Chapter 123: Chapter 123: Seed Bank
Hearing that this might be a seed bank, Zhang Qingfang became incredibly excited. "So, can this door be opened?"
Jiang Chengwu frowned. "There might be miasma or poisonous insects inside. We should be cautious. It’s better not to open it."
Jiang Si nodded. "Mhm, Grandpa is right. We’re not short on supplies right now, so there’s no need to open it."
A typical seed bank would store seeds from hundreds of crop varieties, including grains, cotton, oilseeds, fruits, vegetables, tea, sugar, mulberry, and grasses. Their primary mission is the long-term strategic preservation of germplasm resources for agricultural crops, vegetables, pasture plants, and their wild relatives.
If they opened this place and it really was a small seed bank, the basic survival supplies inside would be enough to last them for over a hundred years.
But, of course, safety was more important than supplies.
Just as everyone unanimously agreed not to open it and to re-bury it with snow, the steel door they were standing on suddenly made a CLICK.
Shen Baoying suspected her ears were playing tricks on her and hurriedly asked, "Did you guys hear that? It sounded like something opened."
The moment she finished speaking, everyone looked down at the ground in unison.
A rumbling, grinding sound, like the earth itself was moving, grew louder and louder. This was definitely not an earthquake.
Everyone quickly scrambled off the door, staring intently, not daring to even blink.
Jiang Si, holding onto Zhang Qingfang, continued to back away. "Careful! There might be a bomb or something! Everyone, fall back!"
The group retreated until they were over a hundred meters away. Suddenly, the steel door on the ground twisted and opened.
Everyone held their breath.
’Could it be that there were other survivors hiding inside?’
Jiang Si motioned to the others. "Quick, hide! Don’t let them see us."
They all lay prone on the snowdrifts, waiting patiently.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes... Five minutes passed.
Suddenly, a blood-drenched hand reached out from inside.
While they were still stunned, a brown-skinned foreign man with a tangled mess of hair and a filthy body abruptly appeared in their line of sight.
’So there really was another survivor.’
Everyone tightened their grip on their guns, wary of any potential danger.
The man shielded his eyes from the blinding light, his gaze vacant as he stared at his surroundings. Suddenly, as if he’d gone mad, he began to laugh and cry hysterically, tearing at his own face until it was dripping with blood. He gouged out one of his own eyeballs, which rolled onto the ground.
Jiang Linhai furrowed his brow. "This guy... he’s gone crazy, right?"
Jiang Si nodded. "Looks like it."
’Anyone who can gouge out their own eyeball is clearly insane, and hopelessly so.’
’The way he looked like he was about to dig a hole in his own head was terrifying, as if he were about to mutate.’
Fearing it was a zombie mutation, Jiang Si watched him nervously, looking for any zombie-like movements.
Fortunately, there were none.
Unable to bear the physical and psychological torment any longer, the man raised the gun in his hand and shot himself.
Jiang Si waited patiently for a moment. Only when the man’s body didn’t mutate and rise again did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Attracted by the scent of blood in the air, Snow Monkeys appeared in twos and threes, leaping swiftly into view. Right under everyone’s noses, they dragged the man’s corpse away.
But they didn’t dare venture down into the opening of the steel door.
They were all very wary.
The man’s blood was like red dye, leaving shocking streaks across the snow.
The group was used to seeing such bloody scenes; by now, they had grown somewhat accustomed to it.
Lu Zhifeng asked, "What do we do now?"
That door was still open. What if there was really good stuff inside?
If the Snow Monkeys decided it was safe, they would definitely go in and wreck the place.
But, judging from that man’s mental state, there might be something even more terrifying down there.
Previously, in a situation like this, Jiang Si would definitely have told everyone to stay away and retreat to observe first.
But Qin Shen was here.
He had superhuman hearing, extraordinary abilities, and even Healing Power. Suddenly, she found the courage to investigate.
Her gaze unconsciously turned to Qin Shen.
Qin Shen met her gaze and, as expected, read her mind. He lowered his voice and said in her ear, "No living people."
His deep voice and hot breath were so close. Shen Baoying saw them whispering intimately and secretly tugged on Jiang Linhai’s sleeve.
Jiang Si said to the others, "Qin Shen and I will go check it out first. You all wait for us out here."
Jiang Linhai was very worried. "Sisi, let’s just forget it. We can go in a couple of days!"
Jiang Si shook her head. "In a couple of days, a place that was originally safe might be turned into a lair by some dangerous creature."
In the end, they let the young ones go on ahead and take the risk.
Qin Shen walked in front, with Jiang Si behind him, in a posture that seemed to shield her from all harm.
Soon, Qin Shen peered down into the opening and said to Jiang Si, "I see three bodies. All shot."
Jiang Si leaned over to look. The three bodies all had extremely savage expressions, as if they had been hostile toward each other.
Their state of mind right before death must have been similar to the man who committed suicide.
’There are oxygen tanks around. They probably killed each other fighting over them.’
Qin Shen asked again, "Going down?"
Jiang Si nodded. "Mhm."
Qin Shen descended the blood-stained stairs to the floor about two meters below, then reached a hand up to her.
Jiang Si took it, and the moment she landed, she got a clear view of the entrance area.
Besides the three bodies at her feet, there were three more in the corridor ahead.
However, the other three corpses looked like they had been dead for at least half a month.
Jiang Si and Qin Shen looked up and saw a clear sign.
Just as she had guessed, it was a small seed bank.
Seed banks are kept at a low temperature, below minus twenty degrees Celsius, so the bodies hadn’t started to smell of decay.
Wary that the entrance might suddenly shut, they used something to jam it wide open before heading deeper inside.
Scattered everywhere were oxygen tanks, food scraps, shards of glass, and unknown seeds mixed in with the debris.
Jiang Si and Qin Shen pushed open a door to one room and saw a large amount of grain.
But it wasn’t as much as she had imagined—maybe about a quarter of the grain she had in her storage space.
Still, it wasn’t a small amount. A pity her space couldn’t hold any more.
They had plenty of supplies on the ship, so there was no need to haul any more aboard.
As they opened the other rooms, they found several more bodies, along with all sorts of supplies.
What they found most of were labeled seeds in sealed glass vials.
When they reached the last large warehouse, Jiang Si saw something that made her ecstatic.
Materials for a self-heating greenhouse: graphene and black powder.
Without needing electricity, the greenhouse could generate its own heat, maintaining a temperature of around ten to twenty degrees Celsius even in the extreme cold.
Even if they didn’t use it to build a self-heating greenhouse, it was still a top-tier material for constructing buildings.
If the extreme cold would just let up a little, they could use these materials to build a small villa by the sea.
’A ship, a villa, and a greenhouse... life would be absolutely wonderful.’
Jiang Si said excitedly, "Let’s dispose of the bodies. We’ll keep this place as a supply cache."
