Jing Shu hurriedly returned the salute, but accidentally raised her hand too high, turning it into a Young Pioneer salute… emmm, she got a bit too excited.
In this area, more than a dozen desks and chairs were arranged, handling over ten cases of fights, thefts, and other disputes simultaneously. The arrival of the Dark Days has led to an increase in thefts in Wucheng recently. Nearby stood several thieves locked in front of desks, couples who had fought, and those who took advantage of the chaos to commit misdeeds.
The reason Jing Shu was excited was that she saw two extremely heavy, wall-embedded, giant safes—the so-called gun safes—with dedicated officers standing guard beside them.
China isn’t like foreign countries, where post-apocalyptic sci-fi scenes play out every day. Domestically, well, in Jing Shu’s 32 years of previous life, she had never seen ordinary people possessing guns.
If the apocalypse abroad was like “Game of Thrones,” comparing heavy weapons, then the apocalypse domestically was like “Farm Tools Battle,” with various shovels, kitchen knives, and hoes, imitating gangsters in groups—the level was not just a little lower [facepalm].
In TV dramas and novels, people easily rob armories shortly after the apocalypse… Well, in Jing Shu’s experience, that never succeeded.
First, the apocalypse didn’t happen suddenly but slowly, like boiling a frog in warm water, gradually encroaching. By the time you realized it, it was already too late, so there was no sudden collapse of the social system.
Second, small-scale groups attempting this were just sending themselves to their deaths.
Third, even if the armory was right in front of you, if you didn’t know the password and couldn’t open the safe, you were helpless. Forcibly tampering with the safe would lock it directly; you couldn’t pry it open or smash it—it’s just a lump of iron!
Fourth, even if you knew the password, opening the safe required network authorization, on-site authorization, and verification—three levels of passwords. Just like transferring over 500,000 yuan from a bank requires network authorization, even if you overcame all obstacles and opened a safe.
But guns and bullets were stored separately. You might have bullets but no gun, or a gun but no bullets—choose one!
Emmm…
In China, obtaining weapons is truly difficult. Jing Shu had been thinking of ways, but didn’t expect that, by coincidence today, she encountered the safes and could stand openly beside them. Otherwise, try standing next to the safes without a reason and see what happens.
They might turn you into a sieve.
Could Jing Shu not be excited?
Standing beside the two safes, she pretended to send a voice message to her mother while using the Rubik’s Cube space’s feature: it can store items in contact with an object—in other words, she touched the safe and stored the items inside. The safe didn’t make any strange noises!
Yes! It works!
The safes were tall and heavy, containing about dozens of weapons. The more advanced ones should be in even more secure armories.
Jing Shu quickly took two unnumbered handguns to delay the possibility of being discovered. Then, in another safe, she found bullets and swiftly stored some. The whole process took less than five seconds.
“Please go elsewhere to make phone calls,” the duty officer waved his hand, not allowing people to get close.
“Sorry, sorry,” Jing Shu slipped away, almost saluting again.
Using the Rubik’s Cube space to steal things might be the most awkward kind of cheat, but to save her life in the future, Jing Shu still did it, and when she got back, she needed to practice properly to enhance her trump cards.
Not long after, Jing Shu’s father finished giving his statement and came out. He scratched his head helplessly: “When I get excited, I can’t control myself!”
The young officer, Zhao Yun shook hands with Jing Shu’s father and joked, “Remember, next time don’t hit the face. His face was so swollen we couldn’t understand what he was saying; we had to guess.”
“Absolutely, absolutely.”
“Alright then, thanks to you, we’ve caught the largest local seller of industrial water. In a few days, once everything is settled, you can come back to receive your commendation for bravery. For now, go home.”
Jing Shu’s father and Jing Shu picked up her mother after work to go home together. Although it was daytime, the streetlights in Wucheng were dazzling. Huge LED screens on skyscrapers flaunted their light shows, turning Wucheng into a bustling city that never sleeps—a final splendor before the storm.
There was always a snowplow clearing thick dust on the road. Pedestrians wore double-layered masks and hats, dressed in shorts and T-shirts. Despite holding umbrellas, each person still had a layer of dust on them. They held 30-yuan milk teas but didn’t dare to drink, afraid of swallowing dirt.
These were people rushing about for their livelihood. The elderly and children no longer dare to go out in such hot weather.
On the way, Jing Shu’s father said that recently, he didn’t know why, but he became particularly impulsive and always wanted to hit people. Jing Shu’s mother nodded in agreement: “Didn’t I chip my tooth? Today I found out it was my colleague, Tian Qing, who came along when we were selling the house. To please Yu Cainai, she deliberately messed with me. I was so angry I couldn’t control myself and slapped her twice.”
Jing Shu was shocked, her mouth wide open. It turned out that her butterfly effect from raising the house price led to Yu Cainai’s resentment, causing her mother to lose a tooth. No wonder this didn’t happen in her previous life.
“Are you okay?” Jing Shu’s father asked nervously.
“She tried to scratch me, so I gently pushed her, but she deliberately slammed herself hard against the wall, injuring herself so badly that her head was bleeding, and she needed seven stitches. She’s really ruthless towards herself, causing me to be reprimanded, have my bonus deducted, and write a self-criticism—it’s infuriating.” Her mother said aggrievedly.
“As long as you’re okay,” Jing Shu’s father said, holding her hand while driving, ignoring their daughter sitting in the back seat.
Jing Shu’s mouth twitched. Perhaps her mother hadn’t realized how strong she had become. Maybe the colleague didn’t deliberately hit the wall.
See how the spiritual spring turned a gentle hen into an extremely fierce battle chicken, turned crucian carp into fighting piranhas, and made her whole family resolve issues with force. Maybe this is a drawback of the spiritual spring?
Being able to provoke her mother’s anger, Jing Shu thought it was actually not bad.
When they got home, it was already 6:30 p.m. Jing Shu added water to the leftover rice from lunch and boiled it into porridge. She chopped the marinated tenderloin into small pieces, blanched them to remove foam and any off-flavors, chopped preserved eggs, and when the porridge was ready, added the tenderloin and preserved eggs, stirred, added oil and salt, sprinkled chopped green onions—a delicious and nourishing preserved egg and lean meat porridge was served!
Side dishes were cold-dressed enoki mushrooms and chilled sliced beef shank.
At 7 p.m., the family watched TV while having dinner. The current situation is not good. The continuous high temperatures not only caused mass deaths of livestock but also severely damaged crops, directly burning most of the nearly mature and half-mature vegetables and grains, causing vegetable and fruit prices to triple again!
Originally, it was expected that the Dark Days would reduce crop yields for a month, but now, except for greenhouses with temperature control, there would be no harvest for the next quarter.
Wang Qiqi, Building 13: “@Everyone, I just returned from the hospital. Unfortunately, I have to tell you that our neighbor Luo Hao died due to heavy metal poisoning compounded by heatstroke. Rescue efforts were unsuccessful!”
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