Chapter 139: The Small-Scale Exchange Meeting

Zhang Ling Ling was the class monitor during Jing Shu's high school years. Although she wasn’t exceptional academically, her family was in business, making her a smooth talker with strong organizational skills. However, she had a controlling personality and loved to boss people around, enjoying the process of leadership.

In 2018, she had created a WeChat group for the class, but after a dispute with another classmate, she dissolved it. Since then, everyone had gone their separate ways, and most of them hadn’t kept in touch.

Jing Shu's memories of high school classmates were starting to resurface. She vaguely remembered some unpleasant events that followed, which ultimately led her to leave the group. In the previous life, she was too preoccupied with survival to bother with such things.

Back then, her favorite snack, spiced grain bugs, had become too risky to eat due to the water shortage. Every afternoon when the electricity came on, she'd rush to charge her phone, boil water, and scavenge for tree branches and wood to exchange for a bottle of water. At the same time, she'd collect enough food for her family’s dinner and sit down to watch the evening news at 7 PM, hoping to hear something about new policies or an end to the "Dark Days."

At night, she’d venture into abandoned factories or malls, searching for useful items or scavenging maggots from stagnant water for raising grain bugs. Before she knew it, the night was gone. By day, the searing 50°C heat made even moving her eyeballs feel like burning calories.

In the first few years of the apocalypse, things were still manageable. There was occasional electricity to charge phones. But when mass migrations started, electricity became a luxury, and even if it was available, the network signals were unreliable. The following year, the power supply was reduced to just half an hour a day, not even enough to fully charge a phone.

Like a frog in slowly boiling water, these changes crept up gradually. By the time you realized how dire things were, you'd miraculously survived.

So, in the previous life, Jing Shu didn’t have time for classmates' group chats.

Wang Chao: "Why don't we all pop in and say hi? It's been ages since we’ve heard from many people. We could even check the step count in the group chat. Anyone with zero steps daily is probably dead, right?"

Mu Xiaoxuan: " Zhang Ling Ling, you still have everyone’s contact info? Glad you brought us back together. Now that the apocalypse is here, let’s let bygones be bygones. When are we going to have a reunion? It's been five years since we graduated from high school. Where is everyone now?"

Shi Lei: "Come on, let's have some fun. We've got plenty of time to kill anyway."

Ni Ma Sang: "Need a wedding car? How about one with a surprise price hike halfway through? Want insurance? I’ve got 60k plans with a 50k payout. Need a house? I've got 260k deals that come with gifts. Need me? I can rotate 180 degrees, and if you order now, I'll throw in an unborn child—fulfill your dream of becoming a dad!"

Ni Ma Sang was the only girl in class who got along well with the boys but was disliked by the other girls.

He Shouwu: "That’s nothing. My girlfriend can rotate 360 degrees, always at my beck and call, fast or slow. Three or four times a day, she never complains, never asks for gifts, and takes my insults without a word."

He Shouwu, whose real name was He Shou Wu, had a family that grew medicinal herbs. Back in high school, they’d had to sell a precious ginseng to cover his tuition. After graduation, it became known that his family had ginseng ranging from one year old to a century old.

He was a classic introverted nerd and a Taurus, always quick to throw out inappropriate comments.

Ni Ma Sang: "You win."

Su Mali: "Who are you talking about? Sounds amazing [curious]"

Jing Shu narrowed her eyes when she saw the ID “Mary.” She didn’t know what to say. This was someone she wanted to avoid at all costs in this life—someone she’d steer clear of at all costs. Su Mali was the one person Jing Shu never wanted to deal with again.

He Shouwu: "My right hand [smug]"

Su Mali: "???"

He Shouwu: "Seriously? You don’t get it? [shocked]"

Ni Ma Sang: "Wow, our class beauty really is pure."

Watching the chat unfold much like it had in her previous life, Jing Shu was about to close the app and go dry some vegetables when Zhang Ling Ling's message caught her attention.

Zhang Ling Ling said, "I brought everyone back into this group not just for old times’ sake but to pool our resources. With inflation going crazy, small businesses have come to a standstill. Even though next year, the big data system will launch a bartering market, we could start something small within this group. I remember some of you have family stores or wholesale businesses, right?"

She continued, "Let’s set up a time for a reunion, figure out who’s still alive, and see what resources everyone has. We can set up a small exchange market."

He Shouwu was the first to respond: "I've been thinking the same. My family still has some wind oil, insect repellent, heatstroke meds, and fever medicine. Looking to exchange them for thermal bricks or insulation materials to build a basement."

Liang Xin: "We own a hardware store. We’re looking to exchange for water or food."

Shi Lei: "My family has tiles, but we’ll only exchange for water."

Yao Zixin: "We work with PVC plastics and can do custom orders. Looking to exchange for water."

Wang Chao: "Who’s going to trade water for plastic these days..."

Yao Zixin: "[almost crying] I know, right? The government didn’t confiscate our stuff like everyone else’s, so now we have tons of materials that are just going to waste."

Jing Shu thought for a moment—she really did need custom PVC plastic. If the glass shield was going to be unavailable next year, her estate would be exposed, and then there were the red worms. She couldn't let those go to waste.

Red worms could be mixed with eggs and leaves to make a delicious meal for her chickens, ducks, cows, and pigs, saving her plenty of feed. They could even be fed to the fish in the pond.

So custom PVC plastic was necessary. She needed to cover her estate and create slopes and integrated pipes in every corner. She planned to build a massive rain collection tank beside the villa, so when the rains came, along with the red worms, everything would flow into the tank. She could scoop out what she needed to feed the animals, and if there was an overflow, it didn’t matter—she had her Number One Glutton to help out.

The PVC system would not only shield the estate and collect red worms but also serve as an automatic filter, keeping the vast majority of the worms outside the property. Any that made it inside would still be blocked by the tempered glass shield.

Plus, looking up and seeing a mass of writhing worms wouldn’t be pleasant. Adding a PVC cover to the glass structure seemed like a good idea, and it wouldn’t be too costly.

In the past few days, Grandpa Jing and Dad Jing had finished building the garage for the future motorhome. That would need a PVC cover as well—after all, letting the red worms crawl all over the garage would be disgusting.

Jing Shu: "@Yao Zixin, I need PVC plastic. I'll trade you water. Add me so we can discuss the details."

Ni Ma Sang: "You really want that after she just said no one needs it? Do you have a thing for Yao Zixin? I always thought you had a crush on him in high school—he was the school heartthrob after all.