Chapter 448: Chapter 448
The teammates from the Imperial Capital boarded the plane for a final farewell before departure. They re-established a WeChat group called the Sheep Herding Group (11 people), agreeing to notify everyone in the group if there were any ’fat sheep’ or new messages. Follow current novels on 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✶𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲✶𝗻𝗲𝘁
Monkey and Monk stayed behind at Skyline Hospital due to their serious injuries. Fortunately, Monk’s life was saved, but he remains in a coma to this day. Hao Yunlai was carried back onto the plane to be returned to Wu City. They had consulted numerous Doctors over the past few days, but no solution was found. The Doctors all said Hao Yunlai’s brain cells showed no response, declaring him to be in a vegetative state. Perhaps it really was time to risk trying Jing Shu’s method.
Jing Shu felt she really needed to investigate that red liquid. Hao Yunlai’s luck was unlike Mary Sue’s; he had to pay a price to avoid danger. Mary Sue, on the other hand, was a genuinely blessed individual, living in eternal happiness. Those who wished her harm mostly ended up dead. Thinking about it now, Mary Sue was truly terrifying.
Before Tan Ke deplaned, Jing Shu forced a basket full of eggs from her fat chickens into his arms. She also guaranteed that every three months, he would receive a batch of her eggs and a lion-headed goose as a guarantor fee.
As the guarantor for both parties, Tan Ke was the go-to person if any issues arose, and in return for this responsibility, he was entitled to due benefits.
"I’ll accept the eggs, but not the lion-headed goose. After all, the Starvation Food Supervision Bureau has already agreed to take care of my sister’s meals. Thank heavens, my food-loving sister is finally provided for... I really feel at ease leaving Da Hua and Gou Dan with you. I heard people from our captain’s unit were also planning to send their Er Gouzi to you, but the captain refused to act as a guarantor, so the plan was dropped."
Jing Shu asked, "Hmm... Er Gouzi? What is that?"
"It’s..." Just as Tan Ke was about to speak, Zhen Nantian stopped him with a sharp look. Tan Ke dejectedly scurried away, clutching the eggs. Zhen Nantian cleared his throat,
"The batch of Seeds you sent to the Imperial Capital has been received. I’ve already reminded them that these are irradiated Seeds, and some might develop abnormally. If they need a solution, they’ll have to come to you. It’s just that, at present, they aren’t willing to pay a high price for your solution. Instead, they’ve employed various research institutes that are now soliciting sponsorships everywhere..."
Jing Shu indicated it was fine, "I’m already very satisfied with the compensation from the authorities. If they can solve it, that’s great. If they can’t and have a change of heart, they can come to me all the same."
Being able to preserve Seeds from around the world for the country was something Jing Shu could do as a citizen. The nation had also granted her a generous amount of Universal Contribution Value. She was content knowing that with it, she could bring back even more private goods from overseas in the future.
But to have her use the daily single drop of Spiritual Spring Diluted Water to soak the Seeds and solve the radiation issue for free—all without informing them and silently contributing—was something she couldn’t bring herself to do. Even if she informed the authorities that she had solved this major problem, the other party wouldn’t understand the difficulty involved without first facing setbacks. Thus, they wouldn’t feel any gratitude or indebtedness towards Jing Shu.
Sending charcoal in snowy weather always meant more than adding icing to the cake. When they couldn’t solve the problem themselves, if Jing Shu then made some demands, it would seem reasonable. It would even appear as if she were helping them solve a major issue, thereby making a great contribution to the country.
Not now, when it would be perceived as Jing Shu asking for the moon.
Zhen Nantian nodded. He squinted his eyes and his lips moved as if he wanted to ask about the smuggled goods and the day of the massacre, but ultimately, he waved his hand dismissively and deplaned.
The plane finally took off once again.
The Wucheng Team had suffered heavy losses. Hao Yunlai lay in the rear cabin, and Monkey had been left behind in the Imperial Capital for treatment. In the enormous private plane, only Jing Shu and Yang Yang were eating sheep’s spine hotpot. Occasional SLURPING sounds could be heard. The bones, once sucked clean of marrow, weren’t to be discarded. Bone marrow powder could be used to process them again. Yang Yang understood this was a reusable item and skillfully used a spoon to dig out the marrow, saving the bones for Jing Shu to use again.
Erhua and Gou Dan had finally calmed down. Previously, for not obeying discipline, they had been pecked quite badly by the fat chicken and looked rather pitiable. Jing Shu hadn’t intervened. After all, in a few days, she would feed them Spiritual Spring Diluted Water. It wasn’t serious harm, and discipline had to be established.
"You really don’t want to enter S-level? That grants direct national privileges and is managed by the Imperial Capital. No other organization has authority over them. And, let’s just say, S-level individuals can do whatever they want, unfettered by local laws. After all, there are only a dozen or so in the whole country," Yang Yang said, poking at another piece of marrow with his chopsticks. He half-squinted as he cleaned off the surrounding marrow.
"No, thanks. Maybe if there’s real danger one day, then we’ll see." The Imperial Capital is a powerful backer, but it’s not that easy to rely on.
"Then I can’t tell you about the thing you’re curious about."
「April 4, 2025, Friday, Qingming Festival. The weather in Wu City reached a low of -6°C.」
Most people would have forgotten it was Qingming Festival today, if not for the fact that it was a national holiday and Wu City’s major cafeterias were offering an all-you-can-eat buffet for 2 Virtual Coins.
The last buffet had been three months prior, on New Year’s Eve, so one can imagine how difficult it was for the major cafeterias to offer one now. The opportunity was so rare that many people had lined up a day in advance in front of the crowded temporary disaster-relief cafeterias. As for tomb-sweeping, a moment of silent remembrance would have to suffice. What else could they do? Roam freely and enjoy the scenery as they did before the apocalypse?
Even if they wanted to pay homage, they couldn’t burn paper—paper was long gone; people were using stones for wiping. Oh, they probably couldn’t even light a fire, as there were no lighters or matches.
The price for the buffet at all cafeterias in Wu City, in Virtual Coins, had increased. In the first year of the apocalypse, a buffet cost only 0.3 Virtual Coins, and they even ate delicious Five Grain Worms—those were meat, after all. How I miss the days of eating salted Five Grain Worms! Everything has changed now; the temperature is too low to even keep maggots alive.
Moreover, although it was advertised as ’unlimited,’ due to food scarcity, a new restriction had been implemented: each person could eat as much as they wanted within 15 minutes, after which they had to leave quickly to make way for the next group.
As for what was served? During good times, it was Mushroom. Usually, it was red worm cake, as hard as a dung beetle and practically impossible to bite through. Combined with the time limit, several incidents of people choking to death occurred on that day alone.
No sooner were the bodies dragged away than the red worm cakes, still dripping with saliva, were snatched up. In no time, the corpses were stripped clean of their clothes and shoes. The government workers who collected the bodies carried them off, disappearing into the crowd. Nobody cared. Only a few people wondered,
"With the weather this cold, why not just bury them on the spot? Why waste Fuel driving a body back for processing? Isn’t that troublesome? Isn’t it wasteful?"
"Why think so much? We can’t even get enough to eat. Maybe they’re taking the bodies back to make corpse oil for cooking our food. Those fried red worm cakes they made recently were pretty good."
"You’re too disgusting. You’ve made me lose my appetite."
"Move aside, move aside!"
"Who’s this? So arrogant, you’re crushing me."