[Wang Qiqi No. 13]:"I suggest everyone line up even earlier. Take the 9 o'clock shuttle to Ai Jia supermarket. Big supermarkets in the city center have scalpers holding places from early morning, each spot costing 500 yuan. Many people wait until closing time and still don't get their turn. They just shut the gates."
[Wang Dazhao No. 1]:"Then I will go line up tomorrow morning. My wife is pregnant, she really wants some vegetables and fruit. If anyone has a scalper's contact, please share it. Thank you!"
[Wang Qiqi No. 13]:"Now you can only get them from the countryside, but the prices are high. I will give you the number. Approximate prices are: apples 500 yuan per 500 g, mushrooms 200 yuan per 500 g, potatoes 300 yuan per 500 g, cabbage 500 yuan per 500 g, winter melon 400 yuan per 500 g, pumpkin 500 yuan per 500 g, carrots 600 yuan per 500 g. Buy them quickly, the prices will only keep rising."
Wang Dazhao gratefully thanked him and also advertised his car in the group chat, putting his small BMW, a 3 Series from five years ago, up for sale at 50,000 yuan, calling it a "steal for a quick transaction."
He was immediately mocked by the luxury car dealer from Building 5, his profile picture a steering wheel emblem: "Stop embarrassing yourself with that broken BMW. I can't even sell my Range Rover for 100,000. Anyone want a Maserati for 200,000? But the car is still at the factory, you will need to get it towed yourself. Once Earth's Dark Days end, you won't find prices like this again. If no one is interested, I will ask again later."
Wang Cuihua sent a voice message: "Whoever buys a car now is an idiot. Without fuel, you can't even drive it home. It's just a metal box." There was a finality in her tone.
Jing Shu, scrolling through the chat on her phone, noticed that Wang Cuihua was a conversation killer. Whenever she spoke, the whole chat went silent for a good minute, as if everyone needed to process her blunt truth.
"Grandma, look. Cabbage, apples, and pumpkins are all the same price now, up to 500 yuan per 500 g," Jing Shu said to Grandma Jing, who was stir frying crown daisy at the stove, the wok sizzling.
"Quick, call your eldest aunt and tell her not to sell her apples. If the price has risen this high, it means there really are any left in the city," Grandma Jing said, not turning from the wok, her spatula moving swiftly.
"Alright. But you remember when cabbage was 10 yuan per 500 g, you thought it was too expensive and wouldn't buy any," Jing Shu reminded her, a slight smile on her face.
Grandma Jing slapped her thigh in regret, the sound sharp in the kitchen. "Back then pumpkin was only 20 yuan and I didn't buy it, said we could grow our own. Now suddenly I'm craving pumpkin cakes, the kind pan fried until crispy." She sighed, flipping the vegetables.
So when Jing Shu later brought over four or five big pumpkins from her villa, their green skins streaked with orange, Grandma Jing's delighted little eyes couldn't hide her joy. She ran her hands over the smooth, cool skin. Jing Shu explained, hefting one onto the counter: "Two months ago I already stored a lot of vegetables and seeds in my place. Grandma, if you want to eat something, just tell me. Don't look at those ridiculous prices."
"Oh my sweet granddaughter!" Grandma Jing beamed, already mentally calculating how much flour she had left for the cakes.
…
Jing Shu calculated the timing in her head. Not long ago, the countryside had already been requisitioned for supplies, like the apples at her aunt's house. The vegetables currently being sold at highway markets or through back channels were mostly from the early days of the apocalypse, homegrown crops stored in root cellars or under sand. Who knew if these people, blinded by quick money, would regret it later when there weren't any vegetables left and their pockets full of cash couldn't buy a single leaf.
Fruits and vegetables like apples, pumpkins, and carrots could last about half a year with proper refrigeration, but this was basically the last batch of diverse, fresh produce from the old world.
Once these were gone, only single types of vegetables would remain, the hardy or the artificially sustained.
These either came from government greenhouses that consumed half the city's energy with their grow lights and climate control, or from locals who built makeshift plastic covered sheds with stolen air conditioning units and bucket irrigation, or from extremely hardy plants like certain mosses or tubers that barely managed to sprout in the heat. But the yield, compared to the millions of mouths in Wu City, was almost nothing, a drop in a bone dry bucket.
In another month, even with 1000 yuan you might not be able to buy a cabbage at any market, green or black.
Without sunlight, with relentless drought and heat, 90 percent of vegetable species had already been wiped out, their seeds dormant or dead. Four months into the apocalypse, only a few things survived in controlled settings: mushrooms flourishing in dark basements, chives and garlic sprouts growing in water, crown daisy and spinach struggling under lamps. These crops didn't need strong sunlight, only carefully controlled temperatures and precious water.
Governments across Wu City's thirteen districts were experimenting in their sealed greenhouses, trying to mass produce these few vegetables. Unfortunately, results were poor, reports showing spindly growth, mostly because costs were astronomical while yields were minimal, the energy input per calorie absurd.
This time Su Lanzhi had been appointed Deputy Director of the Earth's Dark Days Planting Industry R and D Management Department, alongside her former superior, Yu Caini. The two of them were tasked with co managing the research and development for one of Wu City's thirteen districts, a pilot zone.
In other words, Su Lanzhi had been promoted three levels straight to Deputy Director, a jump that turned heads, while Yu Caini also moved up one level, a standard promotion. Yu Caini, who always tried to cause trouble for Su Lanzhi in meetings, never expected that instead of getting rid of her rival, they had ended up on equal footing in the same department. Worse yet, they were now forced into direct competition, their performance metrics pinned against each other.
Su Lanzhi peeled a grape from the small bowl on the table and popped it into her mouth, fuming as she leaned back in her chair. "They want me to compete with Yu Caini head to head. Whoever performs better this month, whose team's yields are higher, will secure the position as sole director. Then the thirteen districts will compete, and the winning district will decide the primary site for the artificial sun project." She shook her head. "The political games have already started."
At that moment, Grandpa Jing, Jing An, Aunt Jing Lai, and Wu You'ai were all sitting neatly at the dining table, the evening dishes laid out, waiting for Grandma Jing to bring the soup.
When he heard this, Grandpa Jing asked in surprise, his bushy eyebrows raised. "A sun can be made? Like a real sun in the sky giving off light and warmth? My goodness, that would be something. So that means it won't matter whether Earth's Dark Days end or not. We could just make a new one?"
Su Lanzhi struggled to explain, waving her hands. "No, no Baba, it isn't that kind of sun, it isn't a machine, a project."
Jing Shu, who had been brainwashed by endless news broadcasts and propaganda in her previous life, took over the explanation. "Grandpa, it isn't what you think. The real sun is a high temperature, high pressure fusion furnace, producing light energy through continuous nuclear fusion. An artificial sun is actually a superconducting Tokamak device, a big magnetic doughnut, capable of sustaining large scale nuclear fusion reactions under extreme conditions. It's not hung in the sky. It's placed in a specialized facility, and they're talking about using seawater to generate nuclear fusion, providing humanity with endless clean energy." She spoke slowly, trying to make the complex sound simple.
Su Lanzhi nodded in relief, grateful for the assist. "Yes, that's more or less it. That's why next month, all residential energy may be cut off or severely rationed to support the power demands of the artificial sun project. They need everything the grid can give."
"Power, gas, fuel, all cut off for this. If the artificial sun isn't in the sky, how does it provide energy for crops?" Grandpa Jing still didn't get it, picturing a tiny light bulb in a field.
As someone reborn, Jing Shu was finally able to show off her little bit of hard won apocalyptic era knowledge. "In 2018, China's artificial sun, the EAST, achieved a one hundred million degree Celsius run for the first time, costing millions of yuan per second and consuming endless electricity and resources. But it's still some distance from fully controlled, sustained fusion. Once artificial sun fusion is achieved in a seawater based system, the energy output can be used to power massive indoor grow lights to simulate photosynthesis for growing food. It can also help solve water shortages through large scale desalination and even generate hydrogen fuel for vehicles through electrolysis. It's about generating massive, clean power, not making a new sky sun."
Grandpa Jing, Jing An, and Aunt Jing Lai all wore identical expressions of we don't understand the science, but it sounds amazing and also very scary. Their faces were blank with polite incomprehension. Jing Shu sighed and stopped explaining, reaching for a piece of fried fish instead.
Wu You'ai, ever the little skeptic with a biologist's mind, pointed her chopsticks at the dishes on the table. "These fish of yours, their size to scale ratio is off, they don't conform to biological logic for carp raised in still water. And these bean sprouts, even if they're mutated from radiation or whatever, shouldn't sprout so much volume from so few beans. The biomass doesn't add up. No, I need to call the professor and ask if he's seeing similar anomalies." She pulled out her phone, her brow furrowed.
Jing Shu quickly shoved a hot, crispy pumpkin cake into Wu You'ai's open mouth. "Eat your food. If your mentor finds out you still have fresh fish and strange bean sprouts while he's eating nutrient paste, think about the consequences. He will have you in his lab for observation."
"Mmmpfh!" Wu You'ai chewed, still looking suspicious. "Even your pumpkins are wrong, the flesh is too dense, the sugar content atypical for the variety."
That evening, the news broadcast on the wall mounted screen really did cover the artificial sun project and its supposed future benefits for agriculture and energy independence. The anchor spoke with polished optimism over stock footage of scientists in lab coats and glowing reactor models. It was just another grand promise from the authorities to placate the people during Earth's Dark Days, keeping them quiet and hopeful. In this life too, right on the same schedule Jing Shu remembered, the massive, resource hungry artificial sun project had begun its official public roll out.