Chapter 032: Biological, Biological, Biological!

“Then I’ll let him know.”

After Zhu Zhengqi’s father insisted on having lunch at noon, Jing Shu’s father took the family to the pharmaceutical wholesale center to use their medical insurance cards.

Last month, when Jing Shu bought medicine, the visits from her uncle’s and aunt’s families interrupted her explanation. Later, she mentioned that the medicines were for neighbors in the countryside and that they had to withdraw cash from the medical insurance card because they were short on money at the time. Jing Shu’s father had said they should deliver the medicines to the neighbors as soon as possible, but with the delay, and now that Jing Shu was no longer short of money…

“In any case, make sure to deliver the medicines to your aunts and uncles as soon as possible. You spendthrift! You buy everything in such large quantities… Are you lacking anything? Look at you; you bought a whole room full of clothes during the Double Twelve sale. Are you planning to eat clothes?”

Recently, Jing Shu’s mother had been having headaches. Previously, her daughter was like mud that couldn’t stick to the wall, and she worried. Now that her daughter was glued to the wall and wouldn’t come down, she was still worried.

She didn’t know what had gotten into her daughter, who liked to buy things room by room, not treating money as money, and wouldn’t stop until she had spent all of it each time.

She thought the spending spree would end after the Double Eleven sale, but during the Double Twelve sale over the past few days, dozens of packages arrived at their door every day. Jing Shu bought all kinds of underwear, outerwear, down jackets, and cotton-padded clothes that could withstand temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius for the whole family.

At that time, Jing Shu’s mother asked her, “What’s this? Are you planning to take the whole family, young and old, to tour Russia, so you especially bought such thick clothes?”

“Wasn’t it buy one, get one free? As a rich second-generation person, don’t I need a room full of nice clothes? The other day, someone even said that my walk-in closet was empty, saying I’m a fake rich second-generation.”

Jing Shu’s mother: “…”

“Biological, biological, biological!” Jing Shu’s mother silently recited three times. Looking at her daughter again, she indeed felt much more agreeable.

The medical insurance card money had been fully spent. Jing Shu was satisfied, having made up for another regret from her previous life.

Seeing that there was still some time, the family went to buy many simulated sunlight lamps. Many people were coming to buy lamps; the technology channel also reported on these lamps daily, encouraging citizens to grow plants at home and use these lights. Now, the lamps have increased in price by 30%.

Jing Shu quietly ordered another ten sets of the UBC-invented bacterial solar panels. As expected, the price had also increased by 20%! They have even launched new portable handheld and medium-sized portable models. Jing Shu ordered 20 sets, spending a total of 250,000 yuan. They will be delivered tomorrow when her mother goes to work.

Now, whenever she bought anything, she had to hide it from her mother. But if she didn’t let them know and took things out during the apocalypse, how would she explain it? Truly, to cover one lie, she had to make up thousands more.

Refrigerators and freezers in stores had already sold out; they were cheap, had large capacities, and were suitable for storing fresh fruits and vegetables for a few days during the Dark Days. Only commercial freezers were left, and many people were scrambling to buy them. Everyone wanted to store more fresh fruits and vegetables and foods with short shelf lives when the Dark Days came; one refrigerator at home was simply not enough.

It has to be said that everyone was making thorough preparations in the early stages of the apocalypse. Unfortunately, less than a month later, electricity usage began to be restricted. Half a year later, daily power supply was reduced to two hours, causing many deaths from heatstroke; a year later, it was reduced to half an hour.

Jing Shu sighed and went with her father to the appointment, while her mother drove the two elderly folks to collect bean sprout seedlings, leek seedlings, garland chrysanthemum seedlings, lettuce seedlings, spinach seedlings, and garlic seedlings. These could be grown without sunlight.

The state is now distributing them for free. Everyone could use facial recognition to collect them and grow them at home, reducing burdens and unnecessary expenses. After all, indoor vegetables and those grown with artificial lights had high costs, were expensive, and supply couldn’t meet demand, so vegetable prices would definitely rise.

—

The dim private room was filled with the smell of alcohol. When Jing Shu’s father arrived with Jing Shu, a pot-bellied bald man came up, forcing a smile uglier than crying: “Old brother, Jing… Jing Shu is here, please have a seat!”

Jing Shu had a kitchen knife ready in her space, prepared for anything.

Over a month ago, Zhu Zhengqi was still high-spirited and handsome, but now he was emaciated like a skeleton, shrinking in the corner of the private room, drinking beer while checking comments about him on his phone.

He would burst into tears one moment and shake his head in denial the next. He scrolled through the comments like he was possessed. When he saw Jing Shu’s father and Jing Shu arrive, he looked up with hatred in his eyes and roared: “Are you satisfied now? Is this the result you wanted? Why didn’t you tell me earlier that you had such abilities? Why…”

Jing Shu’s father instinctively shielded her behind him. “Old Zhu, what’s going on?”

“It’s all just kids’ stuff. Jing Shu, Zhu Zhengqi are here to beg you. Please, show mercy and spare him. Stop those things happening in Hebei. He has depression; every time he has an episode, he takes stimulants. If he takes too much, he’ll die! Jing Shu, please save him!”

“He really can’t handle those comments anymore! People call him, send messages, and leave insults on his social media every day. He can’t take it and has attempted suicide several times!”

Jing Shu sneered, “If he can’t handle it, does that mean I can? Besides, can’t he hire hundreds of thousands of trolls? Let him hire them to whitewash himself.”

Old Zhu’s mouth twitched. “No matter how many trolls he hires, it’s useless. Jing Shu, what will it take for you to forgive him?”

Jing Shu snorted through her nose. “First, he needs to issue a statement apologizing for all the things he’s done over the years—apologizing for defaming people, hiring trolls to attack others, everything. Second, when asking for forgiveness, he should act like someone seeking help.”

Old Zhu grabbed Zhu Zhengqi and started hitting him hard, gritting his teeth: “No problem, quickly, ask Jing Shu for forgiveness.”

“Dad!” Zhu Zhengqi was extremely unwilling.

“Hurry up!” Old Zhu gave him another beating.

Zhu Zhengqi gritted his teeth, looked up with bloodshot eyes glaring at Jing Shu, and after a long while, hoarsely squeezed out a few words: “Jing Shu, please forgive me.”

“Can’t hear you.” Jing Shu pursed her lips. His gaze was still lacking a bit.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, Zhu Zhengqi’s eyes seemed to blaze with fire, and he stared at Jing Shu with uncontrollable hatred. After another beating from his father, he shouted loudly: “Jing Shu, please forgive me!”

“Alright. Your gaze is good; I like it. Oh, remember, don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you.” Jing Shu’s lips curled up. She loved it when enemies looked at her like this yet were helpless—so pleasing to the eye.

Jing Shu sometimes wondered if she was some kind of villain, always doing things that villains liked to do.

Naturally, they didn’t have lunch. Jing Shu’s father held back from speaking until after they parted ways, then asked what had happened and how she had bullied Zhu Zhengqi.

“How did I bully him? Clearly, he bullied me.” Jing Shu blinked.

“Seeing how miserable he looked, it doesn’t seem like it.” Jing Shu’s father shook his head, his eyes dimming. “Forget it; I don’t want to have any more dealings with anyone or anything from my former company.”

—

Author’s Note:

Charge ahead! We’ve reached 10th place! Need to add 3 extra chapters. Please cast your recommendation votes!