Chapter 108: "Preparing to Make Dried Vegetables":

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Precious medicinal herbs definitely needed to be planted. Things like Polygonum multiflorum, Gastrodia, ginseng, Cordyceps, and Panax notoginseng were not only useful for personal use but could save lives in the future when needed, making them highly valuable.

Jing Shu also planted some common herbs based on online guides, such as Astragalus, purslane, Isatis root, honeysuckle, angelica, motherwort, and hawthorn. These could be used for minor ailments like colds or headaches, and Panax notoginseng and angelica could help stop bleeding and reduce bruising for external injuries, eliminating the need to rely on spiritual spring water for everything.

As time passed, the value of these herbs would only increase. Jing Shu planned to eventually trade small amounts of medicinal herbs for other resources she might need.

As for vegetables, Jing Shu reserved one plot of land for daily vegetables.

The other five plots—30 surfaces in total—were fully planted with radishes and daylily flowers, with an estimated yield of over 1,000 pounds.

In the latter half of this first year of the apocalypse, Jing Shu planned to grow as many vegetables as possible. She would store a small portion in her space and turn the rest into dried vegetables and dried fruits, which would be handy when living in public spaces later on and would attract less attention.

Another important factor was the extreme heat that started in May of the first year of the apocalypse, which lasted for half a year. After this period, such temperatures would never occur again, making it impossible to sun-dry vegetables in the future.

This was the perfect time to naturally sun-dry vegetables and fruits, with extremely effective results. After a day of sun exposure, all moisture would be gone, and the dried goods could be stored in cold storage for long-term use. When needed, adding a little water would rehydrate the dried vegetables back into their fresh form, and their shelf life was very long. Dried vegetables were ideal for consumption during migrations.

In the second year of the apocalypse, even clothes would be damp, and food would quickly mold if left out. Mushrooms would grow everywhere. At that point, only a drying machine could be used to make dried vegetables. That’s why Jing Shu planned to make as many dried vegetables and fruits as possible in the second half of this year.

The last six plots of land were still occupied by coconut trees. Although it took over three months for them to grow, the mature coconuts were well worth it, producing a harvest every five days. Jing Shu used the Second Form of her Rubik’s Cube space to make various coconut-based foods, such as coconut milk pudding, coconut sticky rice, and coconut jelly. She even occasionally enjoyed fresh coconut water.

The temperature had risen from over 40 degrees Celsius to 50 degrees, causing more people, who had gradually adjusted to the heat, to suffer from heatstroke again. The biggest issue was the severe water shortage.

People suffering from heatstroke now were essentially left to die; hospitals were no help since they had no medicine left. Meanwhile, their neighbors would be eagerly waiting for them to die so they could call the body disposal service and earn 2 points to trade for water.

This situation caused a chain reaction.

Families began exchanging whatever they could: seasonings, bedding, clothing, even kitchen knives and utensils. They used their work points to trade for rice and water, but the 500ml of water rationed per day was far from enough. People were willing to trade everything just to survive.

The people in Jing Shu's neighborhood had also used up their work points to get water. Even though everyone sipped it sparingly, it still wasn’t enough to keep up with their body’s demands. It wasn’t until five or six in the evening, when the temperature suddenly dropped to a few degrees, that things got slightly better.

Even Jing Shu, living in an air-conditioned room set to a constant 26 degrees, needed to drink over ten coconuts a day, eat ice cream, have yogurt shaved ice, and drink watermelon juice to stay hydrated.

“I wonder what Wu Youai is eating over at her mentor's place. Now that the gas supply has been cut off, they probably can’t even cook,” Grandma Jing said with concern.

“Alright, I’ll bring her some food.”

Jing Shu packed a large box of supplies, including tangyuan (sweet rice balls), preserved egg and lean meat porridge, braised meat, and a bucket of mineral water. It was more than enough for two people.

Since she could monitor Wu Youai’s situation through her phone, Jing Shu wasn’t too worried.

The anesthetist Alan’s prediction that Wu Youai would be in unbearable pain after the anesthesia wore off hadn’t come true. Instead, Jing Shu had seen Wu Youai lounging around, browsing her phone, reading comics, and snacking on biscuits and water. When she needed to use the bathroom, she didn’t even need to get out of bed.

That was because Chu Zhuohua had somehow managed to get hold of a hospital bed equipped with a built-in toilet, activated with the press of a button. Although Wu Youai couldn’t move her legs, she was in good spirits. Jing Shu delivered food daily, checked the wounds for infection, and applied spiritual spring water, hoping for a quick recovery.

Wu Youai commented that she felt like she was living her best life—she loved this lifestyle. If she just had a bit more snacks and the temperature weren’t so hot, it would be perfect.

Of course, not everyone could maintain a constant 26 degrees in their home like Jing Shu.

Jing Shu also noticed that Wu Youai’s mentor, Chu Zhuohua, owned a Maserati sports car. But that wasn’t the impressive part—the impressive part was that he had personally modified the car into a hybrid, even creating a custom charging system!

Modifying an engine like that was akin to changing its very soul. Jing Shu could only think, “Impressive.”

Her mind started racing. Before the apocalypse, she had debated whether to buy a motorhome for emergencies like earthquakes or evacuations. But that plan had been scrapped due to the high maintenance and fuel costs, and the fact that a motorhome cost over a million yuan, which she couldn’t afford.

But now, if she could get a gasoline-powered motorhome at a low price and have Chu Zhuohua convert it into a hybrid in exchange for compensation, would that be feasible?

Petroleum and natural gas had become vital national resources. Even in the U.S., gasoline was no longer available to the public. This showed how valuable gasoline had become, and gasoline-powered vehicles had largely become obsolete. A gasoline-powered motorhome probably wouldn’t be worth much anymore.

“I’ll keep an eye out,” Jing Shu thought. In her past life, there had been people using fuel-powered vehicles during migrations, but motorhomes were rare, mostly owned by the elite. Now, she was excited at the possibility of improving her living conditions during the apocalypse.

The extreme heat persisted for several more days with no sign of relief. People’s protests for more water were ignored by the government, which had more pressing issues to deal with: the polluted water sources had led to a massive evolution of corpse-eating insects, which were now multiplying throughout Wucheng.

These corpse-eating insects had grown much larger and developed a new behavior—like mosquitoes, they now fed on the flesh and blood of living people.

Mosquitoes at least only sucked blood. These newly evolved corpse-eating insects, however, consumed both blood and flesh. While they generally didn’t attack humans unless there was no other food available, their rapid reproduction meant they often ended up in human-populated areas, where they would feed on people’s flesh.

The bites were often small and painless.

But according to news reports, and based on incidents in the neighborhood, if you slept at night with your blanket covering you, and the insects laid eggs on any leftover food, by the next morning, you might find part of your flesh missing. That area of skin would then slowly begin to rot.

This, in turn, would attract even more corpse-eating insects...