Sometimes fate is just like that—the more you don’t want to be entangled with something, the more it clings to you. Just like Jing Shu’s father, but that’s a story for another time.
In the following days, the whole family plunged into a busy life.
Jing Shu’s father was responsible for planting a dwarf apple tree full of sweet apples in the front yard and transplanting an apricot tree laden with small white apricots into the backyard. “Do they sell fruit trees with fruit already on them now? Why are the tree roots wrapped into a cube?”
“What do you know? This is high-tech, which allows the fruit trees to bear so much fruit. We’ll have fresh fruit to eat for the next month,” Grandpa Jing said, drooling, but his teeth began to ache again. He didn’t know when his new teeth would grow or how long the pain would last—truly suffering.
Jing Shu held back her laughter and said nothing. This apple tree occupied a full one cubic meter of her space; the roots had nowhere to grow and ended up tangled together.
Grandma Jing reorganized the front yard and planted vegetable seedlings. Grandpa Jing installed the lights, and Jing Shu’s father arranged the mushroom kits in the living room. In about ten days, various mushrooms will sprout.
Jing Shu’s mother was in charge of setting up grape trellises full of red grapes along the edges of the conservatory. There were three rows of flower racks in the middle, each with six layers. She then transplanted well-grown strawberries, sugar oranges, hawthorns, cherries, lychees, and more. For the fruits that grow on trees, entire branches were inserted into the soil with nutrient water, supposedly keeping them fresh for a long time.
Jing Shu was responsible for making canned snow pears, cherries, oranges, lychees, and yellow peaches; drying strawberries, pineapples, red dates, and grapes; making persimmon cakes from persimmons; and juicing pomegranates, watermelons, and oranges. She stored the juices in 2-liter sealed jars in her space, ready to drink anytime she wanted.
Due to the variety of fruits—and with the apple tree occupying one cubic meter of land—even after spending a month planting and harvesting three batches, the total amount wasn’t much. Jing Shu closed her live stream and didn’t sell any, leaving a message in the live stream room: “Will resume streaming after the Dark Days.”
This farewell might last ten years, or perhaps a lifetime.
Having prepared everything that needed to be done and with the apocalypse imminent, Jing Shu felt relaxed instead. This kind of relaxation was similar to the feeling before an exam—having done all the necessary preparations, just waiting for the test.
Perhaps it was this change in mindset that finally led to a qualitative change in the Rubik’s Cube she had been diligently practicing for nearly two months. Jing Shu felt a sense of enlightenment. As she practiced the Rubik’s Cube at night, she became faster and more proficient. Thoughts about the next move, even the next ten moves, emerged in her mind.
As the random colors decreased and when she made the last twist to form six sides of the same color, Jing Shu quickly pressed the timer.
“Ding~”
“95 seconds!”
She had reached the level of a professional ninth dan!
Immediately, Jing Shu felt a headache and fainted once again. The 5×5 Rubik’s Cube in her hand rapidly reassembled into a 6×6 Rubik’s Cube. Jing Shu’s Rubik’s Cube space was officially upgraded from a 4th-order cube to a 5×5×5 = 125 cubic meters 5th-order Rubik’s Cube space.
She was awakened again by her father’s screams. Having slept on the floor all night, Jing Shu rushed to the yard without caring about anything else, where Grandma and Grandpa Jing were already present.
Grandpa Jing held a shovel and said, “Stretch out your hand; I’ll knock it unconscious.”
Jing Shu’s father was holding a fishing net in one hand and shaking a fish vigorously with the other, but unfortunately, it wouldn’t come off, as if stuck with superglue. Jing Shu looked closely and realized that her father’s finger was being bitten by a crucian carp that wouldn’t let go.
The scene was somewhat… indescribable.
Grandpa Jing used the shovel to hit the fish several times. The fish was dead but still couldn’t be pulled off. Jing Shu’s father’s index finger was bleeding a bit. Grandma Jing, distressed, suggested cutting it open from the side with a knife.
“Sigh.” Jing Shu covered her face. Although she felt sorry for her father, why didn’t she feel sad at all? She even wanted to laugh a little.
In the end, Jing Shu smeared some oil inside the fish’s mouth, covered it with a black bag, and in an instant, stored the fish in her space. She then took it out again, solving a problem that had stumped the family for several minutes.
“I just wanted to catch something casually. Who knew the fish I caught would be so fierce?” Jing Shu’s father was a bit shaken. Were the fish in their pond all piranhas? This was too dangerous.
“If you want to eat fish, I’ll have to catch them. The fish in this pond are all wild and fierce.” As Jing Shu spoke, she stirred the net vigorously, causing the fish to scatter. Using the net to touch and leverage her space ability, she caught some crayfish. With a snap, she tied up the bag. “Look how fierce these crayfish are; they’re still holding the fish in their pincers. Shall we have spicy crayfish for lunch?”
“Good, good. My granddaughter didn’t eat so much for nothing,” Grandma Jing said, her smile widening. The elderly lady loved spicy crayfish, always putting the whole shrimp in her mouth to savor.
“How come I’m not even as good as my daughter?” Jing Shu’s father went to put on a bandage. Everyone on social media says that without sunlight during the Dark Days, we need to supplement various vitamins. Should we go buy some?”
“I’ve already bought them.” Jing Shu recalled how in her previous life, all kinds of vitamin supplements in pharmacies were sold out, and soon cooling and heat-relief medicines were also snapped up. Medical insurance cards were subsequently restricted. In this life, she had prepared everything in advance.
Jing Shu finally had time to look at her upgraded space and was very excited. She hadn’t achieved this in her previous life, but in this life, it only took her two months.
In the center was still the 1-cubic-meter spiritual spring, now connected to 12 pieces of black soil. The remaining 112 cubic meters of space meant that the 5th-order Rubik’s Cube space was twice as large as the 4th-order one, and even had six more pieces of black soil. Jing Shu was instantly filled with satisfaction.
Taking advantage of the time, Jing Shu organized her new 5th-order Rubik’s Cube space and re-planned her supplies:
– 1 cubic meter of seeds
– 3 cubic meters of chicken, duck, and quail eggs
– 10 cubic meters of various dried fruits
– 1 cubic meter of backup feed
– 1 cubic meter of fish and insect feed
– 1 cubic meter of bees
– 1 cubic meter of water for bees
– 5 cubic meters of gasoline
– 1 cubic meter of Häagen-Dazs ice cream
– 1 cubic meter of cooked steaks
– 1 cubic meter of fruit juice
– 1 cubic meter of beef jerky, diced rabbit meat, and various cooked meats
– 1 cubic meter of self-defense kitchen knives, daily necessities, and simple clothing
– 5 cubic meters for raising 10 pigs
– 8 cubic meters for raising 2 cows and 4 sheep
– 4 cubic meters for raising chickens
– 2 cubic meters for raising ducks
– 1 cubic meter for raising quails
– 1 cubic meter for raising rabbits
– 2 cubic meters for raising fish fry
In addition, Jing Shu spent a day collecting another 15 tons of mineral water into her space, occupying 15 cubic meters. If the villa’s filtration system had issues, this would be the last life-saving water.
She spent three days buying 10,000 liters of gasoline in batches, occupying another 10 cubic meters. When she wanted to buy more, gasoline was also limited and required ID verification.
She stored more than half of the home’s rice, flour, and oil in the space to extend their shelf life, occupying 15 cubic meters.
In total, she used 87 cubic meters, leaving 25 cubic meters of space.
Jing Shu also reorganized the black soil:
– 4 cubic meters continued to grow fruits; she planned to juice them and freeze the juice to welcome the scorching sun. The leftover fruit pulp could feed the pigs without waste.
– 8 cubic meters were planted with vegetables: tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, broad beans, sesame, soybeans, etc. She planned to gradually transplant some to the conservatory in the early stages of the apocalypse.
In the blink of an eye, it was December 31st.
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Author’s Note:
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