I can upgrade the shelter-Chapter 497 - 495: Farm

After washing up in the morning, Chen Xin got dressed and had breakfast with his parents in the dining room before getting ready to go out.

"Xin, are you planning to inspect the ecological greenhouses at the rehabilitation farm today?" However, just as Chen Xin was about to leave, Mo Qingyan suddenly called out to him, "Can I go with you?"

"I am indeed going to the farm, but Qingyan, you want to come with me?" Hearing Mo Qingyan express her desire to accompany him, Chen Xin felt a bit surprised.

Under normal circumstances, neither Qin Lan nor Mo Qingyan would make such a request, because Chen Xin was going for work, and they had never made any requests that would interfere with his work.

However, Mo Qingyan clearly nodded, "I want to see, can I go with you?"

Mo Qingyan spoke with an expression of both anticipation and a hint of worry on her face.

Chen Xin thought for a moment and felt it wouldn’t make much difference to bring her along, so he agreed with a nod, "It’s no problem to take you. Do you have anything to pack? If not, let’s go."

"Alright!" Hearing that Chen Xin was willing to take her along, Mo Qingyan quickly finished her breakfast, wiped her mouth, and followed along.

The two took the elevator and left the shelter, changing into protective suits before arriving at the Research Center.

At the Research Center, the convoy was already waiting for Chen Xin.

Today they were going to the rehabilitation farm to inspect the construction and operation of the greenhouse to see if there were any issues that needed improvement; so in addition to Chen Xin, there were several researchers from Professor Li’s team.

Originally, Professor Li himself was supposed to go, but his health was not very good, so he was persuaded to stay, and a few young, energetic researchers took his place.

After the group gathered, the convoy left the Research Center and headed towards the rehabilitation farm.

The rehabilitation farm is located on the other side of the city, requiring passing through the city from the Research Center.

The convoy moved forward, with no actual roads existing for a long time now, and the city was covered everywhere with snow.

Apart from key areas where snow was cleared to ensure that the main entrances of the city’s shelters were not buried, other places were covered by the snow swept in during the past blizzards.

As for transportation, people usually used roads built underground.

After such a long time, all the official shelters in the city were now connected through the underground traffic network.

Usually, vehicles would travel underground, not affected by the wind and snow from the surface, while also avoiding the cold temperature’s impact on vehicles in the extremely cold environment.

However, Chen Xin’s convoy, since the vehicles were all-terrain, traveled directly over the surface without entering the underground traffic network.

"Speaking of which, I haven’t come to the city for quite a while!" Sitting in the car, Mo Qingyan looked out from the window and couldn’t help but make a remark.

Since moving to Chen Xin’s place, she indeed hadn’t been to the city for a long time; her own home still frozen under the snow hadn’t been addressed.

Upon hearing Mo Qingyan’s remark, Chen Xin echoed, "It’s indeed been a long time since I’ve come, and I haven’t seen Little Ding for quite some time either—I wonder how she’s doing now."

Speaking of which, Chen Xin remembered that it had been a long time since he last saw his old friends, whether Ding Ning, Li Yulong, or Li Wensheng—he hadn’t seen any of them for a long time.

It’s not that Chen Xin was intentionally distancing himself from friends, but in the current environment, everyone was striving for survival, without any leisure time like in the past to gather together.

With such sentiments, the convoy passed through the city and drove for about two hours, finally arriving at their destination for the day.

The rehabilitation farm, before the disaster, was used to detain minor offenders for forced labor. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

After the disaster, due to environmental deterioration and various factors, the rehabilitation farm no longer conducted labor reform for prisoners and was basically in a state of abandonment.

Prisoners originally detained here, with remaining sentences or minor offenses, were specially pardoned and released, while the others were uniformly transferred to other places to participate in various labors with other prisoners.

This was the state’s way of handling various criminal prisoners after the disaster.

Serious offenders can’t be released, keeping them detained would consume substantial resources, letting them labor could instead provide decent manpower for the country.

As for now, although greenhouses were rebuilt on the original land of the rehabilitation farm, the ones maintaining and working inside the greenhouses were not previously detained prisoners, but trained workers.

Though due to cost issues, it doesn’t use fully automated machinery, labor is completed by manual operation of farming machinery, but the ecological greenhouse requires certain professional knowledge and skill which is obviously insufficient relying on prisoners.

Given the importance of the ecological greenhouse, it’s indeed not suitable to use prisoners as primary labor force here.

The farm naturally prepared for Chen Xin and others arrival, specially arranged personnel to receive them, and guide them around the already constructed greenhouses.

The farm originally had over thirty thousand acres of land, due to meteorite impacts and disasters, now only less than five thousand acres were cleared for planned ecological greenhouses, with only three thousand acres completed, a considerable portion still in clearing.

Overall, it’s not a large area, but considering the farm was cleared and constructed in merely half a year, the scale now seemed quite commendable to Chen Xin.

The ecological greenhouse here adopted Chen Xin’s initial idea, establishing a geothermal energy tower at the farm’s center for geothermal power generation and heating, supplying electricity and heat to surrounding ecological greenhouses, ensuring their operation.

As for the greenhouse interior, it seems more abundant compared to the Research Center with fewer mechanized parts, adding more crops.

"Do you still mainly rely on human labor here?" Chen Xin asked the accompanying staff.

"Currently most work is completed by manual operation of farming machinery, belonging to semi-mechanized labor, overall labor isn’t particularly extensive, averaging only 6-8 people needed to complete all work for a twenty-acre greenhouse." Staff answered Chen Xin’s question, unconsciously revealing pride in their speech: "We normally equip each greenhouse with 6 people for daily maintenance, and will add two extra during harvest time to help with harvesting, ensuring sufficient operation and production of the greenhouse!"