CHAPTER 362: CHAPTER 341: SUPPLIES MANAGEMENT AND POKER NOTES

These items were routinely moved out, but there were so many that Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei absolutely couldn’t transport them back to Caiyang Mountain all at once.

The two of them took stock on the deck and found they had reaped a rich harvest on this ship, totaling:

Umbrellas: 51 boxes x10 pieces + 34 pieces, totaling 544 pieces;

Cigarettes: 7 cartons x10 packs + 12 packs, totaling 82 packs;

Various alcoholic beverages: 10 bottles;

Gold bar: 1 piece;

Handguns: 4 pieces, bullets: 79 rounds;

Diesel generator: 1 unit, already damaged;

Waterproof toolbox: 1 wrench, 1 set of screwdrivers, 1 multimeter, 1 roll of insulating tape;

Industrial lubricant: 1 barrel;

Soft drinks (aka "Energy Drinks"): 6 cans;

Compressed biscuits: 2 packs x 4 pieces, a total of 8 pieces, each piece 250 grams;

Coffee powder: 1 jar;

Tea leaves: 1 jar;

Compressed fuel blocks: 1 pack;

Dehydrated vegetable seeds, half a box, including soybeans, beans, eggplants, red peppers, tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, chili peppers, much richer in variety than what they had previously scavenged in Jianshan City, and even included watermelons;

Pressure canned plant nutrient solution: 2 cans;

Medical kit: 1 set, containing iodine: 1 bottle, cotton balls: 1 pack, alcohol wipes: 20 packs, hemostatic bandages: 10 rolls, medical gauze: 10 packs, elastic pressure bandages: 5 rolls, broad-spectrum antibiotics: 5 boxes, 50 capsules, anti-infection ointment: 3 tubes, pain relief injection pens: 2 pens, painkillers: 1 bottle, 100 tablets, high concentration saline solution: 5 bags, surgical scissors/forceps: 1 set, suture needle kit: 3 sets, thermometers: 2, portable blood pressure monitor: 1, emergency signal whistle: 1.

Waterproof matches: 10 boxes;

Go board: 1, with black and white pieces set;

Welding gun: 1;

Waterproof camera: 1;

Cash, in denominations: 100 yuan x35 bills, 50 yuan x21 bills, 10 yuan x10 bills, 5 yuan x7 bills, 1 yuan x43 bills.

These items didn’t all need to be transported back to Caiyang Mountain immediately, and some of the resources didn’t need to be held onto by either them or Institute 923; they could be exchanged for other goods on East Island.

Take the diesel generator, for example. Their vehicle already had Gou, and Institute 923 had the Dome Energy Reception Pyramid, plus the base itself could receive energy, making this item unnecessary.

Furthermore, it was broken and would need repair before being used.

Or the cash; it wouldn’t be much use back at Institute 923, so they considered if it could be used as currency on East Island.

Lu Xi’an pondered for a moment and said to Yao Wei, "Let’s bring some stuff over to show Hu Xiaodong."

Hu Xiaodong was right down below the ship, and had made noise earlier; both Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei were aware of this.

Yao Wei nodded and said, "Alright." Then asked, "What should we take?"

So, Lu Xi’an handed a bottle of alcohol, a pack of cigarettes, a big banknote, and a box of waterproof matches to Yao Wei, then picked up the diesel generator himself, saying, "Let’s take these."

He had briefly considered taking some umbrellas but thought better of it in the end.

Even though there were many left, they were consumables and once they were used, they couldn’t be replenished.

Therefore, after consideration, he decided against taking them out.

Once they had gathered their goods, they walked to the edge of the ship and jumped off.

Hu Xiaodong had stood beneath the ship for ages and could no longer hold himself up, so he sat down on the ground, occasionally glancing up.

At this moment, he finally saw Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei jump down, and hurriedly stood up, dusting off his backside.

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei landed right in front of him and placed the diesel generator in front of him, saying, "Look at this, does anyone on your island take these?"

Hu Xiaodong examined it carefully for a while, then shook his head and said, "I’m not sure about this.

"There are people on the island who like to tinker with metal junk, and their family has been doing so for generations. They might be interested in this, but whether they’d take it or not, I’d need to go ask.

"Do you two know what this is?"

Apparently, he was unaware.

Lu Xi’an answered, "It’s a diesel generator, used for generating electricity. You should know what electricity is, right? But, generating electricity with this requires diesel."

Hu Xiaodong said, "I know what electricity is, just never seen it. We have no electricity here, nor any oil. The island has never seen diesel or gasoline; I’ve only heard about such things from my grandfather.

"On our island, we typically use pig oil.

"But no problem, that family loves tinkering; even if they can’t use this metal junk, they might still collect it. Again, we need to go ask to know for sure."

Lu Xi’an caught onto Hu Xiaodong’s words’ keywords: "So, there are people raising pigs on your island?"

Hu Xiaodong nodded and said, "Yes, indeed. The family at the top has been raising pigs forever, and they’ve always been selling pork.

"But the meat they sell is too expensive, so usually we can’t afford it. My family only bought some extra because you gave us a Big Coin last time."

Lu Xi’an said, "That’s not right, is it? You run the water business, you should be making quite a bit, right?"

Hu Xiaodong chuckled awkwardly and said, "We still need to use it sparingly. Our daily expenses are quite high, so where would we afford to buy all meat?

"We only dare to buy a little meat every ten days or half a month, and we don’t dare to buy the fatty kind, only the lean kind."

——To people nowadays, who are facing resource scarcity, fatty meat is much more valuable than lean meat. Unlike before the crossing, when people generally preferred eating lean meat to fatty meat.

Hu Xiaodong painted such a bleak picture of himself, but Lu Xi’an absolutely didn’t believe him.

There’s definitely some exaggeration in his words.

However, Lu Xi’an wasn’t bothered by this and asked again, "You said the pig seller, what kind of pigs are they selling? If I wanted to buy whole pigs from them, would they sell?"

Hu Xiaodong said, "I’m afraid that’s not possible. They don’t have many pigs, so they’re probably reluctant to sell."

Lu Xi’an didn’t pursue this topic further, planning to see later on.

He then asked Yao Wei to bring over a few other items for Hu Xiaodong to see, and Hu Xiaodong’s eyes instantly lit up: "This is... tobacco, alcohol, poker tickets?! What’s this?"

——He didn’t recognize the matches.

"Waterproof matches, for starting fire."

Lu Xi’an explained.

"Oh, I see."

Hu Xiaodong said, "On our island, there’s a family that makes fire starters. All of us on the island use them, and we buy the fire starters from their place."

Lu Xi’an didn’t expect that nowadays there would still be people making fire starters in the world. This must be a craft forced out of the islanders after being confined to East Island.

And without needing much thought, Lu Xi’an knew that the craft is surely not passed on to outsiders.

Specifics would be seen later. Anyway, for now, neither he nor the 923 Base needed fire-use.

"Why do you call this poker tickets?"

Lu Xi’an took the wad of cash from Yao Wei and waved it in front of Hu Xiaodong, asking.

Hu Xiaodong looked at the cash, swallowed, and answered, "This is used for playing poker.

"I heard it used to be used as Big Coin and Small Coin, but later on I don’t know why it stopped being used. Afterward, the island started using what are now Big Coin and Small Coin.

"Then I heard that someone once found two decks of cards on a ship and took a lot of this, using it in poker games to set the stakes.

"Because of this, we all call this poker tickets."

Lu Xi’an asked, "So can these poker tickets be traded for things?"

Hu Xiaodong nodded and said, "Yes. I heard rumors that poker tickets used to be directly exchanged for coins, or used coins to buy poker tickets.

"Later, people on the island became too obsessed with playing poker, so the committee wouldn’t allow it anymore.

"But completely banning it wasn’t okay, almost causing fights at that time.

"Eventually, the committee discussed and brought out a rule — poker tickets cannot be exchanged for coins.

"Anyone who dared to swap poker tickets for coins, or use coins to buy poker tickets, would be punished.

"But then people thought of other ways and secretly used poker tickets to trade for things. It’s been like this ever since."

Lu Xi’an realized, "So, in that sense, poker tickets can also be used as money, right?"

Hu Xiaodong scratched his head and said, "Something like that, I’m not sure. Anyway, we common people don’t have poker tickets, and those who do don’t dare to use them openly for trades."

That’s black market money.

Lu Xi’an asked, "What about tobacco and alcohol?"

Hu Xiaodong’s eyes lit up and he said, "These things are expensive, I heard only the families who were first on the ship have tobacco and alcohol, and with so much time passed, those who have tobacco and alcohol don’t have much left.

"These are items only the wealthy enjoy. Alcohol is okay because people on the island make it, though the taste and alcohol level are worse than the stocked goods, but tobacco is truly rare, one less stick with each smoke.

"The remaining tobacco’s price has surged incredibly high."

Hearing Hu Xiaodong say this, Lu Xi’an suddenly felt that this isolated island is not exactly a paradise.

But no matter what, it’s always better here than other places on the mainland.

——Except for the 923 Institute.

Lu Xi’an said, "Take me to your market and help me find someone with good stuff, willing to trade for poker tickets. If you find someone, I’ll give you two cigarettes, one for guiding us this time and one for helping us find poker ticket avenues, sound good?"

He had already gathered from Hu Xiaodong’s words that cigarettes here have become exceptionally precious, giving Hu Xiaodong just a stick or two as payment would definitely be fine.

Sure enough, upon hearing his words, Hu Xiaodong nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem! No problem! But today’s too late, we’ll have to wait until tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I can take you two to try and find people willing to trade poker tickets, follow me."

Lu Xi’an and Yao Wei put the tobacco, alcohol, waterproof matches, and the diesel generator back on the ship and only carried cash on them before they jumped off the boat to follow Hu Xiaodong.

Under Hu Xiaodong’s guidance, they walked around the lowest layer and said, "To the market, we must go higher, head northwest first. Tomorrow we’ll go from here.

"The Liu family there is in the fish bladder business. Their fish bladder sells quite expensively, and Liu enjoys playing poker. He’ll definitely accept poker tickets.

"You two... probably also need fish bladder, right?"