As for the idea of simply renting a house first to secure a spot in the community, that was completely out of the question for Jing Shu. She knew the future trajectory all too well.
This suburban area would eventually be taken over and managed directly by the government. When the catastrophic floods arrived in the coming year, submerging half of Wu City, countless homeless people would need immediate resettlement, and organized communities like this one would be prime real estate for centralized control.
Aside from homeowners who held full, clear property rights, everything else would be subject to government rearrangement. After half a year of initial chaos and localized riots, the state's authority would re solidify with an iron grip. No one would dare disobey the new housing assignments. If you refused to comply, you would be cut off from the collective food distribution and might even be labeled a troublemaker and dragged away for "labor reform" in some grim work camp.
This policy included rented properties. They would all be voided and reassigned by the housing bureau. If you had strong connections (guanxi), maybe you could get more family members squeezed into a better unit. If not, you would be lucky to be assigned to a marked parking spot in a flooded underground garage with a tarp for a roof. Those who still had unpaid mortgages on their properties would discover they weren't exempt. They would still need to hand over a portion of their monthly food rations as "debt repayment." After all, the loans were from banks and the banks ultimately belonged to the state.
And how would the government know whether you owned a property outright or whether it was mortgaged? Since the big data integration push around 2018, a simple ID scan at any checkpoint could reveal your entire financial and asset profile down to the most minute detail including what specific day and hour in December 2022 you had collected your state relief rations.
Once something was recorded in your citizen ID profile, it was permanent. Every offense and every merit. During the apocalypse, collecting the basic relief food required both facial recognition and ID scanning. If you had a record of wrongdoing or non compliance, you were immediately blacklisted from distributions. So in the apocalypse, no one could afford to be idle or rebellious. To survive, you had to be seen as creating value for the collective or at least not causing trouble.
Her thoughts had drifted far into this grim future, but when she snapped back to attention, several more messages had already popped up in the group chat.
[For Sale, Building 25]:"Big Sister Wang, I'm telling the truth. I bought this house for 250,000 yuan back then and then spent another 100,000 on renovations, furniture, and appliances. All brand new, high quality stuff, all included for free. Originally, I just wanted a quiet weekend retreat away from the city noise, but now, circumstances have changed. I'm selling at a huge loss."
Wang Cuihua sent another dismissive voice message: "You'd better ask someone else. Who doesn't have a house now? It's not like the old days. Buying property or cars now is the height of foolishness. What good is a house if you starve to death in it?"
For Sale, Building 25: "…" Big Sister, even if you don't want to buy, you don't need to ruin my chances like this.
Seeing this, Jing Shu immediately tapped on the seller's profile, added him as a friend and sent a private message: "I'll take it for 130,000 yuan, cash upfront. I'm only buying to hoard property as a long term investment. If the price rises in a few years, good. If not, I won't risk sinking more money in, especially with the possibility of a complete market crash looming." She deliberately played the role of a speculative and slightly naive investor.
The man on the other end hesitated for over ten minutes, his cursor blinking over the reply box. He had been desperately slashing prices on every platform and in every group with no takers. The moment people heard the house was outside the main Wu City urban area in the wilderness, they refused no matter how cheap. And with cars practically useless now due to no fuel and travel restrictions, even bargain hunters wanted only locations with clear potential for recovery, which this suburb did not seem to have.
His internal calculus was bleak. Better to sell now and get some liquid cash than hold and lose everything. If she's living in a villa in this same community and is buying just to hoard property, then she probably has money to burn and doesn't care about location. With the cash, he could buy a decent batch of food from a private seller. Cabbage alone cost over 100 yuan per jin now and still wasn't enough. This might be his last chance.
Finally, he agreed: "Fine. Let's meet tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. to finalize the paperwork at the district Real Estate Transaction Center. I want it done before the crowds and the heat hit."
The next day, Jing Shu did something rare. She accompanied her father to drop off her mother at work and even personally packed her lunchbox.
She packed sweet and sour pickled radish, a portion of stir fried pork with wood ear mushrooms, kimchi mixed with a little rice, two marinated tea eggs, and a small thermal bottle of chilled fresh milk.
She dared not pack anything too extravagant or include fresh fruit since vegetables were now far too scarce and would attract immediate attention. Even this modest seeming meal would have to be eaten in secret, hidden from colleagues, as her appetite had grown so much recently due to their rich diet that this portion was barely enough for her. The contrast between their private reality and public appearance was a constant careful performance.
The latest policy changes had bottom rank workers like her working constant exhausting overtime, just like in Jing Shu's previous life. But this time, she knew that her mother opportunity for a better safer position was just around the corner. With preparation and foresight, she had to help her mother seize it.
After dropping off the food, the two met the seller bringing the elderly couple's IDs and household registration books that they had discreetly taken. At the nearly deserted Real Estate Bureau, a place that once thrummed with activity, one party was eager to sell and the other eager to buy. With all documents in order and no loan complications, the property transfer was completed with unsettling speed and smoothness.
When they received the two shiny new keys and arrived at Building 25 Unit 101, just 100 meters across the central lawn from their own villa, Jing An was completely dumbfounded. He stood in the empty living room turning in a slow circle.
"So why exactly did you buy another house here for your grandparents? This place is so remote. I was planning that once our finances improved in a few years, we'd buy another place back in the city proper. This is too quiet here. Transportation is inconvenient, shopping is inconvenient. Going out to do anything feels like traveling from the deep countryside into the city," he grumbled, his voice echoing in the unfurnished space. His recent experiences standing in endless supermarket lines and making long trips to send the girl to work had left him with deep negative impressions of their location.
Jing Shu led him on a thorough walk through. She was quietly satisfied. Three bedrooms, two living rooms, two bathrooms. Basic furniture and appliances, even beds, all included. No air conditioning units were installed but aside from needing bedding, towels, and daily necessities, it was essentially ready for move in. The renovations were simple but clean.
"The renovations are cheap, all low end materials," he commented critically tapping a hollow sounding partition wall.
She laid out her reasoning patiently. "Dad, think about it. We owe grandparents 200,000 yuan remember. For the medical bills from before. They'll never take the money back you know that. It sits between us like a debt. Better to use a portion of it to buy them a tangible asset a house. With their names on the deed, it's indisputably theirs. Then it won't matter whether the third aunt or the first or second aunt comes to stay. Living in their own home will feel appropriate like their own family home too. And we'll still be right here in the community for years ourselves won't we. We can look after them."
She paused then added the clincher. "When you and Grandpa Jing aren't fighting, you can all live together in our villa. If you quarrel which you will they can just walk across the lawn and come back here for a few days to cool off. If they ever want to stay in the countryside for a while, fine. If they want to stay long term here also fine. It gives them autonomy. After all, it's their house. It solves the problem of them feeling like guests."
His eyes gradually lit up as he processed this. He had always carried the guilt tinged desire to live with and care for his aging parents but every time they stayed together under one roof, his stubborn arguments with the equally stubborn old man would escalate, once even leading to a heart attack scare. Now this seemed to solve everything proximity care independence and family harmony.
For the next few days, the two busied themselves like excited secret keepers preparing the new place as a surprise for the grandparents. Since the first floor unit had no private rooftop or balcony space suitable for UBC solar panels, they skipped installing air conditioning for now. It would be too conspicuous and require a separate power source they couldn't explain. Instead, Jing Shu contacted the water filter system manager from their last installation and had him install a robust six layer filtration and purification system. With the frequent water shortages and contamination scares, these items had plummeted in price as luxuries and few people were buying. The installation was quick and discreet.
They also moved in bedding from their stash, basic daily supplies, and some of the grandparents own clothes and small belongings they had brought from the old apartment.
Jing shu spent her days juggling what felt like countless parallel chores. While cooking large family meals, she secretly stored extra prepared foods in the Cube Space. At night, she still made her mental inspections of the poultry yards. The quails had already multiplied to over six hundred, a bustling colony just waiting to be harvested, roasted, and stored. Several bountiful harvests of soybeans were ready too, bags of plump beans waiting. Once Grandma Jing came to stay, they could start making tofu together, a happy family activity that would also replenish supplies.
In late February, the national education ministry announced extended university closures. The reopening date was pending further notice. Even high school seniors, facing the gauntlet of college entrance exams, were given indefinite breaks as schools lost their special priority electricity privileges. The future of education was put on ice.
At the same time, Wu City's public power supply was cut again, now only from 4:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. just three and a half hours per day. This drastic reduction caused major grinding disruptions for daily life. People needed to hoard extra power banks to keep their phones their lifelines to information and family charged. They had to boil and store all their drinking water during this window. Refrigerators and freezers running for such a short time could barely keep food from spoiling and frozen goods thawed and had to be consumed quickly leading to feast or famine cycles.
Home gardeners who relied on artificial sunlight lamps saw their efforts wasted as the power cuts rendered their setups useless. No vegetables would grow without consistent light.
The inconveniences of daily life could still be endured with gritted teeth but the physical strain was harder to bear. With just three and a half hours of potential air conditioning or fan use, masses of people especially the elderly and children suffered from relentless heatstroke. Hospitals already overloaded from the viral flu were slammed again. Medicine production had virtually stopped due to raw material shortages and supply had completely dried up at the consumer level.
Even pharmacies despite strict rationing were emptied out within minutes of any rumored restock. Then the government made a monumental announcement. All medical insurance cards were temporarily suspended and all private pharmacies were ordered shut down. Their remaining stockpiles were to be seized by the state for centralized distribution.
Just like she remembered from her past life, once the medical insurance cards stopped working, it marked the beginning of the government's most forceful phase of requisitioning all private sector resources. And now incredibly some of the last holdouts private food factories were caught hoarding supplies, trying to weather the storm for greater future profit. This would be the next target. The state's net was drawing tight and the line between public survival and private property was being erased day by day, decree by decree.