Chapter 41: Died With Some Dignity
Last night’s thunderstorm left the ground littered with debris.
The villagers temporarily set aside thoughts of what to do next and focused on the matters at hand.
Several aunts scrubbed the large pot clean and prepared to use the flour gathered from various households to steam steamed buns for breakfast. Once the steamed buns were ready, they would toss some vegetable leaves into the boiling water in the pot, providing both food and drink.
The men split into two groups. One group wiped the table boards clean and reassembled them for use during the meal shortly; the other group went to nearby houses to fetch firewood, and Shi Tou was in this group.
The children helped pick up the pots, bowls, ladles, and basins scattered on the ground, put them in bamboo baskets, and carried them to the riverside to wash.
The others took down the tung oil cloth and spread it out on a farther empty patch of ground, roughly wiped it dry, then placed the wet items from various households on it to dry in the sun.
Xiao Huan borrowed a straw mat from Rong Niangzi and spread it out to let Yuan Yuan play on it.
Several elders sat together, discussing how to proceed next. Old Man Luo had passed out from anger at his unfilial son and was temporarily unable to join the discussion.
Old Man Wu suggested, “Why not invite the Xiucai Scholar and Lady Shang to discuss it together?”
The elders thought it made sense, and Old Man Liu went personally to invite them.
Shang Wan directly carried Lu Chengjing over, then slipped away with greased soles before Old Man Liu could call her back.
Joking aside, she could handle saving people or demolishing houses, but formulating post-disaster reconstruction plans was beyond her—she indicated she wasn’t good at it.
The elders didn’t mind and all turned to Lu Chengjing. “Xiucai Scholar, what are your esteemed views?”
Lu Chengjing, abandoned by his wife: “……”
Would biting someone count?
Shang Wan, who had run far away, suddenly sneezed, rubbed her nose, and changed positions to continue studying the spiritual field in her space.
In the apocalypse, at level ten space ability, the time flow rate of the spiritual field compared to the outside world could reach a terrifying ratio of 1:300 at most.
No matter what grain seed it was, as long as it was planted in Shang Wan’s spiritual field, it could be harvested in less than a day.
At that time, Shang Wan was a key protected target of the major bases, practically a walking granary.
The higher-ups of the various bases had considered confining Shang Wan and turning her into a perpetual grain-producing machine. But for some reason, Shang Wan’s mental threshold was extremely high, and mental ability users simply couldn’t control her.
The higher-ups of the various bases thought of sending ability users to capture her by force, but at least five out of every ten advanced ability users had been saved by Shang Wan and refused to act against her, even blocking other advanced ability users from doing so.
The higher-ups of the various bases pondered for a long time and could only resort to threatening Shang Wan by controlling her comrades and their families to force her to comply.
Shang Wan sneered: Want to confine her? Then perish together.
The higher-ups of the various bases scratched their heads bald but still couldn’t deal with Shang Wan, this prickly hedgehog, and finally had to abandon the idea of confinement, treating Shang Wan like an ancestor.
Unfortunately, Shang Wan still died, killed by the Zombie King in one strike.
It was unknown how long the Zombie King had been watching her, but it even commanded a zombie tide and mutated beasts to attack the major bases simultaneously just to tie down the major bases’ advanced ability users, leaving Shang Wan alone and giving the Zombie King its chance.
In terms of spectacle, Shang Wan felt her death was quite grand.
In fact, she had quietly prepared a spiritual spring purification bomb gift package for the Zombie King, which should have purified even its crystal core. Unfortunately, after transmigrating, she couldn’t see that spectacular scene and felt a bit regretful.
At this moment, Shang Wan looked at the small one mu spiritual field in her space, pondering what to plant to test it.
This world had no precise instruments or many experimental personnel to help; she could only test it herself.
In the apocalypse, there was a type of bok choy that remained edible even after mutation. From sowing to maturity, it only took five days and was a good source of vegetables. It was just extremely tough on the teeth—only level five ability users or above could bite it.
Ordinary bok choy also grew quickly.
Many fields in the village were planted with bok choy. Perhaps she could borrow some vegetable seeds to try, and conveniently ask the aunts about the growth cycle of bok choy in this world to estimate the time difference between the spiritual field and the outside world.
Shang Wan made up her mind and was just about to find someone to borrow some vegetable seeds when Xiao Huan came over holding Yuan Yuan.
“Sis, Uncle Wu is calling everyone back.”
“Let’s go.” Shang Wan stood up, took Yuan Yuan who was pouncing into her arms, smiled and kissed the little one’s chubby round face, then pinched the two little pigtails on her head.
“Why did you suddenly do her hair?”
Xiao Huan smiled. “She saw other little girls with pigtails on their heads and kept fussing for them until they were done.”
“Nice, very cute.” Shang Wan praised, and was kissed several times on the neck by Yuan Yuan hugging her.
When the three returned, half the people were already there.
Shi Tou waved to the three. “Here!”
There were two empty spots beside him, specially saved for them.
The two went over and sat down. Not long after, representatives from each household in the village arrived.
Old Man Wu gave Old Man Liu a look—everyone was here, let’s start.
Old Man Liu jerked his mouth toward him: You do it.
Old Man Wu had no choice but to stand up, clear his throat, and say, “Everyone quiet down, let me say a few words.”
The villagers all fell silent and looked at him together.
“The earthquake is beyond human control. Since it happened, we must unite and actively respond. We’ve discussed a plan with the Xiucai Scholar. Everyone listen first, and if there’s anything inappropriate, we can discuss changes.”
Old Man Wu slowly explained the plan. He spoke slowly but with strong voice, so even those standing at the back could hear clearly.
Where he missed something, Lu Chengjing supplemented it. To make it easy for the villagers to understand, he didn’t use literary language but plain speech.
The idle villagers all gathered around to listen.
Shang Wan propped her chin and listened to the end, feeling the so-called plan boiled down to three main points.
First, clear collapsed houses, mark dangerous houses, and uniformly burn poultry that died in the earthquake to prevent epidemics.
Second, go to the mountain to fetch soil to fill severely cracked ground.
Third, reinforce dangerous houses, chop trees to build sheds for temporary housing for those whose houses collapsed.
Simple three points, but they involved many matters.
For example, some households’ houses collapsed, some became dangerous houses, but some lucky ones were fine. Why should they exert effort to help you clear your house?
Another example, arrangements for personnel to fetch soil and fill pits.
Some cracks opened in others’ fields or next to others’ houses, affecting mainly that unlucky family with little hindrance to others. Why should others bother?
Don’t say just because they live in the same village they should help each other— even if morally coerced into going, there would still be cases of putting in minimal effort.
People have selfish hearts; no one wants to always take losses. Who does more or less work becomes points of argument and dispute.
Shang Wan disliked post-disaster work precisely because there were too many things to consider; she really didn’t want to bother with it.
She looked at Lu Chengjing’s calm and composed demeanor, figuring they had already discussed solutions.
