CHAPTER 63: NEW SPECIES INVASION: ROTTEN CORPSE INSECTS

Rotten corpse insects would become the nightmare of countless people in the coming years. In her previous life, Jing Shu had despised them as one of the most hated insects. However, they had also become an indispensable food source when necessary. Red earthworms, although tasteless, were at least edible and wouldn’t cause illness if consumed.

However, the taste of rotten corpse insects was so bitter that it was hard to swallow, and eating them could even lead to illness and diarrhea. No one would eat them unless they were on the verge of starvation.

In the fifth year of her previous life, Jing Shu, on the verge of starvation, consumed a bowl full of rotten corpse insects. They emitted a green juice when crushed. Their taste was bitter, full of hard dregs, and they carried an intensely nauseating stench, comparable to the world’s smelliest canned herring.

Driven by hunger, Jing Shu followed everyone’s advice to swallow the rotten corpse insects whole without chewing. She forced herself to eat them for two consecutive days and survived until rescue arrived. However, each day was a torment, as she nearly lost half her life to diarrhea.

From then on, Jing Shu swore she would rather die than eat rotten corpse insects again. That year, even delicious food ingredients like maggots and red earthworms had frozen to death, yet there were still countless of those formidable creatures—the rotten corpse insects.

Because rotten corpse insects were an omnivorous species, their favorite food was decaying corpses. Wherever there were remains of any small creatures, they would surely be present. Eating them was akin to consuming rotting flesh itself, which would fill the stomach with bacteria.

Wang Cuihua sent a voice message, "This is really a curse from heaven. The new bag of rice I opened had half a bag of black-green insects; it was terrifying. The moment I opened the bag, they started crawling everywhere. Some even flew around, filling the whole room! Others were crawling all over the place! What should I do? My rice!"

Wang Cuihua’s message quickly elicited many responses.

Luo Zhu No.9: "These past few days, layers of dead flying insects have constantly been floating in the water bucket. Today, I took another look and saw the whole bucket crawling with dense, dark green, wriggling insects. I was so scared that I immediately threw the bucket out."

Wind No.3: "[Crying], I was injured and hadn’t thrown out the trash for a few days. I had thrown the maggots from the meat into the trash bag before. Today, I discovered the bag was full of dark green maggots crawling out. Have the maggots evolved into something dark green? But why have they shrunk so much?"

Luxury Car Specialist No.5: "I’ve been bitten! What should I do?! This morning I woke up to find my whole bed covered in these damn things, and now my body is full of red spots. It’s starting to swell and hurt, and the stupid Doctor at the hospital says my symptoms are too minor to give me any medication!"

Now, almost every household had encountered these rotten corpse insects. Whether originating from rice weevils, rotting meat, or dead maggots, these pests were appearing everywhere.

The origin of the rotten corpse insects was during the Initial Stage of Apocalypse, when fish carcasses and other decaying organisms in the seas and lakes weren’t salvaged in time, along with the buried remains of Domestic Poultry that had died. Combined with the prolonged lack of sterilizing sunlight, this led to the evolution and invasion of new species.

In their initial stage, rotten corpse insects were half the size of fleas, just 0.3mm in length. Like mealworms, they preferred to live in groups, densely packed together. Once discovered, they would already be in a large, easily collected clump.

The Mother Worm could fly and burrow. As long as it found a corpse, it could eat while continuously breeding thousands of worms. After just a few days, a new batch of flying Mother Worms would be off in search of food, creating an endless cycle. Their survival conditions were very simple; one small weevil was enough for a Mother Worm to reproduce.

Rotten corpse insects generally did not eat grain, but in the current hot weather, many food items easily bred tiny insects, often invisible to the naked eye. Once these insects died, they would attract rotten corpse insects, which also had a particular fondness for human corpses.

On land, they had many natural enemies, such as maggots, red earthworms, flying insects, chickens, ducks, and humans—indeed, pretty much any creature would prey on them. But because in the first year of the apocalypse, almost all fish and other aquatic life in the lakes had died out, the rotten corpse insects propagated wildly. This disrupted the aquatic food chain, leading to large swarms of mature rotten corpse insects being washed ashore with every high tide in the subsequent years. These swarms would crawl everywhere, and the Mother Worms would fly about, searching for anything edible.

Incidents like Luxury Car Specialist No.5 being bitten were quite common. When rotten corpse insects proliferated to a certain extent in an area and ran out of food, they would eat anything, including humans. Jing Shu suspected that an undiscovered infestation of rotten corpse insects must have exploded somewhere in Luxury Car Specialist No.5’s house.

Jing Shu quickly found rotten corpse insects in the villa’s pigpen, but unfortunately, they were devoured by the fat chicken in the blink of an eye. The fat chicken pecked with the speed of a woodpecker, and the wriggling mass of newly-hatched rotten corpse insects vanished in an instant. Jing Shu thought the fat chicken could earn another nickname: Shadow Chicken.

The fat chicken, still not satisfied, went to the cowshed, the sheepfold, and even under the apple trees in search of more insects. As for the chicken coop on the second floor, Jing Shu didn’t allow it inside, and the fat chicken only got to eat insects freely during its daily free-range time.

Jing Shu searched the basement thoroughly. It was set to a constant 0°C to better preserve food and grains. It was well-protected now; originally, most of the grains had been stored in her space specifically because of the fear of insect infestation.

Turning on all the lights in the villa, Jing Shu checked the mushroom cultivation racks, the greenhouse, and the small bedroom on the second floor where the feed was stored. After all, the tiny rotten corpse insects, especially when laying eggs, could be hiding in any nook or cranny. They were exceedingly difficult to find before they formed a large, noticeable mass.

In this life, Jing Shu resolved, she absolutely would not allow any rotten corpse insects in her living space. She was truly traumatized by them.

Eventually, Jing Shu found several clusters of rotten corpse insects laying eggs in the greenhouse. Since Mrs. Jing cleaned daily, these must have only recently flown in to breed.

Since so much fruit was growing in the greenhouse, it inevitably attracted fruit flies and other small flying insects. Any fruit left out for a few days would draw them, and even potted plants and vegetables in the soil could attract these tiny pests. Spraying Wind Oil Essence daily could solve the rotten corpse insect problem, but Jing Shu didn’t want to spray it on edible plants.

Looking down at the fat chicken from the second-floor window as it searched for insects in the vegetable garden, Jing Shu suddenly had a brainwave—rotten corpse insects had many natural predators. But could Bees be one of them?

With that thought, Jing Shu released some Bees from her space right above the rotten corpse insects. The Bees seemed to show little interest at first, circling the fruit plants for a while, finding no nectar to collect. Eventually, however, they targeted the egg-laying rotten corpse insects and quickly eradicated them.

Since it worked, Jing Shu immediately set up a small beehive in the greenhouse, cultivating a few dozen Bees. She didn’t expect them to collect nectar; as long as they could eliminate any intruding rotten corpse insects, that would be sufficient.

Next, Jing Shu took some diluted Wind Oil Essence and sprayed it in all corners of the villa, then turned on the humidifier and added a few drops of floral water. As a result, the villa was constantly filled with a faint scent, greatly preventing the invasion of rotten corpse insects.

Perhaps because she had been feeding Bees in her space for half a year, the Bees seemed to recognize Jing Shu, much like the fat chicken did, and no longer stung her. She wasn’t sure if it was just a psychological effect, but regardless, family members still had to wear head coverings when entering the greenhouse.

During dinner, Jing Shu explained that she had found a beehive under the eaves and planned to keep it in the greenhouse. She offered to take responsibility for the greenhouse from now on, and Mrs. Jing was happy to hand over the responsibility.

"Oh, by the way, could you catch some more frogs?" Jing Shu suddenly asked Wu You’ai.