Right, this journey was too hard, too strange... Just let’s think of it as a 90-day global tour.
Suddenly, the image of that dark night flashed through Jun Jia’s mind again; after the monster tide had receded, Miss Jing erged from the darkness with shining eyes. Then ca the use of Bone Powder, and bones were always unearthed from beneath, providing enough to fill everyone’s stomach... He just couldn’t shake the feeling that Miss Jing had sothing to do with it.
While Jun Jia was daydreaming, cries of alarm sounded again.
"Look quickly, we’ve arrived where the building was before!"
"Great, the building is back in its original place."
"We’ve co full circle!"
Jun Jia looked out at the landscape, following their gazes, and there it was—the familiar Wu City!
They had co back alive!
Just as everyone was excited, thinking the building was about to stop, it continued to drift slowly forward. The building was in the suburbs; this area used to have roads and urban street planning, but it was now a pitch-black muddy ground, with the original rows of street lights and roads barely discernible.
There was only a huge river of mudflow which seed to be newly ford, and the mudflow had hardened sowhat due to the weather, further slowing the movent.
"Where are we going?"
"Where is this taking us? Why isn’t it stopping?"
"Is it going to drift away again?"
Jun Jia’s face also darkened. Should I call for the helicopters to start evacuating people? After all, there wasn’t anything worth taking from inside the building; perhaps only the Bone Powder had value. What would they do if they drifted to a place where even birds wouldn’t shit?
Without much consideration, he grabbed the walkie-talkie and began to instruct the helicopters to pick up people. Wang Miao organized everyone into groups to queue up. The six helicopters could only carry a few people at a ti, but fortunately, this was inside Wu City, so a single trip only took a few minutes.
In this way, the building continued to drift, the scenery on both sides slowly receding like a pleasure boat, and Jing Shu had the rare opportunity to observe Wu City four years after the apocalypse.
The disaster brought by the natural calamity was devastating; floods, earthquakes, and mudslides had disfigured Wu City beyond recognition—broken, decayed, barely clinging to existence.
But it was also beautiful—the beauty of ruin, as if, when completely destroyed one day, it would ultimately return to nature.
Gradually, buildings appeared around them: dilapidated factories, high-rise buildings half-subrged in the mudflows. Then, everyone’s eyes brightened as they saw a cluster of buildings rising unsoiled from the mud atop a small hill!
Rows of giant stones had been driven into the ground, and drainage channels diverted the mudflows. Those buildings were wrapped safe and sound within a tight cocoon of protection, and everyone could see the brightly painted red doors from afar.
But at that mont, Jing Shu frowned as she looked at the place. Normally, there would be many chimneys belching white smoke skyward, and the air would be filled with a simring at-like scent—not quite fragrant, more like the sll of scalded chicken feathers, but not too unbearable either. But now, it’s eerily quiet. The entire Red Worm Factory is silent—isn’t it operational? Why is that?
BOOM! The building shook as if it had hit sothing and finally ca to a stop. Everyone was thrilled beyond words. For months, they had desperately hoped the building would run into a boulder and stop, but it never did—it seed to have eyes of its own.
But unexpectedly, today it simply ca to a halt. The building had finally stopped!
Jun Jia was no stranger to the Red Worm Factory. He gaped in surprise, montarily at a loss for words. Was this a coincidence?
Then he shook his head. "It must be a coincidence, right? There’s only this one road we’ve followed... The mudslide river just happened to end at the Red Worm Factory’s entrance, so we could only stop here." Otherwise, who could explain a straight line of mudslide being controlled by soone? Could it be that this thing is run by soone’s family, able to appear wherever they wish?
Once the building had stopped, things got easier, especially since it was in Wu City.
The subsequent rescue and settlent operations were much simpler. Helicopters flew away, replaced by buses, dispensing rations and sending people either ho or to relief stations first.
Jing Shu pulled out her phone to reassure Mr. Jing of her safety and ntioned she was at the Red Worm Factory. After hanging up, she ignored the phone that kept ringing incessantly. Her family must have been frantically leaving her ssages over the past few months.
Now, Jing Shu wanted to return to her own Red Worm Factory to see what had happened. Could it be that soone had targeted the factory while I was away? But with Jin Tianci around... and the Township Governnt owning a third of the shares, that shouldn’t happen, should it?
Gold Dominator, holding his pet pig, also wanted to see the renowned Red Worm Factory, but his worried mother at ho and Jun Jia’s stern look ant he had to reluctantly take the last plane out.
The perks of being a ruler’s son were indeed great.
Before leaving, Jun Jia smiled and said, "Let’s all head back to our own hos first. We can talk about the rest later."
The building quickly emptied, with even the reporters clearing out soon after. Such a story would have been huge news before the apocalypse, but now... with an issue that had topped the headlines for two months still unresolved, today’s material was just barely enough for a supplentary headline.
Jing Shu returned to the Red Worm Cake Factory with Liu and the driver. Uncle had already arrived with a crew to pick them up. Upon seeing his niece, he excitedly looked her over, "You haven’t lost weight, you look quite well, quite well, that’s good..." Why did his niece seem even prettier? Was it an illusion? He had just seen those rescued individuals; one looked worse than the other, not to ntion their disheveled appearance and the awful slls. It was even worse than coming out of a refugee camp.
Then, as if struck by a thought, Uncle showed a smile uglier than crying. "The Red Worm Cake Factory has been sold. It went for 8 million Virtual Coins..."
Jing Shu frowned. Indeed, trouble had brewed the mont I was gone. She gestured for them to walk and talk. "Where’s the money?"
Uncle was so startled he hiccuped. Wasn’t she supposed to get angry and then find a way to reclaim their property? Why did she care about the money? Was this really the ti to worry about money?
Uncle said, "The money was transferred to your mom."
"That’s good. I was just in need of so funds and couldn’t ask the Township Governnt for another loan. The money ca at the right ti," Jing Shu rubbed her hands, looking toward the building. It’s like getting a pillow just when you need one. How thoughtful.
"Ah?"
"Let’s go. Let’s see what our Insect Cake Factory looks like now. Tell about the situation, and Liu, take notes."
The group returned to the familiar Insect Cake Factory, which had grown significantly in size. It was not only producing one-tenth to one-fifth of Wu City’s food supply but also providing jobs for thousands of people, covering their needs for food, drink, sanitation, and housing.
Although the factory had ceased operations, the people were still there, and they were discontentedly clinking their bowls.
"What’s going on here?" Jing Shu asked. "Doesn’t the new employer cover als? Is it really that bad?"
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