Chapter 180: Who the Heck is Roasting Red Line Worms? (Seeking Votes)

Wu Youai gathered everyone together and announced the news:

"The government plans to recruit over ten thousand salvagers, with a portion being converted to full-time civil servants. The requirements are good swimming skills, familiarity with Wucheng City, and no gender restrictions. The daily work involves relocating submerged city materials. The compensation is 4 virtual coins per day, housing allocation, but if performance does not meet the standards, you will be dismissed."

"You can sign up through me. In a few days, there will be a screening process. I advise those who are good swimmers and familiar with the roads to apply again. If you accidentally drown or die in an accident, the government will not take responsibility."

Once the news was out, it shocked many people. Those with good swimming skills were eager to sign up, thinking that salvaging submerged materials posed no real danger.

How good were the benefits for full-time workers? Housing allocation, provided meals, and virtual coins to earn – it was essentially a secure job in this post-apocalyptic world.

At the same time, Wu Youai announced another piece of good news: "Those who are not selected don't need to lose heart. It was said that all buildings in Wucheng, several dozen meters high, are submerged. It may not fully recede in the short term, but the city's items need to be salvaged; otherwise, they will rot over time."

"The remaining citizens can follow the salvaging ships into the city to salvage materials. The salvaged items can be exchanged for virtual coins at discounted prices. It's a good opportunity to earn loan repayments."

Speaking of loans, only Banana District and a few other districts had the fortunate worry.

When everyone learned that the flood in the city would not recede anytime soon, and that the entire population would have to move, they anticipated that they might not have their own homes in the future. Who knew if they could live there once the floodwaters recede?

So, having a property now, without having to squeeze in with others, was seen by everyone as truly being part of the "home-owning group," the impressive kind.

Especially since squeezing together like this, squeezing for a long time… having a home was a luxury for people in the apocalypse.

Therefore, when Jing Shu's high school classmates learned that her family was actually in Banana District, they couldn't help but envy and resent.

Because of the flood, in the blink of an eye, millions in Wucheng were displaced, tens of thousands went missing, and conditions across the country were similar, but no news was reported, because there was no time to mourn the dead; the important thing was how the living would survive.

On January 4th, Hongshan Ecological Park provided two meals for the day because the temperature was too low at night, and the caves were damp and humid. There were people with colds and fevers, and over a hundred died.

Despite the heavy rain not easing at all, and because of the continuous downpours, the caves had thick layers of water accumulated. At night, people in the caves couldn't even sleep, and the water by the roadside reached their calves. But the higher areas of Wucheng were not submerged.

The government decided to start arranging people from each district to move into new residential points on January 5th. Both inside and outside the caves were filled with water, making them uninhabitable. Not only was there water, but also the sounds of red line worms entwining and mating. When the lights were turned on, the dense red line worms could be seen jumping and tangling on the water's surface.

Red line worms were also a major danger and problem in the initial phase of salvaging in the water.

Jing Shu remembered clearly, stepping on one would have countless worms tickling her soles, and in less than two or three seconds, countless red line worms would entwine together, wrapping around her feet. Did you think they were attacking you? No, no.

Red Line Worms:

"Do you want to eat me? Sorry, we are mating."

"You stepped on me, sorry, we are still mating."

"No matter what you want to do, you cannot hinder our reproduction."

So when salvagers went into the water to transport items, if they were careless, they would be entangled by a mass of red line worms. In the water, those things were like aquatic plants. Countless salvagers had been killed by red line worms.

Moreover, the cave where Jing Shu was located was much better than others because she had prepared brick flooring in advance and built a square groove-shaped dragon with stones. By the time other caves realized, their bricks, firewood, and everything else were gone. They could only stay miserably in the cold water.

Because last night, many people died in other caves, and tonight the government had also distributed some coal, making all five caves warm.

Wang Qiqi stood up with a hot broken tile jar and loudly said:

"Today, I toast with water instead of alcohol to thank a family from the villa area. They really helped everyone a lot. Jing Shu has saved many lives here, and now we can live in a cave without water accumulation and sleep well at night, thanks to the ideas Jing Shu provided."

"We live in a bigger cave than others, and the meals we get are better because of them."

"From tomorrow, more people will move into our district, more civil servants, and even the villa area will have other wealthy and powerful people moving in."

"But no matter what, from now on, I will only recognize Jing Shu's family. As long as something happens to her family, I will be there whenever called!"

"Master, I have a baby and a son," someone holding a baby exclaimed loudly, "My family of three was saved by Jing Shu. If anyone tries to cause trouble for Jing Shu's family in the future, I will definitely contribute my meager strength."

"Count me in," Wang Xuemei stood up from the corner.

"Me too," Fat Niu, who was gradually thinning, raised the broken jar.

A scattered neighborhood, due to the influx of many people, hugged into a group. Wang Qiqi successfully gathered people's hearts with Jing Shu's leadership, of course also winning the hearts for Jing Shu.

"Look at our Jing Shu, she's really powerful, adored by so many people," the eldest aunt displayed an envious expression.

The whole family gave Jing Shu a thumbs up.

Jing Shu stood up to thank them. After all, having fewer people around to cause trouble was good.

However, even though Jing Shu had thought of every way to improve the quality of life, she still couldn't sleep well that night.

The flooded cave had brick flooring, wooden boards, moisture-proof mats, sleeping bags, tents that were wind and waterproof but couldn't prevent odors from spreading.

At four in the morning, Jing Shu was awakened by a familiar foul smell. Oh, it was everyone in the cave.

That smell was a mixture of rotten eggs, roasted durian, and poison gas.

Jing Shu gritted her teeth and got up. Unexpectedly, someone was roasting red line worms to eat again! Who was it?

"What is that smell, ugh, it's so awful."

"It's because the caves next door had a fire, and at night, they were hungry and started roasting red line worms to eat."

"But the smell isn't supposed to be this strong."

"I heard they didn't listen to the persuasion, so the other caves also started roasting, saying we all have to smell it together."

Great, so several caves roasting together, the smell was unbearable.

Jing Shu's family had smelled this before and couldn't stand it now. They packed up and directly went back to the villa. Anyway, they were leaving today. "That shark submarine is left for you, we're driving back now."

They slipped away.

Leaving Wu Youai and Jing Lai in the cave, Jing Shu's family drove back to the villa, while others still had to wait for the government to distribute another meal before they could go back.

On the way, wading through water, Jing Nai was still a bit worried that with so much water, they might get submerged.

"Hey, why is the underground garage door locked?"

"Then let's go from above."