CHAPTER 69: DRINKING WATERMELON JUICE FOR BEING POOR

"Why is your hand shaking so much? If you’re scared, let’s just go back," Mr. Jing said, finally noticing Jing Shu’s trembling hands, his voice filled with concern.

You just killed six people. One by one, you crushed them beyond recognition, and then carried their sticky, mangled bodies back to bury in the pit. See if your hands wouldn’t shake then. Jing Shu thought, but she said aloud, "Maybe it’s because of the two bags of rice I found downstairs. The group that ran off must have dropped them in their hurry, and carrying them up was tiring."

There were eight bags of rice in total; they wouldn’t have been foolish enough to drop all of them. Jing Shu couldn’t just blurt out, Hey, I killed those six people! so she had to invent a story.

"Thank you," Wang Xue Mei said, glancing at the retrieved rice without much emotion. She continued to clutch her tragically deceased daughter, refusing to let go. Tears would no longer come, but more importantly, she still couldn’t accept that her husband and daughter were truly dead.

Wang Xue Mei’s husband and daughter were dead. The group of grown men with Wang Qiqi didn’t know what to do. Wang Qiqi, a pot on her head and a frying pan in hand, squatted to one side discussing solutions while the others could only use their flashlights to clean up the bloody mess on the ground.

Wang Xue Mei was forty years old, with a harmonious family of three that included her eighteen-year-old daughter. When the incident occurred, she had followed Wang Qiqi’s advice and given the attackers whatever they demanded. However, the men were like wild beasts released from a cage, intent on doing things they normally wouldn’t dare.

"Brother Tao, the Sky Covering Party is planning something big in the new district today! The police can’t manage this area at all. We can do whatever we want today, and no one will care!"

"Exactly, Brother Tao! It’s so dark, the whole city has no power. No one can see anyone. HEH HEH."

Several of the men began to harbor evil designs on Wang Xue Mei’s daughter. No parent could stand by and watch their child be violated, so a fight erupted. In the end, Wang Xue Mei was pinned down by two men, unable to move. She could only listen to the horrifying screams of her daughter and husband. Shortly after, she heard:

"AH! It looks like we’ve killed someone!"

"Brother Tao, let’s go! If the police investigate us for killing someone, it’ll be big trouble!"

"I hear a lot of people coming upstairs!"

"Damn it, my head’s busted open! Grab the rice and let’s get out of here! What rotten luck. We’ll split up and leave through a different unit’s entrance."

The group had barely left when Wang Qiqi led the others upstairs. It was lucky they were a step late, Jing Shu thought. Otherwise, what would have happened if they’d run into each other? Would they have let them go, or would it have been a life-or-death struggle?

Wang Qiqi and the others breathed a collective sigh of relief that the men were gone. Otherwise, being cowards, they would have run faster than anyone. Upon entering the apartment, they found blood everywhere. In the chaos, the father and daughter had suffered fatal wounds to major arteries and had already bled to death. Even if they had been rushed to a hospital, such injuries would have been untreatable.

Dialing 110 yielded only a busy signal. The 120 emergency medical service had already stopped dispatching ambulances. Wang Qiqi then called 130, the corpse removal service. Half an hour later, a vehicle arrived with four men carrying body bags, ready to take the deceased.

Wang Xue Mei clutched her daughter’s body, refusing to let them take her.

"Here’s the situation, ma’am," the corpse dragging captain said, clad in heavy Defense Clothes and holding two bags of rice. "Due to the invasion of rotten corpse insects, new policy dictates that all deceased must be taken immediately to the crematorium for cremation. For cooperative families, the government provides ten jin of rice as a condolence payment for each deceased person. For uncooperative families, we’ll have to officially record their non-compliance. You wouldn’t want your loved ones to be crawling with rotten corpse insects in half a day, would you?"

The captain’s final words pierced Wang Xue Mei’s heart. With a loud WAIL, she burst into a fresh torrent of tears and finally nodded. "I’ll go with you. I want to retrieve their ashes."

Ultimately, two members of Wang Xue Mei’s family were dead. Wang Qiqi posted an alert in the community group, urging everyone to be extra cautious. She also tried to organize a patrol team, but it met with little success. With everyone having to queue for hours at the supermarket for food, who had time to patrol? Besides, what good would a patrol be against a dozen knife-wielding thugs?

When Jing Shu returned home, Mr. Jing, Grandma Jing, Third Aunt, and Wu You’ai were all anxiously waiting in the dining room. Their expressions turned grim when they learned that two people had died.

"For just a few bags of rice and a young woman, they resorted to murder?" Mr. Jing paced back and forth, the massage chair forgotten. He was too shocked to sit still.

"What a disaster! We can’t let anyone find out about our food stockpile," Grandma Jing exclaimed, her voice laced with fear.

"How about this, Mom, Dad, Third Aunt, why don’t you all move in with us?" Mr. Jing said with concern. "The complex isn’t safe right now. I’ve fortified our place with tempered glass, and I guarantee they won’t be able to pry the door open."

"No need, Uncle," Wu You’ai said nonchalantly, still engrossed in her comic. "It’s fine for Grandpa and Grandma to stay here; they can help watch the food. Mom and I really can’t get used to living here. We’ll stay at my maternal grandma’s place. There’s not much there, so I doubt it’ll attract any attention."

"But it’s not safe for you two women to be alone," Mr. Jing insisted.

"I haven’t bathed in three months," Wu You’ai shrugged. "If they can tolerate the stench and still want to bother, I won’t resist." Isn’t there a saying? If you can’t fight back, you might as well enjoy it.

Wu You’ai’s "eighth-grader syndrome" was flaring up again. She often fantasized about being accosted by a handsome robber, so much so that she’d even prepared condoms. If it happens, I hope he uses one. Unless he’s extraordinarily handsome... then maybe we could fall madly in love!

In the end, they decided that Wu You’ai and Third Aunt would return to their own home. Grandma Jing and Mr. Jing would move in for a few days, which would also make it more convenient for cooking for everyone.

Before heading to her bedroom, Jing Shu went to the yard to check on the little frogs that had recently grown all four legs. She moved them into the chicken coop for the night, as the temperature still dropped considerably. There were over a hundred of these froglets now, and the mother frog had already laid another batch of tadpoles. I’ll need to deal with this batch of frogs soon, she thought.

On her daily trips to the back hills, Jing Shu would bring along her Number 1 drone to catch insects for the frogs. She had recently trained the Number 1 drone to capture insects and deposit them into an insect bag, rewarding it with diluted Spiritual Spring water. The fat chicken had quickly learned this routine as well.

The reason the six corpses were buried instead of burned was that the surrounding insects weren’t enough for the fat chicken. So, this was a good opportunity to cultivate another batch of rotten corpse insects, using the six bodies as nourishment. The number of rotten corpse insects should be exceptionally large this way. This is truly making use of waste, isn’t it?

After settling the frogs, Jing Shu inspected the greenhouse. Everything was normal, with no signs of invasion by rotten corpse insects. The Bees’ hives were near the water source with diluted Spiritual Spring water, and they behaved just like the Bees inside her space.

Next, she visited the drying platform. Of the four large water tanks they had before, only two remained. Jing Shu had been secretly adding some of the 15 cubic meters of mineral water she had stored in her space to their drinking water tank each day.

Although they had a water recycling system, and everyone collected 1.5L of water daily from the water truck for irrigation, it still wasn’t enough. The villa consumed a lot of water for the vegetables, apple and apricot trees, the fruits in the greenhouse, and the needs of the Domestic Poultry and people, especially to stay hydrated in the hot weather.

Jing Shu was now so frugal with water that she avoided drinking from the house supply, relying exclusively on watermelon and orange juice. Drinking the same thing every day was becoming unbearable. She had initially thought the coconuts would bear fruit in two months, but at this rate, it looked like they would need at least another half a month to mature.