"Why are your hands shaking nonstop? If you are scared, we should head back right away." Jing An finally noticed that Jing Shu's hands were trembling and spoke with concern.
You killed six people in one go, then carried each crushed, pulpy body back to the pit to bury it. See if your hands would not shake. That was what Jing Shu thought, but what she said was, "Maybe I got tired carrying up those two sacks of rice that bunch dropped when they ran downstairs in a hurry."
There had been eight sacks of rice in total. Even fools would not leave all of them. Jing Shu could not exactly blurt out, Hey, I killed all six of them. So she had to make something up.
"Thank you," Wang Xuemei said. She glanced at the rice that had been brought back, but showed little emotion. Her eyes were empty as she kept clutching her daughter's mangled corpse and refused to let go. She had cried until no tears were left, and the worst part was that she still could not accept that both her husband and her daughter were dead.
With two dead, the group of men did not know what to do. Wang Qiqi, a pot on her head and a frying pan in hand, squatted to the side and discussed how to handle the aftermath. The others could only shine their flashlights and clean up the shattered mess on the floor.
Wang Xuemei was forty. A family of three, living in peace. She had an eighteen year old daughter. When it happened, she had done exactly what Wang Qiqi advised, give them whatever they wanted. But the men behaved like beasts suddenly loosed from a cage, eager to do what they never dared do in ordinary times.
"Brother Tao, the Zhatian Gang is stirring up something big over in Xinshi District tonight. The police will not come here. We can do whatever we want and nobody will care."
"Exactly, Brother Tao. It is pitch dark. The whole city has no power. Nobody can see anyone, heh heh."
They set their sights on Wang Xuemei's daughter. There are no parents in the world who can watch their child be humiliated without fighting back. The two sides began to brawl. In the end, Wang Xuemei was held by two men and could not move. She could only listen to her daughter and husband scream. Before long she heard:
"Crap, we might have chopped someone to death."
"Brother Tao, let's go. If the police investigate a death, it will be trouble."
"I hear a lot of people coming up the stairs!"
"Damn it, my head is split open. Grab the rice and move. What rotten luck. Split up and leave through the other unit."
They had just left when Wang Qiqi led people upstairs. If you ask Jing Shu, it was fortunate they were a step late. Meeting face to face would have been awkward. Do you let them go, or do you fight to the death on the spot?
Wang Qiqi and the others let out a long breath. It was a relief that the men had run. Otherwise, they would have been the first to flee. Once inside, they saw blood everywhere. In the chaos, the father and daughter had both been slashed across major arteries, bled out, and were already gone. Even if they were rushed to a hospital, they would not make it.
The 110 line was busy. The 120 ambulance no longer dispatched vehicles. Wang Qiqi called 130, the corpse removal hotline. Half an hour later, a truck arrived. Four people in protective gear brought body bags to carry the corpses away.
Wang Xuemei clutched her daughter's body and refused to let go.
"Here is the situation, ma'am. Due to the invasion of the carrion scavenger, the new policy requires that all corpses be taken to the crematorium immediately for cremation. For cooperating families, the government will provide ten jin (5 kg) of rice per deceased person as compensation. If the family does not cooperate, we can only record it in the file. You would not want your loved one covered in carrion scavenger in half a day, would you?" The team leader, dressed in heavy protective gear, held up two bags of rice as he spoke.
That final sentence pierced Wang Xuemei's heart. She broke down crying and finally nodded. "I will go with you. I want to take their ashes back."
The tragedy at Wang Xuemei's home ended with two deaths. In the group chat, Wang Qiqi posted an announcement warning everyone to be careful. He planned to organize a patrol, but it did not work well. Everyone had to queue at the supermarket for grain during this period. Who had time to patrol? And would a patrol even help if they ran into a dozen men with knives?
When Jing Shu returned home, her grandparents, Third Aunt Jing Lai, Wu You'ai, and her mother were all sitting in the dining room waiting anxiously. When they heard that two people had died, everyone's faces darkened.
"All that for a few bags of rice and a young girl, and they can kill?" Grandpa Jing paced back and forth, ignoring his massage chair. It was horrifying.
"What a sin. Then we absolutely cannot let anyone know how much food we have," Grandma Jing said in terror.
"How about this, Mom and Dad, Sister, why do you all move here? The community is not safe now. At least I sealed the house with tempered glass. I guarantee they cannot pry the gate open," Jing An said worriedly.
"Save it, little uncle. It is fine to have Grandfather and Grandmother stay here to watch the grain for you, but Mom and I really cannot get used to living here. We will stay at Grandmother's place. There is nothing there. It will not draw attention," Wu You'ai said casually, eyes still on her manga.
"You two women will not be safe."
"I have not bathed for three months. If they do not mind and can stand it, then I will not resist," Wu You'ai shrugged. Is it not a saying that if you cannot resist, lie back and enjoy it?
Wu You'ai's chuunibyou flared up again. She kept fantasizing that the robbers would be handsome. She even prepared condoms. If possible, she hoped the guy would wear one. If he turned out to be especially handsome, perhaps they would fall in love because of it.
In the end, it was decided that Wu You'ai and Third Aunt Jing Lai would go back to their place. Grandma Jing and Grandpa Jing would move in for a few days to help cook for everyone.
Before going back to her room, Jing Shu checked the little green frogs in the yard that had already grown four legs. She moved them into the chicken run for the night. Nighttime temperatures were still very low. There were already more than a hundred little frogs, and the mother frog had laid another batch of tadpoles. It seemed she needed to deal with this batch of frogs soon.
Every day, when Jing Shu went to the back mountain, she brought along No. 1 to catch bugs for the frogs. Recently, she had trained No. 1 that if it put the bugs into the bug-catching pouch, it would be rewarded with diluted Spirit Spring. Xiao Dou learned the routine very quickly.
As for why those six bodies were buried rather than burned, it was because there were no longer enough bugs around to feed Xiao Dou. Those six corpses could raise another batch of carrion scavenger. With six bodies as feedstock, the carrion scavenger population should explode. Consider it waste turned to use.
Once the frogs were settled, Jing Shu went to inspect the greenhouse. Everything was normal. There was no carrion scavenger incursion. The beehives had a water source of diluted Spirit Spring right next to them, just like the bees inside her space.
Next she went to the drying terrace. Of the four large water storage tanks from before, only two remained. These days, Jing Shu secretly topped up the drinking water tank with the fifteen cubic meters of bottled spring water she had stored in the space.
Even with a water recycling system, and even though each person collected 1.5 liters of water from the water truck daily for irrigation, it was still not enough. A villa used water in too many places. Vegetables, apple and apricot trees, the fruits in the greenhouse all needed watering. Poultry and people needed plenty of fluids in the heat.
Jing Shu was so broke that she no longer drank the household water. She had been drinking watermelon juice and orange juice instead. Drinking it every day was getting unbearable. She had thought the coconuts would bear fruit in two months, but judging from the growth, it would take more than half a month longer.