Chapter 25: Life and Death Seen Lightly, If You Don’t Agree, Just Bring It On!

Fortunately, Mr. Jing and Grandma Jing were illiterate and thus unharmed. If the old couple could read, could they have endured the pressure from such public scorn? Jing Shu’s fists were already clenching, her knuckles cracking. Being cursed at by tens of thousands of people—how many could endure it? Jing Shu had returned from the apocalypse covered in wounds; she was not one for pretense and lived by a single creed. Take life and death lightly; if you don’t like it, then fight! Being bullied and waiting until the apocalypse to kill them for satisfaction wasn’t Jing Shu’s style. She preferred to immediately see the undisguisable hatred in their eyes, even as they were forced to kneel and beg for mercy. The plot of *Yanxi Strategy*, where characters died in every episode, offered a temporary thrill. However, Jing Shu preferred her enemies to struggle for survival in the apocalypse. She liked to check in on them every few Chapters, metaphorically speaking, and occasionally sprinkle more salt on their wounds... The best course of action now wasn’t to hire a troll army to battle Zhu Zhengqi’s trolls in the livestream. That would be a waste of money and pointless. Jing Shu’s livestream was just a cover for her food hoarding; she had no intention of becoming inexplicably popular. "Hello? Heng Jin? Can you look up someone’s dark history for me? His name is Zhu Zhengqi. I’ll send his phone number to your WeChat. Great, I’m keeping up with Sun Yinrui’s news every day. You guys are doing great. Should the final blow be released soon?" "What? He actually said he found the woman who accused him and that she’s willing to testify in court about being bribed? Ha, I’m curious where Sun Yinrui found such an impostor." "Don’t worry, I will eventually testify in court. At this stage, keeping it confidential isn’t important anymore." After hanging up, Jing Shu pondered for a moment. Had Sun Yinrui not only bragged to his son but also bragged to other women he’d been intimate with? Could it be Su Meimei? That would expose their affair—the final blow! Jing Shu was sure that with this last strike, Sun Yinrui would be finished. Sun Yinrui’s wife would hammer him to death. Yes, Sun Yinrui’s wife was abusive, and he depended on her. The logistics company belonged to her family, which was how Sun Yinrui managed the logistics in Wu City. Even if Sun Yinrui had been proven guilty before, the company would still have handled his public relations and supported him. But if Sun Yinrui’s wife found out he had another woman... That tigress’s abuse was so severe that even ten years into the apocalypse, Sun Yinrui wouldn’t dare to be openly defiant, a testament to her ferocity. Perhaps because his wife was so dominant and abusive, Sun Yinrui had sought out Su Meimei, who, despite not being attractive, knew how to feign gentleness. It’s worth mentioning that in this age of beauty filters and Photoshop, Su Meimei was the only one who, even after applying all the digital enhancements, still didn’t give off the typical "beautified by filters" look; the effects were hardly noticeable on her. 「In the following days」 Jing Shu remained as busy as ever, pickling various vegetables. Pickled mustard greens, though the simplest, required salt for dehydration. This involved a repetitive process of drawing out water, salting, pressing out more water, and adding more salt—a cycle of pressing that gave the vegetable its name. Pickled mustard greens filled 13 large urns, the largest quantity of all her pickled vegetables. They weren’t the tastiest, but in the apocalypse, they were unassuming, had a long shelf life, and were quite sustaining. She made 5 urns of sweet garlic, which also needed to be dehydrated with salt, then seasoned, sealed tightly in urns, and stirred daily. It was ready in a few days. Next, pickled radishes, pickled cucumbers, lettuce, winter bamboo shoots, and pickled green beans all required salt dehydration before being seasoned according to their recipes, packed into jars, and left to pickle. In comparison, making various other pickles was much simpler. She chopped leftover carrots, long beans, cabbage, lettuce, and cucumbers, packed them into large urns in batches, added water and various spices, and sealed them. They were ready to eat in just two or three days and offered a different flavor from the salt-cured items. Sweet and sour radish was a bit more troublesome, needing to be simmered slowly over a low heat for four or five hours to extract a tasty juice. The simplest was pickling garlic sprouts. Just cut them into segments, soak them in vinegar, and that was it. Whenever she felt like eating some, she could just take them out, or soak more whenever needed. These past few days, Jing Shu had pickled so many vegetables that she ran out of salt and had to order another 250 kilograms of sodium-free salt. It’s worth mentioning that Jing Shu had sold 10 portions of sweet garlic, about a dozen portions of pickled cucumbers, and several dozen portions of sweet and sour radish in the past few days, each for 998 yuan. Jing Shu felt quite helpless. She didn’t know if her sarcasm that day had worked, but the next day, her stream’s popularity, originally at 50,000 viewers, suddenly soared to several hundred thousand. This instantly catapulted her to around the fifteenth most popular broadcaster, and she incidentally dominated the leaderboards for most barrages, most eggs thrown, and landed in the top three for fastest rising popularity. Jing Shu wanted to turn off the livestream for some peace and quiet, but Mr. Jing noticed and said, "How are you supposed to stream if the switch isn’t even on...?" The troll army was having a field day, attracting countless onlookers curious to see which broadcaster was getting pelted with over a hundred thousand eggs in a single day. But since most of the trolls were custom bots cycling through a few pre-set phrases, mindlessly spewing the ugliest hate they could and flooding the screen with comments, the curious onlookers quickly figured out what was going on. Then, some onlookers rebutted: "Who did the broadcaster offend to get trashed so badly?" "Rich kids are so aloof, getting trashed but not caring. Don’t they know to hire their own troll army to fight back?" "I checked her previous videos. Her ingredients are genuinely good and everything looks so clean. I believe she’s making them for her relatives and her own family. It’s not as bad as those trolls are saying." "I really don’t see what there is to criticize here. She’s just making some pickles and not saying a word." "Damn, my comment got pushed down so fast! Guys, charge! Let’s take down these trolls!" So, one side formed spontaneously from ordinary viewers who simply wanted to overpower the troll army. When they realized they couldn’t beat them alone, they shared the stream on various forums to rally support. The issue even became a minor trending topic on Weibo, with people asking, "Are troll armies really this arrogant nowadays?" This attracted even more people to combat the trolls. Just when the troll army seemed about to be overwhelmed, another wave of over a hundred thousand trolls surged in, ironically propelling Jing Shu’s stream into the top three. As the numbers on both sides swelled, a few big spenders were drawn into the fray, and the topic of discussion began to drift. "These are premium ingredients, so they’re bound to be expensive, but 998 yuan is a bit too much." "She’s not begging you to buy them; she already said they are for relatives and personal consumption. That’s how rich kids are." "I really like Grandma; she seems to know how to pickle everything. I’ve learned a lot." "I like Grandpa. He seems to be a carpenter, good at all sorts of things, and he’s a great storyteller too—loves to spin a yarn!" "The broadcaster herself is barely noticeable. Why is she constantly just washing vegetables?" "But she has this icy goddess vibe. My Sister Jing doesn’t say much; washing vegetables is her forte." "I can’t take it anymore; this looks so appetizing! Each portion is two liters! Even the container looks so classy—must cost at least a few dozen yuan, right? Nowadays, it’s hard to find food this clean, without additives, and with such good ingredients. I’m pregnant and scared to eat out. No matter how expensive, safe food is what matters most. I’ll be the first to try it for everyone!" First, one person placed an order. Then, more people jumped on the bandwagon. So, while the troll army and the public were still skirmishing in the chat, a new wave of affluent viewers began buying various pickles. Within two days, some wealthy patrons started dominating the screen with various gifts, defending Jing Shu and decrying the injustice against her. They even posted unboxing videos to prove how delicious the pickles were—so good they brought tears to their eyes! This, in turn, attracted more curious people to buy a portion, and from there, things truly spiraled out of control.