Her sudden change of behavior made Su Long immediately beg Grandma Jing to teach him how to make cold skin noodles and gluten. He swore he would master it fast so Sister Jing could eat her favorite food again and stop saying such unsettling, creepy things. He felt he was in the wrong for eating her portion. He regretted everything and vowed never to overeat again, his stomach still tight from the massive meal he had just consumed.
But Jing Shu was genuinely in a good mood today, despite the exhaustion in her bones. The process of hauling those tons of ammunition might have been tiring, but the results were more than worth the physical toll. After briefly explaining the situation and her recent gains to her parents, she finished dinner, then locked herself inside her second-floor bedroom in the German MAN RV to start taking stock of all her supplies, available resources, and of course, the gifts everyone had given her in exchange for her help.
Xiao Dou was crouched in her nest in the corner of the room, her feathers ruffled as she glared fiercely at Yi Hou. The ant queen was laying eggs like crazy. The ants kept invading the hen's territory, which made the bird increasingly restless and territorial.
As Jing Shu checked her current inventory, she began outlining her next steps in a notebook. Sometimes she had so many things stored within her space that she forgot what she even had or exactly what they were for.
First, today she had gained 120,000 rounds of ammunition in total. That much could last her a long time. It was enough for several small-scale battles even if she went all out with her heavy weaponry.
Next were the supplies she had brought back today. They didn't take up much space in her storage, so she sorted and stored them right away. Everyday goods went to the villa area; industrial ones went to the warehouse. As for the food, most of it didn't contain Spirit Spring energy, so she didn't really care for it herself. She planned to use these items as gifts or goodwill offerings. They were something nice to give her aunts, cousins, and friends when they visited.
Anything infused with Spirit Spring properties would be kept strictly for her own family's use to ensure their health.
Finally, she had traded four million virtual coins' worth of red nematodes and gold for four million worth of supplies, only to spend that same amount again to buy a twenty-acre plot of prime land. She even had to throw in all the virtual coins she had saved up over the years just to make the down payment. From now on, she would have to pay off the loan with grain and resources every month.
Jing Shu started jotting down her current issues and future plans:
1. Begin converting and building on the factory land as soon as possible, and work with Jun Jia to solve the housing problem for the nearby few thousand workers.
2. Designate an area inside the factory for raising Sulfuric Acid Ants and extracting sulfuric acid for her industrial needs.
As for what the land would mainly be used for, Jing Shu already had a plan. It was for the Spirulina algal bloom that Wu You'ai had given her yesterday.
"Second form!"
With a flick of thought, the god view of her Cube Space appeared before her eyes, the familiar landscape stretching out in her mind. She walked past the herd of cattle and sheep and crouched in the corner of the space, staring at the thing she had cultivated yesterday.
The entire mass was now crawling with layers of carrion scavengers. She had collected a whole bunch of those disgusting worms from a stinking gutter yesterday, killed them, cleaned them up, and tossed them into the Spirulina bloom as food.
Wu You'ai had told her that as long as these algae had protein to consume, they would grow and reproduce like crazy. To speed things up, Jing Shu had even added some No. 2 Spirit Spring solution to the mixture.
And now, in just a single day, the one-cubic-meter section of her Cube Space had been completely overrun by thick, green algae!
Once the algae were ready, Jing Shu moved a portion over to the red nematodes. The algae could synthesize protein and bound nitrogen by themselves, making them great fish feed; however, she didn't plan to just use them that way. Instead, she wanted to feed them to the red nematodes to boost their breeding rate.
Back then, red nematodes had reproduced wildly without any feed at all. But now, no matter what method she tried, she couldn't restore that efficiency. Using only Spirit Spring water wasn't realistic either. She didn't have nearly enough of it to sustain large-scale breeding. After all, individual power could only go so far in a total collapse.
"Let's hope these algae don't let me down."
3. If the algae could serve as red nematode feed and help them breed faster, she could move to the next stage: hiring workers for the factory and dividing it into three sections. One section would be for collecting or raising carrion scavengers at low prices, one for cultivating algae, and one for feeding red nematodes to expand reproduction.
"There are too many carrion scavengers out there. If I can really find a way to use them properly, maybe it will help reduce the disaster in Wu City's fifth year?"
That is right. If her villa had been a safe haven for the first five years, then once she returned from the migration, that land would become a golden zone. Based on what she knew about the coming years, that "golden zone" would survive multiple disasters without harm and later become one of the main gathering places for survivors.
Jing Shu didn't buy that land just for herself. She wanted to help lessen the famine that would hit in the fifth year, when the government went crazy and even confiscated Qian Duoduo's Shiyuan, killing him over grain shortages.
If her factory could mass-breed red nematodes and cooperate with the government, maybe fewer people would die when the famine hit. And if the Tyrant wasn't cornered into desperation, maybe he wouldn't destroy Shiyuan either. Maybe history would change. After all, she had shares in it too.
Still, who could really predict the Tyrant's temper once things got bad?
4. From her trip to the US, she had learned that cells have a limited number of divisions. So if the red nematodes and algae reached their reproductive limit, could the ZS880 drug boost their reproductive capacity and keep them breeding?
With that in mind, Jing Shu began her second batch of algae and red nematode experiments.
5. The second shipment of supplies, seeds, and rare minerals hadn't yet arrived from the capital. She would talk to Jin Tianci once they did.
6. Hao Yunlai was still unconscious. She needed to study the dead tree and crimson liquid, then discuss it with Yang Yang. Once she confirmed her hypothesis with experiments on Hao Yunlai, she would move on to saving him. Everything she did was for her teammate's survival.
7. Start breeding Lion Head geese. Since her family had bought such a huge courtyard, she might as well renovate it too. She was really looking forward to that 300-square-meter yard being full of life.
8. She had six months to prepare for next year's mudslide. The villa and back courtyard would be hit first by the sliding earth. She remembered someone using a pretty clever method in her previous life, but she would have to come up with a reason to build something that big this time without raising eyebrows.
Jing Shu bit the tip of her pen, then her eyes suddenly brightened. "I don't need a reason! It's because I like it! Because I am rich and I can!"
9. Lately, her mind often felt blank. She would lose focus or forget things easily. It might be tied to the Cube Space's new ability awakening. She needed to prepare for the upgrade carefully and accelerate the process, because her current Cube Space just wasn't enough anymore for the coming years!
10. Find an armed helicopter as her personal ride. That would be the next small goal.
"Alright, that's enough for now. I will add more later if I think of something."
Satisfied with her list, Jing Shu finished writing her plans, stayed up late to record all her inventory inside the Cube Space, and finally went to bed.
The next morning, with dark circles under her eyes like a panda's but a satisfied grin on her face, Jing Shu began distributing the carefully sorted gifts she had prepared last night.