Wang Fang gritted her teeth, her jaw tightening with a visible strain. "Fine, I will take that temporary job. Hmph, when they come begging me to be a full-time worker later on, I might not even bother to agree."
She had already imagined it in vivid detail—once she had the red nematodes in her hands, she could sell them to whichever department she wanted for a high price. Hmph, she would make sure to pay back today's humiliation in full. Let's see if they would still dare to look down on her then.
When she saw that the cow in the yard was pregnant again, along with a few black pigs running around in the dirt, Wang Fang couldn't help but think back to the time before the apocalypse. When Jing Shu's family was struggling and came to borrow money, if she had listened to her husband and lent them 300,000 instead of just 100,000, then after the world ended, she would have gotten three pigs back instead of one.
Regret stung her heart as she looked at the healthy animals. Look at Grandma Jing; what sharp eyes she had! She had given them hundreds of thousands without hesitation. And now? Just look at how comfortably that family was living in this harsh world.
Jing Shu smiled faintly and didn't say anything to her aunt. Her expectations for the woman were pretty low. As long as she didn't stir up trouble or ruin the family's peace, that was enough.
Before bed, everyone squeezed into the interior of the German MAN RV. Nobody dared sleep inside the villa anymore because of the instability. Wu You'ai slept in her beloved space capsule, while Jing Shu stayed upstairs on the large bed, practicing with her Rubik's Cube Space and running another round of red nematode experiments. The rest of the family members crammed into the first floor.
There was some good news though. The red nematodes treated with the blood-infused Spirit Spring were breeding much faster now. Those exposed to the ZS880 reagent had also multiplied quicker than before. Jing Shu mixed both substances together for another round of testing. She already had a vague guess about what was going on with the Crimson Spirit Spring, but she would wait for final confirmation before saying anything to the others.
The night passed quietly in the relative safety of the vehicle. Even the small aftershocks that made the ground tremble under the tires had become part of their routine. Jing Shu was woken not by the quakes, but by Su Long's terrified scream echoing through the night air.
Wrapped in her thick cotton coat, she rushed outside to see what happened—only to find that six or seven people had tried to climb over the temporary backyard fence in the night using a ladder.
They had accidentally triggered the RV's high-voltage electric grid. In an instant, they had all been fried like grasshoppers on a wire. By morning, their bodies had frozen stiff in the biting cold.
Su Yiyang's family turned pale at the sight. "How... how come so many people died and we didn't hear a sound? I slept like a rock," he murmured, his voice shaking.
Jing Shu rubbed her eyes, still waking up. "When someone is electrocuted, their nervous system seizes up and they collapse like a log. There's no time for any reaction, let alone a scream." Don't ask how she knew that. Let's just say... she had been electrocuted before.
Jing An, on the other hand, was unfazed by the grim discovery. He casually tossed the corpses out of the yard one by one. Heavy thuds echoed as they hit the frozen ground, and soon, people outside started gathering. They began fighting over the bodies and the clothes they wore. The scene turned noisy fast as the scavengers descended.
"Another batch of idiots trying to steal! They were warned about the traps. Serves them right."
"Well, lucky us. Oh, these guys were rich, look at their tools!"
Jing An dusted his hands together and let out a sigh. "We still need to find time to reinforce this yard again. Too many people have their eyes on us."
Jing Shu nodded in agreement. She would have to start preparing for potential mudslides too, considering the changing weather.
Later, she took her father and her uncle to the factory site on the golden plot of land. It sat between Xishan and the new city district, a rather remote area. Before the apocalypse, it had been a huge industrial plant with over a thousand workers. But when raw materials ran out, the place shut down. The boss sold off whatever he could, and the giant metal machines that couldn't be moved or dismantled were left behind to rust.
Several dorm buildings still stood nearby. Due to their location, the government had turned them into temporary shelters, which were now crammed full of people. Some factory halls were also occupied. If they didn't clear out those residents, there's no way the factory could operate. Theft was one thing, but they couldn't even start production with outsiders still living inside the workspace.
"There really are a lot of people here," Su Yiyang said, stepping out of the car. He stared at the row of reddish-brown, low-rise brick buildings, which were surrounded by people in all kinds of ragged outfits. Big heads, small heads, everyone was craning their necks to see, whispering and pointing at the arrivals.
Honestly, driving a car in this apocalypse caused as much of a stir as it did back in the 1980s—when owning a vehicle made the whole village come out to stare in wonder.
Soon, a few people in proper uniforms arrived to meet them. The man in front was a sturdy, middle-aged worker with a steady air about him.
Jing An looked around the massive premises, genuinely impressed. He had thought the factory would only cover a few hundred square meters, but this place had to be tens of thousands. It was massive.
"Hello, hello, you must be Ms. Jing," the man said politely. "I'm Lao Tuo, the regional liaison director. These are the documents from the authorities. The transfer has already been processed. You just need to verify your identity and confirm on the database video."
The whole transfer process took less than five minutes. When it was done, Jing Shu exhaled softly, her breath misting in the cold. This golden piece of land, no matter what disasters might come, officially belonged to her now.
Outside, the crowd grew louder as the news spread.
"I knew it! The upper office sold the land to that group already. The deal is done!"
"For real? Then where are we supposed to go? Our homes in the city collapsed during the quakes, and every other shelter is packed full. There's nowhere left to live! It's freezing out here, we will die if we stay outside!"
"Who cares? This place was assigned as a shelter. Even if she bought the land, so what? We're not leaving. Everyone stick together, we're staying right here!"
The shouting made Lao Tuo frown. He barked at the crowd, "What are you all standing around for? No work means no food! Go dig rocks or collect corpses if you want to eat. Don't crowd here!"
He slammed the door shut with a loud thud, then turned back to Jing Shu with an awkward smile. "Ms. Jing, here is the situation. The land is officially yours now, but those nearby dorms are still designated as shelters. How about this? Your factory operates here, and those people stay where they are. If you need workers, you can hire from among the two thousand people living there."
Two thousand people.
Jing Shu shook her head. "When I spoke with the higher-ups, I made it clear that this entire area belonged to me. Nobody said anything about those buildings still being shelters."
Lao Tuo's expression froze. He forced a smile. "But you also promised to take care of housing for those few thousand people, right? You can't just throw them all out now."
"That's true," she said calmly. "But I would appreciate if you stopped calling this place a shelter. From now on, it's private property. And yes, I did say I would solve their housing problem. My factory provides housing for its workers, and I plan to hire everyone currently living here."
Of course, the dorms wouldn't be free. There's no such thing as a free meal in this world.
Jing Shu smiled faintly. How nice. She had just set up a factory, and the workforce had come right to her doorstep. There were a lot of them, sure, and among them were bound to be freeloaders and troublemakers—but she wasn't worried about that.
In her previous life, she had learned from the Tyrant's rules: freeloaders didn't exist. Anyone trying to take advantage? Even less so.