After opening the box, Luo Ping took a look at those books. He felt he couldn't quite understand them, but nonetheless, they seemed very impressive—just a glance made it clear they'd be much more useful than those martial arts novels.

The novels had things like Snake Fist, Tiger Fist, Mantis Fist, which were entirely unusable, and he hadn't experienced any of those adventures himself...

Well... in fact, he had encountered them, but they were on his big brother Lu Xi'an, not on him.

——Though he did benefit a little as well.

Lu Xi'an organized the order of all the textbooks, from the first year of middle school to the fourth year of university. He arranged them by subject and said, "I'll explain them to you guys when I have time. Let's see if you can understand."

Luo Ping asked in shock, "Big brother, you really understand this stuff?!"

Chai Xin proudly said, "Of course my big brother understands! Big brother is amazing!"

Yao Wei also glanced at Lu Xi'an, feeling full of pride, thinking how awesome Lu Xi'an is. She inexplicably felt honored—though, of course, she wouldn't show it on her face.

Lu Xi'an was terribly humble, saying, "I know a little."

Actually, he'd already returned most of the knowledge to the teachers, but the basics, like those from early middle school, didn't prevent him from understanding it.

When handing the textbooks to Luo Ping, Lu Xi'an took a quick look. The beginning of the textbooks was just as he'd learned in his past life, using some length to review the most fundamental concepts.

Back when Lu Xi'an was in school, he thought this content was redundant, but now he felt it was so necessary.

All beginnings were grounded on these basics.

He explained the learning sequence of the textbooks to Luo Ping and the others, then took out another box, opened it, and said, "And this one, Master Shu, this is for you. You're the expert."

Shu hurriedly waved his hands modestly and said, "Old brother, you're joking. I'm no expert!"

As soon as he saw the contents of the opened box, he couldn't care less about modesty and rushed over, eyes wide: "These... are all vegetable seeds?! Old brother, where did you get them?!"

Lu Xi'an said, "Picked them up on the road. I don't know if they're usable. I don't know farming, so you'll have to try them out. Anyway, they're all yours, whether the harvest is good or bad depends on you."

"Alright, alright, let me see."

Shu almost buried his head into the box, taking out the seeds package by package, examining and laughing as he went.

Laughing, he turned to Luo Ping and said, "Junior Luo, we can uncover all those pieces of land covered with slabs. These are good stuff! Once planted, we'll have vegetables.

"It's just a pity that there are no other seeds; if there were wheat or rice, we wouldn't worry about food in the future..."

He paused, then said, "Uh... rice is probably not possible; rice needs to be in the south. If only there were wheat...

"But who knows, even the corn in the field turned out like this; who knows how rice would turn out in this world?

"Alas... thinking about it, these seeds are from the past; how can they adapt to the current environment? Once planted, they'll probably all freeze to death once the cold hits."

Listening to Shu, Lu Xi'an realized this too. Initially, he had just thought they could give the seeds to Shu to plant, forgetting the current environmental issues.

Nowadays, plants in this world have slowly adapted to the current environment through prolonged evolution, or perhaps the Type D-1 X-17 Strain had also played a significant role initially.

——The initial Type D-1 X-17 Strain was spread through transmission towers, so the exposure wasn't just to humans; animals and plants exposed outdoors also came into contact with this strain.

Lu Xi'an speculated that the animals and plants he saw in the world must also have been affected by the Type D-1 Strain, which is why there is such a significant difference from what he knew.

But now they only have a few seeds; once wasted, they're gone. If they plant them directly in the ground, there's only one result—in pure waste.

And now they don't even have the Type D-1 Strain; how could they mutate these seeds, specially treated for a cold world?

But it was difficult to come across these seeds, and it would be a shame if they were just decorative!

Lu Xi'an pondered hard and suddenly remembered something, quickly returning to the research institute.

The others didn't know what he intended to do, but they hurriedly followed. However, Liu Hua and Tang Er still refused to step into the research institute's facilities. Even though the gate was already erected, the optical camouflage was activated, they insisted on staying outside.

In the dispatch room where the Masked Man was, Lu Xi'an called out "System" again, summoned the Masked Man, and then asked, "We have some seeds now. Due to the weather, we can't plant them outside. If we transplant them into the research institute and rely on its facilities, can we grow them?"

The Masked Man replied, "Laboratory One inside the research institute is the analysis and dissection room of Dyson Sphere Energy from Institute 923. All achievements obtained by Institute 923 are based on research conducted in this laboratory.

"After the energy transformation of Institute 923 is complete, the equipment inside Laboratory One can simulate the conversion of energy beams into solar light, maintaining room temperature while providing light for plants to absorb."

As he spoke, the figure of the Masked Man disappeared, and the map of Institute 923 appeared on the glass screen. A small room at the edge of the corridor lit up on the map.

A voice echoed from the sound system in the room: "This is the switchgear room of Institute 923. The water pump gate of the institute is located behind the door inside the switchgear room.

"After achieving phased research results at Institute 923, we applied to designate this place as a long-term research project during the disaster period.

"In order to provide Institute 923 with long-term living assurance during the disaster period, we built a water pump house in the external living area.

Due to an engineering error, there was a mistake in integrating the water pump switch into the smart system, so the pump needs to be manually activated.

However, because it has been so long, we cannot guarantee whether the pump will work. If it does, the water for the planting in Laboratory No. 1 will be resolved.

If it doesn't work, please find your own way to solve the water issue."

Everyone's eyes lit up.

A water pump?!

If this pump can still be used, it solves more than just the planting water issue!

Lu Xi'an immediately left the room, went into the corridor, found the electrical room, opened it, and looked behind the door. Sure enough, there was a row of electrical switchboxes, among which there was a distinct gate, an old-fashioned black base with a white handle switch.

Lu Xi'an reached out and pulled it down, hearing a buzzing sound, like the pump was working, and the sound of rushing water suddenly started.

Lu Xi'an, with the best hearing, confirmed the direction of the water flow and immediately told Yao Wei, "You stay here and look after it, I'll go check outside. Later, when you hear from me, I'll have you pull the switch back up."

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Okay."

Lu Xi'an turned around and went out, and the others followed him to the external living area, following the sound and winding into the innermost room on the east side.

The door to that room was closed, and from the outside, one could hear the sound of water and the buzzing of a machine.

Opened the door and went inside, the buzzing sound was buried underground, so it sounded muffled—that should be the sound from the pump machine.

Inside, there was a very deep and large pool, with a thick water pipe on one side. The pipe was spewing water out with a whoosh, flooding a large part of the pool's bottom.

"Water! Water! Water!"

Luo Ping looked almost crazed, exclaiming repeatedly.

Lu Xi'an knew what this guy was so excited about—

If there's water here, this secret base in the mountains could be the perfect refuge.

As long as such an incident as before, being invaded from the inside by the Neo-Humans, doesn't happen again, then this place is absolutely safe. Once the hygiene issues are resolved, the people here could live well, even without going out!

Lu Xi'an took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

Seeing such good living conditions, he did feel somewhat reluctant to leave.

But that was just a fleeting feeling, as he had already made a decision with Yao Wei before, and now he could not change it easily.

"We'll take a look inside Laboratory No. 1 later, and if everything's fine, we'll bring in soil and try planting some vegetables inside. Then those corn we brought can completely fill the outside.

We'll dig a dry toilet outside and arrange for someone to manage it, solving hygiene issues and providing manure. Master Shu, what do you think?"

Old Shu nodded and said, "Good! Good! I'll handle this! Once Junior Luo's people arrive, they can help out too."

Luo Ping nodded vigorously and said, "No problem, I'll lift all these stones now and then head to Shanyang County to hang up a flag and call everyone back. This time, no one will stay in the town; everyone will transfer here. Anyway, there aren't many people, so this place can accommodate them."

He looked at Lu Xi'an and asked, "But this needs your agreement, brother. If you don't agree, I won't call them."

Lu Xi'an said, "As long as you believe they are reliable, that's fine. You have the highest authority here as well."

Luo Ping grinned, "Isn't that given by you, brother?"

The water in the pool took a while to fully fill up, and Lu Xi'an had Yao Wei pull the switch again. But since no one had managed it for a long time, it had become dusty, and the newly filled water had a dusty film on top.

Luo Ping didn't mind this; having water was better than not having any water.

When Yao Wei came out, Lu Xi'an informed her about the discussion that had taken place. Yao Wei simply nodded without saying much.

Next, Lu Xi'an and the others helped to remove all the stone slabs that had been laid and compacted in the yard and then followed Old Shu's guidance to weed and till the soil, working with joy.

While working, Lu Xi'an suddenly noticed that Yao Wei's expression seemed a bit off. He crouched next to Yao Wei and asked, "What's wrong? Is it that having so many people here makes you a bit uncomfortable?"

Yao Wei shook her head and said, "It's nothing." But seeing her expression, Lu Xi'an knew that she was somewhat uncomfortable.

However, since she had already promised Lu Xi'an to stay here for a while, she couldn't say much at this point.

Lu Xi'an was silent for a moment, pulling out some weeds, and said, "How about we leave?"

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