Chapter 182: Chapter 182

There’s a psychological law called Murphy’s Law: whatever you don’t want to happen, will happen.

Just as I was hoping that no one would come looking for trouble, several people came to the villa with flashlights and umbrellas, walked around it, and even tried to open the coal shed to see what was inside.

A few people were still whispering among themselves:

"Director Zhang, this house is quite grand, isn’t it? According to the records, he works at the livestock farm and the Agricultural Department. It seems like there’s no one from the government agencies here."

"Exactly. Look at how many little houses have been built around here. Later on, they should all be demolished. Those are illegal constructions. Who knows what’s stored in all these rooms? Could it be rice?"

"Are you dumb? If there were rice, it would all be kept inside the villa. Who would store it outside? But that one room over there is so high and so big; it looks like a warehouse. Anyway, this family must be a fat sheep, very promising."

Director Zhang quietly waved his hand and said a few words.

Mr. Jing, who was still outside cleaning red earthworms from the drainage pipe, heard the noise and ran over, shouting, "What are you folks skulking around here for?"

In the dim, heavy rain, the three men directed their flashlights at Mr. Jing, surprised to find someone still there.

"Oh, hello there. Are you from this villa?"

"I am. And who are you?"

The leader among the three was a middle-aged man with glasses. Only two tufts of hair remained on his balding head, which he evidently couldn’t bear to cut. Even red earthworms despised the oil his scalp produced. He pushed up his glasses and said, "I am the Housing Allocation Director of this area. My surname is Zhang." Check latest chapters at noveⅼfire.net

"Oh, Director Zhang, hello, hello." Mr. Jing was a bit overly enthusiastic; nowadays, one couldn’t afford to offend anyone from the government.

Jing Shu, having seen them on the surveillance, had rushed out and was now standing right next to Mr. Jing with a slight frown.

Director Zhang straightened the few hairs on his head and put on a serious face. "Sir, are you aware that you’ve built these structures illegally? Wu City is flooded now, and millions of people are homeless. Do you understand how difficult it is to find housing? These structures you’ve built on public land, such a large area could house dozens of people!"

Another young man chimed in, "It’s not just illegal construction. Those four big water tanks are also taking up space, and you’ve added another fence around the villa which occupies quite a bit of land. All of it needs to be taken down."

Mr. Jing also realized the seriousness of the situation. Before the flood, you couldn’t even give away houses here. But now that Wu City was submerged, so many people had no place to live; they certainly couldn’t keep living in wet caves. With the continuous downpours, the flood wasn’t likely to recede quickly. Even government buildings had to be relocated. This might be the second resettlement since the disaster began, with people staying wherever they settled until the floodwaters receded. This made their neighborhood suddenly very sought after.

"Director Zhang, look, our storage room isn’t built on the community’s public land. Strictly speaking, it’s already beyond the community’s boundaries. The area it occupies may be substantial, but it’s on the back hill. That barren hill surely won’t house anyone, right? However, you’re correct about the small coal shed; it does occupy four square meters of public area. What do you propose we do? As for the water tanks and the extra fence at the front of my house, since it’s public land, I should be able to use it. Under previous laws, it was fine as long as it didn’t disturb the neighbors."

Mr. Jing had been working at the livestock farm, dealing with difficult people daily, and had learned quite a lot in the past six months. Jing Shu hadn’t expected him to have gained so much insight; his speech was impressive. Of course, half of what he said was the result of Jing Shu’s daily coaching.

Behind Director Zhang, another young man pointed at the tall and large garage, saying, "Land is scarce right now. Any extra constructions are illegal, no matter where they are. Whether it’s four square meters or four hundred, a building is a building, and people can live in it. Now you have two options. The first is to contribute all these structures you’ve built, and we will allocate them to people to move in. The second is to demolish them all!"

Mr. Jing frowned but managed to hold back his anger.

Director Zhang pushed the young man’s hand down. "Hey, young people these days shouldn’t be so hot-headed. After all, we’ll all have to live together in the future. We leaders should show the public a little consideration. You’re being a bit unreasonable."

Director Zhang, with a grin, straightened the oily hairs on his head again. "Your water tank standing there is fine. The extra shed you built isn’t an issue either. Even the extra fence that was previously used for greening—now that it’s useless, you can use it, no problem. Let’s both take a step back, as the new policy has just been implemented. Regarding self-built houses, there’s a new monthly rental fee: one Virtual Coin per square meter. Whether it’s in the community or on the back hill, it applies. However, since the new policy isn’t perfect yet, you can just pay 100 Virtual Coins in rental fees each month. If you don’t say anything, and I don’t say anything, nobody will know about this."

"Director, you, you... If the higher-ups find out, you could be punished."

"Isn’t that too lenient for them?"

The ’good cop, bad cop’ act was working so effectively that Mr. Jing almost believed Director Zhang was genuinely doing him a favor. Regarding the illegal constructions, Jing Shu had discussed it with him just yesterday, mentioning they could likely settle it by paying some money. And today, the issue had come knocking on their door.

"Are you really from the government?" Mr. Jing still held onto a sliver of doubt.

"What do you mean? Doubting us? Open your eyes and look carefully. My job title is in the central database." A young man showed his phone to Mr. Jing. "Look, here’s our director’s information. See? This is the QR code specifically for collecting Virtual Coins for illegal constructions. Scan it. You should know that right now only supermarkets can transact in Virtual Coins; personal transactions aren’t supported."

Mr. Jing took out his phone and scanned it. He saw that the process was indeed the same as in the supermarkets, and he was mostly convinced, especially because the balance showed: 960 Virtual Coins.

Since getting married, Mr. Jing hadn’t possessed such a large sum of money. If the trading system had been open, he wouldn’t have been able to save up this much of his salary.

Director Zhang’s and the other three people’s eyes immediately lit up; this person was indeed a fat sheep. They couldn’t understand how Mr. Jing, a low-level manager at the livestock farm, had managed to save so many Virtual Coins. Did he never spend any?

Even for people in their position, though the government provided meals, they still had large families to support. They needed Virtual Coins to buy white rice and vegetables daily. Sometimes, they even used Virtual Coins to trade for items like paper or other daily necessities.

They had guessed correctly. At Jing Shu’s house, there weren’t many ways to spend Virtual Coins, as they could only be used to buy food and simple daily necessities. As for other necessities, electricity, for example, was limited and only available after 7 p.m. Strategic materials like natural gas, oil, and coal had already stopped being available to the public.

So, only when the Virtual Coin system was fully opened and supported personal transfers and business transactions might it become somewhat useful to Jing Shu’s house.