Chapter 35: Chapter 35: Extreme Heat, White Tiger

Qin Shen had no objections. Jiang Si’s whole family made a point to say, "Thank you, Xiao Shen. If you run into any trouble, let us know. If we can help, we’ll definitely do our best."

It was a debt of gratitude earned with his life, one they had to remember.

Qin Shen didn’t stand on ceremony with them. "Okay."

His calm and composed attitude was incredibly steady, giving off the feeling that he didn’t need their help at all.

Qin Shen followed them back to the gate of their dilapidated courtyard, politely stopping and waiting for Jiang Si and her family to bring out their things so he could carry them back.

His upright figure, seemingly capable of lifting a thousand pounds, exuded a powerful sense of security.

Shen Baoying couldn’t help but sidle up to Jiang Si, shooting her a meaningful glance. "Qin Shen really has a great personality. He’s steady, reliable, and capable."

Even before the apocalypse, let alone now, he would have been a rare catch for a husband.

Jiang Si didn’t overthink it and nodded in agreement. "He really is. He’s so different from when we were kids."

When he was little, Qin Shen was a crybaby, the village punching bag. Jiang Si had thought he looked so delicate that she’d once mistaken him for a girl and even promised to protect him.

Because she stood up for him, Qin Shen had even been her little shadow for a while.

But now, he had turned into a cool and reserved hunk.

Seeing that her daughter hadn’t caught on, Shen Baoying decided not to say any more.

’Better to let things happen naturally. They haven’t seen each other in so many years and have only just reconnected. He’ll need to be vetted a bit more anyway.’

After pouring the water into the cistern, Jiang Si took out a water quality monitor to test it.

The water quality met the standard for drinking, but she didn’t know if it still contained harmful bacteria or mutated substances.

The small animals commonly seen in the area had all vanished.

They hadn’t managed to catch any wild rabbits on the way back, either.

Their livestock had all been made into cured meat. Jiang Si’s gaze fell upon the wriggling maggots, and she suddenly had an idea.

Maggots also needed water to survive. Jiang Si soaked a mushroom in the water and then let the maggots eat it.

For the time being, there didn’t seem to be any issues.

Jiang Si planned to raise them for a while. If the maggots didn’t die and showed no signs of mutation, then the water was safe to drink.

If the water source was fine and the underground river didn’t dry up, they wouldn’t have to worry about water even if the scorching sun phenomenon lasted longer.

Everyone relaxed as they watched the maggots eating the mushroom in the box. Shen Baoying asked Jiang Si, "Since the mushrooms can resist the scorching sun’s radiation, could we make them into clothes?"

Jiang Si was taken aback. She recalled the anti-radiation suits she had seen in the Northern Base in her past life. Perhaps they could use the giant mushrooms to research something similar.

Jiang Si took a mushroom out of her space, and everyone gathered around. "What are you going to do?"

"I want to see if there’s any special substance in the giant mushroom. If we can extract it, maybe we can apply it to our skin like sunscreen."

Everyone’s eyes lit up, and they praised Jiang Si for her cleverness.

Jiang Si then pulled a lot of chemistry equipment for experiments out of her space. She wasn’t a science student, so she went into her space to study on a tablet for half the day, then fiddled with the equipment for another half.

She gave up.

’I’m just not cut out to be a scientist.’

Perhaps Qin Shen next door could do it, but she wasn’t planning to ask him. She decided to try her second plan.

She would try baking and pressing the giant mushroom into threads to make a mushroom-based sun-protective suit.

Shen Baoying was a retired textile factory worker. She had worked with cotton thread, silk, nylon, chemical fibers, and hemp twine, but this was the first time she’d ever heard of making clothes from mushrooms.

She was skeptical of Jiang Si’s decision. "Are you sure you don’t want to ask Qin Shen to give it a try?"

Jiang Si shook her head. "With all this equipment, and no one in our family having studied medicine, wouldn’t Qin Shen find it strange? Besides, I’ve always felt he’s a bit mysterious. He dared to venture into the forest alone when it was swarming with insects and even managed to find a water source and return unscathed. It’s better not to get too involved with him."

"Alright, then what’s the plan?"

Jiang Si explained, "First, help me slice the giant mushroom horizontally. Then we’ll boil the slices and see if we can extract any fibers after they dry. As long as there are fibers, we can make mushroom thread, weave it into fabric, and then test if it has the same radiation-blocking effect as a raw mushroom."

Zhang Qingfang smiled. "This is a lot like how we used to make clothes from kudzu. Back in the day, from June to August, we’d be all over the mountains pulling vines."

Jiang Si nodded. "Exactly, I was thinking of how kudzu cloth is made. We’ll try this first. If it doesn’t work, we can try preserving the mushroom itself."

They sliced the giant mushroom horizontally, revealing the dense, tender white flesh inside. When they put it in the pot to boil, it actually looked quite appetizing.

Jiang Linhai chimed in, "I wonder if we can eat it?"

Everyone looked at his hand, which still hadn’t completely healed, and sang in unison, "Red cap, white stalk, eat it up, and you’ll lie in a coffin."

They placed the boiled mushroom slices near the window, and the high temperature rapidly evaporated the moisture. A piece originally the size of an umbrella shrank to the size of a basketball.

Jiang Si tried tearing the dried mushroom slices into strips, but the pieces had no resilience at all, crumbling into dust at the slightest touch.

The attempt to make clothing had failed.

Zhang Qingfang suddenly said, "Using the mushroom caps as-is would be just as convenient. Why don’t we try growing some at home? As long as a mushroom on your head doesn’t fall off when you go out, it’s the same as wearing it. Plus, we can use the mushrooms to make poison."

Everyone’s eyes suddenly lit up. "That’s worth a try!"

After all, Jiang Si’s main reason for wanting to make clothes was her fear that the mushrooms would rot.

If they could harvest mushrooms whenever they wanted, they wouldn’t have to be afraid of going outside.

Jiang Si thought it was a great idea and smiled. "I can grow them in my space and take them out anytime. Grandma, you’re a genius!"

Zhang Qingfang chuckled. "It would still be more convenient to make a sunscreen, but unfortunately, no one in our family knows how."

Jiang Si thought for a moment, then said, "After a while, once the mushrooms have grown, I can use the excuse that I came across a batch of equipment and go ask Qin Shen to try."

Suddenly, the sky turned dark again. Jiang Si went up to the attic to keep watch.

A blood-red moon hung on the horizon, and Qin Shen’s house was shrouded in darkness.

It was strange; she rarely saw any lights on in his house.

’Did he go out again?’

Suddenly, two furtive figures appeared in Jiang Si’s line of sight.

They were holding guns and stealthily creeping closer. They must have been sent by Zhang Xianchao, who clearly wasn’t ready to give up.

Jiang Si shook the bell to alert her family and raised her gun, aiming at the intruders.

They abruptly stopped and pulled something from inside their coats.

Jiang Si looked closely through her infrared binoculars and saw that they were holding hand grenades.

Jiang Si’s heart leaped in shock, but she patiently waited for them to enter her firing range.

The two men suddenly froze at the gate of Qin Shen’s dilapidated house as if they had seen something.

"AWOO—"

In a flash, a ferocious figure leaped out from Qin Shen’s house.

In the blink of an eye, the two men were pounced on and thrown to the ground. They let out a single, shrill scream before falling silent.

Jiang Si raised her binoculars, and a pair of crimson, dangerous eyes suddenly filled her view.

It was a massive White Tiger!

The White Tiger spotted her and charged in her direction, leaping over the wall in a single bound.

Jiang Si shuddered and quickly grabbed her gun, rushing out of the attic, determined to shoot it dead before it could climb onto the roof.