In the village, Luo Fengjiao and Mom had been on good terms. In her past life, when Luo Fengjiao came begging for medicine, Mom's heart softened and she gave her some.
Luo Fengjiao's son recovered, but then her husband fell ill. She came begging for medicine again. The family didn't have much to begin with, and Grandma was suffering from heatstroke at the time. When Mom refused, Luo Fengjiao threw a fit, screaming and cursing Mom for having no compassion and not treating her like a real friend.
Her tantrum made all the villagers think their family was hoarding a large stash of medicine. They all came to pound on their gate. Luo Fengjiao's son, now recovered, was the loudest of them all.
Thankfully, their iron gate was sturdy. Dad and Grandpa had to splash feces and urine at the entrance and threaten them with knives to finally drive the crowd away.
Later, after Luo Fengjiao's husband died, she came to resent their family completely. When Dad went out looking for water, she attacked him with a sickle, screaming that she wanted Mom to know what it felt like to lose a husband.
Mom was heartbroken. She cried in secret, blaming herself for being a busybody and causing Dad to get hurt.
In this life, Jiang Si was determined not to let her take a single pill.
Luo Fengjiao hammered frantically on the iron gate, her voice growing louder until it was nearly a roar. "Bao Ying! Bao Ying! I'm begging you, open the gate and give me a box of medicine! You watched Qiangqiang grow up! He was calling you Auntie when he was just a little thing! It's just one box of medicine, but it can save his life! No, it can save my whole family's lives!"
Shen Baoying felt a pang of pity, but she remembered Jiang Si's warning and waited for her daughter to make the decision.
Jiang Si shook her head. "She's bad news. We can't give her anything. Besides, Luo Fengjiao and Luo Yong are brother and sister. Luo Yong runs the small convenience store, and he has basic medical supplies. If Luo Fengjiao needs help, she should be asking Luo Yong. If we stay quiet, she'll go find him soon enough."
Luo Fengjiao screamed until her voice was hoarse, but still, no one opened the gate for her. She thought about climbing the wall, but when she looked up, she saw that the wall around Jiang Si's house had not only been raised by a meter but was also covered with shattered glass and thorny brambles. Unless she could sprout wings, there was no way she could fly in.
Her son's condition couldn't wait. By comparison, her younger brother's wall was much easier to climb.
Luo Fengjiao wiped her tears, gave the iron gate one last furious kick with a loud CLANG, and screamed into the courtyard, "Shen Baoying, I see you for what you really are! Let's see if a day comes when you have to beg someone for help!"
Luo Fengjiao stormed off in a huff. A trace of guilt appeared on Mom's face.
She had yet to witness just how terrifying human hearts could become as they sank into depravity along with the world.
Jiang Si squeezed Shen Baoying's hand, comforting her. "Mom, don't torture yourself over what other people think. The most important thing is that our whole family is alive and safe!"
Shen Baoying didn't know how much her daughter must have suffered in her past life to have such a resolute gaze.
Shen Baoying's heart clenched. She choked up and said, "Mom's just having a little trouble adjusting. But don't worry, Sisi, Mom will soon be harder than steel!"
Jiang Si was amused by Shen Baoying. She pulled her back into the house. The temperature outside was fifty degrees Celsius; staying out for even a moment felt life-threatening.
Back inside, Jiang Si took a pair of military-grade binoculars from her dimension and stood at a third-floor window to observe Luo Fengjiao's situation.
Luo Fengjiao and her husband found a wooden ladder and were preparing to climb into Luo Yong's yard. Afraid that others might follow them up the ladder, Luo Yong threw down three boxes of medicine from the second floor.
Luo Fengjiao was ecstatic as she clutched the medicine boxes. But in the next second, she was tackled to the ground and had two of the boxes snatched away.
Luo Fengjiao screamed. Her husband, terrified that the last box would also be stolen, pulled out a sickle and started swinging it. A villager fell to the ground on the spot, blood staining the earth. The faces of everyone present were twisted with utter madness.
Jiang Si felt a sense of calm. 'This is just an appetizer for the apocalypse.'
That night, while others were rationing every last grain of rice, Mom cooked a three-course meal with a soup: braised pork ribs, beef in sour soup, scrambled eggs with yellow chives, and a cold cucumber salad.
The ground temperature outside reached sixty degrees Celsius, but their kitchen remained at a pleasant and comfortable twenty-five degrees. Jiang Si ate two large bowls of rice and let out a satisfied burp.
Aside from potatoes and sweet potatoes, the other vegetables in the house wouldn't last long.
Zhang Qingzhi asked with concern, "Sisi, how are the seedlings in your dimension growing?"
Jiang Si smiled. "The chives are growing fast; they're already as long as my hand. The other seedlings are doing well too. I bought fast-growing varieties. In just over a month, we'll be able to eat tomatoes, eggplants, and green beans."
Zhang Qingzhi was both happy and regretful. "It's a shame we can't go in there to help you farm. You must be exhausted doing it all by yourself, right?"
Jiang Si shook her head. "I'm not tired. There's a generator in the dimension, so the planting and management are semi-automated."
"You guys don't have to be frugal. Don't worry, there's more than enough of everything."
Jiang Si had even taken a couple of Polaroid pictures of the dimension to show her family.
Now that everyone had a better idea of their supply levels, the anxiety on their faces lessened.
As the sun set, Jiang Si directed her family to install heaven-and-earth locks and security doors, set up traps, and apply fire-retardant oil.
Jiang Linhai glanced at the time and said to Jiang Si, "I'm going to fetch water now."
Jiang Si put down the coating. "I'll go with you. We can gather some bundles of firewood while we're at it. It's better to have two people for safety."
"Okay."
Just as Jiang Linhai and Jiang Si reached the village entrance, a villager named Zhao Yun stepped out and blocked their path.
She pointed at a smoking house, her eyes filled with tears. "Lin Hai, our house is on fire! Please, help us get some water to put it out! I'm begging you! No one else is willing to help us."
Zhang Dingtian and Jiang Linhai had been friends since they were running around in diapers. This wasn't a request for supplies, just a simple plea for help putting out a fire. Jiang Linhai wanted to agree.
He instinctively looked toward Jiang Si.
Zhang Dingtian was an honest man; in her past life, he had even partnered with their family to search for water. Jiang Si nodded. Only then did her father say to Zhao Yun, "Okay, I'm on my way."
Zhao Yun was moved to tears. "Lin Hai, thank you, really!"
Jiang Si said, "I'll go too!"
"Thank you... thank you... A friend in need is a friend indeed. Our whole family will remember this for the rest of our lives."
At Zhao Yun's house, the temperature was so high that a single spark was enough to cause an inferno. In no time at all, eighty percent of the house had been destroyed.
Zhang Dingtian's family collapsed weakly onto the ground, sobbing their hearts out.
They had given it their all and managed to salvage only a few hundred jin of grain. Everything else was gone... How were they supposed to go on living?
The few buckets of water Jiang Si and Jiang Linhai brought were of no use at all.
Zhao Yun knelt on the ground, slapping her own face in self-reproach. "It's all my fault! It's all my fault for lighting a torch! If I hadn't lit the torch, SOB SOB SOB... this wouldn't have happened..."
Zhang Dingtian held her tight. "It was an accident! It was an accident!"
Zhang Jing, who was the same age as Jiang Si, stared at their charred home. Steeling his resolve, he shamelessly knelt before Jiang Linhai. "Uncle, we can't live in our house anymore. My grandparents are old. In this heat, they'll die. Please, I'm begging you, let us stay with you for a few days. If we don't have enough grain, we can go to the mountains to find food. We can also help you fetch water and gather firewood. We won't be much trouble!"