Chapter 83: The Darkened Wang Xuemei

When Jing Shu first met Wang Dazhao, he had bangs and looked like a bright, sunny boy. But now, with a shaved head and a face full of hardship, his will was as firm as iron—he was a man who had been through the apocalypse, with nothing left to hold him back.

"I want you to be my informant, infiltrating the Zhetian gang to gather information for me," Jing Shu said slowly. There had always been some unanswered questions from her past life that still haunted her.

She was also worried that Zhetian might retaliate after hearing about Biri's total annihilation, potentially targeting her neighborhood. Jing Shu had to prepare in advance.

Zhetian was a group of lawless individuals whose only goal was to seek revenge against society. Their pleasure came from killing and torturing people.

Some idiot had exposed the brotherly relationship between Zhetian and Biri in an online post. One gang had failed to steal guns from a police station, and the other was wiped out in a remote neighborhood. These events had become the talk of Wucheng, pushing Jing Shu’s community into the spotlight.

Wang Dazhao agreed without hesitation. Jing Shu then gave him several important instructions: "Use a fake name, avoid cameras, don’t let anyone scan your information, and never leave a record," she warned.

Jing Shu knew that whether the police were genuinely overwhelmed or intentionally letting things spiral out of control, as Wu Youai, her mentor, had predicted, the tide would turn in just a few months. When the government had finished dividing up the spoils and had more control, a bloody era of reform would begin.

At that point, anyone caught for robbery or rape would be executed. Anyone with a criminal record related to such offenses would be killed as well.

Escaping justice for a short time wouldn't matter because, by then, it would be a time of communal meals and face-recognition systems for distributing food. Anyone on the blacklist would be arrested the moment they tried to claim their share. If you didn’t, you would starve.

In her previous life, Jing Shu had thought the world was beyond saving, but somehow, China managed to turn the tide by controlling the nation’s grain supply.

Wang Dazhao went on to join Zhetian, taking the bloodied heads of his enemies as his offering. The news caused quite a stir within their inner circles.

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Jing Shu's long-awaited coconut trees finally bore fruit. Six towering coconut trees, nearly 30 meters tall, now stood in her dimensional space, each one loaded with coconuts. Jing Shu harvested them all at once, ready to wait for the next batch, which would come much faster now.

It had taken her over three months just to grow these trees. She wasn’t about to cut them down after a single harvest.

After all, the apple, apricot, and lychee trees, which usually took years to bear fruit, had produced in just a month.

This discovery excited Jing Shu. The taller the tree, the less the dimensional field seemed to accelerate its growth. It required more time.

This made Jing Shu wonder: Would plants grown directly in the soil grow faster? Could it mean that medicinal herbs, which normally took decades to mature, might only need two or three months in the dimensional space? Jing Shu decided to test this theory later.

Coconut water had a mild flavor, perfect for drinking. But Jing Shu preferred coconut milk. She followed a recipe, blending coconut flesh and water, boiling it until thickened, and mixing it with milk and sugar to make delicious coconut milk.

Even the leftover pulp didn’t go to waste—it was perfect for feeding fish and pigs.

Jing Shu allocated two cubic meters of her space to store the coconut milk. She drank large mouthfuls of it, feeling both happy and frustrated. Sadly, she couldn’t share it with anyone. Not even her acting skills could explain the source of this much coconut milk.

Worst case, she’d just ration water for the next six months and drink fruit juice every day instead. With a different flavor every day, life wouldn’t be too bad.

Since natural gas had been cut off, the Jing family had been cooking with coal, which was inconvenient and hard to control.

A few days earlier, Jing Shu had brought home some corn. Jing Nai had worried it was too much for them to eat, but after boiling some, Jing Shu had devoured dozens of ears herself. Given the difficulty of cooking with coal, they decided to make corn cakes with the rest.

Golden and fluffy, the corn cakes were fragrant, crispy, and chewy. Even cold, they made for an excellent snack.

Jing Shu’s favorite, though, was golden corn pancakes—a simple but exquisite dish. Corn kernels mixed with starch, spread flat in hot oil, and fried until golden and crispy. Sprinkled with coarse sugar, they were crunchy, sweet, and fragrant. Perfect for satisfying her cravings.

High-quality ingredients often required the simplest cooking methods to create the most delicious dishes.

Jing Shu secretly made a large batch and stored them in her space. Now, whenever she craved a snack, she could grab a piece, unable to feel at ease without it.

While Jing Shu spent the next two days at home, experimenting with recipes, much was happening outside.

Luo Zhu, from Building 9: "@Wang Qiqi, everyone’s running out of food. Can you think of something? We don’t even have enough water anymore."

Wang Qiqi responded: "According to inside information, the government’s first batch of vegetables will be available soon. Just hold on a little longer."

On May 19, there was a robbery and murder in the community.

A couple from Building 1, desperate for food, went to Wang Xuemei’s house in Building 2 to "borrow" grain.

Everyone in the group chat knew Wang Xuemei had at least ten bags of rice. They assumed, given her recent traumatic experience, that she would be weak and easily intimidated into handing over some food.

But no one expected Wang Xuemei to react so violently. Without a word, she grabbed a cleaver and hacked the couple to pieces. By the time Wang Qiqi arrived, she had stabbed them over a hundred times, making it impossible to distinguish their gender.

Wang Xuemei retrieved her phone and posted in the group chat: "Anyone who tries to borrow food from me will meet the same fate, except for those who helped me." She even attached a picture of the scene, terrifying everyone in the chat. From then on, she was known as "Crazy Wang."

But even her gruesome warning couldn’t stop the desperate. People were out of food, and with no one selling grain and no way to acquire more, they had no choice but to resort to robbery.

On May 20, Jing Shu’s father was ambushed three times while driving her mother to work.

The first incident happened right at the neighborhood gate, where a roadblock had been set up. Five armed men charged out, knives in hand. Jing Shu’s father floored the car into reverse, running over two of them. Then he accelerated forward, hitting two more. The last man tried to escape, but Jing Shu’s father chased him down, pinning him against the roadblock. The car crashed to a stop, leaving the man trapped and crushed.

By the time Jing Shu arrived after getting the call, three of the men were still alive, though barely. The one pinned by the car was coughing up blood, eyes wide with terror. If Jing Shu’s father reversed the car, he’d die instantly.

Jing Shu handed her father a knife. "Since they’re from the neighborhood, might as well give them a quick death."