No matter how anyone looked at it, finding food hidden inside a bathroom was definitely unexpected. The damp, tiled room carried a lingering scent of mildew and stagnant water, a place where the thought of anything edible felt like a violation of common sense.
Honestly, the moment people learned where the supplies had been stored, their appetites vanished. A collective wave of nausea seemed to ripple through the group, reflected in the way several survivors pulled back, their lips curling in distaste. If the food really got distributed later, Jing Shu planned to give her share to someone else who actually needed it. She had no intention of letting those particular calories touch her tongue.
Jun Jia raised an eyebrow, his gaze sweeping over the grimy sacks. This was an unexpected blessing, a stroke of luck that the grim reality of the tower rarely provided.
"Hurry and bring it all in so everyone can take a look," he commanded, his voice echoing against the concrete walls. "Oh right, whose stuff is this?"
Everyone wore strange, guarded expressions. Shoulders shifted and eyes darted toward the floor, but nobody answered. The silence stretched, thick with the unsaid.
Soon, sack after sack was carried into the room. There were more than a dozen of them, heavy and slumped, all covered in a layer of dark, gritty dirt. Li Chenglong stepped forward, his boots crunching on the debris. He shook the loose soil off the nearest bundle, the dust puffing into the stale air, and casually pulled the opening apart.
"What is that?" someone whispered from the back.
"It is black... are you sure that is edible?"
Li Chenglong frowned, his thick fingers reaching into the bag to grab a handful. Surprisingly, the substance didn't tear apart under his grip. Everything was tangled together in dense, wet clumps, resembling dark seaweed stuffed into sacks. It felt weirdly tough, resisting his pull with a rubbery persistence.
He brought a clump close to his face, sniffing the air around it. Finally, he stuffed a few strands into his mouth to chew. His expression turned odd, his jaw moving slowly as he processed the texture.
"It tastes kind of bitter and fishy," he muttered, his voice muffled by the mouthful. "Weird flavor. But it should be edible."
As long as it was edible, that was enough. Jun Jia visibly relaxed, the tension leaving his shoulders.
This was the apocalypse. The world of gourmet meals and carefully plated aesthetics had died long ago. Nobody cared whether it tasted good anymore; the only metric that mattered was the slow crawl of the clock and the avoidance of starvation. Staying alive was the only goal left on the horizon.
Hearing that it really was food, a lot of people quietly sighed in relief. The frantic edge in their eyes softened, replaced by a weary sort of gratitude.
"Whose food stash is this anyway?" Jun Jia asked again, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the crowd. "At least explain what this stuff is."
When no one stepped forward immediately, he added a layer of reassurance to his voice. "Don't worry. We are keeping records of everyone who contributes food. Once we are rescued, not only will you be compensated with virtual currency, you will also receive an honorary title. The benefits will be equivalent to an official government position."
He smiled warmly as he spoke, though the light didn't quite reach his eyes. It was a practiced expression, meant to soothe and manipulate in equal measure.
At that, the man sitting beside Jing Shu finally couldn't hold back anymore. He stood up slowly, his knees popping in the quiet room. Since the food had already been discovered, there was no point denying it now. Besides, the promise of government standing was a powerful bait in a world without structure.
"It's mine."
Li Chenglong began counting the strange bundles, his movements methodical. The rest of the room stayed silent, the only sound being the rustle of the sacks and the heavy breathing of the gathered survivors.
Jun Jia looked at the unfamiliar middle-aged man, his curiosity piqued. "You are? I don't think I have seen you before."
The man stared at the black clumps, his hands twisting nervously at his sides. "My name is Daji. I came up from the south a few days ago with these green algae. Originally, I planned to auction them off for supplies, but I didn't expect something like this to happen..."
After Li Chenglong finished counting the food called green algae, a trace of relief flashed through Daji's eyes. He let out a long breath, his chest sinking.
Thankfully, this wasn't all the food he had brought. He had been smart enough to diversify his hiding spots.
Thinking of that, Daji finally relaxed completely and began to explain. "Green algae is a newly developed food from the south. The production cost is low, and it fills your stomach well enough. Of course... it tastes awful. These have already been cooked and processed, so they can be eaten directly. I'm willing to contribute all of them."
Things had already reached this point anyway; there was no use in being stingy when the military was watching.
Jun Jia burst into laughter, the sound booming and hollow.
"Good, good! On behalf of the government and everyone in this tower, thank you. Don't worry, I always keep my word. Everyone here who contributes food, we will remember your contributions."
He looked over the pile of sacks with a proprietary glint in his eyes. "With all this food, the people in the tower can hold out another ten days or so."
"We will definitely survive until rescue arrives!"
After confiscating everyone's private stock, Jun Jia looked extremely satisfied. The weight of the responsibility seemed lighter now that he held the keys to the pantry. And once he was satisfied, naturally he had to act grand about it.
When these people first arrived, they could still secretly eat their own private food, tucked away in pockets and corners. But now, they had nothing left and could only rely on the communal cafeteria and whatever Jun Jia decided to dole out.
"It's already mealtime anyway. Since we are all here, let's eat together." Jun Jia turned toward Li Chenglong, his tone commanding. "Take some ingredients and have people cook immediately. Remember, make it nutritionally balanced. Everyone gets treated equally."
No matter what, Jun Jia represented the government, and behind him stood an armed force that didn't hesitate to use its power. Who would dare cause trouble?
At this point, everyone behaved obediently like quails, huddling together with their heads down.
The expressions around the room were ugly, twisted by a mix of resentment and hunger. Before this, they at least still had canned food and biscuits hidden away—small comforts from the old world. Now they could only wait and see what the cafeteria would serve.
Jing Shu's expression wasn't great either. She felt the heavy silence of the room pressing in on her.
Sigh.
At a time like this, refusing to eat would practically scream that she still had private rations hidden somewhere. It would be an admission of guilt written in her lack of hunger.
She lightly squeezed the black case in her hand, her fingers tracing the smooth surface. Thankfully, nobody paid attention to it. Then again, how much food could possibly fit inside a small black case? It looked more like a piece of equipment than a lunch box.
The meal arrived quickly, the smell preceding the buckets.
Everyone received a bowl and spoon first. The bowls were crude clay ones, rough and uneven, made a few days ago under Wang Miao's organization. People had dug mud from the base of the tower, shaped them by hand, then fired them in a makeshift kiln. They were brittle things that broke easily, leaving a faint earthy taste on the tongue, but there was no shortage of dirt in the tower to make more.
Then Li Chenglong personally carried the bucket around, his face set in a grim mask. He ladled portions into everyone's bowls with a heavy splash.
Each person only got half a bowl, and half of that was basically a thin, murky soup.
Jing Shu stirred hers with a spoon, the clay scraping against clay.
Inside were the green algae brought by Daji, floating like drowned hair. There were tiny, unrecognizable bits of meat, a few shrivelled preserved plums, and bugs caught by Li Riyue's group. Overall, it was basically one horrifying stew, a collection of desperation boiled into a single pot.
The smell was a thick, cloying mixture—sour, fishy, and rotten all at once. It hung in the air like a physical weight.
It wasn't like she had never eaten worse. Back in her previous life, she has been pushed to the very edge of human endurance. Just forcing herself to finish a bowl of carrion scavengers had been enough to make her rethink existence, the taste of decay lingering for days.
But that was her previous life. Things were different now.
Not only Jing Shu, even the others looked miserable. Their faces were pale as they stared into their bowls. After all, they really hadn't eaten something this disgusting in a long time. Most of them had lived pampered lives before the sky fell. Even after the apocalypse began, they had managed to eat white rice and preserved goods regularly.
Who had ever been reduced to this state before?
"Eat," Jun Jia ordered.
He took the lead and started eating immediately, his spoon clacking against the clay. As he chewed the rubbery algae, he nodded as if trying to convince himself.
"It's not as bad as I imagined. At least there's meat."
Jin Baba rolled his eyes unwillingly, his mouth twisted in a sneer. He kept glancing around the room, his bowl sitting untouched in his lap.
But with Jun Jia staring at him, his gaze heavy and expectant, he eventually had no choice. Ordinary people couldn't even get food these days; to waste this would be a death sentence later.
He pinched his nose, his face turning a sickly shade of green, and forced himself to swallow a mouthful.
Meanwhile, everyone else slowly lifted their spoons too. They looked like prisoners being dragged to execution, their bodies stiff and their eyes shut tight as they opened their mouths.
Jing Shu calmly lifted her bowl as well.
The instant she tilted it toward her mouth, she used a flicker of thought to store the disgusting food inside her Rubik's Cube Space. In the same heartbeat, she replaced it with a mouthful of ordinary, steaming rice before chewing naturally.
"Mhm, not bad," she murmured.
She secretly let out a breath of relief, the warmth of the real rice a stark contrast to the cold dread in the room.
Thankfully she was smart enough to feed that disgusting stuff directly to the pigs instead. Or at least, that had been the plan.
However, the pigs she raised had become picky from being spoiled. Living in the space with high-quality feed had ruined their standards. They actually refused to eat the black sludge, turning their snouts away with indignant snorts.
Even the pigs inside her space wouldn't touch it!
Jing Shu was speechless.
In the end, she dumped it all to the chickens instead. Chickens weren't nearly as smart or discerning; they pecked the dark cuisine clean without leaving a trace, their small beaks working fast until the ground was clear.
At least it wasn't wasted.
"Alright, that's all for today," Jun Jia spoke seriously, his voice regaining its military edge. "If anyone discovers someone secretly hiding food, or finds hidden food anywhere else, report it to me immediately."
"There's none left, really!" someone cried out.
"You already took everything!"
"Of course. I absolutely won't hesitate in matters like this!" another voice added, sharper than the rest.
Now that their own food had been confiscated and their bellies were full of pond scum, naturally they couldn't stand the thought of others still having hidden supplies. The unfairness of it burned.
Jun Jia had directly turned everyone into mutual informants, weaving a web of suspicion that would keep them all under his thumb.
Jing Shu quietly sighed.
The situation was getting worse and worse, the walls of the tower, feeling smaller with every passing hour.
"Oh right, Jing Shu, come with me for a moment."
Everyone else began to file out, but Jing Shu was called away, directed toward the soldiers' camp.
Honestly, she felt a little regretful as she walked.
She had originally wanted to follow Boss Lü and see what exactly was hidden inside that massive vault of his.