The Apocalypse Survival Manual (Three Days Before Doomsday, I Stockpiled Billions) novel Chapter 233

Chapter 233

The 30 planting troughs were all plastic. Low temperatures could make them brittle, but the material itself was fairly thick, so as long as they handled them carefully, they should hold up fine.

There were also four bags of compound fertilizer, each weighing about fifty pounds.

After checking everything over and confirming there were no issues, Nicole reached into her backpack

and handed over the buckhorn herbal tonic.

Weasel had been sulking earlier about barely making any profit, but the second he saw the bottle, his eyes lit up.

Nicole had brought out the premium version. The packaging alone looked expensive.

The moment the trade was complete, Weasel disappeared without wasting another second.

To make it easier for Nicole to store everything away, Zeph stayed out of the transaction entirely and

waited outside with Poppy.

Once Nicole confirmed nobody was nearby, she quickly stored everything in her storage space.

Just as she reached the doorway afterward, she spotted Zeph speaking with Weasel a short distance away, apparently discussing some separate trade of their own.

Nicole waited until Weasel left before walking over.

Back at the residential complex, she didn’t hurry upstairs right away. Instead, she let Cola out of the backpack so he could run around for a while.

The dog really was something else. He was ridiculously mischievous when he wanted to be, yet unbelievably well-behaved when it mattered. He was stuffed inside a backpack for hours and didn’t complain the entire time.

Nicole walked the dog while Zeph kept an eye on Poppy.

The two adults stood in a sheltered corner, quietly watching the dog and child chase each other through the freezing wind.

Since Nicole had paid for all the traded supplies herself, Zeph finally asked, “What do you want in return for today?”

The supplies were technically split evenly between them, but Zeph handled almost all the potato farming work himself Nicole didn’t want to take advantage of him, so she included the cotton shoes in the

calculation, too

“You still have chocolate?”

The stuff tasted dangerously addictive.

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Once they returned to the 18th floor, Nicole temporarily stored the planting troughs and fertilizer inside her storage space, then handed Zeph the shoes.

In exchange, Zeph brought out two boxes of chocolate.

Nicole didn’t take advantage of them and accepted only one.

After the door closed, Poppy tilted her head up hopefully. “Zeph, I want chocolate, too.”

“There’s alcohol in it. Kids can’t eat that.” Zeph calmly offered an alternative. “You can have milk candy

instead.”

Two days later, Zeph brought Poppy to Nicole’s apartment.

“I need to head out for something. Can you watch Poppy for me?”

Since they already helped each other out with childcare duties, Nicole agreed without hesitation. Around noon, she was just about to make instant noodles when Zeph returned, carrying an overstuffed

backpack.

The second Poppy smelled the noodles, she swallowed hard and looked at him pitifully.

“Zeph, I want some.”

Since Cola had eaten plenty of Zeph’s food before, Nicole figured it was only fair to return the favor.

“Wanna eat with us, too?”

To her surprise, Zeph actually nodded. “Sure.”

So Nicole added two extra packs of noodles to the pot, tossed in some sausage, and fried one egg for

each person.

Nicole’s place wasn’t large to begin with, and with Zeph there, the space felt slightly cramped.

But somehow, between the dog and the little kid running around, the apartment carried an oddly warm

sense of harmony.

A month later, Hughie’s group finally returned from their day-shift rotation.

This time, they looked far more energetic than before, no longer exhausted and miserable like on their

previous visit.

Still, with temperatures continuing to drop, all three of them had suffered varying degrees of frostbite. Thankfully, they all had frostbite ointment, so nothing had become too serious.

Besides their grain wages, they also brought back quite a few valuable items, including a chunk of gold that weighed nearly half a pound.

As usual, everything got handed over to Nicole for safekeeping so she could eventually trade it for

practical supplies later

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