Chapter 670: Chapter 670: Cookout

"Some people are having a cookout over there, too. I can smell grilled meat. It’s a really unique aroma; I wonder what kind of meat it is."

Evelyn Ford took ingredients out of her space and placed them on a nearby table. "I saw those people catching rats earlier. It’s probably rat meat."

"Rat meat? No wonder it smells so good."

"There are so many wild vegetables in the grass! Are these dandelions? And fiddleheads, too. Fiddleheads grow like crazy right around the Qingming Festival. We picked the perfect day to come out for a picnic. Evelyn, hand me a small trowel. I’m going to dig for some wild vegetables."

Evelyn Ford leaned in for a look. They really were fiddleheads. She took three small trowels from her space and handed them to Quincy. Quincy took a trowel and immediately led Zoe and Annie off to dig for dandelions.

"The scenery is beautiful. Ronan, I’m going to take your picture." Evelyn Ford pulled her phone from her pocket and started snapping a flurry of photos of Ronan Kendrick.

At half-past six, as the sun began to set, the aroma of grilled meat permeated the campsite. Evelyn Ford pulled Ronan Kendrick down to sit in front of their tent, where plates of grilled lamb and venison covered the table. Wyatt Vaughn shouted for Quincy to bring the kids back. In the distance, Quincy stood up from the grassy field, waved, and then headed back, carrying a bamboo basket with the two children in tow.

"This whole area is covered in wild vegetables, and they’re growing so well! What a great harvest today. The ones they sell in the supermarket aren’t even as good as what I’ve dug up."

Evelyn Ford took the bamboo basket. "Listen to you brag. Look at these fiddleheads—you snapped them so short. What a waste. You can pick them longer and dry them. They’ll keep for several years that way. You can use them for cold salads or stew them with ribs. But fiddleheads are slightly toxic, so you have to blanch them. It’s best to boil them with some plant ash; that not only removes the toxins but gets rid of the bitterness, too."

"Can we transplant the fiddleheads into the space?"

Evelyn Ford was speechless. "It’s not like we’re short on vegetables. Why go through all that trouble?"

"Hey, they’re still vegetables. It would be nice for a change of pace once in a while." Quincy was still raring to go. He had lost interest in the grilled meat, his mind solely focused on digging for more wild vegetables.

"Fine, go dig then. When we get back, you can see if you can get them to grow."

Quincy actually grabbed his trowel and went back to digging. Not to be outdone, Zoe and Annie scrambled after him.

"That guy really can’t sit still."

"Quincy and the two kids are all a handful. Just let them go nuts."

"Mr. Vance, Mr. Graham, there’s plenty to eat. You two should take a break. We can grill more later." Evelyn Ford took out the tea leaves she had roasted that morning and brewed a pot. Since it was new tea, the flavor wasn’t too strong; instead, it had a light, fresh aroma.

"This tea is really good. New tea is definitely better." Wyatt Vaughn picked up his teacup and took a sip, then passed a cup to Joelle Finch beside him.

"The weather’s been so nice lately. If I remember correctly, it hasn’t rained at all since we came to Eldoria, has it?" Miles Vaughn looked at Rhys Chase. "Mr. Chase, is there enough water in the base’s lake for everyone?"

"There’s enough. The base sent some professionals to explore it. Water wells up from the lakebed, so the supply is inexhaustible."

"That’s good. A water shortage would be terrible. There are so many people at the base, and so much farmland."

"The base has stabilized on all fronts, so I haven’t been too busy recently. In a few days, the people from Central Base will be arriving to borrow grain. They have a lot of people; even with half of them going to the Central Plains, over ten million still came to the Eastern Steppe. I’m still considering how much grain is appropriate to lend them this time."

"Have they cleared land for farming over there?" Evelyn Ford asked.

"They have. They’re right next to Rivenia, so there’s a lot of abandoned farmland. They can start planting as soon as it’s reclaimed."

"Then we should lend them wheat and cassava. It’s the wrong season, but it’s not impossible to plant them."

"I was thinking the same thing, but I’m worried that planting this season will waste the grain." Rhys Chase picked up his teacup and took a sip.

"No matter what, we definitely have to lend them the grain. Otherwise, how will those ten million-plus people survive?"

"There are a lot of wild vegetables this season, and they’ll be able to pick mushrooms soon too. They just need to get through the next few months."

Not far away, a few other children had joined Quincy’s group. The grass nearby rustled. Ronan Kendrick picked up a bamboo skewer and flung it. With a sharp SQUEAK, a rat fell dead.

Evelyn Ford picked up the rat. The bamboo skewer had pierced straight through the gray rat’s body. Back in Corinth, Evelyn had seen rats this big before; those rats had fed on human corpses and grown grotesquely fat.

This gray rat was huge, too. ’I wonder what it ate to get so big.’

"Ronan, how did you do that? You killed a rat with a bamboo skewer?" Miles Vaughn stepped forward and grabbed Ronan Kendrick’s hand, turning it over to inspect the palm. His hands weren’t all that different from Miles’s own, though they were more slender and fair, with rosy palms—not at all like the calloused hands of a rugged man.

And Ronan Kendrick was no rugged man.

"They don’t look any different from mine. Don’t tell me you have Inner Strength?"

Ronan Kendrick pushed him away in disgust. "Don’t get handsy."

"So stingy." Before darting away, Miles Vaughn deliberately slapped Ronan Kendrick on the shoulder. Ronan couldn’t be bothered to react, simply turning his head to whisper something to Evelyn.

The sky gradually darkened. Evelyn was full. A few fireflies suddenly appeared over the grass, then more and more, until the air was filled with them.

After 7:00, the wind on the steppe turned cold. The other people who were having cookouts had already gone back. Every half hour, a military patrol vehicle would pass by in the distance.

Evelyn Ford took a few camping lanterns out of her space. They cast a dim, yellow glow as the sound of crickets rose and fell in waves.

In the distance, Quincy returned with Zoe and Annie, a bamboo basket in his hand. They hadn’t eaten dinner and were now crying out that they were hungry. Taylor Vance got up and started grilling some fish and rabbit for them.

"How much did you guys dig up?"

Quincy took a sip of tea. "I’d guess over a hundred pounds. There were just so many wild vegetables out there. We even ran into a few kids who insisted on helping, but they just ended up snapping all the roots."

"What about the rest?"

"They’re still over there. Give me a burlap sack later, and I’ll go collect them. I refuse to believe the black soil in the space can’t grow fiddleheads and dandelions."

Rhys Chase had already fallen asleep in his recliner. Miles Vaughn took out a deck of cards and called over Ethan Dawson, Peter Owens, and Liam Sterling. The four of them started playing cards off to the side.

Ryan Rowe seemed to be quite fond of the new tea; he had already drunk several cups. Quincy warned him not to drink too much or he’d have trouble sleeping that night, but Ryan Rowe just smiled, unconcerned.

"I never have insomnia."

"Ryan only sleeps five hours a night. If he had insomnia, he would’ve dropped dead from exhaustion ages ago," Liam Sterling couldn’t help but add.

"Ryan seems to have plenty of energy. Being a leader is tough work. If it were me, I’d probably have worked myself to death by now. No wonder all those leaders you see on TV are balding. It must be from all the stress."

As soon as Quincy said this, Evelyn Ford couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

"What did I say wrong?" Quincy was completely confused.

Evelyn Ford clutched her stomach, laughing. "Have you forgotten? Back in Flumen, you were losing your hair and asked me to mix up a remedy for you. I wouldn’t have thought it was funny if you hadn’t brought up hair loss. Oh, Quincy, Quincy, why do you always love to dredge up your own embarrassing history?"

Quincy’s face instantly darkened.

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