Stirring Things Up in the Wasteland 6

Chapter 6

“First, let’s roughly divide everything into four categories.”

As Song Xun pondered, she drew four lines in the notebook.

“Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation.”

“We’ll stockpile food first. Rice is an essential staple.”

Although Song Xun could cook, it was usually Chang Wan who did the cooking at home. She propped her chin on her hand and said, “Big Sis, we don’t have a lot of money, so we don’t need to buy the expensive kind. Regular rice tastes fine too.”

“We also need to buy some glutinous rice, millet, and so on.”

“And coarse grains too. Corn, black rice, soybeans, mung beans, etc.”

Song Xun nodded. “Flour is also indispensable.”

“And oil. Regular cooking oil will be enough.”

“Salt and sugar are also necessities.”

Song Xun jotted it down. “We can buy more of these. Even if we don’t use it all, we can trade it with others later on.”

Going without sugar for a long time could lead to a lack of calories and energy, causing hypoglycemia, lethargy, malnutrition, and physical weakness. It could even induce brain diseases, leading to coma and death.

And if a person went more than three days without salt, they would experience symptoms like fatigue, dizziness, vomiting, and arrhythmia. It could really be fatal.

After all, you could endure hunger for a while, but once hypoglycemia or hyponatremia set in, it could kill you in minutes, believe it or not.

“As for water, once abilities awaken later on, Xiao Wan can use her water ability. So we don’t need to buy too much of that, but we should still stock up on some before abilities become widespread and our powers advance.”

“Also, fruits, vegetables, and meat, which provide essential vitamins and proteins, are also a must.”

But at this point, Chang Fei pushed up the glasses on his nose and looked at Song Xun. “Big Sis, what is your spatial ability like?”

“Can it only store things?”

“Does it have any kind of preservation function? If it does, we can stockpile a large amount of fruits, vegetables, and meat. If not, we can only stock up on a small amount of things that last longer.”

Song Xun understood what Chang Fei meant. After all, everything has a shelf life. Once it expires, it’s not just useless; it could have adverse effects, which would be terrible.

“I haven’t tested that.”

Putting down her pen, Song Xun thought for a moment, then looked up at Shi Tou. “Go get a few ice cream bars from the fridge.”

Shi Tou didn’t quite understand what the ice cream was for. If they were testing for preservation, shouldn’t they use fruits or vegetables? But he didn’t ask and obediently got up and went out.

Song Xun thought for a moment and called after him, “Shi Tou, get a few more.”

“Okay.”

Shi Tou brought back over a dozen milk-flavored ice cream bars and placed them all on the floor. Song Xun placed her hand on them, and with a mere thought, the ice cream bars disappeared one by one in front of the three of them.

Even though they already knew Song Xun had a spatial ability and were mentally prepared, they were still amazed by the scene before them.

But they didn’t disturb Song Xun.

Song Xun focused her thoughts. She could control her consciousness, as if her will was absolute. In this space, she was the supreme ruler.

She placed the ice cream bars one by one, one in each of the four corners of the space she could reach, and especially around the blurry stone tablet in the middle.

Now, they just had to wait for the results. Ice cream melted quickly, so it would be easy to see the outcome.

If the ice cream melted, it meant time passed in the space and it couldn’t preserve things. If it didn’t, it meant it could.

Only then could they confidently stockpile things with shorter shelf lives.

Time was tight, and since they were just waiting for results, Song Xun and the others didn’t dwell on the topic.

“Medicine is also a must-stockpile item.”

Although after abilities became widespread, the bodies of the survivors had mostly adapted to the disasters and they rarely got sick, “rarely” didn’t mean never.

In the early stages, Western medicine could still be found, but in the later stages, it became scarce. Even if you found some, it was likely expired, not only ineffective but potentially harmful if consumed.

By the seventh year of the apocalypse, when Song Xun died, she didn’t know about other countries, but in China, Western medicine was extinct.

Traditional Chinese medicine, Chinese doctors, and the extremely rare healing-type ability users—this was the main theme of medical treatment in the later apocalypse.

The medical knowledge passed down by their ancestors for thousands of years, in an apocalyptic era without various diagnostic instruments, was once again displayed before everyone.

Thinking of that scene, Song Xun wanted to shout, “Traditional Chinese medicine, you are the eternal god!”

Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation—

Then they added basic necessities based on the various disasters. By the time most of it was tallied, more than an hour had passed.

She had filled more than half a notebook with sprawling handwriting.

Song Xun shook her sore hand, tossed the pen aside, and thought of the ice cream in her space. She simply took it all out. It was cold to the touch, not melted at all. Seeing this, all four of them’s eyes lit up.

Not melted meant the space could preserve things.

“Now we can stockpile with confidence.”

Chang Fei suddenly remembered something. “By the way, Big Sis, well, if we only stockpile finished products, we don’t know when the apocalypse will end. Won’t we just eat through our supplies?”

“If it’s a spatial ability, can it be used to grow grains and vegetables?”

His hopes were high, but Song Xun shook her head, directly refuting him. “No, although the space is black earth, the soil is very hard and can’t be used for planting.”

At her words, Chang Fei sighed in disappointment.

But in a way, it was what he had expected. After all, if it could really be used for planting, wouldn’t that mean the space had become a small world of its own?

Song Xun clearly thought so too. When she had taken out the ice cream, she had already tried. The black earth was extremely hard; she couldn’t even dig up any soil. It was completely unsuitable for planting anything.

She was actually quite disappointed too, but after thinking about it, she still picked up the notebook and pen and added seeds and fruit saplings to the list. It was better to be prepared, just in case.

“Big Sis, how big is your space? Can it hold all this stuff?”

Chang Wan asked, looking through the notebook.

“Right now, it’s only about 100 square meters.”

Song Xun sighed. “We’ll store what we can. If we can’t, we’ll figure something else out.”

“Can’t the space be expanded?”

Song Xun pondered, not saying anything.

In the apocalypse, the key to improving one’s abilities was through enlightenment and the spiritual energy provided by crystal cores. But this was a space formed from the White Light Stone. Would spiritual energy work?

“We can give it a try…”

Song Xun thought for a moment. “The apocalypse hasn’t started yet, so there are no crystal cores. But what things have spiritual energy?”

Chang Wan also racked her brains. After a moment, she had a sudden realization, and her voice came out in unison with Song Xun’s: “Jade!”

Although they didn’t know if it was true, they could try, couldn’t they? If it worked, that would be for the best. If not, they could rule it out.

Chang Fei and Shi Tou, being men, didn’t know much about such things, but Chang Wan and Song Xun exchanged a look and immediately got up and went out.

Chang Wan went to find the jade pendants and bracelets she had bought, while Song Xun went to find the jewelry her mother had left behind.

In a short while, she found a small box in her parents’ old room. But before she could open it, just as she held the small box in her arms, she suddenly felt her head grow heavy and swollen.

Somehow, from within her head—no, Song Xun could clearly see and feel it—it was the White Light Stone in her mind, as if controlling her, that surged with an intense feeling of hunger.

Or rather, it was a very urgent, almost frantic feeling.

It made her subconsciously put the small box into the White Light Stone space. Then, she focused her consciousness and watched as the small box was enveloped by a white mist that came from nowhere. Wisps of visible spiritual energy were extracted and merged into the space.

There was no mistake, that was indeed spiritual energy!

Visibly, the area of the space expanded. Although it hadn’t grown by much, Song Xun could feel that it was indeed a little bigger.

Although the surroundings were still foggy, and the black earth was still incredibly hard.

She didn’t know how many jade pendants and other jade items were in that small box. After all, they belonged to her mother, and Song Xun, being an Alpha, wasn’t fond of such things, so she didn’t know. But it had certainly been quite heavy.

After absorbing the spiritual energy, Song Xun’s head felt better, and the heavy, swollen feeling disappeared. So the answer was very clear.

Spiritual energy worked!

Jade worked!

She didn’t know if it was her imagination, but Song Xun felt that at the moment the spiritual energy was absorbed, even the fractured surface of the White Light Stone seemed to have been… slightly repaired?

Perhaps Song Xun had been in the room for a little too long. By the time she took the small box out of the space again, before she could even be surprised by the significant decrease in the box’s weight, Chang Fei, Chang Wan, and Shi Tou had rushed over, thinking something had happened to her.

“Big Sis, what took you so long?”

“Did something happen?”

The two dogs shot in and circled around Song Xun. She shook her head and opened the box. Indeed, many of the jade stones and pendants were gone, and some of the bracelets and necklaces were left with only a… chain?!

“Big Sis…”

Song Xun looked up, her eyes visibly excited. Seeing this, the three of them understood immediately and also broke into happy smiles.

Chang Wan stuffed the two bracelets she was holding into Song Xun’s hands. Song Xun didn’t refuse and threw them directly into the space.

There was spiritual energy, although… ahem! It was very weak.

“Since jade can provide spiritual energy to expand the space, then we need to set aside some of this money to buy jade to increase the capacity.”

The three of them nodded. Supplies were indeed important, but if there was no place to put them, having supplies was useless. So expanding the space’s area and increasing its capacity was also very important.

“As for the supplies, if we have to, we’ll just have to do some ‘zero-dollar shopping’ after the apocalypse starts.”

This couldn’t be helped.

Although it was immoral, it was the apocalypse. Surviving was the most important thing. Even if she didn’t take it, it would all be wasted when it was soaked by the floodwaters.

It was better for her to collect it.

With the plan made and a way to expand the space found, the group finally breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little.

“Well, there’s one more thing I need to tell you…”

Song Xun thought for a moment and decided to tell them about Ji Tang. “I only found out about this right before I died. And Xiao Fei, you were silenced by Su Qingyu because of this.”

“Auntie Ji had my children, so I have to find her.”

Chang Fei, Chang Wan, and Shi Tou had no objections. After all, back at the orphanage, not just Song Xun, but all of them had received a lot of care from Ji Tang.

In the end, the conversation turned back to the natural disasters.

Speaking of the unpredictable future, their moods inevitably grew heavy. It was Song Xun who finally broke the somber silence. “Alright, let’s talk about what comes later, later. What we need to do now is work hard to stockpile supplies.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t worry, Big Sis, we understand.”

“This time, we’re prepared. We’ll all definitely be able to survive.”

As they were talking, Chang Wan’s phone rang. She just glanced at the caller ID, didn’t answer, and then looked up at Song Xun. “Big Sis, it’s Su Qingyu.”

Song Xun’s gaze was icy. “Hang up. Don’t bother with her.”

She didn’t have time to waste on this woman now. Not killing her was an eyesore, but killing her… this was still a lawful society, and she didn’t have time to deal with the police.

Chang Wan didn’t hesitate, immediately ending the call and adding the number to her blacklist.

Chang Fei and Shi Tou glanced over, then took out their own phones and tapped away. As for Song Xun, she had already gone through the whole delete-and-blacklist process.

Otherwise, Su Qingyu’s call wouldn’t have gone to Chang Wan.

This little interlude didn’t concern the four of them any further.

“…As we said in our plan, the base will be established during the extreme cold. The widespread awakening of abilities and mutation of animals and plants will also mostly happen during the extreme cold. So during the tornado and flood period, we need a safe place to live.”

After all, the tornado and flood period wasn’t short.

“When everything becomes uncontrollable, we’ll need to head to the base.”

In the apocalypse, you can’t go it alone. Don’t harbor any illusions that you’re strong or lucky. This world lacks many things, but it’s not short of arrogant people.

Chang Fei was thoughtful. “The floodwaters will submerge at least eleven floors. Although our area is on high ground, Su Qingyu is still here. Should we move?”

Song Xun agreed with this, but she wasn’t just planning to move; she was planning to change cities.

At her words, Chang Wan and Shi Tou exchanged glances. “Big Sis, are we leaving Xifeng City?”

“Yes.”

Song Xun nodded. “The base establishment time I mentioned earlier refers to the establishment of the first base in Jingbei City. Other places will be later. Our Xifeng City’s base is ranked eighteenth in the apocalypse, last among the twenty-three national bases. Its establishment will be even later.”

“So we’re going to Jingbei City this time?”

“Yes—”