novelraw Chapter 708: When Moving, Take Everything with You
Chapter 708: When Moving, Take Everything with You
Mrs. Jing was worried. "We can’t leave without daily necessities. If we don’t bring clothes, we’ll freeze to death on the way. Once we get there, who knows if there’ll be anything at all? We’re lacking everything, and now that production has stopped, where can we even get these things?"
Although Grandma Jing also hadn’t accepted the reality, as soon as she heard that this and that couldn’t be brought, she felt very aggrieved. "We’ve got to take the cooking tools, right? And the tools? And that roller Mr. Jing just made; it’s so useful for making rice cakes. With Da Hua pulling the mill, the soymilk that comes out is so fine..."
The things in the villa had all been painstakingly acquired by everyone in the years after the apocalypse. Some were handcrafted by Mr. Jing himself. Being a woodworker, he had the conviction that he could make anything, which explained why there were so many handmade items at home.
Some were gathered by Jing Shu from other places, all things needed in everyday life. Without them, it’s not that one couldn’t live, but... life’s quality would decrease, and it would be inconvenient.
Jing Shu’s previous thought had been a good one: to secretly put the things that couldn’t be taken into her space. However, facing this migration, her family was far from as calm as Jing Shu.
Because everything was filled with uncertainty, and they faced the possibility of never returning, everyone was very reluctant to leave anything in the villa behind. They felt that every single item was extremely useful. This farewell could be forever...
"You might as well take the entire villa with you," Jing Shu joked, unable to help herself.
Mr. Jing’s eyes lit up at that. "Can everything really be taken? Everything in this villa, even the benches, I made them all by hand." He couldn’t bear to part with it.
Here, there was a home. No matter how big the problem, there was no panic, because this was home. Migration, wandering around without a fixed abode, felt as unstable as sailing in the ocean; nothing compared to the comfort of one’s home.
A joke made the whole family look at Jing Shu seriously. In their view, Jing Shu had long become capable of anything. Perhaps to her, moving a villa, such a huge task, might seem like a small matter.
"Ahem."
Moving the villa is impossible. It’s not like that mobile villa I bought before, which can be moved with special tools. Our villa has a foundation and a basement; we can’t take those, Jing Shu thought. Seeing the disappointed looks on her family’s faces, she then considered again what to take and what could be taken, and then said, "Although we can’t move the villa, we can take everything inside it without missing a single item. You can take whatever you want."
If it had been before, Jing Shu wouldn’t have dared to even think such a thing. At most, she would have considered pulling an extra vehicle or bringing more stuff. Her previous mindset had been too limited.
"Really? How are we going to bring everything? The coach is already cramped with so many of us, not to mention that your elder aunt’s family, your second aunt’s family, and Uncle’s family will also be there..."
"Even if we use a truck, the cost would be kind of high, right? Burning fuel and electricity... doesn’t seem worth it." Mr. Jing was still the rational one.
"I’ve bred a batch of very large Dark Creatures. These creatures are as hardworking and obedient as cattle and horses. With their help, transporting our goods for a hundred kilometers only uses up a lump of rotten corpse insects. What do you think, is that cost-effective or not?"
Afterward, Jing Shu briefly shared her idea: create a huge, internal, pouch-like vehicle body for the Hulks to swallow and carry. With their abundant numbers, the Hulks could also serve as ’buses’ or help transport goods for the Insect Cake Factory, among other functions. Therefore, helping Jing Shu transport her belongings would be a simple task for them.
Why was Jing Shu working so hard? It was to ensure that her quality of life wouldn’t decline in this apocalypse, allowing her to use whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. The Hulks would always prioritize serving her!
So, when Grandma Jing heard that they could bring anything during the migration—all their belongings from the villa, without leaving a single item behind—she was overjoyed. Moreover, the transport would be free, and the creatures wouldn’t need food, only be sustained by rotten corpse insects! At this news, Grandma Jing’s face creased into a smile that resembled a blooming chrysanthemum.
"They don’t need to eat yet love to work, what kind of adorable little creatures are these, such good little darlings."
The fat chicken nudged Grandma Jing discontentedly. "So, love can disappear, right? Am I no longer the adorable little darling in Grandma Jing’s eyes?"
Jing Shu kicked the fat chicken, signaling that it really needed to lose weight. This creature was almost as big as a small ostrich. The main difference was that ostriches have slender, fine legs, whereas the fat chicken only possessed two sturdy and mighty chicken thighs. It ate everything in sight, was useless for any work, and spent its days clucking, good only for laying eggs.
Since the most significant issue—what to take or what not to take—no longer needed pondering, the rest would be much easier to deal with. During the earthquake, the family had simulated the migration scenario several times and had thus become quite experienced and savvy in how to act in this disaster-stricken apocalyptic world.
"We have two more months to prepare. When we’re out, we must economize; we can’t be as carefree as at home. We should use as little natural gas as possible. Firing up the boiler is unavoidable due to the cold weather, but fortunately, our RV has air conditioning and heating. If we wear a bit more, there shouldn’t be any major issues."
Mr. Jing knocked his tobacco roll and said, "If it really comes down to it, I can add an insulation layer to the RV. Before we leave, I’ll burn a batch of charcoal. We should take as much coal as we can carry, and we can set up a self-made enclosed fireplace. We’ll make a chimney from the top of the RV; I’m sure that’ll keep everyone from getting cold."
Jing Shu quickly interjected, "Grandpa, the RV has been modified to be quite huge and really oyster sauce now, and there’s also a cannon on top. Although the German MAN is naturally robust, we really don’t need to add an insulation layer. A fireplace, though, that could be considered. I’ll collect more coal so we have some to use on the road."
Grandma Jing pointed at the vegetables in the yard and said, "This migration makes me feel uneasy, like there’s a void in my heart. No matter how much we eat, we’ll run out if we just sit and consume. Who knows how long we’ll be traveling? If we can bring the vegetable garden’s frames, then let’s bring them. As long as we can continue to grow vegetables and raise pigs, it’s like a steady trickle of water; our grain supply won’t be cut off."
Mr. Jing agreed, "That’s right, we can’t let the land go fallow; we have to keep planting. I’ll modify that creature’s pouch thing my granddaughter mentioned, set up the right temperature, and we can even grow some vegetables on the road, eating fresh greens!"
"Luckily, we started making all sorts of cooked food since the New Year, and we’ll need to make more in the coming days. When we’re out there, we won’t dare to cook so much delicious food in public. So, if there’s anything you want to eat in the next few days, speak up. Your granddad and I will sort out the ingredients, cook everything, and then freeze it. When we heat it up later, we’ll have something good to eat."
Everyone agreed that during the migration, they would avoid cooking if possible. Reducing cooking and preventing the spread of delicious smells were common-sense precautions. What they feared most was encountering various incidents on the road: for example, various troublesome insects, Dark Creatures, potential robbers, people who might target them, landslides, roads suddenly splitting open, and other such problems.