Chapter Thirteen

“Are we shipping to the Ningzhou warehouse?” the purchasing manager asked, looking at the Mountain of Bread. Qianzhiwei was a well-known food company in Longxia, with twelve logistics warehouses nationwide; the Ningzhou warehouse was the closest to Husheng Province.

“Yeah.” Li Wenkang picked up a piece of bread from the assembly line. It was a palm-sized golden bread, plain without filling, wrapped in transparent golden packaging printed with a bread image, and at the bottom right corner was the [Wheat Quality: Fengshan No.1] logo.

The logo was pale white and hard to notice without close inspection. Transparent packaging with light-colored fonts was a common style in the food industry.

Li Wenkang looked at it for a moment, then opened the bread. It was soft and fluffy, not greasy when eaten, and had a rich wheat aroma.

“This batch turned out pretty good. The workers also said the dough fermented well,” the purchasing manager said, stepping up to claim credit.

Li Wenkang glanced at him and said, “We barely managed to salvage it this time.” He had thought they’d lose money, but with the government wheat’s high flour yield, after some calculation, it wasn’t actually a loss.

After discussing transportation details, Li Wenkang looked at the bread bag in his hand and instructed, “Send a box to my office.” Having run the bakery for twenty years, it was the first time he felt their bread tasted so good. He guessed it was probably because of recent stress—everything seemed more fragrant to him.

…

“Secretary Qin, that’s the situation.” While Sunshine Bakery was transporting to Ningzhou, in an off-road vehicle in Gan Province’s Uninhabited Zone, Zhang Hu opened a video on his phone. It was a thirty-second clip: a dimly lit Uninhabited Zone farm, wheat fields swaying in the wind, with faint animal squeaks coming from the fields…

Qin Yun took the phone and, half an hour later, understood the situation.

During the farm’s seven-day short holiday, Zhang Hu and another soldier were on duty. The first two days were normal, but starting the third night, they often heard rustling “squeaks.” Holding flashlights, they looked toward the fields in the dark, seeing countless green eyes roaming the farmland.

Zhang Hu was startled. The next day when reviewing the footage, he discovered the green eyes were pika.

Pikas were usually about 10 to 30 cm long, looking like rabbits but with facial features and bodies like mice. They lived in groups and were rare protected animals in Longxia. Upon seeing the video, Zhang Hu realized the pikas had come in groups to raid the farm.

The pikas had been coming for three consecutive days. Zhang Hu reported to his superiors, and yesterday afternoon, Liu Wensheng arrived at the farm early. Because Qin Yun was on vacation at home, the Longxia Team did not disturb him; Qin Yun only just found out.

“They’re so cunning!” Zhang Hu angrily recounted the whole story. He had inspected the pika raid site: the pikas usually bit through the wheat stalks, half-chewed the ears, then moved on to another stalk. The wheat ears bitten by pikas were inedible—such a huge waste!

“Let’s go see.” Qin Yun watched the video three times. Fengshan Farm was located at the border of the Shallow and Deep Uninhabited Zones. The farm had once been barren and had peaceful coexistence with the animals from the Deep Uninhabited Zone. But as the farm developed, various factors inevitably caused interactions…

Qin Yun thought for a moment, then looked outside the vehicle. It was mid-November; some yellow earth was already frozen, and the Uninhabited Zone was even more desolate than in July.

The vehicle moved slowly, arriving at the farm at 1 p.m.

Qin Yun put his luggage in the room but did not rest, heading straight to the wheat field.

He was prepared for the pika damage but was still stunned by the scene. In the golden wheat field, the eastern area was clearly bald. As he approached, the bald patches became more obvious.

Qin Yun found that the bald areas were flattened wheat stalks, the ears bitten in pieces, scattered wheat all around.

“So wasteful.” Liu Wensheng, wearing boots, came out of the field. He had just inspected and found many stalks broken at the base, with wheat ears damaged all over.

“All caused by pikas?” Qin Yun was surprised. He had checked pika photos before; they looked palm-sized and as cute as pet hamsters.

“Two groups of pikas, at least thirty in total.” The farm was monitored by high-definition cameras. After analysis by the surveillance team, these were two different pika groups, and the damaged farm area was about half an acre. Half an acre wasn’t large, but over time it could become a serious issue!

“How to solve it?” Qin Yun realized the seriousness of the problem.

“Make some scarecrows and put out a few winnowing baskets.”

Liu Wensheng sighed. This was the research team’s plan. Actually, using rodenticide or reinforcing the farm’s perimeter with safety nets would be easier. But pikas were rare Longxia animals, and net reinforcement had strange side effects. So, reluctantly, they had to use the most traditional protective methods.

In the next three hours, the farm made five scarecrows from broken wheat stalks. They placed the scarecrows around the farmland and set several woven winnowing baskets at the field edges, filled with wheat the pikas had already raided.

Now the pikas couldn’t be killed or harmed—only fed enough to reduce their damage to the farm.

“What a situation!” Liu Wensheng put down the last basket and slumped to the ground with the soldiers. They were all Longxia’s elite soldiers, but now they were mentally and physically exhausted from a few pikas… too, too hard!

That night, Zhao Zhishun made some farm flatbreads. After everyone ate and drank their fill, they finally felt a bit more relaxed.

Perhaps thanks to the scarecrows, in the following three days, the farm still heard pika squeaks late at night, but no large-scale damage occurred. The wheat in the baskets was also reduced by two-thirds.

The farm’s planting was back on track, but with the Uninhabited Zone’s weather growing colder, more animals would surely come looking for food. Farm security remained a top priority…

…

“Spend 200, get 30 off in the special zone; cross-store 300, get 30 off… Is Double Eleven a math competition or what?”

While the farm was organizing security, in Jinghe Xingfuli community, Lu Guogang was staring at Longbao’s Double Eleven rules, feeling his head swell. Lu Guogang was forty-two this year and an electronic engineer at Jinghe Electronics. Jinghe Electronics had recently gone bankrupt, and with his son’s college entrance exam coming up next year, he and his wife agreed he would accompany their son through the exams before considering going back to work.

Lu Guogang became a full-time househusband. You don’t know the value of money until you run a household—though they had savings, he had no income now, so every expense was scrutinized carefully. With two hours left before Double Eleven, he calculated the items in his shopping cart and shook his wife awake: “Is this cross-store category coupon better when spending 200 or 300?”

It was 10 p.m. His wife had just crawled under the covers scrolling on her phone, annoyed by his shaking: “You’ve already added everything to the cart. Just check which price is lower tomorrow or the day after and stack the discounts.”

“This store offers half price for the first 500 orders. If we use the wrong coupon, it won’t be worth it,” Lu Guogang argued confidently.

His wife, an accountant at her company, grew impatient but finally put on her glasses and calculated various additions and subtractions to figure out the optimal plan for the cart.

Lu Guogang studied the details a while longer, then shook his wife awake again: “If we buy another seventeen yuan, can we use this 30% off coupon?”

“You figure it out yourself,” she muffled under the blanket. She had to catch the subway at seven a.m. and was too tired to deal with it.

Feeling awkward not to disturb her, Lu Guogang spent half an hour meticulously calculating and concluded: buying seventeen yuan more in the special zone could indeed get a 30% discount.

He opened the category zone. The special zone only sold small items like milk and socks. Seventeen yuan wasn’t enough to buy milk, and socks would be wasted. After some hassle, he finally added to the purchase: a box of Qianzhiwei original bread and a pack of preserved plums. Twenty-one boxes of Qianzhiwei bread at the promotional price of 14.5 yuan each, and two yuan fifty for the preserved plums—exactly seventeen yuan.

After all that fuss, it was midnight. As soon as the clock struck twelve, Lu Guogang clicked to pay. He was lucky to snag half-price dish detergent. Looking at the twenty-one items waiting to be shipped, he felt only one thing: being a househusband is not easy.

Author’s note:

Lu Guogang: Life is tough for me. _(:з」∠)