After being drugged, Mrs. Jing and Mr. Jing felt much better after a full night’s rest. Once they confird the factory was officially operational, the family packed up. They then drove their energy car and Shark Submarine, leaving Elder Aunt’s house in Wu County.
This New Year’s, Jing Shu’s relatives finally gained a direct understanding of her family’s resources in the apocalypse.
Clothes: Two sets of clean, dry clothes each day—sothing unimaginable without a dryer at ho.
Food: Three standard als a day, with milk and eggs every morning, which astonished everyone. In the apocalypse, no other family dared to eat like this. Each al was prepared in large quantities and with a variety of dishes. Importantly, Jing Shu herself had an incredible appetite, never leaving any leftovers! It seed there was an endless supply of food every day, making the second aunt’s family increasingly eager to latch onto them.
Nowadays, most families only ate twice a day; those who could manage three als were exceedingly rare. Indeed, being able to eat a bowl of congealed paste daily qualified one as middle class.
Accommodation: They brought their own luxury tents, moisture-proof mats, down bedding, and so on. In the current apocalyptic world, there was nowhere to buy such items. Cotton was practically unobtainable, as if all access to it had been welded shut. These items were certainly not easy to co by. They even brought their own fuel to heat a traditional clay bed, demonstrating their extrely high standards for living conditions and their inability to tolerate even a hint of mold or any odd sll—they were quite particular.
Transportation: Owning a single functioning car was already an extraordinary feat, yet Jing Shu’s family had two. No one knew what was inside the vehicles, but they seed to contain an endless supply of food and various necessities, even guns, a crossbow, and a super-heavy Wolf Fang Club. Jing Shu handled the club as if it were a toy, her strength terrifyingly imnse.
Moreover, traveling with so many belongings was practically like relocating an entire household. It was clear just how much more comfortably Jing Shu’s family lived in the apocalypse compared to before it began.
The most important thing was Jing Shu’s terrifying combat prowess. If anyone had previously thought her family was an easy target, they were gravely mistaken; she was like a rampaging dinosaur on the move—absolutely untouchable!
「Today was the second day of the New Year.」
While the entire country was supposedly enjoying a buffet, Jing Shu’s family, after briefly returning to their villa to drop off Grandma Jing and Third Aunt Wu You’ai, arrived at their Uncle’s house in the West Mountain Old District of Wu City with their remaining food.
Compared to last year’s visit to their uncle’s house—which had been dirty, chaotic, and impoverished—this year’s conditions were beyond description. The drainage in the old district was poor. Compounded by daily torrential rains, the water often rose above knee-level, and this was despite continuous efforts to manage and divert it.
All sorts of trash floated on the water’s surface, with red earthworms scurrying around it.
In so areas, toilets hadn’t been installed. People either threw their feces down from their buildings or simply relieved themselves wherever they pleased, and if one wasn’t careful, they risked being splashed. Nowadays, everyone had to collect rainwater for drinking; no one dared to drink the water from the ground, which was essentially like drinking urine.
Do you know why French perfu is so famous? Because a thousand years ago, France didn’t have flush toilets. Everyone disposed of their feces casually, and the entire city reeked. Oh, and high heels were invented to avoid stepping in feces.
Now, the situation in the West Mountain Old District had reverted to that of France a thousand years ago. The nobles back then developed perfus; Jing Shu, on the other hand, used lemons as a substitute.
Feces stewed in the water, breeding various bacteria and insects. With the dense population in the West Mountain Old District, one can only imagine how dire the living conditions truly were.
The air was thick with all sorts of foul odors. Jing Shu was nearly overco by the stench. Indeed, getting used to such slls is difficult, even across two lifetis. She pulled out a lemon and hung it in front of her nose, which helped a little.
Mr. Jing had to drive very slowly to avoid stalling the engine. If she had known West Mountain had beco like this, she would have brought the Shark Submarine and squeezed her parents in with her.
The family struggled to reach their Uncle’s house once more, bringing various foods that looked ordinary, much like they had during the Lantern Festival last year.
Compared to last year’s unremarkable visit, where the family had simply sat on the sofa, this ti Aunt Wang Fang and her brother’s family all stood up to welco them at the door. Their treatnt had improved significantly.
Wang Gang was the first to usher them in, "Ah, Sister-in-law, and Brother-in-law, you’re here! Quick, co in."
It truly was as the old saying went: "The poor in a bustling city are ignored, while the rich in remote mountains have distant relatives flocking to them."
"Ah, it’s indeed difficult to get around here now. You must be tired. Co in quickly and have so hot chicken soup. My brother paid a hefty price for this half a chicken," Aunt Wang Fang said warmly, ushering them to sit on the sofa.
Jing Shu surveyed her Uncle’s house, a year having passed since her last visit. Compared to the previous year, the house had evidently been ticulously tidied. The sofa wasn’t as greasy as before, back when there was no water for washing.
But this year, the sofa reeked heavily of a fishy stench, and nurous insect eggs were molding on it.
Large chunks of plaster had fallen from the corners and walls, and extensive areas were moldy. Jing Shu’s sharp eyesight could even spot larvae crawling on them.
This was just as Jing Shu had predicted: in the second year of the apocalypse, red earthworms would occasionally fall from the ceiling, and people would grab them to eat as snacks. It had beco a grim anecdote of the tis.
For now, it was just red earthworms. In another two months, various moldy mushrooms would sprout, breeding different kinds of insects. Sleep would beco difficult, as one would often be bitten awake. This was why Jing Shu, even at the risk of being misunderstood by salesclerks for having peculiar preferences, had insisted on buying several boxes of Wind Oil Essence—just in case.
Look, just as they were speaking, two red earthworms landed near Jing Shu’s head.
Jing Shu deftly dodged them and quickly put on her sealed raincoat.
Aunt Wang Fang chided herself, "Oh, look at ! I forgot to clean the red earthworms from up there. Jing Shu, dear, just bear with it in your raincoat for now." anwhile, Wang Fang was actually thinking of cultivating more of them to save up and exchange for Virtual Coins.
Her brother, Wang Gang, laughed heartily. "Jing Shu is just a bit timid. She’ll probably even set up an oilcloth canopy at dinner; otherwise, insects will keep falling."
Evidently, even such a simple action from her garnered everyone’s concern and attention.
Aunt Wang Fang sighed. Honestly, what’s the big deal about a few insects? She herself occasionally ate insect eggs and mushrooms. But then she rembered how exceptionally pampered Jing Shu’s family was now—they didn’t even have a single red earthworm in their ho. She felt a sense of resignation. Well, they were the ones with money and food, after all. Just look at the provisions they brought this year; it left her utterly speechless!
Wang Cacan sat quietly to one side. Last year, she and Su ii’s daughter, Zhang Hanhan, had sat together, watching Zhang Hanhan pick on Jing Shu. And this year? Zhang Hanhan was reportedly living a miserable existence, while Jing Shu’s life was becoming increasingly refined.
There were ten dishes and one soup, a truly sumptuous al. The soup was made from a quarter of the chicken Wang Gang had procured, while another quarter was used for stir-fried chicken pieces. The remaining nine dishes had been brought by Jing Shu’s family.
This year at the dining table, Aunt Wang Fang no longer boasted about Wang Cacan being a civil servant at twenty-six. Instead, she found all sorts of ways to praise Jing Shu, which made Mrs. Jing extrely happy. Even though her sister-in-law, Wang Fang, had her share of flaws, Mrs. Jing thought, she certainly knew how to ’speak the truth’ when it flattered the right people.
After the al, Wang Gang began to recount the origin of the half chicken. It was from a batch slaughtered the previous year and distributed among them for the New Year. He also ntioned the vast quantities of supplies stored in Wu City’s large warehouse and how much had been consud over the holiday.
"Uncle," Jing Shu interjected, "I have a large batch of feed I’d also like to store in the governnt’s large warehouse. Do you have any connections?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)