Su Lanzhi was feeling powerless against the coordinated pressure of the crowd. Her direct superior, Yu Caini, had clearly come prepared, using both a performance of personal pity and the unspoken weight of her professional authority to pressure Su Lanzhi into compliance.
"Then, then let's not sell for now. I need to discuss this properly with my husband," Su Lanzhi said, yielding to the superior pressure for the moment. She was someone who avoided open confrontation, knowing that saying no outright to her boss could mean risking her job and future comfort.
Being just one rank higher was overwhelming in their work culture, and Yu Caini had brought backup to reinforce her position.
"Xiao Su, think about this carefully," said a bald, middle aged man with a large belly, blowing lazy smoke rings that filled the small living room with a acrid smell. This was Steward Liu from another department. "Housing prices are dropping fast these days. Maybe even central city properties like this will stop trading altogether in a few days. Selling now might be your last good chance."
In the coming apocalypse, Jing Shu knew, houses and cars would become nearly worthless, and she had no intention of selling at an inflated price just to take advantage of someone's desperation later. But for people who came now with the blatant mindset of taking advantage of her mother's position, Jing Shu decided it was necessary to teach them a direct lesson. She quietly slipped into her bedroom, logged into a secondary account she had on the 58.com property site, and quickly orchestrated a little show. She created two fake buyer profiles and initiated chat conversations, fabricating a scenario of two parties competing urgently for the house.
After setting the digital scene, Jing Shu rushed back into the living room and greeted each person with a bright, polite smile. "Hello uncle, hello auntie. I'm Su Lanzhi's daughter, Jing Shu."
She made sure to remember who had come and added, "I'm really sorry for the confusion. We have actually already arranged for two other serious buyers to view the house later today. They have both offered 1.39 million. My father said we would sell to whichever one offers more, as is fair."
She then showed the fabricated chat records on her phone to everyone in the room. According to the messages, one buyer needed to transfer their child to a city school immediately, the other needed the property deed for a school enrollment certificate. Both claimed they urgently needed a house exactly like this one.
Su Lanzhi exhaled a quiet sigh of relief and secretly gave Jing Shu a tiny, grateful thumbs up behind her back. This child had grown up so cleverly without anyone even realizing it.
"Besides," Jing Shu continued, turning her wide, innocent eyes on Steward Liu, "Uncle Liu is right. What if the property market really crashes in a few days? Would that not be cheating Aunt Yu? My mom's good intentions to help a colleague would've backfired terribly." She framed it as protecting Yu Caini from a bad investment.
Liu Keyuan froze, his cigarette hovering. Normally, sellers tried to talk up their property's value. How could this young girl actively curse her own family's apartment?
Yu Caini shot a glare at Steward Liu, wondering inwardly if this socially awkward man even knew how to negotiate properly. He was supposed to help talk the price down, not give the seller an excuse to back out.
"Young lady, don't talk nonsense," Yu Caini said, forcing a tight laugh. "Central district school zone houses won't crash unless it's the end of the world. Selling to anyone is fine. Why not sell to me? We're colleagues, we can discuss the price more flexibly." She pressed, but she could feel her initiative slipping away within a blink.
Jing Shu firmly refused to let "Aunt Yu be taken advantage of." She reminded everyone with earnest concern that her father was a man of his word and couldn't break promises to already scheduled buyers. No matter what, they'd wait until the buyers arrived in person before deciding whom to sell to. It was a matter of principle.
Yu Caini was inwardly furious but couldn't show it in front of the others. She winked meaningfully at Su Lanzhi, trying to get her to override her daughter, but it didn't work. She began to fear the arriving "buyers" might actually raise the price unexpectedly. What use was her managerial status in a pure cash transaction? Even if she sought petty revenge at work later, she knew Su Lanzhi would remember this.
"Lanzi, I personally guarantee the market crash has nothing to do with you," Yu Caini said, switching to a coaxing tone. "Don't listen to your daughter's worries. I'll offer 1.395 million, okay? That's 5,000 more than their offer!"
Just then, Jing Shu's phone chimed loudly. She made a show of looking at it and then said, "Oh, one of the buyers just messaged. He says, 'Hi Lanzi, I'll transfer the deposit right now and we can complete the full transfer tomorrow. Please tell the other buyer they don't need to come.'"
In this way, the house originally planned to sell for 1.3 million was sold for 1.395 million. One couldn't call it overpricing or underpricing. In a hot market, the price could've gone even higher, if not, it would've dropped. It was simply the power of fabricated competition.
Jing Shu only needed the funds to buy more supplies. Selling to people who tried to use power or opportunism didn't bother her conscience, nor did she worry about forming future enmities. These weren't relationships worth preserving.
The next day, Yu Caini, eager to secure the deal, accompanied Su Lanzhi to complete the preliminary paperwork. It took two full days to finish all the legalities and the bank transfer. The contract officially stated that from December 1st, the apartment would belong to Yu Caini. Jing Shu's family had about ten days left to move out.
They decided to leave the old furniture behind. Only some personal miscellaneous items and clothing would be taken. Her parents decided they would move in the last few days, minimizing the disruption.
With the apartment and both family cars sold, and after paying all the relevant taxes and fees, the remaining 1.36 million yuan was placed in Jing Shu's hands. Their immediate financial crisis was temporarily over. That evening, the three of them held another family meeting around the kitchen table.
"After paying the deposit for your influencer contract, you'll have 860,000 left," Su Lanzhi calculated aloud, writing numbers on a notepad. "From that, 100,000 should go to your eldest uncle to repay his loan, 200,000 to your grandmother, and 100,000 to each of your three aunts, that's 300,000. The rest should be enough as your starting capital for the business, right?"
Jing Shu shook her head. "The initial investment is very big. I need to buy raw materials for content, ingredients, and other production supplies. The cash flow required is significant. Give me another month before we repay them, and the cash should be enough to operate."
In truth, the money would be used to buy as many survival supplies as possible now. After the apocalypse began, she could repay these family members with food and essential goods instead of worthless cash. This plan also secretly served as a way to protect her helpful relatives from the worst of the disasters. It was a brutal form of kindness.
Jing Shu wanted to ensure that those who had helped her family in this critical time wouldn't suffer and starve in the apocalypse. In this twisted way, lending them money now was, in essence, helping family avoid future calamity.
"Recently, you've grown up so fast," Su Lanzhi said, looking at her daughter with a mix of pride and bewilderment. "You have your own opinions and ideas about everything, and you always seem to have logical reasons to persuade us. Mom trusts you won't waste the money, but you must record every single expense in detail. I'll check the accounts at any time." She felt that in just one short month, her child had become surprisingly decisive and capable, almost a stranger.
"The day after tomorrow, I'll bring your Grandma and Grandpa over to the villa to help with the food preparation," Jing Shu said, changing the subject. "With their old fashioned skills, everything will be almost foolproof."
Su Lanzhi noticed Jing Shu had thought of everything. Her parents, Jing Shu's grandparents, were masters at pickling and preserving all kinds of vegetables and meats. Their skills were indeed essential for creating a large stock of semi finished food. Jing Shu wanted to stockpile months worth of such food and relied on their expertise. She was determined, she wouldn't let them die from neglect and poverty this time.
Living together under the same roof permanently, however, was unlikely. The generational clashes were too great.
Su Lanzhi then glared pointedly at Jing An. "When your father comes, don't get angry at him again. If he scolds you, just don't reply. Let it go."
Jing An sighed, a deeply helpless sound. "If he scolds me and I stay silent, he says I'm useless and have no backbone. If I reply, he says I'm talking back to my elder. If I ignore him and walk away, he says I'm disrespecting him. If I stand there and listen silently, he says I'm just faking obedience. What, exactly, can I do?" He rubbed his forehead, already feeling the headache.
Jing An was at his wit's end when it came to his own father.
He and Grandpa seemed born to clash. Whenever they were together in the same room for more than an hour, they would inevitably argue. They irritated each other profoundly and found everything the other did unbearable. Yet if they were apart for a few days, one of them would call the other, and they'd end up frustrated on the phone again. Perhaps this was their twisted form of love, coupled with a deep, unshakeable sense of familial responsibility.
"About Lao Sun," Jing An said, his voice heavy. "I owe you both an apology. I was blind. Through these events, I've finally realized he was deliberately refusing to repay me. Since he doesn't consider me a true friend, he's no longer my friend. I plan to recover the debt through legal means."
Jing's Dad had genuinely valued this decades long friendship and had given Uncle Sun many, many chances. In the past life, he had no acute financial pressure, so the debt had just faded away. In this life, the urgent need for money had driven the issue to a head. At this critical time, he had been betrayed. Uncle Sun could buy his son a Mercedes and his wife a diamond ring, but on the promised repayment day, the whole family had avoided him for days, not answering calls. A true friend would've never acted this way.
Even someone as habitually naive and trusting as Jing's Dad felt deeply hurt and betrayed. He still harbored some burning resentment. What had he ever done to deserve this from Lao Sun?
Legal action? That's too easy for them, Jing Shu thought coldly. Their enmity wasn't limited to the debts of this life. She intended to settle all the old scores from the past life, one by one. A lawsuit was the least of what they deserved.
Jing Shu had kept creating situations to let Jing's Dad see his own frustration and helplessness, so he could finally recognize Uncle Sun's true face with his own eyes. She couldn't just kill Uncle Sun outright yet, not without consequences.
The carefully maintained image of Uncle Sun as a model old friend would remain in Jing's Dad's mind until now. But with Jing Shu's deliberate interventions, that image was crumbling. Soon, she knew, he'd be forced to see a deeper, much darker side of Uncle Sun.