"Could the third form of the Cube Space be meant to help me practice the Rubik's Cube better?" Jing Shu couldn't help doubting herself. Come to think of it, it wasn't impossible.
Inside the Cube Space, she didn't feel tired at all. Instead, she was full of energy, her whole body warm and buzzing. In short, she felt amazing.
She sorted the tenth-tier Rubik's Cube materials first, familiarized herself with them, and then started running through the formulas. After a few hours, she suddenly realized, "Wait a damn second, wasn't I supposed to be asleep? Why the hell am I practicing cubes? Does this even count as sleeping?"
When she opened her eyes, she blinked and stared at the tent ceiling, her mind spinning. Strangely, she didn't feel sleepy anymore. But every time she drifted back to sleep, she'd find herself once again inside the Cube Space, stuck in a weird loop of wondering whether she was actually asleep or still awake.
Luckily, she didn't get hung up on it for long. After days of traveling, they'd finally reached Wu City!
Jing Shu felt both anxious and relieved. All this trouble just for some seeds, and somehow so much had happened along the way. Still, no matter how hard the journey had been, the outcome was good, and that was what mattered. Finding the seeds was already the best possible ending.
This trip had also brought two major gains.
The first was finding the bug girl, Xiao Wei. From now on, that meant a stable food source. She might not be doing it purely out of charity, but with more food being produced, fewer people in Wu City would starve to death like in her previous life. The higher-ups would naturally stop squeezing every coin out of Qian Duoduo, which meant she could continue following behind him in peace. Having someone powerful take the heat always made life easier.
The second gain was the Cube Space's upgrade. It had expanded by over two hundred cubic meters, giving her more room to store supplies. By the time next year's migration came, she'd be able to prepare far more resources, which gave her a massive boost in both security and post-apocalyptic comfort.
This time, she planned to carefully calculate what to store inside. She needed to use every bit of space efficiently while still preparing for the challenges of migration. Survival came first, but she wasn't about to give up comfort and taste while doing it.
Oh right, Xiao Wei had already sent the first batch of bugs along with Xiao Hong and the team to an abandoned village on the outskirts of Wu City. They were just waiting for her people to connect and start the extermination and harvesting work. Jing Shu had already contacted Qian Duoduo, and once they finalized an agreement, they could officially begin production.
As for the seed convoy, they still had to wait for the rescue team to reach Wu City. After settling the villagers from Gashan Valley, the seeds would be handed over to Wu City's officials. Only after negotiating prices with the government side would the seeds finally end up in Jing Shu's hands. Honestly, that entire collection, containing hundreds of thousands of species, was priceless to China right now. Most crops had already gone extinct.
In just a few more years, even the most common poultry—chickens, ducks, fish—would be nearly extinct too. The creatures surviving in the apocalypse would all be new species adapted to its harsh rules, like the dino-chickens.
So there wasn't much left for her to do here. She could just head home and wait for news.
She tried to recall what this part of her previous life had been like, but the memory was vague. She only remembered that the fourth year's landslide had been one of the less catastrophic events—nothing too thrilling. But this life was already different. The mud was knee-deep, cars could barely move, and Wu City had probably become impassable. Traveling in the future would be a nightmare.
If the suburbs were already like this, the inner city had to be a disaster. The mud was cold and sticky, and once it froze, it would harden into heavy clumps that clung to everything.
The moment their minibus entered Wu City, it was stopped at a highway toll station. Because of the earthquakes and all kinds of road damage, only a few routes into the city remained. Anyone trying to enter had to go through one of these checkpoints.
The minibus rolled to a stop. Jing Shu's head throbbed as she heard commotion outside. She crawled out of her tent and asked Hao Yunlai, "What's going on out there?"
Hao Yunlai rubbed his eyes, still half asleep. He'd been dozing ever since they set out. "No idea. Let's get out and see?"
Once she stepped off the bus, Jing Shu realized the toll station wasn't as deserted as she expected. All four lanes leading into Wu City were jam-packed with people and vehicles. The place was noisy and chaotic.
Some people were standing knee-deep in mud wearing thick coats and carrying luggage. Others had set up tents along the nearby slopes. Thanks to her sharp night vision, Jing Shu could see that someone had even flattened a patch of land up the mountain with an excavator and built rows of prefab houses. It looked like people were settling there permanently.
"What's going on? Why are there suddenly so many people outside Wu City? This can't be good. Every extra mouth means more burden for the city," she muttered, frowning.
She headed into the toll station building and saw rescue team member Xiao Zhao arguing with a pair of men inside.
"Xiao Zhao, what's this about? Wasn't this toll station abandoned ages ago? Why are there people here again? Don't tell me they're charging entry fees now?" Jing Shu joked as she glanced at the two young men in black coats.
Xiao Zhao looked miserable. "No fees. The problem's way worse than that. The smaller cities around Wu City—Wuchang, Xinlan, Xidu—all got buried in landslides. The capital ordered Wu City to take in the disaster victims. But Wu City's government said they can only accept people in batches. They can't just let everyone rush in at once.
So now, every major route into the city only allows a limited number of people in each day. They're using the national database to evaluate everyone. You've got to prove you're useful, that you've got skills. Only then do you get an 'entry permit' and priority access. Everyone else just has to wait."
Jing Shu blinked. So those cities had all been wiped out by landslides. In her previous life, she'd barely paid attention, only remembering that a huge wave of people had suddenly flooded in and been forcibly resettled.
"But what's that got to do with us? Why won't they let us in? We're locals. We just went out for a while. You're even part of the official rescue team, aren't you? Doesn't that count for anything?" she asked, staring at the two bureaucratic young men.
Xiao Zhao looked close to tears. "They said that excuse doesn't work anymore. Everyone claims they're locals. How can they tell who's lying? They said we've gotta get proof from our community administrator, then have it approved by the local director, and finally—"