Wang Fang gritted her teeth. "Fine, I'll take that temp job. Hmph, when they come begging me to be a full-time worker later, I might not even bother to agree."
She'd already imagined it—once she had the red nematodes in her hands, she could sell them to whichever department she wanted. Hmph, she'd make sure to pay back today's humiliation in full. Let's see if they'd 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, 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'd listened to her husband and lent them 300,000 instead of just 100,000, then after the world ended, she'd have gotten three pigs back instead of one. Regret stung her heart. Look at Grandma Jing—what sharp eyes she'd had! She'd given them hundreds of thousands without hesitation. And now? Just look at how comfortably that family was living.
Jing Shu smiled faintly and didn't say anything. Her expectations for her aunt 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 German MAN RV. Nobody dared sleep inside the villa anymore. 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 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. Jing Shu mixed both together for another round of testing. She already had a vague guess about what was going on with the Crimson Spirit Spring, but she'd wait for final confirmation before saying anything.
The night passed quietly. Even the small aftershocks that made the ground tremble had become part of their routine. Jing Shu was woken not by the quakes, but by Su Long's terrified scream.
Wrapped in her thick cotton coat, she rushed 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'd accidentally triggered the RV's high-voltage electric grid. In an instant, they'd all been fried like grasshoppers on a wire. By morning, their bodies had frozen stiff.
Su Yiyang's family turned pale. "How... how come so many people died and we didn't hear a sound? I slept like a rock," he murmured.
Jing Shu rubbed her eyes. "When someone's 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'd been electrocuted before.
Jing An, on the other hand, was unfazed. He casually tossed the corpses out one by one. Heavy thuds echoed as they hit the ground, and soon, people outside started gathering, fighting over the bodies and the clothes. The scene turned noisy fast.
"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 and sighed. "We still need find time to reinforce this yard again. Too many people have their eyes on us."
Jing Shu nodded. She'd have to start preparing for potential mudslides too.
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.
Several dorm buildings still stood nearby. Due to their location, the government had turned them into temporary shelters, crammed full of people. Some factory halls were also occupied. If they didn't clear out those residents, there was no way the factory could operate. Theft was one thing, but they couldn't even start production with outsiders still living inside.
"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 buildings, surrounded by people in all kinds of ragged outfits. Big heads, small heads, everyone was craning their necks to see, whispering and pointing.
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.
Soon, a few people in proper uniforms arrived. The man in front was a middle-aged worker with a steady air about him.
Jing An looked around, genuinely impressed. He'd thought the factory would only cover a few hundred square meters, but this... this 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's 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. This golden piece of land, no matter what disasters might come, officially belonged to her now.
Outside, the crowd grew louder.
"I knew it! The upper office sold the land to that group already. The deal's done!"
"For real? Then where are we supposed to go? Our homes in the city collapsed during the quakes, and every other shelter's packed full. There's nowhere left to live! It's freezing out here, we'll 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, "What're 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's the situation. The land's 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'd appreciate it if you stopped calling this place a shelter. From now on, it's private property. And yes, I did say I'd 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'd 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'd learned from the Tyrant's rules: freeloaders didn't exist. Anyone trying to take advantage? Even less so.