Apocalypse Showdown: Carrier Conquest

Chapter 20: Zhou Li's Ecosystem

On June 25th, Zhou Lin woke up to a noticeable drop in temperature.

It was 8:30 in the morning, and the outside world remained pitch dark. The city was no longer lit up like before; many areas appeared dim, with fewer neon lights, as more and more stores seemed to be closing down. The entire world was sliding into an abyss, and no one could stop it.

With a sigh, Zhou Lin forced himself to get up. Today, his parents were heading back to gather some essentials, moving what they could into their current home, while anything difficult to move would be sealed away.

Last night, Zhou Lin had given Zhou Caijun a handgun, four magazines, and a box of bullets—an eye for an eye. Considering that communication might break down due to power issues, Zhou Lin also found a military-grade short-range communication system on the Lifu, setting up a terminal for each family member, with the main unit placed on the rooftop platform. This system had an effective range of about twenty kilometers, and Zhou Lin believed that even if someone needed to go out over the next two months, they wouldn’t be going far.

Zhou Lin spent the entire morning on the rooftop, working alongside Zhou Li to finish sealing the windows. He also planned to build a sturdy tool shed on the platform, as the temperature drop would bring heavy snow, and certain tools and materials would spoil quickly if left in the ice and snow.

"Brother, since you're fixing it, why not make it a little bigger? Not just for storage, but also to raise some chickens, ducks, geese, and rabbits," Zhou Li suggested.

"Raise small animals? With what feed?" Zhou Lin asked.

"Feed, of course! I asked Mom to buy it," Zhou Li replied seriously.

"When did you buy it? Where is it?" Zhou Lin asked, bewildered.

"In the logistics park, I bought chicken, duck, quail, and rabbit feed, as well as dog food, cat food, snacks for small animals, and cat litter," Zhou Li explained, counting on her fingers.

Zhou Lin slapped his forehead. When he went to pick up supplies from the logistics park, he hadn’t paid attention to what was there, not realizing these things were among them. But thinking about it now, it seemed these supplies would come in handy, so Zhou Li wasn’t really wasting anything.

"But we don’t have any animals except for Blackie," Zhou Lin pointed out. Blackie had been watching over the house in the countryside, but Zhou Caijun and Cheng Yali would be bringing it back with them today, and the doghouse in the hall was already prepared.

"You don’t need to worry about that. I’ve got it all figured out," Zhou Li said confidently.

In the presence of ample materials and tools, building a tool shed wasn’t difficult. Zhou Li played a huge role in the process. It seemed she already had a precise blueprint in her head down to the millimeter. All Zhou Lin had to do was cut the materials to her specifications and assemble them like building blocks.

Looking at the shed—a 2.3-meter-high, 12-meter-long, 9-meter-wide structure—Zhou Lin fell into thought. Could this really be something he built in just half a day? Could it be that his true talent was in construction?

Turning to glance at Zhou Li, who was squinting as if pondering something else, Zhou Lin reluctantly concluded—without Zhou Li, he’d be nothing.

The 90-square-meter tool shed was divided into several areas. On the left, Zhou Li had designated spaces for the generator, filter, chicken coop, duck pen, and goose enclosure. The right side had a simple fish pond, and above it, a cage for quails. The spilled feed and quail droppings would fall directly into the pond, serving as fish food. A boiler was placed not far from the pond to make use of heat efficiently. The remaining space was used to house rabbits. Finally, in the center, Zhou Li designed rotating planting racks that could grow over a thousand vegetables using a combination of hydroponic and LED lighting technology with red and blue light. According to Zhou Li, this setup could meet the basic needs of their family.

This, again, was outside Zhou Lin’s area of expertise. He couldn’t help but wonder where Zhou Li, just thirteen years old, had learned such peculiar knowledge. It made him feel like it wasn’t him who had time-traveled or reincarnated, but Zhou Li.

"If our world is real, then there’s no such thing as time travel or reincarnation; it’s just that you’ve surpassed your own dimension at the quantum fluctuation level... On the other hand, if this world isn’t real, then time travel and reincarnation wouldn’t exist either; it would just mean the system preserved your data and backed it up in a replay program..." Zhou Li said, her tone almost philosophical.

Zhou Lin, utterly lost, could only reply, "I’ll go make some food."

He didn’t quite understand Zhou Li’s words but didn’t want to lose his pride as the older brother, so he chose to stick to what he knew best.

The kitchen was Zhou Li’s domain, and no matter how intelligent she was, she couldn’t fry a decent egg fried rice, let alone the golden fried rice she loved.

"Delicious!" Zhou Lin exclaimed as he looked at the scattered golden rice grains. At that moment, he truly felt like his little sister was back—this was what a thirteen-year-old should be like.

Just then, the phone rang. It was Ai Bing.

Zhou Li perked up her ears, not because she was curious, but because she only cared about gossip involving Zhou Lin.

"Why didn’t you call me?" Ai Bing immediately scolded him, setting the tone for the conversation.

If Zhou Lin hadn’t experienced his past life, he would have been completely thrown off guard by her tone.

"It’s so dark. Come pick me up. I’ve been waiting at a friend’s house all night. I’ve sent you my location!"

Zhou Li leaned closer to Zhou Lin and whispered, "Such a woman, not killing her… Brother, are you plotting something big? Do you have a plan? I can give you advice."

Zhou Lin calmly ended the call. After checking Ai Bing’s location, he found it was just a street away from the back gate of Lanshan Community. The area wasn’t exactly low-end, so how had Ai Bing and Tang Yili managed to get in there? They probably didn’t own property there—perhaps they were renting?

Knowing where Ai Bing was, Zhou Lin felt a lot more at ease. The reason she was calling was likely because she hadn’t brought her winter clothes with her when she left the farm, and with the sudden drop in temperature, it was hard to find a*****e still open to buy some.

With some time to spare, Zhou Lin quickly explained the situation regarding Ai Bing to Zhou Li.

Zhou Li, with a knowing look, patted Zhou Lin on the shoulder. "Not bad! You’re starting to be cunning! Your decision is right. A woman like that should first experience the apocalypse, let her taste the bitterness of survival. Then, give her a glimmer of hope, only to crush it and leave her in despair. When she’s desperate and wants to die, we’ll make her wish she was never born... perfect!"

"You’ve been reading palace drama novels again, haven’t you? Stop, those things are dumb." Zhou Lin didn’t want his sister to become like the characters in those plots. In such a difficult world, why add more suffering to the living?

Turning back to practical matters, he said, "Tomorrow, the temperature is expected to drop to zero."

"Zero?" Zhou Li’s interest was piqued. Compared to "simple" women, she preferred challenges.

"Do we have enough coal and oil?"

"I think so," Zhou Lin replied. The Lifu was well-stocked with various fuels, including gasoline, aviation fuel, and diesel, with aviation fuel in the greatest supply. Normally, aviation fuel wouldn’t be usable in regular gas engines, but it was fine in diesel engines, such as the 15.6-liter six-cylinder engine in the Conqueror RV stored on the Lifu. Additionally, there were 30 tons of smokeless coal and 50 tons of charcoal purchased by Cheng Yali—sufficient to last over a year under normal circumstances.

Despite this, Zhou Li seemed unsatisfied and kept scrolling on her phone, finally stopping at something 20 kilometers away from Jiazhou City.

"A coal mine?" Zhou Lin asked, puzzled.

"Maybe we should go if the opportunity arises," Zhou Li suggested.

"Isn’t it enough?"

"Plans always fall behind changes. Smart people don’t wait for tomorrow; they choose tomorrow." Zhou Li said cryptically.

Zhou Lin shrugged in agreement.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the call, Ai Bing was nearly livid with frustration after being hung up on.