So it really was true that good deeds could bring unexpected rewards. She had stumbled into gaining another life-saving trump card: a single drop of pure, undiluted Spirit Spring could pull someone back from the brink of death. This pleasant, profound surprise couldn't have come at a better time, a secret comfort in a world growing harsher by the day.
Later that morning, Wang Qiqi posted in the community group chat: "@Everyone, this time we must especially thank @Xiao Shu from the villa district. Thanks to her, at two in the morning she drove a family of three with viral flu to the hospital, risking her own safety. The child has now passed the critical stage, and the adults are also stabilized. Since the hospital was overcrowded, we finished the discharge procedures and are already back in the community. A reminder to all: everyone must take strict protective measures, the hospitals are already running out of medicine and beds. Don't take this lightly."
On the third day, the couple, their faces still pale but filled with a shaky relief, brought their now-lively child to thank her in person. They carried a whole cardboard box of dried purple sweet potatoes and dried sweet potato strips as a gift. In the current apocalypse, this was genuine, life-saving food, a treasure of calories and sweetness.
They had run a small dried sweet potato shop in the city before everything changed. Lately, business had completely collapsed and raw material supplies had stopped, so they had been forced to close. Their home still had some stock from before, and since she had firmly refused to take any money, they could only bring their specialty goods as heartfelt thanks.
She was very satisfied with the gift. Sitting with the little boy, Tian tian, they ate quite a lot of the chewy treats. After drinking the Spirit Spring, his appetite had increased greatly, a healthy sign. Fortunately, he ate a lot and expelled a lot, and so far showed no other strange symptoms, just a robust hunger.
The dried sweet potatoes were genuinely delicious, sweet, chewy, and satisfying. In the apocalypse, they were an excellent staple and snack. She decided she would try making some herself in the future when she had a surplus of fresh sweet potatoes.
That same day, as expected, Su Lanzhi scolded her again the moment she heard the full story. Saving people was one thing, a good thing, but why not at least bring Jing An along? Going alone in the dead of night was far too dangerous. "Just thinking about it terrifies me," she fretted, pacing. "One of my colleagues, Wang Hong, the one who went with me to sell that house ages ago, she caught the illness in the middle of the night too. By the time her family realized and went to queue at the hospital, it was too late. She died today. We even had to give 500 yuan as condolence money to her family. And you know what? She still owed me 800 yuan from last year that she never paid back. Now I'll never see it."
"..."
The focus of her mother's worry seemed a little off, but it was also painfully, pragmatically human.
As more and more people around them died, and with the Earth's Dark Days showing no sign of ending, the 50th day passing like a grim milestone, panic among the public grew worse, a palpable tension in every limited interaction. The promised national vaccine was still not released, but instead a new nationwide mission was announced via every remaining broadcast channel.
The announcement explained, "In 2017, Australian scientists successfully injected Wolbachia bacteria into populations of poisonous mosquitoes, causing the males to become infertile. They then released twenty million of these sterile mosquitoes to spread the Wolbachia bacteria to the wild population. This caused more and more mosquitoes to carry the bacteria, which prevented the next generation from reproducing. Through this sterility method, the targeted poisonous mosquitoes were driven to local extinction, achieving excellent results."
"This method," the announcement continued, "is equally effective on the Black Fungus Beetle. However, due to regional limitations and the need for mass participation, it must be implemented by local governments. Sterilizing bacteria have already been distributed to all urban and rural administrative units. Each region must capture a certain number of live black beetles, which will be inoculated with the bacteria by officials, and then release them. Once sterilized, they will not reproduce. When this generation of beetles naturally dies off, they will be extinct."
It was exactly the same as she remembered from her previous life. The government was giving the people a collective task, both to ease their growing panic and to foster a sense of purpose and collective honor. There was an old saying: when people are full and idle, they like to overthink and make trouble. That had its own harsh philosophy. If you keep people busy until they collapse exhausted into bed, they will have no time or energy to worry about riots or despair. The leaders were brilliant at grasping the psychology of the masses.
In Wu City, the plan snapped into action. Every time the water distribution trucks made their rounds, there would now also be official trucks collecting bugs. The government distributed simple protective hoods, thick cloth sacks, nets, and other basic tools. The exchange rate was clear: one full sack of live black beetles could be exchanged for an extra standard bucket of water. This tangible reward greatly motivated everyone.
Risking one's life to capture dangerous bugs for free was unlikely, but with a direct reward of precious water, it became not only feasible but necessary for many.
Many households had not yet reached the point of literally licking their bowls clean after meals, but they had begun wiping dishes with paper instead of washing them. Water for basic cooking and drinking was just barely enough, so any extra water was desperately welcome.
That evening, as soon as the temperature dropped to a barely tolerable level, residents of her community went out in small groups. Every family member covered their heads with the provided hoods, wore multiple pairs of thick socks and rain boots, rubbed the last dregs of floral water or medicated oil on any exposed skin, and donned work gloves. Wrapped tightly from head to toe like strange, padded astronauts, they ventured out under the dark sky to catch bugs.
"Our workplace quota is at least ten sacks of live bugs per person. And they said if we don't meet it, our water rations might be cut. Other units also have to hand in five sacks per employee," Su Lanzhi said worriedly, taking a bite of a crisp apple from their stash.
Jing An, who had already sent Grandma Jing some floral water, mineral water, and fresh vegetables back when the beetles first appeared, was much more relaxed. He said easily, "Then I'll go to the community gate and catch them for you. It's fine."
"At that rate, how long will it take? You'll be swatting one by one. You can't even fill one sack in a whole day that way," Su Lanzhi scoffed.
At this point, she pulled out a long, sturdy solar-powered light stick from a closet, its surface still bearing a store price tag. "Use this."
Jing An could not help thinking, not for the first time, that his daughter must be the reincarnation of that cartoon character Doraemon, with her bottomless bag of oddly specific useful items.
While the neighbors were still painstakingly catching a few bugs at a time with small nets under the community's only working, dim streetlight, she and Jing An, fully armed in their superior protective gear, went to a cleared area behind their villa. They set up several of the powerful light sticks, releasing strong, concentrated beams onto a white tarp spread on the ground. In no time, attracted by the intense light, countless flying bugs swarmed down, crashing into the tarp with a furious, collective buzz.
She simply used a large sack to scoop them up in bunches, then carefully pulled out the bug-covered light stick and shook the insects off into the bag. That single action filled a third of the sack.
Jing An imitated her, his movements growing more confident, and in less than half an hour they had filled all ten required sacks, easily meeting the quota. When he saw the dense, writhing mass of huge black bugs in the sacks, he shivered with visceral disgust. She, however, showed no hesitation. When bugs slipped through the net, she simply grabbed them with her gloved hands, tossing them back into the air for the net.
The giant chicken she had recently picked up, now named Number 1, would then flap up with surprising agility and snatch them mid-air with a sharp peck. She even praised it each time, saying, "Good job, Number One." It really looked like she was training a highly skilled dog, except it was a giant chicken. The scary part was that the chicken performed very well, seeming to understand. Jing An began to wonder if the world had gone completely mad or if he had.
"Should we let the community neighbors use this method too?" he suggested, feeling a slight of guilt as he watched the distant, struggling figures under the weak streetlight. With their small nets, they could only catch three or four at a time, and filling a single sack looked like it would take all night.
"They finally have some evening entertainment, a community activity, Dad. Don't ruin it for them," she replied with a faint, pragmatic smile. Then she waved to Number 1, who was gleefully gulping down stragglers. "Number 1, let's go. Time to go in."
Number 1 reluctantly pulled itself out of the pile of bug carcasses, gave a satisfied shake, and waddled back to her side, its big butt swaying comically. Ever since it had resumed drinking diluted Spirit Spring in its water, it had become a bottomless pit. No matter how much it ate, it could keep eating. The bugs outside had become its endless, high-protein feast, and it never seemed full, partly because it ate while excreting at the same time, an efficient, if gross, system.
The nationwide bug-catching campaign was declared a huge success. Almost every household managed to earn a few extra buckets of water, a vital boost. In less than three days, the Wu City government announced that all the captured bugs had been inoculated with the sterilizing bacteria and released back into the urban environment.
The announcement promised that in a dozen days or so, once this generation of black beetles died off naturally, the plague would be over. The citizens could rest assured. A fragile hope was offered.
The apocalypse had now lasted fifty days. The number of black beetles was rapidly decreasing, just as promised. Just as the domestic situation seemed to be tentatively improving, the fragile peace in their own family shattered. Jing An received a frantic phone call, Grandma Jing's voice distorted by tears and panic on the other end:
"Hurry and come! Your sister Jing Lai and her daughter wife Wu You'ai were infected by the black beetles! They've caught the viral flu! It's bad! The nearby hospitals refuse to take them, they're just turning people away, saying there's no medicine left and no beds! What are we going to do?"