Just imagining her parents finding out that Uncle Sun and her aunt Su Meimei were having a long term affair made Jing Shu giggle to herself, a darkly amused sound in the quiet room. What a beautiful, explosive, and revealing scene that would be.
"Dad, you start preparing for the legal case," she said, turning to practical matters. "Gather all the documents, the original IOU, and find a reliable lawyer. That'll take a few days to set up properly. In the meantime, I can help you write a few articles laying out the facts, then record a short, clear video with you to send directly to Sun Yinrui. Maybe the public pressure'll make him voluntarily pay you back to avoid the lawsuit."
"All right. Just don't make things bigger than they need to be." Jing's Dad had no other recourse left. He couldn't physically find Uncle Sun, and even if he did, the man clearly refused to repay the debt. His only real option was to try to recover the money through legal means and then consider everyone involved strangers. If he could somehow get the money without the mess and expense of a lawsuit, that was better. Jing Shu, however, privately thought making a big, noisy fuss was far more fun and effective.
She drafted a short, blunt statement for her father to read on camera. "Sun Yinrui, this is your signed IOU. If you still don't pay the debt you owe, I'll have no choice but to sue you publicly to recover what is rightfully mine."
Jing An, looking stiff and uncomfortable, recorded the short video on his phone and, at Jing Shu's urging, posted it to his social media feeds. Within moments, as his network of old colleagues and friends saw it, countless shocked and supportive comments began to appear. Jing Shu then took the video and the detailed articles she had written and shared them directly into Sun Yinrui's company's internal social media groups. She added screenshots of all the bragging Uncle Sun's son had done over the past decade on his own social media, showing off his father's wealth, how his father profited from reselling customer information, and complaining about how terrible and demanding the customers supposedly were.
She deliberately highlighted Uncle Sun's failure to repay a personal debt, his poor moral character, and his history of abusive behavior toward clients to stir public outrage. She also enlisted a few paid online commentators to amplify the story, aiming to create a wave of negativity that'd destroy Sun Yinrui's professional reputation and social standing within his industry.
Step one was complete, ruin Uncle Sun's reputation.
…
On November 17, Wu City normally would've seen its first snow by this time of year, but the sun still shone with an unseasonable, deceptive warmth in the sky, with no sign of snow or even a heavy cloud.
Today, Jing Shu began her personal experiment. She started taking a dose of Spirit Spring, the mixture labeled number 3, which was diluted 1 drop in 500ml of water. This was the same dilution she used for the bulls, rams, and boars. She allowed herself one small sip per day.
After more than ten days of careful experimentation, the results were clear. The number 1 Spirit Spring mixture, diluted 1 drop in 100ml of water, had made the hens grow aggressively large and strangely intelligent. They now each weighed about 20 jin (roughly 10 kilograms), their bodies the size of large turkeys, and they displayed an intelligence reminiscent of a watchful dog. When Jing Shu entered the Cube Space to check on the original hen, number 1, the creature displayed distinctly affectionate and friendly behaviors toward her. It ate the most, laid the most eggs, and had developed a fiery, protective temperament, a true battle hen who ruled the roost.
The number 2 Spirit Spring mixture, diluted 1 drop in 250ml of water, was for the sows, cows, and ewes. Now, the cows were confirmed pregnant, and the black sow and ewes were significantly bigger than normal, eating voraciously and producing correspondingly more waste. This had led their own apartment community to post new, angry notices condemning the unknown resident who was dumping what seemed like half a farm's worth of manure in the communal trash bins, warning of increased surveillance and fines if it continued. Jing Shu had to run extra kilometers each morning to discreetly dispose of the waste in other, distant neighborhoods as a result.
The number 3 Spirit Spring mixture, diluted 1 drop in 500ml of water, was for the bulls, rams, and boars. Though they were now the size of normal mature animals, their bodies had developed cheetah like, streamlined curves. They were muscular and powerful, without an ounce of excess fat, pure efficient muscle.
Number 3, Jing Shu decided, was the perfect, cautious choice for her own body.
At 165cm, Jing Shu had a naturally proportionate, well shaped figure. Her appearance had been her only notable advantage in her previous life until age 22. She didn't want the Spirit Spring to drastically alter that, to turn her into a muscle bound fighter or make her body store fat like a sow. Moderation was key.
After the apocalypse, she knew, almost no one'd be overweight. Starvation would see to that. Staying physically low profile, looking average and unremarkable, was better for safety.
After drinking her first small sip of the diluted Spirit Spring, Jing Shu waited, but felt nothing unusual at first. The only immediate effect was that her breakfast smelled impossibly, mouth wateringly good. She accidentally ate two full baskets of soup dumplings, a large bowl of eight treasure porridge, a bowl of savory tofu pudding, two tea eggs, and three small side dishes. She still felt a bit unsatisfied, a hollow sensation that was new and unnerving.
Leaving extra money on the table, Jing Shu fled the breakfast shop in a rush of embarrassment. She first drove to a large pottery factory on the outskirts, drinking a bottle of AD calcium milk, eating two crisp Cube Space cucumbers, and a handful of rich Brazilian pine nuts along the way to settle her stomach.
Upon arrival at the dusty factory yard, she bought 50 traditional, large capacity kimchi jars, the stoneware kind with a water sealed lid. To test their seal, she burned a small piece of paper inside each jar, covered the mouth with a bowl, added water to the rim, and watched. The jars bounced slightly as the oxygen was consumed, a sign of a good seal, with no air leaks.
She had a factory worker inspect each jar personally for hairline cracks or flaws, then also bought 500 smaller, 2 liter new style sealed glass kimchi jars, which were perfect for storing various fermented foods, pickles, and sauces for a very long time.
For her livestream influencer cover story, she could claim that anyone ordering different pickled foods or cooked dishes from her could take them from these jars. Any unclaimed items'd simply stay for personal use. This included future batches of various spicy rabbit cubes, beef jerky, and dried meats, all vacuum sealed or jarred for easy access and long shelf life.
After paying the hefty bill, Jing Shu didn't waste time. She rushed across town to the Suning appliance store. The villa had been completed two days ago, ahead of the original 15 day schedule. After a final inspection, Jing Shu had been very satisfied. She had since overseen the installation of all the major appliances and the large capacity refrigerators purchased from Suning, then hired a team of three professional cleaners to scrub the empty villa from top to bottom.
Today at Suning, she was finally there to claim her prizes from the 68 raffle tickets she had earned. The draw yielded mostly useful items ranging from small to heavy, 8 pairs of high quality silent sleep earplugs, 6 warm ear muffs, 4 electric hot water bags, 5 stainless steel thermos flasks, 6 thick fleece blankets, 3 quick boil electric kettles, 3 electric heating pads for beds, 1 large electric griddle, 2 juicers, 2 humidifiers, 8 lightweight silk quilts, 5 ceramic space heaters, 4 standing fans, 1 56 piece porcelain dishware set, 2 premium knife sets, 1 multifunction oven, 1 small electric sewing machine, 1 dehumidifier, 2 high power blenders, 2 sets of German engineered cookware, and the grand prize, 1 fully automatic zero gravity massage chair.
Since the promotion allowed one prize draw for every 5,000 yuan spent, the winning rate was effectively 100 percent, but the prizes were of varying value. Most were inexpensive practical items like earplugs or ear muffs.
The most valuable prizes were undoubtedly the fully automatic massage chair, worth over 10,000 yuan, and the full set of German cookware, worth about 5,000 yuan. Jing Shu felt lucky to have drawn both. Happy with her haul, she continued shopping. Grandma Jing and Grandpa Jing were about to come stay at the villa for a while to help with food preservation, and the villa still needed many daily necessities.
She stocked up on plenty of bedding, new mattresses, pillows, towels, bathrobes, and other household textiles, arranging for it all to be delivered directly to the villa later that day.
For a quick lunch, Jing Shu had a large bowl of scallion oil noodles with extra braised pork, the kind where extra noodles were free of charge. Then she went to a quiet tea house to meet someone who had contacted her intending to give her money, Heng Jin. He was the son of Heng Jiu, the general manager of the major competitor, Hengda Logistics. He had long wanted to drive Sun Yinrui, the manager responsible for Yuntong Logistics in Wu City, out of the business entirely.
"Are these the posts and videos you published?" Heng Jin asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise after they sat down. He had been looking for solid dirt on Sun Yinrui for a long time but hadn't achieved decisive results. He never expected that overnight, the posts flooding Yuntong Logistics' internal social channels, causing a PR nightmare, would've originated from this young woman.
In the logistics business, companies that were exposed for insulting and cheating customers couldn't survive for long. Now, the entire Yuntong Logistics staff were scrambling, doing public relations damage control, claiming no evidence existed and it was all slander. Sun Yinrui was likely overwhelmed, but Heng Jin still intended to pour more fuel on the fire.
Since this young girl's influence alone was insufficient for a killing blow, Heng Jin'd take it to the next level with his resources.
Jing Shu nodded, equally surprised by the contact. Here was someone from her past life she'd never met, now reaching out to her because of a shared enemy. After a short, frank conversation that morning over the phone, she'd understood his intentions perfectly. They were aligned.
"Then sign this confidentiality agreement," Heng Jin said, sliding a document across the table. "This is a 50,000 yuan check for your information and cooperation. Your task is this off camera interview. Your voice'll be processed. You can say everything you know about Sun Yinrui's personal and professional misconduct. We'll handle the remaining investigation and evidence collection from our end."
"All right," Jing Shu agreed, picking up the pen without hesitation.
…
That evening, Jing An returned home looking deeply worried and confused.
"Strange. Very strange. Lao Sun suddenly transferred 200,000 yuan to my account. He sent a message wanting me to make a public statement that he never owed me any money at all. Why didn't he just pay back the 100,000 directly? Why double it?"
"That's easy," Jing Shu said, a sly smile touching her lips. She took Jing's Dad's phone from his hand. "Just tell the truth. The whole truth." She quickly navigated to his social media, uploaded a clear screenshot of the 200,000 yuan transfer, and typed out an accompanying statement.
Her fingers flew over the screen. The statement read, "Sun Yinrui gave me 200,000 yuan and asked me to make a statement that he never owed me money. So, here's my statement, he gave me 200,000 yuan and asked me to say he never owed me money." She tagged Sun Yinrui and all his known business associates, then hit post.