So, what's the connection between water diversion and buying this piece of land? Big one!
To explain that, we had to start with next year's mudslides. According to the experts' nonsense, this disaster was the result of the great floods in the second year submerging many parts of the world, followed by the third year's tornadoes and quakes sucking down and swallowing vast amounts of that water and countless structures. For example, the floodwaters that had submerged over half of Wu City dried up in just a few days, with half the city vanishing into a black hole along with them.
After a long year of brewing, churning, and digesting, these elements were finally excreted from mountain passes at high elevations as a special kind of mudslide.
This mudslide was partly dry and hard, partly sludge, and mixed with human structures, undegraded plastic, doorframes, and all sorts of garbage. If you could think of it, this sludge probably had it!
Jing Shu remembered very clearly a certain geological "expert" who'd once said:
"We need to correctly and objectively view these phenomena in the apocalypse. They're all normal functions of nature. It occasionally gets sick, just like if someone forced water into your stomach and made you eat a bunch of indigestible junk, then shook you nonstop for a year or so.
Wouldn't you get diarrhea? Wouldn't you vomit?
So, these mudslides are just the Earth's way of purging itself. Don't panic. Once it's finished excreting all the waste, it'll recover, and the apocalypse will end. All we need to do is let it relieve itself comfortably and return to normal."
Yeah right. Jing Shu rolled her eyes at that old fraud. Every year he claimed the apocalypse was ending, and every time she saw a mudslide, she couldn't help but picture a giant squatting to take a dump.
And her villa was right at the foot of the mountain. You could imagine how much of that "waste" would flow down. Luckily, it was a low hill, not a towering mountain. Her heart ached for the people in those densely populated mountainous areas for a solid minute.
This year, another significant portion of buildings would be buried and permanently encased in the mudslides, just like reinforced concrete. The key issue was that it destroyed a lot of farmland. Places where you could at least grow something before were now covered in this rocky sludge. How could you farm on stone?
This massively increased the government's burden. People had thought they couldn't farm in the first year's extreme heat, the second year's floods, or the third year's quakes. Nobody expected the fourth year to just bury the land entirely. Soilless cultivation became necessary again, driving up costs at a time when everything was already in short supply.
So, back to the point, if Jing Shu wanted to divert the flow, she needed this 'bottomless pit' to store the portion of the mudslide flowing down from the mountain towards her. Otherwise, once the weather turned cold and the mudslide's movement slowed, if it solidified, it could flood her villa or block the areas she wanted to divert it to, like other residential zones.
That, of course, was unacceptable. It would cause public outcry. If she was diverting the flow, she couldn't harm others' interests, lest someone use it against her. So, these sinkholes were absolutely necessary.
If she didn't want her villa to be submerged under a floor and a half of muck like in her previous life, diverting the mudslide into these sinkholes was the way to go.
Besides, she couldn't stop the mudslide erupting from the mountain anyway. To put it bluntly, could you stop yourself when you had diarrhea?
Sooner or later, it was going to come out somewhere else. Jing Shu would've loved to change its direction, but it was a whole mountain range. Unless she flattened miles of hills, some of that flow was destined to come her way.
Oh, and she also needed to dig a new riverbed. That was a huge project, but she figured she could manage that once the mudslide arrived. For now, she needed to get all the other preparations for the diversion ready.
Once the idea hit her, Jing Shu immediately contacted Li Yuetian.
"Jing Shu! I still haven't thanked you properly. You've done so much for our Banana Community, really took a load off our shoulders. If you need anything, just say the word," Li Yuetian said warmly, clearly grateful.
"You're too kind, Captain Li. It's like this, plots No. 26 and No. 27 in Banana Community, plus the one in front of them, have all collapsed into the sinkhole, right? I want the usage rights for this sunken land."
"Oh, Jing Shu, are you talking about that treasure-digging craze? For 5,000 virtual coins, you can lease an entire sunken plot of land, plus we'll even assign five treasure-diggers for free. Anything valuable you find is yours, and you get full rights for a year. Some people even dug up rare core stones worth a fortune. How about it? Want me to give you a discount?"
What the hell, that was actually pretty cool. Even if it was just a lease, a one-year ownership was more than enough. She'd never heard of this kind of thing in her past life—probably because she'd been too poor to even afford a steamed bun, let alone dig for treasure.
"Alright, how much with the discount?"
"Two thousand virtual coins."
"Deal."
She hadn't expected it to go through so smoothly. Since she was short on virtual coins, she paid with the wheat she'd brought back from America—black market goods, not exactly fresh, but still good enough for barter.
Now that the mudslide had somewhere to go, one major problem was finally solved, bringing her one step closer to her next plan.
That night, over dinner, the family naturally brought it up again. Wu You'ai was still shaken. She'd gone to her advisor's lab at noon to study a new project, and luckily, the accident hadn't happened in her jurisdiction. Otherwise, things would've gotten messy.
"How messy?" Jing Shu asked.
"If an incident happens within a Visitation Specialist's jurisdiction, and you aren't on-site to manage things, regardless of whether it's your working hours, you might get reported by a temp worker. The consequences, well..."
Just as these words were spoken, Su Lanzhi returned home looking weary. She was followed by her Su Yiyang, Wang Fang, and Su Long's family of three, whom they'd just sent off two days prior. Her mother's first words upon entering were:
"Sigh, they weren't on-site the night of the quake. Even though it was off-hours, the temps still reported them. The higher-ups considered their efforts afterward, so only one of them got fired. The other's staying on as a temp for now. If performance's good, maybe they'll get reinstated. For now, they'll stay here tonight, since they lost their dorm too."
Wu You'ai shrugged, as if to say, "See? That's what happens." This was especially true for those without connections; if you made a mistake and got reported, you lost all the benefits of being a permanent employee.
Wang Fang lowered her head, wiping away tears. Their house was gone, their home was gone, they'd lost everything, and now their jobs were gone too.
Su Yiyang, however, apologized for the disturbance and scolded, "What are you crying for? You're being shortsighted! If Jing Shu hadn't called us over, we wouldn't even be alive to worry about those things. We can earn back those worldly possessions. It's normal to be demoted if you didn't fulfill your duties as formal staff. Escaping with our lives means we've already hit the jackpot."