Chapter 150: You Owe Me My Hard-Earned Money!

The coconut leaves were naturally fed to the livestock in the space. As for the coconut trees themselves, they weren’t wasted either. Jing Shu visited a charcoal production plant and used the equipment there to turn the trees into over a dozen tons of compressed charcoal, preparing enough fuel for the increasingly cold weather.

Jing Shu also decided that in the second year of the apocalypse, she would keep the boiler room running throughout the year—after all, she had plenty of charcoal now.

Nothing from the space’s produce ever went to waste, and Jing Shu prided herself on achieving a perfect cycle of reuse, creating a complete biological chain.

Next year, when the heavy rains arrived, everything would get unbearably damp, and she would have to prevent her food supplies from going moldy. Thankfully, she had the space to store everything, because if her food were to spoil, she’d be in tears with nowhere to turn.

Jing Shu also needed to make more desiccants, because when the rainy season hit, thick layers of mold would grow in the corners and on the walls. That mold would become a breeding ground for all kinds of bugs.

In her previous life, within just a few months, the walls of every building were covered in mold, and various bugs crawled everywhere. Colorful mushrooms would even start sprouting.

Mold grew outside and inside houses, soaking into everything. The results were predictable—after surviving the intense heat of the first year, the second year’s dampness could kill people, leaving many with chronic rheumatism.

For those who hadn’t experienced it, it was hard to imagine living in constant rain, with houses soaked through for months. Water would drip from every corner, along with insects. Clothes, blankets, and beds were constantly damp and icy cold. At night, the cold was unbearable, leaving people awake and shivering. The next morning, they would wake up sore, with the moisture having seeped into their bodies. Often, clothes and blankets would even grow mold overnight, becoming covered in small insects by morning.

The steam from a shower would form large droplets on the ceiling. In the second year of the apocalypse, every household dealt with water droplets on the roof and walls, with leaks everywhere. It was a nightmare!

In her previous life, Jing Shu’s daily routine involved hanging plastic bags over her bed to catch the constant drip of red worms and water. Sometimes, she’d even snack on the falling worms…

During the one hour of electricity each day, she’d use a hair dryer to blow everything dry. *I was proud and reckless…*—ah, wait, that’s getting off track.

Speaking of desiccants, before the apocalypse, Jing Shu had prepared a large supply of quicklime specifically for the second year’s rainy season. She had already used some for traps around the villa during the earlier chaos, but the rest could serve as excellent desiccants.

Quicklime was one of the best materials for absorbing moisture, releasing large amounts of heat in the process, making it ideal for placing around the villa courtyard and in corners.

As for the most effective desiccant, calcium chloride, it was too expensive, and Jing Shu would have needed far too much of it, so she didn’t buy any.

Instead, she had installed dehumidifiers in the villa, central air conditioning for dehumidification, underfloor heating, and wall-mounted heaters. With all these tools combined, Jing Shu was confident she could keep the moisture at bay. If not, she’d come up with another solution!

Jing Shu also planned to waterproof the villa, but she’d have to wait until the heavy rains and flooding arrived. There wasn’t a good reason to do it right now.

After happily finishing a bowl of ice cream, Jing Shu couldn’t help but think that the first year of the apocalypse was still relatively easy compared to the increasingly difficult years ahead. The preparations she needed to make were only growing.

With the artificial sun finally fulfilling its purpose of relieving the water shortage and Jing Shu enjoying a bit of free time, the group chats were buzzing with activity. The solar distiller scam had also reached its conclusion.

After the government finished distributing water, they turned their attention to this scam that had cropped up. Furious at the audacity of such a pyramid scheme, the authorities swiftly arrested anyone with more than 1,000 virtual coins in their accounts, rounding them up in just two days. It was also a lesson for the public.

Wang Chao: “@ Zhang Ling Ling, you owe me my hard-earned money! Let’s all go after her!”

Wang Can: “Scammer! You promised we’d all make money, but instead you took our money and lived it up. And you call yourself a class rep? You’re a disgrace!”

Shi Lei: “Even when water was scarce, the amount your distillers collected wasn’t enough for a sip. I went broke buying one of those things, and it cost me my relationship with my relatives! You’ve ruined lives!”

Wang Chao: “Exactly! I bought three of them, got all my family and friends to buy them too, and now there’s no water shortage and nobody left to recruit. The worst part is, the distillers don’t even work! What happened to all your big promises?”

The group chat had turned into the expected chaos. In her previous life, Jing Shu had left the group before seeing the fallout. Now, she was sitting back, snacking on Brazilian pine nuts, drinking watermelon juice, and watching the drama unfold from her massage chair.

Ah, this feels so satisfying!

The truth is, there’s no such thing as free money falling from the sky, only traps. Unless you’re Bill Gates, making money with your eyes closed, you should stick to earning an honest living through hard work.

Mu Xiaoxuan, who hadn’t bought into the scheme, chimed in: “The news today said that these fake distillers were sold across the country, scamming a lot of people. The perpetrators have been arrested and are being sent to labor camps for re-education.

“They say the top-tier members of the pyramid scheme made thousands or even tens of thousands of virtual coins, which they spent on rice and flour. But it’s all been confiscated, and the app has been shut down. There’s no recruiting anyone now.”

“So will those of us who were scammed get any compensation?”

“I heard the government won’t compensate us. We’ll have to live with the consequences of our own decisions.”

Zhang Ling Ling then jumped into the conversation, crying: “Please listen to me! I’m a victim too! If I weren’t, I’d be in jail right now. I opened 20 accounts and lost everything. I pulled everyone in because I wanted us all to make money together. Some of you even made a few dozen coins! You’re better off than me—I lost hundreds!”

Wang Chao: “We don’t care about anything else. Just give us back the money we invested. You can take back the distillers.”

Xiaoyun: “Exactly, refund us! You’re playing the victim now after you sold us this junk?”

Zhang Ling Ling kept crying in the group chat, saying how she was truly well-intentioned, never expected this outcome, and was begging for everyone’s forgiveness because they’d known each other for so many years. She even went as far as to say: “How have I treated you all over the years? What kind of person am I? If I were really trying to scam you, then let my family be washed away by floods next year and have our house collapse in an earthquake the year after!”

After thinking it over, Zhang Ling Ling figured that swearing on her life was too extreme, so she made her family the wager instead. After all, the drought would kill them all before any floods could come. She couldn’t help but pat herself on the back for her cleverness!

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*Side Note:*

Thanks to *Molly Jie*, *Mu Li Shang Feng*, *Xi Hen*, and *Reader 20181225163719795* for the support!