yowled protestingly, and Baby Yan wanted beef too.

Unfortunately, his dad didn’t get it.

Faced with the whiny cat, Qi Mo said, "This has salt in it. Neither you nor your brother can eat it."

Baby Yan was chewing on a teether in his hand.

His big eyes blinked as he felt that what he was holding didn’t match the delicious smell. But all he could do was babble nonsense—no way to voice his protest...

After washing the pot, Qi Mo took Baby Yan and kitty Snowball outside.

They made a beeline for Taohua Town—first to buy feed, then saplings, and finally bottles.

With the plan set, Qi Mo pedaled the trike like a bike.

The sun had already risen, breaking through the clouds and shining down on the earth.

The temperature began to climb...

The air grew stifling.

Qi Mo put an ice pack in his pocket and placed three more in the cart.

He also gave Baby Yan a water bottle.

He chugged half a bottle of mineral water as soon as they left.

Halfway there, sweat had already drenched his clothes, so Qi Mo drank another half bottle—he couldn’t risk heatstroke.

Baby Yan was still young—he couldn’t risk it either.

So they all needed to keep drinking water.

Yesterday at noon, it was 41 degrees.

The temperature had already risen to 104°F by seven o'clock today...

At 7:10, Qi Mo arrived in town.

The supermarket still had long lines of people waiting to buy salt, oil, toilet paper, and other essentials.

It's easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to return to simplicity once you've lived comfortably.

Without toilet paper—or even crude paper—Qi Mo found the idea horrifying.

Thoughts of a past life... No, I don't have a past life. Just this one. Qi Mo pushed the thought away.

At the same time, he suddenly realized that if he had thousands of pounds of feed delivered, once food became scarce, people would fight over it. He worried about drawing attention—it could be dangerous.

Remembering the abandoned buildings not far outside town, he thought they'd work perfectly. He could have the feed sent there immediately without exposing himself.

Before, he hadn’t been able to hide his child, but now, Qi Mo remembered his pocket dimension.

Turning a corner, he looked left and right—no one around.

With the scorching heat, Qi Mo pushed the stroller into a roadside restroom and stashed both his kid and the kitten Snowball into his hidden space.

Watching his child excitedly chatter at a group of chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs, Qi Mo thought his little one was quite affectionate—an animal lover who didn’t cry even without Dad nearby. Good.

Stashing the tricycle away, he put on oversized sunglasses, swapped his hat for a black sun hat, and mounted a bicycle.

Soon, Qi Mo reached the feed store.

In stark contrast to the supermarket, the place was dead.

Stepping inside, he called out, "Hey boss, you open?"

The owner hurried out, fanning himself with a hand fan. "What do you need?"

Seeing the visitor wearing exaggerated sunglasses and arriving on a bike, the boss’s heart sank—he doubted this would be a big sale.

Given the current situation—the unbearable heat—his feed was decent, but under these temperatures, it went bad fast.

Without vehicles for transport, no one wanted to buy feed anymore.

"I need two thousand pounds of poultry feed and three thousand pounds of pig feed, delivered within half a day," Qi Mo said.

The boss perked up. Business had been slow lately—he hadn’t made a sale in days.

"Half a day is doable, but delivery fees are high now. Everything's getting more expensive. For five thousand pounds of feed, I'll charge twelve thousand yuan—mostly for delivery. It's too hot; drivers demand premium pay just to work. But if it's too far, we can't do it. Tell me the address first," the boss explained.

Cost wasn’t a concern for Qi Mo, especially since compared to food prices, this was still cheap.

"The abandoned construction site near town entrance. Deliver there, and I’ll receive it," Qi Mo replied.

Hearing it was nearby, the boss nodded. "Got it. That’s close. I’ll get it there well before noon," he assured.

Qi Mo nodded. "I’ll be there in an hour."

Leaving a 1,000-yuan deposit, Qi Mo turned to leave.

Next, he headed to the cannery in town, which had already shut down, leaving only a listless old caretaker behind.

Qi Mo said he wanted to buy empty canning jars.

After the canned goods were confiscated, the owner fled, leaving the old man unable to claim his wages.

“Give me five dollars, and you can take as many as you can carry—take as much as you can. I’m heading to the countryside to dig up some potatoes and buy some grain,” the old man said to Qi Mo.

Under the scorching heat, this wasn’t a busy area, and there were hardly any people around.

Qi Mo nodded and handed over five thousand dollars directly.

Watching the old man leave with a small cart, a hoe, and water, Qi Mo turned toward the abandoned factory.

He quickly found the spot the old man had mentioned—stacks of empty glass jars in various sizes: three taels (about 100 grams), half a catty (~250 grams), one catty (~500 grams), and two catties (~1,000 grams).

There must have been thousands of bottles.

Qi Mo took about a third—enough to be fair and leave some for others.

After closing the door, Qi Mo hurried off to the flower and bird market.

Soon, he found a shop selling saplings of apple, pear, orange, blueberry, peach, cherry, grape, and other fruit trees planted in pots (planters).

He didn’t want the pots, so he had the shop owner dig out the saplings and pack them into bags, which Qi Mo carried away.

After finishing these tasks, Qi Mo left Taohua Town for the unfinished building. He went up to the second floor and entered his space, where Chubby Baby was petting the little cat Snowball.

Looking at Snowball being squished and having its ears and tail bitten, looking utterly resigned, Qi Mo chuckled, “How did you get caught by Baby Yan again? Your fur’s going to get rubbed bald.”

If the kitty really wanted to escape, Baby Yan wouldn’t have been able to catch it.

One liked to pester, the other didn’t mind—Qi Mo let them play on their own.

Half an hour later, several makeshift carts rigged from bicycle tires slowly approached.

Once the feed was unloaded, Qi Mo checked it, paid the money, and watched the shop owner and delivery helper quickly leave. He waited another ten minutes before storing everything in his space.

Then he changed clothes again and took Baby Yan with him as they rode a tricycle into town.

At another feed store, he bought two bags of pig feed and one bag of chicken feed. At a general store, he found a box of glass jars. By then, the temperature had reached 42°C (108°F), and it was already 11 a.m., so Qi Mo hurried home.

At 11:30, Qi Mo returned home—it was scorching.

He pulled the vehicle inside, stacked the feed under the shed, poured some into the pig pens, and added water.

Quickly he brought Chubby Baby into the living room.

He washed his face and hands and drank some water.

As for lunch, Qi Mo had no appetite—the weather was too hot. He drank a cup of room-temperature sour plum drink.

He was craving ice cream, iced milk tea, anything cold.

But he couldn’t have them—for the sake of his unborn baby, he had to hold back.

After resting for about ten minutes, Qi Mo felt much better.

The fish in the yard had already been cooked by the intense heat. Qi Mo collected them all and placed them in the kitchen to handle later.

He then cooled off the baby quails and gathered four quail eggs.

It seems the baby quail has already adapted to this home.

Chen Xia noticed Qi Mo had returned, so she walked over and knocked on the door, calling out, "Momo, Momo, are you back?"

Hearing this, Qi Mo opened the courtyard gate and looked at Chen Xia. "Auntie Chen, is something the matter? Didn’t you go dig for potatoes?"

Chen Xia smiled and replied, "I was up at 4 AM digging, but it’s too hot now—you could get heatstroke easy in this."

"By the way, around eleven, Huo Jianian showed up with some kid from Huangjia Village, saying they lost a cat," Chen Xia added.

Qi Mo frowned upon hearing this. Anything involving Huo Jingzhong’s family always meant trouble.

"Did he say what kind of cat it was?" Qi Mo asked.

Chen Xia shook her head. "No, he didn’t mention that."

"It’s too hot—I’ll head back now. I just wanted to let you know," Chen Xia said before booking it home in the blazing heat.

The weather was so hot that nothing sounded good to eat.

Qi Mo closed the gate, recalling the day he first arrived when Huo Jianian had brought those delinquent kids trying to force their way in.

Did the cat go missing back then?

But this kitten didn’t seem ordinary at all—it definitely understood human speech.

Was Huo Jianian trying to snatch the kitten? No, there was nothing worth snatching about a kitten—unless they didn’t recognize it.

Of course, Qi Mo believed nobody could help but love the kitten once they saw it.

The kitten was way too cute for words, far too adorable.

His Baby Yan was totally smitten with it, especially since the kitten had such a sweet, gentle temperament…

Or was Huo Jianian pulling some shady stunt? Maybe trying to shake him down?

Qi Mo thought about it and found it quite possible.

Well, he’d cross that bridge when he came to it.

If it really was the cat’s owner, Qi Mo would naturally compensate them. But if they were trying to shake him down? No way in hell.

He was just that petty, especially when it came to Huo Jingzhong’s family—how dare they eye up Huo Liangzhou?

He might not want it, but they had no right to make a play for it.

Though he had no appetite, he had to force something down. Nutrition was essential, especially in this heat—without a strong body, he might not last.

Qi Mo took out some chilled noodles and ate a bowl, fed Baby Yan some porridge, and gave the kitten some rice porridge mixed with dried shrimp flakes…

Not five minutes later, Huo Huakang came knocking.

"Qi Mo, are you home? If you are, open the gate—I’ve brought your brick and mortar," Huo Huakang called out.

Hearing this, Qi Mo replied, "Be right there!"

His kang bed would soon be getting built.