"Ha??" Jing Shu's mouth dropped open, her mind full of question marks as she stared at the official-looking document in the staff member's hand. What? Why on earth would someone hand her 5% of the shares in such a massive project? Please, she would rather leap out of this fire pit than jump in, the metaphorical flames already licking at her heels. The key was that she already knew what would happen to Xishan in the coming years, yet she was powerless to change it. How could she shamelessly accept those shares when she knew the foundation would eventually crumble?
Su Mali stood at the side, her iridescent raincoat shimmering under the energy-saving lights, brimming with envy as she pouted unhappily, her lips jutting out. "Uncle Qian, I know you said that on purpose in front of me, just so I will go home and admit to my father that you are more generous than him. I am telling you now, I am not falling for that."
"Haha, you saw through it that easily? Let your father know I, Qian Duoduo, am not the stingy miser he claims me to be. Who knows, maybe when he hears about this, he will hand Jing Shu some shares in his natural gas company." Qian Duoduo's mood was radiant, his eyes crinkling at the corners. This round of fundraising had brought him exactly the supplies he desperately needed to stabilize the base.
The power company might be under government jurisdiction, but it included wind power and coal-fired thermal power. The coal plants had big coal bosses absorbed into them as shareholders, their wealth integrated into the state structure.
Just like Qian Duoduo, they followed the state-owned enterprise path, holding 50% while the government kept the majority stake. This had been the rule since the early days of the apocalypse when the old world began to tear at the seams. Those who obeyed were doing quite well now, their status secured within the new system.
Those who did not obey, who refused to be absorbed by the central authority, Qian Duoduo had never seen again, their names vanishing into the dark history of the transition.
"You can never afford to offend the government." He clenched his fist, the knuckles turning white. Even as the richest man in Wu City, he was firmly bound by invisible chains, unable to move freely without the state's watchful eyes. A single misstep could ruin him completely, turning his stone paradise into a tomb.
He felt he had to keep something in reserve, a hidden layer of protection. In these years of financial disclosure, the government knew exactly how much wealth and oil he held, their ledgers precise. He even had to thank that explosion, which at least gave him back a shred of privacy amidst the rubble.
When the apocalypse began, he had willingly contributed to the people, pouring all his oil into the country's research into new technology. He did everything he could without hesitation, his resources fueling the desperate race against time. More than anyone, he longed for the apocalypse to end quickly, so everything could return to how it used to be.
But he also had to prepare for the worst, leaving his wife and children a way out of the misery. Their quality of life must not decline, even if the world outside turned to ash. That was his duty as a man to those he loved, a silent promise kept in the dark.
This Xishan Base was his first step toward that security.
With the electricity issue resolved, feed processing and food processing could stabilize through reliable channels. What remained was raw material supply. He needed to form a massive industrial chain combining commerce, agriculture, and livestock. Those were the essentials for survival.
Qian Duoduo's eyes swept through the crowd, his gaze sharp, until they landed on one of today's key figures: Heng Jiu, once the head of the Evergrande Group, now incorporated into the government's logistics system as its manager.
A strong logistics system accelerated the industrial chain, moving goods through the veins of the city. Heng Jiu had the strength and the infrastructure. In the early days of the apocalypse, he followed the government closely, taking many contracts and earning its trust through sheer reliability. Now he could at least sip some soup from the big pot, his belly full while others starved. His logistics company was the only one not restricted in energy usage, with even more shares than his petroleum business.
As he weighed the people in the hall, Jing Shu stared at the contract handed over by a staff member, her fingers brushing the crisp edge of the paper as she felt torn and helpless.
"Mr. Qian, I cannot accept these shares! They come for no reason, and I already accepted your gift of thanks. I can't take more. I must firmly decline these shares." She knew the ending of Xishan Base but had no solution yet to prevent the tragedy. Before then, she wanted no further entanglement with the doomed enterprise.
At the time, it had only been Mr. Shiyuan who starved to death, but rumors said some high-ranking figures had vanished as well, their fates swallowed by the shadows.
When that time came, where would she go? What would her family do if they were tied to this place?
If the rumored tyrant came to seize all food, and the biggest shareholder Qian Duoduo refused, then what could a little mosquito like her do against the gale? To get caught in that whirlpool meant inviting endless trouble. She had no wish to clash with the tyrant of those tales, a lunatic who would stop at nothing, his heart devoid of humanity.
Perhaps Qian Duoduo had his secrets, but in the end history was written by the victor. In her past life, he had lost. He died, dragging Shiyuan down with him in a slow, agonized fall. The victor was the tyrant, who prolonged the city's survival by three precious days with the seized grain.
If given another chance, should she help him hold onto the food, clinging to her own 5% profit while countless others starved before her eyes in the streets? She couldn't do it. Or should she persuade him to donate the food and escape death?
The richest man, stripped of everything. Maybe in her past life he had starved himself deliberately as a final act of defiance? Yet she never heard of his family's fate. Perhaps the tyrant had threatened Qian Duoduo, striking a deal to spare his family in exchange for him becoming a symbol of "faith" to the masses. Even then, history wouldn't have changed its cold trajectory.
Jing Shu truly did not know the full truth. Which meant she had no place interfering in the gears of fate.
For these 5% shares, she felt utterly undeserving. Knowing he wouldn't live more than three years, while she had no solution to save him, what face did she have to accept his gift?
Su Mali blinked at her, eyes full of mystery as she watched the exchange.
Just then, a stir rippled through the hall as people shifted and whispered.
"Jing Shu, you must accept this share. Before, I was paying back a personal favor. Now I am repaying on behalf of my whole family. Without you, how could there be today's Xishan? Do you know how much property damage you saved me by disarming that bomb? Must I give you half before you will accept?" Qian Duoduo chuckled, patting her shoulder with a heavy, steady hand. "Let's leave it at that. Someone is making a fuss over there, I need to check."
"Uncle Qian, wait. I want to personally buy 5% of the shares. I will exchange natural gas. You are short on natural gas right now, aren't you? With it, the canteen meals will be so much better than burning coal." Su Mali lifted her chin with confidence, her voice clear in the stone hall. She might not have Jing Shu's luck in getting gifted shares, but she had her own bargaining chips.
Qian Duoduo's smile deepened, crinkling his face with lines of amusement. "At most, you can buy 1% of the shares, and you can't use natural gas to do it. Think of another way."
Su Mali looked at him aggrieved, her shoulders sagging. "Uncle Qian, you are bullying me. Why can everyone else use different resources to buy shares, but I can't use natural gas? I clearly saw today how badly you need it. I know you and my father don't get along, but this benefits everyone. Why not?"
Qian Duoduo strode off toward the disturbance, his boots thudding against the stone, muttering under his breath as he went. "Silly child, do you know what would happen if the two great powers of Wu City joined forces?"
Su Mali froze for a moment, the realization dawning on her, finally catching on. Jing Shu too showed a look of sudden understanding. If two opposing forces no longer opposed each other, then a tripod or a four-legged balance would inevitably collapse from the missing leg, leaving the government with no choice but to strike.