CHAPTER 134: HELLO, GHOST GHOST SPIRIT?

No matter what, Wang Zhong still passed the phone over. Jing Shu took it smoothly, and Wu You’ai’s large face, typical of a homebody, appeared on the screen.

Wu You’ai was still slurping her ice cream, her face full of enjoyment.

"Cousin, this lunatic was sneaking around our doorstep today, trying to break in and steal, and I caught him red-handed. He even tried to do some unspeakable things to *me*, and my dad beat him up... Yeah, that’s what happened."

"This kind of situation isn’t severe; it’s attempted robbery, but he should be taken for re-education through labor."

"Okay, I’ll let him know," Jing Shu said, returning the phone to a stunned Wang Zhong.

"They said they’re sending someone over right away, and you should wait here for a bit," Jing Shu told him.

Wang Zhong: "???"

Wang Zhong doubted his ears. What had he just heard? Cousin? Was the emergency rescue call routed to their own family member? He was the victim! How could calling for help end up getting him arrested?

"Hello? Hello?" Wang Zhong yelled into the already disconnected phone, then looked up at Father Jing furiously. "I refuse to believe this absurdity!"

Wang Zhong tried a new way to make a call. "Hello? Hello, Ghost Ghost Spirit? I’m over here..."

But all he got was a busy signal. He then tried the emergency video call again, connecting to the same person as before.

"It’s you again! Don’t worry, just wait there. Someone will be there to get you soon."

Wang Zhong: "..." Hey! I really called for help! I’m about to be beaten to death!

BEEP BEEP... The call ended.

Wang Zhong now truly felt a crushing hopelessness, as if there were no road to heaven and no door into the earth. How could this be? How could this happen? This is pure nepotism! Is there any justice left in this world? Is there any law?

After several failed attempts, Wang Zhong decisively scrambled to his feet, intending to flee. Only a fool would wait here to be caught! He wasn’t an idiot; of course, he was going to run!

Jing Shu kicked him back down. "Where do you think you’re going? Did you forget your information has all been uploaded? You’re on record! No matter where you run, you’ll get caught! Do you want to be a fugitive? Think about what happens to them!"

The fate of those criminals flashed through Wang Zhong’s mind again, scaring him so much that he fainted. When he came to, he was kicked awake again. He faintly heard Jing An’s daughter saying something to the officers.

Then a police officer asked him, "If you plead guilty, you’ll only need re-education through labor. But if you don’t plead..."

Wang Zhong burst out crying, "I confess, I confess! I don’t want to die!"

The police officer then turned and said, "Chief, I was about to suggest releasing him due to insufficient evidence, but he confessed first. Clearly, he’s not a good person."

Overwhelmed by a surge of rage, Wang Zhong fainted again. By the time he awoke for the second time, he was already in handcuffs and leg irons, beginning his labor reform—moving furniture, picking up trash, collecting Five Grain Worms from manure pits...

Watching Wang Zhong being carried away, Father Jing said, "Justice may be delayed, but it will never be absent. It’s time you were punished for all the despicable things you’ve done over the years."

Before the police left, Jing Shu handed each of them some dried Black Fungus. "Thank you for making the trip; otherwise, our house would have been targeted by thieves." Jing Shu recognized one of the policemen; he was the young man who had been standing behind Li Yuetian.

"It’s our duty to serve the people."

Jing Shu pressed the packages into their hands, and the two men subtly accepted them. Jing Shu then learned that the young man who had been standing behind Li Yuetian that day also had the surname Li, and everyone called him Xiao Liz.

After the police had gone, Grandma Jing’s voice rang out, "Dinner’s ready!"

Tonight’s dinner was lavish. A duck was roasted on the fire kang, an old hen was stewed in the stove, and Jing Shu laid out oil-absorbing paper on an iron plate to make teppanyaki-style fatty pork belly for everyone. She dipped the golden-brown, slightly charred pork belly into the sauce, wrapped it in a lettuce leaf, and savored it slowly. The fatty layers oozed oil, contrasting with the lean, chewy meat, all complemented by the cool lettuce. The umami of the meat, mixed with the crisp char and the refreshing coolness, grew more fragrant with each chew.

After a sip of the old hen soup, they took thin pancakes, wrapped a slice of roast duck with strips of spring onion, cucumber, and carrot, dipped it in sweet bean sauce, and enjoyed a completely different flavor.

SLURP. Jing Shu alone ate eighty percent of the grilled meat, more than half of the roast duck, and all the chicken from the soup pot.

The chicken, slow-cooked over coals in the stove for half a day, was so tender it melted in her mouth; Jing Shu almost swallowed the bones. If the fat chicken hadn’t clucked anxiously a couple of times, Jing Shu truly might have eaten the bones.

Third Aunt Jing Lai, recently appointed as a nominal forewoman, was still busy at the Ai Family Supermarket, so only Grandma Jing, Grandpa Jing, Father Jing, Mother Jing, and Jing Shu ate dinner together.

There’s no denying Third Aunt Jing Lai is impressive, Jing Shu thought, having witnessed her hard work over the past six months. If I can help her, I should.

That evening, Jing Shu harvested another batch of cucumbers and eggplants. She sliced and prepared them for drying in the sun the next day. Besides the steadily consumed food, the Magic Cube Space was now also accumulating these dehydrated vegetables, along with coconuts harvested every five days.

Although the number of coconuts was enormous, consumption was also astounding. Apart from the coconuts Jing Shu drank daily like water, another batch was made into coconut milk, and some into coconut rice. Even the coconut shells weren’t wasted; the pigs and cattle in the Space could eat them.

Jing Shu decided to store more coconuts. After October, she planned to clear some of the coconut trees to plant fruit, which she would also dry after harvesting.

The biggest yield was medicinal materials. Jing Shu’s theory was proven correct: the farther the fields were from the Spiritual Spring, the weaker its nourishing effects. Thus, the 30-meter-high coconut trees took three months to mature, while the short, two-meter-high apple trees matured in less than a month.

As for the medicinal materials planted in the ground, their growth was astonishing. Common herbs had all matured. Precious herbs that usually required years to grow still needed more time, but their development was significantly accelerated by the daily nourishment from the Spiritual Spring.

Jing Shu felt it was a reckless waste of Heaven’s gifts to hoard such powerful medicinal plants without using them. She was willing to use them to save important people or those who had contributed to the nation, albeit not for free. Unfortunately, she currently had no proper channels or legitimate ways to do so.

"Perhaps I should also find some legitimate work," Jing Shu mused. "As a trump card, it should be used. I remember hearing about an official Medicinal Materials Association in my previous life, but I just don’t know how to enter that circle." She keenly felt the lack of a powerful backer, someone from the military, who could protect her family in times of danger.

And those fanatics at the Medicinal Materials Association... each one was extraordinary, either driven mad by medicinal materials or obsessed with medical theories. As someone who could cultivate medicinal materials during the apocalypse, wasn’t she as rare as a giant panda?

She would just have to find an opportunity and see. No matter what, being able to cultivate rare medicinal materials made Jing Shu appreciate the Magic Cube Space even more.