In reality, the money arrived quickly. Yesterday afternoon was the day Jing's Dad had arranged with Uncle Sun to collect repayment. As expected, Uncle Sun once again played the poor card. In short, he had no money to pay.
Jing's Dad went to Uncle Sun's company and home to find him, but the whole family refused to open the door and disappeared as a unit. Jing's Dad finally saw the true face of a friend he had known for over twenty years, and Jing Shu felt it was time for her to act.
With 200,000 yuan from selling the car, Jing's Dad was still 100,000 short to settle the recent renovation costs. After finishing the villa, at least another 200,000 would be needed. Helplessly, Jing's Dad asked her grandmother for a loan of 200,000, only to find that her three aunts had each lent 100,000 as well. That same day, 500,000 yuan was transferred, significantly reducing Jing's Dad's financial pressure.
Jing's Dad rarely asked his biological mother for money unless absolutely necessary. He did not want to strain family relationships further.
In the 1960s and 70s, life was hard and men were valued over women. Jing Shu's grandmother had three daughters first, named Jing Pan, Jing Zhao, and Jing Lai—literally "Awaiting a Brother," "Summoning a Brother," and "Bringing a Brother." Under the pressure of such names, she finally had a son she finally gave birth to Jing's Dad—Jing An, which brought relief.
Grandma Jing had previously favored Jing's Dad, hiding treats for him. Her aunts found out, causing some tension.
When the aunts married, they were poor. Grandpa Jing gave each a set of wooden furniture as dowry. When Jing's Dad married, he took out all his savings to pay a down payment on a house in Wu City.
Such a huge gap naturally left the aunts feeling bitter.
When the aunts' children were born, Grandma Jing gave silver bracelets regardless of gender. After Jing Shu was born, she received a gold lock.
In times of poverty, favoring sons was understandable. But when life improved and Jing Shu was favored, the aunts resented both Grandma Jing and Jing's Dad. Thankfully, over the years, everyone's life improved, and Grandma Jing became fairer, so Jing's Dad did not want relationships strained again over borrowing money.
Unexpectedly, Grandma Jing still informed the three aunts about Jing's Dad borrowing money.
Jing Shu had anticipated her grandmother lending money. What surprised her was that the three aunts actually contributed. Whether out of obligation or love for their younger brother, whether reluctant or willing, Jing Shu remembered this favor. After the apocalypse, she would repay them with food, at least shielding them from natural disasters.
Repay kindness, retaliate against enmity, never feed ungrateful people. Eating well every day would become Jing Shu's future motto.
Jing's Dad transferred 200,000 yuan, and the next day Jing Shu went out to wholesale 400 boxes of Nongfu Spring 550ml bottles, 12 bottles per box, spending 7,200 yuan. She also bought 100 boxes of 1.5L bottles for 5,400 yuan.
Bottled mineral water was easy to carry and drink directly. It was more convenient than filtered water and less conspicuous during escape in the apocalypse. Jing Shu prepared for the long term, knowing bottled water would remain scarce.
She also purchased two boxes each of honey pomelo tea, coconut juice, Xiang Piao Piao, Wang Lao Ji herbal tea, Red Bull, cola, Sprite, and orange juice.
She even bought ten boxes of Wahaha AD calcium milk, a nostalgic taste from her childhood she could never forget.
Jing Shu followed the truck to the villa entrance. After the delivery people left, she used the Cube Space to move the life-saving water to the empty second-floor study. She stacked the boxes to fill the room, then locked the study door and the master bedroom door.
Any room with supplies was locked to prevent the renovation workers from seeing. All doors were solid wood, heavy and impossible to break open, with A-grade locks that only professional locksmiths could defeat.
After ticking off the beverage quantities on her phone list, Jing Shu checked the villa renovation progress with satisfaction.
The tempered glass ceiling and walls were completed perfectly, able to withstand insect rain in the second year of the apocalypse. All glass in the villa had been replaced with triple-layered insulated glass for warmth and soundproofing.
The right-side water storage system was fully built and concealed underground, with crops planted on top. The circulation system connected all villa pipes and the two third-floor water tanks. It could run automatic filtration for low-contamination tasks like washing vegetables and bathing, but drinking water was reserved for bottled mineral water and the two tanks filtered three times to the kitchen faucet.
The pond was also completed, and the front yard chicken coop was built. The boiler room and coal room were finished, and doors opened correctly. The kitchen cabinets were installed; only final touches and the greenhouse transformation remained.
Captain Chen estimated completion in three days, with one day for final adjustments.
Jing Shu's Cube Space had two major projects. First, the chicks and ducklings had hatched in the past few days. She numbered them and fed the mother hens and ducks to incubate eggs marked as Number 1. When they grew too large for her standards, she planned to reduce Spirit Spring feeding after seven days while drinking diluted Spirit Spring herself.
Jing Shu decided to feed Spirit Spring to Number 1 until it died naturally to test its effects. Number 1 had managed the flock so well that she could not bear to kill it for soup.
Second, the rabbits had gotten pregnant and given birth. Jing Shu noticed their swollen bellies yesterday and saw the babies today. The speed made her imagine Kung Pao rabbit meat calling to her.
Jing Shu returned home late. Opening the door, she did not smell food or anything burnt. Instead, a strong, nauseating perfume hit her, along with noisy voices.
"Lan Zhi, you know it's not easy for a single mother with two kids. I want this school district house just to register my younger child. You can continue to live in it. Sell it cheap, and consider it ten years of rent," said a professional woman in OL attire.
"Yes, Lan Zhi, the director heard you wanted to sell, so she hurried over to give you money."
"The director finally spoke to you. Sell it cheaply. It will help your future prospects."
Everyone talked over each other.
Su Lanzhi was surrounded, embarrassed. "Director, we're selling because we need money. The price is too low. The market price is 1.4 million. Our house with furniture and decoration is 1.3 million. If you offer 1 million, we can't consider the remaining 300,000 as rent and still rent out our own house."
"Lan Zhi, you can't say it like that."
Jing Shu covered her face at the door. Reborn into a world full of opportunists, she listened. Were these people really Jing's Mom's superiors? If the house was sold, wouldn't they come knocking after the apocalypse? If she didn't sell, they wouldn't stop. People literally forced trouble upon themselves. Jing Shu had no choice.