Chapter 76—Slice of Life

by Bocchan13

A week had passed after that. They had finally finished harvesting and was preparing for winter. Song Yu wanted to plant a few winter vegetables, so they started off doing parsnips, beets, and cabbage before delving into the pool of seeds they found in N City, raking in kale and even cauliflower. These didn’t have deep roots and would not interfere with each other during the seeding.

Song Yu ecstatically watched as their group wore their farming clothes, boots and shovels and dropped seeds into the turned dirt. They would mature just as there would be frost to cover the land, making the vegetables taste sweeter.

Song Yu had also planned to kill a cow to make beef jerky in the winter, but that would have to be done in late fall. The winters in the mountains were much colder than in the flatlands. Song Yu spent the first winter inside a kotatsu with three layers of clothes.

The farm animals were fed by Squinty who didn’t mind the cold one bit, and the fields had been covered in almost 7 feet of snow. The entirety of the villa will be blanketed, rendering the outside useless. During the peak coldness, Song Yu took this time to hone crafts using the manuals he downloaded before.

Cooking, sewing, tanning, drying, chemistry, and renovating.

Song Yu’s only problems about the winter was that the energy levels dropped. Song Yu was entirely dependent on solar energy. There was an entire field in the back of the villa containing more than 20 flat solar panels that moved in accordance to the sun.

In winter, the sun was shrouded in clouds, rain, and snow. Song Yu had to scrape off the snow from the solar panels every three days, sometimes even once a day in order to get them to work. Song Yu had a heater using fuel and gas, but that would not last an entire winter.

Luckily, this winter they had a fresh flow of gasoline from Du Win, and Song Yu planned to create a solar generator that kept the energy for longer.

Song Yu approached this to Lu Jingxiu, and he got to work thinking of how to make it happen.

On the other hand, after telling Lan Zhou about his abilities, nothing had changed. Lan Zhou was still stupidly in love with him, spouting love poems at night, and sharing long glances during the day. Lan Zhou had asked when Song Yu would tell the rest of the group; making Song Yu hesitate a bit.

“Xiao Zi…might already know that I’m the pure ability user. We talked a little bit about the experiments. I think he’s just waiting for me to tell him.”

Lan Zhou nodded, “He is very observant. If you are okay with helping him that’s fine. But I don’t want you to feel obliged to do so.”

“I know.”

“You can take your time to tell everyone else. Wang Cheng and the rest haven’t come back yet. If you want to tell them then that’s also fine too.”

That did make Song Yu feel better. He was willing to tell everyone. So as the days passed, the 2 weeks of the group’s journey had lengthened to another week. They wanted to do it more leisurely, as they found the spots to be scenic and warming.

Yu Ci continued to update the group on their activities, but Song Yu thinks they really enjoyed this leisurely field trip. They only had to kill a few zombies, scan the perimeters for stragglers and monitor any hoards or strange zombie behaviors.

With the three of them, it was a breeze.

Song Yu could feel their fighting spirit, and didn’t want to curb their independence. So two weeks turned to three.

Summer had finally finished and fall was descending the mountains. The leaves gradually changed colors, making the greenery turn into ambers, reds, and oranges. The new vegetables had sprouted and there were no apparent zombification.

Song Yu was also getting a bit lazier. He had a few more hands to take care of the house and the planting, leaving him with a bit more time.

So, Song Yu decided to create winter jackets for everyone. The cotton seeds would have to be planted next year, but there were still the unused mattresses and clothes from N City. Song Yu tore through the springs and took out the mattress stuffing. Finding waterproof materials, he got to work, creating a pattern for a long puffer jacket.

Taking inspiration from a few TV shows, he finished the first coat after three days of continuous editing. Finally, the coat was finished. There was a large weighted hood that wouldn’t budge with the wind, lined with fur from N City. The puffer jacket was lined with heat tech inside as well as a replaceable inner jacket if they were too hot. The mattress stuffing  inlaid the puffer jacket material, those bumps a little bit uneven but otherwise functional.

Song Yu added large pockets on the outside and three on the inside for emergency things like snacks, flashlights, and the occasional dagger.

The first guinea pig was Xiao Zi. Song Yu and Xiao Zi had similar builds, so when Song Yu finished, he casually asked Xiao Zi for his opinion. Xiao Zi was all too happy to try it on.

The puffer jacket went down to his shins, the sleeves a little bit shorter for gloves. Immediately, Xiao Zi could feel the intense heat radiating outwards. Like his body warmth was trapped. After 5 minutes, he had to take it off because it was too hot.

Song Yu was happy, as it was aesthetically pleasing as well as functional. During the day, they checked and watered the plants, checked the storage, and husked the grains using machines. In the afternoon, Song Yu continued to make more coats for everyone.

Lan Zhou complained that Song Yu didn’t have any time for him. He wriggled in Song Yu’s embrace, causing Song Yu’s hand to slip stabbing the needle somewhere else.

With no choice, Song Yu threw a pillow at him.

“Get lost!”

“Darling!”

Lan Zhou was heartbroken and had to sleep in the next room for the night, but was let in early in the morning to a horny Song Yu.

Lan Zhou was also busy. He helped Song Yu with the planting and was also helping with the solar panel problems with Lu Jingxiu. Hearing how harsh the winters were here, Lan Zhou wanted to create something similar to windshield wipers to wipe the snow off so they wouldn’t have to.

Lu Jingxiu wasn’t an engineer or mechanic, so they had to look through the manuals Song Yu had to get an idea of what to do.

Eventually, they settled on both the generator and wipers, leaving other projects for later dates. Lu Jingxiu easily understood these kinds of things, so he was the head of this project.

The house was greatly insulated and didn’t need any modifications, but the storage basement downstairs had to be re-organized. The fresh produce and cold foods like meats were okay, but they had to put the seasonal items into further storage so it wouldn’t be contaminated by the cold.

Lan Zhou later came to the realization that all of the foods were expired, but since Song Yu periodically put them in the space, they retained their shelf life.

Stupid head.

Xiao Zi was also busy. After being hinted at, that Song Yu was the pure ability user, he got to work right away, trying to get the results of the vaccine that he had in his last life. Although, the missing ingredient was right in front of him, he wouldn’t approach unless Song Yu was willing.

These initial tests were crucial and did not need Song Yu’s interference anyways. Xiao Zi was happy that he had all of the tools at his disposal. Song Yu had even given him a few computers that would compute the molecular data, to which he was grateful.  

These days were so lax and happy, Song Yu forgot that this was the apocalypse…and anything can happen.