CHAPTER 62: NIU YANBEN

Fat kids are really a rarity in the apocalypse.

Jing Shu was defeated. True to her principle of not giving away anything for free, she took out a cashew nut and asked, "A cashew for a question. What’s your name?"

The little fatty thought for a moment, then wrote ’Niu Yanben’ on the ground with a stick.

Jing Shu was completely bewildered. Niu what-what? Was he intentionally testing who taught her Chinese?

The little fatty conscientiously took a cashew nut and then continued, "Niu Yanben." Then he stretched out his hand, indicating he wanted another one.

Jing Shu gave him another, while she herself took out a big handful from her pocket, chewing with bulging cheeks, staring into the little fatty’s eyes. He ate half a nut at a time, looking eagerly at Jing Shu after finishing each piece.

The little fatty’s eyes suddenly shifted. "My name comes from Bull Mountain Tiger and Ma Du Biao Hai Long." Saying this, he stretched out his hand and successfully got another nut.

Jing Shu: "???"

She felt as if her intelligence had been attacked.

"It means when bulls band together, they charge at tigers, and when horses unite, they rush towards sea dragons. It mainly describes an unstoppable momentum, like a great stampede of horses," he explained. After finishing his speech, the little fatty proudly stretched out his hand again and got another nut.

Jing Shu: "..."

She felt like she had been shown up again by this damn brat.

In the following few minutes, the brat began to gossip about various family matters. For instance, his mom’s favorite food was strawberries; his dad had his mom’s name tattooed on his butt; if his dad couldn’t satisfy his mom, he would be made to kneel on something weighing 3.8 jin; his dad’s stashed money was hidden in an electrical socket, but he had stolen it, and so on.

I really don’t want to hear your gossip, Jing Shu thought.

Niu Yanben: "No, you do."

Jing Shu hiccuped, took out the last cashew, and said, "So who exactly is your dad?"

The little fatty’s dirty paw took the cashew, carefully putting it in his pocket. He pointed to the brightly lit, climate-controlled greenhouse and said, "My dad is Niu Mou. Everyone calls him Director, but in a few days, he won’t be working here anymore. I heard he’s going to be some kind of minister."

Jing Shu: "..."

She felt that today was not a good day for conversations. It seemed she had heard some incredible gossip! In her previous life, she only knew that Director Niu had been promoted and afterward climbed the ranks impressively, even bringing Yu Caini along with him. To think that the supposedly strait-laced and upright Director Niu had his wife’s name tattooed on his butt?

The little fatty stared at Jing Shu with teary eyes, then took out a Wangwang milk candy and gave it to her. "A candy for a question. What’s your name?"

Good kid, he learned fast and was already putting it to use.

Finally, it was Jing Shu’s turn. As excited as a child, she wrote down her name. She had initially thought a six-year-old wouldn’t recognize many characters, but the little fatty read it aloud and even added, "Is that from ’Jing Nu, her beauty, awaits me at the city corner’? I happened to memorize this passage."

Jing Shu grabbed the candy and dashed off. We’re not the same... All I knew back then was how to play with mud... She detested this clever brat. He had not only swindled her out of more than twenty cashews but had also humiliated her with his literary knowledge. Hmph.

...

They had lunch at ten o’clock. Inside the car with the air conditioning running, they drank thick white fungus and goji berry soup, ate two apples each, and had two bowls of stone pot mixed rice topped with a soft-boiled egg, accompanied by spicy kimchi and steak. It was a simple meal, quickly put together, but exceptionally enjoyable this time without any bratty kid spying on their food.

Su Lanzi worked overtime for a while again. She had to do everything herself, unlike Yu Caini, who only needed to point fingers and issue orders while others ran themselves ragged for her. That’s the correct leadership posture, Jing Shu thought. But for now, with no foundation, Mrs. Jing still had to handle things herself.

Jing Shu observed Yu Caini’s research project from a distance. It was bustling with activity inside, divided into several zones for different experiments. It was clear that the vegetable plots, categorized by planting density—sparse, moderate, and dense—were meticulously organized. But what was the use of all that?

In the end, isn’t it all about who can grow more, and tastier, crops? On this point alone, her Magic Cube Space would win. If it couldn’t, nothing else in the world could.

It wasn’t until noon that mother and daughter returned home. They didn’t encounter any robbers on the way. They’re probably all lurking near the supermarket, Jing Shu figured.

When they reached the entrance of the residential complex, the security guard diligently confirmed their identities before letting them through, given the recent chaos from robberies.

By the time they got home, Grandma Jing had already fed the fish, finished the milking, fed the silkworms, and tended to the pigs, cattle, and sheep on the first floor.

Jing Shu went to the cramped second floor to feed the chickens, ducks, and quails, collecting eggs as she went. She also slipped a few extra eggs from her Magic Cube Space into the egg box. This resulted in the Jing family having so many eggs that it felt like they ate them every day but could never finish them all.

The black pigs and sheep in the villa were quite different from those in the Magic Cube Space. The animals in the space lived comfortably in a constant-temperature environment, free from sudden hot or cold spells. Additionally, they ate excellent food mixed with a small amount of spiritual spring water, causing them to grow several sizes larger than those in the villa. They would mature in another two months.

Jing Shu was already planning whom to "gift" the black pigs to and what value she could create from them.

Afterward, Jing Shu took the fat chicken to the back mountain to continue sharpening the giant stone cone and to practice throwing stones, archery, and other skills. With over a month of practice, Jing Shu could now throw a stone up to 30 meters. She was very satisfied with this distance; for medium-to-long-range attacks of this kind, she was practically invincible.

She also trained the fat chicken. Now, whenever Jing Shu pointed and shouted, "Attack!" the nearly 40-pound fat chicken would pounce, pecking and tearing with incredible force. It made Jing Shu feel that her investment was worthwhile and that the water from the Number 1 Spiritual Spring fed to it had not been in vain.

「Another death occurred in the community.」

Only then did Jing Shu learn that Wang Dazhao’s pregnant wife had died. The cause was vegetables sold by a scalper. To preserve them in the high temperatures and prevent spoilage, the vegetables had been coated with wax and other chemicals. After eating them, the pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage and severe hemorrhaging. She had stopped breathing by the time she reached the hospital.

The police were called to apprehend the culprits, but they had long since fled.

Wang Dazhao found Wang Qiqi and tasked him with finding the culprits. He swore he would hack their entire family to death. Wang Qiqi agreed without hesitation, saying he bore some responsibility for the matter and would see it through to the end.

Everyone in the group chat was so scared they didn’t dare make a sound. Just a few days earlier, Wang Dazhao had been showing off in the group the pile of baby supplies he had hoarded and the expensive infant formula he had bought. In the blink of an eye, he had lost not only his child but also the child’s mother. He had lost hope for the rest of his life.

One could say that although he was alive, he was like a walking corpse, unless he could find a way to move on.

This incident with the wax-coated vegetables thoroughly deterred most people who had considered buying vegetables from scalpers. After all, there was no water to wash vegetables properly, and risking death by eating them simply wasn’t worth it.

Just as everyone had collectively decided to stick to eating plain white rice, the dark species known as rotten corpse insects, after four months of evolution and mutation, finally successfully invaded Earth. They went from being completely unnoticed to widely notorious in just three days.