Chapter 289: A Busy July

The Australian zombie deer virus wasn’t big news, and when it spread to China, it didn’t cause much of a stir.

Although the news reported many Australian creatures infected by the virus, and some people turning into zombies with their bodies slowly rotting into chunks of flesh, the infection lasted about one to three months before death. During this time, consciousness faded, survival was purely instinctual, and the infected would eat anything, including human flesh.

Rumors online called them zombies or walking corpses, but people didn’t pay much attention. China was barely holding on due to poisonous mushrooms and insects causing countless deaths daily, and people had grown numb.

Moss in Banana Community had grown dozens of centimeters long, covering buildings and even the ground. Jing Shu found it torturous to her eyes. Living there was scarier than a horror movie, especially seeing colorful insects nesting in the moss.

The government had started mobilizing everyone to clean moss around their homes, but it was ineffective. The moss was extremely resilient. Even after cutting with government-issued knives, it would regrow in three or four days.

The best solution was to remove roots, but they had grown into walls, so houses would have to be torn down.

These insects went out to forage. They looked like bugs, swam fast in water, and some could jump. Jing Shu suspected they evolved from fleas.

Now, when Jing Shu went out, she saw a layer of insects floating on water surfaces. Ordinary residents wore multiple layers of plastic bags or clothes because these bloodsucking, flesh-eating bugs bit and caused painful welts.

That wasn’t the worst. Jing Shu had been bitten many times in her past life. The real danger was not knowing which bugs carried viruses. Once infected, there was no cure. Jing Shu’s family now never took off their sealed raincoats outside, showing how serious the situation was.

Wu City was relatively better. In the south, not only were bugs rampant, but huge flying cockroaches swarmed damp corners of houses, their paradise. People constantly hit them with slippers but never finished.

Now that it was cold, the cockroaches loved crawling into people’s beds. If you felt itchy at night, it meant countless cockroaches had invaded. Netizens advised changing sleeping positions and tightly covering with blankets.

At this moment, a bottle of medicated oil and some insecticide were absolute luxuries in China.

Su Mary’s home emitted a pleasant fragrance, thanks to the expensive insect-repelling incense concocted by Zhou Bapi.

Jing Shu’s family had similar measures, carefully arranged by Jing Ba both inside and outside.

Seeing envious looks around, Jing Shu knew she had changed the course of her past life. Wu City’s first batch of insecticides had been successfully produced, and the government was urgently organizing pest control. If all went well, Wu City’s medicinal association would pass the preliminaries.

Speaking of which, Jing Shu had to praise the power of the Rubik’s Cube space spring. This batch of seeds was even better than she expected. Distributed to different people, almost all grew tobacco. Except for a few that didn’t sprout, the rest reached medicinal standards.

This amazing germination rate further proved how well Jing Shu’s previous batch of tobacco was planted. Many people recognized her more as vice president.

Her batch of tobacco came just in time, solving the association’s urgent need. Producing a large batch of insecticide so quickly was largely thanks to her. She was rewarded an extra 50,000 contribution points. Strangely, a row of question marks appeared afterward, showing items she couldn’t redeem.

This made Jing Shu curious. Contribution points were just association currency. What mysterious things could require so many points but not be displayed? She was close to 100,000 points. When she asked Zhou Bapi, he grinned with his big yellow teeth and said, “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Alright, Jing Shu wanted to see what valuable things the association had that required so many points.

…

Before she knew it, it was already July. Jing Shu had been extremely busy. She spent four hours daily at the association rushing the second batch of tobacco planting. The first batch of insecticide was nearly used up and worked well. Though bugs were still visible outside, they no longer crawled inside homes, cutting off many infections.

Zi Jin and Jing Nai raised silkworms daily, and Jing Shu also produced silk in her space.

Cotton and tobacco planted months ago had matured. Jing Shu gave cotton to Jing Ye to spin into cotton batting, keeping cotton seeds for poultry feed. Tobacco was made into cigars and cigarettes.

Meanwhile, Jing Shu was busy turning various semi-finished products into cooked food, though she had only completed less than a tenth. Slaughtering pigs and cattle, even in the space, was time-consuming.

She was also wrapping up work at two feed factories. As the weather grew colder and the Australian virus spread, red worms were no longer edible.

Red worms infected with the zombie deer virus began to rot and smell, carrying the virus to their offspring, causing geometric declines in their numbers.

Some merchants sensed business opportunities and started buying red worms in bulk. Previously, red worms were worthless due to abundance, but now without them, China lacked staple food. Thanks to abundant rain, China could still grow some crops.

Red worm prices skyrocketed overnight, increasing hundreds of times. Many residents fished live red worms from water and raised them at home, braving cold temperatures and other aquatic dangers. Unfortunately, they were doomed to fail as the worms carried viruses and would die in days.

“Big uncle is really business-savvy,” Jing Shu said, practicing her Rubik’s Cube and shaking her head. Her eldest aunt’s family had started raising red worms half a month earlier. With many pigs, they’d at least have red worms to eat.

Jing Shu finally set an alarm to practice the cube, but downstairs she heard Jing Nai calling. Su Mary was looking for her.

Jing Shu put down the cube and ran downstairs to see Su Mary, dressed up.

“Jing Shu, hurry up. Today is the official reopening of Qian Duoduo’s Xishan base. I heard he dug a hole in the mountain and built the base inside. It has everything and is super fun.”

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