Chapter 176: 174 Grass rope is a consumable item. Chapter 176: 174 Grass rope is a consumable item. In the noisy standoff, medical personnel from the Garrison came to Hua Mi’s aid.
They pushed carts one by one from the B City warehouse, each cart piled high with bottles of orange juice.
The group of survivors opposite immediately became agitated.
Some elderly people started to lead children out of the queue.
But they were blocked by a hulking man.
His hair was dyed Yellow Hair, and his face was fierce,
“What are you doing? We are all in this together; have you been so easily divided? Go back!”
Gathering these survivors had taken some effort; they especially sought out families with elderly and children to persuade.
They told these families with elderly and children that straight ahead, there was a supply depot, but the Garrison had commandeered it and wouldn’t share with the survivors who had made it through the disaster.
If everyone united and stood together, they could force the Garrison to hand over the supply depot.
Then, once the Garrison was driven off, the vast supplies would be theirs for the taking.
Such talk was incredibly incendiary, particularly for those who had trudged through the rain with families to care for, both old and young.
They were already famished; hunger didn’t leave them with time to think, just to follow the instigators to the B City supply depot.
What was the purpose? The purpose was to get something to eat.
Yes, the purpose was to get something to eat.
An elderly person, stopped in their tracks, clutched the hand of their grandchild and said to the instigator blocking their way,
“Step aside; my grandchild is so thirsty he’s about to drink this strange rainwater. Don’t you see the orange juice over there by the Garrison?”
This bizarre rainwater, when it fell to the ground, would become like Jelly Water in a short while, solidifying and unable to flow.
Nobody knew if consuming it could cause serious issues.
So any rational person knew not to drink the Jelly Water, not to drink it, not to drink it.
But those at the peak of hunger, with nothing else to eat, would drink the Jelly Water.
Thankfully, on their way here drinking Jelly Water, no one seemed to have been poisoned to death.
Now, the elderly and children, parched to the extreme and faced with rows of orange juice, nothing could stop them from lunging toward those bottles.
After all, wasn’t this the reason they had come here—to get a bite to eat?
Seeing he couldn’t stop the elderly from leading the children away from the crowd of 2000 survivors, the instigating man revealed a fierce look and pulled out a knife.
A cry of alarm erupted from the side of the survivors.
Hua Mi watched coldly; human nature was just . Faced with the Garrison holding guns, no one was afraid, but a villain with a small knife struck fear into people’s hearts.
It was nothing but the tendency to bully the gentle and fear the harsh, because everyone knew that the Garrison wouldn’t harm civilians.
Even though the Garrison had guns at their disposal.
The instigator threatened with the knife, pointing it at the elderly person, forcing them to lead the child back into the ranks of the 2000.
The elderly person also became frightened; the shiny little fruit knife was being thrust in front of her.
But the child in her hand yanked free from granny’s grasp,
“No, I want orange juice!”
The child dashed toward Hua Mi’s direction; he wasn’t going to listen to the man with the knife.
When the earthquake struck, he, along with his father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother, were all buried in the rubble.
It was the city’s Garrison rescue team that dug his entire family out from under the wreckage.
Even though his father, mother, and grandfather had all gone to a faraway place, he knew the Garrison were good people.
At his young age, he found the sight of the Garrison’s uniform very reassuring.
Those bad uncles were pelting Garrison with stones, and he didn’t want to play with those bad uncles.
The child broke into a run, and the man with the knife cursed under his breath, “Damn,” turned around and thrust his knife towards the child’s back…
“Ah.” The elderly person saw this and yelled out in terror.
“Ah!!!” The survivors saw this and also screamed in fright.
Just as the instigator’s knife was about to pierce into the child’s back, a bullet shot out, striking the man in the temple.
The bullet passed through his brain, spraying a bloom of blood, as the shell casing hit the ground.
The instigator stood frozen in place, still not grasping what had happened, only to see that the child had already run to Hua Mi’s side.
He fell to the ground, his last thought being that he had underestimated the situation, sure that Garrison wouldn’t shoot.
Being the tallest tree catches the wind, and he had just become the first conspicuous tree to be killed by Garrison.
The noisy and aggressive survivors instantly quieted down.
They froze up as if their systems had crashed, not daring to make a move.
Garrison’s side remained silent, and the survivors’ side was silent too.
There was, after all, nothing to say about what had just happened, as everyone had seen it clearly.
Had Garrison not fired, that little boy would likely have been killed by the man with the knife.
So no one could blame Garrison for this.
They should even be thankful to Garrison for saving a child.
The child’s grandmother, still shaken, followed the boy and ran to Hua Mi’s side.
Amidst the standoff, Hua Mi looked down at the little boy, whose eyes shimmered brightly, and handed him a bottle of orange juice.
Then, turning to the elderly person behind the boy, Hua Mi asked,
“My orange juice isn’t free.”
The elder hadn’t understood immediately; they thought they could get supplies for free if they simply came over.
With the elder wearing a puzzled look, Hua Mi pushed forward a cart from behind her, loaded with a large pile of Straw matting,
“If you drink my Jelly Water, how about you help me make a grass rope?”
Grass ropes were now a consumable item.
They were used to tie up supplies, bundling stacks together to be transported to other places.
The grass ropes woven from Straw matting were quite sturdy and simple to make, even a child could learn to do it quickly.
The main thing was, Hua Mi had a lot of Straw matting, and she never just gave supplies out for free; Hua Mi wasn’t that kind-hearted.
If you consumed her supplies, you had to provide her with some value in return, children included.
Hua Mi said to the boy in front of her, clutching his bottle of Orange juice,
“Kid, I’ll give you another bun, how about you help me take care of a little baby?”
The male infant that Garrison had desperately sent over was lying on a Straw matting in the supply storage, babbling indistinctly.
The adults were all busy and had no time to keep him company.
So Hua Mi was planning to find someone to look after this child specifically.
The little boy holding the Orange juice obediently nodded, then turned to look at his grandmother.
The grandmother, also famished, didn’t hesitate to agree to Hua Mi,
“Besides making grass ropes, I can weave other things too – fans, baskets, carpets, grass boxes… Us older folks can almost all make these small items.”
Having an elder in the house is like having a treasure.
There’s no mistake about that.