The Beginning of Natural Disaster, I Won by Hoarding Tens of Billions of Supplies

Chapter 216: Ancient Virus

The squid was exchanged by Yang Jie with several pounds of sweet potatoes. For this, he even endured criticism from Yang Weimin, who said it was a waste of food. In reality, he just wanted his father to be able to taste some meat on his birthday. 

Afraid of wasting it, he couldn’t bear to peel off even the outer purple membrane of the squid, but he washed it repeatedly. 

Moreover, he deliberately delayed bringing the bowl to the table, just wanting his father to eat a few more bites of meat. 

Jiang Ning observed the stir-fried squid, turning the tentacles with chopsticks. “Dried squid?” 

“Yeah, it’s a big squid, about one kilogram each, and I cut a quarter of it to stir-fry.” 

One kilogram of dried squid? Jiang Ning was surprised. 

Normally, even after drying, farmed squids weigh about three to four taels, and wild ones, one or two taels at most. 

The floods washed away the marine farms, so wild squids from the sea couldn’t possibly be this heavy. Even if there were, they would have been caught long ago. After being brought ashore, they would be divided into different grades, and good quality ones wouldn’t end up in the hands of ordinary survivors. 

Yang Jie explained, “No, the dried squids they sell are very big, weighing over two kilograms each.” 

Jiang Ning frowned and got suddenly alarmed. 

She remembered Huo Yishen saying that extreme heat would melt the polar ice caps, and ancient viruses were likely to invade the oceans. 

“Where’s the squid?” 

Yang Jie hurriedly took out the remaining dried squid from the kitchen. 

Jiang Ning was dumbfounded. This dried squid… was not only several times larger than the ones she had hoarded before, but the purple membrane on its tentacles was thicker. 

There were many protruding lumps on the squid, which were not very noticeable after drying, but could still be discerned upon closer inspection. 

She smelled it, and it was indeed dried squid, but its taste was much worse than the ones she had hoarded, with an especially strong fishy smell. 

“There’s something wrong with this squid,” Jiang Ning said solemnly. “We need to do a stomach washing, immediately.” 

Without a stomach lavage tube, they could only continuously pour water into Yang Weimin’s mouth. Once enough water was ingested, he naturally vomited, then they continued. 

Yang Weimin was initially unwilling to believe it, but Yang Jie was so scared that he cried, almost kneeling down to beg him, “Dad, just listen to Sister Anning, Mom is already gone, if you leave too, what should I do?” 

At seventeen or eighteen years old, after experiencing two years of natural disasters, he had matured immensely, but at this moment, he cried like a child. 

Yang Weimin didn’t want to leave his son. “Don’t cry, Dad will listen to you.” 

Drinking water desperately and vomiting forcefully. 

Yang Jie was at a loss. He just wanted his father to eat some meat on his birthday, how could he end up harming him like this? 

He Tianming looked serious. “Little Jiang, why do you think there’s something wrong with the squid?” 

Jiang Ning didn’t conceal anything and speculated about the ancient virus. 

He Tianming was shocked. Over the past decade or so, the temperature had indeed been rising, the polar ice caps melting faster and faster, and scientists had expressed concerns about ancient viruses, which had also been reported in the media. 

However, ordinary people felt it was too distant and tended to forget about it after hearing it. 

They hadn’t expected that one day it would actually happen, and it happened in the apocalypse without medicine. 

Yang Weimin was fed a half bucket of water and even bile came out. 

He Tianming asked with concern, “Old Yang, how do you feel?” 

Yang Weimin kept panting, his body still aching, but it was much better than before. “I… I didn’t eat much.” 

It wasn’t easy to eat some meat, he just wanted to leave more for his son. 

If he had eaten a little more and felt this much pain, the whole family would be in trouble. 

He Tianming broke out in a cold sweat. Coastal areas were different from inland or major grain-producing provinces. Here, industries were developed, and the geographical location wasn’t suitable for building strategic grain reserves. 

Until now, many people could still have food to eat because they reached out to the ocean. 

Salt, marine products, seaweed, and so on. 

All of these would be infected with the ancient virus. What would survivors do in the future? 

He Tianming’s voice trembled, “Little Jiang, are you sure?” 

Jiang Ning shook her head, “It’s just speculation.” 

“But if it’s true, wouldn’t we lose all hope of survival?” he exclaimed. 

Jiang Ning couldn’t answer, so she chose to remain silent. 

The Yang family had no medicine, so after stomach washing, they could only tough it out. 

Jiang Ning had done all she could, so she decided to leave. 

But unexpectedly, He Tianming stopped her. “Little Jiang, this is a serious matter. Every day, so many marine products come to Fengcheng. If there really is a problem, who knows how many people might die? Shouldn’t we report this to the neighborhood committee?” 

Jiang Ning tactfully replied, “Captain He, this is just my speculation, without any evidence. If it turns out to be untrue, wouldn’t I be spreading rumors and causing trouble? I might end up being arrested by the police, not to mention the possibility of the merchants being the first ones to come after me with knives. As long as the deputy captain is fine, I’ll be leaving now.” 

Coming out of Building 1, Jiang Ning sighed deeply. She hadn’t expected the virus to invade so quickly. 

In her past life, she had lived a destitute life, eating tree bark and clay, with no chance to enjoy seafood. When she saw survivors, they all avoided her, afraid of being taken as prey. So, she really wasn’t sure about this matter. 

Less than two months had passed since she returned from the seaside, and the changes were so significant. It left Jiang Ning greatly disturbed. Would they still dare to eat the 40 tons of fresh seafood and tens of thousands of catties of dried goods and sea salt she had hoarded? 

No wonder in her previous life, a bag of salt could be exchanged for 30 catties of grain. The situation must have been quite serious. 

She was worried, “What will happen if the virus infects us?” 

Huo Yishen was also uncertain. He was busy every day, running around in the front lines of disaster relief, where life and death were commonplace. Whenever he had a little free time, he would immediately fall asleep, too exhausted to pay attention to anything else. 

“Seafood rice balls have been supplied for disaster relief all along. I guess they were stocked from before. In any case, there haven’t been any poisoning deaths. I only heard about it a few years later.” 

Perhaps there were, but at the time, they hadn’t thought in that direction. There were too many deaths from natural disasters, and life was too difficult. Who had the energy to investigate the true causes of death? 

Jiang Ning thought to herself that three years after the disaster, salt became extremely scarce along the coast, which indicated that the authorities had noticed the problem and prohibited the consumption of sea salt. 

But she didn’t know if they had discovered it now. 

Seeing her frowning, Huo Yishen comforted her, “Anning, we’ve done what we could. Let’s leave the rest to fate.” 

Jiang Ning pondered his words, “Have you reported everything that will happen in the future to the relevant departments?” 

Huo Yishen didn’t answer, instead he holds her hand and they headed home. 

Back at home, Jiang Ning disinfected herself with alcohol and changed her clothes. 

… 

In the evening, He Tianming knocked on the Yang family’s door. “Old Yang, how are you feeling?” 

Yang Weimin’s symptoms had improved a lot, but he still felt weak all over. He smiled bitterly, “I was lucky this time. I managed to escaped from the hands of the King of Hell.” 

Yang Jie felt guilty and blamed himself, “Dad, it’s all my fault. I almost harmed you.” 

Yang Weimin comforted his son, “It’s not your fault. It’s this damn apocalypse that’s causing harm to us, making us live like neither humans nor ghosts.” 

Seeing that he looked much better, He Tianming confirmed that it was indeed the squid’s problem. “Old Yang, I didn’t expect that even things from the sea can’t be eaten now. Who knows, one day it might spread to the crops on land. We have to be careful with everything we put into our mouths.” 

“Who says otherwise? The old man in the sky is making it impossible for people to live.” 

“Now that you’ve escaped the King of Hell this time, it’s all thanks to Jiang Ning,” He Tianming discussed matters seriously with him. “If we hadn’t encountered this ourselves, we could let it go. But now that we have, we can’t act like we don’t know. Shouldn’t we report it to the neighborhood committee?” 

Yang Weimin pondered, “Does the neighborhood committee handle such matters?” 

You can grab the full book now on my Ko-fi page, available in both PDF and EPUB formats! 🖤

📎 Here’s the link to the full novel