Su Lanzhi was a little too straightforward in her thinking, her nature too honest. When she was good to someone, she was genuinely, wholeheartedly good, pouring out everything without much calculation of return. Unlike Jing Shu, whose mind always ran a few extra laps around any situation, considering angles and consequences and future leverage.
Sometimes she even wondered, darkly, if she was actually the villain in some unknown author's apocalyptic story. Otherwise, why had she done so many of the things classic villains liked to do, hoard resources, set deadly traps, kill without hesitation, scheme for advantage? Emmm. The thought was unsettling, but she didn't reject the label if it meant survival.
"Alright. Fine. Remember, rarity makes value. We will gift just 1 jin of fresh strawberries," Jing Shu said, specifying the weight (roughly 500 g). "Not a basket more.
That little chubby kid clearly likes nuts, he was eyeing my cashews last time. We will add 1 jin of charcoal roasted cashews (about 500 g). Nutritious and a rare treat now.
Minister Niu's home, with his position, won't lack electricity or clean water. Ordinary vegetables like cabbages and potatoes probably are not scarce for them either, through official channels. So let's add something with more flavor: a small sealed jar of our own pickled mustard greens and… thirty fresh eggs."
At this point, eggs had become even rarer than most vegetables. All the chickens in the large, centralized poultry farms had died from disease or the heat. Aside from the few hardy free range chickens kept by isolated rural families, only the government departments' specialized livestock constant temperature rooms had any poultry left, kept barely alive by round the clock air conditioning and filtered air.
The animal husbandry sector was the same type of institution as agriculture, but after the apocalypse it basically supplied only the upper echelons, its products enjoyed as luxury goods by the elite. Just like pre apocalypse luxury brands supplied only about three percent of the population, the truly powerful after the apocalypse, those with connections and rank, lacked none of these creature comforts.
At 3 p.m., with the temperature outside still brutal, the whole family carefully loaded the gifts into the energy car and set off to pay their respects, ahem, to express sincere gratitude for the favor that had brought the armed police rescue.
Minister Niu's home was in a well maintained civil servant community in the old city center. Everyone living there was a mid level leader or above, a world apart from the crumbling suburbs.
Next to the community was the barracks of the No. 2 Armed Police Detachment, with patrols moving twenty four hours a day along its perimeter. Private cars were not allowed past the main gate. They were only able to enter after Minister Niu himself came down to the guard post to lead them in. Everyone's ID was scanned again at the inner checkpoint, proof of the strict management and a very high safety factor, a bubble of enforced order.
Each building had a temporary, but clean, public restroom set up on the ground floor, all scrubbed spotless. There were a few scattered solar powered street lamps in the community, casting pools of light even in the daytime gloom.
They climbed to the fifth floor. Madam Niu opened the door. Inside, the ceiling lamps were on and bright, the house neat and orderly, smelling faintly of lemon cleaner, no foul odors of decay or sweat. The temperature hovered around a comfortable 26°C with the air conditioning clearly running. Everything looked just like a normal, well off home before the apocalypse, a surreal snapshot of the past.
"Look at your timing," Madam Niu said with a smile, though her eyes were assessing. "You wait until after we've eaten and cleaned up to come. If only you had come a bit earlier, you could have joined us." She wore a simple but elegant red cotton dress, her dark hair clipped loosely by her ear with a jade pin, fine curved brows, no makeup but her skin looking fresh and youthful, well cared for.
Although she said that, Madam Niu's internal goodwill toward this family shot up several notches. With food so incredibly tight now, the last thing you should do was show up at a superior's home right at mealtime, appearing to freeload a meal. That would be incredibly tone deaf and gauche.
A few days ago, several other visitors had done exactly that, arriving right at lunch, bringing useless gifts like tea sets or antique trinkets. She had been so quietly furious she'd made Lao Niu kneel on rice for an hour afterward with an additional weight of 3.8 jin (1.9 kg).
The two families exchanged polite greetings and introductions. Madam Niu called out Niu Yanben, who had been practicing the violin in a back room, the squeaky scales stopping abruptly, then brewed a pot of precious black tea for Jing Shu's family and set out a small dish of wrapped candies and some sunflower seeds. Most surprising of all, there were even a few cherry tomatoes, commonly called little tomatoes, in a small porcelain bowl, a vibrant red against the white.
Jing Shu's family did not waste words on prolonged pleasantries. They kept the depth of their gratitude in their hearts and moved straight to the practical, presenting the gifts one by one.
"These are charcoal roasted cashews, unsalted," Jing Shu said, opening a cloth bag. "I saw the little one liked them very much last time, so I asked someone to source 1 jin (500 g). Nuts are nutritious, better than empty snacks."
The chubby boy's eyes lit up immediately. "Thank you, Sister Jing Shu," Niu Yanben said sweetly, already reaching for one before getting a nod from his mother.
A genuine, warm smile bloomed on Madam Niu's face. Minister Niu, standing beside her, quietly let out a breath of relief he hadn't realized he was holding. Finally, a visitor who brought something that actually pleased his wife. The previous groups had not earned even a hint of approving color on her face.
"These are pickled mustard greens from our own kitchen," Su Lanzhi added, presenting a sealed glass jar. "My mother's recipe. They are really delicious, crisp and sour. With fresh vegetables so tight right now, this is great for changing up the taste now and then over plain rice."
Minister Niu and Madam Niu both showed deeply satisfied smiles. This was more precious than grain at the moment. Commercial production of pickled and fermented vegetables had stopped half a year ago, and it was rare to see any now, especially homemade.
They sampled a few small bites on the spot, using clean chopsticks, and looked genuinely surprised, praising it repeatedly. "It's too good. Truly excellent flavor." Since you couldn't have fresh vegetables at all three meals anymore, eating a bit of this at breakfast or dinner made the plain rice go down perfectly.
"And I heard from Niu Yanben," Jing Shu said with a slight smile, "that his mother loves strawberries the most. We happen to be growing a few plants at home. Not a huge yield. Just a small basket this time." She presented a little woven basket lined with a cloth napkin, holding about two dozen perfect, red strawberries. "When we have more next time, I will bring you some again."
Madam Niu was finally visibly moved, her hand going to her chest. "Aiyo, my precious son actually thought of his mother," she said, pulling Niu Yanben into a half hug. The next moment she turned back to them. "You are too courteous. That day when trouble hit your home, I told Lao Niu to hurry and find help, to pull whatever strings he could. And the frogs you sent last time were truly amazing.
We used to have flying insects everywhere at home. They ruined a lot of our stored food, got into the water dispensers and anything vaguely edible. Ever since those two horned frogs arrived, there has not been a single bug. Not one. And it gave Niu Yanben something to do, taking care of them. He no longer shouts that he is bored all day.
I said at the time that we absolutely have to repay this favor properly."
When Jing Shu's family finally produced the pièce de résistance, a cardboard carton holding thirty brown eggs, each one carefully wrapped in paper, Minister Niu had already mentally earmarked a promotion slot and extra resources for Su Lanzhi's department. Madam Niu was all smiles and had secretly decided she would grant Lao Niu the particular new position he had dreamed of for weeks tonight. "Dead man," she thought, "tonight your wish comes true."
Su Lanzhi, of course, had no idea why, for the next several days, Minister Niu looked at her with such peculiarly excited, grateful eyes, practically worshiping her as a bringer of fortune and domestic peace.
Before they left, Minister Niu, tactfully and indirectly, mentioned the personal tastes of a few key leaders above him and some specific items that were in short supply at their homes. The planting base under Su Lanzhi could "prioritize" these crops later. He also talked about the latest internal policy drafts and upcoming reforms so that Su Lanzhi could prepare her department in advance, giving her a crucial informational edge.
At the end, Madam Niu repeatedly and warmly invited them to stay for dinner, but Jing Shu's family apologized with genuine regret, citing urgent matters at home that needed attending, the broken door, the cleanup, and took their leave, the farewells lasting a full five minutes at the door.
"Sigh," Su Lanzhi said with feeling on the drive back, the fortified community receding behind them. "I used to be truly foolish in my career, always a step behind on information and connections. Now I think I understand why some people climb so quickly at such a young age. It's not just work ability."
The next day, Su Lanzhi returned to work at the research base. Although the outside world was descending into chaos, government staff were still required to report in, maintaining the facade of normalcy. The official commuter shuttles were now escorted by police vans and private security vehicles.
Recently, every major department had recruited several hundred "family security guards", often relatives or connections of employees, paid with one hot meal per shift. Only those with connections could get these coveted, relatively safe jobs. At the same time, the first batch of the genetically modified mold mushrooms was about to be harvested, and the government was pushing to implement the new public food distribution policies as soon as possible.
After all, a significant portion of the population already had no food left, and the supermarkets were selling nothing. What else could they do but turn to crime? The first step to stabilizing a society on the brink was ensuring that everyone could at least get one barely edible meal a day, to take the sharpest edge off the desperation.
Jing Shu, meanwhile, no longer needed to walk Xiao Dou so far to scavenge for bugs. There were plenty of corpses right at their own gate, breeding nest after nest of carrion scavengers in the disturbed earth, and Xiao Dou feasted on them daily.
That afternoon, Jing Shu had just delivered an Oscar worthy performance of "suddenly remembering" the basement corn, producing many heavy sacks from the underground storage, and was planning a corn feast with Grandma Jing, grilled corn, corn porridge, corn pancakes, when her phone rang again, the shrill tone like a death knell in the quiet villa.
On the line, Wang Qiqi's trembling, breathless voice came through. "Jing Shu, can you… can you drive to Wu City County, the old industrial park area, to pick up me and Wang Dazhao? Did you not say you needed steel bars and wire? I… I can help you get a batch. A whole truckload."
Jing Shu frowned, gripping the phone tighter. "What are you doing all the way over there? And what is that sound on your end?" In the background, she could hear muffled thuds, sharp cries that were abruptly cut off, and the unmistakable sound of something heavy dragging.
"Killing." Wang Qiqi's voice was a shaky whisper. "Someone was killed. Wang Dazhao… he killed more than a dozen people. The scalpers who sold him the fake, poisoned vegetables last time, the ones that caused his wife's death. He tracked them down. He killed them all. But… he is not going to make it either. He's hurt bad. Please… come quickly. Before… before anyone else finds us."