Yes, the carrion scavengers that had been a headache for over a month and were supposed to be contained by early measures had not only survived but thrived, their populations exploding. Resources for them were far too abundant. In the past six months, countless creatures and animals had perished, entire species wiped out by the abrupt changes. The scorching heat and lack of water meant many people had died quietly in their homes, undiscovered for weeks, their bodies becoming perfect breeding grounds for carrion scavengers to lay eggs and multiply.
There were so many corpses that the carrion scavengers evolved under the pressure, becoming even more formidable, resistant, and aggressive. Soon, there would be an even greater disaster caused by these pests, a wave of infestation.
Science programs on the few remaining radio stations constantly preached that Earth was on the brink of extinction, that carrion scavengers would soon rule the planet as the dominant scavenger. However, no one expected that another, simpler species would also display astonishing, terrifying reproductive power in the rot, maggots. That story would come later, a chapter of swarms.
For now, let us establish Jing Shu's bottom line, forged in the previous life's hunger, you can choose not to eat, but do not waste food. Give it to someone willing to eat it. Seeing good calories tossed on the dirty floor ignited a cold fury in her gut.
Having survived ten years of apocalypse, Jing Shu knew the bone-deep value of food, especially after the fifth year when stocks truly dwindled. Even though she was no longer short on supplies, the memory of hunger was a ghost in her muscles. She still enforced the "clean plate" policy in their home without compromise. Every scrap of leftover food in their home was licked clean, sauces wiped with bread, bowls rinsed with water that was then drunk.
Clenching her fists, the knuckles white, Jing Shu forced herself to calm her rising anger, to breathe slowly, then joined the others in moving to the water collection line.
The water distribution area was noticeably emptier than the food line. Some people, without bottles or containers, simply bent and drank straight from the communal tap or trough, their mouths pressed to the metal. Without water or power at home to boil it, drinking raw, distributed water was their only option, a risk of sickness they had to accept.
After scanning their ID cards and having their faces scanned by a weary-looking clerk with a tablet, the family received their ration. Each person got only 500 milliliters of water per day, a small plastic bottle's worth. The five of them received a total of 2.5 liters, filling barely half of one of their four-liter water bottles. For Jing Shu's household, with their hidden reserves, this was not even enough to water a single one of their apple trees for a day.
The family exchanged helpless looks, a silent communication of frustration.
Grandma Jing clutched the precious bottle of water in her arms as if it were a fragile infant. "We spent half an hour driving and queuing for this little bit of water? At least it used to be a liter per person." Her voice was thick with disappointment.
"Do we even bother queuing for the food then?" Wu You'ai murmured sleepily, leaning against a pillar. She really could live without meals if it meant more sleep. She was the definition of a laid-back homebody, her priorities simple.
"Judging by this line, it will take at least another hour. And the food…" Grandpa Jing winced, touching his jaw. His tooth, which had been slowly, painfully growing back for half a year, had finally fully emerged, only for another one on the opposite side to start pushing through the gum. The constant, dull pain made it impossible to chew anything hard.
Sometimes Grandpa Jing wondered aloud to anyone listening, "Why am I growing new teeth at this age? Can't I at least enjoy a good meal before I go?" He smoked to ease his frustration, regretting not hoarding more cartons of cigarettes when he had the chance. Now he avoided arguing with his son Jing An out of fear of losing his dwindling supply.
The family turned back, deciding against the food line. Other than Wu You'ai, who was ambivalent, none of them wanted to touch the unappetizing, foul-smelling meals. On the way back to the car, they debated in low voices whether it was worth making the trip every day just for the meager water.
Jing An, who did not manage the household's water calculations day-to-day, underestimated its value. "Maybe we should stop coming all this way for such a small amount. Lately many charging stations have lost power or been stripped, and charging the energy car is getting difficult and risky."
Grandma Jing immediately disagreed, her voice firm. "We just lost a whole batch of seedlings to drought, and we planted new ones. They need water every day. We now have two more pigs in the pen, and the cow needs drinking water too. The third floor water tank is only half full. At this consumption rate, we won't last months. Even this daily ration is enough to keep the cow alive another day." Her practicality was grounded in daily survival math.
Jing Shu had stored tens of tons of water in every container she could find and built a simple greywater recycling system, yet it still was not enough. Water for bathing and laundry could be reused for toilets or irrigation, but the vegetable plots and livestock consumed too much, a constant drain.
She still had 14 tons of sealed bottled water in her Cube Space, plenty for drinking for years, but far too expensive, psychologically, to waste on pigs or crops. That was her last-resort drinking water.
"No, we need to find another water source," she thought, the problem circling in her mind.
After dropping her grandparents off at the villa, Jing Shu and Jing An went to find a functioning charging station. They needed to recharge every two or three days. It was less convenient than gasoline cars, but those were long obsolete, their fuel impossible to find.
Hyperinflation had rendered paper money worthless, just colored paper. Gold prices had skyrocketed to 3,000 yuan per gram, ten times the pre-collapse rate, higher than any historical peak. The gold standard was briefly reinstated then abolished again in chaos, triggering a short-lived gold rush that would soon collapse as practicality overrode speculation.
Cash was even more worthless now, forcing many private charging station operators to shut down, unable to buy electricity or parts.
Jing Shu remembered that charging stations would not be systematically restarted until the following year, once a shaky stability returned. The government would take over the grid, replacing old money with a new virtual currency known as work points. People would only earn them by labor, a new system of control.
"This station is out of the way. It worked a few days ago," Jing An said, pulling the car into a small, abandoned lot behind a shuttered auto repair shop. The headlights swept over the scene, illuminating three men, a heavy electric hammer propped against a post, and a small, grumbling generator. They had already excavated the soil around the charging station's base, preparing to unbolt and steal the whole unit.
Both sides froze. Jing Shu and Jing An had not expected to catch thieves in the act of stealing a charging station. The thieves had not expected anyone, let alone an energy car owner, to show up at this dead-end spot in the predawn gloom.
Jing Shu stepped out, the car door thunking shut in the quiet. "Brothers, you have a bright future. You already figured out you can make money by stealing charging stations." Her tone was almost conversational. By the second year of the apocalypse, a wave of private operators had indeed made fortunes swapping stolen stations for food or work points, a brutal entrepreneurship.
"Hey, there are only two of them! Brothers, let's take the car and the charging station!" The bald man, presumably Er Mao, raised his electric hammer with a sneer, its tip gleaming. The other two grabbed machetes from the ground, grinning wickedly in the headlights' glare.
The electric hammer looked deadly and intimidating, a tool that could crush bone or concrete.
Jing An, moving quickly, drew his crossbow from the passenger seat and leveled it. Jing Shu, however, simply hefted her massive spiked mace from the back, walked forward a few paces, and slammed it down onto the asphalt with all her strength. The ground shook violently, a spiderweb of cracks erupting, a shallow crater forming where the head landed.
The three men gawked, their aggressive postures faltering, swallowing hard.
"Er Mao, try hitting the ground. Maybe it's soft here?" one of the machete-wielders whispered, eyes wide.
Er Mao, not wanting to lose face, stepped forward and smashed the ground a few feet away with his hammer. A crack appeared with a dull thud, but nothing like the destruction Jing Shu had just wrought.
"Still… her mace is scarier." The third man stated the obvious.
They swallowed again, audibly. The bald Er Mao was quick to recover his wits, stammering nervously as he lowered the hammer, "T-This charging station is yours! We won't touch it. Water flows its way, wells keep their place. S-See you around!" He began backing away, pulling at his companions.
Boom!
Jing Shu slammed the mace down again, not at them, but beside the charging station's base. The ground collapsed further, concrete chunks flying. She nodded in satisfaction, as if testing the weapon's weight. "Leave your tools. The hammer, the generator. Take yourselves and get lost." Her voice left no room for negotiation.
"Sure, sure!"
"We're leaving!"
The three fled so fast they vanished into the surrounding darkness within seconds, the sound of their panicked footsteps fading. Jing Shu felt a surge of exhilaration, a clean rush. She had not expected pure, overwhelming intimidation to be so effective, to bypass a fight entirely. It was refreshing.
Jing An opened his mouth, then closed it, speechless. He could no longer fully understand his daughter, this fierce strategist she had become. "So, what's the plan?" he finally asked, gesturing at the half-dug-up station.
"We're taking this charging station home," Jing Shu said, a satisfied smile touching her lips. "From now on, we'll charge at our doorstep. How convenient." When the inevitable migration orders came, she would just stash it in the Cube Space. Perfect. A portable power source. She patted the heavy metal casing of the station. It was coming home with them.
===
Handbook Update!
My third guide, "The Webnovel Handbook: A Guide to Slang, Tropes, and Inside Jokes" has passed vetting and is now available on my profile!
It's your go-to for decoding slang like "tea art" or "golden thigh," understanding popular tropes, and all those fun cultural footnotes. For now, the entries are still few, but I'll keep adding more as I find interesting misc info!
Add it to your library so you don't miss updates! Happy reading! (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ