Chapter 057 Artificial Sun Project

Wang Qiqi, number 13: "I suggest everyone get there earlier and take the 9 a.m. shuttle bus to Aijia Supermarket to queue up. Yellowjackets have been lining up at the big supermarkets in the city since morning, charging 500 yuan per spot. As a result, many people still can't get a spot after the supermarket closes."

Wang Dazhao No. 1: "Then I'll go line up tomorrow morning. My wife is pregnant and wants to eat some vegetables and fruits. If anyone has a scalper channel, please let me know. Thank you!"

Wang Qiqi No. 13: "Now only the countryside can receive it, but it's expensive. I'll give you the phone number, and the approximate prices are: apples 500 yuan/jin, mushrooms 200 yuan/jin, potatoes 300 yuan/jin, cabbage 500 yuan/jin, winter melon 400 yuan/jin, pumpkin 500 yuan/jin, carrots 600 yuan/jin. Buy now, prices are expected to go up."

Wang Dazhao expressed his gratitude and sold Che Yuan and his little BMW again in the group.

The luxury car dealer in Building 5 scolded him: "Don't embarrass yourself with your crappy BMW. My Land Rover is selling for 10,000 yuan and no one wants it. Is there anyone who wants a Maserati for 20,000 yuan? But the car is at the manufacturer and you have to find a car to ship it to. After the Dark Day is over, the discount won't be there anymore! If no one wants it, I'll ask again later."

Wang Cuihua sent a voice message: "Anyone who buys a car now is a fool. If the car is out of gas, you can't even drive it home."

Jingshu discovered that Auntie Wang Cuihua was a conversation terminator. As long as she interrupted, the conversation would basically end.

"Grandma, look, cabbage, apples and pumpkins are all the same price now, they have all risen to 500 yuan per catty." Jingshu said to Jingnai who was making dinner.

"Hurry up and call your aunt and tell her not to sell the apples. The price has risen so high that it means they are really gone."

"Okay. Then you thought the 10 yuan cabbage was too expensive."

Jing Nai slapped her thigh in regret: "The pumpkin was 20 yuan at that time, but I thought it was too expensive and didn't buy it. Now I suddenly want to eat pumpkin pie."

So when Jingshu brought the big pumpkin over, Jingnai's eyes were filled with surprise. Jingshu explained, "I harvested a lot of vegetables and seeds in the past two months. Tell me what else you want to eat."

"Oh, my darling granddaughter!"

…

Jingshu calculated the time and found out that a batch of supplies had been requisitioned from the countryside some time ago, such as the apples from her aunt's house. Most of the vegetables sold now were the vegetables grown by her family when the end of the world just came and stored in the cellar. She wondered if these people who were greedy for money would regret it when they had no vegetables to eat in the future.

Vegetables like apples, pumpkins, and carrots can be kept fine as long as they are refrigerated for half a year, but this is basically the last batch of various vegetables.

Once this batch of vegetables is bought and eaten, only a single variety of vegetables will be left.

These are either grown in constant temperature greenhouses where half of the government’s energy is used, or grown by urban and rural indigenous people in greenhouses that are insulated, cooled with air conditioning, and planted with canal water themselves; or they are grown with strong vitality and grow a little; but compared to the population of millions, what is grown is almost negligible.

In another month, it will be hard to buy cabbage even for 1,000 yuan.

The lack of sunlight, drought, lack of water, and high temperature directly killed 90% of the vegetables, so that four months after the first year of the apocalypse, only a small amount of mushrooms, leeks, garlic, chrysanthemums, spinach and other vegetables that do not require sunlight and can be grown by controlling the temperature and maintaining moisture.

The governments of various districts in Wucheng are conducting research and experiments in constant temperature chambers on how to mass-produce these vegetables. Unfortunately, the results are not very good so far, mainly because the cost is too high and the output is scarce.

This time, Jingma was appointed as the deputy director of the Dark Day Planting Industry R&D Management Department, sharing the position with her former leader Yu Caini. The two of them were divided into groups to manage the R&D work of one of the 13 districts in Wucheng District.

In short, Jing Ma jumped three levels to become "Deputy Director," and Yu Cai Ni was promoted one level to also become "Deputy Director." Yu Cai Ni, who was always looking for trouble, didn't expect that not only did she fail to get Wang Lanzhi, but she was even on the same level as herself! The most abominable thing is that they let the two compete!

Jing's mother peeled the grapes and ate them in one bite, saying gloomily, "Let Yu Caini and I participate in the competition. Whoever performs better in this month will be promoted to a regular employee. After the 13 districts have been decided,

Determine the location for the construction of the Wucheng artificial sun."

At this moment, Grandpa Jing, Father Jing, Third Aunt Jinglai and Wu Youai were all sitting neatly at the dining table waiting for dinner to start.

Hearing what Jing's mother said, Jing's grandfather asked in surprise, "Can the sun be artificially created to hang in the sky and emit sunlight like the sun? Wow, that's crazy. So, it doesn't matter whether the Dark Day ends or not?"

Jing's mother didn't know how to explain the question.

Jing Shu, who had been bombarded with news in her previous life, said, "Master, it's not what you think. If the sun is a high-temperature, high-pressure furnace, generating light energy through continuous nuclear fusion, then an artificial sun is actually a superconducting tokamak capable of large-scale nuclear fusion reactions. It can undergo nuclear fusion under high-temperature conditions like the sun, but it's not hanging in the sky. Instead, it's placed in water to produce nuclear fusion, thus providing humanity with a continuous and inexhaustible supply of clean energy."

Jing's mother nodded with satisfaction and said, "Yeah, that's about what they mean. So next month, I guess all energy will be shut down to power the artificial sun first."

"Power outages, gas outages, oil outages, etc. are all related to the artificial sun? Then how does this artificial sun provide energy if it is not hanging in the sky?" Jing Ye was confused again.

As a poor student who'd been reborn, Jingshu finally got to show off the little she'd learned: "In 2018, China's artificial sun achieved 100 million degrees of operation for the first time. This cost millions of yuan per second and consumed countless energy resources. But we're still some distance away from achieving controlled nuclear fusion."

"The artificial sun generates energy from nuclear fusion in seawater, which can be used to artificially create photosynthesis indoors and then grow food. Seawater can also be used to solve the problem of freshwater shortages, and water can be electrolyzed to produce fuel for cars."

Jingye, Jingba and Third Aunt all looked as if they didn't understand but it seemed very impressive. Jingshu sighed and didn't explain.

On the other hand, the spoiler, Wu Youai, pointed at the food on the table and said, "The fish you have here don't look biologically sound. And these bean sprouts, even if they're abnormal, they can't grow and sprout that much. No, I have to call the professor and ask..."

Jingshu stuffed the pumpkin pie into Wu Youai's mouth with a headache, "Hurry up and eat! If the professor knows that you have fish to eat but he doesn't, think about the consequences!"

"Your pumpkin is wrong too..."

Sure enough, the evening news broadcast mentioned the artificial sun and the benefits of its success. It was a big promise to satisfy everyone's hunger in this doomsday and at least keep quiet and don't cause trouble. In this life, the artificial sun plan was finally implemented.