"Let’s save up the eggs. If the hens lay every day, we’ll have a lot of eggs in a month. We can hatch more chicks then."
Among the chicks they had hatched before, there were three hens and two roosters. If all three hens laid eggs, they could indeed save up quite a few in a month.
Evelyn Ford handed the egg back to Wendy. "Let’s save them for now. Once the mushrooms I’m cultivating have grown, we can use the eggs to make soup."
"I saw the mushrooms have sprouted, but they’re very small."
Evelyn Ford nodded. "Mushrooms grow fast. They’ll be big in two or three days."
"Chicken stew with mushrooms," Zoe said with a grin.
"Oh? You even know about chicken stew with mushrooms. Who taught you that?"
"Daddy taught me." Zoe was quick to sell out Quincy.
"Alright. The chickens lay eggs, the eggs hatch into chickens. When the time comes, we’ll make chicken stew with mushrooms for Zoe."
Giggling foolishly, Zoe bobbed her head and followed Wendy to put the eggs away.
Evelyn Ford went to check on the others. Seeing they were doing a bit better than yesterday, she had Zion Lowell brew another dose of medicine for them.
After resting for three days, it was time to get back to work. The unfinished caves still needed to be excavated, and the dug-up soil had to be moved. Evelyn Ford’s main job was still in the vegetable patch. The mushrooms had indeed sprouted, and the tomato and eggplant seeds she had sown earlier had germinated. Evelyn quickly prepared the plot for transplanting. Before, it would take half a month to a month for them to grow to ten centimeters, but now they could be transplanted in about eight or nine days.
Ronan Kendrick had been very busy these past few days. Besides leading everyone out to chop firewood, he also had to harvest the rice and corn in the pocket dimension. The peppers planted in the dimension had already turned red. Evelyn had planted several varieties, including tiger skin peppers, Thai chilis, and line peppers.
He was managing the planting and livestock areas all by himself. Evelyn spent all her time researching potent medicines and a drug to induce menopause.
’Without the trouble of periods, not only could they stay clean, but they also wouldn’t have to endure the severe pain.’ In the apocalypse, no one wanted to have children, so menopause held no disadvantages for women.
"Evelyn, what should we do about the large common sleeping area?"
"Does anyone want to live there?" Evelyn Ford glanced at the crowd.
"I’ll live there. The common area is great," Ethan Dawson was the first to raise his hand, followed by Nathan Xavier, Drako, and the others.
Evelyn Ford smiled. ’They’re all single men. Compared to the cramped little caves, the large common area might be more comfortable.’
"But with corn and pumpkins planted outside, there will be bugs and mosquitoes, and it might get damp," Evelyn reminded them.
"What’s that to worry about? Getting to live in the common area is like getting to stay in a presidential suite! It’s warm, there are kerosene lamps, and it’s spacious."
"Alright." With that, Evelyn Ford made the final decision. The matter was settled.
"Evelyn, where did these straw mats and quilts come from?"
"Before you all woke up, Ronan went out to check on the situation. He found a cave on the back of the mountain where the refugees inside had died, so we brought their things back." After Evelyn finished speaking, everyone had mixed feelings. They were relieved to have survived, but also lamented that others had died just like that.
"We’re going out to chop firewood again tomorrow. The wood we’ve stockpiled now should be enough for half a year, right?"
Evelyn Ford glanced at the wood piled up next to the common sleeping area. "Yes, it’s enough for half a year, but we should still stockpile more. Also, make the vent at the cave entrance a little bigger. We need to maintain air circulation."
The dried pumpkin slices and radish strips they had brought from the farm were all gone. For the past few days, they had been eating a mush made from compressed biscuits. Although it filled their stomachs, it wasn’t nutritious. Everyone was sallow and gaunt. There wasn’t enough extra water to wash their faces or hair. The men had all shaved their heads. Hair provided warmth, but the smell of oily hair was too strong and could easily breed lice. Living together, they all had to pay attention to hygiene.
Ten days later, Evelyn Ford finally formulated a dose of the menopause-inducing drug. It had a minor side effect: whoever took it would probably be bedridden for two or three days. Just as Evelyn gave it to Wyatt Vaughn, Joelle Finch, Yunnis Denton, Christina Thorne, and Claudia Schultz also came asking for the medicine.
"You all don’t plan on having children in the future either?"
Claudia Schultz waved her hand dismissively. "In a world like this, where we’re just living day to day, why have kids? They wouldn’t just be a burden, it would be unfair to the child. It might be a different story if we had the means, but we’re all just ordinary people with no special abilities, not even the ability to protect ourselves. I don’t want to add that kind of burden."
Christina Thorne felt the same way. Besides, she had suffered a miscarriage before and had absolutely no interest in the matter.
Evelyn Ford looked at Joelle Finch, since she was now with Miles Vaughn.
"I don’t want to have children, and Miles doesn’t like kids either."
’That much is obvious,’ Evelyn thought. ’Miles is very stubborn in his attitude toward Zoe.’
Yunnis Denton thought the same as Christina Thorne. Their monthly periods tormented them. Back in civilized times, there were all kinds of sanitary pads, but now they didn’t even have cloth strips. Every visit from their period was excruciating. If she could just block it, she would do it in a heartbeat.
Evelyn Ford prepared another dose of medicine for them. It had to be taken three times a day for two consecutive days, followed by three days of bed rest.
"The side effects are a bit strong. You all need to think this through."
"If we take this medicine, we won’t need to use cotton cloths anymore, and our stomachs won’t hurt. There’s nothing to think about," Christina Thorne said with finality.
Penelope Parker and Claire Moss also wanted to take the medicine, but they were talked out of it after a long discussion with Austin Moss and Paul Pence. For one, the girls were only in their teens, and their parents were worried they would regret making such a decision at this age. For another, many people still held the belief that not having children was a pitiful and tragic thing.
Evelyn Ford didn’t offer her own opinion on the matter.
Besides, everyone had the right to make their own choices.
Evelyn herself didn’t need to take the medicine. After all, she didn’t suffer from cramps, and she could always take care of things in her pocket dimension.
As for children, although she and Ronan had the ability to raise them, neither of them had any interest in it. Evelyn wasn’t the type to be overflowing with maternal love.
Ronan was even more extreme. If someone came along to share Evelyn’s attention with him, he would probably go crazy.
’The meaning of life is continuation, but in a world like this, is there still a need to continue it?’
After a week of saving, Wendy had collected over a dozen eggs. That evening, Evelyn Ford gave all the eggs to Christina Thorne and Claudia Schultz and asked them to make an egg and mushroom stew. The mushrooms, of course, were the large parasol mushrooms Evelyn had cultivated. They weren’t poisonous, but they looked very strange.
The two of them were responsible for making dinner, while Joelle Finch and Yunnis Denton handled lunch. They were eating two meals a day now. The goal wasn’t to eat well, just to eat their fill.
The others continued to dig out the caves to expand the vegetable patch. The chicken coop also needed to be expanded. Evelyn planned to hatch another thirty eggs. They grew fast, had a low mortality rate, and posed no risk.
Zoe followed the hens’ bottoms every day to catch the eggs. Whenever she said, "Time to lay an egg," a hen would immediately lay one. Even Evelyn found it magical.
’Could this child actually understand what the chickens are saying?’
At first, Evelyn had just been guessing. But when she saw Zoe communicating with the hens, telling them to lay more eggs, she was genuinely surprised.