Chapter 82: Chapter 80: Live Off the Mountain, Live Off the Sea
Jiang Si looked at Qin Shen. With just one glance from her, he took the initiative and said to everyone, "I’ll go with you to find a boat."
Jiang Linhai was afraid that if he went along, it would be inconvenient for Jiang Si. Just as he was about to offer to go instead, Jiang Si gave him a pointed look.
Jiang Linhai assumed she had a way to hide her secrets and didn’t mind bringing Qin Shen along, so he let Qin Shen go with her.
They arrived at the coast, which was surrounded by reefs. Jiang Si and he walked for a while, circling a several-hundred-meter stretch of golden beach, and casually picked up some fish, seafood, and sea vegetables from the sand.
The food they gathered so effortlessly would be enough to last them for a long time.
Jiang Si had her dimensional space, so naturally, the more the better. It could hold it all anyway.
After finding a second lobster as long as her forearm, Jiang Si asked Qin Shen, who was quietly gathering seafood, "Do you like seafood?"
Qin Shen nodded. "It’s alright. I’m not a picky eater."
Jiang Si glanced at him. ’I thought that since he turns into a tiger, he wouldn’t like seafood.’
Then she remembered that some types of tigers do go to the coast to catch fish, and she laughed at her own ignorance.
No matter how Qin Shen transformed, he was still human. Besides, even tigers in zoos eat grains.
What she really wanted to ask was whether Qin Shen had also been reborn, and if that was why he had a superpower.
But since Qin Shen didn’t bring it up, she felt it wasn’t her place to ask.
Walking on and off, Jiang Si saw that the reefs were covered in so many abalones, oysters, and mussels that they could never pry them all off.
Jiang Si exclaimed, "There are so many here!"
Qin Shen said, "This was probably a seafood farming area before. With people gone, the creatures reproduce even faster, which is lucky for us."
Jiang Si’s dimensional space wasn’t static; food wouldn’t last long in it.
However, there was no shortage of salt by the sea, and there were many ways to dry and cure seafood for long-term preservation.
Jiang Si smiled. "It wouldn’t be bad if we could settle down around here."
"If we could just find a few suitable plots of land for farming, it would be a true paradise."
Standing on a reef and gazing into the distance, Qin Shen also broke into a light smile. "Up ahead, I see an abandoned fishing village."
Hearing "fishing village," Jiang Si immediately grew wary. Her movements were swift and decisive as she reached for her gun, which made Qin Shen laugh out loud. "There’s no one. I don’t hear anything."
Jiang Si’s eyes widened. "How far can you hear? I can’t even see a small fishing village."
Qin Shen gave her a meaningful look. "Probably about a thousand times better than yours."
Jiang Si was dumbfounded. Now that Qin Shen no longer hid his abilities, he always seemed to have some new, astonishing skill that left her in awe.
’If only I had abilities like his.’ Unfortunately, she only had her dimensional space, and her physical reactions were not even a tenth of Qin Shen’s.
Since there was a fishing village, there was bound to be a small dock suitable for mooring a boat.
After walking for a little while longer, Jiang Si saw a suitable spot. She nervously scanned her surroundings, and Qin Shen, understanding her concern, said, "There’s no one. Don’t worry."
A tiger’s hearing is over a thousand times more acute than a human’s, and their vision is even stronger. Not only could they see in the dark, but Qin Shen’s eyes could also zoom in like a camera lens to see things several kilometers away.
Jiang Si trusted his words completely and immediately conjured a yacht from her dimensional space, placing it on the water’s surface.
This yacht was even larger than their previous one. She had later decided the rented one was too small, and since she had money, she’d bought this one directly. She even had the legal rights to use it.
Jiang Si and Qin Shen boarded the yacht, filled its storerooms, and then deliberately created some signs of recent use.
Although Lu Zhifeng and Niu Niu were considered part of their inner circle, a special superpower like her dimensional space still required utmost caution.
Once the yacht was ready, Jiang Si contacted Jiang Linhai via walkie-talkie. "We’ve found a yacht. We’re coming back now."
"Alright."
Jiang Si looked at the small fishing village again. "There’s a fish-drying yard up there. Is it big enough for the helicopter to land?"
Qin Shen nodded. "It is."
"Good."
Qin Shen stayed behind to guard the yacht while Jiang Si went back to get the helicopter. After everyone disembarked, they were all overjoyed to see the yacht floating alone on the sea.
Their life on the previous yacht had just been getting on track when a meteor shower destroyed the "home" they had worked so hard to create.
Now they had another luxury yacht, surrounded by a quiet little fishing village. Although it was dilapidated, it was more than enough to support their lives.
Zhang Qingfang loved to farm. As soon as she got off the helicopter, she headed straight for a patch of grass, grabbed a handful of soil, and even tasted a bit of it.
Jiang Chengwu squatted down beside her and asked with a smile, "How’s the soil?"
Zhang Qingfang shook her head. "It’s been soaked by seawater. It’s no good."
After soil is salinized by seawater, it’s very difficult to grow grains and vegetables. Even if you manage to grow something, the yield will be drastically reduced.
The effort and reward would be completely out of proportion.
They could improve the soil by flooding it to wash out the salt, but the water treatment plants were no longer running. There were no reservoirs nearby, and they hadn’t even secured a source of drinking water, let alone enough to desalinate the land.
Jiang Si comforted her, "If this patch of land won’t work, we can find another. We can fertilize the soil regularly, till it, and provide certain nutrients to block salt from accumulating at the crops’ roots and allow them to grow normally. There are plenty of solutions, so don’t worry too much. Besides, the saying goes: ’By the mountains, live on the mountains; by the sea, live on the sea.’ Worst-case scenario, we just change our habits."
"And besides, the sea is full of treasures. Take the giant kelp Qin Shen and I just picked up on the beach—a single frond is enough to feed all of us for days."
Zhang Qingfang was comforted and began to smile. "Yes, ’live on the sea.’ People who lived on the coast always ate fewer grains and less rice. We should learn to adapt, too."
The younger people adapted more quickly. The older generation was used to a different diet; how could they stand eating seafood every single day?
Jiang Si gave a mysterious smile and lowered her voice. "And if all else fails, we can still grow vegetables and grains in a greenhouse. I have all the materials in my dimensional space. Building one wouldn’t be hard at all."
Zhang Qingfang’s eyes lit up. "Yes, that’s a great idea! You’re such a clever girl!"
Everyone wandered around the area to survey the terrain before settling into the yacht for the night.
Jiang Chengwu loved to fish. He casually cast a few lines and quickly caught several plump sea fish.
Fresh fish soup, fried fish fillets, seaweed and egg drop soup, refreshing cold side dishes, wild fruits gifted by an elephant, and all sorts of shellfish and lobsters gathered from the reefs packed the table, as bountiful as a New Year’s feast.
As they ate and watched the moon rise over the horizon, they all sincerely hoped that from now on, they could live in peace.
They hadn’t even finished their meal when Qin Shen suddenly dropped his chopsticks and walked out onto the deck, his expression grim.
Jiang Si’s intuition told her something was wrong. She followed close behind and asked, "What is it? Is someone coming?"
Qin Shen nodded. "Five people."
