Chapter 31: The Granddaughter's Nonsense

They all knew that before long, the Lotus City would establish the Lotus Base. By then, both cash and bank account balances would suffer severe devaluation, replaced by a system of credits.

Yet, others were unaware.

The Peng family deliberated for a long time and decided to trade in gold; after all, gold has been a hard currency since ancient times. Moreover, gold has applications far beyond its role as currency.

When the Peng family mentioned they wanted gold, the Qin brothers exchanged a glance. Truth be told, they actually had some. As a precaution, they had each slipped a ten-gram gold bar into their pockets before leaving. Two bars combined should have been enough to buy five sheep.

However, the Peng family was not satisfied, and after bargaining for quite a while, the price remained stuck. Qin Bosong began to grow impatient. Furthermore, they could not afford to stay away from their group for too long, so he considered giving up.

He said to his older brother, Qin Bonian, "Big brother, why don't we go look somewhere else? If we delay any longer, the villagers might grow restless waiting for us."

It reflected poorly on them to prioritize personal errands while out on village business. Qin Bonian agreed. It wasn't that they were stingy, but they hadn't brought much with them, and they had originally intended to buy only one sheep, whereas the sellers insisted on a package deal.

"Since we can't reach an agreement, let's leave it for next time," Qin Bonian said, turning to go.

Wu Yun, who had accompanied them, interjected, "There’s a sizable cattle farm in the neighboring Niulan Town with hundreds of cows. If you don't mind the extra travel, you could try your luck there."

The Peng family panicked. Before the brothers could respond, they hurriedly tried to keep them.

"How about twenty grams of gold for four sheep? Don't say we're stingy—we’ll pick out the four largest ones for you. If you don't believe us, you can see for yourself."

As he spoke, the man from the Peng family looked a bit sheepish. The sheep were indeed large, but after grazing on the local grass, they had become somewhat abnormal. They were never full, their tempers had become volatile, and they would frequently lower their heads, ready to charge and knock anyone over at a moment's notice.

The Qin brothers went to the livestock shed and, following the man's gesture, caught sight of the four sheep. Unlike the others, these four were kept in a separate enclosure and appeared quite aggressive.

They were brown-bodied with black faces—undoubtedly stone sheep. However, they were nearly as large as four-month-old Dabieshan calves, and they looked not only untamed but exceptionally fierce and irritable. The pregnant ewe, in particular, was a size larger than the other three, all of which were rams.

The brothers looked at each other, thinking, "Good heavens!" Even if they were sold cheaply, they wouldn't be able to transport them back.

"If that's the only problem, we can help sedate them first, tie them up, and load them onto your truck. You can release them once you've settled them at home," the Peng family said, desperate to close the deal. They even offered to have their own pickup truck deliver the animals if the brothers' vehicle wasn't suitable.

In the end, they bought the sheep. Seeing the ewe’s large belly, she would likely give birth soon, making it essentially a "buy four, get one free" deal.

When they returned to the village group, the others were indeed impatient, some even whispering complaints to their faces.

"We came out for the village’s safety and construction, but it turned into babysitting the Qin family's errands. How shameless."

"I shouldn't have come. It's a waste of time and only benefits others."

"That’s enough. It was on the way anyway; it didn't really delay us that much. The most important thing now is to figure out how to build the village's protective wall. Whatever we do, we can't just use mud."

The villagers argued back and forth. Some were disgruntled, while others couldn't care less. Unable to reach a consensus after a long time and seeing that it was getting late, they decided to return to the village first and continue the discussion after consulting the village head.

The roads after the apocalypse still existed, but apart from the rampant growth of vegetation on both sides, everything seemed largely the same, though the journey felt much longer. What used to be a ten-minute drive along the straight district road now took half an hour.

The vehicles carried the villagers back. On the way, a sharp-eyed villager noticed something amiss and immediately shouted, "Hey, have you noticed? The road looks narrower than it did when we came."

Everyone took a look. It was true.

"With so much vegetation, could they all be becoming sentient? If that's the case, do we even have a way to survive?"

"It's the end of the world; there's no way out for us."

"Stop being so pessimistic. No matter how powerful these plants are, they're just mindless things. We humans are smart; are we really going to be afraid of them? Let's have the authorities research an enhanced version of Paraquat and wipe them out completely."

The villagers chattered on, generally optimistic, not yet realizing the true horror of the mutated plants.

As the vehicles passed Dashan Village and were about to enter their own village, someone pointed to a pale, rocky mountain in the distance. "Look at that stone mountain. It's bare—not a single blade of grass grows there. If we dug up the stones there and brought them back, could we use them to build the protective wall?"

The villagers looked where he pointed. It was a familiar mountain, though it seemed much further away and considerably taller than before. It was called Huashi Mountain. Its rocks were pale white, supposedly limestone, but it contained over fifty percent impurities. It wasn't sturdy enough for construction, and since nothing grew there, it was the most useless mountain in the vicinity. Still, if there were no other options, it might be worth a try.

The Qin brothers drove their own pickup home, unloaded the sheep, and after giving a few instructions, hurried out to the village head's courtyard for the meeting.

Although they had guessed the sheep would change after the apocalypse, they hadn't expected them to be this large. If they kept growing, they would be as big as adult cows, let alone calves. Hearing that the four sheep were extremely irritable—especially the pregnant ewe—the family had been very gentle, yet they still managed to annoy it as it woke from its sedation. If it hadn't been tied up in advance, they would have been knocked flying.

"Old Qin, have you tested that medicine? Does it work?" Grandma Qin stood nearby with Huihui, her brow furrowed. Animals became irritable when they grew larger, but what about people? She recalled her own reactions over the past few days and realized something was off: her patience had worn thin, and she felt inexplicably restless and weary.

Old Qin was staring at the dozen chickens in the coop. He replied, "Not yet, I still need to observe them carefully. After all, I've never seen this prescription before. It might just be nonsense from our granddaughter."

Qin Xiaoyu, who was eighty yards away: ...

Could you not shout so loudly when you're gossiping? Are you afraid the neighbors won't hear you?

But wait, was the medicine ready?

Qin Xiaoyu drifted into the kitchen like a ghost. When she emerged, she was holding an arm-thick syringe filled with five hundred milliliters of medicinal liquid.