Chapter 158: Chapter 158: Temperature Rises, Sea Snakes Break the Ice
The other young moose had a much better temperament than the white one. Although Jiang Linhai had no experience riding moose, he knew how to ride a horse.
He got the hang of it quite well. He rode the moose for three full laps before he was willing to stop, saying, "It’s more comfortable than riding a horse. Its back is probably wider."
Niu Niu wanted to try, too. Lu Zhifeng was worried, so he held her while they rode together. The young moose grew increasingly cooperative, and everyone started to experience the joy of moose-riding.
Shen Baoying sighed with emotion. "All that food we’ve been feeding them these past few days wasn’t wasted!"
"Why don’t we give them names?" someone suggested.
Grandpa was a master at naming things—he was the one who came up with Big Black and Little Black. He immediately suggested more names. "Let’s call them Big Yellow, Little Yellow, and Little White."
Hearing the name Little White, everyone was suddenly reminded of the "Big White" that had saved them before.
Shen Baoying murmured with concern, "I wonder if it’s still alive. If we ever see it again, we absolutely have to take the best care of it."
"That’s right. We can’t let it go hungry, even if it means we don’t eat."
Jiang Si couldn’t help but glance at "Comrade" Big White. ’He’s already given his daughter away,’ she thought. ’There’s really no need for us to go hungry just to worship him.’
To avoid embarrassing Qin Shen, Jiang Si said, "Little White is too plain. Let’s call it Snowball. Look how round it is, with those beautiful big eyes. Isn’t that better than Little White?"
Niu Niu looked at the little yellow one. "Does that mean we call it Yellow Ball?"
’That doesn’t sound very nice.’
Jiang Si said, "The sun is also yellow. Let’s call it Sun."
Everyone laughed. "Then Sun’s mother must be Big Sun!"
Jiang Si thought it was acceptable, and since no one had any objections, the names were decided.
Qin Shen took Jiang Si for a ride on Snowball, galloping far into the distance like the wind before smiling meaningfully and saying, "You’re just like Grandpa."
Jiang Si feigned ignorance. "Am I? I guess so."
’Big White is a great name,’ she thought. ’It means big and white. How was I supposed to know it was his original form back then?’
Zhang Aihua and the others finished digging the hot spring channel. They had originally thought Jiang Si’s group would give them something in return, but unfortunately, they didn’t.
Seeing Jiang Si and Qin Shen riding a moose in the distance, everyone was green with envy.
A moose that could serve as both a mount and an emergency food supply!
If only they could raise one, too.
But they could barely feed themselves. Just hoping for the radishes to grow faster and for sea snakes not to appear while fishing by the sea was already hard enough.
They could only dream.
Jiang Si and Qin Shen rode far out and decided to check on their situation along the way.
Seeing that their small wooden cabins were almost finished—small, but at least warm and sturdy—she decided to give them a few chicks and ducklings.
Only when everyone’s lives were relatively stable could Jiang Si’s group stop worrying about them having ulterior motives.
Upon receiving the chicks from Jiang Si and Qin Shen, Zhang Aihua and the others were thrilled, saying gratefully, "Thank you, thank you, thank you..."
Now that they truly had a few chicks and ducklings, everyone swore they would scrimp and save, doing whatever it took to raise them until they could lay eggs to provide nutrition for the children.
Jiang Si said, "Chicks and ducklings are very fragile. Don’t let them get cold. Take good care of them."
Zhang Aihua nodded and, protectively, wrapped the chicks and ducklings in a piece of clothing and placed them inside their cabin.
Their first batch of giant radishes planted outdoors had grown large enough to be harvested.
The troop of monkeys had been eyeing them for a long time. Every day, they would lie on top of them, sniffing left and right, dying to take a bite.
But they were well-behaved and understood the rules. If Jiang Si’s group didn’t give permission, they absolutely couldn’t eat them.
Otherwise, they would lose access to the warm greenhouse and their two meals a day.
Jiang Si surveyed the area and counted them herself. There were a total of two hundred and sixty giant radishes.
It was hard to imagine how much effort it would take to dig them all up.
Jiang Si asked Shen Baoying, "Mom, if we just leave the radishes in the ground, they shouldn’t spoil with how cold it is, right? At worst, they’ll be like ginseng, just getting bigger and older the longer they grow?"
Shen Baoying replied, "In theory, that should be the case. But I’m not sure. You’d be better off looking it up yourself."
Jiang Linhai said, "If we do dig them up, where would we store them?"
"The seed bank can still fit this batch, but where will we put the second batch when it matures?"
Jiang Si looked at another patch of radish seedlings that hadn’t grown yet and said, feeling a bit exasperated, "Did we plant too many?"
’My space is still piled high with food,’ she thought. ’I’m starting to wonder if I’ll even be able to finish it all in this lifetime.’
Zhang Qingfang pointed at the monkeys and moose. "Look how quickly they go through food," she said. "These two hundred-plus radishes will be gone in a few days if we can’t catch any fish. We should still plant what needs to be planted. Besides, the houses will be finished soon, so we can just build a storage room specifically for the radishes. Then, in the future, we can calculate how much to plant. Since we planted too many this time, we can just give some to those other people."
What Zhang Qingfang said made a lot of sense. They were feeding so many creatures now. Anyway, they had a ready labor force, so it would only take a little more thought and wouldn’t be too exhausting.
Jiang Si nodded. "Then let’s build a storage room."
To test how long the radishes could grow without being picked and whether they would be damaged or killed by the frost, Jiang Si specifically left a few stalks in the ground. For the rest, she led the monkeys and began to slowly dig them up one by one with shovels.
The ground was frozen solid, making it extremely difficult to dig up the radishes.
After a day of digging, everyone suddenly felt the temperature rise significantly. The ice and snow began to melt slightly, making the digging much easier.
Jiang Si, however, sensed a hint of danger.
The daytime low had risen to the negative thirties. The ice surface seemed to be starting to melt.
If it melted, wouldn’t the sea snakes covering the ocean floor be free to overrun the beach?
If they burrowed into the surrounding areas, this place would become a snake pit.
But Jiang Si’s worries were useless. She had no control over the temperature changes.
She mentioned it to Qin Shen that night, and when they woke up the next morning, the entire ice surface had split open with a loud CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.
Sea snakes appeared in dense clusters, like water lilies breaking the surface, their fanged mouths gaping.
Zhang Aihua and the others, who had gone to fish, took one look and ran back in terror.
The ice had broken. Could they continue to stay here?
This place was just too close to the sea.
Meanwhile, it became difficult for Jiang Si’s group to even get off the Icebreaker.
Jiang Si had a lot of realgar in her space, specifically for preventing insect swarms and snake infestations.
She didn’t know if it would work on these venomous deep-sea snakes.
Jiang Si poured some onto the ice beneath the Icebreaker. As the realgar spread, the startled Red Flower Sea Snakes swished back into the sea with a great RUSTLE.
Everyone said in pleasant surprise, "It’s working!"
They sprinkled a circle of realgar around the Icebreaker, and all the surrounding Red Flower Sea Snakes disappeared. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They then tried lowering their fishing rods and traps again, wanting to see if they could still catch any fish.
But after waiting a long time, the fishing rods pulled up nothing but Red Flower Sea Snakes.
It was the same with the fish traps—they were filled to the brim with snakes, a horrifying and terrifying sight.
