Hearing her shout, Chu Zhuohua opened the RV door. He stood there with a beehive head and dark circles, nothing like his former suave self. "Morning, Jing Shu. Come see my masterpiece."
Jing Shu took in two house-height wheels and finally understood what Chen Nan had meant by her priciest, biggest, collectible AT all-terrain tires.
The trailer's nose was streamlined for easier towing. The body was a rectangular house with windows and a chimney. The strangest part was the wheels set on both sides of the "house." It was bizarre.
"Look, cool tires, right? I copied a Maybach-style suspension. No matter how rough it gets outside, you feel nothing inside. Come, I will give you a tour."
"So you plan to hitch this junk house behind my RV as a tagalong?" she said.
When she did not know him well, she had thought him a cold, erudite, eccentric rich boy. Once familiar, he turned out to be something else entirely.
"No, not a junk house. It has its own power system, just electric. Top speed is only 40 miles per hour. And yes, I do plan to hitch it to your RV. From now on, every time we evacuate, I will cover half the fuel."
"Every time? What if…" She arched a brow. He probably did not know she was upgrading the RV for the great migration after year five.
"Of course every time. I would never take advantage of you." His lenses flashed oddly. Best case, they would drive the RV every day and never stop. As the saying goes, those closest to the water get the moon first. He wondered if it was true.
She narrowed her eyes. It felt wrong to take advantage of him when the RV's refit relied on him, and his perfectionist streak meant he could never hand back a flawed job. With her RV in his hands, his compulsions would force him to finish it to perfection.
While she hesitated, he held out a small packet. "Wu You'ai said you are collecting all kinds of seeds, the stranger the better."
"What seeds?" Right after rebirth she had gone to the wholesalers and bought practically every grain and fruit seed she could, along with some medicinal ones.
Her grain collection was the most complete. For many crops she held over a hundred varieties. She could boast that she had more than a hundred types of corn alone. The seed packs filled a full cubic meter.
So if the seeds were useless, she was not interested. But practical herbs and flowers were always welcome.
"Tobacco."
Her eyes lit up. Tobacco. Exactly what she lacked.
She had just been thinking that after the Rubik's Cube Space upgraded, she would plant new species. At present the fields were divided neatly into fruit, vegetables, and medicinal herbs. After the upgrade she could add other categories.
As for grains, she could wait two years. They still had plenty of rice and flour. For oil, next year she could plant soybeans and peanuts and press her own.
"Yes, yes, yes." In her mind she was already slotting tobacco into the next expansion of fields, along with cotton.
She also decided to make tobacco the sixth medicinal entry she would register as an upgraded vice chair at the Medicinal Herb Association, in case the leeches somehow did not count toward the quota.
That was right. She would plant tobacco at home, in the Rubik's Cube Space, and at the Medicinal Herb Association plots. Not only so Grandpa Jing and Jing An could smoke and avoid fighting, but also because tobacco itself was a medicinal plant.
Tobacco is warm in nature and sweet in taste, yet toxic. It reduces swelling, detoxifies, and kills pests. It can be used against the "four harms" and more: snail hosts of schistosomiasis, mosquitoes, flies, rats, bugs, and so on, with obvious effect.
What is abundant in the apocalypse? Bugs. Especially biting bugs. She had already burned through half of the two crates of medicated wind oil. Who knew how long they would last. Mixing tobacco into an insecticidal formula would be excellent.
In two months, as bugs multiplied and red nematodes diminished, tobacco's medicinal value would shine.
She found herself liking him more. What did this man's family do, to have every strange thing on hand?
"So, tour now?"
When a man introduces his proud creation, he always seems to stand taller. Inside the mongrel trailer, she felt the breadth of his imagination. He had turned it into a loft. In less than thirteen square meters, it held a full set of functions: living area, toilet and shower, kitchen, sofa, and bedroom.
The only flaw was the headroom. The first floor was 1.8 meters high. The loft bedroom was only 1.3 meters, with a big waterbed that moved on its own when you sat. Fun, though she wondered if it would rock her awake at night.
It felt a little claustrophobic.
"I like compact, self-contained spaces. They feel safe," he said.
She blinked. Wu You'ai had said the same thing when asking for a space capsule.
After the tour, she had to admit it was impressive. The materials were top tier. Just as he promised, no matter what happened outside, there would be no sway inside. His design and finish were strong too, as if he had built an entire vehicle from scratch in days.
As for her RV, it was unchanged from before the New Year. He had obviously spent all his time on his own build.
"Don't worry. I will finish yours quickly. Whatever comes next, I will be relying on you," he said, motivation rekindled, with new ideas sparking.
After leaving the modification shop, she hauled a batch of charcoal to the factory Wang Gang had secured and handed the virtual coins to Su Yiyang. The factory was near Xishan, a bit away from the old city.
Her uncle and aunt-in-law kept their day jobs. Community administrators were busy but flexible, so they could trade shifts and still manage the factory.
Wang Gang must have said the right things, because her aunt-in-law sprang back to life and was even more invested than her husband. By the second day, all hires were complete and production could start the next morning.
This factory would be easier to manage than Jing Pan's. Each day they only needed to tally incoming red nematodes and feed them directly into processing.
When that was done it was already afternoon. She hurried to the Medicinal Herb Association to get the tobacco planted. Evaluations were based on achieving medicinal quality, so the sooner she sowed, the sooner it would mature.
Astragalus, honeysuckle, gastrodia, bodhi, leech, tobacco.
Of those, honeysuckle and gastrodia had already reached medicinal grade. The leeches could be processed into medicine at any time. Astragalus and tobacco would need two to three months. Bodhi would need four.
"Jing Shu, of all days, why come today?" Wang Danai groaned. "You unlucky child."
Jing Shu: "???"