The fact that it had reached the point of being news coverage indicated the situation was quite significant.
Speaking of the Xishan Base, Jing Shu hadn’t had ti to deal with it recently. Of course, before figuring out a solution to Qian Duoduo’s fate of being ’fattened for the slaughter’ two years later, she still didn’t want to get too close to the Xishan Base, because it genuinely was a troubleso and very dangerous matter.
The worriso developnt indeed occurred. Since its establishnt, the Xishan Base had developed rapidly under the new order established by Qian Duoduo. They cultivated new agricultural vegetables and grains, and also bred large numbers of chickens, ducks, and pigs as Dostic Poultry. By incentivizing individuals, they also established a generous reward system and the most alluring social class model in the apocalypse. The higher one climbed in rank, the more comfortable their life beca within the Xishan Base. Two years into the apocalypse, there were truly few places left where one could live so well and have a guaranteed food supply.
Everything is just an extension of the trajectory from my past life, Jing Shu sighed, feeling genuinely troubled.
Li Yuetian took out a docunt. Jing Shu signed it and realized it was an authorization docunt. It seed Qian Duoduo was about to allocate a significant portion of material resources out. As a 5% shareholder, her approval was definitely required.
"Is Qian Duoduo donating supplies?" Jing Shu asked.
"Sort of, but not quite," Li Yuetian pondered for a mont. "The earthquake that happened today was global, affecting an extrely large area."
"So what?" Jing Shu beca increasingly confused as she listened. What did that have to do with anything?
"Li Yuetian signed a three-year contract with the governnt for twenty thousand laborers to expand the Xishan Base again. Over these three years, the governnt is obligated to provide Qian Duoduo with twenty thousand laborers daily. In return, Qian Duoduo will supply the governnt with a fixed monthly quota of materials or grain. Of course, the governnt will cover the daily needs of these twenty thousand laborers."
Jing Shu nodded. This move wasn’t Qian Duoduo hiring people directly; rather, it was like using the governnt as an interdiary. Qian Duoduo didn’t care how much the governnt paid these laborers; he would settle accounts with the governnt monthly. Effectively, the governnt would use the material resources earned by these twenty thousand laborers to sustain tens of thousands of people.
This wasn’t really because the Chinese were lazy. Instead, the apocalypse had led to a lack of employnt opportunities and difficulty in creating value, resulting in a massive waste of human resources. Due to the high cost of food, hiring people ant ’providing a al’ or ’giving sothing to eat.’ This made labor abundant yet also a high cost, creating a vicious cycle.
"Get everyone moving to create value. The less food there is, the more we must think of ways to create it. I will make sure everyone has food to eat." These were the words of the tyrant in the fifth year. They moved Jing Shu to tears at the ti, only for her to curse the tyrant bitterly a month later. He did provide people with food, but he also forced them to work nonstop every day.
’Work’ wasn’t the sa as pre-apocalypse work; it was endless toil. It involved all imaginable physical labor and a wide range of tasks, divided to an extrely ticulous, almost psychopathic degree. There were people specially assigned to supervise, confirm, assist, and even just hand things over. What constituted three job types before the apocalypse could be divided into more than a dozen afterwards. According to the tyrant, this mimicked the detailed division of labor in Africa. The aim was to create more employnt opportunities and get everyone working, so the governnt would no longer need to provide relief als.
That being said, Qian Duoduo’s approach was a way of appeasing the governnt, offering them a large slice of the pie.
Qian Duoduo himself knew what he was doing: keep the at and give the governnt the broth. He’s maintained a relatively peaceful relationship with the governnt these past few years and is a smart man. So how could he end up dead two years later? Sigh, and with this new expansion, it’s practically like he’s just doing all the work for the governnt’s benefit.
Jing Shu sighed. She supported Qian Duoduo’s decision to hand over a portion of the profits to the governnt. Maybe sothing else happened that led to the tragedy?
"Alright, I’ll be off then. You can co and get the rocket launcher after the earthquake in a few days," Li Yuetian said. He had just ntioned that the governnt had allocated him employnt opportunities for a thousand people. He was asked to select healthy, capable workers within three days to send to the Xishan Base, which truly alleviated so of the burden on the Banana District.
The benefits included two als a day.
Many people were desperate to go. Currently, more than half the population could hardly afford even the cheapest red worm cake in the canteen, let alone the Mushroom soup that cost 0.3 Virtual Coins a serving. The crux of the problem was the inability to create value in the apocalypse, thus leaving people with no source of inco. Scavengers were even robbed of cola bottles. Now, aside from trash, there was truly nothing left. Red earthworms had gone extinct. Occasionally, one could scrounge through the clothes of the deceased, hand them in, and get 0.1 Virtual Coin in return.
No one knew what kind of als the governnt provided for the workers. However, now, in the third year, it was the season for eating red worm cakes. Huaxia had stored billions of tons of food reserves, enough for a whole year. Even if nothing could be grown this year due to the earthquake, they could at least survive on these reserves. But it’s likely that what Qian Duoduo provided was more valuable.
Li Yuetian hurried off with a dozen people in tow. Jing Shu sneezed, involuntarily wrapping her cotton coat tighter. She put on her gas mask and returned to the warmth of the RV.
Seeing Jing Shu’s pale face, Mrs. Jing thought she was falling ill again and said with distress, "Child, quickly take off your muddy shoes, take a hot shower, and go to sleep. Youai and Third Aunt are already asleep. They have work at three o’clock tomorrow morning, and in the afternoon, they need to return to the district to feed the Dostic Poultry. Once the shaking stops, we must find a Doctor to take a look at you."
Before she could finish, the RV shook twice, and Mrs. Jing dared not say any more.
Jing Shu went to the second floor and checked on Mr. Jing’s handiwork. He had fitted the RV’s second-floor poultry room with shelves to ensure that even severe shaking wouldn’t cause a total ss with the Dostic Poultry.
Once in bed, Jing Shu began practicing with her Magic Cube. She felt an urgent need to make a breakthrough but sensed sothing was always missing.
「The next day, the news ca out.」
The family was sitting in the dining room watching the 37-inch local evening news. It reported that the Wucheng Xishan Base headquarters had donated various types of Dostic Poultry and eggs, disaster-relief food, and even a cow.
"The report ntioned that Mr. Shi Yuan hoped that during this disaster, everyone could have a bowl of beef porridge to safely get through this ordeal. The list of joint donors is as follows..."
Just then, Jing Shu blinked and saw her own na—the first in the second row! Crucially, the last na in the very last row was Su Malie. After all, Su Malie also held a 1% stake. She hadn’t expected this donation acknowledgnt to be so lax, allowing a re 1% shareholder to appear on TV.
Fortunately, the family was busy eating, and no one paid attention to this. After all, most people wouldn’t notice nas in a news report or pay attention to such things. Jing Shu exhaled in relief; her family still didn’t know about the Xishan Base situation.
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