Cave Refuge

"Dad, what's the situation over at the Plantation Area now?"

Hearing Zachary's query, Mr. Thompson's face showed an unnatural expression. Looking at his son who was staring intently at him, Mr. Thompson spoke with some annoyance, "Okay, okay, I've never been there, okay."

Just as Zachary was about to continue his questioning, the door opened, and Mrs. Thompson entered the house. Seeing the awkward atmosphere between father and son, she asked with some confusion, "Zachary, you're back? What's going on with you two?"

After learning that Zachary had been asking Mr. Thompson about the situation at the Plantation Area, Mrs. Thompson explained with a smile to Zachary, "You know what kind of person your dad is.

If you really arranged some specific work for him over at the plantation, perhaps he might have taken it seriously, but sending him there as a mascot for a nominal position had upset him.

However, since our family owns shares there, your dad was initially prepared to go check on things from time to time. But somehow, after the natural disaster, even though he hadn't fished for a long time, he somehow got hooked on fishing.

So, instead of visiting the Plantation Area, he followed others to fish outside, and this fishing became an addiction. He goes fishing at least five days a week.

And most of the time, out of ten trips, he only brings back fish once or twice. Even though he repeatedly claimed the fish he caught were too small and released them, going empty-handed and coming back the same, I don't quite believe he catches fish every time."

Hearing Mrs. Thompson's explanation, Zachary looked at Mr. Thompson with deep skepticism. Sensing Zachary's gaze, Mr. Thompson felt very indignant about the suspicion from his wife and son, as a real fisherman can endure many things, but can hardly stand others ridiculing his empty catches.

Just as Mr. Thompson was about to argue back angrily, Mrs. Thompson continued, "At that time, your dad seemed to become obsessed with fishing, going every day, all day long.

I hadn't said anything yet when Xiao Ye came over to ask why your father hadn't been visiting the Plantation Garden, wondering if he was upset about that past incident.

After I explained a bit, guessing that your dad, after getting hooked on fishing, wouldn't go to the Plantation Area anymore, I simply told him to take over everything there.

Xiao Ye is a good guy; he voluntarily invited me over to check the accounts after learning your dad was reluctant to be involved with the Plantation Area.

Considering our family owns only a small share there, having dividends or not doesn't affect our daily life much, so I told him he could manage everything at the Plantation Area.

But Xiao Ye is decent; after the last harvest of short-term crops from the Plantation Area, he not only personally delivered some vegetables but also brought over money according to our share in the dividends."

Hearing Mrs. Thompson saying this, Zachary nodded to indicate he was aware of it. The role at the Plantation Area was a nominal position Zachary casually found for his father, just to keep him occupied and prevent him from idling at home, possibly developing issues from inactivity.

Since digging up the soil hadn't been much effort, Zachary didn't really care about the financial gain from the Plantation Area.

After Mr. Thompson found a suitable hobby, Zachary stopped worrying about the matters of the Plantation Area.

Although Storage Equipment was still relatively rare, at least here, it was no longer unusually scarce. Hence, whether it was Zachary or his parents, they no longer concealed owning Storage Equipment at the base.

Mrs. Thompson, seeing her son had come home, intended to go to the kitchen to prepare some nice dishes for him, but she had just stood up when Zachary stopped her. He then directly took out a whole roasted lamb from the Storage space.

Zachary first laid out a layer of aluminum foil on the table, then directly placed the entire roasted lamb on the table.

The moment the roasted lamb left the Storage space, its rich aroma instantly filled the entire room, naturally blending with the strong mutton smell, instantly evoking Mr. and Mrs. Thompson's memories of having barbecue before the natural disaster.

Mr. Thompson, subconsciously wanting to tear off a piece of lamb to savor it, had not even touched the roast lamb when he was slapped away by Mrs. Thompson. What followed was Mrs. Thompson's complaint, "You're such an adult now, and you still forget this simple practice before meals?"

Hearing Mrs. Thompson's scolding, Mr. Thompson then turned and headed towards the restroom, murmuring softly as he walked, "It's been so long since I had barbecue; couldn't I just get a bit excited and instinctively want to taste it?"

After washing up, the three of them sat around the table. At this moment, Zachary directly took out several cold dishes from the Storage space.

Looking at the dishes on the plate that were elaborately arranged, Mr. Thompson looked at Zachary with a puzzled expression, while Mrs. Thompson said with some regret, "You're wasting so many spices."

The cold dishes Zachary had brought out were all familiar ones from before the natural disaster—cucumber salad, sugared tomatoes, pidan tofu, and kelp salad.

The reason Mrs. Thompson felt sorry about Zachary bringing out these dishes was primarily that she could clearly see a lot of spices at the bottom of the plates.

After experiencing shortages of staple foods, meats, vegetables, the price of various spices in the base was now not low.