The large tracts of crops outside the safe zone fortress needed to be harvested. The few safe gates that were rare that day were opened, and many people wrapped tightly came out one after another.
They were all poor people living in the upper class of the safe zone, hired to do this dangerous work outside. Some pushed simple harvesting machines, and others held sickles, slowly dispersing.
This kind of work will continue for several days. They have to harvest the crops and then load them onto trucks to transport them back to the safe zone.
The people who live in the small bunker nearby and are usually responsible for taking care of the fields will come out at this time to harvest with the people in the safe zone, but the two sides are clearly separated, and the people in the safe zone do not dare to have too much contact with those outside who are infected with schistosomiasis.
Even though everyone knows that this schistosomiasis is not contagious.
The fields in the former Huojia District, now the Heping District, have a different situation from other places.
In the large fields here, people were watching the huge robot harvesting crops, cheering from time to time.
I saw the robot walking across the fields, with red laser beams flashing on its feet. Every time the light flashed, crops fell down in large numbers, with neat and tidy cross-sections. The speed was much faster than other places.
After just one hour, they finished the workload of several days in previous years. Huang Hua and a group of subordinates rushed to the scene to praise the amazing boss and her amazing robot. But as soon as they walked over, they heard a sentence -
"This laser knife is also suitable for amputation, right?"
The smiles on Huang Hua and the others' faces froze for a moment. Amputation? Would the boss want to find someone to experiment with amputation
Qin Minghui turned around and saw them, and greeted them with a smile: "Ah, you came just in time, do me a favor."
Huang Hua: “?!” She kicked a big man next to her over.
The big man hugged his strong arms pitifully and helplessly.
Qin Minghui: "Please ask other places if they need help. I can provide the 'harvester' for free."
The big man revived on the spot and immediately took the order and left. The communication process was of course very smooth. Now, who in the entire South Security Zone doesn't know about the uncrowned king of the Peace Zone, the mysterious and terrifying robot? Even the most rampant Qinglong Zone has given in and avoided them when they saw them.
Although he only appeared in the Peace District for a few days, anyone who had seen 01 would feel terrified whenever they thought of him. Others who had not seen him also felt awe when they heard the increasingly exaggerated descriptions.
Before this day, the most widely-known news about this famous robot was its huge size and the terrifying power of its laser gun. After this day, the most widely-known news became how quickly and efficiently it could harvest crops.
The harvest season, which was supposed to last for half a month, was over in less than two days. All people had to do was load the grain onto the trucks and transport it back.
Everyone was very happy. The longer they stayed outside, the more likely they would be infected with schistosomiasis. It would be best to return to the safe fortress as soon as possible.
The harvest season ended early, and that night Qin Minghui called the children from the nearby bunker to have dinner together.
Huang Hua and his friends never forgot to pay her protection money every time they came out to visit her. This time they also brought a lot of food, which she couldn’t finish by herself.
Ever since the grandfather started coming out of the bunker and discussing mechanical manufacturing with her, these children including Qi Ling became much closer to her. They called her sister at first, but after hearing what Huang Hua and the others called her, they also started to call her the boss.
They pushed grandpa over in a cart. Qin Minghui was washing vegetables when she suddenly heard a baby crying.
Among the group of children, there was a little girl named Jiuer who was holding a baby whom she had never seen before. The baby’s waving arms had the same purple marks as those on Qin Minghui’s arms.
Such a young child was actually infected with schistosomiasis. At his age, if the schistosomiasis attacks faster, he probably won't live to the age of understanding.
"This is an abandoned baby I found today." Noticing her look, Jiuer explained to her, "Every year during the harvest season, when the gate opens and ordinary people can leave the bunker, some people will dump children infected with schistosomiasis nearby."
Those who can be thrown here are considered lucky. Generally speaking, in the safe zone, those who are infected with schistosomiasis and are older will hide until they become manic and hurt others, and are then caught and killed by the patrol leader. Some family members cannot bear it and hide the infected patients at home, and will secretly deal with them when there is really no other way... In fact, very few can be thrown outside.
"Well... in recent years... more and more people have been infected with schistosomiasis. Even if they hide in that safe zone, isolated from the sunlight and wind outside, and filter the water outside, there are still people who are infected. Even children as young as this are starting to be infected." Grandpa sighed, leaning on the mobile bed that Qin Minghui made for him.
"Have those bloodworms already contaminated all the land here? If so, no matter where we hide, humans will eventually become extinct because of the blood-sucking disease."
"I was wondering why bloodworms only infect humans, and not pigs, cows, sheep, birds, or fish... Is it because humans have done something wrong? That's why they are suffering from this disaster?"
The old man said this slowly, his expression heavy and sad.
If it weren't for the gurgling sound from the big pot that Qin Minghui placed on the fire and the tempting aroma wafting from it, the sad atmosphere created by these words would have been even more appropriate.
Qin Minghui put the pork sliced thinly on the table and asked the drooling children to boil it and eat it themselves, saying, "Grandpa, this clearly shows that the food chain has been disrupted."
"In nature, basically all species have natural enemies. Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, and so on. Even if there are no natural enemies, there are environmental restrictions. But aren't bloodworms creatures from the universe? They are not on the food chain of our world. They have no natural enemies and are naturally resistant to humans, so this situation occurs. Maybe one day the universe will invade another species that is naturally resistant to this kind of bloodworm."
The old man fell into deep thought. Qin Minghui saw him brainstorming and smiled at him with his back turned.
This grandfather has been in pain and pessimism, and even began to think about some theories of divine punishment. Qin Minghui felt that this was unnecessary. Once something involved divine punishment, it was over, and the conclusions drawn would only become more and more pessimistic.
The children could not understand the adults' complicated thoughts and ate enthusiastically. Qin Minghui rolled up her sleeves, cut the coagulated pig blood into pieces and asked them to put them into the pot to cook.
Recently, she has been getting bruises all over her body, as if she had been beaten. The outbreak of schistosomiasis is particularly rapid, seemingly faster than that of the young heroine in the movie.
In the past, she didn’t like eating pig blood, but maybe because her illness has progressed rapidly recently, she started to have a “bloodthirsty” tendency. Now she finds the smell of pig blood particularly fragrant.
But her mood was fine, generally calm, and she had no tendency to become manic.
Every night, she lay in 01's body, and he would scan her physical condition and give her feedback. Qin Minghui could directly see the process of her body's decay, and the marks distributed on her body were spreading.
At first it just looked a little unsightly, but then it started to itch and hurt.
When she felt particularly uncomfortable, Qin Minghui would hug 01, who had turned into a big dog, and keep touching his fur.
"01, my arm hurts so much..." Qin Minghui said to him, trying hard to hold back her tears.
The big dog 01, who was lying obediently beside her for her to touch, let out a sad whimper as if he had been kicked, and licked her arm soothingly.
Qin Minghui cried while stroking the dog to calm herself down, looking very aggrieved and pitiful.
01 stood up and changed his appearance.
Qin Minghui's cry choked in her throat as she saw the familiar paper man appear beside the bed.
"01, don't be like this... I'm embarrassed to cry in front of you when you become like this."
[Yes, little miss.]
The dreamy paper man suddenly disappeared, and a highly anthropomorphic young man in a suit and vest appeared.
Qin Minghui immediately covered her eyes with her hands and screamed, "Ah! 01! Don't scare me! No, change back quickly!"
01It turned into a puppy again, looked at her with a pair of wet, droopy puppy eyes, and barked twice.
Very good, now the young lady’s depressed mood has become high again.
The adrenaline surged from the perfect sniper-oriented face just now. Qin Minghui lost all sleepiness. Even the pain in her body was temporarily gone. She wiped her tears and got up, "01, let me write another program for you."
[Okay, little miss, what new features are you going to add to 01 this time?]
"Blocking function." Qin Minghui said, "Next time you scare me with a weird look, you will turn into a mosaic."
Puppy 01's tail suddenly stopped wagging. He began to analyze whether there was something wrong with his behavior just now, which led to the young lady's thoughts.
Did he do something wrong? This shouldn't happen.
At dawn, after leaving the control room, Qin Minghui returned to her normal self. Even if she felt itchy or painful, she would not cry. She would just take out the silver Rubik's Cube, shuffle it, and then concentrate on putting it back together.
After the itchy and painful feeling passed, she put down the Rubik's Cube and continued her previous research and thinking.
What she has been researching these days is how to give 01 the ability to fly.
Before this, she had successfully enabled 01 to perform short jumps, which were very fast, but she was still not satisfied.
With the help of 01, the caring assistant, Qin Minghui finally solved this big problem that day.
During the test, a group of children in the bunker were looking over the hillside, and the grandfather was also looking over from the bunker door.
"01, are you ready?"
[Yes, little miss, 01 is ready.]
With a series of clicks, 01's body changed shape, and its shape became smoother and more suitable for flying. Qin Minghui, who successfully transformed 01 into an "airplane", relaxed greatly and patted his chest in gratitude, "Fortunately, we made it in time. There will be no problem now."
Twelve days had passed since the harvest day, and three days after 01 successfully flew in the air, Qin Minghui went to the bunker and told a group of children to hide in the bunker and not to go out from today on.
"Boss, why can't we go out?" Qi Ling asked curiously.
Qin Minghui smiled and pointed at the wild strawberries and other plants that had been transplanted from the top of 01 to the vicinity of the bunker a few days ago. "My garden and orchard are temporarily in your care."
She waited nervously for two days before finally getting what she was waiting for. Seeing a red dot flying in the sky, Qin Minghui stood up and said, "Here it comes!"
It was a huge bloodworm with a bright red body and several pairs of translucent wings.
The source of infection of this schistosomiasis usually appears in groups in spring, but today it only appeared alone. Qin Minghui didn't know the reason for the appearance of this bloodworm. She just saw in the movie that such a bloodworm would suddenly appear at this time, causing threats and losses to the South Security Zone.
The reason why she asked 01 to help with the harvest and let those people return to the safe zone early was because in the original movie, when the bloodworms appeared, there were still many people outside harvesting crops. Many of these people died under the attack of the violent bloodworms, and the rest were also infected with schistosomiasis.
Qin Minghui has been waiting here until today after getting the information, partly because of this bloodworm.
"Okay, 01, let's lead it away."