Chapter 523: Chapter 523

Seeing Grandma Jing and Mr. Jing’s understanding, Jing Shu felt very relieved. "Now that the weather is cold, we don’t have to worry about spoilage if things are left outside without a fridge. It’s best to make food that can be stored for a long time. Food that requires minimal secondary processing and can be eaten directly is ideal, as there won’t be much access to water, electricity, or natural gas on the road."

Using resources sparingly would be manageable, but we can’t cook every meal like we do at home with large fires, electricity, and the range hood running. How much would it waste to prepare a meal that could satisfy the whole family? Let alone enjoying lavish dishes like braised spare ribs and red-cooked pork.

Jing Shu hadn’t expected that Grandma Jing, once she set her mind to it, could be even more intense than she was. Jing Shu, at least, had only made semi-finished ingredients like egg tart shells, egg tart liquid, sausages, and ham.

Grandma Jing went straight to making uncooked pancake bases. She smeared each base with oil, separated them with plastic sheets, packed them into a 60L transparent storage container, sealed it completely, and then froze them. With the moisture locked in, the taste wouldn’t be affected for a year or two. To eat them, one could simply pan-fry a base, sprinkle some sesame seeds and green onions on top, add a fried egg, sausage, and some vegetables, and it would make a hearty breakfast—particularly suitable for relocating and traveling.

"Make more," Grandma Jing said, getting hooked on the task. "It’ll save me from kneading, proofing, and rolling out dough every day in the future."

Flour-based foods are delicious but laborious to prepare. However, the whole family was accustomed to eating noodles every one or two days. What could Grandma Jing do? She could only oblige.

After finishing the pancakes, Grandma Jing wasn’t satisfied. The frozen dumplings, wontons, and sweet dumplings that Jing Shu had bought before the apocalypse had long since been eaten. Back then, she had purchased several boxes, merely thinking of satisfying cravings during the apocalypse, not realizing they would be consumed so quickly with more people around. Jing Shu herself had eaten a significant portion, so now, if they wanted to eat these items, they had to be made from scratch.

So, in the following days, Grandma Jing began making dumplings, wontons, sweet dumplings, and, oh, zongzi as well.

"I’ve taken care of preparing all the rice and flour-based foods!" Grandma Jing declared proudly.

Mr. Jing certainly couldn’t fall behind. Although he was deeply pondering how to salvage more belongings from the house if the muddy floodwaters arrived, Mr. Jing was exceptionally skilled at making sausages. His smoked meats, pressed duck, and hams were all top-notch.

However, discussion about food was set aside for the moment. Jing Shu mentioned that if a mudslide occurred, they would have to drive their motorhome elsewhere to survive. The weather was growing colder, and it definitely wouldn’t be as warm as their villa. Although they had thick down jackets and cotton-padded coats, they still needed to make a few more items for cold protection.

In the past, the Jing family had raised sheep, rabbits, cows, and pigs. After slaughtering them, they had saved the hides, which Mr. Jing then tanned. Grandma Jing and Zijin had used some of these tanned hides to make warm leather clothes and shoes. Now, Jing Shu asked Mr. Jing to use the remaining material to make gloves, hats, and other cold-weather gear like knee protectors.

Thinking of that frozen, snowbound world, Jing Shu shuddered. She suddenly remembered the fully sealed rainproof clothing they had bought during the torrential rains of the second year; they shouldn’t let it go to waste. When the time came, they could sew leather onto it and stuff it with warm wool. Fully equipped like that, they wouldn’t even have to worry about their breath freezing them in the icy conditions.

Ugh, that reminded her of the most agonizing part of migrating: going to the toilet in the ice and snow. Urinating was somewhat manageable; even if it turned into an icicle as it came out, at least one could finish. If squatting didn’t work, one could stand. But defecating was the embarrassing part. If you were slightly constipated and took too long, it would freeze halfway... After finishing, you’d grab some powdery snow, form it into a ball, wipe, and that was that.

Painful, wasn’t it? But what could one do other than endure? Those with weak willpower would have died long ago. Being alive meant suffering, but one had to keep living. And to live was to have hope.

People who have suffered greatly are easily contented, yet they also become more particular about life. So, in Jing Shu’s view, her main task now was to stay safe and sound at home, enjoying this ’most peaceful and safest’ phase of the natural disaster, savoring her remaining time. No one should bother her; work and everything else could go to hell. Just let her be a homebody, scrolling through her social media feeds and making herself more snacks and late-night treats.

The Jing Family got busy again, despite living in daily fear of being submerged by mud. But necessary tasks still had to be done. Grandma Jing and Mr. Jing paid close attention to news about Ningshan City. New situations were reported daily through big data channels. It seemed Ningshan City would be flooded sooner or later, and the authorities were already initiating a ’Plan B’.

This made The Jing Family even more anxious. If Ningshan City was bound to be flooded sooner or later, its residents would have to relocate. What about Wu County then? It was just a small county town with a small population, located downstream from Ningshan City. Was it also going to be flooded soon?

Fortunately, the information from Elder Aunt was that the mudflow wasn’t severe yet and no impact was expected for the next ten days to half a month. However, they too were packing their belongings, preparing for any eventuality.

Jing Shu didn’t know from her past life whether Wu County had been flooded or not, but that wasn’t a major concern; they could always come over to her place if worst came to worst.

Jing Shu’s days were quite comfortable, with everything proceeding according to her plan: whenever a batch of crops in her dimensional space matured, she would process them and plant another. Items that couldn’t be stored for long were kept in her space, while anything that could be plausibly explained was brought out into the open.

But plans could never keep up with the speed of change.

There was finally news about her Seeds! Fresh chapters posted on 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡•𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮•𝕟𝕖𝕥

Jing Shu was overjoyed when she received this news, but her happiness lasted only three seconds before Yang Yang added, "The transportation team is now stranded near the Hongliu Canal after passing through the mountains."

Jing Shu opened Baidu Maps. These maps had been surveyed before the apocalypse; as for after the apocalypse...

"The Hongliu Canal... isn’t that the river just over a hundred kilometers away from us?" It wasn’t too far. Even if many highways had collapsed, necessitating detours through mountainous terrain, it would only take a day or two to get there.

"Yes," Yang Yang replied. "But would you believe that the entire tectonic plate where the Hongliu Canal is located has drifted away? And it’s drifting farther and farther. Look, this is their approximate position, finally received via satellite a few days ago. They are now where the Tianshan Mountain Range used to be, drifting increasingly distant from Wu City..."

No wonder the transport ship had been sailing for months without reaching its destination. No matter how fast they sailed, they couldn’t outpace the movement of an entire tectonic plate.

"I also heard that some of your Seeds have already been eaten."

Jing Shu’s eyes widened in disbelief. Hundreds of thousands of Seed varieties, all of them irreplaceable! Oh Heavens, please don’t let them have eaten her favorite grain Seeds! After all, staple crops like wheat and rice could also be used as Seeds if necessary.

"It couldn’t be helped," Yang Yang explained. "Even though they brought enough supplies, so much time has passed. Any amount of provisions would eventually run out."

The Seeds hadn’t been submerged by floods, nor lost in earthquakes, only to end up being eaten out of sheer necessity...

It seemed things weren’t going well for them either. Jing Shu couldn’t concern herself with anything else at the moment. This batch of Seeds was crucial to her—so important that it would affect the quality and comfort of her life in the post-apocalyptic world, as well as the matter of legacy.

With Seeds and her dimensional space, she could cultivate them and experience all sorts of foods.

"Then let’s stick to what we discussed before. I’ll go on the rescue mission."

Time to pack up and go find those people and the Seeds directly. Jing Shu took out a pen and paper and began to write: "Seed Rescue Plan." It included: standard procedures, potential problems, countermeasures, and necessary equipment and supplies...