Sotis fate has a strange sense of irony. The more you want to avoid sothing, the more it entangles you. This was the case with Mr. Jing, but that’s a story for later.
In the following days, the whole family entered a busy phase of life.
Mr. Jing was responsible for planting a dwarf tree laden with sugar heart apples in the front yard and transplanting a small white apricot tree filled with apricots to the backyard. "Do they even sell trees with fruits on them nowadays?" he wondered. "Why is the root shaped like a cube?"
"What do you know? It’s high technology that lets so many fruits hang on a tree. For the next month, we’ll have fresh fruit to eat." Mr. Jing had just started to drool when his tooth began aching again. He didn’t know when it had grown or how long it would hurt. It really is a nuisance.
Jing Shu held back her laughter and said nothing. The apple tree had occupied an entire cubic ter of her Black Field, and its roots, having nowhere else to grow, had bunched up together.
Grandma Jing re-tilled the soil in the front yard and planted the vegetable seedlings. Mr. Jing installed the lights. Mr. Jing sorted out the mushroom kits and set them up in the living room; various mushrooms would sprout from them in ten to twenty days.
Mrs. Jing was in charge of setting up a grape trellis filled with red grapes along the edge of the greenhouse. Inside, there were three rows of shelves, each with six layers. She then transplanted grown strawberries, crystal sugar oranges, hawthorn, cherries, and lychees. For the tree-borne fruits, entire branches were stuck in the soil with nutrient water added, supposedly keeping them fresh for a long ti.
Jing Shu took charge of canning pears, cherries, tangerines, lychees, and yellow peaches. She made dried fruit from strawberries, pineapples, dates, and grapes, and persimmon cakes from persimmons. Pogranates, waterlons, and oranges were juiced and stored in 2L sealed jars in the Magic Cube Space, ready to be taken out and drunk at any ti.
Since there were many types of fruit and the apples alone took up one cubic ter of the Black Field, the total yield wasn’t very substantial, even after a month of planting and three harvests. Jing Shu shut down her livestreaming channel, refraining from selling any, and left a ssage in the streaming room: "Will resu streaming after the Dark Day has passed."
This farewell could be for ten years, or maybe even a lifeti.
With all preparations squared away and the apocalypse imminent, Jing Shu surprisingly relaxed. This relaxation was akin to the eve of an exam, when all preparation is done, and all that’s left is to wait for the test to begin.
Perhaps it was this change in mindset that brought about a qualitative change in her Magic Cube practice, which she had diligently kept up for nearly two months. Jing Shu felt an epiphany. Her Magic Cube solving beca faster and more adept at night. She found herself anticipating the next move, and even the next ten moves.
As the mixed colors dwindled, and the final twist yielded six sides of the sa color, Jing Shu swiftly pressed the tir.
DING!
"95 seconds!"
She had reached a professional Level 9 standard!
Imdiately, Jing Shu’s head throbbed, and she lost consciousness once more. The Five-stage Rubik’s Cube in her hand rapidly reassembled itself into a six-stage one. Jing Shu’s Magic Cube Space also upgraded from a fourth-stage Magic Cube Space to a 5x5x5=125 cubic ter Five-stage Magic Cube Space.
She was jolted awake by Mr. Jing’s agonizing screams. Having slept on the floor all night, Jing Shu disregarded everything else and rushed out to the yard, where Grandma Jing and Mr. Jing were already present.
Mr. Jing, holding a shovel, said to the other Mr. Jing, "Stretch out your hand, and I’ll knock it out!"
The other Mr. Jing held a fishing net in one hand and vigorously shook his other hand, from which a fish dangled, refusing to let go as if stuck with superglue. Jing Shu looked closer and saw that her father was being stubbornly bitten by a crucian carp.
This image is a bit... indescribable.
Mr. Jing (the grandfather) swung the shovel multiple tis, striking the fish. The fish died, but it still couldn’t be dislodged. Mr. Jing’s (the father’s) index finger was bleeding a little. Grandma Jing, distressed, suggested cutting the fish open from the side with a knife.
"Sigh." Jing Shu covered her face. Although my father is in a pitiful state, why don’t I feel sad at all? I even feel a little like laughing.
In the end, it was Jing Shu who sared a bit of oil into the fish’s mouth and slipped a black bag over it. In an instant, she moved the fish into the Magic Cube Space, then brought it back out, solving the problem that had stumped the family for several minutes.
"I just wanted to casually scoop sothing up. Who knew the fish would be so fierce?" Mr. Jing (the father) was a bit shaken afterward. Are all the fish in my pond piranhas? That’s way too dangerous."
"If you want to eat fish, I’ll have to catch them. The fish in this pond are all wild, and they’re fierce," Jing Shu said. She used the net to stir the water vigorously, scattering the fish. Through contact with the net, she used the Magic Cube Space to scoop up so crayfish, then bagged them with a snap. "Look how impressive these crayfish are, even clutching fish in their claws! How about crayfish for lunch?"
"Yes, yes! My granddaughter hasn’t eaten all that food for nothing!" Grandma Jing said, smiling so wide her mouth nearly split. The old lady adored spicy crayfish, always sucking each one whole.
"How co I’m not even as good as my daughter?" Mr. Jing (the father) muttered as he went to apply a Band-Aid. "Everyone on social dia says there will be no sunlight during the Dark Day and we need to supplent all kinds of vitamins. Should we go buy so?"
"I’ve already bought them." Jing Shu rembered how in her previous life, pharmacies had sold out of all kinds of vitamin supplents. Soon, dications for preventing heatstroke would also be gone, and shortly after, dical insurance cards would be restricted. This life, she had prepared everything in advance.
Jing Shu finally had ti to check out her newly upgraded Magic Cube Space. She felt very excited. She hadn’t managed this in her previous life, but this ti, it only took her two months.
At the center was still the 1 cubic ter Spiritual Spring, but it now connected to 12 Black Fields. With the remaining 112 cubic ters of space, the Five-stage Magic Cube Space was more than twice as large as the Four-stage one, and she even had 6 more Black Fields. Jing Shu was instantly filled with imnse satisfaction.
Taking advantage of the ti, Jing Shu organized her new Five-stage Magic Cube Space and re-planned her supplies.
Her inventory included 1 cubic ter of Seeds, 3 cubic ters of chicken, duck, and quail eggs, and 10 cubic ters of various dried fruits. She had 1 cubic ter of reserve feed, 1 cubic ter of Fish Worm Food, 1 cubic ter for Bees, and 1 cubic ter of Bee Water. She also stored 5 cubic ters of gasoline, 1 cubic ter of Haagen-Dazs, 1 cubic ter of cooked beef steak, 1 cubic ter of fruit juice, and 1 cubic ter of beef jerky, diced rabbit, and various cooked ats. Another cubic ter held self-defense cleavers, daily necessities, and simple clothing. For livestock, she allocated 5 cubic ters for 10 pigs, 8 cubic ters for 2 cows and 4 sheep, 4 cubic ters for chickens, 2 for ducks, 1 for quails, 1 for rabbits, and 2 cubic ters for fish fry.
In addition, Jing Shu spent a day collecting 15 tons of mineral water, occupying 15 cubic ters in the space. If the villa’s filtration system failed, this would be their last resort for safe water.
She spent three days buying 10,000 liters of gasoline in batches, which took up another 10 cubic ters. When Jing Shu tried to buy more, she found that gasoline was rationed and required an ID card for purchase.
She moved more than half of the household’s rice and flour and cooking oil into the space to extend their shelf life, occupying 15 cubic ters.
In total, 87 cubic ters were occupied, leaving 25 cubic ters of free space.
Jing Shu also reorganized the Black Fields. Four cubic ters would continue to be used for growing fruit, which she planned to juice and freeze in preparation for the scorching heat ahead; the leftover pulp could be fed to the pigs, so nothing would be wasted.
Eight cubic ters were dedicated to vegetables: tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, broad beans, sesa, soybeans, and others. She planned to slowly transplant so of these to the greenhouse during the Initial Stage of Apocalypse.
「In the blink of an eye, it was December 31st.」
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