Chapter 38: I Can’t Control Myself!

Jing Shu quickly returned the gesture, but accidentally raised her hand too high, making it look like a Young Pioneer salute. Oops, a bit too excited. The municipal police station of Wu City was huge, with over a dozen desks arranged to simultaneously deal with mundane cases like disputes, fights, and thefts. Since the onset of the Dark Day, thefts in Wu City had been on the rise, and several thieves were handcuffed to the desks, alongside others involved in brawls, domestic disputes, and those who had lost their cats and couldn’t find them. Jing Shu was excited because she saw two particularly large and hefty gun cabinets embedded in the wall, with duty officers standing by. In Huaxia, unlike abroad where everyone has a gun and post-apocalypse gun battles are commonplace, the ban on guns is strictly enforced. Guns on the Black Market are smuggled from overseas and are in the hands of a very few. Jing Shu, who had lived for 32 years in her previous life, had never seen an armed robbery because the big shots with guns usually didn’t lack food. If post-apocalyptic life abroad is like a gunfight movie, with all sorts of machine gun fire looting supermarkets, then the apocalypse in Huaxia is more like a battle with farm tools, with crowds wielding iron shovels, kitchen knives, and hoes, looking straight out of a triad film—it’s on a completely different, much cruder, level. In TV shows and novels, people often raid police stations for weapons right after the apocalypse breaks out, getting their hands on guns to do whatever they please. But that had never happened successfully in Jing Shu’s experience. First, the apocalypse hadn’t arrived suddenly but had slowly crept up on everyone, like a frog being boiled in warm water. By the time you realized it was happening, it was already too late, and there was no sudden collapse of the political and police systems. Second, small-scale raids on police stations were equivalent to delivering one’s head on a platter. Third, even if you stood in front of the arms vault or gun cabinet, you couldn’t do anything without the password. If you attempted brute force, the safe would lock itself, impervious to prying or breaking—a real pile of iron scraps! Fourth, even if you knew the password, opening the gun cabinet required network authorization and onsite verification—three layers of passwords—just like how bank transfers over 500,000 require network authorization. Even if you managed to open a gun cabinet against all odds, the guns and ammunition were stored separately. So, you could have bullets without guns or guns without bullets—choose one! Hmm... Getting a gun in Huaxia was really tough, something Jing Shu had always been trying to figure out. By mere coincidence, she found herself facing the gun cabinet today, and she could stand beside it without arousing suspicion. Otherwise, just try standing by the gun cabinet at the police station for no reason. How could Jing Shu not be excited? Standing beside the two gun cabinets, Jing Shu was sending voice messages to Mrs. Jing while using the special ability of her Magic Cube Space: she could collect items she touched. This meant that when she touched the gun cabinet, she could stash away the items inside without triggering an alarm! YES! It worked! The gun cabinets were tall and bulky, containing approximately dozens of handguns likely to be used for police dispatches, while rifles and machine guns were stored in a more secure arsenal. Jing Shu quickly took two unnumbered handguns to avoid early detection. Then, she took some bullets from another cabinet and stuffed them swiftly. The whole process took less than five seconds. "Please make your call somewhere else," the duty officer gestured with his hand, not allowing anyone to come closer. "Sorry, sorry," Jing Shu slipped away, nearly saluting again. Using Magic Cube Space to steal guns might be one of the most awkward superpowers in history, but to survive in the apocalypse, Jing Shu did it anyway. After returning, she planned to practice extensively, adding a more solid card to her post-apocalyptic survival strategy. Soon after, Mr. Jing finished his statement and came out. He scratched his head helplessly. "I just can’t control myself when I get agitated," he said. The young Officer Zhao shook hands with Mr. Jing and joked, "Remember next time not to hit the face. His face was so swollen we couldn’t understand what he was saying and had to guess everything." "Definitely, definitely." "Alright, thanks to you guys for bringing down the biggest local industrial water filtering gang. We’ll finalize the case in a few days, and you can come back to record your acts of bravery. For now, go home." Mr. Jing and Jing Shu happened to pick up Mrs. Jing from work on their way home. Though it was daytime, the streetlights in Wu City were dazzling. The giant LEDs on skyscrapers boasted their light shows, turning the entire city into a bright and bustling Sleepless City, marking the last splendor before the apocalypse. There was always a snow-clearing truck on the roads, sweeping the thick dust. Pedestrians wore double masks and hats, shorts, and T-shirts. They carried umbrellas but still got a layer of dust on them, holding thirty-dollar milk teas they didn’t dare to drink for fear of getting a mouthful of dust. These were people bustling for a living, as the elderly and children dared not venture out in such hot weather. On the way, Mr. Jing said that he didn’t know why but he’d been particularly impulsive lately, constantly wanting to hit people. Mrs. Jing nodded in agreement, "I lost my tooth, didn’t I? I found out today it was that colleague Tian Qing who came with us when we sold the house, deliberately messing with me to curry favor with Yu Caini. I was so angry I lost control and gave her a couple of slaps." Jing Shu gaped in surprise. It turned out her butterfly effect from increasing the house price had led to Yu Caini’s resentment, ultimately causing Mrs. Jing to lose her tooth—an event that hadn’t occurred in her previous life. "Are you alright?" Mr. Jing asked anxiously. "She tried to scratch me, so I lightly pushed her, and she purposely rammed her head into the wall, ending up with a bloody head that needed seven stitches. She’s really cruel to herself. Because of her, I got a demerit, had my bonus deducted, and had to write a self-criticism—she’s infuriating," Baozi’s mother grumbled. "As long as you’re fine," Mr. Jing said, driving while reaching over to Baozi’s mother’s hand, ignoring their daughter in the back seat. Jing Shu’s mouth twitched. Mom probably hasn’t yet realized her own strength; that woman might not have actually hit the wall on purpose. Considering how the Spiritual Spring had turned a gentle old hen into a ferocious fighting chicken, common carp into bloodthirsty piranhas, and her whole family somewhat violent, perhaps this was one of its drawbacks? Still, if it could rouse Baozi’s hackles, Jing Shu thought it might not be so bad after all. It was already six-thirty when they got home, so Jing Shu boiled the leftover rice from lunch with more water to make porridge. She cut the marinated tenderloin into small pieces and poured boiling water over it to remove froth and any gamey smell. She chopped up century eggs, and when the porridge was ready, added the tenderloin and century eggs, stirring them in with some oil, salt, and sprinkled green onions. Delicious, stomach-soothing century egg and Shou Rou porridge was served! The side dishes were cold Enoki mushroom salad and cold sliced tendon. At seven o’clock, the family watched the news while eating dinner. The situation in Huaxia wasn’t good. Continuous high temperatures had caused mass livestock deaths and inflicted huge damage on crops. Most vegetables, fruits, and grains that were nearly or partially ripe had been scorched, causing their prices to triple again! It was originally estimated that Dark Day would reduce crop yields by one month, but now, except for greenhouses with temperature control, there would be no harvest for the next quarter. Wang Qiqi No.13: "@everyone, I just came back from the hospital, and unfortunately, I have to tell you that our neighbor Luo Hao died from metal poisoning combined with heatstroke after the rescue efforts failed!"