As soon as the medicinal wine was ready, Li Yuetian immediately clamored to come fetch it. Jing Shu had no choice but to tell him she would deliver it the next morning.
She took a swig of turtle-snake wine. The taste was sharp and spicy, with the bitter undertone of Chinese herbs. Her throat burned as if fire were about to burst out, her whole body flushed with heat. If one were to drink this in minus seventy degrees weather, it would certainly warm the body. The only problem was, she really couldn't accept the flavor.
Grandpa Jing, on the other hand, smacked his lips in satisfaction. He enjoyed it immensely, ending with a hearty shout, "Good wine!"
The turtle used this time was the only one they had, picked up by her Eldest Uncle's son, Su Long. When Jing Shu last went to Xishan, she hadn't seen any turtles, so she would have to find an opportunity later to search for some old softshells.
So in her household, they drank turtle-snake wine themselves. The rest was just ordinary snake wine.
She cleaned the snakes, removed the innards, and soaked them in baijiu with a moderate ratio of Chinese herbs. In this way, she brewed ten bottles, each in a one-liter glass container. By then, their stored baijiu was nearly used up.
She couldn't help thinking about brewing more. After all, several batches of grapes in her Cube Space had already ripened. When she had some free time, she planned to make red wine, white wine, and rice wine all at once. Compared to baijiu, drinking a glass of red wine daily would actually be quite nice.
That day, when the temperature finally climbed to thirty-four degrees, she had already eaten a hearty breakfast. She put on a fully enclosed raincoat, carried the wine, and headed toward the big mall next to the Banana Community to deliver the bottles to Li Yuetian.
Wu City's temperature was slowly dropping again. In a few months, it would fall to around ten degrees. By then, daytime rain would chill people to the bone. Even though the government distributed free plastic raincoats, few people wanted to leave home.
Just like now, Jing Shu walked through the torrential rain while others, clad in their plastic coats, trudged slowly along. Where water pooled on the road, there were often middle-aged women crouching to scoop up red nematodes to trade for a pitifully small ration of contribution points.
At this hour, most people outside were heading to the canteens to fetch food for their families. Few wanted to eat on-site anymore. Most went out wearing only a raincoat, nothing else underneath.
The relentless storm meant clothes and bedding were perpetually damp. Some people had managed to dry their laundry after hanging it for a week. They dreaded stepping out into the rain again, because once wet, they would have to sleep cold at night, suffering miserably.
She understood all too well. Having lived through the apocalypse before, she knew: during the day, people only wore plastic coats to work or fetch food. Even the women catching red nematodes nearby looked indistinguishable from men. After all, everyone was bald now.
On the first floor of the mall were three large canteens. The Ai Jia Canteen, run under her Third Aunt's supervision, had specialties like "Salt and Pepper Maggots" and "Pan-Fried Mushroom Eggs." The food was tasty but a little expensive, which attracted a middle-income crowd among the poor.
The Ai Guo Canteen boasted large, affordable portions, drawing many patrons.
At this moment, Ai Guo Canteen was in chaos. People were shouting, a heart-wrenching scream tore through the air, and many crowded around to watch.
Jing Shu ignored it, heading straight upstairs to Li Yuetian's office on the second floor. Unfairness was constant in this world. She couldn't manage it all.
"Hold her down, a few of you! Someone, shave her head. I refuse to believe this nonsense any longer."
"No! Please, don't! I won't eat here anymore, I'll never come again. Let me go!"
Jing Shu, originally about to leave, stopped in her tracks. She turned sharply, tightened her grip on the wine, and ran toward Ai Guo Canteen.
"It's her. It has to be her." Her heart raced chaotically. The rain had been falling for months, yet someone still refused to cut her hair and kept eating at the public canteens. There was only one person it could be.
Last month, Jing Shu had already warned her Paternal Third Aunt: if a woman with very long hair came to the canteen and refused to cut it, she must be informed immediately and held back. But there had been no news. Her aunt even confirmed such a person had never appeared. As for the other two canteens, Jing Shu had no idea.
She had also asked Wang Qiqi, who had recently risen to become the Banana Community's Distribution Director, to search the database for anyone named Zijin. A few came up, but none matched.
In her previous life, Jing Shu had met this woman in Ai Jia Canteen. But in this life, no matter how she searched, she couldn't find her.
Of course, with a population of over a hundred thousand in Banana Community, data entry errors weren't impossible. Just as she had given up hope, today she unexpectedly heard her voice.
She slapped her forehead. Of course. Her aunt's Ai Jia Canteen had tastier food but higher prices. Ai Guo Canteen was cheaper. With her stingy habits, it made sense that Zijin might choose Ai Guo instead.
And because of her rebirth, the butterfly effect had changed everything. Her Third Aunt had become the manager of Ai Jia Canteen, introduced famous dishes like "Pan-Fried Mushroom Eggs," and raised the price tier, which in turn had driven Zijin away.
Jing Shu's hand trembled slightly as she carried the wine, her steps quickening. In her fully enclosed raincoat, she cut through the crowd like a domineering CEO, shouting, "Move aside! Make way!"
Her strength was terrifying. She shoved through two clusters of people in an instant. Those who wanted to curse fell silent the moment they saw her looming figure in the dim light, holding bottles of liquor.
Anyone who could afford such a raincoat and carry alcohol these days was a powerful figure not to be provoked. Most quickly cleared a path for her.
That was the reality of the apocalypse.
And there she was: the woman from Jing Shu's memories.
Her boyfriend once told her, "When your hair reaches your waist, I will marry you." But when she finally grew her hair that long, the news came that her boyfriend had died in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake relief effort. From then on, she never cut her hair again.
She always said, "If I keep my hair long, one day he'll come back to marry me. That's what gives me strength to keep living."
She was also the very woman who had infected Jing Shu with red nematodes because she refused to cut her hair. Yet this woman lived frugally every day, saving scraps of food, and later gave them to Jing Shu's starving family when they were on the brink of death.
She even led them to dig up carrion for food, migrating thousands of miles on a grueling long march, and somehow surviving. They endured the hardest of times together. But in the end, she was the one who didn't make it.
Before she died, she said:
"I feel like he's been protecting me all along."
"I know."
"You're the only one who believes he's still by my side."
"Is that why you saved us back then?"
"Yes."
In truth, Jing Shu had only been humoring her at the time. She never imagined what would happen afterward, or that a few simple words of affirmation could bring life-saving food in the apocalypse.
No matter what, for that kindness alone, Jing Shu was determined to let this woman named Zijin live well in this life.
"Stop right there!" she shouted. Just as the guard raised the clippers to shave off Zijin's hair, Jing Shu rushed forward and yanked the tool out of his hand.