Chapter 6: The Same World, The Same Mother

Jing Shu exercised while closing her eyes and entering the Magic Cube Space. She selected the seeds necessary for pickling vegetables and making sauces before the apocalypse and began planting them in the fields. The fields in the Magic Cube Space didn’t require seedling raising, watering, or pollination. But Jing Shu still decided that she would raise bees in the fields when the time came, as honey is good for beauty treatments and can be used to make face masks. After some thought, Jing Shu had her plan set: 12 square meters for chili peppers. With the aid of the Spiritual Spring, she could harvest every 5-6 days continuously, a crucial ingredient for making Chili Sauce, spicy kimchi, and spicy beef jerky. 6 square meters for Wujiang pickles, harvested every 7-8 days. Grandma Jing was a master at various pickling methods, and the thought of savoring Wujiang pickles with steamed buns during the apocalypse felt mouthwatering. 6 square meters for Chinese cabbage, with a 5-6 day harvest cycle. Spicy kimchi, crispy pickled cabbage, and sour cabbage not only store well and don’t draw much attention during the apocalypse, but they are also very appetizing side dishes. 3 square meters for white turnips, harvested every 5 days. Making pickled side dishes, other preserved vegetables, and pickled white turnip dishes to store could last a year or two. 3 square meters for cucumbers, harvested every 6-7 days. The thought of pickled cucumbers was enough to make Jing Shu’s mouth water. 2 square meters for bamboo shoots, harvested every 5-6 days. Pickled bamboo shoots with chili and preserved pickled bamboo shoots were simply unparalleled. 2 square meters for long beans, harvested every 7-8 days. Once pickled, they were the perfect complement to instant noodles. 2 square meters for garlic, harvested every 6 days. Eating sweet garlic and marinated garlic cloves by themselves was something Jing Shu could do easily—space-produced meant guaranteed quality. The garlic grown here wouldn’t be like those flashy cheap goods from outside. She also had to start cultivating garlic sprouts and couldn’t be careless with it. Jing Shu densely sowed the seeds and covered them with a thin layer of soil. After all, nutritional deficiencies or uneven sunlight weren’t an issue in the space’s fields. 58 Tongcheng was very efficient. Mr. Jing had already received several calls and scheduled times for potential buyers to view the house tomorrow, even taking half a day off for it. Jing Shu didn’t join the bustling activity. Although she had no money, she couldn’t afford to waste time. She took her parents’ medical insurance cards and planned to go to the pharmaceutical wholesale center next to the Wu City Tumor Hospital to buy medicines tomorrow. The prices there were not only cheap, but there were also no restrictions on quantity, likely to accommodate the huge demand from the tumor hospital. In her previous life, Jing Shu visited every six months to bring back many medicines for all her relatives. In the early days of the apocalypse, the medical insurance card was limited to a daily spending of 100 yuan. It wasn’t long before it couldn’t be used at all. It was a pity that the tens of thousands of yuan in Mrs. Jing’s insurance card couldn’t be used up. Both Mr. Jing and Grandma Jing had high blood pressure, and after the apocalypse, medicine became even harder to come by. It was such a pity that Grandpa and Grandma passed away in the first year... This life would not repeat the same mistakes! Jing Shu also asked Mr. Jing for the original design blueprints of the villa, planning to modify the design herself so she wouldn’t be at a loss when people came to renovate. With her plans well-prepared, Jing Shu returned to her bedroom and turned on her laptop. She copied down Baidu entries, maps, recipes, and medical knowledge, and then she downloaded a ’Library’ software. While the computer was downloading, Jing Shu reviewed a tutorial for the Five-stage Rubik’s Cube and began practicing it. The two years leading up to the apocalypse could be spent in the villa. However, in the subsequent years of the apocalypse, the villa wouldn’t be safe, and she’d have to join the main groups, constantly on the move. Her current space was too small; Jing Shu needed to upgrade the Magic Cube Space as soon as possible. She still had a lot to prepare. 「...」 "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!" "Today’s morning news..." The soy milk blender made irregular booming noises, like exploding shells, mixed with the rhythmic sounds of chopping vegetables, Mrs. Jing’s dissatisfied nagging, Mr. Jing’s aggrieved retorts, and the sound of the news broadcast... Voices filled her ears. In the same world with the same mother, it wouldn’t be normal if she didn’t vent her emotions or wake up everyone in the building bright and early. "Ahh! My first lazy morning since I’ve been reborn!" Jing Shu tossed and turned. Before the apocalypse, no matter how loud it was outside, she could sleep like a log. She could even answer in her sleep whether she wanted fried eggs or boiled! After the apocalypse, Jing Shu became prone to nervousness and would awaken easily, scared that the next moment there would be a big earthquake, a flood, or that they would be surrounded by rotting corpses washed up by the tide, among other problems. Finally, Jing Shu washed up, dark circles under her eyes. Mr. Jing and Mrs. Jing had already gone to work. The soy milk was still steaming. Jing Shu added sugar and stirred it. With one hand, she devoured a rolled egg pancake with sausage. She quickly finished a plate of chilled cucumbers with her chopsticks and grabbed the last steamed sweet potato. Without peeling it, she swallowed it whole. The sweetness of the sweet potato flesh and the chewy skin took their time to break down in her mouth, giving her the greatest sense of satisfaction as she swallowed. The soy milk was the grand finale. Its rich aroma and subtle sweetness spread from the tip of her tongue to her throat with each swallow, the warm liquid comfortingly filling her stomach. No wonder Mrs. Jing’s breakfasts were the best of the three meals a day; they were mostly pre-cooked. A little heating and cooking were required, and there was hardly any skill involved. Once she had the money, Jing Shu would definitely go to the frozen food center and stock up wholesale. After eating, Jing Shu went straight out to buy medicine by taxi, taking with her a never-before-used credit card with a 40,000 yuan overdraft limit. The pharmaceutical wholesale center was just about twice the size of an ordinary large drugstore. As soon as she walked in, a sales associate approached with a basket, smiling as brightly as a flower, "Hello, what do you need?" A glance confirmed it—that was the smile of someone who had spotted a paying customer. "Hello, I’m here to buy medicine for my grandparents and relatives in the countryside. Here are the hospital certificates and their ID photos, a total of 11 people," Jing Shu proficiently took out the documentation, as some medicines couldn’t be purchased without proof. The sales associate’s smile grew even more intense. "For high blood pressure medication, there are national subsidies. You’ll need to register for that." "I want to buy a lot at once to avoid the trouble of carrying medicines back and forth. Can I use my medical insurance card?" "No problem, just place your medical insurance card here. Our branches take turns with the processing. Once the payment is settled, we’ll give you a call to come and collect it," the experienced associate said. She added that this would save Jing Shu the trouble of switching drugstores daily to use her medical insurance card. Jing Shu showed the associate the medicine Grandma Jing needed, making the rest of the process easy. There was already a large quantity for the 11 people, and she bought two years’ worth of medication for each, which was plenty. With the remaining 10,000-plus yuan on the medical insurance card, Jing Shu bought common medicines: Heatstroke Relief Pills, medical alcohol, saline, cooling oil, Wind Oil Essence, and Huo Xiang Zheng Qi Water. She bought a lot of the Yunnan Baiyao powder, things that could save lives during the apocalypse. When Jing Shu requested a whole box of Wind Oil Essence, the sales associate gave her a meaningful look. She’d heard that many young people liked to apply Wind Oil Essence to their private parts for a thrill... After leaving her medical insurance card and password, and registering the information of distant relatives and neighbors, Jing Shu paid a 200 yuan delivery fee for the medicines to be sent to her home. After the delivery man left, she let the medicine chests remain in the living room. Jing Shu already had an excuse ready for why she had bought so much medicine. She checked off the medicines on her phone’s list, then glanced at the time—it was only 11 AM. Jing Shu didn’t stop; she immediately went out and took a cab to Wu City’s livestock breeding base. Jing Shu urgently needed to raise some livestock. Making dried or smoked meat was really secondary. The main reason was to test how diluted the Spiritual Spring needed to be to best enhance human bodies and to see if drinking Spiritual Spring had the potential downside of accelerating aging!