"Ugh, I have got to get this factory running soon, or I will be so broke I will be left with nothing but my underwear," Jing Shu sighed, the sound barely audible over the hum of the nearby servers. The money she had just gotten was already about to run dry. "Three days, no more than that. Within three days, we will have everything up and running, and in one week, we will start making money."
The smelting tools she had ordered through Jin Tianci were on their way, and the workers would start their shifts today. Within two days, they would finish setting up the equipment exactly as she wanted, run some final adjustments, and then the actual production could begin.
Meanwhile, Wang Chao swallowed hard, his throat dry as he activated the free transaction channel on the conversion platform. Around them, curious workers began experimenting on their phones to see if they could really transfer virtual coins.
And then, chaos hit Jing Shu's end. Her phone started blowing up with dozens of buzzing notifications, new ones popping up every second and cluttering the screen.
[Your personal virtual coin account made a big data payment of 11 virtual coins at 12:32 on the 25th. Remaining balance: 999,989 virtual coins. [Big Data].]
[Your personal—]
Jing Shu's expression darkened as she watched the screen. None of the individual amounts were that big, but watching her money drain away like a waterfall still made her chest tighten.
She just couldn't figure it out. When other people opened factories, their notifications usually said, 'You have received XX virtual coins.' But hers? 'You have paid XX virtual coins.' It happened every damn second.
"Turn off the notifications," she muttered, her thumb swiping across the glass. "Out of sight, out of mind."
At that moment, Wang Chao truly realized just how rich she was. She had at least eight hundred thousand virtual coins sitting in Big Data. He would have enough to brag about for months once he got back to his own circle.
"Got it."
Meanwhile, the workers, after confirming that they really could withdraw coins, were overjoyed. News spread fast through the ranks, from one person to ten, and ten to a hundred.
"You idiot, you only need to test it once! Don't transfer all your points, you can't convert coins back into points! You will need those points to eat, drink, and live in the factory!" someone finally reminded the others, and the frantic exchanges quickly slowed down as common sense returned.
"Damn it, there aren't even enough jobs like moving bricks left. The openings are running out fast."
"Then stop yapping and grab one before they're gone!"
Nobody needed Manager Tuo to remind them this time. Once they understood how the app worked and saw they could choose jobs themselves, people picked their tasks and rushed straight to the various worksites. Within minutes, the place was empty.
Everyone's enthusiasm was sky-high now that they had seen the stockpiled materials with their own eyes. Motivation kicked in instantly. Since the factory's job requirements weren't too strict, even mothers with kids could take cleaning jobs, working while caring for their children. Others signed up for inspection work. It was tedious but steady, and the women's careful, meticulous nature made them especially suited for it. They often caught mistakes others missed and earned double or even triple rewards for their sharp eyes.
Before long, the dorm buildings were nearly empty. The crowds that had filled the place earlier were gone, everyone out working in the field.
Jing Shu's first batch of stones would be used to wall off the entire factory. They fenced off several plots of land, stacking up heavy slabs over three meters high, forming massive stone walls. With so many enthusiastic workers, construction went unbelievably fast.
Since there would always be people trying to take advantage of her factory—and with the fifth year's Ice Age still ahead—she planned to build the place tall and enclosed for safety. Once the perimeter and drainage systems for mudslides were complete, Qian Duoduo would send in professionals to help her build a fully enclosed complex. That way, even when heavy snow or hail hit later, no one would get hurt.
Most importantly, once migration ended and they returned, the factory could still be used. It wasn't like she had poured so much money into it just to abandon it later.
But this was her first time managing a factory, and she wasn't nearly as experienced as Jin Tianci's professional team. By afternoon, a group of specialists arrived, taking over a small part of the factory with their own advanced equipment.
They were expected to begin extracting Sulfuric Acid Ant secretions the next day; it was a small but vital step toward profit. After all, that operation would soon become her money-printing machine, and she took it very seriously. She even had the prebuilt ant nests transported in by truck that day and told the staff that the ants could be harvested once every three days. She would also send over more Sulfuric Acid Ants regularly.
As for Yi Hou, she kept it in the villa. The little creature had grown attached to her and loved playing with the other pets. Once, one of the helpers secretly took it outside to sunbathe under the blacklight, but Grandma Jing caught them and nearly beat them with a broom. Luckily, Xiao Dou had rushed forward, clucking and spreading her wings to shield the fat bug.
When Jing Shu came home, she quickly explained that it was her new pet, her "Sulfuric Acid Ant."
"What is it for? Can it lay eggs? Spin silk? Give milk?"
In the apocalypse, Grandma Jing had become a frugal, practical woman. If something couldn't produce or contribute, it wasn't worth feeding. She didn't mean to scold; it was just habit. After all, she and her granddaughter were cut from the same cloth; both were too thrifty to raise useless pets.
"It produces sulfuric acid."
"What is that good for?"
"You can extract a ton every day. It's used for refining fertilizer and all kinds of stuff. Basically, it prints me a thousand virtual coins a day."
Grandma Jing's face lit up instantly. She hurried off and came back with a bowl of peanuts. "Here, eat more, eat more. So you're a little money-printing cutie! Just look at you, so small and sweet but so capable! I almost killed you earlier, oh, what a sin!"
Xiao Dou fluffed her feathers in outrage. Her status as the favorite pet was under threat again!
In the following days, Jing Shu stayed in the villa. As the quakes gradually lessened, she knew the third year's earthquakes were finally nearing their end.
She used that time to speed up construction, covering the 300-square-meter backyard with insulated steel beams. Grandpa Jing helped every day. The materials were hard to find, and she had spent a small fortune scavenging them from old buildings.
Meanwhile, Xiao Li led a crew to arrange massive stones around the villa, forming a complete outer barrier. Their placement was odd, but nobody questioned it; they just thought the villa owner had weird tastes.
Those stones were slanted and even waterproofed in secret. Since the expansion took up more land, she paid another hundred thousand virtual coins to buy the extra space. The local government director eventually gave up trying to control her projects.
On the third day, a loud rumbling echoed across the area. Qian Duoduo had finally delivered the enormous stones she had ordered. Two massive rectangular boulders were lowered into the deep V-shaped pits she had had dug earlier, perfectly positioned behind the villa like a pair of colossal tombstones.