Thankfully, before the apocalypse began, Jing Shu had downloaded every digital encyclopedia she could find. Now, checking information inside her mind was a breeze.
"Coffee contains cafestol and kahweol, which have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. It can enhance the liver's detoxification process and protect the body from aflatoxins and other carcinogens. Used coffee grounds are natural deodorizers. If you leave them in a container, they absorb bad smells.
They're also natural insect repellents; scatter them around the yard to keep bugs and ants away. Mixed into potting soil, the nitrogen-rich grounds help plants grow better. If you spread them on the soil's surface, they can deodorize and prevent pests. Plus, coffee grounds have all sorts of little uses."
Jing Shu clapped her hands together, finally remembering the details. "Right, coffee has another major use in the apocalypse. It can slow the spread of the new zombie virus that appears two years from now. So if someone gets infected, drinking coffee every day can suppress the rotting of flesh. It doesn't work much on undead creatures, but when those invasive species show up later, it can actually wear them down."
And the coffee grounds? Those were a lifesaver too. A few years after the world ended, the stench of rotten eggs could literally make people faint. If she piled coffee grounds around a house, maybe it wouldn't smell so bad.
"The best part is, freshly brewed coffee tastes amazing. Without milk, it's an Americano. With milk but no sugar, it's a latte. With whipped milk foam and cinnamon, it's a cappuccino. Add sugar, chocolate, and cream, and it's a mocha. Milk and caramel make a caramel macchiato!"
Jing Shu had once worked part-time at a coffee shop just to get drinks at half price. Her favorite was a mocha. The blend of chocolate, milk, and coffee was unforgettable.
"Can I pick up some of the fallen fruit?" she asked, her eyes sparkling. It had been thirteen years since she last had a real cup of coffee.
Eiffel shrugged. "Sure, anything on the ground is fair game. But don't touch what is on the tree. That's the boss's baby."
Jing Shu happily gathered a small bag full of the dark fruit. Unfortunately, she didn't have a coffee grinder or the right ingredients yet. Still, she couldn't help but imagine it: sitting in the icy world, watching the snow outside while brewing her own coffee, adding as much milk and sugar as she liked. Just the thought warmed her up.
Once she had collected the seeds, she immediately planted them across her six plots in the dark, rich soil of the Cube Space. If they didn't sprout, she could always sneak back later to get more. What she didn't expect was that she had actually just fulfilled one of her long-term goals.
Xiao Hei stared at her, utterly baffled. All that excitement over a few coffee beans? He really didn't get her. Even Monk scratched his head; he didn't get women at all.
Eiffel finally led the three of them to the Medicinal Herb Cultivation Center.
This place was much fancier, looking more like a high-end research lab than a farm. Some herbs were grown hydroponically in clear tubes, others in artificial sunlight pods simulating pre-apocalypse conditions. They had all kinds of cultivation methods, but none of them worked. The situation here was even worse than at Wu City's Medicinal Herb Association. Most herbs were deformed at birth, dying before reaching their first growth stage.
"If you can get these herbs to grow, you can have whatever you want," Eiffel said. "We have got a seed vault too, and you can pick out more seeds to replant. But once you accept this task, you can't leave the castle until you either succeed or give up. Of course, your salary will be generous, equivalent to a third-class citizen's pay."
She offered Jing Shu every temptation imaginable, but she never mentioned what would happen if she failed. She didn't even question Jing Shu's skills or worry about her being a freeloader. Jing Shu rubbed her chin. If someone was just here to mooch, they would probably die a horrible death anyway.
"Alright, I will take the job," she said without hesitation. She didn't really care about growing medicine for them. What mattered was that a higher position meant better access. The more access she had, the more things she could acquire. For now, she just needed to play along.
Both sides had their own plans. Soon, Jing Shu found herself with a respectable position at Austin Castle, diving headfirst into her work.
Faced with those strange mutant herbs, not even the Spirit Spring in her Cube Space could keep them alive under the castle's radiation. So she decided to start with the seed vault.
Every checkpoint used an ID card, an iris scan, and a randomized code; it was triple verification. It was an insanely secure system, practically theft-proof.
Even entering the seed vault required Eiffel's approval, and only Jing Shu was allowed inside as a new employee. The vault looked like a massive cold storage chamber. The walls were coated in frost, and towering rows of neatly labeled metal boxes filled the space. Each box bore a name; some even came from all over the world.
"This is Austin's largest seed vault," Eiffel explained, her breath fogging in the cold. "It holds about four hundred thousand seed types. That's roughly two-thirds of what remains in the world."
Jing Shu's jaw dropped. Before the apocalypse, she had scoured markets and websites to buy seeds, gathering around ten thousand varieties—enough for her own survival. She had even stored extras in her Cube Space for preservation. But standing here, she realized her ten thousand was nothing compared to this collection.
"No way, I have got to add these seeds to my list," she thought. "Back home, by year five or six, we lost tons of seed stock. By year eight or nine, whole species went extinct. I need to save a batch for China." She was already thinking of how to stash them away later.
"Too bad the seed vault is isolated," she thought. "I wonder if the Sulfuric Acid Ants could tunnel through the rock? The temperature is too cold though. The snakes might survive it, but they can't burrow that deep." Her eyes gleamed with mischief.
After picking out about a dozen medicinal herb seeds, she left the vault. Eiffel set her up in an empty lab and told her she could eat at the cafeteria for free during her stay.
Halfway through the explanation, Eiffel suddenly had a nosebleed. A single drop of bright red blood hit the white tile floor.
"Ugh, must have been all that diarrhea yesterday," she muttered weakly, wiping her nose with her sleeve. "Why has my luck been so awful lately? I need to start running again to boost my immunity."