Magic Space: Struggling to Survive in the Apocalypse

Chapter 164: Watermelon, Funeral

"And what happened in the end?"

"The ghost girl learned the man and her cousin had died long ago. She finally found peace and faded into nothingness."

Evelyn Ford burst out laughing. "That’s just a typical ghost story. In a lot of them, the scorned woman turns into a vengeful spirit."

Ronan Kendrick was perplexed. "But isn’t that her own fault? It’s the consequence of her not using her brain."

Evelyn knew Ronan was trying to say the ghost girl was so obsessed with romance that she drove her parents to their graves and deserved to be betrayed.

Stories like that have been told countless times throughout history, and Evelyn felt nothing watching it.

"What about this one?"

He found another horror movie and played it for Evelyn. "After this woman died, her hatred turned her into a vengeful spirit. She hid in a painting for a thousand years, refusing to reincarnate, all just to see the man who betrayed her one more time."

Ronan was completely baffled, while Evelyn was laughing so hard she couldn’t stand up straight.

"Are you a contrarian? Haha."

"I just think the women in these movies are very strange. In eight out of ten films, the female lead is willing to give up everything for a man—even her family and her life. It’s baffling to me. And in so many TV shows, several women become bitter enemies fighting over one man. That’s not good."

Evelyn was baffled too. "That’s why I prefer watching cartoons."

A disgruntled Ronan Kendrick opened up *Boonie Bears*. "I’d rather just watch this."

Evelyn suppressed a laugh. "Let’s just watch a comedy. Too much melodrama is bad for your brain."

Evelyn remembered a girl from her class back in her sophomore year of college. She had donated a kidney to her boyfriend’s mother. The girl’s recovery didn’t go well, and her boyfriend broke up with her.

She later dropped out of school and went home, never to be seen again.

「」

Taylor Vance was harvesting Four Seasons Green seeds with a sickle and a bamboo basket. He would cut off the grass panicles and beat them with a piece of wood, causing the full-bodied grass seeds to fall from their husks.

He scattered the collected seeds outside the safe zone, even spreading them in the mountains three kilometers away.

The watermelon seedlings Evelyn Ford had planted were beginning to vine. When Quincy came over and saw them, Evelyn tricked him by saying they were pumpkin vines. He actually believed her and took two seedlings from Evelyn to plant in his own vegetable patch.

A little over a month later, staring at the watermelons that had grown, he began to question his existence. ’Weren’t these supposed to be pumpkins? How did they mutate into watermelons?’

Quincy’s watermelons became a local spectacle, and everyone had their eyes on his watermelon seeds. Evelyn hadn’t expected Quincy to divert all the attention away from her.

The safe zone had a new product. People who traded for watermelon seeds from Quincy quickly sprouted and planted them. For the first time since the apocalypse, people finally got to eat fruit.

After her son got a wife, Aunt Dawson was positively glowing. Seeing her approach, Evelyn felt a headache coming on.

"Evelyn, dear, you busy?"

Evelyn was watering her vegetables. Aunt Dawson came in and immediately began inspecting the place. "Oh, my, these watermelons are growing so well! You people are really something, remembering to bring seeds even while fleeing for your lives. And this little courtyard, it looks quite proper. Very nice."

Evelyn watched her walk around with her hands behind her back. ’Anyone who didn’t know better would think she was a leader inspecting the work.’

"Aunt Dawson, is there something you need?"

Aunt Dawson’s face immediately clouded over with worry. "You know, my son and daughter-in-law have been married for two months now. How come her belly hasn’t shown any signs?"

Evelyn...

"How would I know? Maybe your son’s the one who can’t perform."

Aunt Dawson was fuming at Evelyn’s words but didn’t dare argue with her. She could only press on, "How about you take a look at my daughter-in-law?"

"Aunt Dawson, I’m busy."

"It won’t take long, just a minute of your time. I’ll have her come over tomorrow. You can just check her pulse."

Evelyn’s mouth twitched, but she said nothing.

’I really have to hand it to her,’ she thought. ’Does she not see the state of the world? Never mind that getting pregnant is difficult now; even if you could, you shouldn’t just casually have a baby.’

’What if another sudden disaster struck? How devastating would that be for a pregnant woman?’

"So it’s settled! If she has a baby in the future, your Auntie will definitely make it worth your while."

Watching her walk away, Evelyn helplessly rubbed her temples.

This wasn’t the first time Evelyn had encountered someone like Aunt Dawson. The safe zone was quite populated now, with over ten thousand people.

Among them were many young couples, men and women who had paired up to get by, and parents who had lost their children.

People often came to ask her to check their pulse to see if they could get pregnant.

Evelyn had already told Taylor Vance that the probability of human conception had decreased after the acid rain. As for why Taylor didn’t tell everyone, Evelyn had her suspicions. He didn’t want people to lose hope. If they could no longer have children, most people probably wouldn’t be able to accept it.

So whenever someone asked, Evelyn gave the same scripted answer: having a child depends on fate. If fate hasn’t willed it, a child won’t come.

Sometimes, Evelyn admired Serena Lynch’s decisiveness. She had adopted Annie during the most difficult of times. Even when she and Chase Underwood were starving, they made sure Annie was fed. Though not her biological child, the bond was stronger than blood.

The orphans in the safe zone were all growing up. After being trained by Zion Lowell, they were no longer the timid, homeless waifs they once were, but the safe zone’s youngest guardians.

They patrolled outside the safe zone with spears made of wooden sticks. The moment they spotted sandstorms or eagles, they would immediately alert everyone to take precautions.

While the children were growing up, the elderly were slowly passing away.

Currently, there were still twenty elderly residents living alone in the safe zone.

Every month, people died here. In the beginning, they were given hasty cremations or simply buried in pits.

Now, whenever someone passed away, the safe zone would hold a simple funeral for them.

Taylor Vance said that the dead had found their way home, that they would all eventually return to the place they most longed to be.

Sullivan was seventy-five this year. When she first arrived at Wyrmrest Base, she still had her son, daughter-in-law, and grandson.

When Evelyn went to treat her last month, she had said that the place she most wanted to return to was the workplace where she met her husband fifty years ago.

To think that just one month later, Evelyn would be standing at the safe zone’s cremation platform, watching with her own eyes as her body was incinerated.

"Sigh, another one gone. The old folks are almost all dead. When are we going to see some babies being born?"

"My son says there’s something wrong with the safe zone’s water. He said you might not be able to get pregnant after drinking it."

"That can’t be, right? The water from the mountains is clean and sweet. There can’t be anything wrong with it."

"Well, my son says if it’s not the water, then it’s the air. Or maybe it’s the atmospheric pressure."

"Then what do we do? The Wang family line can’t end with us."

"You already have a granddaughter. What are you afraid of?"

"If no more children are born, doesn’t that mean humanity will go extinct?"

"Let it go extinct then. In a world like this, what’s the point of living?"

"No way! My family has only had one son for three generations. The line can’t end here, or I won’t be able to rest in peace."

The rest of their conversation was carried away by the wind. Evelyn returned home and went back to busying herself in her vegetable garden.

A howling gust of wind swept past, flattening a patch of grass outside the courtyard.

Evelyn stood on the ground, able to feel its scorching temperature even through the soles of her shoes.