Chapter 57: Artificial Sun Plan

Wang Qiqi No.13: "I suggest everyone go earlier and catch the 9 a.m. direct bus to Ai Family Supermarket to line up. Scalpers line up at the big supermarkets in the city from early morning. They reserve spots for 500 yuan each, which results in many people still not getting their turn even after the supermarket closes." Wang Dazhao No.1: "Then I will go line up early tomorrow morning. My wife is pregnant and she wants some vegetables and fruits. If anyone has contact with scalpers, please let me know, thank you!" Wang Qiqi No.13: "Now you can only get them in the countryside, and they are expensive too. I’ll give you the number. The approximate prices are: apples 500 yuan per half-kilogram, mushrooms 200 yuan per half-kilogram, potatoes 300 yuan per half-kilogram, cabbage 500 yuan per half-kilogram, winter melon 400 yuan per half-kilogram, pumpkin 500 yuan per half-kilogram, carrots 600 yuan per half-kilogram. Buy them soon. Prices will likely go up." Wang Dazhao expressed his gratitude and then advertised his car again in the group, selling his little BMW for five thousand yuan. He was lambasted by the luxury car dealer from Building 5: "Stop embarrassing yourself with that junk BMW. No one wants my Land Rover even for ten thousand yuan. Anyone interested in a Maserati for twenty thousand yuan? However, the car is at the factory, and you’d have to arrange for a car hauler yourself. This discounted price won’t be available after Dark Day ends! If no one wants it, I’ll ask again in a bit." Wang Cuihua sent a voice message: "Anyone who buys a car now is a fool; a car without fuel won’t even get you home." Jing Shu noticed that Wang Cuihua, this elder lady, was a chat terminator. As soon as she joined the conversation, it essentially died. "Grandma, look, cabbage, apples, and pumpkins are all the same price now, 500 yuan per half-kilogram," Jing Shu said to Grandma Jing, who was making dinner. "Quickly call your elder aunt and ask her not to sell the apples. Such a high price means they are really running out." "Okay. And to think, you found 10-yuan cabbage too expensive back then." Regretfully slapping her thigh, Grandma Jing said, "Back then I thought 20-yuan pumpkins were expensive and didn’t buy them, and now suddenly I feel like eating pumpkin pies." So, when Jing Shu brought over four or five big pumpkins, Grandma Jing’s surprised eyes couldn’t hide her excitement. Jing Shu explained, "We’ve been harvesting lots of vegetables and seeds in the past two months. Grandma, just let me know if there’s anything else you want to eat." "Oh, my dear granddaughter!" Jing Shu calculated the timing. Previously, the countryside had already been expropriated of some goods, like her elder aunt’s apples. Now, the vegetables being sold were mostly those harvested at the beginning of the apocalypse and stored in cellars. She wondered if these greedy folks would regret not having vegetables to eat later on. Vegetables like apples, pumpkins, and carrots could last quite a while in cold storage, nearly half a year, but these were likely the last batch of a wide variety of vegetables available. Once this batch of vegetables was bought and consumed, only single-variety vegetables would remain. These either came from government greenhouses operating on half the usual energy, or were grown by locals in Wu City and the surrounding rural areas. These locals used homemade greenhouses, cooled them with air conditioning, and irrigated them with personally transported canal water. Alternatively, a few plants with exceptionally strong life force managed to grow a little on their own. However, what was grown was almost negligible compared to the population of several million. In another month, cabbage might be hard to buy even for a thousand yuan. With no sunlight, scarce water, and high temperatures directly killing 90% of vegetables, four months into the apocalypse, there were only a few vegetables like mushrooms, leeks, garlic, crown daisy, and spinach that could be grown as long as temperature and moisture were controlled. The governments of each district in Wu City were experimenting in constant temperature greenhouses on how to mass-produce these vegetables. Unfortunately, the results weren’t very good so far, mainly because the cost was too high and the yield too low. This time, Mrs. Jing had been appointed as the Deputy Director of the Dark Day Agriculture Research and Development Management Department, sharing the position with the previous leader, Yu Caini. The two of them managed the research work of one of the thirteen districts in Wucheng District. In essence, Mrs. Jing had jumped three levels to become a ’Deputy Director’, while Yu Caini was promoted one level to also become a ’Deputy Director’, sharing the same rank. Yu Caini, who was always looking for trouble, hadn’t expected that not only would she fail to bring down Su Lanzi, but Su Lanzi would end up her equal in rank! What was worse, they were now set to compete against each other! Mrs. Jing quickly peeled a grape and popped it into her mouth, saying in dismay, "I have to compete with Yu Caini. Whoever performs better in this month will be confirmed in their position, and after determining the winner among the thirteen districts, the location for constructing Wu City’s Artificial Sun will be decided." At that moment, Mr. Jing, Mr. Jing, Third Aunt Jing Lai, and Wu You’ai were all neatly seated at the dining table, waiting for the meal to start. Hearing Mrs. Jing’s words, Mr. Jing asked in surprise, "An artificial sun can be made? Like hanging a sun up in the sky to emit sunlight? Good gracious, that’s really something. Does that mean, whether the Dark Day ends or not, it’s all the same?" Mrs. Jing was at a loss for words. Jing Shu, bombarded with news in her previous life, explained, "Grandpa, it’s not like what you think. If the sun is a high-temperature, high-pressure heat furnace generating light energy through continuous nuclear fusion, then an artificial sun is essentially a superconducting tokamak that can sustain large-scale nuclear fusion under high temperatures, like the sun, engaging in nuclear fusion. It’s not suspended in the air but placed in water to generate nuclear fusion, thus providing humans with a continuous and inexhaustible source of clean energy." Mrs. Jing nodded appreciatively and added, "Yes, that’s about right. So next month, they’re probably going to shut down all other energy supplies to prioritize the Artificial Sun." "So, electricity, gas, and oil shutdowns are all related to the Artificial Sun? How does this Artificial Sun provide energy if it’s not hanging in the sky?" Mr. Jing was still confused. Having lived another life as a poor student, Jing Shu seized the opportunity to flaunt the little knowledge she had retained: "In 2018, Huaxia’s artificial sun first achieved operations at one hundred million degrees, costing millions of yuan per second and consuming countless energy resources. Yet, it still had some distance to go for controlled nuclear fusion." "The energy generated by the Artificial Sun through nuclear fusion in seawater can support indoor artificial photosynthesis to grow crops. It can also utilize seawater to address fresh water shortages, and even split water to produce fuel for cars." Mr. Jing, Mr. Jing, and Third Aunt all looked on with an ’I don’t understand but it sounds impressive’ expression, and Jing Shu sighed, not bothering to explain further. However, Wu You’ai, the little king of sabotage, pointed at the dishes on the table and said, "Your family’s fish doesn’t conform to biological theories, and these bean sprouts, even if they went through some freak mutation, couldn’t sprout extra shoots. I need to call the professor and ask..." Jing Shu, feeling a headache coming on, stuffed a pumpkin cake into Wu You’ai’s mouth, "Eat your meal. Just think about the consequences if the professor finds out you still have fish to eat, but he doesn’t!" "Your family’s pumpkins are off too..." That evening, the news indeed mentioned the Artificial Sun and its potential benefits upon success, making grand promises to offer some hope in this apocalyptic era, aiming to keep everyone calm and prevent trouble. So the Artificial Sun project was indeed being implemented in this lifetime as well.