Jing Shu rarely told the truth, but this time she didn't expect things to end like this. It was her own oversight. Since she'd be gone for at least a few months, she figured it was better to be upfront about her trip so her family wouldn't worry and she wouldn't have to keep making up excuses.
She tried until her mouth was dry, but nothing worked. In the end, she sent a message to Yang Yang, who quickly replied: No problem, I'll handle it for you tomorrow morning.
Sure enough, Yang Yang showed up the next day. In less than twenty minutes, he'd convinced her entire family.
Jing Shu gave him a big thumbs-up and whispered, "What'd you say to them?"
Yang Yang held up three fingers. "First, safety. Second, serving the country. Third, I told your parents your health hasn't been great, maybe you've got some illness. I promised them you'd get a full checkup with America's advanced medical tech."
"I faked being sick," Jing Shu groaned, covering her face.
"I know. You're not fooling me. Those medicines of yours didn't come from some family heirloom, right? You've got other channels. Don't worry, we don't care where they came from. As long as they work, that's enough."
That finally let her breathe easier. He was right, her story wouldn't stand up to real scrutiny, but she was at least a vice president now. Not just anyone had the right to dig through her files.
She grabbed the luggage she'd been packing the past couple days. To her surprise, Grandma Jing, who had reluctantly agreed to let her go to America, still wasn't at ease. The old woman shoved Xiao Dou into her arms with tears in her eyes. "Take the chicken with you. Heaven help you if you're that far from home and can't even eat an egg. What if it gets hungry and thin?"
Jing Shu felt helpless. "Grandma, I'm going for business, not a vacation. Who takes a chicken with them?"
It wasn't that she couldn't take Xiao Dou. Others had police dogs or combat dogs as companions. But if she brought a hen instead, wasn't that too much? She wanted to keep things low-key, just make her trip to the U.S. worthwhile and come back. With a chicken at her side, she'd be laughed at the whole way.
Grandpa Jing, however, already had Xiao Dou's battle armor strapped on. "Shu'er, your grandma and I already discussed this. You've got a huge appetite. What if they don't feed you properly over there? And you know better than to eat random food outside. This chicken's got a steel helmet from a couple years ago, bullets won't pierce it. She's got spirit too, she'll protect you when it matters. Worst case, she can guard the place at night and stand watch."
"Grandpa, Xiao Dou goes to bed earlier than people, wakes up later than pigs. You're pushing it with that one." Jing Shu couldn't hold it in anymore. Xiao Dou was the kind of hen that could fall asleep while laying eggs. While other chickens slept standing up, this one could flop on her belly, on her side, or even sprawled flat on her back. Guard the house? What a joke.
Xiao Dou wasn't having it. She zipped around in her helmet, tugging at her own luggage strap with her beak, and charged toward Jing Shu as if insisting she was coming along.
Yang Yang burst out laughing. "Bringing a chicken's fine. At least you'll get an egg every day. And if we run out of food, you can make a big pot of braised chicken. Damn, this hen's huge! When I walked in, I thought it was a dog. This thing could feed us for two days easy."
Of course she was big, practically the size of a calf, even larger than a turkey. Thankfully her brown feathers hadn't fully grown in yet, or anyone would've recognized her for an old laying hen at first glance.
Xiao Dou let out a string of sharp clucks at him, and Yang Yang slapped his thigh. "It can understand me! Hah!"
Jing Shu wasn't amused. Her stupid hen was showing off, acting smarter than a dog. She grabbed Xiao Dou by the neck and whispered into her feathers, "Act like a chicken. Don't get too clever, or I'll turn you into spicy stir-fry."
The bird gave a few pitiful clucks in protest.
She couldn't shake the feeling that Xiao Dou really understood them. And she could actually communicate back. Whatever. Post-Founding rules said no spirits allowed, so she decided not to overthink it.
Her whole family insisted Xiao Dou had to go. Grandma Jing even packed the hen's nesting pouch (which Grandma Jing had sewn to hold the eggs), two spare chicken outfits, and strapped it all to Xiao Dou's back. "Your own luggage, you carry it yourself." She'd even prepared little boot covers and a knitted wool sweater for the bird, since they said it'd be cold over there.
Yang Yang just stared, dumbfounded. "Chickens have luggage now?" He stomped his boots against the frozen ground, shivering in his leather winter getup. What used to keep him warm before the apocalypse wasn't holding up anymore.
"Alright, I'm leaving."
Xiao Dou, now in full battle gear with her steel helmet, clenched her leash in her beak and followed behind Jing Shu like an abandoned dog chasing after its master.
And Jing Shu didn't have any free hands left. Yang Yang's jaw dropped when he saw the mountain of luggage she was carrying. She had a pack taller than she was on her back, a modified luggage cart just as tall in front, and an oversized trunk dragging behind.
Yang Yang swallowed hard. "Isn't that a little much? You'll have to carry everything yourself the whole way. Sometimes we'll be climbing mountains or relocating. You sure this won't hold us back? We can't settle in one place, we'll probably be fighting on the move too." He dropped his voice as he said that.
How the hell were they supposed to fight guerrilla battles with giant suitcases?
Jing Shu hefted a third case and tested its weight. "Weapons and equipment don't count toward the limit, right? So I've only got this one on my back and this trunk. Doesn't matter, I can still run a few kilometers no problem."
Her strength had doubled thanks to the Spirit Spring. She hadn't discovered all its uses yet, but the boost to her physical power was undeniable. Of course, her appetite had grown just as frightening.
Oh, and her night vision had improved too. Most people could barely see in the pitch-black apocalypse, but she could move around like it was twilight. Still, she hadn't reached the level where it was exactly like daylight.
Yang Yang didn't know what to say. "Fine. Just don't expect me to carry your stuff. I can't even carry my own, I need other people to do it. That's just not my thing."
He checked his watch. "We're late. Let's go, the plane's waiting. By the way, you're really gonna wear that? If you run home now, you've still got time to change."
Jing Shu glanced down at herself. Her hair was braided into two plaits and tied up into a bun. She wore long boots made of pure sheepskin, thick padded flesh-colored pants, and a giant cotton coat. What Yang Yang didn't know was that the coat was actually a modified bulletproof vest, long enough to cover her knees.
Safety rating: five stars. Bulkiness rating: five stars. Ridiculousness rating: five stars.
===
"Whatever. Post-Founding rules said no spirits allowed, so she decided not to overthink it."
This line refer to an "anti-superstition" type of policy, like the ones implemented in China after 1949 under the new government. Around the early 1950s, the Communist Party issued strict regulations against superstition, folk religion, and anything considered "feudal" or "spiritual." The goal was to promote scientific thinking and suppress beliefs in ghosts, spirits, or other supernatural entities. Temples were often closed or repurposed, mediums and spirit worship were banned, and things like divination, spirit mediums, or claiming to have magical powers were officially outlawed.
In the story, the line "Post-Founding rules said no spirits allowed" is a nod to that historical background—it's basically the world acknowledging that, according to official regulations, "spirits" or supernatural interference can't exist or at least shouldn't be referenced openly.
Jing Shu, chooses not to overthink it because it's both a legal/societal constraint and a narrative way to explain why she doesn't treat certain spiritual phenomena too seriously.