CHAPTER 11

The circulation machine is a massive apparatus.

It is the heart of the outpost, located on the fourth floor, with a complex network of pipes running through all the rooms, supplying energy. Previously, there was a dedicated mechanic responsible for ensuring its proper operation because if the circulation machine had any issues, the entire outpost's shielding system would fail. We would be exposed to the wilderness as if we weren't wearing protective suits, with no air and water purification systems, and no electricity.

However, the mechanic, Zhao Xinyan, died.

My mechanical knowledge is limited, so entrusting me with overseeing the circulation machine is as absurd as giving a dog control over a superweapon's button. Therefore, recently, I deactivated the switches in most of the rooms, leaving only a few rooms operational.

But it couldn't prevent its natural decay, like the greenhouse.

The massive circulation machine occupied most of the space on the fourth floor, and the greenhouse resembled a place where Harry Potter would live—small, pitch-black, and different from conventional greenhouses before the war. It was another companion of ours, obtained through multiple requests by the logistics officer.

The commander has carved out and created a trapezoidal space in the corner closest to the circulation machine on the fourth floor, specifically for the logistics officer to cultivate vegetables and fruits.

I have no knowledge of farming techniques, except for the fact that it requires seeds.

After all, during the war, there was hardly any fertile land available for cultivation.

The logistics officer also cooked for us, and the oatmeal porridge he made was much tastier than what I could make. If he were still alive, Li Haohao would definitely fawn over him every day, while I would remain cold and sarcastic. It probably wouldn't be easy to get along with me either.

Li Haohao stood at the doorway, looking inside, hesitating to enter the room.

Currently, the room was pitch black because the pipes were damaged, and I couldn't turn on the lights. I had to nudge Li Haohao forward.

She made a "one" gesture, and the light bulb illuminated. Although it could clearly illuminate the entire corridor on the third floor, it couldn't light up this small room on the fourth floor. The illuminated area in front of us had a radius slightly longer than an arm's length, allowing us to see what I was touching, but beyond that, it was unknown.

The light from the corridor seemed unable to penetrate, leaving us standing in darkness. I looked at Li Haohao and said, "Maybe we shouldn't go in."

"Growing vegetables?" Li Haohao was a bit persistent, holding onto my arm and persuading, "I can provide light."

"I can only light you, it's dark here." I was about to leave, but Li Haohao grabbed me and hummed a few times before she closed the door herself.

It was pitch black all around us. Li Haohao turned around and illuminated a rusty metal sign: Root vegetables.

She leaned forward and illuminated what was behind the sign.

It was a shelf, with a rectangular basket hanging like a swing. The basket was divided into two compartments, with the left one empty and the right one filled with dry soil. On top of the soil, there was a wet, dripping red line.

Li Haohao reached out her left hand to touch it, and I slapped her hand away. "Don't touch it randomly."

"What is it?" she asked.

That wet, dripping thing seemed to be slowly moving, with blood gradually seeping from its end, staining the soil red.

"Looks like a worm," Li Haohao said.

In fact, that thing looks more like blood vessels, slowly crawling. I have a strange feeling, as if it really is blood vessels growing out of the soil. It's alive... And in the soil, I saw something resembling fingernails, barely covered by a thin layer of dirt.

I grabbed Li Haohao's arm and said, "No, we need to get out of here. Something isn't right."

"Abnormal?"

"Yes, abnormal."

"But we can grow vegetables here."

Li Haohao freed herself from my grip, took a few steps, and her strong curiosity and inquisitiveness were amplified by the light bulb, making her reckless and unsettling.

I looked at her light in the darkness, like an extremely distant point of light. Her small light bulb illuminated another metal sign that was loosely hanging down. It was written in bold letters: "Root vegetables."

"The same as just now, root vegetables..."

"Root vegetables."

Li Haohao walked back and illuminated the same shelf as before. Then she turned to me and said, "The same shelf, just as many worms as before. Worms can loosen the soil, so we can really grow vegetables here."

I wanted to say that those aren't worms, but I couldn't voice my inference.

Li Haohao was also abnormal. I didn't want to confront her directly about this thing. We were both pretending to be clueless—unfortunately, that light bulb was causing Li Haohao to feel less foolish. At this moment, I had no idea what she was thinking.

Wait a minute.

"So many? How many are there?"

Li Haohao wandered around aimlessly, and I watched her light bulb circling around like a bee blown by a gale, not knowing how to make a figure-eight. After swaying for a while, she finally found me with difficulty, grabbed my hand, and led me to the sign.

Behind the second "Root vegetables" sign, there was an identical three-tiered shelf. Each tier had two compartments, one empty and the other filled with soil. On top of the soil, there was a dark red "blood vessel" weakly pressed against it, trembling slightly. Li Haohao's face came close, she let go of my hand, and pointed to a small, thin, and more hidden green worm lurking in the soil, slowly spitting out blood.

Li Haohao slowly squatted down. In the middle compartment of the second tier, one compartment contained soil, and the other was filled with a shallow layer of blood. As soon as we squatted down, a bloody smell hit our noses.

In the middle of this blood-filled compartment, several small worms with green and red markings wriggled slowly, sucking blood and spitting it out, forming tiny bubbles.

"Can plants grow without soil?" Li Haohao was curious and even wanted to touch the blood with her finger, but I caught her hand.

This is not event at the extent of "no soil," it can't even be called water.

"We're here to fix the pipeline. Once we connect the power source, we'll be able to see clearly." I said. Li Haohao suddenly came to her senses and exclaimed, "Oh," as a blood-red worm fell from her eyes while she turned her head, still holding the light bulb.

I was stunned for a moment, and she rubbed her eyes, then another one came out. She examined it on her fingertip briefly before crushing it with her finger, without giving me a chance to say anything.

"I've been pulling all-nighters and it made my eyes bled." she said.

"What were you staying up late for?"

"To read comics."

Figures.

"Well, it's not easy to find the pipeline if your eyes are hurting," I said.

Li Haohao nodded. "But I want to see the vegetables."

"There's no rush for that right now."

Suddenly, my eyes felt extremely itchy, but my intuition told me not to rub them. I grabbed Li Haohao's wrist and, relying on my memory, walked towards the door in the darkness.

Her light bulb was too weak, only illuminating the two of us and unable to reach the surroundings. The small room felt endless, and it seemed like my eyes were filled with a reddish color. Looking at Li Haohao, everything appeared blood-red. I had to close my eyes and let her lead me. We walked for a long time and finally stopped near the "Root vegetables" sign.

"It seems like this place is all about root vegetables," she pointed to the sign we had seen multiple times, still holding her light bulb. "It looks like we're lost. Hey, He Ran, there's something in your eyes."

"No, there isn't."

"Yes, there is. Don't move, I'll help you get it out."

"What is it?"

"Just don't move."

I wanted to rub my eyes, but Li Haohao stopped me. She made me crouch down a little, aligning our eye levels, and stared intently at my eyes.

I felt a burning sensation and instinctively wanted to close my eyes. Suddenly, Li Haohao stuck out her tongue and licked my left eye.

I grabbed her shoulder. "Li Haohao, that's unhygienic—"

My eyes could feel the chilling movement of something on its surface. The blood-red thing seemed to be sucked away. Li Haohao pursed her lips, spat out some blood, and then licked my right eye.

My left eye became slightly brighter. Li Haohao's tongue tip was cold, but it didn't directly touch my eyeball. It felt like a piece of velvet, wiping away the stains on the surface of the eye, rolling them onto her tongue. I felt her tongue split in half again, and blood flowed down from her chin, tracing a line across her neck.

The split tongue took away whatever was on my eyes, and she pursed her lips, turned away from me, and spat out saliva.

Turning back, she wiped her mouth as if she had just finished a meal. I saw the bloodstains on her chin but hesitated to speak. Finally, I took out a handkerchief from my pocket and carelessly wiped her neck.

"How dirty are you. I thought you had a solution, but you just kept licking." I scolded while wiping. Li Haohao's head was shaken by my actions, and the light next to her head also shook.

She opened her mouth wide, and I saw her tongue return to normal. She curled it up and played with it. I jokingly said that a girl who plays with her tongue has no future and pretended to reach out to pull her tongue out. She covered her mouth and behaved.

But she wasn't completely well-behaved: "We're lost and can't get out."

"Who locked the door?" I interrogated.

"It was you who promised to bring me here," she was used to shifting the blame, and I just went along with it without saying anything. Taking advantage of her faint halo of light, I surveyed the "surroundings" and confirmed that I must have entered a polluted area. However, the pollution in any area of the outpost wouldn't have a significant impact on me. The reason we couldn't find our way out might be because there was an outsider beside me: Li Haohao.

Pollution meant something abnormal.

But the more abnormal the place, the more we needed to do normal things.

I closed my eyes and remembered that this was a greenhouse.

"Li Haohao, we came in to find the pipeline. The greenhouse is close to the circulation machine, and the pipeline should be on the ground and walls... probably in a corner. We need to find the corner."

"But there are only rows and rows of shelves here, all filled with root vegetables. Don't you grow anything else?" Li Haohao picked up a sign and angrily put it back with a snap.

"He wants to grow potatoes."

"Potatoes... oh, I know."

"You know?"

"I've had mashed potatoes before. They say a person can live on just potatoes for a year and still not suffer from malnutrition. Potatoes are great."

"Yes, we also have a small reserve of frozen potato fries from before the war. They are made from potatoes and taste good. They have a high yield and can provide sustenance. So during famine years, many people survived on potatoes. Potatoes are an important reserve. I understand why he wants to grow potatoes."

Upon hearing me mention the reserve, Li Haohao pouted, "So what, you're not going to let me eat any."

"I'll give it to you once we're out, but... we don't have much cooking oil, so I can only boil it for you."

"Okay." she wasn't picky as long as it wasn't oatmeal porridge.

She didn't ask me who the "he" was that I mentioned.

The logistics officer was busy in the greenhouse, saying that he was making efforts to improve our food supply. We had visited his narrow greenhouse before and saw only three rows of shelves: hydroponic celery, hydroponic lettuce, and hydroponic potatoes. We lost interest.

"We have supplies of these already, why waste so much energy on this?" everyone said.

But the logistics officer didn't give up: "I will definitely grow vegetables that are no worse than before the war. When the time comes, you can eat frozen goods, and I'll have fresh ones."

I remember, as soon as you enter, celery on the left, potatoes on the right, and lettuce in the middle—he even mentioned making salads.

Seeing such a large category of root vegetables, I realized that he might have wanted to grow sweet potatoes and radishes... turning this greenhouse into a small vegetable garden for the outpost.

We stopped next to a tilted sign of a root vegetable.

The sign at the entrance was upright, but what we saw was a tilted sign.

All of them were labeled as 'root vegetables'. I remember there were only three shelves, and there was no room for more. We would hit the wall.

But now, the shelves seemed endless, and all the signs had turned into 'root vegetables'.

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