"Huh?" Jing Shu froze for a second, her boots clicking softly on the floor as she glanced around the room. Sure enough, Grandma Jing was only talking to her, ignoring the chickens fluttering in their cages nearby.
She awkwardly grabbed her glass of sour plum soup, the chilled glass sweating condensation against her palm. She took a sip of the tart liquid and looked around the space again. Her father was swamped at the Livestock Breeding Center, dealing with the endless demands of the animals, and ever since her mother became a department head, she had been even busier, hardly home anymore.
Wu You'ai and her mentor had been buried in research at Xingfu Shiyuan, spending their days trying to perfect the synthetic meat formula to keep the population fed. As for her Paternal Third Aunt; forget it, she had even less time to spare. Which meant she was basically the only idle person left at home.
"Grandma, why did you suddenly want to go back to Wu County for New Year?" Jing Shu asked, her brow furrowing. "It's nice spending it here in Wu City too. Didn't we agree to invite everyone over this time?" Given the timing, going back really wasn't possible. The apocalypse's fourth year was just around the corner, and disaster after disaster was coming.
She had prepared everything for the villa, reinforcing the walls and stocking the underground pantry, but only for the villa. If they wandered off into the unpredictable wasteland, she couldn't guarantee anyone's safety. Whether they drove there or came back, one massive mudslide could bury even the toughest RV deep beneath the earth.
While scattering handfuls of feed and fussing over her beloved hens, Grandma Jing said, "Nothing much, just... it's been too long since we went back. I kind of miss it. But then again, celebrating here in Wu City might be better." She sounded hesitant.
"What's wrong?" Jing Shu asked.
Her grandmother glanced around the quiet room, lowered her voice, and said, "The weather keeps getting colder, and food is getting scarcer. Your Paternal Eldest Aunt's family is afraid of burdening us. Feeding a big group eats through a lot of grain, so they don't want to come. But your Paternal Second Aunt's family, they are scared of missing out on free food, so they do want to come, just to eat and waste stuff. And if one of them slips up and blabs about what we have got here, we will be in trouble."
She wasn't wrong. Food shortages were worsening across the city, the government's coffers were drying up, and ordinary people could feel the tension in the long ration lines. Even folks who used to brag about raising chickens and ducks had started keeping their heads down and staying silent.
Jing Shu smiled softly. "Grandma, you are right to worry, I understand. But don't stress. I will talk to them beforehand and set some ground rules, and I will make all the necessary preparations. Nothing bad is going to happen. Just relax and look forward to having a good New Year this time."
Next year, there wouldn't even be a New Year to celebrate.
Jing Shu's eyes narrowed slightly as memories flashed through her mind. She remembered herself shivering in the biting wind during the great migration, her fingers numb as she searched desperately for any scrap of food in the frozen mud. This year would be everyone's last chance to breathe easily. After that, the apocalypse would truly begin, and her time was running out.
"Oh dear, it's almost noon already. I have got to start cooking, I am busy every single day!" Grandma Jing washed her hands in the basin, wiped them on her pants, and hurried into the kitchen. Grandpa Jing grumbled from the side, "Can't you just use a towel? Look at your pants, they are shiny with grease again."
"Yeah, yeah," she muttered.
Jing Shu sighed quietly and sank back into thought. One of her biggest headaches right now was… money. Not only was she broke, she actually owed the government several million.
Who would have thought that someone who ran a factory of thousands, managed a waste station, and had multiple side businesses could still end up deep in debt? She hadn't expected it either. Just when everything was finally running smoothly, she somehow owed even more.
It was a bitter kind of irony. The Red Nematode factory had finally started turning a profit, but she had had to pour everything back into reinforcing it against mudslides. To expand storage capacity for Red Nematodes, she had enlarged the factory again, taking on another series of heavy construction projects. She had bought huge boulders and fortified materials from Qian Duoduo, transforming the place into a fully enclosed and fortified facility.
Both the government and Qian Duoduo understood why she had gone that far. As the factory grew, it drew unwanted attention. Before long, a group of fugitives had come to rob it, the same kind she had seen before; armed with guns, Molotovs, black powder, and makeshift bows. They drove pickup trucks loaded with empty crates, clearly planning to haul off tons of goods.
A single Red Nematode Patty wasn't worth much, but several truckloads were a fortune.
Thankfully, the factory had been prepared. The guards were well-armed, and with high bounties offered for protection, they managed to hold the place. The attackers fled after losing several men. The factory's losses were small, but the incident was a wake-up call; it was the perfect excuse to further militarize her operations.
"Those people were hiding among us. The bodies we found all had IDs, but none of them were connected."
"They were living double lives, appearing ordinary on the surface but organized in secret."
"They are nearly impossible to catch. Even tracking them is hard. With the satellite and surveillance systems shut down to conserve power for the artificial sun, and no data on them anywhere, once they vanish, it's like searching for a needle in the ocean."
That was the report Heng Jin gave her after investigating, but she refused to give up. Those people would be back, especially once the world ran out of food and people turned desperate.
When she had founded the factory, she had already expected this. A bug-patty factory might look ordinary, but sooner or later, someone would get greedy. That is why she had been preparing for everything.
If the first few years of the apocalypse had struck like violent storms that were terrifying and sudden, then the disasters of the fourth year came quietly. They were like spring rain soaking into the earth, unnoticed until it was too late.
And by the time you realized something was wrong, it was already over.
The floods in the second year had wiped out countless resources and property. The mudslides of the fourth year would destroy whatever fragile hope was left, swallowing the land itself.
"It's here. So this is how the fourth year of the apocalypse begins." Jing Shu stood on the hill behind her villa, brushing her fingers against the damp mud seeping from the ground. It felt hot, like water about to boil.
No one else had noticed yet. Everyone was still celebrating the end of the earthquake, too relieved to wonder why, in this freezing weather, the ground beneath them hadn't frozen solid.
"Come on, let's go home!" Jing Shu wrapped herself tighter in her thick cotton coat, exhaling white mist as she called out to Xiao Dou, then jogged down the slope.
The hen trudged after her, head drooping in dismay. It had been days since her owner started running up and down the mountain every day, and Xiao Dou still had no idea why. Worse, she couldn't find anything to eat anymore. The delicious bugs, even those disgusting carrion scavengers her owner had once fed her, were all gone.
Gone without a trace.
The mountain was silent now, pitch-black and eerily still.
Xiao Dou shivered, uneasy. Something felt wrong. Something was about to emerge.
At the foot of the mountain, scattered tents and traces of human habitation still remained. After the earthquakes stopped, the authorities had allowed the survivors to move back in, and Banana Community was full again.
"It's freezing out there! Be careful, you will catch a cold!" Su Lanzhi scolded as she handed her daughter a cup of hot milk. Seeing Jing Shu's red nose, her heart softened. "You have got such sensitive skin, always getting sores. Stop running around. By the way, your grandma was asking, what's your plan for New Year?"
===
You might notice that from now on, I'll be using the original Chinese terms like ge (哥), jie (姐), mei (妹), and di (弟) instead of translating them directly to "Brother," "Sister," "Little Sister," or "Little Brother."
Here's why: In many Asian cultures—like Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Indonesian—these familial terms are used far beyond blood ties. They're a fundamental part of the social fabric, used to address friends, strangers, or people we admire based on their age, social status, or the closeness of your relationship.
It's a nuanced way of showing respect, affection, or familiarity. I found that this subtle social hierarchy and the specific feeling it conveys doesn't really have a direct equivalent in English. Using the English terms flattens the meaning and makes that unique cultural flavor disappear. So, to keep the authentic vibe of the original text, the original terms will stay!
You'll also notice that exclamations like 我的天啊 (wǒ de tiān a) are often translated as "Heavens!" or "By heaven!" instead of the more direct "Oh my God!".
This is because the Chinese concept of 天 (Tiān—"Heaven") is a central, cosmic force in traditional philosophy, distinct from the Abrahamic concept of a singular "God." Using "Heaven" in these moments is a more culturally accurate reflection of the original feeling. That said, in very modern or casual contexts, you might still see a "God!" slip in, but "Heaven" will be the go-to to keep that cultural flavor.
Hope this adds to your reading experience!