They first stirred up trouble to distract their enemies, orchestrating chaos in other districts, making them believe the core objective was just a raid to steal weapons. After all, the entire world was in chaos and desperate for arms, a logical target.
While chaos erupted over there, drawing security forces, the top brass only recently discovered, too late, that this terrifying group of Chinese operatives had, months ago, silently infiltrated their core personnel, their most secure facilities. They swapped identities flawlessly, replacing key guards and technicians without anyone noticing the switch.
They collected every necessary biometric detail: iris and retinal scans, fingerprints, and even more impressively, they surgically altered or perfectly mimicked their voices so precisely that not even a trained ear or voice analysis software could tell the difference.
It was also rumored that a master torture and interrogation expert oversaw the entire psychological operation, personally breaking down every key figure through relentless pressure and monitoring them constantly afterwards. No one dared to play tricks or send coded warnings. This person was well-versed in advanced psychology and behavioral analysis, and counter-investigators interrogated targets multiple times to check for inconsistencies. Anyone who tried to outwit them met a truly miserable end, a lesson to others.
Oh, and that expert always carried his favorite intimidation weapon, a modified waterboard. Because water was too scarce in America to waste, he stopped using water as the medium and switched to filling the board's reservoir with carrion scavenger eggs instead, a psychological horror.
These infiltrators even lived with the families of those they were impersonating for days, eating meals together, without arousing suspicion, their mimicry that complete.
While their enemies' attention was drawn to the weapon depot raids, the Chinese operatives quietly extracted their real targets, scientists, engineers, data drives. By the time America realized what had happened, the losses already taken, it was already too late, the birds had flown.
Soon after, as a face-saving measure, the massive joint data sharing base was officially announced, established right on their territory under a new treaty. Both sides reached a friendly cooperation agreement for "post-crisis reconstruction," and footage of the ambassadors shaking hands was released on international feeds. Jing Shu could see their own ambassador's bright, triumphant grin, his sharp canine tooth showing adorably, a mask of diplomacy.
Now that things had settled down on that front, they finally had time and authority to collect all the remaining private solar charging stations across the city. From now on, these were classified as "official equipment," to be managed by the energy bureau. To charge an energy car at a public station would cost six virtual coins per full session, a steep price.
Many people who had managed to keep their cars running stopped driving because of the steep price and chose bicycles or walking instead. After all, six virtual coins could buy three full meals of plain rice. For an average family, this was no small expense, a luxury.
When Jing An heard the news on the radio, he gave Jing Shu a big thumbs-up, grinning. "See? My girl's always been farsighted. We got our own station early. We generate our own power from the panels and use it ourselves. Hardly any cost at all." He patted the wall near their home system.
Jing Shu rolled her eyes, a habitual response. "Dad, it was because a thief tried to steal the community's station and we caught them, so we got to keep it as a reward. You make it sound like I snatched it on purpose." She corrected the record, though the result was the same.
Jing An only chuckled sheepishly, not arguing. Grandma Jing's voice rang out from the kitchen, calling them to wash up for dinner, the daily rhythm unchanged.
Wu You'ai lounged on the living room sofa, half-dozing as she nibbled on a bowl of vanilla ice cream. She sent a typed message to the community chat group before lazily going to wash her hands at the basin:
"@Everyone Starting next week, the supermarket will supply clothes, bedding, pots, pans, and other daily necessities, the exact items we exchanged for virtual coins before. But to prevent reselling for profit, prices will increase by 20 percent. Also, toilet paper will be available for 0.5 virtual coins per four-pack."
Wang Cuihua sent a voice message, her tone exasperated. "What a scam! Buying low, selling high, even toilet paper costs that much now! Robbery!"
[Fat Girl]: "That's probably to stop us from wasting it. Honestly, I don't even use toilet paper anymore. There is nothing hands and a little water can't solve."
[Luo Zhu]:"So, do you usually use your right hand or your left?"
[Fat Girl]:"Right hand. You?"
[Luo Zhu]: "Ever since Li Yuetian locked me up for a few days of 'reeducation' over public hygiene, I usually just find a smooth stone to rub against. Saves everything."
[Fat Girl]:"[Fist salute emoji] You are hardcore. I knew there was a reason all the stones by the building entrance smelled weird."
...
On November 5th, Jing Shu's black sow, well-fed and content, gave birth to a healthy litter of ten squirming piglets. Time flew so quickly. Without realizing it, she had been reborn for a full year. She still remembered how nervous and desperately hungry she had been just after her rebirth, drooling at the sight of everything edible in the supermarket, her body remembering starvation.
Now she no longer drooled at the sight of food, only swallowed her saliva discreetly. For her, nothing was more blissful than being able to eat exactly what she craved, when she craved it. Like now, when she wanted savory pork jerky.
She selected and slaughtered a mature pig from the hidden stock, spent several days carefully butchering, seasoning, and smoking it into strips of chewy dried meat, and stored the bulk in her Cube Space. Every now and then, she would take out a piece to snack on, sweet, spicy, and wonderfully chewy. Bliss.
She thanked heaven, or fate, for giving her those two frantic months of stockpiling supplies before the collapse. Everything they ate, used, or harvested now came from what she had purchased or traded for in that window. None of it had gone to waste, every roll of toilet paper, every bag of rice, had its purpose.
To make their future life at the breeding center even better and secure her father's position, Jing An took six of the strongest piglets to his workplace the next day in a carrier. This promotion he was up for depended entirely on them, on increasing stock. The remaining four piglets stayed at home in the pen, to be raised and slaughtered for family meat when grown.
Jing Shu was pleased seeing his initiative. Jing An was finally showing some ambition, shedding his earlier passivity. He had once thought he would just get by quietly until the Dark Days ended, but now he was putting all his energy into running and expanding the Livestock Breeding Center, seeing it as a legacy.
Nobody with any sense was foolish enough to just wait for the Dark Days to end anymore. Survival, building something stable, was all that mattered now.
Her custom PVC package had also arrived, delivered by Yao Zixin's family in a truck. Together with Grandpa Jing, she spent two full days installing the clear, flexible dome, the four large water collection tanks at the corners, and a separate cover for the RV garage, all according to the illustrated instructions.
It looked odd from the outside, a giant transparent bubble over the property, but it made practical sense. Picture an enormous square PVC umbrella covering the entire villa and yard. To account for future storms and wind, the umbrella was much larger than the villa footprint and sharply sloped, so rain and any falling bugs would slide straight down into the waiting water tanks. They only needed to clean the tanks and filters periodically.
No matter how many days it rained next year, their villa would never flood, and the red nematodes would be collected, not infesting the roof.
Grandpa Jing, handy as ever, also built a simple manual wiper mechanism with ropes and pulleys. They could activate it from inside the attic to scrape any stubborn red nematodes clinging to the surface down into the collection gutters.
Even though Yao Zixin had told himself a thousand times not to ask, curiosity during the installation got the better of him. "Covering your house with a giant blanket in this heat, what is the point of this thing? It will trap the heat." He wiped sweat from his brow.
Jing Shu forwarded him several saved news articles and online posts from science forums predicting that within three months, due to thermal expansion and polar melt, sea levels would rise significantly and massive storm systems would flood coastal and low-lying cities.
"If that happens, my rooftop house will be underwater. Better to prepare early." She stated it simply.
"We are struggling to find drinking water as it is. If it were not for that fifty liters you gave us, my family would have died of thirst last month. These predictions have been circulating for a year and never came true. Even some of the Japanese who moved inland have gone back to the coast. Clearly, sea level rise is nonsense. Just like they said the Dark Days would last two months. It has been almost a year now, and even the higher-ups have admitted we are in the apocalypse." He shook his head, the skeptic.
===
Hey guys~ just a quick update ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ
Technically, I've got 9 ongoing projects listed on my account. But! Mom's Apocalypse Survival Log, The Invincible Money-Grubbing Fairy, and My Daughter is the Empire's Lucky Charm are all fully translated already. Right now (as of September 29), Reborn as the Fallen Idol, I Leaned Into the Chaos! has less than 50 chapters left to go.
That means, out of the last 5 projects that are truly active, 3 of them are complete works (the original novels are already finished). The other 2 are still being serialized by their authors, but I've already caught up with the latest chapters—those are also queued up in my drafts with over 400 chapters ready to roll (148+260).
So really, my current active projects are just 3. Yay progress! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و
On my side, I also just got a job offer starting in October. I don't know the exact details yet, so I'm holding off on picking up any new big translation projects for the moment. If I do start working, I'll have to juggle both job and translations, and I don't wanna push myself into burnout (ง •̀_•́)ง.
Originally, I planned to dive into another historical-themed novel right after finishing Mom's Apocalypse Survival Log, but that might have to wait a bit. Or if I do take it, I'll probably slow things down to about 2 chapters a day instead of my usual 5. Some of you have also asked me about continuing Glitched: Highway Apocalypse, and I'll see if I can sneak it into my schedule ( •̀ ω •́ )✧.
For now, until I know how much free time I'll actually have, I won't be starting any giant 400+ chapter novels (unless the chapters are really short). If it's on the longer side with heavier word counts, I'll probably cap it around 300
the chapters are really short). If it's on the longer side with heavier word counts, I'll probably cap it around 300 chapters.
Thanks as always for reading and supporting my translations! Your patience and encouragement really keep me going (｡♥‿♥｡).