The little chubby kid in the apocalypse was truly rare.
Jing Shu was defeated. Sticking to her principle of never giving things away for free, Jing Shu held out a cashew nut and said, "One question, one cashew. What's your name?"
The chubby boy thought for a moment, then used a stick to write on the ground: 牛牪犇.
Jing Shu's face filled with confusion: "???" Niu… what? Was this kid testing which Chinese teacher had taught her?
The boy confidently took a cashew and explained, "It's pronounced Niu Yanben." He stretched out his hand again, clearly asking for another nut.
Jing Shu gave him one more. She herself grabbed a handful from her pocket, stuffing her cheeks while staring at the boy. The boy nibbled his cashew halves slowly, and when he finished, he looked eagerly at Jing Shu again.
The boy's eyes suddenly sparkled. "My name comes from Niu Yanben Shanhu, Ma Dubiao Hailong." He reached out again and successfully received another nut.
Jing Shu: "???"
She felt her IQ was being crushed.
"It means oxen charging together against a tiger, and horses charging together against a sea dragon. It describes unstoppable momentum, like thousands of horses thundering forward." After finishing his explanation, the boy triumphantly stretched out his hand and got yet another nut.
Jing Shu: "..."
This damn brat was showing off and making her look like a fool.
In the following minutes, the brat began gossiping nonstop about his family: how his mom loved strawberries, how his dad had his mom's name tattooed on his butt, how if his dad couldn't satisfy his mom, he'd be forced to kneel with additional weight 1.9 kg , how his dad's stash of private money was hidden inside a socket but had already been stolen by him, and so on.
Jing Shu thought: I really don't want to hear your gossip.
Niu Yanben replied with his eyes: No, you do want to hear it.
Jing Shu hiccuped, then pulled out her last cashew. "So, who exactly is your dad?"
The boy carefully put the cashew in his pocket. Pointing toward the brightly lit row of greenhouses, he said, "My dad is Niu Mou (like the sound a cow makes). Everyone calls him Director, but I heard he'll be leaving soon to become some kind of Minister."
Jing Shu: "..."
This was definitely not the right day for conversations. She seemed to have stumbled upon a huge piece of gossip. In her previous life, she only knew that Director Niu had been promoted, then kept rising higher and higher, bringing Yu Caini along as well. But the same strict, upright Director Niu actually had his wife's name tattooed on his butt?
The boy's eyes grew watery as he stared at Jing Shu. Then he pulled out a White Rabbit milk candy and held it out to her. "One question, one candy. What's your name?"
Good kid. He had learned quickly.
Finally, it was Jing Shu's turn. Excited as a child, she wrote down her name. She had assumed a six-year-old boy would barely recognize any characters, but the boy read it fluently and even said, "It comes from the poem 'Jìng Nǚ,' right? I just memorized that passage."
Jing Shu snatched the candy, bolted, and muttered, "We're not the same. At your age, I only knew how to play with mud." She hated this smart brat. Not only had he tricked more than twenty cashews out of her, but he even used words to humiliate her. Hmph.
By ten o'clock, it was already lunchtime. Sitting in the car with the cool air conditioning on, they ate simply: thick silver ear and goji berry soup, two apples, and then each had two bowls of bibimbap with a soft-boiled egg, spicy kimchi, and beef steak. This time, with no brat peeking at their food, the meal was especially pleasant.
Su Lanzhi worked overtime for a while longer. She had to personally handle everything, unlike Yu Caini, who only gave orders while others ran around on her behalf. Jing Shu thought Yu Caini's style was actually the more proper way of leadership, but since Su Lanzhi lacked connections, she had no choice but to do things herself for now.
From a distance, Jing Shu observed Yu Caini's research. It was buzzing with activity, divided into several zones for different experiments. Everything was orderly, with categories from rare to abundant crops. But what was the point?
In the end, it all came down to who could grow more and grow tastier produce. On that front, Jing Shu was confident that with her Cube Space, nothing in this world could beat her.
They did not leave until noon. On the way back, there were no robbers blocking the road. Jing Shu guessed they were all lurking near supermarkets instead.
At the community gate, security carefully checked their identities before letting them in. After all, robberies had indeed been rampant lately.
When they got home, Grandma Jing had already fed the fish, milked the cows, fed the silkworms, and taken care of the pigs, cows, and sheep on the first floor.
Jing Shu went upstairs to feed the chickens, ducks, and quails, collecting eggs along the way. She even slipped a few more from the Cube Space into the egg crate, which made it seem as if the family could never finish eating their daily eggs.
The black pigs and sheep in the villa were still smaller compared to the ones inside the Cube Space. The animals in the Cube Space lived in a constant, comfortable temperature without sudden fluctuations. They were also fed excellent food, even mixed with a little Spirit Spring water. As a result, they were much larger than the villa's animals and would be fully grown in just two more months.
Jing Shu was already planning which people she would "gift" the black pigs to, and what value she could extract from them.
Afterward, Jing Shu took her fat chicken to the back mountain, continuing to sharpen stone cones and practice throwing stones and shooting arrows. After more than a month of training, she could now throw 30 meters. Jing Shu was very satisfied with this distance; in mid-to-long range combat, she was practically unbeatable.
She also trained the fat chicken. Now, whenever she pointed and shouted, "Attack!" the nearly 20 kg chicken would fly forward, pecking and tearing with frightening strength. Jing Shu felt her Spirit Spring investment in No. 1 chicken was well worth it.
But bad news soon spread: another death in the community.
Jing Shu learned that Wang Dazhao's pregnant wife had died after eating vegetables bought from scalpers. To preserve the vegetables in high heat, scalpers had coated them with wax and chemicals. The pregnant woman miscarried and hemorrhaged, dying before she even reached the hospital.
The police were called, but the scalpers had long fled.
Wang Dazhao sought out Wang Qiqi, demanding he find the culprits. Wang Dazhao swore he would kill their entire families. Wang Qiqi agreed without hesitation, even admitting he bore some responsibility and would see it through.
The incident left the entire group chat silent. Just days ago, Wang Dazhao had proudly shown off his stockpile of baby goods and expensive infant formula. In the blink of an eye, he lost both his child and his wife. What he lost was not just family, but his hope for the rest of his life.
Even if he survived, he would only be like a walking corpse—unless he managed to pull himself out of the abyss.
This vegetable-wax scandal finally made most people give up on buying food from scalpers. With no water to wash vegetables, the risk of eating toxic produce was simply too great.
Just as everyone resigned themselves to living on plain white rice, a new nightmare appeared. After four months of mutation and evolution under the apocalyptic conditions, a new category of biosphere emerged: the Darklife—twisted organisms born from the collapse. The first and most infamous of these, the Carrion Scavengers, successfully invaded Earth. It took them only three days to go from silent invaders to infamous killers.
===
The author initially write "就在大家都一致决定,还是老老实实的吃白米饭的时候,黑暗物种,腐尸虫经过四个月的进化和衍变,终于成功入侵了地球,它们从悄无声息到名声大震,仅仅用了三天的时间."
Literally translated as "Just as everyone had unanimously decided to stick to their white rice, the dark creatures, the carrion worms, finally invaded Earth after four months of evolution and transformation. They went from a silent presence to widespread fame in just three days." (I use google translate for this)
黑暗 (Hēi'àn - Dark) + 物种 (wùzhǒng - Species as in scientific term for a classification of living organisms).
To be honest I torn between using Species or Creatures for this translation. But because that term eventually used for mutated living things (plants, animals, etc.) with a wide range of characteristics, so I feel both of them feel too restricting. And so, I need a new term for it.
"Darklife" is an umbrella term that encompasses everything: dangerous animals, grotesque mutants, tame plants, and everything in between. A "species" is a subset of life. A "creature" is an animal. "Life" includes it all.
While not a strict scientific term, it implies a biological classification. It has a more formal, conceptual ring than "Dark Creatures" and avoids the overly-specific false precision of "Dark Species" for a group that includes non-animals.
"The Dark Species" might refer to one type, like the Carrion Scavengers. "The Darklife" implies the entire new ecosystem—a whole class of mutated existence.
And so, I decide to make an introduction with clear and concise flow about the "Darklife" or as the author write "dark creatures". Because this was the first time that term used.
I introduces the concept first, then specifies the Carrion Scavengers as the first major example. By doing this, it clearly defines Darklife first as a broad "category of biosphere" and "twisted organisms," giving the necessary context. It also achieves introduction and specification in just two sentences, keeping the narrative pace tight and impactful.