Wu You'ai hurried off after breakfast, her expression set with purpose, to handle the bureaucratic aftermath of the attempted burglary and the missing persons report from Cave No. 6.
Fortunately, before the family left the villa yesterday morning, Jing Shu had thought that since they would be returning once a day anyway to check on the animals, she might as well leave some of her cultivated poison bees by the gate and in the shrubs as a passive sentry system. She never expected they would be put to use so soon: that very night, intruders had tried to break in.
The poison bees, their venom genetically tweaked for rapid neurotoxicity, made up for the non-lethal traps' lack of killing power. While some intruders were immobilized by tranquilizer darts or pit traps and others futilely smashed at the reinforced door, those stung multiple times collapsed and died within minutes as the venom took effect, their nervous systems shutting down.
It was a sharp, cold reminder: she couldn't afford to let her guard down, not ever. Her family's safety depended on layered, overlapping defenses. Her greatest vulnerability now, she assessed, was the lack of counter-sniping measures. As her family's visible assets and reputation grew, they might eventually draw the attention of someone with a high-powered rifle. The probability was small in the chaotic shelter, but still worth considering and preparing for.
This whole mess, she reflected, started because Zhou Dafu had tried to rob her chicken, to curry favor. When she seized his pistol during that confrontation, she had already expected some form of retaliation. She thought he would simply send more people after her later, a direct, clumsy attack.
What she didn't expect was that, after her incidental involvement with Qin Feifei, helping extract snake venom and offering some tacit advice, she had accidentally stumbled into a trap that got he arrested for murder. That in turn gave his brother Zhou Dasheng, who had slipped the net, a chance to make a desperate, greedy strike on the villa, believing it undefended.
Looking deeper, why was Zhou Dafu catching snakes in the first place, right before everything went wrong? Jing Shu's instinct told her it had been aimed at her family, part of some aborted plot involving the vipers.
Why did these people act so arrogantly, so certain they could take what they wanted?
Because, to them, she and her family looked like a fat sheep.
A fat sheep, harmless, wealthy, and easy to fleece!
But things had changed. With their supplies now secure and their position in the cave strengthened, Jing Shu decided she would arm her family until they looked less like sheep and more like wolves, ferocious, coordinated wolves that no one would dare provoke lightly.
Raising two Spirit Spring-enhanced snakes might serve as perfect biological deterrents. Their future offspring, their harvested venom, their meat, the snake wine she would brew, their shed skins, every part was valuable. And imagine the psychological effect: walking outside with one of these pale vipers coiled around her waist or arm, its tongue flicking in and out. Wouldn't that sight alone terrify most would-be troublemakers?
Zhou Daheng's folding light-steel container panels were still with Li Yuetian, stored somewhere. When the floods eventually receded, she would go retrieve them. That material was too useful to lose.
This very morning, Li Yuetian had even had the snakes delivered to the edge of their camp, caged in a sturdy wire carrier and covered with a black cloth. Since they came through official channels, Jing Shu decided to wait until she returned to the villa to stash them properly in her Rubik's Cube Space for initial training and acclimation. She planned to ripen some special medicinal herbs with the Spirit Spring first and then begin the slow process of brewing the snake wine.
According to the information she had found in old digital archives, snakes bred depending on specific humidity and temperature ranges. Last year had been too dry and hot, but this year's torrential rainfall had created a damp, warm environment perfect for them. With the Spirit Spring's enhancing properties added to their water, she believed she would soon have a breeding pair and, eventually, baby snakes.
As she watched the two five-step snakes through the cage mesh, their sleek bodies coiled, their triangular heads rising slightly, tongues flicking to taste the cave air, Jing Shu grew more and more fond of them. They were beautiful in their lethal efficiency.
Xiao Dou, however, drooled as he circled the cage cautiously. To her, they were just oversized, wriggling bugs. They might be nearly two meters long, but with bodies no thicker than a man's wrist, they were no real challenge for her reinforced beak and combat instincts.
Her family, however, visibly balked when she announced casually over breakfast that she had "acquired" two venomous snakes from the official auction and planned to raise them for medicinal wine.
"They must be locked up tight. One bite and it's over. There is no antivenom here," Grandma Jing said, her face pale.
"These things are too dangerous. Can't we just kill them now and use the bodies?" Jing Lai suggested, eyeing the covered cage with deep unease.
Jing Shu downed two large bowls of milk made from powdered formula and stuffed seven or eight thick sandwich slices into her mouth, chewing methodically. Muffled, she said, "Relax. I will keep them secured upstairs on the second floor, in a special terrarium. They will never get out. Besides," she swallowed, "once properly trained, they will act as guards for the house. Their presence alone will keep intruders away. Better than a dog for some people."
Su Lanzhi forced a thin smile, caught between fear of the snakes and trust in her daughter's bizarre competencies. For once, she didn't openly object.
Jing An, who had been smoking a hand-rolled cigarette in silence by the kiln, broke into a violent cough. He wanted to speak, to voice his deep concern, but swallowed the words. In the end, he just stood up and left the awning area, needing air. He was too honest to lie in support of his daughter's dangerous new hobby, so better not to say anything at all.
Meanwhile, in the broader crisis, Wu City's main surviving population had retreated into the scattered high-ground safe zones. Hongshan Ecological Park alone now held over a hundred thousand people, a small city crammed into limestone. Feeding, housing, and sanitation were monumental headaches, though at least the park's pre-existing facilities were decent. Public toilets outside the cave entrances helped, and with groundwater pumps working, they had enough water for basic hygiene and cooking.
The overwhelming worry was the unrelenting rain. It still poured endlessly outside, and the city center of Wu City lay completely underwater with no sign of relief. Over a million residents had been displaced, their homes and businesses swallowed by the brown flood. All they could do was huddle in caves and temporary shelters, waiting.
Within a single day, as predicted, everyone's personal phones had gone dead, batteries drained with no way to recharge. That made management and communication even harder. The park administration hurriedly opened a few free, guarded charging stations powered by emergency generators, causing long, snaking lines.
The government, what remained of it, called continuous emergency meetings in a secure bunker.
"All the designated shelters are at or over capacity. We can hold out for a few more days on stored rations, but if the rains don't stop and the city center stays submerged, what then? We can't keep hundreds of thousands of people in cave shelters forever. Disease will break out."
"The city center is flooded, but it's filled with resources, sunken warehouses, supermarkets, medical supplies. With no sunlight for who knows how long, at least the next five years won't produce replacements for much of that equipment and medicine. What do we do? Let it rot underwater?"
"We can't just sit and wait for the water to magic away."
So while citizens idled in caves, played makeshift games, or argued over space, the Wu City government issued a flurry of emergency orders and policies, broadcast over the shelter's PA system and posted on bulletins.
"The latest rainfall and hydrological forecasts are in. This is the peak. Areas not flooded now, specifically the old town of Xishan, the northern development district, and the elevated north outer ring, are geologically unlikely to be inundated. Starting tomorrow, we will begin moving three hundred thousand people from the most overcrowded shelters to these zones.
If the flood doesn't recede within two weeks, we will officially designate the development district as the new administrative center of Wu City."
"Housing in those areas is scarce, but each standing home can hold more than a dozen people if necessary. Basements, underground garages, warehouses, all can be repurposed. We will allocate space based on registered personal assets and pre-disaster property ownership. Those who already own property in the safe zones get priority return. And anyone still paying mortgages," the announcement added sternly, "will continue to be charged interest. Otherwise, their homes will be subject to government reassignment for public use."
"Next, the submerged city center holds vast resources that must be salvaged before they are ruined. When the waters drop slightly in a few days, we will release a new wave of virtual labor currency and hire new salvage workers. Priority for housing may be tied to salvage work participation."
"The people must be mobilized. First, everyone who can must bring out any useful items from their own flooded homes if it's safe to do so. Second, organized teams will gather all salvageable public items into central reserve warehouses to cut losses."
"We must prepare for the possibility that these floods aren't short-term. We must organize the people, rescue whatever we can from the water, and release some of the strategic grain reserves to boost morale. This disaster," the official concluded grimly, "might not be as simple as a seasonal flood. The sea level data is… concerning."
…
By noon, each shelter's Consolation and Counseling Specialists had finished hastily collecting new statistics on skills and former addresses. News of the impending relocation spread through the caves like the earlier gossip, but with more tangible consequence. The caves buzzed with heated debate.
Some were anxious about being moved again, about losing their spot in the relatively organized cave. Others were delighted at the prospect of getting out of the damp, crowded mountain and into actual buildings, even shared ones.
And when families heard the details, that seven or eight stranger families might be crammed into their private homes, many were furious, their voices rising in protest that was quickly shushed by others fearing punishment.
Even Jing Shu's long-dormant high school classmates' group chat, now only accessible to those who had charged their phones at the stations, exploded with activity.
"@Everyone, I heard our old residential zone is being moved to the development district. Where is everyone else going? Maybe we will all end up in the same block. Wouldn't that be great? A class reunion in the apocalypse!" someone wrote with forced cheer.
[Mu Xiaoxuan]:"I don't know about being placed together. I only know this: Zhang Lingling once swore in this group that if she ever tricked us about that investment scheme, her house would be drowned in a flood. And now? Not just her house, the entire city of Wu City is underwater. Zhang Lingling, your oath has come true. Karma is real."