The communal meals at her mother's workplace were inevitably full of sand and dirt. Eating the rice meant swallowing it nearly whole, without daring to chew for fear of grinding grit between your teeth. In her previous life, Su Lanzhi had even cracked a molar and damaged several others eating those harsh meals. This time, Jing Shu decided she would just prepare all the food herself and pack it for her mother to bring along. This level of careful provision was something she'd never managed in her previous life, back then, she'd been too absorbed in her own survival to see the details of her parents' daily struggles.
"These birds of ours are all domesticated and contained, right? Our poultry doesn't come into contact with the outside world or other animals," Jing Shu reasoned aloud, thinking of their chickens. "As long as we maintain strict ventilation control and a steady temperature in the coop, they should be fine. When Grandpa Jing comes to stay, he and Dad will have to work on turning the chicken coop into a double-layered enclosure, otherwise, it's getting too small as they grow, and crowding will bring disease."
"I know, I know," Jing An said, though his mind was elsewhere, a frown on his face. "Well, some of the bigger, regulated farms might process their dead poultry according to safety rules, but you know most of the small operations… they're just sell the meat, like those river crabs that came from polluted water, processed into various kinds of marinated or dried meat to hide the origin." He shuddered, remembering a news clip from years ago: a hidden slaughterhouse with a big, blackened boiler floating with countless untreated chickens and ducks. Just thinking about it now, in this context, made his stomach turn.
Having any food at all was considered lucky by most. But when large numbers of poultry started dying from the relentless heat, it would get truly serious. If the carcasses weren't collected and dealt with properly within two or three months, the rotting piles would attract swarms of flies, maggots, and other scavenging bugs. That, in turn, would become a catastrophic source of disease.
No meat to eat at first, then later being forced to consider eating protein from maggots grown on waste, that was exactly the kind of desperate, pretentious problem she was determined to avoid.
"People don't dare eat poultry meat now anyway, and the price of vegetables has gone up a lot because of the heat killing crops," Su Lanzhi added, rubbing her temples wearily. "Grain prices are rising too, day by day. I just hope these Dark Days end in another ten or so days so we can all finally breathe."
Jing Shu said nothing. The Dark Days were unlikely to end. Not in ten days, not in ten months. The true apocalypse had only just begun, nobody except her realized it yet.
After seeing her mother off to work with the carefully packed lunch, Jing Shu went to her room, took up her pen, and opened a notebook. She began to record everything she could remember happening in the first year of the apocalypse, using the notes to prepare herself. A full ten years had passed since she'd lived through it the first time, and she had already forgotten some of the timing, the specific triggers.
In the first month of the apocalypse in her previous life, Jing Shu had spent her days at home in the air conditioning, doing live streams to distract herself and earn a little, while her parents went out to work. Half the water in Wu City had been mud. Her father had used his old connections to buy a batch of mineral water at high prices, but with his typically generous nature, he had given away half of it to neighbors and relatives, which later caused a critical shortage for their own family.
She checked the date on her phone. It was now January 14. In a few days, the sustained heat would kill all the fish in the local rivers en masse, their rotting bodies contaminating the water sources completely. By the end of the month, power would start to be rationed in rolling blackouts, and refueling cars would become difficult as gasoline supplies grew tight.
By one and a half months in, running tap water would be cut off completely in many districts. Every household would have to rely on water trucks and strict, person-by-person limits.
Nearly two months into the Dark Days, with no sunlight returning, everyone would begin hoarding grain with a new desperation. But as electricity time decreased, the heat worsened, water scarcity became critical, and grain purchases were restricted by the authorities, supplies would dwindle rapidly. Within months, the first reports of gangs killing each other over a sack of river crabs or rice would mark the grim start of the dark half-year, where order truly began to fray.
Jing Shu bit the end of her pen, thinking. Their current weakness, her weakness, was a lack of absolute combat ability. Through the steady consumption of the Spirit Spring water, her physical strength had increased a lot, one punch could easily knock over an average adult man now, but so what? Even master craftsmen could be killed by wild, lucky punches in a chaotic fight. What chance did someone with no formal training or real fighting experience, like her, have against desperate, armed people?
She bent her head and wrote down her plans quickly. Before the dark half-year arrived, she had to secure the resources within the Cube Space and finish setting up all the defensive mechanisms around the villa. She had to prepare for potential ambushes and ensure her family's survival no matter what weapons were used against them. She would prevent the tragedies of her past life from repeating, one by one.
Her only real leverage was her absolute control over the Cube Space. It was a sanctuary and a storehouse. But how could she use it actively to protect herself? As a shield? A trap?
Beep beep!
A sudden message notification from the residents' group on her phone broke her train of thought.
[Supermarket Owner Bai]: "@everyone, I managed to get a batch of mineral water, 20 yuan per bottle. Limited stock. Leave your building number and quantity if you want some, I'll deliver it to your building entrance."
[Young Mom 13]:"Owner Bai still has channels for water? That's impressive. Why is it so expensive though, what brand is it?"
[Supermarket Owner Bai]:"It's a local brand. Factory is in the next town. Good water."
The group immediately erupted in a scramble for orders. The large, official supermarkets had strict purchase limits per person, but their daily supply sold out almost instantly. Even the big national water factories couldn't keep up with the panicked nationwide demand.
Tap water, even after settling, was full of fine sand. One basic filter wasn't enough. You had to install a multi-stage system like Jing Shu had, six filters in series, to get it remotely clear.
Water for washing clothes or bathing could tolerate some dirt, but drinking it left a gritty mouthful of sand, which many people, especially children and the elderly, simply couldn't handle. Hence, any sealed bottled water had become liquid gold.
She remembered how, right at the beginning, some unscrupulous dealers would mix cheap, industrially filtered water, meant for boilers or cleaning, into reused bottled mineral water for profit. Many people who drank it suffered acute diarrhea or metal poisoning. Those with weaker constitutions, the very old or very young, died. It was worse than eating heat-dead chicken.
A cold suspicion forming, she quickly searched online using the local factory name Owner Bai had vaguely referenced, and confirmed that particular plant primarily produced industrial process water, not drinking water. She took a screenshot of the relevant information and posted it in the residents' group as a warning, urging everyone to check the source and branding carefully before buying.
[Supermarket Owner Bai]:"@Xiaoshu Villa, what nonsense are you spouting? I got this batch for 19 yuan a bottle using my personal connections, earning just one yuan per bottle for my trouble. You compare me to those profiteering small vendors with this random image, what's that supposed to mean?"
[Luxury Car Owner 5]:"Ignore her, Owner Bai, just deliver the water to Building 5. I want ten bottles."
[Luo Hao 13]:"Exactly, the villa area thinks it's so special. If you don't want it, don't buy it. Don't ruin it for the rest of us."
[Feng 3]:"A local brand and still this expensive… could it really be industrially filtered? Can't you make it a bit cheaper?"
[Young Mom 13]:"Actually, Jing Shu's warning is good. I have small kids at home, I won't risk it, I'll skip this batch of water."
Several others followed suit, their messages more cautious. The supermarket owner, seeing his sales threatened, angrily typed: "@Jing Shu Villa, I remember you. Fine. Never come to buy anything from my store again."
[Wang Qiqi 13]: "Everyone, calm down. @Xiaoshu Villa's warning is correct in principle. We should all be careful and check before buying things, especially now."
The group chat grew quiet after that. Jing Shu had only offered a friendly warning; she wasn't trying to stop anyone from making their own choices, even risky ones. In the coming apocalypse, looking out for yourself and your own was already a full-time job.
Soon, Jing An also saw the flurry of messages in the group.
[Jing An Villa]: "@Supermarket Owner Bai, is the convenience store at the west gate of our community yours? [smile]"
[Supermarket Owner Bai]:"Yes, it is. Want to order some water after all?"
[Jing An Villa]:"Okay, got it. [smile][smile]"
The reply was cryptic, but Jing Shu knew her father. The two smile emojis were not a sign of amusement.
By 4 PM, Wu City's temperature had reached a staggering 49℃. Jing Shu sat in the cool villa hall, enjoying the blasting air conditioning and a glass of chilled orange juice over ice, mentally ignoring the envious, resentful gazes she knew they were drawing from less-prepared neighbors.
Later, in a small, stuffy office at the community police station, a young staff member summarized the incident for the record. "So, to confirm," he said, looking from Jing Shu to her father, who sat with a stoic expression, "you suspected in advance that the supermarket owner was selling industrial water, posted a warning in the residents' group, and were subsequently insulted. Your father then went to the store to confront the owner, asking why he was selling non-potable industrial water, which caused a verbal and physical conflict. Your father was acting in self-defense during the ensuing struggle, correct?"
Jing Shu nodded like a pecking chick. "Yes, that's correct."
The truth was her father had gone to the supermarket, asked one pointed question, and when the owner became aggressive, Jing An, his strength honed by weeks of manual labor and Spirit Spring water, had proceeded to defend himself so effectively that the owner was left thoroughly battered. The owner's wife had called the police, screaming.
When they came to the villa to arrest Jing An, Jing Shu had intervened, showing them the group chat and the online proof. Furthermore, a neighbor named Luo Hao, who had ignored the warning and drunk the water, had soon suffered vomiting and dizziness, symptoms of metal poisoning, and sent a panicked voice message to the group. Only then did everyone realize the water was indeed dangerous, industrially filtered junk.
Jing Shu and her father had already planned their story on the way to the station.
"You both did an excellent, civic-minded thing," the staff member said, closing his notebook. "Selling industrial water as drinking water at inflated prices during a public crisis will be punished severely. We will confiscate all his remaining supplies for distribution under supervision, and he will be assigned compulsory labor. Given your heroic actions in exposing this, this will be recorded positively in your files. You can rest for a bit here until the formalities for your father are done." The young man gave a slight, formal nod, almost a salute, and left with the records.