"Since everyone's here for dinner, let's hold a family meeting and hear what Jing Shu's got planned."
Grandpa Jing puffed on his cigarette, slow and steady. When the apocalypse hit, he'd almost died from withdrawal. Luckily, they'd planted some tobacco at home, though it was worth its weight in gold. Most of it went out as gifts or got traded for food, leaving barely enough for himself—and he still had to split that with his good-for-nothing son. No wonder he treated every puff like treasure.
The villa belonged to Jing Shu. The food, the supplies, even the daily necessities—everything came from her. In this shattered world, she still somehow managed to bring back fresh peaches now and then. She had ideas, plans, and a clear head. Naturally, everyone listened when she spoke.
Grandma Jing sat on the couch with Xiao Dou, the plump hen, on her lap. She smoothed down its new-grown feathers with a damp towel, listening closely while her granddaughter talked. The chicken squinted in bliss, clearly enjoying its spa treatment.
Jing Shu downed her milk in one go and sat at the table, greeting Wu You'ai with a small smile. Her fingers brushed the back of her ear, where the skin always flared up in winter—itchy, painful, oozing sores. The memory of those days from her past life still made her shiver.
Would it happen again this time? She didn't know, but she'd better be prepared. She'd start making ointments and keeping warm, do whatever she could to prevent it.
"Why the family meeting all of a sudden? Something happen?" she asked with a faint smile. "For the New Year, we'll do as we planned—invite Paternal Eldest Aunt, Paternal Second Aunt, and Maternal Eldest Uncle's family. They can stay across the street in Grandma and Grandpa's three-bedroom place. This year, let's say it's Grandpa and Grandma hosting. We should start preparing the New Year goods early, and we'll need more than usual this time. As for rooms, the villa's already packed to the brim, we can't fit another soul."
She squinted as she laid out her plan. The supplies in the villa were their lifeline. No one was allowed to even think of taking advantage, let alone see what was actually stored.
Even her parents had no idea how much she'd stockpiled. The basement and storage rooms upstairs were all locked behind reinforced doors, and only she had the keys. Every now and then, she'd bring out a small batch of food or supplies, making it look like leftovers from her old streamer days. Her parents still thought she'd just overbought for her cooking channel.
After the apocalypse began, Jing Shu hadn't sat around waiting to starve. She'd worked the land with her grandparents, raising chickens, ducks, cows, even growing fruit in the greenhouse. Their supplies grew so steadily that nobody bothered questioning her anymore.
Grandma Jing counted on her fingers. "So when're we bringing them over? And how long are they staying? You know your Second Aunt—she'll move in till the Lantern Festival if you let her, and good luck getting her to leave."
The dining table was covered with dishes, the air thick with the smell of oil and spice. Aunt Three brought out the final dish—a big pot of longevity noodles topped with poached eggs and green onions. The colors were bright, cheerful, festive.
There was even a bottle of Laojiao liquor on the table, one of Jing An's rare collectibles.
"Don't worry, Grandma," Jing Shu said with a confident grin. "They won't be staying long. I guarantee it." When the flood came, nobody would have time to linger anyway.
Grandma Jing didn't press further. She ladled a bowl of noodles and two eggs for Grandpa Jing. "Stop puffing that smoke all over the house. You're the birthday boy today. You don't have to eat everything, but this you must finish."
Jing Shu blinked in surprise. It was Grandpa's birthday? Right, he went by the lunar calendar. She could never keep track of that. Every year during Spring Festival, she had to check her phone just to figure out the date.
Grandpa Jing chuckled awkwardly as he stubbed out his cigarette. "Just trying to cover the smell of food, that's all. Old Zhang across the street keeps asking if we're eating fish and meat every day… cough, cough. Birthday or not, I'm not one for celebrations. But these longevity noodles, I'll definitely eat."
He slurped down a bowl and two eggs in no time, and the rest of the family finally started eating.
The dishes were plentiful—crispy fried yellow croaker, pickled cucumber, cured pork with garlic shoots, smoked duck, old hen stew, century eggs with chili, braised ribs, stewed catfish. More meat than vegetables.
Most of the meat had come from frozen stock, and the fresh produce in the villa couldn't keep up with how much the family consumed. The crops in her Cube Space had been dried for storage long ago.
Jing An poured a small cup of liquor and grinned. "It's the best we can do for now. The news says the disaster's over, that dawn's almost here. Give it another couple of years and things might go back to how they were. When that happens, we'll throw you a proper 90th birthday party."
Grandpa Jing tilted his head back and drained the cup, smacking his lips in satisfaction. "You all shouldn't have gone to this much trouble," he said, waving his hand. "Look at this spread, such a waste. Anyway, the reason I called this family meeting is to get everyone's opinion."
Jing Shu lifted her own bowl of noodles, scooped up a poached egg, and took a bite. The yolk broke open, golden and soft, flooding her mouth with rich flavor. Eggs nourished by the Spirit Spring always had that special taste—she could eat them every day and never get tired.
"Grandpa, what do you want our opinion on?" she asked curiously. It had been a while since he'd looked this serious about something.
Jing Lai brought out a big teapot, Wu City style, and poured each person a cup of hot milk tea. The tea was a deep caramel color with a layer of white milk skin floating on top. Ever since milk became abundant, people had gotten used to drinking milk tea like water.
Unlike bubble tea, Wu City milk tea was made from pure milk simmered with strong tea leaves and a pinch of salt, then topped with a rich layer of buttered milk skin. One sip of that warmth on a freezing doomsday night, and your whole body melted into comfort.
Before the apocalypse, milk tea had been a staple on every table in Wu City—people drank it before meals, when thirsty, or even to fill their stomachs. Now, it was a luxury.
Jing Shu loved both kinds—the sweet bubble tea with rose syrup or chocolate like a rich lady's dessert, and the salty, creamy Wu City milk tea that tasted like home. Just like sweet versus salty tofu pudding, both had their own charm.
Her family had more milk than they knew what to do with, so Grandma Jing often boiled it down into jars of milk skin—a snack Jing Shu couldn't go a day without.
Grandpa Jing took another shot of liquor, then sighed. "Lately, people have been saying the big earthquake stopped two or three months ago. If it were like before, we'd have seen another disaster by now. But there's been nothing at all. So… is it really like the news says? Is the apocalypse coming to an end?"
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New announcement (I add something here, this is more detailed than previous one)
So, I Became a Fairy And Lived Forever In The Fairy World is already rewritten and uploaded on AO3, and the Webnovel version has been updated too. Now it's The Cube Queen's Apocalypse Feast's turn, and I'm rewriting it while uploading the polished chapters here on AO3.
Right now, besides working on The Cube Queen, I'm also redoing When Everyone Cultivates. I'll rewrite it all the way up to the latest chapter I've already posted. Once I finish that, I'll move on to my other AO3 projects and give them the same treatment, rewriting and polishing everything before updating them.
After I finish the AO3 rewrites, I'll go back to updating my ongoing AO3 stories. Then I'll rotate between posting on AO3 and continuing my Webnovel projects. When The Cube Queen on AO3 finally catches up to the newest Webnovel chapter, I'll pick another completed Webnovel project, rewrite it, and publish the polished version on AO3.
That means each story will eventually have two versions, the polished one with my current style and the original one where you can see my whole journey as a translator and how my style slowly turned into what it is now on my webnovel.
If you want to follow my work, feel free to subscribe to my AO3 under Rikhi, and for announcements or updates, you can join my Discord at discord.gg/75sprU6DdD