Compared to the back mountain, the park's conditions were far worse. This was where the floods had drowned everything during the second year of the apocalypse. Now that the water had finally receded, what lay beneath was a monster's face revealed. The receding tide had stripped away any pretense of beauty.
The riverbed was nothing but a thick expanse of sludge and muck mixed with rotting garbage, poisonous bugs, and moldy debris. All kinds of junk had settled at the bottom, creating tangled piles that blocked paths everywhere.
Even from a distance, you could smell that rancid stench. It was sharp and sour, a heavy odor that suggested something had been rotting for ages in the stagnant depths. The air felt thick with it, enough to make anyone gag. Just like before the apocalypse, when the back mountain couldn't hold everyone, people had been shoved here as a backup.
Jing Shu never thought she would end up here again. Fate really had a habit of pushing her into the same corners over and over. She looked out the window, watching the grey landscape crawl by.
"Dad, how about we just stay outside instead of driving the RV into the park? The flood just pulled back, and look at all those muddy pits. I don't think the RV can handle it." Her sharp eyes took in what was once a lush green park. Now it looked like a vast, sodden trash heap.
it's a shame that earthquakes hit the mountains, forcing the government to move everyone into this swampy lowland.
Jing An frowned, his hands tight on the steering wheel. "You two tidy up inside and be careful. I will ask around first, see where we can park."
When it came down to it, the man of the house still stepped up.
Inside the cabin, Jing Shu and Su Lanzhi lifted all the items that had toppled over during the tremors. Even the broken things were saved. Grandpa Jing insisted he would find a way to glue them back together. He sat on a small stool, turning a cracked ceramic bowl over in his hands.
They were lucky earlier. Grandma Jing had been holding Xiao Dou when the big jolt hit. When the quake threw her, she would have hit headfirst on the floorboards. But Xiao Dou fell first. Grandma Jing's head landed right on the hen's sturdy, feathered body.
The bird squawked twice, but she was tough as an ox and remained perfectly fine. Grandma Jing had been so terrified she couldn't even scream. She only recovered after a long, shaky moment of silence.
Grateful, she scooped up all the spilled soy-meat sauce from the counter and fed it to Xiao Dou. "Eat, eat. You're a good chicken. Tonight you get a feast."
Xiao Dou was thrilled, her black eyes gleaming as she pecked at the sauce. With her little bird brain, she still figured out that saving family members meant getting rewarded with her favorite food. From now on, she would keep an eye out.
Beasts will never be slaves. Unless you offer room and board, that's.
The RV still shuddered now and then as aftershocks rumbled through the earth. Jing Shu rushed upstairs to check the livestock. She half expected shattered tanks and total chaos, but the scene wasn't that bad. Some water had spilled from the fish tanks, and a few fish flopped on the wet ground, but she tossed them back in.
The livestock cabin, though, was a disaster. This was the RV's first real trial in a natural disaster. One sheep's horn had rammed right into the wooden partition, stabbing a hole clean through the material. The poor thing bleated pitifully, looking wronged as it stood with its head tilted. Chickens had gone wild, flapping into corners, and the heavier pigs had crushed others under their weight. One unlucky hen was dead, its neck twisted. Jing Shu picked it up, planning to roast it later.
A rabbit had even leapt onto the roof of a small crate and was now trembling. It sat there like a fool, ears pinned back. She grabbed it down and tucked it into a safer spot.
The place reeked of chicken shit. The waste smeared the floor and even streaked across the walls where the birds had panicked.
Jing Shu sighed hard, the sound lost in the groan of the RV's frame. She tapped into the Rubik's Cube Space and cleaned everything up with a practiced thought, then handed the broken partition to Grandpa Jing. "See if you can fix this. We need to modify the cabin so each animal has its own cage. Otherwise, every quake will send them flying. If one of them crashes into my room next time, I will lose it."
She cursed herself for ever thinking keeping livestock in the RV was a good idea. If they couldn't even survive the third year's quakes like this, how would they survive the great migration in year five? That journey would be endless chaos.
Not long after, Jing An returned with news. The quakes in the back mountain were too strong, so everyone there had been moved here too. Nothing outside was safe anymore. Xuanwu Lake Park was the only zone without active epicenters. Dirty or not, they had no choice but to hide here.
He added that the staff were actually welcoming. "They said RVs and cars get special VIP spots. They just cleared them. It's safer inside than staying out here where quakes keep hitting."
"Fine. As long as we don't end up living on a garbage heap, whatever." Jing Shu let out a heavy sigh. That's bound to happen anyway.
In her last life, when the quake hit, everyone bolted so fast they didn't even bother grabbing clothes. They came out with nothing. Floods had been bad, sure, but quakes were killers. Back then, she had been bitten horribly by carrion scavengers in the muddy swamps. Unlike mosquitoes that only itched, those bastards left swollen, throbbing wounds that pulsed with heat.
The German MAN had already parked near the lake before the back mountain group arrived. Spotlights lit up the towering RV, casting long shadows across the mud. Guards stopped them at the gate.
Jing Shu and Jing An got out of the vehicle. Two men were checking the line of incoming vehicles. Jing An pointed at the RV and smiled. "Comrade, it's this one. One hundred virtual coins to get in, right?"
The leader frowned, his eyes scanning the massive frame of the MAN. "Uncle, the RV you mentioned isn't this big. Entry is free for people, but small cars are thirty, big ones fifty, and RVs a hundred. Yours is oversized, so it's two hundred. We charge by space, or else everyone would drag in huge vehicles. Where would the rest go? Besides, we have cleared you a proper spot. Otherwise, you can try parking in the slums."
Jing An hesitated, his hand hovering over his phone, then he nodded. "As long as this is official state business, we will pay."
"Don't worry. Just scan the Wu City government code. It's all trackable in the database."
Anything that showed up in the database wasn't private extortion, so Jing An accepted it. Still, it hurt to part with ten months of savings in one shot.
For Jing Shu, it was eye-opening. In her past life, she walked in on foot. This time, they had to pay two hundred just to pass the gate. she couldn't say if the fee was reasonable, but the man's warm smile seemed to suggest trouble. Too friendly always meant a scam.
"Xiao Wang, take them to VIP No. 3. Show them the rules."
"Got it, boss. Come with me."
The spot wasn't bad at all. It used to be the park's parking lot, wide and open, with no buildings nearby that could collapse. Even if quakes hit, it was safe from falling debris. The trash had mostly been cleared, though a thick layer of grey mud still squelched underfoot with every step.
The lot was a square about the size of a soccer field, though the painted lines were long gone under the silt.