88: Chapter 88 A Newly Renovated Outpost

When Wu Ran saw the outline of the outpost's factory building from afar, his foot on the brake paused for half a second.

When he left this place, the factory perimeter wall only had a circle of angle iron pillars, and the steel plates were only half-welded. Old Fang was squatting on the wall, using a welding torch to slowly draw fish-scale patterns, with sparks falling from the top of the wall onto the broken bricks, splashing everywhere.

The vegetable plot had just been tilled. Grandma Zhao was squatting by the edge of the plot, poking holes with her fingers, while Xiao Man followed behind with a steel bar, comparing the depths one by one. Those few plots of land were empty, and not even a green sprout could be seen.

Now, the steel plates welded horizontally between the pillars were neat and tidy, and the fish-scale patterns of every weld were uniform and dense. A circle of scrap iron barbs had been welded onto the top of the wall, with sharp edges facing outward, casting a cold, hard silver light under the daylight shrouded in strange fog.

The base of the wall had been reinforced with a layer of scrap steel ingots, and the ingots were cross-riveted with thick steel bars, so even if a mid-level strange creature hit it head-on, it wouldn't be able to shake it in the slightest.

Inside the perimeter wall, there were outlines of several more buildings. The employee lounge, which had originally collapsed on one side, had been re-supported with a steel-framed roof, and the walls had been patched with corrugated steel plates. Several stacks of unused angle iron and welding rods were piled in front of the door.

Next to the parts warehouse, there was a new two-story guard tower converted from a shipping container. At the top of the tower sat Uncle Chen's searchlight, its beam cutting through the strange fog for a long distance, illuminating the direction of the Provincial Road entrance.

Beside the guard tower was a row of newly erected rain shelters. Under the shelter were parked Old Fang's broken van, Old Ma's off-road vehicle with repaired tires, and an excavator.

The excavator's boom had new hydraulic hoses, and its bucket was retracted against its chest, ready to start at any time. In the deepest part of the shelter, a pile of supplies was covered with a tarp, the edges of which were pressed down tightly with scrap iron.

Wu Ran slowly drove the car into the main gate and parked in the open space. As soon as the car door opened, Little Claw and Little Mist ejected from his shoulders, one to the left and one to the right. One landed on the wall and looked into the yard, while the other flew up to the guard tower and squatted next to the searchlight, its dark purple vertical pupils scanning the surrounding environment, its tail flicking gently.

A-Bao jumped down from the passenger seat and strolled unhurriedly to the kitchen door. Tilting its head, it looked at the chalk-written supply list on the door panel and let out a very low purr from its throat, presumably checking the inventory.

Chu Shuang walked out of the office building. She had changed into a clean dark work uniform with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. The old-fashioned revolver was still tucked at her waist, but the holster was new, with fine and neat stitches—clearly Grandma Zhao's handiwork.

She walked up to Wu Ran and stood still, looking him up and down before reaching out to pat the dust off his shoulders. "You've been gone so long, you've lost weight." She didn't ask what he had encountered on the road, but simply turned her head and shouted toward the vegetable plot, "Xiao Man, Brother Wu is back."

Xiao Man ran over from the edge of the vegetable plot, still clutching that thin steel bar wrapped with anti-slip cloth strips. He stood in front of Wu Ran, looked up at him with sparkling eyes, and held it in for several seconds before saying, "Brother Wu, the radishes I planted have sprouted. Grandma Zhao says that in two more weeks we can thin the seedlings, and the thinned seedlings can be used for soup."

Wu Ran squatted down so his eyes were level with Xiao Man's. "Radish seedling soup is a bit bitter. If you ask Sister Zhang to add some egg drop, it won't be bitter anymore. Are there any eggs left from A-Bao?" Xiao Man nodded vigorously, pointing at the golden figure squatting at the kitchen door, saying that after A-Bao left, Sister Zhang pickled a jar in brine, and there were still several left; he counted them every day.

Old Fang strode over from the rain shelter, a wrench still stuck in the back of his waistband, his hands covered in grease. Without a word, he first punched Wu Ran on the shoulder. "Did you bring back the hydraulic oil? The excavator's boom is fixed, but the hydraulic system still lacks oil. Those hoses from Old Ma were just for an emergency and won't last long."

Wu Ran pointed to the ambulance trunk and told him to go see for himself: sealed lubricating oil, hydraulic oil, bearing balls, welding rods, sealing rings, and that brand-new diesel generator—enough for him to refurbish all the machinery in the entire outpost.

Old Fang pulled open the back door, stared at the neatly stacked supplies inside for two seconds, then grinned and roared toward the workshop, "Uncle Chen! Generator! It's new!" Uncle Chen poked his head out of the parts warehouse, still holding a multimeter; he responded and immediately ran over.

Sister Zhang poked her head out of the kitchen, still holding a spatula. She said the hot water had long been boiled, and a clean room had been tidied up, the innermost one on the first floor of the office building, which used to be the archives room. Uncle Chen had reconnected the circuits; it had lights, a ventilation window, and a layer of dry straw spread on the floor.

Grandma Zhao followed behind her, her apron dusted with flour. The first thing she said was, "This child has lost weight," and then, without further ado, she dragged Wu Ran into the kitchen and stuffed a freshly cooked lard pancake into his hand. The pancake was very hot, its edges seared golden brown. The aroma of lard mixed with the charred scent of flour; he took a bite and gasped from the heat, but couldn't bear to spit it out.

When Wu Ran carried The Mother down from the ambulance, the whole yard went quiet. A pale blue light shone through the gaps in the canvas, illuminating Old Fang's wrench, Chu Shuang's holster, and Xiao Man's upturned face. Carrying the tightly wrapped root ball, he walked to the deep pit that had been dug in the corner of the yard.

Old Fang had dug this pit in the southeast corner with the best drainage, according to his requirements. It was a semi-shaded, semi-sunny location that got sun in the morning and was shaded by the perimeter wall in the afternoon. The bottom of the pit was covered with a thick layer of humus soil that Grandma Zhao and Xiao Man had dug from under the rubble piles, and the top layer was mixed with sandy loam, with the pH adjusted to be slightly acidic.

Wu Ran squatted down and pinched a handful of soil, crushing it in his palm; the soil was loose, had good breathability, and the humidity was just right. He unwrapped the canvas layer by layer and carefully placed The Mother's root ball into the bottom of the pit.

The roots spread out when the wet cloth was opened, and the hair-thin fibrous roots swayed gently in the air, as if testing the surrounding environment. He held the main stem with one hand and filled the pit with soil with the other, filling and compacting it layer by layer, his movements even gentler than when he had dug it out in the botanical garden.

At the very last moment when The Mother was put into the soil, he placed his hand on the base of the main stem and activated his heart of industry. Purple active pulses seeped from his palm into the root ball, pushing up layer by layer along the xylem vessels, entering every leaf vein and every tip of the fibrous roots.

The Mother's root system water transport had originally slowed down by nearly half after leaving the soil, barely maintained by the water stored in the root ball itself. Once the active pulse pushed through, those blocked vessels reopened, the rhythm of water transport slowly recovered, and the pale blue halo on the surface of the leaves stabilized, no longer flickering.

He withdrew his hand, and the tender leaf at the very top of The Mother swayed gently, as if breathing, taking its first breath in the brand-new soil. The surrounding air changed slightly; the extremely faint strange fog was repelled by the pale blue halo at the edges of The Mother's leaves and actively retreated by a circle. Although the range was small, this showed that The Mother had begun to adapt to this soil and started to exert its ability.

Chu Shuang stood beside the deep pit and waited until Wu Ran stood up before speaking: "I can feel the residual strange fog in the soil being expelled by it. The speed is very slow, but it is continuous. At this rate, in about a few weeks, with this The Mother as the center, the soil pollution inside the perimeter wall can be completely purified. If it continues to grow, the boundary can be pushed further out."

Wu Ran wiped the mud off his hands and looked at the others in the yard. Old Fang was squatting by the edge of the pit, looking down at the pale blue sap flowing within The Mother's leaves. Uncle Chen was holding a flashlight, carefully shining it on the back of the leaves, observing something, and Sister Zhang, supporting Grandma Zhao, also crowded over.

"From now on, this plant will be called 'source vine'." He said, "Its sap can strengthen Sequencer abilities. The secretion cycle and extraction methods are all in this notebook, but the specific operations still need further exploration and perfection." He handed The Man in Gray's notebook to Chu Shuang, "There are Sequencers in the outpost, and there will be more in the future. source vine is the core resource of the outpost, and its guard level is raised to the highest. Do not disclose its existence to the outside world for the time being."

Chu Shuang took the notebook and flipped through the first few pages; The Man in Gray had filled it with neat, small handwriting, diagrams of root cross-sections, and annotations on secretion cycles. She closed the notebook and nodded to Wu Ran, "Don't worry."

Above the yard, the pale blue halo emitted by The Mother's leaves reflected off the scrap iron barbs on top of the perimeter wall, and the beam of the searchlight passed through the halo to illuminate the direction of the Provincial Road. In the distance, the strange fog surged, but the yard was very bright.